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plumrabbit · 4 years

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DA Fandom and moving forward - Calling In vs. Calling Out

Hi everyone,

As a PoC member of the DA fandom, I felt I have been quiet for long enough on the issues that have been presented recently. I am not here to argue against or on behalf of any individual or group, I am only here to present some information that I hope will be helpful moving forward. This is a long post, but it’s my hope that if you read it and want to help contribute to making this place better for everyone, then you will be willing to try to put what is said here into practice.

Since I am a relatively small blog, I wanted to start with a little personal introduction that will segue into the topic at hand. My name is Liz (you can call me Jade too, that’s part of my middle name), and I am a mixed race, “ambiguously brown”, aspec person from Canada. I grew up around mostly other immigrant families, attended predominantly non-white schools that were run by mostly white admins, and completed my degrees at a very white university in a field that does not have much racial diversity. I have experienced racism first-hand many times including, but not limited to, name-calling/slurs, fetishization/exotification, being followed by staff, people second-guessing my name, jokes about hurting/killing people of my race, etc. as well as witnessing racism directed at my friends and peers. I know exactly what it’s like to be exhausted and feel unsafe or othered. There is, however, one thing I need to point out about the multitude of instances of racism I’ve experienced - most of them were caused by ignorance, and not malice. Yes there are absolute assholes out there, but personally I can count those people I’ve encountered on one hand (I am not speaking for everyone, though). The vast majority of racism, bigotry and general harmful acts come from a place of ignorance, particularly on left-leaning tumblr (to clarify, this discussion is centered around well-meaning people and not the actual lost causes). When I say ignorance, I don’t mean a lack of education or intelligence, I mean not being able to see or understand an issue from another person’s perspective. It’s not quite the same as empathy either (where empathy means you are able to feel another person’s emotions), but fighting ignorance does require empathy. It also requires knowledge on the context of the specific situation, and that I believe is the crux of the problem. I think the main reason why this is issue is particularly prevalent in the DA fandom is a result of the too-close-to-reality-to-ignore inspirations that have been confirmed by the devs. Yes, it’s fiction, but there are also a lot of people that see themselves (mis)represented in the themes and characters. And what one person sees as disrespectful, another person may not see at all. This can come full circle, too, for example: one person sees themselves and their trauma represented in a character, another person sees their race misrepresented in the same character. Person 1 uses the character as a comfort character or coping strategy. Person 2 thinks using that character in certain situations is disrespectful. Neither one sees the other’s perspective. This is where intersectionality starts to come into play, and requires empathy and effort to address the intentions and emotions of the other person. Perhaps person 1 is LGBTQ+ and has been traumatized by being as such, and uses Dorian as a character to explore their trauma. Perhaps person 2 is Brown, and racism towards their people is their trigger, and thinks person 1 did not do Brown representation justice in their creative works. Looking at this more specifically, person 1 may have put Dorian in sexual situations. Person 2 feels that the way it was conveyed was fetishist or exotified. Person 2 doesn’t know person 1′s intentions. Person 1 is not aware of certain descriptions that are racist (e.g. using food to describe a PoC’s skin tone). Perhaps person 1 was self-inserting and wanted to feel desirable on their own terms, but this gave person 2 that squick factor. Now person 2 wants to address this issue, and I think this is where a call-in (not a call-out) would be appropriate. Here is a good infographic that compares the two:

(Original source)

Note that there is quite a large difference in the language used. Going back to the above example, person 2 could privately message person 1 asking them why they chose to represent Dorian the way they did, with specific examples, and using call-in language (and I’m going to get back to this in a minute).

The point of this post and infographic isn’t meant to tell marginalized groups how they should be bringing up issues (though it is a good guide if you are concerned about being polite, particularly to a first time offender), it’s intended to demonstrate to people unintentionally participating in harmful behaviour what a call-out vs. call-in looks like. For PoC and other marginalized groups, yes it does take emotional labour to use call-in language and to try to understand someone that wounded you (here is a good read that incorporates the concept of emotional labour for call-ins, and discusses asking yourself if you are ready to do so). For the people who have unintentionally hurt a marginalized individual or group, please understand that someone calling you in is not an attack, it’s a chance to explain why you expressed something the way you did.

That being said, we may have reached another hurdle. What if you call someone in, and the person called in does not want to discuss the fact that they were inserting their personal trauma? I think this is where things start to get a bit messy, but I am of the opinion that if you’ve unintentionally triggered someone else’s trauma through ignorance present in your work, you owe it to them to at the very least mention that you were inserting your trauma, without having to bring up specifics (anyone is allowed to set boundaries). From there, the discussion can be hopefully be opened up to learning from each other, and reaching a consensus. Sometimes that consensus requires the creator to edit or remove their work. As an addendum, if you are a creator that unintentionally hurt someone with your work that didn’t have an ulterior personal motivation, it’s your responsibility to understand why what you did was wrong, apologize, remove the work and do better next time. I know some people cherish their OCs, but you are allowed to change your perspective and make adjustments to your character without erasing them entirely. Now we’ve reached another potential obstacle - what if an offender doesn’t respond to your call-in? First of all, ask yourself, did you actually call them in, or did you attack them? Here is a good opinion piece from a Black professor on this matter. I’d like to clarify that I am not trying to tone police, I am speaking as someone that used to go ham on ignorant people on Facebook and Reddit, and has since changed their tactics and has even gotten through to Trump supporters (some of this stems from my spiritual growth as well, but that is not the point here). There is another issue to address here now as well - what if you have tried, repeatedly, to call someone in and they just don’t change their behaviour? Alright, then it’s probably time to call them out. But again, ask yourself, did you truly try to get through to them? If so, well, at the end of the day, some people are, unfortunately, lost causes. In summary, a call-in is meant to come from a place of wanting to help someone who has seemingly gone astray, because you are worried about their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours towards a marginalized group. You know that if they made a mistake it isn’t them, isn’t their heart, and you want them to be able to understand why what they did hurt others, and give them the chance to correct themselves. It comes from a place of love and acceptance, because you don’t want your friends to harbour negative beliefs. Finally, I want to give a real example of this in action. My cousin is a photographic artist, and was recently called in to discuss the nature of one of her pieces. Her subjects are usually people, and they come from a wide variety of backgrounds. To help support BLM (she does a lot of work to help fight racism in general), she auctioned off one of her pieces. The subject of the piece happened to be a Black woman. She was called in by Black members of her art community to discuss how people bidding on an art piece that featured a person from a marginalized group perpetuated the ogling and monetization of Black people. She gave a response that acknowledged that her piece did perpetuate this issue, because she wanted to raise awareness of this historical harm, and recognized that her intention was ignorant of this perspective. The Black community also acknowledged that the piece itself was not harmful in any way, only that the surrounding issue that they were painfully aware of needed to be brought to light. The auction went ahead, and the piece sold for ~$1000, all of which was donated to BLM. I think as a fandom we should be cognizant of when a work itself is harmful, or when the intention is harmful. Sometimes they overlap, sometimes they don’t. Both are talking points, and we should not be afraid to discuss them, but this requires respect from all parties. We also do need to be able to recognize what is strictly fiction, versus what has real-world impacts. My askbox is always open and my DMs are open to mutuals if you would like anything clarified or expanded upon. Or, if you’d just like to discuss a topic, vent, or have any questions about my own beliefs, you are welcome to reach out. I am happy to discuss anything, as long as there is mutual respect.

#fandom critical #da fandom #da fandom critical #fandom racism #tw: racism #tw: trauma #dragon age #dragon age inquisition #call out culture

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unspuncreature · 3 years

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haven’t worked much on any WIPs in a few days because I’ve been so busy but I have a few hours of free time here and there now that I’m not working and I’m hoping that sharing a sizable snippet will motivate me to keep writing !!!

this is from a piece I haven’t really talked about before. it’s a 5+1 piece as it stands right now but I think it might be turning into more of a 6 or 7 +1 piece. I can’t decide if I want to post chapter by chapter or as one long oneshot lol. I think if it starts to go much further over the 8k mark im gonna have to chop it into smaller portions

ANYWAY here’s some pre-slash obikin pain and yearning to sate y’all until I can get my life together enough to update my WIPs or publish smthn. please feel free to let me know what you think !!! I love feedback

cw for mild sexual themes a very brief canon typical description of injury and death

Anakin stares at the ceiling, fingers knit over his chest, until he can hear Padmé’s quiet snores beside him. He peels back the blankets with utmost care, delicately tucking them back in before waving his hand over the door panel and padding out to pace the dark cavern of the living room.

He starts, following a strip of light filtering in through the blinds as it stretches across the sunken floor, stretching out and out and out to the half-moon couch in the formal sitting area.

He stops.

There is a chip in the corner of the coffee table.

It’s small, really. Hardly noticeable. It does not take away from the beauty of the piece, Anakin thinks, though he was never one to get caught up in the little details. Padmé says that it is a rich stained wood, strong and solid, carved by hand and imported from the old growth forests of the lake country. Not a true antique, she says, but a very convincing replica, as authentic as money can buy, and now there is a chip in the corner of the leg of the great low table. The splinter exposes only a few millimeters of the dry meat of the wood, then splits its hairline fracture down the seam of a fissure. From the right angle, in the dark, with only the lights of traffic outside blinking in through the bay of the balcony, it disappears entirely into the natural grooves around it.

Anakin wonders how much weight it might bear before the leg finally snaps and sends its spray of splinters into the soft buff carpet below.

He wonders if there is a universe in which he too is soft. In which his fingers don’t plant bruises into the delicate skin of his wife’s throat as he pistons their bodies into one because she asks it of him. In which he doesn’t have to hold his own men in his arms as the essence of their life siphons out of them in rivulets of red because his republic asks it of him. In which he doesn’t have to smother the air from the corrupted lungs of alleyway pimps and backwater slavers because the ink black essence of the Force inside him demands it of him. In which he doesn’t have to plant himself between the end of a blaster cannon and his master’s fallible tender mortal body because Anakin demands it of himself.

His personal holoprojector at the center of the table hums and blinks its blue light where it lays discarded with the rest of his clothing. The black dragon inside him snaps its hungry jaws at his heart.

There are only three people who would call so late, and one of them is sleeping soundly in the room behind him. If he stretches his awareness just a little, he can feel the lassitude of her presence, a contentment that only ever seems to be brought upon by sleep.

That leaves two.

Anakin scrubs his flesh hand down his face before he drops to the couch with a sigh, staring down the blinking light of the holo like he can intimidate the call into dropping. He’s not sure he has the energy or the presence of mind at this hour to help Ahsoka cram for her materials science exam. It’s tomorrow, he knows, because she had so very helpfully reminded him with a bat of her lashes that said I know it’s not your fault that I haven’t been studying, but I am definitely going to make it your problem. Like Padawan like Master.

Resigned, Anakin scoots the device closer to the edge of the table and accepts the call.

The blue-tinted projection of his former master blinks back at him.

Even through the fizzling lines of the holo, Anakin can make out that worried scowl that Obi-Wan seems to wear like a uniform. He’s still clad in his robes, too, which in and of itself wouldn’t be strange if dawn wasn’t still hours from breaking. It’s only when he tracks Obi-Wan’s gaze to where it’s fixed on the bare expanse of his chest left uncovered by his thin night robe that Anakin realizes he’s supposed to say something.

“Uh,” he says thickly, clearing his throat as he folds his arms over his chest. “The meeting ran a little late, I take it.”

“That’s quite an understatement,” Obi-Wan says, though not unkindly. His expression softens. “But yes.” For a moment, Anakin thinks he might say something else, but he just just purses his lips and crosses his arms, mirroring Anakin’s posture, probably without even thinking about it. It’s kind of sweet.

Anakin moves to break the awkward silence between them. “Master, why did–“

“We’re being sent to Corellia.”

Anakin blinks.

“What? We haven’t even been back a full day.”

“Yes, well, you and I know better than most that war does not stop to give us a break, regardless of how well-deserved it might be.”

Anakin stops himself from turning on instinct to look over the back of the couch towards the closed door of the bedroom, but not before Obi-Wan catches the suggested movement in the tilt of his shoulders.

His old master quirks a brow. “Surely any prior engagements can stand to wait for you to return.”

And Anakin can’t help the panicked flush that heats his face at that, can’t help the dangerous swoop of his stomach. Surely Obi-Wan doesn’t know, right? At least, he’d never been so forward with Anakin about it before, if one could call Obi-Wan’s particularly evasive brand of subversiveness forward. As far as Anakin can remember, Obi-Wan hasn’t mentioned it once. Not when Anakin had failed to return to the temple until the next morning morning after his knighting ceremony with fat purple hickeys peeking out over the high collar of his tunics. Not when Anakin had fled from the temple hangar only moments after touching down for the first time following a two month siege that had flung them across the deserts of arid moons, nor when he finally returned a full day later wearing the same outfit he’d left in, freshly laundered, his curls still incriminatingly dark and damp from a real water shower.

“It’s–“ he starts, suddenly unable to meet Obi-Wan’s piercing gaze. “I– Of course, I mean–“

#anidala is very heavily implied here and though it’s pre slash its still obikin endgame #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #obikin #star wars #star wars prequels #the clone wars #my writing

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soyouareandrewdobson · 4 years

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Charles Schulz vs Andrew Dobson: What a Blockhead!

There are certain things about Dobson’s behavior and particularly his approach at being a nerd and presenting himself as someone who enjoys the art of storytelling that I have issues with. Issues I want to tackle on in more detail within later entries quite a bit.

One such tendency is, that he mocks directly or indirectly the work and accomplishments of others.

See, if Dobson doesn’t like you as a content creator because he does not like something you work on, he will try to show it. He will make stupid assumptions of you (like how he accused Kojima of being a sexist creep because of Quiet and how he deals with “male gaze” in MGS compared to Death Stranding), half heartedly mock you (look at anything he makes about Ethan Van Sciver) or he will call a piece of work boring and dull based on a minor element instead of overarching problems (calling Batman the character a white supremacist based on the dumb work of only one author).

By doing that he also tries indirectly to insinuate that he is better in some manner, though most of the time it really just shows his own ego and that his pet peeves are rather petty compared to the overall quality of the work he criticizes as well as its flaws.

One such sight of ego boosting while mocking the work of his better is in my opinion to be found in this comic he uploaded sometimes around 2016/17 randomly online.

This comic in my opinion is both laughable and insulting. Why? I will explain soon.

First however I want to clarify that I get that this comic is supposed to be a joke mostly. The old “What others expect, what I expect” thing, where the punchline is supposed to be the discrepancy between the two fractions and what they expect, mostly by making one of the expectations come off as worse than the other. However, I find the punchline to be Charlie Brown (and as such what Dobson seems to see as something he does not want to be favorable compared too) quite insulting. Why, as I said, will be elaborated on sooner.

First, let me just get on the part I find laughable: The fact that Dobson in his own head seems to believe he can be even remotely compared to people like Paul Dinni, Bruce Timm, Greg Weismann, Justin Roiland, Miyazaki, Shigeru Miyamoto and all the other character creators and animators whose creations we see in the first panel.

Dobson, don’t make me laugh. Putting aside the fact that those people are animators more than cartoonists, what makes you even believe in your wildest dreams you are on the same level as them? The fact you too are an animator, seeing how you graduated from an art school with a degree in that field? I have seen your contributions to the field and honestly, I would expect a bit more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0tdWNCrIxo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6PfiUCxHQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PyonOqClf8

I give you credit, you can animate. Which is more than I can say for myself when it comes to the arts. But when you look what other freelance animators can do online, some of them younger than you and NOT with a degree in animation…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=FmkAcGz1BJk&feature=emb_title

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97IfPfjSaDg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEUoxQ4qSfs

Viviepop’s demo reels alone are just gorgeous to look at and more fluid than what I have seen of you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFlha-KOKCc

And it is not just the technical quality, Dobson. It is also just the overall “originality” of your work. Cause this is the thing with those animators hinted on in the first pic and even many, many freelancers/fanartists as well as webcomic creators online: They have a spark of originality in presentation and storytelling that you lack. I will one day go more into detail for that, but here is the most brutal thing I can say at the moment: I know shitty porn fanfictions, that have more plot development and character growth than all of Alex ze Pirate.

Your characters and stories tend to be derivative and you barely take any risks in telling a story. Neither in your fanbased work (like the Miraculous comics) nor your original content (mostly because you take comfort in four panel strips anyway) and when you have an idea for something on which the basis idea actually sounds good, you screw it up by a lackluster execution. One example I want to give for that, would be this fanart of yours in regard to Steven Universe.

(I apologize for not getting one in better quality) This pic was something Dobson created around 2015 for Steven Universe. The picture is supposed to show Lapis, trapped under the ocean following the events of the season 1 finale of the show. A very emotional situation if you are aware of why Lapis sacrificed herself and was “banned” to the ocean floor. Short explanation: Fused with Jasper and then took primarily control of the fused being they became (Malachite) by using her water powers to bond it with heavy water chains on the ocean floor, so that Jasper would not hurt Steven anymore.

How much of that was even an emotional strain on her and her psyche was in one episode of season 2 even a theme, as seen here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK3l8mGNhMg

I am not even a fan of the show and I get the emotional weight and impact of Lapis actions.

