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greennct · 5 years

Text

jisung & the fbi

okay do u guys remember that whole “fbi-agent-watching-me-through-my-computer” meme??? bc thats what the au is based on. why?? i have literally no idea. i am a complete crackhead. i am literally down to a single brain cell at the moment. i apologise for this. 💞💖💘

(3.3k words, wtf?? hopefully some semblance of comedy, and of course, 100% fluff, the only warnings that I could think of is jisung swearing?? if you don’t want to read that then scroll past this is guess lol)

song rec: alfie’s song (not so typical love song) by bleachers

The first time your computer started talking to you was a lazy Sunday afternoon in Mid-May. You had just successfully completed a horrific essay and turned on some music to enjoy a small celebration ceremony, when the chorus of your song was abruptly cut off and replaced by a static-filled recording of a whining voice.

“-yong the microphone’s broken again! I think it’s cause they keep playing Ke$ha too loudly…”

There was a pause as the voice seemed to listen to a reply outside of your earshot. You froze, eyes scanning the room frantically in an attempt to find the culprit of your disturbance.

“Of course I tried turning it on and off again, I’m not a complete idiot!”

Despite the potentially terrifying situation you found yourself in, you couldn’t help but giggle at the clear domestic that you were somehow witnessing. Whoever was complaining so fiercely, kept talking in an unnervingly young-sounding voice, so after a few more minutes of his whining, you decided that they weren’t going to be too much of a threat.

Sitting back down at your desk, you frowned at your laptop. Apart from the word document you had up, ready to send to your professor, and the streaming site for your music, your desktop was completely empty. There was no sign of another person accidentally having facetimed you, which at that point was your main theory for the sudden interruption.

“Hello?”

The pretty much constant monologue you had heard ever since your computer started glitching cut off, as the boy immediately stopped talking. You held your breath, now sure that the situation was not at all to do with a wrong-number. It felt as though you had caught him.

Gaining a little more courage, with the assumption that you were therefore in the right in the situation, you decided to continue. “I know you’re in there, I-”

This time you were interrupted with a scratchy snigger. Perturbed, you frowned slightly, and leaned into your computer. “Well, where are you then? How can you be coming from my computer and not-”

“I’m not actually inside your computer!” came the protest out of your tinny speaker. “You do know that’s not possible, right?”

Glad whoever this was couldn’t see your cheeks suddenly flush red, you replied in a confident tone; “Duh, I was just-“

“No you didn’t, you’re blushing, I can see it!” your computer crowed.

For the first time since he had started talking, you felt a tiny jolt of fear shiver up your spine.

“H- how can you see me?” Your voice was much quieter now.

You expected a menacing reply, since you were now assuming you had been hacked, but the response was in a rambling tone as equally soft as yours.

“Well, technically, I can only see you if your webcam is switched on, but you basically never turn it off, I don’t actually think you know how, but since you watch TV in the other room so much, it’s not like this is constant 24-hour-surveillance, y’know, I-”

“Hang on, you’ve been watching me?” You were filled with indignation, your previous fear forgotten in the anger you felt at the idea of being spied on. “That’s fucked up! Just because you want to fulfil some perverted-“ struggling to find the words, you ended your rant with a confident “I’m calling the police!”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you~” the computer sung, “I’m afraid you won’t get very far.”

“Why not?”

“I am the police.”

Another silence. You collected yourself.

“What, and I cannot stress this enough, the flying fuck does that mean?” Your voice was so calm and low you swore you could hear a gulp down the other line.

“It’s legal!” Came the eventual squeak. “People have such bad net security these days, they’ll agree to anything just so they can use weird sites, and usually we use it to spy on like, terrorists and stuff, but since it’s only my first few months here and I’m so young Doyoung said I should just watch you for practice, because we’re pretty sure you’re not doing anything illegal, unless you are of course, that’s my job to find out, but you have like, the worst cyber security in the whole city, so-”

“Woah, okay.” You cut off his verbiage for the second time, “You’re telling me...” You paused, frowning as you tried to make sense of what was going on. “You’re allowed to spy on me?”

“Like I said, it’s completely legal.”

“What are you doing with my information?”

“Nothing! I’m just using you to practice my surveillance skills.”

“Oh.” You were surprised to find yourself slightly disappointed in the idea that you were basically the equivalent of a homework assignment for a disgruntled intern. “Okay. I suppose that's fine then.”

The computer snickered again. “As if you had any choice.”

“Hey! At least pretend to let me have some free will!” And with that, you slammed the lip of your laptop shut. Shoving it under your bed, heart pounding, you decided that perhaps you would stay away from technology for a while.

Barely two days later, you had completely given up on your internet detox. You decided that being constantly surveyed by a bodiless voice was infinitely better than being constantly bored with your lack of anything to do. Opening up the computer’s lid for the first time that week, you waited in trepidation as your lockscreen slowly blinked to life.

Silence.

Logging on, you stared into the lens of your webcam, squinting slightly as if you would somehow be able to see the person on the other end. After a few minutes of scrutinising the screen with no response from the other end, you started to doubt yourself. Did a voice really come out of your computer? Looking back, you had been pretty much delirious that day, fuelled by red bull and sleep deprivation. Maybe you had been so happy to have finally finished your assignment, you completely imagined the whole scenario.

Cautiously loading your web browser, you opened up Netflix. Holding your breath, you resumed playing an episode of the show you had been watching for the past few months. It was a comedy, and you found yourself giggling after a while, distracted by the punchlines of the show, distracted by the storyline in spite of your determination to catch out whoever was spying on your computer.

It was only after a particularly funny joke, that you even remembered that you were supposed to be catching the mysterious voice out, to be honest. You heard a tiny giggle a few seconds after the punchline, almost missing it behind the canned laughter that had played on screen. Gotcha.

“Aha!” You gloated, pausing the screen. “I knew I didn’t imagine you!”

“Yes you did, go back to your show, idiot.” Came the reply. And then, a few seconds later, “Shit. The microphone is still broken?”

“Hell yeah it is!” You exclaimed. “Now you’ve gotta tell me your name.”

You had decided, after a few sleepless nights of careful consideration, that there was no way that this so-called ‘agent’ was a threat. He had mentioned something beforehand about the fact he was quite young, and it wasn’t like there was anything incriminating on your computer. He had sounded so scared to have been caught the first time, you almost felt bad for the boy. So, you decided, since you didn’t really have any other plans for that weekend, you would befriend the boy spying on you.

“W-what?” He spluttered. “That’s confidential.”

“But since we’re gonna spend practically our whole lives together now, what with me innocently browsing the internet, and you ruthlessly analysing my every move, I should at least know what to call you!”

“You shouldn’t be talking to me at all,” was the reply.

You pouted. “C’mon, Mr FBI Man! That’s so not fair. You know basically everything about me, and I don’t even get your first name?”

You heard a small sigh. “I’m afraid not.”

“Hmmm.” You pretended to think. “I guess I’ll just have to name you myself, then. What about-”

“No!” He interrupted you. “I’ve seen the list of future baby names you sent your friend at like three in the morning last month. I do not trust your naming choices. Call me...”

You huffed, leaning back in your chair whilst he paused to consider.

“Ji. Call me Ji.”

“Ji? What kind of a name is that?!” You replied. “Ji, Ji, Ji, Ji, baby, baby, baby, Ji-”

“Stop that! God, you cannot sing.”

Unperturbed by his insults, you simply switched to another song. “You’re the Ji-nie in my computer, baby-”

“Really? Insulting both Girls Generation and Christina Aguilera in the same breath? Those lyrics don’t even work.”

“That’s what happens when you give me a crappy name.” You retorted.

He groaned, loudly. “Why, of all the people on the planet I could’ve been assigned to, did I have to get you?”

Much to you and Ji’s surprise, the two of you actually got on surprisingly well. Despite the constant teasing, and snide insults being shuttled back and forth, between the two of you, you found yourself growing a sort of begrudging affection for him. Sure, Ji could be pretty freaking annoying, especially when he distracted you with memes he had found, popping them up on your desktop when you were trying to do work, or spoiling the TV shows you were watching right in the final episode, however you supposed he also had some redeeming qualities.

Firstly, he always seemed to know the best spots around your area for whatever you needed. The cheapest handyman for your broken door hinges? Simple. The closest coffee shop for the least amount of money? Easy. The truth was, Ji seemed to have access to sources your humble Google searches just did not.

His almost magical powers spread online as well. You found yourself being dutifully warned against the scams and spam mail that made its way into your inbox (Though after a while it started disappearing, something you were sure Ji was behind), ads before Youtube videos were eradicated, and God forbid you ever had to pay for shipping.

You also thought, despite himself, the grumpy and sarcastic agent was beginning to develop a fondness for you too. Once, about a month into your ‘friendship,’ you had spent practically an entire afternoon trying to find a shirt you had seen someone on the bus wearing that you thought was stunning. After a copious amount of scrolling, you gave up, but woke the next day to find the very item you had been searching for loaded up on your desktop, your exact size already placed in the shopping cart.

