manka437

[manka437]

SUPER/HÉROE

Leyendo Future Quest (2016-2017) y Green Lantern/Green Arrow (1970-1972) y viendo Infini-T Force (2017) me di cuenta de algo, y es que me resultaba tremendamente refrescante leer relatos de corte clásico sobre el heroísmo.

Algo que uno imaginaría sería la norma ya no lo es, debido a que llevamos varias décadas bajo la influencia de obras muy populares que subvierten y critican los fundamentos del género. En la era en que vivimos las historias clásicas parecen a los ojos de muchos desconectadas con la realidad.

Para examinar esa idea, intentaré explicar lo mejor que pueda los dos fundamentos que yo creo una historia de superhéroes debe entender.

Las tres historias mencionadas al inicio son del tipo crossover. Future Quest e Infini-T Force reúnen las series de aventuras no interconectadas de Hanna-Barbera y Tatsunoko, respectivamente, mientras que Green Lantern/Green Arrow es un crossover dentro de un mismo universo ficticio donde ambos héroes ocupan rincones muy diferentes, el espacio exterior y las calles.

SUPER

Debería ser evidente que la historia superheroica es necesariamente metafórica. Puede ser una metáfora de muchas cosas, pero desde el comienzo (por ejemplo, Superman o Spider-Man) ha sido sobre alguien con habilidades extraordinarias que se enfrenta a amenazas extraordinarias, pero también a problemas cotidianos.

Future Quest cuenta con extraterrestres, seres interdimensionales, poderes basados en culturas antiguas y también robots gigantes. Los amenazas también son de ese estilo, pero la historia termina hablando de ideas que sí se conectan con nosotros, como la colaboración más allá de las diferencias (Y entra también en el goce de los poderes, algo casi pueril que siento que también se ha perdido). En Infini-T Force los héroes que se transforman vienen de diferentes dimensiones y tienen poderes fantásticos, pero lo crucial es que ayuden a la joven protagonista a ver que vale la pena vivir.

Y bueno, entonces, ¿qué onda con Green Lantern/Green Arrow, que es histórica por abordar de forma directa problemáticas sociales? Si bien Green Lantern y Green Arrow pueden resolver un caso, la naturaleza humana no cambia, y su lucha eterna sigue, por lo mismo. Y bueno, si el superhéroe arregla los problemas sociales… ¿no privará eso a cada uno de sus libertades individuales? 

Entonces cuando un autor empieza a hacer preguntas como “¿por qué el héroe no arregla definitivamente este problema social o de desastres naturales?” entramos en problemas, porque, al igual que con cualquier otro género, hay ciertas preguntas que no deben hacerse o se rompe la estructura. En particular esto me parece relevante porque pierde el punto central, que no tiene que ver con la fantasía sino con la realidad: en la realidad no habrá un extraterrestre que detenga los tsunamis cuando ocurran, entonces una historia donde arregle todos los problemas no nos sirve de mucho.

Los poderes son parte de la metáfora, los conflictos también lo son. No se puede equiparar el mundo de una obra superheroica con el mundo real en una relación 1:1. Mientras las metáforas hablen del mundo real, no es necesario que los elementos de la historia sean equivalentes absolutos de los nuestros.

HÉROE

Esta idea se diluye cada vez más entre los protagonistas sarcásticos y desafectados (y a veces, psicópatas) que pueblan el cine y la televisión del género, pero creo que la nobleza del superhéroe debiera seguir siendo la norma. No significa rehuir de complejidad moral, pero como estas historias son metafóricas, el carácter del héroe debería seguir siendo algo a lo que aspirar. Efectivamente Superman actúa en una escala diferente a Spider-Man, y Peter Parker es más falible que Kal-El/Clark Kent, pero mientras ambos apunten hacia la misma dirección, nosotros también podemos hacerlo.

Ya es cliché la lección que de Stan Lee (y después del tío Ben) de que un gran poder debe conllevar una gran responsabilidad. La otra parte que no se declara, pero se ilustra, es la aceptación de la pérdida, a la larga el sacrificio. En Infini-T Force los villanos son aquellos que no pueden aceptar la pérdida y aferrándose a lo que ya se fue cometen actos atroces. Los héroes pasan por el mismo proceso pero eligen dejar ir y avanzar.

