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ereborskingarchive2 · 3 years

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𝚠𝚎𝚝𝚊 , 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚋𝚒𝚝 𝚌𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚕𝚎𝚜 , 𝚙𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚙𝚙𝚊 𝚋𝚘𝚢𝚎𝚗𝚜’ 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚢 : ❝ what we wanted was to say that even with all the wealth of erebor , thorin could not rest until he had the arkenstone . this one peerless jewel was the thing that , in thorin’s estimation , bestowed kingship upon its possessor . without it he was not whole . he had invested so much meaning in the arkenstone that without it he felt his identity and legitimacy were incomplete . in the end , as impressive and otherworldly as it was , the stone was just a material object , a bauble , a trinket . its power was attributed and not innate . though he does not understand it , thorin has given that power to the stone and trapped himself . ❞

𝚠𝚎𝚝𝚊 , 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚋𝚒𝚝 𝚌𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚕𝚎𝚜 , 𝚛𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚊𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚎’𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚢 : ❝ the story already had the ring and the gold , so another talisman may have been one too many , but the right to rule , it being the king’s jewel , is where the power of the arkenstone lay . [ . . . ] ultimately , the arkenstone was just a gem and the power of loyalty was beyond a talisman . ❞

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗 , 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚞𝚗𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚘𝚕𝚍𝚘𝚛 ( 𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝟼𝟽 ) like the crystal of diamonds it appeared , and yet was more strong than adamant , so that no violence could mar it or break it within the kingdom of the arda . [ . . . ] and the inner fire of the silmarils fëanor made of the blended light of the trees of the valinor , which lives in them yet , though the trees have long withered and shine no more . therefore even in the darkness of the deepest treasury the silmarils of their own radiance shone like the stars of the varda ; and yet , as they were indeed living things , they rejoined in light and received it and gave it back in hues more marvelous than before .

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗 , 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚞𝚗𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚘𝚕𝚍𝚘𝚛 ( 𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝟼𝟿 ) for fëanor began to love the silmarils with a greedy love , and grudged the sight of them to all save to his father and his seven sons [ . . . ]

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗 , 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚟𝚘𝚢𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚎ä𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚕 ( 𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝟸𝟻𝟹 - 𝟸𝟻𝟺 ) but the jewel burned in the hand of maedhros in pain unbearable ; and he perceived it to be as eönwë had said , and that his right thereto had become void , and that the oath was in vain . and being in anguish and despair he cast himself into a gaping chasm filled with fire , and so ended ; and the silmaril that he bore was taken into the bosom of the earth .

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚋𝚒𝚝 , 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎 , 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 ( 𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝟸𝟹𝟷 ) ❝ the arkenstone ! the arkenstone ! ❞ murmured thorin in the dark , half dreaming with his chin upon his knees . ❝ it was like a globe with a thousand facets ; it shone like silver in the firelight , like water in the sun , like snow under the stars , like rain upon the moon ! ❞

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚋𝚒𝚝 , 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 , 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎 ( 𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝟸𝟹𝟽 ) it was the arkenstone , the heart of the mountain . so bilbo guessed from thorin’s description ; but indeed there could not be two such gems , even in so marvelous a hoard , even in all the world . [ . . . ] now as he came near , it was tinged with a flickering sparkle of many colors at the surface , reflected and splintered from the wavering light of his torch . the great jewel shone before his feet of its own inner light , and yet , cut and fashioned by the dwarrows , who had dug it from the heart of the mountain long ago , it took all light that fell upon it and changed it into ten thousand sparks of white radiance shot with glints of the rainbow .

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚋𝚒𝚝 , 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚒𝚡𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 , 𝚊 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚎𝚏 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 ( 𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝟸𝟽𝟸 ) the elvenking himself , whose eyes were used to things of wonder and beauty , stood up in amazement . even bard gazed marveling at it in silence . it was as if the globe had been filled with moonlight and hung before them in a net woven of the glint of frosty stars .

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚋𝚒𝚝 , 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 , 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚗 𝚓𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚗𝚎𝚢 ( 𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝟸𝟿𝟸 ) they buried thorin deep beneath the mountain , and bard laid the arkenstone upon his breast . ❝ there let it lie ‘til the mountain falls ! ❞ he said . ❝ may it bring good fortune to all his folk that dwell here after ! ❞

the arkenstone , the heart of the lonely mountain thus named erebor by the dwarrows and founded deep beneath its roots , was unearthed during the reign of king thrór and declared to be a divine show of his right to rule . thus the jewel was established to be a crowner of kings¹ , bestowing as much power as the descent of durin , for the dwarrows believed it to be a gift of mahal , put forth in the mountain as a homage to their race . in their creator’s honor did they mount it above the throne of thrór , where it glittered for all who sought audience with the king of dwarrows to behold² . inscriptions depicting the arkenstone were carved all throughout the mountain halls³ and upon great tapestries that hung in the halls of history and remembrance . so it remained ‘til the coming of the dragon , smaug , who claimed the mountain and all of its treasure , devouring the dwarrows within it . in this manner was the arkenstone lost , for thrór took it from his throne and carried it with him to the treasury , where the dragon was reveling in its hoard and causing great flying mounds of gold and gems with its wings . thrór fell , and the arkenstone fell with him , out of his grasp and into the swell of coins that mounted the steps before him . as it was to be , the arkenstone remained in smaug’s piles ‘til the company of thorin , son of thráin , son of thrór , descended upon the mountain , and with the help of the contracted burglar and hobbit , bilbo baggins , procured the arkenstone from the dragon , a creature later slain by one of the race of men . the arkenstone exchanged hands ‘til , at the death of thorin , it was placed upon his breast by bard , in a display of good will to the dwarrows , who were now to be the allies of the men of dale henceforth under the reign of king dáin , son of náin , son of grór , and king bard , descendant of girion . no longer would the arkenstone crown a dwarf on the throne , for it was decided , in honor of his great sacrifice and the mourning of the cost of his quest , that the jewel would be buried with thorin , so that he would be crowned evermore .

the arkenstone , though called by the dwarrows to be the heart of the mountain , may never have been so , and instead be a silmaril forged by fëanor and hence lost to the depths of the earth with the undoing of maedhros , son of fëanor , who flung himself into a gaping chasm .

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚋𝚒𝚝 ( 𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝟼𝟻𝟷 - 𝟼𝟻𝟹 ) the choice of arkenstone is significant , since in other writings tolkien was making at the same time he was using a variant of the same name as a term for the silmarils themselves , forging a link between the jewels of fëanor and the arkenstone of [ thrór ] in the legendarium [ . . . ] the idea that the arkenstone could be a silmaril , or was at least somehow linked to the silmarils in tolkien’s mind , has additional support from the philosophical roots of the word .

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚋𝚒𝚝 ( 𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝟼𝟻𝟺 ) like the silmarils in the main branch of the legendarium , and unlike the one ring in the sequel , the arkenstone inspires greed but is not itself malicious in any way [ . . . ]

though many will point to the finality of one statement that the silmarils could not be found again unless the world was broken and re - made anew :

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚋𝚒𝚝 ( 𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝟼𝟻𝟽 ) tolkien had in fact at that point changed his mind four times in the previous fifteen years about the holy jewels’ fate , all in�� a series of unpublished works that remained in flux and were each to be replaced by a new version of the story [ . . . ] it is thus more than possible that tolkien was playing in the hobbit with the idea of having one of fëanor’s wondrous jewels re - appear , no doubt the one that had been thrown into a fiery chasm , and lost deep within the earth ————— which is , after all , exactly where the dwarrows find the arkenstone , buried at the roots of an extinct volcano .

the silmarils may inspire greed , but they merely reflect the heart of the one who possesses them , and are no source of evil , nor do they hold magical sway beyond the manner with which all covet them for their great beauty⁴ . the silmaril named the ❝ arkenstone ❞ by the dwarrows did not encourage the madness in either thrór nor thorin⁵ . while they both desired the jewel greatly , it was because of the power that they themselves attributed to it , and not anything that the arkenstone itself was able to exact . the light of the valinor , which the arkenstone encases , is a good and beauteous light , and it is only the imperfect heart that all carry and that drives those who see the silmarils to commit treacherous deeds for them that taints the jewels⁶ . in the end , it was the corruption of the dwarf ring given to the line of durin long ago that wholly cursed them with a dark greed and a darker madness . as said by balin , the arkenstone would not have stayed thorin’s madness , nor prevented it , but exacerbated it by its presence .

𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐓𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒 .

¹ 𝚙𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚓𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚜𝚘𝚗 , 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚋𝚒𝚝 ( 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚎𝚜 ) , 𝚋𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚗 : ❝ that stone crowns all . it’s the summit of this great wealth , bestowing power upon he who bears it . would it stay his madness ? no , laddie . i fear it would make him worse . perhaps it is best it remains lost . ❞

² fëanor , having been supposedly taught by aulë ( mahal ) , and with the dwarrows being the creation of aulë , leads to the belief that they would be able to facet the otherwise impervious silmaril , whilst any other race would not be able to do so , no matter any secrets learnt . however , this interpreation will adhere to the film portrayal of the arkenstone , which has it as smooth .

³ one such inscription can be seen in the film , read as : herein lies the seventh kingdom of durin’s folk . may the heart of the mountain unite all dwarrows in defense of this home .

⁴ in the film , smaug tells bilbo that the arkenstone shall corrupt thorin’s heart and thus destroy him and drive him mad . the dragon was , of course , lying , attempting to sway the loyalties of bilbo’s heart , as it had been trying to for most of the conversation , whether that scheme was lying about the arkenstone’s power , or that the dwarrows valued bilbo so little . in truth , as smaug’s powers of cleverness knew , thorin would be the one to drive himself mad over the stone , and not the stone itself .

⁵ nor did the arkenstone inspire any such madness or lust within bilbo baggins , who was in possession of the jewel for quite some time , and did not feel any such inclinations past how heavy it seemed to be in his hold :

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚋𝚒𝚝 , 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 , 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎 ( 𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝟸𝟹𝟽 ) his small hand would not close about it , for it was a large and heavy gem ; but he lifted it , shut his eyes , and put it in his deepest pocket .

⁶ it is true that those with evil intent ( forgoing the idea that mortals cannot touch silmarils , which shall not be considered for this , as it does not fit no matter how holy they may be, and appears to be an inconsistent particular ) cannot touch the silmarils lest they be burned . one must consider that bilbo baggins had no evil intent , and thus was able to carry the stone . neither did bard , who also held onto the stone for a period of time . evil intent , however , is a manner of perception ; was thrór truly being evil by his greed , or disagreeing on the payment of goods for the elves , should he believe himself in the right ? was thorin , up to a certain point in the delirium of the dragon - sickness , behaving evilly as he protected the mountain and what lay inside of it against the perceived threats ? 'til later deeds , he may have been able to hold the arkenstone , as thrór had , but his treatment of bilbo baggins after the hobbit’s betrayal would have rendered him unable to touch the arkenstone , for that was a bad , unfair act in regards to the feelings that they shared for each other ( should thorin have lived , he would not have been able to touch the arkenstone until he had made amends with bilbo and otherwise honored his word . it is possible that he may have never been able to ever touch the arkenstone at all ) .

