#i will read babel instead bc that one is also just SO good | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tianshiisdead · 1 year

Text

Tag Game To Better Know You! Send this to people you’d like to know better!

thank uu @astrophilic-soul ilu!!

What book are you currently reading?

Bouncing in between 'Beyond Suffering: Recounting War in Modern China', 'Britain and China: 1840-1970 Empire Finance and War', and 'An Epitome of the Reports of the Medical Officers to the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service from 1871-1882' rn! First two are history books, second is a primary source recovered from 1884, they are about exactly what the titles say and so far all are very good and enjoyable <3 tho Britain and China has some... Interesting points sometimes (each chapter is by a diff author tbf)

What’s your favorite movie you saw in theatres this year?

Haven't been to the theatre that I can think of lol

What do you usually wear?

All sorts of things loll but almost never pants u.u my 2 fav types are (generally) long flowing dresses and short little skirts/dresses with cropped sweaters! But I also like hanfu and hanyuansu too, and I have some jp/cn street fashion that I wear out, and some weird fits from Taobao. basically, I'll wear anything I find cute whether its fashionable or weird and I do get lots of comments, good ones and sometimes weird ones too LOL

How tall are you?

165 cm uwu

What’s your Star Sign? Do you share a birthday with a celebrity or a historical event?

Aries! Apparently Ireland became a republic on this day which is pretty cool

Do you go by your name or a nick-name?

What's considered a nickname? I go by my English name which is kind of a nickname in that it's not really my name to me, but I also go by a 小名 at home, and 'Tia' online, so I suppose usually a nickname.

Did you grow up to become what you wanted to be when you were a child?

I wanted to be an assassin. I won't elaborate anymore tho : )

Are you in a relationship? If not, who is your crush if you have one?

@peoniibud is my darling

What’s something you’re good at vs. something you’re bad at?

I'm good at lots of things. I'm bad at being humble

Dogs or cats?

Cats!

What’s something you would like to create content for?

Everything I like. I make almost nothing bc school is sooo busy and I'm soooo bad with procrastination :'))) but if I had to say I wish I could make Babel (R.F. Kuang) content, it's a newer interest and I'm sad I got into it right when I was too busy to make anything

If you draw/write, or create in any way, what’s your favourite picture/favourite line/favourite etc. from something you created this year?

I haven't made all that much this year tbh? It's not really a line but I realize I've repeated in several fics some sort of mention about how when Arthur gets truly started (talking) he'll never stop bc he kind of loves the sound of his own voice even though he'll never admit it, and I enjoy that, it makes me giggle fjkldgh I think Arthur having that dash off irritating arrogance is rlly the whipped cream on top of the pie. paired with how he's kind of plain and dislikes showing softness or weakness even while troubled (stiff upper lip... but also sometimes tsundere) and is kind of defensive and you can sort of see an old inferiority complex peek through even with all of his *everything* esp during the centuries past, ugh I could go on I genuinely love that character so much What’s something you’re currently obsessed with?

fandom wise: Babel by R F Kuang

Otherwise: the building of informal empire in China 1800s-mid 1900s and its lasting effects... I've always liked history and Chinese history in particular but the search for the seeds of modern national identity through post Opium War history is surprisingly difficult and has consumed me

What’s something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year?

School... I hoped to be on top of things but my Mental Health (tm) and physical health took over again : ( I resent being so weak tbh I want to be energetic but instead I'm just trapped here constantly sick and easily feverish and barely able to function. It really hurts.

What’s a hidden talent of yours?

Uhhh I don't think I hide any talents? I don't do many things outside of what I know ig. I'm classically trained in ballet, piano, violin, and flute, and can read basic Manchu, so I guess those are hidden. I also have hidden british etiquette knowledge that I never use bc my mom's mentor at work (shes a scientist) was an old Scottish gentleman and I went to his house a lot to play with his granddaughter and learned how to properly act and eat the old British dude way ig dunno if thats a talent tho

Are you religious?

Not... actively, my parents don't practice so I never had much, and I was raised pretty nonreligiously. But I make sure I'm eating only Halal food and follow the same habits my mom (hui Muslim) follows and my grandparents are very devout so I guess it's like... someday I'll come home (to Islam) but I don't know when that will be... I guess. It's something personal I guess.

What’s something you wish to have at this moment?

(quoted from @/astrophilic-soul bc sooo tru) The ability to not procrastinate

Tags:

@peoniibud @m3hwhateverworks @irithnova @lightpinkstuff @erubento @irithnova @stormsfolloweagle and anyone else who sees this etc!

#tag game #thank u for tagging me btw mwah!!!!#shaking hands with u over history.... its so fun #asian history superiority uwuwuwu #do u rec Ponniyin Selvan btw

18 notes · View notes

driftbending · 3 years

Text

i keep writing and rewriting my reaction to vincenzo because there are a lot but also i'm not certain i articulate everything i hated about the ending.

i will say that i knew no matter what that i wouldn't like the ending because murdering a character as punishment for their misdeeds is not something that appeals to me. i grew up watching kirikou et la sorcière, avatar: the last airbender, lilo and stitch, and (more recently) moana. all of these are stories that say "here is an evil character that we'll stop in a way that doesn't involve jail/murder," and the only exception i make for this is light yagami's death in death note and that's because ryuk killed him as a way to end their relationship, not as a punishment for his crimes. (and gothic lit is exempt bc they have to be resolved with murder.) so, whatever happened, regardless of how much violence the babel four did, none of their deaths would have held any emotional satisfaction for me. yet i prepared myself to be unimpressed by the finale since this is what the set up has always been: vincenzo will kill hanseok, and maybe myunghee, seunghyeok, and hanseo.

i knew this from the beginning. the narrative repeated it so often i got annoyed. there were so many close calls with vincenzo pulling a gun on hanseok that that got boring. by the time ep. 20 rolled around i was just fed up and wanted someone to die because this show had already failed me so many other times with their set ups that i wanted at least one good payoff.

