#we love an ecological king

[takethatandparty]

We need to talk about something really important

✨Jason Orange✨

Look at him

This man simply doesn't know what it's like to have a bad phase

That's it, thanks for coming to my TED talk

#don't come @ me bc of the paparazzi pics #i know it's not nice #but that's not the point #he's giving daddy vibes and I'm so here for it #aging like fine wine #i miss him #but i love him even more #i respect his decision #but i also am a dog for him #absolutely no regrets #we love an ecological king #take that #tt #jason orange #take that band

[larkandkatydid]

🎶🎶When You're Living in Amerrrrricaaaa at the End of the Millennnnniuuuumm🎶🎶: My favorite books about life in late 20th century America, with an emphasis on how the conversative turn in American politics affected lives on the margins: Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, Heavy metal suicide Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz* , etc:

(descriptions under the cut)

Rick Perlstein, Reaganland: America’s Right Turn. This is where you start. And honestly, the Reaganland Quartet, which this is the last volume of, is the Great Epic Fantasy of actual 20th century history.

Sarah Schulman, Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT-UP New York 1987-1993. This book had a minute and then just faded from public discourse, which makes me so unbelievably sad. I know it’s long, but it’s riveting and energizing. This should be the book that We All Read and everyone peer pressures everyone else to read.

Kathleen Bellew, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America. Another foundational classic about how the post-Vietnam War militarization of the white power movement led to the Oklahoma City bombing. It's also really good context for a lot of the great works that have come out recently about Waco. Also you can read this book instead of swallowing your dignity and giving zoom-masturbator Jeffrey Toobin your money.

Donovan X Ramsey, When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era. This could very well be the best book that came out this year, just a beautiful, empathetic, humanist view of the crack epidemic that perfectly balances the broader context with oral history.

Anna Lowensapt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World: This is a weirder choice, but I think it aligns well with alot of the other topics on this list: the consequences of the Vietnam War, the economic collapse in the Pacific Northwest, a new kind of underclass in the global capitalist system...but about mushrooms.

Donna Gaines, Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia’s Dead End Kids. This is a journalistic work written in the 1980s but I think the social panic about (white) teenage suicide, heavy metal, satanism, etc is something that has gotten somewhat forgotten in histories of the 1980s. One thing that feels deeply Of that Time is how the end of the cold war made it harder for working class teenagers to "just" join the military.

Jason LaPerle, American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids and a Nation’s Drive to End Welfare: Another deeply empathetic portrait of three women in Milwaukee and how the Clinton welfare reforms affected their lives.

Susan Faldo, Backlash. Look, you really do have to read this classic 1980s feminist brick. You do. It's infurirating and important and pretty fun too.

Mike Davis, Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster: Mike Davis is the grim, communist Joan Didion; I love him and miss him. Davis also co-wrote a massive history of Los Angeles in the 1960s that I really recommend and an extremely non-massive history of the car bomb that I recommend above all.

[blorbocedes]

i wish u would write: more lesbians!sico 🙏🏻

"Would you still like me if I was a worm?"

Seb asks stupid questions like this, lying belly flop on Nico's dorm bed.

"No. Worms are disgusting." Nico rolls her eyes, carefully cutting out Britney Spears' image from the glossy magazine cover. She's going to mail order that halter top later.

Seb turns to look at her all sad with her freakish blue eyes and floppy hair, about to launch into an explanation about why worms are very important for the ecology, actually. Nico revises her answer. Blame Lewis for insults being her love language.

"I would put you in a terrarium. Plenty of enrichment. Good soil."

"We cannot date if I'm in a terrarium." Seb pouts. Her tee shirt rode up as she moved, exposing a stripe of pale skin. Seb's always pale while Nico gets a flush golden tan in Monaco. Sebastian has gotten this strange impression that simply because they have sex and spend time together afterwards that they're 'dating.' Nico hasn't corrected her on it yet.

"It's frowned upon to date worms." Nico finishes her scrapbooking, scooching over to the squeaky twin sized dorm bed.

"Well, I would date you if you were a worm. Maybe it would be better, I could finally get you to come watch the Return Of The King with me." Seb smiles, linking one of her legs with Nico's, jeans against bare skin.

"How would you get a terrarium in the theatre, genius?" Nico hates that she's playing along this stupid thought experiment, when there's a young, hot body in her bed and she doesn't have class until the afternoon. She runs her fingers against Seb's bare stomach, feels her get goosebumps at the touch.

"I'll-- uh," Seb is momentarily distracted, blinking at Nico, licking her lips, and they really are so red and biteable. "Sneak you in my pocket. Keep you warm."

It's 2004 and none of their jeans have real pockets.

"Yeah?" Nico crawls on top, eyes dark. "Keep me here?" Nico pulls on the fake pocket of her low rise jeans, exposing her hip bone, circling her thumb over it. Seb writhes at the touch. It's very validating, she goes pink wherever Nico touches her, as if Seb isn't the one whose fucked everyone on campus while Nico's relatively new to carpet munching, but a diligent learner.

"Or here?" Nico asks, sliding her hand under Seb's shirt -- squeezing her tit, impossibly warm like a molten core.

"Damn you. Everywhere." Seb begs, promises, pulling Nico down to put her tongue in her mouth.

#seb's a lotr emo band geek so naturally a huge slut. nicos bicurious and breaking up with lewis turned her gay #girl sico #sico my beloved #my ficlets #blorbocedes ask #f1 rpf #hehe I hope you like it ! :3

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Collapsing Empires

One of our classic stories is the band of Plucky Rebels against the Evil Empire. I will boldly go on record as saying I love these stories. Who doesn’t want to cheer on the rag-tag determined heroes fighting against overwhelming odds? (See Star Wars, The Last Starfighter, The Magnificent Seven, and so many others.)

On the other hand I also read history, and so there’s something I’ve noticed. While the urge to create an empire seems to be a human constant, individual empires always fall. Eventually.

I’m sure there are many reasons for this. I’ll give you a few I’ve noticed; you can probably suggest more. The three I’ve got are environmental shifts, out of context problems, and the elite desire to stay in power at all costs.

Each of these can, of course, feed into the others. Here’s a few examples.

Environmental shifts are nasty. Some are from human land use - deforestation and gold or lead mining do numbers on large areas - but others are just the solar system giving you a Bad Era. To be very general, our climate tends to alternate between periods of warmer and more predictable weather, and cooler, less predictable weather patterns. (You can in fact have a scorching drought or a dozen in an Ice Age. It’s just on average cooler.)

Empires tend to get started and grow during the good times, to the point they’re right on the edges of their ecological limits as to how many people can make a living without starving. And then a bad spot hits. And things go sideways. As they say of bankruptcies, first slowly, then all at once. Famines usually start in some spots, and the empire handles it, getting ever more stressed - and then worse weather sparks floods and mudslides, and out of that ecological havoc you tend to get plagues, and between plague and famine you can’t feed or levy enough troops.... And then law and empires collapse as everyone scrambles madly to survive and people who were on the empire’s borders try to make out like a bandit. Pun fully intentional.

