#EXTREMELY cultured choices

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[liesmyth]

would you be able to give examples/explain more about how race only impacts gideon in the tlt-universe? not being facetious or condescending, genuinely asking. thank you!

Hi anon! If you mean my tags to this post, I wrote

#earth conception of race doesn't impact any character in the series except the canonically brown main antagonist

By which I mean my Worstie and main antagonist of the series, John Gaius (PhD).

I don’t think TLT as a series engages with race in any especially meaningful ways. It’s set in a post-Earth society with entirely different social norms, and there’s no concept of race and ethnicity within the population of the Nine Houses. Physical descriptions of the characters are scarce to say the least, and they rarely spell out the kind of features that suggest specific racial connotations, because the POV characters don’t seem to think it’s something worth remarking upon. iirc, it takes until halfway through HtN for the narrative to confirm that Harrow has brown skin.

[See also Tamsyn’s GtN characters description post. It quotes passages from the book, and you can see how minimal the descriptions are, and she repeats several times that her characters’ appearances are up to the readers’ interpretations. It just doesn’t seem to be a big concern of hers]

Then there’s John, who grew up in twenty-first-century New Zealand and IS explicitly Māori in a way that absolutely impacted his character arc. It's not A major theme of his Nona chapters, but it’s there if you read between the lines. The boarding school he went to, which IRL had a high percentage of low-income Māori students on scholarship. The depth of his climate anxiety, his uncompromising “Nobody left behind” stance before the cryo project was halted, and his fervent hatred of ‘the trillionaires’ afterwards... these are all informed to some extent by his background as an indigenous man imo, and so was the global reaction to his developing powers. The “We were going to put you fellas in jail, weren’t we?” the way his initial attempts at publications are all flat-out ignored by the scientific community and dismissed as culty gimmicky faith healing until he leans into it.

John being Māori is just one of the many pieces of his backstory, and far from the most impactful to what eventually went down, but my point remains that he is the ONLY character in TLT whose racial background 1) affects his story arc and 2) is relatable to the audience. Everyone else is ten thousand years removed from Earth, and I’m just not very interested in using racial identifiers when exploring these characters and their dynamics, because the characters themselves don’t care and neither does the narrative.

[j-esbian]

i lost the post but i saw someone talking about how some of y’all act like being weird is a choice and like. YEAHHHHHHH.

that’s fine, it might be for you. but i just live like this and don’t know any other way. like yeah i’ve worked customer service, i can do innocuous small talk, but anything beyond that, i don’t understand what i’m missing. and it’s frustrating to see the tonal disconnect especially from people who are like “uwu embrace weirdness!!” where they’re like. dressing quirky and talking about bugs and listening to obscure music and eschewing small talk to ask Deep Questions on the first date and unlearning their tendency to not infodump. and generally have an idea of what Weirdness is supposed to look like. idk man some of us wake up and get out of bed and can’t figure out why the rest of their coworkers chitchat with each other but when they join the conversation it dies.

weirdness is value neutral. let’s stop trying to turn it into a badge because quite frankly, it’s not a choice for everyone. it’s fucking exhausting to never be on the same wavelength as other people and they’re going to react the way they do and label you the way they will without any conscious actions on your end. it’s difficult to talk about this without feeling like you’ll be dismissed as immature, a teenager whining “no one understands me” but the thing is. sometimes you don’t grow out of feeling alone and different, and there’s no good way to talk about it without feeling like people will think you’re just fishing for pity.

[weareuniqueandimportant]

EMPATHY GLAMORIZATION IS NOT ABOUT EMPATHY BUT SUPERIORITY TORWARDS APATHETIC PEOPLE BIGOTRY TORWARDS THEM TYPICAL BIGOT EVIL. SIMPLE AS THAT. IF YOU SEE THEM AS LEFTIST YOU'RE NO LEFTIST YOURSELF. HORRIBLE. THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE ONLY EMPATHY AND BAD TO THINK EVERYTHING YOU DO IS SUCH ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY'RE CLEARLY BEING APATHETIC IF ANYTHING WHEN THEY DO THIS...

