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missmudpie · 4 years

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Honesty Hour...1) How's the Steve fic going??? (of course I had to ask) 2) I liked this question so, which book have you read that you would never read again, but also, which book have you read that you WOULD read again? 3) I feel obligated to ask what your favorite AoS episodes are, but you might want to wait until after you do a rewatch. On the other hand, doing it now might help you narrow it down since the really good ones will stick out. 4) Favorite tv character of all time?

1) The Steve fic is stuck on page 28 and 8854 words because Steve needs to have a conversation in which he realizes/explains/comes to terms with why he left the Leftover Avengers and STEVE IS NOT COOPERATING. Part of the problem is trying to figure out how much the other character knows about what happened. Like, Steve references Thanos in his group session, so it seems people/the broader public knows the name and what happened in Wakanda. Likewise, Bucky is identified as Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier in CA:CW, so it seems like an adult who follows the news would know who Bucky is - right? And in Spiderman: Far From Home, the teenagers make a remembrance video for Tony Stark, among others, so his death is well-known, although it’s unclear if the broader public knows HOW he died. There’s also the question of how does Steve relate his guilt over being unable to bring back Natasha without having to explain what the hell Infinity Stones are and how Time Travel Actually Exists. I’ll get it done, though, I promise!

2) I was trying to think of what book I just absolutely hated. I keep going back to A Separate Peace, which I just loathed in high school and can’t contemplate ever reading again.

Recently, my problem has been books that just left me feeling disappointed. For example, a few years ago I read We Were the Lucky Ones, which is about a Jewish family with five grown kids in Poland during WWII. It’s a true story, the descendant of one of the survivors wrote it, and they all survived and eventually emigrated and reunited in Brazil. Sounds like it should be amazing, right? But it was just SO disappointing. It skipped around in time and left out large chunks of people’s lives. Like, you leave one sibling in 1941, and then suddenly it’s fall 1942, he’s got a wife and infant, and he’s in the USSR after being arrested by the NKVD (precursor to the KGB). Like, What? How? Why? Don’t know. I ended up skimming the end to see how they all survived. Another is The Librarian of Auschwitz, which has tonal problems, but that’s in large part because I think it’s a poor translation from the original.

Oh, and Lilac Girls, which everyone loves but I just couldn’t properly connect with the characters. That one bills itself to be about an American socialite, Caroline Ferriday, who helps save the “Rabbits” - Polish (mostly non-Jewish) prisoners held in Ravensbrück (the only only-womens’ camp the Nazis ran) who were savagely experimented on by the Nazis. Like, they would purposefully wound them in the leg, then stuff the wound with dirt and sawdust and gangrene, wrap it up, and then see what happened. Many were horribly maimed. And that part of the story, which follows a Polish teen, is really good. But you go from that to Caroline lamenting that the man she’s fallen for has a secret wife in France and like - these problems are not on the same level! Also, the third character is a female Nazi doctor, and I think she gets a more empathetic treatment than she deserves. Also, the “saving” is more “raised money after the war so these women could come to the US for surgery,” which is noble, don’t get me wrong, but not exactly the rescue mission that was advertised.

Basically, I need to stop reading WWII/Holocaust books and write my own. Which I’m currently researching.

As for books I return to, I try to read To Kill a Mockingbird once a year or so. I love it. I always find something new each time I read it. I bought Juniper, by Monica Furlong, at my sixth grade book fair and still love it. It’s about a young girl in post-Arthur Cornwall who trains to be essentially a sorceress (the book calls her a doran). Beautifully written. Another fave: The Martian.

3) I’ll put these in a reply/reblog to your post. I need to do a rewatch, but I went through the wikipedia page and tried to remember which ones I liked. I’m interested to see if we pick the same ones!

4) I thought about this, I really did, but I knew the answer immediately. It’s Walter “Radar” O’Reilly from MASH. I love that show, and I love all the characters, especially Hawkeye. But Radar is something special - sweet, kind, naive, smart. He is the embodiment of all the boys that go to war. I love him and will protect him.

Thanks for these, they were fun!

#Fandom Friends

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thanksjro · 4 years

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The Prequel

Eugenesis has a prequel, in the form of a 13-page comic called Liars, A-to-D, laying out the groundwork for what’s to come. If the title sounds familiar, it’s probably because it was reused in the first MTMTE storyline, covering issues #1-3. Roberts likes a little recycling, he does. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The art is more or less on-par for what one might have seen in the original cartoon, only it’s black and white. There’s a few points where the posing gets a little funky, but I can still tell who’s supposed to be who for the most part, and that’s pretty impressive for a colorless Transformers comic. Quality isn’t the crispest, but that’s most likely due to the scan I have.