A “sudden” (usually over decades) climate change might be considered an out of context problem... but I had more direct and weirder things in mind. At one point, for example, we had archaeological evidence that the Luwian Kingdom might have been wiped out by a comet strike. Current archaeology thinks not, but the scenario still remains possible for fiction. Not to mention the scholarly wrangling over what really happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. It looks like the real-life cities were on a very oil-rich plain. So theoretically, if a meteor shower came down and punched a few holes....

But you don’t have to look to outer space. Cortez and other conquistadores showed up from across the Atlantic with a deep history of warfare that was an extremely out of context problem for the Aztecs, Incas, and many more. (Yes, diseases played a big role. But historically the conquistadores legit beat local armed forces high, wide, and handsome.) Joseon Korea and Tokugawa Japan had similar problems with the rest of the world. Anna and the King is a fictionalized version of the King of Siam trying to ease his kingdom into a soft landing in the modern world. I can only imagine the battles he must have had with his court over that.

Which leads to the third reason I see empires fall. If a ruler wants to keep ruling, and doesn’t trust his people, he has to make sure no one else is strong enough to oppose him. But keeping everyone too weak to fight you means that sooner or later, they’re too weak and corrupt to fight someone else.

And on the edges of an empire, there is always Someone Else.

Side note: This is one of many reasons I think a republic is the best government to create and maintain a nation. Ideally we have people in power getting overthrown all the time. We just do it on an agreed-upon regular basis. Unfortunately that was also supposed to apply to all bureaucracy....

Anyway. If you’re writing Plucky Rebels against the Evil Empire, go for it! But you might want to also poke some history and see if any of these real-world factors apply. Smart rebels take advantage of an existing crisis! Just ask Li Zicheng.

Though note what happened to him....

#creative writing #worldbuilding

[mimisempai]

You brighten my life like a Christmas light

Summary

Aziraphale is looking forward to decorating the outside of the bookshop with various Christmas lights. But that's not counting the annoying Mr. Brown, who has decreed that Christmas lights will be banned from Whickber Street this year for ecological reasons.

Notes

Thank you @ruby-gold for your donation to Alzheimer's Research UK in exchange for this story.

Thank you for this incredible prompt!

And to all my lovely readers, welcome to this ineffable Advent Calendar!

INEFFABLE ADVENT CALENDER

On Ao3

Rating G -  1486 words

"Doing good again, Angel?"

Aziraphale turned to Crowley, who had just appeared beside him.

His eyes fell on the small goat the demon carried in his arms, then on the long red hair barely concealed by his shepherd's veil.

The demon nudged him on the shoulder and continued, "I bet you're responsible for the roof over their heads and keeping the straw warm." 

Aziraphale whispered back, "The poor souls, no one could house them, and she was about to give birth, I couldn't let them..."

Crowley leaned over and interrupted, whispering in his ear, "Easy, Angel, I wasn't blaming you."

Suddenly, their attention was drawn to a movement in the crowd of shepherds, and following their gaze, they saw three men arrive who were clearly not locals. Their arms laden with gifts, they came to kneel before the woman holding the baby, and the eldest said in an emotional voice, "We have followed the star to find and pay homage to the newborn, the King of the Jews."

Aziraphale whispered to Crowley, a half smile on his lips, "The star, huh? What a coincidence."

Crowley shrugged and replied, "As much of a demon as I am, I can appreciate the effort of three magi coming from so far away to pay homage to a baby."

This time it was Aziraphale who nudged him on the shoulder and said, "You're such a nice dem--"

"Shut up!"

"Shh!"

A shepherd had just turned to them and looked at them with an annoyed expression as he continued, "The little one has finally stopped crying, your bickering will wake him up."

The angel and the demon looked at each other in silence before stifling a giggle.

Aziraphale chuckled slightly at the memory as he finished placing the last of the figures in the nativity scene under the decorated and lit tree that stood in the center of the bookstore.

He stepped back and let his eyes wander over the garlands and other decorations that festively lit up the bookshop. He knew he was going a bit overboard with the Christmas ornaments, but he loved this time of year, so why deprive himself.

He turned to grab the box of outdoor lights and headed for the door.

"Mr. Fell, I hope those aren't Christmas lights you have in that box?"

Aziraphale turned sharply to Mr. Brown, who had just walked up behind him, and asked, "Why? Would that be a problem?"

Mr. Brown replied, "Didn't you read the memo?"

Aziraphale tried to remember what he was talking about, but the other man didn't wait for him to answer and continued, "The use of electric garlands is restricted for environmental and aesthetic reasons.

"But..." Aziraphale tried to protest, but was cut off by Mr. Brown, who added, "No exceptions. Have a nice day."

The annoying redhead walked away without a backward glance, and Aziraphale stood speechless outside the store door for a few moments before returning inside, his cardboard box still in his arms, but looking utterly disappointed.

Little did he know that someone else had witnessed the entire scene.

Taking one last look at the angel's silhouette, whose dejection was visible even from outside the shop, Crowley strode toward the record store. A few seconds later, he emerged with Maggie and Muriel, and the three of them headed for the coffee shop.

**********

"Angel... wake up."

A hand gently shook his shoulder and Aziraphale opened his eyes to see that it was still dark. 

He looked at his old alarm clock on the bedside table and, seeing the time, protested, "Crowley, it's the middle of the night, why are you waking me?"

He felt the demon move next to him and his voice whispered in his ear, "Because I have a surprise for you."

The word surprise was all the angel needed to be convinced, and he immediately sat up in bed, making the demon chuckle.

Crowley planted a kiss on his cheek and said softly, "Get dressed."

"Why?"

The demon simply replied, "Wait and see."

Aziraphale turned sharply toward him and Crowley continued, "Irritating, isn't it?"

The angel replied, "Idiot."

Crowley, a satisfied smile on his lips, watched with amusement as the angel dressed, then he walked around the bed, approached him and, grabbing his hand, dragged him down the stairs. Arriving at the bottom, he paused and, turning to Aziraphale, conjured a blindfold before gently asking, "May I?"

Aziraphale nodded and turned to allow the demon to blindfold him.

Crowley placed his hands on the angel's shoulders and asked gently, "Do you trust me to lead you?"

Aziraphale leaned his head back against the demon and replied softly, "That goes without saying, my dear."

Crowley kissed the angel's hair, nudged him gently before turning him around and walking him to the door of the bookshop. Then he stopped, made Aziraphale put on his coat, and tied a scarf around his neck.

"Oh, we're going out."

"Absolutely, Angel, you really are an excellent detective."

Aziraphale shook his head with a smile, and Crowley, who had slipped on a warm jacket himself, put his hands on the Angel's shoulders again and led him out of the bookshop, walking a few yards until they were in the middle of the street, deserted at this time of night.

