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pushing500 · 2 months

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✨Gracie's Rimworld Modlist✨

(For the Mechanitor's Message run)

Here are all my current mods in order. Once again it’s all hand-typed because I am a bit rubbish at computer stuff and don’t know how to export modlists. Enjoy!! xoxo

Prepatcher (required for one or more of the other mods to work)

Harmony (I think this is just for performance)

Vanilla Backgrounds Expanded (this is just cool for loading screens etc.)

[CAT] Show Hair With Hats or Hide All Hats (so my colonists can show off their beautiful hair)

HugsLib (I think this is just for performance)

Camera + (better for taking screenshots)

Character Editor (so I can start with customised colonists)

Vanilla Expanded Framework (so all the Vanilla Expanded mods work)

Vanilla Furniture Expanded - Props and Decor (adds fancy props and decor)

Geological Landforms (for fun map generation)

Pathfinding Framework (a framework for pathfinding)

ANDH - Animal Nuzzling Detects Horrors (animals can detect metalhorrors when they nuzzle your colonists)

[GMT] Trading Spot (those darn traders always track dirt on my floors)

[KV] Impassable Map Maker (in case I feel like settling on an impassable tile)

[NL] Facial Animation - WIP (they look so cute with their lil’ faces!!)

[SBV] Recreational Drum Use (drum go bang boom, brain get happy)

[T] Moor Floors 1.4 (more floors)

[XND] Proper Shotguns (Continued) (makes shotguns work better so Security Chief Ratchet and Deputy Rocket the militors can be extra kickass)

Llama's Proper Shotgun Patches (some patches for the previous mod)

Adjustable Archonexus Quest Continued (no way Mechi is losing all his research!)

A Dog Said… Animal Prosthetics (animal bionics wooo)

Dubs Bad Hygiene (bathrooms cool)

Allow Tool (makes life so much easier)

Biomes! Core (framework for Biomes! mods)

Biomes! Fossils (dinosaur museum go brrrr)

Biomes! Islands (tropical paradise, here we come!)

Allies are Helpful (so that our friends, few as they may be, will actually be useful)

Alpha Biomes (adds cool new biomes)

Alpha Memes (new ideology memes)

Alpha Mythology (adds cool new mythological animals)

Alpha Prefabs (cool prefabricated buildings)

Alpha Props - Parks and Gardens (adds props for parks and gardens)

Anima Animals Combined (Continued) (cool anima animals)

Animal Controls (animals can have food restrictions, etc.)

Better Mods Mismatch Window (to see which of my mods is fucked up THIS time 🙄)

Biome Transitions (so your biomes transition)

Childhood Backstories (so your children can have backstories)

Clocks (every house needs a grandfather clock)

Colors (personally I prefer “colours”, but we can’t all be right)

Det’s Xenotypes - Avaloi (colourful drunk coral-people!!)

Det’s Xenotypes - Bogleg (alien mafia)

Doors Expanded (expands on the doors)

Dormitories (Not Barracks) (they shouldn’t be that upset about sharing a room)

Dress Patients (Continued) (put clothes on the patients)

Enhanced Beliefs (expands on the ideology system a bit)

Erin’s Baldur’s Gate 3 Hairs (need more hair)

Erin’s Cottage Collection (cutesy furniture)

Erin’s Decorations (cute decorations)

Erin’s Hairstyles - Redux (mmmmmore hair!!)

Extra Alerts (handy-dandy extra popups)

Floordrawings (those kids are so artistic)

GloomyFurniture (cutsey furniture)

Gloomy Furniture Fix (fixes something idk)

Gradient Hair (gradient hair)

Hard Times: Hair and Beards (more hair and beard styles)

Haul to Stack (you think they could figure that out themselves, but no. They need a mod)

Hospitality (warcrime-themed hotel chain let’s goooo)

Human Butchery 2.0 (just in case)

Human Leather Floor (👀)

Interaction Bubbles (to see what dey sayin’)

Kinky Bodystrap (I will not elaborate)

Lights Out (conserve electricity, save the planet)

Megafauna (biiiig pets)

Minify Everything (if I wanna carry a whole wall I damn well will)

More Descriptive Words and Names (exactly what it says on the tin)

More Faction Interaction (Continued) (more faction interaction)

More Persona Traits (to make Persona Weapons more interesting)

More Religious Origins (adds some more religious origins for ideology)

More Thrumbos (Continued) (mmmmore thrumbos)

More Vanilla Biomes (more vanilla biomes)

negative traits (they can’t all be good)

Non-Binary Gender (adds a non-binary option)

Offworlders - The Biliog (swamp people)

Optimization: Meats - C# Edition (all meat is raw meat)

Pawn Name Variety (variety in pawn names)

Pick Up and Haul (pick it up and haul it)

Prisoners Don’t Have Keys (why would they??)

Random Research (it looked amusing)

Reel’s Facial Animation Textures (face stuff)

Replace Stuff (to build walls on top of other walls etc.)

RimPy Mod Manager Database (just for insurance)

Rimsenal - Hair pack (hair)

Rimsenal Hair Retextured (more hair stuff)

RimTraits - General Traits (more traits)

River’s Tribal Shoes (tribal shoes)

Romance on the Rim (awww, so romantic <3)

Roo’s HD Dreadlock Hairstyles (dreads)

Roo’s HD Glasses Hairstyles (glasses)

Roo’s HD Hairstyles (hairy)

Roo’s HD Royalty Hairstyles (fancy hair)

RPG Style Inventory Revamped (inventory is easier to use)

RT Fuse (I don’t like zzzt events)

Sand Castles (for funsies)

Simple sidearms (always be prepared!)

Smutty Fanfiction (👀)

Snap Out! (for mental breaks)

Standalone Hot Spring (why have geothermal power when you can have a nice hot bath instead?)

Stylized Slave Collars and Headgear (to fit the theme)

The Vanity Project - Beards (more beards)

The Vanity Project - Female Hair (for the gals)

The Vanity Project - Male Hair (for the guys)

Trait and Backstory Icons (icons for traits and backstories)

Toddlers (smol bean people)

Upscaled - Won hair_men (hair)

Upscaled - Won hair_women (hair)

Vanilla Achievements Expanded (makes me feel successful)

Vanilla Animals Expanded (adds fun new animals)

Vanilla Animals Expanded - Endangered (adds endangered animals)

Vanilla Animals Expanded - Royal Animals (adds fancy animals)

Vanilla Animals Expanded - Waste Animals (edgy dystopian animals)

Vanilla Apparel Expanded (new clothes)

Vanilla Apparel Expanded - Accessories (new accessories)

Vanilla Armour Expanded (more armour)

Vanilla Backstories Expanded (more backstories)

Vanilla Brewing Expanded (alcohol woooo)

Vanilla Base Generation Expanded (generates cool bases)

Vanilla Brewing Expanded - Coffee and Tea (to feed our caffeine addiction)

Vanilla Cooking Expanded (fun food)

Vanilla Cooking Expanded - Stews (everybody loves a good stew)

Vanilla Fishing Expanded (such a relaxing pastime)

Vanilla Fishing Expanded - Fishing Treasures AddOn (you can fish up cool stuff, like wood)

Vanilla Cooking Expanded - Sushi (we have to do something with all those fish)

Vanilla Events Expanded (can never have too many events)

Vanilla Factions Expanded - Ancients (scary ancient people)

Vanilla Factions Expanded - Empire (makes the empire more interesting)

Vanilla Factions Expanded - Mechanoids (we couldn’t have a mechanitor run without them)

Vanilla Factions Expanded - Settlers (yeehaw)

Vanilla Factions Expanded - Tribal (I like having tribal friends)

Vanilla Furniture Expanded (more furniture)

Vanilla Furniture Expanded - Architect Module (new structure stuff)

Vanilla Furniture Expanded - Art Module (fancy art and decorations to make)

Vanilla Furniture Expanded - Farming (we love growing food)

Vanilla Furniture Expanded - Medical Module (to make the most kickass hospital)

Vanilla Furniture Expanded - Power (mechanitor has to power their mechs somehow)

Vanilla Furniture Expanded - Production (cool manufacturing stuff)

Vanilla Furniture Expanded - Security (you can never be too careful)

Vanilla Furniture Expanded - Spacer Module (a mechanitor’s dream)

Vanilla Hair Expanded (always need more hair)

Vanilla Hair Retextured (make it look snazzy)

Vanilla Ideology Expanded - Dryads (for sprucing up gauranlen tree stuff)

Vanilla Ideology Expanded - Hats and Rags (to dress properly)

Vanilla Ideology Expanded - Icons and Symbols (to customise ideologies as much as possible)

Vanilla Ideology Expanded - Relics and Artifacts (cube…?)

Vanilla Ideology Expanded - Sophian Style (fancy~)

Vanilla Ideology Expanded - Splits and Schisms (reminds me of Wookshys)

Vanilla Nutrient Paste Expanded (hell yeah nutrient paste)

Vanilla Outposts Expanded (we can form outposts if we like)

Vanilla Races Expanded - Android (it would be cool to have androids hanging out with our mechanitor…)

ReGrowth: Core (I like the retextures)

ReGrowth: Tropical (more fun stuff)

Vanilla Plants Expanded (yummy foodstuffs)

Tilled Soil (heehoo farm)

Vanilla Persona Weapons Expanded (make the persona weapons more personable)

Vanilla Plants Expanded - More Plants (even MORE farm)

Vanilla Plants Expanded - Mushrooms (I should do a dirtmole colony someday)

Vanilla Plants Expanded - Succulents (they’re cute)

Vanilla Psycasts Expanded (I love ‘em)

Alpha Animals (one of my favourite mods)

Vanilla Genetics Expanded (genetics stuff)

Vanilla Genetics Expanded - More Lab Stuff (more lab stuff)

Vanilla Ideology Expanded - Memes and Structures (more customisation)

Alpha Genes (Makes for fun people to draw)

Alpha Mechs (Mechs for the Mechanitor!! Skulls for the- oh, wait, no)

Vanilla Races Expanded - Archon (basically githyanki)

Vanilla Races Expanded - Custom Icons (to make your own xenotypes that much more distinct)

Vanilla Races Expanded - Fungoid (zombies go brrrr)

Vanilla Races Expanded - Genie (how many wishes do I get?)

Vanilla Races Expanded - Highmate (the perfect partner!)