However, sometimes Ji acted... weird. For example, there was the matter of your mirror.

Your apartment was so tiny and cramped, you didn’t have the space, nor the funds for a full-length mirror, and so you could never actually get a clear view of how your outfit looked. After months of contorting yourself to try and fit your whole outfit into the tiny bathroom mirror when you had first moved in, you eventually decided to use the next best reflective surface you had available: your webcam. Each time you went out in the evening, to parties or just to hang out with friends, you turned it on, and twirled around in front of it, unabashed. Since Ji had seen you pretty much dead inside, hair scraped back with massive breakouts from stress, trying to finish assignment at three in the morning, or full on ugly-crying at some sappy animation movie, you had no qualms about parading around in front of your computer when you actually looked nice.

Usually, he just teased you about your sudden change in fashion, alternating between making whooping and vomiting noises, but, just last week, he had acted a little... different.

The exchange had started off as it normally did. “Damn, where are you off to looking like that?!” Ji clamoured. “You’re gonna make people too scared to leave their homes!”

“Shut up.” You rolled your eyes, twirling yourself back and forth slightly. “Do you think I look okay? I'm going on a date.”

And then, there was sudden silence. You turned to the computer, concerned it might have run out of battery, as the last time Ji had paused before answering you was months ago, before the two of you knew each other properly.

“Hello? Earth to Ji?”

“Y-yeah. Um, sorry. Yeah, you look, er...” He cleared his throat. “Nice. I mean, good. I mean-”

“Thanks, Ji! I’ll tell you how it went tomorrow!” Not waiting for his reply, since you were already late, you shut down your computer, and breezed out of the front door.

Of course, with your luck, the date was absolutely horrible. You consequentially spent the following evening recovering from the ordeal, curled up with a pint of ice cream, watching Ratatouille and moaning to Ji about how you would never find love.

“I’m serious! I genuinely am convinced I'm going to die alone.” You whined around a mouthful of Cookies N’ Cream.

“Stop being stupid, you’re very lovable.” Came the instant reply from your computer.

You paused, unsure of how to respond, shocked. At first, your surprise was due to how offhandedly and boldly the boy on the other side of the screen had suddenly delivered the compliment. Then, with a jolt, you realised how quickly your heart had started beating, blood rushing to your face. You had no idea that Ji suddenly had such an effect on you.

“T-thanks.”

“Not that I-” He stopped himself, seemingly struggling to find the right words. “I mean- You’re just-” He sighed, exasperated. “No, yeah, you’re very lovable.”

You giggled at how flustered he was. “So are you, I guess, as far as disembodied voices go.”

You were surprised to find, over the next few weeks, how frequently and easily Ji slipped into your thoughts. Buying a pastry on your way home, you wondered if he had a sweet tooth. Shopping for clothes on the high street, you wondered if Ji was into fashion. Even taking a shower, you wondered what soap he used. Each night, when you lay in your bed, the very subject of your thoughts merely metres away, you cursed yourself for being unable to do more than simply tease him, especially after his comment that night.

You knew it was stupid to start developing a crush on what was practically just a bodiless voice. Even though he shared your taste in pretty much everything, made you laugh harder than many people you knew physically, and did the best impression of Donald Trump you had ever heard, you didn’t know anything about him aside from that. Trying to ask him questions about his home life, you were stopped by a firm “It’s confidential.” Nevertheless, you still found yourself attempting to push the butterflies in your stomach deep down, each time his staticky voice filled your room.

Today, surprisingly, you had managed to keep Ji more or less out of your thoughts. It had been a good day, consisting of a stamp of approval on your end-of-year project from your professor, and a side-splitting lunch with a friend you hadn’t seen in too long. The combination of those two events had you practically skipping down the street on your way home.

You were in a part of town you didn’t really recognise, having just left the restaurant your friend had suggested that the two of you met at, you decided to treat yourself to a cup of iced coffee, in order to energise you for the work you had to do once you got home.

However, your exciting coffee break, and so-far perfect day was of course, brought to an abrupt end. Having literally just received the drink from the barista, you were violently knocked into by a flash of platinum blonde hair, scurrying up to the counter. You dropped the drink immediately, whilst the papers the boy was carrying flew up into the air. Both of your immediately dropped to the floor, in order to pick up his papers. You had been mercifully spared from spilling the drink all over yourself, as you had the common sense to throw it behind you.

“I’m so sorry!” The boy immediately apologised. “I wasn’t looking where I was going and-”

He stopped when he heard you let out a small gasp. Looking up at you properly for the first time, he saw your eyes go wide, as you recognised his voice.

It would’ve been hard for you to ignore it, since after all, it had been crackling out of the speakers on your laptop for the past is months,

“Ji?” You whispered, scanning his face intently,

You knew that Ji had been young, but you hadn't expected him to be practically your age. You also definitely hadn’t expected him to be so, well... gorgeous.

Blond strands of hair just grazing over deep brown eyes, ridiculously well-proportioned, not to mention beautiful hands you had noticed when he was picking up his papers.

You both rose from the floor, slowly. Apart from the cashier who had started to clean up your spilled drink, it seemed as if no one else in the crowded coffee shop apart from Ji had noticed your entire universe come crashing down around your ears.

“Um...” He was bright red, “I didn’t think I would ever see you in person.” He said, in a much smaller voice.

“I didn’t think I would ever see you at all!” You replied, a smile subconsciously spreading across your face. “I didn’t think you would be so cute!” You clapped a hand over your mouth, mortified that you had blurted out such an embarrassing statement.

Ji grinned at you, tossing his head facetiously. “A bit forward, are we? Barely two minutes after meeting me and you’re already shooting your shot?”

You were pretty sure that the colour of your face was an ever deeper shade of crimson than a stop sign. You opened your mouth, then closed it, unsure of how to rescue yourself from this situation.

“I don’t mind.” Ji leaned in a little closer, and you inhaled slightly. He smelled of fresh laundry and pineapple-flavoured gum. “Can I tell you a secret?”

You barely trusted yourself to nod.

“I think you’re pretty cute t-”

“Park Jisung!” A voice barked from the entrance to the shop. A tall, raven-haired man stood tall in the doorway. “Your lunch break was over half an hour ago! Get back in the office, I’m pretty sure that girl you’re always fawning over is home by no-”

“Coming, Doyoung!” He yelled back, ignoring the dirty looks he was being shot from the other customers for disturbing the quiet ambiance of the café. He turned back to you. “Look, I’ve gotta go, but I’ll-”

“Now, Jisung!” The man, Doyoung, you supposed, interrupted him again.

The boy opposite you sighed, rolling his eyes as he ran a hand through this hair. “I’ll talk to you later, I guess. Be online soon, I need to tell you something.” He turned, about to sprint after his superior, who had already stormed away, when you called him back.

“Jisung!” You used his full name, his real name for the first time, enjoying the way it rolled off of your tongue.

He faced you again, confused. “Yeah?”

“Um, nothing. Just-” You leaned up a little (God, he was tall), and pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek. “See you when I get home.”

“Uh- Wha... Um- Yeah, I-”

But you had already left, swishing out of the café, leaving Jisung standing stock still in the middle of the room, left hand touching the invisible mark you had made on his cheek, eyes lit up animatedly as he watched your figure leave his sight, goofy grin spreading across face.

#jisung #jisung nct #park jisung #jisung fluff #park jisung fluff #nct #nct jisung #nct dream #nct park jisung #jisung au #park jisung au #nct dream fluff #nct dream fic #nct dream au #jisung fic #park jisung fic #nct fluff #nct au #writings

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theshinsun · 4 years

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Hello again! Here I am sending more 😂 Do you mind doing character thing with Kasamatsu, Imayoshi, Wakamatsu and Otsubo? If it's too much, can you do with the first three? Thank you 💕

Hello again! ^^ (So sorry for the delay I was half done and then I got hit with homework and classes and didn’t have much time to do more analyses, but they’re done for the week now! I’m free!)

I don’t mind at all! But if it’s alright with you, I probably will just do those first three, not just because it’ll be ridiculously long otherwise, but because I don’t really? think I have any strong specific feelings for Otsubo? Idk why, I like him I just didn’t connect that much with him I don’t think... but I’ll gladly talk about the others!

