#i can make a system metaphor out of any poorly written character. And I Will. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kamadevva · 3 years

Text

analysis/interpretation on the ending scene of ōoku

I wanted to get my thoughts out about FGO event Ōoku now that the event is over, I’ve got no idea how Tumblr algorithm works but hopefully someone sees this and adds their own thoughts since I’d love to have discussion on this since I’ve got MANY words about this event tbh.

The main scene I wanted to go over was the ending at least, with the small discussion Kama and Kiara have with one another— to preface this, I sort of wanted to acknowledge for a fact Ōoku is NOT without flaw and is a pretty poorly written event in certain aspects, and I 100% understand why people are frustrated about how cruel this event treats Kama!! To be honest, I think the reason why I interpret the ending scene the way I do is a desperate attempt to give myself some closure over giving Kama some healing, but I wanted to see if anyone agreed first.

Anyways, about the scene itself: when reading through the ending, I personally thought Kiara’s send-off, although obviously still some form of “punishment” and “karmic retribution” was actually motivated by a small, good-intended desire to give Kama a chance of healing at Chaldea.

I sort of wanted to point out this scene in particular, which struck me differently compared to the reactions of other characters:

As observed by other people, I think it’s pretty sucky that most other characters basically congratulated Parvati for forcing a second traumatic experience onto Kama and barely turned an eye to how cruel the usage of her Noble Phantasm actually was (I’m aware Kama needed to be taken down sooner or later since, had their plan succeeded after all, they would’ve never gotten the chance to properly heal, but I still think it’s unnecessarily cruel to throw a second painful incineration specifically led by one of the main sources of their trauma in the first place).

But there is one character who DOES point out their concern for Kama’s fate, and that’s Sessyoin Kiara herself.

Kiara, with no doubt, is a wicked woman with flawed morals— she herself makes it a point to state this and does confirm this is her own way of giving Kama “punishment”.

And yet, what strikes me as important is that Kiara is the only character to point out that Kama had brought their fate on themself— she is, as far as I’m concerned, the only character to observe their motives and morals in its truest form and vaguely attempt to connect and empathize with such a mindset. Kiara also seems to be the only one to pick up on how Kama has a burning hatred for themself in this scene, while other characters of Ōoku tend to pass Kama off as arrogant, egoistical, and haughty.

In a way, I personally believe Kiara noticing the depth behind Kama’s personality and motives is already an act that no other characters of Ōoku provide for (especially Parvati, like wtf?). It reads as a vague attempt of both sympathy and empathy to give Kama a chance to be heard, and even if it is coupled with Kiara’s narcissistic and rather sadistic behavior, I do believe Kiara made nonetheless a small attempt to give Kama a sense of understanding. There even seems to be a vague hint of concern (Kiara later states “Even I would not go that far” regarding the incineration) towards Kama’s self-destructive behavior. Given Kiara’s masochistic tendencies, I only think that line is further important that she full-on admits Kama’s self-hatred actually surpasses her own limits for self-preservation.

Kiara herself actually points out Kama, in the end, has a rather pure and benevolent soul, stating:

While this could be read as Kiara attempting to mock Kama, especially given their angry reaction after— I like to believe that deep down inside, Kiara genuinely did acknowledge the tragedy of Kama’s situation. I once again want to reiterate the fact that scarcely any other character in Ōoku offers this sympathy, and Kiara is, once more, the only person to attempt to describe and observe Kama as an empathetic victim who was mistreated cruelly all throughout.

Then, once Kiara begins the process of assimilating Kama into the servant summoning system:

Punishment or not, Chaldea is exactly an environment Kama needs to heal, and I believe Kiara herself is aware of that— of course, I don’t believe Kiara was doing this out of the goodness of her heart, but there seems to be a hint of genuine concern for Kama behind the statement of redemption and “remaining misunderstood forever”.

Without Kiara sending Kama to Chaldea, it’s possible the tired god of love may have never been able to find peace and healing— more than likely, it feels as if Kama had fully intended to drift in their universe without end, seeing themselves as nothing more than a “loser” with a pathetic personality.

Described by their bond lines, and later their interlude, the type of people Kama needs to heal is found in Ritsuka— they need someone to (metaphorically) “teach” them love, for even if they’re aware of everything about it, they have long forgotten the positive, simple, and wholesome experiences associated with love. They’re aware of its existence, just as they’re aware of the love they held for Rati and Vasanta— but no longer feel any emotional connection or feeling to love in its purest form, and that is where characters like Ritsuka come into play. Chaldea is a place where Kama can “relearn” these experiences once more, and begin their path of healing— and I genuinely believe Kiara was fully aware of this while sending Kama to Chaldea.

Would also like to point out that one of the main motifs of this event was the whole lesson behind Kasuga’s definition of love— rather than endless depravity that spoils people rotten and, as a result, condones evil and sin, love is instead found through a sense of nurturing and guidance— an act of supporting and helping a person grow without necessarily keeping shackles on their development.

Kiara’s actions here seems to be vaguely reminiscent of the love Kasuga feels for the Ōoku and the shoguns— even if she does not presently state this, she similarly desires to reach an understanding with Kama and send them on this path of healing and development. For a woman that ultimately can only love herself, I think it is still important for both of their characters that Kiara was nonetheless capable of hinting, at the very least, empathy for Kama and a desire to give them healing closure no other character in Ōoku attempts to provide.

Again, I don’t deny that Kiara did not have the purest intentions by toying with Kama at the end, and I still believe Ōoku is poorly written in this regard of unnecessarily torturing a trauma victim— but, just as Kama was built by tragedy, Kiara underwent similar— even if Kiara herself is presently aware there is no longer “good” in her and she is no longer the holy woman she once was, Kiara still nonetheless desires for good to exist— just not specifically from herself, and linking Kama with Ritsuka was an example of her trying to keep the existence of good morals. This, to me, also felt like a conclusion to Kiara’s whole practice of self-restraint throughout the event— she wants to “guide” Ritsuka into development and eventually take her down, secretly motivating for them to abstain from her, even if she still nonetheless desires to be the one to corrupt them in the end.

I’ve got a big handful of other thoughts on this event (especially as a huge Kama fan), but that’s all I’ll touch on here, since I really wanted to share at least my interpretation of the ending scene and what it meant to both Kama and Kiara. I also really want to discuss this with others, so please feel free to add on! If you don’t agree with any of this, that’s fine too, but I’d still love to hear people’s thoughts nonetheless.

#fate grand order #fgo #kama #sessyoin kiara #sesshouin kiara #kiara sessyoin #kamadeva #ooku event #analysis #long #text #fate/grand order #if it wasn’t obvious i also ship kamakiara #like an idiot #plz read this i want to talk so much about ooku :(

271 notes · View notes

suncaptor · 3 years

Text

s7 adoration

First off, one thing I love about it is the versatility of it. some of my favourite parts are the humour of it, and the balance to the horror of it. It does lean towards dark, and is certainly darker than the rest of the show, but that just makes the gravity of it all lift off so intense when there’s randomly then dick jokes and so forth. same goes for the characters in it with the themes.

I genuinely think that leviathans are one of the scariest and best villains on the show because of the reflection of psychological horror and the flip on the script of hunted/hunter.

That being said, I also think Dick Roman is a great villain for comedic reasons as well and genuinely find his dialogue memorable. So memorable, in fact, I made this uquiz.

I also think that it is the darkest season psychologically in supernatural, like it rings out nadir to me, yet at the same time, this is all canon dialogue. but also it is quite unseen, the depth of it, which is infuriating (and my main fix would it being from Sam’s perspective), but it makes it compelling to me too.

I actually really like having sodium borate being corrosive to leviathans

There’s a canonical bipolar main character who’s vital to the plot and who’s talented and who’s also part of the inner themed reflections of paranoia within without systems and being incapable of trust anything even your brain while still retaining that vitality.

The season starts out with perhaps one of my favourite arcs in the show, as well, which brings me great joy in all the dialogue while also introducing one of the other most compelling parts of the show (being godstiel then Sam’s PTSD hallucinations retrospectively).

Two of the three main writer’s I look to as the core of what I love about Supernatural are perhaps the strongest voices in the season (Sera Gamble and Ben Edlund) and I really actually love the addition of Robbie Thompson and think some of his episodes are top tier. I don’t like Adam Glass, Buckleming, or Robert Singer writing any of the episodes, and my fix to s7 would be deleting those episodes, and Dabb is on like, thin ice, but I do really like most of the writing and theming and all and am genuinely enjoying the individual episodes and think that tied with 2, 4, and 5 it’s got the best quality for being entertaining to me.

And when I was looking at favourite episodes in Kripke/Gamble era (which I generally vastly prefer), it had the most of top 30 (8), and 20% of the top 10. And of that, it would skew towards the top total.

While Hello Cruel World sets up the season’s intent extremely well, I think that Defending Your Life drives the points home about how this reflects onto Sam and Dean in regards of their own psychological issues and how it will then impact their actions, the conflict not at all then revolving around leviathans but the concept of monstrosity and mental illness. While the season is incredibly ableist constantly and with some writers it’s clear that it’s intentional and the characters and they treat Sam with respect, other times it’s clearly not. I still am obsessed with this because it is directly and not metaphorically addressing these issues even if poorly.

Slash Fiction has some of the most in character and pointed analysis in the show immediately, including this scene and actually references and uses the history of the characters and the show itself to be more horrifying.

How To Win Friends and Influence Monsters is just also the epitome of s7 in general, from Sam hallucinating Lucifer and saying he’s lucky and people have it worse, Dean at his nihilistic worst about to lose Bobby admit while high on a sandwich what it’s really about, the fact they didn’t ever want to shoot deer, and just iconic dialogue from everyone including our favourite Dick Roman and “bibbing” while also having Bobby see the plans building the tension of the overall arc in the season right before being shot.

And while Death’s Door is very painful for me to rewatch, it is also an astounding episode of television from the terror of going back to the origin “You can never go home” and the only genetic case of bullet to the head (generational trauma), the insight into the abuse, how it shaped all the memories proceeding it, how Bobby didn’t escape it or what it did to him, but he also never was anything like his deepest fears or his fathers, and also Bobby’s speech towards his father. I also think the way Sam and Dean respond is extremely well written and their grief is palpable.

We also then get these lovely random images I get to share here :) X, X, and X.

Repo Man I may have some criticisms about in terms of ableism and homophobia, but it is still one of the best, and most horrifying, episodes in the show. Both the mirrors and the revelations throughout the episode and the dark intoxicating obsession while also seeing Sam’s actual trauma in front of us… I feel like I could literally analyse this episode for years, it’s so rich and deep, as much of Edlund’s episodes are when he decides he wants to make something deep instead of comical.

that being said I think The Born Again Identity may be one of the best episodes in the entire show. I can’t rationalise this because it would take hours if you don’t like this episode we just have entirely different taste.

Though, outside of the actual episode writing, the way it opens with the surreality and mental deterioration is very important to me, and it’s just one of many aspects of this episode, but I feel like it may be less popular so I thought I’d say it.

Charlie’s first episode and actually having our first actually good fully fleshed out lgbt character genuinely changes something in me when I watch it like. It is so full of hope for me personally just because of how fun and deep it remains. We get to hear Dick Roman describe the spark in humanity he can’t replicate while also saying “Nothing’s safe. I like that.” (the thesis of the season). Donald Trump helped him get the leviathan tablet. We get the scene where Dean coaches Charlie through flirting with a man and also have her make Harry Potter references which I just personally find very funny to watch. And Charlie’s mere existence just makes me hope, like the way she is.

Season 7 is the first season Cas tells Sam and Dean he loves them.

And Kevin Tran is introduced, one of my favourite characters who also adds much to the season itself.

Reading is Fundamental is the episode that Kevin Tran is introduced, that we get to see more into Cas’s past through the ways in which is he more open in his altered mental state such as how he loved Neanderthal poetry and bees, Hester’s accusation towards Dean, more talk around the hell trauma transfer which intrigues me even if it also infuriates me, and Cas actually faces and reacting to what he’s done, even if in an altered state. There are countless reasons I love it.

Also, this may not be something someone who doesn’t ship destiel can see and leans much more subtextual, so ignore this part if you are bothered by those interpretations, but I think season 7 is when Dean realised he was in love with Cas and like I do have a lot of reasons for thinking this and find it just another layer of why seeing the psychology of the main characters is intriguing to me. I also then can do parallels throughout that reflect this grapping too. And it adds layers to how Dean finds him married then, maybe even add the demon he kissed.

And then, of course, is the matter of the trench coat.

this is very very limited, but I tried my best to be comprehensive of my highlights and reasons for loving season 7!

#s7 #spn #supernatural #incoherents #lists

37 notes · View notes

ahiddenpath · 3 years

Text

Life Talk

1.) I won Nanowrimo

2.) My house is sold

3.) I’m tryyyyyyying to taking it easy

More below the cut.

So, I won Nanowrimo. It’s roughly 30K Four Years and 20K Tri: Integrity Lens. I feel very... blank about it, though. In the last few years, I’ve been trying to celebrate when I win Nanowrimo, but... I don’t have any emotions about it this year, probably even less than usual.

I should probably back up and say that, when I was growing up, I was the type that got all As, won every contest, was the lead in plays and singing events, got the good behavior awards, won state-wide science and poetry contests, was on the select sports teams. I’m not saying this to brag- I was hyper-involved in school and extracurriculars because it kept me away from home.

