#personal space is a myth | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ow1et · 1 month

Text

thinking about how barn owls are also known as ghost owls. thinking about how athene has a tendency to linger, to haunt. ( is it even possible for something that is not yet dead to have that ghostlike quality? ) she haunts herself, she haunts the court, she haunts strigitect, she haunts her parents' manor, she haunts the rocky coast where her family supposedly met their ends, she haunts anyone unfortunate enough to catch her attention and keep it.

even with her socialite persona she stays at the edges of rooms, flits in and out of view, vanishes in the middle of conversations because they bore her. the tabloids question later if she had ever even been there at all. somehow she dodged every interview, every photograph, every social media post.

owlet is even more of a wisp on the wind, a single blurry photograph of a white mask peeking over the edge of a building that is posted on a forum ( half the comment thread identifies it as a poltergeist and the other half claim it's just an owl ). she lingers in the corner when court members conduct business with outsiders, half shadows and half spectre. the court doesn't introduce her and the others decide that she must be inhuman, either a talon or something worse ( people don't breath that quietly or meld with the darkness like that ). she slips through pursuers' fingers like cold fog, incorporeal and nigh invisible.

she is athene van cortlandt in name only. the girl they rescued from the bay was blank-eyed and pale and nothing like the pigtailed troublemaker that tormented her parents' galas ( they call her a ghost because it's what she looks like ). she doesn't recognize her reflection in the mirror. she swears there's something blurred about it, some overly saturated watercolor quality. she scratches her face out of photographs and the painting above the fireplace because the sight makes her nauseous. can water be a grave? can an unwilling baptism be a form of death?

#this is such a DUMP of just information that somewhat connects.... i think #i hate it because like Obviously she can't be just sneaking around in the bg of threads #she has to be front and center for interactions to exist #so i feel like this is something i don't convey as effectively as i want to #because genuinely if you are not her target or in her way or someone she finds entertaining/interesting #then she won't give you the time of day unless she's forced to #she'll do a funky little head tilt and be a little unnerving and not respect personal space and then poof #owlet is a myth. she's a cryptid. most of the city doesn't know she exists.#ughhhh athene is just so ghost coded i love her

11 notes · View notes

rockybloo · 1 year

Text

Sweetheart and Bitterbat are the definition of "Don't let him hang all over you like that""Naw, leave him alone I like when he hangs on me"

They both are touch starved and like to cling together. They feel very off if they are in the same location together and aren't close enough to touch each other.

They have very little boundaries for the other.

Too little, many might say.

#glitter and guilt #rocky rambles #licorice #sweetheart #bitterbat #this is why I call them my unhinged ship #personal space between them is a myth #people will describe it as unhealthy but they are fictional and like the illness

23 notes · View notes

godshaper · 9 months

Text

Tag Game: Last Line

Rules: Make a new post and post your latest/most recent line from your WIP and tag as many people as there are words (or don’t. I’m not your mom)

tagged by @milkteamoon ty ty <3

He was looking remarkably alive and whole for a man that had recently had his bones shredded to shrapnel.

(i don't use tumblr much, so i'm not tagging anyone but if anyone wants to do this and say i tagged them go for it 👍)

#op #this isnt even a tma wip for once #edit: so its for SAYER. a space horror podcast about AI running humanity's future (winkwink)#this is an excerpt from a personal AU of mine #where OCEAN wins its war and takes resident hale as a prize #and gets very frustrated at him when hale refuses to eat #and then proceeds to retale the myth of hades and persephone to him.............#while likening itself to hades and hale to persephone (homoerotic tension)

7 notes · View notes

butchratchettruther · 1 year

Text

Pygmalion and Galatea rewrite where it’s an exploration of aromanticism and the sentience of a non-human artificial being

#ancient greece #greek myth #pygmalion #galatea #aromantism #I don't know quite how to word it but basically Pygmalion loves Galatea the statue because she can never love him back #if that makes sense?#and like. falls out of love with her when she turns human because she's a real person who loves him back and he doesn't want that #he wants a safe space to experience romantic emotion without actually having to be in a relationship #or it's compallo and he never truly loved statue Galatea but just said he did because that way he didn't actually have to be in a #relationship if that makes sense #and on Galatea's side she's a person who was brought to life solely to be someone's partner and it's an exploration of her sentience #like typical sentient robot ethics etc. you get me

