#but a lot of people were distinguishing 'be-loved as a verb' from other forms and i assume what they meant by that was 'x is beloved'

[d-criss-news]

Nine Songs: Darren Criss

When Disney, Phantom Planet and Mr Hudson collide: Glee star, Emmy and Golden Globe winner and musician Darren Criss talks Andrew Wright through the pivotal songs in his life and the unexpected ways they found him.

“When we are younger, our gateway drugs to a lot of popular things don’t come from the sexiest of places. It’s up to you how proactive you want to be with your curiosity from there, and how far down the rabbit hole you want to go, if you go down at all.”

Choosing the songs that define you is a tricky business to say the least, especially when the power of song has provided an ongoing soundtrack to your life. “When you’re as avid a music consumer as musical artists are, trying to pin down Nine Songs is difficult,” Darren Criss laughs. So much so, his final choices only really crystallise as our conversation draws to its close. “It’s hard for me not to see the value and joy in literally everything,” he explains. “The curse of the creative person is that your ideas and your interests always move way faster than your body can execute.”

Criss is a creative par excellence. As well as his Emmy and Golden Globe winning performance in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, where he played serial killer Andrew Cunanan, to his upcoming role in Muppets Haunted Mansion Halloween special as The Caretaker, he’s also a prolific musician. Criss enjoyed a decadent musical consumption since childhood, so “this was a bit of an archaeological dig,” he admits. As such, everything from jazz standards, to 808s, punk rock, ‘90s teen pop, and musical numbers are excavated in the course of our extemporaneous journey through the music he loves.

Equally on his mind is how to go about approaching the task of creating his Nine Songs, full stop. “The interesting social experiment is: Are my answers going to be songs that actually shaped my life and were formative to me as an artist? Are they songs that were formative to me as a human being? Or am I picking songs that I think represent who I am to people that do not know me? All three of those things aren’t necessarily the same thing.”

He reaches a conclusion of sorts. “For the purposes of making some kind of decision, I’m gonna lean less into trying to look cool to your very cool readership, and more into the literal, ‘What made me think about music in a different way? And hit me in a very emotional way?’ I think that’s probably the healthiest route.”

Embracing the accessibility that characterises Criss’ picks - or at times the initial touchpoints that led him to them - are something he vacillates over during our chat. “I’ve seen a lot of other people’s Nine Songs and they’re super cool. It’s like Leonard Cohen B-sides and old opera records and stuff. I’m gonna be pretty honest with the pop culture zeitgeist of how I grew up but explain why there is so much value in those moments.” His contemplation continues into the next day, Criss’s publicist passes on his regrets at being tentative to admit how he encountered one of his song choices via the Shrek soundtrack.

A yearning to reinterpret accessibility and the value attached to it drives Criss, however. He tells me that a festival performance that applied the anarchic verve of punk rock to a more refined Great American Songbook number remoulded his perception of music entirely. His love of the fusion of these two genres in particular symbolises the salient musical backdrops of his childhood - the guitar bands he played in with friends, and his musical theatre endeavours that led him to Broadway and multiple Ryan Murphy juggernauts, including his breakthrough playing Blaine Anderson in Glee.

Criss employs these contrasting musical lexicons, and other areas in between, on Masquerade, his new EP. Comprising five stand-alone “character-driven” singles, it sees Criss donning different musical personas. “I’m leaning into people that might know me as an actor,” he explains. “Because if actors can do Shakespeare, romantic comedy, and then do a horror movie and wear a prosthetic nose and a wig, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just do that with music.” The song “walk of shame” draws on jazz-standard chords interlaced with hip-hop production, “i can’t dance” looks to new-wave, and “for a night like this” is the product of Criss’ goal to create the ultimate end-of-the-night crowd-pleaser for a new-year bash, wedding or bar mitzvah. “This is all of the parts of me as a lifelong fan of these genres, trying my hand at servicing the pieces of them that I love.”

“I really love all styles of music and understanding what makes them unique and special and what makes them really pop. There are so many things that really make things sing - for lack of a better verb - and I like acknowledging those things and celebrating those things.”

“So, let’s begin. I have runners up and shit, and I have artists, I don’t just have the songs, so we might have to pick them as we go.”

“Part of Your World” by Jodi Benson

“When people read this, they’ll go ‘That’s cute, he likes Disney songs’, but it’s more profound than that. Some of the most formative pieces of music to hit me at a very early age would have been any of the songs that were coming from ‘The Disney renaissance.’ The early-mid ‘90s explosion of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and The Beast.

"One of the through lines between the three of those musicals was Howard Ashman, who is one of my all-time heroes. Dramaturg, songwriter - he really was the voice behind what made those songs great. I have always loved Howard’s lyrical sensibility and also Alan Menken, his partner who wrote these songs with him. There was a musical structure to a lot of the songs which I would unconsciously pick up in my own songwriting, not just musically, but the idea that not only did somebody make these songs, but they wrote them for a story.

“There’s a clip of Howard Ashman vocal directing Jodi Benson, who was the original voice of Ariel. It’s a wonderful example of his genius, where not only was he songwriting but he was storytelling in the way he would tell her how to perform it, and you can really see the song coming to life in that clip. That’s when you cross the street from ‘It’s a song’ to ‘This is an experience.’

"There are certain ingredients that are required to elevate music that goes beyond just a nice melody, a beautiful orchestration and a good voice. There are things that are required to really give a performance a characterisation, context and a vulnerability, that he architects in real-time with Jodi Benson. You see that what he’s doing is what makes the record so special, and that’s something that’s always been inspiring to me.”

“MMMBop” by Hanson

“I think my love of Hanson was because some people didn’t like it, so I was like ‘Fuck you, I like this, how do you feel about it?’ But this is difficult for me, because you know, I’m speaking to The Line of Best Fit and we’re trying to be cool! Although, do you know what’s cool? Being accessible! Writing a pop hit when you are 10 years old. Being in a band with your brothers and you’re all below the age of 15, you have a record contract where you are writing, producing and performing songs that are doing well.

“I was 10 years old when their first album Middle of Nowhere came out, and I remember reading somewhere that there were these kids that had a record. At the time, I was playing guitar and I was writing songs, but in my mind I was a kid, and that was it. I couldn’t be on the radio; you had to be a grown up to do this.

"This was the first time where I realised ‘Holy shit, kids can do stuff!’ It’s the value of seeing yourself in the media - that’s a whole other conversation to talk about - but there’s an immense value in feeling like there’s a piece of you out in the zeitgeist and doing well because it’s encouraging. You go, ‘Holy shit, maybe I can do this as well.'

“When you see children doing things, you’re ‘Wow, this is so cute and fabulous’, but then when you actually look at it you go, ‘This is miles above what most people in this age group are capable of,’ and that’s all I saw, because I was in the same age group and I was so inspired by that. This whole album was really a turning point for me, where I was like, ‘I can do this, I can do music too, because these guys can.'

“Ooh La La” by Faces

“This song really blew my mind. It became my own theme. It’s that ‘Make your heart sing’, nostalgic moment when you’re a teenager, driving in the car listening to it, playing guitar with your friends and you’re singing “I wish that I knew what I know now / When I was younger.” You’re like, ‘because I’m an adult now, I’m 15-years-old. If I only knew what I know now.’

“I was doing theatre from a young age and I was part of a young conservatory called A.C.T. in San Francisco. By way of somebody who knew somebody, I had an audition for a movie. As a kid not being near New York or Los Angeles it was really exciting, and this audition was for a film called ‘Max Fischer’, which would become the movie Rushmore, which would become one of my favourite movies of all time by the now very distinguished Wes Anderson.

“Separate from my own objective love of Wes Anderson, when this movie came out I was just around the age of getting into my own sort of identity with music, but also movies - indie movies - and trying to assert who I was. So, I see this movie Rushmore and I love it. I love the soundtrack, I love it so much, it’s one of my favourite albums ever. This song is the end sequence, and the way it made me feel - the vocals on it, I could play it on guitar and it was part of a cool movie - it really represented a lot in my life.

“And because of the acting thing, and Rushmore being great - it’s about this kid in high-school who's misunderstood but has his own agenda - everything about it was just so fucking cool to me. To this day, I cite that song as one of my favourite records of all time.”

“Recently Distressed” by Phantom Planet

“A guy that really formed the way I would sing and write songs is Alex Greenwald, the frontman of Phantom Planet. I went to see Phantom Planet because I loved Rushmore and I found out that Jason Schwartzman [who had been cast as Max Fischer] was also the drummer for a band called Phantom Planet.

"So, when I saw their name on the bill I went, but I didn't know their music. I was barely 14, but their set blew my mind. It was Rock and Roll, but I loved Alex Greenwald’s voice. I loved everything, and I would follow their career from there. I always tell people that my voice is a combination of me trying to be Alex Greenwald, Paul McCartney and Rufus Wainwright, but failing. Alex was incredibly formative for me.

“One of their biggest records was a little while after I first saw them, which was the song for The O.C., "California." That was more of an Elvis Costello thing, and they employed a lot of stuff that sounded to me like The Beatles and a lot of ‘60s mod/pop-rock. But later they would employ things from Fugazi, Radiohead and harder shit, and that eclecticism, again, only accelerated my love for Phantom Planet.

“Recently Distressed” is from their 1998 album Phantom Planet Is Missing. This was a cool rock song that employed these George [Harrison] and Paul [McCartney] background vocals and included all of the things that I loved. It was harder but melodic and employed minor 4th chords and more complicated chords than I was used to. I had grown up with power chords - which are very Gregorian - on a lot of alt. punk rock, like Green Day or Nirvana, and if Kurt Cobain was using power chords then that’s how I was playing guitar. Hearing this music was like ‘Oh, I’m using full chords, not sevenths, minor 4th chords, diminished chords’, shit that I would learn to use more and more.

“When you haven’t experienced much, anything that gives a hint towards possibility, even though it’s probably always been there, you’re like, ‘I like this, I’ve always kind of liked this, but it’s very encouraging to hear somebody else do it and it’s gonna make me reconsider my possibilities.’ That was literally the moment that my power chords turned into full barre chords.”

“Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” by Rufus Wainwright

“I forgot the other day how I got into Rufus Wainwright, because all of this stuff I was getting into quite young. It’s like when I talk to 11-13 year olds, it’s funny to think that this was when I was really starting to build my musical identity. But then I remembered, and I didn’t want to say because I didn’t want to sound uncool, because he is such a revered artist who exists in a much cooler place than what I’m about to say.

“I loved soundtracks and I would always buy soundtracks for movies that had cool playlists. I had the Shrek soundtrack, and there’s a cover of Leonard Cohen’s seminal “Hallelujah” that Rufus does and he smashes it, and I’m like, ‘Who the fuck is Rufus Wainwright? What a beautiful voice.’ Then I saw that he was going to be at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco one week, so I go and he’s there promoting his new album Poses. I remember I didn’t have enough money to buy the album that day, so I had him sign my sneaker and I saved that shoe.

“The first song on Poses was “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”, which is a very dark and reflective song about his own battles with addiction, but he’s singing it over this really beautiful, whimsical song that has a lot of really great wordplay. I always love when artists, especially lyricists, can encapsulate an idea with not exactly what they’re talking about. The song’s called “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”, it’s not called “Addiction”. Its talking about things that he craved and how that’s representative of other things that he’s gone through. There was a sophistication and elegance to that that I really gravitated towards, that I didn’t possess but wanted to shoot for. So when I saw him, that was a big one for me and he would also continue to influence me later in my life.

“I’ve become friends with Rufus since. I’ve performed with him and we’ve made records together, which is crazy. His songwriting was very complex and punk-rock, but he had this classic cabaret voice, the kind of voice that I don’t have. I was fascinated that there was somebody that could write this really dark material but have such elegance on top of it. He was virtuosic on the piano, which I thought was very cool because musicianship is always the thing that gets me going the most about artists.

“You know what? People say, ‘Don’t meet your heroes.' I completely disagree. Chase the living fuck out of your heroes. I’ve spent a lifetime doing so, it’s made me a better artist, and I’ve sometimes got to meet them and work with them. I’ve worked on music with Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet. I’ve performed with Hanson. I’ve performed those Disney songs with Alan Menken at The Hollywood Bowl.

"This is all because there are people that I love who I have put on my vision board, and the things that they have done are the things that are bringing me to them. So it is nuts, but at the same time you’re like, ‘Well, what else did you think would happen?’ They did stuff that some part of me connected with, so obviously there’s a magnetic pull towards that person.

“Rufus Wainwright is one of my absolute favourite artists of all time and like I said, me trying to sing like him and failing is a big part of my own journey as an artist.”

“3x5” by John Mayer

“John Mayer’s another guy that came around when I was 15. I heard a song of his on a middle-of-the-night, singer/songwriter college radio show. This is where I used to get music. You would listen to these carefully curated playlists that you wouldn’t be able to hear anywhere else, and the host played “No Such Thing”, a new song by this young kid who had just dropped out of Berklee College of Music - John Mayer.

“I’m listening to this song and I’m like, ‘Not only is this guitar playing really interesting, but the lyrical value and everything that is going on here ticks all the boxes.' It was jazz, but it was pop. And he did something that all these other guys and girls I’ve mentioned did. They made something very unique and very accessible.

“I immediately went out to buy this album, Room For Squares, and I listened to it over and over again. It was an album that was really formative for me. "3x5” is a really beautiful song that employs a lot of chord structures and melodies that blew my fucking mind at the time, and it made me wish that I could write songs like that.

“That album was a huge turning point in the way I played the guitar, because it was the first time in my life where I would look up tabs. Up until this point in my life, if I heard a song I could play it instantly. It was like a party trick, I would get how it worked if I heard it, because most of the songs I would hear on the radio - especially those that involved a guitar - were [centred around] power chords. And now I’m hearing all of these ninth chords and thirteenths, and I’m like, ‘What the fuck is this?’ So I’d have to look up tabs.

“I think any young artist can attest to this - when you try and learn other people’s shit, it’s the best tool for educating yourself. Playing other people’s music really helps you lock in what your own style is. Trying to learn these songs - and sometimes pulling it off and sometimes not - really changed the way that my hands moved around the guitar and considered chords and voicings that I’d never really thought of.

“There’s another tie to musical theatre here, where I remember seeing Audra McDonald, who is a very venerated theatre actor, and she did a cabaret. If you’re familiar with cabaret culture, it’s more about performing the story of the songs – ‘Life is a cabaret’. She did a John Mayer song because she thought it was from a musical theatre show, and I was so tickled by this, because I was like ‘Yeah, if you really think about it, I don’t think he knows this and I don’t think his fan base even thinks about this, but there’s a number of his songs that feel very theatrical in the way that the lyrics play with each other and the way the chords move’.

"When I saw this I thought, ‘That is why I like John Mayer’, because yes, he’s an amazing guitar player, but he’s also a really strong songwriter.”

“Cabaret” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

“Also, around this time growing up in San Francisco, as a guitar player playing music with your buddies, the number one thing that you play is punk rock. There are different parts of the spectrum of punk rock, there's the NOFX, Swingin’ Utters, like real punk, punk. And then there’s the pop-punk thing that was happening at the same time, which was also equally influential - blink-182 and Green Day.

“Fat Mike was the frontman of NOFX. I loved NOFX, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes were a supergroup of different members from different punk bands, of which Fat Mike was one of the main architects. They would cover songs and turn them into punk rock songs. They have an album of hits from the ‘60s, and they also have an album called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: Are a Drag, and that record is just a tonne of musical theatre covers that are done through punk rock.

“That was completely in line with everything I loved at this time of my life but didn’t really know how to articulate. I loved punk rock but I also really loved musical theatre. Not only the performative element of it, but there was a real musicality to musical theatre that wasn’t as present in some of the other shit that was popular at the time, just harmonically, or where chords would go. There was a sophistication I loved that seemed to not exist in punk rock.

“Then hearing Fat Mike at The Warped Tour going ‘Alright, which one of you Motherfuckers loves Julie Andrews?’ and hearing a mixed bag of reactions, because people were ‘What? I was not expecting that from you, sir?’ And then they start playing “My Favourite Things”, a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein song which is very accessible, but sophisticated nonetheless. And I am just living. I’m like, ‘This has got the attitude and simplicity of punk rock, but the sophistication of a beautiful song.’

“That was the first time in my life where I went, ‘It’s just all music. All these categories and boxes are completely arbitrary.’ So I thought, ‘I can do that.' I was playing power chords in punk bands but I realised that you can take chords and make them into other rhythms and voicings and have the same song. I could take a punk song and make it jazz. I could take a jazz song and make it country. So, quite providentially, I would end up on Glee, where they took popular songs and would sometimes do their own versions.

“By that point, I had been doing this my whole life. The first time this ever became a possibility for me was seeing Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and that way of thinking about music and genre. I’ve put that into Masquerade, and it’s all born from that moment of ‘Oh my God, nothing has to be one thing. It’s just about how you look at it.'

“Cabaret” is from a pretty famous musical that I would’ve probably heard about later in life, but I first heard that song as a punk song and then I went back and heard the original. It doesn’t matter how these things happen, the inspiration happens and then you can go from there. But Me First and The Gimme Gimmes were a huge gateway drug and I play “Cabaret” now every year at my festival. That’s why the festival is called Elsie Fest, because it covers the song.”

“Modern Nature” by Sondre Lerche

“One of the great joys of being a younger brother is that you get to inherit the music of your elders. My brother and I were both really proactive consumers of music, so we would share stuff with each other all the time. But then he would come home from college, which is like coming home from a music festival essentially, right? He was in a new time zone with new people, so he’d bring home these mix CDs that he’d made from people that he’d heard about, and he brings home this guy named Sondre Lerche.

“Hearing this guy blew my mind, because he also was using jazz chords and drawing on musical theatre. Musical theatre’s a massive category, so I can’t just say that musical theatre sounds like one thing, but when I say this, I’m referring to The American Songbook, the jazz standard songbook. “Modern Nature” was a duet that I would go on to play many times with one of my oldest musical collaborators, Charlene Kaye. When we got to college and we both found out that we loved this guy.

“There was a much more whimsical way to how he wrote these songs. And what’s crazy is that loving this guy meant that we also loved Rufus Wainwright, that we also loved these other artists. But Sondre was the first time I considered that I loved that type of music, but I didn’t know that you could be a singer/songwriter and put out music that sounded like it.

“I don’t know if ‘twee’ is the right word to use, but with “Modern Nature” there was a playfulness about it, and again, a musicality that I really gravitated towards. There is a through line - there was a sophistication that was accessible, and me trying to learn those songs did make me rethink the way that I was writing music. The structures were weird and different and I liked that.

“To this day, I find myself writing songs that I think might be difficult for people to ingest, because they’re a little too left of centre, and I realise that I’m trying to write like Sondre Lerche, or I’m unconsciously just copying him.”

“Everything Happens to Me” by Mr Hudson & The Library

“I was in an H&M in Stockholm when I was 21, and I heard this really cool groove and the lyric was “Why must I always play the clown?” It was sung with a really thick British accent, had an 808 feel on it, and lyrically it had an attitude. Who would say something that sounds so like you’re in a Gilbert & Sullivan musical, but it feels hard? It was cool.

“I went home and looked this up and it was off the record A Tale of Two Cities by Mr Hudson and the Library, which would really, really fuck me up. I bought the album immediately because I loved this song. I had to order it on the internet because I couldn’t find it. It was doing well in England and he was on the festival circuit in the early-mid 2000s, but the first song on the album was a musical theatre cover with 808s.

“It was a pared-down, sort of a hip-hop version of “On The Street Where You Live” from My Fair Lady, and I’m like ‘No fucking way, this guy gets where my head is.’ I’d thought about punk rock musical theatre, but I never thought about 808s and 909s scoring these beautiful songs. I go down the track list and he has “Everything Happens to Me”, which is another very famous standard, and he had this really cool, what we would now call chill-hop, ‘study beats’ version of this song. I was like, ‘This is it. This guy gets that good music is good music and you can reinterpret it to offer it as a new song.’

“I would later become great friends with Mr Hudson. I got to meet him years later when I was with Columbia Records, and they said to me ‘Who do you want to meet?’ He was at the top of my list. I went to London and we’ve been friends ever since and have created all kinds of music together.

“He told me a story where Tyler the Creator went up to him once at Coachella and said, ‘Oh man, “Everything Happens To Me”, that’s like my song.’ We both wondered if Tyler the Creator knew that it was a Chet Baker cover. And we were thinking how cool it is that you can offer these songs to a new audience through a different lens. Tyler’s a smart guy, he’s very cultured, and I’m sure he did know. But it’s more the idea that if someone experienced this song and didn’t know that it was a cover, and this is like the first time they ever get to experience it.

“Mr Hudson would go on to do his own thing with Kanye and was on 808s & Heartbreak and has had his own career. I think “Supernova” was a hit in the UK, it didn’t really cross over here to The States, but before that moment for him, that Mr Hudson and The Library album changed my life. People use that phrase willy-nilly, but this literally was a turning point in my life. It all had to do with the same thing that happened with these other songs, where I saw someone do what I always wanted to do but didn’t really know how to pull off. Where he had this fusing of old songs delivered through a contemporary lens, but also laced it with his own original material that also employed the things that made that old songwriting interesting.

“It’s like changing the font of a great essay but finding the font and figuring out that that font is its own art form. He really displayed that marvellously on this.”

The Masquerade EP is out now

#darren criss #the line of best fit #press #sept 2021

[dwellordream]

“Sexuality primarily aimed at procreation and was only licit between wedded spouses. This broad ethical precept should suffice to steer the reader in the right direction, for its implications are self-explanatory: no sex outside of marriage, no sex for non-reproductive purposes. It was only during the 10th and 11th centuries that the Church started to assert exclusive jurisdiction over marriage, and during the 12th and 13th that canonists established a legal definition of Christian marriage which lasted for centuries. Since then, matrimonial validity rested only on the free consent in exchange of vows of the groom and bride, as long as they were legally allowed to marry.

The church distinguished two types of vows (or types of consent to marriage) that were on equally binding: the betrothal, during which a couple promises to marry each other in the future (marriage “per verba de futuro”), and the exchange of vows in the present tense (“per verba de praesenti“). A promise of marriage in the future could be broken, unless the couple had intercourse. If they had, they were legally married. Consummation made a betrothal a legally valid marriage, which could no longer be broken. A lot of confusion arose from this definition of marriage and many cases heard by ecclesiastical courts concerned people on who disagreed on what had happened: had they talked and fornicated, or exchanged promises of marriage in consummated the union?

Since Pope Alexander III (1159-81) had established matrimonial validity on consent only, a couple married per verba de praesenti need not consummate the union to complete it. The exchange of promises in the present sufficed. However, the non-consummation of the unions needed to be voluntary to keep the marriage standing. It was thus possible to be legally married and to never consummated the marriage if both partners had taken vows of chastity. “Chaste marriages” often characterizes the lives of lay saints.

If either spouse was incapable of intercourse the marriage could be dissolved. Impotence (masculine and feminine) a physical impairment rendering sex (and thus procreation) impossible, was considered an impediment to marriage, enabling the annulment of the union after a trial. Many writers warned that impotence was difficult to assess and that many used it as an excuse to find a new spouse with whom their affliction was miraculously cured. To obtain an annulment of the marriage for impotence, sufficient proof just had to be brought in court (witnesses were especially important), and the spouses should have unsuccessfully tried to consummate their marriage for a minimum of three years.

…In the Early Middle Ages, clerical attitudes toward sexuality were highly restrictive: the list of “chaste days” during which partners should refrain from intercourse roughly match the religious calendar. No intercourse was permitted on the major holidays (such as the Nativity or Easter), neither on the six weeks of Lent, nor on Sundays and fish days. Only a few days were left for people to have sex although most historians doubt that these rules were really followed. By the twelfth century, canonists showed a more permissive attitude towards sexuality, more in tune with lay expectations and habits. The clergy invited lay people to refrain, if possible, from sexual activities on Sundays dedicated to the Lord rather than be rather than being an absolute command, observance of the holy days had become more of a guideline. Sex should also have been avoided during the wife’s menstruation, pregnancy and lactation, an opinion equally found in clerical and medical sources, all through the Middle Ages.

Once the marriage was consummated, sex should be given “on demand.” The concept of marital debt was entrenched in tradition: Saint Paul had asserted that husbands and wives should pay each other what was due, and they both had power over the other’s body. These conceptions of marital debt were carried out through centuries. Both husbands and wives and had the right to demand intercourse, and both had the obligation to comply, except if they had taken vows of chastity, or if the demand was unlawful.

While medieval marriage was usually characterized by an imbalance of power between husband and wife, the former having the upper hand on the ladder, the marital debt put both partners on equal footing. The topic of marital debt raises questions about whether or not medieval people conceptualized conjugal rape (rape within marriage). Given that spouses who had consummated their union were legally obliged to have sex, in the eyes of the law, the answer was no. Marital violence could however be punished, giving some legal grounds to abused spouses to file complaints against their abuser.

In order not to be sinful, sexual activities between spouses should be open to the possibility of conceiving children. Practices that did not enable procreation or that intentionally prevented it were thus sinful, if not perceived as “unnatural.” Likewise, having sex solely for pleasure was considered a sin; sexual pleasure was not a problem in itself, for it was believed that it is enabled conception but the point of sexuality remained procreation. Books of penance, especially the very restrictive early medieval ones, listed the punishments for those who confessed fornication for pleasure, coitus interruptus and other forms of contraception, oral sex, anal sex, etc.

Medieval sex was construed as something men did to women, who let them (or did not let them) do. In Latin and vernacular languages, verbs associated with intercourse were in the active voice when performed by men, but in a passive voice when women were subject of the sentence. Sexual practices deemed undermining masculine dominance (such as the woman on top of the man) were frowned upon. Women were thus associated with a form of passivity in the sexual act, while men were the doors. Yet, in clerical, medical and narrative sources, all written by men, women were often described as lustful and actively seeking sexual encounters, sometimes resorting to sorcery to obtain what they wanted.