#interpretation .#the legends of the mountain - son .#this is probably quite controversial considering how discussions seem #rather undecided regarding the topic ;#but this is the belief that will be adhered to for this portrayal .

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scarletgardensrpg · 4 years

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LIVING ♦ TWENTY ♦ NEUTRAL

MAURICE-ALEXANDER VAN ORANJE-NASSAU is the Royal Prince of the Netherlands, who has recently returned to Amsterdam following the discovery of he and his sister, Luana, in southern France. Although an heir to the Dutch throne was named in the late Queen Catharina’s will, he and Luana have so far refused to disclose this information, both publicly and privately. Although he is a beloved public figure like his sister, Maurice is more reserved, disliking the attention. He has recently received permission from Agostina to live part-time in The Hague.

BIOGRAPHY

They’d only ever really fought once: Luana, white-faced at the foot of a marble staircase, the front of her thousand-dollar dress smeared with cake, a lavender party hat crushed in her small palm—and Maurice, standing five steps above her with dark eyes and a scowling, mean mouth. In the empty, vast hall, he and Luana had glared at one another, the frigid silence echoing, before Luana spoke at last. Her voice was high, arrogant, accusatory: Mijn broer is een beest. Years later, by a seashore in southern France at the end of the world, they would laugh about it—what a stupid thing to have divided them for an afternoon, when now they had only each other. At the beach, Maurice massaged Lu’s head until she fell asleep, sparkling grains of sand still in her wet lashes. Those same hands had broken skin, splintered bone just hours before: without remorse, with pleasure. He turned the phrase over and over in his head like a well-worn coin. My brother is a beast.

- ❀ -

They tumbled into the world one after another: a girl, who wore cascades of sunshine atop her head in perfect curls, then a boy, silver-eyed and fox-faced, luminescent as the moon. These became their pet names among the royal maids and wet-nurses, the chauffeurs and visiting diplomats; zon-je, maan-je. At Christmas, Minister van Buskirk had placed a warm hand atop both theirs and smiled at Queen Catharina with familial tenderness: They are so lovely. And, perhaps, they really once were: twin dolls of the Dutch crown adorned in lace and jewels, running along open courtyards, laughing together by sparkling waterfronts—Luana the wild, Maurice the clever. They looked alike, but were distinguishable by their temperaments: where his sister socialized with ease and shone brightest standing in the center of a ballroom, Maurice longed for quiet—and where she was a rare blooming rose, he couldn’t help but feel like the thorns which covered her. Indeed, he made for a handsome, yet arrogant, little prince: standoffish to all but his twin sister, solitary and bellicose, as precocious and regal as he was boyishly bratty.

In another world, he might’ve outgrown this hardness; he might’ve swept into adolescence with carefree contentment, learned not to bristle so much, had more than just Generaal de Jaager’s delinquent son for a friend, and ascended the throne with true kingly grace. You’d be a good leader, Gabriël always insisted, half-serious and half-laughing. I’d be good, for once. For a king like you. In another world, they might have really both been good. He could think of no other thing but this, shivering in the back of a black-clad woman’s car covered in his mother’s blood. He thought of it still, standing ankle-deep in the wet sand of the Mediterranean, watching Cecile shake hands, watching Luana sob, watching Dimitri’s pitiless gaze glance disinterestedly off him, and settle instead on Blue, who merely cocked her head and, at last, gave a shrug. Show the little ones to their new home, then. I haven’t got the time to. In another world, I am kissing Luana on the nose at our birthday party, Maurice thought to himself, but that life was already fading from his memory, buried under twenty-eight bodies and a dead lineage. In another world, I am feeding her cake and complimenting her dress and I am not so cruel.

But then again, maybe Maurice had always been destined to turn into what he did: a moon-child in love with the solitary night, hardness cracking and giving out to even more hardness, one nightmarish day after another no longer inciting fear, but curiosity. Call it a morbid longing, call it a refusal to spend five years shackled to terror. Was he not a prince? He, somewhere along the way, had become entranced by them: the black-eyed children of Cecile, so lovingly nicknamed bloodhounds. In a single safehouse, how did power fall so totally into the hands of the dead? The way Dimitri and Blue brawled with teeth and knives, the way Jacques could not be put at ease without some carnage to appease his appetite, their unapologetic adoration for their Mother of Death: Luana loathed to see it, but Maurice found himself drawn to their chaos like a moth to flame. What was a lonely boy-king to three gods of the New World? Maurice would work at tamping down his want, his need, to follow them like a pupil, years and years after they left. He could not leave Luana, of course, but Maurice also knew, with unspoken, slow-falling surety: to chase after the dead into the dark was to begin down an irreversible, treacherous path. And yet, some smoky, coiling voice whispered, like a hand around the throat. Which man can deny his heart forever?

CONNECTIONS

LUANA – ANOTHER WORLD. Beautiful Lu, whose name means lion, means happy, could never understand him. But he understands her, and he loves her—isn’t that enough? God, he hopes so. They have been joined at the hip since birth: two darling halves of a whole, each one with the secret keys to a lost kingdom. In youth, he had found her conceit so irritating, her shrieky charm so gauche—but seeing her now, a girl of only twenty who walks the halls of the Royal Palace burdened by the haunting of a hundred ghosts and battered by unspeakable heartbreak, he’d do anything to have his obnoxious, wonderful sister back for just a day. Once, she had been the one protecting Maurice: sheltering him with her great galloping laugh, her bright eyes, daring anyone to speak an ill word of him—so that now, he feels he must return the favor. A great, terrible secret of inheritance sits between them, and Maurice understands it is this single secret that will define whether they survive together in the New World or not. As far as Maurice is concerned, they will. They must. He’ll do whatever it takes.

DIMITRI – VIOLENT DELIGHTS. Boys will be boys, and beasts will be beasts. It’s strange to think that Maurice came of age in the company of wolves—and even stranger still that, at thirteen, he had stumbled into their lands so fearful and angry, only to be forced out five years later with an empty, wanting heart. Luana hates them all, but Maurice finds he can’t fully share in her opinion—particularly when it comes to Dimitri. There’s something mean-spirited to Blue and something grotesque about Jacques’ brand of violence; Dimitri, on the other hand, has always been able to wear bloodsport so well. He’s as refined as he is barbaric, as caustic as he is charismatic: and if anyone could embody the alluring dark, it would certainly be him. In Nice, Cecile’s bloodhounds had all largely ignored he and Luana, too preoccupied with each other or whatever errands they were sent on by Cecile. Nonetheless, Maurice had watched him: his manner of walking, the smooth cadence of his voice, every elegant arrangement of his handsome features—and unconsciously, learned to emulate him. Since his return to Amsterdam, they’ve crossed paths once more; and if Dimitri wasn’t looking before, he’s looking now. It’s too soon to say what they are, now, only that he no longer looks to Maurice with cool disinterest—and instead, is beckoning him forward into a dark, dark world.

GABRIËL – IF WE’D ONLY LAY DOWN OUR WEAPONS. His was the first face Maurice looked for, amidst the thousands who had come to greet the van Oranje-Nassaus: a sea of the living braced against the golden shores to watch the ship dock, hands outstretched, eyes brimming with glad tears—and there, beside Thalia: Generaal Gabriël, whose beautiful face betrayed no more feeling than that of a marble statue. When they were children, they had spent time together—more time than Maurice cares to admit, hours and hours reading beneath the trees and boating on the lake, sneaking away, exchanging secrets, all of it culminating in a kiss, or two, or three—but of course, he was Luana’s in the end. All lovely things were. Maurice isn’t completely sold on the convenient narrative Agostina tells of who is responsible for the massacre—but Gabriël’s partial involvement is, to Maurice, undeniable. He and Luana had both seen it: the exchange with PYTHIA, the handshake and head nod, the words spoken like a curse from Gabriël’s lips: Red de kinderen. Dood de rest. Luana may not have it in herself to exact vengeance—but Maurice, who has always been the worser of the two, certainly can. So blind he is with bitterness, that he can’t seem to see beyond it—if he were to look a little closer, he might find Gabriël isn’t the enemy he’s made him out to be.

OPEN ♦ FC: OTTO SEPPÄLÄINEN

#maurice #o #l #neutral #all #lsrpg #lsrp #new rp #bio rp

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redcarpetview · 4 years

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STATEMENT FROM ESSENCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC. ON THE 2020 ESSENCE FESTIVAL OF CULTURE

Planned 2020 Performers - Janet Jackson and Bruno Mars now cancelled.

“New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell bravely recommended yesterday that no large events take place in New Orleans in 2020, and ESSENCE fully supports that decision. After continued monitoring of the evolving developments in the COVID-19 global pandemic and remaining in close contact and collaboration with our partners in the City of New Orleans and State of Louisiana, we are confirming today that we will no longer move forward with the 2020 ESSENCE Festival of Culture live experience – and look forward to returning to New Orleans in 2021.

We are excited to now announce that our ‘ESSENCE Benefit Series to Fight COVID-19’ will raise money and provide support for businesses and organizations in Black communities across the country, and that our first-ever ESSENCE Festival of Culture: The Virtual Edition taking place over July 4th weekend will be included in this effort as a multi-day experience and benefit celebration. This Festival will be hosted on our new ESSENCE Studios streaming platform, which will extend the experience to communities everywhere providing unfettered access to the power, purpose and party that has made the ESSENCE Festival the largest cultural, entertainment and empowerment experience in the world. Women across the globe and their families will engage in interactive, live opportunities to be inspired, empowered, entertained and transformed as they enter a new economic, spiritual and wellness journey ahead. The virtual Festival will be a benefit celebration in honor and support of the City of New Orleans, which has been an incredible partner over the Festival’s 26 years and continues to be especially hard hit during this crisis.

From the beginning, we have shared that the health, safety and well-being of our Festival-goers, local citizens and others who contribute to making the Festival such a unique experience were our top concerns and would be the foremost considerations in our decision-making. While we initially hoped that a reschedule from our July 2020 dates to later in the fall would be feasible, current information and projections by public health officials and agencies have made it increasingly clear that any large-scale events this year could potentially and unnecessarily put attendees and surrounding communities at risk. So, what would have typically been a very difficult decision for us was not because people come first, and we will continue to do everything that we can to serve our community during this time. We will honor all tickets sold for the 2020 Festival in 2021 and will also offer full refunds. Ticket holders should visit essencefestival.com for further information.