lo and behold, they did end up killing the four characters i thought would die. hanseo died, and though he was my favorite character, and though i felt sad he didn't get any funeral scene or help while he was fending off his brother and that his death served as a sacrifice for vincenzo instead of literally anything else, i didn't cry or even get mad about it. he died and i felt free to stop caring about the rest of the story. yay me! i do understand the fans who hated that he was killed and that he should've survived bc abuse victims don't deserve the storyline hanseo got, but this is not a show i expected to actually care about victims. despite what it says, i knew i wouldn't get this for hanseo waaaaay back in ep 8 when they brought up the victims of that gay banker and just used it as a way for us to root against the banker. they didn't treat those victims with any respect at all and so i was already prepared for them to do it all over again. and they did and it sucks, but again for me i couldn’t get as angry as i normally would about this bc i always knew that the deaths from this show would never mean anything to me bc there was just so much of it it became meaningless.

another thing i knew that was going to let me down about this show is that it didn’t have a single “good” character for me to root for. mr. hong existed, but he was murdered early on. every other character on the show is too corrupt to be the ones i would want handling a reconstruction project for a more ethical world. yes, they made hanseo go through a redemption arc, but they didn’t let him stay did they? they focused so much on deconstruction they never cared about reconstruction. so when they got to the ending where vincenzo just leaves, chayoung and the tenants are thrown into a familiar cycle of court cases and defending their plaza from it being redeveloped, vincenzo just goes on to be a mafia boss again, and the guillotine file is back in the hands of the corrupt intelligence agency that created it on the orders of their president. the only thing that changed was babel group was destroyed bc their two ceos were murdered and the lawyers of their legal rep. were also murdered.

and yet, despite my expectations being so low they were basically non-existent, i was still disappointed. they didn't let chayoung do anything (which i knew would happen because i knew something about her characterization never felt fully fledged to me the way it did to fandom, so i wasn't surprised when they delegated her as a damsel-in-distress/love interest.), they killed myunghee the way we used to burn witches (which how fitting for a female character that is cunning and cruel), and the way they killed hanseok literally made me feel faint and nauseous (i wish this was an exaggeration; the second i saw the drill pointed at him i started feeling this way and i couldn't listen/watch his death scene because it was so brutal).

so, the ending satisfied nothing for me. if people who shipped the main characters were satisfied, whatever. i was never interested in them as a ship (i tend to ship vincenzo and chayoung with other characters), so the ending was even more disappointing bc it really held nothing that mattered to me.

i was also not a person that liked the way each character idolized vincenzo because i preferred his relationships with other characters to be filled with more tension* and the narrative just told me that the writers didn't, that vincenzo's word was what mattered, that the other character's conflicting needs were meant to be eclipsed by vincenzo's needs. so when the characters were all looking into the horizon hoping that vincenzo would some day come back (for what, i ask you?) i was just like :|

(*what do i mean by tension? i mean my favorite version of chayoung/vincenzo was the early eps when she hated him for being liked so much by her father that her flaws as a daughter were highlighted more and chayoung's own hesitancy with murder bumping up against vincenzo’s lack of hesitancy. mr. cho/vincenzo were most interesting when mr. cho wanted the guillotine file to use for his own purposes. the tenants/vincenzo were the most interesting when the tenants wanted to take the gold and vincenzo was trying to stop them. even hanseo/vincenzo was the most interesting when they had the "will you kill me? will you betray me?" tension as they worked together to get rid of hanseok. these dynamics added layers to the characters and reminded us they had their own motivations that were as equally important as vincenzo’s, but not enough of these tensions lasted past a few episodes and almost always would vincenzo's needs prevail with most of the other characters going along with his plans in the end.)

and this is all without mentioning how fandom sort of ruined a lot of the show for me, too. they took the characteristics that made the myunghee/hanseok dynamic one of my favorites and gave it to chayoung/vincenzo to the point where i was always left baffled and feeling like i was watching a different show. (a good point about the end for me is that i feel vindicated watching the scene where chayoung was basically like "i don't like your methods, vincenzo, but i needed to use them as the lesser of two evils to destroy hanseok," bc it did sort of reinforce for me my own reading of chayoung which was that she doesn't mind being corrupt and blackmailing people or scaring them into compliance, but that she was not going to get her hands covered in blood or dance over the corpses of her enemy. those traits belong to myunghee who accepts her role as a villain in a way that is as cool and collected as vincenzo. and lord, imagine what a show it would've been if the writers had made the kings chayoung/hanseok, the last ones that should ever be taken, while the queens were vincenzo/myunghee who would be the ones that would make all the moves, kill all their enemies pieces, and try to destroy one another first as the two most powerful players in the game? imagine if fandom had been able to read chayoung and myunghee accurately enough that i wouldn’t have to read post after post talking about how they needed to see myunghee brutally murdered/tortured by chayoung because they would understand chayoung’s character isn’t going to do that, posts which i hated seeing bc, as i said before, violence for violence’s sake means nothing to me? imagine if the writers cared enough about chayoung/myunghee to develop them more fully? sigh.)

i feel like i'm going nowhere with this and that i'm repeating myself a lot or not making much sense. but i'll end with this: i knew the last two episodes were going to be garbage when they all gathered at toto's restaurant post-fight in ep 19 and all they were talking about was vincenzo this and vincenzo that instead of worrying after the ones that were momentarily kidnapped/injured. like thanks show, for instead of pushing the narrative along we get a vincenzo fan club meeting and another round of "i never had anything to fight for until you came along" which is a convo we've had plenty of times before.

(footnote: i edited this on may 6, 2021 for clarity.)