Then he said quietly, "Ready, Angel?"

Aziraphale nodded and Crowley continued, "1... 2... 3... Let there be light!"

He untied the blindfold and Aziraphale opened his eyes to an overwhelming display of light.

Lights everywhere, garlands adorning every shop on the street, a festival of warm, colorful lights. He turned around with a look of amazement on his face, unable to say a word because he was so stunned.

After a few moments, he turned to the demon and said, eyes shining, "Crowley... it's... it's wonderful. But how and why and Mr. Brown and..."

Crowley chuckled softly, then took the Angel's hands in his and said softly, "Easy, Angel, one question at a time. First, the why. I witnessed your conversation with Mr. Brown, and I know this time of year is important to you, so I figured there had to be something we could do, so we'll get to the how. Well, with the help of some friends..." he pointed out the coffee-shop window to Aziraphale, who could see Maggie, Nina and Muriel inside waving their hands at him, and Crowley continued, "we put our heads together, and while everyone was asleep, I miracled all those tinsel, ornaments and Christmas lights."

"But..."

Crowley kissed the tip of Aziraphale's cold reddened nose and interrupted, "My impatient angel, let me finish, will you? Maggie and Nina are the only people here who know about us and our... powers, so they helped me concoct this little lie for Mr. Brown. All these lights are powered by a revolutionary, ultra-ecological component. And with the help of some of our other friends, he won't have to say a word. Because we're going to make Wickber Street the place to be for Christmas."

The demon snapped his fingers and an illuminated Santa Claus flashed across the sky. He snapped his fingers again and a Christmas story was projected onto the front of the music store.

Crowley continued, "Justine will be offering mulled wine to all visitors, Mr. Arnold will be playing Christmas music over the loudspeakers all along the street, and of course, everyone will come to see the gorgeous Nativity scene in front of the bookstore.

He snapped his fingers again, and the bookstore window lit up to reveal an enchanting Nativity scene, similar in every way to Aziraphale's memory.

"So you see, Angel, dear Mr. Brown won't be able to say anything, anything at all, because mmfff..."

Crowley was unable to continue because Aziraphale had thrown himself into his arms and pressed his lips to his in a rather passionate kiss.

When they parted to catch their breath, Aziraphale wrapped his arms around the demon's waist and pressed himself against his chest.

As Crowley closed his arms around him, the angel murmured in an obviously emotional voice, "Thank you, my love. You have no idea how happy this makes me."

Crowley whispered into the angel's hair, "You should know by now, Angel, that all I want is to make you happy."

Aziraphale replied against his chest, "You know I am happy without all that. This year, the most beautiful of my Christmas lights is you, my love."

Crowley chuckled softly and replied, "Oh, no, the Christmas spirit makes you even sappier."

"Don't pretend you don't like it," the angel replied.

The demon merely hummed in response, and as Aziraphale snuggled closer to him, Crowley's eyes were drawn to some movement behind the coffee shop window. 

Amused, he saw their friends smiling broadly and giving him the thumbs up. 

His angel was right, with or without Christmas lights, with their life here and their friends, they were both happy here.

_________

Still not beta'd

Still not my native language

Still hoping you'll enjoy this story  🥰

Still thanking you for bearing with me 😝

Ineffable Growing Love series : (After season 2) 

Part 1 Story 1-99

Part 2 Story 100-?

Ineffable Husbands masterlist : here (Before season 2)

#good omens #aziracrow #ineffable husbands #ineffable boyfriends #aziraphale #crowley #good omens fanfiction #aziraphale x crowley #crowley x aziraphale #GOS2Spoilers #advent calendar #xmas #christmas lights

[thenamesblurrito]

To bring some positivity to TFOne coming out, what stuff did you like about the trailer? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

oh man im still digesting it a lil bit but whoof lets go-

ECOLOGY

WE HAVE ROBOT ANIMALS!!! FLORA AND FAUNA!! WE SEE MORE THAN JUST CITIES WE SEE LANDSCAPES AND GEOGRAPHIC FEATURES AND A BLEND OF CIVILIZATION AND WILD SPACES AND A PROPER ALIEN PLANET!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ANIMALS!!!!!

like don't get me wrong the cities themselves rock and are gorgeous, but we only ever see like... just a bunch of grey metal and blocky greebled buildings and rust. Cyberverse was probably my favorite properly alien planet as a whole instead of just a really big sci fi city named Cybertron and i'm so excited to see what they do with it in One, ESPECIALLY with how it seems to be heavily technoorganic and hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Quintessonsssssssssssss eeeheheheheh give me the SQUIDS

actually for that matter the aesthetics?? this is such a fascinating artistic direction that i'm really appreciating like the vaporwave sunsets, the fractal moving mountains and aurora horizon, those busy neon city scenes and the upside down underground towers and... whoof it's all so incredible?? and it manages to be visually stunning WITHOUT just being a bunch of, yknow, greebled nonsense. it looks designed, it looks like it has Culture and Life and Intent behind it instead of being a mess of vaguely robotic detail slapped on. i keep wondering what the significance of the tower on the poster will be. the train things are fascinating. the little hints and implications of society and oh how interesting that could be expanded on. the mecha themselves too are like, halfway in between uncanny valley and stylized tin soldier toys for me in a way that took a bit of getting used to but i'm appreciating more and more how it's visibly and joyfully animated instead of trying (and failing) to be 'live action' like the Lion King

the SCALE. THE SCALE!!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW RARE IT IS WE GET SO MANY NAMED KNOWN CHARACTERS PACKED INTO SCENES LIKE THIS. tf canons usually have core casts of characters both for storytelling and budget reasons and yet here we've got so many shown off in just the trailer, it makes it feel like a real populated planet instead of a handful of robots and some set dressing like Aligned feels like to me.

i've got some insane questions like why does D-16 already have a Decepticon brand on him??? why is Alpha Trion alone and sad and did he rip those tcogs out of the corpses of other primes to give to them and why is he some kinda mossy gorgonopsid unicorn?? why is Sentinel getting tentacled and will we see him be ripped limb from limb (positive)?? what are Vehicons here and how do they differ from regular bots and what is their purpose???

the only real issue i have is Hasbro being predictable and shoving Bee in when someone else would really better fit this movie as he's typically not meant to be in this time period/role but eh. disappointed but not surprised and willing to let go and laugh at him being comic relief anyway. there's literally not enough information on anything else for me to say if i don't like it or not yet bc i have no idea how they're gonna execute it, but what is there has me eager and hopeful it'll be good

i guess the biggest thing is. it looks fun. it looks FUN!!! the world looks fun, the characters look like they're having fun, it just seems like a movie that wants me to ENJOY it!! i'm ready for a fun movie in a franchise i love!!

#tf one #tf one spoilers #it just looks SO FUN!!!! #ew canon

[spiritshaydra]

Oh yeah funny story

So I went on a field trip yesterday out to this field station on an island out in the hyper-saline lagoon that’s like,, right down the road to collect botanical samples for my wetland ecology lab.