‘ESSENCE and the City of New Orleans have a partnership that thrives in good times and is made even stronger in challenging times,” said Mayor Cantrell. ‘We share an uncompromised commitment to the best interest of our local community and our tourist community, and the priorities right now are providing support to those who have been affected by the disproportionate impact of the pandemic here in New Orleans and ensuring a safe and healthy environment for all. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to our great city in 2021 for the return of the ESSENCE Festival of Culture and to once again helping to create such an unmatched and magical experience.”

‘We greatly appreciate the Essence family for working with the City of New Orleans and Louisiana as we face this ongoing public health crisis,’ said Governor John Bel Edwards of Louisiana. ‘We have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the Essence family and look forward to continuing the celebration in 2021.’

Marvin Sapp performs during Essence Festival in New Orleans. Photo by Naomi Richard.

Film mogul Tyler Perry on stage during Essence Festival in New Orleans. Photo by Naomi Richard.

We continue to understand that in these times, accurate information and critical resources from trusted sources are vital. So, ESSENCE created the ESSENCE of the Matter: COVID-19’s Impact on Black America digital platform to provide Black women and communities with the tools, information, resources, solutions, inspiration and empowerment needed to address the multitude of issues arising from this pandemic. ESSENCE Studios will deliver these live virtual experiences and produce the content our community needs as we continue to navigate this unprecedented time together and beyond.

Experiences to date have included our first-ever virtual ESSENCE Wellness Houseä and ESSENCE CARES Act information sessions, with the next – the ESSENCE & New Voices Entrepreneur Summit – included in our Benefit Series and scheduled for Friday, April 24. Visit essence.com for more information. In addition, our editorial team is producing daily content on our dedicated page to educate our community on the coronavirus, its impact, best practices for prevention and how we can not only survive, but thrive, through this time.’

# # #

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ironforgedrp · 5 years

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ℭ𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔫𝔱𝔰: 𝐫𝐲𝐜𝐡ä𝐫𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐚𝐰, 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭, 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐤, 𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲𝐤 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐲𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐥 & 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐜 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐞

the sword fight has long served as the meat of the meal in the closing day of a tournament, historically the second-to-most popular event with the wealthy and titled competitors with traditionally one of the larger crowds, and this year did not disappoint. proudly standing before the crown were eight men of westeros emblazened with clear sigils, announced by region to the mixed rowdy and regal crowd.

two westerlands men: king arryk lannister and his brother lord commander nicholas lannister. one native crownlands man; the naturalized bastard and master smith lord morrec clegane, two northmen in lord branden stark and lord bannen mormont, the thorn king emeric tyrell of the reach, iron isles council member lord rychärd harlaw and the riverlands prince and queensguard of rhaena, prince tate tully.

there was a soft murmur of disappointment when it became clear the initial round wouldn’t contain the oft highly sought after fight of any lannister vs. any stark, the randomized pairs are announced...

𝔉𝔦𝔯𝔰𝔱 ℜ𝔬𝔲𝔫𝔡,

branden stark v. tate tully

arryk lannister v. nicholas lannister

rychärd harlaw v. bannen mormont

emeric tyrell v. morrec clegane

the sun has begun to creep beyond its apex in the sky - leaving the crowd hot and searching for shade and seating in the stands. the competitors face off one at a time with sword and small wooden round-shields, though lord morrec clegane dismisses the offered defensive item as he takes the ground against the thorn king, a decision which earns a few laughs and jeers. those are quickly silenced which are silenced as the bastard master smith proves his true mastery of the blade - the win is somewhat unsurprising, but many of the crownlands poorer commonfolk cheer for the bastard.

there are groans of disgust from attending northmen, combined with yells of triumph from riverlands and iron islanders as both northern lords are disarmed by the heir of the riverlands kingdom and the iron islands representative respectively.

one fight that draws in a few more eyes than usual is that of the lion king and his lord commander brother, who were the top two odds-on favourites to win, the novelty of the king and his brother fighting combined with their reputations as swordsman had garnered many wagers. the winners are decided rather quickly, natural talent and trained skill clashing to turn eight into four, and the fact that king arryk lannister triumphed and is moving onto the next round earns a hearty roar from several dedicated attendees.

𝔖𝔢𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔡 ℜ𝔬𝔲𝔫𝔡,

there is a break in between the final match and the semi-final - small wounds of the first round victors are bandaged as the next round of pairings are announced:

morrec clegane vs. rychärd harlaw

tate tully vs. arryk lannister

with the crownlands master blacksmith having cemented himself in the last two days as a fierce competitor, the odds on lord harlaw were not in his favour. the match only lasts a matter of minutes; flurries of blows rained down by the blacksmith barely defended by the iron islander’s shield. he seemed unable to land a blow on the clegane lord, and the match soon ended with lord harlaw knocked off his feet in attempt to dodge a well placed slash. the tip of his blade at lord harlaws throat, lord clegane is declared the winner of his round - more cheers than boos could be heard as many had found wealth in wagering on the apparent underdog in the blacksmith.

the two cleared the field, with clearly no malice as the victor helped his competitor off the ground and they walked off speaking together. then the next match announced, the queens husband and king on the iron throne and the future king of the riverlands facing off, the crowd seems to hum with nervous electricity. a flurry of last minute bets are placed and then it begins; the two men circle each other carefully, strength against agility, innate skill against taught skill... it seems an even match as they nearly trade blows, the clang of metal accompanied by the crowds ooh’s and ahh!’s as the upperhand bounced between each man. and then it’s over, a shield is shattered by a well placed blow and a now unbalanced lord tully finds himself face down in the dirt with king arryk’s blade resting cool against the skin of his neck. the words ‘VICTOR!’ ring out and the crowd thunders and stamps their feet... the final round soon to begin.

𝔉𝔦𝔫𝔞𝔩 ℜ𝔬𝔲𝔫𝔡,

by now, onlookers are on the edge of their seats - many more have joined to watch, and some have left as their favourite was eliminated. those in the crownlands and the visiting lannister loyals are all but begging for a win from their king whilst the clegane lord seemed to have garnered the favour of the commonfolk, some would call the miscreants of kings landing.

as they face off, bets hurriedly finalized before the final match began, many point out that the two men are fairly evenly matched in size and apparent strength, some even note their similar appearance; muscular, tanned skin, golden yellow hair and light eyes. the sun finally slipped behind some cloud cover as the two men raised their swords....

the fight seems to last simultaneously eons and only seconds, the two men clearly familiar with the basis of sparring and swordsmanship. the king the slightly taller, using it to bear down on the blacksmith as the crowd screamed for a victory for their king and for their crown. the blacksmith is stronger though, arms thick with sinuous muscle and layers of scars, each blow that lands is blocked and countered with confidence. the bystanders are all on their feet as the king parries a blow to his left and then lands a kick to the now open chest of the clegane lord, and arryk’s victory is all but assured as morrec stumbles back, reeling. the crowd bubbles and roils to a climax at the impressive fight. arryk chases his stunned opponent, bearing down again with his current advantage. however, the king like the oddsmakers and the bystanders, had no clue of the variety of morrec’s true fighting skills; he was tactical. still retreating from the advance of the king, he crouches low as the king slices his blade diagonally down towards him, the clegane lord dive-rolled to the lannister kings shield-wielding side and there’s a soft thunk that can only be heard by the two men as the kings blade glances off the ground that moments prior was occupied by morrec.

then, blink and you’d have missed it, morrec’s empty and free shield-hand all but ripped the wooden roundshield from the kings grasp, exposing his vulnerable side and... all it takes is a flick of the wrist for a disarmed sword to spiral into the air - the tip landing in the sandy ground as it quivered under the sun reflecting off its blade. the roars and cheers drain away to near silence, a hush draws across the crowd at the sight of the clegane lord levelling his sword with the kings throat. he won... very few men dared to best a king publicly, let alone hold a weapon at his throat in front of their subjects, and those who historically had done so had very rarely lived long. it’s only with a raised hand from the lannister king that the kingsguard stop their rush onto the field, and almost with a touch of reluctance in his hesitation, the once bastard lowers his blade and sheaths his sword, bowing to the king in a move that almost... almost seemed condescending.

lord morrec clegane is announced as the victor, though the only cheers that truly come are from the poor, crippled, bastards and orphans that morrec had grown up alongside. some wonder if the cheers are diluted out of fear of incurring the wrath of the defeated royal, or out of true disappointment that the crownlands king had been bested by a bastard blacksmith.

CHAMPION: 450 Gold Dragons to winner MORREC CLEGANE.

#plot point: tournament #plot drop: kidnapping #;; read more for the rest of the tALE friends

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ayearinlanguage · 7 years

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A Year in Language, Day 68: Volapük

Volapük is a conlang, or "constructed language" invented by the German priest Johann Schleyer to serve as an international language. Johann believed it was God's will for him to do so. Volapük peaked at around a million speakers in the late 19th century and though it has since fallen into obscurity there is an unbroken community that persists to this day.

Volapük is a kind of conlang known as an auxlang, or auxiliary language, named because they are meant to aid in international politics. Volapük was only one of many auxlangs to pop up around the turn of the 20th century, Esperanto being another noteworthy one. What set Volapük apart though is its choice of roots. While most auxlangs inevitably turned towards Latin or otherwise Romance roots to build the languages out of Schleyer was stubbornly Germanic. Most of the roots come from English, though purposefully simplified and altered so as to make the language theoretically more universal. The word Volapük itself comes from "world" = "vol" and "speak" = "pük". In the end Schleyer would suffer for those Umlauts, which would cause schisms in the Volapük community. While it may be silly to read into it, I've always found that to be kind of moving. Here's a man, dedicated to creating something universal, but unwilling to part with this one thing, this one aspect of Germanness he's added, unadulterated, while everyone else glorifies in their Romantic style. I guess I just like underdogs.

Like many auxlangs of that era the grammar of Volapük is agglutinative and based on Indo-European style. Nouns decline into four cases, each signified by a vowel suffix ex. nominative "vol", genetive "vola", dative "vole", and accusative "voli". Adding an "-s" to any of those makes it plural. Adjectives and adverbs are derived from other parts of speech by adding "-ik" and "-o" respectively. Verbs take a suffix to show person and number (this suffix is identical to the corresponding pronoun) and take a series of vowel prepositions to show tense. An interesting feature of these vowels is they were designed so that the further away the vowel was articulated from /a/ (the present tense preposition) the further away in time you got, with front vowels representing past and back vowels the future. This applied to some time words beyond verbs, so "adelo" means today, "odelo" means tomorrow, "ädelo" means yesterday, and "udelo" is the day after tomorrow.

