#poetry prose plays and prophecy

[brochacho]

twelve nights? in this economy?

#poetry prose plays and prophecy #play: twelfth night #twelfth night #william shakespere #in this economy?

[writingquestionsanswered]

hello, do you have any tips for getting more creative titles? Like going for a more poetic style without it being too much. I like for example, "These Violent Delights" and "Our Violent Ends" by Chloe Gong. They're simple, telling, and short - and I just think it's different (from "The" type titles, and the Blank of Blank and Blank format). I also think "The Folk of the Air" is simple yet creative. I feel like I don't know enough words to get the title. I appreciate any advice! Thank you.

Coming Up with Poetic Titles

Some of the most beautiful, poetic titles often stem from actual prose quotes, either from poetry, classic literature, song titles, public domain lyrics, plays, etc.

These Violent Delights and Our Violent Ends, for example, are actually derived from a quote from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet ("These violent delights have violent ends...") which is appropriate since the These Violent Delights duology is a Romeo & Juliet retelling. Other examples are The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (I knew a woman, lovely in her bones... “I Knew a Woman” by Theodore Roethke), The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/But in ourselves... Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare), Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (What immortal hand or eye/Could frame thy fearful symmetry? "The Tyger" by William Blake), Across the Universe by Beth Revis ("Across the Universe" by The Beatles), To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han ("To All the Girls I've Loved Before" by Hal David and Albert Hammond, made famous by Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias.)

Series titles, like The Folk of the Air series and A Song of Ice and Fire series are usually broad references to what the story is about. I haven't read The Folk of the Air, but I know it's about faeries, so I'm assuming that's a reference to the fae in that story. A Song of Ice and Fire is a reference to a prophecy and history book in the series, but the imagery also references many of the themes and events in the story.

So, whether you're titling a book or series, here are some places you can look for a title:

-- references to relevant source material, such as original fairy tale if you're doing a retelling (Ash by Malinda Lo)

-- references to relevant poems, song titles, lyrics, plays, music, classic literature (Catch a Falling Star by Kim Culbertson)

-- relevant quote, title, person, place, or event that appears in your story (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Cruel Prince by Holly Black)

-- beautiful imagery that appears in your story (Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes)

-- who or what your story is about (The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, The Martian by Andy Weir, All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater)

My post Coming Up with a Book/Story Title has more tips!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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[clementinefight]

Tonight, after brownies and roasted salted corn for dinner (with two coffees, thanks!), I sit in the work-room and by lamplight listen to Sin Fang’s 2019 album “Sad Party” from the start all the way through to the very end. While it plays, I read the opening pages of The Prose Edda, delivered today, which I’ve never looked into before, though have always liked golden Thor and trickster Loki and the Rainbow Bridge, Bifrost, encountering them in the big movies first, the old legends second. I think the most beautiful song on Sad Party is #6: Goldenboy is Sleeping. The passage I read as the song played for the first time went like this: “But the southern part of Ginnungapap grew light because of sparks and glowing embers flowing from Muspellsheim. Just as coldness and all things grim came from Niflheim, the regions bordering on Muspell were warm and bright, and Ginnungapap was as mild as a wildness sky. It thawed and dripped at the point where the icy rime and the warm winds met. There was a quickening in these flowing drops and life sprang up, taking its force from the power that sent the heat. The likeness of a man appeared and he was named Ymir. The frost giants call him Aurgelmir.” Reading along, I’m not retaining things very well, but I experience it, I love the words and the visions. “A giant called Norfi or Narfi lived in Giant Land. He had a daughter named Night, who was black and swarthy …” Cold weather brings my sense of smell to life. — Sure, I’m also anxious about all the work I’m avoiding at the very minute I listen to what I want and read what I want, as night steps closer to morning. But: “An ogress lives to the east of Midgard in the forest called Jarnvid [Iron Wood]. The troll women who are called the Jarnvidjur [the Iron Wood Dwellers] live in that forest. The old ogress bore many giant sons, all in the likeness of wolves…It is said that the most powerful of this kin will be the one called Managram [Moon Dog]. He will gorge himself with the life of all who die, and he will swallow the moon, spattering blood throughout the sky and heavens. Because of this, the sun will lose its brightness while the winds will turn violent, roaring in from all directions.” Dark goes sunshine For summers after, The weather all vicious, Do you know now or what? (The Sibyl’s Prophecy) I also love Sin Fang’s No Summer. Out of uncertainty comes poetry, poetry and names. This time, when I go to make a book-corner out of a small sheet of origami paper so I can capture my place, I don’t have to look up the YouTube video. That's cool. I seem to have embedded something. Well well! "The red you see in the rainbow is the burning fire."

#Youtube

[eurydice-eve]

Ep. 109: Language is a Weapon of Social Division. Writing the Body Ecstatic.⚡️Eurydice speaks with the experimental writer Mark Leyner about writing the body, and language as an obstacle and a patriarchal weapon of social division, hierarchy and mistrust. We discuss Marriage, Ecstasy, Religion, Parenthood, Love and Relationships, Monogamy, Authority, Truth and Subversion, Mortality and Prophecy, and always the Love of Literature. Mark incorporates arcane esoteric medical references throughout his work. His books include “My cousin my gastroenterologist” “Why do men have nipples?” “Hundreds of questions you’d only ask your doctor” “Why do men fall asleep after sex?” “Let’s play doctor: guide to walking talking probing like a real MD” and his latest “Last Orgy of the Divine Hermit” now out in paperback retitled as “Daughter, Waiting for her Drunk Father to Return from the Men’s Room.” He doesn’t put science over intuition. Nor does he equate science with reason. He juxtaposes people, places and things in a Mad Lit postmodernist manner. At the sentence level, Leyner uses an extravagant vocabulary of prose poetry that makes fun of medical language while curious of medical anatomical vocabulary. ⚡️For Apple podcast, go to https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/speak-sex-w-eve/id1448261953?uo=4 ⚡️For videos, go to https://youtube.com/speaksexwitheveeurydice ⚡️On Audible, go to Speak with Eve podcast. (at Podcast) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ceu1dPtOMxo/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[adrasteiax]

hello, i just wanted to tell u that i adore your page... i’m trying to get back into reading and i was wondering if you had any recommendations for me to start with :)

Hi anon!

I’m glad to hear that you enjoy my blog. ❤︎

As for recommendations…well, I‘ve a lot! You unfortunately didn’t tell me which genre(s) you I like best, so I decided to write down some of my all-time favourite books!

Poetry

“A Crown Of Violets" by Renee Vivien "The Peace Of Wild Things" by Wendell Berry "Train To Agra" by Vandana Khanna "Caribou" by Charles Wright "The Wild Iris" by Louise Glück "The Black Unicorn" by Audre Lorde "Shatter The Bell In My Ear" by Christine Lavant "Extracting The Stone Of Madness" by Alejandra Pizarnik "Magic City" by Yusef Komunyakaa "Blue Horses" by Mary Oliver "Rivers To The Sea" by Sara Teasdale "On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho" by Matsuo Basho "Haiku Garden : Four Seasons In Poems And Prints" by Stephen Addiss with Fumiko and Akira Yamamoto "Crush" and "War Of The Foxes" by Richard Siken "Raptus" and "Excerpts From A Secret Prophecy" by Joanna Klink "The Good Thief" and "What The Living Do" by Marie Howe "The Shadow Of Sirius" and "Garden Time" by W.S. Merwin

Prose

“The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova “The Silent Companions” by Laura Purcell “The Wonder” by Emma Donoghue “Sweet Bean Paste” by Sukegawa Durian “The Book Of Lost Things” by John Connolly “The Forgotten Garden” by Kate Morton “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn” by Betty Smith “The Last Unicorn” by Peter S. Beagle “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf “Sharp Objects” by Gillian Flynn “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt “Witches Abroad” by Terry Pratchett “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982″ by Cho Namjoo ”Letters of Emily Dickinson” by Emily Dickinson “We Have Always Lived In The Castle” and “The Haunting Of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson “Peter And Alice” by John Logan “Angels In America” by Tony Kushner

(The last two are plays and I love them very, very much!)

I hope you’ll enjoy some of these! Happy reading!

#replies #anon #rec #my rec #poetry #prose

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

Tell me about Raederle of An! I don’t know who she is and I want to know why you love her!!

Ok i actually just finished typing up the massive meta/prose poetry thing I've been writing about her, but I'm gonna post that separately so I will give the actually non-purple-prose version here 🤣

Warning: this is gonna contain A LOT of spoilers for Patricia McKillip's Riddle-Master trilogy. Proceed at your own risk!

ok so Raederle is the female main character in Patricia McKillip's Riddle-Master trilogy and she is AMAZING. the world the books are set in contains inherent land-magic that binds rulers to their kingdoms and gives them certain powers depending on where they're from (though other powers can also be learned, which is a plot point). An is one of several countries on the main continent, and it's split into three parts (called portions): Hel, An, and Aum. they're known for their famous pig-herds, a king who can shapeshift into the form of a raven, and an abundance of royal ghosts (thus one of the portions being called Hel. yes, there are several puns based around that fact).