Little is known about the actual intimate lives of couples. Medieval literature yields a spontaneous and often humorous glance at sexuality, which contrasted with the restrictive attitude to the Church, but the veracity of any source is difficult to ascertain. Bedrooms were not private places in the Middle Ages: the bed was often more shared with children and other relatives in humble households, while, in more wealthy houses, servants usually slept in their master’s room. But maybe sex was not as a private act as it is today. A lot of sex also seems to have happened out in the open – in the fields, backyards and alleyways, even in cemeteries or – in the middle of the day – in empty churches and empty houses.

From the Church’s perspective, the sinfulness of sex was compensated by its purpose: procreation and expansion of the human race. If sex was enjoyable, it was for men to render the act of conception more pleasant for the partners. The pleasures of the flesh, as any earthly delight, were a temptation that should be overcome. The Church’s view on marital sexual was not solely restrictive. The high medieval reformist had taken a rather “down-to-earth” approach to sexuality, making it a central element of the lay marriage. Many argued that sexuality intimacy participated in creating affection and love between the spouses, and marital affection was construed by the Church as a defining component of a successful marriage.”

- Lucie Laumonier, “A Guide to Medieval Marital Sex.”

#history #medieval #sexuality #marriage #cw: rape #lucie laumonier

[luulapants]

the passcode thing is cool as shit. if youre still infodumping what is your FAVORITE thing about a language. or languages in general. talk for a long time about some nerd shit is what i'm saying

You want a long infodump of nerd shit?? HERE IT COMES

My absolute favorite area of study in linguistics is pidgin and creole languages and, in particular, this really weird theory around them being the secret to discovering the “root code of language.” To start, you need to know what a pidgins and creoles are and what the difference is:

The word “pidgin” is based on a transcription of how Chinese merchants pronounced the English word “business.” And that’s a pretty apt description! A pidgin is a sort of broken mashup of two or more languages that occurs when speakers of different languages, who don’t speak one another’s languages with much fluency, have to interact and figure out how to communicate with one another. Historically, this often happened during trade and commerce interactions.

Imagine you’re a French merchant arriving in Haiti and trying to sell gun powder to a local who speaks no French whatsoever and you don’t even know what language this dude speaks. And you’re pointing at your wares and shouting “Poudre pour les armes!!” which to him probably sounds like “Pood pore lay zahhm” and the local kinda squints at you and says “Poud zam?” and mimes shooting a gun. You’re sick of shouting and you think he gets what you’re saying, so you’re just like “Oui, sure, poud zam,” and now gunpowder is “poud zam.”

Generally, one language provides most of the vocabulary for a pidgin, whichever is most widely spoken or is spoken by those with the most prestige or power. That’s called 'lexification.' So, for instance, Haitian creole is 'French lexified.' The vocabulary will be colored by local accents, though, and depend on what sounds everyone knows how to make (if half the people don’t know how to trill their ‘R’s, that sound will be left out of a Spanish-based pidgin).

When it comes to grammar, though, pidgins are distinctly lacking. Communicating grammar by pointing and shouting just doesn’t work that well, and you can mostly get by without a lot of grammatical nuance in those contexts. “Me give gunpowder. You give one-two-three bag gold.” BOOM, commerce accomplished.

You really only need more comprehensive structures once the pidgin enters the private/personal sphere, and THIS is where creoles come in. A pidgin becomes a creole the moment it becomes someone’s mother tongue. The second a kid is raised speaking pidgin as a first language, it’s considered a creole. And the reason we make that distinction is where things get very interesting.

Unlike pidgins, creoles are grammatically complete. But it’s not like anyone sits down and says, "Okay, kids are learning this now, we have to figure out the grammar rules.” It’s actually the opposite. Children naturally fill in the grammatical gaps of a pidgin. Studies that compared adult pidgin speakers with their creole-speaking children found that the children had formed grammatical constructions... pretty much out of nowhere. They do it naturally. Instinctively.

Now, this makes sense if you’ve ever spoken with a child who is still learning their first language. Have you ever heard a kid say ‘mouses' instead of 'mice'? It’s because they’ve learned the grammar rule for how we pluralize things in English and simply over-applied it. Kids will take the barest hints and grains of grammar in a pidgin and apply them over an entire language. And if there’s nothing to go off of? They make it out of nothing.

One really fascinating thing about creoles is that a lot of them share similar features - even when they were made in very different places, based on very different languages. Since a lot of modern creoles were created during the colonial period, one theory was that those features come from common ‘substratum’ languages (languages that didn’t lexify the pidgin) that were spoken by the African slaves transported around the world. While this may have contributed to some language similarities, attempts to trace back the linguistic origins of the populations that created the original pidgins has generally disproved this theory. Another WILD theory was that all creoles were originally based on Portuguese. Don’t ask me how this makes sense. It doesn’t. But there were whole ass professional academics spewing that shit.

A more contemporary - and exciting! - theory is that these common features come from a “root code of language” buried in the human brain. Basically, that children can and will learn whatever grammatical constructions exist in the language they’re taught, but when there’s nothing for them to go off of, there is a very old basic language instinct that reverts them to our oldest, most basic grammar forms. One example is reduplication or the repeating of all or part of a word. Instead of using a suffix for pluralization (mouses), you just say the word twice (mouse-mouse). Instead of saying ‘really tall,’ you say ‘tall-tall.’ This does exist in some other languages but is particularly common in creoles.

Creoles are often seen as “simple” or “incomplete” languages. While they are simpler in some ways, native speakers are still able to convey complex ideas, which makes them more complicated in others. For instance, creoles tend to have a smaller vocabulary. However, to make up for this, they tend to be highly metaphorical in their constructions. In Tok Pisin, the creole of Papua New Guinea, most fibrous materials are called 'gras' (as in ‘grass’ - it’s English-lexified). But to distinguish between them, you have ‘gras bilong het’ (hair), ‘gras bilong sipsip’ (wool), ‘gras bilong solwara’ (seaweed).

Grammatically, creoles tend to have fewer verb tenses and tend not to have case markers. But it would be a mistake to say that all creole grammar is simple. To use Tok Pisin as an example again, that language has way more pronoun distinctions than most languages. Instead of just “we,” it has words for “you and me,” “me and another person [not you],” “me and two other people [not you],” “me and the two of you,” “me and all y’all,” and “me and all of them.” They have different forms of ‘you’ depending on if you’re talking about one, two, three, or more than three people - same with ‘he/she/them’! (And their pronouns are nongendered.)

Grammatical simplicity doesn’t equate to a lesser language, in any case. And it can tell us a lot about how languages develop over time. Creoles have fewer irregular constructions than older languages, which makes sense - irregular constructions are often vestiges of old words or grammar that no longer exist. A lot of grammatical complexity is just the result of things being added to a language or changing over time. If creoles are using a “new” root code sort of grammar, it makes sense that it wouldn’t be as “complex” - they haven’t had time to fuck it up yet!

So these are some of the many, many reasons I love creoles. I hope you enjoyed this infodump <3

Ask me about linguistics!

#creole #pidgin #language #linguistics #infodump

[trangs-studyblr]

Quoting in Korean (~ㄴ/는다고)

~ㄴ/는다고: Quoting with Verbs

Quoting in Korean is counter-intuitive for an English speaker. With some Korean knowledge most people would assume that quoting would be done using the ~는 것 principle.

I could use the ~는 것 principle to create this sentence in Korean:

나는 그가 너를 좋아하는 것을 알아 = I know that he likes you

If I changed 알다 (to know) to 말하다 (to say), you would think that I could write this:

나는 그가 너를 좋아하는 것을 말했어

However, this is not how quoting is done in Korean. The ordering of quoted sentences is still the same as ~는 것 sentences, but ~는 것 is not used.

나는 그가 너를 좋아하?????? 말했어

In quoted sentences, the actual “quoted” part gets conjugated into the plain (or “diary”) form.

You conjugate the “quoted” part of a sentence as if it were its own sentence into this form. After the sentence is conjugated to the plain form, you must place ~고 at the end of it.

나는 그가 너를 좋아한다고 말했어= I said that he likes you

Notice 좋아하다 in the quoted portion of the sentence is conjugated to the present tense because the sentence is “I said that he likes you.” In other situations, the quoted part of the sentence could be conjugated to the past and future tenses.

나는 그가 너를 좋아했다고 말했어 = I said that he liked you 나는 그가 너를 좋아하겠다고 말했어 = I said that he will like you

You can also change the conjugation of the final verb (in this case 말하다) to indicate when the quote is said.

나는 그가 너를 좋아한다고 말하고 있어 = I am saying (telling you) that he likes you 나는 그가 너를 좋아한다고 말할 거야 = I will say that he likes you

To indicate to whom this quote is said to, you can attach ~에게/한테/께 to the person being spoken to.

나는 엄마에게 그가 너를 좋아한다고 말할 거야 = I will tell mom that he likes you

More examples:

선생님은 학생들이 늦게 도착했다고 말했다 = The teacher said that the students arrived late 선생님은 학생들이 늦게 도착한다고 말했다 = The teacher said that the students arrive late 선생님은 학생들이 늦게 도착하겠다고 말했다 = The teacher said that the students will arrive late

밥을 안 먹었다고 말했어요 = I said that I didn’t eat (rice) 나는 너에게 같이 가야 한다고 했어 = I said (to you) that we have to go together 출력이 아직 안 된다고 말했어요 = I said that the output still doesn’t work

You can also replace 말하다 with other verbs related to speaking, such as 이야기하다 (to talk), and 대답하다 (to answer), to indicate speaking or reporting of some type.

However, in very casual conversation, the use of 말하다 is not necessary because ~ㄴ/는다고 already indicates that the sentence is quoted. Instead, you can just say 하다, which in this case means “to say”, “to tell”, “to talk”, etc. The meaning is exactly the same. It makes things a little easier, but ONLY use this in casual conversation.

그는 공부하지 않았다고 했어요 = He said that he didn’t study 저는 밥을 안 먹었다고 했어요 = I said that I didn’t eat (rice)

~다고: Quoting with Adjectives

Quoting a clause that ends in an adjective is done just like with verbs: the predicating adjective is conjugated using the plain form. However, plain form conjugation for adjectives in the present tense is different from verbs. The dictionary form of an adjective (the word by itself without any changes) is the same as its plain form conjugation.

행복하다 → Plain form: 행복하다 (행복한다) 월등하다 → Plain form: 월등하다 (월등한다)

However, plain form conjugation for adjectives in the past and future tense is the same as verbs.

밧잘의 길이가 너무 부적하다고 했어요 = I said that the length of this rope is not enough (insufficient) 아빠가 오늘 잡은 물고기가 너무 조그맣다고 했어요 = Dad said that the fish he caught today is/was very tiny 우리 아빠는 자기가 어렸을 때 너무 행복했다고 했어요 = My dad said that he was very happy when he was young

Remember that 있다 and 없다 are adjectives when used to indicate that one has, or does not have an object, thus they should be quoted like other adjectives (~ㄹ/을 수 있다/없다 falls in this category as well).

학생이 이해할 수 없다고 했어요 = The student said he can’t understand 저는 학교에 갈 수 없다고 했어요 = I said I can’t go to school 그는 다음 주 목요일에 여행할 수 있다고 했어요 = He said that he will be able to travel next Thursday

Also remember that 싶다 is an adjective as well, and when quoted, it should be conjugated as an adjective.

새로운 차를 사고 싶다고 했어요 = I said that I want to buy a new car 이 장소에사 나무를 심고 싶다고 말했어요 = I said that I want to plant a tree in this location

~(이)라고: Quoting with 이다

Quoting a clause that ends in 이다 is slightly different than quoting verbs and adjectives.

When quoting 이다 in the past tense, it is done simply by adding ~고 to the past conjugation of 이다 in the plain form.

그가 선생님이었다 = He was a teacher 그가 선생님이었다고 했어요 = He said he was a teacher

거리에 있었던 사람들이 시위자들이었다 = The people who were on the street were protesters 경찰관은 거리에 있었던 사람들이 시워자들이었다고 했어요 = The police officer said that the people who were on the street were protesters

When quoting 이다 in the present tense, ~라 replaces ~다 in 이다. When the noun before 이다 (that 이다 is attached to) ends in a vowel, 이 can be omitted.

그가 의사이다고 의사(이)라고 했어요 = He said he is a doctor

When the noun before 이다 (the noun 이다 is attached to) ends in a consonant, 이다 cannot be omitted.

우리 선생님은 제가 나쁜 학생이다고 했어요 우리 선생님은 제가 나쁜 학생라고 했어요 우리 선생님은 제가 나쁜 학생이라고 했어요 = Our teacher said I am a bad student

To say “to say that (something/someone) is NOT + NOUN,” you can use NOUN + (~이/가) 아니라고 말하다/이야기하다/대답하다.

학생이라고 말하다 = to say that (they) are a student → 학생(이) 아니라고 말하다 = to say that (they) are not a student

공짜라고 하다 = to say that (something) is free of charge → 공짜(가) 아니라고 말하다 = to say that (something) is not free of charge

현우 씨가 여기 녹음실 아니라고 했어요 = Hyunwoo said that this is not a recording room 경은 씨가 이거 선물 아니라고 했어요 = Kyeong-eun said that this is not a present

Future Conjugation

An immediate practical application for this is when quoting a verb or adjective to the future tense using ~ㄹ 것이다. When using this form, 것 (often shortened to 거) is simply a noun and the conjugating word is 이다. Therefore, you can quote a future tense clause by using this future tense conjugation, and applying the quoting rules of 이다.

나는 밥을 먹을 것이다

That clause/sentence can be quoted by adding the appropriate ending to 이다.

나는 밥을 먹을 것이라고 했어 = I said that I will eat 오늘 비가 올 거라고 했어요 = They said that it would rain today 그 사람은 내일 다시 올 거라고 했어요 = He said he would come again tomorrow 친구들이 도와줄 거라고 했어요 = My friends told me that they would help me

Direct Quotes

To say something as a direct quote, the directly quoted clause acts as a noun, and therefore requires ~(이)라고 to be attached (usually ~라고 because most completed sentences end in a vowel). The quoted sentence is conjugated the way it was originally said.

제가 하고 싶지 않습니다 = I don’t want to do it Indirect quote: 그는 하고 싶지 않다고 했다 = He said he doesn’t want to do it Direct quote: 그는 "제가 하고 싶지 않습니다"라고 했다 = He said “I don’t want to do it”

When writing the sentence, you need to include quotations, but in speech (obviously), that is not necessary.

Indirect quote: 그는 너를 사랑한다고 했어 = He said I love you Direct quote: 그는 "너를 사랑해"라고 했어 = He said “I love you”

그녀는 "제가 선생님이다"라고 말했어요 = She said, "I am a teacher." “감사합니다”라고 (말)했어요 = I said “thank you.”

Other Uses of ~ㄴ/는다고

In addition to 말하다, there are many verbs in Korean that prefer to be used with a quoted clause.

1) To think: 생각하다

If one “thinks” something, quoted sentences are used.

저는 그 여자가 별로 안 예쁘다고 생각해요 = I think that girl isn’t that pretty 캐나다와 미국이 비슷하지 않다고 생각해요 = I think Canada and the US aren’t similar 저는 이 소설가가 다른 소설가들보다 월등히 낫다고 생각합니다 = I think this novelist is much better than other novelists

2) To believe: 믿다

If one “believes” something, quoted can be used.

저는 우리 팀이 이길 거라고 믿어요 = I believe that our team will win 저는 착하게 산다고 믿어요 = I believe I live my life being kind

3) To call something: 부르다

When talking about what an object is “called,” ~을/를 can be attached to the object, and ~(이)라고 can be attached to the word that it is referred to.

사람들은 그 건물을 한국타워라고 불러요 = People call that building “Korea tower” 밥을 많이 먹을 수 있는 사람들을 식신이라고 불러요 = People who can eat a lot are called “식신” 캐나다에서 사람들은 이런 종류의 음식을 푸틴이라고 불러요 = In Canada, people call this type of food “Poutine”

Using this type of sentence is a more natural way to tell somebody what your name is. The common way foreigners introduce themselves in Korean would be:

제 이름은 김의지입니다 = My name is 김의지

Although correct, it is a direct translation of “my name is…” in English. In Korean, it is more common/natural to introduce yourself using ~(이)라고. In most cases, you add something before your name to describe yourself even more.

안녕하세요, 저는 캐나다에서 온 김의지라고 합니다 = Hi, my name is 김의지, and I come from Canada (I am 김의지, from Canada) 안녕하세요, 저는 강남고등학교 2학년 3반 김의지라고 합니다 = Hi, my name is 김의지, and I am in class 3, in the second grade of 강남 high school.

4) To promise: 약속하다

When “promising” to do an action, it is common to add a future tense quoted construction to the action you promise to do.

내일 현금을 주겠다고 약속했어요 = I promised to give you (the) cash tomorrow 지금부터 열심히 하겠다고 약속했어요 = I promised to work hard from now on 저는 아빠한테 숙제를 다 할 거라고 약속했어요 = I promised dad that I would do all my homework 이 정부를 내일까지 다 입력해 줄 거라고 약속했어요 = I promised that I would input all of this information by tomorrow

5) Finishing a sentence with 그렇다

그렇다 is often used as the final word of a sentence with a quote (instead of 말하다, 하다,...).

오빠가 이거를 안 한다고 (말)했어 = My older brother said he wasn’t going to do this 오빠가 이거를 안 한다고 그랬어 = My older brother said he wasn’t going to do this

The sentences above don’t really need to be distinguished. The use of 그렇다 as the final word is something that is often heard in speech, but there's no difference in meaning.

Asking Questions with Quoted Sentences

It is also possible to use these quoted conjugations to ask what a person says by attaching ~(이)라고 to 뭐. You can add ~요 at the end to speak more formally.

뭐라고(요)? = What did you say?

You can add 하다 or 말하다 to these as well.

뭐라고 (말)했어요? = What did you say?

These can also be used to ask a person what somebody else said.

아빠가 뭐라고 했어요? = What did dad say? 의사가 뭐라고 말했어요? = What did the doctor say?

If you are talking to somebody, and you are not sure if you heard them perfectly, you can ask for clarification about what they said. Assuming you heard most of what they said, you can take their sentence and turn it into a quote. The final (말)하다 is usually not used, and the quoted conjugation ends in the form of a question.

1: 밥을 먹기 싫어 = I don’t want to eat (rice) 2: 밥을 먹기 싫다고? = (You said that) you don’t want to eat (rice)?

1: 저는 내일 캐나다에 갈 거예요 = I’m going to Canada tomorrow 2: 내일 캐나다에 갈 거라고요? = (You said that) you’re going to Canada tomorrow?

You don’t necessarily need to repeat the whole sentence. Depending on the situation (or what you already knew, or what you hear), it might be appropriate to just repeat one or some of the words.

1: 저의 몸이 너무 지치해요 = My body is really tired 2: 피곤하다고요? = (You said) tired?

1: 이 상황이 점차 나빠지고 있어요 = This situation is gradually getting worse 2: 나빠지고 있다고요? = (You said) getting worse?

If you were the first person in either of those situations, you could respond to the miss-communication by the second person by just stressing the quoted verb or adjective as a response.

1: 그는 돈이 앖다고 했어요 = He said that he doesn’t have money 2: 돈이 있다고? = (Did you say) he has money? 1: 아니요, 없다고요 = No, (I said that) he doesn’t have money

Using Quoted Sentences with ~는 것

~(ㄴ/는)다고 is used when the verb immediately following ~(ㄴ/는)다고ends the sentence. To add another noun after ~(ㄴ/는)다고, the verb following ~(ㄴ/는)다고 must be changed into adjective form: ~(ㄴ/는)다는.

Notice how it is written. The verb that ~는 것 is being added to has been conjugated into the plain form.

가다 = 간다 먹다 = 먹는다

Adding ~는 것 after any of these plain form conjugations is an abbreviation of a quoted clause. ~(ㄴ/는)다는 is a shortened form of ~(ㄴ/는)다고 하는, which is a combination of ~(ㄴ/는)다고 하다 plus ~는.

간다(고 하)는 것 갔다(고 하)는 것 가겠다(고 하)는 것

By describing an upcoming noun with a verb that is conjugated (and abbreviated) this way, the clause describing the noun is a quotation, which means that it was once said.

그가 나를 싫어하는 것을 알아 = I know that he doesn’t like me 그가 나를 삻어한다는 거를 알아 = I know that (___ said that) he doesn’t like me

While the two examples above have a very similar meaning, in the second example, the speaker is pointing out that somebody said “he doesn’t like me”. Specifically who said it is ambiguous, and would have to be understood by context. In this case, it could be the person himself who said that quote (the person who doesn’t like him) or some other third party.

Nonetheless, the translation and result of these sentences is the same (the speaker knows that the person does not like him), and a separate translation doesn’t necessarily need to be made in English because it is often very hard to accurately describe the situation.

In place of 것, it is common to find nouns whose meaning inherently implies that something was said, such as 사실 (fact) and 소문 (rumor).

그 여자가 다른 남자랑 애기가 있다는 소문이 있습니다 = There is a rumor that that woman has a baby with another man 그 여자의 남편이 비서랑 바람을 피운다는 소문이 있어요 = There is a rumor that that woman’s husband is having an affair with his secretary

Instead of:

그 여자의 남편이 비서랑 바람을 피우는 것이 있어요 = There is a rumor that that woman’s husband is having an affair with his secretary

To conjugate adjectives using this plain form (in the present tense), you just leave them as they are.

너의 여자 친구가 예쁘다는 거를 잊어버렸어 = I forgot (the fact that) that your girlfriend was pretty TTMIK이 재미있다는 이야기를 들었어요 = I heard (a story in which) someone (was) saying that TTMIK is fun

This same principle can be used in the past tense (remember to use the plain form):

그녀가 시험에 떨어졌다는 소문을 들었어요 = I heard a rumor that she failed the test 그녀는 아이가 죽었다는 사실을 숨겼어요 = She hid (the fact that) her child died 부장님이 작년에 미국에 갔다는 거를 잊어버렸어요 = I forgot (the fact) that the boss went to America last year

When used in the future tense, the more common way to conjugate (instead of ~겠다) is ~ㄹ 것이다. In these cases, the final verb is 이다, which means the quoted conjugation onto 이다 needs to be added.

먹을 것 + 이다 + ~라고 하는 것 = 먹을 것이라는 것 먹을 거 + 이다 + ~라고 하는 것 = 먹을 거라는 것

그녀가 곧 결혼할 거라는 사실을 잊어버렸어요 = I forgot (the fact that) that she will be getting married soon 대통령이 한국에서 떠날 거라는 소문이 있어요 = There is a rumor that the president will leave Korea soon

You can use the NOUN + ~(이)라는 + NOUN form when:

(1) introducing what something is called or how it is described.

The person who they say is a doctor... = 의사라는 사람은... This person called Hyunwoo is... = 현우라는 사람은...

*In English, you add “(who is) called...”, or “whose name is...” after the noun, but in Korean, the order is reversed.

여기에 ‘스쿨푸드’라는 식당이 있어요 = Here, there is a restaurant called “School Food” ‘TalkToMeInKorean’이라는 웹사이트 알아요? = Do you know the website called “TalkToMeInKorean”? 내일, 알렉스라는 친구가 올 거예요 = Tomorrow, a friend named Alex will come here. 진석진이라는 선생님이 있어요 = There is a teacher called Jin Seokjin

(2) talking about an abstract concept and its innate characteristics

LOVE is... / This thing called LOVE is... = 사랑은 = 사랑이라는 것은.

공부라는 것은*, 재미없으면 오래 할 수 없어요 = Studying is (something that) you cannot do for a long time if it is not interesting. *You can also just use "공부는," but if you say “공부라는 것은...”, you are talking about 공부 as the grand subject of the sentence.

You can also express use (2) - what you think is the definition or the nature of something - with verbs, except you need to use the structure, ~(ㄴ/는)다는 것, which means “the thing that is called + Verb.” It is used to express what you think is the definition or the nature/characteristics of a certain action/state/verb.

배운다는 것은 언제나 즐거운 일이에요 = (The act of) Learning is always a pleasant thing to do 외국에 산다는 것은 가끔 힘들 때도 있어요. = The nature of living overseas is that there are sometimes hard times. 혼자 공부한다는 것은 생각만큼 쉽지 않아요 = Studying alone is not as easy as you think. *You could say, “혼자 공부하는 것은” but by saying “혼자 공부한다는 것은...”, you are talking about the general nature of studying alone rather than just talking about yourself when you study alone.

Often in spoken language, for easier pronunciation, ~(ㄴ/는)다는 것 is combined with a particle and shortened to ~(느/는)다는 건 (combined with ~은) or ~(느/는)다는 게 (~이).

하다 → 한다는 것이 = 한다는 게 하다 → 한다는 것은 = 한다는 건

주말에도 회사에 가야 한다는 건 정말 슬픈 일이에요 = Having to go to work on the weekend is so sad 아이를 키운다는 건 참 힘든 일이에요 = Raising a child is very tough 한국에서 유명한 가수가 된다는 건 정말 어려운 일이에요 = Becoming a famous singer in Korea is a very difficult thing 장학금을 받는다는 것은 정말 대단한 일이에요 = Receiving a scholarship is (an) amazing (achievement)

Stating the SUBJECT

So far, you have practiced the expression “to say that (something/someone) is + NOUN”, but there was no mention of the “(something/someone)” part. This works either when the subject of the indirect quotation is the same as the subject of the main verb, “to say”, or when the subject is so obvious in the context that it does not need to be mentioned.

To clarify the subject of the indirect quotation, you can place the subject before “NOUN + ~(이)라고 말하다/이야기하다/대답하다”. The subject marking particles, ~이/가, can be omitted.

1. 학생이라고 말하다 = to say that they are a student *It is not known who is a student without any context.

이 사람이 학생이라고 말하다 = to say that this person is a student *“This person” is the subject and is a student, but who said this is still unknown. **If written/said as 이 사람이 ‘학생’이라고 말했어요, it becomes a direct quotation, meaning “this person said ‘student’”.

경은 선생님이 이 사람 학생이라고 했어요 = 경은 teacher said that this person is a student. * The subject marking particle ~이 after 사람 is omitted in order not to repeat ~이 and to sound more natural. 했어요 is used rather than 말했어요 because 했어요 is more often used in spoken Korean.