Left a little while after 2pm.

We were on the island for about two hours collecting plants (and finishing the trip off with some king cake) before hopping back on the boat. It was about 4:30pm

So,, normal lab field trip right?

WRONG.

Our boat stops suddenly and a big plume of mud is sprayed out from behind the skiff. Not a good sign. Four guys hop out of the boat and start trying to push the boat free- Laguna Madre is VERY shallow, especially in this area since we weren’t where they had dredged it out for the larger ships, so the water was about knee deep where we got stuck.

We started moving again. Kinda. I see the guys get these poles out and start using them to turn the boat like those gondolas in Venice. (Sadly no accordion) Also not a good sign.

THEN the guy who was sitting at the wheel gets up and walks up to the front where we were sitting and pulls the anchor out, and then drops it out into the water. NOT A GOOD SIGN.

Then I hear my professor talking about calling the biology lab coordinator to figure out what the fuck to do, and then she’s on the phone with someone talking about how we need someone to come out and tow us back to the boat ramp. 💀

It’s 5:30pm now and the sun’s beginning to set. (And my other lab back on campus had just begun, which I obviously wasn’t able to attend unless I could teleport) My brother also happened to call me which I answered with a “hey you won’t be able to guess where the fuck I currently am.” Never a dull moment.

Another hour passes and FINALLY the lab tech guy shows up with another boat to tow us back (while wearing his Iron Maiden shirt like an absolute legend, we love lab tech guy) it’s now sunset and we’re finally moving. Slowly, but moving’s moving.

The sun set completely and I had dozed off a little as there really wasn’t much else to do. It was also COLD with the wind blowing off the water and the lack of sunlight. Thank GOD I decided to wear both my hoodie and wind breaker, along with a bandana to use as a scarf. Eventually we made it back to the boat ramp at around 7pm. So I’d finally be able to go back to my apartment and have some warm hot chocolaty goodness right?”

HA if only it was that easy.

It probably took them an hour to get the boats back onto their trailers because they kept loading them incorrectly and would have to retry. Me and some other classmates stood out in the cold for about fifteen minutes before we realized that we could hop in the van where it was warm, and wait in there. So that’s EXACTLY what we did. Luckily I packed some snacks because I thought it wouldn’t hurt to bring them along, so I just kinda,,, passed around a bag of trail mix.

Something something hour later we get back to campus at like 8pm where I was finally able to go back to my dorm. (My wonderful roommate brought me hot chocolate bless her)

Anyways I’m tired <33

TLDR: Went on what should’ve been a three hour long field trip for hehe swamp science fun times and our boat's steering went out so we were strANDED FOR TWO FUCKING HOURS IN THE LAGOON. We were out in the sun for like five hours and gone for six. I love being a stem major <333 yippee!!

(For those biology nerds out there we saw mullets jumping out of the water, sea grass beds, black mangroves, various salt flat succulents, stupid plant with wickedly sharp thorns that ripped apart the sample bag it was in, wolf berries, mosquitoes, a tiger moth caterpillar, turkey vultures, dolphins, brown and white pelicans, mosquitoes, a crested caracara, tons of laughing gulls, great blue herons, mosquitoes, egrets, white ibises, cormorants, and black tipped skimmers.)

#spit takes #weird science

[dragonturtle2]

The Collector’s Magical Kingdom of Appropriation

The Collector’s reign over the Boiling Isles is actually a huge illustrated metaphor of cultural appropriation. Sure, there are the more blatant signs of full on colonialism and genocide. We plainly see the entire native population is either enslaved or hidden away in fear, while Collector takes their territory for himself. But The Owl House has always spent time being a mirror held up to the consequences of the fantasy genre, and the desires of its fans.

Think of the stars with eyes that Collector uses to decorate the Isles, and deploys as enslaver drones. Why the star shape? It’s not just a reminder of how he/they are technically a little kid. It’s the overriding aesthetic of the Collector society. They seem to live in the cosmos itself, their clothes have celestial bodies all over them, and each one of them apparently had a phase of the moon stamped on their faces. So in order to make the Boiling Isles more appealing to himself, Collector stamped his local iconography all over them. He/They took one look at the native architecture and design and decided it wasn’t suitable to his wants. Along with morphing the citizens into wood and plaster, he gave them redesigned and rebranded outfits. Even the local ecology and vistas were crudely plastered over, to the point that a newcomer like Camila Noceda couldn’t distinguish what elements were original.

And these aesthetics are designed to wage war with each other. The inhabitants and architecture of the Boiling Isles are modeled after the free-range bizarreness of Hieronymus Bosch. The most mundane utilities are steeped in the macabre, and nobody even blinks an eye at. This reflects how the Witch civilizations have mimicked the dead giant that gave rise to their existence. Possibly how they’re so at ease with the very concept of death, since they live with the reminder of it’s inevitability, and how it can bring beauty.

What Collector prefers is an 80’s G-rated fantasy kiddie cartoon in the vein of Care Bears.

There’s also the metanarrative aspect with how Luz’s entire story has been passed on. The Collector has spent all these months play-acting Luz’s life; all her accomplishments, and all her sacred bonds. Yes it was King’s suggestion; “the Owl House” game. But Collector obviously loves it. Yet Collector has nothing but contempt for Luz herself, even as a concept. He/They get pouty or mopey whenever she gets referenced. We’ve all seen this pattern of thought with bad faith arguments from chuds online, when it comes to certain franchises. Where they don’t actually have any problems with the story or the particular tropes, they just get pissy when the protagonist is a female or person of color. Collector calls Luz “that human,” like who she was born as is an insult.

The only person Collector treats anything like a peer is King, because he is also a species that reaches Godhood. All the lesser species can be treasured pets, at best. The Collector shares a mindset (or at least outward habits) with bigoted gatekeepers, where the joys of a story or franchise aren’t deserved by people who don’t remind them of themselves. Even if those different types of people are the ones who created the story in the first place. Their accomplishments are only worthwhile if HE can use them, including stamping his name and face on them. Colonialism doesn’t just steal the fruits of labor, they steal your stories of the past, present, and future.

:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:

As an aside, the actions of erasure also extend to the only remotely real bond Collector has, King. Which isn’t surprising given that he’s literally redecorating and playing games with the corpse of King’s dad. The process King’s gone through is assimilation by way of involuntary adoption. King is dressed in Collector clothes, lives in a Collector palace (built atop his dad’s resting place), and learns Collector lore as he reads Collector bedtime stories. Meanwhile, his mom and auntie are living behind bars while they scrounge for their prescriptions.

Although this isn’t quite the intended assimilation like Collector has done for the entire Isles and witch-kind; he/they are just offering King what they enjoy most, which mostly defaults to what they’re already familiar with. That’s just normal for kids, and people in general.