#anyway i'm glad i don't have to worry about the nonsense idea of a season two #and if there is one i won't have to subject myself to it bc they killed not only my favorite character #but also the 3 others that made the show interesting #so anything of value a potential season 2 would have is already nixed #i have been set free from a drama that started out extremely promising but petered out into a series of bad tropes & nonsensical metaphors #and bc there is nothing in the final eps that interests me i don't have to scroll through the tag and subject myself #to scenes of myunghee's or hanseok's deaths which were extremely upsetting to me #now time to think about writing that one chayoung character study fic that has been swirling around in my head for a bit #and those hanseo aus i've been playing around with that make me happy just thinking about #e.e.c. watches vincenzo

6 notes · View notes

giftofshewbread · 4 years

Text

Rebuilding Babylon

By Rob Pue

Published on:May 10, 2020

In Genesis, Chapter 11, we read about the descendants of Noah who were living in the area known as Babylon. After surviving the destruction of the earth and the great flood, perhaps it was just “human nature” that they would become prideful. They considered themselves the “survivors” of something more horrific than the world had ever seen. But… they also forgot GOD. And so, out of pride for their own PERCEIVED human achievements, they began to construct a huge tower… it was said to be about 650 feet high and about a quarter-mile square at the base, when construction ended.

According to my research, the Tower of Babel was abandoned, and the people of Babylon dispersed in about 2247 BC — just a little over 100 years after Noah and his family had left the Ark. It did not take the descendants of Noah very long to multiply and begin again to fill the earth — and once again, they chose to rely on their own understanding and human abilities rather than to seek, honor and follow God.

According to the Biblical account, in Genesis 11:1-9, “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’

“But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The LORD said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’ So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called ‘Babel’ —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”

Why did God confuse the peoples’ language and scatter them over the face of the whole earth? I believe one reason was the peoples’ PRIDE. They sought to build a prideful symbol of how great they had become, and that symbol would be a tower reaching to the heavens so that they could be “like God.” It is said by some that the Tower of Babel was also used as the Temple of Jupiter, and so the people there had not only forgotten the God who mercifully saved them from the flood, but were also now worshiping a false god in His place.

One thing God despises is arrogance and pride in the hearts of human beings. As our Creator and Sustainer, He wants to commune with us, to guide and direct us as a loving Heavenly Father, and He wants us to depend upon HIM for our needs. Not pridefully act upon our own sinful, human natures.

So when God confused the peoples’ language, the Tower became known as the Tower of Babel, since “Babel” means “confusion.” Likewise, the city where they were centered was also called “Babylon,” again, meaning “confusion.”

Romans 1:22, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”

Romans 1 is SO rich with so many things we need to be aware of and HEED today, especially — a powerful reminder of what happens when a people or a nation decide to abandon God and pridefully go their own way. All through the history of the world, such action results in the same end:

Verse 21, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him NOT as God, neither were they thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

And then, also in Romans 1, we read THREE TIMES how God “gave them over.”

In Verse 24, we read that God “gave them over” — “to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.”

In Verse 26, God “gave them over” — “unto vile affections.”

And in Verse 28, God “gave them over” — “to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are morally wrong.”

No doubt, there was much of this sort of depravity taking place in the so-called “civilization” in the city of Babylon. And so God scattered the people from Babel. The Tower itself was later destroyed by Xerxes in about 478 BC, and so the ruins can no longer be found. All their prideful arrogance against God, wiped from the face of the earth.

What were the people of Babylon actually trying to achieve? I believe they imagined in their hearts they were doing a GOOD thing — uniting, for common defense and security, for sharing of wealth and resources, for peace and safety… perhaps trying to create a “Utopian World” of peace and love… but again, they had forgotten God; and NO endeavor of man, without the blessing of God and dependence upon God, will EVER be blessed by God — especially when mankind abandons Him and begins to worship humanity — or worse yet, a false god of their own imaginations. And while Scripture does not speak, in the story of the Tower of Babel, of a “one-world government” or “one-world leader,” this, ultimately, is likely what the people there were endeavoring to institute as well.

Because we ALL have an innate need to revere and worship, we will either worship God or we will worship someone or someTHING else. Undoubtedly, the people of Babylon sought a universal LEADER — a MAN they could set up as King, and revere as a god.

Some things never change. Over the centuries, we have seen MANY attempts to rebuild that proverbial “Tower of Babel” and usher in a One-World Government — led by a special, revered “class” of people (or perhaps even one MAN as “ruler of the world”) whom the people will blindly and willingly submit to and obey.

On the surface, such plans have always sounded like great ideas — as if they were for the ultimate “good” of mankind and society in general. But the constant and recurring fatal flaw in all these attempts has been the ELIMINATION of God from man’s plans. And so the silly ideas of powerful men are quickly revealed to be the wicked devices of our eternal enemy, Satan — and eventually smashed to bits by the Hand of God Almighty.

We are seeing this demonic spirit of “Globalism” resurface again in our time.

Every day now, the push for a “New World Order,” a “One-World Government” seems to be more and more bold and aggressive. That SAME spirit that dwelt in the plans, hearts and minds of the Babylonians has continued to rear its ugly head down through the centuries, often known as Communism and Socialism — the same ideologies we have seen in so many failed nations in the past. And today it is back, and what was once a covert, secret “agenda” is now “out” of the “closet” and being proudly proclaimed as the answer to all that ails us by the so-called “Progressives” on the Left. In fact, not only are they NOT hiding their evil schemes any longer — they are openly advocating for them in our houses of Congress in America and governments throughout the World.

The most recent — and most concerning — attempt at a One-World Government is being orchestrated by the United Nations. We’ve obviously all heard of the UN, but how much do we really know about it? It began as the League of Nations after World War 1, to solve disputes between countries. Obviously, that plan failed when World War II came along, highlighting a “need” for a new organization to promote “global peace and harmony.”

In August 1941, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill held a secret meeting where they discussed the possibility of starting an international peace effort. Out of this came the Atlantic Charter, which paved the way for the creation of the UN. In 1942, representatives from 26 Allied nations met in Washington DC to sign the Declaration of the United Nations. And on October 24, 1945, the official United Nations Charter was ratified by 51 member nations. Today there are 193 members, representing countries from all over the world. That new ‘Tower of Babel’ now exists in the form of the UN, but once again, the God of Creation has been excluded. And the “new Babylon” has been located in New York City since 1952.

It’s interesting to note that while the UN professes to ensure the safety, security and equality of ALL nations and peoples, it clearly is a government and authority unto itself, where SOME are more “equal” than others. For example, with 193 nations now represented, and the headquarters in New York City, one might be surprised to learn that delegates to the UN have what is known as “diplomatic immunity” when on American soil. This means that delegates and ambassadors — and their staff and family members — can commit ANY crime — from jaywalking to murder — and still be immune from prosecution in American courts. They cannot be arrested nor can they be forced to testify in court.

