thewickedbohemian

[thewickedbohemian]

I'm sorry, it's just even regardless of what Taylor has to do with anything it felt to me like you were gatekeeping (if tortured only could mean poor it wouldn't be a separate trope)

miss swift you are not a tortured poet you are a billionaire

[thewickedbohemian]

OK so how do we use that to get Warner Bros. to stop shelving movies for those reasons without either doing the thing or tipping our hand

One of these days some enterprising con artist is going to make up a fake quirky little sci-fi movie, claim that it's been fully produced but Warner Bros. permanently shelved it for a tax writeoff, raise a couple million dollars in crowdfunding to "buy back the rights", then disappear off the face of the planet and take the money with them, and they'll 100% get away with it because really, who are we going to believe?

[thewickedbohemian]

If Harry Potter isn't completely taboo on this site now, friendly reminder that there is literally a dinosaur whose scientific name is Dracorex hogwartsia

I'm going to lose

[thewickedbohemian]

yeah just saw perhaps one of the worst of it (or at least the worst performatively-hating on this new album specifically), guy claims that she can't be a "tortured poet"/tortured artist because she's a billionaire and has hurt the environment something something private jet meme when "true tortured artists live paycheck to paycheck at a garbage job they hate" said with an implicit tone (as much as tone like one would say a thing can be implicit in text) that implies that the only way a "tortured poet"/"tortured artist" who's a musician can blow up without selling out and proving they're a shill who might as well having being an industry plant retconned into their backstory would be posthumously when their recorded-in-their-bedroom albums are found in their run-down apartment after they committed suicide in a way that's either cheap or the-sort-of-way-people-who-claim-the-dark-academia-aesthetic-would-thematically-do-so (depending on what this person wants to emphasize about real tortured artists vs Taylor supposedly being a fake one) but either way probably has a 50% chance of involving some kind of drug or alcohol overdose

the bravest person in the world

[thewickedbohemian]

Bad take but not for the reason you think, your overromanticization of tortured artists in the equal and opposite way to try and pit them against your perception of her. Are you not a tortured poet if you're apathetic (even if you don't love it) about your job or anything more than dirt poor (even if you, like, have a mental illness or w/e, not saying she does but that's an angle you didn't mention of what might make someone this) and is the only way a "tortured poet" musician can blow up without selling out posthumously when their self-recorded CDs are discovered in their run-down apartment (not even a house) after they've committed suicide via a method either cheap (if what you want to pit against her being a supposed fake tortured poet is the poverty angle) or #aesthetic (if you instead want to emphasize the dark-romanticism)

miss swift you are not a tortured poet you are a billionaire

[thewickedbohemian]

I found three Michigan bands I'd consider screamo; I Prevail, We Came As Romans and The Black Dahlia Murder

[thewickedbohemian]

No but I have twice stopped watching a show because a misleading trailer made me think a character was going to die (or at least as-close-as-we-could-get-to-talking-about-dying-on-a-kids'-show because I was in elementary school at the time and these were kinda the closest my era had to dark-but-still-light adults-could-watch-them-with-their-kids cartoons like Steven Universe or The Owl House)

Im curious.

[thewickedbohemian]

But inquiring aspiring musician wants to know, can you write your "little stories" in first-person from someone else's POV (like people don't realize Taylor Swift does more often than you think because of the reason I'm about to state) or if it's not third-person and nothing too out-of-the-ordinary happens will people automatically assume it's about your own life if you say "I"/"me" etc. esp. if you're a female-identified artist who has a somewhat "relatable" image (because I guess people assume women always write their personal stories unless it's otherwise obvious it's not personal e.g. even in non-Taylor-related female country alone Vicki Lawrence never killed her brother's cheating wife and Carrie Underwood never trashed her boyfriend's car)

i think we should remind musicians they can absolutely make up little stories for their songs btw. it doesn’t have to be about them at all. you can invent a guy and put him in situations to music. time honoured tradition in fact.

[thewickedbohemian]

And also the way I see Hanukkah as important to American Jewish culture is a little different from most people as given the story and themes of Hanukkah the more (within reason) Hanukkah is brought-mainstream-even-if-it-can-only-do-so-through-commercialization the more it's our way of saying "we are here, we are here" against the overwhelming Christmas pressure (and Hanukkah being made a big deal of actually benefits non-Jews who still don't like the over-commercialization of Christmas as as most of the time Hanukkah comes before it, a "Hanukkah season" in the same way there's a "Christmas season" basically puts a temporal line in the sand which the Christmas season cannot reach behind to e.g. have Christmas stuff start before Halloween or even the day after)

You know, I used to feel a little guilty about how important Chanukah was to me and my family, until I realized that American Jewish is itself a culture.  Chanukah has become important in that culture.  These things happen in a diaspora.  (And yes, it commemorates some politically questionable acts, but come on, I don’t want the Greek Syrians to have won, and everyone likes twinkly lights, and I don’t harass Christians about the history of Easter pogroms.)