Vanilla Races Expanded - Hussar (nobody will ever be as good as Henry…)

Vanilla Races Expanded - Lycanthrope (do we need a werewolf boyfriend?🍍)

Vanilla Races Expanded - Phytokin (tree people my beloved)

Vanilla Races Expanded - Pigskin (is there a teacup pig variant?)

Vanilla Races Expanded - Sanguophage (vampires go brrrr)

Vanilla Races Expanded - Saurid (lizard people to control the government)

Vanilla Factions Expanded - Waster (pollution people)

Facial Animations Xenotype Compatibility (to help smooth out the face stuff)

Vanilla Skills Expanded (makes learning more interesting)

Vanilla Skin Tone Genes (inheritable skin tones)

Vanilla Social Interactions Expanded (more interactions to draw)

Vanilla Textures Expanded (expands the vanilla textures)

Vanilla Textures Expanded - [NL] Facial Animation (makes the facial animation more vanilla and less anime)

Vanilla Textures Expanded - Variations (so things don’t look too same-y)

Vanilla Ideology Expanded - Anima Theme (for funsies)

Vanilla Trading Expanded (expands the trading)

Vanilla Traits Expanded (more traits!)

[DN] Bundle of Traits (one of my favourite trait mods <3)

Vehicle Framework (a framework for vehicles)

Vanilla Vehicles Expanded (more vehicles)

Vanilla Vehicles Expanded - Tier 3 (even MORE vehicles)

Vanilla Weapons Expanded (to spice up the combat)

Vanilla Weapons Expanded - Coilguns (adds coilguns)

Vanilla Weapons Expanded - Grenades (expands on grenades)

Vanilla Weapons Expanded - Heavy Weapons (more heavy weapons)

Vanilla Weapons Expanded - Laser (laser weapons)

Vanilla Weapons Expanded - Makeshift (for when you gotta make do)

Vanilla Weapons Expanded - Non-Lethal (for interrogations and organ harvesting)

Vanilla Weapons Expanded - Quickdraw (to draw quickly)

Vanilla Weapons Expanded - Frontier (yeehaw)

Vanilla Weapons Expanded - Tribal (they deserve some variety too)

Vanilla Factions Expanded - Pirates (arrr me hearties!)

VPG Garden Resources (if I wanna grow uranium I will)

Vanilla Psycasts Expanded - Puppeteer (mind control, oooh!)

VVE - Deconstructable Vehicle Junk (so we can make old cars new!)

War Crimes Expanded 2 Core (Updated) (just in case)

What's That Mod (so I know what the mod is)

While You’re Up (PUAH) (more hauling revamps)

Won Hair Men Retextured (hairy hairy)

Won Hair Women Retextured (more hairy hairy)

Xeva’s Rimhair (hair)

Xeva’s Rimhair Retextured (hair)

Yet Another Hair Mod (I don't have too many, shhhh!)

ATH ‘s Retexture Female Apparel (looks like fun to draw!)

ATH’s Style Female Dresses (fun to draw)

HousekeeperAssistanceCat (the best mod)

[FSF] Complex Jobs (Legacy Version) (makes job prioritizing easier)

#rimworld #gracie plays #rim #rimworld mods #gracie's #gracie's rimworld modlist #A Mechanitor's Message #Feel free to ask any questions!!#I'm always happy to tell you what mod stuff is from <3 #have an awesome day!!

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der-papero · 4 months

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Tutto bello, eh, Typescript, Javascript, però porca troia hanno chiamato il (diciamo, uno dei più usati) framework per il testing Mocha e Chai, e quindi ogni cazz di ricerca su Google finisce a barcamenarsi tra ricette per il cappuccino e il latte macchiato, ma mica devo aprire un bar, mannaggiaivostridefunti, a questo punto tanto valeva chiamarli WC e Bidet, così se facevamo altre due risate.

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redjennies · 3 months

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remember like a decade ago when those crackpot conspiracy theory "documentary series" Zeitgeist movies came out and now you still will have ex-christian neopagans and atheists, who think changing their religion is the same as unpacking a whole lifetime of absorbing white anglocentric supremacy as their framework for the world, trying to say shit like "did u kno that Jesus being the Son of God comes from Sun God?" and you have to be like "ooh hey, not to call you a fucking dumbass, but in the Roman Empire, the place you're trying to claim invented Jesus like Christian cults didn't exist in the Levant for a good long while before Constantine was even born, sun god would be something like 'sol deus' in Latin and son of god would be 'filius dei.' sure, doesn't sound the same to me, but what the fuck do I know?"

#zeitgeist was a plague #joke tag

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tma-traduzioni · 3 months

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MAGP008 - Girando a vuoto

[Episodio precedente] [Indice TMAGP]

[Il computer dell’O.I.A.R. si accende]

NORRIS

Valutazione dell’elaborato 13718BTutor: Joseph Peterson (#ARCSTAF-12) Studente: Terrance Stevens (ID# ARCSTU-39609) Risultato: Bocciato – consegnato in ritardo (28%)

Valutazione:Struttura e Organizzazione – 50% Conoscenze – 40% Comprensione – 30% Analisi – 10% Uso delle fonti – 10%

Giustificato nel caso di: Seri problemi medici, trauma, altro. Commenti del tutor: “Venga a vedermi."

ALLEGATO:

Titolo: La Liminalità Brutale di Forton - un caso di studio dei fattori di stress psicologico indotti dall'architettura come risultato di un'esposizione prolungata agli spazi liminali in modalità brutalista, come mostrato dalla Forton Service Station.

Introduzione:

Questo saggio presenterà un’analisi dettagliata del Forton Services come esempio chiave per lo studio dell'intersezione tra brutalismo e spazi liminali nel design, con un focus secondario sui fattori di stress psicologico che un tale luogo può causare.

Per prima cosa, combinerò i framework teoretici per il brutalismo e la liminalità. Prenderò poi in esame le stazioni di servizio come uno spazio liminale stressante a livello psicologico, prima di proseguire con un’analisi architettonica del Forton Services e la sua storia come luogo brutalista. Il tutto terminerà con un caso di studio degli effetti della mia prolungata esposizione agli spazi liminali con architettura brutalista, tramite il mio impiego al Forton Services.

Per cominciare, stabiliamo un fondamento teorico per questo articolo collegando lo stile architettonico del brutalismo alla teoria antropologica della liminalità. Lo farò fornendo interpretazioni compatibili di entrambi e proponendo il nuovo concetto di “liminalità brutale”.

Brutalismo - ha origine dal Francese ‘béton brut,’ cemento grezzo - è un movimento architettonico che si concentra sullo scopo funzionale. Questo spesso risulta in materiali grezzo a vista, forme nette, forme geometriche ripetitive, e strutture monolitiche. Questo spesso può portare le persone esposte a questo stile a sentirsi sopraffatte o oppresse (Zumthor, P. 2006).

Spazi ‘liminali’, derivato dal termine latino ‘limen,’ che vuol dire ‘soglia,’ sono spazi di transito solitamente occupati per periodi brevi. È stato dimostrato che hanno effetti considerevoli sulla psiche di coloro che sono esposti ad essi, e si è scoperto che l'esposizione a lungo termine suscita risposte ansiose (Augé, M. 1995), (Bachelard, G. 1994) e una sensazione ‘perturbante’( Trigg, D.2012).

La mia ipotesi è che il Forton Services, un luogo di intersezione di questi due elementi psicologicamente significativi, può essere considerato un luogo di quello che ho denominato liminalità brutale, ed è per questo che ha un marcato effetto su coloro che ne sono esposti nel lungo periodo, come dimostrato dalle mie esperienze. Nello specifico, crea un senso di assenza che nonostante la presenza, una sorta di “fame architettonica.”

Le stazioni di servizio come Forton sono state originariamente concepite come un luogo in sè per sè, piuttosto che solo una pausa in un viaggio. Comunque, con il diffondersi delle automobili personali e il conseguente sovrasviluppo dell’infrastruttura stradale del Regno Unito, questi luoghi si sono trasformati in spazi liminali.

Questo aumento nel numero di viaggiatori, ben oltre i parametri della progettazione originale, ha portato a un flusso fugace di persone che transitano nelle stazioni di servizio a tutte le ore, lasciandosi dietro solamente rifiuti.

Non solo, a questi spazi è associata la percezione distorta del tempo, aggravata dalla voluta assenza di orologi (per incoraggiare soste più lunghe) e orari di apertura di 24 ore su 24 con routine di apertura, chiusura, pulizia e rifornimento scaffali.

La mia teoria è che poiché questi spazi sono privi di presenza umana costante e una corrente percezione del tempo, si sono così separati dal panorama psicologico condiviso dall’umanità, e ci sono dei rischi per la salute di natura unica per le persone che sono esposte per periodi prolungati a questo fenomeno. In breve, ritengo che la “fame architettonica” di uno spazio che prova risentimento nei confronti della propria natura di luogo di transito può essere pericolosa, e ho un’esperienza diretta di questo fenomeno semplicemente unica.

Ho accettato la posizione di inserviente per il turno di notte al Forton a seguito di un prolungato divorzio che mi è costato la maggior parte delle mie amicizie. L’episodio di stress che ne è seguito mi ha portato a lasciare il mio lavoro come vice amministratore dei servizi fiduciari. Così ho fatto domanda per un colloquio e ottenuto con successo un impiego a bassi livelli di stress come inserviente, nonostante le mie notevoli qualifiche. Allo stesso tempo mi sono iscritto al Programma di Architettura all’Università di Lancashire, come studente maturo di 51 anni.

Mi sono presto accorto che il Forton Services è un perfetto esempio di liminalità brutale, dato il suo status sia come popolare stazione di servizio sull’autostrada e come monumento di architettura brutalista. E ritengo che questo sia principalmente dovuto alla Pennine Tower,che raggiunge i 20 metri e che è stata messa in vendita nel 2012, nonostante fosse chiusa al pubblico.

L’area è 17,7 acri, include una zona picnic all'aperto e delle strutture su entrambi i sensi dell’Autostrada M6, con posti a sedere per 700 persone, 101 bagni e 403 parcheggi.

In cima alla torre originariamente c’era un ristorante di classe con una terrazza sul tetto, entrambi avevano una vista senza pari sulla campagna rurale che la circonda su ogni lato.