So… why is that not conveyed in the artwork? If you are so talented Dobson, why is none of the strain and despair on the character? The idea of a pic showing Lapis under water, longingly looking up, even in despair is a good basis for a fanart. But the execution lacks any emotional detail. You want to know how I would execute the thing if I had the artistic talent? Make the picture a huge horizontal pic, where we slowly decent from water surface down the ocean. The light getting dimmer. Blue turning into dark. The silhouette of a hand and an arm similar to Malachite’s in the background, trying to travel up, the fingertips barely touching the surface. Heavy chains around the flesh. Symbolic of the fusion trying to break free and cause havoc. And down on the dark bottom, beaten and exhausted Lapis with tears in her eyes and chains all over her body like she is Jacob Marley, desperately trying to keep Malachite at bay for the sake of the only being on earth who ever showed just a little bit of kindness towards her.

Why can’t we have something like this here, Dobson? If you were even remotely as original as the creators you want to be compared with, I think you could come up with something like that and perhaps even draw it.

But you know, his delusions of being as good as them is one thing. It is even funny.

Pissing over the Peanuts is another. Dobson, what are you trying to hint at?

That people comparing you to Charles Schulz and his creation is in your eyes automatically a sort of insult? That it is something that should at best only be a mockable punchline in a comparison?

Just to clarify a few things: I am NOT much of a fan of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts as a property. As a child, I was just not very entertained by them. Yes, I saw animated movies, episodes and specials of them here and there and my grandparents gave me volumes of them to read, but as a whole I never thought them quite as entertaining than other comics or cartoons I watched. Some parts of Peanuts animation felt to me often times like just dead air (especially parts of Snooby dancing with Woodstuck, as they had no function to move the plots forward) and I really could not stand how some characters treat Charles on a regular basis. I mean, we all agree that Lucy is one of the worst female characters in fiction and that even while we hate Family Guy, this clip likely gave some of us some sort of satisfaction, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZkJAx8FycI

But before the Peanuts fan out there go and want my head on a silver platter, let me make one thing clear: I may not like the Peanuts franchise… but I respect it and the man behind it.

Charles Schulz drew the comic strip from October 1950 till late 1999 (the final strip being finished months before it would be published on February 13 of 2000, one day after he died of colon cancer) , creating a total amount of 17,897 Peanuts’ strips. His work marks a major impact in the nature of newspaper comic strips and inspired many people out there, including Bill Watterson, to create comics or be in the field of animation. His achievements include among other things, that he created what many people consider the first animated Christmas special ever. The names of his creations became nicknames for the Apollo 10 command module and its’ lunar modul. Four of the five Peanuts movies in existence (animated made for tv specials not withstanding now) were written by him. And the fifth was only not by him, because that one came out in 2015, a decade and a half after he died.

And speaking of things Schulz wrote for the Peanuts, let me mention two things. Two things that though I am not a fan of the Peanuts, I have mad respect for existing in the realm of animation. Two animated specials that stuck with me ever since I was eight.

“What have we learnt, Charlie Brown?” from 1983 and “Why, Charlie Brown, Why?” from 1990.

In the first special, which functions as a semi sequel to the fourth Peanuts’ movie “Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown”, the characters actually travel across France and after ending up on Omaha Beach and Ypres the special turns into a tribute to the soldiers who fought in World War 1 and 2, elaborating on the sacrifices made during the war by showing actual footage of fights, recordings of Eisenhower and reciting the poem “In Flanders Fields” among other things. Do you know how impactful it is to learn about the world wars as a small kid, by being reminded of the actual sacrifices others made in order for your own grandparents to survive?

And speaking of grandparents, I lost my grandmother as a child by cancer. So when I saw the second special I mentioned, you can bet it stuck with me. After all, of all the things in the world, the Peanuts addressing the seriousness of cancer by having a story where a friend of Linus is diagnosed with leukemia and we follow the emotional impact it has on Linus and the girl? Again, I may not like the franchise, but I am not ashamed to admit I think the special treats the subject with a lot of respect and dignity while telling a good story. You bet your ass I get a bit teary eyed when the little girl survives her leukemia treatment and finally gets on that swing again. Those two specials alone are more mature than ¾ of the shit Dobson likes to gosh about, including his oh so precious gay space rocks. And just for those things existing I have respect for Schulz, his creation and the impact it had on so many people. As such, Dobson “belittling” the Peanuts, at least for me, is a freaking insult. The only way Dobson could have been even more insulting is if he called Schulz something derogative. Dobson should be glad if his life’s work in total could even amount to 10% of what Schulz has done and achieved.

Cause Dobson, you are NOT a Charles Schulz. Schulz served during the second world war on the front, fighting actual Nazis instead of calling idiots on the internet fascists for not liking Star Wars. He had integrity and work ethics that drove him to draw and write over 17.000 strips, while you can not even finish one FREAKING story. He knew how to tackle a mature subject, while you make shitty shipping jokes involving Ladybug and Cat Noir and claim Steven Universe knows how to be about psychological trauma, when it just romanticizes abuse. He may have drawn simplistically, but at least he could tell a joke instead of constantly berating others for not sharing his opinion. He did all of that and more without having graduated from college.

And what have you done, Andrew Dobson?

If Dobson reads this, there is one thing in my opinion he should take away from more than anything else: That if people compare him to Charles Schulz’s work, that it means a) he should not be ashamed of it and b) they overestimate him.

#adobsonartworks #andrew dobson #so you are a cartoonist #syac #sjw #peanuts #charles chulz #charlie brown #snoopy #fuck you #animation #steven universe #disney #cartoons #cartoonist #adobsonartwork

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srwestvikwrites · 4 years

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Annus Mirabilis

A short story

Mama is preparing mushrooms for the egg drop soup. So many types of edible fungi in the world, though these days she can only find the basic white kind. So many inedible, too. The kind that poison, or take root in stagnant flesh and foliage, breaking down matter until it is nothing, and becomes something again, a new thing altogether refracting everything that came before it. Endless, in that wonderful little cycle of existence.

Mama has a lot of questions about existence. It is why she studies what she studies, and why in the last weeks she started praying again. She prays every morning, noon, and night, where before her prayer mat was gathering dust, a relic of a childhood she did and didn’t want to distance herself from. She has come to realise, over the years, some truths. You cannot study nature and marvel at its vastness, and know how small you are, without understanding the laws. Natural laws. Social laws. Lawlessness. Among the strictures and anthems and themes, she has learned that there are two kinds of gods people pray to.

The forgiving yet punitive sort are abundant. They amass the most followers because they extend the most hope. Your sins forgiven. Your place after death affirmed. Just follow this checklist of morals and tasks, variable to the hands and hearts of men. Do good by the letter and not the spirit of the gospel and it is enough to see the gates of paradise, they say.

Then there are the ones who live as people do - as interfering, as involved in their own heads, as desirous of their own intentions. They can gift - if they want. And they can hurt - if they want. And you can favour them, and be in their favour, or insult them, and be in their fury. You can become their lover. You can dedicate your blood to them.

And the people that don’t pray to any god? They look at the blank white-grey slate of the clouded sky, and they know rain is coming.

Mama puts on Tangled for Baby-child, the little one not so little anymore, swaddling herself in her childhood blanket now too small for her, the flower embroidery pulled, the fabric pilled. Baby-child watches intently, watches the princess in her tower, and Mama knows she is taking note of things to do as she listens to the bright cheery goldenrod singing. She smiles fondly. No doubt tomorrow, she will have to excuse herself from a meeting because there will be a painting going up on the wall behind her, or the strings of grandfather’s guitar will be twanged by an unpracticed hand that knows not what an heirloom is. She smiles fondly because it makes the weight of wonders easier to bear. Baby-child doesn’t say prayers yet. Not in the same way as Mama, anyway. She understands them differently, too. To her they are the same as talking to a friend. They are the manifestation of desperation in the face of a spiralling loss of control.

For if humankind does not have absolute control, then it is in the hands of nature, and the easiest way to plead its mercy is with the prayers memorised from childhood.

Mama is who she is, she is Mama. She is also Dr. Not the kind of use in a time of wonders. She’s the kind that asks questions of the planetary bodies and the waves of sound and fury and the singularity at the centre of everything. She’s on her way into that singularity, she can feel it.

She tries to read a King James Bible, a text she has never read before even though she knows this God is also technically her God. She has the time to do it these days. Exodus becomes her favourite book. She runs her fingers over the scritta paper, so thin and fine, so soft, and the hallowed words that cover it. She thinks of whether they will look back on this later, and speak the words true, replacing lamb’s blood with Clorox - we stayed in our homes, and the plague did not enter.

_____________________________________________________

Mama gives the soup to Baby-child, mushrooms and all. Mama is more Mama now than ever. Everything boils down to keeping herself and Baby-child alive, and her doctorate cannot do much of that, except perhaps put money on the table.

Money, money, money. She can feel it coming like a freight train. She can feel the steady approach of the day money will not be enough for what it buys. She has a sudden feeling the electricity is going to go out. Slowly, everything is going to go out. Every life, every light. The lights have gone out before, a hundred years ago. It’s only a matter of time.

Today Mama puts on a superhero movie for Baby-child. It’s easier to spend money on streaming when you know it can take your mind away from the inevitable unknowns. “When the Earth starts to settle, God throws a stone at it,” says the villain, a big bad man made self-replicating progeny. He is made of metal. But Mama thinks, the real villains have no names, except that which we willingly give them, and no body, except that which we unwillingly give them. They do not need names. They are like unto God. I am, they say, tearing through matter like mycelia to set down their roots and siphon off nutrients. I am.

How small humankind is, truly, in the face of these wonders, for they are the true gods. But are they punitive, when in days before they were forgiving? Are they something to be bargained with, where you can sacrifice a little other life for the benefit of your own? Or are they just something that is?

For what, in the end, is a wonder? It is raising the dead and parting the seas and restoring sight to the blind. It is a plague of locusts and the slaughter of the firstborn.

Who is to say that nature is wrong, that destruction is a travesty - when really, it is just change? The mushrooms know that to be the fact that it is. After all, whose planet is this anyway? Whose universe? Who are we to say what is and isn’t just according to the barely understood laws that govern us?

Mama takes a deep breath. She had never thought about the air in her lungs this much. A little, when she passed smokers. A little, when old trucks belched exhaust and she was reminded of the cost of efficiency. But even when the air is clean again, it can kill you.

Did you know that oxygen is slowly killing you? one of her peers had said once, in the second year of her studies. Entropy, she had thought. Everyone knew the laws of thermodynamics. Entropy. And oxygen, it is like the sea, or drums of oil. It sustains us, and then it claims us.

This is a hostile world, Mama thinks, tucking Baby-child in, her poor little eyes exhausted from staring at screens, screens, screens. Hostile to life. It’s a miracle we’ve lived this long. Isn’t it? Baby-child will wear glasses before the year is out, she thinks. Mama already does, so she doesn’t mind switching on the TV again.

“I think that sometimes people try to die to feel alive,” she says on the phone, calling that old classmate, eyes on the prize, the protestors, the numbers and the news, the blue glare screaming into her, so quietly. It is all so quiet. You cannot rage when you are bedridden. You cannot scream when you are locked inside. She thinks of her work, Dr Mama, of what she has studied of how the universe will end. No Ragnarok, no seven-headed monsters in the sea. Chaos, but not the violent kind. It will fall as all empires do. Not with a crash, but with plaintive whimpers and death rattles.

Everything falls in silence.

She has a drink, though she shouldn’t, but in an hour she is not drunk anymore. She tries to touch herself, but it only reminds her how empty she is, how guilty before God for far worse things, for it reminds her of her true shame and she does not want to touch that, not ever. So she has another drink, but doesn’t dare gorge on the snacks she craves though her gut rumbles, because Baby-child will want them in the morning. She has a sudden feeling that she’ll never be full again. No, more than that - never satisfied. No matter what she consumes, with her mouth, or her ears, or her eyes, she shall never be sated, her thirst unslaked. She wonders how long this can go on. Devouring herself until there is nothing left to devour. Letting the outside in to kill her quickly, because it is better - better to open your veins to gods, better to leave your firstborn outside for the Angel, better to breathe until the inevitable collapse.

She thinks she has an answer to one of her many questions, then, as she heats up the last of the egg drop soup. She’ll wake up early to make more.

She thinks that this is what is behind it all, this fear of being unfulfilled and left behind, this grave misunderstanding of how it all works - equal and opposite reactions, push and pull, growth and rot. That unwillingness to comprehend, to accept, is so human. Maybe even more than human. Maybe it is the reason why living cannot go on forever, not for anything on earth.

Except, perhaps, the fungi.

#short story #my writing #writeblr #writers on tumblr

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scotthastiepoet · 3 years

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Scott Hastie - SYNDICATED INTERVIEW

THE VERY BUSINESS OF POETRY ITSELF

One poet’s view from the UK

See -

http://www.scotthastie.com/?p=5426

Hi Scott, do please tell us how you go about writing, how you organise your day?

"I am fortunate to have a smallish study all to myself, up in the loft, which looks out over open fields and a tree-lined skyline. Here I have quiet, cocooned space overlooking the English countryside (almost in the clouds…) and absolutely everything I need. Far, far away from anything else – phones, computers, tablets and door bells, especially…

For me, as a full time writer, a fairly rigorous, almost monastic daily routine is very important and underpins all my efforts. Not just in creating an exterior environment that is conducive to a concentrated and undisturbed focus on my craft – but one that also allows important preparatory time of an almost religious nature - given the spiritual themes that run through my work.

On a normal day, this would involve around two hours of advance preparation: morning exercise (normally running in the countryside and/or rowing) followed by breathing exercises, body stretches and meditation, sometimes some music also – before even beginning to think about any writing…

Having also eaten simply, I then would normally write in silence for between two to four hours – losing any sense of time, till my body tells me it is time to refuel. Immediately after lunch, I would then have a shorter 1-2 hour session (often the most exciting time of the day when earlier writing can begin to coalesce) Evenings are then usually important down-time from what is a quite an intense and tiring process. However I would still normally have a couple of short sessions early, right after my evening meal and also last thing before bed – which are more about reviewing existing work and quick, little polishing sessions – looking afresh and anew at whatever has emerged that day.

For me, it’s very important that every day (whether a writing day or not) begins and ends with me quietly reading through my last half a dozen pieces – in order hopefully to stay ‘in the flow’ and ‘in the voice’, clinging on tightly to that ‘silken thread’ that, once it slips from your grasp, can often be so hard to regain! Unless I’m away travelling or have specific social commitments, then EVERY day is a writing day.

I also have three identical and rather wonderful little digital voice recorders that literally go everywhere with me (one stays by the bed) so that, whatever I’m up to, I have some chance of capturing all those amazing little thoughts and insights that come to you, just out the blue - And as if by magic! These I call my ‘fragments’ and they usually come when you are in the throws of just doing something else, entirely - or just surfacing from sleep, for example. Rather than just sitting down somewhat deliberately: ‘to write some poetry! ’Previously so, so many of these fragments would have just got lost in the ether forever, before I started to adopt this method and built it into my daily resources and routine.

How on earth does a poem begin to emerge on a blank screen or piece of paper?

Yes well then, beyond the general details of my day to day creative practice, I am often asked to describe exactly how I go about creating an individual poem. Firstly I have to say, in my view, you should never ever sit down to compose on a blank piece of paper - that, I think, is a big mistake many make. Furthermore, which really surprises many of my readers, neither do I ever start with a preconceived theme to write about.

Instead, I simply begin with some of these fragments, as described above, stored on a page; importantly with the most recent at the top... (as I calculate these should be the best reflection of your most current sub-conscious interests) and then see what begins to happen. Which stir you? Which begin to link together? (as per William Burroughs celebrated ‘cut out’ technique) and which prompt you to write on, some more?

And then usually, for me at least (given the immediately preceding minutes I have already invested in meditating and ‘getting in the voice’) something soon starts to take shape and I simply go with the flow and follow its lead... And of course, once the guts of a theme is out and has been safely captured on the page – then it is always possible (and often wise!) to have a break - knowing its detail and narrative is safe and can always be polished later. So this is truly how the nuts and bolts of the creative process works for me, anyway.

What drives and inspires you to write?

All my life (and for reasons I can’t quite be sure of) I have always been a seeker in the spiritual sense and always very ambitious to live life to the full. Whenever I am blessed with special moments or insights in my life, then my first instinct is to share the light and energy that comes from this experience with others. I am particularly keen to reach younger readers and students, still at a formative time in their lives and am always especially gratified when this group of readers, in particular, is touched by my work.

I suppose, at the core of my creative effort, is an attempt to try and present and illuminate a runway ahead, if you like... Fed directly by my own being and experience – in the hope that it resonates. My personal mode of doing this is, of course, as an artist and as a poet in particular.

Who are your greatest influences?

Beyond my own personal experience of living my life as fully as possible, I have always also been uplifted and inspired by reading other writers. After all, what greater gift and truer pleasure can there be that the opportunity to read and absorb, to have an internal dialogue yourself with some of the greatest minds and souls that have ever lived? Especially in antiquity, just think how exciting it is to be able to get to know the ancient, elemental voices in Beowulf, the colours of Ovid, the technical wizardry of Flaubert, the vision of Blake, the wisdom and majesty of Gibran or Rilke, for example.

My passion for poetry was ignited, as an impressionable adolescent, by schoolboy studies of the great English Romantic poets in particular – Wordsworth, Keats and, for me, Coleridge in particular. The work of William Blake and some of the truly great French writers like Rimbaud, Verlaine and Baudelaire were also a great influence. Shakespeare was of course the most glowing and effortless example of someone who had truly found their own voice and, in all likelihood, could write as fast as he could speak... As a student, I was both inspired and awestruck by that – to the extent it seemed like my lifetime’s challenge was going to be the long journey to begin to find my very own true voice.