Kasamatsu

How I feel about this character

GOOD SENPAI. I love this guy so much and wish he got to interact with more of the cast, I really vibe with his character design (his eyes are just... damn, also SOCKS), and I love the relationship he has with his team. He’s ruthless but obviously cares about all of them working together well, and is just looking for the respect he’s due as captain. Boy puts up with so much bullshit from his team of chaotic flaky weirdos, someone needs to cut him a break.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Kise (KiKasa ftw, the character development Kise goes through because of Kasamatsu is excellent, and almost instantaneous after he joins the team [“I liked being Kise of Kaijo”]. it’s really easy to interpret his behavior toward Kasamatsu as a crush; there’s no denying they’ve got chemistry and work well together... and even tho Kise drives his senpai nuts, they obviously both care about each other a lot)

Aomine (I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. They have one [1] interaction in canon, but that one interaction sold it for me. Aomine showing deference to someone and calling them “senpai”, helping him up after he got knocked down which seems... pretty unusual for him at the time, I’m so down for these two being in a relationship, it’s such a different dynamic than I usually see with pairings featuring Aomine, and there seems to be some legit respect to build off of there)

Imayoshi (I blame Lysapadin’s fic The Long Game for this, the way these two play off each other there and also canonically is... hilarious, the flirting, the Banter, please give me more quality captain ships I have a need)

Hyuuga (MORE QUALITY CAPTAIN SHIPS. I talked about them a little in my list for Hyuuga, but I just love the idea of both of these tough, exasperated captains getting to be vulnerable with each other)

and this one is a crossover but

Oikawa Tooru (maybe because he reminds me so much of Kise, and Kasamatsu so much like Iwaizumi, I feel like they’d have a similar dynamic, but it’d be interesting to see how, unlike Kise, a hardworking somewhat self-destructive person and a fellow third-year like Oikawa would get on with this guy.)

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Hmmm.... I’m gonna have to say Imayoshi again, even tho they work together as a couple too. The way they interact is so good, whether it’s platonic or not, and I’d love to see more one-on-one interaction with them. It could just be because the way Lysapadin handles their respective personalities in multiple fics is so perfect, but if they’re not romantically involved I’d at least like to see them as snarky semi-begrudging basketball buddies.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I don’t know? If I have one? Mostly bc I don’t really know what the fandom itself thinks about Kasamatsu, he didn’t get a lot of press even in KNB’s heyday. A random opinion/hc of him tho is he seems to be a bit of a pessimist. Whenever he’s commentating he’s just talking about how the team’s gonna lose, and even before his own game he seemed to just be thinking about how he lost before. Idk what else to give ya, just something I observed that I don’t really see talked about or portrayed for this guy.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

*deep inhale* MOOORE SCREEEENTIME. And not just as a commentator/attachment to Kaijo where Kise hogs the spotlight, give this guy some time to interact with other characters and flesh him out some more please! I know I’m a broken record but that’s the only thing I can think of to improve him.

Imayoshi

How I feel about this character

I didn’t used to have much opinion of this guy tbh, when I was new to KNB… but NOW, damn, I love him every time he appears. He’s hilarious, I love how sassy and clever he is, I love that he has an accent (tho it’s only pointed out in the manga), I love that he gets to have little tidbits, like that he’s bad at drawing but good at mind-reading, and how he wears slippers in a school environment and just goes around teasing everyone, whether they’re teammates or opponents. Love this guy. I love how extra he is and I’m living every time he’s on screen.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Aomine (ok I talked about this quite a bit already in my Aomine rant analysis, and I mostly blame Lysapadin’s A Firm Hand series, but I just can’t get enough of the idea of these two together… [also this comic ] Imayoshi taking Aomine in hand and knowing how to handle him when no one else does, and gradually warming up to him when he stops playing tough and finally shows his soft side. good shit)

Momoi (also probably bc of A Firm Hand, but I could see these two having a very interesting relationship. They’re both extremely smart, and good at understanding people, and I really like the idea of Imayoshi taking Momoi under his wing so she doesn’t have to suffer in silence and handle everything by herself. I feel like they’d be surprisingly sweet to each other, but lesbehonest, also a potentially terrifying power couple that I almost never see done)

Kasamatsu (again, just like above, a unique dynamic and a lovely rarepair that doesn’t get talked about enough. they didn’t get nearly enough time to play off each other in canon but what we did see was damn good)

Hanamiya (ok so… I’m not immune to this ship. I’ve seen some art, a couple fics, and it doesn’t seem to be much of a thing anymore, but still, why the hell not. they’ve got history, they’re both smart slightly evil [or very evil] shits, and they’d be such a disaster of a couple that’s why I love them)

My non-romantic OTP for this character

If not Kasamatsu, then probably Susa. They only got a little time to bond in canon, but I do love their dynamic and how chill they seem to be with each other. They remind me of a team mom/dad duo (tho I couldn’t tell you which was which lol). I could probably be talked into shipping them romantically, but I also just like the way they get along as friends and teammates.

My unpopular opinion about this character

This is more an argument I keep having with my sister… but I actually, genuinely like this guy’s design. She thinks he looks creepy and too evil and doesn’t like that his eyes are drawn closed, but esp in the manga, he looks really polished and I like that you can tell when he gets serious by whether you can see his eyes open. (or as I say to my roommate “oh shit he’s got eyes they’re in trouble”)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I wish we got to see more of him just hanging with his team. Idk maybe I’m biased, but I feel like Touou in particular doesn’t get that much time devoted to, like, practice and normal everyday shit (maybe bc we got to see Kaijo twice and Shuutoku got a whole training camp plus some, but all we get of them is the hot springs scene and a very short scene at the beginning and end of the show imeanwhat) I would’ve liked to get to know this guy better and see more of how he runs his very strange individualized team, but that could just be me.

Wakamatsu

How I feel about this character

My dude puts up with so much shit. I mean the first we see of him he’s getting kneed in the stomach by a certain dickish first-year, and he just always seems… so done with what’s going on around him. When he’s not yelling about it, which… mood, tbh. He’s relegated to little more than a background character in the anime, and only gets a liiiittle more development in the manga (as well as lots of really good faces), but tbh I’d love to see more of him. I’d love to know what he’s like as a captain and see more of how he gets along with the team; he’s the kind of hotheaded noisy player they make into the protagonist of other shows and I want to know more about him.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Momoi (k a couple of my friends @spaztictwitch and @hadenxcharm actually sold me on this one. It’s a really really rare pair, but now I can’t stop thinking about it and I really like the possibilities of them as a couple.)

Aomine (again I talked a little bit about this in my Aomine essay, but I’m a sucker for this kind of ship… the love/hate dynamic, I mean. that doesn’t get old does it. and yet I don’t think I’ve ever seen content for these guys together, maybe I should take it on myself)

Sakurai (hot-tempered senpai/captain and anxious apologetic mushroom, sign me tf up these two would be Hilarious as a pairing, oh my god. I love it)

Kiyoshi (k listen. LISTEN. yes all I’ve got is the fact that they’re both centers and they only interact, like, twice, but the idea popped into my head and I think I could actually totally see it. any takers?)

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Imayoshi. I don’t know if I’d ship them as a romantic pair (tho like with most things, if someone made a good case for them I’d consider it), but I do like their canonical interactions, like Imayoshi explaining the exceptions made for prodigies in sports (“do you know the golfer Tiger Woods? How about Shaq?”), and passing the proverbial hat to him when he retires as captain (“no worries, you’ll do fine!” like he’s reassuring a new parent or smth lmao). They’re good teammates even if Touou is not really about teamwork, and I like the mutual respect in how they seem to get along.

My unpopular opinion about this character

Not just a one-note guy who yells all the time. I mean, yes, he does yell and he’s got a short temper, but so does Kagami and people don’t portray him as a guy with only one emotion and that emotion is Anger. I mean… usually they don’t. Idk maybe it’s because most of his screentime involves him butting heads with Aomine, but he seems to get along with the rest of the team alright. He respects his seniors and the spirit of the team too, he’s just an all-around good guy that seems to get the short end of the stick a lot.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I have a MIGHTY NEED to see how this guy does as captain, I want to know how he does things differently than Imayoshi and how he handles all the bullshit the team throws now that it’s all gonna be landing on his shoulders. We only got a tiny scene at the end of the show demonstrating his policy about Aomine, and we barely saw him at all in the Last Game, is he doing okay?? Is he ruling Touou with an iron fist or getting into screaming matches with his kouhai? I need to Know.

Thanks so much for asking, I really appreciate the show of interest! <3 Sorry again about the delay!

#Answered #knb #kasamatsu yukio #imayoshi shouichi #wakamatsu kousuke #long post #if any of y'all need me to put a readmore break in these just let me know #otherwise im just gonna take up the whole screen real quick k?#shin speaks #kuroko no basuke #kuroko no basket

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kokkuri3 · 4 years

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Hello! Which books/arcticles/etc can you recommend If I am interested in writing character`s analyses as good as you?

This was SUCH a flattering ask to receive and I'm glad you respect me enough to ask it!! I thought about this question for a while and my answer is this:

There are a few books and articles I can recommend. The Hero With a Thousand Faces and The Writer's Journey are both important works among literary analysis circles and their deconstructions of fundamental character archetypes are, in my opinion, very helpful to know. Articles on character analysis specifically are in my experience a little hard to come by, and most focus more on the writing of the essay more than the analysis itself. WriteAnyPapers has a not bad article on it.

The books and articles I linked all explain fundamental character archetypes, and how they fit into a larger work. Having an understanding of these groundworks is important to being able to interpret characters and literature as a whole, at least in my opinion. What you're actually looking for, however, probably isn't what's in those books. What you want to know is probably more along the lines of "how do you come to interpret characters like this." In which case, I think it's better if I just give some advice myself.