Additionally, while 193 countries are members of the UN, the United States pays more than 25% of the total cost of running and maintaining the UN — at taxpayer expense.

And it’s clear — from the UN Agenda 21 to the latest UN Agenda 2030 – that the United Nations has as its main goal a New-World, One-World government. While it has no military of its own, member states deploy military personnel to foreign countries at the direction of the UN, meaning that FOREIGN SOLDIERS often patrol the streets and cities of other countries.

Case in point: Haiti, where UN soldiers from Jordan were deployed after the hurricane in Haiti in 2010. Rather than help rebuild the country or maintain peace, this UN deployment became a foreign invasion and occupation. Virtually NO humanitarian aid was provided by the UN, and the country remains in rubble even today – 9 years later. Not only did UN “peacekeeping” soldiers NOT help the people — when the people peacefully protested AGAINST the occupying foreign armies, UN soldiers opened fire on them with deadly force. Similar tyranny takes place WHEREVER the United Nations’ forces are stationed.

Clearly, the UN’s goal is world domination. Agenda 21 — nearly 27 years old now, was designed for the United Nations to control all land, water, minerals, plants, animals, construction, means of production, energy resources, … as well as all education and information people receive worldwide. It should be noted that EVERY US president since George H. Bush has been in favor of Agenda 21 — and has worked toward its full implementation in America and worldwide — since its inception… UNTIL President Trump voiced his opposition to it in 2017.

Indeed, Agenda 21 has been very successful in moving toward that new “Tower of Babel,” but now they’ve stepped it up even further with a new program known as “Agenda 2030,” which openly calls for a One-World government by that time. Agenda 2030 has 17 goals. Time does not permit to discuss all of them here today, but let me mention just a few, and translate what they mean to you and me.

Goal #1: “End poverty in all its forms everywhere.” This means centralized banking systems, cashless “currency,” control of all finances; the ability of you and I to buy and sell.

Goal # 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” This means mass vaccinations, whether you want them or not, government-controlled “health care,” and “death panels,” forced sterilization and forced abortions worldwide.

Goal #4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” This means we will all be indoctrinated with UN propaganda from cradle to grave… control, not only of our public school systems, but also our social media, entertainment and news outlets.

Goal #5: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.” Here we have forced acceptance and celebration of sodomy, pedophilia, “transgenderism,” and all manner of sexual perversion. By the way, in case you didn’t catch it, “empowering all women and girls” is Liberal “code” for “free abortion on demand.”

Other goals of Agenda 2030 include UN control of all water sources, control of food production, control of all private land, new UN taxes being imposed on sovereign citizens, UN control of the economy and private manufacturing and innovation, UN control of public transit, including determining who — and where — sovereign citizens may and may not be allowed to travel. Not to mention “big brother” surveillance — not just in public places but even through monitoring of our own homes, cell phones and computers. There is no such thing as “private communications” anymore. And, of course, stationing UN soldiers from foreign countries to patrol — and CONTROL — the movements and activities of free citizens here in America and around the world. It goes without saying, none of this can be accomplished here in America without forced gun confiscation.

The UN fully intends to implement these — and likely even more drastic measures to ensure a fully operational One-World, New-World Order within the next ten years. But like the Tower of Babel, this nefarious plan of Satan, too, will eventually be crushed by the Hand of God Almighty. The question is, will we, as Christians, continue to remain oblivious to these goals and plans of the enemy? Or will we educate ourselves and others and be a restraining force against the evil that threatens to engulf us — and our children and grandchildren?

2nd Corinthians 2 cautions us to not be ignorant of the schemes of the devil… and we also need to take to heart 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

So learn to discern. Study God’s Word and learn from those who went before us. Do not fall for the devil’s schemes, no matter how innocent and lovely they may be presented to you. And most of all, keep ONE thing paramount, no matter WHAT the future may hold: WORSHIP ONLY THE ONE TRUE GOD OF HEAVEN, JESUS CHRIST HIS ONLY SON, AND OUR COMFORTER AND WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, THE HOLY SPIRIT. Those who stand firm to the end shall be saved.

Maranatha Jesus !

#Covid #Corona #Chinese #Virus #Agenda #Biowarfare #deep #state #1 #world #government #UN #21 #2030 #mark #of #the #beast #vaccine #bill #gates #satan's #puppet #many #more #NWO

2 notes · View notes

dillydedalus · 5 years

Text

what i read in june

another very slow reading month bc uni work + migraines = not a lot of reading, also two of my profs thought assigning 500-page books (in the same week) was like, a cool thing to do

bilqiss, saphia azzedine (tr. from french by birgit leib (german)) beautiful, headstrong & intelligent widow (by her own making) bilqiss sings the adhan instead of the muezzin & is put on trial for that & her numerous other sins (like buying a very phallic aubergine). she’s to be stoned, but she’s so smart and eloquent that the judge falls in love with her and keeps delaying. bilqiss herself is incredible but i kinda wish the other two perspectives had been omitted (the judge) or made much shorter (leandra, the white saviour american journalist). also not too convinced by the ending. 3/5

the artificial silk girl, irmgard keun lovely sharp & funny book about a doris, a darling hot mess of a girl, who, in a moment of despair, steals a fur coat from the theatre wardrobe and runs off to berlin (as you do). but weimar berlin, fun and shining as it may be, is not the healthiest place to be for a pretty young girl with no money. doris is sharp and naive and vain and shallow and soft, and i adore her so very much. also the voice in this is so vibrant and specific that i’m really curious as to how it’s been translated. 4/5

dawn: stories, selahattin demirtaş (tr. from turkish by amy mary spangler & kate ferguson) demirtaş is primarily a politician but is currently in prison, facing up a sentence of up to 142 years for... being in the opposition & kurdish. anyway, this is a collection of short (mostly very short) stories that he wrote behind bars, mainly about social issues in turkey, sexism, police brutality, unjust prison sentences, corruption etc. they are more significant for their political content than literary brilliance & some are a bit on the nose, but definitely interesting & often emotionally affective. the title story and ‘nazan the cleaning lady’ were my favourites. 3/5