Raederle is the only daughter of the king of An. this sounds a lot cooler than it is, because her dad is a little bit incomprehensible and part of his land-rule magic means that he has some semblance of foresight. said foresight is the reason he made a binding vow that only the man who could defeat an extremely famous ghost in a battle of the wits would be allowed to marry his daughter. in short, Raederle has spent her entire life as the prize in a near-cosmic bet, and it doesn't help that she is, canonically, the second most beautiful woman in all the three portions (and considered as such throughout the other nearby countries as well). this leads to her having a very fierce independent streak.

eventually, as it turns out, Raederle's brother's best friend (and her own childhood friend as well, bc she's always hung out with the boys) wins the riddle game that she was the prize in. enter Morgon of Hed, the titular Riddle-Master and the series' main character. the fun part is that he did not, in fact, go to play a game with a ghost in order to win Raederle's hand in marriage — he literally genuinely had no idea that was the deal, he just wanted to do riddles with an ancient ghost and also he won a fancy crown in the bargain. so anyway, turns out that Raederle and Morgon have had a mutual crush on each other since they were kids, and they're friends anyway, so this actually works out really well for them. (keep in mind that Raederle's dad has a bit of foresight, so he probably Knew from the beginning tbh.) but, alas, before they can even meet up again a bunch of stuff happens and apparently Morgon is some kind of Chosen One and he disappears for like. over a year.

Raederle is... arguably the most level-headed and well-adjusted character in the series, honestly. yeah she's hot-headed and kind of fits the "rebellious princess" archetype (she even runs away with two other land-heirs at one point, in an attempt to find Morgon) but she's also mature and knows how to make wise decisions without being as influenced by her personal emotions. she's not first in line for the throne, but she definitely has the instincts and a good personality to take up the mantle of land-ruler.

Morgon's issues as the "chosen one" and child of prophecy have to do with the whys of things — why is this happening, why is *he* specifically so important, why have other people and entities done the things they have, and why is it his responsibility. Raederle's issues, on the other hand, are more about identity (which explains why I love her so much. characters that struggle with or embody a struggle with identity are my jam).

like I mentioned before, Raederle's father has shapeshifting capabilities along with his foresight. it's eventually revealed that this is in part because their family has strong, previously forgotten and unknown ties to the original people of the land, the Earth-Masters, who also happen to be the current bad guys who are trying to start a worldwide magical war. cue Raederle, who's sensed that connection without realizing, has even drawn on that inherent magic, having more than a bit of an identity crisis. her magic is EXTREMELY helpful and she only ever uses it for good, but finding out that it comes from the Earth-Masters absolutely terrifies her and she becomes afraid of doing much more than lighting fires. it takes a long time for her to come to terms with the origins of her power, and the fact that despite its roots, it is still HERS and she can change the legacy of it.

there's a LOT of reasons I love her (some of which will probably come through when I post the huge thing I wrote about her earlier) and I'm not sure i can really explain it very well lol, I just like rambling about her??? she's sort of the princess-in-the-tower archetype, except that the trope is turned on its head by the riddle-game for her hand in marriage??? she's unabashedly feminine but still hangs out and is good friends with the boys, she's competent and not overly impulsive like a lot of fictional characters can be, she's just all-around a very good character. the second book in the trilogy is completely focused on her and it's my favorite, she teams up with two other princesses of different kingdoms and goes on a journey, plus she literally makes a deal with thousands of ghosts in order to protect her kingdom (I tried to google the chapter, since I don't have my copy of the book out right now, but I couldn't come up with anything... the author has said it's based on smth that happens in LOTR, but honestly just Raederle and the ghosts of Hel is my favorite chapter in McKillip's entire trilogy.). also, she has two brothers and the dynamic between the siblings is AMAZING, Ms. McKillip writes siblings so well honestly.

anyway this is long and sort of incoherent lol, I kinda lost my thread halfway through 😅 i very very much recommend the Riddle-Master trilogy if you're looking for something to read, Raederle is probably my favorite female fantasy character ever, thanks for taking my ask bait haha!

#and now i shall go post the massive prose poetry piece i wrote about her today #Lu rambles #asks #riddle master #the riddle master of hed #heir of sea and fire #harpist in the wind #raederle of an #i barely proofread this I'm sorry shdjdhsks

[cappymightwrite]

ASOIAF & Norse Mythology

PART 2: The ‘Long Night’ and the Fimbulvetr

In PART 1 of this meta, from looking at just a few fan question answers, it seems rather clear to me that GRRM has more than just a passing interest in Norse mythology. One of the most fascinating and haunting myths in the Norse canon is the lead up to and resulting fallout of Ragnarök. In the show, the ‘Long Night’ appears to be just that, one night, and not even an awfully long one. In the books, however, it seems likely this will play out very differently. As a Norse nerd, the similarities to Ragnarök are just too obvious not to sit up and take notice, in particular, the similarities between the ‘Long Night’ and what is called the Fimbelvetr — which in my Old Icelandic dictionary translates to ‘the great and awful winter.’

Before I really get things rolling, lets take a moment to go over which Old Norse-Icelandic sources are traditionally used by medievalists to reconstruct the pagan conception of Ragnarök:

The Eddic poems Völuspá ‘The prophecy of the seeress’ (st. 40–51) and Vafþrúðnismál ‘The lay of Vafþrúðnir’ (st. 44–53) — these two poems provide us with quite a lot of information, with some sections being more comprehensive than others. Additionally, other Eddic poems, such as Lokasenna, Hyndluljóð, Grímnismál, and a few others hint at motifs, stemming from the ideas of Ragnarök.

In the Gylfaginning section of the Prose Edda (ch. 51–53), Snorri quotes many of the relevant stanzas from Völuspá in support of his own writing, though he also adds information that is unknown to us from other sources.

There are also a few skaldic* poems which give us minor hints regarding the incidents that will take places during Ragnarök.

NB: Eddic poetry is the term given to the poems primarily contained within the Icelandic Codex Regius manuscript, known as the Poetic Edda (written c. 1270, but arguably containing remnants of an older oral tradition). These poems are of unknown authorship. As for Skaldic poetry, these poems were written by known Icelandic skalds (ONI: skáld, ‘poet’), often in the courts of foreign kings, typically Norwegian, praising their patrons in exchange for royal favour; they span approx. c. 800–1300, so in some cases predate the recording (though not necessarily the composition or oral origins) of the Eddic poems.

According to Jens Peter Schødt, the Gylfaginning and Völuspá ‘are certainly the most extensive’ written sources we have on the Norse myths, as they ‘have played the most crucial role in the history of research.’ It is quite possible that GRRM has read much of the available textual sources on Ragnarök to help inspire his own work. That being said, if I had to bet on one being the touchstone source for him, it would be the Gylfaginning, since not only does it include detailed prose accounts of the events leading up to, during, and following Ragnarök, it also includes relevant Eddic poetry (notably Völuspá) in order to authenticate those descriptions. It really is a one of kind, unique source.

So, how about we begin with chapter 51 of Gylfaginning, where it is asked outright by Gangleri (aka King Gylfi) ‘what is to be said about Ragnarök?’ to which High answers:

There are many important things to be said about it. First will come the winter called Fimbulvetr [Extreme Winter]. Snow will drive in from all directions; the cold will be severe and the winds will be fierce. The sun will be of no use. Three of these winters will come, one after the other, with no summer in between. But before that there will have been another three winters with great battles taking place throughout the world. Brothers will kill brothers for the sake of greed, and neither father nor son will be spared in the killings and the collapse of kinship.* So it is said in The Sibyl’s Prophecy:

Brothers will fight,

bringing death to each other.

Sons of sisters

will split their kin bonds.

Hard times for men,

rampant depravity

age of axes, age of swords

shields split,

wind age, wolf age,

until the world falls into ruin.

The above translation is by Jesse Byock from the Penguin Classics Prose Edda — the translations in square brackets are his and included in the text, and he also uses a translated title for the Eddic poems, in this case, ‘The Sibyl’s Prophecy’ in place of Old Norse-Icelandic: Völuspá.

Several things are striking about this passage, chief among them, the fact that the precursor to Ragnarök is the Fimbulvetr, ‘the great and awful winter’ or ‘Extreme Winter.’ But before that, ‘another three winters’ in which much social upheaval will take place, circumstances that feel quite at home in ASOIAF. I would be hesitant to argue that GRRM is using the above description as an exact blueprint, but that being said, some of the circumstances described do feel very familiar to readers of his series:

‘Brothers will kill brothers for the sake of greed’ / ‘Brothers will fight’

This is perhaps suggestive of the Baratheon brothers, Stannis and Renly. Although, I’d say that the motivations/cause of the latter’s death is a little more nuanced than just ‘greed.’ But this is worth noting: the Norse source might offer us the seed of an idea, but it is GRRM who then “waters” it, effectively imbuing these dynamics with a deeper meaning and complexity.

Also, if we think of ‘brothers’ in a less literal sense, this could also apply to the ‘killing’ of Jon Snow by the black brothers of the Night’s Watch.

‘Neither father nor son will be spared in the killings’

Ned and Robb Stark fit into this category quite well, as both their deaths are gut-wrenching moments in the series. But also, more generally, this highlights that anyone, even beloved family, even heroes, can fall.

