#and Nathan being Jewish doesn’t change this for me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

palmett-hoes · 3 years

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i said in this post that i have original characters and backstories for neil's extended family. it took me,, a really long time to write it all down. it's been a full month since the original post, and this is still just a run through of things, not full prose, which i might be interested in doing one day but not anytime soon

now, some things to note about what i'm writing, why, and how. methodology, basically. this might not have come through yet in my posts, because i just don't post about my half-finished ideas, but i research a LOT. i like to base what i write about on real life, even if it's just headcanons and fanfic

also, i love helping people with research, so if anyone wants help with research for a fic or just their personal headcanons or anything hit me up!!

as a white person who wants to write characters from different ethnic backgrounds, i feel i have a responsibility to really do my due diligence and research as much as possible to consider things from every angle. and part of that for me is making sure that every character of color has a backstory. they don't just appear somewhere, i have to give them a reason for being there and a story for how they got there, even if that's not what i write their STORY about. people, come from places, basically. i follow a lot of demographic census information and population averages, as well as a lot of history, from as general as transatlantic trade in the last 500 years to as specific as the changes in a single city in a certain year

talking to other writers in the fandom i know i'm a little overzealous, but this is what gives me peace of mind to feel like i am putting the effort in to get things right

so anyway, as for what that means here:

i like writing neil as mixed black/jewish. it works well thematically for his character, as well as just what FEELS right for how i visualize him in my head

only, that can't simply come from nowhere. we know who his parents are. they need to also be poc for neil to be one, and they're a complicated pair to handle in that lens

one choice i made about that, for multiple reasons, is that everything about neil's parents' backgrounds should mirror each other. it can't simply be that one if them is black and one is jewish, or even that mary is both and nathan is white, because that says something i don't want to say any way you slice it. additionally, i want both facets of his ethnicity to be important to neil, and i feel as though he would want to ignore the half of himself from his father.

so: they both have to be mixed, giving them a sort of,, ideological equal footing, as it were. that way, i can also write three different experiences, rather than accidentally implying that This is what being black is, or This is what being jewish is, or This is what being mixed is. and that's also important to me, even if it's just in my head or not even directly addressed. it's still a big consideration of mine anytime i write about any of them

now, finally, onto mary and nathan! i'll put it below a cut because this is already long enough, the under-the-cut is much longer, and i don't want to wear out your thumbs if you don't care

mary hatford

canon timeline, neil was born in 1988. as a tentative number let's say mary was around 30 when he was born, meaning she would be born in the 50s. say her parents were roughly the same age, so they were born around the 20s

like i said, what's happening where in history is very important to me for building these backstories, and major historical events tend to have a lot of influence on population shifts. and well,, jews and europeans in the early-to-mid 20th century? there's no getting around involving world war II. nothing explicit, but it is mentioned and part of the story

mary’s paternal family are the hatfords. they're from the british west indies, largely jamaica, but they've been involved with shipping and trade all over the trans-atlantic region for generations.

they have a complicated relationship with the british empire, having both worked for them and against them at various points, sometimes both at once. similarly, they've tried multiple times through the generations to relocate the family to england permanently, but have been turned away or pressured out

they associate england and the british empire with power, and they both disagree with and desire that power in degrees which vary person to person. they do have a general idea between them though that living in england is a sign of status and authenticity, and while they don't want to leave jamaica permanently they do want their center of power to be in england, and there is a deep resentment against the anglos for not allowing them to stay permanently despite their wealth and influence, the fact that their work will always be looked down on and seen as lesser

i did come into building the hatfords with the primary idea of them being black british, and looking into the organized crime connection second. them being jamaican/west indies is a reference to the jamaican posse, who have a large presence in the london crime scene, although that's really the only connection. the hatfords aren't really yardies in any sense

the hatfords' status as organized crime is a little iffy. mostly they skirt the line between legal and illegal, owning legal trading companies and doing plenty of legal shipping. their main business in the criminal underworld is being middlemen moving supplies for other groups. they have a lot of contacts, and they serve an invaluable role in international smuggling, but they rarely get their own hands dirty. they move things from one place to the other and don't question too much what it is, though they don't deal in people

mary's father is named samuel hatford (first name in reference to samuel bellamy, the gentleman pirate king of the early 18th century). he was born in England, raised largely in Jamaica, then moved back to England as a teenager/young man. he's light-hearted and a bit idealistic for someone from a crime family, seeing the best in people even when they're cold and often believing in principle over profit, which at times put him in conflict with what's best for business

he almost enlisted in world war II, but instead convinced the family to work as weapons and supplies runners supporting the Allies and guerilla resistance groups

mary's mother is named cima ben nahman (ladino/judeo-spanish/sephardic names, doesn't really reference anything or anyone in particular). She's is an algerian jew. Born in algeria (city undecided, though algiers had the largest jewish community at the time), she moved to france for a few years as a young woman, probably for education. she joined anti-fascist organizations which became resistance groups once germany invaded

she's stoic, and has a ruthless mind for strategy. like most algerian jews, she's caught between her home country and its colonizer. the french empire played the algerian muslim majority against the jewish minority as a way to create infighting and distract the algerians from uniting and turning against them, but the algerian jews also then became reliant on the french for protection. (it's a really, really complicated situation)

cima sort of hates them both, both algeria and france. her only allegiance is to being jewish

(contrast this to samuel, who feels that he is BOTH british and caribbean, even when those two identities may be in conflict)

cima and samuel met when samuel provided weapons and supplies to cima's militia group. he took particular interest in them and went out of his way to help, above and beyond the other groups the hatfords were supplying

in the waning period of the war, cima was seriously injured, i'm currently thinking a land mine accident. she survived, but her recovery was slow. she lost an arm and had burns across half her torso, neck, and face. samuel brought her to england supported her through her recovery. in the hospital, they spoke a lot about why they each chose to fight, and the ways they did because neither were formal soldiers fighting for a country. samuel was in many ways fighting for an ideal, while cima was fighting for her people. cima also talked to him a lot about judaism and religion during this time, which samuel took an interest in. eventually, cima decided to stay

they got married. samuel converted, which was somewhat controversial with his family. however, cima agreed to join the family business, where she became an integral but sometimes ruthless member. after algerian independence, she brought some of her trusted family and community into the fold as well, some moving to england and others to france

both cima and samuel believed very heavily in responsibility, though what it meant for each of them was different. cima believed in preparedness and follow-through, samuel believed in family and protection, doing what's right outside of the bounds of the law. this contributed a lot to how they raised their children

when they were born, mary and stuart were raised in england (and i like to think they have an oldest brother). the hatfords were a big family, and influential, although careful about balancing the legal and less-legal sides of their business. the ben nahmans were smaller, and most of them were in france so mary and her brothers saw them less often. they were raised very religiously and culturally jewish, though close with the caribbean side of their family too, as well as being the first generation who were born and raised in england. this put them at a cross-section of three very different cultures, and was where mary first learned about changing and blending in with different groups

mary was the youngest and a little bit spoiled by her father, aunties, and uncles. her mother however was much less tolerant of her. clearly very affected by her time in the war, cima became extremely distrustful and suspicious, and tried to instill in her children a similar sentiment of secrecy and self-sufficiency, avoiding attention and casual relationships. she could be harsh on them, especially mary, who was the most resistant to this

growing up, mary was irresponsible and fun-loving, goading her brothers and cousins, getting in trouble, and starting fights. she didn't understand the tenuous balance of being organized crime, and at times put the whole family at risk by overestimating their sway. her mistakes affected the whole family but it was usually her mother who confronted her about them first and most harshly

she resented her mother's control, and didn't understand the reasons behind it. she also couldn't differentiate between the boundaries her mother sets as a result of her own trauma, and the necessary boundaries she set for the safety of the family, viewing them as one and the same, and leading her to hate any kind of control exerted over her

really, a lot of cima's character is just who mary ends up becoming after being married to nathan and being on the run. i like the story of a child becoming the parent they once hated. rather than learn from her mother, both her failures and her successes, mary becomes her, doomed to make the same mistakes. this is also why cima is wounded by a landmine, because mary dies in fire

---

nathan wesninski

nathan was HARD to come up with a story for, mostly because,,, WHY THE FUCK DOES THIS GUY WORK FOR THE JAPANESE YAKUZA

wesninski is a VERY polish name. the japanese-polish connection is,, not super strong

so anyway, working off the idea of the wesninski family being a polish jewish one, WHERE is he going to meet a japanese crimelord to get into a multi-generation debt/business arrangement with?

turns out, the answer is brazil

brazil actually has a large jewish population (roughly 10th largest in the world). it began with its colonization by the portuguese, but the 19th century to modern population largely comes from central and eastern europe. brazil ALSO has the largest japanese population outside of japan

also this story ended up being WAY more detailed and prosaic than samuel&cima's story, which is basically just bullet points. there's no reason for this i love both stories very much just for some reason the words flowed for me here and not there

to avoid having a second jewish story where wwII is prominent, the wesninskis get a page out of my own family's book: nathan's grandfather (neil's great grandfather) came to the americas fleeing the russian pograms around the turn of the 20th century

Wesninski came to brazil (city undecided, have a lot more research to do about individual cities in brazil). he had waardenburg syndrome(a hereditary genetic condition that can affect eyes and hearing) which runs very strongly in his family (his son, nathan, and neil will all inherit it), and he is completely Deaf. while he came to brazil alone, in his new home he connected both with the local jewish community and the local deaf community, and eventually marries another Deaf Jewish woman

eventually they were able to establish a kosher deli and restaurant in the city, one which became a common hangout for the Deaf community. then one day (probably around 1915), a group of japanese men came in, and kept returning

these were the moriyamas, recently arrived from japan, in a place with very few japanese people and businesses. they liked the wesninski deli because they didn't share a language with anyone in there, couldn't even be heard by most of them, and it would also be difficult for the authorities to question them. two layers of protection for a crime family in a vulnerable place

wesninski and the moriyamas were amicable to each other, but as they didn't actually have a way to communicate that was the extent of it. but the moriyamas were polite and payed well and didn't bother the other customers. als, as a jewish establishment, they had a lot of education resources, which were helpful to the moriyamas in learning about brazilian society, including beginning to understand portuguese

now, in japan, the moriyamas were a small yakuza family. they got driven out by their bigger and stronger and more established competition around the time when japanese immigration to brazil was just starting, so that was where they went. though they had little option in where they ended up, they also had little competition in establishing their business

i still have a lot of research to do about the moriyamas. about both how the yakuza operate and about how brazilian organized crime works, and about life in brazil for early japanese immigrants. so a lot of the moriyama details are pretty vague

now the wesninskis had a son, meyer (nathan's father. name in reference to meyer lansky, famous american jewish mobster of polish descent) who was around 14 when the moriyamas arrived. he himself was not fully deaf like his parents, though was hard of hearing and raised in the Deaf community. as he goes through his rebellious teenage years, well, the gangsters are right there

in the early days the moriyamas were still more concerned with mostly the japanese enclaves, but they had aspirations of expanding. meyer wasn't japanese, but he was helpful to the moriyamas who came into the deli to study. he was perceptive and bold, could keep a secret, knew his way around knives from working in the deli, and knew the city. he was a good asset to them, and he was interested in causing some trouble

over the next ten years or so, meyer got increasingly more involved, alongside the moriyamas becoming increasingly more established throughout the city. he goes from someone who helps out occasionally and relays information beyween parties to getting involved with minor shakedowns, bribery, evidence disposal. by the time he's in his 20s he's thoroughly enmeshed

his parents were older when they had him, and his father died relatively young, leaving meyer the store and his mother to take care of. they were vaguely aware of his connections to the moriyamas and didn't approve of what he did with them but he also kept the worst from them, and was always a diligent son, and the only one they had. he assured them no matter how far he went that he wasn't "really" part of the gang

"yakuza have tattoos, and see, ima? no tattoos. i'm still a good jewish son, not a gangster"

now the problem arises when meyer falls for camara da machado, a young Deaf woman who frequents the store

