#and I feel there's a far more imperialistic reading in Link gaining the power from Rauru and the others in how he triumphs over Ganon

[blackautmedia]

It ended up being way more intensive than I had planned, but I did finish the writing for the Zelda video.

I managed to grab that James Somerton video he made about queer portrayals in Nintendo before it was privated. I haven't located any evidence suggesting it was plagiarized given the extent he's done it in nearly all his videos but that doesn't mean it hasn't occurred. I'm still trying to search and see if I can find any evidence of plagiarism to credit its proper author(s) if it is in fact stolen. There will be a section discussing the intersection of queerness and race with queer readings of Link and the Gerudo.

That aside, I wanted to share a bit! I picked out paragraphs out of order from how they're actually written, but these are a few of the points in the section about "the natural order of Hyrule."

Both film and TV westerns purport to be based on US history: the past is reframed as a glorious undertaking, the fulfillment of God's wish for his chosen people or as a rescue mission designed to rescue the pitiful other from himself or from some demonic other. Such fantasies serve to justify and legitimize colonial norms and practices. Stam and Spence explain that the colonial enterprise was often presented as a philanthropic "civilizing mission," reframing the colonial presence as a humanitarian intervention rather than an invasion. - Native Americans on Network TV : Stereotypes, Myths, and the 'Good Indian'

In Zelda Lore, it's said according to an entry in Hyrule Historia that "Hylians possessed a special power: it was said that their long ears allowed them to hear the voices of the gods." there's an inherent birth connection to the gods and to divinity in this series.

The best examples of community portrayal in the game exist when you remove Link from the equation. There are numerous instances of the different tribes providing support to one another--the Gerudo providing aid to refugees of Lurelin village, people providing resources to the Rito in their time of crisis, and the construction town helping in the rebuilding effort.

But a central part of what separates gaming from other types of media like books and TV is that you're not just a reader or viewer, but a player--you're asked to actively take part in the narrative and influence it yourself.

That community commentary also conflicts with the desire to treat Link as a demigod with the most major figures in the story continually sacrificing their autonomy and personhood to become resources that Link is ultimately to wield. Rauru gifts Link with some of his powers to save him from the Gloom. Mineru becomes little more than a rock 'em sock 'em robot for Link to pilot with little to no actual concern for her as a person.

Zelda is given the illusion of having agency in this story with how she orchestrates the conditions for Link to be able to defeat Ganon, but ultimately that doesn't come from her utilizing her research skills or building off the things her family provided her. Rauru even says he believes Zelda arrived to them for a reason, and based on what happens, it was ultimately so she could sacrifice herself yet again.

I'm not in the camp of people who wanted to see Zelda permanently stay a dragon at the end, I just want Zelda to not continually be sidelined in a series that constantly asks to sacrifice herself so she can't be an active part of the story.

The land and society once owned by gods must be restored and brought to its former glory as it is fated to be led by the divinely chosen Hylians. To that end, to defeat the evil and violent Middle Easterner who has defied the natural order of Hyrule, everyone must sacrifice themselves for Link to become the divine governor of power.

(This portion is part of the conclusion)

In thinking over what to write for this last portion, I came away feeling Nintendo's patterns here are a good example of why we should heavily value and take seriously the talents of artists and character designers.

It's important because art is so valuable in how it shapes the implications of the story, intentional or not.

I'm not here to convince you to boycott or stop playing Zelda because the issue goes beyond the scope of this individual franchise. What I ask more than anything is to see the people being propagandized as human and to equip yourself with the tools to better detect and resist the narratives both in fiction and non-fictional media.

#tears of the kingdom #totk spoilers #james somerton #imperialism #I have a slightly different take on the Totk imperialism I feel but hopefully it makes sense #The game feels less critical of Rauru because his failure as a king is framed as an inevitability #so the game feels less concerned about him and more sees Link as a divine governor of power and resources #and ultimately its Links duty to govern over everyone's power and resources that they must surrender to him in order to succeed #and I feel there's a far more imperialistic reading in Link gaining the power from Rauru and the others in how he triumphs over Ganon #theres also the way the Zonai contribute to the Native Extinction myth as well #totk critical #gerudo #you know this is extensive when we're talking about how Oracle of Ages compares to totk's writing

[moonah-rose]

Defrosting Grumpy Three (a Season 8 meta)

I keep thinking about how Season 8 of Classic Who is almost like the first one the show has to a ‘season long arc’ that I don’t feel gets talked about enough. Obviously everyone knows it as “the one where the Master is in every story” but I feel like there is a subtle character arc for the Doctor in this season as well which is tied to the two main characters introduced in the first episode; the Master and Jo Grant.

I’m not the first one to point out that out of Three’s five seasons; this is the one where he’s at his most grumpy and short-tempered. I know a lot of people point to this season as reasons for why they don’t like Three and I totally get that, he’s a real git sometimes, in particular the first and last stories. There are moments where he’s asking for a slap and, no, I’m not talking about him claiming to be buddies with Chairman Mao and a Tory MP. Because I would’ve thought it was obvious that he drops those names purely to gain trust of these people who don’t trust him (at least that’s my headcanon because it doesn’t fit with the anti-capitalist, anti-pollution, anti-imperialist writing). Just him being constantly ungrateful to the Brigadier, snapping at Jo, or just being childish in the most ‘kid throwing a tantrum’ way possible.

But it’s easy to get why. By Season 8 he’s been trapped on Earth for we can assume at least a year. New Who fans who’ve seen the Power of Three and saw how crazy Eleven went when he tried to stay on Earth to study the cubes just for a few days/weeks know the Doctor can’t stand staying still, especially in one time and place. In his first season he could be short-tempered but slightly less so. In Spearhead he’s quite polite and motivated, though that could be the most pleasant form of Post Regeneration Trauma he’s been through. Plus he had Liz, who you can see he immediately clicked with. A fellow genius who finds herself out of place or treated a little unfairly as a female scientist surrounded by men, both of them willing to sass the Brigadier when he deserves it. He also still keeps trying to fix the TARDIS, as if convinced this won’t be as permanent as the Time Lords intended.

But by Season 8 (or you could say even before that, in Inferno) his attempts clearly haven’t succeeded past slipping into a terrifying parallel universe, and now cabin fever is setting in. And Liz, his science bud, has gone off and left. And while it’s sad we didn’t get a goodbye between the two of them, her passing remark towards the Brigadier about the Doctor just needing someone to pass him test tubes and fill his praise kink maybe implies that, at least from Liz’ POV, they weren’t as equals as Three thought, or she didn’t feel that fulfilled working with him, even if she did appreciate him as a friend. 

So enter Jo to replace Liz, who is everything Liz wasn’t. Liz had to study and work her way to her position; Jo is a spoiled girl who got to play spy by sheer nepotism. She failed A level science and doesn’t have the same sharp-wit he and Liz shared. Three is mean to her even before she introduces herself as his assistant when she only tries to help, and doesn’t hide his disappointment when she tells him. Perhaps it might also be that she reminds him of his companions before Liz; she’s cute and perky like Zoe and also loyal and determined like Jamie, even though she lacks Jamie’s physical strength and Zoe’s genius. Still, she’s young and he might not want to put her in danger the same way he nearly lost his previous young companions many times in the War Games.

When Three goes to the Brigadier to try to get rid of Jo, the Brig is far more smug than in the previous season, as he seems to have worked the Doctor out by this point. Their little moment at the end of Inferno where Three insults him and tries to escape only to then come back with his tail between his legs acting all buddy has shown him who Three really is; that this whole grumpy shtick of this is just a defence mechanism while he’s so out of his depth. I like to think the Brig hoped Jo would soften him up, to bring out the compassion that was more overt in his previous incarnation, as well as just pass him test tubes and keep tabs on him. His knowing smile when he watches Three try and fail miserably to fire her seems to prove his point.

In the same story we also have the Master showing up for the very first time. He was created to be the ‘Moriarty to the Doctor’s Holmes’. These kind of ‘foil enemies’ that pop up in so many stories, where you have a villain who is supposed to be a perfect match in intelligence or skill to the hero, are more often than not presented as ‘what the hero could have been’ if they chose to be evil rather than good; the Master is no different. And even though it’s not established until the next season that the Doctor and Master used to be friends, there’s clearly an underlining fondness in their banter which hints at past feelings as well as mutual respect. It says quite a lot that Three is more relaxed and friendly during his conversations with the Master half the time they talk than he is with the humans he’s meant to be saving, or even his own close friends. Because, for all their moral disagreements, the Master is his own kind and his only link - other than his broken TARDIS - to the rest of the Universe. 

In almost every story of S8, after the Master has revealed his evil scheme only for the Doctor to point out how it will backfire on him, they have to work together or form some kind of alliance of convenience. In Claws of Axos, the Doctor outright pretends to betray his friends and elope join forces with the Master to escape, only for it to be a trick in order to defeat the Axons. But considering Three’s attitude in this season, it’s a very convincing act as much to the audience as to the humans. And then in Colony in Space, the Master offers the Doctor half-ownership of the Universe....and the Doctor clearly hesitates! Yes, the Master tempts him with the persuasion of ruling ‘in the name of good’ but Three has to take a moment to remember what a slippery slope that line of thinking is. He’s so tired of being trapped, sick of being leashed by the Time Lords, that the Master comes along as a devil on his shoulder at his most vulnerable point. Considering the last story involves the Master summoning the actual Devil (or close enough) and is also where Three’s temper seems to be at its peak seems all too fitting.

It’s also interesting that the Master’s greatest fear that appears in the Mind of Evil is an image of the Doctor laughing maniacally over him. It’s the closest we get to an image of Dark!Three in the show. To contrast; the Doctor’s greatest fear isn’t the Master, it’s the eruption from Inferno. Seeing the Earth swallowed by flame - not because of an outside force like the Daleks or Cybermen, but by humans themselves. It’s easy to imagine him wondering why he even bothers with them when they’re their own worst enemy.

(Side note; apparently the Evil Overlord in the Inferno parallel world IS the Third Doctor, according to the Expanded Universe, though I haven’t read up on this. We were robbed of seeing Pertwee play an evil Doctor.)

So while this is going on and the Master is playing his games with the Doctor while also tempting him, intentionally or not, to the ‘dark side’, we also have Jo at his side. And Jo takes all of the Doctor’s snapping and mood swings like a pro, and is very quickly overwhelmed with a lot of the stuff she’s faced which that she didn’t know she was signing up for - being hypnotised, captured by aliens, taken to alien worlds in the far future etc. She screams as most companions did at that time, but because it is what you would expect from a girl fresh out of school and throwing herself into something she clearly didn’t properly prepare for. The Doctor has to save her a lot, more than often because she tried to help only to get herself captured. As much as he does warm to her - because he’s not immune to how adorable she is - it serves to prove his point. Even when he finally gets to leave Earth for a day, she’s too frightened to want to leave the TARDIS. What good is she to him?