1. Consider the greater whole.

This is the most important advice I have. When I say "consider the greater whole," I mean that one must always put any event, line, or character into the context of the story or character as a whole. Everything a character does, says, or narrates is part of their larger characterization. To take it a step further, characters exist as part of a greater narrative, and are part of a larger context. It's important to understand these as a network of interacting elements, and not as singular, independent episodes.

How does this character behave differently from other characters? In what way do they behave the same? Who is important to them, and to who are they important to? Why do they matter to the story as a whole? For this last question, consider not only plot, but themes and symbolism.

Essentially: everything is connected, so you have to consider what one thing has to do with another. (Note: sometimes, this also means taking the cultural context of a character or work into consideration. I don't think that's always necessary for character analysis, though.)

2. Consider more than just what's text.

By which I mean: take into account not only stated or directly shown characterization, but more subtle instances, as well. Not every event in a character's life will be shown, nor will their every thought. Learn to interpret subtext, identify symbolism, and recognize double meaning.

Subtext is a very important part of a narrative, despite being often overlooked or regarded as non-canon. For some purposes, I understand why subtext is held as lesser than canon (for example, I wouldn't call a character who is never explicitly stated or shown to experience same gender attraction 'canonically gay'), but for character analysis, your purpose is already to come to a conclusion that's not immediately obvious. By throwing away subtext, one erases a genuine part of a character's writing, making what they reach a bad faith interpretation (meaning, one made with an agenda).

Symbolism is often used to communicate characterization in a subtextual manner. This symbolism can be associated with particular events, or attached to a character design. If you see a specific symbol recurring throughout a work, try to see if there is any connection between its appearances. Some symbols aren't recurring within a specific work, but are associated with certain qualities across multiple works. I don't do symbol analysis as often as I do character analysis, but here's an analysis that's more the former (on scissors, specifically) and here's one that's more the latter (on white dresses as a symbol of purity.) By learning to recognize and interpret symbolism, one is able to see more aspects of a character than they would have otherwise.

Essentially: Not everything about a character will be explicitly stated, so it's alright to interpret a character based on guesses or assumptions, so long as these are backed by canon.

3. Do not conflate a character and their archetype.

One thing that happens often, and which bugs me to hell and back, is when assumptions are made about a character based on an archetype they appear to be, even when these assumptions blatantly conflict with canon. This rule is less "how to write a good character analysis" and more "how to not write a bad one," but I see this done so often I had to include it.

Is this character actually stupid, or did you just assume they were because they have traits associated with stupid characters? Is this character actually competent, or did you just assume they were because they have traits associated with competent characters? Is this character actually flirtatious, or did you just... You get my point.

In many ways this is also about combating stereotypes. You should always check your analysis for traits that are potentially racist/misogynist/homophobic/etc., and make sure canon actually supports these traits.

Character archetypes aren't bad-- they, like all tropes, are tools. Having a framework for a character can be helpful in writing them, and by creating a character that can be easily associated with other, similar ones, one can essentially shorthand to the reader what their position in the narrative will be. But well written characters are always greater than their archetypes. Identify which archetypes you associate with a character, and try to figure out if there are any ways in which they avert, subvert, or otherwise go against traits typical of their archetype.

Essentially: Make sure you're thinking about the character you're analyzing, and not other, similar characters.

4. Don't let personal biases cloud your judgement.

Fictional characters are not your friends. Nor are they your enemies. Developing a personal attachment or relationship to characters is natural, and I certainly do it. When analyzing a character, however, you shouldn't let any emotions you have warp your perception of the text.

Simply because you like a character does not mean you should look over their flaws. Sometimes, analysis can lead you to the conclusion a character you thought was good was actually pretty terrible. That's alright, and you're not betraying anyone by pointing out a character's dubious actions or flaws. Similarly, you can't make up reasons a character you hate is a terrible person. By framing actions not originally written as malicious as though they are a crime, one creates a bad faith interpretation.

And, by extent, just because you find a particular subject difficult does not mean you should ignore it. Bad faith interpretations go both ways, and interpretations made having erased all traces of taboo subject matter are as much made on false pretenses as interpretations made while fetishizing these.

Essentially: Fictional characters aren't real, and thus won't be hurt by your analysis. You shouldn't feel guilty or vengeful in creating a disparaging analysis, nor should you feel supportive or shameful in creating a supportive one. And it's OK to have mixed feelings on a character-- I take it as a sign of good writing.

Otherwise, my advice is a lot more broad. Simply familiarizing yourself with literature and its analysis should help you. Try to learn from other people. In my opinion, being a writer myself and learning to develop my own characters has positively influenced my interpretation. TVTropes as a website... Isn't great, but it is a pretty good way to learn to identify patterns across media to help with analysis and is also pretty fun to scroll through (actually looking at TVTropes character analyses isn't recommended though they tend to be pretty terrible). Wikipedia explains a lot of important analytical terminology (I reference foils a lot, for example). Have discussions with other people familiar with what you're analyzing, and don't be afraid of being wrong. Interpretation of art is subjective, so what's true to you is as true as anything. :)

Good luck !!! If you want any more advice, please let me know-- and keep in mind, a lot is just practice! I've been on Tumblr for 5+ years, and only recently have I begun making any... Decent analysis posts. As you further engross yourself, you'll be more able to identify important aspects of character and other devices such as subtext and symbolism. Even if your interpretation doesn't get much attention, keep going!!

Hope I could help!!

#writing #writeblr #OP I am you #answers #anonymous #BOTH of the posts I liked are PH/Kagepro Oops... I have autism #long post

