asmiraofsheba

[asmiraofsheba]

Y'all want to know what thought is fucking with me today?

Parrots can learn the concept of questions. I don't know about the claim that chimpanzees that were taught sign language never learned to ask questions, or the theory that it simply wouldn't occur to them that the human handlers might know things that they personally do not, or that whatever information they have might be worth knowing. But I don't even remember where I read that, and at best it's an anecdote of an anecdote, but anyway, parrots.

The exact complexity of natural parrot communication in the wild is beyond human understanding for the time being, but you can catch glimpses of how complex it is by looking at how much they learn to pick up from human speech. Sure, they figure out that this sound means this object, animal, person, or other thing. Human says "peanut" and presents a peanut, so the sound "peanut" means peanut. Yes. But if you make the same sound with a rising intonation, you are inquiring about the possibility of a peanut.

A bird that's asking "peanut?" knows there is no peanut physically present in the current situation, but hypothetically, there could be a peanut. The human knows whether there will be a peanut. The bird knows that making this specific human sound with this specific intonation is a way of requesting for this information, and a polite way of informing the human that a peanut is desired.

"I get a peanut?" is a polite spoken request. There is no peanut here, but there could be a peanut. The bird knows that the human knows this. But without the rising intonation of a question, the statement "I get a peanut." is a firm implied threat. There is no peanut here, but there better fucking be one soon. The bird knows that the human knows this.

[asmiraofsheba]

lol apparently I taught my parrot that "are you okay?" "yeah, thanks" is a call-and-response phrase and now if you answer with anything other than "yeah, thanks" he gets upset and keeps asking it an attempt to get you to say the "right" answer.

[asmiraofsheba]

VI Favourite death scene

In the last few hours, Nathaniel had had put forcefully in his brain a good amount of quite loud memories, opinions and thoughts. It was difficult, not to say impossible, ignore them: he had in his head a steady hum, commenting on everything.

So it came as a surprise hearing silence; it lasted only the time of half beat, of course, but it did strike him, almost destabilized him. Then came a tangled streaming of emotions and memories.

Nathaniel was able to decipher only few scenes: a sumptuous hall where it seemed to take place a wild food battle, two men squatting under a stone block in the middle of the desert, and thousands and thousands of arguments, skirmishes, insults in as many languages and ages.

It was difficult getting his head around, but Nathaniel felt underneath the chaos a very familiar emotion: grief.

Nathaniel knew he wasn’t very good at comforting people, not to say thousand-year-old spirits which he had fought (using a euphemism) with just an hour ago; about comforting over the death of a spirit gone crazy, that had tried to kill them, but that, clearly, Bartimaeus had known since the night of times… Well, Nathaniel was sure even Kitty would have had some difficulties.

The last thought raised a mental snort from Bartimaeus. It was really irritating not being able to ruminate in peace.

You’re telling me.

Bartimaeus, I…

Let it go, Nat. It’s… weird, that’s all. I knew him since the beginning. Always around meddling and stealing my job or badmouthing me in front of pharaohs… classic. A shame it’s ended like this, though. I wanted to beat him up a little. Get revenge for the story of the fish soup, you know.

Oh, so it was him that put you in so wretched shape? Have you been defeated by a skinny guy?

You know very well he wasn’t human and you put me in such conditions I looked like a mop.

Nathaniel hid a smile. If you say so. To me, he seemed a pretty powerful djinni.

All appearances. A pause. He was pretty good at cooking, though. Human food, too.

Too?

Well, usually just humans.

[asmiraofsheba]

Thinking about Kitty being the first person since Ptolemy to trust Bartimaeus completely and care about him as his own entity and how as a result Bartimaeus would do literally anything for her

Thinking about Bartimaeus seeing Ptolemy's face for the first time in over 2000 years but it's just Nathaniel's memory of Bartimaeus in Ptolemy's form

[asmiraofsheba]

I love how late in Ptolemy's Gate Bartimaeus mocks Nat and humans for being so attached to everything, like pff. silly mortals—

"Had the boy been there alone, without my prompting presence, would he have acted with such speed against the bodies of his fellow ministers? Despite their deformities, their slack faces and oddly angled limbs, I doubt it. He was a human; always, always humans gravitate to surfaces."