babel, kenah cusanit really interesting novel about the german excavation of babylon in the early 20th century, just before the first world war, focusing on the thoughts & reflections of real historical excavation leader robert koldewey about babylon, history, architecture, philology, and middle eastern/european relations&politics. it’s very stream-of-consciousness-y and quite dense & hard to follow at times, and predictably i liked it best when it was actually about the third babylon (berlin in case you’re not up on berlin’s tendency for ridiculous self-mythologising) - there’s a lovely bit where koldewey remembers returning to berlin after years away on digs and finding it completely changed, “looking for the most part as if it had been built last week”, “a city that wasn’t a city but something that had, from one day to the next, grown over its borders into a book by theodor fontane [...] as if this place wanted nothing more than to escape from itself” while in the present he looks on babylon which is also a city & not a city, but a sheet that has been written on so often that it is unreadable, and that is the sort of content i’m here for. I was also kind of surprised that the book doesn’t take much of a stance on the subject of colonial theft of art and relics which is like....what koldewey is doing, but then again i left it really wanting to go to the pergamon museum which is still mostly closed to the public :( 3.5/5

hyperbole and a half, allie brosh (graphic-memoir-ish) if you weren’t religiously reading hyperbole & a half in the late 00s/early 10s, were you ever even a weird mentally ill teenager? i knew most of these stories already but god, allie brosh really gets it and by it i mean depression and how the nothing you feel gets even void-ier every time someone suggests you try yoga or like ~*positivity*~. also it’s very very funny. 4/5

voss, patrick white (uni) in his introduction to this book about a 19th century exploration into the australian bush, robert macfarlane quotes a review of voss by poet a.d. hope who calls its style “pretentious and illiterate sludge”. macfarlane says this sludginess is a good thing (it’s not) but it’s certainly a good description - utterly excessively verbose and not in a fun, exhilarating way but oozily. sludgily. like wading through a mess of words that aren’t quite were they’re supposed to be and anyway there’s too many of them. there’s some interesting stuff here about exploration, systems of knowledge, spirituality and a love affair almost entirely conducted in letters that never arrive and hallucinations, but there’s just too much sludge (and too many descriptions of female characters’ breasts). 2/5

der junge und das meer, cinghiz aitmatov (tr. from russian) lovely little novella about a young boy from an indigenous east-russian fishing community being taken on his first trip to sea with the men of his family, where they get caught up in a storm. it’s a quick read & very sad. 3/5

macbeth, jo nesbo (uni) - dnf another really bad hogarth shakespeare entry. i appreciate hogarth going Full Genre, but mystery is one of my least fav of the genres, i don’t really like scandinoir and.... macbeth is a scottish swat agent (does scotland even have swat???) whose special skill is throwing KNIVES (you have.... a gun....). also like ‘kill the king to be the king’ kinda makes sense, ‘kill the police commissioner to be the police commissioner’..... less so. 2edgy4me/5

anyway let’s hope july is better.

#the books i read

4 notes · View notes

bollywood-and-phoenix-feather · 6 years

Text

incomplete list of gay st episodes

happy pride here’s my contribution

season 1:

city on the edge of forever

domestic!au

spock’s Poorly Concealed Jealousy

the actual physical woman jim is supposed to be boning (to spock, on where they belong): “you? at his side, as if you’ve always been there and always will”

p l e a s e

the naked time

I'm choking just thinking about this ok

spock, inhibitions lost, fucking tackling jim about his feelings

h a n d h o l d i n g

canon dialogue: “when I feel friendship for you, I am ashamed”

shore leave

“push...push hard....d i g it I N T H E R E, MISTER SPO --

thankyouyeomanthat’ssufficient”

truly legendary

flirting in life-threatening situations(TM)

the planet gives them whatever they desire most & spock’s travel time is suspiciously fast

the devil in the dark

oh my god

standard Battle Power Couple bullshit

orders? don’t know her. we disobey orders to save each other like MEN

dramatic cave-ins

spock melds with an alien & jim is very close to losing his shit

as usual

operation: annihilate

okay listen basically any episode where spock gets sick/injured is fuckng...Too Much

McCoy: uh jim.......do you not mayhaps have a ship to run??

jim: do I look like i FUCKING care. my bf’s hurt just Do Something

errand of mercy

this episode is so fucking slow

do you know why?

because they can’t. stop flirting.

please y’all are trying to sneak into a compound can you tone it down and FOCUS for two (2) seconds

this side of paradise

this isn’t even that gay it’s just included on principle

did u kno star trek invented sex pollen?

yup.

spock hangs upside-down from a tree just watch it

season 2:

we getting real gay real fast kids

amok time

this is it. this is The Episode. this is the hallowed ground where it all began

seriously watch this Very First about 800000000 fanfic things will make sense

jim & spock Not Looking at each other and discussing Vulcan mating habits

spock about to challenge all Vulcan traditions bringing jim (and bonus bones) down to Vulcan

spock! smiling!

SPOCK! SMILING! AT! JIM!

spock, in full Vulcan mating throes, wrestling jim to the ground

later “huh my mating drive is gone now. fascinating”

spock, logically: ‘I can’t talk about this based on thousands of years of Vulcan privacy”

spock, gayly: “yeah ok jim i’ll tell u”

I can’t even list everything this ep is such bullshit just watch it

mirror mirror

‘if I read my Spocks correctly”

spock w a beard, jim w a cutoff tank. true gay fashion icons

sparkly eyeshadow

spock being ordered to kill jim for his own gain and Not Doing It

u just Kno that jim has to keep reminding himself not to flirt w mirror!spock

bread and circuses

this made me and @phoenixexploded SCREAM in my kitchen

flavius and his cutoff shorts? a Gay McFreakin Icon

u kno that post that’s like ‘gay people don’t know how to use chairs’ yeah

this ep is more mcspock than anything

flirting snark in inopportune situations, including but not limited to: during a fight for their lives, in a prison cell, in a prison cell AGAIN

spock saves bones’ life

bones: “why, you wouldn’t know what to do with a genuine, human emotion --” “really, doctor?” “yeah, i’m worried about jim too”

not mentioned above: the FUCKING sex eyebrows. bones keeps flicking his eyes to spock’s lips.