Now she continues to prove she has her uses. She has her escapology skills which get them out of a few tight spots. Depending on the writer, she can turn into an Emma Peel-esque agent capable of self-defence and subterfuge. And she’s always patient with the Doctor, no matter what mood he’s in, and extremely loyal. She’s also kind and compassionate with every side character she comes across. There seems to have been a backlash to these kinds of qualities in female characters in the past twenty years or so, what I like to call the Cinderella critique, where if a woman is kind and generous more so than smart, sassy and sword-wielding she’s seen as ‘weak’. Jo is always there at the Doctor’s side when he’s managed to get hurt or knocked out (Three took a lot of naps, anyone else notice this?). Even after he does whisk her away to another planet and nearly don’t make it back, she could easily throw her job away if it was too much, but she sticks with it because you can see that she wants more than anything to be useful and do good for her world - it would be another two season until she found what her own passion was with being an environmental activist but this is where she wants to start.

But it’s not until the end of S8 that we see Jo’s greatest strength and how it saves Three when every other defence he had was gone. He’s spent most of that story chastising her for believing in magic and superstition, as well as anything else he can find to snap at her for like criticising the Brigadier even though he does the same thing all the damn time (this could be seen as a ‘I can insult my bro but you can’t’ moment but it’s still not pleasant). But when he learns the Master is preparing to sacrifice her, he runs in to save her despite knowing it’s a suicide mission. He also gives a cold exchange to the Master when told he’s a ‘doomed man’. 

Oh I’m a dead man! I knew that as soon as I walked through those doors so you better watch out! I have nothing to lose, do I?

It’s a telling line that, behind all his patronising and abruptness, he’s reached a point he doesn’t feel he has anything left to keep going. He’s lost his freedom and his knowledge of time travel; but he’ll die before letting Jo die or letting the Earth burn again. When Azal claims the daemons gave humans knowledge, Three responds: Finally he’s turning his anger on the one who deserves it to save the one who has been his friend, even at his lowest points, for the past several months, while still showing his disappointment in what he’s seen of humans living amongst them:

You gave them knowledge to blow up the world and they most certainly will. They can poison the water and the very air they breathe. 

When Azal appears, he nearly makes the Master’s greatest fear come true by offering his power to the Doctor instead. And the Doctor looks horrified, immediately doing a Jon Snow and refusing it. Unlike when the Master offered him power before, he doesn’t hesitate for a moment, even though Azal’s powers could probably get his TARDIS working again in a snap. He looks almost scared at the thought of possessing something like that. Perhaps his dark persona in that other world became that way because he did take such an offer?

Azal prepares to kill the Doctor for refusing his offer, which is where Jo saves the day by offering her life for his. A lot of people dislike this ending for the idea of the villain being destroyed ‘by the power of love’ more or less, but this was a lot less common a deus ex machina as it is in New Who. The Doctor explains how it works when they’re free as:

Azal could not accept a fact as irrational and illogical as Jo being prepared to give up her life for me.

Three says it as he’s just as baffled, if also amused, by it as Azal was. Why would Jo give up her life for him? Compare that with when Ten has to give up his incarnation to save Wilf, how he rants that Wilf isn’t important but he has ‘so much more’ to give. Even the Doctor wrestles when it comes to sacrificing himself for others sometimes but Jo did it without a seconds thought, made even more illogical given Three’s often harsh treatment of her. But one thing that is obvious is that Three’s grumpy face is gone; he’s smiling for the rest of the episode, looking at Jo with quiet heart eyes, and letting her drag him into the maypole dance, conceding that she was right and there is ‘magic’ in the world. 

Much like Rose was the companion Nine needed after the Time War to enjoy seeing the Universe again and appreciating life, Jo serves a similar purpose in S8 in that she gradually reminds the Doctor through her actions of the strengths in being brave, kind and selfless. She and the rest of the UNIT family are there to remind him of the goodness in humanity and that we’re always learning and trying to improve; as Three says to Azal that ‘they need a chance to grow up’. Jo is the angel on his shoulder to contrast the Master as his personal devil; right down to having her dressed in the sacrificial ‘virgin’ garb opposite the Satanic Master to cap the season off.

Three still has his sour moments after this but he’s far less cantankerous going forward and sweeter towards Jo especially, praising her bravery and learning in future, just as Jo also grows more confident in her abilities and enjoys her adventures with him. He seems far more relaxed on Earth and less desperate to get away because of the people he has around him that make it worth staying around for. Three’s morals and loyalty to humanity might not have been so firm had Jo not been there to ground him, especially with the Master constantly there almost holding out a hand to him offering freedom and excitement. Like all good companions, she saves the Doctor as much as he has to save her, in more ways than one, which she doesn’t get nearly enough credit for. And it’s what adds to the heartbreak of her eventual exit because of the effect she had on his life.

It’s just one of my favorite tropes when a character gets better and softens or becomes kinder not because they had to ‘change for someone else’ but because they were inspired by them, especially if it’s the person they underestimated the most.

#it's about found family yo #classic who meta #doctor who #third doctor #jo grant #three x jo #the master #unit era

[ariainstars]

Umberto Eco on Fascism

I am blogging Eco’s words here because many people don’t seem to understand what “fascism” actually is by definition. The word, together with “Nazi”, seems to have become an overall definition for “evil”, or as a meaning to offend someone by accusing them of being narrow-minded, elitist and enabling violence.This is particularly disturbing within the Star Wars fandom.

The main points of Umberto Eco’s 1995 essay on „Ur-Fascism“.

1.  The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”

2.  The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”

3.  The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”

4.  Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”

5.  Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”

6.  Appeal to social frustration. “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.”

7.�� To those who lack any social identity, Ur-Fascism suggests that their only privilege is the most common of all, i.e. having all been born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism and why the only ones who can offer an identity to the nation are the alleged enemies. This leads to the obsession with a plot. “Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.” The easiest way to expose a plot is to apply to xenophobia. But the complot must also come from the inside, which explains why during Nazi Germany Jews seemed an ideal object for this, since they at once belonged to the country by living there and did not belong since they identified as Jews.

8.     Followers must feel humiliated by the assumed wealth and strength of the enemies. Eco recalls that when he was small, he was told that Englishmen had five repasts every day, contrarily to Italians who were seen as simpler and more sober people. Jews were all assumed to be rich and helping one another through a secret network of reciprocate assistance. The followers must however be convinced that they can “win” over their enemies, thus the enemy is seen as both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”

9.     Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”

10.  Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”

11.  Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”

12.  Machismo and weaponry. “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.”

13.  Selective populism. “There is in our future a TV or internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.”

14.  Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”

 By contrast, I would like to leave a note on imperialism here.

“Imperialism - state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas. Because it always involves the use of power, whether military or economic or some subtler form, imperialism has often been considered morally reprehensible, and the term is frequently employed in international propaganda to denounce and discredit an opponent’s foreign policy.” (Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica)

I cannot find any parallel between the Empire and the First Order and fascist / Nazi ideology. Their political and military structure is clearly imperialistic, but any of the above-mentioned mindsets are nowhere to be seen. It would be absolutely unfitting for a franchise of action movies, where the average moviegoer simply wants to be entertained, to introduce such a highly charged and complex subject. (On a side note: Darth Vader’s Theme, which we first hear in “The Empire Strikes Back”, the movie where both he and the Empire are at the peak of their power, is called The Imperial March.)

One of the main reasons why I often hear Palpatine’s Empire or Snoke’s First Order being referred to as fascism or a Nazi regime is the destruction of the planet of Alderaan respectively of the Hosnian Prime system, which is called “genocide”.

The destruction of Alderaan and the Hosnian Prime system by the Empire and the First Order aimed at showing the galaxy the extreme destructive power of their oppressor’s weapons in order to terrify them and keep any rebellion at bay. Alderaan and Hosnian Prime were situated at coordinates in the galaxy where their destruction would be witnessed by many other planets. In A New Hope, the actual rebel base is dismissed by Moff Tarkin as being too far away to be suitable as an actual demonstration of the Empire’s power. The races, cultures, religions etc. of the people living on those planets were not of the least interest to them (see points 6, 7 and 8 above). Fascism was not at the root of those mass murders, terrible as they are.

I have never heard or read any Star Wars fan saying that the Empire or the First Order actually were morally good. It is unacceptable that as a fan, one is dismissed as being a fascist or a Nazi respectively someone who supports these awful mindsets.

Yes, some of us understand and feel for characters like Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader and Kylo Ren / Ben Solo. That does not make us members of a “Nazi boy fan club”: the whole above-mentioned ideology is out of the question.

I have never heard anyone, as well, pretend that these two men did nothing bad and or that they are secretly good. Nobody is doubting or questioning their terrible choices. The point of their stories was to show that they both had once been good, that some good was still left in them and showed itself in the end, that they largely also were a product of their environment and that their fates, and the fates of the many who suffered through them, could have been avoided. It is easy to say “Everybody has a choice / I would never do such a thing” when, as a mere spectator, one is in a wholly different situation.

I will write another entry on the subject of psychological abuse to clarify why I don’t defend Star Wars’ villains but can understand them in their complexity and appreciate the narrative for not simply telling morally black and white stories.

I kindly ask anyone who reads this to please stick to facts instead of blindly attacking fans over a fictional story using terms they don’t quite understand believing by that to prove their own morality. Thank you.

#star wars #sw #fascism #nazi #umberto eco #imperialism #kylo ren #kylo ren hate #ben solo #anakin skywalker #darth vader #alderaan #hosnian prime #genocide #palpatine #snoke #first order

[hammerheadandsickle]

Is supporting Hong Kong protestors bad? I don't understand.

first off i wanna say that just because i am critical/not supportive of the current state of hong kong protests doesn’t mean i think every hong kong protester has bad intentions. if the people are facing police brutality, it is right to rebel, but the biggest problem comes from how decentralized and leaderless it is. 

with this decentralization and lack of leadership (and short/longterm goals) comes an issue of whose interests these protests serve. and some groups of people in these protests have waved american/british flags and engaged in severe anti-Blackness through their denouncing of BLM protests, and even if these groups are a minority, the fact that these things PLUS their calls for hong kong to not just be separate from mainland china but to actually reform as a british colony have not been severely denounced by the majority, PLUS these actions have now gained the protests material support from US politicians (both republican and democrat), shows the interests that these protests are now serving: US imperialists. 

and though i feel it should be self-evident why imperialism is bad i’ll still justify my complete condemnation of it: imperialism is the endless, destructive expansion of capitalism which is the root of all social evils that we’re told are separate issues: slavery, war, genocide, oppression, environmental destruction, and mass exploitation. US imperialism continued the imperialist aggression after WWII that britain started, now aided with nuclear arms and ownership of most mass production. now the US gets to determine the way of the world, and to maintain that power not only is exploitation but propaganda, which is where china comes in.

mainland china used to strictly adhere to mao’s word, a marxist-leninist line, but has since become revisionist and allowed trade and markets with imperialist powers. however, even though china isn’t strictly communist anymore, the US still benefits from painting china with red scare prop as an evil communist dystopia, especially in relation to hong kong. obviously as china is revisionist it’s far from perfect but the US has more blood on its hands than any other country in history INCLUDING CHINA. we get to be comfortable in our homes here and only see contradictions in situations like healthcare and police brutality, meanwhile our products are made by proletariat in foreign countries, as well as those incarcerated within our own country, who we will never see with our own eyes in our lives who are paid pennies an hour, and our economy is bolstered by a roided-out military complex that bombs the shit out of, or aids in bombing the shit out of, innocent people in other countries for their resources. 

i’m sorry for getting off track there and probably most people reading this already understand that context but i still feel like i needed to give it.

