#OCR Editing

[shawnjordison]

Mastering OCR Editing with ABBYY FineReader PDF 16: An In-depth Tutorial

Explore the power of OCR editing with our in-depth ABBYY FineReader PDF 16 tutorial. Learn to perfect your document accessibility and management skills. #ABBYYFineReader, #OCREditing, #DocumentAccessibility, #PDFManagement, #Tutorial

Video Overview: In today’s digital age, managing and editing PDF documents effectively is a skill that can significantly enhance your productivity. The ABBYY FineReader PDF 16, with its Optical Character Recognition (OCR) editor, is a comprehensive tool that can help you in this endeavor. This in-depth ABBYY FineReader PDF 16 OCR tutorial aims to demystify the process. Decoding ABBYY FineReader…

[dr-george-ordell]

I really want to write a post about classicism, misogyny, and the actual misery boarding schools actually were before child safeguarding in the context of Harry Potter and, in particular, of Snape's bullying but GCSEs are beating my assss 😭

[sophaeros]

The Strokes for Rockin'On, December 2005 - English Translated Interview

THE STROKES The first report on the completion of The Strokes' tough and hard-hitting new album, "First Impressions of Earth"!

The guitar, the groove, the shouts, all turn into a hot, heavy blast that burns your ears. The Strokes' long-awaited third album, First Impressions of Earth, is a literal masterpiece that will make you tremble with the shock of the five of them being on fire and the solid response that resonates in your gut. Please listen to the prologue single "Juicebox" from the album that will be released soon. It takes only 35 seconds for the twin guitars to erupt ferociously from the cracks of the earth-soaked bass line and the sturdy rhythm to the gushing chorus. It's an energetic rock 'n' roll tune similar to their previous work "Reptilia," but the hasty development that skips the introduction and dashes straight to the heart of the song is shocking. The explosive speed and condensation of the work show that they have carved out their own music more directly with this work.

The seven songs from the album that arrived brought further surprises and excitement. The arpeggios, armed with the beauty of hard rock style, flowed torrents, and the four-wheel drive beats pounded out at full throttle. Just listening to the hard-hitting sound was incredibly exciting, and the catharsis of the sounds harmonizing closely together and climbing the melody's ups and downs was straightforward and cool. Julian's vocals, which are basically rough and awake, were exposed for the first time in a clear mix, and it was refreshing to hear him respond to the emotions of the songs with his passionate singing and ad-libs that made his voice crack. The popness of "Someday" and "12:51" and the breathtaking twin guitar interplay were not lost. But it was just easier to understand. A completely new dynamics and realism of sound was now flowing through their bodies.

"First Impressions" took nearly a year to produce at the band's own studio in New York. After initial sessions with Gordon Raphael, who worked on the previous two albums, the producer's baton was finally handed to David Kahn. His participation was quite surprising, as his representative works include works by Sugar Ray and Paul McCartney, but this selection was a wise decision. His ears and experience working with many mainstream acts have helped him to fundamentally refine the distorted soundscape of the Strokes, who are mocked as "the most popular indie band in the world" (it goes without saying that their fan base is indie-alternative oriented, even though they are signed to a major label), and successfully translate it into a more universal "today's rock" discourse.

"Is This It," with its demo-tape-like sound full of blank spaces, heralded the arrival of a new band with such outstanding musical sense that it could have been documented just by watching them play. With their second album, "Room on Fire," they expanded their tentacles into a variety of pop styles, but the aesthetic of the first album, which was easy to miss, remained fundamentally unchanged, with an approach that emphasizes sense and does not reveal everything, leaving the listener to fill in the gaps and spaces between the lines. At first glance, entrusting the work to the listener, saying "You can understand without me having to tell you everything, right?" is a smart and stylish way of doing things. However, there is a danger that it is perceived as a reliance on the listener, and that it is "avoiding a direct confrontation with the listener." Listening to this album, which eliminates ambiguity and suggestiveness as much as possible and where every sound functions with a clear intention, you can feel that they have finally become aware of this point and are trying to make a major breakthrough. With this album, we may be meeting the real Strokes for the first time. (Mariko Sakamoto)

JULIAN CASABLANCAS & NICOLAI FRAITURE INTERVIEW

I think they’ve captured that sound that's going to knock the doors down and take the band to the next level.

Interview: Mariko Sakamoto Photography: Autumn de Wilde

I'm happy with "Room." The reason we changed the production this time wasn't because of a drop in sales or dissatisfaction with the previous film, but because we wanted to try a new direction (Nikolai)

● It's been a while. How have you been? Nikolai (hereafter N): Yeah. I'm doing great. ● I'm glad that it seems like you’re enjoying the interview this time. Julian (J): (strained laugh) N: Yeah, I'm really enjoying it. (smiles)

● I have the impression that the Strokes aren't very good at interviews, but this time, unlike with their previous album, you seem to be quite proactive in speaking. N: …I wonder if that's what it's going to be like? J: Maybe.

● I think that's because the new album is so amazing that I want to talk about it. I've listened to eight songs, and they're all great! N: Thank goodness. J: Really? Thank you very much. ● Yes. I thought they were really good songs, and I felt like the next album will open new doors for the band and take The Strokes to the next level. N: Wow... (surprised) J: Thank you very much. I'm glad to hear that... Well, I hope it turns out exactly as you say (wry laugh) ● It's absolutely accurate. Please trust your intuition. J: Okay, okay, I believe you (laughs). Thank you.

● At the same time, the new album is full of surprises. There's a considerable change in musical style, and in many ways it's become more masculine: the sound, the arrangements, and the vocal mix. J: (widening his eyes and half bursting out laughing) Ahhhhhhh! ● No, it's not "manly". However, for example, some of the songs have been arranged in a spectacular way, and even feature flashy guitar solos on par with those of metal bands. I think all the elements have been trained and fleshed out more than ever before, and when I listened to it, I felt a sense of accomplishment that said "This is it!" This is a very powerful album. N: I guess so. Thank you. J: ... (a little taken aback by her momentum) That’s good. Hahaha. ● —That's it? (laughs) J: (laughs) No, I just feel like I'm being praised to the max. It’s like once you curry favour with me and get my guard down, you’re going to bite me! Jump down my throat like that, no? (laughs wryly) ●  (laughs) It’s not like that. J: Hahaha, kidding, kidding!

● So, first I want to ask you about the changes in this album. Perhaps the most positive aspect of the new album is that, unlike the previous one, you were able to take your time and work on the production after building your own studio. What do you think about this? N: Hmm... I think the biggest role in this album was played by producer David Kahn. So, speaking of our album, I think we got along really well with him. Of course, building our own studio was very important, and it was just as important as David's presence. That way we were able to take our time and work in our own space. But David is a really skilled producer who knows exactly what he has to do, and he's the perfect person to make a thicker,... how should I put it, yes, bigger sound. At the same time, using our own studio meant we were able to work comfortably and without hesitation, and thanks to that I think we were able to keep our own style and the style of this band. David brought out that style of us and pulled it up a little higher. J: Yes, I think you're right. And one more thing... well, in terms of musical style, I don't think we changed that much with this album. We just tried to keep changing and evolving. But, as Nikolai just said, the various factors in the production of this album, like having plenty of time, I think those factors helped us to grasp this sound. It's like what you said earlier, the sound that breaks down the door and takes the band to the next level. So… well, I think people will be able to understand what we’re doing and respect it… so that they’ll be able to more accurately interpret what it is we’re doing. Of course, we've always done that, but there are a lot of people who don't see beyond the sound... so I think this time it's a little easier to get into. That being said, we didn't intentionally try to change our style in order to achieve a certain sound or anything like that. I think it's the result of us trying to build on the foundation we've built up until now. As for the performance, it was a natural growth as a result of hard work, but I think the biggest factor in us being able to reach the next stage was the change in the acoustics.