How difficult was it to get started?

I soon began writing my own poetry in earnest at college, where I was studying to be a librarian and where I was also then editor of the student magazine for Brighton Polytechnic and Sussex University. Quite quickly I became one of many quite active, but relatively obscure either young small press or self-published poets. However, my work always seemed to sell well and was, at the time, unusual for always being published profitably. Thereby becoming a useful second income supporting the family life of a chartered librarian – in the auspicious tradition of a Larkin! Though in my case, the career was in public, rather than academic libraries.

What do you think were the key developments in your literary career?

Significant published collections of my poetry didn’t really appear till I had a family of my own and was already in my thirties. This was largely on the back of commercial success in other genres – when I was fortunate to author a series of quite lavish and lucrative illustrated local history books. Around this time, I also wrote Reunion, a fast-paced romantic thriller, which remains my only novel to date.

Nowadays I write full time, focusing as squarely as possible on poetry once more. A newer transitional collection of my work Meditationswas first published in 2013, focusing more on the philosophic and spiritual themes, with another similar but more substantial and comprehensive collection: Angel Voices soon following in the Autumn of 2014. Along with these and my novel, two other earlier collections of my poetry remain in print today: Selected Poetry, a hardback edition and New Poetry, a later title published in paperback only. On account of growing interest, both theses titles now only very recently re-issued as e books in early 2021.

As you will by now probably know, further titles and new collections soon followed - threads in 2016 and then Pranic Poetry in 2020, the theme of which was fuelled by what I learnt and managed to absorb from a couple of years highly insightful study of Pranic Healing, under the auspices of the Institute of Pranic Healing here in the UK. By this time, there was much broader interest and appreciation of my work around the world, energised by an exponential growth of visits to my showcase website scotthastie.com - which now generates millions of hits every year from all around the world. Interest in my work continues to grow exponentially, I think significantly encouraged but the pandemic induced lockdown around the world, which encouraged so many more folk to do two vital things - Read more... and also Re-evaluate their potential and what their life was really about... which of course lies at the very heart of what my poetry speaks to. This was the reason which prompted us to bring forward by a year my two 30th career anniversary retrospective 'Best Of'' collections - Timeless: the best of Scott Hastie's poetry 1990-2020 and it's companion volume Splinters of Light: quotations from the poetry of Scott Hastie in 2020.

Sounds like the internet has played a big part in your success?

Yes your right. Initially social media was a pretty new departure for me and something I was, to be honest, something I was initially rather reluctant about – but still very much initially encouraged to get involved with by the people at Raygun who designed and launched www.scotthastie.com here in the UK in 2012. In addition, I had also always been so conscious of all the other potential pitfalls there are out there for anyone seeking to write anything significant – be it the lure of fame or fortune, or the seduction of style over substance, for example. And, as always stressed by David Lidgate, my spiritual mentor here in the UK, particularly the importance of not wasting valuable energies on promotion and ‘staying in the bubble’ - if truly serious about maximising the potential you have as a writer.

Having said this, I am glad I did listen to Raygun and we have since developed approaches that make this work for me, without literally taking more than a hour or so of my time every day… Even from my limited experience to date. Like it or not, there can be no doubt that options like Twitter Facebook & Instagram (for general public) and LinkedIn (for peer group connections) are immensely powerful engines of efficient sharing and global communication, helping to steer people from all round the world to my web site. The web site itself scotthastie.com which has a built in blog - for both general comment and also on individual poems - has also exceeded all expectations since it was launched. And all this from a standing start and with no marketing spend to speak of!

There is no doubt that the use of social media and also involvement with writing groups has played its part here. Although my books have long since found their way to most countries around the world, for me, as a writer, the key transformative effect here has been, for the first time, getting my work out much more effectively to a worldwide audience. And, of course, the surprises that come from this. For example, the scale of enthusiastic positive interest, now evident from the US in particular and also from India and some Arab states initially caught us off guard, to be honest. But is obviously very welcome, nevertheless.

So in summary, I am now a definite convert! Just twenty years ago, it simply would have not been possible at all for me to even dream of reaching the audience I do now, without huge investment from a major corporate publishing house. So it does literally transform everything. What I now say to those that ask is that: in this new world, I have two principal endeavours: Firstly - to write as well as I can, then Secondly - to be as serious and cooperative as I can be about getting my work to be read by as many people as possible. Hence, for example, my investment of time in contributing to blogs, as well as online art & literary print journals, both as a way of conveying an understanding of what I am aiming to do AND equally importantly sharing with and encouraging others – which I also find to be very satisfying and rewarding.

Though, much as the Internet does such a brilliant job for us, as writers and creative artists generally (in terms of being able to reach out and find a worldwide audience so cost effectively and without being totally reliant on the big and often greedy corporates) we all still know that the delicious feeling of having that intimate 'one to one' dialogue with the mind of another, by holding a beautifully finished printed book in your hand, just cannot be bettered or ever replaced. As validated by the simple fact that today there are more books being written and commercially published than ever before. End of any possible argument about all that there, methinks!

What excites you most about what you have achieved so far and what are you still looking to achieve with your writing?

For me, the most exciting development in my writing (in addition to the more cogent and mature voice I seem to have been blessed with, past two years or so...) is the way my poetry now seems to be truly reaching out and touching people across all social, cultural, political and faith boundaries. Much more than all the money in the world! I honestly just couldn’t want for more than that.

In that sense I’m now Living the Dream… And it therefore has become very important to me that I pay back all the blessings I’ve been given, by writing as well as I possibly can – And that, in truth, is what the rest of my creative life is about, really.

What do you consider to be the central themes and characteristics of your poetry?

On the technical front, I have always been ardent in my belief that, as far as possible, a poem should speak entirely for itself. Perhaps more so than any other art form, surely this has to be truest for poetry? Whose principal aim is to distil an experience or insight down to the absolute essence. To my mind the voice of the piece should therefore always be much stronger and clearer than any artist’s commentary or critic’s voice could ever provide.

I regard the over-arching theme of my work to be a personal investigation into the positive potential of the human spirit. This I think is clearly evident, running through most of my poems. Not that I believe my work can ever be said to be some sweet pastoral panacea, because it never shies away from pain or suffering – and is prepared to also explore the darkness, as well as the light and, crucially, the fundamental significance of their inter reaction. This being, to me, the absolute axis (the truly dynamic and crucial interdependence of the light and dark, of joy and sorrow, of love and loss, in the grand Romantic tradition) and that key notion of duality which I hope still lies solidly at the heart of my work and my approach.

I remain determined always to be challenging enough to try and reach deep into the core of the meaning of the human experience - although I do readily accept that, as my work has developed and I have grown older, my voice has also become more reflective and spiritual in its emphasis.

I have always aimed, at any time in my career, to be as simply expressed and as readily accessible as possible – For me, this is a vital component of all my work to date. And it is here that you can also hopefully see how simple often short line length structures also play their part – though still carefully shaped for emphasis, controlled rhythm and musicality that lifts key passages, enhances meaning and always looks to carefully and lyrically draw the reader towards the concluding climax of any piece. The success of which for me is always a critical consideration and the key litmus test of success of any particular poem.

How do you define what is poetry and what is not?

A very common question… Many people from different cultures often talk to me around notions of: ‘What is poetry?’ And indeed the significance, or otherwise, of traditionally rhyming schemes and syllabic metrical structures. For me, it is very stark and straightforward– ‘a poem’ is ‘a poem’ if it calls itself one – similarly ‘a poet’ is ‘a poet’ if he/she deems to call themselves one. No more complicated than that, I’m afraid. This doesn’t mean, of course, that any self-declared poet is necessarily a viable or good one - Hey! Ho!

Similar to the old days and all the discussion about what was then ‘art’ and not ‘art’ – painters and sculptors (musicians even) I think have been much more successful than poets in throwing off the shackles of the past, in my view. Both, in terms of the general public’s and even (sad to say!) most of the established ‘literary world’ and academia’s on-going perception on this issue.

That is not to say poetry that rhymes, or strictly follows a consistent metrical rule throughout is not of value – Obviously! Just as clearly as say Jackson Pollock or Rothko’s work does not trump Michelangelo’s. Without a doubt, some of the most inspiring and effective poetry ever written falls firmly into this more traditional category.

So there you go! I am a poet, unabashed, pure and simple! And if pressed (often tediously on the subject...) I will concede – Yes, I indeed write mainly what is often described as ‘free’ or ‘blank’ verse. Writing that’s not (being a child of the glorious Sixties and Seventies!) also without some ‘concrete’ influences, as I mention later.

However lyrical flow and emphasis are always essential to my work, as discussed earlier and I am not averse (excuse the pun!) to using rhyme or slipping into conventional structures, whenever they feel right. Sometimes, I even find myself writing haikus, mid-poem, without even being conscious I’m doing it! No surprise there really – as some of the deepest, most ancient of structures are precisely that: felt, rather than abstractly and mathematically constructed... Stretching back to an oral story telling tradition – when such effects were first discovered instinctively for enhancing dramatic effects and aiding memory, given that nothing was then written down – but simply retold, from generation to generation.

That being said, I always have one regular tactic up my sleeve to settle any argument, if necessary, regarding my credentials and credeibility as a ‘poet’. I ask the person concerned to read any poem of mine they wish and then promptly present them with a full prose essay conveying the very same message as the poem – Trust me, that is guaranteed to shut up even the sternest of sceptics, who all of sudden have no option but to concede there is clearly much ‘poetry’ there after all!

And, of course, overriding all this - Of one thing I have always been sure - Poetry is the purest of all art forms. Now, within that, we know all too well how the term ‘blank verse’ can be used in a pejorative way – where as ‘free verse’ self-evidently cannot. So a poet writing 'free verse' is what I proudly and ultimately lay claim to be. And writing free verse that will joyfully adopt whatever technique, structure pattern or lyrical tone (in and out, however traditional... however not…) as I see fit. And as I determine the mood, the nuance, the meaning of the piece demands.

And how truly blessed I feel given that, so clearly, poetry is the highest of all art forms and stands up there, entirely on its own level. And furthermore, doubly blessed! For, to be honest, during much of my earlier life, I could so easily can have been seduced away. For example, there have been so many times in my life when, if the devil himself had offered me the chance to be a say a singer, lyricist or wonderfully visually expressive painter, then I would have literally pulled his arm off, there and then!

Because these are of course the more immediately attractive and fashionable art forms that, in our current culture especially, can so much more easily grab the world’s attention and still go on to establish some kind of meaningful and soulful relevance. However, inevitably within them, the message has at least to be in part compromised, diluted by the medium. Whereas, for the poet, the message can come through strong and pure and can be delivered in full - Direct and Undiluted. So, although we often have a harder road to travel for sure, blessed indeed are the poets!

Your passion for what you do is very evident, what has challenged you most?

The first thing to say is that is no easy road to travel, rather a very demanding one, requiring persistent and dedicated effort over a good number of years. Going back to my youth, the first person to truly believe in me and what I had to offer beyond my lifelong friend, the precociously knowledgeable and ultimately ambitious painter, Ian Stirling was an idealistic young teacher called Robert Peel, who was my A level (higher grade) tutor of French Literature at Secondary (High) School. He was the first to open my eyes as to what might be possible and who (pretty uniquely and significantly at that time, when I was at my most rebellious and errant) still encouraged me to be myself and follow my dream. Consequently, I am forever in his debt…

Beyond that, I have worked hard most of my life to deliberately avoid being schooled by academic influences and laboured, mainly alone – albeit with the bright lanterns of what, for me, are key timeless and luminous voices like those of Gibran, Blake and Rilke to guide me on my way.

As we have already touched on briefly above – in terms of how technically I approach the challenging business of structuring of my work - then the Haiku tradition, with emphasis on focusing down and distilling the essence of what you want to say has had an on-going (if often not always directly and technically applied) obvious influence on my work. Personally, I will also always be permanently indebted for the technical breakthroughs achieved the pioneering Scottish Concrete poets, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Edwin Morgan – which really helped me see a clear way forward for myself, in terms of beginning to develop a style I feel is my own.

Is it really possible for any poet to really have his voice properly heard in the 21st century?

Like to think I am living proof that it can be done! That said, whatever anyone’s influences and any environment they find themselves operating in, I freely acknowledge that the most significant challenge faced by any writer is to truly find their own voice. And to be honest with you, I do get very weary of what sometimes seems like the endless procession of often technically, as well as intellectually talented young writers - on both sides of the Pond, simply schooled to echo the styles and mores of whatever is judged to then be fashionable by a self-serving established literary elite. To some extent, this is inevitable, I suppose... And it is perhaps unreasonable for me to imagine otherwise! But then again, as we have discussed earlier, I believe the power of the internet has played a very valuable role here in loosening this stifling stranglehold.

Also, as mentioned earlier, my tendency anyway has always been to be a bit of a lone wolf, by artistic and spiritual necessity. Thereby I believe giving yourself the time and space to conjure up a strong and unique voice that can really punch through.

I have noticed that nearly all your poems don’t have titles, why is that?

Yes, I do have a few such idiosyncrasies as a poet: And one of these is that, unless dedicated to a particular individual or location, I have never believed in giving titles to my poems. In the spirit of the haiku and my earlier answers about technique, what I say to those who question me as to why this is (and my answer often surprises or sometimes annoys many) Namely: 'if you can truly conjure a meaningful title for a poem, then, my friend, perhaps that should be the poem itself!!' And, for me, the first few words of a poem and page number will always serve as a sufficient identifier - so who needs titles anyway!

My other significant idiosyncrasy is that, despite the fact that I have the utmost respect for the practice of being a ‘performance poet’ – this is something I NEVER do - despite what it costs me in terms of the loss of promotional opportunities. In common with my practice of not using titles for my work, this also surprises some. But what I say to this is that I myself have always written so deliberately to be ‘read in the head’ rather than declaimed. All I can say here is that, for me as a poet, this is much more important and multi-dimensional opportunity and moreover, a preciously unique and timely dialogue between you and any individual reader, all of whom are different characters, with different histories, preoccupations and issues.

For example, would I trust anyone? (myself included!) to do full justice to one of my poems in oral recital – frankly not! Also would I really want to interfere at all with the very special music any one person could make (in their very own way and with the singular benefit of their unique experiences and resonances) with one of my pieces in their own head – Again, not really! Indeed some of my readers do tell me that they read my poetry aloud to themselves, quite often. And that, of course, is just marvellous! And exactly how it should be...

Given all the success you’ve had to date Scott, what still drives you on to keep writing?

As to my ultimate ambition as a writer, it is certainly not, nor ever has been Fame and Fortune... (which we all know is much more easily garnered in today's world by being pretty much anything other than a poet!) Rather, it’s always been all about something very different and much more enduring.

Something that I blessedly first became aware of so early in my life, via both my communion with my close friend, the unique, truly exceptional Ian Stirling and also the illuminating effect of a charmed incident that took place on an early journey to Italy, as described in the Foreword/Introduction to both Timeless and Splinters:

"For me, there was only ever one true ambition in life. From that charmed moment in the Pantheon in Rome, watching on as a beautifully elegant young woman walked reverentially across the marble floor of this extraordinary historic building to place a single red rose of the tomb of the painter Raphael. There and then, an insight immediately crystallized around a noble purpose for my life. Ever more certain now that my task was now leave behind something true and beautiful, fashioned from my own life’s experience that might have some chance of touching, moving and inspiring others, many, many years later. Surely, as an eager and idealistic young man, that was all I could ever hope for. And so, the die was cast!"

A wonderful story…

What are you reading at the moment?

Currently, I would recommend the stunning and very contemporary work of NY poet Sharon Olds, one time winner of the T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize and also the poignant work of Irish poet Dennis O’Driscoll. I am also currently re-reading Marcus Aurelius and Rumi - Timeless wisdom that never fails to prompt and inspire. Additionally, I am rather addicted to rather a lot of exotic travelling round the world, spending time with and tasting other cultures – which also never fails to nourish my soul – As does spending truly precious time with my family, close friends and young grandchildren who do so much to rejuvenate my spirits, by showing me the world, as it is - fresh and new again."

Thank you Scott for your time today and being so generous with your thoughts. A very fascinating interview.

TRANSCRIPT ENDS

Syndicated interview

scotthastie.com

#poetry #Romantic Poetry #spiritual poetry #poem #poems #romanticpoems #spiritualpoems #scotthastie #scotthastiepoet

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scarletprophecies-blog · 6 years

Video

Energy Reading for @hokuhealing

‘I have swallowed so much pain and inhaled all your anger. Now there is a seething darkness clawing at my insides and it is unspeakably difficult to absorb the rage of the universe without forsaking its grace. I wish I was violent, brutal like you, but I open my mouth to scream and only flowers fall out.’

Walk within the poppy fields of Scarlet Prophecies

I see clear sunny skies, a crispness to the air that’s chilly yet not cold enough to warrant a jacket. There’s open fields of green with small blue flowers hidden among the natural fauna sprouting from weeds. At night, moonflowers bloom and add an ethereal glow to it with fireflies softly flying about to add to the feeling of otherness. It’s a field surrounded by trees yet open to the skies above. Rain or shine, the fields will always be there at the base of the mountains and it’s unusual stillness to it. It’s very quiet where you have to whisper or else you’ll draw attention to yourself. You don’t want to speak aloud and draw its attention because you’ll find yourself within a circle of flowers with no way out back to the physical world.