2. 공짜라고 하다 = to say that (something) is free of charge *It is not known what is free of charge without any context.

이 책이 공짜라고 하다 = to say that this book is free of charge *It is now known that “this book” is free of charge, but who said this is still unknown.

현우 씨가 이 책 공짜라고 했어요 = Hyunwoo said that this book is free of charge

References

HTSK Unit 3 Lesson 52: Quoting in Korean (~ㄴ/는다고)

HTSK Unit 3 Lesson 54: Quoted Imperative Sentences: ~(으)라고

TTMIK Level 5 Lesson 10. (To say) that S + be / -(이)라고 + nouns

TTMIK Level 5 Lesson 12. Noun + -(이)라는 + Noun / Someone that is called ABC / Someone who says s/he is XYZ

TTMIK Level 5 Lesson 17. Quoting someone in Korean / -(ㄴ/는)다는, -(ㄴ/는)다고

TTMIK Level 5 Lesson 29. they said that they had done …, they said that they would … / -았/었/였다고, -(으)ㄹ 거라고

TTMIK Level 7 Lesson 28. The thing that is called + Verb / -(ㄴ/는)다는 것

More example sentences:

저는 아빠한테 집에 안 가겠다고 말할 거예요 = I’m going to tell my dad that 저는 선생님한테 열심히 공부했다고 말했어요 = I told the teacher that I studied hard 저는 1시 정각에 도착하겠다고 말했어요 = I said that I would arrive at 1:00 on the hour 이 길에 큰 자동차가 운전하면 안 된다고 말했어요 = I said that big vehicles are not allowed to drive on this road 저는 그 밧줄의 길이를 늘여야 된다고 이미 말했어요 = I already said that we need to make the length of that rope longer 현금인출기에서 현금을 뽑으러 은행에 가야 된다고 말할 거예요 = I’m going to say that I need to go to the bank to take out cash from the ATM 그 사람이 내일 온다고 해요 = He says that he will come tomorrow 그 사람이 언제 온다고 했어요? = When did he say he would come? 그 사람이 이거 뭐라고 했어요? = What did he say this was? 한국은 겨울에 정말 춥다고 들었어요 = I heard that it is very cold during winter in Korea 여기에 뭐라고 써야 돼요? = What should I write here? TTMIK이 좋다고 쓰세요 = Write “TTMIK is good” 저도 간다고 말해 주세요 = Please tell them that I am going to go, too 이거 재미있다고 들었어요 = I heard that this is fun 전화 온다고 했어요 = I said that your phone is ringing / She said that there is a phone call coming in (*This can be translated differently depending on the context. You never know without the subject.)

이사했다고 들었어요 = I heard that you moved 어제 그 영화 봤다고 했어요? = Did you say that you saw that movie yesterday? 지갑을 잃어버렸다고 들었는데, 찾았어요? = I heard that you lost your wallet. Did you find it?

우리가 같이 먹었을 때 저는 배고프지 않다고 했어요 = When we ate together, I said I wasn’t hungry (I said I’m not hungry) 대부분 사람들이 이 영화의 주인공이 아주 잘생겼다고 맣해요 = Most people say that the main character of this movie is very handsome 서월 사람들은 서월시 고등학교 고육과정의 부만족스럽다고 말해요 = The people of Seoul say that they are not satisfied with the Seoul high school curriculum

저는 현금이 없다고 해서 현금인출기에 갔어요 = I said that I don’t have cash, so we went to the ATM 저는 여자 친구한테 같이 가고 싶은 데가 있다고 말했어요 = I told my girlfriend that there is a place that I want to go with her (together) 제가 계속 아무 것도 필요가 없다고 했지만 엄마가 선물을 사 줬어요 = I kept saying that I don’t need anything, but my mom bought me a present 저는 모든 나라가 민주주의 국가로 변하는 거를 상상할 수 없다고 말했어요 = I said that I can’t imagine all countries changing to democratic nations

생일 파티를 할 거라고 들었어요 = I heard that they were going to have a birthday party 어제 친구들한테 영화 볼 거라고 했어요? = Did you tell your friends yesterday that you would watch a movie? 내일 다시 올 거라고 말해 주세요 = Please tell them that I will come again tomorrow 다음 주에 끝날 거라고 했잖아요 = You said that it would end next week, didn’t you? 저는 밖에 갈 수 없을 거라고 했어요 = I said I can’t go outside/won’t be able to go outside 저는 우리 가족한테 이 사람이 제 여자 친구라고 했어요 = I told my family that this person is my girlfriend 나는 너에게 그것이 해야 하는 일이라고 벌써 말했어 = I already told you that that is something you have to do 저는 제일 하고 싶은 것이 밥을 먹는 거라고 했어요 = I said that the thing I want to do most is eat (rice) 제가 가장 좋아하는 여자를 가리킬 거라고 했어요 = I said that I will point to the girl that I like the most 이거라고 했어요 = They said that it was this 한국 사람이라고 했어요 = They said that they were a Korean person 선생님이 뭐라고 했어요? = What did the teacher say? 제가 일 등이라고 들었어요 = I heard that I was the first place winner 여기가 TTMIK 사무실이라고 해요 = They say that this is the Talk To Me In Korean office 저는 ‘(person’s name)’(이)라고 해요 = My name is (person’s name) = They call me (person’s name)

저도 간다는 메시지를 남겼어요 = I left a message saying that I would go, too 주연 씨 결혼한다는 소식 들었어요? = Have you heard the news that Jooyeon is getting married? 경은 씨가 제주도에 간다는 이야기를 들었어요 = I heard (a story that) someone (was) saying that Kyeong-eun was going to Jeju Island 지금 간다는 사람이 없어요 = There is no one who says they will go now.

#korean #grammar #notes #quoting

[arakhne]

The Spider and the Web

Spinning and Weaving in Myth, Metaphor and Media

It is no surprise that spiders are so often despised and vilified, considering the potential danger of their venomous bite, and the nuisance of their cobwebs. They are also widely admired, however, for the beauty and intricacy of the webs they spin, and the surprising strength of their threads. They are seldom given credit for their importance in the ecosystem, and their usefulness to humans in keeping down the population of flies, mosquitoes and other less desirable arthropods. For obvious reasons, spiders have been frequently associated with the craft of spinning and weaving, which has an important place in human culture and a rich history in myth and metaphor. In spite of this, they are also connected with darkness and danger, and have come to symbolize evil and the much maligned aspects of magic and witchcraft.

The presentation of spiders in literature and media is equally nuanced. Many writers have displayed an apparent prejudice against spiders, while others have celebrated their merits. For Tolkien, the dark female spider Ungoliant in the Silmarillion, and the giant female spider Shelob in 'The Lord of the Rings' were the embodiment evil and terror, while for E.B. White, the diminutive female spider in 'Charlotte Web' was the embodiment of charm, intelligence, and selflessness. For George Bernard Shaw, the arachnid was associated with a fear of success - the "end of one's business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship."

The predominance of feminine associations with spiders may have a lot to do with the fact that most female spiders are significantly larger than the males, and will often eat them after copulation. The males use elaborate courtship rituals to prevent being eaten before fertilization has taken place. In the case of web weaving spiders, the patterns of vibration on the web are a way for the males to identify themselves, whereas the male hunting spiders will hypnotize the female by means of touch, and jumping spiders perform gestures and dances. All of these elaborate rituals inevitably end in the demise of the male spiders who become food for the female, and in some species the male will even assist her by impaling himself on her fangs. The females of some species meet no better fate, and after laying their eggs they too will perish. These anecdotes of nature remind us of a strange irony in our personal drive for survival. Our mortality requires us to reproduce in order to prolong our genetic heritage, yet the process of reproduction often marks the end of our lives as individuals.

The Greek word arakhne is the origin for the scientific class of Arachnida, whereas the class Araneae is from the Latin word, both meaning spider and spider web. Arachne is also the name of a character in Greek mythology, who was a great weaver, taught by the goddess Athena.

In spite of her similar sounding name, Ariadne, another character from Greek mythology, bears no overt relation to Arachne, however there are deeper connections between the two. Ariadne was known for having helped Theseus escape from the labyrinth where he killed the minotaur by providing him with a thread he could use to find his way back out. The labyrinth bears much resemblance to a spider's web, with its spiral pattern designed to entrap all who enter, and the terrifying creature that dwells within, waiting to devour the victim.

Ariadne hanged herself. Erigone ended her life by hanging herself. Artemis is referred to as the hanged one. Helen of the Trees is said to have been hanged by Polyxo.

Athena is the patron god of both Penelope and her husband Odysseus. Penelope was endlessly weaving as she waited for her husband's return.

Athena is the goddess of wisdom, skills and warfare, but also weaving and woodwork, which involve

The Roman version of Dionysis was Bacchus who gave his name to the bachanalia, the wild and drunken mystical celebrations that have been practiced since ancient times in veneration of the God of wine and revelry.

The connection of Ariadne's thread to that of the spider is repeated in the curious case of the kimura-gumo, a Japanese spider which represents one of the last remnants of the old world spiders. One thing that distinguishes this species is that the spinnerets are located in the middle of the body instead of the rear, to where evolved to in modern spiders. It makes it's home in a cave-like burrow surrounded by a protective cobweb. When it goes out of the burrow to hunt it leaves a trail of thread behind to assist in the return journey. Unlike the case of Theseus, who followed Ariadne's thread to escape the prison of labyrinth after slaying the minotaur, this spider uses the thread to return to the dark den that is its home after slaying its prey.

The thread of fate in Greek mythology has an analog in the 'red string of fate' originating in East Asian folklore, which suggests that the gods tie an invisible thread between two people who are destined to be together. Like a spider's web, this cord may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.

According to Herodotus, it was the men who were the primary weavers of the Ancient Egyptians. Nevertheless, the act of weaving was connected to the goddess Neith, whose name means weaver. She was originally the goddess of war and hunting, also known as Nit, Net or Neit. The interpretation of her name as meaning 'water' led to her role as the personification of the primordial waters of creation. She was depicted holding a goad, and part of her hieroglyph may have been interpreted as a loom, thus later connecting her with weaving, and she became the goddess who wove the world into existence with her loom. She was also the protector of women and the guardian of marriage. She was sometimes depicted with both a weaver's shuttle and bow and arrows, other times with the head of a lioness, snake or cow. She was titled the 'Nurse of Crocodiles,' and was originally identified as the mother of Sobek, the crocodile god of the Nile. Neith was also known as the great cow who gave birth to Ra. As the goddess of war, she was associated with death, and wove the bandages and shrouds of the mummified dead as a gift. She protected the canopic jar which held the stomach, considered the most vulnerable organ in battle.

The three fates of Greek mythology, known as the Moirai, or 'apportioners', were believed to control the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal from cradle to grave, and all gods and men were submissive to them, with the exception of Zeus. The first of the Moirai, Clotho, was known as the spinner, as she spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle, and her Roman equivalent, Nona, or the ninth, was called upon during the ninth month of pregnancy. The second of the Moirai, Lachesis, the drawer of lots, measured the thread of life allotted to every individual with her measuring rod. The third, Atropos, the inevitable, or unturning, would cut the thread of life and determined the manner of each person's death with her shears. Her Roman equivalent was Morta, or death.

Through the metaphor of weaving, these fates can be seen as connected to spider and the story of Arachne. In Roman mythology, which was largely inherited from the Greeks, the three fates were known as the Parcae. There is also an equivalent in Norse mythology, known as the Norns. They were powerful maidens who nourished the tree of life, Yggdrasill, from the Well of Uror. One possible source for the origin of their name is from a word meaning 'twine', referring to their weaving the thread of fate. The name of one of the trio of prominent norns, Uror, means 'fate', referring to the past tense, or that which has already happened. The other norns in the trio are Veroandi, from the verb 'to be', or that which is happening, and Skuld, from the Norse verb skulle, or that which is yet to be.

The tools of weaving, in the form of the distaff used in spinning wool, are also found in the Norse sorcery or witchcraft, known as seid, or seior, which may relate to the word for 'cord' or 'string'. It was predominantly practiced by women, and involved the incantation, or 'weaving' of spells and possibly a circular dance. It was considered an unmanly and manipulative pursuit by the Vikings, and the god Odin was said to have been taunted by Loki for practicing seid. This sorcery was also practiced by the goddess Freyja, who was associated with love, beauty and fertility, as well as gold, war and death. Another related Norse goddess, Frigg, or Frigga, was associated with weaving. She was considered foremost among the goddesses and was the wife of Odin, and queen of Asgard, and she was also associated with childbirth. The term Friday comes from her name, and the stars of Orion's belt were known to the Norse as 'Frigg's spinning wheel' (Friggerock) or 'Freyja's Distaff' (Frejerock), possibly due to the spinning of the stars along the celestial equator.

Both Freyja and Frigg, who may be variations of the same goddess, can also be associated with the character of Frau Holda, or Holle, from Grimm's fairytales. She is the supernatural matron of spinning, childbirth and domestic animals. She oversees the cultivation and spinning of flax, and she teaches and rewards the hard worker, sometimes finishing their reels during the night. Thus she can be connected with the busy activity of the spider in the dark. In some parts of Germany spinning was forbiden during the twelfth night or Christmas eve festival in observance of Frau Holda, whereas in others flax is loaded into the spindles as Holda promises 'As many threads, as many good years' The work must be finished by the time she has done her rounds and returns on the day of Epiphany, otherwise she promises 'As many threads, as many bad years.' She was believed to be out in the wilderness during this time in midwinter, which was when the dead were thought to roam. She can take the form either of an old hag, or a youthful maiden dressed in snowy white. Although she has no children, she is the protector of children, and the souls of the newborn were said to enter into the world through her sacred pool. It was her connection with spinning and weaving that associated her with witchcraft in Catholic German folklore, and she was believed to ride upon a distaff, the way a witch would ride a broom.

The character of Huldra, from Scandinavian folklore, is a seductive forest creature, related to the German Holda. She appears as beautiful and sometimes naked, with long hair, but is hollow behind, with the tail of a cow or fox. She may lure men into the forest to have intercourse with her, and rewards those who satisfy her and kills those who do not, making her reminiscent of the deadly mating behavior of the spider. Unlike Holda who is a childless protector of children, Huldra sometimes steals infants and replaces them with her own ugly huldrebarn changelings.

In spite of the widespread appearance of spider symbolism throughout history and across the globe, there are very few instances of an actual spider deity. One of the few significant examples, still only a conjecture, is the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan, that is also known as the Teotihuacan Spider Woman) The representation of this goddess has been found in various murals from the pre-Columbian civilization that existed from around 100 BCE to 700 CE in the region of modern day Mexico. She seems to be quite unique to that location, and it thought that she represents the underworld, being associated with earth, water, war and creation. Along with the jaguar and the owl, the spider was considered a creature of darkness, dwelling in caves and subterranean locales. She is often depicted with spiders scurrying in the background, or on her arms and hanging from her clothing, and sometimes carries shields decorated with spider webs.

But we must not take the metaphor of the spider too far, for then we are in danger of a fallacy known as 'reification', or 'concretism', in which an abstract idea is mistaken for a real physical entity. Certainly spiders exist, and webs exist, however their nature and behavior, while they may resemble human ideas and characteristics, are nonetheless independent of any real connection. The correlation between time and weaving does not mean that the weaving activities of some goddess somewhere causes cosmic time to come into being. Furthermore, the fact that many female spiders may consume the male after copulation has no real bearing on the nature of behavior of human women.

The critic John Ruskin coined the term 'pathetic fallacy', in his words “to signify any description of inanimate natural objects that ascribes to them human capabilities, sensations, and emotions." He saw the poetic use of anthropomorphism as a sign of artistic weakness, however many other critics have argued in favor attributing human traits to animals or inanimate objects, suggesting that this is a universally embraced approach to understanding the world, and has always been essential to mythology, art and literature. We cannot fault some of the greatest storytellers in history for using such imaginative devices to spin a good yarn.

The origin of the imaginary author Mother Goose may have been the French "Bertha the Spinner" (Berthe la fileuse), or "Goose-Foot Bertha" (Berthe pied d'oie), and she is often referred to in French legends as spinning incredible tales that captivated children. It is from this tradition that we get the tale of 'Sleeping Beauty', and the familiar image of the spinning wheel.

In order to grow, spiders, like other arthropods, must shed their skins, or cuticles, in a process called molting.

In spite of the predominance of web spinning spiders in the popular consciousness, there is a dazzling variety of feeding behaviors methods in the spider world. The female bolas spiders patrol a single line of thread like a tightrope, then make a ball of sticky silk with which to catch their prey, and they attract moths by emitting chemical that mimic their pheromones. The primitive trapdoor spiders, as well as many tarantulas, hide in burrows from which they ambush their prey. Other spiders rely solely on their vision, speed and agility to chase and catch their prey.

The portia, a type of jumping spider which feeds on other spiders, exhibit the capacity for learning and problem solving in the intelligent ways they lure or outflank their prey. The name 'portia' comes from a Roman clan name, meaning pig, and it has been most famously used by William Shakespeare in 'The Merchant of Venice', who portrays her as rich, beautiful, intelligent and gracious. It is, perhaps, ironic that the same name should be associated with a cunning spider, since it is Portia who delivers the famous speech against cruelty:

The quality of mercy is not strain'd. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

The portia spider, on the other hand, seems to be twice cursed, not only does it use it's intelligence to the demise of its prey, but the victims also happen to be other spiders.

Spiders about in the media and popular culture, from Spiderman to The Kiss of the Spiderwoman. In Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectation, 'the spider' is used as a nickname for the rival of Pip, a despicable character named Bentley Drummie who marries Pip's childhood love Estella and treats her poorly. In the 1998 movie adaptation, Finn's lawyer is named 'ragno' which, we are told, means 'spider' in Italian.

It is possible to see many different correlations between the spider's web and human attributes. In order to be effective, the web must fulfill three important functions: interception of the prey's trajectory, absorption of it's momentum, and retention of the prey. This is similar to the factors necessary to process information - first we must encounter the information, second we must absorb it into our consciousness and understanding, and finally we must retain it, if it is to become useful knowledge.

I recently came across a quote from the philosopher Sir Francis Bacon, in which he uses the metaphor of a spider's web to decry the shortfalls of inner knowledge without external experience. In "The Advancement of Learning" in 1605, he wrote: "Here, therefore, is the first distemper of learning, when men study words and not matter." In support of his argument, he compared the spider to the wit and mind of man, "...if work upon itself, as the spider worketh in its web, then it is endless, and brings forth indeed cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fineness of thread and work, but of no substance or profit...." It seems ironic that one so learned as Bacon, who had indeed observed and studied nature extensively, should overlook the fact that the spider's web is of paramount importance to its survival, and can therefore be seen as full of 'substance and profit', especially from the point of view of the spider.

Perhaps Bacon meant to suggest that the spider's web is of no use to humans, though he even dismisses their aesthetic appeal, by referring to them only as cobwebs which, having served their purpose and being no longer functional, are discarded by the spiders and left to cause a nuisance to humans. His dismissive attitude is reinforced by Bacon's various other uses of the spider web as a cautionary example, "the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance," (Aphorism no. 95) and "laws were like cobwebs; where the small flies were caught, and the great brake through." (Apothegms no. 181) These aspersions undermine the glorious achievement and marvel of nature that is the spider web.

Shakespeare presents a more nuanced view of the spider and its web. In Richard III he continues the tradition of unpleasant associations, referring to the 'bottled spider' along with toads and venom, and the 'deadly web' that 'ensnareth'. In 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' however, he alludes to the use of the spider web as a traditional form of healing band aid, when Bottom says "I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master Cobweb: if I cut my finger." In 'The Winter's Tale', Leontes describes how a spider may be drunk unseen and do no harm, for its venom is not partaken of, but if the spider is drunk and seen, then the knowledge becomes unbearable.

The American naturalist Edwin Way Teale suggests that "the difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web."

The spider's web can be seen as flimsy and insubstantial, "the weakest of houses is a spider’s house," says the Qur'an. They can also be associated with the delicate silvery gossamer that mystified poets like Spencer, who refers to their fine nets as 'scorched dew', or John Keats, who likens the spider's web to the 'airy citadel' of personal imagination. Yet according to the Ethiopian proverb "when spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion." The spider's web means one thing to the spider, and something quite different to the fly.

In the modern consciousness, the web has come to be the preferred metaphor for the vast network of digital information that is the internet, and a spider refers to a computer program that crawls the web for information. This metaphor might appear to overlook the intended purpose of the internet, which is ostensibly for the sharing of knowledge, as opposed to that of the spider's web, which is to ensnare its prey. However, the metaphor is more accurate than it first appears when we consider the predatory dark side of the internet, and the dangerous traps that abound online - many of which are designed to enrich the adepts at the expense of the unsuspecting. Wrote the Scottish playwright Sir Walter Scott:

"Oh! what a tangled web we weave When first we practice to deceive!"

Dangers of a different kind also exist on the web, the abundance of pornography and sexual predators lurking in search of impressionable victims. "Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly." Even the more benign inanities of the World Wide Web can sometimes catch us off guard, giving us the same unpleasant surprise that we feel when walking into an invisible spider web in the dark. To borrow a popular idiom from internet culture, one the spider has been seen, it cannot be unseen.

Without sufficient information we may risk drinking a spider or walking into its web, but sometimes too much knowledge will make us overreact to situations that may not be as perilous as they seem. The boundaries between irrational fear and sensible caution have never been easy to discern. The dangers of real world experience may seem greater than those of abstract studies, but the rewards of both may be equally worthy of pursuit.

[mssapphire]

Deconstructing Romantic Love, and what’s actually wrong with it (pt. 1) - Desire and Admiration =/= Love.

In our infinite quest for happiness, one pervasive question we tend to have is: what is love? (baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no mo’). And in this quest we have tried to find a million different answers and we have tried to deconstruct and understand what works and what makes it dysfunctional.

In the last century or so, we have tried to come up with alternatives to what we have identified as the root of all evil and female oppression: heteropatriarchal romantic love. And I say in the last century because Romanticism is a 19th c. thing - and to understand how it completely changed society and our relational dynamics, I’d suggest Alain de Botton (it’s a long video but 1) it’s worth it and 2) if you don’t have the time to read his book(s), it’s a great alternative).

This has given way to different forms of “Ethical Non-Monogamy”. I’ll eventually write a post abut the history around different Free Love movements - and how the term has definitely meant different things in different moments of time, and how we have now devoid it of any meaning, to the point we’re back in the clutches of patriarchy through rampant consumerism of bodies. But that’s a post for another day.

What I’d like to explore today is that the problem doesn’t rely in what relationship model you choose to follow (monogamy, polyamory, relationship anarchy, open relationships), but in the way we (mis)understand love. I recently wrote a post about the meaning of being emotionally responsible, making an emphasis on why it’s so difficult for cis straight men. And following that thread, I’d like to come to another crossroads we (but, again, specially cis straight men) seem to find ourselves on: confounding admiration and desire with love. Let’s break that down.

I could really, really go on a tangent here, but I’ll try to stay focused. We could trace back our culture’s confabulation of love, admiration and desire to Courtly Love. Courtly Love taught men that love but, most importantly, loving the right way, was something that could make you a better person, morally (and even socially) superior. The right way to love a Lady, who was the purest being incarnated on the face of the earth, was to admire her beauty which was no doubt a display of her own moral worth (yes, these are white beauty standards, where the most celebrated type of woman was blonde, pale as porcelain, and with blue or green eyes) - and yes, physical appearance being equated to moral worth was a thing in Medieval times (you can guess which are the good guys or the bad guys in a Medieval story only through their physical description). But here comes the plot twist about Courtly Love: you didn’t even had to have met the object of your desire to love her. So you have an entire tradition of poems being written by men to, for and about women they hadn’t even met. They had just heard about their reputation, and they completely made up a fantasy as to who the woman was - a woman they not only proclaimed to love, but also a woman whom they loved so much they could die for her.

This was fertile grounds for Petrarch’s poetry, now in the Renaissance, who took Courtly Love one step further: actually attaching the object of his desire to a real, living person (Laura). Fast forward to Romanticism and the idea of loving someone to the point it kills you, and that they’re the one and only object of your desire, and your “soul mate”, and thus complete and complement you in every single way has now become the trend as to how we perceive love.

But that all sounds very exotic and distant. What about the present? Certainly, you can’t compare these guys to the guys on tinder trying to hook up with anyone who’ll say yes. But allow me to say: 1) yes, yes I can and 2) it’s not only these guys - but even those who seem “more decent” and actually take you out on a date, and even date you for a while. Allow me to elaborate.

Again, I am going to go ahead and quote bell hooks’ definition of love (this is something I do, a lot): you have to distinguish love as a feeling vs love as a verb (we’ll circle back to this). When you understand love as a feeling, and as a feeling only, desire and admiration tend to feel a lot like love. And the problem lies therein society’s portrayal’s of love: “love at first sight”, passionate sex as the ultimate display of what love is and should be, blind admiration towards that person and how you have to stick through thick and thin until death do us part (does that ring a bell?).

“Seeing no wrong” with the object of our affection (or what we now call “missing red flags”) is something we do when we blindly admire someone. And, thus, that convinces us that real love, true love, is that in which you find no conflict, and where the other person is perfect and without flaw. The problem with confusing admiration and love is that, to admire someone, we have to put them up on a pedestal, so we can continue to admire them without our image of them crumbling. Think about all the times you lost respect for your idols as you found out who they really were, as a person, above and beyond their work.

The same happens with desire - which is something more visceral and raw. That person is desirable as long as they fit the fantasy we have about them - which relies to physical attributes, yes, but about things they do and don’t do. Even more so, sex is something that gives you the illusion of intimacy, because sex is inherently emotional and vulnerable (and the idea that it isn’t is capitalistic bullshit, but that’s a topic for another post).  So while you’re engaging in sex, you can enjoy all those endorphins and mushy feelings, without actually doing the hard work of actually getting to know the person for real. The moment the person displays a behavior or an attribute that clashes with the idea we have in our heads (maybe they’re too awkward, or they have bad breath in the morning), our fantasy, built on desire, starts to crumble.