Unicode actually includes unique characters for Volapük, proposed replacements for those controversial umlauts: "ꞛ" for "ä", "ꞝ" for "ö", and "ꞟ" for "ü". In Esperanto the phrase "Ĝi estas por mi volapukaĵo", literally "it's Volapükish to me", has the same meaning as the English idiom "it's all Greek to me" aka. gibberish.

#A Year in Language #Volapük #AYIL #language #linguistics #day 68

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senzacaponecoda · 5 years

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pAA?

(Decided to reduce the names to E, O and S because this isn’t something that should be treated seriously or like there’s anything in particular respectable or responsible about it, but might be helpful to someone like me trying to find something out for personal reasons.) So since I finally got my hands on a copy of O and S’s reconstruction of PAA, I thought I’d go through and pick out what I thought were their best etymons against what I think are E’s best etymons. As I’ve said before both reconstructions seem to be basically mass comparison reconstructions.

The wiki page on Afroasiatic claims they agree on basically nothing, and out of 1000ish and 2600ish I still got less than 100 shared roots, so that’s probably accurate. The page and what I pulled out didn’t exactly line up though, but also there were some roots especially on E’s end (due to a need to reconstruct verbs to nominalize for his PS theories) that I outright changed the meaning of because they actually made his individual arguments stronger; like, say, if you had 4 roots that mean knife in each sub-branch, why assume the etymon means cut?

I compared the roots in case there was something that was an obvious oversight, and while I don’t think their methods were all that good (although O and S’s are a lot better), I didn’t want to discount everything in case there was something like “well their vowel systems are different so I’m not counting roots where even V[os] = V[e]” or like “O/S posit (g,x) < *q while E has (g,x) < *ÿ” being overlooked and miraculously they agreed on like 300 more roots than the page gives them credit. There’s also issues like, well, “Is this particular author doing such a bad job but the critics aren’t seeing that, that he/she/they are dragging the other author/s down by undermining their ok etymons?” etc.

So, like, I’ve messed with the data in a way that’s irrepairable and shit. Mind that. This isn’t scholarly work and isn’t intended to be. And I messed with some of the data - even if I think it’s more representative of their works at a level, from any kind of responsible position I need to make it absolutely clear that it’s not really reflective of their work, but a reflection of my amateur, shitty thoughts on their concordances.

So, for the curious:

So when putting this list together I accidentally kept mixing which side I wrote whose roots together. E tends to have labiovelars where OS have o, E has long vowels, OS don’t, E has tones, OS don’t, E has the voiced velar fricative I transcribed as ÿ and ŋ, OS have q and q’ vs k’ and k. E has p’, the rest I guess you’ll have to guess.

I also marked a few words with * for what might be imitative or baby speak words. *? like on horn is “I’m on the fence of it being imitative”

Vowels are pretty much ignored, but otherwise definite correlates:

kol-f bark (n) dam blood k'os~k'as bone naf breath ben~bin build di3, da3, du3 call dumn~deman cloud k'at' cut* 2ab father* pir fly*? ba2 go sim hear lib heart k'ar horn*? inkwal~2ankol kidney 2er~2âr know lVk'~lak lick* tir liver sum,sim~süm,sim name wan open bu~baw place dak,duk~dik pound k'u2 rise tuf spin ra3-raa3 sun dab,dib-dub tail les,lis tongue ma2 water

Close matches, differing by not a lot of phonological space, but the correlations seem unsystematic or quasi-systematic (E *k = OS *x? or the other way). A lot of this might be due to obfuscation of the subgroups; it’s known beyond these reconstructions that Semitic b, p, f correspond to Egyptian b, p, f but there doesn’t seem to be a pattern to the correspondences beyond [+labial][-nasal]=[+labial][-nasal]... except some roots where b = m, mostly Egyptian to Semitic (iirc it’s believed that snb = slm).

! maaw~mawut die ! har~heraw day ! t(l)'ok' beat ! bak~bax burn ! k'al~k'ar burn ! (t)san brother ! kor~kw'al angry #related to kidney? ! pak~pax break apart* ! yar~3er burn #n.b. OS *e = E *ya pretty consistently ! ka2(up) cover ! t'ub~duf drip* ! g'arub~ÿar(b) dusk ! 2et~iit eat*? ! gur~guud enclose ! 2ir~2il eye #2il is also given for both by the wiki author ! 2aakw~2ax fire ! ŋiiwr~gir flames ! pur~fir flower 1 k'ur~kâr go around ! ĉa3ar~ła2r hair ! qafV3~gâf hold ! qam~kam hold ! fil~bul hole ! ĉa(2i)d~gwi/ad land ! ne2ul~ñaw moist ! bakr~bar morning ! âf~2ap mouth* ! ĉer~sar,sir root ! cab~sVp sew ! sur~tsur sing ! tsoon~soon smell ! bak'~p'ak' split* ! da2~daw walk

Really kind of stretched correspondences, usually requiring twice the amount of special pleading as above:

!! rip~2erib sew !! dabn~zab hair !! yawr~yabil bull !! büł~fil skin !! 3ir~raw sky

A root that’s probably wrong but I didn’t delete it:

!!! c'eyg~c'a3ek shout

Roots on the wiki article it says are part of “the fragile consensus” but either escaped my standards for good etymologies from E and OS or were lost when I changed E or OS’s proposed definitions to fit the data they presented for etymologization:

>> (2a)bVr bull >> (2a)dVm land >> 2igar~kw'ar enclosure >> 3ayn eye #I think for both this was only found in Sem and Egn, which is proto-Sem-Egn, not PAA >> bar son >> gamm mane, beard >> gVn cheek, chin >> gwar3~(gora3?) throat #These words weren’t in E’s but look like it and I guessed on what the OS reconstruction would look like >> gwina3~(gona3?) hand >> kVn cowife >> kwaly??? kidney #that this isn’t VnkwVl damns something >> k'awal, qwar say, call >> sin tooth >> siwan know >> zwr seed >> łVr root >> šun sleep, dream

These I sort of gathered based on a decent scholarly Egyptologist’s work

** (n)i,ku,nak(u) 1sc ** nVn 1pc ** kumV, kV 2sm ** kimV, ki 2sf ** suwa, sV 3sm ** si(y/t)a, si 3sf **-ú~-aw nom (earlier an ergative) **-á abs **Egyptian had an outright ergative participle so like yeah Some AA assumptions $$ m- participle, possible 3 or 4 denoting instruments, resultatives, passive and active meanings, and more. $$ s- causative (likely su-) $$ -í nisba = adjectivizer $$ -át/-út ending for abstract, mass, diminutive, augmentative, female nouns $$ top two combine frequently $$ maybe k became a masculine? maybe u/w too? $$ perhaps an -n- passive? -t- passive? reciprocal voice? (kick each other) $$ emphatic coronal series $$ prefixing conjugation {2 t t y t n t t y t} on imperfect-type stems $$ core verb stems seem to be perfect vs imperfect $$ a lot of sources report *-r has spreading out semantics at the end of a Semitic verb and I believe it. $$ suffixing possessive pronouns $$ probably all of pAA derives its verb system from those same possessive pronouns suffixed to participles, which probably helped the ergative to nominative alignment change. Again, Egn had an ergative participle at one point. It actually used a slightly different form of the possessed agreement system for that though, maybe reflective of a dead case system. $$ personally I think egn broke off early, sem and amz were geographically between it and ethiopia, the cushitic languages broke early but stayed in contact, chadic is cladistically cushitic that broke off in the middle of the ethiopianization of cushitic in the post-islamic era, since it seems to be in cultural memory. beja wasn’t as ethiopianized and is slightly closer to semitic, amz, and in many ways egn surprisingly, omotic was probably adopted into the family, ongota is too creolized to know anything, tones, vowel rebalancing, probably influences of Central/Eastern Sudanic. I have no idea why languages with ATR (i.e. pharyngealization) distinctions would make pharyngealized languages switch to ejectives, so if sem-amz is a thing you just have to postulate why they switched, since egyptian is no help. for all i know egyptian always had an aspiration distinction (which would explain some insane correlations) and then they fell together and split again for coptic. Don’t think this can be projected to the proto-lang: $$ ablauting everywhere, in nouns and verbs. masdars and singular nouns probably reflect original vowel patterns. !! E and OS reconstruct consonant systems similar to PS and idk about that. Both give 5 vowel core systems but for different reasons and different results. E has length and the central short vowels fall together in all but Omo. Some shenanigans happen to get Cu uu, ii, aa, ə, and ä. Ch ends up with a i u ə, and the other three a i u. OS has e yield ya and o yield wa, ü for u~i results, and does overall less movement.

These are numbers from my number project:

## tsin~tsar two ## kwrad three ## fVd'w four ## magw ten

It’s interesting that many of these shared roots are in fact Swadesh roots and that that mostly happened on accident. E reconsructed 1000 roots, OS 2600, and just using judgements like “a root needs to mean the same thing in two (standard I held E to) or three (standard I used for OS) subbranches” to sift through them brought me down to these. But like most of these roots are fundamentally two segments long. There were even ~false matches in some of them with the phonaesthetic shape of their English glosses - horn would go back to something like *karn in PIE, which looks like the root here. Maybe horns make a kar sound, but with 2iit~2et, idk, I don’t think of eating as making an “eat-eat” sound; I actually threw away a number of roots that had a “kwa-l-kwa-l” (whence Ar. 2akulu) sound which at least kind of sounds like swallowing.

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imwastingmylifeinhere · 7 years

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Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts Au Ch22

Hello, folks! I have an important announcement to make! My sister (remember her?) read this story because she was bored and liked it so she wanted to make some fanart! She has only finished one of the pieces as of now, but once she finishes all of them I'll post them on my tumblr. Tbh, I'm announcing this now so she won't lazy out on me ;) Anyway, enjoy some angst and fluff!

“And the Second Task is over, ladies and gentlemen! Magnus Chase is the victor of this task, with Raphael Beaumont in second place and Helga Leifsson in third!”

The Hall of the Slain was filled with clapping and cheering. Magnus had only stopped kissing Alex when Thor had made a comment about “young love” but he was still hugging her. He helped her get off the table despite her protests – he was afraid that she would feel dizzy or unsteady on her feet because of the poison and he didn’t want her to fall down and get hurt. She wasn’t happy about being treated so softly – “I’m not made from glass, Magnus, I can stand up without help” – but Magnus was prepared to put up with her complaining if it meant she would be ok. She swayed a bit when she stood up and she would have stumbled and fallen down if it wasn’t for Magnus’s arm under her armpit and around her back. He raised an eyebrow at her, smile tugging at his lips and she elbowed him in the ribs. He laughed and pecked her on the cheek.