This comic starts with a cold open, stating that 56 million years ago, the first Cybertronians sprung from the metal of the planet- the narration calls it “spontaneous evolution” and that it “just happened.” The narration seems to have trouble grappling with the vast number of chance events that go on, covering the “spontaneous" eruption of Mt. Hilary that lead to the Autobots being repaired and restored after four million years on Earth.

Oh, hey, Prowl.

Then we contrast these things that “just happened”, with something that, in the narrator’s opinion, didn’t “just happen”; at the signing of a treaty in the far-flung year of 2302, Rodimus, Ultra Magnus, Springer, and Soundwave are all at the pulpit, with millions of spectators looking on. Suddenly, a whole city street just shows up out of nowhere, and full of ‘bots who are scared out of their wits. The event is brushed off as “spontaneous materialization”, but our narrator- who’s been revealed at this point to be Ultra Magnus, if the art is anything to go by- doesn’t agree. He certainly hopes that this isn’t what this is.

BOOM. 12/21/12, just like I said it would happen. And hey! It’s James Roberts! That guy this blog is following through these writings. Good to know he’s actually here now.

I tried looking up Matt Dallas and Graham Thomson, but didn’t get much on either of them. I’m guessing they didn’t do a whole lot in this vein after this publication.

Star Saber is in this, apparently. Can’t wait to see him, and what he’s bringing to the table. I, truthfully, don’t know a whole lot about Star Saber, outside of the IDW comics, so I’m genuinely interested to see what he’s like.

Our first shot within the prequel proper is of space debris floating over the planet Cybertron, with a weather report. That tells me something’s going to fall out of the sky at some point. Call it a hunch.

I’d call it “understanding foreshadowing as a concept”, but that doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well.

We cut to a television broadcast of Galvatron, who’s encouraging ‘bots to join the Decepticons. It’s a hell of a recruitment video, being broadcasted everywhere, even underground, where the Autobots are hiding. There’s even a call number. Chromedome asks Prowl if he should give it a ring, but Prowl doesn’t seem to think that’s such a great idea.

For some reason, Prowl has this little ring floating above his head in these panels, and I keep reading it as a halo. As far as I know, he’s not dead, so I don’t know why this is happening. Unfortunate framing against the background, perhaps, but the backgrounds in this scene are all pretty blocky, so that doesn’t make a ton of sense either.

Oh, hey, Chromedome. How’s the hubby? You’re looking very Headmaster-y today.

Meanwhile, at the recording studio, it’s revealed that Galvatron wasn’t making that call to action at all- it was a puppet, all part of a rig set up by Soundwave, in the light of Galvatron not having spoken to anyone in ages, presumably in some sort of comatose state.

Now, surely I mean an actor when I say puppet, right?

No. No, I don’t.

I love how awkward everyone looks here. You have the guy with the clap board, who’s obviously never used one in his life, just standing off to the side waiting for some direction, the guy working the puppet who looks like he’s about to drop their great leader’s torso on national television, and Gun Guy. Soundwave really knows how to pick ‘em. I know it isn’t an ideal situation, but a little more upper body strength on the puppeteer would make things go a lot smoother.

Also, hot tip: if you have to use the word “subjugate” when talking about your cause, that means you’re on the wrong side of history, my dude. No non-evil group would ever use that terminology. I know the Decepticons are still cartoonishly evil at this point, but geezum crow, that’s a bit on the nose.

We get another weather report, then check in on our dear Prime, Rodimus, who’s in the middle of an exorcism- his own, to be precise. It doesn’t go anywhere, and Kup interrupts him having what looks like a seizure as he tries fruitlessly to get Unicron out of his body.

Meanwhile, in Helex, what was supposed to be a routine surveillance mission isn’t turning out so hot. The Autobots and Decepticons are at a standoff on a bridge. It ends poorly for just about everyone- some guy gets his head blown clean off! Sixshot is about to make a killing blow, when he’s crushed under a massive chunk of space metal.

Up in the skies, an Autobot ship is being chased by everyone’s favorite time-traveling pals, Cyclonus and Scourge. Scourge is looking extra boaty today.

…Cyclonus, you’re also a fly-boy. You’re arguably more of a fly-boy than Scourge is right now, because you actually look like something that can fly. This is after Headmasters, so I suppose we can forgive him being a little stupid.

While they’re being attacked, the Autobot ship picks up the signatures of thousands of unidentified objects, and then is immediately pelted with tons of metal falling out of the sky.

Foreshadowing! It’s never let me down. And hey, it’s that space metal that squashed Sixshot.

The Autobot ship abandoned, Cyclonus and Scourge head of the surface of the planet to regroup. Scourge asks who was aboard the ship, and when he’s told it was Nightbeat, Fastlane, and Cloudraker, he gets spooked.

And then he explodes.

I’m right there with you, Cyclonus. I don’t know why that happened, either.