Sfortunatamente, gli effetti della liminalità brutale hanno presto fatto effetto, con un rapporto del governo che definiva il luogo “un’area fieristica priva di anima,” il ristorante divenne una lounge per camionisti prima che fosse chiuso al pubblico nel 1989. Sono passati decenni dall’ultima volta che qualcuno ha mangiato lì.

In seguito ci sono stati tentativi fallimentari di dare un nuovo scopo all’area, ma nel 2017, i due ascensori pentagonali al centro della torre sono stati sostituiti, rendendo i piani più alti abbandonati e inaccessibili.

La torre svetta ancora sulla campagna circostante, l’unico accesso è tramite il Forton Services sottostante, esempio di liminalità brutale. Ma l’ingresso è sbarrato, e questo forse è per il meglio.

Nonostante non potessi entrare nella torre, anche io nel corso dei mesi in cui ho lavorato lì ho accusato un cambiamento psicologico.

Inizialmente era talmente lieve che non me ne sono accorto, e quando è successo, ho pensato che ci fosse una spiegazione razionale. In termini semplici, ogni notte c’erano sempre meno persone. All’inizio ho pensato che fosse un qualche cambiamento che non avevo notato dovuto al periodo, ma ogni giorno diventava sempre più marcato finché alla fine, una notte, non mi sono reso conto che non avevo visto una singola persona.

Questo era ovviamente impossibile, ma era confermato dal mio registro (vedere tavola 1). Mi sono arrovellato, cercando di ricordare se avevo visto o anche solo intravisto qualcuno, ma no, nessuno. Intrigato, sono uscito fuori per controllare il parcheggio. Non c’era nemmeno una singola auto. Ma c’era… qualcos’altro.

Mentre i miei occhi si abituavano alla distesa ambrata, ho notato delle strisce di luce sospese nell’aria. C’era una foschia luminosa che attraversava tutto il parcheggio, un miscuglio di colori attenuati attraversati da rossi più vividi, bianchi e gialli, ma cosa ancora più curiosa, mi sono accorto che principalmente era sospesa sopra l’asfalto. Le aiuole e i marciapiedi ne erano quasi tutti privi. L'effetto era stranamente familiare, ma non riuscivo a collegarlo. Da allora non sono stato ancora capace di determinare se la causa di questo effetto è di natura psicologica, fisiologica o atmosferica, ma confermo che questo fenomeno era accompagnato da un’inquietante senso di mancanza. Di fame.

Ho aguzzato nuovamente lo sguardo, cercando di cogliere dei dettagli in quelle lunghe strisce ondulate e iridescenti. Nel caos potevo distinguere dei percorsi più densi che portavano dalle porte principali alle strutture. Mentre osservavo, un ricordo delle fotografie della mia ex-moglie mi è tornato in mente, la mia foto preferita, che mi aveva regalato per il nostro settimo anniversario: “Uno studio del traffico.”

È stato in quel momento che ho capito perché mi sembrava tutto così familiare. Esposizione prolungata. Se fossi potuto entrare in quella fotografia, l’effetto sarebbe stato questo. Sarebbe stato bellissimo, se non fosse stato così destabilizzante.

Ripensandoci stavo chiaramente avendo un qualche tipo di grave episodio di allucinazioni causato dalla prolungata esposizione a quell'ambiente. Sapevo che probabilmente avrei dovuto semplicemente starmene seduto in silenzio ed aspettare che passasse, ma la nebbia luminosa era già entrata nell’edificio, e sentivo solo l’istinto di nascondermi, di trovare un posto, un posto qualsiasi, purché fossi lontano da quel miasma opprimente che sciabordava avanti e indietro nell’ingresso, minacciano di portarmi via con sé.

Sono tornato indietro, allontanandomi dall’ingresso principale, allontanandomi dalle aree più dense di quel caleidoscopio, nella speranza di trovare un posto meno saturo e schiacciante.

Ed è stato allora che ho visto la donna.

Era alta, giovane, e magrissima, al punto da sembrare quasi denutrita, vestita come una steward con un gilet blu avvitato, abbottonato sopra una gonna grigia e seria. Stava sorridendo, tenendo la porta dell’ascensore aperta e invitandomi dentro. C’era una targhetta di ottone sul suo gilè, ma invece di un nome c’era scritto solo “Sei qui.”

Ho esitato per un istante, poi prima che potessi valutare la sua stranezza, una marea di colore particolarmente alta ha invaso il corridoio avanzando verso di me. Sono andato nel panico e prima che mi rendessi conto di cosa stavo facendo ero saltato dentro l’ascensore e avevo schiacciato il bottone per chiudere le porte.

Le ho detto un “Grazie,”con la voce spezzata per il disuso. Lei a quanto pare non l’ha notato e ha continuato a sorridermi con calore quando ha allungato un braccio e ha pigiato il bottone per il penultimo piano etichettato “Ristorante.” Un bottone che sapevo essere disabilitato. L’ascensore ha iniziato a salire.

Ero in piedi, appoggiato contro le porte, e cercavo di riprendere fiato mentre lei ha iniziato a parlare:

“Buonasera!” ha esclamato. “È un piacere darti il benvenuto! Sei qui! Fermati un po’!”

Ho borbottato qualche domanda indistinta, e il suo sorriso è rimasto largo come non mai, ma non ha detto niente. Poi le porte dell’ascensore si sono aperte con un ding e io sono caduto all'indietro sul pavimento.

“Fermati un po’!” ha ripetuto, prima che le porte dell’ascensore si chiudessero, lasciandomi nella torre.

Molly, la persona che avevo sostituito, mi aveva fatto vedere che le scale della torre erano sbarrate, e sapevo che sù in cima non c’era niente se non dei mobili rotti e bagnati dall'umidità. O almeno, così sarebbe dovuto essere.

Di fronte a me, però, c’era un ristorante, immacolato e luminoso con un arredamento retrò, stile anni ‘60, e il dolce profumo della carne di maiale sul fuoco veniva verso di me dalla cucina centrale. Sedie e tavoli erano allineati lungo la parete perimetrale, su ogni lato c’erano delle gigantesche finestre che avrebbero mostrato una vista impressionante del paesaggio sottostante, se non fossero state oscurate. Questo non sembrava infastidire gli ospiti, comunque, che erano felicissimi di mangiare mentre chiacchieravano gli uni con gli altri.

C’è stato un attimo di sollievo in quel momento, perché per quanto fosse strana quella situazione, almeno c’erano delle persone. Non ero più intrappolato in quel bizzarro limbo albeggiante e solitario al piano di sotto.

La sensazione è svanita, comunque, quando ho sentito cosa stavano dicendo. O meglio, cosa non stavano dicendo.

Guardandomi intorno, il ristorante era quasi al completo, con un solo tavolo libero, ma quando ho cercato di ascoltare una sola conversazione, questa era solamente… rumore. Un mormorio ovattato che all’orecchio sembrava un discorso ma non conteneva alcun significato. Le loro bocche si muovevano ma potevo solo sentire un gorgoglio privo di senso, solo l’imitazione della parola, niente di più.

In maniera simile, quando ho guardato gli ospiti stessi con più attenzione, ho notato degli elementi che si ripetevano in maniera strana tra di loro. Tre donne stavano indossando gli stessi tacchi rosso-sangue. Due uomini gli stessi cappotti blu. E peggio, c’erano addirittura dei tratti ripetuti su volti diversi: gli stessi occhi verdi su due donne, baffi identici su tre uomini. Queste erano imitazioni di persone così come il suono era un’imitazione della parola. Ed erano tutti così orribilmente magri.

Uno chef si è girato verso di me, lo stesso sorriso sul suo volto sotto una quarta versione di dei baffi cespugliosi, e la stessa identica targhetta “Sei qui” sul petto. Ha indicato da dietro il bancone l’unico tavolo disponibile:

“Buona sera!” Ha urlato. “Sei qui! Speriamo che ti fermi per un po’!”

Automaticamente mi sono avvicinato al tavolo, prima di fermarmi. Nello stesso istante è sembrato che tutti nella sala si sono inclinati leggermente in avanti per l’anticipazione.

Ed è stato in quel momento che mi sono accorto della brezza che soffiava dalle finestre oscurate, solo che non erano oscurate. Non erano nemmeno finestre. Erano buchi quadrati spalancati e oltre i quali c’era il nulla assoluto. Qualsiasi ospite poteva allungare un braccio, se voleva, e affondare la mano nel vuoto buio, inquietante e completamente privo di dettagli. Non c’era niente. Niente verso l’alto, niente verso il basso, niente di niente. Niente, se non la torre e il ristorante.

Ho sentito l'istinto di allontanarmi da quella terrificante assenza in tutto il corpo, e sono indietreggiato verso l’ascensore. È stato in quel momento che il delicato mormorio di non-parole si è fermato di colpo, per essere rimpiazzato dal più totale e assoluto silenzio.

Stavano sempre tutti sorridendo, ma i loro volti ripetuti si erano bloccati, gli sguardi puntati su di me.

Lo chef ha parlato di nuovo, e anche se il suo tono non era cambiato, era chiaro che questa non era più una richiesta:

“Fermati un po’!”

Gli ospiti hanno fatto eco alle sue parole, un coro graduale sparso nella sala, che si sovrapponeva e si intrecciava, che mi ha avvolto e mi ha trascinato verso il tavolo.

“Fermati un po’!”

La loro presa su di me si è fatta più stretta, una dozzina di mani mi spingeva e mi tirava come se fossero una cosa sola. Poi un uomo con gli stessi baffi si è chinato verso la mia gamba, ha aperto la bocca, e mi ha morso.

Il dolore mi ha attraversato il corpo, ma i miei tentativi di liberarmi erano invani e poi una donna mi ha affondato i denti nella spalla, e potevo sentire il sangue caldo che scorreva lungo la mia schiena, mentre allo stesso tempo lo chef mi ha strappato un dito, l’osso ha a malapena rallentato la sua mandibola ben definita.

Ho urlato, ma il suono è soffocato, scivolando fuori dalle finestre e nel nulla.

Con una scarica improvvisa di adrenalina, ho spinto e scalciato e combattuto per liberarmi da quella folla emaciata, i loro corpi magri e fragili facevano poca resistenza, nonostante il numero. Ma non avevo vie di fuga. L'ascensore era sparito come se non fosse mai esistito e oltre le finestre c’era, ovviamente, il nulla. “Sei qui,” ho pensato amareggiato.