Travelers are wary at it’s calming atmosphere and the hushness. The animals drawn there are naturally the prey. Predators know better than to fall for the promise of safety yet sometimes even they come into the clearing chasing their prey. Fat rabbits make their homes there if they’re brave enough. Deer take a chance to munch on the luscious greens yet a common theme among the animals is that they bring something back with them from their time in those fields. Something foreign, something growing. A natural parasite that transforms the animals into a nature animal hybrid to eventually become one with nature without even realizing it. They die yet they live, they no longer have the capacity for feeling anything but peace. Their breaths released in a quiet sigh once their lives as a full plant comes to an end to be reborn in new life around them to become nutrients for new growth. It’s a horrid unnatural cycle yet so natural as to nurture everything but those who’ve infected themselves. It all come back to that peaceful field. Something is there, something immortal.

Do not speak aloud, do not run. You don’t want to bring attention to yourself.

Associations

Elements: Earth, Air, Light, Water

Species: Fae, Elves, Sprites, Mermaids

Tarot: Chrysalis Tarot — Four of Scrolls, Five of Stones, Six of Scrolls

Color: Periwinkle #CCCCFF, White #FFFFFF, Gold #EEC900, Robins Egg Blue #00CCCC

#hokuhealing #energy reading #gif warning #epilepsy tw #epilepsy cw #flashing gif #moving gif #apolaki energy readings #my readings

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writingscififantasy · 7 years

Text

Science Fiction Subgenres from A to N

So, to start this blog off with something fun, I thought I’d do a series of big ol’ masterlists covering sci-fi and fantasy subgenres! There is a heckin’ large amount of them, so I’ve split it up into four sections with about five or six posts- this one right here is for, you guessed it, science fiction, from A to N. *cue distant cheering*

First up, a little recap:

Science Fiction: This can be considered a difficult genre to define, simply because it can encompass nearly anything- but the best definition I’ve heard is that it’s “the literature of change”, particularly in areas of scientific advancement and technological growth. According to Wikipedia, this is a genre of speculative fiction “typically dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.” (x) Science fiction generally encompasses imaginary worlds and universes bound to laws of physics (although not necessarily the laws we know of or follow) that are advanced in some way by science and technology, and experiencing some form of change because of that. To put it very simply, science fiction can be viewed as fiction based upon science. Science fiction tends to evoke thoughts of aliens, spaceships, robots, AI, new planets, futuristic cities, flying cars, high-tech things made of shiny metals, lightsabers and phasers, environmental sustainability, and far-future social themes. Examples include Dune (Dune series) by Frank Herbert, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor, The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley, 1984 by George Orwell, Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse series) by James A. Corey, Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, and Parable of the Sower (Parable series) by Octavia E. Butler.

With that refresher in mind, let’s begin! (I’d apologize for the word count, but we’re all nerdy writers here.)

Apocalyptic Sci-Fi: Ah, one of the favorites for anybody who enjoys good ol’ destruction and chaos in their books. This subgenre is characterized by a cataclysmic event occurring that wipes out the vast majority of the human population, often with extensive destruction across the globe.

Common tropes for this include alien invasions, environmental disasters (oooh, one of my favorites- things such as catastrophic climate change), plagues or viruses (bioweapons and bioengineering, including the “zombie” virus as one of the current most popular- who doesn’t love zombies), the technological singularity or failure (the “robot uprising” vs. a worldwide EMP), astronomical events such as meteors, super-flares, or radiation bursts, supernatural events (demonic war, the Four Horsemen on Earth, vampires or other monsters), etc.

Apocalyptic sci-fi goes hand in hand with post-apocalyptic sci-fi, but the former can be set apart from its counterpart in that it takes place during the exact time of the “apocalyptic” event- however, keep in mind that most books, even if they show the apocalyptic event in the beginning, tend to shift towards post-apocalyptic as the characters learn to survive in the aftermath. Finding something that is solely an apocalyptic sci-fi novel is rare, and I will admit I had some trouble with it.

This subgenre is often used to show human nature in chaotic times (how people panic, the “sheep” effect, mass hysteria, how individuals respond to their impending demise), as well as portray extreme destruction of cities and civilization, exemplify survival tactics, and use the setting as a source of action, drama, suspense, plot twists, and personal growth for characters as they act and react to their rapidly changing and dangerous world.

Examples: Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (astronomical event, meteor strikes moon), The Stand by Stephen King (bioengineered virus and supernatural events), Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (astronomical event, moon is destroyed), Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson (technological singularity, robot uprising), Ashfall by Mike Mullin (environmental disaster, supervolcanic eruption), The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (alien invasion, environmental disaster, technological failure, and a deadly plague, for all your apocalyptic needs)

Note: Although not books, I also like to include the movies 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, World War Z, and Independence Day.

“Dying Earth”: If I’m being honest, this is probably the most depressing science fiction subgenre- probably even more so than the related-but-not-quite-the-same apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic subgenres- so thank goodness it’s fairly small. Given the name from the series of works (aptly titled “The Dying Earth”) by Jack Vance which portrayed our Earth, millennia from now, as an exhausted, dying world orbiting an equally exhausted, dying star, the “Dying Earth” subgenre embodies themes of bone-deep exhaustion, depletion of planetary resources, innocence and idealism and (potentially) the loss of both, and The End of Time/Earth/The Universe.

Common tropes include Earth or other planets physically dying (from the aforementioned resource depletion, going sterile, the sun burning out, being too old), stars burning out/going supernova and dying, laws of the universe failing as it dies, and species falling to extinction (from their planet/sun dying, out of apathy or exhaustion or physical/emotional/spiritual weariness, etc). The subgenre as a whole can pretty much be summed up as “melancholic”.

Although it also shows an end-of-the-world scenario, this subgenre differs from simple “apocalyptic events” and the related subgenres by virtue of not having anything so dramatic- instead, it simply shows the world as it winds down into a slow death.

But wait- perhaps it’s not entirely depressing! Some works in this subgenre also employ themes of hope and renewal, and the “Dying Earth” subgenre is often used to show optimism in the face of death, human endurance, looking forward to the unknown, and future promise. Thankfully, it’s not all about the “entropic exhaustion of the Earth” and the fading of “the current comprehensible state of the universe”- talk about a bummer.

Examples: The Dying Earth (series) by Jack Vance (the books that gave the subgenre its name), The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, City at the End of Time by Greg Bear, Dying of the Light by George R. R. Martin, certain stories in Sunfall (anthology) by C. J. Cherryh, Earthchild by Doris Piserchia (interestingly enough, I haven’t found anything in this subgenre over the past 10 years or so)

Note: Outside of books, the comic series Low by Rick Remender and the video game Dark Souls can be included in the subgenre. Movies such as Reign of Fire, I Am Legend, The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, and The Quiet Earth could be considered vaguely “Dying Earth”, although they really don’t capture the melancholic, tired aspects that the subgenre embodies, and the endings distinctly lead away from the subgenre.

“Edisonade”: This one’s kind of short, because not only is it really small and generally unheard of, it’s also pretty old- old enough to be primarily from the time of “all sci-fi writers were men” and everything was written to appeal to the male gaze. Basically, it’s a subgenre that includes stories about a character who is “a brilliant young inventor” in the ways of Thomas Edison, as they use their invention(s) to save their nation, save their love interest, defeat the villain, and presumably get rich and live prosperously as a quirky inventor forevermore.

Although it is, at its core, something that could be very interesting to write and read- who doesn’t want to write about brilliant inventors?- the fact of the matter is that all the books in this subgenre tend towards a teenage/young man being the inventor, and saving the girl, and defeating the villain (normally foreigners, evil scientists, or aliens). At the time that stories in this subgenre were written, a lot of them (not all!) reflected nationalistic, misogynistic, and generally racist views and tended to feature things like widespread colonization, exploration of parts of the world with “untamed lands and peoples”, and self-insert characters for boys to relate with on the premise of superiority and “saving the day”.

The good part? The “Edisonade” subgenre tends to be progressive in the ways of science, technology, and engineering, and it can be somewhat related to steampunk. Other than that...the subgenre itself needs a bit of a reboot, so to speak. Any takers?

Examples: The Steam Man of the Prairies by Edward S. Ellis, Tom Edison, Jr.(series) by Philip Reade, Tom Swift (series) by Victor Appleton

Hard Sci-Fi: And so we come to one of the ongoing debates amongst sci-fi communities- “hard” science fiction versus “soft” science fiction. Hard sci-fi can be defined in a number of ways, and that has caused quite some controversy over the years- but the general consensus is that hard sci-fi is generally a subgenre of science fiction that depends upon more science, as well as greater scientific accuracy and explanation in its novels.

Novels in this subgenre are generally characterized by a large amount of science to go with the fiction- the “science and technology parts of science fiction are featured front and center, the scientific concepts are founded upon legitimacy, research, and lots of explanation, and the stories are more realistic and heavy.

Here’s where some controversy comes in- sometimes a novel is “science-y” like that, but it’s primarily left in the background of the story, so it could be considered “soft” sci-fi.

Also, many “hard” sci-fi works tend to focus on STEM-like areas (engineering, math, formal sciences like physics), or assume that the natural sciences (biology, environmental science, geology, etc) make a sci-fi story inherently “soft”.

Sometimes, technology is left almost entirely in the background of a sci-fi story, with those natural sciences featuring more.

Other times, the science that the novel is based upon proves to be faulty, or something is incorrect, or some of it is just plain implausible. See the dilemmas?

Anyways, here I am simply defining “hard sci-fi” as science fiction writing that focuses more on the scientific and technological aspects of a story, with an emphasis on legitimate scientific concepts, research, theories, and fact, and that incorporates much of those ideals into the writing and story itself (as plots, background, etc).

Common tropes in this subgenre include hypothetical, explained logistics for futuristic technologies (faster-than-light travel, terraforming, spaceships, space habitats, etc), more realistic-looking tech, sometimes at the expense of being “less pretty” (spaceships that aren’t made of shiny stuff and still cause pollution, for instance, or spacesuits that look more like spacesuits rather than trendy plastic-wrap), and sometimes a lot of lengthy explanations within the story that you have to read a few times to really understand or some words you have to look up (keep a dictionary with you for some of these books, I mean, wow).

This subgenre is often meant to show how the future could be soon, to show science fiction in a less out-there, more relatable light, appeal to more literal-minded people who desire scientific fact in their fiction or plots based upon legitimacy, explain the fundamentals of a story without “hand-waving”, and to explore far-future ideals, sciences, and technologies while remaining within the realms of current possibility.

When done without a certain sense of grace, timing, and ability for relating lengthy expositions of science to plot, character, and setting, “hard” sci-fi can be difficult and overwhelming to read, occasionally preachy if the author tries to explain too much, and generally drag on. However, when done well, “hard” sci-fi is a wonderful creation, something that teaches its readers, explores the world through the lenses of science, and portrays science as a general positive thing (something we all need in this world).

Examples: Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse series) by James S. A. Corey, Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch series) by Ann Leckie, The Martian by Andy Weir, Ringworld (series) by Larry Niven, vN by Madeline Ashby, Up Against It by M. J. Locke, Diaspora by Greg Egan, Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon, A Door Into Ocean (Elysium series) by Joan Slonczewski, Downbelow Station (The Company Wars series) by C. J. Cherryh, The Bohr Maker (the Nanotech Succession series) by Linda Nagata, Lilith’s Brood (Xenogenesis Trilogy: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago) by Octavia E. Butler

“Lost Worlds”: A lesser known subgenre, “Lost Worlds” is characterized by the discovery of a new “world” (i.e, planet, galaxy, continent) that is “out of time, place, or both”- meaning that the world is generally untouched by anything other than native flora and fauna, or that the civilizations there have never been seen before and were isolated from everyone else, or that the remnants of a civilization have been found there. This subgenre came into popularity when people started finding actual remnants of previous civilizations- the Mayan temples, Egyptian tombs, etc- and began speculating about it and using it for fictional purposes.

Common tropes in this subgenre include, unfortunately, things like references to colonization and “a more advanced civilization meets a less advanced civilization”, in terms of technology/science/weapons. On the positive side, tropes can also include exploration and travel throughout the world, survival tactics while within inhospitable lands, archaeological intrigue and findings, and good anthropological ideals where newcomers are curious and respectful of their cultures they come across, science fiction mixed with social sciences (anthropological science fiction is a subgenre that will come up in a later post!), and sometimes some pretty Star Trek-like stuff.

Examples: Dinotopia (series) by James Gurney, The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, Pym by Mat Johnson

Military Sci-Fi: This sci-fi subgenre is pretty self-explanatory- military sci-fi is characterized by a militarized setting, generally with characters within a military organization/army. The sci-fi part tends to come along with the futuristic technologies being applied to weaponry, battleships, and military tech, and in that the settings of these battles, wars, or general military outposts tend to be in space (on a spaceship) or on a different planet. Oftentimes the battle being waged is against alien species, or if it’s far enough in the future, it might be against other humans that are on a different planet/colony/outpost.

Common tropes in this subgenre include political maneuverings amongst the higher-ups of this military or the people causing the war, characters that are soldiers and/or act out of interest in this war, (have military training, follow military orders, carry out missions, etc), war, fighting, and weaponry tactics discussed in the writing, traditional personality traits for military personnel (such as self-sacrifice, deep loyalty between soldiers, obedience and duty, bravery, and respect as well as disobeying orders to act in the interest of others), and spaceships taking the place of tanks, planes, or battleships of today.

Military sci-fi can often overlap with the “space opera” genre- it speculates about the future and future wars, uses futuristic weaponry and ships, and is often large-scale in terms of the battle layouts and how/where the battle affects people and places.

This subgenre is often used to show the political dynamics of a world or the future, how humans might react to meeting alien species (hopefully hostile, otherwise this subgenre would get pretty ugly), and how the military and corporations, government, and agendas expand into space.

Examples: Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, Mechanical Failure (Epic Failure series) by Joe Zieja, Valor’s Choice (Confederation series) by Tanya Huff, Vatta’s War (series) by Elizabeth Moon, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, The Red by Linda Nagata, Unbreakable by W. C. Bauers, Terms of Enlistment (series) by Marko Kloos, War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach

Mundane Sci-Fi: This subgenre can be a bit iffy, depending on how you view it. Generally, it’s described as sci-fi that doesn’t use “high claims” such as faster-than-light travel or aliens, but rather focuses on down-to-Earth (literally) works that use only believable technology and science from the modern day. Therefore, it’s considered an extension of hard sci-fi, but even more legitimized than that- where hard sci-fi can hypothesize about “high claims” of worm holes and interstellar travel while using a strong basis in science, mundane sci-fi drops that altogether and sticks only to what is known to be plausible.

Common tropes in this subgenre include hard sci-fi principles, technologies and science based upon proven fact and areas of study existing today, and no speculative technologies.

This subgenre is, to me, something to be viewed both positively and negatively. On one hand, mundane science fiction promotes the idea of focusing only on current science/technology, rather than speculating about things such as warp drives and spaceships and intergalactic communities, because thinking about such ideas leads to negligence of the current issues we- and the planet- already face. That’s not a bad thing- focusing on current issues are definitely something that should be done, and ignoring them won’t help anyone- but the mundane sci-fi community also claims, in some areas, that science fiction as a whole should abandon the ideas of space travel and a lot of the typical themes because it’s wrong to speculate on such ideals and it’s “running away from the problem”. Take that as you will- there’s been a bit of an argument, so to speak, on the matter.

Overall, the subgenre of mundane sci-fi is meant to show current science and technology through a fictional lens, the effects of current events such as climate change, biotechnology, global politics, and advancing robotics, how the world is changing in the now, “reawaken” the sense of wonder people feel towards sci-fi in the context of Earth alone, and bring in high levels of characterization and plot that are inherently realistic.

Examples: Air by Geoff Ryman, Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling, The Beast with Nine Billion Feet by Anil Menon, The Hacker and the Ants by Rudy Rucker, Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, Arctic Rising by Tobias S. Buckell

New Wave Sci-Fi: Also a social and cultural movement as well as a literary one, “new wave sci-fi” doesn’t have as much bearing today in terms of being written as often (in the same way as it was then, at the very least). This subgenre came about in the 60′s and 70′s, and it’s characterized as being “advant-garde” and “experimental” in the context of literature and art- it was more focused on being new and exciting and unique rather than purely accurate, scientifically speaking. However, this period of time is also what saw a large increase in science fiction in mainstream culture, as well as more writers and readers- the subject itself shifted to become more aware of things such as language, politics, subject matter, writing techniques, and futuristic ideals. There’s quite a large historical movement there, which I could get into later, but for now I’m gonna stick with the literary stuff.

Common tropes in this subgenre (there are lots) include rejection of classic sci-fi ideals (the Antihero, for instance, came about in sci-fi as a rejection of the typical “science hero”), deconstruction of regular themes, rejection of typical plots and “happy” endings, blurred boundaries between science fiction and fantasy (science fantasy is a subgenre I’ll also get into later!), and high amounts of progressive ideals (this was in the 60′s and 70′s- free-love, equality, and inclusiveness was, and is, a major part of the writing in this subgenre.

Much of what science fiction is now is owed, at least in part, to the new wave literary movement for science fiction. The genre was more open for women and minorities (to an extent), the stories more all-encompassing, the themes more substantial, dynamic, and fluid- overall, it helped set the course for a lot of what sci-fi is now.