‘The collapse of kinship’ / ‘Rampant depravity’

In his footnotes, Byock observes the word sifjaslit to mean ‘the breaking of kinship bonds, but there is also the connotation of incest.’ In my ONI dictionary, sifja-slit translates to ‘adultery,’ since it is a compound of the nouns sifjar ‘affinity, connection by marriage’ and slit ‘rupture, breach’ — the latter most likely derives from the verb slitna, meaning ‘to break’ or ‘snap.’

The breaking of marriage bonds is present in ASOIAF, as in the case of Robert and Cersei’s respective adulteries. But we could also view Robb Stark’s marriage to Jeyne Westerling as a breaking of a betrothal bond as well.

Overall, I would say that there is room for both interpretations, and as we know, GRRM is pretty found of incest, prime cases currently present in canon being Jaime and Cersei Lannister, as well as the Targaryens.

‘Wolf-age’

Wolves feature a lot in Norse mythology, so it is interesting that the Starks, who are really the heart of ASOIAF, are so heavily associated with them.

Furthermore, the provisional title for the last book in the series, A Dream of Spring, was A Time for Wolves. The phrasing of this is just another way of saying ‘Wolf-age’, as found in Völuspá. But to potentially understand GRRM’s change in titles, it should be remembered that wolves in Norse mythology are often associated with war and violence — see, for instance, the kennings ‘wolf-wine’, ‘the river of Fenrir’, ‘the warm ale of the wolf’, which all mean blood. As someone familiar with Old Norse poetry, A Time for Wolves suggests to me a period of violence, whereas A Dream of Spring offers more hope and the potential for rejuvenation, perhaps paralleling the events that follow Ragnarök, as described in the Prose Edda and Völuspá (which I might get into further down the line).

‘Until the world falls into ruin’

It is strongly predicted, and alluded in the text itself, that the Wall will at some point fall, an event that will act as a precursor to the second ‘Long Night.’ The Wall is also considered by some people to be the end of the known world, so its destruction is strongly linked with the collapse of the social structure of Westeros as a whole.

As we can see, certain parallels can be made, though it is also worth noting that there are instances where they can’t be. For example, ‘sons of sisters will split their kin bonds’— I can’t really think of a relationship to compare this to in ASOIAF, unless it hasn’t happened in the text yet, and then who would it be? Robert ‘Sweetrobin’ Arryn and…Bran Stark? There are obvious similarities and ways in which we can link these descriptions to GRRM’s text, but we should be cautious to avoid shoehorning.

Indeed, it is fun to make these comparisons, but I think the main take away from this chapter of the Gylfaginning is that during the time closely preceding the Fimbulvetr, there will be ‘hard times for men’ with much social upheaval, including bloodshed, betrayals, and incest. In my opinion, the ‘Long Night’ has been heavily inspired by the Norse Fimbulvetr, and this is reflected in the way ASOIAF characters describe the ‘Long Night’, closely paralleling its Norse source.

To summarise from the above quotation, during the Fimbulvetr:

‘Snow will drive in from all directions; the cold will be severe and the winds will be fierce.’ (Gylf)

‘The sun will be of no use.’ (Gylf)

‘Three of these winters will come, one after the other, with no summer in between.’ (Gylf)

In ASOIAF, the earliest mention of the ‘Long Night’ is in AGOT, Bran I, in which Bran recalls the ‘the hearth tales of Old Nan’ detailing the apparent savagery and cultural difference between the northerners and the wildings, noting that ‘their women lay with the Others in the Long Night to sire terrible half-human children’. This evokes the above quotation from Völuspá, the reference to ‘rampant depravity’ in particular. But it is later, in Tyrion III, that we get the first real parallel between the Long Night and the Fimbulvetr:

Lord Mormont moved to the window and stared out into the night. “These are old bones, Lannister, but they have never felt a chill like this. Tell the king what I say, I pray you. Winter is coming, and when the Long Night falls, only the Night’s Watch will stand between the realm and the darkness that sweeps from the north. The gods help us all if we are not ready.

From the description in Gylfaginning, we know that the Fimbulvetr is preceded by three winters, ‘one after the other, with no summer in between’. Without taking it too literally, this description at the very least suggests that a move towards cold weather will herald the coming of the ‘Extreme Winter’, as this is foreshadowed as early as AGOT in this Tyrion chapter when Jeor Mormont states that he has ‘never felt a chill like this […] Winter is coming’. Directly following this statement is the foreknowledge that the Long Night is indeed on its way.

The reference to a ‘darkness that sweeps from the north’ is noteworthy too, as although most often associated with freezing weather, the Fimbulvetr is also crucially connected with the disappearing of the sun (‘the sun will be of no use’, Gylf). Indeed, the very name the Long Night suggests much the same phenomenon, as explained to Bran by Old Nan later in AGOT, in Bran IV:

Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods.

[…]

Thousands and thousands of years ago, a winter fell that was cold and hard and endless beyond all memory of man. There came a night that lasted a generation, and kings shivered and died in their castles even as the swineherds in their hovels. Women smothered their children rather than see them starve, and cried, and felt their tears freeze on their cheeks.

I mean…this might as well be a description for the Fimbulvetr, it is THAT similar! Indeed, as we know, in the world of ASOIAF the seasons work a bit differently, as alluded to by Old Nan when she refers to ‘a night [i.e. a winter] that lasted a generation’. Similarly, the Fimbulvetr is unusual in that it is preceded by ‘three winters’, which suggests an extended winter lasting up four years, culminating in the ‘Extreme Winter’, aka the Fimbulvetr. It seems likely that the timespan of ‘a generation’ has been exaggerated for the sake of myth making. That being said, we would expect the Long Night to still be noteworthy in its duration. So, perhaps it is possible that, were GRRM to emulate the Norse source, his Long Night could potentially last for a similar amount of time (four years). Either way, I think we all expect it to last longer than it did in the show!

In conclusion, the way in which the Fimbulvetr is described in the Norse sources bears a striking resemblance to the descriptions of the Long Night in ASOIAF. Futhermore, and most interestingly to me, it seems entirely possible that, like the Fimbulvetr, and like the first Long Night that went before it, the next Long Night will include the disappearing of the sun...an important feature that I will discuss further next time! So stay tuned!

References/Bibliography (excluding ASOIAF):

Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda, trans. and intr. by Jesse Byock, (London: Penguin Classics, 2005)

Jens Peter Schødt, ‘The Ragnarök Myth in Scandinavia’, in Finding, Inheriting and Borrowing?: The Construction and Transfer of Knowledge in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 2019, Vol.39, p.365-384

END OF PART 2…

I haven’t quite decided if I will include my stuff about the sun disappearing in Ragnarök and the ‘Red Comet’, or if I’ll give it its own separate part...we’ll see! I would also like to talk a bit about the significance of storytelling as a way of recording history in ASOIAF... Basically, I have a lot of thoughts on things!

#asoiaf #asoiaf meta #asoiaf and norse mythology #asoiaf norse meta #game of thrones #game of thrones meta

[stygiantarot]

Modern Divination Methods

(originally taught in The Alexandria Archives on 4/9/2020) 

Divination is most certainly one of the oldest practices of witchcraft. Reading omens, trancing for prophecy/scrying, and using tools to read symbols or patterns have all been used in some form for practically as long as society has existed. Many people are familiar with the mainstream ones: Tarot, runes, tea leaves, scrying, etc. Last time I went over some more unusual methods. Today, in light of the current global situation having many person’s stuck in limited spaces with limited supplies, I thought we could touch on some modern methods. Most require nothing more than what you already have at your fingertips!

We will explore in some detail:

Shufflemancy: divination using randomized songs

Stichomancy: divination using passages in a volume of writing

Traffic omens: Modernizing weather style omen reading using things like cars, stoplights, types of buildings passed, etc.

We’ll also touch on a couple other ideas you might try expanding on:

Online Randomizer: Think like the old web extension Stumble upon or even those websites that give you random quotes, images, names, etc.

Social Media Image Scrying: using a collection of images online to select a particular one for interpretation.

~~~~~~~

Shufflemancy

Many of you have probably heard of this method, likely even tried it! Shufflemancy is the method of divination that uses a platform or application to randomize a selection/playlist of songs for interpretation. You can either just hit the shuffle button once and go with that initial song or you can incorporate a more personalized experience by having the querent choose a number of skips to hit. It can also be tailored by using specific playlists you’ve compiled or certain genre options on applications like Spotify or Pandora.

You can expand on this with applications like Youtube to include videos. It’s my fantasy that platforms like Netflix or Hulu will come up with a “randomizer” or shuffle type option someday. It would be such a blast to play a random video and then use that for divination!

It’s important to take into account both the lyrics and the melody/mood of the music when your selection is being interpreted. If you aren’t sure if you’d be comfortable with that initially, I recommend building a “beginner’s” sort of playlist that is filled with songs you know very well and have personal feelings about. It makes the interpretation that much easier. Much like using a Tarot or Oracle deck that has art styles or characters you’re familiar with. You may also incorporate the visuals of a music video if there is one for the song. Shufflemancy usually works better for more expansive readings rather than just yes/no questions. Although you can sometimes get that sort of immediately “positive” or “negative” impression from many songs, assuming it doesn’t have both! 


This method is a therapeutic way to delve into some modern divination. The emotional and cathartic aspect can be soothing for both the reader and the querent. Not to mention the connection it builds as you share music between you. A feel good way to practice some divination with no physical tools beyond some technology access.