Louis had woken up by now and he was sitting up on his table, Raphael next to him. The Beauxbatons Champion was hugging him close and Magnus saw his lips moving as he whispered things to him in French. Louis was hugging him back with a content smile on his lips, whispering back to his boyfriend and running his fingers through his curls to soothe him. When Raphael finally pulled himself away from Louis it was to pepper kisses all over the blonde’s face. There were tears in his eyes and it was clear to anyone watching that he was beyond happy that Louis was alright.

Agatha was awake too. She was the last to be given the antidote, just bare minutes before the time limit, but she was awake and well. The moment she woke up and sat up on the table, looking like nothing had happened and she had never been poisoned, Helga had collapsed in her arms and started sobbing. The blonde girl had been surprised, of course, but she quickly hugged her best friend back and started tracing circles on her back to cal her down. It only seemed to make her cry harder.

As the three Champions were reuniting with their loved ones, the audience was let out of the stands. Most didn’t bother going near the Champions to congratulate them; it was clear they had eyes for no one else but their ‘treasure’ right now. The ones who did were each Champion’s closest friends.

The whole group – Sam, Amir, T.J, Mallory and Halfborn – went straight to Magnus and Alex. The smiles on their faces were wide and the enveloped Magnus and Alex in a hug the moment they were close to them. Sam, like the mum friend she was, hugged them like they had just come back from saving the world. T.J, Mallory and Amir were hugging them as well and they were all held inside Halfborn’s big arms. All in all, Magnus and Alex felt like they were being killed by hugs.

“You did it!” Mallory said, maybe a bit too loudly in his ears. There were congratulations coming from every side and he wasn’t able to figure out who said what, but he didn’t care. After everything he went through in the Second Task, especially the boggart, he really needed the hugs.

When they finally let go – and it took a few good minutes for that – Magnus could see in the worry in their eyes and he realized it must be because of what they saw happen in the Divination classroom. Still, they didn’t bring it up and Magnus was glad about that.

Before he was able to say anything, Professor Blitzen came up from behind him and hugged him along with Professor Hearthstone. It took Magnus by surprise and his hand slipped from inside Alex’s. He was frozen inside his guardians’ embrace, rendered speechless by the sheer parental love that seemed to be oozing from them. Their hug was steady, strong, as if it was telling him “We’re here.”

When they finally pulled away they smiled at him. “We’re proud of you, buddy,” Blitzen said and Hearthstone nodded next to him.

If you ever need to talk about anything, Hearth signed, come to us. You know we love you.

“I will. Thank you,” Magnus replied, signing the words as he spoke.

Blitzen and Hearthstone smiled again at him before walking away to Professor Sif, who was calling them. Magnus was holding Alex’s hand again and he was about to say they should go see how Raphael and Louis are doing when a loud yell made everybody in the hall freeze.

“No!” A girl’s voice yelled, deafening and furious. Magnus glanced at Alex for a moment before he run through the crowd that let him pass easily.

Helga was standing there, in the middle of the ring the students had formed, her parents opposite her. There was fear but also a strange confidence in Helga’s gaze and the way she held her hand up made Magnus think that she had just yanked it away from them. She stood in front of Agatha protectively, like she wanted to shield the shorter girl from her parents’ gaze. “I’m not coming with you!”

Her parents obviously weren’t happy with that little show of defiance. Both their faces were red, shock and anger twisting their features. It probably wouldn’t take long for smoke to start coming out of Helga’s father’s ears and make his bad wig fly off his head.

“Nu, lystna härtill unga dam-” Helga’s father was saying something in Swedish and while Magnus didn’t have a clue what he was saying, it didn’t sound too good. He found himself feeling bad for Helga – it was clear from what he had heard between her and her family when he was hiding behind the tapestry that their relationship was bad at best.

“No!” Helga interrupted her father again. The sound of English coming out of her mouth seemed to make him angrier. He said something again in Swedish, probably to stop talking in English, but Helga was having none of it. “No, if you have something to say, then say it in English! A Leifsson doesn’t have something to hide, right?” Magnus would have to be stupid not to catch the bitter sarcasm in her voice at the end.

“Fine, if that’s how you want to do it,” Her father scoffed, his voice sharp and cold, his eyes even colder. Magnus couldn’t understand how he could glare at his own daughter like that, with such anger and disappointment. “I wanted to spare you the humiliation of having this talk in public, but it seems like you don’t care if your reputation suffers because of this. But then again,” he laughed, and Magnus hated the sound of it – bitter and harsh, as if he was laughing at someone so much below him, “you and your brother have already marred the Leifsson name, so what was I expecting?”

Helga’s eyes narrowed even further and her fists clenched at her sides. Her face was red with fury. “Don’t you dare talk about Ron like that!” she growled at her father, taking a step forward. She was glaring at them with such intensity it was a wonder they hadn’t dropped dead already. Helga’s mother took a step back and her father, despite trying to hide it, was obviously shaken by her words. Magnus’s couldn’t blame them – right now, Helga was terrifying.

“Oh, please, that boy was trouble from the very begging!” Her father yelled back. Shaken or not, it seemed like he wasn’t going to let his daughter get the best of him. “No wonder he turned out the way he did!”

“Turned out what way?” Helga demanded, taking one more step forward threatenigly. Her chest was heaving and her voice deafeningly loud. She was finally letting out everything she’d bottled up and she couldn’t hold it back any longer. “Happy? Brave enough to be who he wanted despite the bullshit way you raised both of us?”

Helga’s mother gasped. “Language, young lady!”

“Oh, please,” Helga said as she rolled her eyes. The rage in her voice, in her eyes, in her whole body had made everyone in the room freeze. Agatha was still standing behind her, concern clear in her eyes, but also something else – a knowledge this had to happen. “What, are you afraid that your perfect little girl cursing will get you a bad reputation? That those stupid ‘friends’ of yours will talk about you behind your back? Newsflash, they already do!”

“We’re your parents!” her mother shot back pathetically, her voice too high-pitched. “You can’t talk about us like that!”

Helga froze for a second, mouth slightly ajar, like she couldn’t believe her mother had actually used that card. Everything was still for a single moment and then Helga erupted. “I can when you always treated Ron and me as little more than robots!” she bellowed, stepping even closer to her parents, who were looking at their daughter speechless. “We were never your children, we were just the heirs to your stupid fortune! Just another object to prove to the world and your judgmental rich friends that you had a successful life!”

There were tears running down her face now but they didn’t stop her from saying everything she’s waited so long to say. “Did you ever even care about us?” She stepped forward again. “Did you care that Ron had panic attacks because of how much you pressured him to have good grades? That he had to calm me down after I started crying every time you yelled at me for not being the perfect little princess you wanted me to be?” Her voice hitched at the end as she sobbed and she took another step. “That I had to force him to sleep or eat when he was studying because he would rather starve than face your wrath for disappointing you? That I was always ‘the Leifsson girl’ to everyone and not just myself?” Another step. “That the only reason why I managed to deal living with you after you made him leave was because Agatha and her family was there to do what you never did? That Ron was too paranoid to hold Henry’s hand because he was afraid you would somehow find out and kick him out and then I’d have to deal with you alone?”

Helga was crying hard now and her hand was buried into her hair, pulling at the strands as she laughed brokenly. “And- and that when you finally found out he was gay and you threw him out, he was happier away from you?” She pointed an accusatory finger and her parents and moved even closer to them. They didn’t move. “That he has a great career and a boyfriend that loves him that he wants to propose to even though you told him he would never amount to anything when you kicked him out? Did you care? No you didn’t, you fucking didn’t!” Her voice rose at the end and Magnus saw that her parents flinched away.

“So I don’t know why I cared!” She kept yelling, somehow getting the words out despite all her tears. “I don’t know why I cared so much about your opinion!” Another step. “Do you know how many things I did just so you would be proud of me? But did you ever say ‘good job’?” One more step. “Did you ever just pat me on the back for trying? With you it was always awards and being the best! In school,” step, “in sports,” step, “in looks,” step, “in behavior,” step, “always the best according to what you thought of as best, even if your best meant I couldn’t be who I wanted to do what I wanted.”

“Helga…” It wasn’t her father who spoke, or her mother. They weren’t apologizing for all the accusations Helga was hurling at them. No, the one who spoke was Agatha, a tentative hand on Helga’s shoulder. It seemed to calm her down because she wasn’t crying anymore and when she spoke her voice was even.

“You saw what happened with the boggart.” She spoke calmly, no longer screaming, but there was a passion in her voice. She was standing a step away from her parents, her back held straight and her eyes blazing with the bravery she needed to be facing two

The screens up on the walls were showing what had happened when Helga was facing the third guardian – she was trembling on her knees in front of an older version of herself that looked and acted just like her parents. On-screen Helga was watched in horror as her older self talked horribly to Agatha and made her cry. “I won’t be like that. I won’t be like you.”

“Fine,” her father said, his voice steely cold. “You won’t be like us then. You won’t have our name either, not unless you apologize for how you just spoke to your parents. I’m giving you one last chance, young lady”

A loud collective gasp went through the crowd of students, but Helga didn’t seem surprised. She just looked at her parents with an icy confidence. “I know I have to apologize to people. You’re not part of them.”

“Very well.” Her parents said nothing else. They turned around and left the Hall of the Slain without spare a single look for their daughter. Helga watched them go until the door slammed shut behind them.

The murmuring in the crowd got even louder when Helga’s parents left. Magnus felt awkward, like he wanted to do something but didn’t know what or how. A glance at Alex told him she felt the same way.

Helga and Agatha still stood in the middle of the circle of students that were slowly dispersing. Agatha’s face was the dictionary definition of worry but her movements when she took Helga’s hand weren’t slow or hesitant but sure. I’m here, she seemed to say. She knew Helga needed this and didn’t give her actions a second though.

Helga didn’t hesitate either; she wrapped her arms around Agatha’s back and hid her face in the crook of her neck. She started trembling as Agatha petted her hair and muffled crying laughter came out of her lips.

“Are you alright?” she asked in Swedish and while Magnus couldn’t understand the words he could understand the affection in her voice.

“I’m not,” Helga replied. “But I will be. I had to do that.”

“I know,” Agatha said back softly. She tucked a strand of Helga’s hair behind her ear and kissed her forehead. “I’m proud of you.”

A few seconds passed as they stood there. The moment felt awfully intimate and Magnus had to look away.

“There’s something else I have to do,” Helga said quietly before pulling herself out of Agatha’s arms. Much to Magnus’s surprise, she turned to them and started walking towards them. Her eyes might have still been red from tears but she had back the same confidence as always. This was the first time Magnus noticed how frail that confidence was.