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clubofinfo · 6 years

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Expert: This essay is inspired by Professor James Petras’ article, describing that the US never wins wars despite trillions of investments in her war budget and obvious military superiority. Professor Petras is, of course, right, the United States is currently engaged in seven bloody wars around the globe (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya) and has not been winning one, including WWII. The question is: Why is that? To these wars, you may want to add the totally destructive and human rights adverse war that literally slaughters unarmed civilians, including thousands of children, in an open-air prison, Gaza, the US proxy war on Palestine, carried out by Israel; plus, warmongering on Iran, Venezuela and North Korea. Let alone the new style wars — the trade wars with China, Europe, and to some extent, Mexico and Canada — as well as the war of sanctions, starting with Russia and reaching around the world, the fiefdom of economic wars also illegal by any book of international economics. Other wars and conflicts, that were never intended to be won, include the dismantlement of Yugoslavia by the Clinton / NATO wars of the 1990s, the so-called Balkanization of Yugoslavia, ‘Balkanization’, a term now used for other empire-led partitions in the world, à la “divide to conquer”. Many of the former Yugoslav Republics are still not at peace internally and among each other. President Tito, a Maoist socialist leader was able to keep the country peacefully together and make out of Yugoslavia one of the most prosperous countries in Europe in the seventies and 1980s. How could this be allowed, socio-economic well-being in a socialist country? Never. It had to be destroyed. At the same time NATO forces advanced their bases closer to Moscow. But no war was won. Conflicts are still ongoing, “justifying” the presence of NATO, for European and US “national security”. Then, let’s not forget the various Central American conflicts — Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala — the 8-year Iraq-Iran war, and many more, have created havoc and disorder, and foremost killed millions of people and weakened the countries affected. They put the population into misery and constant fear, and they keep requiring weapons to maintain internal hostilities, warfare and terror to this day. All of these wars are totally unlawful and prohibited by any international standards of law. But the special and exceptional nation doesn’t observe them. President Trump’s bully National Security Advisor, John Bolton, recently threatened the ICC and its judges with ‘sanctions’ in case they dare start prosecution of Israeli and American war criminals. And the world doesn’t seem to care, and, instead, accepts the bully’s rule, afraid of the constant saber-rattling and threats being thrown out at the resisters of this world. Even the United Nations, including the 15-member Security Council, is afraid to stand up to the bully – 191 countries against 2 (US and Israel) is a no go? None of these wars, hot wars or cold wars, has ever been won. Nor were they intended to be won. And there are no signs that future US-led wars will ever be won; irrespective of the trillions of dollars spent on them, and irrespective of the trillions to come in the future to maintain these wars and to start new ones. If we, the 191 UN member nations allow these wars to continue, that is. Again, why is that? The answer is simple. It is not in the interest of the United States to win any wars. The reasons are several. A won war theoretically brings peace, meaning no more weapons, no more fighting, no more destruction, no more terror and fear, no more insane profits for the war industry, but foremost, a country at peace is more difficult to manipulate and starve into submission than a country maintained at a level of constant conflict, conflict that not even a regime change will end, as we are seeing in so many cases around the world. Case in point, one of the latest ones being the Ukraine, after the US-NATO-EU instigated February 2014 Maidan coup, prepared with a long hand, in Victoria Nuland’s word, then Assistant Secretary of State, we spent more than 5 years and 5 billion dollars to bring about a regime change and democracy to the Ukraine. Today, there is a “civil war” waging in eastern Ukraine, the Russian leaning Donbass area (about 90% Russian speaking and 75% Russian nationals), fueled by the ‘new’ Washington installed Poroshenko Nazi government. Thousands were killed, literally in cold blood by the US military-advised and assisted Kiev army, and an estimated more than 2 million fled to Russia. The total Ukraine population is about 44 million (2018 est.), with a landmass of about 604,000 km2, of which the Donbass area (Donetsk Province) is the most densely populated, counting for about 10% of population and about 27,000 km2. Could this Kiev war of aggression end? Yes, if the West would let go of the Donbass area which in any case will never submit to the Kiev regime and which has already requested to be incorporated into Russia. It would instantly stop the killing, the misery and destruction by western powers driven Nazi Kiev. But that’s not in the interest of the west, NATO, EU and especially not Washington – chaos and despair make for easy manipulation of people, for exploitation of this immensely rich country, both in agricultural potential – Ukraine used to be called the bread basket of Russia – and in natural resources in the ground; and for steadily advancing closer to the doorsteps of Moscow. That’s the intention. In fact, Washington and its western EU vassal allies are relentlessly accusing Russia for meddling in the Ukraine, in not adhering to the Minsk accords. They are ‘sanctioning’ Russia for not respecting the Minsk Protocol (Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany agreed on 11 February 2015 to a package of measures to alleviate the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine), when, in fact, the complete opposite is true. The west disregards the key points of the accord – no interference. But western propaganda and deceit-media brainwash western populations into believing in the Russian evil. The only ones meddling and supplying Kiev’s Nazi Regime with weapons and “military advisors” is the west. The ongoing strategy is lie-propaganda, so the western public, totally embalmed with western falsehoods, believes it is always Russia. Russians, led by President Putin, are the bad guys. The media war is part of the west’s war on Russia. The idea is, never let go of an ongoing conflict – no matter the cost in lives and in money. It’s so easy. Why isn’t that addressed in many analyses that still pretend the US is losing wars instead of winning them? It’s 101 of western geopolitics. For those who don’t know, the US State Department has clearly exposed its plans to guarantee world primacy to the Senate’s Foreign Relations Commission. Assistant Secretary of State, Wess Mitchell, has declared that the United States is punishing Russia, because Moscow is impeding Washington from establishing supremacy over the world. It gets as blunt as that. The US openly recognizes the reason for their fight against Russia, and that Washington would not accept anything less than a full capitulation. See French version in ZE Journal. The full supremacy over the world is not possible without controlling the entire landmass of Eurasia, which for now they, the US, does not dominate. Mitchell added, contrary to optimistic hypothesis of earlier administrations, Russia and China are the most serious contenders to impede materially and ideologically the supremacy of the United States in the 21st Century, in a reference to the PNAC, Plan for a New American Century. Then Mitchell launched a bomb: “It is always of primordial interest for the United States’ national security to impede the domination of the Eurasian landmass by hostile powers.” This clearly means that the United States will shy away from nothing in the pursuit of this goal – meaning an outright war, nuclear or other, massive killing and total destruction to reach that goal. This explains the myriad false accusations, ranging from outright insults at the UN by a lunatic Nikki Haley, the never-ending saga of the Skripal poisoning, to Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections and whatever else suits the political circumstances to bash Russia. And these fabricated lies come mostly from Washington and London, and the rest of the western vassals just follows. War is hugely profitable. It creates so much money because it’s so easy to spend money very fast. There are huge fortunes to be made. So, there is always an encouragement to promote war and keep it going, to make sure that we identify people who are ‘others’ whom we can legitimately make war upon. — Roger Waters, Co-founder of the rock band Pink Floyd Russia today is attacked by economic and trade “sanctions”, by travel bans, by confiscated assets they have in the west. The Cold War which propagated the Soviet Union as an invasive threat to the world, was a flagrant and absolute lie from A to Z. It forced the Soviet Union, thrown into abject poverty by saving the west from Hitler during WWII – yes, it was the Soviet Union, not the US of A and her western ‘allies’ that defeated Hitler’s army – losing between 25 and 30 million people! Imagine! By saving Europe, the Soviet Union became unimaginably devastated and poor. The US propaganda created the concept of the Iron Curtain which basically forbade the west to see behind this imaginary shield to find out what the USSR really was after WWII – made destitute to the bones by the second World War. Yet this Cold War and Iron Curtain propaganda managed to make the western world believe that it is under a vital threat of a USSR invasion day-in-day-out, and that Europe with NATO must be ready to fend off any imaginary attack from the Soviet Union. It forced the Soviet Union to using all her workers’ accumulated capital to arm themselves, to be able to defend themselves from any possible western aggression, instead of using these economic resources to rebuild their country, their economy, their social systems. That’s the west – the lying, utterly and constantly deceiving west. Wake up, people!!! Here you have it, confirmed by Wess Mitchell. The US would rather pull the rest of the world with it into a bottomless and an apocalyptic abyss with its sheer military power, than to lose and not reach her goal. That’s the unforgiving ruling of the deep state, those that have been pulling the strings behind every US president for the last 200 years. Unless the new alliances of the East; i.e., the SCO, BRICS, Eurasian Economic Union, half the world’s population and a third of the globe’s economic output, are able to subdue the United States economically, we may as well be doomed. As the seven present ongoing wars speak for themselves, chaos — no end in sight and intended — allow me to go back to a few other wars that were not won, on purpose, of course. Let’s look again at WWII and its sister wars, economic wars and conflicts. Planning of WWII started soon after the Great Depression of 1928 to 1933 and beyond. Hitler was a ‘convenient’ stooge. War is not only hugely profitable, but it boosts and sustains the economy of just about every sector. And the major objective for the US then was eliminating the Bolshevik communist threat, the Soviet Union. Today it’s demonizing President Putin and, if possible, bringing about regime change in Russia. That’s on top of Washington’s wish list. In the midst of the Great Depression, in 1931, the US created the Bank for International Settlement in Basel, Switzerland, conveniently located at the border to Germany. The BIS, totally privately owned and controlled by the Rothchild clan, was officially intended for settling war compensation payments by Germany. Though, unknown to most people, Germany has paid almost no compensation for either WWI and WWII. Most of the debt was simply forgiven. Germany was an important player in Washington’s attempt to eliminating the “communist curse” of the USSR. The BIS was used by the FED via Wall Street banks to finance Hitler’s war against the Soviet Union. As usual, the US was dancing on two weddings: Pretending to fight Hitler’s Germany, but really supporting Hitler against Moscow. Sounds familiar? Pretending to fight ISIS and other terrorists in the Middle East and around the world, but in reality, having been instrumental in creating, training, funding and arming the terror jihadists. When WWII was won by the Soviet army at a huge human sacrifice, the US, her allies and NATO marched in shouting victory. And to this day these are the lessons taught in western schools, by western history books, largely ignoring the tremendous credit attributable to the Soviet Union, to the Russian people. And since the USSR was not defeated, the Cold War had to be invented – and eventually with the help of Washington stooges, Michael Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, the west brought down the Soviet Union – preparing the way for a unipolar world. This grandiose goal of the exceptional nation was, however, and very fortunately, stopped in its slippery tracks by the ascent of Russian President Putin. But that’s not all. For dominating Russia, Europe had to be ‘colonized’ – made into a “European Union” (EU) that was never meant to be a real union, as in the United States of America. The idea of a European Union was first planted shortly after WWII by the CIA, then taken over by the Club of Rome – and promoted through numerous conventions all the way to the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. The next logical step was to give the EU a Constitution, to make the EU into a consolidated Federation of European States, with common economic, defense and foreign relations strategies. But this was never to be. The former French President, Giscard d’Estaing (1974 – 1981), was given the task to lead the drafting of an EU Constitution. He had strict instructions, though unknown to most, to prepare a document that would not be ratified by member states, as it would have bluntly transferred most of the EU nations sovereignty to Brussels. And so, the constitution was rejected, starting by France. Most countries didn’t even vote on the Constitution. And so, a federation of a United Europe didn’t happen. That would have been an unbeatable competition to the US, economically and militarily. NATO was eventually to take the role of unifying Europe under the control of Washington. Today, the EU is ever more integrated into NATO. What happened in parallel to the construct of a (non) European Union was the European financial and economic colonization or enslavement through the Bretton Woods Agreements in 1944. They created the World Bank to manage the Marshall Plan, the US-sponsored European reconstruction fund, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to monitor and regulate the gold standard (US$ 35 / Troy Ounce), vis-à-vis the so-called convertible mostly European currencies. In fact, the Marshall Plan, denominated in US-dollars, was the first step towards a common European currency, prompted by the Nixon Administration’s exiting the gold standard in 1971, eventually leading to the Euro, a fiat currency created according to the image of the US dollar. The Euro, the little brother of the US fiat dollar thus became a currency with which the European economic, financial and monetary policies are being manipulated by outside forces; i.e., the FED and Wall Street. The current President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, is a former Goldman Sachs executive. These are wars, albeit the latter ones, economic wars, being constantly waged, but not won. They create chaos, illusions, believes in lies, manipulating and mobilizing people into the direction the masters of and behind Washington want them to move. These are the same masters that have been in control of the west for the last 200 years; and unknown to the vast majority of the western population, these masters are a small group of banking and financial clans that control the western monetary system, as we know it today. It was brought into existence in 1913, by the Federal Reserve Act. These masters control the FED, Wall Street and the BIS – also called the central banks of central banks, as it – the BIS – controls all but a handful of the world’s central banks. This fiat financial system is debt-funding wars, conflicts and proxy hostilities around the world. Debt that is largely carried in the form of US treasury bills as other countries’ reserves. The continuation of wars is crucial for the system’s survival. It’s hugely profitable. If a war was won, peace would break out – no war industry profit there, no debt-rent for banks from peace. Wars must go on and the exceptional nation may prevail, with the world’s largest military-security budget, the deadliest weapons and a national debt, called ‘unmet obligations’ by the US General Accounting Office (GAO) of about 150 trillion dollars, about seven and a half times the US GDP. We are living in the west in a pyramid monetary fraud that only wars can sustain, until, yes, until a different, honest system, based on real economic and peaceful output, will gradually replace the dollar’s hegemony and its role as a world reserve currency. It’s happening as these lines go to print. Eastern economies, like the Chinese, with China’s gold-convertible Yuan, and a national debt of only about 40% of GDP, is gradually taking over the international reserve role of the US dollar. The US of A, therefore, will do whatever she can to continue demonizing Russia and China, provoke them into a hot war, because dominating, and outright ‘owning’ the Eurasian landmass is the ultimate objective of the killer Empire. http://clubof.info/