The following day, Rodimus is in the lab with Perceptor, taking a gander at one of the larger pieces of space metal- they’ve sussed out that it’s the core of Moonbase 2, which was lost eons ago. The odd thing is, it’s covered in writing that isn’t Cybertronian. Something fishy’s going on. Rodimus tells Perceptor to store the moon core at Eocra for now, and not to tell the high council anything just yet.

All pieces in place, I suppose, we head back to the odd scene we left at the treaty signing, where the city street popped into existence without warning. The pedestrians on said street are taken into custody, where they’re questioned by way of police brutality. They claim to be from 2013, and then the sci-fi jargon hits hard and I couldn’t really tell you what it means.

What I can glean from this, however, is that maybe storing the moon base core in Eocra wasn’t such a hot idea.

The 2013-era ‘bots are thrilled to not be in their current year, seeing as they were witnessing the end of the world when they were transported. Now, remember, this comic takes place in 2302, so something’s clearly going on here. Are they lying? Suffering from time-sickness? From a parallel universe? We’ll have to read the novel to figure that one out. Still, our narrator has a bad feeling about all this, and Ultra Magnus goes down to visit Primus, where they store the memory banks of all the survivors of the war, lamenting that there are so few “true” ones left. True survivors include, but aren’t limited to: Rodimus, Perceptor, Soundwave, Sludge- a dinobot- Galvatron, Ultra Magnus himself, and Wheelie, whose canister seems to have some sort of caveat.

Well, that can surely only mean good things.

In the postscript- yes, not an epilogue, but a postscript- we summarize what’s just happened: the accounts of multiple spontaneous events, and the promise that the past will come back to haunt us. Fun stuff. We’re left with a final look at the symbol that was left on the moon core, which will surely play into the story to come.

I also have, at my disposal, the script that Roberts wrote for Liars, A-to-D, which, as far as I know, is the first comic script he’d ever written.

Because I have access to the script, some of the more interesting details are made known. Hey, guys I found Star Saber- he was the guy I thought was Ultra Magnus, and is actually the narrator. Whoops. I suppose that would explain why he was presented in this comic on the title page. In my defense, there’s only one good shot of his face in the whole comic, and they have very similar heights and shoulders.

Star Saber, I am so sorry. That one’s completely on me.

The script allows us to figure out who some of the lesser known characters are- for example, the ‘bot holding the Galvatron puppet up is named Pounce. Get some more bicep curls into your workout routine, Pounce.

We can also get a little insight into scenes that we otherwise wouldn’t.

He’s reciting the Primal Pentechurch here, for his exorcism. This can probably be decoded. Neat!

I can also put some names to the Autobots that are featured in the Helex standoff, including Quark. No, not that one. Different guy- this one turns into a hover-car.

His character description is actually in the script, addressing the artist, Matt Dallas. It’s pretty in-depth, like the sort of direction one would give for an art commission of their OC, which I suppose it is in a way.

Little fact about myself: I went to college for film production, specifically in script and screenplay writing. I know a thing or two about scripts. You typically don’t do this within the script itself, but rather in the character bio, because it can mess up the pacing of the script-to-screen ratio; one page of script amounts to roughly one minute of screen time. Now, this obviously isn’t the exact same thing, seeing as it’s a comic script, but it stuck out to me.

Still, for a cherry script, it’s not bad. And, after all, I didn’t study for comic scripting, so what do I know? I’m just some asshole on the internet, I don’t get paid for this.

Oh right, I can figure out what the hell happened to Scourge; there was apparently a bomb inside of his chest, that he decided to set off right in front of his buddy Cyclonus. No mention as to WHY this happened, though. We’ll have to save that question for the novel proper.

Right, that happened. There’s a lot of unintentional vore in the UK Transformers comics.

In the script, the names on the cabinets don’t exactly match up with what’s seen in the comic. Wheelie isn’t mentioned at all- one has to assume the comic’s inclusion of him is a little jab at the character for being what some might call “annoying”. Sludge also isn’t listed, but Prowl and Nightbeat are. Their cabinets might be hidden behind Star Saber, and therefore out of shot.

So, final thoughts: this script was… okay. Roberts clearly knows what he wants included, and makes his vision known, perhaps a bit too strictly in places. All in all, completely serviceable, did everything a script is supposed to do, but nothing amazing. And that’s fine! I’d honestly be worried if the script here was on par with what we got seven years later. Writers are supposed to grow and improve.

But now it’s time to prepare ourselves for the prose writing. Up next- Eugenesis!

#transformers #jro #maccadam #eugenesis #liars A-to-D #Hannzreads #text post #long post #comic script writing

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oumakokichi · 7 years

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What's your view on Saihara and his arc?