● So you weren't changing direction because you weren't satisfied with your previous album, Room on Fire? I really love that album, but the reality is — and this is only in comparison to your first album — the reaction was lukewarm, and it didn't generate the same excitement as your first album, and sales actually fell. N: Hmm…

● Have you ever reflected on what went wrong with that piece and thought about trying to do it differently this time? J: (takes a deep breath)...Well, it's not like we all thought about it too much. More than that...well, I think we just wanted to keep an open mind about everything. What I understood about the previous album was that it was an album that was made in a hurry, at least that's what I think. So, this album is different, and I think it was more about us doing what we know we can do and proving to our listeners what we can do. At the same time, it was also a kind of self-reporting. It was about proving our abilities to ourselves. We definitely wanted to reach the next level, and this time we simply had the time to do it. So, we didn't think, 'Let's change things' from the beginning of the recording. We started by trying things out with Gordon (Raphael, producer of the past two albums), and both David and Gordon were involved. In other words, we didn't start making it thinking, 'The sales of the last album fell, so this time we have to do it this way.’ N: Yes. We never even discussed the fact that sales of "Room" were not good or anything like that. Besides, I think it was a very successful album— J: Right. N: I'm satisfied with the outcome of that work. So the reason we changed production companies this time wasn't because sales had dropped or because we were dissatisfied with the previous work, but because we wanted to aim for a new direction for ourselves and try something we'd never done before. J: —But we understand that other people think that the reason for the change this time is because of that... But I wonder, if we had recorded this album in exactly the same way as the first and second albums, what would have happened? I think everyone would have said, 'It's the same as before!' But even if the songs were exactly the same, and even the melodies were exactly the same, I think that the reaction to the sound this time, where we changed the way we did it, would probably be, 'It's a really cool song, and the arrangement is cool.' It's interesting that the reaction changes like that even though the content is the same... It's not particularly important, but it's interesting. Of course, I think it's good that we changed this time, and I know that this album wouldn't have been well received if we had done it the same way as before.

It was a recording where we were fighting back against an overbearing, visionary producer (Julian)

● About David Kahn, the Strokes are a close-knit, ambitious, and high-maintenance band. It seems like it would be difficult for an "outsider" like him, who had never worked with the Strokes before, to get involved, but what was the difference between him and Gordon Raphael? N: Yes...Gordon and David are completely different types. Gordon is better at capturing the atmosphere and feeling. So he sets up the microphones here and there to pick up the sound, presses the record button and keeps the tape running, and we don't do much with what we record. In that sense, David Kahn is completely different. I think he is very precise and detailed about the sound. So, in terms of "recording music", in other words, in terms of recording technique, his way of doing things is at a more intense level than Gordon's. And also, he had a much clearer, much clearer vision of what he wanted to get out of the band. Well, that made the recording process difficult at times. His way of seeing things was different from our own, and we sometimes clashed. So, I guess you could say that this album was about... well, you could say it was about finding the right balance between what David thought was 'this is it' and what we thought was 'no, this is what we want'. He definitely had an intimidating side, too… J: We were resisting David. That’s exactly what the recording was like. N: Julian was the one who worked closely with David. I'm sure he has something to say. (He then turns to Julian.) J: Hmm, well, I think what you just said describes our relationship with him quite accurately (laughs wryly). Well, that's why we've relied on everyone we've worked with, even if they were outside the band... But even though we trust them, if we let them do what they want, it ends up being a little different from what we want. I don't want that part to be taken over by the producer. That's because we want to keep it for ourselves. So, there were times where David was too focused on making the album in line with his own way of listening to music. Well, it's not like he himself said, "Let's do this to make it more pop," but the way he listens to music is, how should I put it, pop, accessible, easy to listen to, that's the standard. So sometimes he would change the tone, which was a bit of a hassle for me (laughs). But, yeah, his recording technique was great, and although it was difficult, I think in the end we were able to find a happy medium.

● Did you write all the songs this time too? J: ...Well, in most cases I brought in an idea and we all developed it together, but yes, there are more collaborations on this album compared to the previous one. I think with this album we have made a big step forward in the direction of functioning more efficiently and quickly as a band. When someone brings in an idea, we all improve it into something good (snap!) That's right, so I guess you could say we have become a more efficient, faster-working machine (laughs).

● So this album was made as a collaborative effort by everyone. It seems like the recording and writing sessions were a completely different experience than ever before. N: Yes. Of all the works we've done so far, this is the one where we worked the hardest together. J ...But I don't think it's fair to compare the previous two albums because we didn't have as much time to work on them. When I brought a song idea to the studio, I had to start working on it right away, try different ways one after another, and finish the song quickly. That's not a very relaxing production environment. This time, even if a song didn't take shape smoothly, I just put it aside and worked on another song. I didn't push the work forward, and well, at least I don't think there was any forcing something that didn't work out with this record.

● What is your own opinion of this work at this point? N: Hmm. It's a little too early to answer that question, since it's just been completed, but... if you ask me if I like this album, my answer is yes. J: Heh heh. N: (To Julian) But don't you think so? J: That's a very honest opinion, especially since it's not something you say after the album has been released and everyone has listened to it. N: (looks a little confused) I see... Well, I don't know what everyone thinks, but I like this album. So the answer is yes! ● (Laughs) Julian, how about you? J: It’s a yes for me too. I like it (laughs). And now I can do live shows again, so I'm really excited. I'm really looking forward to doing live shows.

Where does this album come from? The answer is complicated and not immediately clear to us. We can't point to "this and that" (Julian)

● So, according to an interview — or rather, a cover story in the NME newspaper — J: Ah (bitter smile). NME. Seriously... it's all the time. That was the first interview I had for this album, and because of that, every interview I've had since has always brought up the NME article (laugh). I can't help but think that all the journalists around the world will be writing articles based on that NME article. ● My apologies. I really am sorry, but what I found interesting about the NME article was that you mentioned bands with hard-core sounds like Muse, System of a Down, Queen, and The The. J: (wry smile) I think Nick’s the one who mentioned System and Muse though? ● Yes. However, I had never previously associated these bands with the Strokes, so that was quite a surprise to me. J: I’ve never connected them either. ● (laughs) So, when you were making the album you listened to a lot of their work and were influenced by them or something like that? J: So... after we finished making this record, I listened to Queen's albums a lot, but the recording work was finished (laughs). People ask me, "What kind of works were you listening to?" but I don't know either... I don't think that kind of thing influences the songs I write, and when I write songs, I think everything I've listened to up until now unconsciously seeps into the song. So... the names of the bands that appear in that article are an answer to what kind of music we were listening to at that time. But if you ask, "Where did this album come from directly?" the answer is not so simple and clear, it's a bit more complicated. If we were asked to give an answer, we would have to sit down together and analyze it in detail. It's not something that can be simply pointed out as "this, this, and this." ● I see. But it's true that the sound of this album is more hard rock/metal-like and intense than ever before, and some of the guitar solos are as fast as Eddie Van Halen's. So I thought, "I see." N: (laughs) J: That solo was just... I wanted to make it a little crazy, so that's one of the things I did. For Albert, playing a crazy guitar solo like that is just fun. But as far as the sound goes, I think I sometimes have a Nirvana-like feel to it... Or rather, I'm aiming for Nirvana. Well, I don't know. Well, I've listened to so much music, and I don't know where to start talking about it... Maybe it's just a little bit of music that I like that appears in the song, or the style of other works that appears... (thinks for a while) Sorry, sorry, I'm starting to talk about random things.