the sexual tension is eNormous. save them

the ultimate computer

when your bf gets jealous of a computer

bones: spock sure loves that computer

jim: yeah I Hate It. No Reason Why Just a Bad Feeling

Actual Canon Dialogue: “Computers make excellent and efficient servants, but I have no wish to serve under them. Captain, the starship also runs on loyalty to one man, and nothing can replace it, or him.”

friday’s child

jim & bones have a fight & when jim apologizes spock basically tells him off Vulcan-style

uh bones adopts a baby it’s fine

bones is holding hands w this warrior lady and when spock walks by he YANKS his hand out of hers like a guilty kid

spock makes an Angst Face and walks away

there is no context for any of this

bones: “you put one hand here to support its head -- “ spock: “I would rather - I would rather not”

the baby gets named “leonard james” and they’re like spock what a great name right? what do you think?

spock: I think the two of you will be insufferable for a week, captain

journey to babel

fucking. iconique

Worst Meet The Parents Ever

Amanda & Jim bond over being in love with Vulcans

Spock & Sarek bond over their illogical humans

jim pretends he’s not Literally Dying of a stab wound so spock can save his dad

the apple

can you maybe Stop Flirting before you’re all dead

handholding bc why not

spock Yeets Himself in front of a poison dart (for jim ofc) and then tries to say it was the logical course of action

bones calls spock the devil pt 1

a piece of the action

“spocko”

spock says jim’s driving alarms him

this episode is terrible. please watch it

the changeling

spock melds with a computer & gets hurt and jim LOSES IT

no platonic touches we cling to each other’s arms instead

catspaw

this ep is complete batshit

bones calls spock the devil pt 2

kinky dungeon adventures

the deadly years

this shit is ANGSTY

they all start aging really fast ig

jim: ‘i’m not pretty anymore’ spock: I love u anyway captain

spock displaces jim for his own good and jim’s like ‘how could u of all people betray me like this. I thought u LOVED me’

season 3:

and the children shall lead

turbolift makeouts

”my Vulcan friend”

can your bf bring you out of a full-blown, alien-induced panic attack by saying your name one (1) time? no? didn’t think so

need me a freak like THAT

this also made us start shrieking in the kitchen btw. my mom thought we were dying

the tholian web

this is The Angstiest Episode of TOS

they think jim’s dead & can’t stop arguing and it’s Sad

jim leaves them (just Spock and Bones btw) a message to listen to after his death & it’s like ‘trust each other. be strong. love, ur bf’

when they find him he’s like ‘what happened? how’d u get along without me? what did u think of my message”

& they’re like ‘haha what message. nah it was fine.’

jim: yeah sure I call bullshit

whom gods destroy

this megalomaniac captain gets a crush on jim & spock is Not Having It

at various points the bad guy impersonates both of them. both jim and spock can tell that it’s him.

like listen. as a viewer I have the benefit of dramatic timing and background music and I couldn’t even tell

in conclusion, it’s gay, lads. thanks for coming to my tedx talk.

i’ll be back soon with additions esp to season 3. u can’t stop me.

#st #st:tos #star trek #spirk #mcspirk #long post #alyssa

1K notes · View notes

rqs902 · 4 years

Text

yang chaowen’s drawing with himself as the prickly center in a circle of flowers is so deep .-.

randomly gonna add my ep 3 thoughts here lol

adding on but chaowen’s primary criteria that his group mates should not be selfish is realllyyy interesting again “I don’t like selfish people”

similarly, lin mo’s criteria that group mates should be able to get along, rather than all be talented sounds like something he has learned from personal experience /cough

istg if jin fan literally just gets 1 stage and its a cutesy stage YET AGAIN im srsly gonna flip a table....

LOL I love kou cong being the super energetic and leaderly one bringing them together and giving them energy and acting all old even though he’s 1999......

lol rip they used all the practice room footage time to showcase zlj’s group instead of hong weihao’s.... YAYYY FOR SHAOPENG’S RAPPPP YAYYY i was so scared there wasnt gonna be any in this song

omggggg lin ran starting the song is so perfect, hes so sassy and cute but cool at the same time ooooof he is really good at facial expressions and this song suits him well

Ooooo the fact that kou cong was willing to say he 認可 linjie as a leader says a lot I think, considering how much he had wanted to be a leader originally.

wow im so surprised that zuo linjie’s group lost tho!!!!!!!! is this some sort of youku play to get linjie some pity points or make his fans dislike the kids on weihao’s team out of spite or something lol jk but actually I guess I respect that the show is not making it an straight-up easy run for the kid

its so meaningful that lin ran and kou cong are the ones huddled closest to linjie while he crying after their performance because the two of them have really been there and really understand his heartbreak and how devastating it feels to work so hard and still lose... oof but im most sad that huang enyu didnt really get much time to shine despite being hyped as a vocal and since hes not got popularity to fall back on, this could be real bad for him :(

aw im glad they talked about lin mo’s strong leadership abilities during the babel practice and how much they respect and like him and are learning from him.... SO WHICH OF YOU COMPLAINED ABOUT LIN MO’S PART DISTRIBUTION THEN!??!!? hmmmMMmMMMMMM why do i have a sneaking suspicion it was su xunlun HAHAHAH