Examples: Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delaney, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, The Elric Saga (series) by Michael Moorcock, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, And Chaos Died by Joanna Russ, The Hieros Gamos of Sam and An Smith by Josephine Saxton, The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

And that’s about it! The next installment, “Science Fiction Subgenres from P to Z”, should be up in a day or two- after that, I’ll be moving onto Fantasy Subgenres (the Part 2 of the series). I’ll start adding links as I write them- in the meantime, feel free to send me questions or thoughts about these subgenres and anything else!

Parting thoughts- are any of these subgenres completely new to you? Can you think of any other novels in any of them? Does your writing fall under any of these subgenres?

#ugh this took forever #apocalyptic sci-fi #dying earth #edisonade #hard sci-fi #lost worlds #military sci-fi #mundane sci-fi #new wave sci-fi #science fiction #sci-fi #writing #book recommendations #subgenres #sci-fi subgenres #from a to n #masterlist #writing help #tropes

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amieravenson · 5 years

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Magickal Month-February

February is the last bit of cold before the Spring comes, and we’re naturally beginning to think about the growth season ahead. We’re feeling the stirrings of activity as the days are getting longer and sunnier, though there’s still a strong chance of Winter weather. We can’t help but get excited when the snow drops, daffodils, and other early flowers begin to bloom, and some trees are even budding now! February was named after a Roman purification ritual called Februa, held on February’s full moon. And the theme of purification is perfect for this time of year, as we’re feeling the need to open the windows and air out the house from all the stifling Winter stuffiness. This is also a great time to get a jump on Spring cleaning/decluttering/organizing to make space for fresh new energy! I’ve been seeing so many hawks lately, but not much else. Even the cardinals that are usually around all year have been quiet. I found a small grey snake a few weeks ago, but it was injured and didn’t make it. So I’m leaving him on a stone in the yard in hopes that I can come and find his bones later. I expect to start seeing more birds as February moves along, as we do start to see birds pretty early here in the South. Last week, we were supposed to get snow and didn’t, and next week we’re allegedly going to see temps in the 70s. Here’s to surprises! Lunations: February 4- New moon in Aquarius, 4:03pm, EST February 19- Full moon in Virgo, 10:53am, EST Astronomy: February 8- Alpha Centaurids meteor shower begins (That’s it. Kind of a slow month.) Celtic Tree Month: Rowan (Jan 21st- Feb 17th): Protection, inspiration, vision, clearing the mind for meditation, attunes us to nature, broadens perspectives, protects from harm on a journey, brings spiritual enlightenment, hidden mysteries of nature and quickening of life force Ash (Feb 18th- Mar 17th): Mastership and power, psychic/prophetic dreams, strength, harmony, being in tune with your surroundings, heals loneliness of human spirit by forming a link between gods, man, and the dead, key to universal truth and cosmic wisdom, tree of initiation. Holidays (non-Pagan): February 2: Groundhog Day February 5: Chinese New Year February 14: Valentine’s Day February 18: President’s Day Holidays (Pagan): February 1: Imbolc February 1 -14: Festival of Dionysos February 3-6: Old European Lunar New Year- celebration of the Triple Goddess February 5-6: Feast of Isis the Healer February 5-6: Anthesterion Noumenia- Greek festival honoring all the Gods and Goddesses February 8-9: Feast of Aphrodite and Eros February 10-11: Feast of Artemis February 13-15: Lupercalia- originally honoring the Roman Goddess Fauna February 15-18: Anthesteria- Greek festival honoring Plouton as god of the dead February 22: Caristia- Roman family festival where feuds were forgiven February 24- March 3: Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries, where Kore/Persephone and Dionysus/Plouton return to the land of the living February 28: Slavic Velja Noc- when spirits of the dead and Veles (Lord of the Dead) return to land of the living to visit living relatives- also considered new year Themes for the month: Purification, cleansing, self-love, self-care, romance, the seeds we’re planting, watching them quicken into life, the fire we hold inside that will help us through the last of Winter’s cold. General activities for the month: Planning a garden, sharing romantic times with people you love, practicing self-care and self-love magick (ritual baths, time alone, positive self-talk, luxuries like massage or decadent face masks), looking around you for the very first signs of Spring (the first flowers, sprouts emerging from the soil, buds on the trees, birds changing shifts) Herbs I’m using: Sandalwood as incense for its warming scent, cloves and cinnamon in my shampoo to stimulate scalp and hair growth, a new umami seasoning blend from Trader Joe’s that makes ramen taste amazing! Stones I’m using: Aragonite (deeply connected with the earth, keeps us grounded and connected through the earth star chakra), fire agate (the epitome of fire energy- motivation, quickening, warmth, light), rhodonite (great for the heart chakra, and especially practicing self-love) Goddess of the Month: I’m feeling so drawn to Brigid right now. This makes sense, since Imbolc is her holiday, but I’m really connecting with her outside of that as well. As the goddess of healing, I’m drawn to her because I have so much healing to do, and I want to help others by showing them how I’ve healed myself so far. As the goddess of poetry, I’m deeply drawn to her in all of my creative writing endeavors. I want to connect with the spirit of prolificness in my writing. As the goddess of smithcraft, I feel her presence because I’m trying to create a physical reality that best supports and reflects my inner world. I want to manifest the beauty that’s in my head in a physical way, mostly through my home. I don’t know if I’m being called to her, or if I just need some of her sacred flame in my life right now, but I’m going to do some reading and self-reflection to see how this connection will best be served. 3 card reading:

Here we start with the 5 of Cups. So we’re feeling disappointed, like everything has come crashing down. But the reality is that while we have a few cups that have spilled, we still have 2 that are upright. And if we don’t spend our time dwelling on what has been lost, we can figure out how to best utilize what we can salvage and find a way through the present situation. Next, we see the 5 of Wands reversed. So while we’re disappointed, and focused on the negative, at least we can see that the struggle is finally over. Something we worked and competed for is done, and we can relax and breathe for a while. Finally, we have the King of Wands reversed. So I feel like this is a time to stop fighting, stop struggling, stop trying, and to simply be. Perhaps our energy is better served this month not by trying to work our will in the outside world, but to go within and examine ourselves and what we have to offer to our future selves. I feel like this card is telling us to kind of rev ourselves up for action, but hold onto the energy we create until we have a clear path to charge down. Our special guidance card is Individuality. And this is a really great card for this situation. We have an opportunity to take stock of our gifts, the things we care about and are good at, to find solutions and new pathways. So don’t look at what other people are doing and try to follow in their footsteps, create your own footsteps and use your strengths to make your way. from Light: Winter By Inger Christensen Translated by Susanna Nied Winter is out for a lot this year the beach already is stiff all will be one will be one this year wings and ice will be one in the world all will be changed in the world: the boat will hear its steps on the ice the war will hear its war on the ice the woman will hear her hour on the ice the hour of birth in the ice of death winter is out for a lot. Out for the houses the cities out for the forests the clouds the mountains the valleys fear the heart the children peace. Winter is out for a lot this year the hand already is stiff the crying of children is heard in the house one will we be one life I hear my house slip with the world and scream all that has been screamed the heart rams its boat into ice shells rustling in the hull winter is out for as much. If I freeze fast in the ice if you freeze fast my child my great forest next summer my great fear as I come if you freeze fast my life: then I am a vulture of wings and ice tearing my liver, my living life awake in eternity. This winter is in for a lot. My personal tides: The card reading above is SO PERFECT for me right now. A major thing that I’ve been working on for the last 4 years has fallen through, and I’m a bit numb. I didn’t really count on it working out, but it would have solved so many problems if it had. So I’m having to regroup and look for other options as far as how to simply survive. We could easily falter and end up homeless right now, but I feel like there’s a path through all this. I just need to find it. I’m scared, but also extremely grateful right now for really basic things. I have an amazing marriage to someone I love and admire, I have top notch kitties, I have things to read, a computer (which is a tool to help me find my way through), and for the time being, we’re warm and safe and have food to eat. As for the future- we’ll do the best we can with what we have. I’m trying to see this as an opportunity to pare down to the essentials in life, and do some major life decluttering. It’s a much more positive take than being afraid of losing everything. My personal goals: It’s hard to set goals when you’re feeling so drained. But to be fair, this is a time of the year where I usually feel drained regardless. So my goals this month are pretty easy. I want to continue cleaning my house, separating what I really need from what I need to let go of. I want to continue with my daily spiritual practice, including my ‘Planner of Shadows’, meditation, prayer, and a daily card draw. I haven’t done as well as I’d hoped with this so far, but my energy is kind of hit-or-miss during the Winter months. I also want to spend some time studying Brigid. It seems to me that her flame is also a flame of purification, and I would like that very much in my life, plzthx. Read the full article

#Brigid #candles #February #imbolc #MagickalMonth #pagan #tarot #wicca #winter

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rockthecotswolds · 5 years

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Rocking Day in the Life of.... Ruth Davey

Photographer, Trainer, Facilitator, Coach, Project manager, Creative thinker, Collaborator, Founder of Look Again, Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and Mother.

So Ruth, in the age of the selfie and dare we say it - a little self absorption with social media - how can photography help with mindfulness?

Mindfulness helps people become more self-aware, feel calmer and less stressed and be kinder towards oneself. The most commonly used definition of mindfulness is by Jon Kabat Zinn who in 1994 wrote: “Mindfulness is paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally”. Mindful photography is a practice that brings together mindfulness and photography, that involves consciously creating photographs to help you:

Slow down

Improve your mindset, mental health and wellbeing

Change your perspective

Connect with yourself, with others, and with the world around you

Become more focused and creative

Increase motivation, resilience, creativity and productivity

How did you become a photographer?

My journey with photography started when my father gave me a camera, aged 11. At 21, while researching sustainable tourism in Kenya for my degree, my beloved analogue SLR camera was stolen at gunpoint by Somali bandits! It’s a tale involving malaria, no money, drunken policemen, crazy driving... but that’s a story for another time!

I spent 20 years’ working in international, community and business development in London, Africa and the South West, and it wasn’t until 2000, while travelling in Mali with a sculptor and a photographer, exploring the relationship between belief systems and the arts, that I realised I wanted to be a photographer – and it’s there my journey began.

I was made redundant from my job in Bristol in 2004, when my son was one and set up a freelance business offering training and project management to the creative industries. Needing more greenery and trees in my life I moved to Stroud in 2006. It was hard to get work here so I looked again at my life and knew I had to be more creative. I attended an ‘Artist’s Way’ course at Hawkwood College for 12 weeks and at the end of it called myself a photographer, and have been one ever since! I started to exhibit, take on commissions and ran a few workshops.

Tell us about Look Again - what was the reason behind starting it?

In 2012, I founded Look Again with the vision to use photography to improve the health and wellbeing of people and planet. I decided to put my past work experience to good use, and to build the next phase of my career collaborating with clients who share my vision for a greener, fairer and healthier world.

Then four years ago I had a breakdown (I now refer to this a my breakthrough!) and I used photography, mindfulness and walking in nature in my own recovery from mental health difficulties. Look Again now blends photography, mindfulness and nature in workshops, courses, training, and talks. I am a Fellow fo the Royal Society of the Arts, and am currently working with Canon on a European wide mindful photography PR campaign for Stress Awareness Week.

What’s a fairly typical morning and afternoon for you?

Every day is different and its hard to have a typical work routine. So I start my day going out into my garden to feel the fresh air on my skin and to stretch. In the summer I then do a 10-20 minutes mindfulness meditation in my shed. In the winter I do this in my bedroom, which looks out to the woods. This helps to ground me and help me stay calm and focused throughout the day. I usually deliver 2-3 workshops or training sessions a week. The rest of the time I spend time developing Look Again (I have a very big vision for it!), as well as trying to keep up with emails, admin and marketing. At least once a week I go on a mindful photography walk, to help keep me balanced and to keep developing my own practice.

What made you move to the Cotswolds and has it helped with work/life balance at all?

My son’s dad lives in Bristol and I wanted to be within an hours drive so that they could see each other easily. Stroud was perfect – I love the beautiful landscape of the Five Valleys, the creativity, quirkiness and aliveness of the town. I have developed beautiful friendships and business collaborations with many wonderful people around the Cotswolds. I have always been a real grafter and I am now ‘living my life’s work’. Living in the Cotswolds has enabled me simply ‘be’ in nature more easily and to live the life I want to live.

Where would you recommend to grab a bite to eat during lunch in and around Stroud?

I love going to Star Anise Arts Café in Stroud, as well as the Canteen in Nailsworth. I’ve recently discovered the beautiful Painswick Hotel and Restaurant, and go there for a treat. I hope to be running workshops in 2019.

Do you have any particular favourite places in the Cotswolds that inspire you?

I love Standish Woods near where I live. Every time I go there my experience is different. I find them inspiring and nurturing at the same time. I also love Rodborough, and Selsley commons on the edge of Stroud – the views of the valleys and over the Severn Vale across to the Forest of Dean and Wales are spectacular. I go there when I feel I need to look again at my life or work in some way – to gain a fresh perspective.

What’s been the most challenging and rewarding part of your job so far?

Keeping regular work coming around the year can be tricky. The winter can be very quiet and in some ways this is good as it gives me a breather to dream, plan and develop relationships with people I’d love to work with. Most of my work is very rewarding, but it’s particularly so when clients tell me how practicing mindful photography has made a big difference to increasing their confidence, self-esteem, mental health and how it’s helped them become more focused, creative and motivated. I love my job!

We see lots of people holding up squares with holes cut out in your sessions….how does that help with mindfulness?

In my workshops, we usually do some very basic mindfulness exercises that enable participants to become calmer and get into a different, more creative, mindset. We then use the small viewfinders to learn to see in a different way – to slow down, look, look again and see what is literally in front of us. We do this before getting the cameras out.

How do you vary the workshops that you run for different sectors such as business, charities, universities?

I have a basic model and structure that I use for all the sectors that I work with. As part of my preparation I will meet with the client and discuss their specific needs and interests and adapt the workshop accordingly. Some clients are more interested in the wellbeing and mental health side of things, and how their staff or clients can use mindful photography to reduce stress or anxiety. Other clients want me to focus on using photography to help them clarify their vision, represent it visually, and tell their story more authentically. I run taster sessions, half or full day workshops, 6-8 week courses, training days. They are all adapted to suit the client.

What three things would you say to encourage anyone looking take photos but without a clue where to start?

Slow down – give yourself time to look and really see – look at colours, textures, shapes and patterns. Look at the detail as well as the bigger picture.

Spend time creating photographs in nature and use the cycle of the seasons to help you express how you feel about your life. You may want to consider the themes of growth, change and transition.

Don’t get hung up by the technical side of photography. You can improve your technical photography skills by looking at videos, reading manuals, going on courses, and experimenting - that’s what I did!

How do you unwind after a busy day?

This is something I still struggle with at times! My work and the rest of my life are so connected that evenings are often spent reading, meeting people, and yes, responding to emails… I do however love gardening, even if only for 15 minutes or so. I go to regular fitness and NIA dance classes and watch too many films and drama series. I have been known to enjoy drinking the odd glass of wine (or two) …

For more about Ruth and her courses:

Contact details:

Ruth Davey

07789 958895

[email protected]

www.look-again.org

Facebook

www.facebook.com/lookagainphotography

www.facebook.com/groups/lookagaincommunity/

Instagram

www.instagram.com/lookagainphotos/

Twitter

twitter.com/LookAgainPhotos

www.linkedin.com/in/ruth-davey/

#mindfulness #photography #mental health

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years

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Episode 107: Mindful Education

“But it’s not, but it’s not, but it’s not, but it’s not, but it’s not.”

Here Comes a Thought is anything but a bad song. I can’t think of any songs I dislike from this show, but if I did, Here Comes a Thought wouldn’t be one of them. It’s a simple and moving ode to calming down, and Estelle and AJ Michalka elevate its message through their otherworldly voices.

But I do think it’s the most technically flawed song on Steven Universe. Which is a real bummer of a way to start this review, but I’m about to heap a ton of praise on this episode, and I don’t think the lyrical flaws ruin the song, let alone the overall story, so let’s just get my issues out of the way. If Mindful Education is about anything, it’s about confronting problems head-on!

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Here Comes a Thought is a general song about a general problem, which I appreciate. I don’t need it to be specific to Connie’s dilemma, and in fact I think specificity would hurt the message. But my biggest gripe is that even though it speaks in broad strokes, none of the scenarios listed apply to Connie. “What someone said, and how it harmed you”? Connie wasn’t hurt by words. “Something you did that failed to be charming”? Connie wasn’t attempting to be charming. “Things that you said are suddenly swarming”? Connie didn’t say anything. We’re all the way to the refrain, and Garnet has yet to address the actual situation Connie is dealing with.

The closest we’ve got is “failed to be charming,” which again, implies that Connie was trying to impress someone rather than just going about her business and hurting someone by instinct. The phrasing is clumsy in a way Rebecca Sugar’s songs virtually never are: what I love about her lyrics is how natural and effortless they seem, which I’m certain comes from quite a bit of effort on her part. The sentence structure of “Something you did that failed to be charming” feels strained and unnatural, but the words must be said in this order for the rhyme and meter to work.