● Has the album title already been decided as "First Impressions of Earth"? Or is it still under consideration? J: Hmm... No, I think that's pretty much it. The title is pretty self-explanatory... It's a literal title. When this album was nearing completion, how should I put it, I was thinking about various things and writing down what came to my mind on paper. While doing so, that phrase came out, and when I saw it, I thought "That's cool". And that phrase matched perfectly with what I felt when I looked at the list of songs I wrote for this album... So, yes, it really is exactly like that, "First Impression of the Earth". It's an objective list of thoughts and comments on universal things, the song list of this album looked like that. As I was looking at the song titles lined up, I thought that if I were to name this list, that word would be it.

● Is that so? This strange album title made me think of a person standing a little distance away from the world, watching it. I felt like it meant that you have a feeling of being somewhat isolated from what is happening in the world, or from what you experience every day. J: Hmm... the feeling of alienation… ● For example, in the song "Ask Me Anything" on the album, you sing, "I have nothing to say / Nothing to give / No reason to live." J: Hahaha (bursts out laughing) ● I don't take the heavy lyrics "There's no reason to live" literally. However, I wondered if you’ve always felt this kind of distance and resignation. J: Hmm...I think that feeling of alienation can also be included in the list of 'comments on universal things'. (laughs) In other words, it's not particularly the central theme of the album. And personally, I don't feel particularly alienated. Well, I think that everyone feels that kind of alienation when they are younger...when they become conscious of things. At about 14 or 13 years old, when they are forced to realize that they are just a monotonous and mechanical part of the system. But for me...the song "Ask Me Anything" isn't about saying "I have nothing to say". Rather, it's about how it's sometimes difficult to express what you want to express with a proper purpose. I try to do it, but sometimes I feel like it didn't work out, I failed... (laughs)

● But musicians have to express themselves through music, and there are cases where they are asked to speak on behalf of many people on larger social issues. Even so, do you admit your powerlessness and say, "I have nothing to say"? J: Hmm... (takes a deep breath) It's a complicated issue, and a delicate and tricky one. I... so I think that we shouldn't worry too much about things that are out of our control. That's one of my thoughts. Because sometimes I feel like I can't control anything, and I feel like I'm not even in charge of my own life (laughs). On the other hand, I also feel that I have a duty... so I try to make things positive in the best way I can. I think sometimes I think I have to have a positive influence. So, yeah, that's the hard part, the tricky part, the complicated part, because it's really hard to have a positive influence. So I think that leaving things a little bit ambiguous when you're trying to do something helps you to try to figure out what it is that actually connects everything together. And also... sometimes I feel like I'm kind of stupid when I explain my thoughts and opinions in detail (laughs).

● Some people criticize the Strokes for being ambiguous and saying that they are "a band that has nothing to say," and it's certainly true that you are not a band with a strong message. J: …Like Rage Against the Machine? ● Yes. You're a band that throws your opinions at the listeners, and I think a lot of people want that from a rock band, to have a strong attitude that draws people's attention and makes them listen. This album, at least in terms of sound, is a powerful sound that makes you want to listen whether you like it or not. Do you think that the Strokes are now more open and aggressive, and ready to face a bigger audience? J: Well... I think we're definitely getting closer to that level. I don't know. But I feel like this album will be a good stepping stone to the direction we're heading in. This is just my personal opinion, and maybe it's not something I should say here. Also, we're still working on the new material (※The recording itself was completed, but the jacket and other final work was still left), and at times like that... I don't really want to talk about this kind of thing. You know, we're like, we've finally put one foot in the gap of a slightly opened door, and we're trying hard not to close it again. But I hope this record will help us open that door. And then I want to move forward from there.

"We could make something good," we had the conviction. But we also had the raw fear that people would say, "The Strokes are over." (Julian)

● Also, what I felt strongly after listening to the eight songs was that you guys have finally let your guard down and created an album without worrying about what others think is cool or what is considered uncool. J&N: (wry laugh)

● So, I think this is going to be a great album, but do you think it bridges the gap between who you really are and what the public thinks the Strokes are? J: Yes. I hope so. Most of those images are exaggerated and exaggerated rumors. So... I hope that with each work, at each stage, we can get closer to our true selves, and to do that, we have to try different methods. So I hope that this album will be received as an album that helps people understand us a little better after listening to it.

●What about you, Nikolai? Do you ever feel a gap between how you are and how the Strokes are perceived? N: Hmm... I wouldn't call it a gap, but what I think is that there are a lot of people who judge us too easily. I think that's where the gap lies. ● Oh, I see. N: For example, it's really hard to deal with people who, just by looking at our photos, immediately assume that we're a "this kind of band" or "that kind of people," and don't even bother to listen to our music. Even if those kinds of people do listen to our music, they only give it a quick listen and immediately form a judgement about the work. On the other hand, there are also people who are more open-minded and listen to music with a broad sensibility that welcomes new things, and I think those people will enjoy what we put out.

● In the end, you plan to include a total of 14 songs, right? J&N: (nods) ● There are still six more songs. What are they like? Are they a different type of song from the eight we've listened to this time? J: I think the songs you haven't listened to yet are "The Other Side," "Killing Lies," and "Fear of Sleep." I'm not sure which ones you haven't listened to yet. Can I see the track list? (Looking at the notebook with Nikolai). Um... Oh, there's a note saying "Blondie-like"! (wry smile) ● (sheepishly) Sorry. J: (laughs) That's right, oh, "Red Lights" is missing. What else is there? N: "Evening Sun." J: Ah, that's right. So that's six songs. The ones I haven't played yet are... how can I put it... more spooky. ● What, it's even more "eerie"?! J: No, I don't think it's exactly the same as "eerie"... I just want to say that it's stranger than the 8 songs I've shown you guys, in terms of the vibe of the song, on a technical level. I haven't really done songs that develop like that before, starting slow and then getting hard. Also, "Red Lights" is a two-guitar song... a Flock of Seagulls-esque self-absorbed guitar solo, performed with two electric guitars (laughs). But, yeah, I think the 8 songs you've heard are champion-level songs. That doesn't mean you'll only like the 8 songs you've heard. The other 6 songs are cool and deep, even if they're not straightforward. Well, it's hard to describe what they're like in words... but I hope you'll like the rest of them too. That's because we're a little scared too. What if the whole album gets leaked on the Internet before we release it? (The first single, "Juicebox," was leaked on the Internet before it was released). So, right now, we can't let you listen to all the songs. Sorry.

●Yes, I understand that situation. Also, I feel like there are more dark and serious songs this time around compared to the previous two albums. Why is that? J: Hmm...? What do you think about that? Other people have told me it's a positive album. ● Yes, it's a powerful work, so in that sense I think it's a positive record. J: It's funny. Other people say (with a smile) 'This one sounds happy!', but then you say (with a frown) 'It's a dark piece...' (with a wry smile). I wonder which it is.