Oh, thank you for asking! I know I’ve talked aboutOuma a lot, or about Ouma and Saihara together, but I haven’t really had achance yet to talk about how I feel about Saihara himself yet, and I’m excitedto because he’s my second-favorite ndrv3 character!

I’m a firm believer that ndrv3 does really well withits protagonists. Naegi, Hinata, Komaru, Kaede (yes, I count her), and Saihara(and even Kiibo, if we want to be fair about the protagonist count in ndrv3)all have contributed something unique and fun to the franchise in their ownway. I personally find them all likable in their own way, and while I think ifI were to try ranking every DR character in the franchise, Hinata would stillprobably be the highest protagonist on the list, Saihara would probably fallright under him at this point.

I think it’s really a shame that the Chapter 1 plottwist with Kaede resulted in so much backlash and hate for Saihara when peoplehad been relatively fond of him at first. What happened to Kaede was aconscious decision made by Kodaka as a writer, and I still maintain my stancethat yes, it was for shock value, and yes, it was a real let-down consideringthey had hyped Kaede up as a female protagonist for so long. But I don’t thinkher death negates all the wonderful that developments that happened in Chapter1 either, and I think it’s unfair that a lot of people have had such anegative, kneejerk reaction to Saihara as a character just because he’s aliveand Kaede’s not.

I should perhaps mention too that Kirigiri has beenone of my all-time favorites in the DR series for a long time, so discovering thatthere would be another detective in the franchise piqued my interestimmediately when I heard about it. I was curious to see where they would go andwhat they would do with Saihara even before knowing that he’d be a protagonistat all.

I honestly appreciate that Saihara is the firstprotagonist in the game who has truly been 100% unconfident in himself and hisopinions. Naegi and Komaru have lamented being “ordinary” in their own way, andNaegi has subverted the issue with his optimism and belief in the good ofhumanity bringing hope and a refreshing change of pace to those around him,while Komaru, for all that she isn’t even a SHSL student, has similarlysubverted the issue by being relatively confident in herself despite having no talent.

Hinata tackled the very complex issues of what thepressure to be talented and to succeed in society does to those perceived as “talentless”or “ordinary,” and the ways in which one’s sense of self degrades and theirwillingness to do anything to succeed at all borders on desperation. He lackedconfidence in his worth as a human being, but within the context of the NewWorld program, we still see him and Nanami constantly encouraging one anotherto solve each case as it arises, and a relative degree of certainty that theycan tackle these issues (even if Hinata is very tired of absolutely everything)up until Nanami is “executed” in Chapter 5.

And now we have Saihara. Saihara, whose backstory wasfabricated and who nevertheless has been tremendously impacted by it and lacksconfidence and needs reassurance that he’s not ruining people’s lives by tryingto do something that comes very naturally to him. Having him fill the hole thatKaede left makes for a very interesting course of development over the rest ofthe game—because none of the others expecthim to be Kaede. Kaede was essentially the perfect protagonist, and she wouldhave led the group confidently in spite of the obstacles in her way and shewould have been aggressive and she would have never backed down, had she notbeen framed and forced to sacrifice herself in Chapter 1. And Saihara can’t bethose things, because he’s not that kind of person, and you can’t compareapples to oranges.

He’s extremely self-aware about his inability to everfully emulate or be like Kaede, and even with people like Momota and Tenkogiving him plenty of encouragement and reassurance, he’s still very uncertainabout his ability to contribute anything to the group, because he feels as ifevery time he uncovers the truth behind something, he winds up ruining someone’slife or causing some huge terrible catastrophe. If it weren’t for theunderstanding and kindness of people like Momota and Tenko, or the continualpushes from behind that Ouma keeps giving him into becoming a detective moreconfident in his own reasoning and capable of leading the group, I don’t know thatSaihara would ever have overcome his nerves and hesitation.

And even at the end, I don’t know that I’d saySaihara is still not a nervous or a hesitant person. The things which he wentthrough and overcame still impacted him heavily, and he’s still undeniablytraumatized. He carries his guilt with him, but instead of letting it own him,he makes it into a reminder to be stronger. I feel that that’s extremelyadmirable.

The reveals at the end, one after another, andremembering what it was like to grow up as an “ordinary person,” recalling bitsand pieces of a life that now seems entirely unfamiliar and unrelated to himand yet that he still can’t quite entirely cut away, left Saihara thinkingfirmly on what it means to decide one’s own identity and become one’s ownperson. Being told that his current, in-game persona is nothing more than afabrication would be enough to break most people—it’s worse than being toldthat you did horrible things that you don’t remember, like the sdr2 kids,because it’s essentially being told that you never even existed in the firstplace. You weren’t real, you were a complete lie for the sake of unrelatedpeople’s entertainment.