OOF CHEN JUNHAO SINGING TO CHEN XINHAI AWWWW SO SUPPORTIVE LEADER such words of encouragement so touching ahhh i would’ve cried if i were xinhai ahhh and the way he asks for a harder dance so that the dancers can show off their skills more and the way he asks to give his parts to some of his members so they can have more time to shine... and then the way he immediately goes to li chenxu after the stage ends and tells the camera people to leave him alone because he knows how hurt his teammate is feeling :(

omg li xikan has really improved so so much. im so so proud and happy for him, he really has improved so much in his dancing (!!!!) and even singing and stage presence overall. on ipd he gave me such a little brother vibe and he was kinda clueless, one of the ones who needed teaching, and now hes the one leading others, having confidence that his group will succeed, and having the confidence to teach and encourage others. it’s craazyyy these last 2 years have really changed him. he seems so much more mature and self assured and capable, im so so happy he’s getting recognition and love still. THEIR STAGE WAS AMAZING. the older brothers really taught the two young kids (and ybz lol) well! and mannnnn zhan yu get that recognition for your high note!!!! yay for kou cong and akey cheering zhan yu on from backstage I love friendship c: and yay for zhan yu and xikan being in the same frame omg i wish they showed more of zhan yu’s silly side because I feel like he and xikan would get along REALLY well being silly together hahahha and lin mo calling xikan “我家侃侃” hahhahaha so cuute!! im happy to see tyger & xikan friendship

oof see the wheels turning in shengen’s head when he realizes his team is going against xikan. id be calculating the odds of winning if i were him lol.... shengen’s the only one who realllyy knows how rough its gonna be for them. taking into consideration the skill levels of their members and his members and their levels of popularity and levels of difficulty

i appreciate that xzx acknowledges that their group works hard, but since the other group is very skilled and theyre staying up all night practicing, they have no choice but to also stay up all night to practice. it’s a very realistic pov, like he knows he needs to work at least as hard as the others, if not more. rip li zaixi this is not gonna be a good look for you lol but yay for mu xingyuan getting more recognition! i think he deserves it because he didnt really get much on afo either....

cheng xiao speaking only truths when she said xu shengen held up this whole stage lol

wow thats so wild lzx brought his team down by 10 points and xikan brought his up by almost as much... but that makes sense xikan would get the most votes and shengen would for lzx’s group lol but its really so wild to see xikan being regarded as like this amazing performer and working so hard and bringing his group together because that really says so much about how much he’s grown and improved since ipd.

the whole issue with gjm not letting akey and jin fan dance to the theme song too.... I feel like part of the problem is also because akey and jin fan didn’t ask for it. I wasn’t there so I wouldn’t know but maybe they could’ve spoken up but didn’t. but I think their personalities are both more passive like lin mo’s and zhan yu too. i feel like that might be a problem for why mr tyger is where it is still today. theyre not very good at advocating for themselves and speaking up confidently even though they have the skills. it’s disappointing for them that their talent cant speak for itself and I’m sad that they have to be more vocal in order to stand out, but it kind of seems like they’ll need to change this in order to get farther. it’s so sad and awkward to see them standing off to the side watching guo zheng, zuo ye and hu wenxuan... because lets be real they have just as much ability to dance the theme song just as well. maybe they were all shaken at the time, but even zuo ye as the leader could’ve said something like all of them can do this lets do it together.

ayyy look at xue en getting recognition in the votes!!! the blue hair somehow works on him hahhaha but also junhao said xue en helped lead their dance practices ayyy that cto experience hahaha

awwwww xikan’s speech says a lot. he really had the lazy sleepy image during ipd but he mustve really felt the responsibility to change so much. and he felt the need to apologize for his shortcomings despite his team doing so well. im hoping xikan remains humble

welp all in all except for what happened to uuu im actually pretty happy with this first stage! at least they were able to fit everyone into 1 ep, since there’s less contestants. I feel like that’s always bothered me on other shows, bc whoever happened to get aired in the week prior always gets an advantage in voting bc people have already seen their stage for a whole week longer than those who dont get to perform until the week following. the song arrangements weren’t spectacular (except I really liked xikan’s group’s!!!) but at least they were better than afo.... lol......... and i think the smaller number of contestants really makes it easier to recognize everyone so im feeling relatively comfortable that I am familiar with most of the kids already and it’s only the first stage. I’m just reallllyyy hoping they don’t eliminate way too many people too fast at every round, because I really hope the kids im looking out for can get at least one more stage..... esp jin fan and akey omg if jin fan only gets 1 stage and its a dumb cutesy stage (YET AGAIN) im gonna be SO MAD.

im not gonna even get into them evil editing zhan yu at the end... anyone who knows anything or cares about zhan yu at all will know that that isnt his voice so...... im just appalled that youku would be so low as to try to make him look bad like that. they barely give him any screen time already. im encouraged by comments I read that support zhan yu tho, it makes me feel hopeful that people acknowledge his talent!

#rants #i respect how chaowen calls himself a very imperfect person

0 notes

thepermanentrainpress · 7 years

Text

TRACK BY TRACK FEATURE: SAM TUDOR - “QUOTIDIAN DREAM”

Nearly three years following the release of his last record, Sam Tudor is back with Quotidian Dream.

Tudor was born and raised in Williams Lake, BC; his move to Vancouver in the latter teen years greatly influenced the sounds and synergy behind 2014′s The Modern New Year—contemporary campfire melodies with flickers of trumpet, banjo, and keys. On Quotidian Dream, Tudor struggles less with growing into a new city and more with the immediate space around him.

Experimental folk is layered with elements of new wave (“Quotidian Boy”) to jazz (“Chlorine”). Tudor’s vocals bring a soft-spoken intensity to “Truthful,” with the thumping backbeat and whirring of strings coming to a beautiful, unsettling head at its close. “Joseph in the Bathroom” is a remorseful take on his high school days, while “Holiday” presents a warm, folk rock hook. A little grit and power would carry the tune into Mumford & Sons’ Babel territory—but it is his tender nature and jaded lyricism (“Oh it’s the cost of a frozen place, paying for the colour when it’s all gone grey”) which make the closet anthem. Tudor often sings of disconnect with his surroundings—a vacancy marred by routine and expectation and TV screens. But his compositions reflect the opposite; a discerning self-awareness held by the notion that, even as the flames run out of him, he is able to find them again.

Tudor was kind enough to write us a track-by-track on the release, which you can delve into below.