● (laughs) I think "Room on Fire" is a very energetic and excellent pop album, a work that challenges various pop styles in one album, but in comparison, this album seems serious and dark. Why is that? N: Hmm, that's... (says with a pompous expression) J: Hmm, is that so? I don't think it's a particularly gloomy or dark album. Maybe it's a little more serious than before... But I think there's still a sense of teasing people this time. Right? I don't think we'll become a completely serious band... Well, we'll have to wait until the next album to know. I like putting playfulness and jokes in music like that, but if we're literally "playing around", it doesn't work for the listeners. It's not funny at all. At least, I think that's the case with music.

● It took almost a year to complete this album, but looking back on that long recording process, what do you think the atmosphere was like during the sessions? J: It was a cycle of ups and downs. ... How should I put it, we were kind of drifting apart from each other... (long silence) Umm, it was... I wonder? Sorry, I can't answer that question (vague).

●It seems like it wasn't smooth sailing, but do you think that was because you felt a lot of pressure to make a definitive album and break through to a new level? N: Of course (simply) ● Hahaha, that's right. J: (laughs) What I felt was... we were all aware of the pressure, and we were anxious. We all had a strong belief that we could make something good. However, in the back of our minds, or maybe just out of the blue... well, it was just something we felt for just a moment, and I don't know why it came up, but somewhere in our hearts, we were thinking, "This is the end of The Strokes. It's obviously no good" (laughs). We had to make sure we didn't make that kind of album. So we had a raw and real fear. But we absolutely didn't want to make that kind of album.

[hua-fei-hua]

what the fuck is your problem, dude

[anistarrose]

I want to make my posts more accessible, but can't write IDs myself: a guide

[Plain text: "I want to make my posts more accessible, but can't write IDs myself: a guide." End plain text.]

While every image posted online should be accessible in an ideal world, we all know it 1) takes time to learn how to write image descriptions, and 2) is easy to run out of spoons with which to write IDs. And this says nothing of disabilities that make writing them more challenging, if not impossible — especially if you're a person who benefits from IDs yourself.

There are resources for learning how to write them (and if you already know the basics, I'd like to highlight this good advice for avoiding burnout) — but for anyone who cannot write IDs on their original posts at any current or future moment, for any reason, then there are two good options for posting on Tumblr.

1. Crowdsource IDs through the People's Accessibility Discord

[Plain text: "1. Crowdsource IDs through the People's Accessibility Discord". End plain text.]

The People's Accessibility Discord is a community that volunteers description-writing (and transcript-writing, translation, etc) for people who can't do so themselves, or feel overwhelmed trying to do so. Invite link here (please let me know if the link breaks!)

The way it works is simple: if you're planning to make an original post — posting art, for example — and don't know how to describe it, you can share the image there first with a request for a description, and someone will likely be able to volunteer one.

The clear upside here (other than being able to get multiple people's input, which is also nice) is that you can do this before making the Tumblr post. By having the description to include in your post from the start, you can guarantee that no inaccessible version of the post will be circulated.

You can also get opinions on whether a post needs to be tagged for flashing or eyestrain — just be able to spoiler tag the image or gif you're posting, if you think it might be a concern. (Also, refer here for info on how to word those tags.)

The server is very chill and focused on helping/answering questions, but if social anxiety is too much of a barrier to joining, or you can't use Discord for whatever reason, then you can instead do the following:

2. Ask for help on Tumblr, and update the post afterwards

[Plain text: "Ask for help on Tumblr, and update the post afterwards". End description.]

Myself and a lot of other people who describe posts on this site are extra happy to provide a description if OP asks for help with one! This does leave the post inaccessible at first, so to minimize the drawbacks, the best procedure for posting an image you can't fully describe would be as follows:

Create the tumblr post with the most bare-bones description you can manage, no matter how simple (something like "ID: fanart of X character from Y. End ID" or "ID: a watercolor painting. End ID," or literally whatever you can manage)

Use a tool like Google Lens or OCR to extract text if applicable and if you have the energy, even if the text isn't a full image description (ideally also double-check the transcriptions, because they're not always perfect)

Write in the body of the post that you'd appreciate a more detailed description in the notes!

Tag the post as "undescribed" and/or "no id" only if you feel your current, bare-bones description is missing out on a lot of important context

When you post it and someone provides an ID, edit the ID into the original post (don't use read mores, italics, or small text)

Remove the undescribed tag, if applicable. If you're posting original art, you can even replace it with a tag like "accessible art" for visibility!

And congrats! You now have a described post that more people will be able to appreciate, and you should certainly feel free to self-reblog to give a boost to the new version!

[robber-baron-anonymous]

TIPS MASTERPOST!

(Edited June 6)

These are all of my l1fting/b0rr0wing tips. I’m making this for me to come back to, and for some friends.

GENERAL TIPS:

- IF YOU SEE SOMEONE ELSE CONCEAL, GET OUT. I’ve seen so many LP staff talk about using this tactic to ease suspects into stealing and getting caught. Just finish checking out (if you’re buying) or walk out.

- IF YOU LIFT IN FRONT OF OTHERS, MAKE SURE THEY WONT SNITCH. Just point out someone else, go ‘i think they just put something in their bag’ and see what they say. If they want to snitch on a random stranger who didn’t even steal, they’ll snitch on you too.

- WEAR A SKIRT. Obviously men can’t do this because LP are weirdos, but wearing a skirt gives you the opportunity to hold things between your legs and just walk out of the store. No bags required.

- DO NOT LIFT ON MAJOR HOLIDAYS. A crowded store may be nice for taking attention away from you, but stores will bring in more LP on the days leading up to Christmas/Easter/Valentine’s day because these are high shrink times. If you really want to l1ft in a busy store, go on weekends or the afternoon.

- CONCEAL L1FT1NG TOOLS ON YOUR PERSON. If you use a hook or magnets, conceal them on your body so if your bags are searched the police don’t have proof of intent.

- DON’T RUN IF THEY CATCH YOU. Unless the items you took are over 100-300 dollars and you concealed in a dressing room/left behind no proof/know that they don’t have any evidence to stop you, running will increase your sentence if they snap a picture of your licence plate and call the police. Most LP just want the merchandise back and will let you off with a trespass warning.

- GET OVER DISGUST ABOUT HIDING THINGS IN YOUR BRA. Seriously, any l1fter who has boobs should be using their bra to conceal. Wear a loose shirt and if anyone calls you out for lumps, just tear up a little and say that’s just how you’re shaped. I’ve done this and it embarrasses people so much they usually just walk away.

- DO NOT IMMEDIATELY CONCEAL. For LP to stop you going out the door, they need to 1. See you take the item, 2. See you conceal, 3. See you walk past all points of sale. Waiting to conceal can give you a bumper for security to move onto other targets if they’re watching you.

- STOP DOING HUGE HAULS!!! Taking over $300 in a single haul from a single store will put LP on the lookout and make it more likely for someone else to be caught. For nonessentials just try to be conservative in what you borrow.

- NEVER LOOK AROUND BEFORE YOU CONCEAL. This makes LP watch you, and they can use this as proof of intent. Basically this completely destroys the defence of “I didn’t realize i put it in my bag” if you get caught, and can increase your sentence if police get called.

- DON’T SH0PL1FT IMMEDIATELY. If LP is watching you, they will likely continue to until a reasonable amount of time has passed or if someone more suspicious enters the store.

- HAVE A FRIEND ACT SUSPICIOUS. This only works if you go in separately, you enter first and your friend enters secondly. Have them wear baggy clothes, constantly look around, not make eye contact with staff, pick up high value items, etc. this draws LP (and likely staffed cameras) away from you.

- GO WITH SOMEONE ELSE. (preferably 1-2 others) this works best if you’re white and over the age of 20.