(based on/inspired by/FC yaya dacosta (where the name comes from) and rutina wesley)

she was a Deaf girl born to a hearing family who struggled to give her the support she needed, maybe even just a single mother, and she'd spent a lot of time alone at the deli from a young age (12-ish?). she was shy and quiet and a little bit of a shrinking violet, but the wesninskis became very fond of her. she started tentatively helping them out around the store which became a job. she was often included in family meals and holidays, and always had a bed in their apartment above the deli if she needed one, and more than once had helped patch meyer up after he got in trouble to hide the extent of it from his parents

she was a couple years younger than him but he'd always been sweet on her. and she'd had a crush on him from basically the moment she'd layed eyes on him. they'd known each for years and camara was basically family, and then one day when they were both in their 20s it just suddenly clicked for them

so meyer and camara fell in love. meyer was head of the house, had to keep the deli running, and had his mother, camara, and possibly camara's mother (undecided at this juncture) to worry about and he decided he didn't want to continue working with the moriyamas in case it dragged his family into danger. being a gangster was a fling of youth and he was ready to grow up

when he informed the moriyamas of this though, they,,, did not agree.

while MEYER might not have considered himself part of the gang, THEY didn't think he just got to walk away. he'd worked with them for too long and knew too much. there might even have been a desire to tie him to the family permanently through marriage. and well,, one man against a growing criminal empire can't do much

it was a huge shock to him, and made him truly realize how naive and reckless he'd been. he'd been a dumb kid who wanted to start some trouble, the moriyamas were career criminals. they expected that once you were in, you were in for life, and they did not take kindly to meyer disagreeing with this

he didn't know how to explain this to his family... so he didn't. they'd all told him they wanted him to stop, but he'd meant for the announcement to be a surprise. after learning that he would not be permitted to walk away, he chose to just hide it and continue with business as usual

it worked for a while, maybe a few years, a time during which the moriyamas were getting a lot more brutal as they got more established and increasingly looked to expand, putting them in competition with other gangs and greater law enforcement, until they were a true crime empire spread across whole regions of the country. meyer had lost a lot of esteem in their eyes by asking to leave, leading them to put him under increasing scrutiny and giving him more incriminating tasks, to ensure that he would be incriminated if he ever tried to turn them in. it's during this time that he first had to kill for them

then camara got pregnant

and meyer was terrified. he didn't know how the moriyamas would deal with a kid. the only marriages and children he knew of within the family were endorsed by the boss, many arranged by him, and he knew his wouldn't be approved. yakuza wives were heavily involved with the business too, and he absolutely did not want that for camara

he broke down and told her everything. she's horrified, and furious that he kept it from her, but she didn't want to give up her baby. it would be hard, but she believed they can keep it hidden, and if the moriyamas found out, maybe it wouln't be so bad?

(spoiler: it would)

they have a son, born natan da machado, under his mother's name

meyer and camara never got married. meyer was going to propose after he left the moriyamas but that obviously didn't happen. marriages were supposed to be blessed by the boss, and meyer never dared to ask. they already lived together, anyway

but with natan, they decided that meyer couldn't acknowledge him as his own. in the deli or in the streets, he didn't acknowledge natan. he was camara's bastard son, and meyer didn't want anything to do with him

it was a flimsy disguise at best. natan was mixed, but there was a strong enough resemblance to his father. even if his hair was a darker red or he had brown skin, they had the same eyes

they tried to keep him away from the moriyamas as he grew up, hoping they wouldn't see him and make the connection, but they also kept him very hidden in general, just in case. he spent a lot of time inside, with his grandmothers

and that was how natan grew up, feeling like a secret, his father cold and distant, only acknowledging him in their apartment. cut off from other kids his age. a hearing boy in a Deaf family (natan himself was HoH but still had most of his hearing. meyer and his maternal grandmother could both hear, but they had gotten out of the habit of it and mostly communicated through sign)

natan developed a deep feeling of resentment towards his father and shame about himself from a young age. he felt like a mistake, defective somehow. so wrong he had to be hidden away from everyone

there's only so long that you can hide a child, though, and when natan was around ten the moriyamas found out about him, and they were not happy.

they didn't like split attention or loyalty. they kept children and family under very tight wraps. they should be one hundred percent enmeshed in the moriyama empire, raised to be loyal and helpful in whatever way they were needed. the fact that meyer wanted and was willing to leave for this family, and then hid his son, was a huge betrayal

still, they gave him an opportunity to prove his loyalty: kill camara or the moriyamas would kill them all: her, natan, meyer, and both their mothers

but meyer couldn't do it, and instead he told camara to run and hope they didn't actually care enough to chase her down. and she did. and she couldn't take natan with her. (i haven't fully fleshed out why yet, currently thinking that meyer was given this ultimatium when they already had natan)

so camara left her son, and got away

i built the story of mary's mother as a reflection of mary's story if something had been different, and i built nathan's story the same way. his wife takes her son and runs away with him when the moriyamas try to take him from her. nathan's mother was in the same situation and left him behind

over the next forty years of his belonging to the moriyamas he gets to marinate in that resentment. from the father that ignored to the mother who ran away from him, he internalizes it as being something wrong with him, not the circumstances. the more he's taught to torture and kill and the more he excels at it, the more this belief gets cemented. he's good at killing, he was meant to kill. he's twisted and broken and wrong inside and he always was and his parents always knew

and then when it happens again but differently this time he throws away a decade and millions of dollars and his standing with his boss to hunt down his son and his wife because he didn't get to run away so why should they? why does mary love nathaniel more than camara loved natan?

from here, the exact detail's of nathan's story aren't quite solidified. whether he was raised by his father from then on or by his grandmothers (or whether his grandmothers left with his mother) or whether the moriyamas put him somewhere else entirely, but from then on he lived under the moriyamas' direct supervision, and they taught him how to turn a knife on a man

they took his mother's name from him, though, so he's natan wesninski, not natan da machado, because they own the wesninskis now

and when the moriyamas decided to expand beyond brazil when natan was a young man instead of a child, and settled on the east coast of the US, they renamed him nathan, because it sounded more "american"

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so that's it. obviously there are still a lot of unfinished details in both stories, but they're strong enough at this point to stand on their own and i haven't changed or rethought a lot of the major details in a long time

i've become extremely attached to these OCs and their stories, and i hope they interest other people too. some day i'd like to write them out in prose properly, along with the story of nathan and mary meeting, but that'll be a while away considering the pace i move at

so until then i just wanted to put this out there

#aftg #tfc #neil josten #nathaniel wesninski #mary hatford #nathan wesninski #txt #my fics #my writing #my posts #black neil josten #jewish neil josten #cw gangs #cw organized crime #cw ww11 #cw wwII #long form post

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glizzygang69 · 3 years

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Just a little snippet story of Marsh and Kelly if they were alive after ww1

The winters in Germany were always ruthless. Bitter winds gusting down the empty streets.

A lean young man walked down the road, the broken lamp lights barely illuminating the icy concrete at night.

He wore a thick trench coat and heavy leather work boots, a stuffed duffle bag knocking his side as he walked. Tilting his shapless cap down, sheilding his face from the blasts of freezing air, short brown hair hidden beneith it.

He was disapionted he had to flee this country, the place he grew up, he was still attached.

But ever since he had to serve in world war one, when it was nearing it's last year, they lost. Then he had to watch the aftermath of the destruction of war and depression ruin his once beutiful home, it was sad.

But with Hitler all in the news, his horrifying speeches being chanted everywhere.

His sadistic flare igniting the people in a way he has never seen before.

He loves Germany, but the government with each passing day becomes more corrupt, and with the promise of another world war, the man didn't want to die early and experience the trauma of battle again. The pop of gunshots still terrify him to this day.

He walked towards the small cottage like ticket shack, smoke flogging out of the brick chimmney, orange light spilling from the windows.

Trudging up the mini steps, he twists the door knob and swings the door open, ringing the tiny bell at the top corner. The fire place in the back past the red couches heated the room, making his frigid nose run from the temperature change.

He wasted no time going up to the booking clerk, a round older man in some overralls, shifting through some papers at his desk which was more of a booth.

"Ticket to Cuxhaven please."

The young soldier asked in a monotone voice.

"Sure thing lad."

They exchanged the money for a stamped train ticket, the soldier checked his watch and back to the ticket, should be around an hour before the train comes.

Strolling back outside to the wooden bench bolted to the front of the place, located on the top of the padio.

He drops his weight down to the seat, sighing out, his legs tired from walking around all day. Thoughtfully, he fishes a hand into his bag, searching for some of the neatly packaged rations he stored in it.

Ripping open the paper wrapping, he took a big bit of the slightly stale bread. After taking the train to Cuxhaven, he'll have towalk to the boat port and hand one of the crew members some cash for passage on the cruise ship.

He should be able to get to the boat by tonight, it doesn't set off untill dawn, next morning.

He had been staring at the ground for the most part, but a low grumbling sound made his head snap up.

To his right, hiding behind the corner of the building, seemed to be a kid, probably younger than seven.

His wild semi-long brown hair matted, framing the half of his face that was showing, the soldier was drawn to the younger's eye. Like a frozen over lake in early winter.

The man smiled, the kid reminded him of his late brother Nathan, and the times they used to fish before he died from pneumonia. He whiped out another ration and held it out toward the boy.

The man bent his head to meet the kid's eye, softening his expression.

"Want it?"

The kid sheepishly stepped from his hidding place and timildy approached the man, taking his offering and running back away to his safe place.

A worried look over took the soldier's face, the kid body was dressed in the thinnest clothes that didn't even protect him against the cold, let alone fit him.

The boy's skin was almost grey, his neck, fore arms and calves fully exposed, his shoes all worn out and holey.

The soldier stands up and carefully strode up to the corner of the building where the kid was, who looks up in absolute terror, clutching his bread chunk close to his chest, like it was going to be taken. He was bone skinny, little to no meat on him, his little limbs like white sticks.

The man bends down and puts out his hand invitingly to the boy.

"Are you cold?"

The boy's eyes shift back and forth between the man's face and hand, searching for any malicous intent, but was only met with kind eyes.

He hesitanly excepts the hand, his small one's engulfed by a large heated palm.

The soldier guided the boy back to the bench and had him sit down. Zipping open his bag, yanking out a bulky blanket, draping the wool fabric over the boy, encircling his entire body.

The look on the little boy's face was a mix of shock and graditude, the soldier's heart just melted, it was as if his sibling was really here with him.

He sat next to the boy, both of them chewing in unison.

" Do you have parents?"

He kid stops eating, shaking his head as he frowned at the ground with cloudy eyes.

The soldier's heart squeezed, the kid isn't that old, his parents probably abandoned him not to long ago.

Since Hitler been running his presidency campaign, he sky rocketed rascism and hate crimes against jewish people, it was horrible.

He can only imagine what happened to the boy's parents that lead him to this awful situation.

Luckily he himself wasn't a jew, so life didn't really change for the most part, but for this kid, he knows time will only make it worse for him living here.

The soldier patted the boy's back comfortingly, who leaned into the warm touch.

"Do you have a name?"

The man brought the question up to steer the younger away from the conceivably bad memories.

The boy lifted his head, swallowing down his bite of grub.

"K-kelly..."

The little brunette mumbled out his words.

The soldier was smitten over the kid, so many fond memories flooding his head.

"You can call me Marshall."

Kelly gave him a small smile. Marshall toyed with the idea of asking the kid to join him on his voyage to america.

Imagining leaving the kid here made him feel sick to the stomach, Kelly would probably die from starvation or worse be killed.

Marshall had saved up a large sum of money for his excursion, he knows extra tickets don't cost much, so another person wouldn't be a big hassle finacially.

From the rumors he heard about America having a booming economy at the moment. Plentiful jobs, good pay, and week ends off. It wouldn't be that hard to support both himself and the kid.

He jostled Kelly's shoulder's, grinning happily.

"Wanna come with me?"

The boy lit up, his ocean-like irises almost shining.

"Really!? Can I!?"

Marshall chuckled, the smaller male kicking his feet back and forth in excitement from with in the blanket.

"Yes, yes you can, but first I need to go buy you a ticket too."

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

After a few minutes he returned out of the door, slipping another ticket into his pocket.

Kelly bolted out of his seat and sprinted to Marshall, hugging his leg tight, making him stumble back.

"Wow! Calm down!"