E così quando mi sono ritrovato di fronte al prospetto di essere mangiato vivo, o di buttarmi da una di quelle finestre nel più completo oblio… non era di una scelta. Mi sono buttato.

[Pausa]

NORRIS

I paramedici hanno attribuito il mio dito mancante e le altre ferite alla caduta dalla torre, e salvo ulteriori prove del contrario (per le quali non ho intenzione di tornare a Forton), sono costretto ad accettare la loro diagnosi di ferita da caduta e trauma associato come il risultato di un episodio psicotico causato dallo stress.

Per concludere, non c’è dubbio che il periodo in cui ho lavorato al Forton Services ha avuto un impatto considerevole su di me. Questa esperienza è prova di un intenso disagio mentale che la liminalità brutale può infliggere a una persona esposta troppo a lungo a una tale “architettura affamata.”

Posso solo scusarmi per la mia non voluta e prolungata assenza. Spero che questo possa fornire un po’ di contesto, anche se sono dolorosamente consapevole che non è stata fatta alcuna denuncia di persona scomparsa alla polizia, poiché a quanto pare nessuno dei miei colleghi, tutor o colleghi studenti si è accorto della mia assenza.

Ciò nonostante, spero che questa possa comunque essere considerata una circostanza attenuante e che quanto ho scoperto meriti uno studio approfondito. Anche se in tal caso richiederei che altri ulteriori lavori vengano assegnati a un altro studente.

[L’audio assume il tono riecheggiante della CCTV della saletta del personale]

[Passi che entrano]

[Qualcosa viene inclinato, senza risultati]

[Qualcosa viene appoggiato con rabbia]

GWEN

Alice.

[Una pausa]

GWEN

Alice.

ALICE

(si toglie un’auricolare) Hm?

GWEN

L’hai fatto di nuovo.

ALICE

Hmmm.

GWEN

Non farmi ‘hmmm’. Eravamo d’accordo che se finisci l’acqua nel bollitore dopo lo devi riempire.

ALICE

(sempre distratta) Non è vuoto.

GWEN

Non c’è nemmeno un terzo di una tazza qui dentro.

ALICE

(a voce più alta, finalmente prende parte alla conversazione) Quindi non è vuoto, giusto, no?

GWEN

Già è grave che cerchi deliberatamente dei casi parlanti e li lasci in play solo per darmi fastidio -

ALICE

Secondo l’accusa.

GWEN

– ma lasciare il bollitore pieno è il minimo!

[Pausa]

[Gwen inizia a riempire il bollitore]

ALICE

Sembri stressata. Problemi nella piramide aziendale? Accusi già il peso del ruolo di Deputata Presidente della Sinergia Esecutiva?

GWEN

“Collegamenti Esterni.”

ALICE

E ovviamente, sappiamo entrambe cosa vuol dire. Giusto?

GWEN

Presumo che gestirò una manciata di subappalti.

ALICE

(Interessata suo malgrado) Subappalti per cosa?

GWEN

Riceverò una spiegazione più dettagliata “a breve.”

ALICE

Cielo! Quanta adrenalina! Spero che deciderai di spiegarlo anche a noi infimi soldati semplici quando Lena avrà finalmente capito qual’è il tuo lavoro. Presumendo che per allora qui sarà rimasto qualcuno di noi.

GWEN

E cosa vorresti dire con questo?

ALICE

Solo che ultimamente qui ci sono stati molti cambiamenti. Non mi esalta. Teddy, Sam, Celia - e hai sentito che Lena ha messo Colin in “congedo per la salute mentale”?

GWEN

(Sorpresa) Cosa?

ALICE

Oh sì, c’è stata una scenata. Ha dato di matto e ha spaccato il telefono di Sam.

GWEN

L’ho sempre detto che era disturbato.

ALICE

Tu dici molte cose, per la maggior parte cagate. Non so… ho la sensazione che qui c’è sotto qualcosa.

GWEN

L’unica cosa che “c’è sotto” è il gigantesco carico di casi che tu non stai facendo niente per recuperare. A tal proposito, dove sono Sam e Celia?

ALICE

Hanno finito i loro casi prima, quindi sono andati via insieme.

GWEN

Non possono andarsene così senza nemmeno timbrare l’uscita!

ALICE

Forse erano troppo impegnati a darci dentro con la voce sexy di Norris in sottofondo e non se ne sono accorti.

GWEN

(fermamente) Non essere disgustosa.

ALICE

Ricevuto, “capo.”

[La CCTV si spegne]

[Suono di un telefono]

[L’audio cambia e ha la qualità metallica del telefono]

[Siamo al chiuso, con dei passi che si avvicinano]

GERRY

(Allegro) Scusate per il disordine, non aspettavo visite.

CELIA

Una tazza vuota non è “disordine”.

GERRY

Oh, sei troppo gentile!

(adesso un po’ più lontano, ad alta voce) C’è del pane a lievitazione naturale, se vi va?

SAM

No grazie mille!

GERRY

(ad alta voce) Sicuri? C’è anche del lemon curd fatto in casa da abbinarci…

SAM

(ad alta voce) Davvero, siamo apposto!

GERRY

(ad alta voce) Tè? Caffè? Succo d’arancia?

CELIA

(ad alta voce) Sei davvero gentile, ma per noi niente, davvero grazie!

GERRY

Beh, se siete sicuri…

[Gerry si siede]

GERRY

Allora. Dove eravamo, mi sa che mi sono perso i vostri nomi!

SAM

Sam.

CELIA

Celia.

GERRY

Piacere conoscervi entrambi. Io sono Gerry!

SAM

(Sorridendo) Lo sappiamo.

GERRY

(ridendo) Oh già, certo! Avete chiesto se ero in casa, ah! Allora, che cosa posso fare per voi?

SAM

Già, beh -

CELIA

Abiti qui da solo?

GERRY

(ridendo) Con gli affitti di Londra? Impossibile! Non fraintendetemi, il padrone di casa è adorabile e tutto il resto, ma no. Devo sempre fare a metà con Gee Gee.

CELIA

Gee Gee?

[Passi che si avvicinano]

GERTRUDE

Sarei io.

GERRY

(Ad alta voce) Ci sono ospiti, Gee Gee!

GERTRUDE

Sì, questo posso vederlo, Gerry.

(freddamente) A che cosa dobbiamo questa… gradevole visita di prima mattina?

SAM

Oh sì, scusi, lavoriamo di notte, quindi…

GERTRUDE

Quindi?

[Una pausa]

[Sam si schiarisce la voce]

SAM

Beh… uh… ci stavamo chiedendo -

CELIA

Questo l’hai dipinto tu?

GERTRUDE

Prego?

GERRY

Oh sì! Lo chiamo “Epifania di Camden.” Ti piace?

CELIA

È bellissimo!

GERRY

Se vuoi puoi averlo.

CELIA

Oh no, non potrei…

GERRY

Va bene, onestamente, ne ho molti altri di là. Ci faresti un favore, ad essere sinceri.

[Celia si fa scappare una risata]

GERRY

Gee Gee dice sempre che portano via troppo spazio, no, Gee Gee?

GERTRUDE

Di preciso che cosa avete detto di volere da mio nipote?

CELIA

Uh… Sam?

SAM

Già. Certo. Mi stavo chiedendo se sapevi qualcosa dell’Istituto Magnus?

[Una pausa, nessuno si muove]

[Si schiarisce di nuovo la gola]

SAM

Ero in uno dei loro programmi per bambini precoci e - um - ho trovato un elenco con qualche altro bambino, e ho pensato che sarebbe potuto essere bello se potessimo ritrovarci e scambiare storie e tutto il resto…

GERTRUDE

Capisco. Beh, mi dispiace, ma non credo che Gerry possa aiutarvi -

GERRY

(Con noncuranza) Sì, me lo ricordo a malapena.

[Gertrude fa un leggero sospiro]

SAM

Oh, allora eri un candidato?

GERRY

Oh sì, ma ero piuttosto piccolo. Ricordo di aver riempito una serie di schede e questionari, poi qualche vecchio che mi faceva domande sul genere di libri che mi piaceva leggere, chi ammiravo, quel genere di cose. E poi sono andato via.

SAM

(deluso) Tutto qui?

GERRY

Sì, temo di sì. Oltre che a trovarmi seduto con altri bambini in una stanza che odorava di libri vecchi.

[Una pausa]

GERTRUDE

(alzandosi in piedi) Beh, se questo è tutto, noi davvero dovremmo iniziare la nostra giornata…

SAM

(abbattuto) Ma certo, noi andiamo allora. Ah, beh.

GERRY

Oh, non prenderla troppo sul personale. È una mattina così bella.

[Gerry sembra così felice]

SAM

(Sorridendo) Non ha torto.

GERTRUDE

(aprendo la porta) Non vi tratterremo oltre. È stato un piacere conoscervi.

GERRY

(Allegro) Non dimenticare L’Epifania di Camden.

CELIA

Nemmeno per sogno.

[Le passa il quadro]

GERRY

(sempre allegro) E tornate presto! È sempre un piacere chiacchierare con dei vecchi amici!

GERTRUDE

Non penso ne avranno motivo, Gerry.

(a Sam) Buona caccia, ma altrove.

SAM

Di nuovo grazie per il tuo tempo.

[Passi che se ne vanno]

CELIA

Ciao, Gerry!

GERRY

Ciao, Celia!

[La porta si chiude]

GERRY

(ovattato da dentro) Mi piacevano.

GERTRUDE

(ovattato) Ovviamente.

[Suoni di un telefono]

[L’audio continua ad avere un tono metallico quando Sam e Celia escono, passi sul marciapiede]

SAM

Beh è stato -

CELIA

Niente male!

SAM

(diverto dal suo entusiasmo) – un vicolo cieco.

CELIA

Già. Però c’è il quadro gratis!

SAM

(inizia a camminare) Come pensi di portarlo sulla Metro?

CELIA

Mi inventerò qualcosa.

SAM

…Grazie per essere venuta con me, Celia. So che lavoriamo insieme solo da poche settimane.

CELIA

Hey, è stata una mia idea, ricordi?

SAM

So che Alice vuole che lasci perdere questa cosa del Magnus, ma, beh, dovevo provarci.

Non che faccia alcuna differenza. Vicolo cieco dopo vicolo cieco.

CELIA

Beh… forse puoi aiutarmi con il mio mistero?