It got to the point at home where, if I won an award, the reaction was, “good.” If I didn’t, it was, “Why didn’t you win that award? We don’t have money for tutoring, so you had better figure it out *vague threat* ” Stuff like that.

Basically, it’s hard for me to feel proud of anything. If I succeed, that’s “baseline.” Good, I won’t be scolded. If I don’t, that’s anxiety- “I will be scolded, I will be punished.”

I can’t change that concept as an adult- it was cemented into me during my formative years. But I can see it, and I can tell myself- it’s okay. Don’t beat yourself up over not feeling a certain way.

The big thing on my mind now, still, is that we sold our first home successfully a few days ago. It’s the most enormous load off my mind. This whole time, I’ve been wondering- I keep pinning everything on when the house is sold. Will it actually be a relief? Will it actually free up emotional and mental real estate?

SPOILER ALERT: IT DID, I FEEL GREAT!

I told my therapist that I couldn’t feel “at home” and “settled” until I sold the old house, and she challenged me to not wait for some kind of... Permission? Catalyst? Like, don’t put things off citing “my old home isn’t sold” as a reason, because suddenly, a year will have passed and you still haven’t painted your room or put up photos or turned the house into your home.

I absolutely see her point, but I also see mine. Frankly, now that I’m not paying for two mortgages, I can afford to do some of that stuff (buy paint and supplies, buy a rug, buy a lamp, etc). It is true that I could have hung my photos at any time, so that was just a mental/stress block, but I do think that pointing to the money that was tied up in paying the mortgages for both homes, and for repairing things at the old home at the buyer’s demand, was... you know, a valid reason not to be throwing money at our current home.

Right now, my anxiety is free to be directed at the fact that the CDC is forecasting such drastic pandemic leaps. It’s expected to hit in about 10-ish days after today, 11/29, a Sunday that will likely be the largest single day for travel as people head back home in droves to make it to work on Monday after going away for Thanksgiving. It’s expected that we’ll be seeing 4,000 covid deaths per day in the states around week 2/3 of December.

I really don’t want to go to work physically, because I know coworkers who travelled. I wish we could all stay home for two weeks, when the symptoms will show for carriers who are not asymptomatic. I will definitely be limiting my time in the office to after 3 PM, when a lot of coworkers have gone home. It’s still a risk that I’m not sure is worthwhile.

Ah! I should probably say that my therapist is talking about ending therapy. I started in... I wanna say March or April of 2019? Is that right? So I guess it’s been... Like, 19-ish months? I’ve learned so much, but I would say... The biggest difference is that I can see my behavior patterns for what they are, and then decide what to do with them. I haven’t “changed” at my core. I can’t, not in the way people mean when they say “you’ve changed.” The same learned behaviors, belief systems, and emotions from my childhood are there. I just recognize them when they pop up and can make informed decisions about how to approach them.

Which, it turns out, makes a huge difference, even if it isn’t really “change.” I’m always in danger of being too distraught to see what’s in front of my face, though (thanks, anxiety!).

What else... My husband and I did cheese fondue and hot pot for Thanksgiving! It was easily the best holiday I’ve ever had. Holidays are always... so high pressure, always such events that turn a day off into a giant list of chores that might span weeks to complete beforehand. Plus, I’m always hoping I’m not about to be dragged into some kind of “trap” conversation by both my family and my husband’s, who have very different political views compared to me.

But on Thanksgiving, my husband and I ate amazing food, spent a lot of time together, and I felt so loved and cared for and valued, because my husband came up with the idea and made it happen, all so we’d have a nice holiday together. Honestly, I don’t deserve him. I don’t get it. He’s so amazing? I love him so much.

As for my writing, I’ve been feeling... Bad about it, frankly. I think it’s partially because it honestly looks like no one is reading Tri: Integrity Lens. I don’t get it? It was my most requested story in 2018/2019, and I know people wanted a sequel to Growing Up with You, so why is TIL doing so poorly? At first, I thought people were going back to read GUWY again first, since I saw a huge surge in hits for it. Now, I’m not sure? Like, if I open my stats, some random GUWY chapters will have over 10 times the hits as the newest TIL chapter??? ???? ???? ???? ?????

I’m wondering if it has to do with Tri itself... I think that, the more time passed, the more people who liked Tri are maybe defensive about how... negative the fandom reaction was, overall. Meanwhile, people who dislike it, I think, have maybe simply... chucked it out the window, and don’t think about it much. Whereas, when it was still coming out and directly after it wrapped up, I think people who disliked Tri were more interested in imagining ways they might have personally tweaked it.

That makes things awkward for someone like me, who thinks Tri has amazing moments basically... tacked onto a crumbling base.

Actually, let me give you my weird metaphor for Tri!

When I am deciding if I’m going to write a new fic, often what happens is... A few powerful ideas coalesce, a few themes and characterizations. Some people say they are lead by a few powerful scenes. I think of these ideas/themes/character ideas (or scenes for other people) as sparkling ornaments on a Christmas tree.

The problem is that... Ornaments in a box don’t... do much. You need to display them on a tree, right? The ornaments need to be connected and supported by a plot (unless you decide to write a focused oneshot, which is my recommendation in most cases).

In short: Tri has amazing ornaments, but the tree is... not... doing that well. The ideas are there, there are plenty of awesome moments, but something about the actual story/execution just... Didn’t do it for me. But dang, those are some nice ornaments!

That was quick and dirty, but hopefully it conveyed the general idea.

ANYWAY, I’ve been trying to decide if I’m going to continue TIL. I think right now, I would definitely finish Ketsui, since I have so much material written already. Why waste it, right? But I’m not sure what the future of the story will be- not plot wise, but rather, “is my time better spent elsewhere”-wise.

I’m not sure if I need to focus on a new story, if I should take a break, or what. I need to write for my mental health, but it doesn’t have to be a fanfic. It can be anything, as long as I explore whatever is eating at me.

And that is where I am! I hope you’re all staying safe <3

#hidden's life

13 notes · View notes

queenofmoons · 3 years

Note

ok i’ll bite. what’s less homophobic about the hannibal thing than the destiel thing

thank u Lee ily

First off, I want to start by saying that categorizing representation as “bad” or “good” when it comes to lgbt media is a flawed system because it implies that there’s only really one way to have that experience, but this only applies to media made by lgbt people. You can criticize lgbt rep without entirely writing it off.

It also implies that all lgbt stories/characters are made inherently to be representation, which I also think doesn’t make much sense because every straight story isn’t "good” or “bad” straight representation. They’re just stories, and maybe you like them, maybe you don’t. And, again, this isn’t to say you shouldn’t watch things critically. (and this also doesn’t include stories that are genuinely harmful to the community, like CMBYN)

Hannibal was made by a gay man who (although his perception of bisexuality is due for some criticisms) didn’t make the story to be “good” gay representation. The story is about a cannibal who happens to fall in love with another guy. It’s almost as improbable as it is abusive. It’s a speedrun friends to enemies to lovers story with a lot of artistic gore, but what it is not is representation.

The writers added in flirting, and nuance, and metaphors, and they followed through with a literal love confession. And they didn’t even need to, because even without the words being said it was still more than subtext (i.e Hannibal giving will his “heart”).

It’s a genre show, and that genre has some intense horror themes. The show does not, however, vilify Hannibal because he is gay. He’d still be doing awful shit even if he wasn’t. The show never tries to imply that Hannibal and Will are a good relationship. They’ve tried to kill each other multiple times, they’re clearly not.

Supernatural is different. It’s a genre show, too, but in a much different way. None of them (not counting when they’re being possessed) are the villains. A relationship between Dean and Cas wouldn’t be necessarily unhealthy.

The problem with the destiel thing is that it could be up for debate. Did 12 years of nuance actually lead up to this big reveal, or was this a final “fuck you” from writers who have admitted to killing off characters just because fans ask about them too much? Was it a genuine attempt, or was it an afterthought? Was it a gift, or was it done out of spite?

We’re talking about a show whose writers haven’t shied away from openly mocking their fans. Fan fiction, the episode in season 10, was a criticism of people who engage with the fandom. And while some of it was fair-- for example, shutting down people who ship w*ncest-- a lot of it was made to make the characters seem weird, or wrong for trying to find so much hidden meaning in the story they were watching.

Plus, there’s Becky, a Supernatural fangirl who is written off as crazy and obsessed-- even going so far as to drug Sam with a love potion to get him to marry her. She writes Supernatural fan fiction, gets herself involved when she shouldn’t, and as soon as she doesn’t serve any use to God and starts to annoy him, he kills her.

So, even if this was a genuine attempt from the writers, a final way to extend an olive branch, it still feels backhanded. It’s years too late, riddled with homophobic tropes like “bury your gays” and “gay guy confesses to his straight friend.”

And the thing is, the story isn’t totally irredeemable. If they bring Cas back, they have a chance to settle with the fans. But, if they don’t, if they made this grand reveal for no reason other than to just have it, when they could have done what those of us still watching expected them to do-- that of course being, the same thing they’ve been doing for the past 12 years: nothing. It feels inherently malicious. Even if I personally liked the speech Cas gave, or got excited the confession happened, it’s happening on top of a long history of the writers treating LGBT people poorly (and POC, but that’s another, longer conversation), openly treating their fans like garbage for even considering there being subtext, and the fact that they killed Cas immediately.

Also, we can’t forget that earlier in the same episode they killed Charlie (again) as well as her girlfriend.

#I did NOT mean for this to be so long but I had a lot to say #should I tag this?#I don't think I will actually superwholock fans scare me and I was one #am one #hate to admit it #HJDSGHKJF thank u for asking I wanted to get that out agdhjasg #okay to reblog #lee tag #jo watches spn #my writing

11 notes · View notes

duncanwrites · 3 years

Text

All the books I read in 2020, reviewed in two sentences or less

My 2020 in reading was, naturally, a little strange. I had lots of long pauses, did a bad job of keeping track of everything I read, used an e-reader for the first time, and read more for work than I usually do.

So these may not be in strict chronological order as they usually are, and there may be a few missing, but here’s the list, as per tradition:

Rising Tide - John M. Barry: This history of the Mississippi floods of 1927 and the resulting changes in how the US deals with natural disasters is one of those stories about how politics and personality can become a part of the concrete world, and essential for understanding the racial dynamics of disaster response. Well-told, and worth reading.

The Consultant's Calling - Geoffrey M. Bellman: A very useful recommendation from a trusted friend that now has a long-term spot in my office shelf. This book isn't only about consulting, it also offers great thoughts about finding your place and impact in organizations in general.

Range - John Epstein: I think Range is the nonfiction book that had the second- greatest impact on my thinking about myself this year (stay tuned for number 1!): I've always approached my professional and political work as a generalist, and for a long time I felt like that approach was leading me to a dead end. Reading this convinced me that I could be effective and even more useful with my fingers in a lot of different pies, and nudged me to keep searching for my most effective place in the movement.

The Accusation - Bandi: A harrowing work of realist fiction from North Korea that shows the toll authoritarian hero-worship takes on the soul.

The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead: I found that the quality of The Underground Railroad did not quite match its notoriety. It felt like two books awkwardly joined, where the more grounded approach to the emotional and interpersonal stakes of slavery and freedom was attached to a poorly-explored fantasy device.

Maus - Art Spiegelman: So much more than a book about the Holocaust, Maus is about parents and how pain is handed down between generations.

I Love Dick - Chris Kraus: After a long enough time, it becomes hard to evaluate books that are meant as a provocation as well as storytelling, but even 20 years on, it's not hard to see why I Love Dick brought us so much of the style and voice of feminist writing on the internet. A unique, itchy, sticky piece of work.

Bloodchild - Octavia Butler: Whenever I see an Octavia Butler book in a used book store, I buy it. This collection of short stories is a fantastic example for what transgressive, visionary speculative fiction should aspire to.

King Leopold's Ghost - Adam Hochschild: What I love about this book and the other I've read by Hochschild (Bury the Chains_ is that he very carefully merges deep explorations of systems of violence with the way that they can be undone by the people who participate in them. King Leopold's Ghost is as much about Belgium's murderous plunder of the Congo as it is about the successful global movement against it.

Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon: Priory of the Orange Tree is built on a strong foundation, melding Eastern and Western dragon stories into one universe, but couldn't seem to tie all of its threads together in a compelling way by the end.

Desiring the Kingdom - James K. A. Smith: Smith's point about meaning and desire being embedded in every day practices is a valuable one, but I think I may be just too far outside of his target audience of religious teachers and thinkers to get the most out of his explorations here.

City of Brass, Kingdom of Copper, Empire of Gold (The Daevabad Trilogy) - S. A. Chakraborty: This series is exceptional, and some of my favorite books of any kind that I read this year; I certainly think I recommended them more often than anything else I read in 2020. A high fantasy built on Islamic and Arab cultural iconography, the characters are insightfully developed, the world building grows with precise pacing, and the themes of intergenerational trauma, and sectarianism are handled with expert delicacy.

Leadership and the New Science - Meg Wheatley: While I appreciate the effort to apply metaphors developed from scientific paradigm shifts to provoke paradigm shifts of thinking in other areas of work, I think this book strains its chosen metaphors a bit too far to be useful.