~~~~~~~

Stichomancy

This method of divination, sometimes called bibliomancy, uses a book or similar volume of writing to select passages from to interpret. Most people use the page number as the way to select, telling the querent to select a number between the first and last page (and what the highest number possible is). But there are intuitive methods as well. Using the physical shuffling of pages until it feels right to stop rather than a selected number. I find the latter method more useful when reading for myself and the former method more cooperative when I’m reading for others.

Like with shufflemancy, stichomancy is much affected by your personalizing of the tool. Use books you love! Use books that have specific genres for specific queries (a romance book for a relationship reading?). Use anthologies (short story or poetry collections) to get a variety of styles and language to work with. 
 


You can also use books that are more visual, like my headstone symbolism book pictured above. It makes the reading more akin to Tarot, but you can use captions to help expand on the interpretation. Practice trial and error with multiple books until you feel comfortable and confident that the results are accurate enough. The books I have in the photo I shared are the five I’m comfortable using in regular readings. I play with others for myself or specific queries for friends or family but often I’m not comfortable adding them to my regular repertoire. I have a series of dimestore style paperback mysteries that love to give readings for a dear friend but are useless in accuracy for anyone else. Books have personalities- if you didn’t already know that this method will teach you that fact quickly. You can also create your own specific stichomancy book using a notebook with numbered short passages and poems of that have significance to you. It can be an enriching process to collect all the passages to add to your own book and you can give them more specific and more easily remembered associations when compiling them yourself. Do remember to give proper credit/sourcing to all your collected passages though!


You don’t need the largest book possible to be effective with this method of divination. “Desperation” and “Chilling Ghost Short Stories” are my thickest books, but honestly I’ve gotten more insightful readings from my two slim fairy tale volumes. It’s truly a method you make your own. I have friends who prefer to exclusively use books of poetry rather than fictional prose. That is good too!

A note: don’t feel like you need to have a physical book- I’ve had some success with ebooks! It can be trickier to do the flip-through for sure, but not impossible.



~~~~~~~

Traffic Omens

I was probably about 8 years old when I first played the “If, Then” game. “If this next light turns green before we reach it, then I’ll get McDonalds for lunch.” A simple and almost childish game of course. But essentially, traffic omens. I expanded on it as I got older to include seeing certain makes and colors of cars during my commute. Or a certain number of common buildings like churches or banks. A type of architecture or statues featuring certain things. It can be as common or uncommon as your needs require.

This is a method that’s a little trickier to lay out for others in step-by-step ways because it is omen based and therefore requires you to select what works for your specific area/region, what type of commute based omens you feel comfortable noticing, what meanings they have for you, etc. And since this is omen-based, it isn’t exactly ideal for actively standard divination reading. It’s more ideal for a passive style, or personal predictions in your own life.

You can build a system that works for you and could predict luck in a career, prosperity in the home, or a new friend. I recommend starting a journal of the sort of “omens” you notice on your commute. Follow up with a short blurb about how your day went and how you felt. Then you can refer back to it and create the personal system from there. You can vary the more common with uncommon omens- just remember to ascribe the appropriate association. Seeing a certain number of bank buildings can be good for meaning an increase in general finances but you’d likely want something more uncommon like an usual make and model of a single car for snagging a dream job. You can also create variations for when you’re walking during your day instead of commuting!



A bit more involved but something interesting to experiment with in our modern society. And keep a bit of that childlike wonder!

~~~~~~~

Online Randomizer

Did you ever play with the web extension “Stumble Upon” back when it existed? The idea was that you installed it in whatever web browser you happened to be using and then clicked it to get directed to an entirely random website. Though it’s intention was obviously to curb boredom, it is definitely something interesting to try as a divination tool. Stumble Upon no longer exists (as far as I know), however there are similar extensions or webpages that let you do the same thing (this one comes to mind: https://theuselessweb.com). There is also options like Wikipedia’s “random article” ability that works along the same lines. This method is similar to stichomancy in that you’ll likely be working with text a lot of the time. But be aware of the medium you’re working with- a webpage is more than just a page in a book. What is its purpose? How well is it designed? What sort of visuals does it use? What emotional impressions do you get from it? It can start simple, but you can see the options are there for expanding an interpretation pretty elaborately. And again, a number of clicks can be incorporated if you like.

~~~~~~~

Multi-Image Scrying (Social Media Image Scrying)
 


It’s hard for me to come up with a concise name for this. But it’s possible you’ve come across persons doing this on various platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, etc. There is a selection of images in a format similar to a moldboard to view. The reader has a querent select an image that stands out to them and builds a reading based on the selection. Similar to a random draw from a Tarot or Oracle card with symbolism and art imagery lending itself to the interpretation. This can be great to try if you are into color symbolism or can easily see how certain artwork evokes certain emotions. Similar to what websites like Buzzfeed or the astro.com color chart quiz is! Almost like an alternative horoscope based on visual selections you are drawn to.

Be sure to ethically collect images for something like this if you plan on offering it to others. There are many websites that have royalty free images you can use for projects like this. Or you can even use ones you have yourself! These don’t have to be high art photographs, simple ones on your phone can absolutely work. The biggest goal is to make sure they are varied so a large amount of interpretation is possible.

There is a version of this using face down Tarot (or oracle) cards as well. You take a photo (or have video) of them face down and then have your querent select one at random without either of you knowing what it is. Then once you flip it over you can giving a reading based on that. It’s not especially different from a standard long distance Tarot reading except it can be used on a mass scale. For example, I’ve done this for my business Facebook or Instagram where I have a grid of numbered face down cards. Then I put the meanings of each card in the comments so someone can select the card before reading the comments and get a low-tech daily reading without an app.

~~~~~~~

Even though many of these methods evoke playful games of childhood, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have potential as a valid form of divination. Many forms of divination in the past started as games or ways to pass time before they were built into the forms of divination we know today. A modern technique may seem “sillier” to traditionalists but just like younger generations are proving the further reaching use of modern technology to previous generations; it is time to prove the modern forms of divination as valid to the traditionalists!

#divination #stichomancy #shufflemancy #types of divination #witchblr #TAA #fortune telling #witchcraft class #witchcraft 101 #modern divination #modern witchcraft #witchy #modern omens

[aion-rsa]

Dune Review: A Sci-Fi Legend Is Born

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The spice melange is a psychotropic substance that floats across the surface of planet Arrakis like puffs of dandelions. This seems right since Denis Villeneuve’s interpretation of that world in Dune is similarly all-enveloping for any who lay eyes on it. It’s an experience intended to overwhelm and intoxicate. More than a few years have come and gone since a picture this vast in scope and immersive in intent has found the ambition (and financial support) to conquer multiplexes. But make no mistake, Dune is very much a film with conquest on its mind, both as a narrative and as a cinematic trip for the eyes and ears.

Pulling from Frank Herbert’s landmark science fiction novel—or about half of it, anyway—Villeneuve reaches for an epic on the scale of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings while also not so subtly evoking imagery from the ultimate desert odyssey, Lawrence of Arabia. While it’s too early to gauge whether he’s made a true classic for the ages like those touchstones, there’s little doubt the filmmaker has engineered the most impressive spectacle you can see in a theater this year (and you really should see this in a theater).

A gargantuan narrative about mythical chosen ones and boy heroes, great clashes of intergalactic houses, and sandworms the size of mountains, Villeneuve’s Dune is a visual feast. More satisfying though is it’s also a transportive journey for the mind. Novelist Herbert famously influenced George Lucas when Dune was published as a book in 1965, but the first good adaptation of his psychedelic (and frequently opaque) musings now comes to cinemas at a moment where visual grandeur is in desperate need of something weird and thoughtful. Well, Dune is very weird. Blissfully so.

Primarily focused on two warring dynasties in a future among the stars, Dune is a tale of feudal conflict between House Atreides and House Harkonnen (think the Starks and Lannisters). The Atreides are a noble if stoic people who already rule one idyllic planet. However, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) has been offered by the galaxy’s unseen emperor a gift too good to be true: the chance to take control of the desert planet Arrakis where the most valuable substance in the known universe is mined, spice melange.

Leto senses a trap in the offer since it comes at the expense of the galaxy’s richest family, his bitter rivals the Harkonnens and their grotesque patriarch, the Baron (Stellan Skarsgård). Yet the opportunity to exploit the universe’s most barren prize is irresistibly enticing. If the Duke can bring peace to the desert people of Arrakis, then that land will become the birthright of his son Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet). Meanwhile Paul has his own trepidations. Inheriting the supernatural gifts of his genuinely witchy mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Paul is plagued by visions of suffering and death on Arrakis… and also a seeming destiny drenched in power and holy war.