I believe this is a different kind of warning Collector poses to anyone who enjoys stories, and all us involved in fandom. Not just the terror of artistic gentrification. It’s seeking out stories, characters and settings to only fulfill our own desires and preferences. Searching for only baseline wish fulfillment can trap us in a bubble that stops us from growing. Then if something is unique or incongruous, we either throw it away or end up mangling the interpretation. And when art is swept aside and destroyed, we’re also degrading where it came from. It’s creator, it’s people, and it’s country.

:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:

When King first came into his Titan power, I thought it seemed strange that it was a vocal attack. Just because the actual physical noises of the Titan - speech, language, cries - have never had any prominence in this show. Descriptions or theories of how that species have never been included in the lore reveals, or the musings or sayings of the local populace. The closest we’ve gotten is Belos’s original lie, “I am the voice of the Titan.”

I assumed it was meant to contrast with King’s squeaky voice and grand boasts being his main source of comedy. And just basic symbology about puberty. But after writing all this, I’m convinced it was setting up how to save the day from whatever Belos and Collector will try to inflict.

King will stand with his mother and sister (and hopefully aunt and Hooty) and they ALL scream out that what they have is perfect. They scream to prove they exist, and they don’t need to write any coherent song or reasonable argument to prove or earn that right. Their identity, their self perception and self respect, is their power. The most basic of expression can annihilate oppressors, as long is it’s honest. And of course, coordinated noise is a great opportunity for some musician to get involved.

Big thanks to @marztheincredible for Beta’ing the preceding essay concerning this very histories and complex subject.

#the owl house #toh #luz noceda #toh the collector #toh collector #king clawthorne #cultural erasure #tw cultural erasure #cultural appropriation #owl house Titan #tw colonialism #Youtube #toh king #toh titan #toh analysis #owl house analysis #owl house essay #marztheincredible

[radical-revolution]

The Meaning of Life

Life is so enormous that it has no meaning. If there was a meaning. The moment you found the meaning it would be over. You can’t finish off life like that. You write a million books about it. Still it is ever expanding. There is no meaning to life. Meaning very rudimentary minds in the world are always trying to explain life off as this or that. You can’t explain it off, because it contains you. It is you. Everything that you discover is just a small aspect of it. What are the meanings you give it to? What are the definitions you give it to or just your notions about it? Life is far beyond meaning. Life is beyond meaning. That’s why it’s so beautiful.

We are all unique. Each one of us different. It’s so wonderful that we’re different. We may spring from the same oneness. As human beings. As individuals every one of us is unique. We are different, that’s what is beautiful about us. The oneness is not yet in our experience. At least not yet in the common human experience. At least lets enjoy the difference. If you learn to enjoy the difference. If you see that every human being is a unique human being. Only once in the whole eternity, only once this kind of human being happens. You cannot find exactly this kind of human being anywhere else in the existence, at any time in eternity. Only once. That is true with yourself, with your friend, with your enemy, with your loved ones and the ones you hate. All of them are absolutely unique. Anything that you see as unique, you value it. Anything that you value, you will have no problems with it and oneness will happen out of that. If you’re beginning to enjoy the uniqueness of life, oneness will happen all the time.

The fear is simply because you’re not living with life. You’re living in your mind. Your fear is always about what’s going to happen next. That means your fear is always about that which does not exist. If you’re fear is about the non-existent, your fear if one hundred percent imaginary. If you’re suffering the non-existential, we call that insanity. People may be in just socially accepted levels of insanity. If you’re afraid or if you’re suffering anything which does not exist, it amounts to insanity, isn’t it? People are always suffering, either what happened yesterday or what may happen tomorrow. Your suffering is always about that which does not exist. Simply because you’re not rooted in reality. You’re always rooted in your mind. Mind, is one part of it is memory, another part is imagination. Both of them are in one way imagination because both of them don’t exist right now. Your lost in your imagination, that’s the basis of your fear. If you were rooted in reality. There would be no fear.

Why is there poverty and suffering in the world? One thing is poverty, the way we describe poverty right now is very dependent upon certain standards that we have set ourselves. Who is poor. Who is rich is decided by certain standards that certain societies have set. Ten thousand years ago living in a cave was a luxury. If you had a good cave for yourself and something to cover yourself, it was a great life. Today we have created so many things for our well-being. Anybody who cannot afford to have that, we consider that poverty. What’s poverty in one society need not be poverty in another society. There’s trying to have a world view of common sense of poverty. Saying that if you earn anything less than ten dollars per hour you are poor, I think is an improper way of looking at the world.

I know in South India if a man earns two dollars per day, not per hour he can live well. He can live reasonably okay. The kind of prosperity that we are talking about. Our standards of prosperity are completely unrealistic and ecologically unsustainable. This idea of poverty and prosperity needs to go through a lot of change. I come from a culture where people have chosen many times, not now. Many times to be consciously poor, by choice. This is a culture where kings have chosen to walk as beggars. Poverty is not necessarily in terms of whether you have a car to drive or not. Whether you have a big house to live or not. That’s not so. Definitely the world is poor because in spite of all this wealth. In spite of all this comfort and conveniences that science has heaped up on us. Still people are living joyless. Still people are living not knowing how to live. We know how to go to the Mars, but we still don’t know how to live on this planet. That’s definitely poverty.

Sadhguru

[ruthlesslistener]

you eever think how pk and wl being together and their fondness for ogrim is like an agriculture (i think thats the right word) reference

No but that's really fucking cool and big brained of you anon, holy fucking shit. I figured that the union of Mind and Life was a sort of metaphor for eking out a balance between expansion and respecting the land, or some sort of metaphor for civilization booms (since innovation coexisting with nature is how you get big civilization booms historically), but that being a reference to agriculture?? Genius. Especially if we take the timeline of Hallownest to be a sort of mirror to the progression of time over a desolate area, with nothingness -> the Void Sea rising and forming caverns through erosion -> recession of the Abyss leaving behind blank rock and fossils -> Unn's mosses and other primary successors like lichen and fungi colonizing the bare rock and turning it into livable soil -> the coming of the White Lady and her rooted plants representing secondary succession. Radi and PK are kind of outliers to that unless we view them specifically as the evolution of the minds of bugs, in which the Radiance's era = blind religious devotion, and the Pale King succeeding her = the intellectual renaissance of the bug kingdoms, where religion still hasn't entirely phased out of having an extremely prominant role in life, but intellectal pursuits that would once be called blasphemy are now accepted and encouraged, and an age of learning and innovation has sprung forth (not unlike the European Dark Ages tbh). And Ghost's ascention to the Lord of Shades comes as a neat little tieoff to both these issues as well, with the Void being a very literal cleansing force, and the success of their character arc being based upon self-determination and personal innovation insted of being bogged down by the chains of the past and other's expectations.