- DO NOT GO WITH SOMEONE ELSE. Teens are known for shoplifting in groups. If you’re not white, being in groups WILL make LP target you because of the appearance of an OCR (most of them are pos racists).

- BE NICE TO THE EMPLOYEES! Just be nice guys. They’re not paid well enough to risk their legs, and if you’re nice they’re less likely to keep you in the store for LP.

- SOMEONE IS ALWAYS WATCHING YOU. Target with cameras hidden in their shelves, LP, employees, snitches, someone is always watching your every move. Just assume that everyone will see you and it will make you careful, and reconsider risky items.

- DON’T LOITER! A lot of stores are rolling out ‘AI’ theft prevention, and the system will flag you if you stay in one spot for too long. (or even reach for a bag.)

- PUT TAGS ONTO THE OTHER ITEMS YOU TOOK TO THE CHANGING ROOM. Store employees double tag items all the time, and it’s way less suspicious than a tag taped to the underside of the changing room chair.

- TAKE THE HANGERS WITH YOU. Taking them off and leaving them in the changing rooms is a dead giveaway that you’ve taken something, and it’s far easier for store attendants to pin it on you.

- THEY’RE BUILDING A CASE ON YOU. Big box stores DO NOT PLAY. Just assume that they’re trying to get you on a felony charge and waiting until you’ve stolen enough.

- HAVE A PURSE WITH A GOOD LINING? Cut a small hole in the side, tuck small items/tags into it, and if you set off the alarms security won’t know why because everything’s hidden between the lining and shell of the purse.

- SCOUT OUT THE STORE BEFOREHAND. This obviously won’t work if you’re going out of town to l1ft, but it can help in so many ways. Not having to look up at cameras is so so so handy.

- DON’T IMMEDIATELY PUT THINGS INTO YOUR BAG. Just don’t do this, it alerts LP and the loss prevention AI shit.

- LOOK FOR TOWERS. These are the things that beep, and they can be hidden very well (underneath carpets, on the doorframe, etc)

- IF THE TOWERS BEEP, KEEP WALKING. Just pretend you didn’t hear anything, and if store LP are watching you, it gives you a little bit of time to walk away as most stores won’t chase. Innocent people beep all the time too, for phones and forgotten tags and whatever.

Slight of hand/Blind Spots:

- SCARVES! I love scarves. Scarves scarves scarves. Since I live in a colder place it’s all cool to ‘adjust’ the scarf and tuck items into it.

- GLOVES/TIGHT SLEEVES. I’m talking about the ones with holes cut out for your thumbs, that cover half of your palm. Super easy to tuck small things in while you’re messing around with the displays.

- CONCEAL IN A DRINK CUP! If you’re going to a mall, buy a drink from a chain fast food place that has a store in the mall. Drink it, wash it out, and cut an X shape into the bottom of the cup. This lets you tuck small things like makeup and jewelry into the cup without opening the lid, ever.

- BLIND SPOTS ARE ONLY BLIND FOR A BIT. Keep moving. Assume LP are watching you.

- IF YOU NEED A BLIND SPOT KNOCK SOMETHING OFF THE SHELVES. When you bend down to pick it up, use the space between your body and the floor as a blind spot.

- BLIND SPOTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE IN AISLES WITH LOW SHRINK. Things that aren’t stolen often, yarn/utensils/cheap shit that’s bulky. Avoid concealing in aisles with high shrink rates, makeup/batteries/razors/electronics.

Clothes:

- NO BAGGY CLOTHES OR HUGE BAGS. it’s suspicious. Bring a purse if you have to, preferable use shopping bags from other stores, and wear clothing appropriate for the weather. Tighter clothing is less suspicious.

- NAME BRANDS. Name brands make you look like someone who has money or wants to look like they have money. LP, and the average snitch, are less suspicious.

- DO NOT CARRY YOUR COAT OVER YOUR ARM UNLESS YOU HAVE TO. LP are aware of this tactic and will watch you for it.

- AVOID BAGS. If you’re going out to get makeup/small items that you can body conceal, don’t bring a purse. LP and store clerks are told to watch anyone carrying their own bags, so if you can body conceal ditch the bag.

- WEAR LOOSE PANTS/FLOOR LENGTH SKIRT AND LONG SOCKS. Long, tight, stretchy socks. It’s so easy to squat down, tie the shoelace that you untied before you entered the store, and tuck the merchandise into the socks. Or just pretend to look at the shelves closer to the floor. Walk out with the merchandise safely secured and hidden. I’ve done this with things as big as cds, just use a good pair of socks.

- WEAR LOOSE SLEEVES AND ARM WARMERS. Same premise as above, but remember to only use this one or the other, never both at once unless it’s very weather appropriate (cold if you’re using sweatshirt/pants, warm if you’re wearing linen/flowy fabric).

- LEARN TO SOW! You don’t need neat stitches or even a machine, but knowing how to sow lets you repair instead of throwing away (and hidden pockets, magic bags, and so many other handmade l1fting equipment is available)

- HIDDEN POCKETS. There’s many different ways to do this, but the main idea stays the same. Put some in your clothes, in your bags, in literally everything.

[nebulations]

[ID: Magnus Archives quotes in the Barbie font.

Ceaseless Watcher turn your gaze upon this wretched thing.

The moment that you die will feel exactly the same as this one.

Do you know how many people I killed to keep the world in one piece?

You know what thought, when I woke up here? I thought this was hell. I was dead, and I was in hell. And I knew I deserved it.

He wants to cry out in horror, but he cannot.

Ah, head trauma and latent schizophrenia -the ghost's best friends.

Hmm. More meat. Interesting.

And I suggest he not be a scary, magic psychopath. Whoops! too late.

He cared for her. He trusted her. And she fed him to me.

Yeah, sure. Sorry to bother you. Goodbye, Alice. End ID]

Concept: TMA quotes but it's Barbie

Proof of concept:

[kitsuneheart]

i got a question: whens The Courtship of Hedehogs coming out??? haha. but seriously: when did you get started on this project?

Okay...so I saw the movie on January 10th. And I think I went nuts the very next day. So a month, and in that time, I've written something around 40k words. Hard to tell, because I write on the ipad, then need to edit out OCR results for a bit.

Also, current fic vibes:

[halfbaked00q]

conceded to my destroyed sleep schedule and decided to pop open some ebooks & see if I could make sense of some "canon" nomenclature madness. And... hm. results odd. *

So. While I thought perhaps Double O was the standard. Turns out Mr Fleming only used it the once, in Casino Royale. Thanks, Mr Fleming.

And then there's a slow drift and he seemed to settle on Double-O/double-O by the end(capitalization could pooossibly be one of those things "silently corrected" by ebook creators? and/or different publisher editors?). If we're going case sensitive, then "Double-O" wins by a technicality and a very thin margin in terms of frequency of use.

also funnily enough, lol. M mostly appears as "M" no period. But will sometimes appear as "M." with period. which is incredibly distracting and I think we should agree that none of us should do this ever.

Wikipedia makes the bold choice of listing their page under "00 Agents," and spells it out on that page as "Double O." The wiki page for James Bond carefully avoids spelling it out, lmao, except for where it quotes Goldfinger, so it appears as "double-O" (which they also use for their 'pronounced as' parenthetical).