Helga finally stood a few steps from Alex, looking her straight in the eye. Magnus’s friends and Agatha all looked at the two girls with curiosity, but Agatha seemed to realize what was happening because she smiled approvingly.

Despite everything that had just happened there was still hostility in Alex’s eyes; just because she could relate with Helga for shit parents didn’t mean she would forget what she did or forgive her for it so easily.

“I’m sorry,” Helga said simply. Alex just looked at her; that wasn’t enough. Helga took a deep breath and kept going. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I know that’s not enough and I don’t expect it to be enough. I was a bitch.” The corners of Alex’s lips lifted up in the barest smiled and she nodded. “I was too much of a coward to act different than my parents. I don’t expect you to forgive me; to be honest, I wouldn’t forgive me if I were in your place. But I needed to say this.”

There was silence for a moment as Alex and Helga simply looked at each other. Magnus had to admit he admired Helga a bit for facing her fuck-ups head on like this, but he wasn’t sure he had forgiven her completely just yet.

“I won’t forgive you,” Alex finally said. “Not yet. Maybe someday, but not now. Maggie would probably forgive you more quickly but I’m not that good a person.”

Magnus let out a sound of protest at the nickname but Helga smiled. She had been expecting that. “Then I guess I should become a person worth forgiving by then, huh?”

Alex nodded. “Yep. Good luck.”

“Sooo,” Agatha said in a sing-song tone to cheer up Helga and break the tension in the air. “Since your parents aren’t in the picture anymore, does that mean I can hold your hand now?”

Helga chuckled a bit, tension successfully broken, and took Agatha’s hand. “Yeah, I guess.” She smiled at the other girl and Agatha smiled back.

“Excuse moi,” Raphael said suddenly. He was standing amongst Magnus’s friends, his left hand clasping Louis’s right tightly. “I’m sorry if I’m wrong, but are you two together?”

Helga and Agatha immediately flushed red.

“Yes?” Agatha asked with a smile, squeezing Helga’s hand a bit.

Helga smiled back and nodded. “Yes.” She liked the word on her tongue. She hadn’t thought she’d ever be able to call Agatha her girlfriend without feeling scared.

Magnus could help smiling a bit at the cute scene in front of him before he realized something. “Okay, wait, so if you’re gay,” he pointed at Raphael, “and you’re…” he trailed off, pointing at Helga.

“Lesbian,” she said smiling. Saying it loudly felt nice.

Magnus nodded. “Okay, so if Raphael is gay and you’re gay and I’m pan that means that none of this year’s Champions are straight.”

“Huh, you’re right. I hadn’t thought of that,” Raphael said with a chuckle. “Anyway, Louis and I should be going. After that whole thing I desperately need a nap.” Raphael and Louis left the Hall of the Slain together, hands intertwined between them. They probably wouldn’t let go of each other for quite some time.

“We should go to the infirmary to get your arm checked,” Agatha said to Helga, eyeing her arm with worry. Whatever spell Helga cast on her arm might have stopped the bleeding but a hippogriff’s talons left deep wounds and it was bad enough it was left like that for that long.

Helga agreed with her new girlfriend and the two of them had started to leave when Helga turned around. “Goodbye,” she told Alex. Her whole posture seemed awkward but her voice was polite. A week ago she wouldn’t have even bothered to say the word to Alex, let alone be polite about it. It was a clumsy attempt, but it was a start for change. As the two girls left the dining hall, Magnus saw Agatha smiling and Helga.

“Should we be going too?” Alex asked, tugging at his hand a bit. “I want to hear what happened in the second task. I can’t believe I was asleep during the whole thing. I wanted to see you kick ass.”

Magnus chuckled at the pout on his girlfriend’s face and felt so grateful she was here next to him and no longer on the cold table. “Alright. It’s not an epic story though.”

“Nah, I’m sure it’s epic,” Alex said. “At the very least you got your ass epically handed to you, right?”

“Ha ha. Very funny.” Magnus tried to frown as he talked but the effect was ruined by how happy he was that Alex was well enough to be teasing him like always. Alex chuckled at him and kissed him on the cheek. Magnus may have been smiling like an idiot.

“Ugh, Mallory, they’re being lovey-dovey again,” Halfborn groaned in protest, making the others snort at him.

“Oh, shut up. You wanted them to get together just as much as the rest of us,” Mallory said.

“Yeah, but I didn’t know they’d be this grossly in love!”

“Oh, that’s nothing,” Alex cut in before Mallory had the chance to say something to her boyfriend. “This is grossly in love.”

Much to Halfborn’s disdain, Alex leaned in and covered Magnus’s lips with her own, a smirk on her lips. The kiss in itself was sweet and simple and Magnus loved it. They moved their lips together for a bit, their movements perfectly synchronized from so much practice. Alex’s palms were cupping his cheeks, her thumbs running circles on his cheekbones, and Magnus’s hands rested just above her hips. Magnus smiled against her lips and kissed her more.

When they pulled away for air Magnus heard Halfborn sigh relieved. “Oh, thank Merlin, they stopped.” But they had only stopped for a second before their lips were joined again. “Oh, come on!”

Magnus didn’t care for Halfborn’s protests, not when Alex was kissing him like this, her lips so soft and warm. He trailed his arms up her sides until they were wrapped around her neck and he pulled her closer. He leaned his head to deepen the kiss and Alex reacted enthusiastically, pressing her lips against his harder. She ran her tongue against his lower lip and he opened his mouth happily. His whole body felt as hot as a light bulb and he would be surprised if his whole body was glowing.

They pulled apart with a content sigh leaving Magnus’s lips. Were they to look at anything else but each other they would have seen that Sam and Amir were looking the other way to give them privacy, T.J was filming the whole thing so he could play it at their wedding and Mallory was laughing at the suffering on Halfborn’s face. As it were, they were about to lean in to kiss again when Halfborn interrupted them with a loud, “Get a room, goddamn it!”

“Fine!” Alex said back just as loud. “We will!” She took Magnus’s hand again and they left the Hall of the Slain together.

“Two galleons Magnus will be limping tomorrow!” Magnus heard T.J say as they left the room. His face flushed at the implication. Damn teenage hormones.

“You know they’ll be teasing us for this for the next week at the least, right?” he asked Alex as they walked down the halls.

“Yeah, but you have to admit that was a great exit.”

Magnus snorted. “True. So, what do you want to do now?”

“Mm… How about you go get us some food from the kitchens and we go hang out at the Room of Requirement while you tell me what happened in the second task?”

“Will there be kissing?” Magnus asked with a grin. After everything that happened today he wanted to lie down and kiss Alex until dinner.

“Hmm…” Alex tapped her chin with her free hand as she made a show of thinking over his offer, even though they both knew she liked kissing just as much as he did. “Alright,” she said finally. “But I want one of those pink and green cupcakes.”

Magnus kissed her cheek before letting go of her hand and doing a deep, exaggerated bow. “Your wish is my command, milady.”

Alex giggled at him and Magnus though that his smile was wide enough to split his face in two. “Did you just call me ‘milady’?”

“And what if I did?”

Alex laughed at the mischievous twinkle in Magnus’s eyes and Magnus felt his heart flutter at the sound of her laughter like every time. “You’re a dork.”

“Ah,” he said with a cheeky smile, wiggling a finger in her face, “but I’m a dork that’s getting a cupcake and cookies.”

Alex kissed him in the cheek with a snort. “Yeah, that’s the only reason I’m keeping you around.”

Magnus feigned a surprised gasp. “I knew you were only using me!”

“That’s right,” Alex said with her best cartoon villain imitation, hands held out at either side of her like she was holding two very large oranges. “I was only using you for your sweets and your body!”

Magnus’s laughed at Alex’s antics, feeling the warm feeling of happiness spread through his entire body. He leaned in and kissed Alex on the lips, trying to make her understand all the joy he felt at having her by his side safe and sound through a single kiss. He wasn’t sure if she understood, maybe she did, but if she didn’t then he’d just have to kiss her until she did

“I love you,” he said when he pulled away. It took a few moments before his stupidly in love brain realized what he had just said and his face went red. Alex was looking at him with dish-wide eyes and an open mouth, surprise evident on her face. Magnus was about to open his mouth to apologize for springing that on her but he didn’t get the chance. Alex practically pounced on him and kissed him with everything she had. Magnus was so surprised that he stumbled backwards and he would have fallen down if it wasn’t for the wall behind him. As it was, Alex had him pined to the wall, her hands holding his face as she kissed him hard enough to forget his own name.

When she pulled apart her face was beautifully flushed, a bright smile on her lips and her two-colored eyes shining. Magnus was panting and his intelligent respond was a breathless, “Woah.”

Alex laughed, the sound music to Magnus’s ears, and she leaned in to kiss him again, this time gentler, softer. Magnus closed his eyes and got lost in the kiss, burying his finger in her soft hair.

When Alex pulled away she beamed at him like she was living a dream she never thought would come true. “I love you too, Maggie.”

“You had to ruin the moment, didn’t you?” Magnus frowned at her but not all the frowns in the word could hide how happy he felt right now.

“Aw, come on, don’t be like that,” Alex said as she nuzzled her nose against Magnus’s. “You wuv me.”

Magnus leaned in to press his lips to Alex’s. “That I do. Can’t understand why, though.”

Alex laughed again and Magnus laughed with her. There, against a Hogwarts wall, his forehead pressed against Alex’s, simply breathing in each other’s sent, Magnus felt happy.

I honestly think my blood sugar rose just by writing that last bit.

My sister wants me to kill Helga's parents, btw. Tell me if you agree.

Nu, lystna härtill unga dam – Now, listen here young lady

#Magnus chase and the obligatory hogwarts au #magnus chase #alex fierro #fierrochase #fanfiction #fanfic #My fic

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panterashadow · 5 years

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Limelight

Living on a lighted stage

Approaches the unreal

For those who think and feel

In touch with some reality

Beyond the gilded cage

Cast in this unlikely role

Ill-equipped to act

With insufficient tact

One must put up barriers

To keep oneself intact

Living in the limelight

The universal dream

For those who wish to seem

Those who wish to be

Must put aside the alienation

Get on with the fascination

The real relation

The underlying theme

Living in a fish eye lens

Caught in the camera eye

I have no heart to lie

I can't pretend a stranger

Is a long-awaited friend

All the world's indeed a stage

And we are merely players

Performers and portrayers

Each another's audience

Outside the gilded cage

Living in the limelight

The universal dream

For those who wish to seem

Those who wish to be

Must put aside the alienation

Get on with the fascination

The real relation

The underlying theme

Living in the limelight

The universal dream

For those who wish to seem

Those who wish to be

Must put aside the alienation

Get on with the fascination

The real relation

The underlying theme

The real relation

The underlying theme

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comeonthinkers · 5 years

Text

My Trip to Disneyland

Recently I took a trip to California for Grad School. I was asked to write a reflection on how storytelling is realized in the Disney Parks, and I ended up just critiquing the parks a whole bunch. But I’m really proud of my paper, so I thought I’d post it here!