Let me drive the point home with a personal example. An ex of mine was initially deeply attracted to me because of my intelligence (it was a good thing that he found me physically attractive too). He would be delighted when he saw me debate other people (and destroy them), to the point it immediately triggered physical affection. But as the relationship progressed and we found ourselves sharing and discussing personal views, his attitude started to shift. A quality that he usually admired me for, became something that made him feel contempt. “You’re so smart” turned into “you’re too smart” which eventually turned to “I can never talk to you because everything turns into a debate”. My attitude and approach hadn’t changed. What was happening is what always happens in an emotional relationship where you’re actually getting to know the person: I was falling off the pedestal he put me in. 

And, suddenly, I was seen not only as a human being with flaws and shortcomings, and far from perfect - but having to be so close and vulnerable in front of me was also deeply uncomfortable to him. Because when you’re really close to someone, that makes you reflect on yourself. True love and intimacy is an exercise of self reflection, which allows you to become acquainted with the best and worst sides of you. In my ex’s case, having to be confronted by the intelligence he admired so much initially, made him feel stupid and insecure.

Which leads me to another thing: in this confabulation of admiration/desire for love, men also get another short end of the stick. Because patriarchy has convinced them that a woman’s love lies in her admiration for him, the object of their desire (who has to instantly desire them back just because they want this person) has one job and one job only: to admire and support him unconditionally. This means that men are permanently stuck in a position where they have to display strength and bravado, as they fulfill the role of protectors and providers. And what happens then? you never truly get to know who they are inside. So any sort of criticism, disagreement or conflict is perceived as a threat - if you’re not admiring them, you’re personally attacking them, and you don’t really love them.

Again, the problem with all of this is that we still haven’t understood what love actually is. According to bell hook, love is also a verb. It’s the actions you take in order to nurture the relationship, so you both feel seen, known, heard and understood. It’s getting to know the other person deeply and honestly. It’s seeing ourselves reflected in their eyes and getting to know new depths about us that we hadn’t before.

Think about it in another way: if that person wasn’t physically attractive to you anymore, would you still love them? if that person presented flaws that you hate, would you still love them? If they didn’t have the same social status or job? if they didn’t engage in specific activities with you? and what would you be willing to do if those things change? these are all important questions to assess where your feelings for someone stand.

To be clear: you can love someone and admire them and desire them. But just because someone desires you or just because someone admires you, that doesn’t mean they love you. Again, love is in the work you do. And if you do your homework, you will find yourself admiring that person on deeper more significant attributes, like their compassion and patience and integrity, while you even learn to understand and appreciate their flaws in the context of who they really are - that’s what being understood means.

The problem is not monogamy. In fact, I find it more responsible and sustainable to understand just how much work goes into having healthy loving relationships and deciding to have that with one person, than being a hot ass mess and falling in and out of an unending string of relationships because we’re trying to score “woke points” by denying monogamy. Because if you think you’re defying monogamy while at the same time you’re following the same romantic standards to relate, then you’re not really subverting anything.

Next time you feel like you might feel love for someone, ask yourself if what you’re feeling means that you actually have the willingness to do the work required to be in a healthy relationship with them. If you find their presence in your life worth the effort or not. If this is a nourishing relationship, then the answer will probably be yes.

#Very long but also very good post #Romantic love #Ethical non monogamy #Love #Relationships

[tipsycad147]

Weird Pagan words: An annotated list

Posted by Michelle Gruben on Aug 07, 2017

Like any other subculture, Pagans have our own special vocabulary. Many of them just aren't found in Wicca 101 books or infographics. Fortunately, I write down unfamiliar words and Google them later so you don’t have to.

This glossary covers some of the more obscure words and phrases in the Pagan lexicon. The ones that might leave you scratching your head if you’d never heard them before (or never before in a Pagan context).

This is certainly not an exhaustive list of Pagan and magickal terminology—just a quick rundown of some of the weirdest Pagan words and phrases zipping around out there.

Adept – A person who—through study, practice, or natural gifts—is extremely proficient at a magickal system. A master. Adepts are rumoured to actually exist, but anyone who claims to be one probably isn’t.

Aspect – A form, facet, or persona of a deity. As a verb, “to aspect” means to channel or invoke the deity into oneself.

Asperge – To purify a space by sprinkling water. Often performed before ritual. The bundle of herbs used for this purpose is called an asperger.

Athame – A ritual knife. In traditional Wicca, the athame has a double-edged blade and a black handle. Generally speaking, the athame is used only for magick—never to cut objects. Most witches say “A-thum-may” (with a short “a” as in “cat”). But you might also hear “AW-thum-may” or even “aw-THAYM.”

It’s obnoxious to correct someone’s pronunciation of “athame,” especially since the actual origins of the word are obscure. (Read: Gerald Gardner probably made it up.) Don’t be bullied. Pick your favourite pronunciation and use it.

Balefire – A sacred fire, especially one in which offerings or magickal items are burned. Balefires are kindled during the festivals of Beltane and Samhain. For practical reasons, a balefire usually happens outdoors, but even a small cauldron fire can serve as a balefire.

Besom – A ritual broom. Witches don’t fly on their besoms, but they do use them for energetic (and physical) clean-up.

Blot – A term meaning “sacrifice” in Norse Paganism. Pronounced “bloat,” a blot is a communal gathering to honour the Gods. In olden times, a blot revolved around the slaughter of a large animal whose body would feed the holy feast. At a modern blot, you’re unlikely to see an animal sacrifice. You will see a lot of eating, libations, and readings of Norse legends and religious poems. (See Sumbel.)

Book of Shadows – A Witch’s or coven’s magickal diary. The Book of Shadows includes rituals and teachings, records of spellwork, and anything else that is important to the Witch’s practice. The term comes from Gerald Gardner, and refers to a time and place when such a book would need to be carefully hidden.

Boline – A small knife that Wiccans use for cutting herbs and other ritual items. Gerald Gardner describes it as a “white handled knife.” The spelling varies. It can be pronounced “BO-leen,” “BO-lin,” or “BULL-en.”

Broom closet – A person who is not public about his/her Pagan beliefs is said to be “in the broom closet,” e.g., “He’s still in the broom closet at work.” Formed by analogy with the LGBT slang “in the closet.”

Burning Times – A collective name given to the Bad Old Days of the Reformation, Inquisition, etc., when Witches were burned alive by fanatics.

Cafeteria Pagan – A pejorative name for an eclectic Pagan. A cafeteria Pagan is someone who picks their spiritual beliefs and practices from whatever “looks good,” without devoting serious study to any of the traditions they borrow from. The concept of cafeteria Paganism is related to concerns about cultural appropriation and dilettantism. (See also Fluffy bunny.)

Cakes and ale – A communal offering of food and beverage, most often performed at the close of a Wiccan circle. The ritual honours the gifts of the Earth and the presence of the Lord and Lady. The actual ingredients of the offering will vary according to the season and the preferences of the celebrants. Sometimes Wiccan refer to the ritual as “cakes and ale” even if the altar holds sangria and chocolate chip cookies.

Casting the circle – A Wiccan practice of creating sacred space. The first step in many rituals, casting the circle carves out a separate space for magick to occur.

Cense – To cleanse or bless with incense. Ritual space and ritual participants are often prepared by censing. The vessel used for censing is called a censer.

Charge – To imbue with energy. People, things, and places can be charged. Ritually charging objects is an important component of many spells. “Clearing” or “grounding” the energy reverses the effects of charging.

Coven – A group of Witches who meet regularly. Contrary to popular belief, a coven need not contain thirteen members. The word initially referred to any gathering, but now connotes witchcraft and secrecy. It comes from the same Latin root as “convene.”

There are as many types of covens as there are families. Some are open and welcoming, some are tiny and secretive. Wiccans are the most likely to call their groups coven, but other Witches use the word, too. Lots of covens have fanciful names, like “Order of the Briarwood” or “DraggynsMyst Coven.”

Covenstead – A covenstead is a place where a coven regularly meets. It is the home of the coven on the physical plane. Since most Pagan groups don’t have temple space of their own, the covenstead could be a bit of parkland, someone’s living room, or the backyard of a liberal church.

Cowan – An old derogatory term for a non-Wiccan or non-Pagan. In the post-Potter era, it’s been almost universally replaced by “muggle.”

The Craft - Witchcraft, especially hereditary witchcraft. The Path of the Wise, the Old Ways, the Hidden Arts, etc. A perfectly good phrase that was all but ruined by a cheesy 1996 movie.

Craft name – A name adopted for spiritual/magickal puposes. A Craft name may come to you in a moment of inspiration, or be conferred upon you by a teacher. Some Witches take their names from an honoured deity, plant, or animal.

Croning – The process of becoming a Crone, or wise elder. Some Pagans have Croning celebrations for women who have attained the third phase of life. (The male equivalent is “Saging.”)

Dedicant – A person who has been studying with (but not yet initiated in) a magickal coven or lodge. Dedicants learn about the group’s beliefs and practices before committing to membership. In Wicca, the dedicatory period traditionally lasts a year and a day—after which the candidate may decide whether to seek full initiation.

Some covens have formal dedication ceremonies and attendance requirements for dedicants. Others just encourage newbies to hang around for a bit and see what it’s all about. The titles Neophyte and Probationer are also used to refer to the stage(s) prior to initiation.

Deosil – Clockwise. Deosil movement is often used when casting the circle or raising energy. (“Sunwise” means the same thing.)

Drawing down – “Drawing Down the Moon” or “Drawing Down the Sun” is a possessory invocation of the Goddess or God, respectively. Drawing Down the Moon means invoking the Goddess into the body of the High Priestess of coven. (In traditional Wicca, the High Priest performs the invocation.) The rite was referenced by Margot Adler in a famous book by the same name.

Now that Pagan groups are tending to become less gender-rigid (yay), it’s not uncommon to hear “drawing down” refer to any possessory deity work. A person in a state of possessory trance is said to be “drawn down.”

Eclectic – A person who draws their spiritual practices and beliefs from diverse sources, without adherence to one tradition. Adjective or noun. (Unscientific estimate: 95% of Pagans self-identify as eclectic.)

Elder – An aged person, often a leader within the Pagan community. A Crone or Sage. A Second- or Third-Degree coven member is sometimes called an Elder regardless of age.

Esbat – A coven meeting outside of one of the eight Sabbats. Typically, this is Full Moon observance—though there are covens that hold their Esbats during the New Moon. There are normally 13 Esbats in a calendar year. The word was brought into popular usage by Margaret Murray’s 1921 book, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe.

Esbats are a time to perform spells and psychic training, while Sabbats are generally more celebratory. Besides being an opportunity to have a Lunar ritual, Esbats are a time for covens to meet socially and take care of coven business. Solitary Witches observe the Esbats as a time for personal magick and communion with the Moon. (See Sabbat.)

Familiar – An animal who acts as a helper to the Witch during magickal work. Some Witches use the term more generally to refer to a companion animal or pet. The word “familiar” may also refer to familiar spirits—disembodied beings that the Witch contacts as a part of their magickal work.

Fluffy bunny – A phrase coined in early online Pagan communities to distinguish New Age-y, love-and-light Pagans from self-styled “serious” practitioners. Fluffy bunnies avoid in-depth study and flee from anything dark or challenging.  You will rarely meet someone who self-identifies as a fluffy bunny—the term is nearly always meant as an insult. (See also Cafeteria Pagan).

Great Rite – Symbolic or actual sexual act performed as part of a ritual. It represents the Hieros Gamos, the sacred marriage of the Goddess and God.

Handfasting – A Pagan ceremony of marriage, or alternately, betrothal. Handfasting is a rite that may be connected to or separate from civil (legal) marriage. For a handfasting to be legal in most places, it needs to be performed by an ordained clergy member. (Handparting is the Pagan ritual equivalent of divorce.)

High Magick – A general term for ceremonial and ritual magic of a lofty sort. High Magick is concerned with spiritual progress, communion with Gods and higher beings, and uncovering the secrets of the Universe. (See Low Magic.)

Hive – To “hive” (or “hive off”) is to form a new coven from one or more of a coven’s current members. The word refers to the way in which young queen bees must leave the colony to form their own colonies. Wiccans may hive off after attaining their Third Degree within a coven.

Hiving off allows a former student to transition into a leadership role with minimal disruption to the existing group’s structure. The new coven is called a sister coven of the old one.

Kindred – In Norse Heathenism, a community that meets for worship and mutual support. A Heathen kindred is a kind of extended family. Kindreds may be formal or informal. Its members may be related by blood or by choice. Some non-Heathen Witches also use the word “kindred” (or “family”) to describe brothers and sisters of the Craft.

Left-hand path – Refers to various magickal paths including destructive magick, self-serving magick, or non-obedience to God. (If someone describes themselves as a left-hander or on a left-hand path, you might want to ask them what they mean.)

Lineage – An unbroken chain of students and teachers within a magickal tradition. It is common to claim a lineage stretching back to some well-known figure.

Low Magick – More commonly referred to as witchcraft. “Low Magick” encompasses such practices as spell-casting, ritual healing, hex-breaking, divination, and good luck charms. (See High Magick.)

Magick/Magik/Majik – Alternate spellings used to distinguish occult pursuits from stage magic. “Magick” is often attributed to Aleister Crowley and is the most common variation. (Though it will always trip up spell-check and some people find it hopelessly precious.)

Maiden – Wiccan term for the young Goddess, the first aspect of the Triple Goddess. Also used to refer to the junior female member in a coven who serves as an assistant to the High Priestess. (The High Priest’s equivalent helper is called the Summoner.)

Once-born – A young soul. Many Pagans judge themselves to be “old souls,” so the term is usually derogatory.

Otherkin – A subculture of people who believe themselves to be partially non-human. Otherkin include Fae, Elves, Werewolves, Vampires, Dragons, and so on. There is some overlap between Otherkin and Pagan/magickal communities.

PST (Pagan Standard Time) – An imaginary time zone invented to explain endemic Pagan lateness.

Quarter call – An evocation of one of the four elements, or quarters. Calling the quarters is a component in most circle-casting rituals. One person may call all four quarters, or the task may be divided between four or more ritualists. A quarter call is the first bit of public magick that many people ever perform.

Reconstructionist – A Pagan who attempts to re-create ancient spiritual practices from historical information.

Rede – An archaic word for advice or counsel. The Wiccan Rede is, “An it harm none, do as ye will.” Wiccans just call it “the Rede.” The “Complete Wiccan Rede” or “Long Rede” is a 26-line poem attributed to Lady Gwen Thompson..

Sabbat – One of the major Wiccan/Pagan seasonal holy days. There are eight Sabbats based on the Celtic agricultural calendar. They are further divided into four Quarters (Yule, Ostara, Litha, Mabon) and four Cross-quarters (Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas).

Second-Degree fever – An unfortunate disease often contracted by initiates who have just attained their Second Degree and feel all giddy with power. Symptoms include bragging, posturing, acting like a know-it-all.

Skyclad – Wiccan term for ritual nudity. Some Pagan groups prefer to perform rituals skyclad.

Smudge – To ritual cleanse someone, something, or someplace with smoke. Various fragrant herbs can be used for smudging. The best-known smudging herb is White Sage—but some Pagans prefer not to use it, out of concerns about co-opting a Native American spiritual practice. (The word itself is from Old English smogen, meaning smoke).

Solitary – A Witch who practices alone, without a coven or group. (Used as an adjective or noun.)

Sumbel – In Norse Paganism, a communal ritual of celebration. At a sumbel, the horn is passed, toasts are made, and oaths are made before the Gods. A sumbel is a joyful affair that is nonetheless performed within sacred space. (See Blot.)

Tradition – The Pagan equivalent of a religious denomination. A collection of beliefs, methods, and rituals passed down through a group. Most living Pagan belief systems have various traditions, called “trads” for short.

Uncle Al – Affectionate nickname for Aleister Crowley, British occultist whose work influenced contemporary witchcraft and Paganism.

UPG (Unverified Personal Gnosis) – A legacy of early internet forums, “UPG” is an acronym that describes information that is experienced by one person and presented as fact within a spiritual community. Some examples are dreams, visions, and channeled communications. Discussions about the Gods, afterlife, and the Otherworlds are full of UPG and UPG-haters. (Ed. note: “UPG” is not a very nice thing to say to someone who has just shared a significant spiritual experience with you.)

Wiccaning – The Wiccan rite of blessing an infant or child. There is no standard Wiccaning ritual—most involve welcoming the child into the world and asking the Lord and Lady to watch over him or her. Probably formed by analogy with “christening.”

Widdershins – Counter-clockwise movement. Normally used in banishing rituals or to un-cast the circle.

Working – A magickal undertaking, especially a long, intense, or complex one. Spellcasting, channeling, and evocation…they are all types of workings. (Even though they can also be fun!)

I'll be adding more weird Pagan words as I meet and talk to more weird Pagans. Happy magick-ing!

https://www.groveandgrotto.com/blogs/articles/weird-pagan-words-an-annotated-list

[shysweetthing]

Chihokogate is overwhelmingly romantic; fight me

I've seen people describe the "Overcome Chihoko" story in a number of ways--Victor being Extra, crackfic, something written purely for laughs, and so forth. And yes, I think all of those things are true, to a certain extent, but I'm not sure we appreciate exactly how lovely of an instance of crackfic this is.

More below the cut.

First, let's talk about Victor being Extra. In some senses, I think fandom can sometimes be a little overboard as to how Extra Victor can be. In other senses, I think that fandom is sometimes not...overboard enough as to Victor's Extraness.

Here's the thing about Victor: You don't get to be the five-time world champion by being very good at judging rational and appropriate responses to things. Five-time world champions don't tell themselves, "Well, I skated my best and that's all that matters." Five-time world champions don't tell themselves, "I guess that's as good as I'm ever gonna get on that jump, I'm not going to try for a higher grade of execution." Five-time world champions are people who do not know how to accept the concept of "good enough." They are more aware of their errors--and what they do wrong--then what they do right.

(This is true in general with competent individuals: No matter what your natural talent level, you are never perfect off the bat. The person who ends up being the best is not always the person who is most naturally talented. It's often the person who knows when they're not doing it right, and corrects mistakes. The ability to detect errors means you know how to improve. People who get to the level of perfection are more likely to hold themselves to a standard of perfection, and see every deviation from it, than to hold themselves to a standard of pretty good, and be delighted for every time that standard is exceeded. This is something that is true of both Yuuri and Victor; the two just handle mistakes differently. It's true of other people at the very top--check out Yuzuru Hanyu sometime, who also has this trait, although I think not the same way as Yuuri or Victor. Yuzuru Hanyu has a notebook where he details every jump he makes, and whether it's successful or not. After programs that are objectively stellar by any standards, but which fall short of his own, he gets angry and upset with himself. He doesn't know what "good enough" means, and that's why he is never just good enough.)

But back to Victor's extra-ness. Sometimes I see people have Victor act Extra in ways that don't line up with increasing competence. These are not instances of Victor striving; they're instances of Victor just being a dumbass for the sake of dumbassery. This is the farthest thing from the truth. Victor's extra-ness asserts itself in a surfeit of competence, holding himself to an impossible standard and reaching it again and again. Victor is aware of all his flaws, and he actively works to get better. He almost certainly has flaws that he's not been able to push past a certain level--in most cases, for super-competent people, their ability to discern errors exceeds their capability levels--and those things probably rankle.

Victor is not a dumbass. Victor is a freaking genius.

So let's talk about Chihoko-gate. It starts because Yuuri tells Victor that he's not as limber as Shachihoko. Yuuri is drunk at the time, and Victor hears him saying "Chihoko," and thinks that Chihoko is a person.

This takes place post-Victor's return to the ice. We don't know how he did. We do know that he was competing against Yuuri and Yurio, both of whom are more flexible than he is. Victor knows this. He's almost certainly tried to design his routines to take advantage of his differing strengths, but he also knows that he can't do some of the things that Yuuri and Yurio can do. He also knows that Yuuri fell for him in the first place because of his skating, and even if he's able to beat Yuuri and Yurio on other aspects of skating, part of him knows that they're better than him.

And now here is Yuuri, teasing him about yet another person who is better than him. An ex. And this hits Victor right in his feelings. Yes, he's extra, and yes, he tries to be the best, and no, even if he knows rationally that it's okay to not be the best at everything, Victor did not get to where he is by telling himself it was okay to not be the best. Yuuri's teasing hits him right in his insecurity.

So, stuff happens, and Yuuri wakes up wearing Victor's underpants and with the words "Overcome Chihoko" written on his back.

Here is the point where I have to pause and apologize. My Japanese is not great. I have not been studying nearly long enough to be remotely good at things. Nonetheless, I'm going to be referencing the actual line written on Yuuri's back in Japanese, and telling you what I think of it, and why I think it, because despite my crapitude at Japanese, I don't think the points I'm making here are subtle or wrong. If someone who is better at Japanese than me disagrees please tell me. I'm happy to edit.

I spent forty minutes searching Twitter for multiple sources on this. So here is what Yuuri has written on his back in Japanese: 「ちほこを越える」 Or, in roumaji, Chihoko o koeru.

And here's the thing: those words are definitely Chihoko - direct object marking particle - verb to overcome or exceed in non-past tense.

In English, when we leave off the actor in a sentence, and say things like "Stop him" or "Fight me" we're using the imperative.

Like I said, my Japanese is not great. It is nonetheless good enough to distinguish between basic verb forms. So I am 100% certain that this is not the imperative form of the verb. I'm also 100% certain that it's not the volitional form of the verb (think, for instance, "let's eat!"). Instead, it's the non-past tense (think "[someone] eats" or "[someone] will eat").

So what the hell is this? Well, it depends on the topic of the sentence. In Japanese, this can be omitted when it's clear, or when the person writing it is dead drunk. (I'm aware that Victor was writing in Cyrillic, but the words he wrote in Cyrillic were only spoken in Japanese, so that's all we have to work from.)

From Victor's future actions, I'm going to take a guess that what Victor meant by this incredibly cryptic non-actor-specifying note is that he was going to go overcome Chihoko. Chihoko is more limber than Victor? Ha. Victor will show them all. Victor will show the entire world how awesome he is.

So he goes and climbs up Hasetsu Castle and starts stretching, because damnit, he's not going to let anyone outdo him. Along the way, presumably, he starts to sober up. And while Victor is Extra, and Victor is not entirely rational, he's rational enough to know that Yuuri chose him. Right around this time is probably when he announces that Chihoko may be Yuuri's past, but Victor is his now.

So Yuuri eventually this out. When he finds Victor, Victor demands to know if he's better than Chihoko, and Yuuri's response is, who the hell is Chihoko? I could search the world and nobody would be better than you.

Now let's pause. In the version of this story where it's nothing more than a simple crackfic done for laughs, this is a simple drunken misunderstanding that escalates to ridiculous proportions because of fanservice, and it ends with everyone naked ha ha ha, Victor is so extra.

But I don't think you get to be the best without being deeply insecure (and oh, I could talk for years about this). You learn to hide your insecurities, yes, because you learn from painful experience that it's a dick move to tell everyone who is worse than you how bad you actually are. But people who are secure in all ways very rarely push themselves beyond the edge of ability.

And this is why this is not pure crackfic. In the pure crackfic version of this story, Yuuri finds Victor naked and says, "Victor, you know I only want you, please come down. You're being ridiculous." And eventually, Victor finally understands that he's being ridiculous and Yuuri loves him and he comes down.

But this is not the pure crackfic version. Behind the simple drunken misunderstanding is an actual real emotional issue. The drunken misunderstanding just brought it to life. The issue is this: Victor feels insecure about Yuuri.

You know what wouldn't help Victor feel more secure about Yuuri? Being told that he's ridiculous and needs to tone himself down to be acceptable. The pure crackfic version is one that only pays attention to the drunken misunderstanding, and doesn't try to do anything about--or even exacerbates--the real emotion behind it all.

Instead, Yuuri strips and joins Victor on the roof, because he loves Victor as he is, because being extra means that sometimes extra shit happens. If Yuuri can help Victor feel secure in him, why not strip in front of friends, family, and an impending camera crew?

In other words, Yuuri meets Victor where he is. And I can't imagine anything more utterly romantic than that.

Obviously, I’ve done a whole mass of interpolation of emotions here, but... I don’t think I’m entirely wrong. And I very much think that Yamamoto and Kubo understand how hard world-class geniuses are on themselves. I’m sure they do it to themselves, too.

I have a lot more to say about why this gives me hope for the movie and season 2, but this post is already long enough. Some other time.

#chihokogate #overcome chihoko #yuri on stage #yuri on ice #meta #i am a victorstan and i will FIGHT you

[nebris]

In the future, will the English language be full of accented characters?

Here's something to think about as you sip your latté (or your piña colada) while listening to Beyoncé (or Mötley Crüe): Just how important to the English language are accented characters? And will they withstand the test of time?

We've included accents in some words for a long time; after all, we like to steal words from languages such as French, Italian, and German. But they're not an official part of the English alphabet, partly because they weren't so easy to type or typeset, and partly because … well, they're not English, are they? But the letters w and j and q weren't English originally, either. Nor was the apostrophe. And the letters þ and ð were English until we got rid of them. So is the accent on its way out, or is it seeping in?

Technology has long influenced our use of letters in language. For example, English has always had the sounds we now spell with the letters th, but we used to be able to write them with þ and ð. When printing presses arrived from Europe, their sets of type didn't include those characters, so those characters disappeared. On the other hand, it wasn't until more recent centuries that English speakers (and writers) found it useful to have an official distinction between v and u and between i and j (before then, Julius was just another way of writing Ivlivs) or decided we had a use for the letter w that came from Europe. And we didn't really need q, but it looks so ... Latin! So, the sets of type for our printing presses included those letters.

In other words, we adopt letters for a handful of reasons: usefulness, aesthetics, and because, well, we simply can. We abandon letters when it becomes too difficult to write or print them out.

The apostrophe has a similar history. It was invented in Italy, introduced into French in the early 1500s to indicate a dropped letter (something French does a lot), and then borrowed into English later in the same century to indicate the same kind of thing: I'm, 'tis, can't. It also indicated a dropped e in the possessive, so Shakespeare's play Love's Labour's Lost was originally Loues Labour's Lost because the e was dropped from Laboures but not from Loues (remember that u and v weren't separate characters yet!). But the idea of using an apostrophe before s in all singular possessives — and after s in all plural ones — caught on over time, partly because it helped make some useful distinctions, but also because it made the speaker seem smart. And it was part of our sets of moveable type.