[thewickedbohemian]

or if that wouldn't conflict with any promised-land-y stuff about Israel said constitutional monarchy is essentially as close otherwise as you could get to something that's to Jewish people as Wakanda is to black people and the prince initially has to hide who he is until the revelation but the public sector chick becomes the first Jew from the outside world to see this place so she's even more of a big deal

What if they made one of those royal romance holiday movies for Jewish holidays…On Passover a harried New York public sector employee meets the prince of a small Jewish-majority constitutional monarchy.  No explanation for where this country is.  No explanation for what its place in history has been.  It just exists and no one questions it.

(Alternately, she does question it, and he just blows it off with a remark about how bad Americans are at keeping up with international politics.)

[thewickedbohemian]

Maybe this is the Librarians fan in me combined with the part of me that's a fan enough of Post Malone that I don't want to think he'd either scam (or w/e you consider this) the public or let himself fall for one but for all we know if the box has any supernatural power regardless of its origin it's self-reinforcing as where the Librarians-fan part comes in is isn't the whole believe-something-hard-enough-it-becomes-real thing how Fictionals work

What the Heck is a Dybbuk Box?

In short, it's an entertaining bunch of bullshit. Here's the backstory!

Dybbukim

A Dybbuk (spelled דיבוק in Yiddish) derives from the Hebrew word דָּבַק, to cling. (The suffix -im or makes it plural.) It's a displaced human spirit of a dead person that possesses a living human in order to accomplish a goal, then leaves once finished (unless you exorcise it beforehand.) These possessions are always nonconsensual, typically forcing you to act on negative repressed impulses (often of a sexual nature.) This is in contrast to Ibbur, where a righteous soul possesses a consenting individual in order to perform a mitzvah. Historically, dybbukim served as a warning against improper behavior or unorthodoxy, which would open your household to the risk of dybbukim. It's also been viewed as a folk explanation for "hysteria" in women.

While it's been written about since the 1500s, it wasn't a super popular concept until S. Ansky's play The Dybbuk in the early 1900s (a classic in Yiddish theatre!)

The Box

The dybbuk box was first created on eBay, 2003. A man named Kevin Mannis was selling a refurbished wine cabinet he got from a yard sale, adding the story in the item description to give it a little flair. People bought and re-sold the cabinet, each adding their own paranormal claims to how the dybbuk had given them nightmares and bad luck.

The hoax became an urban legend, then a sensation, even as Mannis publicly admits to having made the whole thing up. He's even said if anybody could find reference to a dybbuk box before his post, "I’ll pay you $100,000.00 and tattoo your name on my forehead." Even still, the legends/paranormal claims surrounding the box continue to this day! (Post Malone even had a run-in in 2018.) Mannis said to Input Magazine in 2021: "I am a creative writer. The Dybbuk Box is a story that I created. And the Dybbuk Box story has done exactly what I intended it to do when I posted it 20 years ago... Which is to become an interactive horror story in real-time." Which, as a writer, I will admit is pretty dang cool.

Other Neat Stuff

The concept of a dybbuk box might be a wash, but there are lots of other similar legends of super-haunted/unlucky dolls, gems, etc. Just think of the hope diamond, or how people write apology letters to Robert the Doll for disrespecting him after a string of misfortune post-visit! Spirit anchors are a fairly common practice for modern-day witches/magic practitioners, so a malevolent spirit taking up residence in a wine cabinet isn't that far-fetched. It's just not going to be a Dybbuk. The dybbuk box inspired the horror movie The Possession (2012.) It... got pretty middling reviews. While I wouldn't call it a particularly good movie overall, the horror film The Unborn (2009) portrays dybbukim in an interesting way much more accurate to the original folklore (plus it's written by a Jewish author!)

[thewickedbohemian]

Maybe this is just me going off my preferences and sensitivities (autistic Prince Of Rage over here who often has a lot of songs from those genres be just too much for my ears, y'know, the closest I get on a regular basis to that is pop-punk) but I think there is a lot of Rage in country music especially if you look beyond the stereotypical scene of bro country etc.

Some examples of country songs that have a strong Rage vibe to me (assigning a class would have to wait until some specific playlists I'm making) include

Stick That In Your Country Song by Eric Church

Blown Away by Carrie Underwood

Need A Favor by Jelly Roll

Harper Valley P.T.A. by Jeannie C. Riley

Halfway To Hell by Jelly Roll

I Walk The Line by Johnny Cash

Hey, what kind of instrument and/or music genre do you think would suit a rage player the best?

Genre

- Punk- Metal- some more intense techno and stuff

Instruments

- drums- bass- violin

#rage aspect #hero of rage

[thewickedbohemian]

Which is why we should save/resurrect what we've got

no offence but the reason tumblr is “dying” is, well, yes, of course the cursed like/reblog ratio and the change in user behaviour (because of people being used to how instagram and tiktok work) BUT also the lack of weekly shows. i say it with my whole chest, they don't produce captivating and engaging stupid weekly tv shows anymore because streaming killed that so you have spikes of activity here when Something happens in general fandom or up to three days after a new season of whatever drops and then it's a wasteland. this is obviously an old woman yelling at a cloud missing supernatural and the vampire diaries and pretty little liars and all these other shows type of post but honestly give me back weekly tv shows where i have something to watch for 40 minutes almost every day of the week after work so then i can read and reblog it on tumblr give it back for the sake of my sanity