TLDR people have the right to rebel but hong kong protests thus far have only served imperial interests

TWO LAST THINGS I WILL SAY ON THE MATTER:

1. a movement is not necessarily defined by its supporters, but i find it interesting that a huge amount of support for hong kong comes from both otherwise “apolitical” and reactionary voices. obviously there are a lot of progressives passively sharing mainstream propaganda regarding hong kong out of a general desire to do good combined with an ignorance to the entire context, but the loudest voices here seem to be people who are anti-communist (and see china as communist so they think china = bad) and don’t actually care about the liberation of masses as a whole from oppressive police states, but only care about “freeing” people from “oppressive authoritarian regimes” (aka states that oppose US imperialism) and “giving” them “freedom” (aka re-placing them into US imperialist control) which also serves imperialist interests. you don’t have to love or even support china to be critical of the hong kong protests

2. THIS MAY SEEM HYPOCRITICAL AT THE END OF THIS ENTIRE POST BUT i don’t talk often about the going-ons in mainland china or hong kong because not only am i not chinese or from china or in china, but i am an american in the US, meaning i am literally within imperialism. if i focus my energy towards constantly politically analyzing or getting involved in not just matters in china but foreign matters in general, i am wasting my time because the most power and influence i will have on any political matter will always be on that within the US. how can i change the current state of imperialism in relation to hong kong if i’m literally doing nothing to change it as someone who literally lives within it?

anyways that was long and probably made no sense. if you wanna hear more about this perspective from people who are actually good at talking about it, i’ll link some stuff here

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1j7jRyFodtBKmj4Jiff0KukBMxM6P8vqZm8AvRhydcvc/mobilebasic

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1kXq1jmfwvgpv225DaxRa7?si=5OG-n8FnS4CzhBbil4JGCw

(also read mao xx)

#anon #answered

[aimeesuzara]

Questions from Maiana Minahal’s Students in English 272, “Filipino Women Writers”...My Responses

Dear students and readers,

I’m honored that you’ve read my work and are interested in these facets of my life and craft as an artist. I love the challenge of being given questions to write about. So, here goes!

1. What is the best thing that writing, performing, creating, etc. provides you? It seems you have many talents, how do each contribute to the person that you are? What do you love about each?  

I’ve combined a couple of similar questions here.  First, thanks to whomever has said that I have many talents; I’m flattered.  I do believe I was blessed with a variety of areas of interest and natural “talent” that I got to explore and develop in different phases of my life.  I even felt split about whether to respond to the questions in writing and using my voice and image (because I love storytelling and the voice).

First, what do I love about writing?  And perhaps writing, as opposed to performing or creating other kinds of multidisciplinary art (plays, collaborations with dance, music, etc)?  

Writing is most private; it’s also a place for confession because in many ways, it’s hidden, is behind a mask.  Writing can be on one hand too analytical, but when it’s the most powerful it can also be magic-making, enabling a metaphor to be developed and breathe, an image to vibrate and have scent and color; a scene and characters to come alive with dialogue, backstory, and motivation.  It’s a place of invention, slower invention that has no immediate impact except itself on the page - as opposed to live performance which is more of an improvisation and collaboration together with an audience.

Performance, then, is that other thing; I believe performance happens on the page, in that invention, as well, but if we’re talking about performing on the stage or at a microphone, it’s a collaboration among many elements: space (architecture, weather), time, other people / audience, circumstance.  It’s also very natural, an ancient throwback to the griots and oral historians and singers and spiritual leaders making incantations...it predates writing.  The body is a vessel with so many faculties, and this is the most exciting set of possibilities.  Should this line or this word be whispered?  Yelled?  Projected on the body?  Who is my audience when I perform?  Are you my audience?  Is my audience in the past, present or the future?  Am I in the past, present or future?  What am I able to bring to life right now, and even co-create with you a new circumstance within the present moment?  In theater and in poetry, even if it’s the same exact play or the same poem, each rendering is unique.  Did someone laugh at a different part?  Did someone cry?  Am I feeling the spirit of my grandmother that day?  Or my future child? Also, the voice is vibrational.  There’s a way in which, when we perform, we are contacting others through the voice, through the heat of our bodies; we share a space and time that never occurs again.

Creating multidisciplinary work - I’ll differentiate as projects that are collaborative, that may involve production elements such as video-poems, dance theater, or collaboration with musicians and filmmakers: this takes the Performance and the Writing to another level.  Now, let’s add other people who are experts in their own fields: choreographers, dancers, composers, emcees, filmmakers.  I have had the opportunity to work with a variety of these, in making projects such as a “Tiny Fires” poem collaboration (click for excerpt) with San Francisco State University’s Dance Theater, in which my poem was translated into choreography and the dancers learned all of the lines; a recent collaboration with Alayo Dance Theater called “Manos de Mujeres” in which I researched, interviewed and wrote about the lives of Cuban Women and the dance company danced and choreographed to my words; a recent project called “Water and Walls” (click to watch) in which we all wrote verses to music about a shared theme and a filmmaker worked with us to produce a video. These are all exciting ways for the writing to live and breathe and thrive in different ways, through different mediums.  When it comes to plays, I do not even perform in the work, but get to see talented actors bring the stories to life, with directors at the helm and production crew helping execute a vision.  It’s like giving birth...and seeing someone grow up beyond you, doing things you could not do...

2. What are some influences on your poetry/work? (I reworded this one somewhat; I hope it is still fine!)

I think I’ve answered some of this in the above, in a way.  I am influenced by many art forms, and can’t see it any other way. I’ve never sat well with only poetry or only words, which can be limiting, and often, as referenced earlier, can become too cerebral.  Words are meant to be released, like songs are meant to be sung.  I am influenced by my early exposure to playing piano and dancing ballet, and later playing percussion and dancing West African and Afro-Cuban and Salsa and a slight bit of Filipino movement.  I am influenced by the work I love to watch - other theater-makers, poets, dancers.  Music influences me deeply, and often I hear poems come to me like strains of music, with melodies and rhythms.  The natural world influences me.  And history. As you have seen in my book, I can get nearly obsessed with history.  The way it was written, the way it omits, the glimpses it gives us into the minds of people.  Who is heard and who is not; who is rendered silent in the writing; who needs to be heard, if even in imagination.  History excites me and leads me to get possessed.  Lastly, change-makers and activists, because I came out of that.  I first wrote most fiercely and performed my first spoken word poems because I wanted to tell the story of a little girl, Crizel Valencia, who died at age 6 of leukemia after growing up on a toxic wasteland left by the United States military.  I lived in her community and in her home and we drew together.  When she died, after making dozens of drawings of herself envisioning her community and her own survival, I felt possessed to write, and speak. So, spirits influence me too.

3. About the book, SOUVENIR: What was the inspiration behind the layout and style of your poems? For example, the use of different fonts and inclusion of outside texts like in your poem "Manifest Destiny 1980."  I really liked how you wrote and organized your book by using exhibits (like in the museum, there's a story for each object or subject) I find it very creative. What gave you this idea or how did you think of it?

Each poem definitely has its own inspiration, but I can focus on the one you mentioned, first.  In “Manifest Destiny 1980″ I was basically writing parallel realities - one in 1980 (my own personal story of migration across the country) and the one in 1803 of the Lewis and Clark Expedition - both which moved from East to West.  In mapping out my own family’s road trip from New Jersey to the small Tri-Cities (Pasco, Kennewick, Richland) towns of the Pacific Northwest, where I remembered growing up with stories about Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea, I found that we followed similar route as Lewis and Clark. But, while our trip and our experience was about immigrants and their daughter adjusting and assimilating to White America, Lewis and Clark went to study and exploit the knowledge and resources, and the environment, of Native people.  We were subjected to being analyzed and studied and ostracized; they were, as well, but in the end were in the position of power linked to the destruction and removal of local people.  The parallel in the layout was meant to enable the two readings (top to bottom) and also one interrupting the other.

As for the exhibits: as you probably know, the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair (Louisiana Purchase Exposition) celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, which followed the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  In the 1904 Fair, Filipinos were displayed in living exhibits, forced to re-enact rituals (at far too many intervals, unnaturally, for show and even competition), eat, sit, and interact in the public eye, as the living conquests of the US Imperialists.  I realized that so much of our lives was and is performance as well - my parents needing to demonstrate their ability to work and function within the American context; my striving to fit in, disappear, or perform as the rare Filipino girl in often non-diverse environments.  Without being too literal, I was interested in how we can see our lives on display, and what is lost or gained in that performance.  And objects - what are the objects that are collected as treasures of war - including our own bodies?

4. In the poem, "My Mother's Watch,” did that situation really happen to you? If you do go back to the motherland regularly, does the profiling still happen to you today?

Yes; that poem is actually pretty true to life.  I wouldn’t have called it “profiling” in that I think that term carries meanings of power within a racist context such as the United States.  In the Philippines, it was more of curiosity, more of realizing that you could never really “go back” in a way that is simply nostalgic or “authentic” -- that once the departure from the homeland, and the living within the United States context occurs, we may appear similar in skin and features, we may be 100% the same as our relatives in some ways, but we are not because we have lost our native tongues, or cultural norms, or gestures.  And also - that I felt so much bigger and taller than other Filipinos speaks to the fact that many of our own relatives or people just like us back “home” had access to fewer resources and nutrition, whereas we were able to grow up on milk and in my case, packaged and microwaved foods.  Even in our bodies, we are altered forever.  There was an article/ interview about this poem here that may be of interest: http://www.lanternreview.com/blog/2011/05/31/process-profile-aimee-suzara-discusses-my-mothers-watch/

5. What was the hardest part of the book to write?

The whole thing was hard to write, but it was actually harder to write the “colonizer”/white man/government/military and scientific voices because they were so emotionless at times, so declaratory, and in many cases, so condescending, if not overtly racist.  To dwell in the language in which Filipinos were called “niggers” and “rabbits” and that torture of Filipinos seemed to be so much fun; or that Native and Filipino and Black people’s skulls and genetics were inferior (according to the scientific racism of the time); and also that so much of it seemed to ring true to today.  It’s much easier to write personal narrative, lyrical narrative.

6.  What do you hope for readers to remember the most?

I hope that readers can see themselves reflected in the glass of the museum exhibits.  That regardless of their background, they see how Filipino-American History is American History and not some niche piece of history, but actually demonstrated some of the most egregious cases of scientific racism and exploitation, the epitome at the end of the 19th century, of colonialism and imperialism.  I hope readers check out more of the history, and also reflect on themselves and where they come from.

7.  What is the most nerve wrecking thing about becoming a mother for the first time? (Congratulations by the way!)

I put this at the end because it feels, in a way, like a bonus question, but also something very relevant to our lives as artists.  Becoming a first-time mother involves putting everything aside - my writing, my teaching, my projects - in service of my health and the health and protection of the child I am going to birth.  I have birthed many other things: projects, plays and poems, but a human being -- this requires the most sacrifice and faith I’ve ever had to summon.  At the same time, I think it’s very important for you, readers, to know that as artists, our lives are our art, just as art is our life.  We never stop being one or another (people, mothers, playwrights, performers).  If I believed I would stop being an artist, I could despair, but if I were to stop being an artist, what kind of mother would my son have?  He deserves my full self.  So, while our time becomes more limited and we have to focus on the child, we do not lose ourselves; we simply change.