Kelly pressed his cheek to the leg's jeans, looking up at the man with a dopey smile.

"Thank you!"

Fuck he's so adorable, his short stature swaddled in the warm material.

In the distance Marshall heard a high pitched whistle, feeling the rumble from the tracks through his boots. He glanced at his wrist, it was only seconds away from the train stopping for pick up.

He puts his hand low, opening it up for the kid's. The train's peircing light cut into the dark, the hiss of the breaks screeching out until it haulted.

"Ready?"

Kell's tiny hands clasped onto three of Marshall's fingers.

"Yes!"

#Marshall is a german soldier #Kelly is an orphan #just a fluff story #they have a family dynamic going on #AU where both Marshall And kells are alive in 1920 #just 2 years after ww1 #this was loosly based off of history #im sorry if i got some facts wrong #Emgk

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brotheralyosha · 3 years

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DK: We should discuss the pivotal scene with Kevin Garnett that sets off the climactic sequence. The most memed scene in the movie: “This is how I win.” It’s this neat little examination of race and capitalism, in which Garnett catches on to the fact that Howard is massively profiting off of this deal they cut. And ultimately that they’re both profiting off of the Ethiopian mining operation that we see at the beginning of the movie. And he seems to convince Garnett that his talent for petty bourgeois exploitation is basically the same thing as being good at basketball.

AA: It may not have worked with any other basketball player besides Garnett. When Ratner is saying to him in that room, “This is how I win,” he’s saying that because he knows that Garnett is one of the most ruthlessly competitive players in the NBA. He’s notorious for saying and doing really fucked-up things to players on the paint—saying he fucked their wives, or like barking or blowing in their faces. Waging psychological warfare in order to win. You couldn’t make this movie with LeBron James or Dwyane Wade. Those are beloved, morally upright characters.

AMB: It has to be someone whose performance you can bet on, but also who sucks as a person.

NG: It seems important that the people who mined the opal are Ethiopian Jews. Aren’t the black opals decorating the yad or something, when the Ethiopian Jews are reading Torah, in the scene where Ratner’s showing Garnett the video where he discovered it? Ratner is compelled by that in an almost religious sense. There’s a spiritual dimension that he’s interested in, and some kind of feeling of community—Am Yisrael. But then, of course, it’s the inspiration for him to buy this opal from them to sell at a huge profit. So it turns out that the founding violence of the film is a white Ashkenazi Jew exploiting black Jews.

AA: Well, isn’t that also so Jewish? Historically, weren’t Jews merchants in part because they had access to Jews in other places? I don’t know. I’m changing my whole thing. I came in thinking, he’s American, but actually now, no, he’s a fucking Jew.

AMB: After America, there will still be the Jew.

JP: I’m not sold. It depends on what you mean by “the Jew.” Really, he’s just a normal, scummy guy dressed up as a Jew, dressed up in these mannerisms, but really his main connection to Jewishness is this material connection to this diamond mine many thousands of miles away.

There’s the intimation of world politics at the beginning when it’s Chinese guys who own the mine. There’s a whole world out there happening, and then it’s happening inside of this gem and Ratner cannot see it. The movie is about a man who comes into possession of a piece of the universe and doesn’t know what it’s worth.

AMB: Or only knows what it’s worth.

JP: And then he’s wrong. At the auction it’s worth way less than he thought!

NG: Are you sure he can’t see it? Ratner literally says, “You can see the whole universe in these things.”

JP: I think Ratner is a man without metaphysics. He’s incapable of metaphysics, or meaning, or any of these things. The question to me isn’t so much, does he have to be Jewish? Rather, it’s this: what does the fact that he’s Jewish mean? In this case, nothing. He’s festooned with Jewish symbols—the sign on his shop that’s a blessing for the store, the book Great Jewish Men—but when you ask what’s really Jewish about it, Jewish on a level deeper than a pastiche of symbols, it’s hard to answer the question.

There’s that Leonard Cohen quote where he says Judaism is “a secretion with which an eastern tribe surrounded a divine irritation—a direct confrontation with the Absolute. Today we covet the pearl, but we are unwilling to support the irritation.” Ratner doesn’t even come away with the pearl. He’s got nothing. He’s the non-Jewish Jew, in the opposite sense of Isaac Deutscher’s non-Jewish Jew. That to me was the central uncomfortable reality where this best reflects our lives—more than, say, the spiritually fraught main character of A Serious Man.

AA: In that sense, he’s American.

JP: Exactly. He has to be American.

“An Unserious Man,” Jewish Currents, by Arielle Angel, Jacob Plitman, David Klion, Nathan Goldman, and Ari M. Brostoff

#uncut gems #movies #jewish currents #jewish things #leonard cohen

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hetaces · 5 years

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@whatsnew-lgbtq‘s 31 days of pride day 9!! i know I haven’t been doing ‘em all but that’s okay.

day 9: books

so books are my area of expertise honestly so I picked a few favorites to talk about a lil bit here (I’ll put it under a cut).

And feel free to ask me about more books because I’m Like That.

These are all ownvoices in at least one way. Ownvoices rep will be italicized in the list.

Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley When you hear what this book is about, it sounds really bad. Like “Girl decides to ‘fix’ agoraphobic gay boy and her boyfriend gets ~close~ with him” is essentially what the synopsis says. It sets it up for every bad trope. And then uses none of them. It’s so good, has great portrayal of good accommodations, healthy friendship, and a bunch of Star Trek references. Representation: Sol is gay and agoraphobic

Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston Don’t look up the synopsis yourself, go right to goodreads (i’d link but you know how tumblr is with links), some of the synopses that come up automatically start with a “it’s like [story] in space” and it’s a spoiler. I’ll put the first part of it here bc it’s hard to get the words. Seventeen-year-old Ana is a scoundrel by nurture and an outlaw by nature. Found as a child drifting through space with a sentient android called D09, Ana was saved by a fearsome space captain and the grizzled crew she now calls family. But D09—one of the last remaining illegal Metals—has been glitching, and Ana will stop at nothing to find a way to fix him. Representation: Ana is written as acespec (not Super clear but it was the intent) Captain Siege is a lesbian. Telle is a lesbian. Robb is gay. Jax is gay.

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee So, there’s a lot of hype around Gentleman’s Guide and I was sort of expecting to be let down, but it more than lived up to it. Henry "Monty" Montague is going on his Tour of the continent (travel around Europe and have fun one last time, is the idea). Chaotic disaster bisexual Monty causes trouble, of course. So then on the way to dropping his sister off at finishing school before returning home early, they get attacked. Because Monty is a dumbass (it’s actually his fault). Cue rich kids travelling with no money & trying to avoid a growing number of people. Mackenzi Lee has hit the nail on the head with growth. Not only does she get that sometimes, growth does happen because of one moment of learning, she also writes it well, which is a really difficult thing to write. There’s a lot of heavy stuff in it, but none of it was thrown in for no reason, it’s actually important to the books and to the characters. Representation: Monty is bi, has PTSD, and (at the end of the first book, so spoilers) deaf on one side Percy is mixed, mlm, and (you find out part way through so if you’re picky about it it could be spoilers), epileptic. Felicity is aroace. Many other characters who aren’t white and a wlw character in the second book.

I Wish You All The Best by Mason Deaver After Ben comes out to their parents, things don’t exactly go well. They get kicked out, and have to go live with their sister who they haven’t seen in 10 years. They start over at a new school, only out to their sister, her husband, and their therapist (because hey, look how well coming out went last time). This book is so damn cute. And a book with a nonbinary main character! Representation: Ben is nonbinary Nathan is bisexual and black

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire Think Narnia, but with more worlds and less religion and you've got the concept of the doorways. Children have always been disappearing - going through a door that's appeared to them. But magic worlds rarely have use for used up miracle children. So they're sent back. But they don't come back the same. The children at Elanor West's Home for Wayward Children have all tumbled once. And they all want to get back. But with Nancy's arrival, things start going wrong. Representation: Nancy is asexual Jack is pan and has OCD Kade is a trans guy Sumi is bi (Seanan McGuire is a queer cis woman)

You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman Ariel Stone is a perfect student: he’s a community volunteer, first chair violin, and is on track to be valedictorian. And then he fails a calc test. When he finds he can’t fix it himself, he reluctantly gets a tutor. And he may not like calc, but he might like Amir. I started recommending this book to people when I was 5 pages into it. Ariel is so explicitly Jewish that Laura Silverman put her grandmother’s matzo ball soup recipe in the back because it’s not fair to rave about it so much and not provide a recipe. He’s explicitly bisexual by page 8. Amir and Sook’s eyes are both described as “warm” and I honestly think it’s the first time I’ve seen characters of color’s eyes described as anything but “dark”. Representation: Ariel is bisexual and Jewish Amir is a gay Pakistani Muslim Sook is a chubby Korean lesbian

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson Shaun is back with more “so... the world might be ending?” and I absolutely love it. Dino’s ex-best-friend July died suddenly 4 days ago, and his family runs the funeral home. Dino is touching up July’s makeup (he knows how she wore it and everyone was doing it wrong), and she wakes up. But she’s not exactly... alive. She’s just not-dead. And then... other people just stop dying. So they have to figure out what’s happening. How July came back - or at least how to re-kill her when nobody can die. So not only is it a super interesting book, it’s also like... Shaun goes in on topics like “gay people making gay jokes and straight people making gay jokes are different” and “a cis guy might (might) not mind if you call him a girl, but do not call a trans guy a girl” Also I recommend anything by Shaun David Hutchinson. Representation: Dino is gay Rafi is trans, mlm, and mixed (white/Pakistani) Multiple LGBTQ+ minor characters

On The Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis It’s an end-of-the-world type book (via comet strike). Due to strange circumstances, Denise and her mother end up not at their government assigned shelter, but on a generation ship. And Denise has just a few days to find her sister and prove that her skills are worth 3 spots on a ship with limited resources. Representation: Denise is mixed (Surinamese/white) and autistic Iris is mixed (Surinamese/white) and a bi trans woman. Els is wlw. Leyla is wlw. Samira and Nordin are Muslim Some minor characters.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman I’m just gonna give y’all the actual synopsis this time

You probably think that Aled Last and I are going to fall in love or something. Since he is a boy and I am a girl. I just wanted to say—we don’t. Frances Janvier spends most of her time studying. When she’s not studying, she’s up in her room making fan art for her favorite podcast, Universe City. Everyone knows Aled Last as that quiet boy who gets straight As. But no one knows he’s the creator of Universe City, who goes by the name Radio Silence. When Frances gets a message from Radio Silence asking if she’ll collaborate with him, everything changes. Frances and Aled spend an entire summer working together and becoming best friends. They get each other when no one else does. But when Aled’s identity as Radio Silence is revealed, Frances fears that the future of Universe City—and their friendship—is at risk. Aled helped her find her voice. Without him, will she have the courage to show the world who she really is? Or will she be met with radio silence?

This book is so good but fair warning, it gets really heavy.

Representation: Aled is demisexual (Alice is queer/aroace) Frances is bi and mixed (white/Ethiopian) Daniel is gay and Korean Carys is a lesbian Raine is pan, Indian, and Hindu

Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis Otherbound is set in two worlds - Nolan’s (ours) and Amara’s (the Dunelands, where magic is real). Amara is on the run with the former princess, Cilla, whose family was overthrown by the ministers. Cilla has been cursed and is being hunted, and Amara’s particular type of healing magic is, basically, convenient for redirecting Cilla’s curse. Since they were children, Nolan has been experiencing Amara’s world through her every time he closes his eyes. He sees through her eyes, feels what she feels, smells what she smells. But he’s just a silent observer. She doesn’t even know he’s there. Until now. Representation: Nolan is Mexica and disabled Amara is not white, mute (due to mutilation), and bi Cilla is not white, fat, and a lesbian The majority of other characters are also not white.

#books #whatsnewpride #i am both very sorry for the length of this post #and absolutely not sorry at all

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honeylikewords · 5 years

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Anon Asked: Ok so i’m curious: if you can, could you rank your favorite Oscar boys from least to most boyfriend material? they all seem very charming and sweet but i can’t figure out who the cream of the crop is!