7 notes · View notes

pallases · 10 months

Text

okay well i don’t know what to do w myself now

#personal #the physics chronicles #made it out alive w an 86 when i thought i’d end w an 82 at best so. YIPPEE #my prof is refusing to tell me if he allows makeup/online/early exams tho he’s just saying he strongly does not recommend me taking it when #im going to miss two weeks which. I GET THAT but i honestly do way better studying on my own than having to listen hours on end to a prof #drone on so i feel like if anything the two week absence would be in my favor. but i obviously can’t tell him that LMAO plus i now #understand how he formats exams like i really think i could pull this off at the MINIMUM #<- accidentally cut off early anyway at the MINIMUM i am confident i would be able to pass w a c as long as i wouldn’t get a fat zero on one #of the exams. i just need to know if he allows the makeup/online/early exam and if the answer is no fine i’ll be on my merry way just tell #me 😭#this is abt physics 2 btw i see now that i did not say that anywhere. seriously tho this is just endless space stretched out in front of me #like i know i should give myself a chance to relax but i don’t have anything to do.. there’s my myth class and ig i could focus my #efforts on the american lit clep? but myth class is LAUGHABLY easy (not bc its humanities but bc im fairly sure i could say literally #anything and this prof would give me 100% and a ‘good example’ comment im honestly p pissed abt it but anyway) and ends soon anyway like #what after that… there’s my job that’s literally it and ALSO if i don’t have a class making me get up at 6 am i’ll be sleeping in forever #until work comes around this is no life to live!!!

3 notes · View notes

theskyexists · 2 years

Text

That Dune story is truly fascinating for its gender roles i.e. how there are always powerful women (inherently so, as space fantasy does) who are never in power for no reason (that is to say, their relative powerlessness is a matter of course, both institutional and completely natural - there is no justification because in the author’s mind, none is necessary) and for its insistence upon genocide of billions and tyranny as ‘necessary’ but then never delivering a convincing argument for that necessity.

It’s a story about defeating an empire - and then usurping it and being an even worse emperor by about a million. Which is hilarious. But also I suppose, unintentionally an accurate portrayal of aristocrats.

#he beat the emperor! and then made his army of soldiers kill and colonise countless planets billions died #yeah....#(why the fuck did Jessica not put a stop to that lol)#he became emperor! (and oh nooo became a worm - how sad for him)#and then became a tyrant for 3000 years #but it's ok bc he can see the future and everything #lol #it's a study in how fantasy (space fantasy) is just all about repeating the myths of kings #kings good! they know best in the end! they're like gods! they're superior beings! no matter how many people they kill!#anyway #dune #my stuff #personal #also idk why they had so many shots of zendaya in the movie bc in the books her character turns out to be completely irrelevant #and then paul doesn't even value her enough to return her to life!!! even though he fucks off into the desert anyway #when we say women were seen as objects #it can be seen so subtly in things #it WAS subtle #it IS subtle #there is an optimum of humanity in our heads and it does not look like Chani or Leto the second's sister #they are THERE they are SIGNIFICANT but they are not IMPORTANT #enough. they are killed in childbirth because always of course they are #no woman is suitable for the throne....#even in the far 3000 year future there is no escaping gender or its roles - which are not roles to the author - they are inescapable because #there is simply an indelible quality of inherent difference - and you can see throughout the stories how important to the mythology this is!#the bene gesserit - the man who by virtue of being male can bring their powers to full expression - the genetic breeding #it IS a space fantasy of course #gender is inherent to its cosmology #like wot

3 notes · View notes

thetreetopinn · 5 months

Text

Sources for Somerton's Plagiarism from Hbomberguy's Video (as much as I could get)

I went back through Harry's video, focused entirely on the sources James Somerton pulled from in the hopes of creating as much of a comprehensive list as I could--though my Google-Fu is not very strong. I did however find something I thought was forever lost and that made me very happy--specifically the magazine Midlands Zone containing the column by Steven Spinks that Harry poignantly used as an illustration of gay erasure... while Somerton uses it to sound like HE is waxing remorseful about the very subject.

This is not a complete list, I'm sure. For one thing, I was only able to attempt to pull sources that Harry himself mentioned in the video. Surely there's so very much more out there. I expect there to be a great deal more internet archeology to unearth just how much writing and culture Somerton has stolen like he's the British Museum of Natural History but for gay people.