Thank you for your interest and I hope you’ve enjoyed my answers!

[aion-rsa]

Krypton Season 2: Every Superman and DC Comics Easter Egg

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Is there another show as packed with Superman and DC Comics lore as Krypton season 2? If there is, we haven't seen it!

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This article consists of nothing but Krypton season 2 spoilers.

Who would have ever thought that the best DC Comics show on TV would turn out to be a Superman prequel? Well, to be fair, it's either Krypton or the bonkers and bizarrely sweet Doom Patrol. But Krypton managed to avoid nearly every single prequel pitfall in its first season, and then raised the stakes and flipped everything on its head with a reality altering season finale that opened the door to even crazier storytelling in season 2.

Well, Krypton season 2 brought countless opportunities to dive ever deeper into Superman and DC Comics lore. We're here to help keep track of it all. Let's get to work...

Krypton Season 2 Episode 1: Light-Years From Home

Read our review of "Light-Years From Home" here.

- Before we start on this episode, it should be noted that there has been a six month timejump since the season one finale.

- The ceremonial robes Zod is wearing at the start of the episode as he gives his address feel slightly reminiscent of Jor-El’s “jailer” robes in Superman: The Movie. And while there were similar wardrobe choices in season one, it's always worth pointing out how this show pays tribute to that movie at every chance it gets. 

The fact that now everyone (since the Rankless appear to have been gentrified out of existence) are now prominently wearing their house sigils and have adopted more uniform dress is again reminiscent of Superman: The Movie. The more colorful garb that Kryptonians have adopted in the wake of Zod’s “make Krypton great again” campaign is more reminiscent of how the planet was depicted until roughly the 1980s in the comics (and then again more recently).

- The speech that Zod delivers opens with “my fellow Kryptonians” and references “Kryptonian exceptionalism” as he justifies his imperialistic plan for Krypton...just in case you had any doubt about where this show views the kind of rationalizations that charismatic leaders offer for imperialistic adventuring throughout history.

And just to keep the focus on Zod for a moment, his plan to terraform other planets is reminiscent of his plan in Man of Steel, which itself referred to the imperialistic Kryptonian M.O. of years past. While Krypton isn't in continuity with Man of Steel or the DCEU, it's still a pretty cool connection.

- Adam Strange has taken to a more colorful wardrobe this season, including a red hoodie (which prompts Seg, later in the episode, to point out that “red’s your color!”) Indeed it is, as that’s the dominant color on Adam's costume from the comics.

- The moon of Wegthor was first mentioned in Superman #141 in 1961. It has appeared on film in Man of Steel (which Krypton still has a number of aesthetic similarities to) in Jor-El's era. I'm not gonna spoil it here, but if you click this link and look for the Wegthor entry, you'll get a glimpse of what might be on the way for this moon.

Wegthor never had a space elevator in the comics, but it's pretty neat that the Zod regime was able to whip this up in six months. The miners are extracting an element known as "solarium" which, as far as I can remember, doesn't have any kind of DC Comics counterpart.

- Not only is this the first time we’ve ever seen the surface of Wegthor in live action, this is also to the best of my knowledge the first live action depiction of Brainiac’s homeworld of Colu. It is...surprisingly lush. Also, I defy any future movie version of Brainiac to be half as perfect as Blake Ritson's portrayal and look on this show.

read more - Krypton Season 2: What's Next for Brainiac?

- The Sunstone crystal that Seg is carrying around “contains the energy of a 10 billion year old yellow sun.” For comparison, our actual yellow sun is just under half that many billions of years old.

- Seg saying he’s “got a bad feeling about this” is reminiscent of one of Han Solo's favorite expressions in Star Wars.

- Lobo is here! The character was created by Roger Silfer, Keith Giffen, and Mike DeCarlo in the pages of Omega Men #3 way the hell back in 1983. Initially a somewhat throwaway baddie, Lobo grew to prominence in the pages of Giffen and JM DeMatteis' brilliant Justice League International, before evolving into a full-blown (and beloved) parody of everything that was wrong with comics in the late '80s and early '90s. We have a much more detailed history of Lobo right here. 

The character you're seeing on screen here is a perfect distillation of everything that made Lobo such a sensation when he reached his peak popularity, from dropping trademark phrases like referring to himself as "the Main Man" or his go-to expletive of "frag" (not to be confused with "frak"). Syfy is betting big on the Main Man, as they've already commissioned a Lobo spinoff TV series.

Amusingly, Adam asks Lobo if “the rest of the Kiss Army” are on the way, which is downright hilarious. Fans have also pointed out the similarities to Rob Zombie, who in turn was inspired by Kiss.

Krypton Season 2 Episode 2: Ghost in the Fire

Read our review of "Ghost in the Fire" right here.

- One of the weapons Lobo uses to threaten Seg and Adam appears to be the kind of mace usually favored by Hawkman. We've been promised Thanagarians for a long time on this show, and I think we're due for some kind of Hawkman appearance. I really hope it happens this season.

- Lobo mispronounces Seg-El’s name as “Siegel” which is no coincidence, as Seg is named for Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel.

But since we're talking about Lobo, he rattles off a whole bunch of Lobo-esque facts and history in profane, rapid-fire fashion.

He mentions the Church of the Triple Fish God, which Lobo was indeed the custodian of during DC's excellent 52 weekly series in 2006-2007.

He says his name translates to "he who devours his enemy’s entrails and thoroughly enjoys it," which is straight out of the comics.

He specifically mentions killing his parents, but also makes oblique references to actually having killed the entire Czarnian race with genetically engineered "scorpion rattlers," again...accurate.

- The name "Flamebird" is invoked for the first time this season (it was mentioned as a codeword by Jax-Ur during season one). Flamebird was a superheroic identity adopted by Jimmy Olsen when he would go on crime fighting adventures with Superman in the bottle city of Kandor. Since then, a number of other characters (most Kryptonian in origin) have used the name and costume. But I believe this is the first time the name has ever been associated with a Raoist creation myth. It will be interesting to see if this show ever decides to explore Flamebird as an identity.

- The idea that Kryptonian physiology can adapt to the rigors of the Outlands is cool, and speaks to the overall adaptability of the species. After all, Kryptonians are powerless under a red sun, but under a yellow sun gain "powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men." So this little tidbit of info about how adaptable Kryptonians are seems like a subtle piece of worldbuilding to help explain why Superman is able to do what he does on Earth. It's a nice touch.

- The poor guy that Lyta beats the absolute crap out of is named Lor-Ran according to the credits. Perhaps you, like me, got excited thinking his name was Lor-Van, which would make him a relative of Lara Lor-Van, who would be Seg-El's daughter-in-law, or more succinctly, Superman's mother. But you, like me, would be wrong.

Krypton Season 2 Episode 3: Will to Power

read our review of "Will to Power" here.

- Brainiac's home planet of Colu looks amazing and weird from the outside, as it should. 

- The green/corrupted Fortress as Seg’s "mind palace" to indicate Brainiac's control of him is a nice touch.

- The architecture on Krypton is starting to look more and more like the kinds of structures seen in Superman: The Movie.

Krypton Season 2 Episode 4: Danger Close

read our review of "Danger Close" here.

- During the flashback, Kem is repeating a joke/fable about Rondors that we heard during season one.

- Also, as we see the first meeting between Lyta and Seg, it looks like the binding scarf has House of El colors (ala Val’s costume)

- “A little short to be a Sagitari” is a reference to the first Star Wars movie. When Princess Leia first meets Luke Skywalker he’s wearing a stolen Stormtrooper uniform, and she remarks that he’s “a little short for a Stormtrooper.”

- The silver sheets on Lyta’s bed are reminiscent of the silver sheets on the Fortress of Solitude bed in Superman II. If you go by Superman Returns continuity, that is likely where Superman and Lois’ child was conceived, so perhaps this encounter between Seg and Lyta is where little Dru is conceived. Well...at least that's what I thought until it turned out this Lyta was likely a clone.

- Adam’s anxiety about a version of the future where it appears that time and the universe have just come to a halt makes me wonder if this show will indeed somehow tie into the version of Crisis on Infinite Earths coming to the CW DC shows. It’s extraordinarily unlikely, I’ll admit, but I can’t rule it out completely.

- We see Cor-Vex in a cradle containing shiny red, blue, and yellow blankets, which is once again reminiscent of how baby Kal-El was swaddled in Superman: The Movie.

- They’ve played the whole “Zod is from the future and Superman’s greatest enemy” so chill on this show that when he speaks in familiar turns about the Phantom Zone “that horrific place” it’s easy to forget that he would indeed know.

Krypton Season 2 Episode 5: A Better Yesterday

read our review of "A Better Yesterday" here.

- When Jayna talks about Dru-Zod being unwilling to stop “until everyone kneels before him,” well...you know that this is once again a wonderful reference to Terrence Stamp’s most famous Zod catchphrase.

- It is purely coincidental that Jax-Ur says “whatever it takes” here, and her context is completely different from that of Avengers: Endgame, of course.

Krypton Season 2 Episode 6 Review: In Zod We Trust

read our review of "In Zod We Trust" right here.

- Jax-Ur has been a sympathetic character throughout this series, but with her murder of Lyta, her heel turn is more or less complete. Sure, the character still has redeeming qualities (as do all villains on this show), but now you can see how she eventually ends up exiled to the Phantom Zone and menacing Superman on Earth.

- Kryptonian names in this episode include Tai-Un, Ton-Re, and Taz-Ran. As far as I can tell, none of these are from the comics, although Taz-Ran does call to mind an earlier episode’s Lor-Ran, so perhaps they’re related. It’s also a slight anagram of “Tarzan” who was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, who also created Jon Carter of Mars, a character who had a profound influence on the creation of Adam Strange.

- There’s another, although far more nebulous (and coincidental) connection with one of those names, though. Ton-Re calls to mind the name Tomar-Re, a Green Lantern Corps member who patrolled Space Sector 2813. Tomar-Re wasn’t Kryptonian, but DC felt compelled at one point to explain why the Green Lantern Corps were unable to stop Krypton from exploding. Well, it turns out, they TRIED, and Tomar-Re had planned to stabilize Krypton’s unstable core using, you guessed it, Stellarium, the same mineral that is being mined on Wegthor. Anyway, there’s no actual connection between Ton-Re and Tomar-Re, I just thought that was worth pointing out.

- The Codex plays a major role in this episode, and it was the primary driver of the Man of Steel movie, which this show continues to resemble in little ways, even though they exist in different corners of the DC multiverse.

Krypton Season 2 Episode 7: Zods and Monsters

read our review of "Zods and Monsters" right here.

- Doomsday’s origin story was first told in Superman/Doomsday: Hunter Prey by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding. That was the direct sequel to the famed Death and Return of Superman story, although there, Doomsday’s origin was a little different. Instead of being a Kryptonian undergoing a procedure to produce the perfect soldier, he was a small creature, fired off into an inhospitable environment to be killed over and over again, until, after 30 years, he evolved into Doomsday. 