First of all, THANK YOU, I L O V E making lists of my favorite things. You guys know that. Listicle formats are, like, my lifeblood. Thank you for enabling me.

Second, I’m going to rate these on MY personal scale. Now, I also should point out that “husband” and “boyfriend” mean two different things to me, and that I instinctively value “husband” material more than “boyfriend” material. The “husbands” are going to be the winners of this list, because I can see them having long-term, fulfilling, happy and mutually beneficial relationships with their partners. So, without further ado, here is my list, from LEASTboyfriend-able to MOST husband-able.

1. The Unmentionables Category.

These boys don’t even get to be part of the discussion because in their roles they are either misogynistic, evil, assaulters, or something else to prevent them from entering the race. A little villain apologism here and there is okay sometimes, but only to certain degrees, and these boys exceed it. Blue Jones, Nathan Bateman, En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse, and John, King of England all exceed my limitations. Begone, thots. You’re disqualified for the Boyfriend Campaign Race. (I do still like them as characters, though, or for Sexy Oscar Gifs, but they’re just… un-boyfriend-able!)

2. The Low Tier Boyfriends.

These boys are boyfriend-able, but come with some problems. Can we sort them out on here and make them into better boys on this blog with careful re-writes? Maybe! Are we doing that in this list? No! We’re just taking objective looks at these Oscar-boys as they stand. So, here are the low tier boyfriends.

Laurent LeClaire: He’s sexy, but he’s also, like, a murderer. And a bit of a playboy. Could we make him better on this blog? Absolutely! But, as before, we’re just looking at them as they are. So, sexy French boy or no, he’s a pretty low-ranking Oscar for the murders and the philandering.

John “Jack” Johnson: Kinda dirty, kinda rude, also a murderer, but nice to dogs and pretty darn intelligent. He’s sure somethin’. Only slightly higher on the list than Laurent simply because I liked him and he made me laugh, and he was good to a dog, so I suppose that’s a tick for him!

Bud Cooper: A bit of a sneaky boy! I like him a lot, but his trickery and sneakery place him lower on the list. Still, points for looking good in a weird mustache, and points for being clever!

3. The Middle Tier Boyfriends.

These boys are much more boyfriend-able, but still have baggage. Could you work around it? Hypothetically, sure! But we’re still just discussing canon behavior, so let’s rock and roll.

Llewyn Davis: Llewyn is shockingly low despite how much I like him, but he has a LOT of issues. Besides his inability to hold a stable job and the couch surfing, Llewyn struggles with attitude problems and relationship issues, apparently having to deal with the issue of terminated pregnancies with two women. We could certainly gloss over that for a more romanticized Llewyn on this blog, but I think it’s important to address that while he holds a place in my heart, he’s a difficult person and a little hard to love, maybe because he doesn’t know how to love others or himself yet. So, he’s higher on the list because at least he isn’t a criminal, but he’s low-ranker because of his life issues. Maybe if he sorted himself out more…

Basil Stitt: Basil’s got problems. I mean, just… a lot of problems. But I like him, and I like his scars, so I think we can work with him. Having a paranoid breakdown after sustaining an injury isn’t the worst thing that a person could do, right? We’ve all been there; scared, alone, afraid. I think, with time, Basil could really make steps in the right direction and be quite a cute boyfriend.

Shiv: Shiv’s a sweetheart. He’s doing his best in a world not inclined to allow him the freedom to do so. Sure, he’s a criminal, but he has a heart of gold and wants to make his son happy. He wants to do better. He’s kind, if misled, and a little dumb, but, hey, morosexuals stand up, ya know? He’s a cutie, even though he’s involved in some shady business. With a cleanup and a fresh start somewhere else, who knows? Maybe he could be a much better boy and end up in the husband range!

4. The High Tier Boyfriends.

Oh, now, these are some boys. These are some cute boys. Oof. Yeah. Let’s see these boys!

Rydal Keener: Poet, dancer, thinker, and sometime scam-artist, Rydal is a Grecian romance just waiting to happen. He’s not perfect, but he’s passionate, he’s sweet, and he’s doing his level best to try and get himself out of a sticky situation. He’s young; let’s find him some young love!

Standard Gabriel: Oh, Standard, how my heart beats for thee. I love Standard, and the only reason he’s lower on the list is because he’s got a lot going on in his life that makes it hard for him. Cheating wife, creepy people following him around, prison sentence sitting on his shoulders from the past; things are hard for our baby. But he’s resilient, he’s loving, and he’s loyal. And if given a new chance in a new place, I fully believe that Standard would be a great boyfriend, and, someday, a great husband.

Reeves: Sentimental, sweet, and a sumptuous songwriter, Reeves rings of a great boyfriend. He’s soft and tender, but firm when necessary, funny, relaxed, and witty. This guy has it all, and when he finds love, he hangs on tight. Ten plus years, tight, apparently; he’s still chasing the girl he had a crush on in high school! How sweet is he?! A beautiful boyfriend, no doubt.

5. Husband Tier.

These boys are the peak performance. These boys bring it. These boys aren’t just boyfriends, they’re partners, fiancés, and, one day, husbands. These are not just boys… they’re Men.

Kane: Loyal husband and dutiful soldier, Kane’s endured a lot, but still did his best to come home to his wife, even if it wasn’t “him”. Kane deserves to be a husband with a woman who will love and appreciate him as he loves and appreciates her (which I assert is NOT Lena. Lena did NOT appreciate that man). The only reason he’s lower on this list is because of the unfortunate nature of his storyline, and because he’s part-alien now. Actually, that last one isn’t that bad. He’s a cute alien. We stan.

Santiago Garcia: This man has been through so much, and I want him to be happy. He’s kind, great with kids, funny, generous, protective, and strong. I would rant and rave about him, but then this post would be a mile long. I love you, Santi. Brave boy. Husband.

Orestes: Orestes was in love with the same woman since he was a young man and advocated for her freedom and equal status in society, trusting her as his sole counsel consistently through his years as a public servant. The dude took a stone to the head for defending her. He went on stage to declare his love and play her a beautiful two-flute solo, for God’s sake! This man is husband material.

Mikael Boghosian: Actual angel. Has endured the depths of hell. Deserves all the love in the universe. My words are not enough for his goodness. Please, someone, fill this man’s life with joy and light. I am begging. This is a husband.

Abel Morales: I would fucking die for Abel Morales but he’s so good a man that he would never let me. My love for him is as boundless as the stars and twice as bright. May God’s light shine forever on his perfectly coiffed hair. Holy angel of the heating oil industry.

Miguel O’Hara: SPIDER-MAN, SPIDER-MAN, DOES WHATEVER A SPIDER CAN! FILLS MY HEART, UP WITH LOVE, AT OUR WEDDING RELEASE SOME DOVES! LOOK OUT, I LOVE YOU, SPIDER-MAN! But in all seriousness, the guy’s great. A goober, yes, but nevertheless, his fangs have pierced my heart and I am paralyzed with love for him and also venom.

Poe Dameron: I betcha all knew he’d be at the top of this list. I betcha knew. He’s… Poe Dameron, you know? What can I say that hasn’t already been said? We know he’s wonderful. He just is. He carries his mother’s ring, searching for his future spouse. This man is a husband. I love him. I will not change my mind.

6. Honorable Mention Husband.

Peter Malkin: Since Peter Malkin is based on a real person, I feel hesitant to talk about him. However, since the movie was juuuuust enough divorced from reality and his character changed juuuuustenough to call it fictionalized, I’ll include him. I love Peter Malkin. He’s a good good Jewish boy who visits his Mama for Shabbat and wears his kippah and that man is a primo husband. N*zi hunter, loving son, honorable soldier. We have chosen to stan forever. And wed, when the time is right. Mazel tov!

There are some other boys who didn’t make the list simply because I didn’t wanna go too overboard and make a too overwhelming post, but here’s my general take on the order from least to most boyfriend-able, and then husband-able. This list also shifts around depending on my mood, and the order in which some of the husbands are categorized can change from day to day. I love them all! I will not be silenced!

I hope that helps, and if anyone is curious about where a non-mentioned boy falls on the scale, lemme know and I’ll either add him or explain his spot in a separate post!

#let's hope this posts clear and clean jeeeeeeeeeeezus #non fic #messages #reference #multi

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readingbooksinisrael · 5 years

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Poetry, Short stories and Articles Read This Month

Articles

How anti-Semitism led Shatner and Nimoy to Boldly Go to Hollywood/Nathan Abrams-Probably because I read a whole thesis which included this small topic in it before I read this but it felt very unsatisfactory. It did talk about what of his Jewishness Nimoy put into the character of Spock but mostly it seemed to mourn that Shatner didn’t seem to do that with Kirk. Probably a good read if you’re looking to read something quick on Jews putting their Jewishness into a character (not necessarily Nimoy’s into Spock).

Heinlein’s Juveniles vs. Andre Norton Young Adult Novels/James Davis Nicoll-This was a nice overview of where the two authors differed and how we see them in the modern day. I think I’ll check out an Andre Norton sci fi book despite not liking her prose in the one (non-sci fi) book of hers I read.

Did We ALL Write a Book About Space Elevators? Why Unfortunate Coincidences Happen In Science Fiction/James Davis Nicoll-Too short. It didn’t really explore it’s premise.

Poems

The Immortal/Robert Sanders Shaw-no link available. It’s really bad. It sounds immature.

Short Stories

On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi/William Tenn-I’m going to admit that despite hearing of this over and over it took a few tries for me to read it. It has a rambling style that was hard for me to get into, especially when I saw how long it was for a short story. What I recommend is listening to the audio as it really gets you in the atmosphere-since the story is written with a very characterized narrator. All that said, after the real story started I got pulled in and I really liked it. 3.5/5 stars

For He Can Creep/Siobhan Carroll-TW: self harm, suicide mention, 18th c. mental hospitals. This was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the style it was written in-from the POV to the dialogue to the descriptions.

The Thames Valley Catastrophe/Grant Allen-I liked this one. I enjoyed the writing style. TW: body horror 4.2/5 stars

The Doom of London/Robert Barr-I thought I would like this one less than the other because I don’t like the style of breaking up a short story into sections, but after the first section I got pulled in enough to enjoy it. The concept was really cool and the invention concept was also really cool. TW: death, gore?, body horror 4/5 stars

The Tilting Island/Thomas J. Vivian and Grena J. Bennett-I can’t find a link for this one. The beginning started out good but then the authors weren’t able to uphold the suspense in a way that the end was satisfactory. 2.7/5 stars

Finis/Frank Lillie Pollock-I did not like this one. Partially it was because the blurb I read about it was wrong and so I expected the wrong things out of it, but it is also because that while the story centers on the characters the characters don’t have any personalities. 2/5 stars

An Express of the Future/Jules Verne-The blurb for this said that it went missing for many years. I am not surprised because it is not well written at all. It ends with it all being a dream which every kid knows is a bad plot device unless you have a very good excuse. 2/5 stars

The Ray of Displacement/Harriet Prescott Spofford-I would have enjoyed this even with the paragraphs of jumbled science language if it hadn’t been for St. Angel. He appears out of nowhere and it isn’t clear who he is or what he is doing or even how he gets to where the main character is. Unfortunately, the end is centered around him. Other than him I enjoyed the character of Judge Brant and there were some really funny sentences. 2/5 stars

Congealing the Ice Trust/Capt. H.G. Bishop-Again, I can’t find a link. That’s disappointing because this one was fun even if the plot was a bit hard to follow (with the addendum that I was in pain while reading it). 4/5

Lord Beden’s Motor/J.B. Harris-Burland-I’m starting to think that I shouldn’t try to review stories I read while I was woozy with pain (even though I’m reviewing them while in pain too). I think all I can say is that it’s a ghost story and ghost stories just aren’t to my personal taste so it didn’t interest me.