- - - - -

Harry's list of mentioned youtubers:

Alexander Avila - https://www.youtube.com/@alexander_avila Matt Baume - https://www.youtube.com/@MattBaume Khadija Mbowe - https://www.youtube.com/@KhadijaMbowe Lady Emily - https://www.youtube.com/@LadyEmilyPresents Shanspeare - https://www.youtube.com/@Shanspeare RickiHirsch - https://www.youtube.com/@RickiHirsch VerilyBitchie - https://www.youtube.com/@verilybitchie

Harry created a convenient playlist of videos by these and other people he wants to bring to everyone's attention.

Please give them your support.

- - - - -

Midlands Zone Magazine - Column by Steven Spinks

After a great deal of searching, I found an archive of the "Midlands Zone" magazine, where you can read through past issues dating all the way back to February 2014. I have also found the issue from which Somerton took Spinks' poignant discussion of gay erasure: Overall archive Specific Issue - Pages 16-17

It will not allow you to download it, but you can read it exactly as it appeared in print form.

- - - - -

My best effort to find the exact book or article Somerton lifted from to be able to get attention to the original writers

Tinker Bells and Evil Queens By Sean Griffin

The Celluloid Closet By Vito Russo Wikipedia article about the book Wikipedia article about the documentary My weak google-fu could not find where you can access the book or documentary. Check your local municipal or university library for book or documentary, or if you know a good source for one or both, please reblog with it added

Camp and the Gay Sensibility By Jack Babuscio

The Groundbreaking Queerness of Disney's Mulan By Jes Tom Personal site with links to social media accounts

Why Rebel Without a Cause was a milestone for gay rights By Peter Howell

Why "The Craft" is still the best Halloween coming out movie By Andrew Park

Opinion: From facehuggers to phallic tails, is 'Alien' one of the queerest films ever? By Dani Leever

Women and Queerness in Horror: Jennifer's Body By Zoe Fortier

[Pride 2019] We Have Such Sights to Show You: Hellraiser and the Spectrum of Queerness By Alejandra Gonzalez

Revealing the Hellbound Heart of Clive Barker's 'Hellraiser' By Colin Arason

Queering James Cameron's Aliens (1986) By Bart Bishop

Demeter and Persephone in space: transformation, femininity, and myth in the 'Alien' films By David Greven

Fears of a millennial masculinity: Scream's queer killers By David Greven (Scholarly site, unable to access original work, offers a way to request a full copy of the text in PDF)

Queer Subtext in Stephen King's It - Part 1: 'Reddie' Character Analysis By Rachel Brands Rachel is the very unfortunate lady who found out she was being stolen from because she supported Somerton through Patreon and saw one of his videos early with her writing--lacking any form of citation or credit

How 'It: Chapter Two' Leaves Richie Tozier Behind By Joelle Monique

When Horror Becomes Strength: Queer Armor in Stephen King's 'IT' By Alex London

Why Queer People Love Witchcraft By Amanda Kohr

'The Favourite' Queers The Past And The Present By Giorgi Plys-Garzotto

(Wuko) Crush (Mako x Wu) By MoonFlower on YouTube

5 Terrible Movies With Awesome Hidden Meanings By J.F. Sargent

The Radicalization of Sexuality: The Queer Casae of Jeffrey Dahmer By Ian Barnard

Netflix's 'Dahmer' backlash highlights ethical issues in the platform's obsession with true crime By Shivani Dubey

The Possible Disturbing Dissonance Between Hajime Isayama's Beliefs and Attack on Titan's Themes Original Article by "Seldom Musings" (Author has made all posts not related to Attack On Titan private and has retired from the blog)

Everyone Loves Attack on Titan. So Why Does Everyone Hate Attack on Titan? By Gita Jackson

- - - - -

The following people are otherwise named in the video. There are no direct citations of articles or books by them in said video. I am unable to guarantee that I have identified the correct individual.

Darren Elliott-Smith Michaela Barton David Church Claire Sisco King Amanda Howell Jessica Roy

- - - - -

Telos announced and cancelled a film likely based on this book: The Final Girl Support Group - By Grady Hendrix

- - - - -

I refrained from including certain sources.

First off only focusing on Somerton's work.

Secondly not including anything that might be visible enough to not require amplifying their voice (I cannot speak for all of those I have found links to, but journalism is frequently a thankless job).

Thirdly any source that is of a nature that is antithetical to the very existence of the queer community, such as the right-leaning source that didn't make it into Somerton's video, but Harry was able to identify as a source he had considered using.

If you feel I have missed a mentioned source--or you know of a source from material that was not covered in Harry's video--please do not hesitate to reblog with added details.