Here, there are two Kryptonian scientists creating Doomsday. One is named Wedna-El, a name that does indeed have roots in Kryptonian history. Wedna Kil-Gor was the mother of Val-El in the comics, and first appeared in The Krypton Chronicles limited series in 1981, which, of course, has some influence on this show.

The other is Van-Zod, and while as far as I can tell that name has never appeared in the comics, Van is a common Kryptonian name. There was, however, a Van-Zee, a resident of Kandor who adopted the superheroic identity of Nightwing (no, not Dick Grayson).

There are some fun touches with the costumes in these flashback sequences. For starters, they’re both “ancient” and also kind of art-deco sci-fi. There’s a touch of the Flash Gordon serials about their looks, and of course Flash Gordon was a massive influence on Superman in general and Krypton in particular in the early comics. But also, Wedna’s “S” has a hint of the Man of Steel version of the logo about it, as well as a little of the Earth-2 Superman.

But there’s lots going on in the (relative) present of this episode, too...

- Seg’s pep talk to Nyssa is the most Superman-esque moment the character has ever had, and Cameron Cuffe pulls it off brilliantly. You could imagine Kal-El himself pumping up Flash or Green Lantern with something similar, and it’s the inspirational power of the members of House El that count for a lot. The wink he throws in at the end helps, too, a nod to the early Max Fleischer Superman cartoons, the George Reeves TV series, and many comics from Superman’s first 50 years.

- And, of course, we have the “Cor-Vex is now Jor-El” moment, which needs little (if any) explanation. But again, Seg has a big moment, and his speech to the newly named Jor is reminiscent of the one Marlon Brando’s Jor-El gives to baby Kal-El before launching him into space. 

- They even give us a hint of the John Williams theme there. Krypton has been wise not to deploy that too often, but when they do, it matters.

- Seg finally gets to wear the “S” and you can tell Cameron Cuffe relishes it. Nice touch that he has to open his jacket to show it off.

Krypton Season 2 Episode 8: Mercy

read our review of "Mercy" right here.

- The Black Mercy has been teased since the earliest episodes of the show, and is the subject of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ all time classic Superman story “For the Man Who Has Everything.” For more on that story and other Alan Moore Superman tales, click here.

Here, as in that tale, Lyta begins to see through the facade of this “perfect world” and her own anxieties cause it to collapse and escape the Mercy’s influence.

During Lyta’s fantasy, Seg’s white ceremonial gear makes him look an awful lot like Brando’s Jor-El at the beginning of Superman: The Movie.

Incidentally, the Black Mercy was also the subject of an episode of Supergirl, although they didn’t lean into the body horror of it all the way they do here.

- A number of space sectors are rattled off. Sector 2813 is indeed Krypton’s sector (and neighbors are own (2814). Others mentioned include 2683 and 2684, although I believe only 2684 has ever actually been shown in the comics. Don’t forget, kids, it was the Guardians who divided the universe up into sectors, so this show is basically tempting us with some Green Lantern action down the road, and we need to see it.

Krypton Season 2 Episode 9: Blood Moon

read our review of "Blood Moon" right here.

- Doomsday’s utterly R-rated slaughter (not to mention his murder of Kem) feels straight out of the character’s comic book appearances...but bloodier.

- Adam mentions “the only person” who could potentially stop Doomsday. Three guesses who that is.

- And we finally get to see the destruction of Wegthor. It’s impressive that something that has long been a kind of Silver Age Superman trivia answer gets such weighty, dramatic, and effective treatment on TV.

Krypton Season 2 Episode 10: The Alpha and the Omega

read our review of "The Alpha and the Omega" right here.

- Annnd after all those other sectors were mentioned in episode 8, we finally get a shout out to our own home, Sector 2814! Of course, that’s where Brainiac is taking poor, innocent Jor-El...

- Val tells Seg that Kem will be remembered as “Kem-El.” In the comics, well...Kem-L was the creator of the Eradicator, and he wasn’t as nice a guy as our beloved Kem.

- As far as I can tell, all of Adam’s stuff about his home life here is entirely created for this show.

- Seg’s perfectly delivered, “General, would you care to step outside?” is a wonderful homage to one of the all time great Christopher Reeve line deliveries in Superman II.

- Oh, and while we’re talking about Superman movies where General Zod was the villain, you’ll note that Seg had a chance to break Zod’s neck here, but didn’t...unlike a certain OTHER Superman movie…

- Zod being subjected to the Black Mercy he had been using on others feels very much like the end of “For the Man Who Has Everything” which ended with Mongul under its influence, and living out his own fantasies of conquest.

- Adam Strange not only finally gets his jetpack, but gets something resembling his comic book costume!

- Lobo's return would indeed seem to set things up for his solo TV series, or at least for his continued presence on Krypton Season 3 (which as of this writing hasn't been renewed...but it had better be!).

- Nyssa ends up on Rann...and spots winged troops flying overhead, presumably the cause of the carnage she sees. Are those Thanagarians, the Hawkmen who have long been known to go to war with Rann? Or...are they Darkseid’s Parademons? The Omega symbol in blood on the cave wall could speak to the latter.

We wrote about this crazy scenario (and more threads from the finale) in more detail right here.

Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter!

Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Feature

Books

Mike Cecchini

Aug 14, 2019

DC Entertainment

Krypton

Superman

Krypton Season 2

Lobo

brainiac

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[auskultu]

THE NEW LEFT TURNS TO MOOD OF VIOLENCE IN PLACE OF PROTEST

Paul Hofman, The New York Times, 7 May 1967

“We are working to build a guerrilla force in an urban environment,” said the national secretary of the left-wing Students for a Democratic Society, Gregory Calvert, one day recently.

“We are actively organizing sedition,” he said.

Mr. Calvert, a 29-year-old former history teacher, spoke pleasantly about revolution in his dingy office on Chicago's Skid Row. The threat of violence in his words characterizes the current radicalization of the New Left.

A maze of factions with a penchant for verbosity and a hankering for actions, the New Left wants emphatically to be distinct from the old left—the socialist and Communist movements whose history goes back over generations.

Ebullience and Frustration Just how distinct it has become was made clear during a three-week series of interviews with some 75 New Left activists and sympathizers from coast to coast. Most of them were younger than 30, and some sounded much more truculent than members of the Moscow-oriented Communist party, U. S. A.

The spirit of resistance and direct action constitutes perhaps the major attitude in the New Left today. Other findings in this assessment of the New Left's mood are as follows:

An ebullience over the impact of opposition to the war in Vietnam, which emotionally involves some members of the middle class and leads them to New Left positions also on domestic issues.

A frustration resulting from the lack of New Left political power and the failures of “peace” candidates in national and local elections.

A virulent factionalism similar to the doctrinaire old left feuds, a factionalism that is being exploited by extremists. up with leftist and “anti-imperialist” movements in Latin America, Europe and emerging nations.

The growth of a broadening “hippie” segment, mainly on the East and West Coasts, occasionally Joining the New Left in demonstrations but also worrying it because drug users and beatniks tend to withdraw from society instead of attempting to reform or revolutionize it.

The drifting apart of young whites and Negroes, close allies in the civil rights battles in the South a few years ago, as black power extremism spreads in Northern ghettos.

‘Che Lives in Our Hearts' If there is one dominant hero of the New Left mood, perhaps he is Ernesto Che Guevara.

Mr. Calvert, the beardless, ruddy-faced national secretary of Students for a Democratic Society, said:

“Che’s message is applicable to urban America as far as the psychology of guerrilla action goes. . . . Che sure lives in our hearts.”

Che Guevara, the Argentine-born revolutionary who was an associate of Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba, disappeared more than two years ago and is rumored to be leading insurgents somewhere in the Andean fastnesses.

A long way from the South American sierras, a surprising number of young left-wing intellectuals were found to revere the Argentinian adventurer. Rebellious students who spoke with equal disdain about “Establishment liberals” and “Communist squares” professed the cult of the “pure” man of revolutionary action.

Posters of Che Guevara and of Malcolm X, the black nationalist slain here two years ago, are advertised for sale “at special bulk rates” in a San Francisco monthly, The Movement. The radical publication disaffiliated recently from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the militant, Southern-oriented movement that used to be one of the pillars of the New Left but has lately veered toward black power goals and away from Students for a Democratic Society.

‘I'm No Pacifist' Che Guevara’s bearded likeness was encountered on the walls of the littered offices of radical newspapers and left-wing groups. His name cropped up in talks in college cafeterias whenever the New Left’s current infatuation with direct action was mentioned.

“I recognize that violence may be necessary, I'm no pacifist,” said a vibrant young woman who has done much work for the New Left, Leni Zeiger. “I’m a white, middle-class girl, but I understand why Negroes, Puerto Ricans or Okies riot. I feel the same frustrations in myself, the same urge to violence.”

Ann Arbor is important on the New Left map because Students for a Democratic Society was born there some six year ago. The movement’s first national convention in Port Huron Mich., in June, 1962, produce a basic New Left manifesto.

This rejected “paranoiac anti-Communism” while blaming the Soviet Union for suppressing opposition. It strongly attacked American capitalism, denounce the “hypocrisy of America ideals” and advocated a vaguely defined . “participatory democracy.”

Several S.D.S. member asked for practical examples of “participatory democracy” in action, pointed to the Yugoslav system of workers’ council running nationalized business enterprises.

Amendments to the “Port Huron Statement” have made the S.D.S. program completely agnostic on Communism, opening the door to membership of Communists.

Since then, Students for Democratic Society has gone through various phases, aided the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee in the South, it went into the Northern ghettos to organize their inhabitants, and lately it has swung back onto the campus.

Some of the ghetto efforts a still alive. Among them are the Newark Community Unity Project—directed by Tom Hayden, a cofounder of S.D.S. a main author of the Port Huron manifesto— and Chicago’s Jobs or Income Now (J.O.I.N.).

In the short but lively history of S.D.S., 1967 is the year of the “prairie guys,” the national leaders who were elect at a convention in a Methodist camp at Clear Lake, Iowa, in September. Nick Egleson, president, Carl Davidson, vice president, Mr. Calvert and their friends are leading S.D.S., in Davidson’s words, “from protest to resistance."

Action Above Ideology Mr. Calvert described himself as a “post-Communist revolutionary," putting action above ideology. Dee Jacobsen, assistant national secretary a headquarters manager, said t North Vietnamese whom S.D.S representatives had got in touch with “cannot understand we don't take any direct action."

The three-room, $125-a-month national headquarters of Students for a Democratic Society is at 1608 West Madison Street Chicago's Skid Row. It is close to the area of last summer’s Negro rioting.

Despite the squalid settling, the headquarters looks more affluent than it did at its torn location near the University Chicago campus on the city’s South Side.

Last year there was picturesque clutter: now there is disorderliness. There are boxes outgoing and incoming mail, staffers who answer telephones and an ancient safe with a combination lock.

"We are getting ready the revolution." Mr. Jacobsen joked with a thin smile while visitor remarked on the new look.

Mr. Jacobsen said he abandoned psychiatric hospital work to become a full-time S.D.S. organizer because he thought “my life was getting unbelievable.”

Mr. Calvert and Mr. Jacob said S.D.S. had some 200 chapters, with 8,000 dues-pay members and at least 25.1 other supporters who participated in chapter activities.