SAM

E che mistero sarebbe?

CELIA

Sto cercando di indagare… nelle cose strane dal punto di vista fisico: viaggi nel tempo, altre dimensioni, teletrasporto, tutte quelle belle cose. Freddy a quanto pare non fa ricerche, quindi potresti tenere gli occhi aperti e farmi sapere se succedono nei tuoi casi?

SAM

Uh, sembra un po’ fantascientifico rispetto alle solite cose. Per cosa ti serve? (divertito) Non è che stai facendo ricerche per quel podcast a cui hai partecipato, no?

CELIA

(Sorpresa) Lo conosci?

SAM

Potrei averti googolata.

CELIA

Allora… sì. Sto facendo un favore a Georgie.

SAM

Okay.

[Una pausa]

CELIA

Allooora…. Abbiamo un accordo? Ci aiutiamo a vicenda con i nostri misteri?

SAM

Sì, va bene. Affare fatto.

CELIA

Fantastico.

Inoltre, come parte dell’accordo, devi portare questo dipinto sulla Metro.

SAM

Ehi aspetta -

[Il telefono si spegne]

[Traduzione di: Victoria]

[Episodio successivo]

#the magnus protocol #il protocollo magnus #tmagp ita #tmagp #gli archivi magnus #tma ita #traduzione italiana #tma #tmagp008

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lostaff · 10 months

Text

Ch-ch-changes

🌟 Novità

Abbiamo implementato le istruzioni di OpenAI per bloccare GPTBot. Ciò dovrebbe scoraggiare OpenAI, incluso ChatGPT, dallo scraping di qualsiasi parte di Tumblr, inclusi i singoli blog.

Stiamo implementando una nuova modalità di visualizzazione della messaggistica diretta.

🛠 Correzioni

L'ultima versione dell'app per Android (30.8) risolve il problema per cui i collegamenti a "Visualizza post" sui post filtrati aprono il browser web invece di portarti al post nell'app stessa.

Sul web, abbiamo migliorato il suggerimento dello screen reader per i tag sui post, in modo che non dica "Pound" o "Numero" quando incontra il simbolo dell'hashtag.

Risolto un problema sul web che impediva la visualizzazione della sezione Tag correlati della barra laterale nella pagina dei risultati di ricerca.

Risolto un bug nelle app mobili per i blog di gruppo che impediva ai membri di modificare le impostazioni delle notifiche per quei blog di gruppo.

Abbiamo esaminato alcune versioni di correzione di bug e una versione principale per il framework StreamBuilder.

🚧 In corso

Niente da segnalare qui oggi.

🌱 In arrivo

Stiamo preparando la nostra prima rivelazione pubblica sul blog @labs, segui quel blog se vuoi vedere a cosa stiamo lavorando (solo in inglese)!

Hai riscontrato un problema? Invia una richiesta di supporto e ti risponderemo il prima possibile!

Vuoi condividere il tuo feedback su qualcosa? Dai un'occhiata al nostro blog Work in Progress e avvia una discussione con la community.

#aggiornamenti tumblr

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 5 months

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By: Robert F. Graboyes

Published: Jan 28, 2024

On this, the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Holocaust Remembrance industry stands as a colossal failure. Holocaust Remembrance Day, it turns out, successfully transfixed eyes on the rear-view mirror and diverted attention from the dangers 10 feet in front of us. And, truth be told, the rear-view mirror is growing a bit foggy, as well. Less than a century ago, the leading intellectuals of Germany—the most highly educated nation on earth—initiated, participated in, or acquiesced to mass murder on a previously unimaginable scale. And only weeks ago, intellectuals in America, Europe, and elsewhere waxed lyrical over the rape, torture, mutilation, murder, beheading, and kidnapping of innocent Jews.

An important parallel underlies both historical episodes. Both Hitler and Hamas were the cancerous outgrowths of respectable and sometimes altruistic intellectual movements that saw individuals as nothing more than avatars of demographic groups, defined by immutable characteristics. At my own Substack, Bastiat’s Window, I’ve written of this in “The Briar and the Rose,” “Intellectual Tyrants Beget True Believers,” and “Zola, Weiss, and J'Accuse...! 2023.”

A century ago, eugenics provided the unquestioned and unquestionable foundation for academic writing and public policy. Eugenics preached a world of predestination, where an individual’s worth was irrevocably determined at birth by race, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, economic status, and family history. No one could escape his or her essentialist destiny by dint of action, accomplishment, or character. Eugenics began as parlor conversation among well-born, well-educated, often well-meaning British academics. Then, it jumped the Atlantic and gave rise to a sexual sterilization machine in America—enabled by a debauched Supreme Court. Finally, it leaped back to Europe, where it metastasized into the Holocaust.

In our time, the equivalent academic tendency is one that travels under many names—diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); critical race theory (CRT); antiracism; white fragility; intersectionality; social justice; anticolonialism; social and emotional learning; progressivism; safetyism; critical social justice; identity Marxism; and (primarily to its denigrators) “wokeness.” The central connective tenet in all of this is something called “equity”—which does not in any way resemble any traditional definition of the word.

A note on nomenclature: “equitism”

Writers like Thomas Klingenstein on the right, Freddie DeBoer on the left, and Bari Weiss in the center decry the lack of a consistent name for this intellectual and activist movement. I use the term “equitism” here and suggest it to others. Unlike “equity,” “equitism” offers no ambiguity of meaning. Unlike, say “the equity agenda,” “equitism” is a single word. Advocates of this philosophy often present “equity” as a substitute for “equality,” so “equitism” is parallel to “egalitarianism.” Unlike “woke,” “equitism” is not an insult or pejorative, and the web shows that a few advocates have used the term to describe themselves. I’ll use the term below for simplicity and clarity.

Equitism as echo of eugenics

Like eugenics a century earlier, equitism presumes that demography is destiny, with some demographic groups imperiled by the immutable malignities of other groups. This often manifests itself as a Manichaean “oppressor/oppressed” dichotomy across demographic categories. Intersectionality and other frameworks array groups along a spectrum between these polar opposites. In its most extreme manifestation, this weltanschauung justifies horrific punishment of perceived “oppressors.” Hence, the pro-Hamas marchers proclaiming “by any means necessary”—which presumably includes baking babies to death in ovens, tying parents to children and immolating them together, raping young girls till their pelvises shatter, beheading children in front of their parents, and visiting all manner of depravities upon elderly Holocaust survivors—as long as they are Israelis and Israelis are classified as oppressors.

Clearly, those Western professors celebrating Hamas have not absorbed whatever lessons that Holocaust Museums were designed to impart. To name one category of protestors, LGBTQ+ Jews marching for Hamas seem not to understand the message of Martin Niemöller. The most enthusiastic practitioners of Holocaust Remembrance, unfortunately, seem to be the members of Hamas, who learned the lessons of those years all too well. It should noted that David Patterson’s 2022 scholarly work, Judaism, Antisemitism, and Holocaust: Making the Connections, documents Hamas’s literal organizational and philosophical links to Hitler’s Nazis.

The central feature of both the Holocaust and of Hamas’s slaughter is that once one abandons the sanctity of individuals and considers only the presumed virtues and vices of demographic groups, one is free to attack those deemed unvirtuous in any way.

Furthermore, equitism, like eugenics, can anesthetize those who do not share the murderous intentions of the Nazis or Hamas. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has been open for 31 years, but its mission clearly failed to educate the Ivy League presidents who hemmed and hawed and equivocated over questions of whether calls for genocide against Jews qualified as protected speech on the same campuses where subjectively discerned microaggressions or misuse of preferred pronouns are grounds for ostracism and punishment.

Who wants to contradict something called “social justice” or “diversity” or “equity?” The anesthetic effect seems to have impacted even the Holocaust museums themselves. At Commentary magazine, Seth Mandel asked, “Why Are Holocaust Museums Cowering in Silence?”

Corrosion begins in microscopic proportions

The most important lesson for Holocaust Remembrance comes from Dr. Leo Alexander’s simple, chilling statement that “corrosion begins in microscopic proportions.” Alexander, an American psychiatrist, neurologist, educator, and author, of Austrian-Jewish origin, was a key medical advisor during the Nuremberg Trials. He wrote part of the Nuremberg Code, which provides legal and ethical principles for scientific experiment on humans, and discovered that German doctors didn’t fail to stop the Nazis’ program of genocide and barbaric medical experimentation. Rather, he discovered they didn’t do more to stop the horrors because they were instrumental in initiating them. In a 2018 article on this subject, I argued that:

German doctors enthusiastically volunteered for [service] to, and leadership within, the Third Reich. Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess declared Nazism ‘nothing but applied biology,’ and many German doctors apparently agreed.” Collectively, they decided that medicine’s primary purpose was to build “an economically productive populace,” a concept that “opened the floodgates for atrocities.”

By contrast, Alexander found that Dutch physicians following the Nazi conquest of the Netherlands, unanimously rejected this assumption and viewed their role as healing and comforting the sick and dying. Even when threatened with punishment and death, “humility assured that no Dutch doctors participated in the Holocaust.

German doctors, besotted with eugenics, gladly segmented society by ethnicity, by disabilities, by sexuality, and so forth. And once they began thinking of groups (e.g., productive versus nonproductive races), rather than of individuals, then they were free to commit atrocities in good conscience—or at least to acquiesce in the atrocities committed by others. The same dynamic plays out today on the campuses of America or the streets of London and Paris and Sydney.

Alexander’s work is described in James A. Maccaro’s brief 1997 article “From Small Beginnings: The Road to Genocide.” Alexander’s full paper is his 1948 New England Journal of Medicine report on “Medical Science Under Dictatorship.” A century ago, the oxidants that began society’s corrosion lay in eugenics. Today, the oxidants lie in equitism.

In the early 20th century, eugenics was almost universally accepted by academicians, politicians, doctors, the general public, and celebrities. Opposing eugenics put one’s career and friendships in peril. One of the few public intellectuals to oppose this madness was the British writer G. K. Chesterton, author of Eugenics and Other Evils (1922). Chesterton understood better than anyone that evil comes most often not from evil people, but rather from good people with unmoored ethics. In 1908, he wrote:

The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was shattered at the Reformation), it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is a worthy project, but not if it is solely backward-looking. Looking for Nazis in 2024 is a futile endeavor. Scanning the horizon in front of us for those with parallel intent is far more urgent and challenging.