It’s a revelation that would break most people, butSaihara and the other survivors decide to live on in spite of it. What startedin a lie and as fiction became cemented in reality as they lived their lives together,and they decide to no longer let anyone else have a say in determining who theyare or who they might become. It’s an incredibly uplifting message, even ifquite a lot of ndrv3 is very brutal. I can’t agree with people’s idea that theending was a complete downer, because even with so few survivors, the messagewas still undeniably one of living as your own person, and that even “lies” or “fiction”can still nonetheless be considered “real” and important.

Saihara is a really good kid, and I appreciate whatpurpose he served as a protagonist who had a lot of ways in which he needed togrow and overcome his fears.

#ndrv3 #drv3 #new danganronpa v3 #shuuichi saihara #saihara shuuichi #ndrv3 spoilers //#my meta #okay to reblog #anonymous

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daisyckinguk · 6 years

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Shanghai American School teacher dismissed for sending sexually explicit messages for students: Shanghaiist

A view of Shanghai American School, Puxi Campus.

A very popular and even revered veteran educator in the Shanghai American School (SAS) has been fired a month, causing a cascade of disturbing allegations made from the teacher by former students that have rocked the SAS community.

SAS, among China’s top foreign schools, dismissed high school English teacher James Mikkelson at November after an investigation to a concerning reports regarding inappropriate relationships with former students. In a letter to parents, Marcel Gauthier, Head of School, declared which Mikkelson had made choices “inconsistent with SAS standards for ethics and professionalism.”

Gauthier reported that at the course of the investigation that was conducted “with the support of some strategic consulting partner specializing in ethics risks”, pornography was discovered on Mikkelson’s school personal computer and, more troublingly, sexually explicit messages which he had delivered to students were discovered.

A photo of James Mikkelson posted in 2007 on a Facebook group he used to keep in contact with former students, called “Mikkelson’s Victims.”

Shortly after Mikkelson’s shooting was made public, a site appeared online called “Survivors of James Mikkelson,” made by a former pupil who promises to be among those instructor’s victims. Within an introductory article, the former pupil writes that the site is a place for survivors of sexual abuse committed by James Mikkelson into “join with one another, share their stories, and have their own voices heard.”

In a remark underneath that article, another SAS alumnus enticed the website’s creator of defamation rather than only developing a hate page directed at Mikkelson.

About a week later, the website’s creator responded to that assertion with a lengthy article, detailing allegations from Mikkelson which go far beyond just sexting with students, including sexual abuse, groping, and sexual intercourse.

Shortly after I became his pupil, Mikkelson started explicit conversations with me about sex. These conversations happened in individual in addition to through text, email, and discussion. They escalated into expressing sexual desire for me personally and describing sexual fantasies involving me. While speaking explicitly with a kid about sex is in fact sufficient to constitute child sexual abuse, the abuse did not stop there. Mikkelson groped me in a school event. He delivered me explicit photos and movies of himself. He invited me to places out of school where, once coaxing me into a relaxed country with alcohol that he bought, he chased me in to doing sexual acts. He touched me tremendously behind the closed doors of his classroom, on school grounds, at the middle of the school day. He had sexual intercourse with me. I was his pupil. I was a kid.

At the time I didn’t have some adult characters in my life whom I trusted. Mikkelson very rapidly became my principal source of emotional support. He voiced sympathy once I talked about issues with my loved ones. He invited me to pursue my own academic interests over my parents’ preferences. He exhibited obvious favoritism for me personally at the classroom, that made my adolescent ego feel special and appreciated. (This practice is also referred to as grooming.) When he began to say sexual desire for me personally, I was uncomfortable and unsure of how to respond. I grew accustomed to it since I placed him in the astounding and naïve trust of a young individual. I could not have believed that he didn’t have my best interests at heart. I looked up to him and wanted nothing over his continuing validation. He might have asked me to do anything. He also did. He capitalized on my vulnerability and immaturity to perpetrate sexual abuse.

I’ve got more evidence than I could need for of all of the above mentioned. I have emails full of sexual content. I have chatlogs that show the painstaking and slow method of my being dressed. At first, Mikkelson examined the waters by dropping in a couple of sexual comments per dialog; a few weeks later, he regaled me with pornographic descriptions of sexual fantasies. I analyzed these logs lately in contemplating whether or not to reach out to SAS, and discovered announcements by Mikkelson that specifically admit a number of the sexual acts which happened between us. As relieved as I am to have concrete evidence of what happened to me personally, it wasn’t a particularly pleasant read. It was excruciating, not just because of hindsight, but since I am now a grownup pained by the knowledge that my kid self could not have understood, and didn’t understand, what was actually happening.

You’ll be able to read the full article here.

Widely shared one of the SAS community, the article attracted over 60 comments from former and current students discussing Mikkelson, his behaviour for a teacher, and the allegations made against him. When put together, these comments reveal a blueprint of a favorite teacher with his power and influence on prey on young female students, something which might have been going on for over a couple of years.