- - - - -

Please share this information far and wide, and please add to it if you find more material that can be positively identified and linked to the creator/writer.

#hbomberguy #james somerton #Plagiarism #Queer #LGBT #LGBTQIA #youtube #Solidarity #gay erasure #Make them un-erased

10K notes · View notes

fuckyeahisawthat · 2 months

Text

So there is this thing that the two Villeneuve Dune movies do together that I cannot stop thinking about, where they will present something (often, a weapon) in a context the first time around where it looks a certain way (often, very sexy and cool). And then they will present it again in a way that doesn't exactly negate your reading of the original context but makes you recoil in horror from the new context.

Paul and Jessica using the Voice to escape from their Harkonnen captors? Very sexy and cool. Look at them working together, mother and son, a couple of space witch badasses.

Jessica using the Voice on Chani to force her to participate in reviving Paul after he drinks the Water of Life? Horrifying. Saying you will be part of this myth that has been created to serve political ends that have nothing to do with your liberation, and if you don't do it voluntarily to save the person you love then I will make you do it.

Chani and Paul working together to take down the ornithopter gunship using those little shoulder-fired rockets? Very sexy and cool, we love guerrilla warfare against an occupying army. (I'm not being facetious here, this sequence is extremely satisfying to watch.)

The much later image of Paul silhouetted against the blast from the missiles from his family's private nuclear arsenal blowing up the shield wall? Nightmarish.

The way the climactic battle to retake the palace at Arrakeen extends into the night so that it begins to look very very much like the initial Harkonnen attack on the same place? I'm sure this is intentional; the whole third act is about taking a giant sledgehammer to the idea that the Atreides are the better or more civilized imperialists.

Perhaps my favorite example of this is the Atreides signet ring. When Paul first puts it on in the first movie, it's a symbol of him accepting that Leto is dead. It's a melancholy moment, but it's also a sign of Paul accepting the responsibility of his birthright as the new Duke.

Early in the second movie, when he is trying to be equal to the Fremen, he takes the ring off. And you just know that when he decides to put it back on again, that will be the sign that everything's about to go to shit. And when it happens it's a very similar moment--it is Paul accepting his birthright, just a different kind. But the accompanying feeling is oh no.

#there are enough examples of this that it seems like a pattern that was given thought #it's just such an effective way of conveying the sense of oh god not like this #dune #dune spoilers #dune part 2 #dune part two #dune 2024

6K notes · View notes

tyrannuspitch · 8 months

Text

thinking about doomful narratives again and like. i understand the idea of using ragnarok as a vehicle for radical change. in fact, i respect it, even if i don't like every change that was made.

but god. live with me for a moment in world where the mcu isn't Like That... and it could've been so good if they'd done ragnarok for real and everyone (even the dead) had just fucking died.

#space viking tag #not talking about myth-accuracy here just the essence of it #and not even necessarily what i'd personally want from canon #bc i do like the eternal angst sandpit of tragedies that never fully commit #and also bc it could ALSO have been Bad #but even so... hmmmmm...... it might've been something. it rlly might've

0 notes

hlysins · 1 year

Text

tag dump: characters part three

#morgs tag dump #✖shura musings║there is no god here in these flesh-hours though your jaw is a temple & your hips strike like an axe—#✖shura headcanon║you sit upon your throne of filth condemning what you haven't built #✖shura ic║i'm ready to bury all of my bones & i'm ready to lie but say i won't #✖shiro musings║as we rest in pieces though i know not your name i would suffer forever to absolve all your pain #✖shiro headcanon║as a saint your body loses all autonomy your body is not yours to bury #✖shiro ic║the only advice i can give you son is to examine who you are as a person & what you choose as your path in your life #✖rin okumura musings║outlined in guilt my portrait stares in a gallery where the walls lie bare #✖rin okumura headcanon║to gain everything & lose everything in the space of a moment that is the fate of princes destined for the throne #✖rin okumura ic║like an april lilly you have grown in death in a tragic snowy spring time #✖erza musings║i wonder for how long will i remain anchored at this harbor known as battle?#✖erza headcanon║there was something beautiful & tragic in the way that she waged war #✖erza ic║does it make me unique to hold hands with the grim reaper rather than go to the angel?#✖yor musings║fear is not my fate & i will not fear my destiny or death #✖yor headcanon║& if you live you can fall to pieces & suffer with my ghost #✖yor ic║all i have is a voice / to undo the folded lie / the romantic lie in the brain /#✖kaina musings║have you not seen the legacy of flesh i have craved into this city?#✖kaina headcanon║the world is so full of death & horror i try to console my heart & pick flowers that grow in the midst of hell #✖kaina ic║you can tell a war story by its absolute & uncompromising allegiance to obscenity & evil #✖uraraka musings║do you still believe myths can save you?#✖uraraka headcanon║she was made up of star dust & celestial nights #✖uraraka ic║i carry a body full of secrets & my bones align the universe within me