As goes the aphorism, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.”

#Holocaust Remembrance Day #Holocaust Memorial Day #Holocaust Remembrance #Auschwitz #Robert F. Graboyes #antisemitism #equitism #woke #wokeness #wokeism #cult of woke #wokeness as religion #Substitution Hypothesis #eugenics #Third Reich #religion is a mental illness #International Holocaust Remembrance Day

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the-garbanzo-annex-jr · 10 months

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TAMMI ROSSMAN-BENJAMIN

While civil rights law continues to play an important role in how DEI programs operate, they have since evolved and expanded, especially in the last decade. With the establishment and rapid growth of the Black Lives Matter movement and the popularization of critical race theory, there has been an explosion of interest among colleges and universities in establishing or expanding DEI programs not just to reduce social inequality, but to fight the systemic injustice that leads to it. Although the same identity groups remain the focus of DEI efforts, those efforts now view them through the lens not of social inequality but of systemic oppression.

How do Jewish students fit into this picture? Until 2004 they were not afforded Title VI protections from discrimination, because they were regarded solely as members of a religious group — not a protected category under Title VI. As a result, campus affirmative-action or equal-opportunity programs had no reason to include Jewish students in their efforts. But even after 2004, when Jewish students were deemed eligible for Title VI protection as members of a national origin group, neither they nor antisemitism was integrated into most DEI initiatives, despite an increasingly hostile campus environment.

The blindness of DEI programs to Jewish students and antisemitism is likely the result of two factors.

First, although Jews were once a historically marginalized and underrepresented group in American higher education, that is certainly no longer the case. Consequently, despite having endured thousands of years of oppression, including one of history’s largest genocides, and even now suffering more hate crimes in America than any historically marginalized and underrepresented group except African Americans, Jews are not viewed as oppressed at all within a DEI framework. On the contrary, they are generally seen as white, privileged oppressors who do not merit the attention of DEI programs.

Second, even if Jewish students manage to secure a seat at the DEI table, a thornier problem awaits. Although a growing number of DEI officials are willing to respond to and educate the campus community about acts of classical antisemitism, such as swastikas painted on a Jewish fraternity house or neo-Nazi fliers distributed on campus, many of those same officials are unwilling to acknowledge and address anti-Zionist-motivated harassment. Yet this is by far the predominant form of antisemitism facing Jewish students today.

The disparate treatment of these two types of antisemitism is very much related to the ideological leanings of most DEI programs. Because instances of classical antisemitism are often perpetrated by individuals associated with white-supremacist groups, who are also perpetrators of racist attacks on many historically marginalized groups, calling out and educating about this type of antisemitism actually kills two birds with one stone.

On the other hand, many instances of anti-Zionist harassment on campus are perpetrated by members of identity groups served by DEI programs. In addition, many DEI staff themselves harbor virulently anti-Israel sentiments, as demonstrated in a 2021 report examining the social-media postings of DEI staff at major universities. Drawing heavily on ideologies undergirding most DEI programs, these postings portrayed Israel as a racist, settler-colonial state, linked the plight of Palestinians to the struggles of oppressed minorities in America, and implied that it was the duty of antiracist activists to support the liberation of Palestine “from the river to the sea,” a rallying cry for the elimination of the Jewish state.

Against this backdrop, it’s not hard to see why so many DEI programs are loath to acknowledge the antisemitic nature of anti-Zionist behavior that so often leads to the harassment of Jewish students. But that hasn’t stopped Jewish advocates from trying.

#dei #civil rights #dei programs #jewish students

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eretzyisrael · 10 months

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By NAYA LEKHET

Other strategies to combat anti-Zionism include demonstrating that Jews are the indigenous people of the Land of Israel, thus opposing the claim that Zionism is a form of settler-colonialism. The logic here being, a group of people who are indigenous cannot be colonists. While this is true, that is, that Jews are very much the indigenous people of Israel, it reinforces the progressive framework that power equals guilt.

A third dominant strategy is to influence Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs in universities, hoping that in the mandated anti-racism and anti-discrimination trainings, DEI officers would include the long-suffering Jews. But as Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, founder of AMCHA recently writes, “it turns out there are numerous problems involved in trying to address antisemitism within a DEI framework... as a practical matter, DEI programs limit their ‘equity’ and ‘inclusion’ efforts to certain identity groups, which rarely include Jews.”

Focusing predominately on marginalized groups, DEI programs are not equipped to deal with the fact that for American Jews, “this is no longer the case.” DEI frameworks necessitate a worldview in which only marginalized people matter. By extension, Zionists, who are Jews with power, not only do not matter but must be dealt with opprobrium. This is not an opinion. It is a fact. In December 2021, the Heritage Foundation published a troublesome finding in which DEI staff harbor antisemitic views toward Israel and Zionism.

What, then, is the solution? At the forefront of this battle is the Institute for Jewish Liberal Values, founded by David Bernstein, whose 2022 book Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews documents how the sweeping ideology of progressivism has given fertile ground for contemporary Jew-hatred, anti-Zionism, to flourish. Identifying a correlation between progressive ideology and antisemitism, Bernstein’s important work sheds light on how and why Zionism is perceived to be racism as progressive ideologues espouse the notion that people with power can be racists.

Naturally, the solution would be to disprove that Jews are privileged, or rather prove that they are beleaguered. But we are not. In numbers alone, we are, indeed, a minority. But we are successful; moreover, Zionism is the realization of the Jewish people’s will to take its rightful place among the nations: to establish secure political borders under the aegis of self-determination.

As Ze’ev Jabotinsky, a Revisionist Zionist leader and military commander of the Irgun, said in 1937, “Tell them [the Jewish People] three things in my name, and not two: they must get iron [i.e. weapons]; they must choose a king; and they must learn to laugh.” We are to read this statement as an extension of self-determination. This is Zionism: the Jew with the weapon who is a sovereign. This, however, is also entirely unpalatable to progressivism.

#antisemitism #progressive antisemitism #jews

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afrobeatsindacity · 1 year

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ASAKE - WORK OF ART REVIEW

“But una know I no dey waste time” is Asake's pre-written answer to questions bordering around why his sophomore album is out barely 9 months after his scintillating debut. Not that anyone is less than thrilled to see him back so soon, mind, but we are all too familiar with the compromises to the production process that may aid an artist to achieve these hurried release schedules. Asake, however, does not sacrifice quality on the altar of speed, so that what is traditionally a sticky point for establishing artists—the second album slump—is turned into a flamboyant, braggadocious display of his extent of pliability of his Fuji-Amapiano creation, and then some.

Doubts have persisted for nearly as long as he has been mainstream of his ability and/or willingness (or lack thereof) to explore music styles outside his patented scope, but Asake does not intend Work Of Art to be a definitive end to this conversation. So while he does push even further from the conventional in a bid to conquer sonic territory, he plants his base firmly in the music that has brought him thus far—the rhythmic familiarity of log drums and shakers, the ethereal resonance of crowd backup vocals and his own euphonic, Fuji-recalling delivery.

For “Yoga”, his 2023 opener which now closes the album, he sets himself sonically somewhere between Indigenous Egun music of Badagry, Lagos and the Sega genre of Mauritius, weaving together diverse cultures. His message here is clear; he is in his own lane and it would be pointless to try and catch him—but this time he goes for sombre self-identity over overarching superiority. Not to say he does not have some of the latter in his toolbox. On “Lonely At The Top”, the track from which this article’s opening quote was carved, he may appear to get ahead of himself—this is, afterall, only the second year since his proper breakout single, and there are others who have secured and maintained a top-flight status for much longer—but Asake’s time has always run a little faster.

That is the reason why, still struggling to find a footing in music and life in general, he announced himself “Mr Money” in his 2020 single of the same name. On Work Of Art, boastful predictions for his future can carry the extra backing of his conquests from last year, and he knows it. On “I believe”, the optimistically upbeat joint which Magicsticks reworks from Amapiano’s log drums, Asake proclaims “Nitty-gritty of ‘22, I’m the one”, casting back to a year ago when he thrilled the country with a conveyor belt of hit singles before his debut album landed the final blow. He rewords and translates this on “Awodi”, stating “2022 mo gbe wan trabaye”, another claim that can be self-promoting without being exaggerative. On this chiefly Yoruba song, his honours Pasuma both in words and in the Fuji-ogling framework the track is crafted on.

Whether Asake’s outsized self-image is primarily a function of belief in himself or trust in a higher power is debatable, but it certainly is some combination of both. He definitely has the spiritual strength to justify the latter, as he embraces, in the popular Yoruba polytheist ideology, both Christianity and Islam, and delves into African Traditional Religion when the situation requires it, when there is need to tie ese ile bo. But where Mr. Money With The Vibe regarded these religions, like most people do, as a means of covering all bases in the search for material upliftment, Work Of Art has Asake transcend beyond this and ponder on the afterlife.

He weighs in turn a Christian (“Mr. Money with the vibe ‘til the devil say my name”) and then a Muslim (“Koni wa le lai lai till we reach Al Jannah”) aftermath, but reaches a consensus in either case that he will live to the full until that moment arrives. And while these musings might seem somewhat premature for a 28 year old man in apparent robust health, Asake has never faltered in his preference of an impactful existence over a lengthy one. So today he will drown in a variety of substances from alcohol to colorado, before burying his head in the thighs of the woman he loves. “Let’s stay all night looking as the star shines/ Make love till the sunrise” he sings on the now-decadent, now-affecting “Mogbe”.

Romance flickers brightly in other corners, even if it is a rare sight on the album and is often easily contorted into lust. “Remember” has a chorus that wants to negotiate affection with money, not an uncommon love language in a country with so little of it. “I wanna love you forever, baby o/ I just want to spend all my chеddar on you”, he says at first, but what comes next unmasks his carnal intentions. “Sunshine” shares all of this blissful radiance, but, without its romantic overtones, Asake intends it to be a pat on the back to the weary soul, equal parts motivating and reassuring. “Sun’s gon’ shine on everything you do”, he says, and if those words appear familiar it is because they were borrowed from Lighthouse Family’s “Ocean Drive” of 1995, and Asake transports this iconic line across time and genre without losing any bit of its eupeptic essence.

Asake uses himself and his incredible journey, as successful people often do, as a guiding light to those still stuck on the lowest rungs of the ladder, but material success is only a small contributor to his euphoria. For Asake, the process is just as important as the result, and like every true artist he prides himself even more in the art that has brought him thus far.