So what about accented characters? If English didn't steal words from everywhere, we probably wouldn't have much use for accents. We could use a mark to distinguish between, for instance, the noun and verb forms of protest (prótest versus protést), but we've gotten along for centuries without it. The New Yorker, probably unnecessarily, lets readers know typographically that it understands how to pronounce coördinate. But when we need to distinguish between rose and rosé, divorce and divorcé, expose and exposé, or resume and résumé, accents start to look very attractive.

They also have a certain exotic charm. As Emmy J. Favilla says in her BuzzFeed style guide A World Without "Whom," "I'm partial to using accent marks any chance I can get, because they are cute." Benjamin Dreyer, copy chief of Random House, makes his opinion clear in Dreyer's English: "Sojourning in a chateau can't be nearly as much fun as sojourning in a château." We have a lot of weird silent letters in English spelling (as in people, isle, phthisis) for no other reason than to display where we pillaged the word from, so we're certainly going to want to keep that extra soupçon of éclat on the façade of jalapeño. Otherwise we would look naive — sorry, naïve. It's no accident that so many accented letters are found in food terms; we take savory delight in what seems exotic.

And yet we just don't see them as truly essential. We no longer put the circumflex on rôle or hôtel. We often implement accents incompletely, rendering carménère (a type of red wine grape) as carmenère, Ångström (a very small unit of measurement) as Ångstrom, and résumé as resumé. And sometimes we add them where they didn't even exist in the source: latté, for instance, from Italian latte, which has no need of the accent because in Italian you always say the e; maté and animé likewise add an accent as acupuncture to rouse a final e that we might otherwise treat as silent, though the source languages had no such need.

Certainly they can be fashionable. The double-dot crown named variously the diaeresis and the umlaut (a name taken from the sound change it signifies, just like accent) is especially popular in branding, where it almost never indicates any difference in pronunciation. Branding expert Nancy Friedman maintains an ever-growing collection of decoratively umlauted names, starting with the band Blue Öyster Cult, progressing through Häagen-Dazs, on through Freshëns and Yogen Früz, and on to Söfft, Melōränge, and iögo.

But, as Friedman has pointed out, "The diacritical marks may make for spiffy logos, but they have a downside: They don't show up in the web address, and they're rarely reproduced in newspaper stories." In fact, accents are against the rules for newspaper stories: The Associated Press Stylebook says flatly, "Do not use any diacritical or accent marks because they garble for some users."

Obviously not everyone agrees with this. The New Yorker would not coöperate with anyone who wanted to take away its precious diaereses. The Chicago Manual of Style, the leading guide for many book publishers, plants its flag squarely in the accent camp: "Words, phrases, or titles from another language that occur in an English-language work must include any special characters that appear in the original language." And, technologically, Chicago is more with the times than the AP: We are not on typewriters anymore; Unicode has made a huge variety of accented characters widely available, and even smartphone users have the means to add every accent you'll find in almost any European language.

But as long as accents are for words "from another language," they're not really part of English. And that means accented characters aren't officially real in this language. At least not yet.

In the end, though, the gatekeepers of orthography are the editors. And the views of future generations of editors, who not only enjoy good typography, but tend to believe in getting things right, are more likely to favor the accent. And those who flatly scorn them risk being passé.

https://theweek.com/articles/843837/future-english-language-full-accented-characters?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[fluffynexu]

Basics of Sith

Lesson 2: Specific Quirks

Language often reflects the cultural attitude of the society that uses it. The Sith language is no different and has a few unique features that make it a particularly difficult subject for non native speakers to learn.

These old rules and specifications found in Sith stem from their long history of using a rigid caste system. As such, the individual’s place in society in relation to others is considered very important.

There are three sets of pronouns that are simply categorized as: Subordinate Equal Superior

Subordinate Pronouns

Equal Pronouns

Superior Pronouns

One can usually tell how the speaker/writer is placed within Sith society in relation to the other person referred by the use of these specific pronouns.

Examples:

Sentence 1. The speaker/writer is referring to a person that outranks them. A Lord to a Darth or an apprentice to their master. You always refer to yourself (I, me, my) in the Equal pronoun form.

Sentence 2. They in this context obviously refers to a group of underlings.

Sentence 3. Posed as a casual question among equal standing individuals, such as a pair of acolytes.

Sentence 4 and 5. * These sentences deals with collectives, but the differences should be noted. When referring to a group of people that includes both the self and a higher ranking individual, you use the Equal form of the pronoun. ie. Two Lords + a Darth = Equal Pronouns When everyone in a group is of the same social ranking, you also use the Equal form. ie. Five Apprentices = Equal Pronouns But if the speaker is part of a group that’s in the presence of superiors, but not having said superior be an active part of the group, then it’s considered proper to use the Subordinate pronouns. ie. Three Acolytes near an Overseer = Subordinate Pronouns

Aside from using the proper form of the pronoun, many verbs also come in multiple forms depending on the factors mentioned above. So even a statement as simple as “She went out to eat last night.” can be written in at least two separate ways that sound and mean different things.

Everything is contextual and the Sith put a lot of emphasis on how everyone ranks to everyone else. Much of it is used in a formal or proper sense. Thus using the wrong form of a pronoun can make one seem ignorant at best and insubordinate at worst.

The exception to this rule would be in cases when the people involved are good friends, lovers, siblings, or things of that nature. Never child to parent though since that is also seen as a relationship where one party is seen as the superior.

This brings us to Family Terms.

Familial terms in Sith has many, many words for the various relations. Basic simplifies these terms into groups such as: uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, etc.

In Sith, each family member is called by a different term/title depending on how they are related to the self (I/me).

Things like mother and father are simple. It get a bit more complicated with older brother, older sister, younger brother, younger sister, and sibling*. *Among twins, regardless of genders.

Sith do not just have grandmothers. They have a grandmother-who’s-the-mother-of-my-mother and a grandmother-who’s-the-mother-of-my-father. The two grandfathers also have different terms.

Uncles and aunts all have different titles depending on a number of factors. Which side do they come from? Mother or father’s? Are they blood-related or married in? If they’re blood-related, are they older or younger than your mother/father?

And every cousin has a unique title to call by depending on which side of the family they’re from (mother or father) and which of the cousin’s parents is the blood-sibling of the self’s parents.

Children are straightforward with daughters, sons, and little one(s), which are used as an affectionate term. Nieces, nephews, and grandchildren also have specific family titles depending on how they’re related to the self. Is the niece your brother’s daughter or sister’s daughter? Is the grandson your son’s son or daughter’s son? And so forth.

As stated before, language reflects the cultural attitude of the people that speak it. The Sith have held family units in high regard, with the Ancients often being ruled by several influential Houses. As such, it was important to note how one refers to others in their own family, and this in turn reflects how on relates to the rest of society (as seen with the different pronoun forms).

Expressing Emotions

Sith, by their very nature, embrace every emotion. The way emotions are expressed and described are also complicated when compared to a language like Basic.

For example, contrary to popular galactic belief, the Sith often care and love for those in their lives. And while Basic may just have “love”, Sith has many words that relate to different kinds of love among the different relations. Such as: The love between friends, platonic and caring. The love between parents and their children. The love between yourself and others of your family, does not include children. The love between lovers, passionate and romantic. The love for oneself. etc.

This reflects how the Sith were, and are, obsessed with the different types of love, which formed deep, meaningful bonds with those in their lives.

Actions that relate to expressing an emotion, or various emotions, also come in different forms. So in Basic you would say something along the lines of “cried with joy” to denote a happy occasion, Sith naturally distinguish these sorts of actions. Other examples include how there are different words for “mourn” that all depend on the event and who has, most likely, died.

Lastly, Sith also has a rather extensive list of words that describe the various ways one can fight, kill, and be killed. But these will be covered more in depth in Lesson 12.

i ain’t smart of creative enough to actually make up words for this sort of post. you want Real Sith Words? go to @inquisitorhotpants xP

#swtor #sith pureblood #sith warrior #sith inquisitor #if you're wondering #lesson 1 was the alphabet and phonetics #lesson 2 is this crap #and lesson 3 will go on with Actual Grammar and Rules lol #but yea #try to imagine the different colors of the pronouns are actually different words #and stuff like that #EVERY language has its stupid-complicated bits #this is fact #so why not a conlang? lol #sith r basically.... super into emotions and they REALLY care about how society views them #(society in this case being other sith. they don't give two shits about what imperials or 'lower' ppl think) #worldbuilding #? #long post

[theeveningstar13]

COMMUNICATION WITH DEMONS

Communication with demons is a vital part of demonolatry and frequent practice in theistic satanism. Communication isn’t usually considered a magickal actper se, but thanks to demons you can get new ideas that can improve life in certain areas – in the same way as it could happens when doing a ritual or while casting a spell, or visualizing, doing affirmations, etc. When we are able to sense demons and their responses, we can work magically in unison (for example: while directing energies). Gaining extrasensory insight (not through usual, physical means) could be seen as magick. In my opinion, being sensitive to spiritual energies also means to be sensitive to magical energies so you can use it, which brings tangible results in life. That is why communication with demons is in my opinion an important part of satanic magick, especially when using theurgy or mixed approach! Summoning on the other hand is usually considered a magical act, but there is no communication without summoning first and there is no summoning if we have no intention to communicate in some way, that is why I consider these two topics as one. However in this article, I will discuss general communication with demons, but concrete methods of summoning will be placed in another article. Now that we established that this kinds of ability or abilities is very important part of satanic magick, let’s have a closer look on some basic points. There are few things you need to know or learn: 1) Everyone can learn how to communicate with or channel demons! There are people called mediums, who are born with natural gift to see various kinds of non-physical energies. However everyone can increase own sensitivity in that direction. Of course it requires some work but it’s easier then most people think. It is not an extraordinary skill, it is something quite common when you finally get to know it and you will find then that many people already receive such signals but are merely ignoring them. 2) Have realistic expectations! Nothing can block your experience like overgrown expectations build on Hollywood movies, gossips, fear, lack of knowledge (what you know becomes normal, safe and you can approach it calmly, without burden of extensive emotional reactions that can withhold or alter your control and effects). Demons don’t show in puff, sulfur smoke, they are not physical (although some claim to obtain physical manifestation, it is rather very rare and unusual – read: doubtful effect) so they don’t have body with horns, tails – those are just our projections. Demons are energetic beings so they can assume any form or none form at all. They can express both male and female energies, although some demons prefers one over another. For example, Lucifer could be a dashing female beauty in someones eyes. Experiences vary from person to person so one may see a demon as a horned beast, other as a tall man with dark eyes, others will see colorful balls of energy and others would only sense merely presence or physical/mental sensation without any form. Expectations are tied to convictions, that are often tied to your beliefs (even former beliefs) or social biases. If you are still afraid of demons and think of them only as malignant entities, you won’t be able to control your emotions and then your subconscious expectation of negative experience will manifest. So be sure to drop those kinds of convictions and clear out your biased convictions, otherwise your emotional reaction will produce an effect that is not to your liking or more commonly, your fear or heightened emotions will block the entire experience. So approaching and learning slowly how to summon and talk to demons will calm and familiarize you with the process. With time you will find that this is so easy and so normal, that you may be surprised how others overreact on such usual thing. Most experiences of that kind are very subtle so no flashes, no roars, sulfur or glowing portals from hell ;). 3) Learn to recognize demonic presence and communication! As stated above most of the process is very subtle so you need to make yourself more sensitive to signals that are all around and frankly quite common. You may even discover that you are already communicating with demons but you were not aware of that… Lots of inner dialog can be based on spiritual communication. Communication may happen in various ways: a) visual – you may see something in the corner of your eye (a color, a shape), see visions (not as hallucinations but merely as pictures in your mind, not so different from your visualizations that we have all the time when thinking about something,although sometimes skilled medium can see through physical eyes so it can happen), dream (definitely more vivid then usual dreams); b) vocal – various signals from clear sounds and voices in altered state of mind to mind to mind communication that is projected by our brain as voice (again like above: rarely as physical experience, mostly all happens within your mind); c) sensual – both physical (senses) and mental experiences (impressions – often mistaken and/or mixed with feelings/emotions, because many impressions induce some emotional reaction, however impressions in their nature are neutral, only later we assign them emotional meaning) are common here (shiver, cold, heat, sting, touch, blow, etc. and as well as presence and other mental impressions) d) emotional – hard to distinguishable from sensual one, usually those two melt together so you may experience a powerful form of a presence with emotional exhilaration, excitation (not just usual excitation but strengthened over normal amplitude – like on drugs but without negative effects and with full control and awareness) and yes – also love. Of course experiences rarely are so distinct, all forms of communications are possible at ones or various mixes of them, often with one more clear then others. Telepathic communication can embrace also various forms from above examples because it can be n0n verbal, for example when you ask or wonder about something, images or whole ideas and knowledge could suddenly pop in your mind (R. Monroe calls this package of thoughts – thought rotas). Or it could be plain verbal, just as if you were imagining discussion or someone talking to you. The big question is, how do I know it’s real, how do I know I am not imaging it? Unfortunately, there is no hard, scientific prove for that, you need to decide it for yourself. Experience it and see if it’s real for you. But there are some things that may help you verify your experience. Quite common method of confirmation is asking for sign and then throughout the day or next few days, you may notice meaningful writings in papers, sentences in TV, someone’s talking, animals, or all kinds of “coincidences” that happen too frequently, too harmonized, too aligned in short period of time that it could be just random. It may be something more tangible as noises, electricity spikes, things moving, falling off by itself, etc. Simply, all occurrences that are significant to you and the particular demon. Other thing that is important and points out that something more happens here, is when you ask something and then suddenly you know the answer. Or you ask yourself in mind and “imagine” someone answering and that answer is not like you expected but very helpful, wise, deep, almost as if someone other told you that… You may resist the message, yet it keeps coming stubbornly, not sensible to your personal liking.. Pragmatic approach is most helpful here: no matter if you are imaging it or not, what matters is the fact that those information, ideas are helpful, insightful and practical. Often those advises are so not like we would imagine it so it’s hard to follow, but demons are consequent. You ask, you receive. If and when to use it, that’s entirely up to you. The more you trust in your inner feelings and experiences, the more clear answers you get. However, there is no 100% certainty that you got the info right, none of esoteric methods can give you that, because our natural way of receiving spiritual guidance is always through creative meanings, so you can’t really separate if from things you think you make up, often those fantasized things are surprisingly accurate. Occasionally or when having a natural talent in that directions, answers may be so strong, so “loud”, that you are 100% sure that someone none-physical said it, although you can’t answer why. You just know, because it’s so tangible, so real, so clear, that you can’t ignore it. However, it’s not always like that, so be prepared for both, more subtle ways and those strong ones. Often when getting sudden ideas and writing or saying it, you get exhilaration, uplifting and the thought is building up, encouraging you to express it. You feel in those moments that you are spiritually inspired and there is something more in that process then meets the eye. Of course you are free to choose version that you are just extraordinarily creative and sensitive person. However often those inner thoughts are so complex, deep and surprising, that you may have troubles to express it fully by words.There is more to communication then language. That is why, instead listening, reading about channeled messages or others communicating with demons, learn it by yourself. You can do it! SUMMONING DEMONS – INVOCATION Invocation is the main technique of summoning demons used by satanists and demonolators. Before discussing details, let’s see what invocation is and how does it differs from evocation. An invocation (from the Latin verb invocare “to call on, invoke, to give”) is a magickal act in which we invite (politely) a spiritual entity to come. Invocation can take also a form of a prayer. During that process we open ourselves to spiritual energy of an entity, allowing for natural, unrestricted communication, exchange of energies, sometimes merging of consciousnesses. If a circle is created during ritual (not always), it is used for balancing of energies, creating a suitable environment for magician and summoned entity. Both are within circle. An invocation suggests: free, unrestricted exchange, politeness, respect, closeness, made on positive emotions. An evocation (from Latin word evocatio was the “calling forth” or “summoning away”) – is a magical act of commanding, forcing, threatening (with names and symbols – usually of Christianity) spiritual entity. Circle is created here every time to protect magician from summoned entity/energy and to bound, restrict entity within it. Magician is in that case outside the circle, demon inside. An evocation suggests: fear, restriction, forceful domination based on negative emotions. Remember, old grimoires are written from christian point of view so all rituals there are evocations. Satanists don’t use them but there is no problem with using such references, information and others to transform them into your invocation ritual. An invocation is most natural method of summoning demons (or any entity) and in opposition to evocation, it doesn’t create unnecessary tension and boundaries, which restrict flow of an energy. An evocation on the other hand requires a lot of energy and results are weak in comparison to opposite method. An invocation instead is or could be very simple and powerful. Because of that evocation isn’t only used by satanists to summon demons, but is also used by Christians or christian occultists to summon angels. There is simply no better technique that yields such results. Satanists don’t have to protect themselves from demons so they can summon demons as easily as christian occultists angels. The catch by the method of invocation in case of demons is, you need to let go completely of christian dualistic beliefs and notion of demons, otherwise your subconscious convictions cause unpleasant results. So you need to have complete satanic beliefs, positive attitude toward Satan and demons, then you will be able to work safely and receive satisfactory results. There are several ways of performing invocation: 1) An invocation ritual This is most complicated method but it is recommended for newbies who begin their journey through theistic satanism and/or demonoltry. It is also used by more advanced practitioners during celebration rites or by more special occasions, or if believed that this is the most proper way to do it. Below I place an exemplary, relatively simplistic ritual (for beginners) proposed by the TG (Traditional Demonolators) fromdemonolatry.org. Every proper ritual has 3 phases: a beginning, a body ritual, an end. a) Beginning – Chose a proper place, clean it so you would feel that this is not an ordinary occasion. Prepare all needed ritual utensils. Place four candles north, east, south, west (could be of any color, although I prefer black ones, but you can have one of each corresponding color) on each quarters of the circle. Altar is in the middle (more or less) of the circle, directed north or any direction you find suitable for that occasion. When you are ready, begin north invoking earth energy by calling on earth elemental demon of your choosing, for example Belial. Take deep breaths, relax mentally and physically. Take dagger/athame/stick/finger, point it upwards (at the sky) and draw in front of you ZD sigil as shown above on the picture, visualizing energy lines creating the symbol, reciting at the same time enn: Lirach Tasa Vefa Wehlic, Belial. You can repeat the enn three times. Imagine earth, its energy, feeling, entering the circle, creating it. Then you turn east and invoke air energy by calling upon Lucifer (or any air elemental demon of your choosing). Repeat previous step using Lucifer’s enn: Renich Tasa Uberaca Biasa Icar, Lucifer. Then visualize air energy, its feeling, entering the circle and creating it. Correspondingly you do the same south for fire (Flereous – Ganic Tasa fubin, Flereous.) and west for water (Leviathan – Jedan Tasa hoet naca, Leviathan.). In the center invoke Satan (Tasa reme laris Satan) as fifth element, the spirit, combining and balancing all elements together. Then you invoke chosen demon in the middle using his/her enn in similar way as by elements. b) Body ritual – That’s up to you, depends on what you want to achieve. You can write down your wishes, burn them, channel demon, draw picture/sigil or burn one, dance, sing, meditate, work with energy, visualize, have sex, make sacrifice, etc. c) End – Thank demon and all other elemental demons for being present and hearing you out, say goodbye, extinguish candles with fingers or candle extinguished (don’t blow off!). For demonic enns see this article. It’s good to write your all impressions, feelings and thoughts down. They may vary strongly, no ritual is the same. Depending on your focus and sensibility, you can achieve full, clear contact or slight, unclear impressions, in such case don’t worry. You will succeed with patience and motivation. Don’t try too hard. A ritual should be serious but also fun! Be creative. Your attitude must be light, only then you will be able to hear, sense demons. Ask them that you want to have clear answers and for the confirmation if you have doubts, it may come in few days or quicker. Many advanced magick users do rituals and create circle differently. Instead 4 points circle (based on square) you can base it on pentagram or triangle. Some practitioners report that the energy of shapes does matter here so a square offers very stable energy, a circle a balanced one, a triangle very intense one (don’t recommended for beginners). You can have shapes within shapes so for example four point circle encompassing triangle based altar (points of a figure are made by candles). With experience and confidence you can create your own rituals which work the best. Of course it’s good to follow general rules of ritual magick here. So for example: be rested. If you are exhausted, schedule ritual for different time (although there are some rituals that require to be fatigued mentally, probably because mind easier detaches itself from physical then, however control and focus drops down). Don’t eat too much and shortly before ritual (small fast could be a good idea if you are not distracted by hunger, otherwise light meal is the best way to go; sometimes food sacrifice is a part of a ritual – every rule has some exceptions), heavy stomach distracts, also digestion holds our energy more in physical range, so spiritual experiences may be harder to obtain if you are new to this. It’s good to darken the ritual space and let be lighted mostly by candles, but rituals can be also done with full light, loud music. Whatever takes you in proper mood. 2) A prayer – could be enough to initiate a contact – yes! it is sometimes so simple! Prayer could be also a part of body ritual. The form and words of a prayer are up to you. 3) A simple mental invitation – With time, experience or talent you may receive connection with chosen demon at any moment easily just by asking him/her in thoughts or even just by thinking about him/her! Or you may have easiness to connect in such way with certain demons while with others you must take more work. Some demons are easier, some harder to get in touch with, depends on person, there is no rule here. For example, when starting a tarot session I ask Vassago to come and I ask for clarity and accuracy of reading. I receive message that he is there, then I begin, as simple as that! Sometimes I am asked about certain demon and immediately I hear this demon answering me, I receive additional information mentally. It’s not always like that but it happens. Understand that with time communication with demons will be coming easily and naturally, if it isn’t already. 4) If the above mentioned methods of summoning demons aren’t doing anything for you, you may try a different one (as I said, there are many ways of obtaining the same result). Read my article aboutSatanic Astral Temple for more info! Remember, demons can hear you mentally unrestricted so you can’t hide anything. But they don’t have ego like we do so they don’t judge, don’t react exactly like people. They may seemingly sound and react humanly at first glance, but they don’t get angry, resentful, scared, jealous. If they do, then you are not talking with demon only with lesser energy (residue after living person) or there is a chance you’re making it up… However, demons may give you kick in some way. It is known for some to experience small electric discharges if you violate the agreement (like: you oblige to drop smoking yet you had moment of weakness) to make you remember. They are not fairies so they can be blunt. When speaking to demons, there is no reason to worry about wording, demons read our intentions and understand our thoughts and emotions better then we do. And they do have sense of humor. So relax, let go of fear and allow demons to merge with your energy. In time and frequent contacts with demons you may notice you have changed and behave more like them. How to choose a proper demon? There are few methods: – Study the literature, take all demons that sound helpful with your matter and analyze your feelings about his/her name, enn, sigil. Choose one that appeals to you the most. If you still have no clue, try to contact with each of them. The most proper one creates immediate, strong, clear connection, creating feeling of excitement. – Trust your feelings. If you are fascinated in certain demon, there is a high chance he/she represents things in which you are strong and… weak (great chance to learn). Or you may just know which one is best for the occasion. – Demon chooses you. You feel very strong attraction or something calls you, you feel personal energy calling for your attention. You find clues, events, “coincidences” that raise your interest in a demon. – Ask mentally, which demon would be most suitable in given situation and wait for response. When it comes, ask for name. In that way often you meet demons that are not mentioned in literature. Don’t worry. There are thousands of thousands of thousands demons and more. In literature we meet only fraction of them so it’s not surprising if a “new” demon answers. DEMONIC ENNS Enns are sentences (in unknown, demonic language) of invitation, admiration or requests for protection for particular demons. Enns were channeled by various persons. For first time they appear in private grimoires of demonolator Alexander Willit in 16th century and since then they appear in practice of various demonolator families (and lately outside of them too). Traditional demonolators claim that the same enns (or similar) were channeled independently by two different person in different location and that they stay consistently the same. Although we have no dictionary of every world used in enns, no knowledge about its grammar (it does exist, hence language), we know some words and are aware roughly what some enns mean. For example Ganic Tasa Fubin Flereous could be translated as Fire protect the flame, Lord Flereous. Enns are said, chanted or vibrated during various demonolatry rites or meditation. For examples see thisS. Connoly’s video. You don’t need to concern too much about the spelling. People use various versions of it depending on their native language and personal feeling how enns should be said. Intention is what counts the most so don’t worry about correctness. For more details about spelling watch this video. List below consists of enns of Dukante and of Goetia hierarchy in alphabetic order*. Abbadon – Es na ayer Abbadon avage Abigor – Aylan Abigor tasa uan on ca Agaliarept – On ca Agaliarept agna Agares – Rean ganen ayar da Agares Agares – Rean ganen ayar da Agares Aim – Ayer avage secore Aim Alloces – Typan efna Alloces met tasa Amducious – Denyen valocur avage secore Amducious Amdusias (also Amdukias) – Denyen valocur avage secore Amdusias Ammon – Avage Secore Ammon ninan Amon – Avage Secore Amon ninan Amy (also Avnas) – Tu Fubin Amy secore Andras – Entey ama Andras anay Andrealphus – Mena Andrealphus tasa ramec ayer Andromalius – Tasa fubin Andromalius on ca Asafoetida – Asana nanay on ca Asafoetida Ashtaroth – Tasa Alora foren Ashtaroth Asmoday – Ayer avage Aloren Asmoday aken Asmodeus – Ayer avage Aloren Asmodeus aken Astarot – Serena Alora Astartot Aken Astaroth – Tasa Alora Foren Astaroth Astarte – Serena Alora Astarte Aken Azazel – Eya on ca Azazel aken Babeal – Alan Secore on ca Babeal Bael – Ayer Secore On Ca Ba’al Balam – Lirach tasa vefa wehl Balam Balberith – Avage Secoré on ca Baalberith Barbatos – Eveta fubin Barbatos Bathin – Dyen Pretore on ca Bathin Beelzebuth (also Beelzebub) – Adey vocar avage Beelzebuth Beleth – Lirach tasa vefa wehl Beleth Belial – Lirach Tasa Vefa Wehl Belial Belphegore – Lyan Ramec Catya Ganen Belphegore Berith – Hoath redar ganabal Berith Bifrons – Avage secore Bifrons remie tasa Botis – Jedan hoesta noc ra Botis Buer – Erato on ca Buer anon Bune (also Bime) – Wehl melan avage Bune Tasa Camio (also Caim) – Tasa on ca Caim renich Cimejes (also Cimeies or Kimaris) – Ayer avage secore Cimejes Crocell – Jedan tasa Crocell on ca Dantalion – Avage ayer Dantalion on ca Decarabia – Hoesta noc ra Decarabia secore Delepitoré – Deyen pretore ramec Delepitore on ca Eligos – Jedan on ca Eligos inan Eurynomous – Ayar Secore on ca Eurynomous Flereous (also Haures – see below) – Ganic Tasa Fubin Flereous Focalor – En Jedan on ca Focalor Foras – Kaymen vefa Foras Forneus – Senan okat ena Forneus ayer Furcas – Secore on ca Furcas remie Furfur – Ganen menach tasa Furfur Gaap – Deyan Anay Tasa Gaap Glasya-Labolas – Elan tepar secore on ca Glasya-Lobolas Gremory (also Gemory or Gamori) – An tasa shi Gremory on ca Gusion – Secore vesa anet Gusion Haagenti – Haaventi on ca Lirach Halphas – Erato Halphas on ca secore Haures (also Flauros, Flereous, Haurus, or Havres) –Ganic tasa fubin Flauros Ipos – Desa an Ipos Ayer Leraje (also Leraikha) – Caymen vefa Leraje Leviathan – Jaden Tasa Hoet Naca Leviathan Lillith – Renich viasa avage lillith lirach Lucifage – Eyen tasa valocur Lucifuge Rofocale Lucifer – Renich Tasa Uberaca Biasa Icar Lucifer Luithian – Advisor : Deyan anay tasa Luithian Malphas – Lirach tasa Malphas ayer Mammon – Tasa Mammon on ca lirach Marax (also Narax) – Kaymen Vefa Marax Marbas – Renach tasa uberace biasa icar Marbas Marchosias – Es na ayer Marchosias Secore Mesphito – Mesphito ramec viasa on ca Murmur (also Murmus) – Vefa mena Murmur ayer Naberius – Eyan tasa volocur Naberius Oriax (also Orias) – Lirach mena Orias Anay na Orobas – Jedan tasa hoet naca Orobas Ose (also Voso or Oso) – Ayer serpente Ose Paimon – Linan tasa jedan Paimon Phenex (also Pheynix) – Ef enay Phenex ayer Purson – Ana jecore on ca Purson Rashoon – Taran Rashoon nanay Raum – Furca na alle laris Raum Ronove – Kaymen vefa ronove Ronwe – Kaymen Vefa Ronwe Rosier – Serena Alora Rosier Aken Sabnock – Tasa Sabnock on ca Lirach Sallos (also Saleos) – Serena Alora Sallos Aken Samigina (also Gamigin) – Esta ta et tasa Gamigin Satan – Tasa reme laris Satan – Ave Satanis Satanchia – Furca na alle laris Satanchia Seere (also Sear or Seir) – Jeden et Renich Seere tu tasa Shax – Ayer Avage Shax aken Sitri – Lirach Alora vefa Sitri Sonnelion – Ayer Serpente Sonnillion Stolas (also Stolos) – Stolos Ramec viasa on ca Svengali – Desa on Svengali ayer Taroon – Taroon an ca nanay Tezrian – Ezyr ramec ganen Tezrian Unsere – Unsere tasa lirach on ca ayar Uvall (also Vual or Voval) – As ana nany on ca Uvall Valefor – Keyman vefa tasa Valefor Vapula (also Naphula) – Renich secore Vapula typan Vassago – Keyan vefa jedan tasa Vassago Vepar – On ca Vepar Ag Na Verrier – Elit Rayesta Verrier Verrine – Elan Typan Verrine Vine – Eyesta nas Vine ca laris Volac (also Valak, Valac, or Valu) – Avage Secore on ca Volac Zagan – Anay on ca secore Zagan tasa Zepar – Lyan Ramec catya Zepar * – Some demon names could be differently spelled throughout various literature; in many situations you can treat them as synonyms, however there are some purists who insist claiming that one name=one demon; most people reasonably accepts changes and various spellings that grew over time; enns above could have the same or sometimes slightly different version for different name spellings; in practice use the one you feel most comfortable with. If you don’t have a proper enn for demon you want to work with, don’t worry. You can ask for it in meditation or simpler: use invitation in your native language, like for example: Belial, I politely invite you to visit me orVassago, help me in my divination workings, let them be precise and clear, or Lord Beelzebub attend this rite and fill me with your strength, etc. For me enns work powerfully and when I have occasion to use them, I prefer them instead of my native language, because they feel clear, unburdened with meanings of normal words, sacred, focused on this one goal. However you are free not to use them if you feel like it. Enns are not necessary part of workings with demons, but can be a great help.