Honestly. I dunno. Double-O. Double O. double no longer looks like a word so I have no clue where my opinion/preference lies on this now, lmao. I think either would be fine with a screen reader, so I don't care on that front. Maybe Double-O IS the way to go, despite being more annoying to type? Double O Section. Double-O Section. hm. maybe the latter, aesthetically? very annoying to type tho. (I will probs still continue to use 00 for posts tho lol. cuz. easier to type! lol)

--

*caveat that yea assuming the project gutenberg ca/fadedpages ebook versions I'm seeing are "true" versions of the orig - and also who knows if different publishers in different countries made editorial changes too, possibly, so maybe possibly there are even different versions across the same book in different publishers/runs. fadedpages/pgdcanada notes they made changes for formatting but not for spelling etc, but gutenberg ca, while additionally listing the edition the ebook is based on (which fadedpages doesn't seem to obviously do?) does also note that "obvious" typos have been silently corrected. Thunderball across different sources did actually list it differently - double-O in the pretitle page seems to always be the case, but sometimes the text has an uncapitalized one while the rest are Double-O. there's an archive.org transcript ver that has it as Double-0, but I believe this was faulty OCR from a pdf scan since it clearly had the more rounded O but came up as 0 in ocr.

[finnlongman]

What the edition looks like on the page:

What the OCR sees:

This is, for the record, why even texts that have been scanned and OCRd are not necessarily searchable.

This particular one is driving me so nuts I am now just typing out the entire text so that I can have a reliably searchable version. The text is about 20k in total, so this is no small undertaking, but will probably save me a lot of grief in future and I should've done it four years ago when I started working on this story. Always the way.

[nebulations]

[ID: An Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint comic split into three parts. The first part, titled "Early Days," shows Yoo Joonghyuk scowling and saying, "Fuck off Kim Dokja," with the curse censored in the comic.

The second part, titled "Mid," shows Joonghyuk sighing, "Fuck off Kim Dokja." Then Kim Dokja's star winks out in the sky, captioned "Really leave." Joonghyuk looks stunned and goes, "Kim Dokja...?"

The last part, titled "Today," shows Joonghyuk gripping Dokja with a very intense expression as he says, "Don't you ever leave in front of me. I'll kill you if you do Kim Dokja." Dokja sweats, "O-Okay, I get it so let go." End ID]

Source:

[communist-ojou-sama]

Since nothing I'm doing is all that special and I figure some others might want to help out with it, I decided to make a shared folder: In it is the full text of "I've Found My Answers" by the martyr Bassel al-Araj, along with the book divided into pieces short enough for Deepseek's length limits (about 30 pages each of the original book), and a Word document that currently contains the raw OCR of the first 70 pages, with the first few having been proofread. If you can read Arabic and would like to help me proofread, help would be much appreciated! I think it'd be nice if after making a nice epub for this book (what I'm aiming to eventually do) we could do the same for the Thorn and the Carnation, and for other books that currently only exist as somewhat-blurry pdfs! by default this link only gives reading and commenting privileges because I don't want some zionist to come and grief my work. If you want editing privileges DM me.

[vanesa]

How I Customize Windows and Android

Windows: Rainmeter

Rainmeter Skins

Rainmeter | Deviantart

r/Rainmeter

Rainmeter is where I get nifty desktop widgets (skins). There are a ton of skins online and you can spend hours just getting caught up in customizing. There are clocks, disk information, music visualizers, weather widgets*, and more.

I get most of my skins from the links I posted, but they are by no means the only resources for Rainmeter skins. r/Rainmeter and Deviantart have some awesome inspiration.

This is what my desktop looks like right now:

Dock: Dock 2 v1.5

Icons: icons8 - this is probably the best free resource for icons I know of

"Good Evening [name]": Simple Clean

Clock: Simplony

* Note about weather widgets: Older Rainmeter skins that use old weather APIs will likely not work. The Rainmeter forums has information with lists of weather skins that do work.

Windows: Useful Things for Workflow

Flow Launcher - this is basically a search bar, app launcher, and even easy-access terminal all in one. The default hotkey is Alt+Space. I use this almost primarily to do quick calculations. There are a ton of plugins and I've barely scratched the surface with how I use it.

ShareX - This is my screenshot tool and I love it. Admittedly, I find it difficult to configure, but once I had it set up, I didn't really have to adjust it. You can create custom hotkeys to screenshot your entire screen, or to select your screen, or even use OCR. This has saved me a ton of time copying over text in images and making it searchable.

Bonus - Get Rid of Windows Web Search in the Start Menu: If you're comfortable with editing your registry, and you want to get rid of the pesky web results in Windows search, this fix is what I used to get rid of it.

Android: Nova Launcher

This is my main Android launcher that I've been using for almost as long as I've owned a smartphone, and it's super customizable. The best part is that it's free with no ads, and you can purchase premium at a one-time cost.

The main things I use it for are app drawer tabs, renaming apps, hiding apps, and changing the icons.

I've had premium for so long that I've forgotten what the features were, but looking at the website, the one feature I use is app folders.

This is what my phone homescreen and app drawers look like:

Time/Weather: Breezy Weather

Calendar: Month: Calendar Widget (I got this on sale for like 30 cents once but there are a plethora of good calendar apps out there)

Icons: Whicons - White Icon Pack

Advanced Customization

Further things to enhance your customization experience to look into include:

Flashing a custom Android ROM (e.g. LineageOS)

Give up on Windows & install Linux instead (Ubuntu is a good one to start with)

Android app modification: ReVanced apps (includes Tumblr), Distraction Free Instagram

Miscellaneous notes under the cut:

None of these links are affiliate links. These are all tools I happen to use on a daily basis and I'm not being paid to promote them.

Install Rainmeter skins and programs I recommend at your own risk. Before altering Windows, such as editing the registry, make sure you have everything backed up.

The Windows web search fix works on my Windows 11 machine. I don't know if it works for Windows 10, but I do know I was able to disable it in Windows 10 at some point, so your mileage may vary.

Install non-Play Store apps at your own risk. (Although in my opinion, open source APKs are less sketchy than some apps on the Play Store...) Always check where you're downloading APKs form!

The wallpaper for my desktop and phone are custom wallpapers I made myself.

(At the request of @christ-chan-official)

[catastrophichues]

does anyone remember that one descendants series where the ocre 4 run after the family day and phoebus from hunchback of notre dame is the investigator looking for him while mal has like, a half sister looking for her as well? also the genie is there cause of jay

edit: it’s been found! by @poisonedstar2000

[four-loose-screws]

Blog Update 2025.04.22

Hey ya'll! I've gotten an influx of translation asks so far this year, which have been a lot of fun to dive into! The only downside is the time it takes for me to research and write up an answer to each ask when I have a whole bunch at once, so I thought I'd take a moment to briefly mention some of the posts I am going to be slowly but surely working on for a while. This isn't the entire list on my ask backlog, just the big stuff.

Tharja personality post - I don't think she's different enough in localization to merit a full analysis like I usually do for my personality posts, but once I read and think through all of her supports, I will for sure be sharing my thoughts.

Soleil personality post - I forgot I never did an analysis for Soleil! Well, better late than never! She's one of the top characters who needs a full Japanese vs. localization deep dive for sure.

Folder with raw FE novel scans in Japanese - They'll be far from perfect since I don't edit my novel scans, I need them just good enough to run relatively accurately through an OCR to help with my translations, but I'll still share my novel scans for those interested.

[fictionyoubelieve]

This is a VERY long text post.

thanks @squareallworthy for giving me the excuse to make a House of Leaves post!! I'm going to try to make this accessible to everyone, so:

If you haven't read HoL, feel free to bail if this goes too deep or stops making sense. Personally, I don't think you need to worry about spoilers because it's not that kind of book (it usually spoils itself anyway), but if you'd rather go in knowing nothing, slam that J key now.