The American Civil War: A Military History - John Keegan: I appreciate that there's a value to these kinds of military analyses of conflicts, but I found this book's neutral tone - and sometimes admiring takes - towards the Confederacy off-putting. Two things I did take from it: the outcome of the war was not certain at the beginning, and speed is truly a critical part of winning conflicts.

To Purge This Land with Blood - Stephen Oates: This was the first substantial reading I had ever done about John Brown, and Oates' book made it very clear why he is still one of the American historical figures most worth talking about today. The contradictions, complexities, and unimpeachable truths caught up in his raids are almost too many to name, but I think he is one of the people most worth thinking about when considering what actually changes the world.

Normal People - Sally Rooney: Anyone who denies that this book is anything less than a truly great novel is not telling the truth, or does not actually care about the feelings people feel. It is a work of keen emotional observation, and perfect, tender language, as well as a pleasingly dirty book -- and there is nothing I would change about it.

Conversations With Friends - Sally Rooney: Still a banger, I think Conversations with Friends struggles somewhat to get to its point, and has less of the pleasing depth and ambiguity of Normal People. Still worth your time and attention, I think.

The Glass Hotel - Emily St. John Mandel: I loved Station Eleven, and I can't imagine having to follow it up, and I unfortunately think The Glass Hotel doesn't quite accomplish all it set out to do. It wandered, hung up on a few strong images, but never progressed towards a point that needed to be made, and I finished it feeling underwhelmed.

The Water Dancer - Ta-Nehisi Coates: Coates is an essential nonfiction writer who can turn a phrase to make devastating, memorable points - but I thought his novel failed to do very many of the things that make his nonfiction great.

A Visit From The Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan: Someone once recommended this book to me as a way to study voice in character development - it is certainly that, as well as a brutally efficient window into hope, fame, and aging.

Trick Mirror - Jia Tolentino: The best parts of Trick Mirror show why Jia Tolentino is one of the writers most worth reading today: she knows how to find the experiences and people that wormhole you into dimensions of American culture that you might not otherwise think carefully about. While I think some of the essays in the book are weaker than her usual work, overall it is still terrific, and her essay on Houston rap, evangelical culture, and drugs is one of the best anythings I read all year.

My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell: I feel like I'm on very shaky ground making any definitive takes about a book like this that is so fundamentally about gendered violence and what it means to be a victim of that violence. But I will say that I think it's important to recognize how power and charisma can be used to make you want something that actually hollows out your soul.

Prozac Nation - Elizabeth Wurtzel: Without a doubt, this is the nonfiction book that had the greatest personal impact on my life in 2020, and I have much longer things I've written about it that I will probably never share. While I've not ever been to the extremes she describes here, Wurtzel describes so many things that I clearly remember feeling that the shock of recognition still hasn't worn off.

The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander: In truth, we should all be shaking with rage at the American justice system every single day. This is certainly not the only book to explain why, but it does a particularly good job of explaining both the deep roots, and rapid expansion of the system we need to dismantle.

The Martians - Kim Stanley Robinson: Getting another little taste of the world Robinson built in the Mars Trilogy only made me want to drop everything and read them again. Well-made, but not stand-alone short stories that are worth reading if you've finished the novels and aren't ready to leave the formally-Red yet.

The Wind’s Twelve Quarters - Ursula K. Le Guin: One of the things that makes Le Guin so special is the sparseness of her prose and world building, and her genius is very much evident in her short stories.

Matter - Iain M. Banks: This is the second Culture series book I've read by Banks, and once again I thought it was inventive, satisfyingly plotted, but not so heady to be imposing. A very solid read.

Ogilvy On Advertising - David Ogilvy and Ogilvy On Advertising in the Digital Age - Miles Young: The original Ogilvy on Advertising is frustratingly smug but at least delivers plain and persuasive versions of advertising first principles. Ogilvy on Advertising in the Digital Age is also frustratingly smug, but is mainly useful as an example of the hubris and narcissism of contemporary advertising executives.

Goodbye to the Low Profile - Herb Schmertz: Schmertz was the longtime public affairs director for Mobil Oil, and in this book he talks about how they worked to manage public debate about the oil industry, without realizing that he's writing a confession. Reading this it is abundantly clear how the oil industry's commitment to making deception respectable led to the collapse of the American public sphere.

The Lean Startup - Eric Ries: I was surprised by how much I liked this book, and wish more people who wanted to start political projects would read it. The Lean method is a way of building organizations that are ruthlessly focused on serving their base of supporters, and evaluate their work against real results - and I think we all could use more of those.

Zero To One - Peter Thiel: Another book that reads like a confession when perhaps not intended to, Zero To One's main point is that the point of building businesses should be to build monopolies, and that competition is actually bad. A great starting point for understanding what's gone wrong in America's tech economy.

The Mother of All Questions - Rebecca Solnit: Of the many things to cherish about Solnit as a writer, the one I needed most when I re-read this book is her ability to gently but doggedly show other ways of imagining the world, and ourselves in it.

Native Speaker - Chang-Rae Lee: I think this is the third time I've read this novel, and the time I've enjoyed it the least: somehow on re-re-reading, the core metaphors became overbearing and over-used, and the plot and characters thinner.

Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller: There are several excellent entries in the sub-genre of classic tales re-told from the perspective of silent women characters, but this is the first I've read re-told from a man's perspective - in this case, the likely-lover of Achilles in the Iliad, Patroclus. While not necessarily a groundbreaking work of literature, it is a very well-executed one that tells a compelling story about how violence can destroy men who carry it out.

Uprooted - Naomi Novik: What makes Uprooted so engrossing is that its magical world feels grounded, and political: magic has consequences for the individuals who use it, and further consequences based on their place in the world. What makes it frustrating is the overwhelming number of things the author has happening in the story, and the difficulty they have bringing them to a conclusion.

#books #reading #booklist

3 notes · View notes

my-mystic-messenger · 7 years

Text

Why Rika is poorly executed character and villain

See, here is the thing - and please don’t take it the wrong way - but in a fandom like Mystic Messenger where the fanbase is predominantly underaged, the general consensus tends to be off, in my opinion.

People say that there is no right and wrong in opinions and to some extend that’s true. What someone else thinks is bad can be golden to you, however there is a difference to personal opinion and critical one. Critically speaking, I don’t think Rika is a well executed character or villain and here’s why:

Writing:

So to explain my point for why I think Rika is a poorly written character and villain I will use a list I found of what makes a good villain as well as villains from other movies that I would actually consider good villains. Let’s start by determining what the most important thing is for a good villain: their motivation! Why they act the way they act can make or break a villain, because it does so much more then tell you why they do it. The motivation gives you their backstory and makes them human and relatable, which is very important. A really good villain, in my opinion, has to be so clever and manipulative it will make you question your own morals. A good example of such a villain would be Light Yagami from Death Note, who despite being a serial killer of unimaginable magnitude still has a large fanbase and many people who support what he did, in fiction as well as in our world. His motivation is to actually do good and the nice thing about Light is, that he does not have one of those silly, over the top backstories. He’s just a cop’s kid who saw how the system never allowed his father to actually safe people, so he takes matters into his own hands. However, there are even villains who have absolutely no motivation or known backstory and are still highly enjoyable, I call them the psychotics. It is something that is much harder to pull off and often times fails, but if done right can be amazing. Best example; the Joker. We know nothing of his past and even the bits and pieces of his ‘traumatic childhood’ he tells us about are presumed to be lies and manipulation. Because he is psychotic with no motivation other than chaos he’s unpredictable and keeps us on his toes. Rika, on the other hand, is neither of those despite trying to be both. She is definitely psychotic and with a twisted mind, but she isn’t the 'fun’ kind like the Joker and she most certainly isn’t as clever about it or half as unpredictable. He actions are foreseeable and have been done over and over before. Be it her torturing and manipulating vulnerable people into her personal slaves or the whole shtick of I’ll try to make everyone you care for believe I’m actually the good and innocent person in all of this to make you look bad. I mean “The important thing is not to discredit her message, but discredit her” is literally a quote from the Handmaid’s Tale. A book written in 1985 that in one sentence summarizes Rika’s obviously unoriginal actions. Then of course there is this whole thing about wanting to allow people to be their dark selves, but yet again has been done and done better. That’s kind of a Lucifer thing to do, in every media ever created, and Rika does it poorly as well. Again, she says she does it for others – which would be a Light thing to do – but actually does it for herself – which would be a Joker thing to do – because she can’t handle her own darkness. However she doesn’t do it for fun, she does it because she’s weak which discredits her as a villain immediately. Also, let’s be real, what has Rika really achieved? She started a cult, sure, but she never tried to actively harm the RFA. She didn’t have some kind of greater plan beyond trying to get them to Mint Eye where they’d mostly live peacefully. What she did was manipulate a bunch of innocent, mentally unstable people into joining a cult. Even in a hero-villain story of a smaller frame like Mystic Messenger that’s hardly interesting. Scientology does the same thing and I don’t call them villains, just idiots.

Motivation isn’t all, of course. Remember how motivation gives us backstory? It does in Rika’s case too, sadly as I mentioned before Rika is a walking, talking cliché. Boohoo, my parents didn’t love me and I was bullied at school. Haven’t heard that one before.

Beyond her ‘tragic backstory’ being unimaginative as hell, the whole things is also highly convoluted, messily executed, rather unrealistic despite being such a simple premise and beyond all that does not excuse any of her actions. Like no offense, but people who choose to adopt a child – which is a messy and expensive process usually very carefully planned and thought through – abusing said child doesn’t make sense. Not to mention that there would be social workers checking on them regularly. Also, honey, this is a bit personal but I was physically and verbally abused by my mother my whole life. I was bullied in school until I graduated and I too am mentally ill. It still doesn’t make me relate to Rika and her bullshit at all. Those things usually make people kinder, because they know better than to mistreat others the same way they were mistreated or it makes them aggressive and lash out. Rika again tries to be both and fails at being both. At this point I’d also like to add that for a website like Tumblr where everything has to be PC and unproblematic, I find it quite strange that a mentally ill person like Rika is allowed to call her mental illness a bad, evil darkness. Just saying. Then again, motivation and backstory aren’t everything. Neither Moriarty nor the Joker have those and they are still some of the best villains in history. There are other traits a villain should have and I have a list. Let’s have a look:

✓convinced they’re the good guy

✘ has many likeable qualities

✓a worthy enough opponent to make your hero look good

✘ you like when they are on stage/appear

✓clever and accomplished enough that people must lend him begrudging respect

✓can’t be a fool or a bumbler

✓has many of the same characteristics of the hero, but they’re misdirected

✓should occasionally be kind, and not just for show

✓can be merciless, even to the innocent

✓persuasive

✓stop at nothing to get what they want

✓proud, deceitful, vengeful

✓jealous, especially of the hero

Now looking at this you might say hey, Rika has a lot of those! That makes a good villain right?! Wrong, because Rika has a lot of those! This is like checking off a very obvious bullet point list to make sure you got everything right.

That is precisely why Rika is so goddamn flat and boring, because someone sat down, made sure to stuff everything from this list into a character and call it a day. Worst of all, not only do they follow a well-known grid, they aren’t even innovative about it.

I could go into detail about all the things on the list she does have, but then again sadly enough, those speak for themselves and there is very little to elaborate on. I mean the fact that I cannot elaborate on bullet points already gives away just how poorly the character is constructed.

However, there are two things not checked off that are rather important to talk about and in my opinion outweigh most of the other bullet points anyway: “Likeable qualities” and “liking when they appear in the story.” Neither of which can be said for Rika. Name one (1), likeable trait Rika has. I can’t think of a single good thing about her, not a single one. She isn’t funny – like the Joker or Loki – she isn’t extraordinary intelligent – like Hannibal or Moriarty – and she doesn’t make you question your morals like Light or hell Jigsaw if you will. Beyond being a cliché villain, she’s also a failure as a character. Ever character, even the worst villain, have likeable traits. Rika has none. She literally doesn’t have a personality, if you think about it. All there is to her is her tragic backstory, her mental illness and her darkness. That’s it. As for liking when they appear, you better believe that whenever Stayin’ Alive plays I think of Moriarty or that I care more about Loki than I ever did about Thor. Whenever I got a VN with Rika I rolled my eyes and tried to get through it as fast as possible. She was boring, repetitive and talked in this silly metaphors that were so utterly basic I’m sure that if I dug through my writing during primary school or early teens I’d find something similar. She sounded more like an angsty teenager than a well through out villain. So to summarize, before the writing part gets even longer, she is hardly original, has no abilities of her own and instead uses goons for all her work, has no personality and no redeeming traits. What usually makes the movies and shows interesting – hero and villain going head to head – was by far the worst part of the V route. If I ever have to read a conversation between V and her again, I’ll smash my head.

Design:

Now one might thing that there isn’t much to talk about when it comes to Rika’s design and even less to criticize and there really isn’t much I have to say on the design itself, but more so the three designs of Rika we have and the changes in design and personality in the V route.

Rika has three main designs. Her main-main design – that brown dress – her Mint Eye grown – that thing she wore in the secret endings – and the latest addition that sleek, black dress with that pretty mask that still makes me wonder what the point of it was, MC didn’t know her anyway.

Let’s start with the main design. Frankly, it’s quite basic, although I get where they were going with it. The colours are all light and pastel, trying to make her seem approachable, sweet and innocent. Long wavy hair and that big bow on her chest add to that whole lolita-childlike innocence thing.