As a novel previously considered unfilmable—particularly after David Lynch and Dino De Laurentiis’ disastrous attempt to adapt it in 1984—Dune has clearly benefited from the evolution of special effects, with CG wizardry faithfully recreating Herbert’s most bizarre ideas. What makes Villeneuve’s film so majestic, however, is its determination to do as much of it as possible in-camera, and to provide Arrakis with a gritty, tactile quality.

Arrakis, as well as the Atreides homeworld of Caladan, feel lived in and entrenched in ancient histories that will occur thousands of years in our future. Bizarre hieroglyphic sandworms adorn desert castles while the Atreides’ native palace appears both starkly European and vaguely international, pulling from Asian and African influences. It’s a cinematic prophecy where governments have regressed and opulent vassal states rule all, which Villeneuve and production designer Patrice Vermette highlight by focusing as much on the dignity of wood and stone as they do space alloys and force fields.

This trenchant world-building could only be an asset for the film’s dizzyingly big ensemble. In fact, significant A-list talent even fills the margins in roles clearly earmarked for expansion down the road, including barely utilized actors like Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, and Zendaya, with the latter having a fairly glorified, ethereal cameo. And yet, even these smallest parts contribute in imbuing the production with a total, almost fanatical conviction.

As the center of it all, Chalamet confirms on a grand scale what arthouse audiences have long known about his charisma. Despite playing an archetype that’s been well-worn out by the genre fare influenced by Dune, Chalamet comfortably holds the nearly three-hour movie on his shoulders by emphasizing Paul’s discomfort. Here is a young Chosen One who is weighed down by the burden of the tragic and possibly damned. He’s also complemented by Ferguson’s intriguing Lady Jessica, an aloof presence who deserves more floor space should Villeneuve ever finish adapting the novel.

But if I had to guess, the biggest scene-stealer for audiences will be Jason Momoa as an Atreides knight. Essentially the closest thing this movie has to a Han Solo, Momoa has not been this winning or devilish since his days on Game of Thrones, and he may be the lone tonic in a film that will drown certain audiences beneath its brooding tone.

The film is, indeed, very heavy on atmosphere and self-importance. And with its ponderous amount of characters and plot threads, it will undoubtedly overwhelm more than a few viewers. Much like the source material, this desert is dripping in high-minded pretensions. Villeneuve attempts to offset that with a lot more expository handholding than his previous sci-fi epics, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, which bordered on tone poems. But that mostly makes the first act particularly top-heavy and perhaps clear to a fault. There’s a lot more prose here, yet I wonder if Villeneuve and his studio should’ve simply fully embraced the director’s abstract poetry.

Nevertheless, these are admittedly minor quibbles which hang in the margins for an experience that’s made one of the most foreboding science fiction sagas ever conceived fairly accessible to any audience willing to be transported. Dune is an astonishing swing of ambition and passion from filmmakers at the top of their craft, and it more often than not connects like a thunderbolt. As a project that is only meant to start a new cinematic cycle, it left me eager to follow this Paul and Villeneuve toward the next strange corner of Arrakis, and determined to return to the theater so I can see their introduction again, only next time in IMAX.

Dune premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 3 and plays at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 11. It opens in theaters and on HBO Max on Oct. 22.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[jurakan]

Alright time for Jurakan to bitch about grad school yay! Part 1

Ahahahaha oh Lord okay

So I started a class yesterday called ‘the 18th Century Novel’ which is about the beginnings of the novel in the English language and we started out with defining what exactly it is that’s a novel. There’s a lot of creative writing MFA noobs in this class too I should say. But somehow we ended on the conclusion that a novel is 

A) a long form of prose fiction B) about ordinary people C) set in the contemporary D) not dealing with the extraordinary like the medieval romances before it.

Now you might be saying to yourself, “Wait that’s a crappy definition because that means that all historical fiction/fantasy/science-fiction/romance/horror/adventure novels I’m reading aren’t actually novels!” Which...yeah, you’d be right. It’s a definition that says the only thing that can be a novel is literary fiction. It is an assault on the very idea of genre fiction, degrading it and basically gaslighting literature into a very narrow definition.

It’s also a pretty terrible definition for the purposes of this class, in which we’re reading books like Robinson Crusoe. Like, I’m not a history major, but I’m pretty sure that a dude who gets stranded on an island and has to survive on his own wasn’t an Average Joe or the usual circumstances in the 18th century.

Right so Professor asked us if we could think of any examples of early novels. I’m a timid wimpy anxious mess in class so I don’t say squat (and that’s terrible, I know), but from playing Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego I was always taught the first novel was The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu in the 11th century (which would make the first novelist a woman; Tumblr, go crazy). But some uppity MFA student decides to say “The Bible.”

The BIBLE

Alright listen up mothercluckers, we’re having a conversation about the Bible as literature and we’re going to dissect this.

1.) Whether or not you believe the Bible is the Holy Word of God or just a collection of nonsensical ancient out-of-touch writings is not the issue here. The fact is that the Bible is not written to be fiction. Whether or not the Bible is or is not fiction is a debate we’re not getting into, but it was not intended to be taken as a fictional story, so already this claim is full of crap.

2.) The Bible is not a book. This is a common misconception, so I’m going to repeat: the Bible is not a book. It’s a collection of books. A collection of very different books. Some are mythological stories of Creation and heroes passed down by oral tradition (and I mean mythological in the Tolkienian sense). Some of it is poetry. Some of it is law. Some of it is poetry. Some of it is history (whether the history is true is another YMMV thing we shan’t get into now). Some of it is biography. Some of it is fable. Some of it is prophecy. It’s not all prose, it’s not all by the same author, and all the parts of it are written independently (though many of them are written to relate to other parts).

In short, this is like me looking at your tenth grade literature textbook, with all its excerpts, poetry, short stories, and stupid discussion questions, and calling it a novel.

3.) This is sort of assertion is built entirely on anti-religious bias rather than any sort of critical understanding of Biblical texts. The Bible is not a novel. The Bible is nothing like a novel. And anyone who had even the basic understanding of what a novel is and what the Bible is (which a graduate student enrolled in a graduate level literature course should definitely have) would not say something so willfully ignorant or downright stupid.

Thanks.

I’m going to go rant about something else now.

#jurakan #grad school #literature #ramblings #Bible #novel #literary fiction

[sundayeveningthoughts]

3 Very Important Pieces of Art: Part 3 — Biblical Narrative

Sunday Evening Thoughts

April 28, 2019

             3 Very Important Pieces of Art: Part 3 — Biblical Narrative

Dear Rachel and Paul,

We have different gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. Romans 12:6-8.

There are many different types of art. For the last three weeks we have examined three: Painting, film, and for tonight, written narrative.

One of my favorite assignments when teaching high school was to ask the kids to call their oldest living grandparent, aunt, or uncle, and ask them about their earliest memories of their oldest relatives. So that now for many of them, they are going back almost a hundred years. One girl, I distinctly remember, chatted with her grandfather and recorded their conversation on the telephone. She was of Filipino descent, so he described growing up near Manila, and swimming among the coral reefs spear fishing. She was thrilled to hear his stories and about life in the Philippines in the “old times,” and shared his story with the class.

She got an A+.

I know I’ve told this story before in an earlier S.E.T., but it’s worth re-telling: Daddy Jack (your grandfather) had a scar on his fourth finger that went around his finger. He told us that when he was in WW II he was working a generator in the Pacific Ocean and his finger got caught in the pulley that wrapped around the motor. He said the generator accidentally cut-off his finger. He said he picked up his finger and went to see the medical corpsman on his ship who then sewed it back on. He said he has never had any feeling in the bottom half of his fourth finger since then, and that he could only bend it marginally straight.

Two old stories — life in the Philippines and life out at sea.

I believed Daddy Jack’s story exactly as he told the story — until about ten years ago. Then I started thinking, “Wait a minute! In 1944, on a small ship, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it would have been impossible to literally reattach a digit without serious microsurgery. I suspect there are only one or two places in all of Hampton Roads that could do that detailed surgery today, and they possess substantially better equipment and techniques to reattach all of the minute blood vessels and tendons.” “There is no way,” I reasoned, “a totally severed finger could be reattached under those circumstances in those days.”

I believe he told the truth. I think this is how he remembered it. Did he historically pick up a totally severed finger and have a medic sew it back? I doubt it.

The stories in the Bible are exactly like that — wonderful, artful narratives about great people who lived long, long ago. In other words, the Bible, both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, are great literary stories about great people. For the moment, try not to think of the stories as historically factual but what they truly represent. In other words, think of it as great art — beautiful, narrative art!

Robert Alter in his wonderful, insightful, complex book titled The Art of Biblical Narrative reveals the artistry in many, many places of the Hebrew Bible. He too wants readers to not concentrate on what literally happened (especially since we often cannot know, except by our own religious books), but to concentrate on what the author says in his/her writing. He also wants a little less emphasis on the Documentary Hypothesis Theory (four different schools/authors) and to see the whole narrative as presented. (I confess this last point is something I often overdo.)

Alter, also an ancient Hebrew scholar, notes the beauty of rhyme in many of the words and phrases often lost in any translation. He explains that the same stories are told and retold in many different books of the Bible.