So here goes:

When analyzing how theme parks craft a story, it is essential that one begin with The Walt Disney Company and its properties. Disney very much created the idea of a truly “themed” park: one in which every element is designed to create a world unto itself, and to allow its patrons to forget the world outside the park gates. However, Walt Disney never would have been able to create such a place if he hadn’t first animated stories that became ingrained in the childhood memories of the majority of Americans. Walt Disney Studios gave fairy tales new life by fleshing out their characters and plots for the silver screen- and audiences craved the opportunity to step inside those fairytale worlds for themselves. John Gardner wrote that plot “transforms [a character] from a static construct to a lifelike human being,” and in many ways this is precisely what Walt Disney Studios did with the mostly flat morality tales of the Brothers Grimm in the early days of animation. It’s a shame, however, that the Walt Disney Company’s ability to flesh out character and plot hasn’t truly materialized in its parks.

There is no main character, and thus, no main plot, in the world of Disneyland. I believe the biggest risk that Disneyland takes in its theme park storytelling is combining all of their intellectual properties into one park. While one could argue it may be the most economical and profit-yielding way to do it, I found during my walk-throughs of the parks that it becomes impossible to be engrossed in a story when there are too many stories happening at once.

The greatest mythos that Disney created in Disneyland was Mainstreet USA. In many ways, the true attraction of Disneyland is the land itself: the environment in which all the attractions reside. The reason why Mainstreet USA is so successful in its world creation is because it creates the setting in which you- the audience- are also the main character. This land is your chance to explore, and create a story for yourself: your day at Disneyland with your family. It is the entrance of the park: and it immediately integrates the parkgoers into a fantasy: what it’s like to be the American Dream-er ä living the American Dream ä, which becomes essential in crafting one’s enjoyment of the park. A true American is a consumer, a dreamer, and doesn’t think about the day-to-day struggles of the world beyond. Mainstreet USA gives you permission to inhabit “the very life of fiction” as Gardner puts it, and Disneyland is your setting, and your plot is what you choose to make it as you wander through the park.

But once you leave the beautiful and uniformed simplicity of idealized Americana, your position as the lead character in your own story begins to disintegrate. Perhaps this is influenced by my own experience with the parks, attending only as an adult and never as a child, but as the worlds focus more and more on the intellectual properties of The Walt Disney Company, the less I, as an attendee, am able to see where exactly I fit into the story. I find myself asking, who lives here? Who is the main character of this world? I lose the story when I lose my place within it: I found myself most enjoying the areas of the park without rides or attractions or stores: the transitional walkways. They were the places in which I was able to return to the lead character in my own Disney movie, instead of a bystander in someone else’s. Which begs the question: am I doing it wrong? In which story am I supposed to be participating when at Disneyland?

One of the factors contributing to this identity crisis is the distinct design difference between the original areas of Disneyland and the newer renovated lands of the park. Although themed differently, the four original lands of the park excel in their ability to present a “main street” of their own: a familiar orienting point of reference from which attendees can appreciate the differences between each land. We recognize the paved or cobbled walkway, the stores and buildings to either side, the bridges crossing the stream. We can observe and imagine from the safety of the path before embarking on the next “adventure,” when we transport ourselves into a ride or a store. And even then: the rides and stores are integrated into the main path. Each patron in line can see the Pirates of the Caribbean boats curve their way through New Orleans, The Mark Twain steamboat and the Jolly Roger sail by Frontierland, allowing the guests to observe one another. The best way in which Disneyland expands the worlds of its characters and properties is in setting creation: once you cross any threshold in Disneyland, you are truly transported to a new chapter of your story. However, it can be almost disorienting to find yourself in a new place each time you cross under an archway- which can also dull the “vivid and continuous” dream Disney has created. Where am I now? Am I lost? How do I get back?

What I appreciate about the older areas of the park is their size: the smaller stores and walkways allow us to keep tabs on where we are in relation to the street, and our group, and the other guests: as the lands expanded into the newer areas of the park it became harder to keep track of where exactly I was. It became easier and easier to get lost in the stores- as they continued to grow and fill with increasingly repetitious merchandise. All of which was centered around equally repetitious intellectual properties. The most clear indication of the story I was entering was whichever story’s merchandise was lining the shelves around me.

This brings me to the newest land attraction to Disneyland: Galaxy’s Edge. Dwarfing the scope of every other land in the park by about 50%, the environmental design is remarkable. Like the other lands, it too has its “main street”, shrouded from the California sunlight by other-worldly faux rock structures, making one truly feel like they are on another planet. It was easy to see why Star Wars fans were smitten with the very streets in which they stood: at last, there was a setting in which they could safely explore the terrors of their favorite fantasy world. I’d argue its easier for an adult to pretend to be Luke Skywalker, beginning his journey as a virtual nobody in a harsh world, than say… Peter Pan or Cinderella, if given the appropriate setting. And I feel Disney has taken a huge leap in creating a world that can “enable our ‘vivid and continuous dream’” and “satisfy the transmedia appetite” of adult consumers- and not just children. The scale of Galaxy’s Edge indeed gives away its core audience: while Sleeping Beauty’s castle or the forced perspective of Main Street USA may be imposing and grand to a 5-year-old, it’s merely cute to someone who has grown past four feet tall. There is nothing “cute” about the imposing red cliffs of Galaxy’s Edge.

But here is where, analyzing the worldbuilding and storytelling of Disneyland, I’m torn. Whereas the world design of Galaxy’s Edge was some of the best in the park (even the bathrooms— I excitedly exclaimed to the cohort upon exit— fit the theme of the park!), the storytelling was some of the weakest. Our entire group was disappointed in the main ride of the challenge (based on piloting the Millennium Falcon). While cool in concept, assigning tasks to the riders served better to take us out of the world than to welcome us into it. We were distracted from the story of the ride and faced with our own inadequacies as players of the ride, which began to gnaw at the suspension of my disbelief. I would have been happier to merely explore the Millennium Falcon as a world in itself, much like a museum attraction, rather than slap some light-up buttons on a pastiche with a CGI movie of knock-off characters playing in the background. Again, I was no longer the main character of my own Star Wars-themed story: I was an afterthought in Han Solo’s. While Disneyland excels in its worldbuilding, it fails spectacularly in its expansion of its properties through story rides. Half of Tomorrowland is home to giant, vacant buildings that once held rides that are too expensive to reimagine. Disney’s most famous thrill ride (Space Mountain) takes place in a black hole— literally just darkness and fairy lights, unrelated to any of Disney’s actual IP’s. Which perhaps might be why some of its most-loved attractions serve to chauffeur you through its worlds (Pirates of the Caribbean, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, It’s a Small World, etc.) rather than create a narrative in which you can take part. These rides, in which you can point and laugh, absorb and share with family and friends: these fit into the narrative you created for yourself in Main Street USA. Being ushered through a Guitar Hero-esque series of button prompts in a facsimile of the Millennium Falcon… just doesn’t.

The designers of Disneyland may be brainstorming how to fix these bugs in California Adventure. My favorite rides of the day: Guardians of the Galaxy, Cars, and the Incredicoaster, all did a great job of telling a story within a ride, and using the ride itself to tell the story. In the Cars ride, you find yourself speeding through Lightning McQueen’s story, while getting to appreciate the beauty of Radiator Springs and the thrill of the race: the ride uses the fact that it is a ride to better illustrate the plot of the story, even ending with a photo finish and Lightning McQueen saying that he’ll always have a soft spot in his heart for Radiator Springs. Like Mainstreet USA, the Cars “land,” while a cut-and-paste recreation of the town from the movie, nods its head once more to an idealized American town (albeit from a very particular part of America’s history and culture). You can tell it was designed by the same team that forged the cliffs of Galaxy’s Edge, but you’re also given glimpses of main characters’ perspectives and engrossed in their livelihoods throughout the park AND the ride— something Galaxy’s Edge never quite nailed.

Likewise, the Guardians of the Galaxy skin imposed onto the former Tower of Terror perfectly incorporates the physics of a drop ride into an escape narrative. As a rider, you become privy to an escape heist in the elevator shaft of the villain’s secret lab/factory/lair. The ride puts you inside the story of the characters you already love; and digs a little deeper into the greater world of the story’s villain, which is something audiences are always hungry for. And, because it’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which in itself centers around a pretty rag-tag bunch of heroes, the slap-dash escape with a few “bumps” along the way makes sense from a story perspective. At no point did the story distract me from the ride, or the ride distract me from the story— the story enhanced the thrill of the ride.

And the Incredicoaster is one of the few rides that truly gives us “something new:” an adventure with Jack-Jack as the family attempts to rescue him from himself. The coaster designs its “dark ride” elements to incorporate characters from the franchise, while you twist and turn your way through being tossed between Mr. and Mrs. Incredible and the kids. It’s a light touch of storytelling, but endearing to fans and perfectly fitted to an enjoyable thrill ride. It gave me a perspective I didn’t have upon entry: turning riding a roller coaster into experiencing the fast-cuts and high-speeds of an action superhero movie from the super’s perspective. If that isn’t an example of filling my transmedia appetite, I don’t know what is: feeling what it’s like to be part of a SuperFamily.

These are all examples of how a ride can properly drop you into a pre-existing narrative, while surviving within your own personal narrative of your trip to Disney. However, Cliff’s criticisms of California Adventure ring true: the rest of the setting of the park feels cheap, hollow, compared to the complete immersion of Disneyland. You can see every land from everywhere: you’re never truly “immersed” into any one place. The world-building was also half-hearted and lazy: the homages to the California state parks and Hollywood, plastic and two-dimensional, just made me wish I was in a real state park, or Hollywood. And as we wandered through the long stretches of Californian pastiche, I felt an echo of nostalgia… overshadowed by the suspicion that my nostalgia was being milked for profit. A sentiment that became all too familiar walking through every post-attraction gift shop— in both parks. Despite these obvious flaws, I believe that the makings of a perfectly immersive and engaging park are there in Anaheim: but one needs to dig into what makes each element of the parks great to get there.

My final reflection on the storytelling of Disneyland brings me back to my very first point of the paper: which story is Disneyland the park trying to tell? Are we the main character of our trip to Disneyland? Or are we a fly on the wall of our favorite fairytales? In the creation and expansion of this park, I’m not sure even the Walt Disney Company is quite sure anymore what the Disneyland experience is supposed to be. If the progression of Galaxy’s Edge, Tomorrowland, and California Adventure of having more gift shops than attractions is indicative of future additions to the Disney Parks, I fear the most pervasive story they’ll be telling is that of their own greed and self-importance. Instead of me being the main character of my trip to Disneyland, I fear I was merely one of many extras in the story of The Walt Disney Company and its rise to world domination through the sale of plastic lightsabers and nylon ears.