The dress is brown, because brown is a simple, 'cheap’ colour probably supposed to show how humble she is, that she doesn’t dress up herself to invest more of her money and time into people who need it more than her. I get it, I’m still not a fan of the design.

Everything about her is too light and similar in colour. Rika kind of drowns in that dress. Like her blonde hair faints into even lighter colour she fades into the dress. Compared to the vibrant designs of everyone else, she sticks out like a sore thumb and they could have done better.

Also, that whole looks like an angel but it actually the devil thing is like yet another cliché they knocked off with Rika. It’s like those little Grady twins from the Shining or ever Yandere in every anime ever. Yet another unimaginative rip-off.

Her second design, the whole Mint Eye ruler gown thing, not particularly pretty design wise as well as having a confusing colour palette that has literally nothing to do with neither Magenta – which is her code name in Mint Eye, right? - not you know mint?

Also the whole now I am evil therefor I give up my modesty and wear fancy ass clothes to show how much better I am than everyone else also leaves this Mean Girls vibe in my mouth. Especially when you consider that it looks like a pastors robe so it’s like Mean Girls meets God complex.

Again, it’s not horrible but better and smarter choices could have been made. What really ticked me off through was her third outfit, what that kind of said about Rika and how her behaviour changes while she wears that black dress.

Let me preface this by saying that sex isn’t a bad thing. It’s a natural process, it’s enjoyable and it brings life. While I personally think people should wait a little longer and be a bit more modest to fully enjoy the experience, there is nothing wrong with sex itself. Oversexualization, on the other hand, is a problem.

Throughout the entire V route I was actually shocked how sexualized the entire thing was compared to the main game and it made me so uncomfortable, especially when Rika was involved since they’d worked so hard to establish her as this innocent, childlike girl.

Be it the strange photo series that she shot with V or her dress that became black, tight and with a very suggestive cut out on her chest. Now mind you, I don’t have a problem with sexy characters, but I do have a problem when innocent characters become sexy once they turn evil.

Her being overly sexual in the V route to show that she’s given up her innocence and everything good is nothing new. Anyone reading comics or watching superhero movies knows that female villains are always overly sexy instead of practical. I just hate the message behind it.

It leaves a foul taste in my mouth that a game supposed to be for young girls basically, subconsciously teaches them that being sexy is dirty and evil. Even worse, however, is that she not only becomes overly sexy, she becomes lesbian!

You cannot imagine how I fumed at that bad ending. I really wanted to toss my phone against the wall. A previously straight established, innocent character becomes a prying, sexualized lesbian once they turn evil. Grade A writing, Cheritz. Grade A.

You have an entire route with Jaehee where you can’t romance the poor woman and never get so much as proper CG together until the DLC’s where it’s still a thing of blink and you miss it hidden romance and yet we have this whole thing with Rika.

To me, honestly, that was a double slap in the face. Being sexy isn’t evil. Seduction shouldn’t be a goddamn weapon. Prying on someone physically is fucked up, no matter the gender, and being lesbian is not a fucking trait you unlock when you turn evil.

Once again, nothing but clichés, overused tropes and at this point even harmful messages for a young, impressionable audience that really makes me question decisions that are made in the Cheritz headquarters.

Voice Acting:

Finally, we get to the voice acting. This time I really don’t have much to say other that I found it weak, especially compared to the other voice actors who did amazing jobs while having much less to work with than Rika.

Every actor dreams of getting to play crazy characters, because you can really go bonkers with it and do things normal characters can’t and wouldn’t do. You can be creepy, over the top, crazy and hysterical. You can scream and shout and then split seconds later switch to eerie and quiet.

Playing a villain properly is one of the hardest things to pull off, but also the most fun and rewarding. While voice acting makes it a little easier, since you only have to focus on your voice instead of every single body movement, it’s still the most fun and with lots of options.

Rika didn’t do any of those things. Even when she had that whole breakdown towards the end of the V route I was majorly disappointed at how subdued and small the whole thing was, especially in comparison to the actual CG.

That is why I really thing Rika’s voice actress did a poor job, because she didn’t even take into consideration what CG’s she was working with, let alone the facial expressions of the render in the general game. Her voice acting never freaking matched!

So we have a CG where Rika is on the floor, bawling her eyes out and obviously screaming in agony and the voice actress just…doesn’t do any of it. There is way too much almost calm talking in the middle of a break down and honestly I’ve cried and screamed more about series finale’s than she did in what was supposed to be a heartbreaking and defining moment. Talking about subdued and calm, I also don’t think that the voice actress worked a lot with the voice to begin with, just read the texts mostly as herself, since Rika sounds the same no matter the situation or the render. That feels out of place especially when she has that freaky render where her eyes get all black and spooky but he voice actress just keeps on talking like normal, the render changes back to her sweet personality – showing how twisted she is – but the acting doesn’t change along. It’s just a job poorly done especially in comparison to say V, Jumin and Yoosung, who in my opinion did the best jobs despite having little to work with in some cases. The others were good too, but those three really stood out. V, because despite having very little lines in comparison and being a relatively calm character managed to convey every single emotion necessary and always perfectly fitting to the render. Despite not being a big fan of V, his voice actor really tugged at my heart. Jumin, because he is such a cold and calculated character and gives you so little to work with – something the voice actor even talked about – and yet he gave him this vulnerability and human side with just his voice. The things this voice actor made me feel…oh boy. Yoosung’s voice actor literally made my jaw drop when I heard him speak in the Valentines Day special. While Yoosung was still almost a child with a high voice during the main route here he actually sounded like the same boy but older! Then I heard the guy speak and he sounds literally nothing like Yoosung and you manage to capture something so youthful despite not having that voice and then capturing it while aging it up at the same time is just amazing work. In comparison Rika’s voice acting was just as bland and boring as her character. Which is ironic, really, because Rika could have been and should have been the most interesting and facetted character of the whole game. Instead her side-kick stole her spotlight every time. Sad, but hey I love me some Saeran.

Conclusion:

3000+ words in and I have not written a single positive thing about Rika and I still can’t think of anything positive to say. The only time she made me feel any kind of emotion was when her theme was playing, because that is literally the only good and emotional part about Rika.So, after having read this piece I’d really like to know why people consider her a good or eve interesting villain, because to me she clearly is neither.

#mystic messenger #mysme #Rika #analysis #request

177 notes · View notes

casuistor · 6 years

Note

Did you listen to the NY demo songs of the musical that were put online recently? Some of the songs that weren't officially released are now available. Was wondering if you have any thoughts about them... Adrienne Warren's Misa in I'm Ready sounds v different compared to Fūka Yuzuki!

I am so happy the NY Demo got leaked tbh, I’ve been listening to it nonstop for the last couple of days and lemme just say – even though I don’t fully agree with all the characterization choices, the demo is gorgeous ;~; THANK YOU for the excuse to ramble about this, haha.

I’ll outline my thoughts on the songs that weren’t released previously under the read more, but just keep in mind that these are just some quick opinions on the songs rather than my thoughts on the demo vs the final versions of the songs b/c then this would be writing for weeks and nobody wants that textwall, haha.

…I say this is going to be abbreviated and then it turned out long-ish anyway.

Where is the Justice?

Yes I know this was released previously, but the version that was officially released cut a minute out from the song, so I’m commenting, fight me.

While I think the song is overall too focused around the issues with the criminal justice in America for a story that is supposedly set in Japan, I think the verse that was removed was more reflective of the sorts of things Light in canon might think.

That said I don’t fully agree that Light would argue that “draining the color from within until we’re back to seeing black and white and wrong and right again” is actually a good thing, especially considering canon Light does evaluate mitigating circumstances in his evaluation of who is guilty.

Overall, I think the song does a good job of establishing Light’s character as a kid who, despite having some deeply flawed views about justice, does genuinely care about fairness and has his heart in the right place.

To this day though, I’m not convinced that manga! Light is the kind of kid who would spark this debate in his classroom. He very much seems to be the kind of person who keeps his cynicism about the world to himself. If you ask me, his “ic” response would be more along the lines of “sure, the justice system isn’t perfect, but it’s our job as the next generation to keep improving it, isn’t it?” But that doesn’t make a cool song, lmao.

Hurricane

Yes, this one was also leaked before, but you’re not stopping me from talking about Weather Metaphors The Song™ now that it’s out in HQ.

Why. WHY.

I think the problem I have with this song is that there’s really not much character development during this song. Light is just immediately sucked into a power fantasy and this is really… not reflective of Light’s character in the series.

I’m Ready

LOVE. FUCKING LOVE ADRIENNE WARREN’S VOICE.

But i really don’t agree that Adrienne is a good casting choice with Misa. I LOVE her voice and her singing, but she’s… too much of a power house and Misa is just not that at all. Misa needed to be bubbly and radiate cuteness rather than maturity.

Hearing this rendition of Misa really made me understand why the Korean production went the direction they did with Jung Sun Ah’s Misa though, and it comes as much less of a headscratcher now.

I think these lyrics are also not PG enough for Misa’s idol image which sounds ridiculous b/c it’s overall a pretty tame song, lmao

Specifically it’s lines like “let me kiss you and then let me kiss you again” that are maybe not… squeaky clean enough for the image that idols in Japan have to project.

We All Need A Hero

Perfection. Absolute perfection. I love that they threw in that dumb light pun lmao.

Honestly this almost made me cry and I wish I knew who sings this song as they were the perfect Sayu singing voice. Young, sweet, optimistic, sincere sounding? Nailed it. (Edit: I am told that the singer is Laura Osnes)

I am VERY much intrigued by the fact that this song was written as a solo in the NY Demo as opposed to the odd duet that it became in the final version. This makes much more sense to me and avoids weird/creepy parallels between Sayu and Misa that the final version forced by making it a duet.

The Game Begins

I am so distracted by the line “for even the perfect crime has the perfect flaws” because this is just not logically coherent.

ON LESS GRIPEY TERRITORY – having the whole demo did put into perspective for me why the Weather Metaphors had to be, and I think it’s because they may have been going for a nature vs machine type of theme… and while I can appreciate it poetically (?) I just don’t agree that it fit thematically with the character of L and Light.

Like why… does L keep making tech metaphors? Is this supposed to be a quirk of his the same way that the posture/diet is? I think in a way this was poorly executed and characterization was ultimately sacrificed in favor of poetic analogies.

The literal first line “empty your mind of any feelings” is very unlike L to do. L is a detective who works heavily based on his intuition and his gut instincts. He did not tackle the Kira case like a super computer interested in objectivity and eliminating bias. That’s just not what happened in canon.

I stand very much corrected on these lyrics as they are “empty your mind of any theories.” My bad, I don’t have the best ear for lyrics. But that said, doesn’t this contradict the fact that he already took an action based on a theory with the LLT plan?

Overall I think this song took too many poetic liberties with L, and tried too hard to make him sound intelligent by throwing in “smart sounding words” like ~calculus~ and ~evolution~ even though those words didn’t actually make that much sense in the context he was applying them in?

“A stronger mind and evolution determines who wins the game” – for example. Evolution and adaptation aren’t synonyms, but he uses them as such anyway and this kind of clumsiness, though very lyrically pretty, is a bit… idk, not quite what I associate with L myself.

In terms of the overall performance – lovely. My issues are 100% the lyrics on this one. Jarrod Specter performs fantastically.

There Are Lines

Fight me this song is best song and I honestly did not like this song much in the final version of it.

J’ADORE how salty Soichiro is about L’s method of offering up Lind L Tailor as a decoy. His anger seems so genuine and believable in this, and I love how it’s so obvious that he has no idea that this is applicable to Light too, since they don’t force that dumb “KAMI NI NARU!!!!” line to ram the subtext down your throat. (… I say as I claim that I wasn’t going to talk about comparisons to the final Japanese songs, ahem).

That said, was Soichiro actually that salty about L’s tactics there with LLT in the manga? No. At least not to the extreme that he lost a lot of respect for L for it. In fact, manga!Soichiro seemed impressed by the results L achieved and didn’t really seem to dwell on the moral implications of L’s actions.

tl;dr not the most ic or canonically based interpretation of Soichiro, but I am standing by this man.

Personally, I think this is an improvement on the character AND LET ME JUST SAY THIS SONG MADE ME REALLY WISH THEY’D ADAPTED THE YOTSUBA ARC IN THIS MUSICAL??? Can you imagine this song as a reprise as Soichiro shoots Light while they’re in the car?

You’re welcome

Secrets and Lies

I cannot emphasize how much I love when Soichiro calls out L for his awful morals in addition to calling out Kira’s. This is so nice -w-

I am also deeply enamored with the fact that L also outright says “I don’t care who gets hurt now, as long as I get one more shot” because fucking yes – L is so brazen about this in the manga, and most adaptations try to sweeten his attitude.

I enjoy that it is constantly reinforced that neither Light nor L are in the right because there are constant parallels between the two and the two are criticized by the narrative.

Mortals and Fools

“What I see in your eyes is a counterfeit emotion” – the truest thing ever said about the manga!Misa’s feelings about love.

