#Big rambles

[jonnywaistcoat]

What’s your opinion on the contrast between “silly” and “serious” spaces? Do you think people can have very serious interpretations about a genuine piece of media and also be goofy about it? I’m asking this particularly because I’ve seen people in the Magnus podcast fandoms fight about people “misinterpreting” characters you, Alex, and the many other authors have written. Are you okay with the blorbofication or do you really wish the media you’ve written would be “taken seriously” 100% of the time?

And follow up question, what do you think about the whole “it’s up to the reader (or in some cases, listener) to make their own conclusions and interpretations and that does not make them wrong”, versus the “it was written this way because the author intended it this way, and we should respect that” argument?

This is a question I've given a lot of thought over the years, to the point where I don't know how much I can respond without it becoming a literal essay. But I'll try.

My main principle for this stuff boils roughly down to: "The only incorrect way to respond to art is to try and police the responses of others." Art is an intensely subjective, personal thing, and I think a lot of online spaces that engage with media are somewhat antithetical to what is, to me, a key part of it, which is sitting alone with your response to a story, a character, a scene or an image and allowing yourself to explore it's effect on you. To feel your feelings and think about them in relation to the text.

Now, this is not to say that jokes and goofiness about a piece of art aren't fucking great. I love to watch The Thing and drink in the vibes or arctic desolation and paranoia, or think about the picture it paints of masculinity as a sublimely lonely thing where the most terrible threat is that of an imposed, alien intimacy. And that actually makes me laugh even more the jokey shitpost "Do you think the guys in The Thing ever explored each other's bodies? Yeah but watch out". Silly and serious don't have to be in opposition, and I often find the best jokes about a piece of media come from those who have really engaged with it.

And in terms of interpreting characters? Interpreting and responding to fictional characters is one of the key functions of stories. They're not real people, there is no objective truth to who they are or what they do or why they do it. They are artificial constructs and the life they are given is given by you, the reader/listener/viewer, etc. Your interpetation of them can't be wrong, because your interpretation of them is all that there is, they have no existence outside of that.

And obviously your interpretation will be different to other people's, because your brain, your life, your associations - the building blocks from which the voices you hear on a podcast become realised people in your mind - are entirely your own. Thus you cannot say anyone else's is wrong. You can say "That's not how it came across to me" or "I have a very different reading of that character", but that's it. I suppose if someone is fundamentally missing something (like saying "x character would never use violence" when x character strangles a man to death in chapter 4) you could say "I think that's a significant misreading of the text", but that's only to be reserved for if you have the evidence to back it up and are feeling really savage.

I think this is one of the things that saddens me a bit about some aspects of fandom culture - it has a tendency to police or standardise responses or interpretations, turning them from personal experiences to be explored into public takes to be argued over. It also has the occasional moralistic strain, and if there's one thing I wish I could carve in stone on every fan space it's that Your Responses to a Piece of Art Carry No Intrinsic Moral Weight.

As for authorial intention, that's a simpler one: who gives a shit? Even the author doesn't know their own intentions half the time. There is intentionality there, of course, but often it's a chaotic and shifting mix of theme and story and character which rarely sticks in the mind in the exact form it had during writing. If you ask me what my intention was in a scene from five years ago, I'll give you an answer, but it will be my own current interpretation of a half-remembered thing, altered and warped by my own changing relationship to the work and five years of consideration and change within myself. Or I might not remember at all and just have a guess. And I'm a best case scenario because I'm still alive. Thinking about a writers possible or stated intentions is interesting and can often lead to some compelling discussion or examination, but to try and hold it up as any sort of "truth" is, to my mind, deeply misguided.

Authorial statements can provide interesting context to a work, or suggest possible readings, but they have no actual transformative effect on the text. If an author says of a book that they always imagined y character being black, despite it never being mentioned in the text, that's interesting - what happens if we read that character as black? How does it change our responses to the that character actions and position? How does it affect the wider themes and story? It doesn't, however, actually make y character black because in the text itself their race remains nonspecific. The author lost the ability to make that change the moment it was published. It's not solely theirs anymore.