We have picked out some thoughtful and revealing comments, beginning with one by a former teacher who laments that she never spoke up after Mikkelson allegedly sent her naked pic:

Feel really sad and scared on hearing. I was instructing in SAS for many years. However, I must understand Mikkelson within my master course. He was also the workshop leader for UBD. At start I thought he was really kind and knowledgeable. And he included me wechat after which we start chat for a few months. At start we talked about teaching techniques and books. He also did helped a lot in sharing his own literature knowledge. Provided that subject leading by him become deeper and more private, he described lots of sexual information from publications and then his private life. He did it at a quite character way and seemed it is not offended while speaking those topics. He delivered poems and stated he wrote for me. I felt wired, but didn’t think further because we trust our colleagues. Then 1 day he delivered one of his naked pic in my experience and I was embarrassed and angry. As soon as I pointed it is inappropriate behavior, he was angry and immediately block me. I also deleted him. He seemed to be a rather kind and understanding individual, but he really is wicked. Then I abandoned SAS, never contact him. But my heart is wholly in pain on seeing this site. Hope that the survivors can be treated. It’s not your fault, since he is great at disguised and feign to be a terrific individual. I feel deeply sorry about hearing this.

Another man who claimed to be Mikkelson’s former co-worker in Italy years ago abandoned another remark:

I operate with Mikkelson in Milan many decades ago. He was made to resign after many female students complained about his inappropriate behavior. In Milan that the parents needed him put in jail. In China they don’t think the same I suspect. We hear about this in Italy and call things what they are. This man is a child molester. Nothing more needs stating.

A former pupil remembers accusations out of nearly a decade ago concerning Mikkelson’s inappropriate behavior towards his female students:

I figure it didn’t entirely surprise me once I heard that Mikkelson was fired for sexual misconduct. Back when was I at SAS nearly ten years ago, you’d hear small bits and pieces on how he had text a few of his favorite female students individually, give them nicknames, and of course that the somewhat creepy sexual innuendos he would earn here and there in class. Of course nobody thought a lot of it, in our age. More to the point, we were blinded by the admiration and respect we had for him.

I was among those students who revered Mikkelson at high school. I mean, revered. I belonged to that category-naturally literary, and awed by intellectualism, lacking a authority figure-over whom Mikkelson exercised the most power. Even now, he stands out among the teachers that had the profoundest influence on me in my whole life. Without doubt, if I were in high school I’d be among the very first of his acolytes to defend him, query you, and probably strike you on your claims.

However, I’m lucky enough to have spent sufficient time from high school that his air has faded. Time and experience let me see clearly that his brilliance wasn’t in his teaching-in fact, as I learned in college, many of his thoughts were from books and other sources-but within his acting. His ability to play the part of Socrates, the philosopher, the grand play of turning his classroom to a intellectual and moral academy-that by which his genius lay. Behind the action wasn’t a wonderful mind or soul; it was the predator you have exposed. I think for most graduates my age, it is not that difficult to see anymore.

I do not really think I have a point for this article, except to demonstrate that you have another person, somebody who once worshipped Mikkelson, that believes you. I can only imagine how many other people there were over the years. You are intelligent and brave and you have my utmost respect.

A recent SAS pupil describes that the “cult of personality” Mikkelson constructed to himself together with his loving students:

I am a senior in SAS this year, and I’ve just had Mikkelson for 3 months but I was definitly in his “cult of personality,” as you described. I recall when news broke of his dismissal, my fellow seniors and I bowed our heads and cussed the faculty for letting go “the single teacher who really taught us.” The following day, the school organized my AP Literature class to talk to the school psychologist and now I recall people were crying and shouting at how unjust it was that the school let him move in this public fashion, how our schooling is destroyed, how his replacement was dreadful.

Even I fell for it. I messaged him after his dismissal like several different seniors. Even then, I knew we just craved that piece of recognition from him. In particular, my message stated that it was wonderful to see “blossom for a leader” from the classroom. I recall I felt myself tearing up once I saw his message as I felt as if my schooling had actually no goal. This cult of character he has made him around is trly terrifying. Reading your website was like waking up from a nightmare and realzing I was.

I am truly disgusted at how simple I dropped for his scheme. I am quite horrified at myself that I thought it was unbelievably unfair that the school fired him or that people were turning against him. I can’t belive it took me long to see the toxicity of his behaviour, in how inconsiderate we were in never asking ourselves that the wellbeing of his victims. How can we move on from idolizing him as a “Socrates” philosopher? How can we get pass this cult of personality that’s influenced of our lives?

I am so incredibly sorry that you needed to go through that. No one, and I mean no one, should have to go through abuse by a trustworthy adult figure at a period of self doubt and self awareness. If theres something current SAS students can do, please allow me to know and I will relay this to my course.

