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You know before reading Dungeon Meshi I assumed that all the fandom shipping I'd randomly seen on my dash was exaggerating and headcanoning in the typical fandom way but now that I'm mostly through the manga I realise that whatever those characters have going on is actually way weirder and more ??? than any of those posts made it out to be

good for them.

#congrats to marcille and falin and laios and kabru or sorry that happened idk #whatever the fuck those guys have going on sure is something! #dungeon meshi

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btw if you're wondering "was it kind of surreal to have your middle aged tenured professor ask a class of hundreds of people to do an impromptu academical analysis of Taylor Swift lyrics in regards to late 18th/early 19th century philosophy and theology all while profusely professing to his students that he is 'not a swiftie' multiple times?"

the answer is: Yes.

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ok but now I need to know your thoughts on the taylor swift lyrics. what songs did you analyze and what were your thoughts on them????

Alright so first of all for context:

this was a lecture about the literary era of romanticism, so for most of that lecture we had been talking about the literary and philosophical concepts and ideas present in that era.

And then the professor went "ok so I am not a swiftie - I haven't even listened to her newest album yet - but I believe Swift's music greatly encapsulates a - simplified , pop-cultural - continuation of the ideas of romanticism in the modern day....so let's analyse some of her song lyrics-"

So he had us quickly look at a few song lyrics from different songs of hers, but the ones he stayed on longest - and the ones he had us do proper academic analysis of - were these from "My tears ricochet" from her Folklore album:

I have to note that these aren't my personal thoughts, I'm just recounting what happened in the lecture, and I'm putting this under a cut so that it isn't super long :

So multiple students (it was a very tightly filled classroom, had to be at least 100-150 students there) had participated in analysing these lyrics and I gotta be honest I don't remember most of the exact details of their analysis because I had a lot of classes today and had been awake since 6am but I'll try to summarize as best I can.

Essentially the main point was the comparison of these lyrics with philosophical concepts by Schelling and especially a comparison in context of this aphorism by german romanticist poet Novalis:

"Wir suchen überall das Unbedingte und finden immer nur Dinge"

["Everywhere we look for the Absolute yet we can only ever find things." (in the original german it is a wordplay)]

So one angle of analysis was that these two verses of Swift's lyrics follow this philosophical concept as posited by Hardenberg/Novalis - such as "home" here, as the only defined location, representing the Absolute , the object of Longing as it is conceptualised in romanticism, this that is desired innately but cannot be reached in ways humanly possible, as humans can only ever find "Things": abstractions, objects and concepts limited in their scope and at most a reflection of the Absolute, something that can at best be asymptotically approximated but not be directly perceived or grasped physically or intellectually. Thus here the idea that the lyrical "I" can go "anywhere" and , following that, observe anything, and yet will always be unable to reach the defined and Absolute of "home."

Home then, as defined by other students in the lecture, would be the innate idea of some sort of absolute security in the self, a place of comfort and belonging and a place of certainty. Home, thus, as not just a location but as a concept: a kind of pre-conscious knowledge of being ('Being' here possibly in the hegelian sense), an experience of pure existence. Suppose an analysis also referencing Spinoza's concept of the Substance, the natura naturans, which singular modi are necessarily extensions of and ultimately 'return' to ( 'return' here used simplifying, as modi constituate extensions or aspects of the indivisible infinite Substance under the attributes of Thought and Extension, which thus cannot really be divided and, following, cannot 'return' to it since they were never truly separated.)

Of course, romanticism and general philosophy of the era being concerned with theological questions as well, one student pointed out another angle to view Swift's lyrics under in regards to romanticist theoreticism, that being the theological one: "Home" as the Absolute and the Absolute as God or a christian-mysticist interpretation of it either way, "Anywhere" as the world of human perception and "Home" as the world of god that life springs from, in relation to an article the professor had mentioned about a Times (iirc) journalist visiting a Taylor Swift concert and calling it a "religious experience" to sing specifically the quoted line with and within a crowd of tens of thousands of people.

In regards to this last point the professor also specified that "religious experience" here is not necessarily limited to the scope of (protestant) christianity but rather is to be seen as some sort of pre- or post-religious understanding of a form of ontological transcendence that escapes the boundaries of rational describability.

Following that we also analysed the album title and its cover art:

The romanticist connection in the title being fairly obvious as "Folklore" as a literary category is something romanticist authors in their nature-mysticism and attempt at distinction from Enlightenment era concepts of pure reason loved to discuss, recreate and include in their works.

Furthermore then the connection of the cover art , which students compared to works of famous romanticist painter Caspar David Friedrich (here the painting "Easter Morning"):

The composition of a lone human figure among the trees during a foggy morning or evening is a very popular motif in (german) romanticism as the fog represents the Unknown and - as mentioned above - the always out of reach and never truly perceptible (by human means) Absolute as well as the everlasting Longing towards it. The trees and forests as well a popular romanticist theme as part of its nature-mysticism and above mentioned contrast to the Enlightenment rationalism as practiced in the cities and structured human society.

Apparently on either this or the Evermore album (I don't know on which as I don't listen to Swift's songs and can't remember which song exactly the professor quoted there) there is a lyric saying "we are the new romanticists" as well.