0 notes

cinnamonest · 24 days

Text

I'm not looking to start shit so I'm not linking it or anything, but you may have seen a recent anti-dark-content post circulating with a lot of notes making rounds in the x reader sphere and while I have nothing against people posting their feelings in their own private spaces, every time I see these kinds of posts there's a lot of misinformation that gets regurgitated in the reblogs/replies and I saw what looked like a battlezone in the replies, so.

I know posts like that can be very jarring and affects people like my readers, so to combat misinformation/shaming for anyone who saw it, I'm going to share some of my information on combatting fandom puritanism/misogyny/kinkshaming in its most common forms.

The most important fact, if you read nothing else, is this:

Most women have rape fantasies.

62% to be exact. I think the most pervasive myth on this content is that consumers are "weird" for it, when the numbers don't indicate that. You're in the majority!

The vast majority of people who have rape fantasies do not put them into practice in real life. A variety of factors can determine whether or not they do, particularly specific psychiatric disorders. (X)

To specifically address common harmful and pervasive myths:

the "go to therapy!" line

Generally any academic or professional resource will immediately tell you that consuming and engaging in "dark" fantasies is accepted and encouraged by mainstream psychiatry and part of the professional education for psychiatrists. (This also used to be pretty well-known until like the last 5 years or so, not sure why that changed.)

Here are some particularly insightful resources:

1) This article by Dr. David Wahl, in my opinion, hands-down does the best job of simply and thoroughly explaining why these fantasies occur and why couples practice CNC, as well as the fact that they are both harmless, psychologically beneficial to those with them, and not at all correlated to real-life rape.

2) Dr. Claudia Six has some of the best and most thorough material out there on the subject, specifically explaining why this is taught in mainstream academia psychology and how it is incredibly helpful to rape victims (X).

3) Lisa Diamond is a professional who focuses on this subject a lot, and was featured in the documentary "The Dilemma of Desire," in which she specifically focuses on how these fantasies are not correlated to real-life desires. (X)

4) Dr. Casey Lyle has specifically talked a lot on his socials about how fantasies, even in men/the perspective of the offender, do not correlate to actual risk of offending.

5) This article is not by a professional, but from the perspective of a survivor discussing how it is beneficial to survivors.

the "why would you want that?" line

The idea that fictional tastes = what you want to happen to you in real life is actually of misogynistic origin. I don't want to seek out or add links on this one, but if you're really curious, you can research about how the idea that "women read rape fiction, that means they secretly want rape!" was originally a classic "red pill"/MGTOW/4chan talking point that made its way into mainstream dialogue and thus the public mind in the last 15 years or so due to the incel epidemic popularizing those communities.

the "it's only valid for survivors then!" line

On one hand, yes it's very important to acknowledge that trauma victims use it to cope, however I feel that over-emphasizing that gives the impression that non-victims should be excluded from consumption of dark content, so to clarify, it's a very valid means for all women. Many women who have not personally experienced rape still fantasize about it, and that's fine.

The full explanation as to why this is true for many of them would be lengthy (and addressed in the aforementioned Dilemma of Desire documentary), but in the simplest terms, nonconsensual sex is the only context in which patriarchal society permits women to have sex at all without feeling guilt. For many women, particularly those in more heavily misogynistic or religious cultures, these fantasies are appealing because the idea of consensual sex may give them feelings of shame, guilt, "sin," etc. These fantasies allow them to experience the feeling of being desired without guilt of participation.

No society on earth is free of the psychological grip that cultural misogyny has on women, and shaming women for adapting to the conditions they are forced to exist under is as harmful as the misogyny that causes it itself.

ALL women experience a form of psychological trauma inherent to female childhood and female adolescence in a patriarchal world, and that is just as valid as coping with individual traumatic events.

Good resources on the subject of why women have these fantasies and how they are helpful in general:

(X) (X)

The "what you consume will make you do it in real life!" myth

Although the resources above already address this, it's important to establish why this myth is so prevalent and what its origins are.