Take the two stories of creation for example: The author, P (Priestly) of Genesis 1, uses a fully balanced scheme of words and phrases to explain his version: Day One this happens, this is the result, this is the cause; and each day is followed by the conjunction “and” to show the continuity of the whole story. Alter notes the very beginning of this story is told in typical ancient Near East fashion found in many ancient creation stories, “When God began to create heaven and earth…” Alter paints a beautiful portrait of ancient poetry and prose.

I discovered a newfound appreciation of the first creation story.

Alter provides example after example of scenes in the Hebrew Bible as beautiful ancient Hebrew narrative art.

Alter writes, “It seems perfectly plausible… the makers of biblical narrative gave pleasures of invention and expression because, whatever their sense of divinely warranted mission, they were, after all, writers, moved to work out their vision of human nature and history in a particular medium, prose fiction, over which they had a technical mastery…” p. 156.

Like Andy Warhol’s painting Campbell’s Soup Cans, like Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Godfather, the authors of the Hebrew Bible wrote fantastic narrative art.

If you want a little challenge this summer, grab a copy of The Art of Biblical Narrative. FYI: It is not something you will read in one sitting, but I believe it is something you will ultimately thoroughly enjoy!

Have a good evening!

Love,

Dad

P.S. Great books! With a little explanation of the background of the books in the Hebrew Bible, I believe they often come alive as great narrative art. And speaking of artists, this weekend in Virginia Beach, Pharrell Williams is hosting a three-day music festival called Out of the Water. Will he play this song?

[brochacho]

currently thinking about The Phase from every English class I’ve ever taken. the one where your teacher hands you the shortest story that’s the most messed up thing you’ve ever encountered and in less than three pages, too. the classic work where the realization of the timelessness of human longing hits you and never leaves. the one where you find your favorite poet and devour their sentiment with your entire being. the play that makes you realize the value of connection above all else.

#english class #poetry prose plays and prophecy #for me it’s #the blue lenses #the awakening #wisława szymborska #macbeth

[elsewhereuniversity]

FAQ and Tags Masterpost

What is Elsewhere University?

Elsewhere University is a university on a fairy hill, as first depicted in this comic I drew a year ago! People began asking questions about the world, and then writing stories and drawing art set within it, and then building on each other’s stories and on my answers about the world, and it’s become a big lovely sandbox (the second comic‘s entire purpose is to celebrate some of my favorite things that have grown exclusively out of the fandom). The various submitted stories aren’t necessarily compatible with each other, because there are currently well over 2k stories and asks building this world and expecting anyone to know all of that is absolutely mad. But they’re all built on the same base mythology of folklore+college weirdness outlined in the first comic.

Where can I find the original comic?

As part of my Tapastic series, or on my main blog. 

My ask/fortune/submission hasn’t shown up yet.

At the time of this writing, my inbox is around 2500, and roughly 3/4 of those are student asks. There’s going to be a bit of a wait before anything you submit sees the light of day (although stories will show up before fortunes do). I know it’s not ideal, but I will reach it eventually, I promise!

That said (given that this is tumblr) message me privately, off anon, if you’d like to make sure it hasn’t been eaten by the website. If you can give me a username or an exact phrase to ctrl+f, I’d be happy to check that it made it safely to my inbox! But if you send a find-it ask on anon, I won’t answer it - I get enough of those that it would clutter up the blog pretty badly.

Are there any guidelines for Elsewhere U fanworks?

The bare minimum - it should be readable with regards to grammar/spelling, it should be related to Elsewhere University, and, you know, don’t be an asshole. Don’t worry too much about continuity! Due to the sandbox nature of the project, that’s all a bit fuzzy anyway.

Fortunes should be about the size of a single ask.

Nothing made or sold for profit.

How should I get my submission to you?

One option is to submit a story through tumblr

Another is to publish it on your own blog, or on AO3 (there’s an official tag!) or somewhere else

If you opt for something other than submitting it through this blog, send me a link through messaging or an ask if you’d like to see it shared here!

You can try @’ing me but I’m not great at checking that. 

And lastly if you do post it somewhere else, please credit this blog or the original comic specifically. Thank you!

Types of posts

Stories - written prose submissions

Art - comics and illustrations of the world

Students and Charms - fortunes and futures

Vignettes - very short stories

Podcast - episodes of Elsewhere University Student News, a fan podcast

Tv Tropes Page

Poetry

Recs - Reader-submitted books/games/etc in the vein of this blog

Love letters to majors - submissions specifically regarding the ups and downs of a major

Newsletter - Elsewhere U newsletters and notices

Prophecies - vague, ominous, regarding the future

Advice - do

Warnings - do not

Original - my contributions to Elsewhere

GENERAL TAGS

Changelings - what the Fair Folk leave when they steal your roommate

The Forbidden Major - the (banned) study of the Fair Folk

Knights - students keeping the campus safe. Crusaders, mercenaries, and idealists.

Stolen Away - so you’ve gotten yourself kidnapped into a weird magical summer world

Deals - striking bargains

Debts - Owing

The Aftermath - Graduation and afterwards

Courtesies - the politics of please and thank you

Legacies - people who fit in better than they expected

The Treaty - Posts touching on the delicate agreement between the university and the Elsewhere

Belief - reality gets malleable here

Names - Names and their power. Full FAQ below.

PLACES

Location - where the fuck is this school, anyway (and a masterpost of the borders)

The Pool

The Library

The Theatre (and The Play)

The Dorms (dorm list/summary here)

The Forest

The Train Tracks

The River

The Wishing Well

The Greenhouse

The Unsea

Walmart

Denny’s

LIFE ON CAMPUS

Student Life - anything to do with day to day Elsewhere U existence

Majors - a full alphabetized list of majors and their standing with the Gentry at the end of this page

Prospective Students - why people come to EU

International Students - how they deal with this bullshit

Sports - what sports, where, and why they’re Off

Parties - hella revels

Food - “We must not look at goblin men, we must not buy their fruits: Who knows upon what soil they fed their hungry thirsty roots?”

Electronics - how that works out (or rather, doesn’t)

School Spirit, and on a related note the Mascot and the school Motto (full list of mottoes below)

Graduation

Greek Life

Holidays

Games

Sign Language

Marching Band

Clubs and Secret Societies

Student Witches

STAFF

Professors - who in their right minds would work here (list and summary of notable professors here)

RAs - Resident Advisors and their responsibilities

The Librarians

Administration

Groundskeepers - nonacademic staff. A statistically unlikely number own swords.

NOTABLE INDIVIDUALS AND PHENOMENA

The Foxy Lady

Jimothy

The Wyrm -the dragon sleeping under the condemned building in the western corner of the campus

Anna Monday

The Wild Hunt

The Washer at the Ford - she will tell you the time of your death, but only if you’re into that

Courts - here the year turns on Spring and Autumn

The Tall One - warning

Royalty - don’t speak of them

Cat-Eyes - purveyor of Seeing glasses

The Rose Prince

FOLKLORE

Protection - including iron, salt, and running water

The Sight - including modified glasses, silver, and mirrors

VARIOUS

Ghosts

Werewolves

Banshees

Brownies

Sirens

Selkies

Gremlins

Mermaids

Kelpies

ANIMALS

The Crows - Do Not Wrong The Crows

Pets - Fish, Cats, Dogs

Wildlife - Birds, Insects

Horses

School Mottos thus far (translations may be incorrect - I haven’t personaly checked them)

Cauti, Cordati, Auspicati - Wary, Wise, and Lucky

Cum Gladio Et Sale - With Sword and Salt

Fainiciúil, Ciallmhar, Ámhar - Wary, Wise, and Lucky

yn dilyn y seren - Following The Star

Beware the Lights

Swallow the Hidden Names

BLOOD AND BONES BLOOD AND BONES BLOOD AND BONES

Tine Agus Airgead - Fire and Silver          

כבדו את העורבים - Respect The Crows

Tha Iad Ag Innse Gun Bhreaug - They Tell No Lies

Carpe Nihil - Seize Nothing   

Iron and Salt - a warning 

Aspectum, Dolorem, Sacrificium - Sight, Sorrow, Sacrifice

Scientia Defendit Fideles - Knowledge protects the faithful

What Doesn’t Bend Will Break

Names FAQ

What’s a true name? The name that you consider to be truly yours; it’s highly personal and subjective.

Does the legal status of the name matter? No.

Can nicknames be true names? Yes.

Can you have more than one true name? How would that work? Yes. Depending on what each name meant to you, each true name might have power over you in its entirety, or each be part of a larger whole.

If I pronounce or spell my name differently/use a derivative or variation of my true name as a safe name, would that be safe? No. It wouldn’t have power over you, but it wouldn’t be hard to discover your true name.

What happens if someone speaks my true name? If you are given a command with your true name, you are compelled to obey it. This is only true in the Elsewhere and areas affected by it.

Can safe names influence a person over time? It’s unusual, but it’s happened.

Can a safe name become your true name? Yes; if you feel yourself becoming too attached to a safe name, it’s time to change it (not an uncommon event).