The Death-Trap/George Daulton-no link again. It has that thing of trusting someone immediately cause they seem gentle which I don’t like for many reasons. I wish it concentrated more on the search for the monster and finding it because the monster itself was pretty cool. TW: gore 2.5/5 stars

The Air Serpent/Will A. Page-no link. It’s really cool that this concept existed because with our modern day knowledge it’s impossible outside of high fantasy. Unfortunately for the story, our modern day knowledge of how prey animals work sort of ruined it for me. 3/5 stars

The Monster of Lake LaMetrie/Wardon Allan Curtis-Gotta love the sharp turn into eugenics. It’s a pity because before that the story was really cool. 1/5 stars

The Voice in the Night/William Hope Hodgeson-This was pretty cool. I’m not sure if you shouldn’t read it if you love or hate mushrooms though. Personally, I belong to the second camp, so maybe it’s don’t read it if you’re disgusted by fungi. 3/5 stars

The Land Ironclads/H.G. Wells-It’s definitely interesting to read from a modern perspective. I liked the character of the mc and that the story didn’t wash over the deaths but didn’t describe them in detail either.

The Dam/Hugh S. Johnson-The plot twist is very clever but the building up to it took too long, and the two captains and their rivalry was confusing to me. 2.5/5 stars

Submarined/Walter Wood-I liked it, and I feel like I shouldn’t because it ended pretty violently but I did. Daring and sacrifice and all that is very feel-good, and it was well-written. 5/5 stars

The Purple Terror/Fred M. White-Could we have this without the racism please? It was good except for the underlying racism all throughout. 2/5 stars

Professor Jonkin’s Cannibal Plant/Howard R. Garis-This was definitely a change from the other stories. They were all adult fiction and this is MG fiction. It was okay, nothing special. 3/5 stars

An Experiment in Gyro Hats/Ellis Parker Butler-This continues the sort of humor that’s in the last story but it’s back to adult fiction which, personally, I enjoy more when it comes to this kind of humor. I liked the narrator’s voice. 3.5/5 stars

The Hybrid Hyperborean Ant/Roy L. McCardell-The idea was nice but it could have been better executed. I felt like I was told the story rather than experiencing it. 2/5 stars

Where the Air Quivered/L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace-Pretty cool, but nothing special. 4/5 stars

In Re State vs Forbes/Warren Earle-This was less science fiction and more ghost story. Again, ghost stories don’t really interest me so I can’t review it properly but I found the ending to be far too unrealistic with no explanation for my taste.

Old Dr. Rutherford/D.F. Hannigan-Ugh. The writing itself was fine but I absolutely hated the main character; usually that doesn’t bother me but I hated him so much that it did here. I think it would have been much more interesting if it had been written from Hafiz’s POV instead of an omniscient one. 2/5 stars

Itself/Edgar Mayhew Bacon-This was a really good one. I loved the storytelling. I might try to find more stories by the same author to read. 4.5/5 stars

Citizen 504/Charles H. Palmer-This is interesting in that it’s an early dystopian story. Less interesting in that because it’s an earlier one it has the same plot points of every modern one and wraps up everything neatly with a bow. I wish he’d taken the time to explore the world more. 3/5 stars

The Mansion of Forgetfulness/Don Mark Lemon-Finally a story with a link. It’s a good story to choose to end an anthology on as it’s short and wraps up well but not too nicely (with a bow). Although it’s short and the ending is expected the execution is done well in my opinion. 3.5/5

#booklr #short stories #mine #wrap up #rtm #read this month #poems #articles #july read this month #july rtm #2019 rtm #2019 read this month

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eggs-n-ham-sam · 6 years

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List of Ten Things -Ten Personally Influential Artists

@jemsauce tagged me... months ago. Sorry this took so long -I just really hate essay writing.

This is a short-list of artists I’ve personally been impressed by, and want to emulate in some way. Have fun.

Greg Manchess- Kentucky native Manchess’ thick alla prima strokes are delicious and distinguishable. Despite earning his BFA in college, Manchess’ art school experience was disappointing. His teachers advocate traditional methods of drawing, sculpting, and coloring are dead, and the future is conceptual art (cuz wearing gold and talking to a dead rabbit in a gallery totally pays the bills -this really happened). After graduation took it upon himself for a proper education. Manchess’ wide range of interests and intelligence has made him a favorite for many publications.

Nicolai Fechin- Nicolai started painting to help with his father’s carpentry business. In is teens, Fechin start’s learning art in Russia and Europe, and gains more international recognition from winning competitions. That was a blessing, for the Fechin family left their country after the Russian Revolution to New York, and Nicolai was able to continue as an artist. Fechin’s style is strange, but what’s rendered keeps the subject within the realm of believably. Some of his painting methods remain unconventional, such as licking wet paint on a pallet knife to achieve an effect.

Michael Gorban- I personally didn’t care for abstract art -thought it was soulless and cheap- till I discovered Michael Gorban. His style is very alive and delicious. Soviet Russia noticed his fabulous talent as well, and Artist’s Association of the Soviet Union gave him a grant for education. By the time Michael was 30, his artwork was already displayed in the world famous Hermitage museum.

Yoshitaka Amano- At an early age, Yoshitaka studied Pop, Art Nouveau, and Ukiyo-e styles. Even though Amano never had proper education, Tatsunoko Production (yeah, I had to Google how to spell it) recognized his work ethic and unique style, and hired him as a character designer. After working for several decades in Tatsunoko, Amano perused a freelance career, clients including Nintendo, DC, Marvel, and Dark Horse.

Nathan Fawkes- A known and liked name in the animation industry, few artists have the work ethnic Fawkes has, and even fewer have a control in color and brush strokes. In his first movie, Prince of Egypt, Fakes was put in charge creating the color script for a critical scene. In a conversion, he probably wasn’t supposed to hear, a superior was upset the art director gave such an important task to ‘a nobody’. Worried for his job, Fawkes painted dozens of different color scripts (maybe hundreds). No one complained ever again.

Mark Rothko- Because of Jewish persicution, and social unstibility, the Rothko family moved from present-day Latvia to Oregon. After dropping from Yale, Mark moved to NYC for work. There, he was first exposed to Avant-garde style. Mark saw art, and the style, as a mean to express. Simplistic the end result is, Rothko’s method was complex and kept secretive; only forensic scientific methods have been about to get a glimpse of his process. He striven for the viewers to have a spiritual experience.

Minerva Teichert- Subjects done for nearly 2000 years can yield a sense of ‘been-there-done-that’. But Idaho native Teichert takes over-exhausted subjects, recreating them into something new, theatrical, and personal. Being a wife of a rancher, mother several times over, and living in a small cabin didn’t stop her from creating. Once the wees are asleep and chores done, Teichert would paint into the night. She used creative viewing methods, such as backwards binoculars and mirrors, to create large paintings in her kitchen. (This picture is such a whitewash to the original image, which has rich blues, greens, oranges, and purples)

Bill Sienkiewicz (sn-kev-itch)- Beastly name in the comic book industry, Bill’s mastery of anatomy and color is recognizable. But while most comic artists stay close to typical illustration methods and mediums, Bill is unafraid to experiment. At every demo, Bill brings with him an assortment of spray bottles, inks, paints, brushes, pens, etc. You can play bingo of what he’ll bring.

Wassily Kandinsky- Russian native Kandinsky needs little introduction. From a rich pedigree, Wassily first perused law and economics education. However at 30 he set aside the higher education career for his childhood interest: art. Kandinsky was fascinated by colors, especially the bright colors in folk art, and would paint impressionistic landscapes with bright colors. His style would change over the decades, perusing and refining his theology and philosophy of art and color.

Sergei Bongart - Ukraine native Bongart studied art all over Europe, and, like Fechin, had Iliya Repin as a teacher. Then Stalin and Third Reich rose into power, and ruined Eurasia (his father was arrested by KGB agents in the middle of the night, and tortured to death). Bongart moved to America. There, he was a sought after instructor because of his mastery of the Russian method. Bongart would teach not to duplicate the subject in the paint, but rather how the subject would look like if it was made from paint.

Those who got axed from the list: James Gurney (he was hard to cut out), Richard Schmidt, Rebecca Guay, Gustave Dore, Klimt Petar Meseldzija, John Singer Sargent (who doesn’t cite him as an influence???), Auguste Rodin, and Hayao Miyazaki.

Anyone who reads this is tagged. That means you. Have fun!

#ten things #greg manchess #yoshitaka amano #sergei bongart #wassily kandinsky #mark rothko #bill sienkiewicz #minerva teichert #nathan fawkes #nicolai fechin #michael gorban #I just put Jesus and Electra next to each other #darn it!#I meant Elektra...

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copperbadge · 7 years

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Book Review: Nathan The Wise

@cameron-mckell, knowing my theatre background, recommended a play to me a while back, Nathan The Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. It’s available for free on Gutenberg, which is convenient, and I finally got a chance to read it last week. It is technically neither book nor play, but “a dramatic poem in five acts”, but really it’s a play. :D

Nathan The Wise is from 1893 and I read it with a mixture of excitement and trepidation, because on the one hand I didn’t think anyone would recommend an anti-Semitic play to me, but on the other, it’s awfully hard to find Jewish characters in non-Jewish-written theatre that aren’t anti-Semitic stereotypes, let alone in 1893. And yet here we are, with Nathan The Wise.

I’m probably going to go back and do a re-study of the play, but one of its functions (among others, I think) is to turn every anti-Semitic theatrical trope I expected on its head. Nathan has an adopted daughter that he didn’t steal, who doesn’t convert to Christianity; he gives his wealth freely to the Sultan without trapping him in any kind of ugly deal; his reserve at a Christian suitor for his daughter is not out of a dislike of Christianity but out of a suspicion that they may not be appropriate for each other (which ends up being true). Christians conspire to fuck him right up, and yet they fail because he’s just that great of a dude. “The Wise” isn’t ironic. There’s a passage in the middle of the play where the (Muslim) Sultan asks him which of the faiths -- Christian, Muslim, or Jewish -- is the Best/Realest/Coolest faith, and Nathan responds with a parable that reminds the Sultan that only God can know if there even is a truest faith, let alone which one it is, but they can all be considered equal in virtue.

The play depends heavily on Victorian and Romantic tropes that Oscar Wilde would parody two years later in The Importance of Being Earnest, and here too I think it’s a parody, but it’s honestly a little difficult to tell. There are long-lost children, hidden relatives, name changes, uncanny resemblances, and a meddling nanny. It’s mostly a...well, a pleasant play, maybe not a comedy of manners but a well-mannered story. Just when you think shit is about to get ugly, something -- usually Nathan -- interrupts to make everything okay again. In that sense it’s a series of small dramatic climaxes throughout the play; I think it must be a rather fun play to watch, with a surprising amount of depth to it.

I’d honestly like to see it produced, not just because I’d like to see it on stage (I feel that way about a lot of plays I read) but because I would love to see a modern director and modern actors wrestling with the text and drawing nuance out of it. It’s a play I’d like to dramaturg for.

So yeah -- Nathan The Wise, do-recommend, despite it being a hundred and twenty five years old. Worth a read!

#book review

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kingdomstroops · 4 years

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Are There Contradicting Bible Verses? Part 2

More contradicting Bible verses?