A former pupil who claims that Mikkelson delivered her sexually suggestive messages a decade past:

I understand you said you are not looking for validation, but I wanted to discuss another data point: I think you because I might have been you. I understand everything in your article: that the favoritism and compliments intended to soften up me, the surreptitious petition for my contact number, the sexually suggestive comments peppered throughout texts and mails to check the waters. I recall my distress at my messages, and I recall cleaning that off since I felt almost grateful for his attention. I was insecure and hungry for recognition. I’ve just recently been capable of realizing all the forgettable manners he took advantage of that.

It never escalated past messages for me personally and I will probably never understand why. Perhaps he discovered a vulnerable target elsewhere – I certainly wasn’t the only student he was texting that year. It was an open secret, therefore poorly maintained it was almost a joke.

More than anything though, I wish to apologize. Mikkelson was my teacher ten years ago. Perhaps this would have finished ten years ago if I’d said something.

Another former pupil with a similar story to tell:

Thanks for sharing your own story. I, also, had numerous trades with Mikkelson during my senior year of high school, the majority of that I was seriously depressed. He was aware of the fact as I had numerous personal meetings with him in which we would just ‘discuss lifestyle’, the majority of which would finish with me crying. Sometimes our mails could creep into sexual territory or become uncomfortable for me personally, Mikkelson would often remark on how ‘pretty and smart’ I was and how everyone who was giving me a difficult time’d no idea what they were searching past. He knew I was exposed and I would feed off of the compliments viewing as they were all I had at that time in my entire life. Though this relationship never went past flirtartious mails and book recommendations until my sophomore year of college, I feel dumb for buying into his bullshit. The fact that students held him in their own worship is indeed ill and the superiority complex he utilizes to obtain ‘esteem’ was only a facade for his personal fucked up self.

James Mikkelson in better days.

In reaction to the blog article, several SAS alumni have composed a open letter into the school and community, publicly expressing their support to people talking out and persuading the SAS administration to “take steps toward averting Mikkelson’s hiring in other educational institutions.” Those alumni who agree with all the letter’s message have been invited to set their name at the Google Doc. The correspondence currently has dozens of interpretations.

Responding to enquiries from Shanghaiist, ” a spokesperson for SAS reported the school revoked Mikkelson’s China job visa upon dismissal on November 7th, and shared signs of his illegal behavior with lawful government from both China and the US.

Even though Mikkelson was in his 13th successive year of service in SAS, reports Mikkelson’s inappropriate connections with students just came to light in the school this September, added the spokesperson.

Before hiring employees, SAS states that it conducts extensive backgrounds checks, including FBI background checks and references are needed from previous managers.

One factor complicating the situation is the fact that the age of approval from China is 14. Chinese legislation also makes no distinction between a teacher and some other adult, school administrators say.

Profile image on James Mikkelson’s left handed Instagram account.

By contrast, under US law, a citizen could be penalized for having intercourse with a minor overseas. In the state of Washington, where Mikkelson is purportedly out of, teachers who engage in sexual activity with a pupil could be charged with a felony or gross misdemeanor.

Meanwhile, the SAS has responded to the blog article with another correspondence to parents and former students, informing them of measures which are being taken after Mikkelson’s dismissal, for example offering counselling to students and reviewing all of protocols related to child protection.

“We recognize that if the allegations from the site are accurate, then fantastic injury has been done,” composed Gauthier, the Head of School. “Know that we have done all we can to ensure that Mr. Mikkelson doesn’t teach again and also to warn our community from having contact with him. Our purpose is to get a definite plan in place and shared with the SAS community ahead of our winter holiday break.”

“We have certainly responded with terrific care to anybody who has written us on the subject of Mr. Mikkelson’s death and invited them to discuss additional,” added Gauthier. “To date, no alumnus has come forward and identified themselves. We stand prepared to support them and when they do.”

It remains unclear whether he has returned into the usa, or left handed China into a third country.

If you’ve got a comment or tip concerning this story, please write to us in [email protected]

from network 10 http://www.k4teens.info/shanghai-american-school-teacher-dismissed-for-sending-sexually-explicit-messages-for-students-shanghaiist/

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anecdotaltruthbomb · 7 years

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Integral Health, Integral Diet

Evolution is like puberty. You can not initiate or speed up puberty by practicing it, but if you do not actively co-create it, you end up as a psychological cripple afterwards. "He who is not busy being born is busy dying."

The realization that evolution is mainly intrinsic, organic, like puberty, not willed into shape and not culturally created, like careers or black belts, is the core of integralism, therefore integralism is actually the least vertically oriented of all stages. Or potentially the least egomania driven one. The first one that even gives the option of relativating the importance of ego in achievements. Even for the most chaotic greeny, finding your very own path, horizontally or vertically, is solely your own egoic responsibility, which is bullocks, as maslow's pyramid reveal, you depend on social support and on right quadrant options for security. Integralism is simply the only one that has a conceptual differentiation between vertical and horizontal, so it has all that unique sounding talk about the vertical.