Admittedly, Demo!Rem annoys me as a character though. It’s not a problem with casting – Carrie’s singing is lovely and I think they made a good choice there. This is a bit of an aside I guess, but I just don’t understand how it is believable that Rem actually romantically fell in love with Misa as the song “When Love Comes” implies after all this love is for mortals and fools lark and Misa… doesn’t really seem to do anything to win Rem’s love in a romantic sense of it. Platonic love I can squint and buy certainly, but not romantic based on the contents of “Mortals and Fools”, “Borrowed Time,” and “When Love Comes.” Maybe something in the actual script/dialogue justifies it? But with the material available so far, I’m not seeing it.

I think also Demo!Rem’s fixation on the notion of love is something that’s… overexaggerated from her more subtle curiosity over the issue in the manga. I just don’t think I’d agree that the melancholy tone demo!Rem has when she says she tries and fails to really understand love as an emotion is true to the manga. Manga!Rem seems to have a more “god Misa, I get this is important to you but could you maybe slow down” kind of vibe to her. Melancholy doesn’t really seem to be it, exactly.

For the sake of clarity – the issue I have is not that Rem’s character was changed from the manga to make her develop romantic interests in Misa. That is perfectly a-okay and it’s actually pretty cool that they went this route with demo!Rem.

My issue is that from a narrative perspective, Rem’s character development in the demo seems underdeveloped and not optimally executed given that she is a) literally not human and b) as she herself points out is a shinigami who fundamentally does not understand why humans idealize romantic love.

Shinigami themselves in the context of this musical are not shown to idealize love within their own culture. Ryuk and Rem both seem to find it funny or baffling/futile indicating that this is not a culture that parallels human culture in its zealous overvaluation of romantic love as a be all end all goal of life. Shinigami, according to the musical’s own internal logic, are not amatonormative..

My pet peeve exists specifically because it is somewhat frustrating to me, an aroace person, when even non-humans who were very firm on not relating to romantic love (and yes, “Mortals and Fools” makes Rem come down more strongly on that side compared to “Zankoku na Yume”) and have no reason to inherently want to experience or idealize romantic love the same way human society normalizes it for humans, starts extolling the virtues of romantic love as the pinnacle of interpersonal relationships.

I can fully respect that this is not a pet peeve that most other people will have, or even be inclined to view from this perspective and that to many, none of these things matter and that’s fine! Just keep in mind that I would find this just as pet peeve-y if Rem were a male shinigami and would have no problems whatsoever with any of this had Rem been a human girl or if shinigami culture as a whole been portrayed differently in the musical itself. Also please note, I am only speaking for myself. I’m sure other aroace folk will have different opinions as well. Ironically enough, Rem in the final live version, I can more readily see as developing romantic feelings for Misa precisely because “Inochi no Kachi” was written the way it was and it is a damn shame that that is not the direction that was eventually taken with the character in the live productions as they seem to view Rem as having more maternal instincts. (…which, I’d again disagree is an inference of the manga, as I do think Rem’s feelings about Misa were very platonic in a ‘friends’-ish way rather than a parental way.)

tl;dr All I’m saying is that I think demo!Rem should have gotten more charater development, and it is a shame that she did not.

On a performative note – it is really odd that Rem’s voice is higher than Misa’s. I don’t think I’d make this call.

Borrowed Time

Adrienne delivers yet another killer performance!!

I know I said I wasn’t gonna make comparisons but I have to say that between “Borrowed Time” and “Inochi no Kachi” Borrowed Time is just so much more IC for manga!Misa.

I’m glad they based this song around something Misa actually said in the manga since that line “Just kill me. I was supposed to die that day anyway” is actually something that stuck with me for a very long time since it says so much about where Misa was in her life.

In the end, I guess I find it more convincing that Misa would be singing a song more centered around herself than singing a less me me me focused song about the virtues of sacrificial love as she ultimately is a person (in the manga) who is pretty selfish and focuses mostly on her own perspective.

Which is not to say that demo!Misa is really reflective of manga!MIsa because I don’t think that’s the case at all.

The Way It Ends

Blurgh more machine/tech metaphors and analogies from L…..I still don’t like this, sorry. He does not view himself as a robot in the manga, so it just comes out of left field for me.

I think the part of this song that lets me down is Jeremy’s delivery. He’s not !!!!!!! enough for what is supposed to be a victorious moment for Light. He has so much less energy and power than he did when he was singing Weather Metaphors, and it really shouldn’t be that way in my opinion.

On that last “a minute more.” Jeremy sounds weirdly remorseful, though I guess it’s hard to interpret the exact emotion behind that without an accompanying facial expression.

But speaking of delivery holy shit, Jarrod’s delivery as L is spot on. I’m kinda stunned by the range of emotion in his voice for this one: confusion, defiance, anger and that hint of regret that his life is coming to an end as he goes into “like a closing door.” It’s so… good??????

Overall I think the NY Demo is lovely and it has made me really happy to be able to listen to it after years of wondering what on earth it was like, lmao.

I know it sounds like I have a ton of gripes, but just keep in mind that a) even I consider these gripes pretty minor and they didn’t really hurt my enjoyment of the demo as a whole, and b) I think that adaptations have every right to make changes and take creative liberties with their source material. It’s important to do that in order to keep material fresh and bring in new thoughts and perspectives to the original.

#Anonymous #asks #death note musical #anonymous

40 notes · View notes

readatmidnight · 5 years

Text

It’s been a while since my last update since most of April and May left me with very little time for blogging. I just wanted to do a quick catch up on what I’ve been reading and what I plan to read in the coming month.

What I’ve Read

Almost 100% of the reading I’ve done in the past two months have been done via audiobook. Bless them for enabling me to finish all these novels while I completed my chores or during my morning commute, I would have fell into a book slump without them. I know at the beginning of the year I said I would cancel my Scribd account, but since I read so much via audio now, the set up is working great for me.

These aren’t even in chronological reading order because I am a Mess.

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid ★★★★☆ This novel is best enjoyed via audiobook, sorry I don’t make the rules. TJR has a way of making her characters feel so raw and real, if I didn’t know any better I would have been searching for the discography of Daisy Jones & The Six after completing this novel. Epistolary novels don’t always work for me (see: Illuminae), because I sometimes find it hard to connect to the story. 100% not the case here, and I loved how utterly flawed everyone was allowed to be. To tell the truth, I didn’t like most of them, but they sure captured my imagination.

The Dragon Republic by R. F. Kuang ★★★★ HELLO IS ANYONE SURPRISED I AM COMPLETE TRASH FOR THIS BOOK. NO? OK. Ahem. With complete objectivity, this book was a stunning follow-up to The Poppy War. It’s more introspective, it deals with PTSD, it brings in all of the threads that complicates and muddies the war Rin is waging on Nikara and with herself. The ending left me literally reeling and screaming in random DMs for weeks. I still have not completely stopped and I fear I will never be coherent again. Give me book three or give me death.

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey ★★★★☆ I finished this book about two hours ago and edited the post to include it. Although it contained the familiar tropes like a magical school, a jaded private detective, a dark prophecy, a hidden world of mages, a murder mystery – Magic for Liars combined them in a way that kept the plot fresh and engaging. Imagine if Aunt Petunia never married Vernon Dursley but instead became a private investigator – who’s then called back to Hogwarts to unravel a murder, with Lily as one of the professors on tenure. Except better, because the character work in this book is freaking top notch. Just go read it OK, this is the gay and messy magical school we all deserve.

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman ★★★★☆ Billed as The Raven Cycle meets Stranger Things, this is one of those rare instances where the book matches the comp perfectly. While I found the pacing to be slow, I thought it suited this character-driven story. It’s all about families and legacies and finding your own paths despite the weight of all that history. I adored all of the characters, especially Harper – my sworld-wielding warrior queen. I cannot wait to see the sequel and watching how entangled relationships will develop.

Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan ★★☆☆☆ I love the idea of hate-to-love, especially with a villain love-interest, so that’s what initially drew me to this book. When I learned that the heroine could converse with the gods, I got even more excited. Alas, it was a bit of a missed opportunity. I saw shadows of a fanfic-worthy broody bad boy in every scene with Malachiasz. I can understand insta-attraction, what I can’t understand is how poorly the character and relationship development was done. The stars are wholly reserved for Serefin, my drunken drama-queen and the only part of this novel I enjoyed.

We Hunt The Flame by Hafsah Faizal ★★★☆☆ I expected this to be a five star read, so while it was good, I am disappointed I didn’t love it more. The prose were gorgeous and I am definitely checking out whatever Hafsah Faizal writes next. However, the writing style’s penchant for beautiful metaphors sometimes felt jarring with the pacing of the book. While I liked the characters indivdually, I didn’t feel compelled by any relationships aside from the one shared between Altair and Nasir in the beginning. I’m definitely in the minority with my lukewarm response to this title, though – there are tons of fans so don’t be put off by my review.

Verity by Colleen Hoover ★☆☆☆☆ The sole star is for the fact that while the plot of this book was so improbable it veered into farcical, it was a page-turner. Toxic relationships is the bread-and-butter of crime, but there was something particularly tasteless about the way adultery and marriage was depicted in this book. Partly due to the casual nonchalance that CoHo tends to dismiss cheating, but also because even with my few remaining brain cells I could still figure out the plot was BS. The way disability was handled in this novel also left a lot to be desired, and the ‘twist’ at the end disappointed me so much I wanted to hurl this book into the sun. This was 7 hours of my good life wasted.

The Bride Test ★★★★★ I cannot remain calm or objective about Helen’s books, I love them completely – because they’re unabashedly Vietnamese, because they’re proudly diasporic, because they’re filled with characters who feel so real I’m mildly miffed we’re not invited to their weddings. Khai and Esme slowly but surely stole my heart over a course of a long haul international flight. I laughed and cried and went through all of the emotions of first love. Along with its powerful emotional resonance, The Bride Test also offered sharp societal critique on the accessibility of the American Dream. These books are so special to me and I am so glad we have more Helen content to look forward to for years to come.

Ruse ★★★★☆ This is the second and final instalment to Cindy Pon’s high-octane and prescient eco-dystopia – if you haven’t read Want, go visit your local bookshop right now and change this immediately. The bar is raised with Ruse, from the character development, the scope of the world, and the ever heightened stake. I loved seeing the gang again, even though Cindy did not pull any punches when it came to making my children suffer. It was such a satisfying and well-earned conclusion.

Wilder Girls ★★★★☆ Whew, this book was harrowing and intense. It felt dangerous and unknowable, with the plot constantly shifting right under my feet – just as the physical world in the book warps and distorts everything from plants to landscape to school-girls. I read it in a rush over two days because I could not put it down. If you’re after a novel with ride-or-die friendship and sapphic romance, this is one to keep an eye out for.

Red, White, and Royal Blue ★★★★★ I am completely bereft that Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry of Wales are not real people – for these two I would take up reading gossip magazines again. This book was rambunctious and as irrepressible as the passion that drives its main characters. The supporting cast are equally impressive, and I love the chemistry imbued into the various relationships in this novel. I can’t remember the last time I rooted so hard for fictional characters to overcome and triumph. Although we can’t have Claremont 2020, can we please please please get a Jude and Nora spin-off instead?

Looks like romance is my new favourite genre, judging by my latest two five star reads. Please give me all the recs, but no mayo toxic romance please. I feel like whenever I stray from the usual diet of speculative fiction, I become very picky in which books I read – which tends to mean that I end up loving the ones I do pick up.

What I’m Reading

I usually have numerous books on the go because I have no self-control. I have two going at the moment, but this number will undoubtedly multiply before I have the chance to publish this post.

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennet – I am about 5 hours into the audiobook and I am already completely charmed by this world and its characters! The rogue-archetype has always been one of my favourite fantasy trope, and to make it even better Santia comes with a snarky talking key. The world building is a marvel, especially the magic system and how it is manipulated by the characters and governing bodies within the novel. I also heard there is a budding sapphic romance in this one – I think I just met the love interest and I already love her as well. Very excited to continue on!

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong – I am three chapters into this novel and it’s already taken my very soul apart. Written by a Vietnamese-American son for his illiterate mother, it’s part-meditation and part-confessional on PTSD, inherited trauma, and how a you learn to communicate with a mother-tongue you can barely speak. I am ready for it completely wreck me.

I forgot that I am technically still reading The Priory of the Orange Tree but I am so exhausted with this brick at this point in time, I’m not sure I will ever finish it. The world building (West and East dragon mythology), and the characters (sapphic Queens and her bodyguard) had so much potential – but I kept feeling like an emotional weight was missing.

What I’m Planning to Read

I am an expert is making up TBR and then not sticking to them. So to save myself the embarrassment here’s two I am definitely reading this month, the rest is c’est la vie.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson I know y’all keep saying that Enchantment of Ravens is lame because it has no plot but I loved Rook and Isobel with all my heart OK. I know nothing about this one except that it has a librarian babe (maybe?). Therefore, I am very excited.

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim This is part of the Caffeine Book Tours that Shealea organised (thank you!!). This is one of my most anticipated read of this year because fashion and East Asian fantasy? Relevant to my interest. I think we can all agree that this is the best cover of 2019. I want this illustrator to draw my life.

What are you reading and what are you all up to? I miss you!! Hope you’re going to have an amazing month and Happy Pride everyone!!

June Reading Updates It's been a while since my last update since most of April and May left me with very little time for blogging.

#Book Review

0 notes

scriptautistic · 7 years

Text

Masterpost: Autism and Vocabulary

As a writer, we’re sure you are aware that words are important. You can’t always substitute one for another because they all have their own depth of meaning and their own subtleties. So if you want to write an autistic character, you’ll have to refer to autism using the right words. This post will help you do just that!