Are there contradictions in the Bible? Previously we looked at several Old Testament examples that some claim have contradicting Bible verses, but what about the New Testament - especially the gospels? With four different people telling essentially the same story, contradicting Bible verses seem almost inevitable. Supposed Contradictions in the Bible Although they tell the same story, they were originally written to different groups and emphasize unique aspects of Jesus' life and ministry. When multiple statements are taken from different people about the same incident, it is not suspicious when they recall different things or use slightly different terms. In fact, the opposite is true. If every account is identical, it implies that the witnesses have ‘gotten their stories straight’ rather than telling what they remember. The four gospels do not have contradicting Bible verses but paint a more complete picture than we would have with only one or two accounts. Not everyone agrees. The American Humanist Association rejects the Bible as not only made-made but harmful. They use so-called contradictions in the Bible as proof of its unreliability and human origin. Each instance below is taken from an article on why humanists reject the Bible. Keep in mind, a contradiction is not just different information being presented, but information that negates the other. Are these contradicting Bible verses really there, or is this simply an example of personal bias against the Bible itself?The Genealogy of Jesus ...Matthew says Josephs’ father was Jacob, while Luke claims he was Heli. Matthew runs Jesus’ line of descent through David’s son Solomon, while Luke has it going through David’s son Nathan. Two possible reasons for the differing genealogies both have to do with legal versus actual lines of descent. Many believe that Matthew records the legal genealogy of Jesus through his adopted father, Joseph, while Luke records the human genealogy of Jesus through Mary, his only actual physical relative. Others believe that both genealogies are Joseph’s, one a legal genealogy (with adoptive and legal information) and the other a physical line of descent for Joseph . Either way, these don’t represent contradictions in the Bible, but viewpoints. Who were the readers? What did they care about? Since we’re talking about genealogy, why does one start at Abraham and come forward to Jesus and the other starts at Jesus and goes all the way back to Adam? It’s all tied together. Matthew was originally writing to a Jewish audience, and showed how Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecies about the coming Messiah - the Jewish king. The genealogy he provides ends with Abraham. Luke was writing to a Greek believer, Theophilus, whose name means ‘god lover’. As a gentile, he was unlikely to care about Jewish kings, but the perfect man was something that Greek culture was very interested in. That’s what Luke’s gospel draws out, and why the genealogy he provides goes back to the first man, Adam.The Journey to Egypt ...Matthew 2:13-15 depicts Joseph and Mary as fleeing to Egypt with the baby Jesus immediately after the wise men from the east had brought gifts. But Luke 2:22-40 claims that after the birth of Jesus, his parents remained in Bethlehem for the time of Mary’s purification...and then returned to their home in Nazareth. Luke mentions no journey into Egypt or visit by wise men from the east. This objection accurately states what each scripture reference says, but incorrectly assumes they are contradicting Bible verses. Joseph and Mary did flee to Egypt after the wise men visited, however that was approximately two years after Jesus was born. How do we know that? Based on the age of the children that Herod had killed when the wise men failed to report back to him. Joseph and Mary would have been traveling to Egypt with a toddler, not a newborn. Another thing Matthew says is that Herod sent the magi to Bethlehem, but it doesn’t implicitly say that Bethlehem is where the magi found Jesus. Matthew says: “the star went on before them and stood over the place where the Child was…after coming into the house they saw the child with Mary, his mother…” Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem for the census. They didn’t move there permanently. When the wise men found them, they were in a house, not a stable. We get different information from each account, but they are not contradictions in the Bible.The Death of Judas Iscariot ...Matthew 27:5 states he took the money he had received for betraying Jesus, threw it down in the temple, and “went and hanged himself.” ...Acts 1:18 claims Judas used the money to purchase a field and “falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out.” So what happened to Judas after he betrayed Jesus? Matthew tells us that he returned the money he had been paid, throwing it into the temple. If we keep reading we find that Jewish law wouldn’t allow the money to be returned to the temple treasury since it was blood money. Judas didn’t wait around to get this information, but went out and killed himself. Looking at Acts chapter 1, we see another account of the same event. Here we learn that not only did Judas hang himself, he fell and burst open and all his intestines gushed out. That gruesome scene made an impression on the people of Jerusalem, and they called that place Field of Blood. The same name as the field mentioned in Matthew that was purchased by the priests with the money they’d paid Judas. Evidently the priests used Judas’s money to buy the field where he hanged himself and made it into a burial place for strangers. Since it was legally still Judas’s money, one writer notes the legal transaction - Judas purchased the field, another writer notes who physically made the purchase - the priests. Not contradicting Bible verses, but different facets - legal versus practical.Who Carried the Cross? In describing Jesus being led to his execution, John 19:17 recounts that he carried his own cross. But Mark 15:21-23 disagrees by saying a man called Simon carried the cross. Crucifixion was a brutal form of execution. Before Jesus was crucified he was brutalized, mocked and beaten. The Bible says he was no longer recognizable as a man (Isaiah 52:14). After all of this punishment, He had to carry all or part of his cross up to Golgotha. The cross would have weighed between 100 and 300 pounds, depending on whether it was the whole thing or just the horizontal cross beam. Mark is not the only gospel to mention Simon of Cyrene. In fact all the gospel writers except John mention him. The question, then, is why did John fail to mention the man who helped Jesus carry the cross? Is this a contradiction in the Bible, or could there be another solution? Remember that each gospel emphasizes different details of Jesus' life. The gospel of John was written after the early church was already established. Believers of that time would have been familiar with what was included in the previous three gospels. John’s purpose wasn’t to retell the same story, but to clarify issues that had popped up in the early church. One of these issues was a false teaching that Jesus had not actually been human, but was pure spirit. John refutes that throughout his gospel, from the beginning where he says “the word became flesh and dwelt among us…” to the end when he emphasizes that Jesus was a flesh-and-blood man who carried his own cross.The fact that another person was conscripted to help him doesn’t make the first statement a contradiction in the Bible.The Mocking Thieves (or Thief?) ...Matthew 27:44 tells us Jesus was taunted by both criminals who were being crucified with him. But Luke 23:39-42 relates that only one of the criminals taunted Jesus, the other criminal rebuked the one who was doing the taunting, and Jesus told the criminal who was defending him, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Have you ever had a change of heart? That is the easiest explanation for why one account says both criminals taunted him, yet another account says that one defended him. Crucifixion was not a quick death. It took hours and sometimes even days for those executed in this way to finally die. These three men, the criminals and Jesus, were hanging on those crosses for hours. At some point during that time, one of the criminals who had been mocking repented and asked Jesus to remember Him in His kingdom. This criminal knew they were all going to die. He was essentially saying that he believed Jesus had a heavenly kingdom, that Jesus was who He claimed to be. When you dig a little deeper, you find not a contradiction in the Bible, but a beautiful example of how it is never too late to repent. As long as you have breath, you have hope of salvation. Even if you were a mocker before - Jesus loves you. His death was for you if you will accept it.Different ‘Last Words’ From the Cross ...Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 quote Jesus as crying with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Luke 23:46 gives his final words as “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” John 19:30 alleges the last words were, “It is finished.” Neither Matthew or Mark claim that the words they record were the final words of Jesus, just that they were spoken from the cross. Both gospels include additional information and conversation from those around the cross. Different details, but not contradicting Bible verses. All of these could be (and are) accurate accounts of what happened during the final hours at the cross. John includes an entire scene from the crucifixion that none of the others do, between Jesus, his mother and John. John was at the cross when Jesus breathed his last, close enough to hear things that weren’t cried out, but simply said, including instructions to take care of His mother. These are not instances of contradictions in the bible, (information that negates other information), but of completion of the picture.The Women at the Tomb ...Mark 16:2 states that on the day of the resurrection, certain women arrived at the tomb at the rising of the sun. But John 20:1 informs us they arrived when it was yet dark. This is easy to understand if you’re reading without a personal bias that requires contradictions on the Bible. The women showed up at the tomb as early as they were allowed to be there according to Jewish laws regarding the Sabbath, which ended at sunrise. They got there as soon as they possibly could, showing their devotion to Jesus whom they still assumed to be dead. The other gospel accounts make this clear. Luke 24:1 uses the term ‘early dawn’. Matthew 28:1 says ‘as it began to dawn’. When the sun first peeks over the horizon, the new day has begun, but it is still somewhat dark outside. Again we find, not contradicting Bible verses, but a well-rounded account of what happened....Luke 24:2 describes the tomb as open when the women arrived, whereas Matthew 28:1-2 indicates it was closed. This supposed contradiction is easily resolved by simply reading what the Bible actually says. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ~ Luke 24: 1-2 Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. ~ Matthew 28:1-2 Matthew says an earthquake had occurred, meaning it happened before the women arrived. The reason for the earthquake is also given - an angel came and rolled the stone away. By reading the text we can see that both indicate that the tomb was open when the women arrived. Not a contradiction in the Bible, and honestly a bit of a surprise to find something so easily refuted given as a reason for rejecting the Bible....Mark 16:5 declares that the women saw a young man at the tomb, Luke 24:4 says they saw two men, Matthew 28:2 reports they saw an angel, and John 20:11-12 claims they saw two angels. This may stem from a lack of understanding, but it seems to be willful misunderstanding driven by personal bias. Throughout the Bible these messengers or angels are referred to as having the appearance of a man. The word angel means messenger. These beings at the tomb definitely had a message! When people arrived looking for the body of Jesus, they were told: He’s not here! He’s alive!Details at the Tomb Who was there? Were they sitting or standing? Were they inside or outside the tomb? These eyewitness accounts aren’t scripted like a play, making sure to note every movement of every person who was there that morning. The point was: Jesus is alive! Not who sat where and did they stay seated, etc. By reading all four gospels, and using the presumption that they are true, can these ‘contradictions in the Bible’ be reconciled? There was an angel sitting on the stone when the women arrived. And there were two angels sitting inside the tomb where Jesus' body had been. The account of Mark only mentions one of the angels and what he said to the women, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t two there. Things were dynamic. People were in motion. It was a tense time, because as the people living this through it didn’t know how things ended like we do. Could the angels have been sitting at one point and standing at another? Of course. Were there people coming and going at different times? Definitely.Recognizing Jesus Whether Mary Magdalene immediately recognized Jesus is another instance some say is a contradiction in the Bible. Mary Magdalene was one of several Marys’ who went to the tomb on the morning of the resurrection. At some point she was there when others were not and had a one-on-one conversation with Jesus. She did not initially recognize Him until He said her name. As odd as that may sound, this isn’t the only instance after His resurrection that Jesus was not recognized by his followers right away. It happened with two unnamed followers on the road from Jerusalem (Luke 24:13-35) and again on the beach with his closest disciples (John 21:1-9). In each case, Jesus said or did something that sparked recognition.Paul’s Conversion ...Acts 9:7 states that when Jesus called Paul to preach the gospel, the men who were with Paul heard a voice but saw no man. According to Acts 22:9, however, the men saw a light but didn’t hear the voice speaking to Paul. What Acts 22:9 actually says is this: “And those who were with me saw the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.” (emphasis mine) These aren’t contradicting Bible verses. Both verses say that those with Paul heard something. Paul’s detailed account given during his testimony to the Jews provides additional information that though his travel companions heard something, they didn’t understand it. Both are accurate. One is more specific, not a contradiction in the Bible. Find Out For Yourself When you know the authentic, you quickly recognize a counterfeit. Don’t let one person’s skepticism shake your beliefs. God isn’t intimidated by their questions, or by yours. He wants to be known by His people, and the primary way He reveals Himself is through scripture. These so-called contradicting Bible verses are great examples of why you should get to know the Bible for yourself. The more you know your Bible, the easier it becomes to answer arguments from those who suggest there are contradictions in the Bible.Do you know the Good News? Read the full article

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blogwritetheworld · 6 years

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The Write Place: ‘Tis the Season - My December

by Lisa Hiton

Looking for the right advice on pursuing the writer’s life? You’ve come to the write place!

My family is Jewish. We don’t celebrate Christmas. And yet, isn’t going to a movie and eating Chinese food while the rest of the world closes down for a day a kind of ritual—its own kind of made-up holiday? I’m sure that these details seem usual as well. But, dear writers, a lot more is there than meets the eye. Your family’s traditions, rituals, and habits—no matter how ordinary they seem—can be made extraordinary by turning them into words.

Family Hanukkah with multiple Hannukiahs! These are different than menorahs as they hold nine candles instead of seven.

PANNING FOR GOLD

An easy way to describe your holiday season to someone else (and kickstart your writing process) is to make a list of traditions and rituals that you think of when this time of year comes around. Mine looks something like this:

Tuesday before Thanksgiving

take a train into the city

to go to the Art Institute with my mom

followed by shopping for new art supplies

and a nice dinner

and train ride home

Thanksgiving Eve and Day

prepare spinach balls

set table

cook cook cook

eat eat eat

play games with cousins

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

hang Hanukkah stockings

attend Cathy Nathan’s x-mas party

cook a big breakfast including eggs, fresh squeezed OJ, and bacon

open stockings

hang out

go to a movie at the theatre

cook a nice dinner (Chinese food takes too long in my hometown since we live in a pretty Jewish part of Chicagoland)

watch holiday movies with mom and brother, especially The Family Stone

Winters in Chicago can be brutal; there’s no better antidote than playing in the snow! Here I am enjoying the snow with my first friend, Rebel.