COMES TO SHOW BIGOTRY TORWARDS CRAZY AND DISABLED PEOPLE ASWELL AS PARAPHILIA PEOPLE ISN'T TAKEN AT ALL THE SAME AS SEXISM RACISM AND QUEERPHOBIA... OR PERHAPS... LIKELY... THEY ARE ALL THE BIGOTED THINGS EVIL AND TAKE NONE THAT SERIOUSLY... BELITTLING DOWN THEIR PAIN AND DAMAGE...

[bijoumikhawal]

"historically polygamous societies loved to wage war and slavery to dispose of excess men and emphasize female conversion" okay all those things are true of monogamous societies too. Western Europeans are famously probably the best at war and slavery from the current standpoint and they're monogamous. And from the way you wrote that I can tell you were thinking of the middle east so what the fuck

[cluster-b-culture-is]

Npd culture is seeing those triggering videos popping up like "can narcissists even love?" and then thered just some misinformed rando overconfidently answering no. Like boohoo, you piece of shit, i guess all the people i love must not fucking exist then, do you even know what npd is?

(but inwardly, seething at how much hate there is towards us. like at this point we deserve the nice things they say we're trying to steal)

.

[praisethelamps]

Cashiers should have always tip jars. Every job in America should have a tip jar actually. I've both wanted desperately to tip cashiers, and had customers attempt to tip me when I was one. Give the people what they want.

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (3-9 Sep 2023)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😊 What's Left of Kisses (What's Left of Kisses #1) (Draco_sollicitus) - 86K, shrunkyclunks with Cap!Steve & mild-mannered history teacher Bucky (who's got some past trauma & secrets even he doesn't know about)

😊 It Always Finds A Way (What's Left of Kisses #2) (Draco_sollicitus) - 90K, shrunkyclunks, sequel to above - lots of angst and action and evil government scientists as Bucky tries to adjust to being superpowered (imo doesn't quite stick the landing but still an enjoyable fic)

😊 hic sunt dracones (robotguts) - 45K, steddie, cute af, low angst modern AU where eddie's a professional DM Steve hires for the group of kids he babysits

💖💖 +187K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

[podfic] Enfolding (jennisaisquoi (mcmuffins)) - Band Sinister [KJ Charles]: Corvin/Amanda /David, 3K - extremely delightful story, excellently done podfic

Second Nature (MoreThanSlightly (cadignan)) - Ted Lasso: Keeley/Roy/Jamie, 27K - Second Nature 'verse #1 - I am feral over this fic - gender/body swap with lots of gender fuckery and all sorts of goodness. Really felt like the author nailed the character voices. Loved loved loved it!

Three Ways to Saturday (MoreThanSlightly (cadignan)) - Ted Lasso: Keeley/Roy/Jamie, 1K - Second Nature 'verse #2 - outsider (Beard's) POV of the preceding fic - also stellar character voice, fun to see the different POV

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Maine Cabin Masters - s8, e5-15; s6, e1

Harley Quinn - s4, e9

Only Murders In The Building - s3, e6

D20: Mentopolis - "Emergency Powers" (s1, e5)

D20: Adventuring Party - "You Must Know What You Don't Know" (s14, e5)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Re: Dracula - September 3: Anything of a Young Ladies

Re: Dracula - September 4: He Has Deserted Me

Into It - The Real Bad Behavior Behind Reality TV

Re: Dracula - September 5: Patient Greatly Improved

⭐ Pop Culture Happy Hour - TV Guest Stars

Today, Explained - The new Cold War

Re: Dracula - September 6: Terrible Change for the Worse

Vibe Check - Burning Billionaires

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Kennett Square

⭐ 99% Invisible #389 - Whomst Among Us Let the Dogs Out AGAIN

⭐ Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - Mangini's Moments

Today, Explained - Why American sunscreen sucks

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Are We Witnessing The Death Of Movie Stars?