Which is doubly frustrating because the alarm/harm/charm series ends with swarm, which does not rhyme with the former three words in any dialect of English I know of. I’m not even a stickler for rhymes: for instance, “alarm me” and “charming” technically don’t rhyme either, but they sound similar enough that the pattern holds. But swarm uses an entirely different vowel than most other English words ending in -arm. I majored in linguistics and can get into serious weeds here with the International Phonetic Alphabet, but to make a long ramble shorter, the ‘w’ preceding the vowel alters it, which is why wart doesn’t rhyme with art and war doesn’t rhyme with bar and warn doesn’t rhyme with yarn and so on.

(This obviously doesn’t make Sugar a bad songwriter, any more than William Blake was a bad poet because he rhymed eye with symmetry in The Tyger. Nobody’s perfect, but that doesn’t mean nobody’s incredible.)

Anyway, I might be fine with this imperfect rhyme it if it was absolutely essential for the song, but the structure is so forced already to fit with this poor fourth rhyme that it sorta falls apart for me, especially because swarming comes at the moment it becomes clear that this song has said nothing about the issue Connie is personally dealing with.

Ugh. I’m losing sight. I’m losing touch. All these little things seem to matter so much that they confuse me. This song might lose me!

So yeah, I’m not insane enough to think that Here Comes a Thought was engineered to irk me just so the beautiful refrain can be a self-demonstrating affair in not letting small things like rhyme schemes get to me, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t work. The song builds and builds and builds the stress by presenting bad situation after bad situation, and right when everything seems like it will fall apart, Garnet has the answer.

This is a highly quotable song and episode, so I had a lot of great lines to choose from for the header, but I don’t think anything matches the sheer relief that ironically comes from Garnet’s repeating a negative phrase. She usurps the power of “no” away from anxiety by chanting that no, nothing bad is going to happen. Her knowing smile on the last “but it’s not” seals the deal. She’s not just a teacher here, she’s a sage.

This is Estelle’s first full song on the show since Stronger Than You, and she pulls off subdued chill just as well as glorious anthem without losing an ounce of her commanding presence. But now she's fully matched by AJ Michalka, another professional singer that doubles as a voice actor. Unlike Estelle, I hadn’t listened to any of Michalka’s music before watching Steven Universe, so despite knowing she wa a singer, the sheer power of her pipes came out of nowhere for me.

I honestly don’t know what it is about Michalka’s voice, but I’m lousy at crying even when I really want to because it would make me feel better, and that voice doesn’t just choke me up. It makes me weep. The quavering vulnerability in “I’m losing touch” destroys me no matter how many times I listen to this song. Just writing about it makes me emotional. Michalka tells a story not just with her words, but the tone and levels of confidence of her voice, and the lesson is learned by harmonizing with the master herself. On the one hand, I’m glad her voice’s heartbreaking purity isn’t diluted by constant performances, but on the other, I’m not sure it’s possible for something so intense to be diluted. Add in the prominent harp, a fusion of the plucking from Steven’s ukulele and the gravitas from Connie’s violin, and I’m done for.

(My tendency to cry whenever Michalka sings might have to do with how well she’s primed on both occasions in the series: Estelle is a hell of a lead-in, while Escapism is introduced by a stirring callback to Greg’s guitar from Lion 3. But it’d be stupid not to credit the source, considering she’s the one that gets the waterworks going and she’s been spectacular at voicing Stevonnie from the start. It’s a damn shame Catra doesn’t get a song in She-Ra, but at least Michalka does a cover of the theme song.)

I haven’t even talked about the animation from Takafumi Hori, who gives a unique but familiar flair to the mindscape of Garnet and Stevonnie and their components. The facial animations and body language are given extra room to breathe, and the use of butterflies as symbols of fluttering stresses (butterflies in your brain are so much worse than butterflies in your stomach) pays off huge when we see them explode from Connie’s backpack. The unspoken story of Ruby focusing too hard on a single problem while Sapphire is overwhelmed by possibilities works wonders, and the fact that Connie’s problems are initially hidden hints at Steven also hiding problems, seeing as the kids are mirroring the Gems. Colin Howard and Jeff Liu would’ve been more than capable of crafting such a sequence, but bringing in a guest animator makes us pay special attention to this pivotal song.

Because yeah, this is an important song for Connie, but this is still Steven’s show, and it’s a huge song for Steven. In a brilliant development, it turns out his strangely normal behavior after the salvo of traumas at the end of Act II was intentionally strange, and Here Comes a Thought drags him kicking and screaming towards the true path to inner peace. You can’t, as he advises Connie right before Garnet steps in, “just try not to think about it.” The only way out is through, and it’s not gonna be easy.

Every fantastic aspect of Mindful Education benefits from fantastic pacing. Connie’s bad mood is established immediately, but so is Steven’s straining to be fun and upbeat. A series of questions pull us along: “What is Connie upset about?” becomes “How is Garnet going to help?” becomes “What is Steven upset about?” becomes “How is Connie going to help?” without missing a step. Both kids make us so worried, because Connie’s bad mood is out of nowhere, and Steven’s acceptance of his suffering is long overdue. Both sensations are heightened by the preceding episodes, as Steven has been acting way too okay with his mom being a killer, and we know Connie was enthusiastic about school in Buddy’s Book. So it’s such a relief to not only see their worries addressed, but to have an entire episode about addressing worries.

After three goofy episodes, Mindful Education transitions us into a more serious mood with a similarly goofy opening. Sure, Connie’s attitude is cause for concern, but we still get Garnet’s enthusiasm and sign-making skills, Stevonnie’s newfound ability to do a Yoshi-style flutter kick hover, and the most glorious fusion dance ever depicted on screen.

Here Comes a Thought is a showstopper about calm meditation, and while it obviously soothes Connie’s anxieties, it also quiets down the silliness without making a big deal of it: there isn’t a single gag in the episode during or after the song. This is a show that can and has pulled off humor during dramatic moments, but we go full sincerity mode for Connie and Steven working through their emotional turmoil, and considering how big of a turning point this is for Steven’s arc in particular, I appreciate the restraint.

It’s perfect for Steven to only realize he has a problem when Connie is so open about hers, because Connie has always been a catalyst for change, and Steven is more concerned about others than himself. It also serves for a checkpoint for their mutual character growth: we’re a long way from the open-to-a-fault Steven and pragmatic-to-a-fault Connie of Bubble Buddies, and their series-long balancing act continues to bring their attitudes closer together. This isn’t the last we’ll see of Sullen Connie, and it’s nice to see that Steven isn’t the only kid on the block who’s becoming more of a teen.

Another sign of their growth is shown in the fluid action of Stevonnie’s training; even when they’re not on the top of their game, Steven and Connie’s developing physical skill is on full display as their fusion weaves about the battlefield. Stevonnie’s ambidexterity functions well as a signifier of which kid is in a healthier state: Steven’s shield is in their right hand in the first training session, while Connie’s sword takes its place in the second.

(Oh, and on the subject of subtle visual storytelling, don’t think we didn’t notice the damaged pink diamond floating above the Sky Arena.)

The first two acts of Mindful Education tell such a complete story about Connie that the appearance of a butterfly for Steven almost comes across as a twist: again, his terrible advice about bottling up emotions upon accidentally hurting people is a pretty big hint that he’s pushing down his feelings, but this is such a satisfactory episode already that its conclusion feels like a bonus.

It’s harrowing for Steven to start working through how much horrible stuff has happened in such a short amount of time, but it’s oh so satisfying for us to finally see him process it. The transformation of Holo Pearl into Jeff (who I’m sure is named for Mr. Liu) was a neat way to show Connie’s guilt, but it’s complemented by a punch to the gut as Stevonnie impales an image of Bismuth instead of just getting thrown off by the illusion. And because Steven has let his problems pile up, the rest of his ghosts flood in. I love the inclusion of Eyeball, the foe that Steven logically should feel the least amount of guilt about (Bismuth was a friend, and Jasper refused help while blaming him, but Eyeball was an enemy actively trying to kill him). It shows that he really does care about everyone, and that the compounding problems only make the guilt worse: Bismuth and Jasper begin in their normal sizes, but Eyeball is massive in Stevonnie’s imagination. And then, as a horrible distortion of her theme heralds her arrival, we get the most important ghost in the series.

Obviously Steven isn’t able to deal with the Rose factor right now, but acknowledging that there’s a problem is the first and hardest step. And despite how talented Aivi and Surasshu are at enhancing the mood with music, there’s nothing like the stark silence that follows Rose’s theme to bring the impact home.

AJ Michalka once again shows off her talent for voicing Steven and Connie separately as Stevonnie has an internal conversation; it’s such a seamless interaction that it’s easy to forget that this scene shifts from one actor voicing these two characters to two different actors voicing the same two characters as Steven and Connie plummet to the ground. I mentioned in The Answer that my favorite Miyazaki movie is Castle in the Sky, so I’m thrilled to see another reference to two heroes falling hand in hand before slowing to a safe landing.

Our conclusion isn’t about Steven coming to terms with three failures in a row and a life-changing revelation. It’s about him realizing that it’s okay to admit that everything isn’t okay, and that he doesn’t have to put on a bald cap and be a ham to make everyone else more comfortable. This is something that friends can help with, but that he ultimately has to figure out for himself. Still, it’s beautiful that by working together, he and his best friend become strong in the real way.

But of course, they had help. I mentioned in Back to the Moon that our Big Three Crystal Gems each get an episode that acts as an epilogue to their Act II arcs, and it’s Garnet’s turn. Garnet begins Act II as a leader who’s quiet about being a fusion and who has a hard time understanding the anxieties of her less confident teammates. By the end, she transforms into a leader who’s more open and willing to share her own vulnerabilities, and a loud and proud fusion no matter whom she’s interacting with. Mindful Education leans in hard on her expertise in fusion, but just as importantly shows that she’s willing to coach others by revealing how Ruby and Sapphire work through struggles. Her growth is less overt than Amethyst and Pearl overcoming more obvious hurdles, but it’s still hard to imagine Garnet being this capable of helping Connie and Steven fifty episodes ago.

Garnet is also the source of two intriguing callbacks in the form of quoting past lines. The first is the wonderful “Hold the phone. Now give the phone to me,” which Steven tells Greg in The Message as a means of interrupting his song about Lapis Lazuli being a super mean riptide queen (sidenote: I’m sure Lapis would be flattered by Greg’s assessment). Garnet repeats this phrase right after Steven suggests that you can get used to not thinking about your guilt, and it’s a brilliant way of gently putting a stop to this bad idea.

The second is a pointed “that is to say” as she explains the importance of harmony within fusion. This is a common enough phrase, but it was so prominent in fellow sparring episode Sworn to the Sword that I can’t imagine it’s a coincidence. It connects Garnet to Pearl’s role as a teacher to both Steven and Connie; fortunately, this time the teacher is instilling a message of self-reflection instead of self-sacrifice.

I call these callbacks intriguing because Garnet herself wasn’t present for either scene containing the lines she’s quoting. And sure, this could just be standard screenplay magic without an in-universe explanation. But to me, it enhances the sense of Garnet as an all-knowing mentor, at least as far as this episode is concerned. Her wisdom is absolute, and it might be pretentious for a show to claim such certainty with its message, but Mindful Education has an outstanding message, so I’m all in.

But back to that ending for a second. It, like Here Comes a Thought, provides a calming answer to a scene of turmoil. It’s obviously a quicker moment of relief: just a glimpse of Stevonnie laughing, catching their breath, and reassuring Steven and Connie. However, like Here Comes a Thought, the episode keeps going. This time, in the form of the end credits.

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Since Bubbled, we’ve heard nothing but ambient waves as the credits roll, bereft of the comfort Love Like You has provided after nearly every prior episode. But now we begin the reprise, and this first segment is such an eerie departure from the norm that serenity once again takes a backseat.

With time, it’s revealed that this song is just more Love Like You. But in this period of uncertainty in Steven’s life, I deeply admire the decision to keep us lost in the woods for a while before figuring out that it’s something we’ve known all along. Just a thought.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Remember my gripes with Here Comes a Thought, way up there at the beginning of the review? Yeah, they don’t keep this out of my top ten.

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

When It Rains

Catch and Release

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

No Thanks!

5. Horror Club 4. Fusion Cuisine 3. House Guest 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#mindful education #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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pineapplekeith · 6 years

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House Cat - Pt. 8

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Pairing: Klance

Universe: Modern Earth/Fantasy

Rating: T (language/sensitive material)

Word Count: 3K+

Part: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ]

Summary: Werecats are hard to find outside of lab facilities now-a-days and Lance has had a suspicion that a small stray that comes by his house now and then is one when he noticed a new face around town around the same time. / Modern AU setting with werecats for fun and seriousness now and then. Klance heavy with Garrison Trio and maybe some more ships making an appearance later on.

A/N: So far, this has been well liked on AO3 and FF so I decided to post the full parts on here. Links to AO3 and FF are on my story blog @kal-i-ka-stories

“Don’t argue! We are having a movie marathon whether you like it or not!” Lance argued back, very determined with his mission. “I would be a bad friend if I let tonight end with you not seeing at least Jaws!”

“Are you insane? It’s the middle of the night! I’m not going to your place this late.” Keith argued back, pointing out how crazy the plan was.

“Yes, you are! Now come on!” Lance demanded again, refusing to back down on the plan.

..::::..::::..::::..

The night was still and the only thing that brought a bit of life to the streets were the lamps that dotted the roads and walkways. Lance’s home street was dim with very little lights coming from the homes with a few still having their porch lights on or a window would dot every other building. Lance’s home was completely dark like most of his neighbors. The toys that his twin siblings would usually leave in the yard became invisible in the front gate’s shadow and turned the whole yard into a big mine field of unknowns. The front porch light was turned off, which made sense since everyone that lived there was accounted for when Lance’s parents last checked, but the inconvenience made unlocking the front door a tedious job.

Right as Lance was able to get his house key into the door, a loud ‘moo’ sound called out from behind him and echoed through the street. He snapped his head around and looked behind him and at the stray he brought home. “Will you be quiet?”

Keith looked up at Lance, his stance stiff and defensive after the shock of hearing the toy he stepped on make a noise. “It’s not my fault you never clean your yard!” Keith snapped in a hushed tone. “Why are we going this way anyway? Can’t we just use your window?”

“Because one: the window only unlocks on the inside, and two: thanks to complaints about the cat colony in the ally, they cleared the trash and boxes back there so there’s no way we could climb through without one of us going through the front anyway.” Lance explained, getting irritated with Keith’s complaining. “Now be quiet. If we wake up my parents we’re both dead.”

“Can’t I just go home? I didn’t want to come here in the first place!”

“Then why are you here?” Lance asked with a smirk as he slowly started to open the front door.

“Because you wouldn’t let go of my arm and literally dragged me here!”

Lance quickly shushed Keith once the door was opened enough to walk through. “Come on,” said as he started to walk inside. “Oh, but grab Kaltenecker first and bring it with you.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “Grab what?”

“Kaltenecker. The toy cow you stepped on. It’s Lilly-Bean’s favorite and she’ll get really upset if she sees that she left it outside in the morning.”

Keith rolled his eyes at Lance’s explanation and quickly snatched the plush cow up from the ground, making it ‘moo’ loudly again.

Lance harshly hushed Keith. “Don’t squeeze it,” he snapped.

“This is stupid,” Keith snapped. “I want to go home!”

“Well, you can’t. Now come on.” Lance then walked down the steps and grabbed Keith’s arm and pulled him in the house.

Once inside, Keith was taken aback at how Lance’s home looked. He had only seen the inside of Lance’s room, but never ventured out when visiting. Just staring into the cozy and inviting living room made Keith’s apartment look cold and empty. The room was about the same size of his apartment, but it was like a completely different would with all the family photos on the walls and lived-in nature of the room. The vast differences Keith continued to spot made him more and more uncomfortable with his surroundings that he unconsciously backed himself in a corner near the door.

“My mom’s a big movie person,” Lance explained quietly as he walked over to his family’s entertainment center to look through his mother’s massive collection. “It started out as my dad just getting her all the movies they saw together on their dates, but now she has such a big collection that we rarely watch actual television. We even have duplicates of some of the movies on VHS and DVD so we can keep watching them.” Lance dug through the layers of movies till he finally found what he was looking for. “Here it is,” he cheered as he held up the shark themed thriller from the 1970’s. “Now just to decide whether if I should grab the sequels or something else.”

Keith wasn’t paying attention to what Lance was rambling on about. He kept scanning the foreign looking room, getting more and more defensive as the surrounding continued to overstimulate him. He soon focused on a family portrait that was hanging near him in the foyer. It was a massive family photo of Lance with his entire family. It was hard to tell who was who in the photo with there being so many people. The only people Keith could recognize in the photo besides Lance were his younger siblings because in the photo there were two toddlers in matching outfits. From what he could remember from Lance’s talks, the twins were the youngest in the massive family and they were a bit older now than what they are in the photo. A family photo seemed foreign to Keith. The only kind of photos that were taken of him growing up were ones taken at the lab for his records to document his examinations and growth. He’s never seen a picture with so many smiling faces before and found it a bit uncomforting.

“Hey Keith, you ok?” Lance asked, snapping Keith out of his discomfort.

Keith looked over at Lance and then down at the stack of movies in his hands. “I thought you were only going to make me watch one?”

Lance smiled. “No way man! This is going to be a marathon remember?” He then took the stuff cow out from Keith’s hand and walked over to put it on the couch. “Come on.” Lance walked back and grabbed Keith’s arm and dragged him back to his room.