Future Quest tiene un acercamiento similar, donde los variopintos héroes tienen una decencia y caballerosidad (incluidas las mujeres) que les permite unir sus esfuerzos. Green Lantern/Green Arrow es un poco diferente debido a que comienza en un enfrentamiento ideológico entre Hal y Ollie, pero la clave es que al expresar sus puntos de vista opuestos, hay una dialéctica y logran una síntesis productiva, no declaran una guerra civil entre los héroes. La razón por la que agrupo estos dos títulos en este párrafo es porque en ambos hay héroes con y sin poderes fantásticos, pero eso no impide que la historia funcione, porque lo que en verdad importa en una historia de superhéroes, es esa parte de al final.

______

No quiero ser pedante, nunca me propuse tener estándares respecto a las historias de superhéroes, pero supongo que después de leer y ver tantas, se va perfilando una preferencia y hasta creencia. Sobre todo de nobleza, que creo que debe ser preservada. Porque al final estas historias son para que podamos aguantar y avanzar nosotros.

[manka437]

neocities guide - why you should build your own html website

do you miss the charm of the 90s/00s web where sites had actual personality instead of the same minimalistic theme? are you feeling drained by social media and the constant corporate monopoly of your data and time? do you want to be excited about the internet again? try neocities!!

what is neocities?

neocities is a free hosting website that lets you build your own html website from scratch, with total creative control. in their own words: "we are tired of living in an online world where people are isolated from each other on boring, generic social networks that don't let us truly express ourselves. it's time we took back our personalities from these sterilized, lifeless, monetized, data mined, monitored addiction machines and let our creativity flourish again."

why should I make my own website?

web3 has been overtaken by capitalism & conformity. websites that once were meant to be fun online social spaces now exist solely to steal your data and sell you things. it sucks!! building a personal site is a great way to express yourself and take control of your online experience.

what would I even put on a website?

the best part about making your own site is that you can do literally whatever the hell you want! focus on a specific subject or make it a wild collection of all your interests. share your art! make a shrine for one of your interests! post a picture of every bird you see when you step outside! make a collection of your favorite blinkies! the world is your oyster !! here are some cool example sites to inspire you: recently updated neocities sites | it can be fun to just look through these and browse people's content! space bar | local interstellar dive bar creature feature | halloween & monsters big gulp supreme peanutbuttaz | personal site dragodiluna linwood | personal site patho grove | personal site

getting started: neocities/html guide

sound interesting? here are some guides to help you get started, especially if you aren't familiar with html/css sadgrl.online webmastery | a fantastic resource for getting started with html & web revival. also has a layout builder that you can use to start with in case starting from scratch is too intimidating web design in 4 minutes | good for learning coding basics w3schools | html tutorials templaterr | demo & html for basic web elements eggramen test pages | css page templates to get started with sadgrl background tiles | bg tiles rivendell background tiles | more free bg tiles

fun stuff to add to your site

want your site to be cool? here's some fun stuff that i've found blinkies-cafe | fantastic blinkie maker! (run by @transbro & @graphics-cafe) gificities | internet archive of 90s/00s web gifs internet bumper stickers | web bumper stickers momg | gif gallery 99 gif shop | 3d gifs 123 guestbook | add a guestbook for people to leave messages cbox | add a live chat box moon phases | track the phases of the moon gifypet | a little clickable page pet adopt a shroom | mushroom page pet tamaNOTchi | virtual pet crossword puzzle | daily crossword imood | track your mood neko | cute cat that chases your mouse pollcode | custom poll maker website hit counter | track how many visitors you have

web revival manifestos & communities

also, there's actually a pretty cool community of people out there who want to bring joy back to the web! melonland project | web project/community celebrating individual & joyful online experiences. Also has an online forum melonland intro to web revival | what is web revival? melonking manifesto | status cafe | share your current status nightfall city | online community onio.cafe | leave a message and enjoy the ambiance sadgrl internet manifesto | yesterweb internet manifesto | sadly defunct, still a great resource reclaiming online social spaces | great manifesto on cultivating your online experience

in conclusion

i want everyone to make a neocities site because it's fun af and i love seeing everyone's weird personal sites that they made outside of the control of capitalism :) say hi to me on neocities

EDIT: part 2!!

[manka437]

pro tip: if you don’t know how to end your story, throw in an explosion. no one will notice the plot holes if there’s fire.

[manka437]

editing is just past me vs. present me in a cage fight over who made worse decisions.

[manka437]

penelope warrior au

[manka437]

imagine if people still took last names from their trade like fisher, smith and fletcher. imagine some guy introducing himself to you as jonathan podcaster

[manka437]

not sure if this will make sense to anyone besides me but: the antidote to negativity is not positivity, its warmth

[manka437]

Did covers for the three absolutely wack and inventive collaborative comics the students of my Storytelling course did last semester.