The idea that consuming media with dark themes leads to or indicates desires to replicate those acts is a residual element of two major events:

1) Puritan revival culture, popularized in the US and UK in the 90s and 2000s (also known as "Satanic Panic"). A major facet of this movement was TV megachurch preachers making money off of exploiting well-meaning but paranoid parents into believing that your child playing Dungeons and Dragons or Pokemon would make them future serial killers and lure them into satanic cults. (X)

2) at the tail end of this, it was cemented in the public mind as a cultural ripple aftershock of the Columbine shooting, where this sentiment became popularized as the general public blamed violent video games like Doom and "dark" music like Marilyn Manson (whose life was temporarily completely upended by the events and took him years to recover/be safe from) for the 1999 shooting. This event had MASSIVE permanent and global effects in all sorts of ways that the public often underestimates the sheer scope of, notably that it solidified, prolonged, and, in the minds of many, "proved" the paranoias of the preexisting Satanic Panic. (X) This established a precedent, leading to virtually any major horrible event being blamed on the perpetrator's media consumption, including murder and sex crimes.

What this myth ignores in the cases it references (the slenderman stabbings, columbine, sasebo slashing, batman shooting, etc) is two crucial facts: that hundreds of millions of people consume the same media with no negative effects (helpful effects even), and that in every single case cited as "evidence" to the claim, the perpetrator had a preexisting psychiatric condition correlated to acts of violence (which usually went ignored, downplayed and even accelerated/worsened by those around them rather than the help they needed).

Sorry for the wall of text, but I feel an ethical obligation to combat this kind of misinformation, and I hope these resources are helpful for those who may be negatively affected by common misunderstandings.

You are not abnormal or wrong for the fictional content you consume or the fantasies you have!

#im very passionate about this because this sort of thing severely affected younger me #and i dont want that for anyone else!#love yall

1K notes · View notes

wulfhalls · 2 months

Text

paul and alia atreides

Such a rich store of myths enfolds Paul Muad'dib, the Mentat Emperor, and his sister, Alia, it is difficult to see the real persons behind these veils. But there were, after all, a man born Paul Atreides and a woman born Alia. Their flesh was subject to space and time.

#dune #duneedit #paul atreides #alia atreides #paulalia #dune part two #timothée chalamet #anya taylor joy

1K notes · View notes

vaspider · 5 months

Text

In defense of retellings & reimaginings

I'm not going to respond to the post that sparked this, because honestly, I don't really feel like getting in an argument, and because it's only vaguely even about the particular story that the other post discussed. The post in question objected to retellings of the Rape of Persephone which changed important elements of the story -- specifically, Persephone's level of agency, whether she was kidnapped, whether she ate seeds out of hunger, and so on. It is permissible, according to this thesis, to 'fill in empty spaces,' but not to change story elements, because 'those were important to the original tellers.' (These are acknowledged paraphrases, and I will launch you into the sun if you nitpick this paragraph.)

I understand why to the person writing that, that perspective is important, and why they -- especially as a self-described devotee of Persephone -- feel like they should proscribe boundaries around the myth. It's a perfectly valid perspective to use when sorting -- for example -- which things you choose to read. If you choose not to read anything which changes the elements which you feel are important, I applaud you.

However, the idea that one should only 'color in missing pieces,' especially when dealing with stories as old, multi-sourced, and fractional as ancient myths, and doing so with the argument that you shouldn't change things because those base elements were important to the people who originally crafted the stories, misses -- in my opinion -- the fundamental reason we tell stories and create myths in the first place.

Forgive me as I get super fucking nerdy about this. I've spent the last several years of my life wrestling with the concept of myths as storytelling devices, universality of myths, and why myths are even important at all as part of writing on something like a dozen books (a bunch of which aren't out yet) for a game centered around mythology. A lot of the stuff I've written has had to wrestle with exactly this concept -- that there is a Sacred Canon which cannot be disrupted, and that any disregard of [specific story elements] is an inexcusable betrayal.

Myths are stories we tell ourselves to understand who we are and what's important to us as individuals, as social groups, and as a society. The elements we utilize or change, those things we choose to include and exclude when telling and retelling a story, tell us what's important to us.

I could sit down and argue over the specific details which change over the -- at minimum -- 1700 years where Persephone/Kore/Proserpina was actively worshiped in Greek and Roman mystery cults, but I actually don't think those variations in specific are very important. What I think is important, however, is both the duration of her cults -- at minimum from 1500 BCE to 200CE -- and the concept that myths are stories we tell ourselves to understand who we are and what's important to us.