And he even makes fun of Nat, pointing out he didn't even like these people in the first place

But hey wait look not twenty pages later when it's time to kill one of his oldest friends enemies ...acquaintances and (emphasis mine):

"He made some movement or other with his fleshy body; I don't remember what. I did nothing, but I was conscious of the boy's immediate command. A stab of pure white light—it faded, vanished, scoured Faquarl from the Earth."

hmmm. did someone get attached there? almost like you couldn't act, even though this was someone you knew and hated? did someone form an emotional attachment bart? hmmmm?

[asmiraofsheba]

When Ptolemy says that Bartimaeus is as free as a djinn can be on Earth because his summoning didn't include a protection clause and Bart realizes that it never even occurred to him to kill Ptolemy...

[asmiraofsheba]

Bartimaeus: yeah I can't stand humans or being summoned ideally I'd just be floating in the undifferentiated ether. The fact I immediately show sympathy and interest in humans who aren't magicians and clearly love conversation and talking, two things that cannot happen in an undifferentiated ether, are irrelevant.

[asmiraofsheba]

Something about magicians in Bartimaeus Sequence erasing their own names for self protection is so Tasty. In order to perpetuate that violence, to treat demons (and commoners) as less than human, they must first symbolically make themselves unperson. So many cultures practiced damnatio memoriae as one of the worst punishments and they did it to themselves. If you are alive as long as your name is spoken they are dead long before they die.

[asmiraofsheba]

hi. i made some images.

feel free to take them and use for whatever you may need them for. no credit required

[asmiraofsheba]

[asmiraofsheba]

It's baby's first political intrigue. It's ultra-slowburn enemies-to-frenemies. It's a tragedy. It's a comedy. It's the most aromantic urban fantasy series you'll ever read. It's anti-imperialism for kids. It has footnotes on every other page. It's satire. It's genuine. It's fake history. It will punch you in the gut.

You agree. Read it.

[asmiraofsheba]

[asmiraofsheba]

[asmiraofsheba]

happy pride

[asmiraofsheba]

Happy belated New Year! This is Bart and Nat. I finally got around to painting this year. As usual, color illustrations are soooo difficult and present many challenges. In Japan, the translated versions of Scarlett and Browne Vol.2 will be out at the end of February and the mobile version(and e-book, perhaps) of Ring of Solomon at the beginning of March. I am looking forward to it!

[asmiraofsheba]

Pardon the brief outburst of insanity but I still cannot get over the lineup of Bartseq's human villains. They're all perfectly suited to their purpose and setting, yeah, and you know what they represent and the role they play, but there's always something so deeply, deeply, wonderfully bizarre about them:

AoS: Simon Lovelace - a slimy manipulative asshole who wants to take over and rule the place. He also appears to be the only magician around in a semi-functional, affectionate parental relationship with his former master.

GE: Henry Duvall - the chief of police and an authoritarian, warmongering asshole who doesn't care about the lives he ruins on his way to power. He also happens to be a furry who tells other furries what to do.

PG: Quentin Makepeace - the unassuming yet deadly mastermind who's been hiding in plain sight all along and planning to unleash an invasion of body-snatching spirits unto London. He is also a theatre kid and writes questionable human/spirit plays for propaganda.

RoS: For the sake of everyone's sanity I will end the post here.

[asmiraofsheba]

we really went from "women and girls can do anything" to im just a girl i only do girl math im a passenger princess i dont drive i dont eat i just do haha girl dinner im so sillyyyy i wear makeup bc i want to i also try and define all women into categories that are marketable omg what if we were just girls and we were so useless and helpless