Are you bored yet? This isn’t even counting Hanukkah since it doesn’t always fall near Christmas! All of these things may seem pretty usual. That might be true if you make your list of traditions as well. You might decorate a tree, hang twinkle lights, go caroling, go to the same person’s house every year to celebrate, leave out cookies for Santa, etc. Most neighborhoods and cultures have their usual lists of traditions. Part of your goal as a writer is to pan for gold among them.

Looking at this list, I began to ask myself, Why is it that my mom, brother, and I do these same things every single year? Some of it seems like the larger culture, but some of it was made by us. As I think about why, it’s clear that a lot of these rituals are in some way related to my parent’s divorce. Through that lens, I might start panning for my own gold—to sift through this litany to find something that might be worth more than meets the eye. Each of these seemingly usual bullet points, in fact, triggers different memories for me. In that field of memories, where might I find a scene that begins a longer story? How might I organize these scenes and memories into something cohesive for myself and my readers? I’ll begin with my freshman year.

My freshman year of high school marked the first year of spending winter break with divorced parents. While breakfast time was never particularly special in my house, Christmas day posed a dilemma: what would my mom, brother, and I do in this new situation, just the three of us? Especially since nearly everything is closed on Christmas day and people are with their families, filling the time posed some anxiety for my mother and me, especially with my young, shy brother.

To be sure, I already had thrown one tantrum about adjusting to these new circumstances. It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. In elementary school and middle school, I normally had that day off as part of my holiday break. In high school though, this was not the case. It was second period when I received a pink slip during chorus to report to my advisor’s office. As a self-proclaimed academic, I was not used to be in trouble. With a room full of eyes on me as I left the choir room, my angst only increased.

It seemed my senior leaders had gone to my advisor worried about my general sadness. In my humiliation that anyone had noticed such negative energy, I proceeded to have the first of many tearful conversations with my advisor about adjusting: to high school, to a new home situation, and more. My mom came and picked me up from school so we could play hooky and keep our one ritual of going to the Art Institute of Chicago. I knew it was a temporary solution to a larger problem, and that this was just one of many adjustments I’d have to make. Yet, the gesture helped me persevere despite my pain.

That choir room would continue to serve as a literary backdrop for growth and tough love throughout high school. It was also a common community I kept throughout high school while everything else changed. For our annual fundraiser, we sold grapefruits and oranges by the box. When the trucks pulled up to the high school, we passed the boxes one by one down the line, just like the who’s down in Whoville, singing all the while in the face of another frigid Chicagoland winter.

While I’m more of a night owl than a morning person, and certainly not a big breakfast eater, this introduction to ripe grapefruits became my exception. Cut in half with a little bit of sugar was all I needed to jump-start my day with a jolt of Vitamin C. And so when the week of Christmas came around, my mom picked up a citrus juicer. The morning of Christmas. My brother and I sat on the island in our kitchen cutting oranges in half. We took turns pressing oranges onto the machine as it whirred and whirred. In an absolute mess of pulp, we finally squeezed enough halves for three cups of juice, just as our bacon was coming out of the oven. It was a new tradition, mundane as it may seem now, and a way of lightening the day and passing the time on a holiday that is not ours.

Christmas may not be our holiday, but it would be a boring day without our own tradition of “Hanukkah stockings”. My brother, Merrick, and I still give each other socks and chapstick as a ritual!

AMONG THESE ROCKS

Among the rocks in the river, there are some that are worth spending time with as a writer, and others that probably don’t add much to the larger story. The larger story in a personal essay is not always about a narrative arc. In the passage I just wrote about making orange juice, the larger story is about recasting the family unit as three instead of four, connecting to my younger brother, and trying to lift my spirit despite how hard it was to start high school with divorce at the forefront of my thinking and feeling. While all of that may not have come out precisely, writing this little passage is a signal that with time and effort, I could write that longer essay. Now as a writer, it will be up to me to describe these anecdotes as scenes, make characters out of my self and my family members, and reflect on the meaning. If this can all be done well—the showing and the telling—then it’s likely the reader will feel a similar sense of nostalgia.

The house where I grew up is on a hill whose swale leads to the north fork of the Chicago River. My fondest memories of winter are sledding down that hill and walking on the frozen river. Here I am teaching a new friend, Miriam, about these prairie-land games.

That is, perhaps, the most important way to approach material. If something is significant, memorable, or worthy of reflection to your own sense of self or personal narrative, there is probably a way to translate that to your reader in writing. Take for example Vani Dadoo’s My December piece from last year, “December in Delhi”, about waiting for the train:

Winter is not good for a polluted city like mine. December, being the main month of winter in India, is always the coldest.

All things in nature huddle together in winter, trying to find, or steal, some warmth from the other.

The clouds creep towards the ground. The fog and the smoke meet and embrace, and together try to steal the little sunlight before it touches the earth. The smog becomes denser, trying to wrap the earth in a heavier, grayish blanket, like the people sleeping in woolen quilts in their homes. Evening darkness approaches faster than before, as if the smog did succeed in robbing the sunlight. Even after twilight, the smog refuses to diffuse. The air becomes thicker, but the world puts on an old, dull, sweater and wraps a muffler around its neck and walks on.

Some evenings, it coughs and some mornings, it can see its breath. But most days, it can’t peer into the distance.

This year, my father decided to travel to escape the harsh winters. “Migration over hibernation,” he called it, and, “better to get the sun somewhere than get closer to that old, rusty heater at home,” is what he said. We decide to journey to the western coast around Mumbai by train. Indian Railways was a part of family, as all cross-country trips; from Himalayan foothills to the Rajasthani deserts, were made by train.

As we take a cab to the New Delhi railway station, the moon is rising. The moon is a blurred piece of white in the black sky, clouds and smog. The street lights, though, filter through this, illuminating every speck of dust. The cars zoom past on the highway.

One can rarely see stars in my city.

Dadoo wavers between a present-tense meditation on December, and a swell of memory related to waiting for a train in Delhi. While these may be ordinary in another context—waiting for a late train or reflecting on the season—Dadoo weaves these two threads together, a double helix, to arrive at grand statements of the human condition: that like waiting for a train, we wait for a season’s end so that we may be carried into a new one.

Dadoo also brings us Delhi in her sensory details. From the opening passage about all things in nature “huddling together”, Dadoo mirrors her descriptions to match the crowded and polluted city around her. Just as Dadoo was able to give the details of December in Delhi while waiting for a train, you can give your own details as you think about your family—their traditions and rituals, the personalities of each member, and the things that make you nostalgic.

A reader gets a clear sense of a train station in Mumbai from this piece. If you’re familiar with such a place, you will get swept up in a shared nostalgia. If you’re unfamiliar with this land, you may find these descriptions to be exotic. In both cases, the very things that are both familiar and new bring the reader into a shared sense of the human condition with the writer herself. That shared humanness is the the entire point of sharing stories! And all of that came from writing about waiting for the train!

So, dear writers, as you think of Decembers past and enjoy your current December, what memories and rituals are for keeps? What gold will you find in waiting for the train, cooking with your grandmother, visiting a museum, playing in the snow? Show us your favorite places, traditions, and people at this time of year by tagging your stories and images with #MyDecember on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

About Lisa

Lisa Hiton is an editorial associate at Write the World. She writes two series on our blog: The Write Place where she comments on life as a writer, and Reading like a Writer where she recommends books about writing in different genres. She’s also the interviews editor of Cosmonauts Avenue and the poetry editor of the Adroit Journal.

#writetheworld #amwriting #lisahiton #mydecember

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palmett-hoes · 4 years

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Do you have any Jewish Neil hcs? I have some but a lot of them conflict with each other and I can’t make up my mind which I like best but I love hearing other people’s because they’re always better anyway.

aww no no no i wanna hear them!! message me @hoob-gooblin if u wanna (it's my main nd where i can answer messages from) (no pressure tho if u dont wanna)

and don't worry my hc's for jewish neil and his family history and stuff are all over the place too and changing all the time. i just stick to the one central tenant that that boy is jewish no matter what

also, i'm not actually jewish. it's a long and complicated family story but suffice to say, my dad is, i never was, and i've got some... feelings about that

so i kinda project my feelings of alienation from judaism onto neil and also use him as an excuse/motivation to learn about judaism and jewish history bc also i fuckin love? ethnographic research?

so first off all. very fun to read aftg as an exodus narrative. neil as moses. exy as religion. (this is straight up ridiculous i swear). nathan and mary as pharaoh and pharaoh's wife that keep him in the dark of his 'truth.' his time as a runaway as the flight from egypt. tfc/most of trk as canaan (kinship and self-discovery). taunting riko, protecting the foxes, killing nathan, negotiating with the moriyamas as the plagues/miracles (not to mention that the basement has a lot of 'death of the first born' energy, prevented with lamb's blood (neil's sacrifice of his life for the foxes) and the intervention of an angel (stuart)). defeating the ravens as crossing the red sea.

oh and this mf?

ABSOLUTELY one of my neil refs

so yea besides all that insanity

the parts of reading neil as jewish that really make me emotional is his status as a runaway. moving from place to place. being chased away over and over again. never having a home. always looking over his shoulder. the entire jewish disapora for thousands of years have just been a play on that again and again, of having to flee from someone trying to kill you. reading jewish history is so sad. i mean, spain, russia, britain, germany, north africa, the middle east, ethiopia just to name some of the biggest ones. it's a story of constant migration and the way that mirrors neil's own journey speaks to me very much

BUUUUT some actual headcanons

nathan was much more dismissive of religion and actively discouraged his wife from practicing openly and would punish neil for bringing it up. at times he would even 'play christian' by decorating for christmas for show.

to me both nathan and mary were jewish (bc i have this complex about not heaping more ideological weight on either of neil's parents so i pretty much mirror any identity-based-hc's on them)

mary would attend synagogue sometimes but only the services, she never stayed around or made any connections. sometimes she'd bring neil and he'd LOVE it because he never got to go out anywhere, ever.

i like to think that mary was always multilingual with neil, and is of some maghrebi jewish descent so has been speaking to him in french and hebrew his whole life when she could. he's only fluent in languages he lived in daily but hebrew is his most personal language because it was the one that was just between him and his mother

he primarily knows emotion words in hebrew 'i'm tired.' 'i'm scared.' 'i'm hurt.' it's his secrets language, the only one that wasn't about blending in.

neil's version of 'abram' for mary was 'ima'

they stayed in a number of algerian jewish communities when they lived in france, and tended to seek out synagogues when they needed food, but couldn't afford establishing a pattern that could be used to predict where they might go

he leaves one rock on the place where he buried his mother

anywhoodle less sad hc's

psu has a jewish center on campus. neil attends occasionally.

he talks to renee sometimes, about god. he doesn't really know if he believes but sometimes he needs something to be angry at

after he tells the foxes he's jewish he never has to celebrate christmas again. it's a relief for a million reasons

nicky, a baptist born and raised, doesn't really 'get' it but gets really enthusiastically into trying to celebrate 'neil's holidays' until neil tells him to tone it down. they do go out and find a purim festival every year tho

he never officially joins a congregation but does eventually have a bar mitzvah

neil has no taste buds and will eat gefilte fish

'can i be buried in a jewish cemetery? i mean, i HAD a tattoo, but then it got burned off with a cigarette lighter...' 'jesus christ, neil' 'whomst?'

one night, when they both have too much rage that needs to be released, andrew and neil go to an empty lot and smash glasses and bottles together, stomping on the shards. they leave holding hands

#here have a super long post #jewish neil #neil josten #txt #my posts #thank you tumblr for putting that picture 100% somewhere i did not put it #jewish neil josten

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thebibliosphere · 7 years

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Mom mom mom! How is Nathan gonna keep kosher if he's a werewolf? I think I might have missed whether or not he can control himself while he's a wolf, but how does it work?

True blooded werewolves in Hunger Pangs are better able to control what they do as wolves, with full moons being the exception where the human brain takes a backseat and tries not to cringe too hard at the stuff that goes on. It’s sort of accepted mythology that an agreement with the gods was reached, and that in exchange for their powers they have to go through the change once a month without fail as payment for their long lives and supernatural abilities, and as with any culture when new people come into it, certain new traits and beliefs shifted and changed over the years, and at some point the werewolf culture in Nathan’s part of the world, began to include the practice of keeping kosher during human phases of their life, as a means of separating themselves from actual wolves.