The idea that there was one, or even a small handful, of things that were most important to even a large swath of the people who 'originally' told the store of the Rape of Persephone or any other 'foundational' myth of what is broadly considered 'Western Culture,' when those myths were told and retold in active cultic worship for 1700 years... that seems kind of absurd to me on its face. Do we have the same broad cultural values as the original tellers of Beowulf, which is only (heh) between 1k-1.3k years old? How different are our marital traditions, our family traditions, and even our language? We can, at best, make broad statements, and of inclusive necessity, those statements must be broad enough as to lose incredible amounts of specificity. In order to make definitive, specific statements, we must leave out large swaths of the people to whom this story, or any like it, was important.

To move away from the specific story brought up by the poster whose words spun this off, because it really isn't about that story in particular, let's use The Matter of Britain/Arthuriana as our framing for the rest of this discussion. If you ask a random nerd on Tumblr, they'd probably cite a handful of story elements as essential -- though of course which ones they find most essential undoubtedly vary from nerd to nerd -- from the concept that Camelot Always Falls to Gawain and the Green Knight, Percival and the grail, Lancelot and Guinevere...

... but Lancelot/Guinevere and Percival are from Chrétien de Troyes in the 12th century, some ~500 years after Taliesin's first verses. Lancelot doesn't appear as a main character at all before de Troyes, and we can only potentially link him to characters from an 11th century story (Culhwch and Olwen) for which we don't have any extant manuscripts before the 15th century. Gawain's various roles in his numerous appearances are... conflicting characterizations at best.

The point here is not just that 'the things you think are essential parts of the story are not necessarily original,' or that 'there are a lot of different versions of this story over the centuries,' but also 'what you think of as essential is going to come back to that first thesis statement above.' What you find important about The Matter of Britain, and which story elements you think can be altered, filed off or filled in, will depend on what that story needs to tell you about yourself and what's important to you.

Does creating a new incarnation of Arthur in which she is a diasporic lesbian in outer space ruin a story originally about Welsh national identity and chivalric love? Does that disrespect the original stories? How about if Arthur is a 13th century Italian Jew? Does it disrespect the original stories if the author draws deliberate parallels between the seduction of Igerne and the story of David and Bathsheba?

Well. That depends on what's important to you.

Insisting that the core elements of a myth -- whichever elements you believe those to be -- must remain static essentially means 'I want this myth to stagnate and die.' Maybe it's because I am Jewish, and we constantly re-evaluate every word in Torah, over and over again, every single year, or maybe it's because I spend way, way too much time thinking about what's valuable in stories specifically because I write words about these concepts for money, but I don't find these arguments compelling at all, especially not when it comes to core, 'mainstream' mythologies. These are tools in the common toolbox, and everybody has access to them.

More important to me than the idea that these core elements of any given story must remain constant is, to paraphrase Dolly Parton, that a story knows what it is and does it on purpose. Should authors present retellings or reimaginings of the Rape of Persephone or The Matter of Britain which significantly alter historically-known story elements as 'uncovered' myths or present them as 'the real and original' story? Absolutely not. If someone handed me a book in which the new Grail was a limited edition Macklemore Taco Bell Baja Blast cup and told me this comes directly from recently-discovered 6th century writings of Taliesin, I would bonk them on the head with my hardcover The Once & Future King. Of course that's not the case, right?

But the concept of canon, historically, in these foundational myths has not been anything like our concept of canon today. Canon should function like a properly-fitted corset, in that it should support, not constrict, the breath in the story's lungs. If it does otherwise, authors should feel free to discard it in part or in whole.

Concepts of familial duty and the obligation of marriage don't necessarily resonate with modern audiences the way that the concept of self-determination, subversion of unreasonable and unjustified authority, and consent do. That is not what we, as a general society, value now. If the latter values are the values important to the author -- the story that the author needs to tell in order to express who they are individually and culturally and what values are important to them* -- then of course they should retell the story with those changed values. That is the point of myths, and always has been.

Common threads remain -- many of us move away from family support regardless of the consent involved in our relationships, and life can be terrifying when you're suddenly out of the immediate reach and support of your family -- because no matter how different some values are, essential human elements remain in every story. It's scary to be away from your mother for the first time. It's scary to live with someone new, in a new place. It's intimidating to find out that other people think you have a Purpose in life that you need to fulfill. It's hard to negotiate between the needs of your birth family and your chosen family.