How does the school deal with safe names? Student IDs and role call lists for professors include the student number and the preferred name of a student. There’s a hard ban on obscenity, at least as far as the safe names in the school system go, but even so, they range from mundane to pop culture to total nonsense.

Would a name with negative associations be a good safe name? Yes, in the sense you’d never have to worry about growing too attached too it.

Is it possible to be nameless? Yes, which renders you invulnerable to this particular hazard. There are still plenty of other pitfalls, so overall the nameless don’t attract too much malice from the Gentry.

Is my last name part of my true name? It depends on the importance it holds for you. But even if it doesn’t signify anything, it’s recommended you keep all parts of your legal name secret in order to make it more difficult for anyone to find personal information on you.

How does the school protect true names? The administration offices are heavily guarded against both human and Elsewhere intruders, including but not limited to 24/7 guards, iron in all the walls, heavily password-protected computers, and formidable custom iron filing cabinets that hold all the paperwork they couldn’t avoid printing out.

Does everyone on campus go by a safe name? Almost everyone. There’s always a few skeptic freshman who don’t buy into what is presented as Elsewhere university’s ‘unique traditions’. The lucky ones are given nicknames by other students who persist until the skeptic has stopped protesting. The unlucky ones find out the hard way why you don’t want anyone to know your true name.

Majors

accounting majors

animal husbandry majors

anthropology majors

architecture majors

art majors 

art history majors

astrophysics majors

bio majors

biochem majors

biomech majors

business majors

chem majors

classics majors

comp sci majors

culinary arts majors

dance majors

econ majors

education majors

engineering students

english majors

environmental studies majors

film majors

forestry and wildlife majors

geology majors

history majors

humanities majors

journalism majors

language majors

law majors

math majors

midwives

military

mortuary science majors

music majors

philosophy majors

physics majors

poli-sci majors

pre-med majors - any medicine-related fields

pre-vet majors

psyche majors

smiths - the tag for shop class and metalworking

sociology majors

stats majors

textile majors

theatre majors

theology majors

Elsewhere University © 2017 Samantha Dow

#tags #faq

[seemecollective-blog]

Princess Cut

by: elizabeth bowie

What inspired you to write this poem? 

EB: In my class, we aren't allowed to write poems about anyone in class but it's still definitely an under-the-table callout for a very vocal Trump supporter who's always complaining we read too much feminist poetry. He's never engaged in that type of behavior with me personally but I've seen him do it to other people and I'm just so sick of it. Anyways, the previously mentioned guy in my class had written a very pointedly anti-feminist poem and I wanted to kind of... reply to that. He has a very weird, like, Britain fetish. And I had just realized I shared names with Elizabeth I and Anne Boleyn and I was like, wow, how renaissance feminist can you get?  So I wanted to write a poem that incorporated as many circumstances of my birth as possible and find strength in that, in my existence, to fight back against the other circumstances of my existence. Obviously being born female in our society is not stellar but there are other things-- like the prophecy in Macbeth that was fulfilled by Macduff since he was a C-section baby instead of "of woman born”-- that you can find power in. And I'm half Scottish so I also wanted to work that in. The poem is mostly about finding things about myself that I can use as weapons and protection because we are so often put in circumstances where that becomes necessary. The last bit about thistles, unicorns, and a woman's words have a specific reference too. Thistles and unicorns are Scotland's national flower and animal, so there's that. But they're also two things that are ordinarily considered quite delicate and have very obvious natural defense mechanisms, the thorns of the thistle and the horn of the unicorn-- in a similar fashion to how women have, in a sense, evolved to defend themselves. 

So, overall what’s your message to the public?

EB: I've also been reading, in my medieval romance class, how women's blood is treated in society as unclean and unnatural, but women bleed a lot more than men, in menstruation and in having a higher pain tolerance, so I wanted to really get to that point as well. No offense to men but y'all are weak. I think it's really important for women to find things about themselves that they can use for strength and protection, from parts of their sheer existence to specific circumstances of their birth and lifeI'm a princessy typa bitch so I've always been fascinated with royalty and stuff like that, as well. 

Do you think you'll continue using poetry as a means of empowering women and calling out sexism?

EB: Yes, absolutely! It's a really fun way to play around with words in ways prose doesn't reach, where you don't have to bend over backward to explain something in the text to any guys that are reading it. Poetry is almost a language of its own and feminist poetry especially, where you can say something that a certain group of people will immediately relate to and others might not even try to understand. My goal in my personal coda of feminism is not to reach out to men and hold their hands and explain why they should be nice to me; my goal is to help myself and other women see we don't need men to define our value. So I'm writing poems for girls, for women, that they can read and feel maybe a little more validated and empowered in being themselves.

[ao3feed-mythology]

Angolmois

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2Yfbp21

by Darkrealmist

A poem based on III’s evolution from Tsukumo Yuma’s tenacious enemy to his staunchest ally.

Words: 292, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 12 of Yu-Gi-Oh! Antagonist Prose

Fandoms: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Aztec Religion, Meso-American Religions & Oral Traditions, Indiana Jones Series

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen

Characters: III | Mihael Arclight, Tsukumo Yuuma, Dr. Faker, Tron | Byron Arclight, IV | Thomas Arclight, V | Chris Arclight, Kamishiro Ryouga, Nasch (Yu-Gi-Oh), Durbe (Yu-Gi-Oh), Kamishiro Rio, Merag (Yu-Gi-Oh), Shingetsu Rei, Vector (Yu-Gi-Oh), Alit (Yu-Gi-Oh), Gilag (Yu-Gi-Oh), Mizael (Yu-Gi-Oh), Tenjou Kaito, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon

Additional Tags: Acceptance, Action, Action/Adventure, Adventure, Age Regression/De-Aging, Alien Character(s), Aliens, Aliens Made Them Do It, Alien Technology, Anchors, Ancient History, Ancient Technology, Angels, Anger, Animalistic, Anime, Anthropology, Apocalypse, Archaeology, Armageddon, Armor, Asian Character(s), Ass-Kicking, Atlantis, Battle, Betrayal, Big Brothers, Bittersweet, Brotherhood, Brothers, Canon - Anime Dub, Canon Backstory, Canon Character of Color, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Card Games, Chains, Chaos, Character Development, Character(s) of Color, Character Study, Cities, Competition, Complete, Confrontations, Corruption, Cross-cultural, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cruelty, Cultural References, Curses, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Dark Fantasy, Dark Magic, Dead People, Destiny, Destruction, Destruction of Earth, Devotion, Dimension Travel, Disasters, Dolls, Double Entendre, Doubt, Drama, Duelling, Duel Monsters, During Canon, Electricity, Emotional, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt, Emotions, Endearments, End of the World, Enemies, Enemies to Friends, Episode Related, Family, Family Feels, Family Issues, Fanfiction, Fanservice, Fantasy, Fate, Fate & Destiny, Feelings, Feels, Female Antagonist, Female Character of Color, Feral Behavior, Ficlet, Fights, Fire, Flashbacks, Flying, Free Verse, Friends to Enemies, Gates of Hell, Guilt, Having Faith, Hearts, Hell, Heroes to Villains, Historical, Historical Fantasy, Historical References, Hurt, Indiana Jones References, In-Jokes, Japanese Character(s), Judgment, Justice, Kings & Queens, Lies, Literary References & Allusions, Little Brothers, Loss of Control, Loss of Innocence, Loyalty, Machines, Magic, Magic and Science, Magical Artifacts, Magic-Users, Male Antagonist, Male Character of Color, Male Protagonist, Masks, Miracles, Missions, Monsters, My First Work in This Fandom, Oaths & Vows, Occult, One Shot, Originally Posted Elsewhere, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Outer Space, Pain, Parallel Universes, Personal Growth, Planet Destruction, Poetry, Portals, POV Antagonist, Promises, Prophecy, Prophetic Visions, Prophets, Prose Poem, Protectiveness, Pseudonyms, Pseudoscience, Punishment, Puns & Word Play, Purgatory, Quantum Mechanics, Rebirth, References to Aztec Religion & Lore, References to Canon, Reflection, Regret, Reincarnation, Religious Content, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Reminiscing, Repaying Debt, Responsibility, Restraints, Resurrection, Revenge, Rituals, Ruler of Hell, Sacrifice, Scheming, Science, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Second Chances, Self-Acceptance, Self-Doubt, Self-Reflection, Self-Sacrifice, Series, Short, Short & Sweet, Siblings, Sins, Sins of the Father, Soul Bond, Souls, Spells & Enchantments, Sphinxes, Storms, Strategy & Tactics, Suffering, Summoning, Supernatural Elements, Superpowers, Survival, Swords, Tablets, Team, Team Up, Technology, Thunder and Lightning, Torture, Tragedy, Trapped, Treachery, Understanding, Underworld, Urban Fantasy, Vehicles, Villains, Villains to Heroes, Violence, Virtual Reality, Visions, Volcanoes, War, Weapons, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Wings, Wordcount: 100-500, Wordcount: 100-1.000, Wordcount: Under 10.000

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2Yfbp21

[thetruthseekerway]

An Unmet Challenge: The Qur’an

New Post has been published on http://www.truth-seeker.info/jewels-of-islam/unmet-challenge-quran/

An Unmet Challenge: The Qur’an

By Imam Kamil Mufti

The challenge is to produce a chapter (surah) similar to it, even if it were to be a cooperative effort.