Re: Dracula - September 7: I Have Sown my Corn

⭐ Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein - Harold Perrineau

What Next: TBD - Tech Disrupts the School Bus

Dear Prudence - My Sister Is Lying to My Nephews About Their Father's Identity. Help!

Re: Dracula - September 8: A Presage of Horror

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Rites of Passage

Re: Dracula - September 9: Health and Strength Give Love Rein

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Jungle

New Release Mix

Duran Duran

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[moe-broey]

Ran out of answer spaces but! I felt it was important to split off Team Plasma since there is a significant ideological difference between them (as far as I remember each ideation of Team Rocket has the same goals/beliefs, Giovanni himself just stepped down and changed his mind)

That said! This is less about favorite gen and more about believing in the beliefs -- especially interesting to consider if you align with the Main Villain and their outlook, or if you believe in the so-called "cause" that may or may not be true, or have some truth to it (like, if you wanted to help Pokemon like og Plasma and Aether Foundation).

Sorry to lump Yell and Star together, I was going chronologically!! You'll have to specify which and why in the tags haha (if you want to that is!)

And honestly that goes for any choice, sell it to me. Why should I join Your team?

[mybrainproblems]

sorry but i am going to be very american and selfish and navel gaze-y for a moment but this is on my mind a lot as we approach february. just... ignore me.

i'm of ukrainian heritage. i'm also completely disconnected from my heritage because my great-great/great-grandparents fully assimilated as americans.

with the exception of my great-uncle (who lives far away and i rarely see), i have no living relatives who know much about our heritage (or are willing to talk about it in any detail beyond the romanticized ~*immigrant experience*~). everything i know about our family comes from my uncle because everyone else is dead; either died elderly and comfortable in the US or likely died in the holodomor. trying to research my family is useless bc my great-grandpa changed his last name to something completely made up so he could find work when he was in his early teens. this has always been a "fun" legend in our family; the choice to disconnect. it's a story our family has always told like it was some sort of wacky hijinks and as a kid was very funny but now, in my 30s and watching a cultural genocide unfold in ukraine, it feels devastating.

there are a small handful of things my family has held onto while also losing. there's the lost recipe for my great-grandma's holubsti (a word i didn't know how to spell until recently) that my family mourns every time we get together. i used to make pysanky for easter with my parents, which was passed down from my great-great aunt. my dad inherited her pysanky dyes after she passed away and we had them for years before most of the jars broke in a move. we have one remaining unbroken pysanka from her that i think she made in the 70s. i cannot imagine having hands so steady to make those intricate designs. mine always came out looking like shit.

i've always been curious about this part of my heritage but never felt any great need to seek it out until now. it feels fake and disingenuous to be interested in learning about this part of my heritage as a result of a war. that i didn't seek it out sooner. what is wrong with me that i care now.

i'm not sure where i'm going with this. i'm not sure what or how i'm supposed to feel. what i do feel is lost and angry and sad and selfish for feeling this way.

[loveletterworm]

since i saw a post about it just now i shall finally voice this thought. the thing about myhouse.wad to me is  though i think its pretty good (from like an external perspective i didnt play it lol i just watched a video...) it engages in so much derivative-y-ness not just of its clear inspiration in house of leaves (which is fine thats an interesting thing to make a doom wad out of) but of just like, generic internet “ooo creepy” “ooo i have googled liminal space” things that are in right now that it just sort of makes me look at all the cool things it does (like having the different areas maintain the layout of the house!! thats cool!!) and think “Aw man imagine what this could have been if it had put more thought into more original imagery and not including shrek”. 

like its cool how it actually basically maintains the gameplay loop of doom rather than just turning it into a walking simulator and when it gets the atmosphere it really gets the atmosphere (the burned house section is really strong)  but then it’ll just put you in some roblox-ass situation and it’s just kind of like  aw man. truly the highest highs and the mehest mehs

[feuqueerfire]

Linguistic Choices in Daily Life

My mom just told me a story where 2 people were on a business-related call, realized they both speak Bangla and started speaking Bangla. 