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hypercriticalarchitecture-blog · 7 years

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Life in The Dying Urban Village

by Frank Wang

Editor’s note: This photo essay was originally published in the July 2017 Cities issue of Metropolis. Images and anecdotal stories missing from that version have been included here.

Through these images I explore a people and a place. In time, the barren concrete and twisting alleys of Baishizhou will be gone, and with them, the physical memory of one of Shenzhen’s last urban villages. Less than forty years ago, Shenzhen was a small trading town of fewer than thirty thousand. In Baishizhou you can still catch glimpses of that epoch, nuances of a steadier, calmer tempo. As the city expanded, Baishizhou remained in many ways as it was. That is not to say nothing changed. A familiar spirit of survival, of uncertainty, and the strength of community maintains a steady stream of newcomers. What was initially a first stop on many migrants’ rural to urban journey, Baishizhou often transforms from a place to stay to a place to live. In turn, this drives a continuous evolution of physical landscape and social identity.

Aerial view of Baishizhou

Surrounded by a combination of typical high-rise developments and patches of luxury townhouse-villa residences, some 150,000 residents find home in a dense, eclectic grid of aging apartment buildings. Hidden in its center is a set of collectivization-era row houses from the 1960’s (pictured in the title image), a reminder of the city’s humble origins. Streets are barely wide enough for two-way traffic, and automobile-motorcycle-oxen jams occur daily. Interning in nearby Overseas Chinese Town, I rented a room in an eight person co-living apartment here. As I wandered the labyrinth of streets and conversed with locals, I was immersed in a palpable social narrative, one that is inextricably connected with movement: the flowing of bodies, the passing of time, and the erosion of structure, both physical and invisible.

Each morning Cheng brews seven pots of herbal tea. He always sells all seven by the evening, or so he says. I ask him which tea I should get. Without hesitation, he says, “Tongue.” I open my mouth and he peers deep into my throat. Evidently, his impact on the community’s health is significant, his cart receiving much more business than the health clinic just down the road. He has remedies for stomachaches, venereal illnesses, and even emotional fatigue. He lifts the largest kettle, tilting it forward until a dark brown liquid pours into a thin plastic cup. I place three wrinkled bills in his palm, noticing the deep grooves in his fingers. I ask him which ailment I have. He says “shang huo”, a diagnosis common in Chinese medicine, describing excess heat in the body.

An alley opens into a ruin and courtyard.

To live in Baishizhou is to live in an endless construction project, perpetually reverting back to the demolition phase. The physical remnants of these cycles are the patches of concrete forest, full of bare columns crowned with rebar leaves. Children dart through the grid, mothers hang clothes, and the typically masculine construction space takes on an impromptu domesticity. Scavengers hunting for scrap metal in discarded appliances and pieces of old buildings create an erratic metronome with the clanging of their shovels.

A storeowner watches on as an excavator blocks the entrance to his hardware shop, deterring customers and muffling a small television playing Tang dynasty dramas. I approach the woman to his right and ask for her thoughts on the infrastructural work. “I used to live there,” she explains, pointing at a nearby debris yard surrounded by a low wall and dotted with parked excavators. “They took down the building three years ago. We were promised a unit in the new apartment building. After the demolition, the developer ran into issues with the government and the construction stopped. They won’t tell us when it will be completed.”

Two young men unload pallets of carbonated beverages onto a trolley before delivering it to kiosks and restaurants in the neighbourhood.

With cheap housing, light industry jobs, and abundant nightlife amenities, Baishizhou addresses many of the immediate needs of young people new to the city. As they resettled from all across China, diverse, authentic street food vendors have flourished, establishing Baishizhou as a gastronomic hotspot. Lamb skewers from Xinjiang, crayfish from Shanghai, pork belly buns from Xi’an – a moderately priced culinary smorgasbord around every corner means all demographics from sweatshop worker to white-collar techie has reason to visit. Small freight trucks carrying bok choy and watercress trickle into the neighbourhood from nearby provinces as early as six in the morning, supplying vegetable stalls and congee shops with fresh produce in time for the morning commute. Later in the afternoon, live seafood arrives from coastal villages. The sight, sounds, and smell of the market combine with the constant movement of human and animal bodies.

The operation is simple: her husband shucks and she cooks. Lan’s stand specializes in oyster and scallop. They are tender and fresh, smothered with garlic, sunflower oil, and diced Thai chili pepper before being roasted on an open grill. Stacked Styrofoam boxes behind her are filled with ice chips and today’s catch, emptied as often as the cooktop clears.

A hair salon manager leads his stylists and manicurists in their morning stretch, a set of choreographed movements accompanied by a call-and-response chant, declaring their serviceability to the street and each other.

Here in this square, life occurs simultaneously and continuously, sheltered from the unrelenting summer sun by the shade of a banyan tree: a tailor, billiards tables, and leafy greens vendor surrounded by a mahjong den, a dentist office, and a youth hostel.

The organization is chaotic yet efficient; there is just enough space for everyone. Leisure, professional, and domestic activities mix closely, occasionally to comic effect: I once saw a young boy chasing a rooster a few feet away from a dentist pulling out a patient’s tooth – he had moved outside because his lights broke. Stalls, benches, signage, and businesses multiply and spread, forming a viral fluid that seeks to fill every gap in the cracked concrete. Every empty façade is a billboard, every horizontal surface an opportunity.

Shen laughs as he claims that his is the smallest bar in Shenzhen. “Foreign companies used to book all of the tables, as well as the tables of all the restaurants down the alley, for corporate events. One time there were more than five hundred people. They would bring their own speakers and dance on tables. This one time there must’ve been a thousand people. Some guys started smoking marijuana. The police arrived and shut the party down. There haven’t been any big parties since then.” Not bad, I thought, for the smallest bar in Shenzhen. I ask him which beer is his favourite. He replies, “Me? I’ve never enjoyed drinking. Is that surprising?”

A signage board reveals a thriving local micro-economy, mainly advertising infrastructural services. The white aluminum box on the left dispenses free condoms.

Composed of everything from structural contractors and sewage system repair, to rodent exterminators and ad-hoc Internet installation, a diligent network of laborers generates a large community workforce, many parts of which operate unregistered. Legality, or the apathy towards it, is a key determinant of Baishizhou’s popularity as a leisure district. My housemate Liu, an avid gambler and owner of a small women’s dress factory north of Baishizhou, tells me that millions of RMB change hands every hour in the hundreds of private mahjong dens. Unadvertised operations, hidden by the cobweb urban fabric and visible only to those who know they exist, are reminiscent of Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City, which would be less than an hour’s drive away if it still existed today.

I learn that Mr. Xian moved ten years ago from Hunan to Shenzhen. His wife is a street sweeper who works two subway stops away. With great enthusiasm he recounts his travels: “I’ve been to Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia to perform the erhu! Here in Shenzhen, I head home after one hundred RMB, but in Hong Kong, I easily make up to ten times that. People with culture have to stick up for each other. I keep traditional Chinese music alive by performing it.” Quickly, the conversation turns political. He blames Deng Xiaoping’s policies – an uncommon perspective among Shenzheners – for what he sees as the degradation of Chinese morality. In between spirited songs, he habitually checks over his shoulders and scans his surroundings. Through many encounters with chengguan, or urban law enforcement, he has learned to move from area to area, changing his stage to reduce confrontation. He has with him a motorized bicycle, a small speaker that plays backing tracks, a sign thanking generous patrons, a collapsible chair, a box to place money, and a case for his erhu.