If you have read HoL, feel free to skip ahead to the theories. You're presumably good at tuning out extraneous information by now. :)

What is House of Leaves?

House of Leaves is a novel by Mark Z. Danielewski (MZD), published in 2000. It's an example of postmodern literature, which according to Wikipedia is:

a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues.

...all of which is House of Leaves to a T. Rather than capturing a single narrative, the book's text layers multiple stories, which refer to both each other and to external (e.g. mythical) stories, and which often reference the fact that they are stories in a book.

You can find it archived here, though unfortunately that scan/OCR seems to mangle the text in ways that will be hard to distinguish from everything else it's got going on.

Overall, I think the book is really cool and interesting, but maybe not worth sinking a ton of time and effort into. It's not a fun or easy read. Definitely worth checking out, but don't be afraid to skim or abandon it if it's not your thing.

The layers of HoL

The innermost layer is The Navidson Record (TNR), which is ostensibly a documentary but effectively a found-footage horror film. It's a series of films about the Navidson family--an unmarried couple with two young children--moving into a house in Virginia, and discovering that something is very strange about it. First subtly and then dramatically, the interior of the house grows and changes, in defiance of physical laws. One closet in particular becomes an eerie and seemingly infinite labyrinth, which they explore at their peril. (Don't worry--the overall novel is creepy and sometimes upsetting, but not outright scary. I'm a weenie about horror and had no trouble.)

The next layer is a pseudo-academic text about TNR by a blind man named Zampanò. He recounts the events of TNR, but also meanders on long tangents about other stories or academic works.

The third layer is the primary one we experience as the book House of Leaves. A character calling himself Johnny Truant discovered the disorganized and incomplete manuscript in Zampanò's apartment after that man's death, and he has assembled and edited it into this book, as well as added an introduction and lengthy footnotes relating stories from his own life. Johnny often contradicts himself, freely admits to making things up or changing the previous layers to suit his whims, and appears to mentally deteriorate over the course of the novel. He also says he can't find any evidence that TNR actually exists.

There's a thin layer added by "the Editors," who supposedly received the text from Johnny, and published it while in contact with him. They add some appendices and minor notes throughout, mainly to provide English translations for certain excerpts or to state that something the text refers to is missing. They include a purported still frame from TNR in the appendices, with no comment from Johnny.

All of the above, of course, was actually written by MZD, the real-life author of HoL. He self-published the earliest version of HoL to the internet, before publishing the full version as a physical book. He also produced some teleplays related to the work, and a collection of letters from Johnny's mother. The letters were originally published separately, but now most of them are included as an appendix to HoL. MZD's sister, the singer-songwriter Poe, also released the album Haunted around the same time as HoL, and it serves as a companion or counterpart to the novel.

The final layer is us, the readers. We interact with the text and also with each other, like I'm doing with this post. MZD's website still hosts forum threads from the time the book came out, where readers deciphered and theorized about it together. This is an important and intentional aspect of the work, as I'll explain in more detail later (see "The Meta").

Sub-stories

There are a few smaller anecdotes within the text which almost serve as their own layers, but don't fit neatly into the hierarchy above:

The Chiclitz play The Minotaur, on p110-111

The story of The Atrocity, on p297-300

The story of the changeling/cyanotic child, on p518-521 and referenced obliquely on p48-49

Themes and motifs

A non-exhaustive and highly subjective list, ordered very roughly from the most to least prominent:

The Greek myth of the Minotaur and the labyrinth

House

Madness, memory, and meaning

The sea and the sky

Darkness, absence, emptiness

Yggdrasil, the world tree; trees, leaves, and paper; the Cumaean Sibyl

Fidelity (in multiple senses of the word)

Colors, especially red/blue or red/blue/green/yellow

Death and rebirth, procreation, the womb

The biblical myth of Abraham and his sons

The biblical myth of Jonah and the Whale

The eye, cameras

Head injuries, holes in the head

Families, especially parents and twins/pairs of siblings

Note that there are connections and overlap between these themes. I'm going to argue that the first few in particular are strongly intertwined.

The Meta

Most of the fan theories I've seen are focused on the usual concerns: "what do you think really happened in the story? what does this mean for the characters?" That's reasonable, but since HoL is extremely aware of itself and its readers, I think it's also worth asking what the text expects from us or what it's trying to communicate directly, if anything. IMO those questions are easier to answer than nailing down the events of the story, and that's on purpose.

While rightfully regarded as a challenging and puzzling book, HoL actually is pretty blatant about helping us "solve" most of it. Heck, it color-codes its major motifs. There were many instances where I was like "oh, this reminds me of that other part from a ways back" and then the footnote would tell me to refer back to that part I was remembering. When there's an encoded message, like the Morse code or first-letter sections, Johnny typically makes a comment providing the key to decoding it--and in some cases also tells us the "hidden message," like in his conversation with the band near the end of the book.

The book straight-up tells you how to read it. On p115, just before it starts getting really wild with the typesetting in a section structured like a maze, Zampanò's text gives this advice for navigating mazes:

In order to escape then, we have to remember we cannot ponder all paths but must decode only those necessary to get out. We must be quick and anything but exhaustive.

The next footnote (139) also warns: "[in a maze,] the faster you go, the worse you are entangled" and "If one reads too quickly or too slowly, one understands nothing."

And of course, the book provides an extensive (albeit somewhat playful) index, so that if you have a theory about a certain word or concept, you can easily go back and look up examples. I believe the page numbers also match up across editions, so that different readers can more easily confer with one another.

All of this strongly suggests that MZD very much wants us to view the text as a puzzle to decode with other readers. He makes sure we know there are patterns and hidden messages to be found.

The madness of analysis

Like I mentioned above, Johnny's mental state deteriorates over the course of the book. A lot of his story also has to do with his late mother, who was committed to a psychiatric institution when he was young, and who shows similar quirks and inconsistencies in her letters to Johnny. The reader is quickly clued in that Johnny is an unreliable narrator, and by the end of the book it's nearly impossible to untangle what "really happened" in Johnny's narrative because there are so many revisions and contradictions.

Zampanò's writing may seem like a sharp contrast to Johnny's, since it is stuffy and academic rather than casual and coarse. But the two strongly parallel each other, as do the two characters. They both ramble and are prone to lengthy tangents based on tenuous connections; Zampanò seems to make things up and messily add and redact just as Johnny does with his stories. Both seem haunted by and obsessed with the manuscript in similar ways.

Other HoL readers have called it a satire of academic texts, but I'd go a step farther and say it's drawing a parallel between (perhaps overzealous) academic analysis and psychosis: seeing patterns or connections where there are none, jumping to wildly different and sometimes bizarre conclusions from the same experience, getting lost in theories with little connection to reality, communicating in ways that are hard for others to understand.

It even encourages its readers to engage in the same behavior, by hinting at many different patterns and connections yet making them inconsistent, uncertain, and contradictory. It goads you into trying to analyze it, but you'll just end up like Charlie in the Pepe Silvia meme:

Derrida's Deconstruction

Wait, so does that mean it's futile to try to analyze House of Leaves? Well, sort of, and the book tells us this! Remember that part (see "The Meta") that was giving us advice on how to navigate a maze, i.e. the book? On that same page, p115, it also says:

Unfortunately, the anfractuosity of some labyrinths may actually prohibit a permanent solution. More confounding still, its complexity may exceed the imagination of even the designer. Therefore anyone lost within must recognize that no one, not even a god or an Other, comprehends the entire maze and so therefore can never offer a definitive answer. [In the Navidson house,] any way out remains singular and applicable only to those on that path at that particular time. All solutions then are necessarily personal.