[hankalorinczova]

Abstractness (The Universe Of Geniuses) Part 2 (English Version) (Preview)

William Shakespeare was born on 23rd April 1564 in England in Stardford Upon Avon, which is a town, not a hamlet. He was a genius, a verbal polymath and he wrote tens of theatre plays such as Romeo And Juliet, Othelo, Macbeth or Hamlet. He was also a Taurus as a star sign and had as a dominant water and air cardinal star signs. I know it from a specific website www.astrotheme.com and there are also other different words and lines. As the entire universe know and oh, time and space as well, William Shakespeare wrote, create, made the universe from words. I really personally doubt that he had a vocabulary size 17 000-29 000 words, oh even 66 000 as they estimate him, is not enough. I would estimate his vocabulary being far beyond 100 000 words, maybe even 180 000, oh what a verbal love! I also doubt and I should doubt that William Shakespeare had the level of English ,,only” C2. According the matter of fact that he created at least 1 700 words, I should invent the new English level- D2. D2- oh, that´s the level of inventors, creators, geniuses, originators and innovators of any language. I would definitively say that William Shakespeare would have and had the level of English D2 and being the oposite of people who know only words being in the middle of the vocabulary, such as a ,,bridge.” I also doubt that William Shakespeare would had ,,only” IQ of 160 points, even though that one website estimates him IQ 210. I can certainly proclaim, that William Shakespeare had IQ at least 180 and vocabulary of at least 180 000 words. Oh, how I hate and didn´t believe the myths and the conspiration theories, that William Shakespeare ,,was” or more correctly were more people. If William Shakespeare is genius (which he of course is) how could be explained that this genius ,,are” a group of people? Then it absolutely doesn´t fit any scale, curve, statistics, where the amount of geniuses is so incrediblly small. I really doubt that he was ,,a group of people”, because I should ask ,,why there are so many geniuses” and that´s all. Of course it is a nonsense and a subjectively created conspiracy theory, but there are facts, that are more interesting. For example William Shakespeare was born and died the same day, but the different year of course, these facts I can bring. 23rd April 1564- 23rd April 1616, oh and Leonardo Da Vinci died almost exactly 100 years ago on 2nd May 1519. Of course Leonardo Da Vinci was almost born in the same star sign as he died, but only almost. While William Shakespeare was born in the same star sign as when he died, that´s what is interesting the most. The same star sign, oh even the same day, as we all can prove, hear, read, write and say. But also Michelangelo Buonarotti died in 1564, yes, exactly the year William Shakespeare was born. And oh, even Michelangelo Buonarotti was born in the same star sign as when he died, but almost. Oh, it is such a plesure, great feeling that probably no work and masterpiece made in their existence is not destroyed or lost. It is also due and thanks to work, genius, masterpiece and existence of Johannes Gutenberg, Alan Turing of old, renaissance era. But all these people lived in past so they didn´t and could´t know Era (Istrefi). But oh, renaissance is one of my favourite period, era and time. There were a few geniuses at the same time, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Johannes Gutenberg, Michelangelo Buonarotti, William Shakespeare, oh how I wish I had their talent, intellect and genius, how I wish it were mine! I also find in some YouTube video the myth (what I believe that it´s a myth), that William Shakespeare ,,took drugs.” Oh, why? Really? How could it be? He would´t be able then to create, originate and make his own masterpieces, because people who take drugs are lately more feeble and weak, they cannot even hug. This particular art is my attempt to make at least 1 000 pages of abstract describtion of every genius, or the more the better. This particular one is about William Shakespeare and of course it has the form of a poem a poetry, not a prose, a letter.  It will sure has much more parts, as well as alphabethic part with notions of everything. But even the word which is so much far away from somebody such as William Shakespeare, it could and it should be connected as anything. I will use the dictionary, because I haven´t learnt all these 170 000 words, yet. I do selfishly and altruistically (at the same time) hope that it will be fed. That it will feed all my desire, goal, aim, inspiration and aspiration to fill and create all the 1 000 pages about each genius. It will be connected togheter to one electronic book, but I think and I hope it is more than about ,,us.” William Shakespeare´s wife had the same name as a famous American actress- Anne Hathaway. O, what a destiny, what and art art thou! What a way. Of course you might notice that I used a language that is not typical for nowadays English. It was used in times of William Shakespeare and old English as we all can distinguish. I have to admit I Googled what rhymes with the word ,,English.” O, what a shrew, what a ungenius creature and person I am! I had to even search and seek for the expresion ,,I am” in old English. But then I searched and realised it´s the same. It is a ingenious and interesting website where anyone can write a text or anything and it will translate it into old English, when William Shakespeare lived. For example: O, the univ’rse, thee infinite amount of timeth and space! But wait, is this supposed to be a plagiarism? It sounded exactly like me (Hanka Lőrinczová) mixed with William Shakespeare, it wasn´t like I create a new movement an ,,ism.” It is a metaphore for a genetic mixture or a nature, isn´t it? But I should my words better fit. First of all I know I do it in the matter of art and because of art, but I should beware the word order. The first is in English language the subject, the second is an auxiliary verb the third is a verb, that´s the order. ,,O,” is an onomatopoeic word and a vowel frequently used by William Shakespeare in his masterpieces. I didn´t read them, o, what a shame! But I saw two theatre plays and read only pieces. Once upon a time I talked with my parents and a friend of my mother about who am I closest to characters created by William Shakespeare. I though that I would be someone like Hamlet, but my mother´s friend said that I would be a Catherine. Oh, when I saw her character in The Taming Of The Shrew I thought that should be the oposite of me! She was frustrated, choleric, proud and very energic. She was quite untamable. It is really interesting, because william Shakespeare and English Actor Benedict Cumberbatch have the same dominant planets in astrology, it´s really unbelievable. They have also same dominant planets- Cancer and Libra and a lot of cardinal star signs as dominants it´s really irreplaceable, incredible and unimaginable. As I was writing about what characters in all William Shakespeare´s masterpieces would be the closest to me. I thought it would be someone as Hamlet, but my mother´s friend thouth it was a Catherine as we all could see. As we all could see written there, but in fact I do think and believe it is not true. I am absolutely no phenomenon and prodigy, I have seen in my life only two works of William Shakespeare, but what about you? Some people and some geniuses spent a lifetime and their entire existence reasearching about other geniuses such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Alan Turing, William Shakespeare... Some people, geniuses and creatures (particularly Leonardo Da Vinci and William Shakespeare) are so mysterious, enigmatic and puzzling, but positivelly without any fear. We as a mankind create an infinite amount of conspiracy theories about them, sometimes they are more positive, sometimes they are more negative, sometimes the mankind even doubt their existence. But what would do the universe of science, technology and art without the existence of Leonardo Da Vinci and Alan Turing or William Shakespeare and even me writing this very sentence? As I am approaching the 1/1 000 of my own creation about every single geniuses. It means that I will have the first page of this poetry. Once upon a time I searched and I found on the interenet that the past tense of William Shakespeare would be WouldIWas Shookspeared and I would like to say and write that English is infinitively colourful language. I could demonstarte, show and indicate it right now: for example the simple past simple: William Shakespeare created the universe from words. Or even realistic past continuous: William Shakespeare was creating the universe of words. Or what about the past perfect, a more surrealistic one: William Shakespeare had created the universe of words. And now even the more surrealistic present perfect: William Shakespeare has created the universe of words. The surrealism itself the present simple: William Shakespeare creates the universe of words. Not the less surreal present continuous: William Shakespeare is creating the universe of words. In this case one of the most surrealistic type of tenses the future perfect: William Shakespeare will have created the universe of words. Or even more- the future simple: William Shakespeare will create the universe of words. What about the future continuous: William Shakespeare will be creating the universe of words. Or oh, I forgot the ,,going to”: William Shakespeare is going to create the universe of words. What about the real, possible and unreal condition? If the universe is infinite, William Shakespeare creates the universe of words. Or the possible condition? If the universe is infinite, William Shakespeare will create the universe of words. Or the unreal condition? If the univerese were infinite, William Shakespeare would create the universe of words. I am aware that the last unreal condition sounded very sad, if it would be true. But what about conditionals? Words are always better than swords. For example- William Shakespeare could create the universe of words. Or even- William Shakespeare should create the universe of words. Or what about- William Shakespeare would create the universe of words. That´s enough of English grammar for now. But I should and I shall or I would write a lot of about Williams Shakespeare´s quotes, works and existence. As I wrote, all the most talented, intelligent, smart, sophisticated, unique, exceptional, wise geniuses influenced the universe even me writing this very sentence. And I even wrote the sentence,,William Shakespeare created the universe of words.” In every English tense. Are there 10 English sentences? That´s the question! But it is much more practical and much less existential. Than the question ,,To be or not to be?” Which is much more existential and quintessential. Quintessetial for William Shakespeare, quintessential for renaissance, humanism and everything what is related to it. For example such eras as antique and antiquity, roman art or even realism. The oposite of gothic, romantism or other ,,ism.” The most basic, quintessential, vital, essential, crucial, universal and general phrase invented by William Shakespeare is definitively ,,infinite space.” But there are many more phrases and words invented by him such as these followed in the other verses with such an infinite and eternal grace. ,,It smells to heaven” is quit an ingenious, funny and witty metaphor also as the first one from the tragedy and drama- Hamlet. ,,Kill with kindness” is such a touching, emotional, telepathic, telekinetic connection of William Shakespeare with Selena Gomez herself. Selena Gomez had a song ,,Kill Em With Kindness” oh, what a telepathy, telekinesis and wonder itself! It could also demonstrate and show the fact, that William Shakespeare was born in the first decade of Taurus star sign. Why? It´s the essential question. Because the word ,,kill” is related to violence as we all know the energic Aries sometimes like to be angry. But also they have a Mars as they planet. While the Tauruses have Venus as a planet and the word ,,kindness” is in this case related to them, and they are for food, love and piece hungry. So that´s why this esoteric and astrological combination of William Shakespeare being born on the first decade of Taurus, after the Aries star sign. Oh, this phrase had six verses and almost all words were there mine. Almost all words- that´s absolutely no fame and glory. Why I am quoting William Shakespeare? And will I tell also anything abstract of his stories? ,,As merry as day is long.” Is also a phrase invented by William Shakespeare and it reminds me subconsciously of famous Romanian singer Inna. She was born on the third decade of star sign Libra, if she were born 27th October 1986, but different year, she would be exactly the oposite star sign as William Shakespeare. But anyway, she has a lot of Scorpion in her planets, so Scorpion is her dominant star sign. And Scorpion is in astrology the oposite sign of Taurus, the sign of William Shakespeare. ,,Brave new world.” Is also a universe-like phrase invented by him. It could be also related to something as in case of ,,infinite space.” There are absolutely no defeat, lost, only victory in creating the new art, word, phrases, literature and also a lot of victory such as the symbol of the ace. ,,Brake the ice.” Is also the quote from William Shakespeare, but wait, didn´t Britney Spears borrow it in the name of her older song? Even though the originality, genius, creativity of William Shakespeare was, is and will be the best, in the borrowing of words there is nothing wrong. William Shakespeare and Britney Spears were so different star signs, intellects, temperaments, creatures, but they surname is similar. Equally as Will.I.Am, a famous musician from the famous group The Black Eyed Peas has the same first name, but they are also equally different, they are absolutely not the same.

,,Dog will have his day.” Would or could be the phrase of William Shakespeare if or when he looked at a cute, nice and aesthetical animal named a dog. There are also some type and breed of dogs who are so clearly- coloured and also one-coloured not misty and foggy a fog. Some people the right, exact, absolute and abstract oposite of William Shakespeare himself were ,,devil incarnate.” They would only destroy, kill, lie, sin, curse everything and they would only enjoy and eat and ate. The phrases and sentences as ,,men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water” and ,,melted into thin air” define the two dominant elements in the horoscope of William Shakespeare- the water and the air. They are also perfect together, they also fit perfectly and so do the earth and fire- the dominant elements of myself, but is it real and is it fair? The phrase ,,shooting star” was used in so many songs of 20. and 21. century. I know it is a little out and far away, but there is one constellation named Proxima Centaury. And now what about some quotes of William Shakespeare? For example the first one- ,, Beauty itself doth of itself persuade. The eyes of men without an orator.” This sentence means that words are extremely powerful. He also use the archaic (in that time modern) word ,,doth” which means ,,do”, oh the English language is so incredibly rich and colourful. ,,Time’s glory is to calm contending kings. To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light.” This is a quote about the power, base, instrumentality and the virtue of time. Oh, how I wish any base, instrumentality, vitality, essence, creativity genius were mine. ,,That deep torture may be called a hell. When more is felt than one hath power to tell.” Even the mastery and genius of William Shakespeare realised that even hell cannot be described by words. There is an infinite but temporary evil, heinousness, stupidity, idiocy, psychopathy and only wars, violence, curse words and metaphorical swords. And what about the one of the dominant elements in William Shakespeare´s horoscope-the air (as also with water). For example in ,,On a day-alack the day! Love, whose month is ever May. Spied a blossom passing fair. Playing in the wanton air.” Oh, he was originator, creator and father! Of so many words, phrases and sentences which could be so characteristic to the fixed star signs. Oh, he even mentioned the month May, which is the month where there is a star sign of Taurus William Shakespeare´s star sign. And the word ,,love” he had also some dominant planets in astrology such as Pluto, Moon, Venus, but what planets are ,,mine”? ,,Crabbed age and youth cannot live together. Youth is full of pleasure, age is full of care.” And this is that two oposites and contrasts cannot coexist together. I know it with my own experience and I will know it from now on and on, forever. ,,Good frend for Jesus sake forbeare. To digg the dust encloased heare. Blese be the man that spares these stones. And curst be he that moves my bones.” This is mainly about the stupid vandalism executed on the cemetery. But how could someone do it even on a grave of someone such genius and verbally polymath such as William Shakespeare was? That would be an infinite and eternal sin. Really and very. And that is what connect William Shakespeare with the earthy life and transcendental life, because it´s his epitaph. It is on the plays where humans are transporting and traveling from the earthy to eternal transcendent world. There are things, people, animals, situations, time and space which no one has ever done, thought and told. And now we are approaching the other dimension of infinite and eternal works of existence of William Shakespeare, such as these. ,,What light through yonder window breaks?” That´s from one of his most famous, basic and quintessential masterpiece- Romeo And Julia, but there are many more words in English language I unlike William Shakespeare don´t know with ease. This verse was so long it doesn´t even fit to the line and it created another. Why is this poem not aligned? That´s the question! ,,What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.” It is such a great verse about the meaning, semantics and words, the best example in the history of literature. Why am I called Hanka Lőrinczová and why w´re thou called William Shakespeare. Would it change our entire existence if our names were not be the same? It could change some events in history, but could it change us equally as we would change the name? If the universe is called ,,vesmír” in Slovak language and ,,univers” in Romanian does it belittle and underestimate its majesty, genius and universality? If the word ,,genius” is ,,génius” in Slovak language does it diminish and underestimate its beauty, universality and versatility? The answer is ,,no”! And that´s the main idea of legendary, genius and prodigious quote of William Shakespeare. Or even the other worldwide famous one and so incredibly legendary ,, O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?” The bad, evil or mystic conspiracy theories proclaim the mystical and subjective, false question ,, O, William Shakespeare, William Shakespeare! Wherefore aren´t thee William Shakespeare?” The main idea of this last verse was that some people believe the false, wrong and absolutely subjective proclaim that William Shakespeare ,,was” more people and with a fear... ...They also believe that William Shakespeare didn´t have his own name or any other fantasies and faleshoods, illusions and mistakes. ,,I would fain die a dry death.” Is also a quote from The Tempest by William Shakespeare, but this one is much more dramatic and sad. He meant and he means that he would like to die rather peacefully, but I believe and I think he absolutely deserve not to die and I will be incredibly eternally and infinitivelly glad. But now he is in the eternity and infinity and on the Earth his existence, masterpieces, art, literature and a verbal polymathism will be alive and existing to infinity. He created the universe of words, the dimensions of words, the worlds and also the eternity. ,,Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground.” Of course, you don´t have to, William Shakespeare! Why give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground?! It is so unecessary and he or you wouldn´t deserve it. What a fear! Why spend so much energy, time and space for something what is so little, small and insufficient? When somebody such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Alan Turing or William Shakespeare deserve something in a way much more sufficient. ,,What seest thou else. In the dark backward and abysm of time?” This reminds me of one quote from the other genius, polymath and saint. His name was Alan Turing and he once said ,,We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done. “ And he mastered seven scientific fields. This verses and quotes are about the darkness and light and the obscurity and fog of the time, and the enigmatic eternity what all of the creatures yearn. ,,I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated to closeness and the bettering of my mind.” This is about the fact even though William Shakespeare dismisses, rejects and neglects the earthy, worldly desires. But is it about the asceticism? Who knows. But it is certainly aimed against all the insufficient and time consuming hedonism, tameless desires and choleric fires. ,,Like one. Who having into truth, by telling of it. Made such a sinner of his memory. To credit his own lie.” Is this the predecessor of the aphorism that ,,The repeated lie is becoming a truth?” Maybe yes, because William Shakespeare was the inventor, creator, father and originator of so many words, phrases and sentences, that´s objective, that´s the truth. ,,My library. Was dukedom large enough.” I do know this is just a quote from one of William Shakespeare play. But even Sigmund Freud would proclaim that everything we write and say... ...Is related to our subconsciousness and this is even in the case of William Shakespeare and his works, masterpieces and plays. Where he creates his characters and what who is going to write, think, do and say. This particular one is about the literature, library, words and other masterpieces and the metaphor of the dukedom or the empire of words. As I wrote and I wouldn´t like to repeat myself but he created the universe of words and it took us to another dimensions and worlds. ,,Knowing I lov’d my books, he furnish’d me. From mine own library with volumes that. I prize above my dukedom.” This is quite mind consuming, timeless and hard to understand. For William Shakespeare it is so typical, so quintessential, so archetypal and prototypal that many of us this understand and at the same time sometimes his verses are hard to understand. Because they are so genius, intelligent, intellectual, smart, wise and talented at the same time. But of course, soemtimes I really doubt if even my verses are like that, therefore if they are like that. ,,Fill all thy bones with aches.” It is more about the drama, tragedy and the pain of earthy life. I suppose and I think it is from one of his tragedy, but I am not sure. If people are dead at the end or if they aren´t. And if it is full of tragedy or knifes. ,,Here is everything advantageous to life. True; save means to live.” This should and could be an ode from William Shakespeare to Alan Turing. Who´s existence saved far beyond tens of millions of lifes and he always knew what he was thinking, saying and doing. I do believe that Alan Turing would always perfectly and absolutely understand and fit with someone like William Shakespeare himself. And what is the biggest meaning of life than saving the more lifes the better and saving the life itself? ,,A very ancient and fish-like smell.” It is a comparison to the antiquity and old. In the past we don´t know what will be in the future done, thought and told. ,,He that dies pays all debts.” I do believe and I do think that this is about the last judge, bethween the life and death. But I don´t know if even in The Tempest are people at the end dead. ,,A kind of excellent dumb discourse.” It is about something that I do believe that William Shakespeare and creatures like him were too genius to be capable of them. But unlike his characters, who were written sometimes even with the lower, more personal style, words, phrases, sentences and items. ,,With foreheads villanous low.” I do think this is about the theory or a fact that genius and intelligent people have longer forehead. Than villains, bad and stupid people who would like to kill, lie, curse, make violence and for example to cut someone´s head. ,,Deeper than did ever plummet sound. I ’ll drown my book.” Dear, William Shakespeare, please don´t thee ev’r drowneth thy booketh, thy mast’rpiece, thy art! There are infinite and eternal thruths, values, arts, masterpieces, words, phrases, sentences and even some phrases such as ,,thou art.” ,,Merrily, merrily shall I live now. Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.” Thou surely shall, William Shakespeare. Why? Thou absolutely deserve it! In fact to live merrily is what you do deserve and what you did deserve at last. We all knew, we all know and we all will know that your art, masterpieces and existence will last. ,,O, how this spring of love resembleth. The uncertain glory of an April day!” You wrote ,,the uncertain glory or an April day.” But I do believe that it is a subconciouss thought about thy birthday, William Shakespeare and I do believe what I say. It sure wouldn´t be an uncertain glory, but a very certain glory and fame. Also with the fact about the rose what no matter of what name... She would have, she would be in fact the same existence. And so would I writing, saying, creating, making, originating this very sentence. ,,And if it please you, so; if not, why, so.” This is about the typical Venus-like character of William Shakespeare as I wrote that he had one of the dominant planets Venus, Pluto and Moon. It is also about the delights, joy which are also characteristic atribute and alegory of Venus and also the love and mood. ,,That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man. If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.” This verse is about the cowardice, but particularly masculine in this case. Or why is the tongue so important for our life? Without tongue it would be probably almost impossible to talk, speak, if not absolutely impossible. But I do believe that sometimes in the poetry, poems, literature, art sometimes there is anything possible. ,,A man I am, cross’d with adversity.” O, William Shakespeare wherefore art thy characters and roles in adversity? They don´t deserve it, or do they? Of course it should be equally as in films, in literature, in work of art that good people deserve prosperity while evil people deserve adversity, but sadly it is not always like that. ,,Is she not passing fair?” O, I doth not know! But no mather which way she is passing, is her aim and goal fair, sincere and honest? That´s almost as basic, fundamental, vital and crucial question as ,,to be or not to be”, but only almost. ,,O heaven! Were man, but constant, he were perfect.” Alright I shall proclaim I doth not understand thy highly intellectual and genius verses, William Shakespeare. But I could at least try. This particular one is about the perfection, absolutness and abstraction of the heaven itself as an unknown dimension, but without any fear. ,,Come not within the measure of my wrath.” Oh, I do believe that only William Shakespeare´s characters had sometimes an ager and wrath and he didst not. The wrath, anger, stupidity, violence, curse, killing, wars was never good, are never good and will be never good. It is still better to cut it, stop it and to give it a dot. ,,I will make a Star-chamber matter of it.” Thou surely shall and could! But everything what some geniuses make, create, do, tell, think is just universal masterpiece. And this masterpiece is always were maximalistic, precise and made from every single atom and its piece. ,,All his successors gone before him have done ’t; and all his ancestors that come after him may.” It depends on which this quote is adressed to. I am a metaphorical illiterate and analphabet, so excuse me, William Shakespeare, it does perfectly look like I am the oposite of thee, more modern, you. But it is just a matter of fact and quite an absurdity that I do like writing more than I like reading. It is quite surrealistic and absurd as I wrote, but it is rather like a surrealistic and dadaistic dreaming. ,,It is a familiar beast to man, and signifies love.” If thou allowed me to take this sentence out of the context of thy play, I would just think and say: This is about love itself equally as about animals and pets, but I do hope I didn´t take this literally, but in more abstract and metaphorical way. ,,Seven hundred pounds and possibilities is good gifts.” I would rather say and think that 700 possibilities are so much better gifts and I do think so doth thou, William Shakespeare. But 700 pounds is merely a materialistic desire and yearning from thy characters, not from thee. It can or could also significate and mean that they possess some characteristics from thy star sign Taurus, but not from you. But this particular astrological, horoscope phenomenon is not what we called in psychology déja vu. ,,I had rather than forty shillings I had my Book of Songs and Sonnets here.” Thou surely do and this is certainly more accurate describtion of thy subconscioussness. Than the previous quote about 700 pounds and 700 possibilities.