So yeah, that was a fuckin essay. In conclusion, serious and silly are both good, but serious does not mean yelling at other people about "misinterpretations", it means sitting with your personal explorations of a piece of art. All interpretations are valid unless they've legitimately missed a major part of the text (and even then they're still valid interpretations of whatever incomplete or odd version of the text exists inside that person's brain). Authorial intent is interesting to think about but ultimately unknowable, untrustworthy and certainly not a source of truth. Phew.

Oh, and blorbofication is fine, though it does to my mind sometimes pair with a certain shallowness to one's exploration of the work in question.

#Big thoughts #Big rambles #These are my current thoughts at least #They will likely change #As all things do

[popcorn8784]

Side Order Thoughts

-First off, gorgeous. The music is beautiful, the colors are so pretty, and the cutscenes are really well done

-I thought Marina was endgame but you get her after the tutorial! This is nice, we get to talk with both her and Pearl a lot

-The game lets you de-upgrade!!! This is fantastic since I can please the completionist side of my brain by unlocking everything and still challenge myself later by getting rid of the upgrades

-Turns out falling off the map counts as a life =P I can guess how most of my runs are going to end...

-The three bosses have such fun concepts. There is a small part of me that wishes there were at least five or so bosses to keep it from getting repetitive, but even with only three, the gameplay for each is unique enough that I doubt I'll get bored of them for a while

-My fave is Asynchronous Rondo for sure, mostly because of the unhinged noises it makes. The music breaking down as you approach from the cage gives me chills

-Side note from that, all the enemies having music vocab in their names is cute

-So far I'm leaning towards splattershot as my go-to (rip to all the Agent 4 believers, I thought after the last trailer they'd show up for sure but we only get their soul gun) but once I unlock my beloved blaster from the lockers it's all over for those slimy bones.

-Update: Turns out I didn't need the blaster! I beat the Spire with the splatana! As someone who never touches splatanas outside of salmon run this really surprised me, but a luck biased weapon is so op

-Smollusk =D

-Overall, Side Order delivered an amazing gameplay loop with great aesthetics, and I am going to be happily obsessed with it for a while. 0/10 they didn't bring back squid beatz

#I always love when people liveblog so I thought I'd try a version of it for side order #splatoon 3 #side order #side order spoilers #big rambles

[ehslye]

they go, we go I want you to know what I did, I did

#` ( MUSIC: THE BALLAD OF THE STRUGGLER / YOUR UNSUNG VOICE. ) #(shaking) this is my favorite song in the world and slapping it on jelly was only natural #ITTTSSSS a song directed to his counterpart – a confession to his poor-decision making throughout the story up toooo #pre-innocence... iirc #but that last part where he repeats it over and over is directly about his light scar #it's the one thing he's hidden from his counterpart and when it comes to light how it happened #it's basically a big #'and i'd do it again' #WHICHHH is a big deal for him bc he's grappling apathy like a bull and he's actually succeeding bc his love is driving him #instead of hindering him #IDK #big rambles #...i think jelly's gonna start a pingpong match with neku man he's spinning a lil faster

[wasabi-gumdrop]

local ladies man’s signature move totally useless against autistic monster enthusiast. more on Kabru’s fumble era at 6

#i’ve seen so many interpretations of that 1 hr freeze frame of Kabru’s smile in ep 16 #he’s meeting his long time crush of course he’s trying to charm him #Kabru so obviously has a big fat giant crush on Laios #like atp in the story he’s tried to talk to him and get his attention so many times agjdjajdj #Laios is the human rubix cube he’s been searching for his entire life #everyone else is almost too easy for Kabru to pin down #Laios on the other hand … a treasure trove of autistic mystery #Kabru is so locked in #Kabru used signature move: charming smile #Laios: no effect! #there’s something so beautiful about the popular pretty boy entering his fumble era when his one true love turns out to be autistic #labru #laios touden #kabru of utaya #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #wasabi rambles #seen so many clock that smile as nefarious and machiavellian #baby no Kabru is just dialing the charm up to 100 and what we’re all feeling is second hand embarrassment LMAO