As someone new to the city, I expected to be treated as an outsider, to be engaged with a casual wariness if nothing else. The reality was that few people asked, or cared, where I was from. When everyone is a migrant differences can be abundant, yet conversations I had generally focused on similarities. As migration discourse becomes increasingly divisive in the West, I have come to appreciate this openness even more. In a city fixated on modernity and growth, few consolations will be given to the labourers that made the city’s modernization and expansion possible. Likewise, little remorse will be given to the dirty streets with their hotpot carts and plastic stools, despite their decades of accommodation.

Caught between the city’s administrative center and its future central business district, Shenzhen’s largest urban village has been speculated on for decades, the subject of countless designs, analyses, and researches. Shenzhen’s seemingly limitless increase in property value and the demolition of industrial buildings to the north of Baishizhou, where many migrants find work, are signs that the inevitable is finally in motion. After the rubble is swept, the locals will leave too. To be sure – if they can afford it – some will have the privilege to enjoy the wider avenues, the cleaner sidewalks, and high-rises that are coming. Top-down planning and mass redevelopment, however, are not what typically lead to a resilient communal identity and a sense of belonging. Perhaps Baishizhou, from market town to affordable density, has always been about coming and going, and this next transformation is but a step in its own migratory journey. Temporality, however, makes what will be lost no less valuable to me.

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jujuee-blog · 7 years

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Men, stop being hungry!

Candy Shop is a song of the American rapper 50 Cent featuring with the singer of RnB Olivia extracted from his second album, The Massacre. The song was released as the second single from the album on February 1, 2005. The song was written by 50 Cent and Scott Storch. Scott Storch, who also produced the song, was inspired by Middle Eastern music. The music video was directed by Jessy Terrero and shot in Hollywood, California, on January 11-12, 2005. Olivia is one of the dancers with several models including Chessika Cartwright (dominatrix), Lyric (nurse), and Erica Mena (bed). The video was nominated for "Best Male Video" at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards,

First, let’s briefly focus on the lyrics. They allude to the fellatio: "I'll let you suck the lollipop" "I'll melt in your mouth girrrl, not in your hand," alluding to the advertising slogan of the brand of M & M's Chocolate Coated Peanuts.

Then let’s analyse the music video. The story takes place in a mansion. 50 cent appears in the video with many jewels, his first appearance is with his shoes, G unit, his label. He is alone but as soon as he opens the door of the manor, tons of girls appear, like in a harem.

These girls are all almost naked. Women are so objectivied, they are products, such as candy as the title of the song says it. The camera enjoys filming closely those women with very big chest and we see that 50 cent looks pleased. The exterior of the house is in contrast with the colorful interior. The outside is gloomy, scary but the interior is shimmering, reassuring and warm. Media messages are centered on women, and it can be seen that women play a sexual and provocative role. In this clip, there are four pairs of buttocks for about 8 seconds. The woman's gaze is visible and provocative. The main man is the star. It represents the envied one, the one who possesses everything.

From the technical point of view, the movements of the camera and its positions give the feeling of being in the same rooms as the actors. We enter in the manor at the same time as the artist, a subjective plane is put forward.

The camera never stops zooming: a zoom on its sneakers, zooms on the different women present in the manor.

At the beginning of the video, Imperial, majestic style sounds were inserted, then there are the lyrics of the song Candy shop accompanied by a sensual feminine way.

The singer uses metaphors throughout his words. Many sexual contents are conveyed in the video clip but words like "Fuck, bitch, ..." are often used. Besides, a series of symbols are implemented in this video, they generally affect personal well-being:

- The jewelry, the manor, the sofa, the latest sneakers -> All these elements represent money, wealth, success, fame. And his tattoos are a way to show that he is strong, manly.

-The women, their shape, and their clothes -> Women represents the access to the desires, the sexual desires, the sexual object of the man, which it recurs in many hip hop mvs. The woman is an object, but one can read this video in two ways : on the one hand the man is superior in the sense that all these women are at his service but on the other hand, one of the women has a whip and dominates 50 cent. This video is therefore not entirely patriarchal, pro-men but let’s say, in a major part.

-The imaginary confectionery-> It's a kind of brothel that represents the ease to access sexual pleasure.

-The singer-> He is the one who possesses everything; Women, the car, branded clothes, ... it gives the image of a superior man.

-The different rooms (rooms, living room, ...) -> these represent the comfort

Sexual and racial stereotypes are taken into account, in the clip where we find only a black man and women. And the role of woman is that of a sexual object, she/it has precise missions: to charm, to seduce and to please. The video and the lyrics transform an innocent place where in general the children like to go in a place of perversion and lust. The lyrics of the song are very sexual and the video clip accentuates this sexual connotation by making it even more explicit. Sex makes sell and this video shows it well. Like the article written by Margaret Hunter "Shake It, Baby, Shake It: Consumption and the New Gender Relationship in Hip-Hop" explains, women of color, especially black women, represent sexual objects more than white women.

We see at the end of the video that actually 50 cent was dreaming. All along the video we were in his head. And when he wakes up a woman talks to him and asks her to pay her order. In reality this woman is Olivia, presents in his dream and the store is a candy store. Thus the harem represents fantasy.

In my opinion, it affects especially teenagers who need a model that represents the strong male man, who lives in luxury and in all his power. All these elements of the video attract the attention of young people. But it is necessary to make them understand that reality is not identical.

During adolescence, one passes through a phase where self-esteem and self-representation are minimal, that is why imitation is present on what is considered good for oneself, close to our personal image.

The main thing is to sort out the information we receive from artists, by raising questions and by keeping critical.

As we have said many times, hip hop is proving to be an ultra competitive environment and reducing femininity to an expression of consumerism, as well as gold chains and large cylinders.

Through this video, as through many hip hop videos, one realizes how bad the woman is represented. Besides the remarks made by the singer, the women in the video are stereotyped. They all have big buttocks, big breasts, a very strong makeup. Women are not chosen randomly. Here women are a symbol of success, the more the man has women around him, the more successful he is. Then, it seems that these women are present only by their body, the only woman who has the right to speak is Olivia, the singer but she also uses her body. The other women of the clip are only there as item, rapper toys, «video vixens ».

In her book The Hip Hop Wars, in the chapter There are bitches and hoes, Tricia Rose explain that women are regarded as a symbol of success but also as sex symbol. The women are degraded in the video clips and it seems that they have no choice but to behave well if they want to be famous in the midst which is sad ....

In the Hip Hop test: The False Advertisement of Women, Brandon Albert explain that "Nowadays, popular rap music includes derogatory lyrics about women and videos typically showing women half-naked with the intentions of obtaining more listeners and viewers. Unfortunately, this book has uncovered this fixation. As Tricia Rose said, women is a sign of success. And Albert to add that women, as in our music video, are "are treated almost as accessories: a means for rappers to prove that they have made it to the top".

Besides, in the essay called "Misogyny in Rap Music: A Content Analysis of Prevalence and Meanings" by Weitzer and Kubrin, they said that "the rappers likewise frequently brag about their sexual exploits, and are rewarded For doing so. A good example is rapper 50 Cent, who has been frequently nominated for Grammy Awards for songs with precisely these themes (e.g., Candy Shop and Magic Stick). »Women are a tool to gain self-esteem for rappers.

Through this video, we can see that the woman exists only through her body. This video invites to debate because it shows the mysogyny women face in hip hop culture and in life in general. But I think this kind of video should not exit, it is only fueled of sexism and discrimination. I agree with Tricia Rose when she said that sexual freedom is not the same as hyper-sexuality or sexual repression. In this video, women are not free, they are shown as toys for guys. The author asks readers to fight against the sexist ideologies of the "pimps", like 50 cent I think, in the music industry.

To conclude, I would like my readers to listen and watch the last released music video of Katy Perry featuring the hip hop group Migos, “Bon appétit”,where the criticism of the woman-object seems to inspire more than ever the female artist who accompanies the video of an explanation posted via her Twitter account: "Hot and ready to serve, but make no mistake, I'm not your piece of meat.” In this mv, the artist use a very smart and pretty way to denounce the fact that women are being seen as food for men. I really think such mv are relevant, meaningful and useful to speak on behalf of all mistreated women!

DULAC Justine

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s0023329asfilm · 7 years

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Post D. Textual Analysis Final Draft

Explain how the theme of coming of age is portrayed in The Fault in Our Stars (Boone, 2014) and The Spectacular Now (Ponsoldt, 2013) as unconventional teen films.

These two American teen films, The Fault in Our Stars and The Spectacular Now, one thing that you might notice after watching them is that they’re simultaneously very conventional and unconventional as teen films at once, based on Driscoll’s teen film conventions. Both of them present what it’s like to be an adolescent very well using typical coming of age conventions such as romantic and sexual relationships with heterosexuality, peer groups, parents and alcohol. Meanwhile, although they contain lots of those conventional factors, they’re still distinguishable from other typical teen films because what they focus on throughout the whole movie is how characters address their perceived imperfection and instability in order to mature, rather than normal rites of passage. According to representation theory, in general sense, media representations are the ways in which films portray particular objects from a particular dominant perspective. In these movies, the narratives get developed based on the ideological perspective concentrated on highlighting negative space, and the way they portray those alternative representations of teens for coming of age theme would be the point which will be covered in this essay.