This sounds a lot like Deconstruction and Post-Structuralism, which isn't a coincidence given that Derrida was just quoted on p112. From the Wikipedia page on Deconstruction:

Derrida's deconstruction strategy is also used by postmodernists to locate meaning in a text rather than discover meaning due to the position that it has multiple readings.

It's probably also relevant that most of the book is about Johnny interpreting a text after the literal death of the author.

Footnote 140, which comes after "even the designer" in the above excerpt, includes this, in red and crossed out:

Or in other words: shy from the sky. No answer lies there. It cannot care, especially for what it no longer knows. Treat that place as a thing unto itself, independent of all else, and confront it on those terms. You alone must find the way. No one else can help you. Every way is different. And if you do lose yourself at least take solace in the absolute certainty that you will perish.

This ties the more general advice on interpreting texts back to the specific narratives in HoL. Before we dig into that more in the next section, note that Derrida was also a fan of putting things "under erasure" by crossing them out. Hmm...

Madness and the Minotaur

In multiple ways, the Minotaur is associated with absence. Most obviously, text mentioning it by name usually only appears in red and crossed out--Johnny says these are sections he recovered after Zampanò tried to erase them. The Minotaur also seems to be absent within TNR; the labyrinth of the House suggests its presence through growls and slash marks, but a beast never actually appears, and instead, things within the labyrinth seem to gradually fade out of existence. In myth, of course, the Minotaur was removed from society by hiding it in the labyrinth, and was eventually slain by Theseus, obliterating it forever.

On p335 we get footnote 295, again in red and crossed out:

At the heart of the labyrinth waits the Mi[ ]taur and like the Minotaur of myth its name is [ ] Chiclitz treated the maze as trope for psychic concealment, its excavation resulting in (tragic[ ] reconciliation. But if in Chiclitz's eye the Minotaur was a son imprisoned by a father's shame, is there then to Navidson's eye an equivalent misprision of the [ ] in the depths of that place? And for that matter does there exist a chance to reconcile the not known with the desire for its antithesis?

(The footnote continues, making the shape of a sword with large gaps in the blade.) Empty brackets in this section supposedly denote burnt holes in the manuscript, but since they are consistently used to make puns, it's clear that at least one of the authors is being intentional. We could read the gaps here as literal: the name of the Minotaur is [nothing], the labyrinth conceals the treacherous [nothing] in its depths.

The chapter that footnote appears in (Chapter 13), which is titled The Minotaur, begins with a quote that is translated as so (p313):

a slow shadow spreads across the prairie, but still, the act of naming it, of guessing what is its nature and its circumstances creates a fiction, not a living creature, not one of those who wander on the earth.

In this poem, El otro tigre, Borges compares a tiger in a poem, made of words and symbols, to "the other tiger" of flesh and blood, out in the wild. No matter how he tries to capture it with writing, the real tiger will always elude him.

So the Minotaur is connected to absence, nothingness, emptiness, and so on. This chapter draws additional associations with death and madness, which of course are also forms of loss or absence--both of self, and of meaning.

Is Johnny the Minotaur?

Johnny is strongly associated with the Minotaur, but his exact relationship with it is more complex than simply "Johnny is the Minotaur" or "the Minotaur represents Johnny". He is stalked by the creature in various forms, and he has nightmares or delusions in which he is the Minotaur. Raymond, the abusive foster dad, calls Johnny "beast". I think it's most accurate to say he is scared of the Minotaur and scared of being or becoming it, especially if we're interpreting it as nothingness or madness. And we know how his story ends.

There's another association I make with Johnny which isn't as explicit and doesn't seem to have been discussed as much, and that is to Icarus. There are hints of this early on--his father is a pilot, he's strongly associated with the sea and drowning, his fantasy when he meets Thumper sounds like flying--but it's brought home in the story about getting the scars on his arms, on page 505, and all the allusions and imagery. He burns and then drowns.

Zampanò, likewise, is like Daedalus. He built the labyrinth that is the manuscript, and which traps both Johnny and himself. There are some suggestions in the text that he and Johnny are like figurative (or in some theories, literal) father and son. But Daedalus, unlike Perilaus, was able to free himself from his own invention, and it seems like this wasn't true for Zampanò.

(This may be too much of a pet theory; I'm not sure it's as well-supported as the other parts of this post. But there's something there, I'm pretty sure.)

House

A house is a structure that defines empty space and imbues it with meaning by separating it from the greater nothingness. The novel is likewise a structure that gives form to a particular nothingness (fiction) by defining it and separating it from the greater nothingness (everything else that has not happened).

As readers, we follow a narrative "thread" through the text, but encounter only the Minotaur (nothingness) within. Just as the Minotaur in Chiclitz's play was portrayed sympathetically, the absence does not need to be bad or monstrous--it's just nothing. As we see in the key shape of footnote 123 (p110-111), the Minotaur is the key, but there is no Minotaur. There is no key. The key is crossed out (both the text comprising it, and the key itself, by being split across two pages). Perhaps we "slay" this Minotaur by imposing our own meaning? Would that be noble or tragic?

The house itself is what matters, but the house is blue, and blue means open to interpretation--what a blue screen meant in the 90s, before digital film became the norm. Everyone projects their own thoughts and fears onto the house, and it reflects those back at them. It's meaning and memory; you get out of it exactly what you bring. Blue is shifting and unfathomable like the sea. You could lose yourself in its depths.

Though "out of the blue" specifically seems more like a deus ex machina, because I'm pretty sure the blue of the sky is associated with God, eyes/cameras/observers, and us (MZD and the readers), though I don't have examples prepared to back that up. "Shy from the sky" (see "Derrida's Deconstruction") could then be taken as "don't look to the author for answers".

But if there is any meaning to be found, it also can't be found looking only within the text and the world it defines, without considering those final layers. The stories all intertwine and even loop back on themselves, as when Navidson and Johnny both encounter their own book. Using the HoL to light your way through HoL will lead nowhere. You'll need help from the outside.

So?

Okay, okay, okay. So what?

"SO?" asks the text (p103), and maybe you do, too. Sew buttons, says the Morse code of footnote 119 on the same page. Dismissing the question? Or suggesting you work hard to secure your buttons with a whole spool of thread, as Johnny does near the end (p514) to avoid losing them to the labyrinth?

Shortly after, on p516, Johnny writes this:

Wasn’t darkness nothingness? Wasn’t that Navidson's discovery? Wasn’t it Zampanò's? Or have I misconstrued it all? Missed the obvious, something still undiscovered waiting there deep within me, outside of me, powerful and extremely patient, unafraid to remain, even though it is and always has been free.

This (and some of his other writing late in the story) reads to me like possibly an acknowledgement or dim awareness of reality outside the book, but I'm not sure. I'm just going to point to it, and also the part a little further down the page, where he describes a sunset as "Reds finally marrying blues."

How do we reconcile red and blue? Is it about reconciling ourselves to the lack of true meaning, as in Nihilism? Or choosing to focus only on the "real", refusing to lose ourselves in the endless cycle of interpretation?

I don't know. There's probably more that can be built on this foundation, but this is as far as I've gotten. If you actually got through all that, wow, thanks for reading, and by all means let me know your own thoughts.