All this to say that after probably twenty minutes of analysing Taylor Swift lyrics in an academic framework of literary theory and ontological philosophy- as well as repeated promises by the professor that he "is not a swiftie" - the prof stated that "Taylor Swift probably didn't put nearly as much thought into this as we did just now but she is an international phenomenon and does - wether intentional or not - make use of concepts and ideas used in romanticist writing and philosophy so analysing her lyrics seemed apt."

#ask #anon ask #WHEW THAT TOOK A WHILE TO WRITE #sorry but I had to check my references and everything lmao #but yes this is the gist of what that discussion during the lecture was like #and yes people did chuckle when he told us to analyse a Taylor Swift song

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Hundreds of Jewish anti-war demonstrators have been arrested during a Passover seder that doubled as a protest in New York, as they shut down a major thoroughfare to pray for a ceasefire and urge the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to end US military aid to Israel.

The 300 or so arrests took place on Tuesday night at Grand Army Plaza, on the doorstep of Schumer’s Brooklyn residence, where thousands of mostly Jewish New Yorkers gathered for the seder, a ritual that marked the second night of the holiday celebrated as a festival of freedom by Jews worldwide.

The seder came just before the US Senate resoundingly passed a military package that includes $26bn for Israel.

#reblog

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Just finished Longing class.

We analysed Taylor Swift lyrics.

Damn everyone's going to Longing class today

#the professor went 'I'm not a Swiftie but-' #and then we did an academical analysis of the lyrics of two if her songs #*of

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Damn everyone's going to Longing class today

#why are there so many people here?????? #there aren't nearly as many in any other class I have this year this room is *packed*

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Hey quick question: Does anyone here know what kind of paper works best for printing a drawing at local print stores?

I've been wanting to draw things for irl friends and have them printed but idk what paper type would work best for that. I'm guessing the regular glossy paper for printing photos is not it

#artists on tumblr #< in case someone in that tag has experience

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Source

Source

#reblog #wish our universities here were like that too

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#me about ocs always #also me about detective comics comics. #unfortunately #reblog

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Apparently the British. government is changing the laws around refugee politics and the justice system to be able to just exile refugees to Rwanda.

Which is messed up for many reasons already, but what gets me about it is that german media is calling it "hollowing out the constitutional democracy/rule of law" or "pure populism" and talks about how this is a betrayal of principles (which is all true it very much is)

...when a few months ago they were all fine with the German government introducing the exact same plan and referred to it as "progress" , a "viable solution to the refugee question" , a (positively connotated) "change of the times"

Apparently racism is only bad when other people do it according to german government and media.

#german stuff #uk politics #that's fucked up on so many levels both the plans in general and the germam #media's reaction to germany having those plans vs britain having them #it's messed up no matter who does it why is it only now seen as bad ?

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oh no. got reminded of it again.

#fuck me for being weirdly petty about some unreleased videogame's design choices #like idk why!! my brain does it!!! it's not intentional lmao like I have better things to do than focus on this #this is not a choice . my adverse reaction to hades 2's odysseus design just happened spontaneously #they didnt even give him a bow and arrow! #the minimum would have been giving him a beard but the fact they gave him a knife instead of a bow and arrow is also like. not great #for me personally. < loser

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#reblog

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Happy Earth Day: celebrate by getting clean water in to Gaza!

(via unrwa): “Gaza: access to water is extremely limited and sanitary structures are insufficient to meet people's needs. Gaza's water supply remains at only 7 per cent of its pre-October 2023 levels.”

Gaza has been in a water crisis for months now, there is virtually no clean/drinkable/accessible water due to Israel’s occupation and siege.

With the summer months approaching, the temperatures in Gaza are rising (it will be nearly 40 celsius there this week) and the lack of viable water is going to continue to cause extreme destruction.

Here are some orgs to donate to that are getting water into Gaza/working on making water in Gaza accessible:

بلدية غزة(Municipality of Gaza)

Anera

UNRWA

FOR SUDAN:

Barana Hanabneiho

Happy Earth Day 🤍🌍 choose to be kind

#reblog

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can't believe i am getting bullied by the discord over dungeon meshi :/

#theyre bullying me bc of kabru. which is funny out of context but also obvious if you know #'haha you have one of those' and what if I do. what then.

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#this is the same thing they did with the students at that university in berlin #it's all 'oh we allow protests' until protests happen #reblog

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The U.S. will use its veto power against a Palestinian bid to be recognized as a member state of the United Nations during a vote at the Security Council expected to take place Thursday evening. Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department, described as premature an effort by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to gain member status at the U.N. He said there was not unanimity among the Security Council’s 15 members that the Palestinian Authority had met the criteria for membership, with unresolved questions over the governance of the Gaza Strip, where Israel is in a war to defeat and eliminate the controlling power, Hamas. “And for that reason, the United States is voting no on this proposed Security Council resolution,” Patel said.

Earlier it was revealed that the United States was secretly pressuring other members of the Security Council to shoot down a Palestinian state membership so the US wouldn't have to use its veto as that would lead to a wave of local and international criticism for Joe Biden.

#reblog

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:) < guy that has normal reactions to things

#^ guy that rambled about the odyssey for an hour to a discord because she didnt like a character design from an unreleased game #you know. like a well adjusted person.