These activities, the S.D.S. leaders said, are centered on enlisting young men to evade military duty by “insubordinate, legal and illegal emigration Canada, going underground America—everything.’’

Students for a Democratic Society is organizing “draft resistance unions" and has “national draft resistance ordinator."

A Change of Plan The resistance-fomenting leadership has only contempt for electoral campaigns “peace" candidates and is hostile toward more protest demonstrations. The leadership first decided not to participate in Spring Mobilization anti-war demonstrations of last April deeming them a futile exert but was overruled at a meeting of the movement’s national council in Cambridge early in April.

The national leaders still not seem to think much of mobilization, and they have hinted at possibly even sterner action than resistance to the draft.

"Some of our members undoubtedly will help” in ghetto riots this summer, Mr. Jacobsen said.

A former S.D.S. organizer, who asked that he not be named, ridiculed the present leadership’s talk of urban guerrillas.

"Greg Calvert has read something about leftist terrorist commandos in Caracas,” he said, "and he and his friends think they are Venezuelans. They are becoming a sect. Romantic and out of touch with reality.”

He said infiltrators from the pro-Peking Progressive Labor party had gained control of a least one S.D.S. chapter in Chicago. He did not name it.

Other New Left moderates suggested that the verbal militancy in S.D.S. headquarter might mask an inferiority complex vis-i-vis Negro racists who had already made up their minds that violence was necessary to attain black power.

“Black nationalists are stacking Molotov cock tails and studying how they can hold a few city blocks in an uprising, how to keep off the fire brigade and the police so that the National Guard must be called out,” a white Ohio student said. "And they're right. We ought to help them where we can, but we oughtn’t be hung up with leading or liberating the Negroes."

In Praise of Black Power Mr. Calvert conceded that S.D.S. had few Negro member He said:

“Black power is absolutely necessary. When we have organized the white radicals we can link up with the Negro radicals."

This seemed to imply a lack of such a link at present.

In the view of Jack Newfield, assistant editor of The Village Voice, the Greenwich Village newspaper, and a former S.D.S member, the radicalization of New Left movements results from a feeling of hopelessness “The situation is getting more oppressive," he said. “Look at Alabama, look at Georgia, look at the war in Vietnam."

At the Internal Security Division of the Department of Justice, an official said “it is obvious that these [New Left] groups are becoming more and more vociferous and threatening“ in protesting against the war in Vietnam and calling for sedition.” However, he said was unable to comment on he serious a threat to law and order these groups were.

He said that “we are following closely the activities some of these groups,” keeping in mind that the First Amendment to the Constitution protects freedom of speech. He said violations of the Universal Military Training and Service Act and the Sedition Act were being investigated but declined to indicate whether prosecutions were on the increase.

Talks with police officers a community leaders in various cities found most in agreement that only a small hard core leftist activists is determined to defy the law—maybe no more than a few hundred across the nation. The number of young New Left militants who advocate violence is grown, it was found, but whether the increasingly radical talk can be translated into unlawful action is controversial.

A potential threat to law and order from New Left radicals was seen in areas where racial disorders this summer are feared, including Cleveland, Chicago and, possibly New York.

Numerically, the New Left remains weak. The figure 200,000 adherents nationwide that is often mentioned by sympathizers seems exaggerated.

Staughton Lynd’s View In the New Left itself, campus talk about direct act Is only rarely frightening, does not frighten Staughton Lynd, who at the age of 38 often called an "elder statesman" of the New Left.

The guerrilla concept is "is descriptive" of the new radical trend, he said in an interview. He appeared to distinguish tween active violence and civil disobedience, which he himself practiced at the end of 1966 when he defied the United States Government and visited Hanoi with Mr. Hayden, S.D.S. cofounder, and Dr. Hebert Aptheker, the leading theoretician of the Communist Party, U.S.A.

Mr. Lynd, an associate professor of history at Yale University, who has been influenced by Quaker pacifism, said he expected to receive a leave of absence from Yale and move to Chicago teach at an S.D.S.-backed course for community organizers. Graduates of the school may assist draft resistors or defend the interests of the poor in housing and welfare, he said.

Mr. Lynd stressed that “solid base of local organization" was more important the New Left than going quickly into national politics.

“I believe in local polital candidates” of the New Left said.

A more sanguine assessment of the New Left's political sensibilities was given by Booth, who was S.D.S. national secretary before Mr. Calvert. Mr. Booth said in Chicago that the defeats of New Left “peace” candidates in year’s primaries and Congressional elections “have given people a better sense of how much work is to be done” to win political power.

Third-Party Idea Mr. Booth said the idea setting up a third party or antiwar and New Loft platform deserved consideration.

He expressed hope that “in three months” a vast audience would rally behind Rev. Dr. Marlin' Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Dr. Benjamin Spock, the pediatrician and antiwar leader, as candidates for President and Vice President. Dr. King has said he does not intend to run.

Mr. Booth, a 23-year-old Swarthmore College graduate, is a board member of the National Conference for New Politics. ("Those left liberals!" Mr. Calvert sneered when the group was mentioned to him.)

The conference was established last year to help New Left and antiwar forces win political Influence. Cochairmen are Julian Bond of the Georgia Legislature and Simon Casidy, a California Democrat. Dr. Spock was among the founders.

Another backer of Dr. King is Robert Scheer, the 31-year-old managing editor of Ramparts magazine. During a visit to New York he predicted broad popular support for the clergyman.

"I cannot think of any Negro minister attacking him,” Mr. Scheer said. “Stokely Carmichael [chairman of the S.N.C.C.] embraced him publicly. The extremists will have to go along.”

Mr. Scheer knows how to sound pretty extremist himself. In the Spring Mobilization rally In San Francisco he called President Johnson a “murderer” who was aiming at a “final solution” in Vietnam. The term “final solution” was used in official Nazi documents to describe the destruction of Jews ordered by Hitler.

The executive director of the Conference for New Politics, William F. Pepper, said in an interview at the group’s New York headquarters, at 250 West 57th Street, that "we aren’t a bunch of liberal do-gooders, we are revolutionary.” (“Liberal” is a dirty word in the New Left.)

He said the conference aimed at affiliating with the hundreds of antiwar committees and left-oriented “single-issue and multi-issue” groups that had sprung up throughout the country.

Mr. Pepper said he once was a campaign coordinator for Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Westchester County but that in his present activity he was not “fronting for Senator Kennedy.”

A Meeting With Kennedy Senator Kennedy has shown interest in the New Left and some time ago had a long talk with Mr. Lynd and Mr. Hayden at his home here. The meeting was arranged by Mr. Newfield. who is working on a biography of the Senator.

It was an aide of Dr. King, the Rev. James Bevel, who served as national director of the Spring Mobilization. The protest Idea was originally conceived by pacifists around the Rev. A. J. Muste, who died last Feb. 11.

While Dr. King jolted the civil rights movement by saying that it was vitally connected with the campaign against the war in Vietnam, leftists became prominent in the mobilization campaign. Some moderates withdrew.

The antiwar rally on April 15 In San Francisco's 62,000-seat Kezar Stadium, which was almost filled, was directed by a 21-year-old Trotskyite, Kipp Dawson. Outside the stadium, members of a Los Angeles-based pro-Peking group, wearing homemade uniforms with red-star insignia, sold copies of the “little red book" anthology of Chairman Mao Tse-tung's thoughts. The Maoists had denounced the April 15 demonstrations as a "revisionist Trotskyite betrayal." but did not pass up its possibilities for propaganda.

The W. E. B. Dubois Clubs, widely regarded as an unofficial youth arm of the Communist Party, U. S. A., played a subdued role In the antiwar drive or were missing altogether. Leftists of various shades wondered why.

An attempt to obtain an explanation at the Chicago national headquarters of the clubs was unsuccessful. The two-room office In the Great Lakes Building, 180 North Wacker Drive, was closed, and the telephone was disconnected.

A Theory About the Club Some DuBois Clubs have ceased their advertising of activities in local student publications. A Negro undergraduate had his own theory of why the clubs, which are named after a dead Negro Marxist scholar, seem dormant:

“The Communist Party desperately wants to look liberal and respectable. These DuBois cats, square as they are, are too swingin’ for the party bureaucrats.”

A former DuBois leader, Michael Myerson, is director of a newly formed Tri-Continental Information Center here that, according to a recent announcement. “has established contacts with anti-imperialist organizations and movements throughout the world.” Among the sponsors are Communist party members such as Dr. Aptheker, S.D.S. backers and Dr. Spock.

Mr. Myerson, a 26-year-old University of California graduate, said the members of the center were offering their services and support as Individuals and not as representatives of any organizations. The group has an office at 1133 Broadway and a two-man staff. It said It would issue a monthly bulletin and a series of pamphlets and would send fact-finding missions "to areas suffering from United States domination."

Students for a Democratic Society, too, is branching out internationally. A new Radical Education Project calls for creation of a network of "scholars, journalists, leftist youth leaders. government officials, guerrilla leaders, etc.," to gather international intelligence on insurgent movements and foreign policy developments.

The Young Socialist Alliance, an appendage of the Trotskyite Socialist Workers party, thoroughly committed its small but disciplined membership to the Spring Mobilization demonstration.

The Trotskyites’ advocacy of all-embracing. “nonexclusive” antiwar alliances is met with deep distrust by many New Left adherents.

‘Liars’ a Student Says "The Trotskyites are liars and just want to take over the entire left,” a Harvard University student said.

A visitor to the Spring Mobilization headquarters in San Francisco, a few days after the April 15 demonstrations, found the organizing committee's director there, the petite Miss Dawson, counting money contributions and arranging for the payment of bills.

It quickly developed during an interview that Miss Dawson's revolutionary idol is Che Guevara.

"The Cuban revolution is the most exciting thing that has happened In our time,” said the Young Socialist Alliance activist, who was not yet born when Leon Trotsky was murdered in Mexico in 1940.

Trotsky, one of the chief organizers of the Russian October Revolution of 1917, advocated world revolution and establishment of uncompromising “pure", Communism. He was forced into I exile by Stalin. Followers of Trotsky's doctrine of “permanent revolution” are influential in some Latin-American countries.

While the heirs of the old left thus identify with Che Guevara. his book "Guerrilla Warfare”—and not Mao’s little red book—is becoming part of the young radicals’ field kit.

[Due to a bad scan, article is incomplete for last few paragraphs.]

#1960s #1967 #60s #antiwar #black power #campus unrest #che guevara #chicago #civil rights #communism #counterculture #dissent #hippies #martin luther king #mlk #mobe #new left #peace movement #radicals #sds #sixties #stokelycarmichael #students for a democratic society #protests

[foxhenki-blog]

Criminal Necromancy

I am penning this post on the first full moon of the year, it is a blood moon and an eclipse is scheduled to happen this evening as well. The temperature has dropped precipitously so we now have that ultra-crisp clear January sky that almost makes the cold worth it. It is the evening, kids are quiet and winding down, wife is home from work, the furnace is working, and I have tomorrow (MLK Day) off.