“Basquiat” throws down the gauntlet with the arrogance of a man that knows it won’t be taken up, and while he is aware of similarly sounding artists that the media will try to force into comparisons with him,— “Studying me is an honour jeun lor/ I get many pages like songs of Solomon”—he will superciliously point out the futility in reading a master’s textbook to try and be better than him. “What's the chances, what's the probability/ To see a bеtter version of me with agility”, he asks on the spunky Blaisebeatz-produced “2:30”, but it is only rhetorical. He has his answer.

If he is any worried about deposition, he hardly shows it, and more importantly, he will not let it bog down his brilliant new creation. “Basquiat” is also the closest thing to a titular track on the album, whose cover art is depiction of Jean-Michel Basquiat by Nigerian artist, Ayanfe Olarinde. While Asake sees similarities between himself and the talented, troubled, visual artist, he has long established to have no greater weapon in his arsenal than his individuality and sense of self. A few fans may clamour to see him try on new trends and sounds, but Asake insists that he is the template, the “work of art” that should be studied. And he probably is right. Supreme ability and a unshaking confidence in it are always a devastating match, and his blend of indigenous cultures from fifty years ago and trendsetting house music of the future makes him one of the easiest bets for the next great Nigerian star.

This article was written by Afrobeats City Contributor Ezema Patrick - @ezemapatrick (Twitter)

Afrobeats City doesn’t own the right to the images - image source: Instagram - @Asakemusic

#Afrobeats #Afrobeats City #Asake #Work of art #Album review #Music article #Africa #African music #Basquiat #Nigeria #Nigerian music #music #Afrobeats article #Afrobeats UK #Mr Money with the vibes

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whentherewerebicycles · 1 month

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ok let me just talk through this workshop as a way of trying to get myself to finish it. the main problem is that another woman is coming a month later to give a second workshop in this series, except that she already created hers and it covers a lot of the basic intro ground that you might expect (creating a mentoring philosophy and contract, communicating expectations, the value of mentoring for students, DEI best practices in mentoring, etc.). i don't want to teach the same thing twice so i have to figure out a different framework for mine. here is my idea...

a lot of mentoring resources focus on the beginning of a mentoring relationship. there's a lot of stuff out there on how to establish the initial mentor/mentee dynamic and mutually define expectations etc etc. and that is definitely important! but i think that most of the frustrations or pitfalls or obstacles in mentoring actually arise in the middle of the relationship. like at the beginning you have this burst of mutual energy where both people are excited to work with each other and enthusiastic about the project they're embarking on, and there's a lot of goodwill and desire to make things work. in my experience the beginnings of almost all mentoring relationships are very positive and defined by a lot of goodwill. but then like, energy flags, students seem to lose focus or lose a sense of direction or get overcommitted elsewhere, mentors start feeling the burden of having to do so much teaching/coaching/advance planning/feedack-giving (esp if they're working with multiple students), etc. and in some cases you both sort of end up limping to the finish line, or not quite creating a thing as ambitious as what you'd had in mind.

i got really interested in this problem in my last university job, where i was doing a ton of long-term project advising and was seeing these highly motivated students sort of peter out midway through the year (in the most extreme cases some of them ended up ghosting the program and never completing their projects). the general consensus in my program when i started was basically like, well, if students have the will/drive to succeed they will persist, and the ones who lose steam or drop off the map are the ones who just weren't serious enough about the work. and there was some light annoyance too about like, the idea that we invested a lot of time/energy in these kids and their projects, and some of them just didn't really respect that investment of energy or let other priorities take precedence. i'm not sure how exactly to phrase this, but i started thinking about how we really put the responsibility on the student to be "mentored well." we assume that if we show up to provide regular guidance/feedback on the student's work, the student should know how to benefit from that attention, ie how to translate it into successfully completing projects or carrying out leadership roles or whatever.

ugh that's a messy framing i have to come back to that and think about it a bit more!! and i am struggling a bit to translate it to the next part, like the actual meat of the workshop. but basically... i want to get people thinking about the common pitfalls that arise in the middle of a mentoring relationship... and i want to reframe those pitfalls not as failures of either the mentor or mentee, but as very natural and normal parts of the process of learning to be mentored well. i want to posit that basically, things like taking and incorporating feedback, exercising initiative, anticipating next steps in a project, diagnosing problems or obstacles in one's own work, asking for guidance in specific areas, learning from and persisting through failure, etc., aren't things that people naturally know how to do but are skills that can and should be taught/learned in the context of a mentoring relationship. and i think our frustrations with mentoring can be significantly alleviated when we see ourselves as responsible for teaching students how to do those things. then i want to present some specific strategies and structures that i've found helpful for teaching those skills, or for preparing students to exercise those skills effectively.

aaaaa this feels so messy still but ok i'm just talking through it i'm just talking it out. i'm thinking about structuring the talk around some common (and overlapping) frustrations that commonly arise in the middle of mentoring a student.

student doesn't take enough initiative. they may competently complete tasks as assigned but often sit around between meetings or tasks waiting to be told what to do next.

student experiences a motivation or productivity dip midway through the project/term/year. they might become harder to get in touch with or have a harder time balancing competing priorities or become less reliable or seem really overwhelmed.

mentor finds themselves doing WAY too much of the work. that might mean doing too many parts of the project on their own or doing too much prep for meetings or bearing too much of the cognitive load of deciding what the next step is... which, when you are advising multiple students, can easily lead to exhaustion and burnout. (idk #1 and #3 feel really close together i might need to think about how to differentiate them further.)

i can't decide if i'll name this explicitly but i think the thread that runs through all of these frustrations is like... the student is not exercising enough autonomy/self-direction, and so as a result the mentor is having to take on more and more responsibility for directing the project or the work, which makes the student feel more disconnected from the work and therefore increasingly less motivated to persist in the work (a diminished sense of ownership over the project) and makes the mentor feel more exhausted/irritated/burnt out (too much ownership over the project when it's not really 'their' work).

so how do we cultivate student autonomy? and i mean that in a really practical sense... like what are the concrete, observable things that successful mentors DO to help students take on more initiative? how do they teach, guide, and prepare students to take on greater responsibility and ownership of a project over the course of their time working together, instead of letting the energy peter out or having the mentor take on more work to ensure the project gets finished?

and then i think i will like... present maybe five different concrete strategies and structures? and maybe have some discussion time or group activities where we are thinking about how to adapt these to different contexts, or generating other ideas/extensions for addressing specific issues that arise in our own work?? ok don't despair jes you can pull this together you just have to think a bit more. i think post-movie i will come back to this post and do some more thinking aloud through the five-ish specific artifacts/examples i want to show them.

#mentoring #teaching #to think further

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troius · 1 year

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For the longest time I didnt know what deicide meant. I thought these chapter tittles were referring to Ichigo deciding to sacrifice his powers, and that Kubo misspelled it since he doesnt know english.

But turns out it was I who doesnt know english and deicide means (dei)ty homi(cide)

Ha!

Yeah, it's pretty clever title, as it can refer to either Aizen's own ambition to kill and replace the Soul King (sort of a god) or Ichigo's attempts to kill Aizen, who claims to have attained godlike power.

But the title to this volume, "God is dead", suggests a third possibility here, one in which the god in question has already died. I don't think that's meant to be taken literally, but more literately-- it's a famous quote by Nietzsche, who was talking about the collapse of Christianity as the moral framework among European intellectuals in the 19th century.

And you can see a sort of similar thing happening here. For reasons that involve Aizen, but certainly aren't limited to him, the old order of Soul Society has changed. People are questioning why things are ordered the way that they are. And that will continue, regardless of who wins this fight.

#bleach #ask troius

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rosethornewrites · 1 year

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Vash the Stampede as a Contemporary Outlaw Figure

(This is a paper I wrote nearly 20 years ago. It is also a first draft, and were I to rewrite it, I would make major structural changes. It was written for a Robin Hood literature class, and the assignment was to analyze a contemporary outlaw figure in a work of fiction using the framework developed in the course. I received an A on the paper, and the professor loved it because most folks just did it on Robin Hood.)

The twenty-six episode Japanese anime series Trigun was originally published as an eight-volume Japanese manga (graphic novel or comic book) by Yasuhiro Nightow in 1997. In 1998, the manga was turned into an animated series, which was directed by Satoshi Nishimura. Trigun’s genre is rather interesting, as the setting is a desert planet called Gunsmoke, so the series itself is a mix between science fiction and westerns. Interestingly, the year 1998 is sometimes referred to by Japanese anime fans as “the year of the ‘space cowboy’ animes” because of two other anime outlaw series that were produced in the same year: Outlaw Star and Cowboy Bebop (Raye).

The main character of Trigun is Vash the Stampede, also known as the Humanoid Typhoon, a man questing for love and peace. Vash is tall with spiky blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He is distinctively marked by a mole on his cheek and an earring, and he always wears a red trenchcoat. As the title of the series implies, he wields three guns: one “regular revolver, the hidden gun in his artificial left arm, and… the Angel Arm” (Adam). Vash has a bounty of sixty million double-dollars on his head because he destroyed the town of July with the Angel Arm. The setting of Trigun creates problems for this outlaw, as Gunsmoke is technically uninhabitable. The cities on Gunsmoke have to use technology to protect themselves from the harsh elements, so when Vash destroyed July it was a death sentence for the surviving residents. In fact, there should be no humans on the planet at all, but a colony fleet crash-landed on the planet centuries before. It is later revealed that Vash is not human and was born on the vessels. His twin brother and the major villain of Trigun, Knives, decided that humanity was evil and had to be kept from spreading to the rest of the universe and caused the near-fatal crash. Knives is also able to manipulate Vash’s Angel Arm[1] and was the true cause of the destruction of July. At the end of Trigun, Vash and Knives battle one another. Vash wins, but refuses to kill Knives.

Vash has three companions: Meryl Strife, Millie Thompson, and Nicholas D. Wolfwood. The major villains are members of the Gung-Ho Guns, a misfit gang of technologically or genetically enhanced humans who serve Knives in his quest to rid Gunsmoke of all humans. The Gung-Ho Guns follow Vash wherever he goes and cause trouble that is generally blamed on him. The main members of the gang, who Vash fights at various points in the series, include: Legato Bluesummers, Monev the Gale, Dominique the Cyclops, E.G. Mine, Rai-Dei the Blade, Leonof the Puppetmaster, Grey the Ninelives, Hopperd the Gantlet, Zazie the Beast, Chapel the Evergreen, Caine the Longshot, and Midvalley the Hornfreak. Various other villains not associated with the Gung-Ho Guns, appear in the anime as well.