[goldiipond]

if there's anything i've learned from the current state of social media it's that this is one of the worst possible notifications you can receive upon opening an app

#skye's ramblings #i thought you guys were exaggerating how ass-ugly the discord update is. why isn't this optional. what if we all died #big thanks to discord and tumblr for both making bad layout changes to their apps in the same week. i love complaining <3

[joyflameball]

Man just doesn't stop fucking MURDERING white men who've done very shitty things

Edit: Yes I'm aware that Hbomb wasn't really The Guy to take down Wakefield, and Wakefield was gotten by Deere, however it was for the meme

Edit two: When referring to Shapiro I was talking about the Aquaman clip

#hbomberguy #cassie rambles #he got bencil chaperone for being FUCKING STUPID #he got andrew wakefield for being LITERALLY THE FUCKING WORST #he got tommy tallarico for being a COMPLETE FUCKING FRAUD #and now he's gotten james somerton for being a massive fucking plagiarist #AND HE'S TOPPED THE VIDEO OFF THROUGH DONATING ALL THE MONEY TO THE ACTUAL CREATORS AND SHOUTING OUT QUEER CREATORS!!!! #GODDD HBOMB YOU. YOU GODDAMN. #BIG FUCKING SHOUTOUT

[squipedmew]

I went to go see the fnaf movie and someone had set up a picture of markiplier in the chair next to me for the entire movie

#FNAF #fnaf movie #markiplier #sophi rambles #anyways p fun movie 7/10 #Big fan of the mediocre white boy in this one

[foldingfittedsheets]

I think something a lot of other people can relate to is the way that you get so conditioned to discomfort that you stop registering it.

I remember sitting at the table with my family, eating dinner as a child. I’d try to eat, because of course I was hungry. But sometimes the flavor or texture was so repugnant that it moved into a category of Not Food.

“Two more bites before you can leave the table.”

“I can’t,” I’d say, trying to explain the impossibility.

But because I was a child they heard, “I won’t,” and made me sit at the table. I’d sit in dull agonized silence, bored and hungry for hours until bedtime when they’d give up. I’d hate myself for not eating and my parents for forcing me to sit there. The few forcefeeding moments ended in vomit.

They’d say, “If you don’t eat this you can’t eat a snack later,” and I moved past trying to communicate my discomfort into accepting that I’d just be hungry.

That state of affairs didn’t last, because my parents realized nothing could force me to eat so they catered to my palate, worrying they’d starve me. But the message stuck. If you can’t do anything about a situation, just accept the suffering.

A few years later my mother called me off the playground to ask, “Are you limping?”

I shrugged. My feet had hurt for a long time, but that was just the way things were now. My mom pulled my socks and shoes off and gasped. The soles of my feet were covered in huge painful planters warts.

“Why didn’t you say anything?!” She demanded but I could only shrug at her. I’d learned a long time ago that saying things about my discomfort didn’t matter, so now I had no words. Sometimes things hurt and sometimes they don’t. I simply accepted and did my best.

Now as an adult trying to learn to improve my own conditions can be hard. If I make food that I can’t eat I’ll force myself to sit at the counter still, full of guilt and self loathing, trying to will myself to eat it.

At first I needed my betrothed to gently take it away to present me with something I could eat. Now on my own I can usually admit that it’s not happening before too long and get something else, but I still feel guilty.

Laying in bed at night waiting for my betrothed to finish getting ready I let out a huge sigh of relief when they turned the lights off.

“Why didn’t you turn them off if they bothered you?” they asked the first time it happened.