None of this, to be clear, is to say that any particular person should feel that they need to read, enjoy, or appreciate any particular retelling, or that it's cool, hip and groovy to misrepresent your reworking of a myth as a 'new secret truth which has always been there.' If you're reworking a myth, be truthful about it, and if somebody told you 'hey did you know that it really -- ' and you ran with that and find out later you were wrong, well, correct the record. It's okay to not want to read or to not enjoy a retelling in which Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere negotiate a triad and live happily ever after; it's not really okay to say 'you can't do that because you changed a story element which I feel is non-negotiable.' It's okay to say 'I don't think this works because -- ' because part of writing a story is that people are going to have opinions on it. It's kind of weird to say 'you're only allowed to color inside these lines.'

That's not true, and it never has been. Greek myths are not from a closed culture. Roman myths are not sacrosanct. There are plenty of stories which outsiders should leave the hell alone, but Greek and Roman myths are simply not on that list. There is just no world in which you can make an argument that the stories of the Greek and Roman Empires are somehow not open season to the entire English-speaking world. They are the public-est of domain.

You don't have to like what people do with it, but that doesn't make people wrong for writing it, and they certainly don't have to color within the lines you or anyone else draws. Critique how they tell the story, but they haven't committed some sort of cultural treachery by telling the stories which are important to them rather than the stories important to someone 2500 years dead.

****

*These are not the only reasons to tell a story and I am not in any way saying that an author is only permitted to retell a story to express their own values. There are as many reasons to tell a story as there are stories, and I don't really think any reason to create fiction is more or less valid than any other. I am discussing, specifically, the concept of myths as conveyors of essential cultural truths.

2K notes · View notes

mammonsrockstargf · 16 days

Text

Thinking of Solomon with an MC who’s obsessed with trying to figure out where he was during certain time periods. Asking him about different myths and legends, fully expecting that he was there.

“Hey, Sol, did you ever meet Merlin?” you ask one day while lounging in his room. He looks up from his book. “Merlin’s a myth, MC,” he deadpans and you shrug. “So was hell up until a while ago,” you say and he sighs while putting his book down. “Well, I didn’t know him in person, but-“

Another time you’ll be reading about The Epic of Gilgamesh, but when you ask about it he just stares at you in disbelief. “What?” you’ll ask and he shakes his head. “MC, those are ancient stories. Why would you think I was alive during those times?”

You’ll nod and take a mental note. Sol wasn’t alive in 2700 B.C.

Your favorite though is asking him about other gods. Greek myths, Nordic myths, Egyptian myths. With little to no consideration that some of these things were happening at the same time and Solomon couldn’t possibly be at all these places simultaneously.

If the devil is alive then what stops Zeus or Odin from being as well? Solomon tells you that he doesn’t actually know but that he theorizes that whenever a religion has enough believers it becomes alive. Hence why Greek or Nordic gods haven’t been heard from in a while. You think it’s a simultaneously sad and interesting theory. “Imagine being a god and slowly feeling life slip away with your last believer,” you say one day with your head in his lap. His fingers combing through your hair momentarily stops. When you look up at him, you find him staring off into space with knitted brows. “Do you think we can meet Buddha?” you ask to lighten the mood and the man sighs in exasperation.

You enjoy watching his brain work while he's trying to summon memories. Sometimes you’ll hit a soft spot if you ask about a particularly brutal time period. You quickly realize that he doesn’t like talking about Macbeth or the 1300s. Those times you’ll kiss his face and apologize until the pain is washed away or at least put away for some time.

Living for as long as Solomon has isn’t easy. It’s a lonely existence. It’s hard for you to grasp, the fact that it isn’t just stories, but that he’s actually lived through these events.

One day the air in his room shifts and Solomon finds you glaring at him. He shifts uncomfortably, feeling like an ant under your gaze. “Sooo, what are you thinking about?” he asks, feeling himself grow smaller and smaller. He begins to wonder if you're actually trying to turn him into a bug.

“So, Sol. Where were you during The Second World War?”

a/n: this is a repost from my old blog! find my other stuff here

#obey me #obey me solomon #solomon #obey me shall we date #obey me swd #om! solomon #solomon x reader #solomon x mc #obey me x reader #obey me x mc #obey me drabble #obey me fic #obey me fluff #solomon fluff #perse fics #perse fluff

731 notes · View notes