#haven't heard of infected mushroom in a while | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

venndaai · 3 months ago

Text

I don’t have the energy or eloquence to write a good Defense of Leila Kalomi, and also I haven’t watched the episode in years, but for me it’s one of those things where, yes, in-universe Leila is objectively in the wrong- she nonconsensually drugs Spock, and even though she herself was in an altered state at the time, shows no remorse once sober.

But it's entangled with the meta weight of TOS’s struggle with the cultural anxieties of 60s America, especially around hippies, drugs, and sexual liberation. There’s this recurrent theme in TOS of the show grappling with this perceived conflict between Protestant work ethic/productivity, technological progress, emotional repression and alienation vs. hedonistic pleasure, community and peaceful leisure. The Devil in the Dark, The Apple, The Way to Eden among many others all frame and resolve this staged conflict in very different ways. This Side of Paradise is one of my favorites because I'm fascinated by the angle it takes.

Thanks to mind-altering spores, the Omicron Ceti III settlers are living in paradise- perfectly happy and healthy, self sufficient, communal, and sustaining themselves rather than dominating their natural environment. This paradise is incompatible with the Federation's ideology and must be destroyed, which Kirk proceeds to do. The settlers themselves agree with this, once they've lost the effect of the spores.

The last scene is genuinely haunting.

MCCOY: Well, that's the second time man's been thrown out of paradise. KIRK: No, no, Bones. This time we walked out on our own. Maybe we weren't meant for paradise. Maybe we were meant to fight our way through. Struggle, claw our way up, scratch for every inch of the way. Maybe we can't stroll to the music of the lute. We must march to the sound of drums. SPOCK: Poetry, Captain. Non-regulation. KIRK: We haven't heard much from you about Omicron Ceti Three, Mister Spock. SPOCK: I have little to say about it, Captain, except that for the first time in my life I was happy.

Spock's infection by the spores is not framed as a violation, but as a liberation. There's a fantasy element to it similar to some kink scenarios- Spock is pollened against his will, but it allows him to experience the happiness of doing what he would want to do if he were free of all repression and responsibility. It's implied that he always felt an affinity for Leila, but was previously unable to act on it. "I love you. I can love you." His idyllic, bucolic time with her is contrasted with his "responsibility to that man on the Bridge" and Kirk destroying his happy state with a vicious string of racial slurs (that he does not actually apologize for).

Like the relationship between Cochrane and the Companion in "Metamorphosis", I relate to Spock and Leila not as an example of forced heterosexuality but as a poignant queer metaphor, especially when I watched it for the first time as a queer teenager. Leila represents the fantasy of love, joy and acceptance that Spock secretly longs for, while Kirk is the reality of his closeted, repressed and unhappy life. (There's also a gendered aspect to the insults Kirk hurls at him- "simpering", "you've got the gall to make love to that girl," "does she know what she's getting? A carcass full of memory banks who should be squatting in a mushroom, instead of passing himself off as a man?" Connected to the racial element of course.)

also maybe I'm totally unhinged about this, but there's just something queer to me about the physicality of their relationship

idk there's just something super bittersweet and melancholy about it that does add a special je ne sais quoi to Spock's larger journey of eventually overcoming his repression and finding deeper happiness with Kirk.

also Leila wears overalls which makes her practically butch by TOS standards. lol.

#star trek blogging #tos blogging

5 notes · View notes

lindagoesmushrooming · 3 years ago

Note

ik literally nothing ab mushrooms but could the green stem be a sort of like, mushroom infection or contamination or smth? just a random though i had

(This is cont. to this ask)

I'm not a mycologist either, just an enthusiast and photographer, so I am not 100% about this, but I honestly haven't heard of something like that happening? A neon green mushroom is totally realistic, but it having a red cap is throwing me off, I just can't think of such species. Then again there are thousands of mushroom species I haven't laid my eyes on, so who knows. 🤷

A lot of mushrooms change their color when they're getting older or they're "hurt", or worm-ridden. Usually it's from white to yellow, white/yellow to brown, or white to black, white/yellow/orange to dark blue/bluish green.

I, however, don't know what happens to mushrooms if they're, say, contaminated with radiation or something. I know they do absorb radiation, but I don't know how it affects them. (I doubt there's a visual manifestation of that.)

Lichen and moss can also grow on mushrooms, making them green, but that usually happens with perennial fungi that grow on trees or dead wood, e.g., phellinus pini or lenzites betulina. The mushroom needs to be around for a while for that being possible.

#this green stemmed red capped mushroom won't let me sleep at night lol #info #kinda

31 notes · View notes

pillowspace · 2 years ago

Note

Ah those are all so cool!! <3 I listened to all of them all the way through, except for the playlist BUT I did listen to 11 minutes of it

I especially enjoyed The Deadly Elegant Dark Cabaret Folk Song Collection and Fear & Delight. With the playlist, when I saw how long it was, I was like "ah! Okay. I'll watch a minute or two then." Boom, 11 minutes have instantly gone by. And I swear I've heard Fear & Delight in a character playlist before, but I have no idea which character (it might've been a... Michael Distortion playlist...? Maybe??)

I actually haven't heard any other Infected Mushroom songs before! I got curious while listening to The Rat and decided to search up their other songs. I find it funny that they in fact have several songs with MILLIONS of views, and the only one I knew about was the 27k one. Killing Time was also from a fan playlist. A Marble Hornets one. Like 99% of my music comes from animations and random fan playlists I pick up

"I added some songs I think you'd like" set of words to make me look up at you with the biggest eyes

Unashamedly and unabashedly post song lists and playlists, you need no reason to subject everyone to your music tastes. You could introduce someone to their new favorite song and that's enough reason. What are you waiting for, be free!

YOU ARE SO RIGHT!! What banger songs am I unleashing upon the world today