Lance’s room hadn’t changed much since the last time Keith was in there. His bed was unmade like usual, his desk was disheveled, and there were some clothes on the floor. Once inside, Lance went to work to set up the movie night. He dug out his laptop from his bookbag and tried to cleanup some areas of his room. Keith stayed by the door, not really knowing what to do since this was the first time he was in Lance’s room as a human. He felt more comfortable with being there when he was a cat because he could do what he wanted, but now that he’s there in his human form, his actions are a bit more restricted.

“You want to sit on the bed or the floor?” Lance asked once he was done waking up his computer.

“What?”

“Do you want to sit on the floor and watch the movie, or sit on the bed?” Lance asked again, trying to figure out whether he should put his laptop on the floor or leave it on his desk.

“With what happened last time, I think the floor is the better option.” Keith answered, still staying next to the door.

Lance looked at him confused but then quickly realized what he meant. “Oh! Yeah, right,” he agreed with a slight blush of embarrassment on his face when he remember the last time Keith was in his room. Lance then put his laptop on the floor, giving enough space for the two of them sit down in front of it and watch the movie. He then took the pillows and comforter off his bed and put them on the floor along with an extra blanket he grabbed from his closet. “We’ll start with Jaws like I promised. I grabbed the sequels too in case you wanted to see more but I also grabbed some of my favorite movies if thrillers turn out to not be your thing. My mom has all kinds of genres so if you end not liking anything we can always grab more.”

“Can’t I just watch the one and leave?” Keith asked, not wanting to spend a whole night questioning something he knew nothing about.

“No way! This is your first movie marathon! We’re going all out and finding your kink!”

“My what?”

“Your kink. You know, something you’re interested in? We’re going to find yours for the kind of movies you’ll like. Everyone has one so you should too.” Lance explained as he finished setting everything up. He then sat down in front of his laptop and inserted the DVD into the drive. “Now turn off the lights and come sit down.”

Keith rolled his eyes, but willingly complied. After turning the lights off, he walked over and sat next to Lance, keeping the same amount of distance from him as he did when they were sitting on the shore. He looked at the computer screen and wasn’t really impressed with the short clips of the movie that the menu was playing.

This is going to be a long night. Keith thought to himself.

..::::..::::..::::..

“Yeah you heard him! Slow ahead,” Brody yelled at Hooper before he started to throw chum over the edge of the boat. “Slow ahead,” he mumbled to himself out of frustration, “I can go slow ahead! C’mon down and chum some of this shit!”

Behind him, the water started to swell and breaking the surface for a moment a massive great white shark chomped at the bloody chum in the water.

Catching the giant monster’s final moments, Brody jumped up and stared at the water before he slowly started to walk backwards toward the boat’s cabin. Still reeling from what he saw, he slowed himself once he reached the cabin and scanned the rest of the water through the windows. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” he muttered out to Quint.

“This scared you?” Keith asked as the action picked up in the movie, not really understanding how an obviously fake shark would be scary.

“Well, obviously not now, but when you’re seven and have assholes for brothers this is scary! I couldn’t go to a beach for like a year because of that thing.” Lance admitted as he continued to watch the movie.

The two teens have relaxed a bit more throughout the movie. Lance had wrapped himself up with his comforter while Keith leaned back against one of the pillows and had taken off his red jacket.

“But how are you not scared or freaking out right now? I thought this was your first movie?!” Lance asked, completely disappointed with Keith’s next-to-nothing reactions to the film.

Keith shrugged his shoulders. “I may have never seen a movie before, but that doesn’t compare to what I’ve already experienced. I may have been isolated growing up, but I didn’t live under a rock.”

Lance pouted, growing frustrated with how nothing he does phases Keith.

“But this is pretty interesting,” Keith admitted after a moment of silence to watch to movie more. “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to go on one of the fishing boats now and then. Working in a shop where most of the customers are old salts, I hear a lot of interesting stories of when they would go out on the water and work.”

“So you’ve never been on a boat before? No offense, but I would’ve thought you hated water.” Lance said, a bit surprised by Keith’s curiosity with the ocean.

“No, why would I?”

“Because of that whole cats hate water thing,” Lance explained. “I think it’s because it messes with their whiskers or something? But anyway, you’re part cat, so shouldn’t you hate water or something because of that?”

Keith looked at Lance for a bit, completely confused on where his logic came from. “Just because I’m a werecat doesn’t mean I am a cat.” Keith was growing a bit frustrated with Lance’s assumptions. Lance was the first person that would ask him questions about how he lived the way he did. Keith had always lived with people who were the same as him or understood what he was for most of his life. After breaking out of the lab, he was left alone and felt sort of free with being able to forget that part of his life. But Lance ruined that for him now and then with his questioning. He knew that the questions came from a good place, but it was a bit much for him sometimes. Even when some of Lance’s questions made it seem like he still thought of him as a cat and not as a person.

Lance could sense Keith’s slight irritation in his response. “Sorry.” He then turned to continue to watch the movie, sinking a bit in his blanket. Lance always had a bad habit of asking too many questions when he gets excited about something – and learning more about Keith was something he was excited about. He had never met a werecat in person before. Lance had only heard about them in school and wondered if animals he saw in zoos were ones in hiding. But now he’s in a position where he’s sitting in his room and watching an old movie with a real werecat. Questions kept bouncing in his head since he found out about Keith’s secret, but he learned very quickly that talking about himself was something that he didn’t like doing. When Keith finally opened up when they were on the beach, Lance thought he had finally broken down his wall and was able to learn more. But now, he seemed to have taken a huge step backwards.

Lance sat silently, letting the movie continue through different scenes as he thought about what to say. “You know, my Pops knows someone with a boat and I know how to work it,” Lance started, breaking the silence between them. After thinking about their past conversations, he realized that Keith liked being treated as a normal person. He probably would never admit it, but it seemed to relax him to a point that he would talk to Lance, whether he was arguing with him or just having a small conversation. In the end, it seemed to make him as comfortable as he would let himself be.

Keith looked over at Lance confused. He was becoming more interested in the movie as it played out and forgot what exactly they talked about last.

Lance looked over and saw his confusion. “You said you would like to go out on the water sometime. If you want, I can ask him if we can borrow it for a day next week or whenever and go out on the water. My friends can join us too, if you’re ok with that. If not, it can just be the two of us.”

Keith looked at Lance for a bit, remembering what he said earlier about being envious of the customers from the shop. “I’ll think about it,” he said as he turned back to watch the movie.

Lance turned back to the movie as well. That wasn’t a no. He thought to himself, feeling a bit happier than how he felt before.

A/N: Want to keep reading? Jump over to my [ AO3 ] or [ FF ] page and continue the fun with 3 more chapters!

#house cat fic #klance fic #kieth kogane #lance mcclain #voltron legendary defender #voltron #vld #my story #mine

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recentanimenews · 7 years

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The Wonderful World of Fantasy: Uncovering "The Ancient Magus Bride and Diana Wynne Jones (Part 1)

As a child, one of my favorite things to do was to immerse myself in fantasy novels. J.R.R Tolkien, Eoin Colfer, Tamora Pierce, J.K Rowling – name any big author, and I was likely to be found somewhere in the corner of the library, eyes glued to one of their stories.

Of the diverse authors that filled my world, one in particular stood out: Diana Wynne Jones. Her stories were simultaneously wondrous and horrifying. She was like a combination of Madeleine L'Engle and T.A Barron, creating fascinating characters in an immersive and yet alien setting. There was something in her writing that kept me coming back, but I never really understood what it was until much later.

It was only when I first picked up The Ancient Magus’ Bride manga two years ago that I would be pulled back into Jones’ worlds. Although I hadn’t realized it as a child, upon reading Magus Bride I finally understood what drew me to fantasy. Specifically, Jones' fantasies, but also by extension, the fascinating and immersive fantasy of the The Ancient Magus’ Bride.

Constructing a World of Fantasy

“Fantasy can deal with death, malice, and violence in the same way the children in the wood are doing. You make it clear that it is make-believe. And in showing it applies to nobody, you show that it applies to everyone. It is the way all fairy tales work.” — Diana Wynne Jones, The Children in the Wood

The first shot of The Ancient Magus’ Bride anime takes place in an intermediate setting. It’s a place we can recognize and see, but the context is peculiar; the main character, Chise Hatori, is selling herself to an auction. The show doesn’t hesitate in showing us that this isn’t any normal kind of auction; it’s one for all things mythological and fantastical. In sweeping us off our feet from the very beginning, the original creator, Kore Yamazaki, allows us to easily become accustomed to the world she wants to create – a world where the magical and real intersect so commonly that nearly every character accepts it.

This isn’t to say that Chise is completely in tune with the magical elements. On the contrary, she’s forced into this position by her circumstances and loneliness. This is what gives rise to a curious thing both Yamazaki and Jones do in their works: creating a striking contrast between two main characters. One is usually unaware of or new to the magical world, while the other is right at home with it. Both must learn from the other through their interactions and come to terms with the faults they have. This can especially be seen in Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle, where Sophie is the gateway for the audience (and herself) to learn more about the world Howl lives in, whereas Howl easily performs magic and understands and accepts the bizarre around him. Similarly, Chise, who has been running away from the ‘queen bee’ power that she holds, must form a thorny relationship with Elias, who has little understanding of humanity and empathy. The tension between their respective experiences of magic thus becomes a lens through which we understand both of their worlds.

A critical technique in establishing an immersive fantasy is creating landscapes and atmosphere. Jones accomplished this through prose, but in the Magus’ Bride anime, Yamazaki and director Norihiro Naganuma accomplish it through character designs, setting, and sound. In the show, magic, just like in Jones’ worlds, springs up from the ordinary. It grows between the cracks of the pavement, in the fields of a dying species, and in the quiet and alluring night sky that sprinkles light between the gaps of trees. The wondrous is in the mundane, which not only serves as a way to easily immerse the audience, but to also instill an atmosphere of wonder and calm.

Of course, if fantasy worlds were this simple to create, they wouldn’t be so fascinating! Both Jones and Yamazaki go out of their way to construct even more realistic elements within their magical settings, including political hierarchies and societal ideals. In Howl’s Moving Castle, the setting is alive. There’s the royal city of Kingsbury, the poor Portshaven, and town-filled Market Chipping. Each place has a particular connection with the other, and it’s that power that makes Howl’s world rich and filled with life. Likewise, in Yamazaki’s Ancient Magus’ Bride, it’s clear from the get-go that there’s some kind of order in the world Chise and Elias inhabit. Magi, alchemists, dragons, familiars, faeries; each circle has their own agenda and way of interacting with the magical world. Learning the nuances of how these circles all work with one another while following the rules of nature and balance is a large component of what makes The Ancient Magus’ Bride’s setting so compelling.

This brings us to the root of the magical world of The Ancient Magus’ Bride: nature. Magic dwells in man-made components, but it all seems to stem from the natural world. In this realm, time and mortality are rarely dwelled upon; the ebb and flow of life and death are all controlled by natural elements. The show’s third episode explores this in detail, when Chise’s journey with the dragons shows her that they view death and life in the great stream of time as a perfectly acceptable fate. To the dragons – and to an extent, other magical creatures – nature is everywhere, from the sky we look at, to the air we breathe, to the grass we walk on underneath our feet. Nature cares not for the small details of life; on the contrary, we live in its realm, and draw from its familiarity as much as its unfamiliarity. Making nature the greatest stage of the magical world is what makes The Ancient Magus’ Bride so immersive and fantastical.

Magic and Adolescence

This brings us to the blood that flows through The Ancient Magus’ Bride’s veins: magic. In fantasy stories, magic is not merely a common genre element, but can be used to explore themes in more dramatic and imaginative ways. Jones was known for using magic as an extension for adolescence, often associating it with growing into maturity. The more a character could handle their own magical abilities, the more in-tune and connected they became with their surroundings and, most importantly, their own feelings and beliefs. This was often embodied in her stories like Howl's Moving Castle, The Homeward Bounders, and Dogsbody. In these works, a character often starts out like a clean slate, unaware of the world around them. But as they journey through different worlds and mature, their control over their magical abilities grows. Likewise, The Ancient Magus’ Bride is about Chise’s growth from her emotionally stunted state to one that is far more confident and self aware as she experiments and learns magic from her teacher, Elias.

While most adventure series with magical settings are declarative – a means to an end, such as becoming Hokage, or defeating the greatest Villain with a Quirk – Magus’ Bride is far more explorative and meditative. Rather than have its characters draw upon the magic around them to exemplify their strengths, Yamazaki inverses this process. While all of the characters of Magus' Bride are all connected by magical elements, it does not define their personal quests. Instead, it is a symbolic extension of who they are as well as a constant force they must learn to deal while balancing their own humanity.

Jones was especially fascinated with personal growth through constant moral choices in a magical world. Likewise, in the first episode of The Ancient Magus Bride, Chise leaves Elias’ house to follow a deceptive fairy; it’s only when she's presented with the choice of joining their kin and leaving the mortal world that she must realize that she has made attachments and must stay for the sake of Elias and herself. Both Yamazaki and Jones frame these important moments in a way where the choices themselves are not important, but the process of choosing the most just or kind one over the alluring darkness is. Every choice comes with a certain degree of responsibility and consequence, as magic cares naught for either side, but simply is. Chise could pursue an ideal world of perfectionism; instead, she must return to one of confusion and flaws. This isn't framed as a 'good' or 'bad' decision, but as a choice that develops Chise into a slightly more confident and stable person. Yamazaki then ties this temporary resolution to later choices and dilemmas throughout the plot, which ties back to the continuous stream that is adolescence – faltering, making choices, and bearing the weight of those choices.

Jones and Yamazaki don't restrict magic only to coming of age stories. Their works also create magical settings that also extend into adulthood. Not only do their magical stories feature adult characters, but they also feature adult themes. Sexuality, violence, power – all of these are woven into the realms that Chise and Jones' characters must enter and endure. Chise, a young girl, cannot understand dragons or faeries, because they are much older than her, wiser than her, and embrace humanistic traits in an otherworldly way. They perceive wisdom, greed, lust, and sensuality with a completely different mindset. Chise, naive and innocent (but not pure!) cannot understand this. This can also be seen in The Homeward Bounders, where the demons Helen and Jaimie encounter are grotesque entities so self consumed with their own form of enjoyment that they punish anyone who intrudes. Helen and Jaimie can't fathom the structure of these demons' universe, but can only bear the consequence of becoming Bounders, forced to travel from universe to universe until they find their home.

It’s important to note that Jones and Yamazaki are not concerned with using magic as a means to deprive characters of agency. Whereas many main protagonists in fantasy stories are marked by a prophecy or self-fulfilling quest, most of Jones’ characters and Chise are not weighed down by the burden of expectations. This does not mean that they don’t have responsibilities, but that they have to make active choices on a much more personal scale. It also doesn’t mean that these characters start off as self-realized individuals. On the contrary, they’re often used as pawns in the complex political world of the magical, betrayed by their own naivety and innocence. In Magus’ Bride, Chise is often led into quests she cannot help but be drawn to, simply because of her kindness and empathy, much in the same way Sophie Hatter from Howl’s Moving Castle is tied up in a Witch’s curse due to her simple nature. The Ancient Magus’ Bride tackles this topic especially well with making someone like Chise the main protagonist.

Next time: In Part 2, we’ll be looking at how Jones and Yamazaki create their female protagonists and the importance of their works as low fantasies!

---

When not finding ways to doom all her ships, Natasha can often be found on her twitter as @illegenes, or writing more about anime on the blog Isn’t It Electrifying! Feel free to swing by and say hi.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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nofomoartworld · 7 years

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Hyperallergic: Envisioning Democratic Design at a French Biennial

Akoaki’s Mothership at the 2017 Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)

SAINT-ÉTIENNE, France — It would likely dismay students of design to learn that, to those not trained to think about the field, it is largely invisible. No object is accidental, no system has fallen arbitrarily into place, yet most of us go about our lives without acknowledging the purpose-built nature of our society. Humans have existed for millennia within constructed environments, all of which are the product of directed thought and effort. This is, perhaps, a heartbreakingly meager revelation to take away from the 2017 Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne — the show’s 10th edition — but it proved to be a major personal step in understanding the context of the work on display and the ideas being discussed.

The theme of this year’s biennial is “Working Promesse — Shifting Work Paradigms,” and as the newest UNESCO City of Design, plus a place with a turbulent labor history, Detroit is a featured guest. It shares with its host the challenge of redefining itself as industrial manufacturing wanes; Saint-Étienne was once a major mining and manufacturing hub of northern France. The future of work is of great concern to designers, tasked as they are with creating the systems that abet and define labor — from the objects moving down the assembly line to the payroll that tracks working hours, and from the ergonomic furniture in an office cubicle to the flak jacket that protects its wearer from gunfire, all the way up to the internal revenue systems that put a percentage of one’s compensation back into the regulatory governing body. All by design.

The main biennial exhibition, Working Promesse: Les Mutations du Travail (Shifting Work Paradigms)

If I sound a little overwhelmed, that’s because it’s frankly terrifying to suddenly realize one is surrounded by objects full of intention. This is an idea I should be comfortable with, as a writer who devotes a great deal of time to unpacking the ambitions of artworks, and as someone with a fairly granular understanding that the world is not made of whole cloth. But something about the biennial — which includes not just an exhibition, but a full program of panel discussions and coffeehouse networking — highlighted for me, as never before, that we are surrounded by designs created to encourage some behaviors and obstruct others. Thought leaders from Saint-Étienne’s Higher School of Art and Design, the University of Michigan’s Stamps School of Architecture, and various local governments, as well as UNESCO commissioners from Cities of Design like Graz, Austria; Dundee, Scotland; and Kobe, Japan, all gathered to share and coordinate strategies for leveraging design in the future of their schools and towns. The decisions made here could influence my work and that of subsequent generations. Taken in that light, even several hundred people in attendance (and the thousands who will visit the biennial over the course of the month) seems like a small turnout.