I had to take the day off, mind you, the kids don’t have school and the wife will be enjoying her newish job. The usual pressure of getting uniforms and everyone to bed at a reasonable time is alleviated. I used to work for a Jesuit university and we always had MLK day off and then I moved to private industry. It has irked me every year I have had to work. I’m not African-American, I am as white as one of those winter nights out there beyond my window are long. The fact that it bugs me that I have to work also bugs me… are my feelings legitimate? I have been thinking a lot on that, and race in general, having been wrestling with the literature of a documented racist.

What I don’t want to do is to end my research project into the Lovecraftian oeuvre with a bunch of hand-waving and stage smoke, attempting to cover up or (worse) ignore the author’s racism. The general premise throughout the project has (sort of) been the later, as I have been communicating directly (and very specifically) with the text using a reader-response theory set and ontological brackets around the author as a person. I have actually never agreed with the approach that most conventional literary criticism takes — a biographical / historiographical lens that centers the text in the authors life. This project is no different and besides, that has been done to death in Lovecraft’s case, there is nothing new under the sun down that road.

Nevertheless, there are enough examples of racism in the text that those brackets I placed around old HPL are growing thin. Working directly with the text, those occasions of racism are almost always from a previously announced materialist/imperialist ‘protagonist’ that always ends up recanting their materialism in the face of the truth of Lovecraftian spirit-forms. This means something. To me, it means that there is a gate that has been left in the text. Through that gate is a jailbroken Lovecraft that will at last be useful to the 21st century magic-user that wants to wrestle with the systems embedded in his corpus and isn’t comfortable hand-waving away the racism in the text.

The deer path I think I can spot in the brush, the path that I think will lead me to the Palace of the Nine Frontiers where the ideas begin to sync together and make sense. That path is one paved with decolonization. As is my way, I refuse to use a word like that without fully understanding all of its nuance. I picked up ‘Decolonization: A Short History’ by Jan Jansen and Jurgen Osterhammel from the library and proceeded to bash away. From the beginning of the text:

“‘Decolonization’ is a technical and rather undramatic term for one of the most dramatic processes in modern history: the disappearance of empire as a political form, and the end of racial hierarchy as a widely accepted political ideology and structuring principle of world order… Accordingly, decolonization is 1) the simultaneous dissolution of several intercontinental empires and the creation of nation-states… linked with 2) the historically unique and, in all likelihood, irreversible delegitimization of any kind of political rule that is experienced as a relationship of subjugation to a power elite considered by a broad majority of the population as alien occupants.”

Which is a very technical definition and one not exactly helpful for building a foundation for a magical system, save for the bit about creating an irreversible delegitimization of any kind of ruling imperial paradigm. When coupled with the proceeding quote:

“Decolonization… has a structural and a normative side. It means a radical restructuring of the international order. And by proscribing colonialism — and the racism that accompanies it — decolonization simultaneously means a reversal of those norms that shaped the relationship peoples and states to each other through the middle of the twentieth century. In that way, decolonization sent shock waves that went far beyond the dissolution of formal colonial rule.”

We have a definition of decolonization being any method that delegitimizes imperialism, and reverses the normative state of xenophobia and racism established by colonial rule. These are early thoughts, subject to change, but I see a decolonization of Lovecraft as necessary to wrest the work from the author and employ it to reverse the norms of racism. Further, colonialism is often spoken about in Lovecraft’s tales. This is especially true when the tale is set in New England for scare a word is uttered without mention of the East India Company, that funnel of exploited goods and pirates that British imperialism grew fat on. The authors of ‘Decolonization,’ when addressing the true nature of colonialism, state that:

“Only across a temporal distance of several decades was it possible for postcolonial studies to merge. They arose from the disturbing observation that ‘colonial’ habits of thinking have not automatically gone away with the loss of colonialism’s importance as a political institution… imperialistic patterns of behavior by the strong toward the weak still exist and have even reappeared in new shapes, adjusted to a world of formerly sovereign nation-states; imperialism after empire is being revived in attenuated form…”

It is those ‘habits of thinking’ that persist past the temporal boundaries of colonial rule, that we are concerned with. Without giving away too much of my early theoretical stance, in my reading of Lovecraft I see not only a historical author that is writing during the last upsurge of overt colonialism in the early twentieth century, but a body of literature that employs a strong hypernostalgia to a time one hundred years before when Providence, RI was sitting atop the shoulders of colonial wealth via the East India Company. The interior theming of Lovecraft’s tales, as has been mentioned, is the dismantling of these colonial forces through their confrontation with pre-historical animist truths. This is the thread I hope to pull on.

This week we will open for investigation ‘The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.’ Right from the beginning, we are offered a potent piece of necromantic theory in the form of an opening quote.

“’The essential Saltes of Animals may be so prepared and preserved, that an ingenious Man may have the whole Ark of Noah in his own Studie, and raise the fine Shape of an Animal out of its Ashes at his Pleasure; and by the lyke Method from the essential Saltes of humane Dust, a Philosopher may, without any criminal Necromancy, call up the shape of any dead Ancestour from the Dust whereinto his Bodie has been incinerated.’

Borellus”

Lovecraft is quoting the words of Pierre Borel, a seventeenth century alchemist. Pierre Borel (is we are to fulfill our natural magical tendency to create correspondence charts) is also an experimental jazz composer and saxophonist from Berlin, the role of experimental music in Lovecraftian Magic has been spoken of before in the course of this project. The tale continues, giving us a glimpse of the title character’s qualities:

“Charles Ward was an antiquarian from infancy, no doubt gaining his taste from the venerable town around him, and from relics of the past which filled every corner of his parents’ old mansion… With the years his devotion to ancient things increased; so that history, genealogy, and the study of colonial architecture, furniture, and craftmanship… crowded everything else from his… interests. These tasts are important to remember in considering his madness… The gaps of information which the alienists notices were all related to modern matters…”

Is our tale another instance of time travel magic or of transference, as in ‘Thing at the Doorstep’? The text continues:

“The beginning of Ward’s madness is a matter of dispute among alienists. Dr Lyman, the eminent Boston authority, places it in 1919 or 1920, during the boy’s last year at… Brown… when he suddenly turned from the study of the past to the study of the occult, and refused to qualify for college on the ground that he had individual researches of much greater importance to make…”

Offering us another reinforcement of a common theme, the rejection of academia, which in Lovecraft’s time was a very active extension of the colonial materialist network across the planet. In this context, to reject academia for the occult is to simultaneously reject materialism and impart the same legitimacy that academia holds to the study of the occult. Lovecraft, as is his way, begins to layer narratives inside each other and play with time, offering us a glimpse of Ward as a youth:

“One must look back at Charles Ward’s earlier life as at something belonging as much to the past as the antiquities he loved… His walks were always adventures in antiquity, during which he managed to recapture from the myriad relics of a glamorous old city a vivid and connected picture of the centuries before…”

He is showing us a bit of tech here related to the exercise from last week, the ‘wander’ as a magical act. That is, the half-conscious act of walking meditation in an urban environment. Accompanied by the appropriate research it can transport you to a place decades or centuries before. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, almost more so than The Call of Cthulhu and The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, is the pinnacle of Lovecraftian fiction. We are offered all of the primary aesthetics:

“Graveyards held for him no particular attraction beyond their quaintness and historic value… Then, by insidious degrees, there appeared to develop a curious sequel to one of his genealogical triumphs of the year before; when he had discovered among his maternal ancestors a certain very long-lived man named Joseph Curwen, who had come from Salem in March of 1692, and about whom a whispered series of highly peculiar and disquieting stories clustered… Ward’s great-great-grandfather Welcome Potter had in 1785 married a certain ‘Ann Tillinghast, daughter of Elisa, daughter to Capt. James Tillinghast’… in 1772 a Mrs. Eliza Curwen, widow of Joseph Curwen, resumed, along with her seven-year-old daughter Ann, her maiden name of Tillinghast…”

The Tillinghast name connects this tale with both ‘From Beyond’ and ‘The Shunned House’. It is at this point that we are introduced to the archetype for this portion of Charles Dexter Ward:

“Joseph Curwen… was a very astonishing, enigmatic, and obscurely horrible individual. He had fled from Salem to Providence… at the beginning of the witchcraft panic… He was a colourless-looking man of about thirty… Joseph Curwen… did not seem to grow much older than he had been on his arrival. He engaged in shipping enterprises, purchased wharfage near Mile-End Cove, helped rebuild the Great Bridge in 1713, and in 1723 was one of the founders of the Congregational Church on the hill; but always did he retain the nondescript aspect of a man not greatly over thirty or thirty-five… It was held, for the most part, that Curwen’s incessant mixings and boilings of chemicals had much to do with his condition. Gossip spoke of the strange substances he brought from London and the Indies on his ships…”

Joseph Curwen’s alchemical longevity would not have been possible if it weren’t for the spread of colonialism into the Indies, supplying him with the raw materials he required. The fact that he is also a merchant means that he benefited financially from the resources found in colonies as well. He is an archetype of exploitation of both natural and human-made laws. Lovecraft reinforces the aesthetic of the graveyard, placing it as a power point at multiple different points in the stories timeline:

“Joseph Curwen [also possessed] a passion for graveyards… he was glimpsed at all hours and under all conditions… On the Pawtuxet Road he had a farm, at which he generally lived during the summer, and to which he would frequently be seen riding at various odd times of the day or night…”

I have had a new association with graveyards this week, myself. My schedule and the late sunrise has historically wreaked havoc with daily planetary prayers. I am typically dropping my kids off at school at the time when the first hour of the day begins. I have tightened up my timing using the Time Nomad app on iOS that gives me exact notifications when the planetary hours begin — and through paying this close attention I realized that I have around ten to fifteen minutes left in the ruling planets hour after dropping off the kiddos. There is a cemetery directly adjacent the school so I have been pulling in there after drop off, saying a prayer for the dead and then completing the hour with a planetary prayer. I have yet to feel that palpable calm that I felt last year after returning to the cemetery in San Fransisco after having prayed for the very old dead there and making an offering, but I do not feel rejected in anyway. The aesthetic of the graveyard is a potent one, when done correctly.

Continuing on with our tale, we are, blissfully, given another esoteric booklist. Lovecraft’s knowledge of the sources of magical and alchemical thought was profound. Those that argue that he gained all of his knowledge from an encyclopedia are ignoring the very real evidence of his occult expertise as evidenced by these descriptions of imaginal libraries:

“More definite, however, was the reason why another man of taste and breeding avoided the… hermit. In 1746, Mr. John Merritt, an elderly English gentleman of literary and scientific leanings, came from Newport… Hearing of Curwen as the owner of the best library in Providence, Mr. Merritt early paid him a call, and was more cordially received than most other callers at the house had been. His admiration for his host’s ample shelves, which besides the Greek, Latin, and English classics were equipped with a remarkable battery of philosophical, mathematical, and scientific works including Paracelsus, Agricola, Van Helmont, Sylvius, Glauber, Boyle, Boerhaave, Beche, and Stahl, led Curwen to suggest a visit to the farmhouse and laboratory whither he had never invited anyone before… the titles of the books in the special library of the thaumaturgical, alchemical, and theological subjects which Curwen kept in the a front room were alone sufficient to inspire [Mr. Merritt] with a lasting loathing… The bizarre collection… embraced nearly all the cabbalists, daemonologits, and magicians known to man… Hermes Trismegistus in Mesnard’s edition, the Turba Philosophorum, Geber’s Liber Investigationis, and Artephius’ Key of Wisdom all were there; with the cabbalistic Zohar, Peter Jammy’s set of Albertus Magnus , Raymond Lully’s Ars Magna et Ultima in Zetzner’s edition, Roger Bacon’s Thesaurus Chemicus, Fludd’s Clavis Alchimaiae, and Trithemius’ De Lapide Philosophico crowding them close… Mr. Merritt turned pale, when, upon taking down a find volume consipcuously labelled as the Qanoon-e-Islam, he found it was in truth the forbidden Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred…”

It is 10:45 PM here in Milwaukee. The Blood Wolf Lunar Eclipse is in its totality. Eclipses are times when less effort is awarded, so I will leave off for now, as we will spend more time with Joseph Curwen and his criminal necromancy in the weeks to come.