Vash the Stampede is a contemporary outlaw figure. The series itself follows very closely with traditional outlaw themes, though much of the underlying philosophy and mysticism is decidedly Eastern. Trigun can be easily viewed as an outlaw tale using the tracking outline. In addition, it is important to look briefly at the birth of the Japanese outlaw figure.

Trigun exhibits many qualities common in outlaw tales, though with a different and sometimes unabashedly silly flavor. Instead of a reigning monarch, Gunsmoke is ruled by the Bernardelli Insurance Company, which initially outlaws Vash and places the bounty on his head for the destruction of July. Of course, the desire to gain that bounty causes mayhem wherever Vash goes, and things simply get worse. Gunsmoke is run by the whims of the insurance company, coupled with the whims of town mayors and sheriffs, who are often corrupt. There are several examples of this. In episode four, the owner of the town water supply, Mr. Cliff, turns out to be blocking it for economic gain, which has forced the town residents to flee or die of dehydration. In episode four, the town patron, Grim Reaper Bostock, and the town sheriff, Stan, are revealed to have murdered innocent people to gain their positions. In episode ten, an unnamed town mayor takes a woman and child hostage in an attempt to force Wolfwood to kill Vash so the mayor can acquire the sixty million double-dollar bounty. In each instance, Vash tricks the villains and delivers justice, setting things right again, though often leaving quite a bit of damage in his wake.

Vash “recruits” followers quite inadvertently. Meryl and Millie, two employees of the Bernardelli Insurance Company, meet Vash in episode one, but do not believe that he is really Vash the Stampede because, as Meryl says quite blatantly, Vash acts like a bumbling idiot. However, they keep running into each other because the two insurance agents are chasing Vash sightings. During their initial meeting, Vash rescues them from two bounty hunters who end up destroying a town in an attempt to capture or kill him. As the story unfolds, Meryl and Millie slowly realize that he really is Vash the Stampede. Through their observation of Vash, they come to understand, to a certain degree, that the destruction that follows him is not his fault. In fact, several times they help him restore justice in the towns of Gunsmoke. Despite their reports of this to the Bernardelli Insurance Company, Vash is labeled a human natural disaster and the insurance company stops paying for damages caused by him. Meryl and Millie become outlaws, of sorts, by continuing to follow Vash against company orders. Similarly, in episode nine, Vash saves Wolfwood from dehydration in the desert. In the same episode they work together to save a child. Though Wolfwood doesn’t join the three immediately, they run into him several more times. When Vash and Wolfwood are forced to fight each other in episode ten, it becomes obvious early in that they are evenly matched. Following the battle, Wolfwood becomes a permanent fixture in the series as a traveling companion.

The code that Vash exhibits is also very similar to that of the traditional outlaw. One of his oft-repeated lines is “This world is made of love and peace!” and he travels Gunsmoke questing for those two ideals. In addition, Vash tries to help those in need and believes in protecting the helpless and innocent, especially women and children. However, his biggest code of conduct is his refusal to kill. Vash tries to get his travel companions to follow this particular code of conduct over all others, especially Wolfwood, who has no qualms about killing those who attack him. Wolfwood obeys until near the end of the series, when he kills a child: Zazie the Beast, who controls sandworms and is trying to kill not only Vash and the others, but also several dozen orphaned children. Vash is outraged by this because he was convinced that Zazie was simply misguided and could be helped, and a rift forms between him and Wolfwood, which never heals because Wolfwood is killed. Similarly, Vash is forced to kill Legato Bluesummers, a telepath who can take control of humans’ actions, which drives him to a mental breakdown.

Vash’s determination not to kill is very complicated in its origin and consequences. Vash promised a woman named Rem Saverem that he would never kill. Rem is the outlaw’s love interest, though she is much different from the Maid Marian figure: Rem is dead. Ironically, Knives is the person who killed her when he tried to destroy the fleet of colony ships. Rather than escaping death with Vash and Knives, Rem went back and altered the course of the other ships enough to prevent them from burning up in Gunsmoke’s atmosphere, giving the humans aboard a chance to survive. Rem is a powerful figure in Trigun, and almost acts as a patron saint, appearing in dreams that sometimes warn Vash of danger and in flashbacks that show that she is the basis for the system of moral values that Vash follows. Rem’s appearance is generally accompanied by the Greenwood vision of red geranium blossoms, which, she explains in one flashback, represent determination and courage[2]. Vash’s refusal to kill is his attempt to keep Rem alive, and killing Legato causes a breakdown because breaking his promise to Rem reminds him of her death. Though he would never acknowledge it, part of the purpose of Vash’s activities is vengeance, though in the end he forgives his brother and stands by his promise to Rem, deciding to reform Knives.

Trigun also has some major comparative scenes that fit the traditional outlaw tale. For example, in episode three, Vash plays an altered version of the game of truth. He and Frank Marlon, who repairs Vash’s gun, save a town from bandits using only their fingers, which they pretend are guns, Vash with his in a pocket and Frank with his up against the lead bandit’s head. At various points in the series, mayors and sheriffs, along with other characters, break their oaths, welcoming Vash with open arms only to betray him in an attempt to get the bounty. For example, in episode six, Vash is hired by a woman named Elizabeth to protect her while she repairs the plant that protects the town. However, she sabotages the plant and locks Vash in it because she is a survivor of the July incident and wants revenge so badly that she is willing to sacrifice a town. Vash also has a habit of helping his enemies or taking service with them. For example, in episode two, Vash is hired to protect Mr. Cliff, stumbles upon his criminal activities, and seeks justice. In episode five, Vash saves the women who were holding him at gunpoint when their lives are threatened by outlaw mercenaries hired to kill or capture him. Vash defeats the outlaws and donates their bounty to the town, despite the fact that the townspeople had tried to kill him.

Contemporary outlaw themes also run through Trigun. The Greenwood theme is apparent in most of the flashback scenes with Rem, many of which take place in a garden on the ship and are accompanied by the symbolism of red geraniums. Vash also conforms to the idea of the good outlaw. His “outlawry does not bring shame upon [him], but instead proves [him] to be superior to [his] opponents, both in martial prowess and… in moral integrity” (Ohlgren xxiv). Vash meets his match in his draw with Wolfwood and later in his battle against his brother, though he emerges victorious. There is a repeated carnivalesque theme in Trigun, as the revealed corrupt officials are placed on the level of an outlaw while Vash acts as the official. Vash also plays the role of the trickster repeatedly, disguising himself once as a farmer in an effort to escape his outlawry and its heavy burden. Trigun also contains many elements of Monomyth; for example, Vash and Knives are pitted against one another in a battle over the fate of humanity and eventually must reconcile. In this reconciliation, Vash is able to understand and learn to control his destructive Angel Arm. In his battle against Knives and with his eventual understanding of his brother and also himself, Vash matures.

Trigun contains quite a bit of social conflict, especially between officials and the rich (the aristocracy and bourgeoisie), and the ordinary citizens. Citizens are often helpless against the corruption in towns, and are villein rather than citizens. In addition, the only example of clergy is Wolfwood, who does not hesitate to use violence to accomplish his goals and often abandons a moral value if it is inconvenient. Furthermore, ethnic conflict is rather obvious. Knives falls from grace because of the prejudice he and Vash suffer on the ship because they are not human. In addition, the members of the Gung-Ho Guns are all freaks of nature, mutated by the harsh Gunsmoke climate and are not welcome in society.

Interestingly, Trigun’s Vash the Stampede also fits the Japanese version of a good outlaw, which is rather similar to the European version. Like the European good outlaw, the Japanese outlaw fights injustice for the common good. A famous historical rebel known as Sakamoto Ryouma, a samurai who participated in the Meiji Restoration that moved toward ridding Japan of the oppressive warrior class, fought against the shogun, eventually forcing him to resign and allow a new government to form. Sakamoto Ryouma “did not live to see the Meiji government come into existence,” because he was killed in the chaos in Kyoto following the resignation (Jansen 335). Sakamoto’s rebellion resulted in “the 1868 collapse of the Tokugawa shogun’s military government (Bakufu) and the restoration of power to Japan’s Imperial family” (Huddleston). Outlaw tales about the Meiji Restoration are extremely popular in Japan, the most famous being Rurouni Kenshin, which is at least partially based upon the story of Sakamoto Ryouma.

Trigun takes the traditional Meiji Restoration tale and sets it in the far future on a desert planet far from Earth. Vash is no different from the traditional Japanese outlaw of these tales: he seeks to atone for his sins (the destruction of July) and also wishes to attain justice for the people. His quest for love and peace, as well as justice, leads him to better the lives of many people, despite the destruction he leaves behind him. In addition, he learns important life lessons along the way, and is able to reconcile his past and move on toward the future.

Vash the Stampede’s adventures are that of a contemporary outlaw. Trigun has many of the same elements as traditional European outlaw tales, and the series also contains allusions to historical Japanese outlaws. When looking at Vash in this context, one can easily see Trigun’s value as a contemporary outlaw tale.

Works Cited

Adam. “Trigun Characters and Weapons.” TheOtaku.Com. 27 Sept 2004. 10 Nov 2004 <http://articles.theotaku.com/view.php?action=retrieve&id=21>.

Huddleston, Daniel. “The Meiji Restoration.” Animerica. October 2000: 9-10, 34.

Jansen, Marius B. Sakamoto Ryōma and the Meiji Restoration. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1961.

Nightow, Yasuhiro. Trigun. Geneon Entertainment.

Ohlgren, Thomas H. A Book of Medieval Outlaws. Thrupp: Sutton Publishing, 1998.

Raye. “Trigun.” Spectrum Nexus. 9 July 2001. 10 Nov 2004 <http://thespectrum.net/review_trigun.shtml>.

[1] This is because the Japanese believe that twins have a connection that borders on magical. Often times in Japanese stories, twins have the ability to communicate with one another telepathically. This magical quality associated with twins may be because Japanese twins are very rare.

[2] Vash wears a red trenchcoat for this reason as well.

#tumblr university #vash the stampede #wolfwood #academic papers #academia #trigun

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