(Which, all of this sounds presumptuous as hell when I actually sit back and look at it, but come on. You cannot tell me that the Radiance doesn't give off major 'pray to me and I will heal all wounds' vibes, while the Pale King is very much 'I gave you mind for a reason, learn to heal it yourself'. Granted, Radi probably DID actually tend directly to her people's wounds, and the Moth Tribe are certainly advanced in terms of essence-weaving and other aspects, but the beetle tribe was def. left in the dirt here, and I have to assume that the moths ditched Radi for a reason other than just 'pretty new light'. Increased independance without realizing that PK would leave them to fend for themselves was probably that reason.)

As for Ogrim, I legit just thought it was a joke about how plants and worms (wyrm and root) both love poop. WL is a rooted being whose success entirely depended on the nutrients in the soil around her before she became a god, while PK, gross as it is, probably was drawn to the smell of fresh dung because it either indicated that prey was close by, or because soil rich with nutrients provided by it often had a lot of food growing in or nearby it compared to the otherwise-barren sands of the Wastelands. So both would have their brains wired to find the pungent smell of mulch, rotting debris, and dung to = survival and good things, bc its important to both of their ecological niches. Which means that Ogrim probably smells great to them both and is why Ghost is fine tramping all over the Fungal Wastes and the Waterways without a care, as they have both those genes going for them. It's kinda like how dogs are wired to think rotting squirrels and cow poop smells super awesome and great to roll in, but thinks lilac perfumes are gross. They're just built different

(Granted, I made this assumption because PK straight-up gave Ogrim a charm to make him stinkier, and WL didn't seem to be at all bothered by his scent, but then again I usually think about the characters from a biological pov first and a societal pov second. For example, its very likely that most of the bugs in Hallownest hate the 'heroic odor' of Defender's Crest because they are creatures that normally feed on fresh meat and vegetation, and that the ones who like it are bugs who prefer rotting foods, or make their homes in decaying enviromments. So the concept of there being an agriculture metaphor somewhere in there with WL's plants, PK's innovation, and Ogrim's poop completely flew over my head there, shdheh.)

#fun fact radi isnt affected by defenders crest so she has no opinions on the matter #hollow knight #the pale king #the white lady #ogrim hk #hk ogrim #anon #reply #hollow knight meta

[rassilon-imprimatur]

Hideaki Anno’s Shin Godzilla Strikes Back pitch being a love letter to the Champion Festival + Godzilla vs Evangelion: The Real 4-D being Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster with Shinji, Asuka, and Rei playing the parts of Rodan and Mothra, complete with Godzilla playing a “hero’s” role despite the sheer Shin Godzilla™ of him, it just gets me thinking.

For all Shingoji (obviously) approaches Shodaigoji (and the maquette), the slow sweeping tail of King Kong vs Godzilla, and the sinister zombie lumber of Mothra vs Godzilla and 1984, along with the darker and grim energy of Godzilla as a horribly burned and disfigured mutant... 

... there’s still so much of the 60s + 70s “begrudging good guy” and kid’s superhero Godzillas in the design? Daisensogoji’s blobby, earless crust of a head, the gnarled teeth. Soshingekigoji’s long neck, bell-shaped body, furrowed brow. Megarogoji’s ‘75 side profile, the dorsal arrangement. The jaws, the faces, the noses! 

All the NGE tie-in merch, games, rides, and the current Shin Japanese Heroes Universe nonsense all frame Shin Godzilla in that begrudging hero role, in a hilariously deranged contrast with his horrifying nature and apocalyptic existence. And the more I think about it, while we sit in fannish imaginings of the Fifth Form swarming, further horror and The End of Evangelion-styled nightmares set to Ifukube tracks, I think Anno’s “Champion Festival” sequel really would’ve been that same deranged joke? Especially with Shinji Higuchi’s Shin Ultraman energy, the delight and self-aware handling of Tokusatsu as its most gleeful, cranked up, gigglingly unhinged. 

Shin Godzilla, world-devastating ecological disaster, twitching and brimming with horrors beyond our comprehension (Hiromi Ogashira comprehends them, but we would die) simultaneously walking into Invasion of Astro Monster, Ebirah, Godzilla vs. Hedorah. Shin Godzilla vs Gigan complete with peacefully returning to the ocean, boiling it as he goes. 

You know, the threat of further evolutions constantly hanging overhead, further countdowns to UN attacks, all while beam spamming with The Real 4-D’s “Shin Ghidorah.” TriStar’s Godzilla 2000 dub “Then why does he keep protecting us/Maybe because Godzilla’s inside each of us” set to the most horrific horizon-splitting back laser combo move you can fucking imagine. I’d like it. 

#just have Higuchi retool the Real 4-D ride into an insane short and pair it with Yamazaki's movie and I'll know peace. #Shin Godzilla #Shin Godzilla Strikes Back #Hideaki Anno #Shinji Higuchi #Godzilla #Godzilla vs Evangelion: The Real 4-D #and etc. #Daisensogoji #Soshingejigoji #Megarogoji #Shodaigoji #etc.

[luonnon-varainen]

Can anyone tell my how is Eda going to feed King(and probably Collector) after everything goes back to normal?

Honestly, we talking about one semi god who is on his way to multiple his size and in the end has at least 15 km height and 5-year-old who is already as big as entire their planet. This two kidos gonna need a lot of food and one cranky old lady won't provide such an enormous amount of food to make them eat their full. Especially that both of them are rather carnivorous being(King literally has dozen of sharp teeth to eat meat, collector probably can eat everything and by this I also mean metal, stones, wood and any form of energy or force). King is growing up very quickly and he gonna need a lot to actually synthesizes new proteins and develops into fully grown titan. Titans need titanic amount of nutrients and I'm not really sure this planet has enough to handel King and let other beings alive at same time. Maybe when there were a lot of titans they could somehow live on such a small diversity in diet(I have this eerie feeling titans before meeting with collectors might have pretty nasty tendency to cannibalism, because there is no other way they could live on this planet in this size without same size food source), but not now with this small beings as a dominant size of life form. Same situation is with Collector, they needs a lot to grow five times bigger than they already are. And to get this many new atoms inside their body they needs to really decompose a lot.

Like, I need the answer how the Boiling Isles will deal with their small hungry gods on the deck. Dose Eda make a deal with entire island " I will rise those big-trouble boys and you will give me food every week so they won't look for food by themselves "or every citizen has obligation to once a year full thier bottomless tummies? Maybe cities will take shifts which will feed kids? Or Eda will basically send them on other island(Titan trappers for example) so they will eat as much as they need to grow up and won't bother main island? It is inhuman, but some sacrifice must be done to prevent another round of chaos on the boiling isles. One small island won't handle gods needs alone, one lady is not able to rise and control two troublesome kids alone and King can't decline their health for others also.