But all these verses even though they are from any character, I should support the theory of Sigmund Freud that anything written by anybody comes from subconscioussness and that´s the possibility. ,,Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.” It definitively should help thyself, because any boat is so sufficient and helpful in the infinite oceans and seas. But it still can be useless, when somebody cannot dream, think, act, create, make, do, read, write, hear, touch, smell, taste and see. Unlike geniuses like on the level of Leonardo Da Vinci, Alan Turing or thee, Willaim Shakespeare, who are completelly different. Only they could be the example who this situation can completelly comprehend and understand. ,,Thou art the Mars of malcontents.” It should definitivelly fit to any character, particularly invented by William Shakespeare, which these characters I would like to guess the star sign of Aries or Scorpion. Why? Because they have as a planet Mars, the rude, arrogant, energic, masculine, happy, optimistic planet of desire, but also wars. They desire to fight, they desire for speed, lust, fire, anger, energy and such situation as the fast cars. But surely this is also positive as it could be also negative trait. While the planet Venus is equal to Taurus and Libra and it symbolize art, feminity, love, aesthetics, creation. It can also symbolize the infinite, eternal and permanent art and inspiration. ,,Here will be an old abusing of God’s patience and the king’s English.” Thou hast in thy plays so much symbolical, alegorical and abstract characters. Even in The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint Exupéry are equally symbolical, alegorical and abstract characters. I do hope it would´t be the abusing of God´s patience, but even though I do not know the context. O, I, the uncultured phillistrine who even hast to help with Google Translate and who use William Shakespeare quotes and other text! The abusing of king´s English, but he surely has much better English as I do. Even the average English speaker has the vocabulary of at least 20 000 words, but what- I do too? ,,We burn daylight.” I do believe thou doth, William Shakespeare! And other geniuses do too. But even though I don´t know if it is true about and if it pays also about me and you. ,,There’s the humour of it.” It surely is a lot of humour in thy comedies, but a lot of drama in thy tragedies. The perfect reality in thy historical plays and masterpieces, indeed different than tragedies and comedies. ,,This is the short and the long of it.” Indeed but I would like to cosider thy masterpieces as extremelly long. It is also equal to thy genius quality- quality and quatity! With over 800 000 words thee used with different meanings and opacity. But I doth not know if they are different words or some words even repeated. It still doesn´t matter, thou art and thou were a genius and even every one of ten phrases and sentences in English language is invented and written by you. ,,Unless experience be a jewel.” It surely is, because thy work and masterpieces prove it to us. Even thy work was sold from 2 milliard to 4 millard times, thou art so essential, basic, fundamental, vital and crucial. With everything- people, creatures, situations, time and space so essential. ,,We have some salt of our youth in us.” We surely do, especially us, Europeans, we do sometimes possess the British humour, even though we are from different countries. Not only from Great Britain or England, but also from any other country. In Europe, because I do believe that little salt in our youth as thou said is so typical for us. ,,I cannot tell what the dickens his name is.” But thy memory, intelligence, talent, genius is so much higher than mine, William Shakespeare! Even though in this particular case this is about your characters and I am aware of the fact that being not capable of remembering makes such emotions as a fear. ,,A man of my kidney.” This particular quote is so funny and witty, thou genius, wizard and prodigy! But is it an alegory of creation of a human? This particular one is from kidney. ,,Think of that, Master Brook.” O, dear William Shakespeare even screen writers of The Imitation Game were subconcioussly inspired by you! Beacuse there is a sentence in this film about Alan Turing ,,Think of it. An electronic brain. A digital computer.” The inspiration is what writers and artists sometimes do. ,,This is the third time; I hope good luck lies in odd numbers…. There is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death.” Maybe thou were not superstitious, but some of thy characters were. There is indeed some kind of divinity and symbolism in some numbers, no matter if they are odd or even. And nativity, chance and death are so crucial and vital such as transcendental. And they are also basic and so quintessential. ,,He was ever precise in promise-keeping.” And I do believe thou were too. In the entire history of mankind and its entire past, present and future there will be probably only 1 000 people like you. Only 1 000 people, because imagine how infinitesimally small it is in comparison to the entire history of mankind. If you there wasn´t any existing word, you would invent it, just like I have just ,,invented” the mankind of cats- the catkind. ,,Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home.” Indeed no matter what character of thy masterpiece it was, if he or she was good, why to make a fun of his name? With thou, William Shakespeare wouldn´t it be exactly the same? But does it really matter that what name does a rose have? Even though we cannot imagine thy universe without thy name. Without false conspiracy theories about thy existence, groups of people and thy name, thou would deserve eternal glory and fame. ,,Our doubts are traitors. And make us lose the good we oft might win. By fearing to attempt.” Why there is a doubt? Why there are conspiracy theories? I see absolutely no meaning in them too, particularly in these conspiracy theories about geniuses or even other conspiracy theories. Doubts and these theories are really traitors, fraud and impostors. Why do they exist? As the oposite of a faith. I do know that it doesn´t fit into this poetry, I do hope the genius and verbal polymath and master of the universe of words, thee, William Shakespeare will forgive me this, but in my life there is a frequent number eight. I did it merely for the rhyme and nothing else. Oh, it is so unecessary, but did it make sense to make it more necessary and sufficient? Sometimes where the verses are made with only some words which don´t make any context to each other, they are unsufficient. Because unless someone don´t want to make a dadaistic poetry. Than I could show and demonstrate that I want to write a word ,,poultry.” ,,Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.” Oh, those who rise by sin, what an injustice! And those who will fall by virtue what an injustice too! The evil people have often good destiny, while the good people have often evil destiny, don´t they? Or am I too pessimistic about the fate and destiny, what would you say? ,,Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?” Oh, indeed the main initiator and actor of the evil deed should be punished. As soon as possible. And if only they would be capable to do something that all their evil were be vanished. There would be no murders, lies, arguments, wars, violence and it would be like in a paradise or heaven. In some languages there is a number connected with this theoretical place. It is nine or seven. ,,The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.” Oh, I do believe that the justice is not dead. And equally with so incredibly selfish desire that my existence will be heard, watched and read. I have to admit I am an absolute philistine with a poor vocabulary as a measure. But thy existence, William Shakespeare, witch I believe thou had vocabulary far over 150 000 words, that´s an eternal pleasure. ,,O, it is excellent. To have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous. To use it like a giant.” I have to admit you use it exactly oposite in the evil meaning. Therefore thou doth not use it like a giant, but thou has´t giant strength. Thy vocabulary metaphorically hast infinite and eternal length. ,,That in the captain’s but a choleric word. Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.” Indeed the captain and the soldier don´t have the same priviledges. It is so sad that we doth have a hierarchy in mankind. But even who does have a hierarchy too? A dogkind a catkind and different animal-kind. ,,The miserable have no other medicine. But only hope.” Even Stephen Hawking once said: ,,However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there is life, there is hope.” Oh, yes he said it! And doth thee know that Stephen William Hawking and William Shakespeare had one name the same? While Stephen Hawking had ,,William” as the second name, William Shakespeare had this name as a fist name. O, they were both born in the earthy star sign, but one was a Capricorn and second one was a Taurus. In different words, Stephen Hawking was a Capricorn and William Shakespeare was a Taurus. O, both were from England, which is not so far away from Slovakia! It is maybe around 1 400 kilometres and the Slovakia has from east to west probably 700 kilometres. ,,Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.” It is indeed true. I do know a lot of virtues such as love, intelligence, wisdom, talent, genius, goodness, tenacity, persistence, but what about you? ,,Every true man’s apparel fits your thief.” That was like a quote from any detective artwork. For example a book, a film a series and other work. ,,We would, and we would not.” It reminds me of thy other quote from Hamlet ,,To be or not to be?” It is an infinite and eternal prototype and archetype of a hesitation whether exist or not. Whether to be right here and right now or to be in infinity and eternity. In infinite amount of possibilities thy characters and even the real people would be and would not be at the same time. ,,Truth is truth. To the end of reckoning.” Indeed. Usually is the truth only one. But sometimes and in some cases it can be even more than one. ,,My business in this state. Made me a looker on here in Vienna.” Indeed it is an honour that thou wrote a city, which is so close from Bratislava and not so far away from Stradford Upon Avon. We should know, believe and research if there is a brand of famous cosmetics named or not named after thy city and it is named Avon. It is indeed a honour that William Shakespeare´s characters was a looker in Vienna. I have been also in my life many times in this city Vienna. But it´s a pity I didn´t meet thy characters, nor William Shakespeare, himself. It would be metaphysically impossible and absolutely improbable to meet some people who lived in past, far before my birth. ,,What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.” This pays merely for thy characters, William Shakespeare, but in the real life it doesn´t. Sometimes it does, but sometimes it doesn´t. Or should it? Or would it? Or could it? ,,Every why hath a wherefore.” Indeed. Every single atom in the entire universe has its own meaning. Equally as the entire universe with all its beginning and nonexistent ending. Everything from the atom, to thy work to the entire universe has its own meaning, sense and existence. Even me, writing here, right now this very sentence. ,,Let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.” That´s true, because there always should be peace against war. Not in war with each other, but peace without war. ,,He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat.” O, how could be a faith worn? Only William Shakespeare, thou know it and others can maybe and probably falsely swear and they have sworn. As I am approaching the third page of this poem and poetry I do wear my faith and motivation. For some work and activity, especially when it is creative, it is necessary the infinite inspiration. ,,The gentleman is not in your books.” In some of thy characters it is not and in some of them it is. In thee it definitively is. In me it should or it could be too, but how would we call it? The gentlewoman? The gentlecat, the gentledog? But, wait, the creating, originating and making new words was thy quintessential characteristics and domain. ,,He is of a very melancholy disposition.” I am convinced that some of thy characters were, but I am not sure if thou was. I believe thou was a phlegmatic, but even though I am not sure, what kind of temperament William Shakespeare had. Still, the phlegmatic is one of my favourite temperament of all four.

And I do like summer and winter from all four. From all four: seasons, elements, star signs, there is a lot of symbolism in the number four. ,,He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man.” O, I am so sorry and excuse me, but I do not agree that he who doesn´t have any beard is less than a man. I believe that thy character thought it that he is less than human. But there are some discriminations in thy evil characters and it occurs there. Sometimes the good people and characters don´t know what to say on this evil phenomenon and they just stare. ,,I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by day-light.” Yes? And thou don´t need any dioptre and glasses? No contact lenses? In the entire work and existence of William Shakespeare had and they still have infinite and eternal senses. ,,Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much.” But what if the most perfect herald of joy is silence in sadness and sorrow? I have always thought it was the oposite, but this particular quote prove me wrong, that particular quote I have just borrowed. ,,Sits the wind in that corner?” O, I doth not know, William Shakespeare! Even though I doth not have yet IQ as high as thou. Even though we aren´t the same star sign, but we have the same element the Earth. Thou were a Taurus and I am a Capricorn, but this is merely a metaphore, not a proposal, dear universe, even Romeo and Juliet were from two different enemy families. But did they have the same star sign? O, I doth not know! ,,Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.” But no cupid should kill such good characters and people no matter if in reality or in thy works of art. Oh, I took it literarly! It´s really interesting. It could be a perfect joke for William Shakespeare, he who was infinitely and eternaly genius, intelligent, wise and smart. ,,From the crown of his head to the sole of his foot.” Oh, isn´t this sentence as an equivalent to ,,from a head to a heel”? I almost wrote ,,heal” but what about to heal a heel what does it remind to us? Is it a Cinderella´s shoe? Who knew? ,,Are you good men and true?” Even though some of thy characters were and some of thy characters were not. Thou definitively were. Good and evil people, animals, situations can be found anytime anyhow anywhere.

[fred-ott]

Screenwriting Part I

1º Have an idea/concept for a story

2º Create a character, the protagonist of your story

3º Develop the story through the 3 act scheme

1º Act – Introduce your characters and establish your premise

2º Act- Your protagonist starts its journey/adventure and you introduce the conflicts

3º Act – The journey ends with a satisfying resolution

The number one goal of a screen writer is to keep its audience wondering: what happens next? Remember that for a short film you should keep it simple, there is no time for a 3º act.

Every writer and every  script has a different passé, so take your time and don’t compare yourself to others all that much.

A good exercise is to get three different screenplays by three different writers of three already produced movies, read the screenplays and then compare with the movie.

Try not to read “shooting scripts” , this is a script specially adapted for shooting is not a “normal script”. Each scene has a number and there are a lot of notes about camera angles. But if you are writing a normal script-submit ion, your script has to be written in plain English with no, technical information at all.

Screenplays emphasis, visuals, is extremely important for a screen writers to always approach your work with a minimalist point of view.

Although is temporary because it can be changed later, choose a scenery, a city/country or time period for your story. This is very helpful to visualize your story.

Don´t waste to much time on it but when you choose this kind of details, think about its future production, remember that exotic locations and a lot of special effects are very expensive. Watch out for unnecessary scenes on expensive locations. Always ask yourself if that is really necessary. Save the big scenes for big moments.

- Suspense/Drama/Conflict

Suspense: this word means much more than the cinematograph genre, suspense is the state of mind of not knowing what is going to happen next.

Drama: drama covers everything, including comedies, a drama is a story of somebody that wants something, but obstacles keep getting in the way.

Conflict: conflict is simply, you want to do something, but there is somebody or something preventing you form doing it, take in mind that conflict is center point of a dramatic work.

Remember this, suspense, drama and conflict are the three key factors when developing your work (telling your story). This is a main factor the essence of your idea, the scenery and character development is secondary. A dramatic narrative is all about people, about how they act and how they react.

Don´t waste too much time developing your characters, why? Because theres is no need of too much of their past on our story. For the development of your idea in the initial state just write attributes of each character: age, job, relationship (love situation), money (financial situation), etc.

You can tall a lot about someone by just knowing these four things. You should let their reactions to “acts” and “obstacles” dedicated to their personality. Also keep in mind that it will be the actors that are going to materialize your characters, actors make 90% of your characters.

Make sure that your characters do amazing and unexpected  things. Don´t focus on making your characters quite, make them relatable with flaws and qualities, make them react in unique and realistic ways. 

A good example of unexpected reactions is having a story with a strong fireman and a skinny and shy accounted and on a scene with a building under fire. The fireman hides under a three scared and the skinny accountant goes and rescues a girl. Is an expected turn and it leaves you wondering what happens next right? What consequences? Who is punished?

Be flexible and open minded because you will have to collaborate with a lot of people to materialize your idea. If you are too defensive you will not be able to distinguish  between good/useful and bad/useless criticism.

Beginning Act 1 – Middle Act2 – End Act3

This is the recipe for every good story, however on a dramatic writing you don’t start with the beginning, you start with the end, this is because the end is the “EVENT” of your story. Is crucial to know your event up front, because if you don’t know where you are going with your story you will get bored with it, if you have a target with your writing you will get much more motivated with your story.

- The Event¨: a good way to get ideas for your event is to search unusual stories on the press per example “twins reunite after 3 decades.” Your story would be the obstacles, the twists and turns they went trough to finally reunite.

If you already have a vague idea, try to put it on a newspaper title to see how it works and how you would announce to the world. Think about the story, think about how it might end and think bout how its headline would be.

Every “event” must have a subject and a verb, character and a action. Be concise and clear “who does what?”

Feeling an emotion is not an event, doing something is. If you are finding very hard to get to your event, create a temporary. Ending, something that keeps you going. Your point is not to be blocked. Here is an example: “your character moves to Lisbon”.

Now that you know how your story is going to end, you have to think about your beginning. The golden rule is that the beginning of your story should be different from your ending. 

Example: if your protagonist is successful at the end he wasn’t successful in the beginning, If it is safe ate the end he was in danger ate beginning. Remember that drama is all about changing obstacles, by defining the ending of your story and develop your story to the beginning, creating and developing all of the obstacles that were between the two points. Always know how it ends, and write how I´ve arrived there.

The Acts:

ACT 1 – Takes one quarter of the time – The Build Up - Introduce someone that wants something:

You set the stage of your story, introduce characters, establish its status quo, changing that status quo and forcing them to adventure. 

 ACT2 – Takes the middle half (this is what the audience really came to see, so don’t cut it short) - The Adventure – That person attempts to achieve it/get it:

Were all your characters try to achieve what they want and want and obstacles get in their way. After all of that your protagonist finally understands what it has been done to overcome that.

ACT3 – Takes the other quarter - The Resolution - The person achieves it, or not…:

This is where your characters have confrontation with each others the result of that confrontation brings about the result of that confrontation.

- Plot Twists: is simply where your script needs a boost of new energy. Usually there is three or four plot twist. These are the scenes where the audience is informed that the direction of the story is about to change now!

Act 1 Plot Twist (between act 1 and act2): is the scene that converts the build up to the adventure.

Act 2 Plot Twist (between act 2 and act3): is the scene that converts the adventure to the resolution.

I cannot put a twist before act1, because is the start of your story, you don’t have enough information. To recognize the twist. But we do have a twist that happens about a third of the way of the first act, after you set up the status quo, this twist pop´s up and it has one purpose, to destroy that status quo, you could say that kills your protagonist day-to-day routine. That’s why we can call it “routine killer”. You can put it in about a third of the way into act1.

A another twist is in the middle way of act2, the “halfway point”, unlike the previous one this twist doesn’t change the story´s direction, it just marks a reversal of fortune.

You can have as many twists has you want but these are the major ones and they really must happen in these positions:

- 1 in the middle of act 1

- 1 between act1 and act2

- 1 in the middle of act2

- 1 between act2 and act3

You can also divide your story into 5 parts it will make your screenwriting easier.

Why Adventure?

Act two, it can also be referred as: “the confrontation, the conflict or the journey. I prefer to refer as “the adventure”” it just means excitement, that something is happening and it can be as simple as the adventure of learning how to cook or dance.

Every time you watch a movie see how they depict the change between act1 and act2. It can be a change of pace or just a change on the comfort zone/emotional state.

Be clear on what is:

- The Comfort Zone

- The Adventure

Be sure to mention what your protagonist is doing and how does it feel about it, their emotional state. In a sense you are establishing a new status quo. Make act2 suspenseful, it has to be full of obstacles to try to prevent your character to get to that final event you have in mind.

Plot-thickeners: because act2 is the longest of all the acts, it can be very intimidating. So here is a structure that can help you:

ACT1 PLOT TWIST PLOT-THICKENER 

ACT2 PLOT-THICKENER PLOT TWIST 

ACT3

Divide the acts with 1: Halfway point (which is the act2) and to make it even easier put two “plot twists” ½.

What we are doing is dividing act2 into 4 individual segments each segment climaxes with a plot twist. We should call these mini twists as “plot thickeners”, they will make your act2 more suspenseful. This plot thickeners can be various things, new obstacles, rising stakes or reversal of fortune. The objective is to make the development of  act2 easier writing a few pages at the time and not a big hall. And, it keeps you away from long scenes where nothing happens. Take in mind that if you want you can put more plot twists is your decision and is your creativity.

Remember that all plot twists are followed by a calm moment. A series of plot twists go up and down, up and down. First you have a scene that makes you hold your breath and then you have another one where you can exhale. SO the audience knows there is always something about to happen, that’s good suspense and good story telling.

Obstacles: one of the worst questions that a writer can hear is: ¨Why didn’t they just…¨ meaning why isn’t the character pursuing the easiest, obvious solution to its problems?  If you get that question is because you didn't address it on your script. So during the writing process keep that question in mind. Don’t write actions or behaviors that you cannot explain logically or concisely. That’s why obstacles are so useful to provide the explanations why the character doesn’t do the obvious things. Example: why don’t they call the police? Because the phone is dead, or the police are the bad guys.

Physical obstacles are easy to write the psychological are much harder to clarify.

Even though is hard it has to be easy to understand and it has to be consistent, if you can show it even better. For example, if someone is extremely shy, show him surrounded by a though family  that doesn't let him speak.

There are two types of obstacles:

1. The impossible to overcome.

2. The ones that have to be overcome. 

1. The impossible to overcome: these are the ones that would give your character an easy way to escape from that situation, if they were able to overcome them. You have to make them impossible or else your characters would overcome them and take the easy way out.

2. The ones that have to be overcome: all of the other obstacles in your drama can and must be overcomed.

Remember that an antagonist is an obstacle within its own agenda. The antagonist falls in the same two camps:

- the ones that are impossible to deal with.

- the ones you must deal with.

The most useful and common obstacle in drama is another character resistance. Example: our protagonist wants someones help, that someone is very reluctant or even hostile. Character resistance is very useful and common in drama.

#cinema cine audiencias filmes film peliculas septimoarte hollywood video a audiovisual thoughts moviepromotion fredotts otts

[bjornvolkers2123]

Summary 100 things every designer should know about people

How people see

Your brain creates shortcuts to quickly make sense of the world around you. Grouping by shapes and colors can draw attention differently. We see in 2D due to the mechanics of the eye; the visual cortex turns the 2D images into a 3D representation.

Peripheral vision is used more than central vision to get the gist of what you see. Blinking/moving elements in our peripheral vision draw our attention.

Central vision: look at things directly to see details; object recognition

Peripheral vision: remainder of the visual field; getting the gist of a scene

People identify objects by recognizing patterns

Your eyes and brain want to create patterns, for example, four sets of two circles, not eight circles. 

Geon (geometric icon) theory of object recognition: you recognize basic shapes in what you're viewing, and use these shapes to identify objects.

People imagine objects tilted and at a slight angle above. If you ask people to draw a picture of an object, they tend to draw it from the canonical perspective: slightly above the object looking down, and offset a little to the right or left.

People scan screens based on past experience and expectations Most people scan in the way they read. Large images can pull us out of that tendency though. We usually skip edges. People have a mental model of where things tend to be on screens and they see cues that tell them what to do with an object. These cues are called Affordances: action possibilities for an object so that you know what to do with it.

How people read

It's a myth that capital letters are inherently hard to read. There was a theory that capital letters are harder to distinguish. However recent research says that when we read, we recognize and anticipate letters, then based on the letters we recognize the word.

Reading isn't fluid. Our eyes are still as we focus, then move in sharp jumps. This is called saccades. During the saccades, which takes 250 ms, we're blind. Our eyes look forward most of the time during the saccades, but look backward about 10-15% to read again. Most of what we read is mixed case, so we're used to that. We could teach ourselves to read capitals just as well.

Capitals should be used for calling attention but it's considered shouting by most people. 

Reading and comprehending are two different things. For example, you could read a scientific article's abstract and recognize the individual words, but not know enough about the subject matter to understand the content. Good measure of readability is the Flesch-Kincaid formula, which takes into account the number of words, sentences, and syllables for the words. A higher score means easier to read.

Use headlines to provide context for your reader. We use different parts of our brains for passively viewing words, listening to words, speaking words, and generating verbs. What you read depends on your point of view. For example, a study by Anderson and Pichert had people read a story about a house and its contents. One group read the story from the perspective of a home buyer, another group read it from the perspective of a burglar.

How people remember

Short-term memory is limited

To maintain content in working memory requires focused attention. Stress reduces the effectiveness of working memory.

People with high-functioning working memory are able to screen out sensory input so they can focus.

People remember only four items at once

George Miller's "seven, plus or minus two" rule of thumb wasn't in a paper backed by research. Alan Baddely applied scientific rigor and discovered the magic number is 4.

If you have more than four items, use chunking to break it into groups. For example, 7125694532 vs 712-569-4532.

The four-item rule applies to long-term memory as well. For example, people can usually remember four of the Seven Dwarves or countries in Europe. Remembering more is difficult.

People have to use information to make it stick

To get from working memory to long-term memory:

Repeat it a lot

Connect it to something they already know

Repetition reinforces neural pathways.

Schemas help people reason about groups of things. For example, describing a head, you would talk about eyes, nose, hair, mouth. Schemas help us build associations between things.

It's easier to recognize information rather than recall it

For example, if given a list of objects, recall is about stating what was on the list. Recognition is being given an object name and asked whether or not it was on the list.

Recognition can lead to inclusion errors. For instance if the list of objects was chair, desk, pencil, lamp, (office items) and you were asked whether phone was on the list, you might say it was because a phone is typically found in an office.