#blood moon #eclipse #decolonization

[investmart007]

BEIRUT | The Latest: Hezbollah leader lambasts strikes on Syria

New Post has been published on https://goo.gl/PVuSRy

BEIRUT | The Latest: Hezbollah leader lambasts strikes on Syria

BEIRUT | April 15, 2018 (AP)(STL.News)   The Latest on the Syria conflict (all times local): 6:50 p.m.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader says the Western strikes against Syria following alleged use of chemical weapons will likely complicate prospects of a political solution and have failed to achieve any of their results.

Speaking by video link at a rally of his supporters on Sunday, Hassan Nasrallah says the U.S.-ordered strikes have strained international relations and could totally “torpedo” the U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva. He says the strikes were “limited” and were recognition of the strength of the “resistance axis.” The term is in reference to the alliance between Syria, Iran and Hezbollah.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, founded originally to fight Israel’s occupation of Lebanese territories, has sent hundreds of fighters to back the troops of President Bashar Assad in the war, now in its eighth year.

U.S. President Donald Trump and his British and French allies say the airstrikes were necessary to deter Syria’s use of chemical weapons. Syria and Russia deny any chemical weapons were used and insist the Western powers had no evidence. ___ 6:20 p.m.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley says the U.S. will be imposing more economic sanctions on Russia for its support of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his apparent use of chemical weapons.

Haley says Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will be making the announcement by Monday and it will affect companies that are “dealing with equipment related to Assad and any chemical weapons use.”

She tells CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Russia needs to feel the consequences for protecting the Assad regime. Haley notes that Russia has vetoed six resolutions in the United Nations Security Council regarding chemical weapons.

Haley says the fact that Assad was making the use of chemical weapons “more normal and that Russia was covering this up, all that has got to stop.”

Syrian opposition activists and first responders say a chemical attack on the town of Douma, near the Syrian capital, killed more than 40 people on April 7. ___ 6:15 p.m.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani have held a telephone conversation to discuss Syrian conditions in the wake of a joint missile airstrike by the U.S., U.K. and France on the country.

The leaders “agreed that this illegal action is adversely impacting prospects for political settlement in Syria,” a statement by the Kremlin said Sunday.

Putin stressed that if such actions in violation of the UN Charter continue, “it will inevitably entail chaos in international relations,” according to the statement.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Rouhani as saying “The U.S. and some western countries do not want Syria to reach permanent stability.”

Rouhani said both Iran and Russia should not allow “fire of a new tension” to flare up in the region, adding that Saturday’s airstrikes on Syria were an “invasion” and aimed at “emboldening defeated terrorists,” according to the report.

Both Iran and Russia are key allies of Syrian President Bashar Assad whose forces have been accused of carrying out a chemical weapons attack near Damascus a week ago that prompted the missile attack by the Western powers. ___ 5:50 p.m.

Serbia, Russia’s key ally in Europe, says it won’t take sides in the Syrian crisis following the U.S.-led attacks on Syrian chemical weapons sites.

President Aleksandar Vucic said in a statement Sunday that Serbia generally condemns the use of chemical weapons, but “won’t get involved in big powers’ relations.”

The statement says Vucic met with U.S. ambassador in Serbia Kyle Scott over the situation in Syria.

While formally seeking European Union membership, Serbia has kept strong political and military ties with traditional ally Russia. Anti-Western sentiments remain high, stemming from the 1999 U.S.-led NATO bombing of

Serbia that stopped the war in Kosovo.

Vucic says that “Serbia jealously guards and protects its military neutrality.” He adds “our country wants to talk to everyone and have a partner and friendly relationship (with everyone.)” ___ 5:25 p.m.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is making clear the United States won’t be pulling troops out of Syria right away.

Haley spoke after President Donald Trump in a tweet Sunday defended his use of the term “Mission accomplished” to describe U.S.-led strikes in Syria. She says U.S. involvement in Syria “is not done.”

Haley says the three U.S. goals for accomplishing its mission are making sure chemical weapons are not used in a way that could harm U.S. national interests; that the Islamic state is defeated; and that there is a good vantage point to watch what Iran is doing.

She tells “Fox News Sunday”: “We’re not going to leave until we know we’ve accomplished those things.”

Haley reiterates that if Syrian President Bashar Assad uses poison gas again, “the United States is locked and loaded.” ___ 3:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump is defending his use of the phrase “mission accomplished” to refer to the U.S.-led strikes in Syria.

Trump tweets on Sunday that the mission was “so perfectly carried out, with such precision, that the only way the Fake News Media could demean was by my use of the term ‘Mission Accomplished.'”

He adds: “I knew they would seize on this but felt it is such a great Military term, it should be brought back. Use often!”

Trump’s use of the phrase Saturday had evoked comparisons with President George W. Bush, who in 2003 stood under a banner that read “Mission Accomplished” as he declared that major combat operations had ended in Iraq six weeks after the invasion. But the war dragged on for years. ___ 3:15 p.m.

Iran has condemned the Western strikes on Syria, saying no country has a right to take punitive measures against another “beyond international procedures.”

The semi-official Fars news agency quoted Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying that Iran had warned about the possibility that “terrorist groups” were behind the alleged chemical attack that triggered the strikes. It said he communicated his concerns in a phone call Sunday with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose forces have been accused of carrying out a chemical weapons attack near Damascus a week ago that opposition activists and rescuers say killed more than 40 people. The attack prompted the U.S., Britain and France to carry out a missile attack on Syrian military targets early Saturday. ___ 3:10 p.m.

Syria’s President Bashar Assad says the Western airstrikes against his country were accompanied by a campaign of “lies” and misinformation in the U.N. Security Council.

Assad spoke Sunday to a group of visiting Russian politicians. His comments were carried by state media.

Assad and Russia deny using chemical weapons, the trigger for the strikes early Saturday. An alleged gas attack last weekend in the town of Douma killed more than 40 people, according to opposition activists and rescuers.

Assad told his visitors that the U.S., Britain and France, which carried out the strikes, had waged a campaign of “lies and misinformation” against Russia and Syria.

The U.N. Security Council has been paralyzed in dealing with the seven-year Syrian conflict and the use of chemical weapons. Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member, is a close ally of Assad. ___ 2:45 p.m.

About 350 protesters from communist organizations in Cyprus have gathered in front of the entrance gate of a British air base to denounce U.S.-led airstrikes against suspected chemical weapons sites in Syria.

Protest leader Akis Poullos says they are demanding the closure of RAF Akrotiri, from where four British Tornado warplanes took off to take part in the missile strike.

Poullos said Sunday’s demonstration was also a message to the Cyprus government not to lend any assistance to “imperialist attacks” on Syria and to demand an end to the war in the country.

Protesters used red paint to write “NATO killers go home” on a nearby wall outside the base’s gate.

Former colonial ruler Britain retained RAF Akrotiri and another military base on Cyprus after the east Mediterranean island gained independence in 1960.

The Cyprus government said it wasn’t given any forewarning about Saturday’s airstrikes. It also said British Prime Minister Theresa May assured Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades that there’s no danger to Cyprus and that Cypriots can feel secure. ___ 2:30 p.m.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says he hopes there is no need for additional strikes against Syria, but that Britain and its allies will consider further action if Syrian President Bashar Assad uses chemical weapons in the future.

Johnson told the BBC on Sunday the airstrikes were proportionate and showed “the world has said enough is enough.”

He says “so far, thank heavens, the Assad regime has not been so foolish to launch another chemical weapons attack,” adding that Britain and its allies “would study what the options were” in the event of another attack.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn says the airstrikes were “legally debatable” and that Britain must abide by international law if it wants the moral high ground. He is demanding legislation to give Parliament more scrutiny over military action.

The U.S., France and Britain launched missiles at Syrian military targets early Saturday in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus a week ago. ___ 1:45 p.m.

Syrian state TV says another 5,000 security forces are deploying in a town near the capital that was brought under full government control a week after an alleged chemical attack.

Douma was the last rebel holdout in the eastern Ghouta suburbs, the target of a massive government offensive in February and March. The town was also the scene of a suspected poison gas attack on April 7 that prompted the U.S., Britain and France to launch missiles on Syrian military targets early Saturday.

The Syrian government and its ally Russia have denied allegations of a chemical attack. An international fact-finding mission from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is in Syria and expected to visit Douma.

State-run Al-Ikhbariya TV says a second batch of 5,000 security forces deployed in Douma on Sunday.

Syrian newspapers meanwhile boasted that the country’s air defense systems had shot down missiles.

The front-page headline of the government daily Tishrin reads: “Our heroic army shoots down the missiles of aggression.”

The Pentagon says none of the missiles were shot down and that Syria’s air defenses were ineffective. ___ 1:35 p.m.

Pope Francis says he is “deeply disturbed” by the international community’s failure to come up with a common response to the crises in Syria and other parts of the world.

The pontiff said after his traditional Sunday blessing that “despite the tools available to the international community, it is difficult to agree on a common action toward peace in Syria or other regions of the world.”

Francis called on “all people of goodwill” to join him in praying for peace, and appealed to political leaders to help “justice prevail.”

The pope spoke after airstrikes by the United States, France and Britain aimed at taking out Syria’s chemical weapons capacity, following a suspected poison gas attack on a Damascus suburb that killed dozens, including children. ___ 1:15 p.m.

A group of Russian politicians has met with Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose mood they describe as good a day after Western airstrikes.

In Assad’s view, the airstrikes that were launched in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by Syrian forces on the town of Douma will unify the country. That’s according to Dmitry Sablin, a member of the lower house of the Russian parliament, who was quoted by Russian news agencies.

Natalya Komarova, governor of Russia’s Khanty-Mansiysk region, also attended Sunday’s meeting. She says: “President Assad has an absolutely positive attitude, a good mood.”

Sablin was quoted as saying that Assad estimates rebuilding the country after years of war would cost $400 billion. ___ 11 a.m. France is urging Russia to join a push for a political solution in Syria after joint U.S., French and British attacks on Syrian chemical weapons sites.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in an interview published Sunday in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that “we should join our efforts to promote a political process in Syria that would allow a way out of the crisis.”

France has continued to talk regularly with Russia even as East-West tensions have grown. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, hours before the Western missile strikes.

Western countries blamed Syria’s government for a chemical attack on a rebel-held area earlier this month that killed more than 40 people. The Syrian government and its ally Russia denied the allegations.

 By Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (R.A)

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