[manka437]

how’s everyone doin tonight i just broke tumblr

[manka437]

hey dude im on Loves You island and all of your friends are here too. what time are u planning on getting here? we are gonna order pizza

[manka437]

you can pry starting sentences with 'and' or 'but' out of my cold, dead hands

[manka437]

reading a good interesting book after a horrible reading slump and suddenly you can feel the sun shining again and the sky is more beautiful than ever and birds are all singing songs to you

[manka437]

20 Low effort meaningful comments to leave on fics when you can’t think of anything to say that most authors love and appreciate (and you will too).

1.) Thank you for writing this!

2.) This really helped distract me from the horrors of reality, thank you for writing it!

3.) I really really really loved this.

4.) <3

5.) Literal keyboard mash q3kjt2uh0erjiurjfnejkrgnkejoiiueirnf!!!!

6.) My favorite part was when they ____.

7.) I laughed at ____.

8.) How dare you! /affectionate.

9.) I am very excited to read this story in its entirety!

10.) I really enjoyed the first __ chapters, I cannot wait for more!

11.) This gave me everything I was hoping for!

12.) 10/10 fic, thanks for writing!

13.) I am going to be thinking about this fic for a long time, thank you for writing!

14.) This made me feel a lot of emotions and I cannot describe them, so thank you for that. I really enjoyed this.

15.) This was the best ride I haven taken in a long time, wow! Thank you for writing this.

16.) If I had the ability to bind this as a real book I would, I loved it so much.

17.) I'm not good with words but I just loved this so much.

18.) This is complete perfection.

19.) I am in awe of how you described ____.

20.) This means so much to me that you wrote this. Thank you.

The more you comment, the better you will get at it and the more enjoyment and fulfillment you will received out of saying thank you.

[manka437]

someone said we had more fun in childhood because we didnt have any past memories to linger on and it has stuck with me ever since

[manka437]

practical writing advice

part 2

avoid writing in bed if you can. writing in bed is the mind-killer. writing in bed is the little death that brings obliteration. you may think "but i can write AND be cozy" you will get sleepy so fast. 98% of the time when i try to get a nighttime writing session done in bed i go to sleep. maybe 70% of the time if it's an afternoon writing session. also it fucking kills your wrists.

STRETCH before writing. stretch as many parts of your body as possible ESPECIALLY YOUR WRISTS! i have chronic tendonitis in both of my arms from not doing this and it is manageable but it is Not Fun!

plug your phone in on the other side of the room. better yet, plug it in and leave it in another room. better yet, power it off and leave it in another room. "i'll just check one quick thing" do not underestimate the power of the doomscroll.

do a warmup. look up writing prompts (i like one-word prompts or prompts that focus on a general theme as it's easier to integrate into my writing style), set a timer for fifteen minutes, or ten, or five, and go ham. make it shitty or incomprehensible, as long as you make it. create a dump document for all your warmups. i currently have two novels in the works that started as one of these fifteen minute little warmups.

pick your background noise ahead of time if you use it, and look for something long. i listen to 3-hour-long silent hill ambient mixes on youtube dot com.

take breaks. around every 45 minutes, as i'm noticing myself begin to lose focus, i get up, grab a drink, get my blood flowing, and give myself some space to breathe.

sometimes i sit down to write and i think "every atom in my body is averse to doing this right now. i would rather dance barefoot on a bed of nails than open my laptop and start typing." and you know what i do? i go do something else instead. don't force it! it will become a chore.

that being said! write as often as possible. try to write every day. try to write at the same time. don't beat yourself up if you can’t, BUT the more often you write, the more often you'll want to write.

if you're stuck on a scene or a page or a chapter, go back to the last place where you felt like you knew what you were doing and start writing from there. keep a copy of your other writing in case you want to reuse it or refer back!

i don't know if this is something that will be helpful for other people but i start mentally preparing myself for my writing session a few hours ahead of time. i will say to myself, "today, at this time, i'm gonna sit down and write that scene where mina walks out on her book club, and it's going to be awesome and i'm looking forward to it." then, by the time i actually begin, i basically have the whole thing written out in my head and can just put it down to paper. it's a good way to at least kickstart the session !

ok thanks bye

[manka437]

i think we've all been there

[manka437]

friendships/relationships are hard