If the Collector also be new kid in squad, then how she will control their diet? Like, believing they eat metal and knowing what they are capable of, they can just slurp some of the planet core when nobody watchs them, causing little ice age. How Eda will feed little stary kid and prevent them from eating what never suppose to end in thier mouth? Just no-no or deals and games "who will longer resist drinking things that are tasty but nasty for others" would be involved. What actually will she give them? There is a chance that all organic food is for collectors junk food, if so how Eda will enforce them to eat healthy? By showing them side effects or wait till they get a little bit ill and be like "Ha! Who was right? This lady! I told you to stop eating apples.... " and then Collector start eating what they should from the beginning.

My love of biology and ecology just can't live this question without any hypothesis, so I shared them. If anybody has another hypothesis i would love to hear it 👉👈

#toh analysis #toh s3 #toh theory #the collector the owl house #toh king #the owl house theory #speculative biology #speculative ecology

[outofangband]

Flowers of the March of Maedhros (possibly part one, there are so many!)

flora, fauna, geography and environment of Arda

I love doing general flora and fauna posts but I can’t fit everything in them so I’m trying to make more specific ones as well! please please feel free to send categories to work on with locations! Or any environmental world building asks!

extensive environmental world building for himring plus more in the Himring tag

Himring was the fortress of Maedhros in the March of Maedhros, a cold realm in Northeastern Beleriand located slightly Southeast of Dorthonion and south of Lothlann and Ard Galen. It was a cold region with taiga forested hills and icy waters, including the sources of several rivers, namely Celon and Little Gelion. The March was located between the cold mountains on the Southern and Eastern borders of Dorthonion and the mountainous regions of the Gap and Thargelion on its own Eastern border.  The cold likely comes from a combination of its proximity to the Ered Engrin and Ered Gorgoroth, especially given the boreal forested region of Dorthonion, as well as altitude in some parts of it. I go into this more on other posts. 

The flora of the March is hardy, resistant to the cold that is present throughout so much of the year. Most flowers and herbaceous plants are herbaceous perennials that bloom in the spring and summer each year, sustained by their root stock despite the cold winters. 

The March contains several habitats; boreal forests/taiga, montane steppes and meadows, riverbanks and marshier areas. Towards Maglor’s Gap, rocky outcrops including many of limestone invite plants that thrive on calcareous soils. Lothlann and Ard-galen were montane or boreal meadows. While boreal forest in many places is divided into three zones (closed forest where trees cover more than forty percent of the ground and have a dense layer of grass, high boreal or alpine and Southern boreal where croppings of temperate decidious trees might be found) I think the March and also Dorthonion which has some similarities in climate and ecology, would see a combination of these ecosystems. 

Canon species: no canon species are associated with Himring, the March, or indeed much of Fëanorian occupied Eastern Beleriand

I use what we can extrapolate as possibly indigenous based on descriptions of climate, looking at similar real world locations, etc. I am also always happy to write posts based on real world locations by suggestion! (I’ve done the Havens of Sirion based on Southwestern Australia for example, etc. I think Tol Himling would have a similar climate to Hokkaidō). 

-Mountain and red clovers bloom on the hills and meadow steppes in the late spring and summer. Arctic dandelion grows in the meadows in the North towards Lothlann and Ard Galen as does Annual Gypsophila, cutleaf coneflower, arctic harebell (also grows on stream banks), broadleaf chives, cow parsnip, longstalk starwort, heath violet

-Mountain avens grow in rocky outcrops throughout the hills around Himring, usually in the summer. Moss campion also grows throughout the hills, above the tree line. Nodding campion, heath grounsel, snow saxifrage, baneberry (also stream banks)

-Great spur violet, fireweed (especially in clearings), snowdrop, wall lettuce, wild tulip and  grow in the forested areas. Boreal forests often contain berries and the forested areas around the hills has many species including bog bilberry, black crowberry, cloudberry, and wild strawberry. 

-Alongside the rivers grows wood or alpine sorrel alongside glacier buttercup, Lapland buttercup, Arctic butterbur, one flower fleabane (which also grows in forested belts and meadows), alpine rockcress, moor king, wood ruff, alpine butterwort, and arctic or prickly rose. 

-Arctic and common meadow rue grows in the North and West of the March in boggier areas as does milky whitlow grass, a flowering plant. 

-Common Groundsel grows throughout the region

World building notes:

-A number of these species have medicinal uses

-Others are used as fodder, in salads, garnishes and other dishes or in teas

-storing and preserving plants of various kinds is highly utilized in the March, more so than other elven realms. Both flora with medicinal and culinary uses are frequently preserved through drying, fermentation or other methods

#the silmarillion #maedhros #himring #beleriand #musing and meta

[peregrination-studies]

23 books in 2023

Thank you for the tag @the---hermit !! I did this challenge last year (available here), and finished all the books on my main list just in the nick of time! I’ve been planning this list out since about July of last year, and I’m really excited to get started on it! I’m also doing a few additional lists (ocean-themed, seasonally themed, etc.) that I might post throughout the year. We shall see!

Environmental science/ecology

1) Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (also recommended by friends) (read Dec 2023)

2) The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs: Use Outdoor Clues to Find Your Way, Predict the Weather, Locate Water, Track Animals — And Other Forgotten Skills by Tristan Gooley (read December 2023)

3) Listening to Whales by Alexandra Morton (read April 2023)

4) The World is Blue by Sylvia Earle (read August 2023)

5) Being Salmon Being Human by Martin Lee Mueller (read May 2023)

Classics/Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

6) Timeline by Michael Crichton (read Jan 2023)

7) The Awakening by Kate Chopin (read Nov 2023)

8) Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen (read Nov 2023)

9) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (read Nov 2023)

10) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (read March 2023)

Reading around the world

11) The Lost City of The Monkey God by Douglas Preston (Honduras) (read Nov 2023)

12) Alone on the Ice: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration by David Roberts (Antarctica) (read July 2023)

13) Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (South Africa) (read Nov 2023)

14) Beyond the Last Oasis by Ted Edwards (Western Sahara) (read December 2023)

15) The Blue Sky by Galsan Tschinag and Katharina Rout (translator) (Mongolia) (read Nov 2023)

Architecture and Design

16) The New Carbon Architecture by Bruce King (read Feb 2023)

17) Design with Life: Biotech Architecture and Resilient Cities by Mitchell Joachim and Maria Aiolova (read Feb 2023)

18) The Alchemy of Architecture: Memories and Insights from Ken Tate by Ken Tate and Duke Tate (read Nov 2023)

19) Houses that Can Save the World by Courtenay Smith and Sean Topham (read Jan 2023)

20) Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby (read Dec 2023)

Books recommended by friends

21) The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (Read Jun 2023)

22) O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (Read Dec 2023)

23) Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Read Jan 2023)

BONUS

24) Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan

25) Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

26) Defenceless: Gli Ultimi Romantici by Giulia Vola (second year of this on my list bc I think I’ll FINALLY be able to have access to my copy again!! Woohoo!!)

27) Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

28) Backpacked: A Reluctant Trip Across Central America by Catherine Ryan Howard

I really love this challenge, so I want to share it far and wide with the world, BUT I also know not everyone wants to do this, so absolutely no pressure tagging: @contre-qui @daydreaming-optimist @sweetlikehoneysteve @notetaeker @humble-boness @silhouette-of-sarah @willowstea @cheshire-castle-library @deirdredoodle @a-students-lifebuoy @phd-on-fire @amareteur @frithams @carefortheearth @ckmstudies @theskittlemuffin and anyone else who wants to!

#23 books in 2023 #bookblr #book recs #books #tagged #tag game #the—-hermit #Cris #friends #mutuals #Studyblr #studyspo #reading #reading recs #book lists

[firespirited]

In other news my Dune fixation caused by some amazing tumblr meta writing has not been sated by watching the DUNCs.

I had a long pretty good post typed out after the first one and tumblr ate it:

here goes:

I considered it an alternate timeline (by the time we get the non-Alia and Chani choices of DUNC 2, we're definitely in a different version of this story - I like not knowing if Messiah will be much like the book, I like it if there's no escaping the plots set in motion). I had to repeat Alternate Timeline as a litany when there was no diplomatic party, no tweaking methhead bitchy Piter and Kynes didn't get That Moment with nature.

Was disappointed by the fact Paul isn't already tormented by potential futures at his first major fight wondering if dying might be the best way to avoid mass death and escape the machinations. To me, in that fight, he's chosen a path to the suffering of billions and justifies it and refines it later.

Lynch Dune remains fun because it's bonkers, this is fun too but definitely alternate timeline and neither are at all how I imagine it. Lynch seemed to nail the spirit of some of the characters better despite massive creative liberties with the plot details. It's its own weird and wonderful artefact.

Villeneuve remains the king of ovoid spaceships, mega landscapes and letting the fashion and sound designers get a great budget. I love the Chani additions, not canon and I don't care, it works!

The lack of Arabic complex concepts and more references to eastern religions was sorely lacking: flow has to be more than just a picture of moving sand, i wanted that cells interlinked within cells interlinked: galaxies and molecules and populations easter egg.

I also had a hope for DUNC 2 that it would show the whole universe as deeply religious, as in hardwired to give themselves over to a higher power even if that belief is atheism or eugenics. It didn't and I think that's really important context to properly understand what the story is saying. We've got political devotion bad and religious zealotry bad with both being culturally groomed into people but not the larger context of other "cults" that aren't explicitly about power but self-improvement or belonging or even service.

----------------------

My silly pet theory is that the font is like that because we're probably never getting the two other "ones who bridge everything" of the trinity: sad worm god emperor and our man DUNC potadaho the ultimate renaissance man with a thousand lives. (As much as I'd love DUNC 8 2039: we're putting silver fox Momoa in situations again)

The dream will always be the cartoon/anime adaptation:

52 x 50-minute episodes that teeter wildly between dense political machinations, ecological exposition, that Bakshi LOTR trippy violence and even trippier visions interrupting action scenes, but most of all, near blasphemous levels of religious symbolism top to bottom, the Abramic sure, but the Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist. If they could add Paul getting a big dose of gender WTF: trill-style after being exposed to the water of life that would be amazing.

But yeah I need to get my hands on large print books - yeah yeah, the migraines will murder me regardless. I missed being in everyone's head. Like, the films are great a conveying scale but not how much it's an interpersonal drama first and foremost... for many of the side characters too.

#saf #movie reviews #dune

[queenlucythevaliant]

thanks! I guess my main question is; how can I be secure in my faith?

I was raised in the faith and I wish I could believe firmly with all my heart, but university (I study biomed) and the world's view of religion make it so hard. I've seen others say that genesis is allegory, which brings into question the historicity of the Bible and Jesus, and I don't know how that can reconcile with faith

Ooh! This is my favorite question :)

So I too was raised in the faith and I too study biology (microbiology in my case, with an emphasis on microbial ecology and evolution). I am firmly convinced that one should hold both Scriptural and scientific truth in high regard; when undertaken with a spirit of curiosity and humility, science and faith pose no threat to one another. In fact, I think understanding one bolsters an understanding of the other.

I'd start with this: I don't believe that Genesis is an allegory, nor do any of the theistic evolution proponents I've read and spoken to. Rather, Genesis uses figurative language to communicate creation and the fall from the perspective of a God who transcends time. Figurative language is innate in Scripture, and I think it's erroneous to take the most literalistic possible meaning for every line of the creation account. For what other part of Scripture do we do this?

I think we need to take it seriously; everything in Scripture is true. But I think when the creation account says, "And God separated the light from the darkness. He called the light Day and the darkness Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day," that's more similar to "I have been crucified with Christ" than "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord." From a heavenly perspective, that's what happened, but just as I haven't literally had nails driven into my hands in order to be saved, I don't think it's reasonable to assume that God divided Day from Night in the space of one 24-hour day. It's a spiritual account, not a scientific account. That doesn't make the words of Scripture any less true.

But! I also think that when Christians discuss evolution, we tend to get far, far too hung up on Genesis and we end up missing some of the deeper implications of the conversation. Evolutionary biology pushes us to think about our embodiment and how deeply interconnected we are with the rest of creation. Likewise, a theistic framework narrows the odds when we talk about the organic origin of life, protein sequence space, etc. If a sovereign God was behind every movement of every atom, then we can see grace where an atheistic scientist sees only coincidence.

Don't ignore your scientific and historical questions, my friend. Ask them all. Chase them to the ends of the earth. All truth is God's truth, and behind each answer I believe you will find the glory of God.

Some reading to get you started:

Finding Darwin's God, Kenneth R. Miller

The Selfless Gene: Living with God and Darwin, Charles Foster

Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love, Elizabeth Johnson

The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes

(Note: I don't agree with every word in all these books, but I find them all generally good and useful)

Just in general, I really recommend reading up on all those great Christians who were also scientists and great scientists who were also Christians. Don't take my word for it, take theirs! Read the books I recommended. Read Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Louis Pastuer! Augustine and C.S. Lewis! Stop centering the conversation on Darwin (who was a Christian, but who was just one guy). For goodness sake, don't listen to Richard Dawkins and Ken Ham. Throughout history, greater thinkers than you or me have reconciled faith and science. Thus, there's hope for us too :)

I'll leave you with this quote from Augustine's exhortation to humility from "The Literal Meaning of Genesis":

"In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand that, if further progress in the search of truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it. That would be to battle not for the teaching of Holy Scripture but for our own, wishing its teaching to conform to ours, whereas we ought to wish ours to conform to that of Sacred Scripture."

All truth is God's truth.

#all truth is god's truth #I'm so glad you asked this my friend #feel free to pop back in with any follow ups #i went mostly in the direction of evolution bc that's my wheelhouse and it sounds like it's probably yours too #but obviously this conversation extends out into all branches of science #and into history #and all sorts of other places #ask me hard questions