“I didn’t even know it was bothering me until it was gone.”

Assessing my physical state now to see if I can improve it is something I’m still relearning but I’m relieved to finally have the space and support to do it.

#ramblies #autism #as an afab kid I didn’t get diagnosed but given my poor social skills and general vibes it’s astonishing I wasn’t #I didn’t learn to implement social masking until way later #also those warts too months to get rid of cause they were too big to burn off #they had to be scraped down slowly after baths

[spn2006]

the fact that eric kripke isn't even christian really adds something to the way christianity is depicted on supernatural. because its really not about being christian at all, but about living in america, a country dominated by christianity, and having to decide for yourself how to handle that. faith is huge in supernatural, and the mythology of the show is very bible-centric, but notably, christ is never there. even sam, who starts out revering the angels, who once said he prays every night, doesn't actually call himself a christian or imply that he believes in jesus--the show is steeped in christianity and biblical lore and yet neither sam nor dean are christians. in fact, over and over again the church itself is depicted as a haunted house that sam and dean will only ever enter as strangers, as outsiders. priests, preachers, faith healers, chapels, crypts, etc. are all just iconography that create an intense sense of unease that sam and dean respond to instantly. as a jew, its very relatable. an essential part of living in america when you're not christian is that exact sense of unease, of knowing that the culture of your country has ensured that you'll get knocked over by christianity no matter where you go, that you'll see hundreds of people truly believing they're good people while doing awful things in the name of their god, and you have no choice but to confront that. kripke gets it

#i could actually write an essay about this #kripke is jewish and so is sera gamble #and when i rly think about it i think the show is very jewish #in that its a rejection of the christian interpretation of god and free will #its all about questioning what's put in front of you and i think that's a big part being jewish to me #anyway! #rambles #spn #supernatural #spn analysis #spn meta #faith #christianity #theology #kripke era #eric kripke #sam winchester #dean winchester #castiel #zachariah spn #uriel spn #anna milton #american gothic #fav #🔪

[o0kawaii0o]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KING 🗣🗣🗣

#fun fact: luffy's bday shares the same date as Liberation Day in my country #had the sudden idea to implement a halo in luffy art #and as his strawhat #idk but I found that very big brain of myself #there even was this quote about the sun god! will share that in a reblog later! #I was actually planning to draw stuff of other series (e.g. st/ardew) but loof's bday was suddenly here #it's not really proper bday themed art but the opportunity to merge my initial idea with this was right there #also experimented a little bit more in this one #rambling as always #monkey d luffy #one piece #op #o0kawaii0o

[wasyago]

joel with a ponytail ( best kind of joel tbh )

( plus an attempt at drawing him with green skin but idk i don't think im gonna use it )

#hermitcraft #smallishbeans #my art #sketch #i wanted to ramble about these sketches but literally forgot everything i wanted to say.... #i like how this outfit has turned out... not fully traditional japanese not fully cyberpunky but the vibes are there #also another character wearing shorts bet no one saw it coming #it's either shorts or big baggy pants. no other type of pants exists in my mind

[potatoeofwisdom]

has someone done this already?

#just a thought #idk i couldnt think of anything that would be a good example for their age except for driving #potatoe rambles #danny phantom #dp #atla #aang #the last airbender #dannys head is too damn big but i am not bothered enough to draw it again #art #for aang that’s kinda a secondary thing #but for phantom that’s kinda his whole thing

[popcorn8784]

Gold Quota Passed!!

...on my first round! Welp, pack it up folks, I'm done here.