Memory takes a lot of mental resources

The latest research says we receive 40 billion sensory inputs every second, and are only conscious of about 40. It takes a lot of mental resources to think about, remember, process, represent, and encode information.

Recency effect: you remember the end of something because it was the most recent thing you observed

Primacy effect: you remember the beginning because it was the first thing you observedPeople reconstruct memories each time they remember them

Memories are not movie clips that are replayed. You also fill in memory gaps with made-up sequences that seem just as real as the original event.

How People Think

People process information better in bite-sized chunks

Don't give people too much info at once. Progressive disclosure means providing only the information people need at the moment.

Counting clicks is no longer a relevant measure of ease-of-use. People won't notice they're clicking if they're getting the right amount of information at each click to keep them going down a path.Progressive disclosure works if you know what most people will be looking for at each part of the path.

Some types of mental processing are more challenging than others

There are 3 types of demands (loads) you can make on a person

Cognitive: think, remember, calculate; most expensive

Visual look at something

Motor: press a button, move the mouse; least expensive

Fitt's Law: mathematical equation that helps you determine target, like a button, sizes so that they're not too small or too far away

Minimize motor switching for example, back and forth between keyboard and mouse. Increasing load works for video games, because you want to induce a challenge.

Minds wander 30% of the time

Mind wandering: doing one task and then fading into thinking about something unrelated. This is the closest thing we have to multitasking.

The more uncertain people are, the more they defend their ideas

Cognitive dissonance: uncomfortable feeling of having two ideas in conflict with one another. 

Cognitive dissonance denial: not allowing any new information that would conflict with your opinion 

Two ways to reduce the dissonance: change your belief, deny one of the ideas

If people are forced to defend an idea they disagree with, they tend to change their belief to fit the new idea. Otherwise, people will continue to deny any new information. People who were less certain will argue even harder.

People create mental models

Mental model: representation of something (e.g., real world, device, software) that someone has in mind. Example: You know how to read books, you know what an iPad is, so what would be your mental model for reading books on an iPad?

People interact with conceptual models

People use models to predict what the system will do or what they should do with it.

Conceptual model: actual model given to the person through the design and interface of the real product

If the mental model and conceptual model don't align, the product will be hard to learn, hard to use, and probably won't be accepted.

If your product is something brand new, there will likely be a mismatch. This is where you gradually change people's mental models to match the conceptual one.

People process information best in story form

Stories are powerful; they grab and hold people's attentions.

The most common format is three acts:

Beginning: setting, characters, situation/conflict

Middle: obstacles and conflicts for characters to overcome

Ending: conflict comes to a climax and is resolved

People are driven to create categories

People love to categorize. The whole field of information architecture is about how to organize information into categories. If presented with large amounts of information, people will impose their own categories.It doesn't matter who (designer, user) makes the categories as long as the items are well organized.

Time is relative

The more mental processing you have to do, the more time you think has elapsed.If people are pressed for time, they're less likely to help someone. 

Expectations of time change. For example, 20 seconds for a website to load in 1998 is very different than what we expect now.

There are four ways to be creative

Arne Dietrich created a creativity matrix:

Deliberate and Cognitive: Thomas Edison; putting together existing information in new and novel ways; uses the prefrontal cortex for focus and connection

Deliberate and Emotional: therapeutic a-ha moment; prefrontal cortex helps for focus, but cingulate cortex ties in emotions/feelings

Spontaneous and Cognitive: the idea comes from breaking from thought. Unconscious mind is at work.

Spontaneous and Emotional: musicians and artists; amygdala. This is the basic emotional processing.

How People Focus Their Attention

Selective attention: people can pay attention to one thing and filter out all other stimuliPeople filter information. People seek out and pay attention to information and cues that confirm their beliefs.

Well-practiced skills don't require conscious attention

For learning music, the Suzuki method stresses constant repetition so that when you perform a piece of music, you're just observing your body execute the movements. Too many automatic steps can lead to errors because you assume something will work, so you don't pay attention.

Expectations of frequency affect attention

If people expect to see something happen with a particular frequency, they often miss it if it happens more or less than their expectations. Example: TSA missed a loaded handgun getting through security -- they don't often encounter guns, so they don't expect to see them.

Sustained attention lasts about 10 minutes People pay attention only to salient clues

People filter out unimportant or common elements.Example: picking the correct penny out of a lineup of examples that have the profile facing different ways, what side the year is on, what text is on the top.

People can't actually multitask

We're just good at switching between tasks quickly. If you're doing a physical task that you are proficient in, like walking and talking.

Phone examples:

Hands-free is still distracted driving because your attention is on the conversation.

Hearing half of a conversation is mentally taxing because you have to fill in the half you can't hear.

You have three brains:

New: conscious, logical, reasoning

Mid: emotions

Old:  survival

Loud noises startle and get attention

Also, people start to tune out sounds they become familiar with, like clock chiming every hour. For people to pay attention to something, they must first perceive it. 

Stimulus present, detected:  able to start treatment

Stimulus present, undetected: patient may die of cancer

Stimulus absent, detected: give unnecessary treatment

Stimulus absent, undetected:  correct diagnosis of no cancer

What Motivates People

People are more motivated as they get closer to a goal.

Goal-gradient effect: you accelerate your behavior as you progress closer to your goal. 

Websites can do this too, for example letting you know you've completed 75% of the steps to creating your profile.

Variable rewards are powerful

In B.F. Skinner's work on operant conditioning, you can have interval schedules (reward after some time has elapsed) or ratio schedules (reward after doing some activity X times). You can vary the interval length and number of times as well. To engage people the most, use variable ratio schedules. For example, slot machines -- they pay out based on the number of times you play, but you can't predict when.

As a design example, instead of Dropbox giving you more storage for each individual user you recruit, make the reward larger for every 3-5 users you recruit.

Dopamine makes people addicted to seeking information

Dopamine causes you to want, desire, seek out, and search. The opioid system is involved with feelings of pleasure. These two systems work together, but dopamine is stronger, so you seek more than you are satisfied.

Unpredictability keeps people searching

Dopamine is also stimulated by unpredictability For example, e-mails show up, but you don't know when or from whom.

Pavlovian reflex: associate a stimulus with a reward. This happens with the sound you hear when you get an e-mail.

If you keep the amount of information small, the dopamine system is even more stimulated.

To break out of the loop, get away from the information-seeking environment (e.g., put your phone away or out of reach).

People are more motivated by intrinsic rewards than extrinsic rewards

Contingent rewards: rewards given based on specific behavior that is spelled out ahead of time; these lead to less of the desired behavior once the reward is taken away

From Dan Pink's book Drive, there are two types of work:

Algorithmic (follow procedures)

Heuristic (knowledge work)

Extrinsic punishments and rewards work best for algorithmic work; not so for heuristic work.

People are motivated by progress, mastery, and control

People like to feel they're making progress, that they're learning and mastering new skills. Mastery is asymptotic, you never really get there.

People's ability to delay gratification (or not) starts young

Delayed gratification: resisting the impulse to act. This can be observed in children, and it continues on to adulthood. Those who can't resist tend to have problems as adults.

People are inherently lazy

Humans have evolved to conserve their energy.To handle the myriad of choices and weighing costs/benefits, we satisfice, pick an option that's adequate, even if suboptimal. Design websites for scanning, not reading.

People will look for shortcuts only if the shortcuts are easy

If it seems like too much work to change your behavior (use a shortcut), people stay with their old habits. Having default values/behaviors helps reduce the amount of work needed to complete a task.

People assume it's you, not the situation

Fundamental attribution error: people have a tendency to give personality-based explanations for other people's behavior more weight than situational factors. For example, that person cut me off in traffic because he's rude, rather than he's late for an important meeting. We as individuals assume our motivation is based on our reaction to the situation instead of personality. In other words, we judge others by their behavior; we judge ourselves by our intention.

Forming a habit takes a long time and requires small steps

There's no rule of thumb about how long it takes a habit to form. For some it could be a few weeks, for others it could be several months. If you miss more than a few days in a row for building your habit, you will see a decline in progress.

People are more motivated to compete when there are fewer competitors

When there are more people, it's harder to assess where you stand and therefore you're less motivated to try to come out on top.

People are motivated by autonomy

People like to do things the way they want to do them, and when they want to do them.

People Are Social Animals

The strong tie group size limit is 150 people

Dunbar's number: limit on how many individual species have in their social group. For humans, this is about 150. This applies to maintaining stable social relationships, not just people you know or are aware of. 150 is the group size for communities with a high incentive to stay together (survival pressure, close proximity).

Weak ties: relationships that don't require everyone to know everyone else in the groupPeople are hard-wired for imitation and empathy. Our premotor cortex makes plans to move, then coordinates with the primary motor cortex to actually move.

Mirror neurons: neurons that fire when watching other people, even though we're not taking the action ourselves; these are the starting point of empathy (mirroring how another feels)

Doing things together bonds people together

Wiltermuth and Heath found that people who engaged in synchronous activities (doing things together in the same space) were more cooperative in completing subsequent tasks, and more willing to make personal sacrifices to benefit the group. You don’t even have to feel good about the group/activity

People expect online interactions to follow social rules

Even though they occur online, those interactions are still social, they follow rules and guidelines. Both parties have expectations of protocol. We have assumptions of how a product will respond and what the interaction will be like. One simple one is responsiveness like expect it to load quickly but doesn't. 

People lie to differing degrees depending on the media

Depending on written, auditory, or electronic media, people are more or less likely to be dishonest.

Moral disengagement theory: people become more unethical as they distance themselves from bad consequences of their actions

Speakers' brains and listeners' brains sync up during communication

Stephens found that as people listen to someone else talk, the brain patterns of both speaker and listener start to couple/mirror.

The brain responds uniquely to people you know personally

Krienen found that when people answered questions about their friends, even if they weren't of similar interests, the medial prefrontal cortex was active. This was not the case when discussing strangers (with similar interests).

Laughter bonds people together People can tell when a smile is real or fake more accurately with video

Duchenne smile: mouth turned upward, but fewer wrinkles around the eyes People are quicker to trust and like other people who are showing what are believed to be genuine emotions.

The theory was that it was difficult to fake a smile, but that's been disproven. It's harder to do on video because it's dynamic and not just a snapshot.

How People Feel

Seven basic emotions are universal

Emotions: have physiological correlates and are expressed physically, gestures, facial expressions; usually arise because of an event and lead to actions

Moods: longer than emotions; may not be expressed physically or come from an event

Attitudes: more cognitive; conscious brain

Paul Ekman studied emotions:

Joy

Sadness

Contempt

Fear

Disgust

Surprise

Anger

Emotions are tied to muscle movement and vice versa

There have been studies that show if Botox is used to paralyze the muscles used in showing facial expressions for certain moods, those emotions are dampened as well.

Anecdotes persuade more than data

There's so much information for us to process, so we think that more data is good for others like presenting a survey of customers and start to write a summary about X% said this and Y% said that. Although true, it's not compelling. Anecdotes are stories; they trigger emotions. Better yet, use videos.

Smells evoke emotions and memories

When you smell something, that sensory data goes right to the amygdala (emotional processing).

People are programmed to enjoy surprises

The human brain not only looks for the unexpected; it craves the unexpected.

People are happier when they're busy

Example: 12 minutes to walk from airport terminal to baggage claim, immediately find your bag or 2 minutes to walk to baggage claim, then wait for 10 minutes. Hsee researched this and found that although we prefer to be lazy, doing nothing makes people impatient and unhappy.

People use look-and-feel as their first indicator of trust

Sillence researched trust and web design. Sites that were rejected had issues with look and feel, first impression, poor navigation, etc. Trusted sites were from respected organizations, advice from experts, information they felt relevant to them.

Listening to music releases dopamine in the brain

Not only listening to music, but anticipating music and lead to a release of dopamine. The more difficult something is to achieve, the more people like it

Cognitive dissonance theory: would people go through a painful experience to be part of a group they ultimately didn't like? You tell yourself the group must important because you went through discomfort.

Scarcity and exclusivity: if it's difficult to join then not many can do so; if I don't make it in, I'll lose out. Something painful must be worth it.

People overestimate reactions to future events

Dan Gilbert's book showed that people greatly overestimate their own reactions to both pleasant and unpleasant events in their lives. We have a built-in regulator to keep us at about the same level of happiness most of the time.

People feel more positive before and after an event than during it

Mitchell studied people about to take a trip. Before the event everyone was looking forward to it, during they were not that positive, and afterward the events were thought of positively.

People Make Mistakes

People will always make mistakes; there is no fail-safe product

To write an error message:

Tell the user what he/she did

Explain the problem

Instruct how to correct it

Write in plain English (active voice)

Show an example

People make errors when they are under stress

Yerkes-Dodson law: a little stress can help you perform a task, because it heightens awareness; too much stress degrades performance. When there's stress, attention gets focused and you get tunnel action (keep doing the same task even though it it's not working). Don't assume that people will use your product in a stress-free environment.

Not all mistakes are bad

Errors with positive consequence: don't get the desired result but you learn something else (looking for volume control but found brightness control instead)

Errors with negative consequence: don’t get the desired results, undo a positive or get into acondition that cannot be reversed (drag to move file but end up deleting it)

Errors with neutral consequence: no effect on task completion (try to select menu item, but it's unavailable)

People make predictable types of errors

Performance errors

Commission: took more steps than necessary

Omission: left out steps

Wrong-action: appropriate for procedure, but wrong action

Motor-control errors: clicked the wrong thing, made the wrong gesture

People use different error strategies

Systematic exploration: users plan out what procedures they'll use to correct the error.

Trial and error exploration: randomly try things and see what happens.

Rigid exploration: do the same thing repeatedly

How People Decide

People make most decisions unconsciously

Example factors when buying things:

What other people are buying

What's consistent with your persona

What you stand to gain from this purchase

Fear of loss (e.g., sale only lasts 2 days)

Your particular motivations

The unconscious has evolved to process most of the data and to make decisions for us according to guidelines and rules of thumb that are in our best interest most of the time. This is the meaning behind "trusting your gut," and most of the time it works.

The unconscious knows first

Bechara studied the skin conductance response of people gambling with certain decks of cards where people could get big wins (or big losses) or more conservative wins/losses. The skin readings were elevated long before people consciously changed their strategies.

People want more choices and information than they can process

Iyengar and Lepper studied how people choose flavors of jam in the grocery store. When there were 24 options, more people stopped by to sample than when given 6 options. Regardless of the number of options, people only sampled 3-4 jams. More people actually purchased jam when there were 6 options.

People think choice equals control

Inyegar studied several types of animals choosing between (1) press one button to get food, or (2) press a series of buttons to get food. The animals preferred the more complex path.

Sometimes having many choices makes it harder to get what they want, but people still want the choices so that they feel in control of the decision.

People may care about time more than they care about money

Mogilner and Aaker studied the phrasing of ads for a lemonade stand (e.g., "Spend a little time" vs. "Spend a little money" vs. "Enjoy"). More people stopped at the stand that mentioned time.

When you invoke time in a message, you make more of a personal connection than when you invoke money.

Group decision-making can be faulty

Mojzisch and Schulz-Hard studied job candidate interviewers. One group was given information from the others, another was given no prior information. The researchers found that when a group of people starts a discussion by sharing initial preferences, they spend less time and less attention on the information available outside the group's preferences.

People are swayed by a dominant personality

Anderson and Kilduff's research showed that it's not sufficient to have a dominating personality, you need to speak first in the group.

When people are uncertain, they let others decide what to do

Latane and Darley studied what would happen when participants (sitting in a group of researchers) would do when a room started to fill up with smoke. The more people, and the more the non- participants ignored the smoke, the more likely it was for the participant to also ignore it. Testimonials and ratings are powerful.

People think others are more easily influenced than they are themselves

Third-person effect: most people think others are influenced by persuasive messages, but that they themselves are not.

People are literally unware (i.e., unconscious) that they are being influenced. It's also partly because people don't like to think of themselves as easily swayed/gullible, because then they wouldn't be in control.

People value a product more highly when it's physically in front of them

Bushong researched what people did when given (1) item description, (2) item image, (3) the actual item. The valued the item more highly when it was actually in front of them.

[colab2018-blog]

D A Y  1 -

This morning, before I met my group for the week, I had no preconceptions of what my project was going to be about apart from the idea of ‘home’. I walked into the Laban Cottages, the place where I will call ‘home’ for the next week, and met with eight Trinity Laban students who I did not know. We began the first hour by introducing ourselves and where we come from. It was interesting as many of the girls have different backgrounds and experiences which made me realise everyone’s concept is very different. 

After our hours discussion, we wanted to start with a form of morning routine that you might do at home. Everyone began with participating in a short yoga class led by the dancers, focusing on breathing together allowing us to start to work as one unit. As we had just warmed up our bodies we then moved onto a simple vocal exercise, “1,1,2,2,1,2,3,2,1 etc.” After we discussed singing and the different types of genres as there is two Musical Theatre students and me a Classical Mezzo-Soprano. To demonstrate the difference between both we sang a familiar song from Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’.  

Home, to me is not a place, but the people you love and choose to share your life with. A famous song by Elvis Presley resonated with me throughout today, “Home is where the Heart is”. Although we did not vocalise it, I feel as a group we were unconsciously starting to act as a sort of dysfunctional family, by sharing a connection of trust, not having any inhibitions although we have only just met. Everyone has a willing sense to participate and help in any group activity. This sense of trust and willingness will help to mould our end of week performance within our home space.

After lunch, to get to know our ‘home’ on a deeper level we felt around the space with our eyes closed. This heightened our other senses, allowing us to touch, hear and smell the area. This is an activity that I would like to do more throughout the week as it can change the way your brain, allowing other senses to establish the ‘home’ more. The dancers decided to unknowing turn this into a trust exercise by linking arms and slowly traveling down a couple of staircases and into the Laban building.

Another game/trust exercise we did was an app called “Heads Up” where a verb is on the screen and you have to guess what it is from your team acting it out. I feel this helped to further our trust working as a group and not individuals.

Later after the exercise we decided to discuss the structure of the week: other exercises, games, a possible ‘family outing’ and the planning of the final performance. 

Finally we started to experiment and devise ideas for our end performance. We liked the idea of combining dance, voice and an element of trust into our performance so we experimented with vocally improvising whilst someone moved and felt a house hold object, giving it a voice. This developed as one of our group had the idea of taking a simple daily task such as cleaning the table with a cloth and somehow adding sound to it. We experimented with four people wiping a table at different speeds, giving each a different voice. Only when the cloth was touching the table was it given a voice. The voices sang the first two lines of one song each, which all use the same chords so harmonise well: “Can you feel the love tonight”, “Your beautiful”, “Let it go” and “How far i’ll go”. This worked really well. We then experimented with tempo to the extreme alongside legato and staccato. After, we wanted to flip the coin on the dancers, letting the singers control them. However we discovered that this was harder as the dancers were getting their improvising instructions from sound; three separate voices which at the same time is harder to distinguish. We therefore experimented with one voice and one dancer which worked well. We then tried vocally improvising from a ‘fake’ audience member.

Overall, throughout the day we kept coming back to exercises and discussions furthering our trust as a unit. I feel like this can be furthered a lot more and could create a very interesting piece towards the end of the week. 

[criticalthinkingbafayr2]

Lorraine Galea

Bachelor of Art in Fine Arts (Year 2)

Critical Thinking  

Entry 1: Schön’s Reflective Model

Reflection in action is reflecting on behaviour as it happens, and reflection on action is reflecting after an event, evaluating the situation. Reflection in action is the reflective form of knowing in action, showing difference between ‘knowing how’ and ‘knowing what’.

Following the theories of John Dewey, who was amongst the first to write about the Reflective Practice, Schön defies it as one by which professionals become aware of their indirect knowledge base, and learn from their experience.

By being introduced to this model, I noticed how these two theories always seem to be present in my everyday life, a simple example is when the lecturer was correcting this journal, and whilst giving me advice, I was thinking on what I could add in the essay later on, and when I was about to write the journal again, I thought on the episode in the class, and what the lecturer had said, and wrote notes to help me for next time, as this is a new thing for me.

Without knowing, everyone uses this model one way or another, simply put, thinking on our feet links to spending time exploring what happened after the encounter.

References Gray's Research Reading Group. (2012). The Reflective Practitioner by Donald Schon. [online] Available at: https://graysreadinggroup.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/the-reflective-practitioner-by-donald-schon/ [Accessed 20 Nov. 2017]. infed.org. (2017). Donald Schon (Schön): learning, reflection and change. [online] Available at: http://infed.org/mobi/donald-schon-learning-reflection-change/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017]. Learn.solent.ac.uk. (2017). Reflective thinking and writing: Schön's model. [online] Available at: https://learn.solent.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=2732&chapterid=1113 [Accessed 20 Nov. 2017].

Entry 2: What is art?

Art is a subject which has been explored from the beginning of time. In philosophy, art was mentioned a lot due to various theories by the great masters. Plato described art as an imitation of life, as he believed that the idea is the ultimate reality, so as art imitates the idea, it is the imitation of reality. Aristotle objected to this idea and defined art as a realisation in the external form of a true idea, which is traced back to the natural love of imitation which distinguishes humans, and to the pleasure in recognition likeness.

Nowadays art is still being defined, like Joseph Nieters from Lake Ozark, Missouri who states that ‘art is something we do, a verb’, and Ian Malcomson, from Victoria, British Columbia, continues on the same topic by adding that ‘For [him] art is nothing more and nothing less than the creative ability of individuals to express their understanding of some aspect of private or public life, like love, conflict, fear, or pain.’

Most creative people search for this answer, following other research, and looking at their own experiences. Paul Gaugin (artist) looked at art as either ‘plagiarism or revolution’, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (poet) described it as something which is long, whilst ‘time is fleeing’.

Whilst searching for this answer art will continue to change, following its history and different cultures, as it is something subjective, and no one has enough power to describe a topic which is so vast.

References Herman, J. (2014). 27 Responses to the Question “What is Art?”. [online] Mentalfloss.com. Available at: http://mentalfloss.com/article/57501/27-responses-question-what-art [Accessed 26 Nov. 2017]. HuffPost. (2011). What Is Art? Famous Artists Respond. [online] Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/12/15-artists-define-what-ar_n_1004359.html?slideshow=true#gallery/193078/6 [Accessed 26 Nov. 2017]. Marder, L. (2017). What Is "Art" Anyway?. [online] ThoughtCo. Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-definition-of-art-182707 [Accessed 26 Nov. 2017]. Philosophynow.org. (2017). What is Art? and/or What is Beauty? | Issue 108 | Philosophy Now. [online] Available at: https://philosophynow.org/issues/108/What_is_Art_and_or_What_is_Beauty [Accessed 26 Nov. 2017]. Plato.stanford.edu. (2017). Plato's Aesthetics (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). [online] Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-aesthetics/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2017].

Entry 3: Analyse the benefits and disadvantages of learning over the whole academic year.

‘Educators are increasingly using student-centred assessment approaches’, stated Mark Anthony Camilleri, a lecturer at the University of Malta. It is important that students are interested and able to learn in a way that is best to them, and therefore the educators should be flexible in their way of teaching.

Summative assessments are a usual way of measuring student progress which is essential to the school for quality assurance, syllabi and curriculum programmes, but this is not as effective as most students would not practice throughout the year, unless given work to do.

Students expand their knowledge and develop skills during the academic year, which shows how formative assessment responds to students’ individual learning needs. Mark Anthony says that, ‘formative assessments are highly effective in raising the level of student attainment, as they are likely to increase the equity of student outcome.’ This can be a disadvantage for the student when having deadlines of more than one unit, which can put pressure on the individual.

When learning in a creative institute, one needs to have time to be creative, and maybe even produce work of their own, as the student needs time to unwind. Students should be able to look at their own progress, which will help them to develop knowledge and skill which helps in their intellectual growth.

References Global, B. (2016). Pros & Cons of Classroom Learning. [online] eBalance. Available at: https://balance-global.com/blog/pros-cons-of-classroom-learning/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017]. Icanjuggle.com. (2017). The Academic Benefits. [online] Available at: http://www.icanjuggle.com/academic.html [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017]. Ltd, A. (2013). Formative assessment of students. [online] Times of Malta. Available at: https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131027/education/Formative-assessment-of-students.492195 [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017]. University, C. (2015). Formative vs Summative Assessment-Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation - Carnegie Mellon University. [online] Cmu.edu. Available at: https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

Entry 4: Discuss morality in art in a critical manner

Artists in different periods, portrayed death in symbolic or literal ways. The practice of reflection of morality, ‘momento mori’ is seen in various works of art, pointing out to the viewer that everyone has to die.

In the ‘Last Judgement’ by Gislebertus, souls are seen in the lower part of the relief, where they await their faith, and it is only when the viewer looks upwards, it is reminded of a life with Christ. The simple structure of Masaccio’s ‘Holy Trinity’ shows how the lower part is dedicated to the skeleton, a direct reference to death, and as the viewer looks up, there is hope of eternal life, and therefore Christ is the best route for salvation.

The painting of Grunewald was meant for contemplation, as it was placed in a hospital and had to have this effect on patients so that there was a means of salvation. Likewise, ‘St.Jerome’, by Giuseppe Cali contemplates on the skull, having a direct gaze on the cross. Masaccio’s ‘Crixifiction’, directs the viewer in the same way, showing extreme physical suffering.

All of these works are bound together with the aim of having the viewer contemplate on morality, and were a constant reminder on the divide between the good and the bad.

References Courses.lumenlearning.com. (2017). The Early Middle Ages | Boundless Art History. [online] Available at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/the-early-middle-ages/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2017]. Encyclopedia Britannica. (2017). Last Judgment | sculpture by Gislebertus. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Judgment-sculpture-by-Gislebertus [Accessed 10 Dec. 2017]. Khan Academy. (2017). Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece. [online] Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-americas/renaissance-art-europe-ap/a/grnewald-isenheim-altarpiece [Accessed 10 Dec. 2017]. Khan Academy. (2017). Masaccio, Holy Trinity. [online] Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/early-renaissance1/painting-in-florence/a/masaccio-holy-trinity [Accessed 10 Dec. 2017].