And I’ll level with you at this point, this idea is something purely from my childhood.

My dad was raised by his Jewish grandmother, he grew up keeping kosher and went on to become a kosher butcher and our household was kept kosher purely out of habit and familiarity even though us kids were all baptized Christian.

He was also a story teller and liked to mix and match his myths, and at the time when I was getting super into the local Celtic mythology and reading everything my grubby little hands could reach in the library, was also when my dad started writing stories for me and telling me about Great Grandma who was Different from my other Grandma and also why we had two kitchen sinks in the house and two fridges and two sets of knives for everything, and why the family sometimes lapsed into Yiddish when arguing, because I dunno if you’ve ever heard angry Scottish people arguing in Yiddish, but it’s a damn fine way to be expressively ticked off.

One of the stories was a werewolf (wulver in Celtic lore) whose angst came from needing to atone for the things he ate as a wolf, not because he was inherently a monster, but because he was Jewish and couldn’t keep kosher on full moons. And my dad made it funny, he made up stories about all the things this wulver would do to try and keep to his faith, about going to see his Rabbi and asking really specific and weirdly obscure questions and the Rabbi was eventually like listen, kid, whatever is going on, take it up with the Big Guy, you’re doing your best and that’s all you ever can do. If He doesn’t like it, that’s His problem for letting it happen, tell him that…in the meantime…make amends however you see fit for…whatever you got going on. Just be a good person, kiddo, or…whatever you are. G-d will understand.

Which was how my dad worked in the Celtic lore part about how wulvers would guard children and feed starving families and give money to charity and just generally be a swell guy who after the end of every full moon had a tendency to brush his teeth really hard while muttering about being chosen for this life. In the end, the man realizes it is not a curse, but a means to help people who need it the most. What is actually a small inconvenience to him (ie not always being able to keep kosher due to circumstances outwith his control), has prompted him to do great wonderful things for those around him, and perhaps without his monthly suffering he would not be the good, kind person he became. Which I suppose was my father’s heavy handed way of trying to tell me—in the way his grandmother told him—you can overcome suffering, and that which you cannot overcome, you persevere with and try to do good anyway.

A little thickly laid on perhaps, but it stayed with me, evidently, as some 20 years later I write about a werewolf who doesn’t quite know if he believes in gods, but still keeps to their in-world-version of kosher out of habit and looks at the suffering in the world around him and decides kindness is the remedy.

#Hunger Pangs #world building #stories from the vaults #tumblr grandpa stories #jewish-fangirl-life

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mikeyd1986 · 5 years

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MIKEY’S PERSONAL BLOG 161, June 2019

Last Saturday night, I celebrated my cousin Nathan Dunkling’s 21st birthday at The Comic's Lounge in North Melbourne. Social gatherings like birthday parties can often be huge anxiety triggers for me but somehow my anxiety was under control tonight even being in a large group of people and inside a crowded live comedy venue. Yes it filled up very quickly which meant that the volume levels of conversation gradually rose up and it was very difficult to hear what was going on even at my own table.

Some of Nathan’s friends were sitting at my table and so it was hard for me to engage in conversation with them. Thankfully I had a solution to this, pulling out my phone and playing Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery to curb my boredom levels before the show actually began. Some people might pull out the “anti-social” card but I really don’t care as I see it as a coping mechanism and way of feeling comfortable when I can’t connect with the people around me. Plus waiting for our meals did take a long time so I didn’t have much else to do.

Finally around 8.15pm, the MC for the evening Josh Earl began his comedy routine whilst I began chowing away at my entree, salt and pepper calarami. I also ordered an Atlantic salmon for mains which was really delicious. There were four comedians in total including an American lady named Eve, an Australian named Claire and the main headliner Dave Thornton. Honestly it was a very hit and miss affair for me. Plus I felt like there were too many breaks in between and it seemed to stretch the night out a bit too late for me (We were there for over 4 hours).

Admittedly, some jokes simply soared over my head perhaps because I missed the context of what they were talking about. Others I basically didn’t find funny at all. It’s not to say that I don’t have a sense of humour, more I can only stomach so many jokes related to Sex - poo, dicks, vaginas, masturbation, circumcision, vasectomies. Religion - Jewish people. Christian people, believing in God. Children - dealing with being a parent, being able to handle kids, changing nappies. I’ve pretty much heard it all. I think a lot of it depends on the delivery of the joke too. If it’s too forced, I’m most likely not going to laugh at it. Still it was an enjoyable night out and good value for money.

On Sunday morning, we checked out of our hotel room at Best Western Melbourne City Hotel - Formerly Pensione Hotel and had breakfast downstairs at Oliver's. Then we drove down to St. Kilda to visit the Esplanade Market and walked along the pier. Even though the air was fairly cold, eventually the sun broke through the overcast clouds and it become a lovely morning to check out the scenic views. I do get a little nervous when it comes to passing by stalls in a market which some sellers trying really hard to get my to buy something but it’s nice just having a browse and watching the people walking their dogs along the footpath.

On Monday morning, I had an appointment with my support worker Seb at Jamaica Blue Cranbourne. A couple of weeks ago, I was feeling pretty conflicted and disheartened about the service Mentis Assist was providing to me. There was a lot of being messed around with lack of communication and no confirmations being made over the past few weeks besides having one fill in support worker. Everything felt like it was in limbo. I sent a text message to Seb yesterday but I had no idea if he would even turn up today.

Eventually he did reply and things got back on track again today. What was alarming to me though was the fact that he wasn’t informed about what was happening with me over the past few weeks. Nobody at Mentis Assist told him that a replacement support worker would be organised for me or that my appointment would be switched to Tuesday afternoon. It was almost enough for me to pull the plug but honestly none of this is Seb’s fault, just the broken system that had left me hanging.

On Monday afternoon, I had my second last Creative Writing class at Balla Balla Community Centre in Cranbourne East. I have to admit that I was stuck in a rut of sorts after the last class and really struggled on the previous homework task of coming up with five different endings to a short story I began in Week 3. I was feeling a little uncertain about what I’d come up with but at least I gave it a go.

ENDINGS HOMEWORK EXERCISE

Ryan is determined to escape the trappings of his old life and even in these dire circumstances, he will make it to Fiji one way or another.

Ryan decides to build friendships with the locals in New Caledonia and eventually settles there.

Ryan sends a distress call back home to Australia in order to be saved from the ordeal he has been through. He managed to escape the plane crash with only minor injuries, however it has had a major impact on him psychologically. He makes contact with a counselor to find strategies to overcome his trauma.

Ryan ends up in a local hospital wired up to machines - life support, oxygen, heart rate monitor. The experience of the plane crash was too much for him and has taken a tool on him physically as well as mentally and emotionally.

Upon landing in New Caledonia, Ryan ends up getting himself captured by a tribe of warriors, clad with wooden spears and shields, deep inside the bushland. Will he manage to survive?

During today’s class, we looked into scenes vs. chapters, improving your draft, killing off your darlings and the habits of successful authors. Scenes are more complicated and more important than chapters. They are very specific building blocks within your story. They also need tension and conflict. Each scene can be divided into two parts: ACTION (Goal, conflict, disaster) and REACTION (Reaction, dilemma, decision).

Chapters are arbitrary divisions within a book. They impose order and create a certain sense of structure. Chapter breaks are more about pacing and must be placed strategically. They leave readers with a question or a reason to know more. Scene structure has nothing to do with chapter breaks.

Improving your draft. Your first draft is the writing equivalent of running a marathon. You need to take a step back, question the structure and the characters, ask whether all the characters want the same thing, does the story contain enough conflict. After draft two and beyond, you need to be a little more critical with your work. Hire a professional editor and get your manuscript copy edited. Then finally have the manuscript proof read.

Killing off your darlings. Cut out any elements that doesn’t serve to further the work as a whole, in order to enhance the story. Darlings can be words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs or characters. The main benefits of killing off your darlings are: it strengthens your characters and plot, improves the overall quality of your writing and refines your self discipline. Things to cut: weak characters, extraneous plot lines, backstory and prologues.

The habits of successful authors include write everyday, finish your stories, learn the rules, break the rules, create their own inspiration, don’t slack off on the hard stuff, follow their hearts and not the market, develop a thick skin, set their stories free, love what they do, write with joy and embrace fragments of writing.

On Monday night, I went to my Boxing small group fitness class with CinFull Fitness. Tonight was a very small group with just myself, Rodney Sack and Ben Milton. We each got our measurements taken before we actually started. It’s been something of a fleeting thought for me, particularly the scales and weighing myself. It’s not longer been an unhealthy obsession. In fact, I hardly ever weigh myself at all these days. I used to get really fixated on THE NUMBER but now I’m able to let it go more easily considering it’s not a true representation of how “fat” or “overweight” I am. There are so many other factors that go into it like muscle mass and water weight.

Tonight’s class consisted of drills and partner work, push ups, plank holds, ground and pounds, sit up punches, V-ups, Russian twists, star jumps, walking lunges and squat holds.

Being paired up with a hard-hitter like Rodney certainly got me out of my comfort zone. I was a little nervous about not being able to handle it (and be accidentally punched in the face) but I wasn’t going to let that fear stop me. I needed to release all of those negative labels that have been given to me in the past (weak, slow, incapable, incompetent, useless, a loser). I’m not any of those things. Sometimes I really do surprise myself in being able to overcome a struggle such as physical fatigue or being out of breath. I know that I’m not as fit as some of the others but that fact shouldn’t stop me from participating in the class.

On Wednesday morning, I attended the funeral of Rita Hartney at Tobin Brothers in Berwick. I knew Rita from a few years ago when she began hosting her radio program Hot Topics With Rita at Casey Radio - 97.7FM as well as her motivational talks and appearances at places such as Balla Balla Community Centre and U3A Cranbourne. She also ran a short course called Speaking Before The Public which helped me work on self confidence and oral presentation skills. It was only a few weeks ago that I learned of her decline in health and subsequent passing on Facebook.

After signing the guest book and taking a copy of Rita’s book It’s Time For Women to Take Control, Mum and I made our way into the main service room which was packed with Rita’s family, friends and other guests. We were really lucky to find a couple of spare seats to sit down in. It was a really beautiful service which highlighted the many strengths and achievements that Rita had gained over the years. She really had a significant impact on many people’s lives.

The speeches were both funny and moving, painting Rita as a strong, determined woman trying to make her mark in a male dominated world. The music selection was very fitting as well, reflecting Rita’s colourful and flamboyant personality. Songs included Elvis Presley’s Devil in Disguise and Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman.

Attending someone’s funeral seems to give me a gentle reminder about how precious life truly is. That you really do need to be grateful for what you have and make every moment count. It also forces me to think about my own funeral. Not just the kinds of arrangements that I will have but questions like: Who will be attending? What will I be remembered for? What kind of mark will I leave behind? I never used to be this philosophical about funerals until more recently when I realised how important it is not to let my life go to waste.

On Thursday morning, I decided to take myself off to Casey Smiles Dental Clinic after experiencing more annoying dental pain, this time on the right hand side of my mouth. I was really hoping that the pain would subside with some simply remedies but after having a restless night with this agonizing toothache, it was time to face the music and the dentist once more.

The good news was that I didn’t have to get my x-rays done like last time as they were already on my patient record. It was also easier to explain to Dr. Mohamed where abouts the pain was coming from and not simply guess which tooth it was. He gave me two options: first would be to exact it like last time, which would be easier and more cost effective. The second option was to have a root canal done in order to potentially save the tooth. However, he warned me that he could cost me up to $1500. So obviously I went with option one.

Thankfully the process was a lot quicker this time around. There was a young female dental assistant doing some training and learning about all the different surgical instruments and how to use the suction hose. It provided a nice distraction for me. Dr. Mohamed reminded me to keep breathing as he applied pressure to the decayed tooth. It was over and done with within a few minutes. The anesthesia needle probably hurt more than the actual tooth removal did. Plus it only cost me $160 as it was a basic tooth removal and it didn’t need to be surgically removed like last time.

https://caseysmiles.com.au/dr-mohamed-massaud

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