#splatoon 3 #big run #jk I'm definitely playing more big runs are so fun #we got glowflies and roller on first round which was really lucky #the other two rounds were just me and the team popping off #I know a lot of people have been debating about the new quota so I'll give my two cents #the collector side of me really likes the change bc I am guaranteed the chance to get every gold variant #the gamer side of me wishes there was more competition to it #at least make the quotas a titch higher so I have to push myself and can't get it casually on the first round #big rambles #sploon hype

[anna-scribbles]

every time adrien agreste’s design gets stupider i get stronger. and baby i’m becoming more powerful by the day

#BIG day for annoying people with excellent taste(me) #ml #anna rambles #ml paris #ml paris spoilers

[egophiliac]

I have SO many thoughts about everything and they are in no kind of order yet, so here's just some quick little bits in the meantime!

I am not normal about any of these characters!

#art #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland spoilers #twisted wonderland episode 7 spoilers #twisted wonderland episode 7 part 6 spoilers #twisted wonderland book 7 spoilers #twisted wonderland book 7 part 6 spoilers #me just staring at the ceiling thinking about anime characters #if i start talking about the big stuff now it's going to turn into a huge rambling mess so in the meantime #i did not get sebek (yet) (i need to contemplate my gems...) but i did see his groovy #he is just full-on cinderella-sparkles bibbidi-bobbidi-booing into that armor! magnificent. #and i really don't have enough words for how much i love tiny malleus. he is perfect. he is precious. he is everything to me. #he knows who his dad is no matter what some crusty dead talking ectoplasm blobs say #(man no wonder lilia's got hangups if THAT was the general attitude he was getting) #('eww you got your dirty bat cooties on the prince' go sit in the corner with mrs. rosehearts you absolute garbage) #(...i did kind of love that lilia started to wake up because the senate said one nice thing to him) #(and he immediately was like 'this is not reality') #(sounds about right) #on a lighter note i was just. SO charmed by the little throwaway about ✨dragon lord consort esteemed diplomat revaan✨ #who picks the vegetables out of his food and hides them under the tablecloth #everything i learn about this man makes me like him more. he was SO dumb. #now we know where malleus gets it from i guess #also unrelated but once again the fact that i named my mc tamago has had unintentional consequences #tamago take the tamago and tamago tamagao tamago #frikkin love that when yuu gives the egg back you can just be like 'i love him. this is my baby now.' 100% accurate. #also yuu continually referring to malleus as tsunotarou even to the senate = amazing. yuu really has NO self-preservation or awareness. #they fit right in with everyone else #<- see what did i tell you. huge rambling mess. #and i haven't even BEGUN to talk about MELEANOR -- (is dragged offstage by a hook)

[wu-does-art]

thinking about Nico adjusting to letting himself miss and long for the people he loves. based on these bits from the sun and the star:

" As Nico and Will followed the trogs, he thought about how much he missed Hazel. He was learning to make peace with that feeling. It was okay for him to miss people because that meant he wanted them around in his life. That idea was *very* new for him- he was used to either pushing people away or watching them recoil from his presence." *

" That was the most surreal thing of all... Was he happy? Nico wasn't very familiar with the sensation, but he couldn't deny that he felt wonderful in Will's presence. He even longed for the son of Apollo when they were apart. A funny thing had happened as the two grew closer: Nico suddenly understood all those cheesy, sappy love songs he'd always hated."

#its just. i like that they included that in the book yk. the fact that he prepared a certain distance between everyone #and thus isnt used to missing anyone #so its strange for him #this is probably set somewhere pre tsats just because i like to think it was one of the times he found himself missing and longing. #but it was one of the first times he actually allowed himself to feel that way. #took the feeling and held it instead of banishing it away #also yes letting himself unmask a bit #i like to think he just gets wayyy more expressive with his hands the more he heals #that and he unmasks more!!! more openly stimming!! more special interest rambles!! #just oughh. #anyways this was a huge comic to colour #big fuck you to tumblr who made posting soooo much harder #fuck u and ur updates tumblr #solangelo #pjo #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackon and the olympians #nico di angelo #will solace #the sun and the star #trials of apollo #they borrow clothes from eachother its real in my head okay #nico canonally bought will a stupid shirt as a joke tho and i love that for them