Autistic person? Person who has autism? Which one should I use?

This is a highly debated question. You might have heard “You have to say “person with autism” because you’re talking about a person first; the person is not defined by their disability!”. While this is a nice thought, it is largely misguided, and this way of talking are mainly used by non-autistic persons while talking about us. The autistic community doesn’t like this “person-first” language very much for several reasons.

First of all, if you need to use specific language to remind yourself that we are people, you may have a problem that no amount of linguistic workarounds can solve. We say “a French person”, not “a person who is French” or “a person with Frenchness”, because we don’t need to remind ourselves that French people are people. Why should it be different with autistic people?

The second reason most of us don’t like saying we are “persons with autism” is that our autism is not something that we carry with us. We are not a human person + a terrible disorder. We are fundamentally different. Being autistic is an integral part of who we are as people, and touches every sphere of our lives. If someone somehow managed to take away our autism, they wouldn’t reveal the “real us” that was hidden behind it: they would create a whole different person. We can’t be separated from our autism, and this should be reflected in the language you use while talking about us.

So ideally, you’ll want to use “autistic”, as an adjective: Cat is autistic, they are an autistic person. Some of us sometimes use “autistic” as a noun as a shortcut, when we’re tired of repeating “people” all the time, but it’s best to avoid it when you can, especially if you’re allistic.

What you really need to avoid is “a person with autism”, or heaven forbid “a person who happens to have autism”, “a person who suffers from autism”, “a person who lives with autism”, or any variation thereof. I’ve also seen a few people write “an autist”, but I don’t get why they do that. Please don’t do it.

And please don’t refer to us as being “on the spectrum,” we don’t need a euphemism to soften the blow of the word “autistic.” We are autistic! Even those who don’t seem disabled. Please remember that, while it is all too often misused in an insulting or pejorative way, “autistic” is not a bad word. Don’t be afraid to use it! In fact, using it more and in a positive way is the best way to stop it from being misused as a pejorative.

You keep using these words I don’t understand…

Alright, let’s get a glossary going! We’ll update this post whenever we use a word that could be hard to understand (if we can remember to do it…). If there is any word on the blog that you can’t understand, check if we’ve explained it here. If we haven’t, shoot us an ask and we’ll do it ASAP. :) All of the titles are clickable and will take you to the corresponding tag so you can check out everything we’ve written about a subject.

AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Encompasses all means of communicating used by nonverbal people which are not spoken/sign language, such as using a text-to-speech device or a pictogram system to communicate.

ABA: Applied Behaviour Analysis, the most common type of “therapy” autistic children are subjected to. It can have lots of negative long-terms effects on the person’s life, such as PTSD or vulnerability to abuse.

Ableism: Treating disabled people (including autistic people) poorly because they are disabled.Treating someone differently because they behave in autistic ways, punishing autistic people for stimming, forcing nonverbal autistics to communicate verbally (and ignoring other types of communication), etc. are all examples of ableist behavior.

Alexithymia: Difficulty identifying one’s own emotions, very common in autistic people. They may not know how they feel at all, or simply unable to name their feelings. They are often unable to answer the question “How are you?” or “How are you feeling?” and may be aware only of whether they are feeling “good” or “bad” (and sometimes not even that).

Allistic: Someone who is not autistic. Used as an adjective and sometimes as a noun.

Asperger’s Syndrome: An outdated diagnostic term for an autistic person who is generally able to communicate verbally at a typical age and shows interest in social relationships. This is no longer considered to be a thing which exists. (See our masterpost on functioning labels.)

Autistic: Someone who is autistic (ie the subject of this whole blog) (I don’t know why we added that to the glossary)

Cure Culture / Curism: The attitude held by many allistic groups (most notably the hate group “Autism Speaks”) that autism is a disorder or disease which should be eliminated from the human race and place a priority on “curing” it. This is similar to the old belief that homosexuality is a disease that should be cured, and just as harmful to autistic people.

Disability: There are two main definitions to this word: 1- Not being able to do something that the majority of people are able to do. For example: hear (deaf), see (blind), smell (anosmic), walk (para/quadriplegic), etc. 2-Being impaired by a physical/mental difference in a way that restricts one’s professional, social, personal, or leisure activities. Depending on the definition and personal opinions, autistic people can be considered disabled or not disabled.

Dyspraxia: Difficulty with gross and/or fine motor skills, very common in autistic people. To a casual observer they may appear clumsy, often dropping things, walking into things, or tripping over their own feet (gross motor skills), or with poor handwriting, poor ability to hold a writing instrument, etc. (fine motor skills).

Echolalia: Use of verbal repetition to communicate, usually used by those who are not fully verbal. Words and phrases can be immediately repeated directly (“You OK?” “You OK.”), or with some changes (“Are you OK?” “I am okay.”). They can also come from memory (“Who gave you that?” [Darth Vader voice] “I am your father.” = my father).

Executive Dysfunction: Difficulty with executive functioning; skills used to make decisions and carry out tasks. Many autistic people have problems with this. They may be unable to make what appear to be simple decisions or figure out how to accomplish a simple goal. They may know exactly what they need to do but be unable to get their body to move to do it. It has been described via metaphors in a few ways: one is having all the ingredients to make a cake but no recipe, and being expected to make the cake, but having no idea how to do it. Another is that the body is like a horse and the brain is the rider, and the rider tries to get the horse to move, but it simply won’t budge.

Functioning Labels: Outdated and inaccurate (but sadly, still commonly used) labels for autistic people based on a narrow set of criteria. Those who don’t communicate verbally are normally considered “low-functioning”, for example, and those who can are “high-functioning”. See our masterpost for more information on why these labels are damaging and should not be used.

Hyperacusis: When a person is extremely sensitive to sound and the world sounds far louder to them than to others. It is often extremely painful, like having the volume on the world turned up way too high, and can be disabling. Many people with hyperacusis have or develop tinnitus (a constant sound, often ringing, usually caused by nerve damage in the ears).

Hyperempathy: Having far more affective empathy than a normal person. This can result in things like crying often, being unable to comfort upset people because their emotions are too overwhelming, etc. Some people feel hyperempathy all the time. Some have it only sometimes or for some people, or for inanimate objects.

Hypersensitivity: A blanket term which means “being more sensitive than most people to something”. When it comes to autism, it can refer to several things. Most of the time, it is used about sensory hypersensitivity, such as sensitivity to sounds or bright lights. There is also emotional hypersensitivity (easily getting hurt feelings/responding very strongly to positive feelings).

Hyposensitivity: The opposite of hypersensitivity, some autistic people feel a lack of sensory stimulation. They feel understimulated and may constantly feel the need to seek sensory stimulation. It’s important to note than an autistic person may be hypersensitive in some ways and hyposensitive in others, or at different times.

Infodumping: Sharing a large amount of information on a single topic all at once, often without pausing or allowing others to speak, due to overwhelming enthusiasm for the subject. It is usually done on subjects of special interest.

Low empathy: Some autistic people feel reduced or no affective empathy for other people (do not identify with their emotions or feel inspired to a certain emotion when they see others having that emotion). This does not necessarily mean that they do not care about the emotions of others - some may not care, some may care a great deal - only that they do not feel what others feel. Some people with low empathy for other people have hyperempathy for inanimate objects or fictional characters.

Meltdown: When the brain is too overloaded with sensory information or stress and can no longer function properly, an autistic individual may have a very violent reaction, called a meltdown. The person melting down is generally in a lot of pain. They might scream, throw things, yell curse words and insults, cry, hurt themselves or other, and try to hide themselves in absurd locations like under couch cushions or behind doors. This neurological event cannot be controlled or stopped once it begins. It can be made worse by interfering and adding more sensory input (by touching or talking to the person) and usually will not subside until the person is left alone to calm down.

Neurodivergent/Neuroatypical: Having a neurology which is different from the most common ones, such as being autistic or having ADHD. Some people include mental illnesses in this label, some do not.

Neurodiversity: The philosophy that in order to succeed, survive, and thrive, the human race needs many different types of neurology, and that neurodiverse people are an important and positive component of our species.

Neurotypical: A term which is defined as “having the most common type of neurology” (ie not autistic, without ADHD/dyslexia/tourette’s, etc.). Someone with a mental illness may or may not be considered neurotypical depending on people’s opinions.

Nonverbal: Someone who cannot or does not communicate verbally (using spoken language, often including sign language). Some autistic people are always nonverbal. Most are nonverbal under stress or overload. Some are always verbal.

Passing: Successfully behaving enough like an allistic person, particularly in social situations, that no one suspects you are autistic. Often important or even necessary for some people, especially when it comes to work situations.

PECS: One of the AAC methods which is most commonly used with autistic children (and sometimes adults). Stands for “Picture Exchange Communication System”. A pictogram-based system.

Proprioception: All of the sensory input which comes from inside your body. Includes your brain’s awareness of where the different parts of your body are. Autistic people often have very poor proprioception. As a result, they may have some type of dyspraxia, odd facial expressions, odd posture and walking gait, etc., all of which they may not be aware of until someone tells/shows them.

Sensory Processing Disorder: The clinical term for someone who has difficulty processing sensory information. Includes sensory hypersensitivity, hyposensitivity and differences. Too many details to process can lead to sensory overload, shutdowns, and meltdowns. Some autistic people don’t agree that it is a disorder, and prefer to talk of “sensory processing differences”.

Sensory Overload: When too much sensory information is being sent to the brain and the brain can no longer keep up. It becomes painful and the person can become incapable of accepting new sensory information until the brain has time to catch up (like a computer freezing when too many programs are open). This often leads to shutdowns and/or meltdowns.

Shutdown: A defense mechanism against sensory overload and stress. The brain attempts to shut out all sensory input by disconnecting from the environment. The person might no longer understand speech (or even fully hear it), be able to think in language (or to think in any way at all), move their body, or communicate in any way. Their eyes might unfocus and they may seem to be completely “out of it”. This state is usually a sign that the person needs to be left alone for their brain to calm down, but if pushed by those around them, they may switch to having a meltdown.

Special Interest: A subject which an autistic person is extremely interested in and will go to great lengths to learn everything possible about.

Spoons: A metaphor used to indicate the (limited) amount of energy a disabled or sick person has to devote to various tasks. There is a whole script blog devoted to this (@scriptspoonies). Many autistic people rely on this metaphor to describe their (lack of) energy.

Stimming: Repeated actions which are used to stimulate one’s own nervous system, done for various reasons including to soothe oneself/calm down, express emotions, communicate, or just because it feels nice. Common examples include rocking back and forth, flapping hands, clenching jaw, tapping a part of the body, making a repeated noise, etc.

Verbal: Able to communicate using spoken language.

#masterpost #vocabulary #autistic #person first language #identity first language #terminology

2K notes · View notes

aroberuka · 7 years

Note

Evens for writers ask meme?

2. Where is yourfavourite place to write?

Either the kitchen table, which is the perfect height for my laptop & the only place in the house that gets sunlight in the morning, or my bed tbh.

4. Do you have anywriting habits/rituals?

Not writing habits so to speak but I do have a getting ready to write ritual that mostly consists of dragging myself out of bed and going for a walk.

6. Favourite characteryou’ve written?

Mouse!Surana, hands down. I kinda just made her on the spot for that one oneshot and as a result she ended up radically different from my usual OCs (they’re not usually this… driven xD), which made her such a blast to write.

8. Do you have anywriting buddies or critique partners?

@coppercaravan has been both for a little bit over a year and they’re such a pleasure to work with tbh.

10. Pick an author (orwriting friend) to co-write a book with

1) @coppercaravan we should stick our OCs together and see what happens, y/y?

2) That being said it’s super easy to get me to write with you literally all you have to do is drop into my inbox like “hey we should write a thing” and be very patient with my spoonie ass.

12. Which story ofyours do you like best? why?

Honestly it’s the quasiplatonic solavellan fic. I love Tathas, I put a lot of work and also a lot of me into it, I have a lot of thoughts about what’s coming next and I really wish I could finish it already esp since it wouldn’t be that long (like. 8-10 chapters tops, not counting a potential Trespasser sequel) but I haven’t been able to get in a DAI mood for forever x_x

14. What does it takefor you to be ready to write a book? (i.e. do you research? outline? make a playlist or pinterest board? wing it?)

Ideally I’d need the stars to align perfectly on a week with two Mondays, but more realistically what I need is:

-a playlist, or at least a couple artists that’ll put me in the right mood

-character sheets with some basic info + relationship charts + their stake in the plot

-a rough chapter by chapter plan that will inevitably fly out the window by the time I finish chapter 1.

16. Cover love/dreamcovers?

Not really, no.

18. Tell us about thatone book you’ll never let anyone read

So back in January there was that self-insert month thing, and I figured why the hell not, but b/c I’m apparently unable to write self-indulgent fluff and also I was in a Mood it turned into a writing as therapy thing and now I don’t know what to do with it b/c on the one hand I do want to write it & I think it would help me deal with some stuff but on the other idk that I would ever be able to let anyone read it, let alone post it online.

20. Any advice foryoung writers/advice you wish someone would have given you early on?

Length is overrated, short chapters are fine and the only good piece of writing advice is that there is no such thing as universal writing advice.