Installation view of EXTRAVAILLANCES ≠ WORKING DEAD, a collaboration between science fiction writers Alain Damasio and Norbert Merjagnan, and set designer Didier Fiuza Faustino.

So, what of this future? Within the European contingent, there is a collective preoccupation with “bullshit jobs” — the subject of a 2013 article by David Graeber which rightly identifies that the working lives of many people in the modern era are consumed by essentially purposeless tasks, fundamentally designed (never forget, they are designed!) to eat up time in exchange for a paycheck. As an example, have you ever noticed how the staff meeting often takes one hour, whether the topic at hand can be resolved in five minutes or is bound to take two weeks? This subject, among others, is tackled in the student show La gueule de l’emploi, a French expression meaning “the face for the job,” which presents a group of works dealing with the conflation of occupation and identity. Here, job-seeking strategies are broken down in minute and comedic detail, from the semiotics of the cover letter to presenting the right handshake to a device that allows users to generate their ideal employee by setting variables. The end product is, inevitably, a monster.

The ideal candidate generator, part of La gueule de l’emploi

The subject of bullshit jobs crops up again in an adjacent exhibition, L’Architecture du travail (The Architecture of Work), which purposefully addresses a common shortcoming among architects: the tendency to think about construction and execution, rather than systems and maintenance. On one side of a long, narrow room are eight research projects, their individual findings incorporated into a chalkboard wall of macrocosmic design philosophizing that would put A Beautiful Mind to shame. Facing this is a microcosmic project: “Maintenance as Architecture,” a multiyear work in progress by Belgian graduate students Koen Berghmans and R. Robles Hidalgo that meticulously chronicles Saint-Étienne’s ongoing maintenance program. As someone with a background that includes manual labor, I find it patently ironic that these students have made intellectual work of it. It was just one of several moments throughout the biennial when I was made to wonder if students are perhaps too cerebral to be entrusted with designing a functional future.

Curator Manuel Bello Marcano frames the research projects on display, quoting Fredic Jameson: “It is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.”

But this is where the Detroit contingent comes through. As the featured city, it has three separate exhibition spaces at the biennial, as well as a spate of participatory programming. Altogether, Detroit sent some 70 envoys from many walks of life — including this writer — to represent the city and contribute to the dialogue. The invitation came through Akoaki, a husband-and-wife design team made up of longtime Detroit transplants Anya Sirota and Jean-Louis Farges. Sirota, who came to the US as a refugee from Ukraine, and Farges, a native of Paris, have brought contemporary design training and an international perspective to their work in the Motor City. But what they do has always been based entirely on the lived realities of native Detroiters.

Jean-Louis Farges (left) and Anya Sirota of Akoaki taking a rare moment in the spotlight and meeting the international press

Out of Site courtyard on the opening night of the biennale

The pair’s designated space in the biennial is titled Out of Site and features three of their most iconic interventions in Detroit: the Mothership, which serves as a DJ booth and psychic transport for the members of the O.N.E. Mile project; a series of collapsible set pieces often used as the backdrop for performances by Detroit Afrikan Music Institution; and a modular decorative gateway that can be affixed to the façade of any building where the Detroit Culture Council gathers. Akoaki calls these pieces “urban markers” — and they have indeed become some of Detroit’s most iconic design interventions, often cropping up in repurposed spaces around the city’s Oakland Avenue/North End corridor, where much of the duo’s activity is centered. Importantly, all three works honor and identify the efforts of existing residents to shape their own communities in the face of gentrification. But Sirota and Farges seem to fall into the invisibility trap, too — in their efforts to centralize Detroiters, they tend to divert attention away from their own far-reaching efforts to leverage design in a democratic way.

The gate used by the Detroit Cultural Council that can be affixed to any building to indicate the presence of a cultural meeting. Akoaki focuses on solutions that do not require new construction, but leverage the existing wealth of space in Detroit.

Another quiet powerhouse of Detroit creative infrastructure is Cezanne Charles, founder of Creative Many Michigan. The organization is dedicated to filling the often insurmountable gap between individual practitioners and large institutions, offering services that tackle one of design’s enduring obsessions: how to grow to scale. Charles has helped a stable of small projects achieve greater capacity — including some of those representing Detroit in Saint-Étienne, such as Design99 — largely by offering legal assistance, guidance on nonprofit filings, and help with other tedious, back-of-house details that may not be the strength of creative folks. It’s fitting, then, that Creative Many’s spot at the biennial is ShiftSpace — basically, a coffee shop. It’s exactly Charles’s style to create a place that encourages connections — she’s programmed a full slate of conversations between architects, educators, philosophers, and artists — and to stock it with Detroit originals, including Faygo pop and recipes from Sister Pie. In her unassuming way, Charles is demonstrating her theory of growth in action: her wildly popular exhibition space has created 17 temporary jobs for designers, baristas, and service providers, and actively generated income in the first week of the festival.

Cezanne Charles (right) meets the press in the midst of a busy day at the ShiftSpace Detroit Cafe.

Despite these familiar and approachable projects, it was difficult for me to shake the unsettling realization that design is a major determinant of societal practice. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the early days of the biennial were crawling with city officials, ministers of culture, and even Maurice Cox, planning director of Detroit’s Planning and Development Department. Their presence reminded me that places like Saint-Étienne, Detroit, and other UNESCO designees are eager to use design as a driver for development — a broad concept that’s almost always measured in terms of economic growth rather than, say, social justice or greater class equity. If we are to see real change, to make a real departure from the systems that gentrify neighborhoods and generate a bullshit workforce, we need to go as far as Akoaki, and then a little farther yet. Being a democratic designer does not mean the creation of smooth objects that adorn tastefully minimal environments straight out of Dwell magazine. It means recognizing ourselves, each and every one of us, as either complicit in the designs of others or as potential designers of our own lives. The 2017 Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne is a very good place to begin to understand the possibilities of that empowerment.

The 2017 Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne continues at Site Manufacture-Cité du design (3 Rue Javelin Pagnon, Saint-Etienne, France) through April 9.

Editor’s note: The author’s travel expenses and lodgings were covered by a grant written by Creative Many Michigan.

The post Envisioning Democratic Design at a French Biennial appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 6 years

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Episode 75: Steven’s Birthday

“Looks like you stagnated there a little bit, buddy.”

My brother is nearly two years older than me, but due to his summer birthday we were only a grade apart in school. My sister is exactly two years and eight days younger than me. One of the many things you get as a middle child, particularly when the ages are so close together, is a sense of innate value in being slightly older.

There have been several moments in my post-high school life when, for various reasons, I’ve assumed that certain peers were older than me. Whenever I learn that these age impostors are actually younger, it rocks me to my core. I just have this semi-conscious deference to people who are a little bit older, and I swear my internal reaction to learning that I’m the older one is always “Well then why the hell was I respecting you so much?”

I acknowledge that this is absurd, especially because I don’t expect that kind of deference from my younger peers (this could be due to my sister’s low tolerance for my BS, I dunno). In practice, I’m not even consciously nicer to people I think are older; as far as I’m aware, it’s all in my head. But there’s still a tiny sense of rank that comes with age order that I'm not sure I’ll ever shake.

This is all to say that I've never related more deeply with Connie Maheswaran than I do in Steven’s Birthday.

I mentioned in my post on Nightmare Hospital how much I appreciate the specifics we get on this show, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we first learn Steven and Connie’s exact ages (as well as Greg’s age at the time of Story for Steven) in another Connie-centric episode. The Gems don’t care about specifics, because they live so long that everything just kind of goes together. But humans—especially the kids in the audience—care a lot about detail, and this is ultimately an episode about Steven’s humanity.

And yeah, it’s weird that Steven is 14. Or rather, that he was 12 and 13 for as long as we’ve known him; considering Steven’s Birthday is after the second Beach-a-Palooza we’ve seen on this show, I assume he had another birthday that we didn’t get to see. If this kid was going to school, this show would be taking place from seventh through ninth grade. Yikes!

But this reaction is the point. We’re meant to be shocked. 14-year-olds tend not to act like Steven, for better (they tend to be savvier) and for worse (they tend to be terrified of earnestness and hide their insecurities with attitude sassier). Despite the character development we’ve seen from Steven, he’s still firmly in kid mode. Part of that is the realities of a show with set character designs (cue the fandom complaints about inconsistent sizes*); note that he still doesn’t physically grow until the time jump. But in-universe, it also has to do with a continued mindset that he’s pursuing equal footing with the Crystal Gems. If his life is defined by pursuit, he’ll never actually reach the goal.

*In regard to character sizes: I see characters like I see language. If you say a word that’s slang or dialectal, and someone fluent in that slang or dialect immediately understands you, then that’s a word, regardless of what a dictionary says. If I look at a character I’m familiar with and immediately recognize that character, then that’s the character. Moreover, there are characters in Steven Universe who care as much about size as the fandom, and spoiler alert, they’re the villains.

As I’ve maintained since all the way back in Bubble Buddies, Connie is an agent of change. She’s Steven’s prompt to start growing up for real, and Steven’s Birthday has nice little nods to many of the ways they’ve developed together so far. They toast with durian juiceboxes, the same gross fruit drink that caused An Indirect Kiss. Greg offers Connie a ride home in the van, which is the bulk of Winter Forecast, and in that same ride Connie talks about the training with Pearl that began in Sworn to the Sword. There’s a big dancing scene a la Alone Together. Connie even broaches the possibility of skirting movie theater law, and despite retracting the suggestion, she was all about sneaking food in Lion 2: The Movie (her vision of Dogcopter in the stars is icing on that cookie cake).

After Nightmare Hospital’s friendship episode, we jump right back to romantic subtext here. I don’t know too many platonic friends who slow dance until one does a vintage foot pop, or who assume they’ll be married when one of them is president, or who just blush this much in general. It makes a ton of sense to go for this angle in an episode about getting older, but more importantly, awww.

This is the first time subtle relationship angst has been introduced to their dynamic: unlike Connie freaking out about Steven’s family in Fusion Cuisine or Steven trying to ice Connie out in Full Disclosure, the tension between these two spends the whole episode simmering but never surfaces in a big way. It just manifests in awkward discomfort, which does manage to convince me that Steven is 14 now. While they don’t dwell on it too much, Connie is clearly more attracted to Tall Steven than Regular Steven, and I think he knows it. If you’re not a young teen already, imagine being a young teen again and knowing you could make your crush like you, but it caused physical pain. Yeah, not too surprising Steven goes for it.

(If you’re younger than a young teen, get off Tumblr right this instant and read a book. Love, a children’s librarian.)

On top of looking taller, Zach Callison drops closer to his regular speaking voice to complete the illusion of Steven’s growth; like companion episode Too Many Birthdays, he gets to show off a vocal range that Steven usually doesn’t have. While Too Many Birthdays does show that Steven has some control over his age, and didn’t actually have to stretch it out here, I like the implication that despite wanting to look older for Connie, he still doesn’t feel older quite yet. And he gets a nifty (if unsubtle) lesson about being himself at the end when his mature decision to stop altering himself is rewarded with his first puny facial hair. (As someone whose father could grow a full beard in high school but who himself had nothing but peach fuzz until after college, I feel you, Steven.)

Lamar Abrams and Katie Mitroff thread the needle on Connie, who has to balance the role of being a good friend against being the root of Steven’s body issues. She easily could’ve delved into Fusion Cuisine levels of unsympathetic, but it’s clear that her feelings about Steven’s appearance stem more from concern than anything else. Yes, she does like his taller form, but she never intentionally pressures him to maintain it, and accepts his regular form without question. She even wants to hang out with his baby form! I wouldn’t have even minded if her worry manifested in getting a little upset with him, as this would be a natural reaction to Steven’s condition and Connie isn’t perfect, but she cares more about who Steven is than what he looks like, which is just the kind of friend/crush he needs.

Connie also gets a nice amount of bonding time with Greg, with an explicit reference to their roles as the most important human beings in Steven’s life that we got from We Need to Talk. I love how Greg’s doting fatherhood is something that Steven is probably still super into, but is only embarrassed by because Connie is around; he’s right at the cusp, but he’s still a kid. But through Greg’s interactions with Connie, we see that his Dad Mode isn’t restricted to goofy shows of affection, and he’s willing to get serious when a kid that isn’t even his is upset. Just as we could’ve had an episode where Connie was more of a jerk, Steven’s quiet abandonment of his cape and crown could’ve made for some painful interactions with Greg. I’m so glad that Abrams and Mitroff are content with how uncomfortable the core premise of the episode is and don’t feel the need to shove in additional drama.

Also, while it’s clear from the extended theme song and implied in other Greg episodes, this is the first in-show confirmation that Greg raised Steven on his own for a significant portion of his life. It comes with yet another callback, this time to Laser Light Cannon as we crank up Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart, and it’s heartwarming to think about those early days of Greg and Baby Steven in an episode that’s so focused on the question of Steven’s humanity. Three Gems and a Baby will show the sorts of challenges Greg actually faced, but it also reinforces what we learn here: that for all their cosmic wisdom, Steven needed a human to raise him first. Not even Garnet pulling faces can do what Greg does.

The method by which Steven adjusts his form turns Steven’s Birthday into something of an Amethyst Episode (I love how this show is willing to pick certain Gems to focus on even when all three are still background characters). Garnet and Pearl don’t have the body issues that Amethyst now shares with Steven, especially concerning the use of shapeshifting to combat a feeling that they’re too small. Amethyst introduces the concept while stretching to hang up a banner with a pointed caveat that she can’t stay stretched forever, and when she confronts him after catching his secret (aided by him helpfully stating aloud what his secret is), you get a sense that she knows all too well how much it hurts to try to permanently hold a bigger form. In a true Amethyst Episode, this might lead to a reveal that she once attempted what Steven’s doing now (which we do see a bit of in Reformed but not in the “stretching of a base form” sense), but here, it’s left to the imagination.

Amethyst also gets that great reveal as a car seat, which I can’t unsee now but was surprised by in my first viewing due to the focus on Connie and Greg. It’s not only a fun little joke, but it gives Greg a reason to have a baby seat handy. Considering he’s a hoarder and the barn is full of old junk, we could’ve seen a regular seat without comment, but the crew doesn’t waste the opportunity for a sight gag.

There is one missing thing from Steven’s Birthday that surprised me a little. Considering our last episode (which takes place mere hours before this one) was a story about, among other things, how Garnet met Rose, it’s interesting that nobody points out the other anniversary this day represents. Steven’s birth directly correlates with Rose’s death, but neither Greg nor the Gems (not even Pearl!) seem to care. This isn’t a criticism of the episode at all: Abrams and Mitroff wanted to tell a completely different story, and there’s no way to do justice to “Gems think about Rose’s death on Steven’s special day” without making that the focus of the episode. I just think it’s an intriguing indicator of the show’s priorities. Rose is important, but in the moment the Gems see Steven as more important, and that’s pretty neat.

Anyway, it’ll be a couple more seasons until Steven and Connie get another big dose of teen-specific angst with the devastating Breakup Arc, and I doubt it’s a coincidence that their reconciliation in Kevin Party comes with Steven’s pink button-down. Still, in retrospect, the awkwardness we see here primes us for a different relationship: Lapis and Peridot’s. The latter is awkwardness incarnate, and when we finally get to know the former outside of crisis mode, it turns out she’s a surly teen. Together, they sate the show’s new appetite for adolescent drama between Steven’s Birthday and Dewey Wins, culminating in Lapis dumping Peridot (because as I literally just said, the Breakup Arc is devastating).

Shifting the teen relationship to another duo is such a smart path for the show to take, because it lets us retain focus on Steven’s identity as a growing child without abandoning the new storytelling possibilities that Steven’s Birthday suggests. It’s not as if Steven doesn’t gain any maturity until Dewey Wins—Amethyst’s arc is all about how he’s more or less caught up with her, and she’s a bit of a surly teen herself—but there’s enough Gem drama at the moment that Steven and Connie’s relationship still works best without tremendous complications.

Future Vision!

Maybe Pearl doesn’t want to hold Baby Steven because of that time she almost killed him in Three Gems and a Baby?

Steven’s facial hair might not have many new appearances, but Jungle Moon teaches us that Stevonnie gets full stubble when they’re fused long enough. And we do see it briefly in Reunited, complete with the shaving kit that explains why it’s rarely on his face. Gotta keep that chin smooth!

If Steven’s entire look after the time jump counts, then this is pretty good foreshadowing.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Steven’s discomfort expands to the viewing experience as well, and while it’s good to portray awkwardness well in situations like these, I’m not huge on rewatching it. Also, I hit my major growth spurt between fifth and sixth grade (and by major I mean I was six feet tall in sixth grade and just stuck with that height), and you don’t grow that fast without some serious back aches, so this one doesn’t just bring an intentional cringe factor, but memories of acute physical pain.

But I mean sure besides that it’s pretty good.

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Winter Forecast

When It Rains

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

No Thanks!

5. Horror Club 4. Fusion Cuisine 3. House Guest 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#steven's birthday #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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