BUT virtually all grown up survivors of contemporary culture have these orange/green achiever egos, through which they live with integral theory and do not even respect any leader who does not preach achievements. Just write a book about the organic/intrinsic drive of cognitive development. No one will read that. I welcome any critique of this culture, although its perhaps pretty ineffective to lament about egos.

Preaching development in left brained egoic terms requires an objectivation of the stage that is to be developed. So it must be a higher stage that develops a lower stage. Otherwise it's the blind leading the blind. Since the subject of a stage does not see itself. Co-creating interiority (intelligence) and exteriority (action) on the current stage is a matter of subjectively felt right measure and other people can't touch that with objective authority. Even if they are on a higher stage, the complexity of typology and individuality limits what advice they can offer.

If someone tells you all about your currently unconscious subject-stage and how you can co-create it optimally, there is of course a huge potential for manipulation, since you can not possibly have conscious criteria for how such suggestions are influencing your still unconscious subject in the long run. A child does not even notice when and how it is brainwashed for the purposelessness of capitalism. And a grown up does not realize how he is made into a good customer of the spiritual circus.

It follows that the most promising and reliable self-improvement that can be done methodologically, egoically, is the correction of foundational stages/surface structures. Such as fixing your diet, washing the lies of civilization out of your brain, realizing you are a frugivore great ape, not giving your buddha mind any more alzheimer's, arteriosclerosis of the brain, for that would be quite unenlightening. I am sure that detoxifying your brain is ten times as conductive as meditation, to both vertical and horizontal growth. So meditate while you water fast.

--- I hope to distill it into a paragraph: Integral science differs from old science in that it must seek to describe and understand the whole living system and worry about what manipulations are possible and desirable only ín a second step. Whereas old science skips the first step entirely, and manipulates like a madman, creating a merely fictional truth, that is really much more of a narrative, which only justifies it's favorite methods, by describing the least amount of context necessary, to perceive those methods as being plausible or worthwhile. However its possible, that the whole can not be explored and known at all, without madly manipulating around first, so i am afraid the delusional narratives of old science can't be skipped. But now and then we must be willing to let them go and that is the real key, as far as egoic instructions are concerned. The rest is up for evolution to sort out. The long trail of reflection about my own path, that has lead me to the above conclusion follows. People are deeply religious in their blind trust in peer review and similar capitalist dogma. They don't want to get involved in understanding reality, but only want to learn how to manipulate it. They crave simple step by step instructions and a sense of power and security. They are more attached to promising hopes, than they are critical about the feedback, about how disappointing the results of applying common instructions are. People leave the hospital sicker than they came in and nobody thinks anything of it. The path to truth is a lot of footwork and not everyone can sniff through all alleys. I could not even begin to understand subjects like economy. But i am not going to trust in instructions that i don't understand. The best truth detector i used to have was my understanding of human nature. Carl Jung's typology is essential. But i realized i could test all diet paradigms on my own body, because my body works as a health detecting device and measures any substance I insert. So i did that and it took me seven years and i almost killed myself but i slowly learned how it all works. It all started with the method of questioning all authority and exploring the actual territory and demanding the discovery of possibilities of improvement. So far just an orange awakening to a line of intelligence i had ignored so far, my body. Instead of looking for the whole truth with the greatest good in mind, i started out wanting to limit my understanding, to minimize the good instructions i could get away with, while maximizing the traditional habits i could remain attached to. The body and the soul are two of the most abandoned lines of intelligence and when we awaken to it, we have to start more or less where we had previously given up on them, often around amber. So i fell for all of those equally manipulative and short sighted paradigms out there. I had hoped to "hack" the body with bullet proof methods that aim for effects, relative to a sick condition, such as the oppression of something raised, the raising of what is oppressed, etc. Just like our medicine focuses almost solely on suppressing or shifting symptoms, which often means suppressing the immune system or self-healing itself, instead of removing the causes of disease form the live-style and giving the body opportunity to eliminate traces of it. I did not, until the end, discover respect for the perfection of the living human body and its intrinsic ability to restore perfect health, when treated respectfully. Likewise i did not discover the many people who had made the same discovery long before me. Natural Hygienists and Fruitarians. So i had to learn it the hard way, trial and error. Years of error. Until my physical expertise catched up to my integral cognitive potential. Perspectives don't fall from the sky. Nothing can save us the footwork. No line develops to integral when its territory is bypassed. Obviously other subjects are much more tricky to investigate. But often people don't even want to consider that their current set of instructions might not be good enough to save the day. (originally posted in a message board thread)

#thoughts

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