22. Tell us about thebooks on your “to write” list

… I’m not gonna give you a full list b/c it would be ridiculous but the ones that are on my brain atm are:

-- Présages aka The Novel aka that one story about ghosts that turned into a story about the importance of healthy communication & a good support system.

-- A novella about an aromantic protag that was supposed to be a subplot of the previous but is now its own thing so I can give it the attention it deserves.

-- A fantasy novel that started with me listening to too much critical role and is basically a thinly disguised metaphor for fighting against depression.

(All of them are depression books tbh and I’m not even a little bit sorry.)

And then there’s the fics:

-- A post Akuze longshot feat. Leo, grief and politics.

-- A Leverage/HP crossover feat. pre-canon Eliot, wizards and poor attempts at dragon smuggling.

-- A CCS/Naruto crossover that I’ll probably never write tbh b/c the sheer size of it is terrifying to me, but I like to dust it off every other month anyway b/c I put a lot of thought into it.

24. Do you remember themoment you decided to become a writer/author?

I don’t remember the moment I started to write – that was a long long time ago – but the moment I decided to become a writer I’m pretty sure was when I read The Princess Bride, b/c I very distinctly remember closing the book and going “I wish I’d written that”.

26. What’s the mostresearch you’ve ever put into a book?

It’s kinda hard to tell tbh b/c my research, like everything else, tends to be scattered in short bursts over months/years, but my most recent research-heavy project has been the Leverage/HP crossover, which has led me to a lot of reading on poaching/smuggling as I tried to figure out how one would go about smuggling a dragon.

Turns out there’s no actual book on dragon smuggling but I ended up learning a lot about butterfly smuggling, which as it turns out is

1)a thing

2)very serious business.

28. How do you stayfocused on your own work and how do you deal with comparison?

I don’t. I don’t stay focused on anything, ever. I also deal very poorly with comparison even tho the only one doing the comparing is my own self.

30. Do you like to readbooks similar to your project while you’re drafting or do you stick to non-fiction/un-similar works?

I do! I find it very helpful esp. when I’m writing in a genre/style I’m not used to. I try to avoid it with fanfiction tho so as to avoid accidentally absorbing other people’s headcanons into my own work.

32. On average how muchdo you write in a day? do you have trouble staying focused/gettingthe word count in?

Tbh I usually count in ‘pages’ (quote/unquote b/c I’m using my own format which is considerably shorter than what you probably think of when you hear ‘page’), and I’m trying to get myself to two pages a day for The Novel but I’m considerably slower when I’m not writing in French b/c language is hard.

34. Unpopular writingthoughts/opinions?

-- Character death is overrated.

-- The idea that conflict is necessary to tell a good story is highly subjective and even if it wasn’t a good conflict shouldn’t just boil down to ‘characters being horrible (or downright abusive) to each other’/‘characters being forced to commit or witness atrocities’ over and over again.

-- Romance is boring and so is smut.

-- Young/aspiring writers need positive feedback way, way more than criticism, constructive or not; constructive criticism overall is overrated (which isn’t to say that it’s never useful but like it’s not The One True Way For A Writer To Improve that a lot of ppl try to sell it as).

36. Post a snippet

She’s always been lucky is the thing.

Lucky to find the Reds when she needed them, lucky to lose them when she no longer did, lucky to get caught by the right people at the right time, lucky to be offered military service instead of prison, lucky that Anderson had seen something in her no-one else ever had.

Lucky to survive doesn’t feel so special.

38. How do you nailvoice in your books?

Honestly that is one thing that comes p much naturally to me? Like whenever I write in a character’s voice I can usually ‘hear’ what I’m writing so to speak, which makes things considerably easier tbh.

40. Do you look up toany of your writer buddies?

What kind of question is that I look up to all of y'all??? I’m not even kidding here y’all are amazing and talented and I’m so thrilled I got to meet all of you?

42. How many drafts doyou usually write before you feel satisfied?

I’d say 2-3 though it’s kinda hard to tell b/c I don’t strictly speaking work in full drafts, I tend to go back and forth between paragraphs instead.

44. Why (and when) didyou decide to become a writer?

I must have been like 16 or something. Hell if I remember why except I love stories and it seemed like a good idea at the time?

46. Past or presenttense?

I actually prefer past tense despite my current inability to write it (idk why all my fic end up being present tense but I suspect English).

48. Do you prefer towrite skimpy drafts and flesh them out later, or write too much and cut it back?

I mean most of my fics are already under 500 words long can you imagine if I actually cut stuff from them? :p

50. Do you share yourrough drafts or do you wait until everything is all polished?

I tend to wait until everything is polished but also, again, it’s super easy to get me to share rough drafts or even outlines with you b/c I am weak and crave validation.

52. Who do you writefor?

Me. Always.

Like listen the fact is actually talking openly & honestly about personal stuff even to people who have been there for me in the past is literally the hardest thing for me to do and I got so damn good at avoiding it I don’t even have to think before I do it anymore, and sometimes it feels like writing is the only way I can actually properly communicate anymore. So yeah I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care about ppl loving what I write but it will always be first and foremost something I do for myself.

54. Favourite firstline/opening you’ve written?

already answered here

#ghouliissh #marti #marti why i thought we were friends #i didn't even reread this i'm just kinda assuming i didn't leave any answer unfinished

2 notes · View notes

herhmione · 7 years

Note

so I can't speak for everyone on why I love pansy but really for me it's just the fact that she /was/ such a terrible character. Not just like, a bad person, but she was so, SO poorly written. I am forever going to be spiteful towards jkr for creating such a one dimensional character that seems to embody everything stereotypical and bad about a teenage girl without ever giving any any HINT that she could have a personality beyond 'blood purist'. So for me, it's kind of like what we've done with-

the marauders, which is build a character on minimal information. obviously we have more to go on with the marauders but I guess I'm trying to say- Nobody really loves /canon pansy/. She was terrible. I get that. But I reject that she was so terribly one dimensional and stuck up and BAD. And nothing against demelza or any of the other underdeveloped female characters in hp but pansy stuck out to me because she /bothered/ me and I guess the others just didn't quite so much.

i don’t want to start anything so i’m going to just kind of lay out my argument in the best way i see how and then be done with this topic (i mean unless i get more asks in which case i can’t help myself but anyway). if you are easily offended/really really love pansy parkinson, don’t read this

pansy didn’t have the space to be a terribly written character because she’s not really in the books at all. i don’t have the time or energy to look through my books right now, but i’ve read the series enough to know for a fact that she was not featured or important enough in them to be developed. it would have been a waste of both words and paper to give us more of her backstory, to describe her, to really show her as a nuanced character because she basically contributed nothing to the story other than being an asshole. it wasn’t as if jk rowling was writing her as a major character and left her underdeveloped - she maybe speaks five times in the entire series, and is definitely in it much much less than the gryffindor girls such as parvati and lavender. pansy serves the purpose jk rowling intended her to. furthermore, you act as if jk rowling creating this underdeveloped, one-dimensional character (which is an assessment i don’t agree with simply because there’s no need to fully develop a character when they barely play a role in a series) is this huge terrible thing, as if she hasn’t created a million, billion other characters for you to choose from. i know i reblogged a post elaborating on this, but you have parvati and lavender (who were both sold short by jk rowling and deserve more love and nuance and actually play a relatively more significant part in the series than pansy) and amelia bones and hannah abbott, all who can be developed wonderfully, and all of who weren’t blood supremacists.

the problem with people in the harry potter fandom who love pansy is that they ignore the blood purist part of her personality. it’s fine if you want to also make pansy obsessed with bunnies or really into painting, but you cannot ignore or erase the fact that she was a blood purist. she supported voldemort. this is not something you can change. i don’t care if she goes through a redemption arc - she still supported voldemort at some point, and that needs to be addressed.

you can make pansy nuanced and add onto her story while not forgetting the fact that she was a blood purist and acknowledging that that is at the forefront of her personality.

for context, think of it this way: death eaters are a metaphor for nazis. i, and hopefully you, wouldn’t give a shit if a nazi or a nazi supporter loved to paint, was a “strong woman”, or had a multidimensional personality. THEY WOULD STILL BE A NAZI.

this brings me to my next point: PANSY PARKINSON IS NOT A FEMINIST. i have no idea how anyone can justify this to themselves... anyone who is the equivalent of a nazi can never and will never be a feminist. i do not care how strong of a woman they are, how snarky they are, how tough they are. they do not respect all women, and therefore they are not a feminist. i don’t even know why i need to say this, because it should just be common sense.

now, onto the topic of death eaters = nazis. jk rowling has said many, many times that she wrote the death eaters as an allegory for the nazis. voldemort, therefore, represents hitler. i feel like a lot of harry potter fans forget this, and if they kept this in mind, would be a lot less apologetic of voldemort’s supporters.

there’s a trend i’ve seen recently in the harry potter fandom, and it’s one of shipping characters and those who want to oppress them. i don’t know if you guys just throw together two characters without regard to their personalities or backgrounds or if you actually just don’t care, but i’ve seen some rather disturbing pairings. i don’t think you realize that shipping people like hermione and tom riddle is disgusting because that’s literally like shipping a jewish person and adolph hitler in 1940s germany. how do you not find that wrong? there are certain ships that simply should not exist, and others that can only exist with meticulous character development and/or a complete changing of canon. pansy/hermione is one of these. pansy bullied hermione on multiple occassions and supported a person who literally wanted hermione killed. i’m sorry, but that doesn’t scream “they’re in love!” to me. if you want to ship p*nsmione or whatever the hell, go ahead and do so (i can’t stop you), but you need to be aware of why it’s wrong. the only way i, myself, can justify the ship is with miles and miles of character development from pansy. and even then, it still feels wrong to me.

which brings me to my next point: why does everyone in this fandom treat hermione like utter and complete shit? it’s all very lowkey, not very overt, but it’s evident in literally almost every ship you guys make up for her. IT IS NOT HERMIONE GRANGER’S JOB TO REDEEM ANYONE. she is a muggle-born, and, honestly, if i was her, i would never ever in a million years fall in love with or even get near someone who had been complicit in my oppression. ever. i understand that some of the most popular ships in this fandom (namely, dr*mione) are sometimes written in a way in which draco redeems himself on his own and then has to work for hermione’s love, and while i personally can never feel comfortable with that, i do find that less disturbing and don’t really have as much of a problem with people shipping that. the problem is that people usually don’t take that route, and so it is left to hermione to change her oppressors.

on the topic of draco, another thing that the harry potter fandom does not seem to understand: SLYTHERIN HOUSE IS SYSTEMICALLY RACIST (i.e. BLOOD SUPREMACIST) IN CANON. i’m not talking about like if you personally think you’re cunning or whatever and sort yourself into slytherin so don’t come message me with dumb ass “i’m not racist!!!” comments. i’m saying that the house of slytherin is literally a racist house. i don’t know how you guys can argue like the founder of it was literally like “i only want to teach purebloods.” obviously not every single god damn slytherin is racist, just like every single white person is not personally racist, but as a whole, the group is complicit in oppression of muggle borns. i don’t know how it’s so easy for you guys to see this in the real world when it comes to white people, or straight people, but you can’t acknowledge this in slytherin house. furthermore, slytherin house is all about tradition and family values, so it’s no surprise that this way of thinking festered and thrived in the house, as many of the students would simply be parroting their parents. like i don’t know why you guys want to argue so hard against this fact - it’s a book series. there are people who are more bad than others. the slytherins, as a house (NOT AS INDIVIDUALS), are these people.

but i’ve gotten off track. here’s what i really want to say about pansy. IF YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE READING THE REST, AT LEAST READ THIS: pansy parkinson is a bad person. there’s no use fighting it - there are bad people in books, just like there are in life, and pansy is one of these. it does not mean you can’t like her character. it does not even mean that you can’t add your own nuance to her character, make your own headcanons for her. what it does mean is this: YOU CANNOT ERASE THE FACT THAT PANSY IS A BLOOD SUPREMACIST. NO MATTER WHAT THEIR PERSONALITY, A NAZI IS A NAZI, END OF STORY.