The Evidence

Initially, the Meccan unbelievers said Muhammad is the author of the Qur’an. Allah responded to them:

“Or do they say, ‘He himself has composed this [message]’? No, but they are not willing to believe! But then, [if they deem it the work of a mere mortal,] let them produce another discourse like it – if what they say be true! [Or do they deny the existence of God implicitly by denying the fact of His revelation?] Have they themselves been created without anything – or were they, perchance, their own creators?” (Al-Tur 52:33-35)

First, Allah challenged them to produce ten chapters like the Qur’an:

“Or they may say, ‘He forged it,’ Say, ‘Bring ye then ten surahs forged, like unto it, and call (to your aid) whomsoever you can, other than Allah! – If you speak the truth!’ If then they answer not your (call), know you that this revelation is sent down with the knowledge of Allah, and that there is no god but He! Will you then submit (to Islam)?” (Hud 11:13-14)

But, when they were unable to meet the challenge of ten chapters, Allah reduced it to a single chapter:

“And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down on Our slave, then produce a surah thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you should be truthful. But if you do not – and you will never be able to – then fear the Fire whose fuel is men and stones, prepared for the unbelievers.” (Al-Baqarah 2:23-24)

Finally, Allah foretold their eternal failure to meet the divine challenge:

“Say: ‘If all mankind and all jinn[1] would come together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce its like even though they were to exert all their strength in aiding one another!’” (Al-Isra’ 17:88)

The Prophet of Islam said, “Every Prophet was given ‘signs’ because of which people believed in him. Indeed, I have been given the Divine Revelation that Allah has revealed to me. So, I hope to have the most followers of all the prophets on the Day of Resurrection” (Sahih Al-Bukhari).

The physical miracles performed by the prophets were time-specific, valid only for those who witnessed them, whereas the like of the continuing miracle of our Prophet, the Noble Qur’an, was not granted to any other prophet. Its linguistic superiority, style, clarity of message, strength of argument, quality of rhetoric, and the human inability to match even its shortest chapter until the end of time grant it an exquisite uniqueness. Those who witnessed the revelation and those who came after, all can drink from its fountain of wisdom. That is why the Prophet of Mercy hoped he will have the most followers of all the prophets, and prophesied that he would at a time when Muslims were few, but then they began to embrace Islam in floods. Thus, this prophecy came true.

Explanation of Qur’an’s Inimitability

State of the Prophet Muhammad

He was an ordinary human being.

He was [unlettered]. He could neither read nor write.

He was more than forty years old when he received the first revelation. Until then he was not known to be an orator, poet, or a man of letters; he was just a merchant. He did not compose a single poem or deliver even one sermon before he was chosen to be a prophet.

He brought a book attributing it to Allah, and all Arabs of his time were in agreement it was inimitable.

The Challenge of the Qur’an

The Qur’an puts a challenge out to anyone who opposes the Prophet. The challenge is to produce a chapter (surah) similar to it, even if it were to be a cooperative effort. A person may summon all the help he can from the physical and spiritual realms.

Why this Challenge?

First, Arabs were poets. Poetry was their supreme ornament and their most representative form of discourse. Arabic poetry was rooted in the oral; it was a voice before it acquired an alphabet. Poets could compose intricate poems spontaneously and commit thousands of lines to memory. Arabs had a complex system of evaluating a poet and the poetry to meet rigid standards. Annual competition selected the ‘idols’ of poetry, and they were engraved in gold and hung inside the Kaaba, alongside their idols of worship. The most skilled served as judges. Poets could ignite wars and bring truce between warring tribes. They described women, wine, and war like no one else.

Second, the opponents of the Prophet Muhammad were strongly determined to quash his mission in any way possible. Allah gave them a non-violent approach to disprove Muhammad.

Inability to Meet the Challenge and its Consequences

History is a witness that the pre-Islamic Arabs could not produce a single chapter to meet the challenge of the Qur’an.[2] Instead of meeting the challenge, they chose violence and waged war against him. They, of all people, had the ability and the motive to meet the Qur’anic challenge, but could not do so. Had they done so, the Qur’an would have proven false, and the man who brought it would have been exposed as a false prophet. The fact that the ancient Arabs did not and could not meet this challenge is proof of Qur’an’s inimitability. Their example is of a thirsty man next to a well, the only reason he dies of thirst is if he was unable to reach the water!

Furthermore, the inability of previous Arabs to meet the challenge of the Qur’an implies later Arabs are less competent to meet the challenge, due to their lack the mastery of classical Arabic that the previous, ‘classical’ Arabs had. According to linguists of the Arabic language, the Arabs before and during the time of the Prophet, in exclusion to subsequent generations, had the complete mastery of the Arabic language, its rules, meters, and rhymes. Later Arabs did not match the mastery of classical Arabs.[3]

Lastly, the challenge is for Arabs and non-Arabs alike. If the Arabs cannot meet the challenge, the non-speakers of Arabic cannot claim to meet the challenge either. Hence, the inimitability of the Qur’an is established for non-Arabs as well.

What if someone were to say: ‘perhaps the challenge of the Qur’an was met by someone at the time of the Prophet, but the pages of history did not preserve it.’?

Since the beginning, people have reported important events to their succeeding generations, especially in that which captures attention or what people are looking out for. The Qur’anic challenge was well spread and well known and had someone get it, it would have been impossible for it not to have reached us. If it has been lost in the annals of history, then, for the sake of argument, it is also possible that there was more than one Moses, more than one Jesus, and more than one Muhammad; perhaps many scriptures were also revealed to these imaginary prophets, and it is possible the world knows nothing about it! Just like these suppositions are unfounded historically, it is also unreasonable to imagine that the Qur’anic challenge was met without it reaching us.[4]

Second, had they met the challenge, the Arabs would have discredited the Prophet. It would have been their biggest propaganda tool against him. Nothing like this happened, instead, they chose war.

The fact that no effort of the non-Muslim has succeeded in ‘producing a verse’ like a verse of the Qur’an means that either no-one has taken the Qur’an seriously enough to make the effort, or that they made the effort, but were not successful. This shows the inimitability of the Qur’an, a unique and everlasting message. The uniqueness of the Qur’an combined with the divine message it brings to mankind is a sure indication of the truth of Islam. In the face of this, every person is faced with one of the two choices. He either openly accepts the Qur’an is Allah’s Word. In doing so he must also accept that Muhammad was sent by Allah and was His Messenger. Or else he secretly knows the Qur’an is true, but he chooses in his heart to refuse it. If the seeker is honest in his seeking, he needs but explore this question of its inimitability to nurture the inner certainty that he has really found the final truth in the religion it predicates.

    FOOTNOTES:

[1] Invisible beings with parallel existence to humans.

[2] The fact is attested to by non-Muslim Orientalists.

‘That the best of Arab writers has never succeeded in producing anything equal in merit to the Qur’an itself is not surprising…’ (E H Palmer (Tr.), The Qur’an, 1900, Part I, Oxford at Clarendon Press, p. lv).

‘…and no man in fifteen hundred years has ever played on that deep-toned instrument with such power, such boldness, and such range of emotional effect as Mohammad did…As a literary monument the Qur’an thus stands by itself, a production unique to the Arabic literature, having neither forerunners nor successors in its own idiom…’.’ (H A R Gibb, Islam – A Historical Survey, 1980, Oxford University Press, p. 28).

And Christian Arabs:

‘Many Christian Arabs speak of its style with warm admiration, and most Arabists acknowledge its excellence. When it is read aloud or recited it has an almost hypnotic effect that makes the listener indifferent to its sometimes strange syntax and its sometimes, to us, repellent content. It is this quality it possesses of silencing criticism by the sweet music of its language that has given birth to the dogma of its inimitability; indeed it may be affirmed that within the literature of the Arabs, wide and fecund as it is both in poetry and in elevated prose, there is nothing to compare with it.’ (Alfred Guillaume, Islam, 1990 (Reprinted), Penguin Books, pp. 73-74)

[3] Rummani (d. 386 AH), a classical scholar, writes: ‘So if someone were to say: “You rely in your argumentation on the failure of the Bedouin Arabs, without taking into account the post-classical Arabs; yet, according to you, the Qur’an is a miracle for all. One can find in the post-classical Arabs excellence in their speech”, the following can be said in reply, “The Bedouin had developed and had full command of the complete grammatical structure of Arabic but among the post-classical Arabs there are none who can use the full structure of the language. The Bedouin Arabs were more powerful in their use of the full language. Since they failed in the imitation of the Qur’an, so the post-classical Arabs must fail to an even greater extent.”‘ (Textual Sources for the Study of Islam, tr. and ed. by Andrew Rippin and Jan Knappart)

[4] The argument was made by al-Khattabi (d.388 AH).

———–

Taken with slight editorial modifications from islamreligion.com.

#Allah #An Unmet Challenge: The Qur’an #Arabs #challenge #Featured #inimitability of the Qur’an #Islam #Miracles of the Quran #non-Arabs #Prophet Muhammad