The First film to discuss is The Fault in Our Stars (Boone, 2014). The movie is classified as romance and drama genre. The key themes are coming of age, loss of innocence and virginity, love, family, death, grief, and loss. The film is about a girl named Hazel who’s got cancer, meeting a boy named Augustus, who’s also a cancer patient, and building a relationship with him. A protagonist is technically Hazel, but Augustus is also a very large part of the movie since he’s the one who encourages Hazel to lead her life and gives her meaning of life that she was losing. I can’t really find any antagonist among the characters, which presents how grounded and realistic this film is, because in our normal life, it’s hard to find merely bad people around us. In the real world, everyone is a protagonist in their own lives. However, if an antagonist is not only limited to humans, cancer can be an antagonist in the film, which is an another unconventional feature.

The next film is The Spectacular Now (Ponsoldt, 2013). The movie is classified as comedy, drama, and romance genre. The key themes are coming of age, loss of innocence and virginity, love, family, hedonism and man vs himself. The film is about a high school boy named Sutter who only lives in the present. However, through meeting a girl named Aimee and finding his long lost father, he started to change. The protagonist would probably be Sutter, but simultaneously he’s also shown as an antagonist. Throughout the whole movie, the story is entirely built around Sutter, which tells that he’s obviously a protagonist, but all the hardships he needs to go through have been caused by him, and that setting reinforces the theme of man vs himself.

In this chosen scene in The Fault in Our Stars, there are some points that we can find some important relevance to the chosen macro concept from.

The first crucial aspect of cinematography in the scene is the use of ELS. Hazel and Augustus visually take very small part in this shot, which makes them seem to be quite powerless and even unimportant. It’s significant in relation to the theme because it connotes that although they feel extraordinary about themselves, still they’re just tiny parts of this enormous world.

The second aspect of cinematography is the use of off centre frame. They put Hazel and Augustus on the left quite small to show the contrast between them and the kids playing in the playground. It means more than it seems like because during the first half of the movie, there was a scene that Hazel and Augustus went to picnic together to the same place, and at that point, they were part of those kids because both of them were much more stable physically and emotionally. It fragmentarily shows how vulnerable their mental and physical status has become compared to their past. However, in a positive way, it also can be interpreted as being more mature than before.

The last aspect is the use of MCU. Instead of using LS to show their entire look, the director chose to focus on Hazel’s hand helping Augustus getting up and his facial expression. It emphasizes Augustus’s feeling about his own health condition which is very precarious and facilitates comparison with how he normally acted like before his cancer got worse. It also portrays how different he is from other teenagers because normally teenagers don’t need help when they get up. This relates to my focal macro concept because it shows how much people can change due to circumstances and how hard it is to overcome when you face adversity which can never be overcome.

Meanwhile, in The Spectacular Now, cinematography is used in quite different way from the previous one.

The first aspect to focus on is the use of low key tone. While Sutter is driving his car on his way back home, light only comes from the outside of the car so that we only can see Sutter’s vague silhouette in the dark. It represents pessimistic attitude of life that he has at that moment and that he’s being emotionally closed due to fear and despair. It’s strongly connected to the theme because it portrays adolescents’ insecurity appearing when they’re having a hard time to control their feelings.

Next significant aspect is the use of Dutch tilt. When Sutter is parking his car, it seems to be slanted which gives us some vital clues to, psychologically, the angst of his mind, and physically, his drunkenness, which both are related to stereotypes of teenagers. Therefore we can get the idea that he’s quite out of his mind because of the trouble he’s got with Aimee and his dad.

The third aspect is the use of a face in half shadow. It’s one of the cinematographic aspects in the movie that clearly represent Sutter’s characteristic as both hero and villain. It also shows the inner conflict that he’s having and confusion of his identity formed after he met his dad and found himself from his dad’s careless behaviour.

Firstly, in the chosen scene of The Fault in Our Stars, one of the significant factors of mise en scene is those two characters’ costumes.

While Hazel is wearing jeans and jacket like a normal teenage girl, Augustus is wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants with a woolly hat in order to keep himself warm and we immediately can notice that he’s a patient from his outfit. It directly represents their health status, especially how sick and depressed Augustus is compared to Hazel.

The second factor to focus on is a champagne bottle. In this scene, the champagne complements what Augustus talks about his anxiety about getting forgotten after death, since alcohol in movies generally has an image of distress and instability, both mentally and socially. It also means that as opposed to his obsession of being remembered, he wants to look away from his own life through drinking because it’s not what he wanted to get.

The last key prop is Hazel’s oxygen tank and Augustus’s wheelchair. While they’re talking to each other, the tank and the wheelchair keep being shown in the frame and they remind us that those two kids are sick and different from other ‘normal’ teenagers. It’s important in relation to the theme because they’re medical assist devices that directly show us incompleteness of the characters.

In The Spectacular Now, the first mise en scene that catches our eyes is the colour.

Since the frame is quite dark overall, the yellow colour of the traffic light, traffic sign, the car’s headlight and rear light seems to be very conspicuous. In this case, the colour yellow represents negative images such as cowardice, egoism, and madness. It implies what kind of emotions that Sutter will express in the following shot, which also can be interpreted as ‘warning’.

The second factor is Sutter’s costume. He’s wearing a t-shirt that is very crumpled, greyish, and obviously not quite clean. It tells us that what we expected about Sutter’s emotional status from the previous shot was exactly right and gives more plausibility to his words and actions.

The last mise en scene to analyse is the location of the scene when Sutter’s mom soothes him crying. The kitchen represents Sutter’s mom since she’s the only person who generally uses it and the fact that he’s crying in her area symbolizes that he’s wanted to rely on her, express his feeling and show his weak inside to her. It also means that he finally got to merged into the family since a kitchen is occasionally called the ‘heart’ of the home.

The chosen sequence from The Fault in Our Stars is a plain scene that mainly shows a relaxed conversation between characters. Only non-diegetic sounds in this sequence are two pieces of score, one that comes out at the beginning and the other one at the end. The first one named ‘Funky Bones 2 Part 1’ gives the whole scene sad and gloomy atmosphere and implies the idea of how their conversation would go. The music stops right before the dialogue starts. The following dialogue, especially when Hazel says “You think that the only way to lead a meaningful life is for everyone to remember you. For everyone to love you. Guess what, Gus. This is your life. This is all you get.”, emphasises the theme through showing that teenagers commonly think themselves as a protagonist of the whole world and expect something greater than others in the future, but inevitably they only get their small world just like others. At the end of the dialogue, Hazel says “But it’s not nothing, because I love you, and I’m gonna remember you.” and it tells you that although that tiny world it all you get, it’s eternally meaningful to you because the world will always be there for you till the end. Then the second background music named ‘Funky Bones 2 Part 2’ comes out and changes the atmosphere of the scene more delightful and hopeful.

We can find almost exactly same composition of sound in the chosen scene of The Spectacular Now as well. There are two pieces of background music at the beginning and at the end, which are only non-diegetic sounds in the scene, and in the middle, there’s a long dialogue between the two characters. The first piece of music functions as a factor that gives the scene tension and anxiety. It reaches its peak when Sutter runs into the mailbox and makes huge banging sound. After that, they start their conversation and it lets us know what kind of kid Sutter was, for example when Sutter’s mom says “You love everybody. You have the biggest heart of anyone I know”. He seems to be quite defiant and indulging at the moment but he’s actually very caring person, except that it’s not being shown well because of his identity crisis. His mom reminds him how special he is to her and a song named ‘Song for Zula’ that suggests feeling of hope and delight comes out at the end of the scene and gives us hint at the way the rest of the film would go.

Since neither of the chosen scenes used dramatic and various editing techniques, there’s not much to analyse about what kind of editing technique has been used. One noticeable editing skill that I found from both of them is that they followed 180 degree rule very well, which relates to the theme because it helps showing argument between the characters with more tension and intensity. It cements the realism of the films and therefore immerses the audience in narrative as well. Also they both use shot reverse shot during conversation, and it helps us to see the characters’ reactions to each other, especially Augustus’s and Sutter’s, since they keep venting their stress and negative emotions through their verbal and facial responses.

As I mentioned above, The Fault in Our Stars and The Spectacular Now are very similar films in many ways. They have similar narrative structure, characters, and themes. However, through this essay, we found out that although they have a lot of things in common, still the way they’re being presented can be quite different. I think the difference might be mostly caused by the fact that The Fault in Our Stars was produced by 20th Century Fox, one of the biggest movie production companies, with 12 million dollars of budget, and The Spectacular Now was produced by an independent film production called Andrew Lauren Productions, with 2.5 million dollars. In relation to my focal macro concept, the most effective micro feature was mise en scene for both films in my opinion. Sometimes things placed in the frame tell us more than actual words do because they can be interpreted in so many different perspectives. Since everything in the frame is placed for the right reason, they all got messages to tell us and we can derive one big theme from those messages.

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