#literally come at me if you want i don't give a fuck because i'm honestly so done with the harry potter fandom #anti pansy #hp #anon #hey look people actually want to talk to me

73 notes · View notes

bharatiyamedia-blog · 5 years

Text

Ethical classes in youngsters's tv applications could require further rationalization

http://tinyurl.com/y2xrgqb7 Credit score: CC0 Public Area Kids’s tv programming typically comprises ethical classes and examples of inclusiveness, however youngsters could battle to understand and switch the conditions introduced on an animated manufacturing to their very own lives, College of California, Davis, analysis suggests. In two separate research, researchers monitored greater than 100 4-6-year-olds of assorted ethnicities from city and rural areas in the USA and the Netherlands whereas they watched fashionable youngsters’s tv reveals. They discovered that, in some cases, viewing a tv present positively influenced youngsters’s sense of equity and proper and fallacious, corresponding to with theft or interpersonal violence. Extra complicated concepts, nonetheless, proved troublesome for them to understand. Moreover, nuance could backfire, inflicting youngsters to behave poorly in their very own lives as a result of they do not perceive the nuanced options introduced within the present. Because of this, researchers advocate that youngsters’s applications include inserts with transient however specific explanations or discussions of the teachings introduced within the present, corresponding to inclusion. When researchers experimented with inserted explanations, youngsters’s responses improved. “Simply placing 30 seconds of rationalization in this system helped the kids to know what the teachings have been in a 12-minute section,” stated Drew P. Cingel, UC Davis assistant professor of communication and the lead creator of the 2 latest research. He defined that the researchers’ inserts have been easy, however introduced messages actually somewhat than metaphorically, which promoted prosocial intentions and decreased stigmatization of others. Analysis explored ‘concept of thoughts’ The analysis explored “concept of thoughts,” which refers to a person’s means to attribute psychological states to oneself and others, and to additional perceive that others have psychological states that differ from their very own. Idea of thoughts undergoes fast growth throughout preschool years, making the analysis particularly related, the article stated. Kids low in theory of mind have been these most positively influenced by the specific inserts. “This might make an enormous distinction and has such sensible implications. I simply consider what a major function media may have in child development—amongst youngsters that want probably the most assist—with this one enchancment.” Observe-up research are deliberate, Cingel stated. Most youngsters who didn’t see the specific insert expressed extra exclusionary attitudes towards different youngsters. Within the eventualities in a single research, one baby was utilizing crutches, one other used a wheelchair, and yet one more was overweight. One baby appeared to have an “common physique sort” with out disabilities. Most youngsters who answered questions concerning the characters stated these youngsters with disabilities weren’t as sensible as others, they usually expressed different unfavorable emotions concerning the characters’ variations, demonstrating that classes of inclusivity could also be troublesome for a lot of youngsters to understand. He stated these misunderstandings made sense when one considers that in 12 minutes of content material, youngsters typically see 9 minutes of exclusionary habits or an issue being introduced with solely three minutes or much less of an answer. The options introduced, then, typically do not resonate with the kid viewer in a optimistic approach. And generally, the research present, this system strengthened or urged stereotypes and elevated stigmatization, somewhat than educating youngsters to behave in any other case, particularly after they seen the present with different youngsters. Cingel, director of the UC Davis Human Improvement and Media Lab, stated he hopes the analysis prompts modifications in children‘s programming. “I would like this to matter within the lives of children, not simply lecturers,” he stated. Preschoolers exposure to television can stall their cognitive development Extra data: Drew P. Cingel et al, Can tv assist to lower stigmatization amongst younger youngsters? The function of Idea of Thoughts and normal and specific inserts, Media Psychology (2019). DOI: 10.1080/15213269.2019.1601570 Drew P. Cingel et al. Prosocial Tv, Preschool Kids’s Ethical Judgments, and Ethical Reasoning: The Function of Social Ethical Intuitions and Perspective-Taking, Communication Analysis (2017). DOI: 10.1177/0093650217733846 Quotation: Ethical classes in youngsters’s tv applications could require further rationalization (2019, June 21) retrieved 23 June 2019 from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2019-06-moral-lessons-children-television-require.html This doc is topic to copyright. Aside from any honest dealing for the aim of personal research or analysis, no half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is supplied for data functions solely. Source link

0 notes

rhetoricandlogic · 6 years

Photo

Coming Home: Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti Series

One evening, Binti Ekeopara Zuzu Dambu Kaipka of Namib runs away from home. She is a teenager and Himba, a people from southwestern Africa. They believe in staying close to their native land and that women should cover their bodies and hair in otjize, a mixture primarily comprised of “sweet smelling red clay.” Otjize in hand, Binti climbs aboard a living spaceship called the Third Fish as it heads off to Oozma University. Most of the passengers are Khoush, the dominant people in Binti’s country, and they look down on the Himba. But Binti is the first of her kind to be accepted into the prestigious uni and won’t let anything stand in her way. That is, until the Meduse, a jellyfish-like alien species engaged in a centuries-old war with the Khoush, attack the ship. Binti’s people didn’t start this war, but she may be the one to end it.

A year after the events of the first novella, Binti, the second, Binti: Home, checks back in on our heroine. She’s still dealing with the trauma of everything that happened aboard the Third Fish, but therapy and her friendship with one of the Meduse, Okwu, has smoothed out the roughest patches. The pair are thriving at Oozma, and Binti is getting used to her okuoko, the tentacles that replaced her hair when the Meduse dosed her with alien genetics. She wants to return home to reconnect with her people, and Okwu joins as an ambassador. The plan is to establish new diplomatic relations between the Meduse and the Khoush, but things fall spectacularly apart.

Binti: The Night Masquerade picks up right after the sequel’s cliffhanger ending. Now full of even more alien biotech, Binti is a force to be reckoned with. The future of her people, the Khoush, and the Meduse rests in her hands, but is she ready for the responsibility? All the angry men in charge certainly don’t think so. Her home destroyed, her family gone, her village turned against her, the Khoush and the Meduse too busy screaming at each other to hear reason, everything seems lost. Binti must risk everything to save her homeland.

I have a confession to make. I don’t actually like hard science fiction. Or, more accurately, I don’t like how hard SF is generally presented. Space wars, cyberpunk, and alien invasions don’t move me one way or the other, but when authors slather dense layers of technobabble over everything I lose interest. What really kills it for me, though, is how homogenous the genre tends to be. Future humans are either cut from the same bland Star Trek cloth or play-acting poorly drawn metaphors for racism but without any real understanding of systemic oppression or colonialism. Main characters are almost always white, cishet, and able-bodied, and very often male. On the unusual occasion where a marginalized person gets to be in charge they either live in a utopian society where the -isms don’t exist or where human culture is homogenized into an American/European-centric interpretation of “progress.” *yawn*

I want SF that doesn’t just have queer, disabled, POC characters in the margins but as leads. Take every SF trope and run them through the perspectives and heritage of literally anyone else in the world but more straight white people. Give me stories of Haitian space opera, Diné cyberpunk, Iñupiat building robots, Quechua space exploration, Maasai virtual reality, Māori military SF, Laotian bioengineering. Feature a cast that’s queer, disabled, neurodiverse, fat, intersectional, everything. Give me versions of science fiction I’ve never seen before and let other voices, cultures, and beliefs take center stage. And for the love of Hera, let those stories be told by authors with those personal experiences.

This is a very roundabout way of saying how much I appreciate Nnedi Okorafor’s work. Binti the series and Binti the character both challenge the dominant narrative of who gets to be a hero in science fiction, what the future might become, and what victory looks like. In fiction and in her own world, Binti shatters stereotypes and tradition. She will not be what others have tried to make her, and neither will Okorafor’s series.

The only element of the series I didn’t love was how little of the world we saw. To be fair, Okorafor has plot-related reasons for most of the missing pieces. Binti’s hyperfocus on her people is thematically sound—her people never leave their homeland, much less the earth, and the same accusation of myopia could be thrown at most other SF. If the series was written by a white author, “Becky” would’ve been from some small Midwestern town and never even considered what’s going on in southwest Africa.

The Meduse-Khoush war didn’t get enough play either. For the ants getting trampled in the grass (i.e.: the Himba) as the elephants fight, why the Meduse and Khoush are at war matters a helluva lot less than how to get them to stop. But for me as a reader, I needed to know more about the war to feel something other than pity for the Himba. Because we see so little of the Meduse, Enyi Zinariya, Khoush, and the Himba (other than Binti, who is more defined by how she pushes against Himba tradition), it’s hard to get worked up about what’s happening to anyone not Binti. Even Okwu gets very little shading.

Ultimately, Binti feels like novels crammed into novellas. Or maybe I just want to spend more time in Binti’s world. I honestly don’t know. But—and this is a very big “but”—you absolutely should not let that dissuade you from picking up the series. My quibbles are just that: quibbles, and personal ones at that. Although I felt like I was experiencing Binti’s world with blinders on, that didn’t diminish the enjoyment I got out of the glimpses Okorafor offered. Is it really such a bad thing to like spending time with an author’s creation so much that it’s disappointing to not have more? Lucky for me, each novella is longer than the last, so my whinging is diminishing.

Okorafor expertly wields science fiction as a means of exploring the myriad complexities of cultural identity. What does it mean to be oppressed? What does it mean to be an oppressor? What does it mean to be both, or to be neither but trapped between each side? Are we who we say we are because of our traditions or because of how we choose to identify?

Binti is full of heart and emotion. It’s not a perfect series, but it’s a strong one. Sometimes the drama can get too heated, the action too frenetic, and the conceptual ideas too vague—I still don’t understand “treeing”—but it’s got a killer hook. Okorafor knows her genre and isn’t afraid to show off. There’s a reason this series (and her other works) are practically drowning in accolades and awards. I guarantee if there’s a fourth novella, I’ll be at my local bookstore the day it’s released.

#Nnedi Okorafor #Binti Home #mahreviews

0 notes

wjt · 7 years

Text

2017 in books (part 2)

Mostly lifted from my Goodreads reviews:

Fahrenheit 451: someone told me that writing two-sentence mini-reviews without explaining what the book is about is not very helpful. So! This is about a future where books have been outlawed; the protagonist's job is setting unearthed caches of contraband on fire. Spoiler: he realises that Books are Actually Good.

The idea is that books fell out of favour gradually: first you introduce other forms of mass media which are easier to consume in bite-sized chunks (TV, cordless earbuds, sleeping pills), so that people mostly stop reading of their own accord. Then you make buildings fire-proof. Now you can ban books and set them on fire when you find them without anyone kicking up too much of a fuss. The population is itself partly to blame for allowing this to happen.

(Aside: writing this reminded me of the precise moment I lost my last shred of interest in the band Porcupine Tree: 11½ minutes into yet another tedious song about how the youth of today are numbed by TV and antidepressants, concentric circles of spinning pills appear, in case you hadn't fully appreciated the subtle and original message they're trying to deliver.)

It's a pretty good read. Every so often Bradbury flips into Metaphor Mode and spends a page or more describing some minor detail, which I could do without. It all feels a bit rushed at times – and according to the foreword and afterword in the edition I read, its original short-story incarnation was written in 10 days, and the expansion into a novel twice the size was to a tight deadline, so it feels that way for a reason. There's some interesting commentary in those about how the timing of the two versions of the novel interacted with the ebb and flow of McCarthyism, and the well-timed launch of Playboy where it was possible to take literary risks, distracted by another form of media which is easier to consume and get enraged about.

The Collapsing Empire: spaaaaaaaaaace stuff. Premise: faster-than-light travel is possible, but only via “the Flow”, a poorly-understood system of predetermined pathways between points in space. An empire has been built up around this network, with every node economically dependent on the others. So what happens if the network starts to fail?

This was fine as series-openers go. It’s nice to see latency in the spread of information – I liked this about Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series. On the other hand, without knowing up-front the travel time between the different settings of each chapter, it’s a bit hard to keep track of whether character A knows about event B yet – I think this could have been clearer, or maybe I have a bad memory. (Broadly speaking the answer is “if you’re not sure, they don’t know yet”.) I expected a bit more from the republican movement, but no, the empire and system of family monopolies is pretty entrenched and almost every character we meet doesn't seem too bothered about it. (To be fair, most of them are pretty blasé about everything, like most of Scalzi's characters.) Maybe that's a strand for a future installment.

Compared to Scalzis past: it's broadly similar to Old Man's War etc. but with a lot less shooting and wacky technology – an improvement. There's at least one minor character who echoes the gimmick from Lock In, I guess as an Easter egg for the attentive reader.

Bumpology: A Myth-Busting Guide for Curious Parents-To-Be: Good pop-sci round-up of evidence-based answers to questions about pregnancy, birth, and early childhood. Cochrane reviews make regular appearances. A lot of things can be summed up with “it probably doesn't make much difference” or “moderation in all things”.

One nice example is the early question, “Is coffee bad for my baby?” Apparently, more than 550mg of caffeine per day has a slight but measurable impact on babies' height, and low amounts are probably okay. But a survey of espresso strength in Scotland found the amount of caffeine varied wildly: between 51mg at Starbucks to 322mg at an unnamed café in Glasgow! So one double-shot drink might be totally fine, or it might not.

The later stages of the book – how much do newborns understand about the world around them? when should one introduce solid food? – seemed more actionable to me as a non-pregnant participant (unsurprisingly), but of course it's a bit early for me to say if the advice is actually useful. Answer unclear, ask again later (this month).

A Tiger Remembers: The Way We Were in Singapore: Notes on family structure and social dynamics in Singapore over the past century or so, told by “the founding mother of social work education in Singapore”. I don't really know anything about Asian family structure, so I found the variations between the different social/ethnic groups of Singapore particularly interesting reading. There are some good chapters on living conditions before and after the post-colonial drive by the HDB to provide affordable but good-quality housing for all – and how this negatively affected social structures and agricultural work. Also, plenty of anecdotes from the author's experience growing up in wartime Britain and marrying into a Singaporean Chinese family. A nice mix.

I found myself reaching for my phone to look up Singapore-specific terminology. For example, the term “HDB” – Housing and Development Board – was explained several chapters after it started getting casually dropped into sentences. I don't think I am the intended audience, though, so fair enough!

Angel Catbird, Volume 1: This is a pulp-y little volume about a man who, through a Freak Science Accident, can transform into a humanoid half-owl, half-cat. It's fun enough, particularly if you like bad cat puns, but doesn't really break any new ground. Being one of the world's greatest living authors grants one a certain amount of freedom… maybe a future volume will be a bit deeper.

Previously in 2017.

#books #2017 in books #nonreview #parenting #buried lead

0 notes