There are 3 levels of formalities/registers in Bangla, used for 2nd or 3rd person pronouns and the corresponding particle endings on verbs. 

Since this was a business call, the expectation is “apni” (the highest formality which is expected of formal situations, for younger people to older people, to those of higher status, for similar age/status adults before they become close, etc). 

However, A started calling B with “tumi” (the middle formality which is expected of people you’re familiar with, are the same age or younger, kids/children of the same age before they become close or to be polite), which confused and slightly offended B (understandable I think). So, B asked people whether this was normal, whether A used ‘tumi’ because they somehow realized out B is younger than them, or if A thinks highly of themselves and thinks of B as someone of lower status lol Then there was somebody who commented that maybe A is from a certain region which doesn’t use the ‘apni’ formality register and calls everybody ‘tumi’

This isn’t really fun I guess if you don’t know Bangla but this choice by A has so many interpretations and each would say something different about A. Also, I wish I knew the genders of A and B. 

[gay-jesus-probably]

As a general rule, if you're having food cravings, you should probably pay attention to that, because it's usually a sign that your body needs something. Like, if you've just finished a workout and are suddenly desperately craving fries? Maybe you're low on salt, you did just sweat a whole bunch. Period cravings for junk food? Your body's under some stress and working hard, you need energy, and foods with a lot of fat and/or sugar are an easy way to get that.

Back in the early 1900's when exploring Antarctica was all the rage, y'know what was a major part of everyones daily rations? Butter. Just butter. The men out on the sledging teams would have cravings to eat entire sticks of butter with nothing else, so that was included in their rations. And that happened because under those extreme circumstances, their bodies desperately needed as many calories as possible, so their diet consisted mainly of butter, chocolate, and animal fat. Eating entire sticks of butter was the healthiest possible diet for them.

That's an extreme example of course, but my point is, there's no such thing as inherently Good or Bad food. Anything that's edible can be healthy under the right circumstances, just like anything can be an unhealthy choice under the wrong circumstances. Your body knows what it needs. Listen to it. Unless you're actively going through a serious medical situation, you do not need a tightly restricted diet. Diet culture is a scam, body fat is natural and healthy, food is good for you, and calories are the fuel your body needs to power its continued survival.

[kingslaye]

What is life like in Melbourne? I’m looking into moving there from the UK and would love some insights and whatever else from people who live and work there 💕

I don't really know! I live in Brisbane :")

[homunculus-argument]

Making every other fantasy race except for humans a monoculture isn't just lazy, but actively robbing yourself of a wealth of story depth. Give them cultures with distinct nuances about things a human would have no idea about. Elves whose invisible and extremely nuanced cultural cues are not only incredibly subtle, but vary from one elven line to another, so something that would be considered a remarkably tactful and delicate choice in one elven house would be an atrocious insult in another.

Goblin clan feuds about The Sacred Bug - they all agree that this specific species of beetle is sacred to the Goblin Gods, but the question is whether it is taboo to eat it, or whether it would be blasphemy to not eat this bug that was specifically gifted to goblinkind by the gods. Can You Eat The Bug -wars are torrid affairs that can last generations. There's a theory that there are two different goblin gods who appear as the same one, and have deliberately given their own respective clans contradictory instructions about the bug just to fuck with them. Everyone who has ever asked a goblin about this theory has been bit.

Dwarves who have different regional measures for different ground depths. There's a confusion within a construction crew digging a new tunnel with some of the foreign builders using words like "first cracks deep" for something that's not a measure that's in use in the dwarvish universal metric system. And then it turns out that different dwarves from different areas are used to different kinds of bedrock that cracks at different levels, and they also disagree with each other about how deep is "first cracks deep".

And the Mason Master of the projct throws his pickaxe in the tunnel wall in frustration and goes "alright the next one of you to say some utter fucking hillbilly bullshit gets their ass beat so bad that your mother's beard falls off."