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[earth-yourself]

I’m going to be an artist that

i’m going to be an artist that explores sound and acoustics and vibrations and form and sculpture on a huge scale. i’m going to be contacted by large organizations. i will also write about art critically and intelligently, anyone who reads something I’ve written will find something fresh and thought provoking.

[earth-yourself]

date the person who says, “have fun, be safe, and call if you need anything” not the person who gets mad at you for going out w/o them

[earth-yourself]

Interiors from SOLARIS (1972).

[earth-yourself]

[earth-yourself]

[earth-yourself]

[earth-yourself]

مقتبس من حليب أسود ل اليف شافاق

[earth-yourself]

أخشى أن تمر حياتي وأنا أتجاوز فترات مختلفة من الضغط والتعب والتفكير، أخشى أن يمر ربيع شبابي دون أن أقول لنفسي "أخيرًا لقد أنتهى كل شيء".

أحمد خالد توفيق

[earth-yourself]

[earth-yourself]

الشعور الأسوأ على الإطلاق أن تغيب رغبتك في شرح ما يحدث بداخلك رغم ضجيجه، صامت وعاجز، بركان من الضجيج يحدث بداخلك وأنت في قمة هدوئك .

[earth-yourself]

[earth-yourself]

Circulatory system (left) and nervous system. The American Museum of Natural History : pictorial guide. 1967. 

[earth-yourself]

HES SO CUTE

[earth-yourself]

If you want to understand why Evangelion has endured for decades while countless other seasonal anime have fallen by the wayside, there’s a particular moment from episode 17 that you should really consider. In the grand scheme of things, it’s really not an important moment at all, just a stepping stone en route to the greater plot. Toji and the class rep see each other in the classroom following Toji learning that he’s to be the Fourth Pilot, and he’s clearly got a lot on his mind because, well, who wouldn’t after getting that kind of news. But the class rep talks to him regardless, and we learn that Toji always buys lunch from the school store since no one’s around to cook for him and he never learned how. So the class rep starts talking about how she always makes food for her sisters, and she always has leftover ingredients once she’s done… and Toji, recognizing where she’s going with this, instantly agrees to let her cook lunches for him before she can officially make the offer herself. No big realization, no stunned reactions, just an acknowledgement of this obvious truth she’s building to and an acceptance of her attempt at an emotional connection.

Like I said, not a big moment. But everything about what makes this show’s script so enduring is encapsulated here. Too many anime struggle with making their characters feel realistically human, often settling for cartoonish exaggeration instead. Anime characters tend to be really dense, to miss obvious cues and be unable to react reasonably to rational situations. But here, we have the stereotypical dumb, brash punk character, at his most distracted and emotionally vulnerable moment, easily able to recognize what the class rep is trying to tell him- not even having to put any effort in, he just sees where her train of thought is headed- and responds to it with a reasonable reaction. Because if you were a normal person in that situation, that’s how you would react as well.

Evangelion is full of moments like this. Moments where the kids act like actual kids would in the situations they find themselves in, where their responses actually feel true to life. And none of them are played up or dramatized as massive, life-changing events; they’re just allowed to be, in the naturalistic, off-handed way that real life actually occurs. This is why this show has lasted as long as it has; it captures reality in the way it presents its world and characters, a vision of a fantastical future that carries the same social atmosphere and depth of everyday human nuance as our own mundane, ordinary lives. It’s baked into every single character, every single setting, every single conversation, and every single design detail. Evangelion doesn’t seek to dramatize the real; it just is real, and the drama comes from how that reality is forced into the pressure cooker of this seemingly hopeless war. All aspiring writers, if you want to learn how to write realism in your stories, study the fuck out of Evangelion. Because despite the giant robots and whack-ass Biblical apocalypses, it’s countless times more real than pretty much any other anime.

[earth-yourself]

[earth-yourself]

[earth-yourself]