Words below by Sam Tudor:

1. “New Apartment”

I’ve heard people talk about their apartments as safe sanctuaries and I’ve also heard people talk about them as lonely, even threatening spaces. In my experience, a Vancouver apartment can be both of those things simultaneously. When I first moved to Vancouver I would go home with a combination of urgency and anxiety. It’s a bit cliché, but in the last couple of years I’ve been noticing physical space a lot. Most of the photography and paintings that I like these days document empty spaces – human creations that seem alien. Anyway, that’s what I was thinking about for this song. I think when I wrote it I had a specific moment in my head, that moment when you first move in somewhere and you are alone, and you haven’t unpacked your things yet.

Quotidian Dream by Sam Tudor

2. “Quotidian Boy”

Writing and performing songs is cool, but it’s also a pretty weird thing. There’s a lot that I find funny about it. I used to write a lot of incredibly broad metaphors that could mean anything and I look back on that and find it funny. The construction of the ‘suffering artist’ image is pretty funny too and I am definitely guilty of it. My good friend Brodie told me that it’s important to always ‘balance the sacred and profane’ in your life. I’m trying to embrace that as much as I can these days, and I think this song says some things that are important to me while laughing at it all as well. The chorus “I’ve got unlimited strikes but I don’t want to play” sums up how I often feel – lots of opportunity, still feeling the urge to bail.

Quotidian Dream by Sam Tudor

3. “Truthful”

At some point in the last couple years I became very frustrated with myself. I was in university, and it seemed like I had become more articulate then ever, but wasn’t sure if I was actually saying or understanding anything important. You can congratulate yourself for being complicated and having lots of layers and nuance, but sometimes all that starts to feel like a weight you don’t need. I tend to overthink things a lot, and I often get stuck in these feedback loops. I got in a pretty bad one at that time, sort of like a ferris wheel you can’t get off. This song is a grasp towards something outside that loop. The chorus originally had much more words but I thought that would miss the point, so I just made it the simplest thing ever. I spend a lot of time on lyrics but this time the vibe was way more important than the words. I wanted to just cut through the bullshit and feel real and that was mostly it.

youtube

4. “Brain Stealers”

I think this song is mostly just about feeling creatively empty. When I felt as though I couldn’t write any good songs, I wrote this song instead as a sort of ‘exasperated throwing up of the hands’ type thing. It’s funny that it ended up on the album. It features the return of my trusty organ auto-drum: an old, no-name brand organ with a beat setting that I’ve come to really love. It can’t keep tempo anymore and it currently sits in my childhood home at Gavin Lake Camp. My parents keep trying to throw it away, and every time I visit home I fear it will have disappeared forever. Hang in there, organ. A little longer.

Quotidian Dream by Sam Tudor

5. “Joseph In The Bathroom”

This song is the one that is most important to me. My hometown and my experience growing up there take up a significant amount of space in my mind. Strange as it is to admit, I was ‘popular’ in highschool in the sense that I had friends and managed to navigate all the high-school cliques (I think being friends with everyone can sometimes mean you are friends with no-one, but that’s a different write-up). I was a survivalist though; and I avoided those people I might otherwise have been friends with if they weren’t generally deemed unpopular. I regret that I acted that way and I regret that highschool channels people in ways like that. Weirdly, the older I get the more I remember and think about those kids in the corners – the ones who weren’t as lucky as me and weren’t able to navigate highschool in such a way. I still feel guilty and angry about it all today. I think the song is about more than just that, but in a sense it’s an apology song.

Quotidian Dream by Sam Tudor

6. “Blue Flower”

This is an unlucky song! This song is cursed! I know a girl who was listening to this song and when the line “as the camper van floats off the road” was sung she literally drove off the road and crashed her car! This is a true story! She’s fine, but I have since become very wary of this song. Drive safely, everyone.

Quotidian Dream by Sam Tudor

7. “Chlorine”

Do you know that feeling you get when you stay up really late on social media and your eyes start to feel weird and you are tired but also the computer screen has inhibited all your melatonin so you have insomnia and are also a bit stressed and it’s an uncomfortable dream-like state? For me, that’s part of what Quotidian Dream is. I kind of wanted the album to sound like what that felt like. I think this might be the song that taps into the feeling the best. A big part of this song’s tone is created by the use of the trusty fish guitar. Shaped like a fish, and not a very good guitar, but it has a unique, slightly out of tune tone that I love. So I played that a lot in this song, and we had saxophones and strings and recorded it late at night.

Quotidian Dream by Sam Tudor

8. “Clinical Names”

We made so many different versions of this song. I’m not really sure why this is the one that ended up on the record. It could genuinely have been an accident.

Quotidian Dream by Sam Tudor

9. “Holiday”

I like pop music and big anthemic choruses, but I also tend to write about sad things. So I always end up with weird songs like this one. My brother Harry played the drumbeat first and we wrote the song around it.

Quotidian Dream by Sam Tudor

10. “Silver Lining Skies”

I realize after listening to this record as one entity that a lot of it references being in my room, or being in a room, or being in a house, or something like that. This makes sense, considering how much time I do spend in my room. Most of the album was recorded entirely in my room. At the end of this particular song there is an audio file of me walking up the stairs and opening the door to my room. Or… am I exiting my room? Is this me going out in the world happily or retreating further into my own head? Who knows!? Wow, I am such an artist. I am so deep. Holy fuck. Ho-ly Smokes. In all seriousness, I just thought it was an important way to end the album considering how much I’ve been thinking about insides and outsides.

Quotidian Dream by Sam Tudor

If you’re still here, thanks for reading this! I hope you enjoy the album.

_______________________________________________________

Much thanks to Sam for giving us further insight into his new album! Quotidian Dream is available for purchase on Bandcamp. He will be playing a free set as part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival on Saturday, Sept. 16 at the Big Rock Brewery Fringe Bar (1531 Johnston St), alongside Rae Spoon. For more on Sam Tudor:

FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE

Posted by: Natalie Hoy

#Sam Tudor #Quotidian Dream #Quotidian Boy #music #track by track #Vancouver #Vancouver music #Track-By-Track #feature #experimental folk #Big Lake #Williams Lake #new music #samtudor #Silver Lining Skies #yvr #The Permanent Rain Press

0 notes