#savesohelpmetodd #renewsohelpmetodd

[thewickedbohemian]

I know you can't quite see it because I couldn't get the banner in the same shot as the thing but oh my Todd this petition's actually on the trending page for the TV and movies tag on Change.org

Sign it if you haven't so we can keep this fire burning #savesohelpmetodd #renewsohelpmetodd

#savesohelpmetodd #renewsohelpmetodd #so help me todd #cbs so help me todd #so help me todd cbs

[thewickedbohemian]

Thoughts on a very SPN-like Tracker

between the Vermont setting and this show's sound I'm half-expecting a Noah Kahan needle drop

one dead, one presumed-dead-but-maybe-not, classic story

Police afraid of the goths, what is this, the 80s

"one of those snowflakes" you don't know the half of it

heroes enter a horror movie setting, immediately start making horror movie mistakes

ok so what's Toby's deal

what's in the hole?..

again with the investigating in the dark

DON'T SPLIT UP

Ok so someone was sleeping here

thankfully it wasn't a kidnapped person just the most stereotypical red-herring-suspect

yellow raincoats and missing kids in New England, I see what you did there

Just realized two episodes in a row of no Reenie and while good episodes I am a tiny bit sad cause I like her

Excuse to talk to the criminal actually true, unlike most crime shows

Hello cliche villain backstory

Astaroth? that's awful specific to be a fabrication unless he's elaborately delusional

usually it's men who get to be obsessed detectives, nice to change it up

True crime's a bitch (also is everyone in this episode just gonna parallel him)

so the sister's sus

OK we went from Supernatural to Found

Let the dad take down the posters!

#tracker cbs #cbs tracker

[thewickedbohemian]

This reminds me of the "Showrunner's challenge" going around Tumblr where basically to plot-punt a fic or original work along you roll on some lookup table that gives a bunch of random scenarios that treat your work as a TV show being watched by thousands but written with no plan and give you some "behind the scenes event" you have to incorporate the fallout of into your work like you have to now find a coherent way to pivot away from all plotlines involving the most recent negative-event-that-could-happen-in-reality (like a murder or a fire or w/e) because something similar happened in a real-life news story or the actors behind your two most recently mentioned characters have had a messy (romantic or platonic) breakup so until you roll that option again which'd mean they reconcile you can't include both characters in the same scene but they have to still remain as relevant parts of the "show" as they were before this happened. There's even some cool ideas in the comments of that post that aren't on the lookup table/don't deal with "most recent" things but could still be used/added to your own table like "the actress playing the female half of the story's most prominent heterosexual couple is now pregnant so the character must be but the in-universe baby can't be her love interest's because they're still in the "won't they" of the "will they, won't they""

It also reminds me of this Established Universe prompt I submitted to r/writingprompts to essentially take some fictional work and make an Inside Out crossover aka take some iconic scene from another book, movie or show and think up what'd have to be going on with a character's Headquarters/personified-emotions to justify this

We need to bring back fanfics where the author talks to the characters in the chapter notes and occasional intertexual asides, and through this medium the reader gradually becomes aware of a whole secondary metanarrative concerning the interpersonal dramas of the notional "actors" playing the characters in the fic.

[thewickedbohemian]

The two most interesting spins I've seen on this trope

The Librarians: where something like this applies to mean fictional characters can be made manifest into reality if their work has enough of a following or w/e

American Gods: where not only can new gods form around modern concepts that get "worshiped" enough or something like that but if, like Jesus, a god hits a certain extreme threshold of popularity esp. if their worshipers have different interpretations, they can get their powers severely nerfed by being spread too thin

Do you happen to know the origin of the fantasy trope in which a deity's power directly corresponds to the number of their believers / the strength of their believers' faith?

I only know it from places like Discworld and DnD that I'm fairly confident are referencing some earlier source, but outside of Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, I can't think of of any specific work it might've come from, 20th-c fantasy really not being my wheelhouse.

Thank you!

That's an interesting question. In terms of immediate sources, I suspect, but cannot prove, that the trope's early appearances in both Dungeons & Dragons and Discworld are most immediately influenced by the oeuvre of Harlan Ellison – his best-known work on the topic, the short story collection Deathbird Stories, was published in 1975, which places it very slightly into the post-D&D era, though most of the stories it contains were published individually earlier – but Ellison certainly isn't the trope's originator. L Sprague de Camp and Fritz Leiber also play with the idea in various forms, as does Roger Zelazny, though only Zelazny's earliest work is properly pre-D&D.

Hm. Off the top of my head, the earliest piece of fantasy fiction I can think of that makes substantial use of the trope in its recognisably modern form is A E van Vogt's The Book of Ptath; it was first serialised in 1943, though no collected edition was published until 1947. I'm confident that someone who's more versed in early 20th Century speculative fiction than I am could push it back even earlier, though. Maybe one of this blog's better-read followers will chime in!

(Non-experts are welcome to offer examples as well, of course, but please double-check the publication date and make sure the work you have in mind was actually published prior to 1974.)