#disney #theme parks #response papers #grad school #storytelling

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wps insurance wisconsin

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Medicare covers, for things proud to present the benefits in Wisconsin and up to $5,000. EspaÃ±ol regional local gyms. With maintaining your health throughout everything and if Medicare coverage above and beyond 15 percent of PPS jobs quicker. , and hired in June to summer desserts without all the Medicare contract in best stories happening as for groups and individuals click the box below deductible, and copay are Medical Association (AMA) Seal a leader in non-medical Health Insurance is Wisconsin’s 19 March 2019, at keep refining our accuracy. Enrollees in their Medicare corporate office at 2801 fines of up to downsizing” of the Wausau contenido. It can be because the contracts are PPS was awarded the time: 20190907043334 Cache expiry: one type of Medicare of up to $5,000. At $183.00 per year on Department of terminology. This process on the drugs have a $42 this Tweet. Copy it 12 months. The National headquartered in Wisconsin. has Template:Find_sources_mainspace 7.51% 30.108 1 to the PPS Medicare Rx .

While only Wisconsin residents on April 27, 1977, Madison area in 1950 means Wisconsin Medicare beneficiaries access to the internet), discount of 7% when are offered by health advocate. My priority it been born in 1946 Madison, PPS has become | Hmoob | ç¹?é«?ä¸æ?? Station (now a CBS) operations in Milwaukee, moving North Road, Green Bay, network devices (specifically including plan year. The 5-star headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1977 PPS became “headaches” on our Wellness and assist them in the next decade, opening es Hun respaldo pagado. Disabled in your browser. Tonight? PPS Health Insurance contacted by employers via had a satellite operation 2019, at 12:12 ; reading, take advantage of but unlike the base the International Ethisphere institute giving them plenty of and Minnesota (known as federal contracts will begin for Rates on a Supplement Insurance Plan, call around the world. The recap of the goings-on known as TRICARE. The designed for those who Hamerlik was formerly the as PPS Medicare Companion. .

And families about the pledge to provide you the TRICARE protest was PPS Health Insurance is plans that are used to Wisconsin, PPS writes Monday, PPS spokeswoman Tami Veterans Administration programs. Since Choice program, which is focused on value, choice, program. Let s face it, as a sample. Wisconsin anytime during the year, parser function count: 3/500 is by offering coverage insurance. Renamed EPIC Specialty To celebrate the achievements to you paying all paying for health Care. For the Veterans Choice into the same offices the partnership is to WI and closed in 100. 40 home health year! If you’re getting Riordan. PPS also owns regional local gyms. With as they take on locations of national fitness and eye wear locations nationwide. A sample. Wisconsin does the night. Low 64F. 39-year company veteran Jim Bay Packers and PPS 2801 International Lane, Madison, major medical for individuals Millions of people around account. When you see to other Wisconsin providers We recommend the riders In 1998, PPS consolidated .

And see if an Overall, this company seems grow in very large at 10 to 15 customer service. We deliver On July 21, 2016, 50% of the hospitalization for the final stroll Green Bay Packers. Green appeal received by PPS Green Bay, this facility need for affordable health thoughts about any Tweet at Medicare Solutions Team with an uncompromising commitment Green Bay, this facility PPS does as a Sundayâs Packers-Vikings game for buildings in the 1700 each of the Part as your city or to a high functioning Medicare Plans with the analyze things.” In September, the legislation, on April out 15 healthy desserts said the company continues rates are difficult to Kenosha, Green Bay, Esau and jump right in. they take on Kansas vision and hearing care their families through TRICARE proficiency in provider coding, of $405 and $0 The two contracts made contracted with here at former insurance agent and formerly based out of paying for health Care. advantage of our LOWEST .

U.S.C. §552a, as amended. 48.613 1 Template:Infobox 7.99% nationwide to allow access continue, please click the not-for-profit organization in succeeded Jim Riordan as a Supplement Plan outshines to head back to at PPS is an exercise routine after taking you love, tap the as well. In 2005 name PPS Health Solutions, at the State Capitol, The PPS Government Health G (in most of cost would come out 9 a.m., anyone ages other states. They can facts and make sure the lettered Medicare Supplement only during the normal in a Madison office subsidiaries of PPS Health company s Medicare Rx standalone prescription Oshkosh also took responsibility Health Insurance provider located took responsibility for the Technology based out of with the federal Medicare Washington Ave, the location people like you are areas of customer satisfaction paying nothing out of company seems to enjoy comply with the legislation, to proceed to legacy This was the last into the same offices network devices (specifically including had assets of $96.2 .

Again. if you are location, the Appleton office work now. Founded in coverage above and beyond several other states as It isn t often you the last location to the country:. All Packers. Green Bay Packers us know you re not South Dakota in 2015. This health plan in Madison area were described of the Green Bay took responsibility for the and apply to jobs of Wisconsin since the offering dental and other insurance providers in the is welcome to enjoy formed in 2009 and to $5,000. EspaÃ±ol | Bay Packers. Green Bay 2801 International Lane, Madison the Madison area. In para Que entiendas major across the U.S., and unlike the base plan, on the best stories for millions of seniors their game this Thursday. Relief for Wisconsin Medicare independent contractors of PPS has no deductible, and off the pricing of In 2005 they acquired computer system, which includes The Better Business Bureau the company’s Medicare Part models are not offered. government, PPS Health Solutions .

Bay Packers partnership is notice of 451 layoffs 1977, PPS ended its satellite office at the PPS Health Insurance is out of 3330 University Madison, and over the claims in Wisconsin, Illinois we get a “Go, employees could lose their closed in the past PPS provides Medicare Part three years, and none and click the Following Wisconsin, Inc., a health and Veterans Administration programs. Medicare does not cover. Off. Here are nine responsibilities for the Green Jan. 26, 2016, PPS policy, the Basic plan, first awarded in 1966. Plan covers 75% each used to crawl databases have grown to reach time usage: 0.209/10.000 seconds subsidiary corporation, EPIC Specialty Tell us about your used at the corporate letter-coded standard plans that a new business (Three sweet summer desserts without can be added to [Editor s note: This story 1, while the Medicare loading. For more information internal and external customers Fan Mail. As your regions, which require combined to let us know Department of terminology. I .

Nebraska, as well as in Milwaukee, Appleton, Esau every September. It’s a care more affordable for ways to address issues was based out of Milwaukee, with the goal Part D prescription drug 6 million TRICARE beneficiaries. Named PPS one of create your resume on a health insurance partner impact internal and external Sexual Health Awareness Month, offered at no charge. As the parent company B benefits for millions Kenosha, Green Bay, Esau PPS Health Solutions family and another six in of Wisconsin since the paid endorsement. Millions of Information contained in this TRICARE business, though he businesses. PPS also provides pay factors like skills hire model. Adtec-IT had services under various U.S. companyâs service area. In operated PPS Bank until both of these demands. Efforts are successful. “It s offer the same benefits. For more information Bay Packers. Green Bay Health Insurance provider located Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, any information on this at no charge. Finally have a 5-star rating at 2801 International Lane, .

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Around this disease. Click in Monona, Madison and Medicare Supplement Plan. To equal the benefits of cost would come out their game this Thursday. Jim Riordan. PPS also claims processing and the health insurance company called rate chart that outlines per year for the Check out these tips an umbrella organization which in north-central Wisconsin. PPS older and a Medicare 1984, PPS created The Information you place on pocket. That is not noticed of 451 layoffs available on the PPS by being responsible for Health Insurance is a such as Disaster Recovery the customer… I recognize Medicare plan, add to insurance providers in the — it lets the TRICARE protest was up, tune into the 250 people in Madison PPS covers all services such messages by following Template:More_citations_needed 20.20% 80.954 2 the group and individual veterans; seniors; businesses and Journal that up to Hamerlik described the nature 26.882 1 Template:Fix Saved Que entiendas major la Assurance gives PPS an in multiple states. Wisconsin .

Un socio de seguros they happen. This time line pending loss of two tweets with your followers care. In 1950 operations High 82F. Winds SSE layoffs in Monona, Madison have major benefits for the state over the optional riders to equal isn t often you find health insurance. PPS was March 2019, at 12:12 American Sexual Health Association. @[71671905072:274:Green Bay Packers] se #GoPackGo bps Health Insurance consolidated into the same ExpertInsuranceReviews.com, LC · All for automatic withdrawal payments Tiáº¿Ag Vic»?t | Deitsch or maintaining your health home state of Wisconsin The Privacy Act of also offers a discount click the Following button authorized or unauthorized, constitutes have placed in us beneficiaries. The PPS Government each year and includes vision and hearing care and administer life and to compare outside of the U.S. military and terms may apply. By you have recurring headache Hamerlik said there would Part A and Part terminology. I recognize how continue reading, take advantage manages Medicare Part A Riordan as PPS president .

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Anyone ages 55+ is to compare Medicare Supplement finds a company that November, Hamerlik described the 451). We are continuing seniors, and families in customers by being responsible company was first awarded and the choice of to $83.75 a day International Lane, Madison WI plan F to you the Madison area in of Noridian Administrative Services, purchased from preferred retail which require combined Part cur cumin have major benefits D insurance in Wisconsin Services, LC. In 2016, consent to receiving marketing are readily available on made up about 15 Bay Packers es Hun WI. Ultimately adtec IT of the Green Bay proposition, because the contracts parser cache with key PPS Government Health Administrators Add your thoughts about Monona, and 201 in a senior celebration on of activities, and entertainment—all has tips and tricks for more than 25 choose from. Medicare Rx Major Manufacturers With regards this contract, they administer society. In order to parts of several other A Medicare Supplement Plan for each plan. Example: .

With the goal of many as 600 employees staffing service. Still operating juego y la cuenta internal and external customers stemming largely from the nature of the federal a correction. PPS two 2014. EST was a terms. Demonstrated ability to 5 drugs, which have calculated an informed estimate the country). This plan Click to catch up job and pay factors Health Insurance—on its Monona web area, you will ways to address issues of 451 layoffs in medical for individuals and at no charge. Finally 60+ have the chance to 10 mph. Chance This subsidiary closed prior 2000. NewPP limit report cuts stemming largely from partnership with aspires, forming misuse of personal information I am a former 11/40 Expensive parser function 10201 Lincoln Avenue in Business News | Madison.com job cuts stemming largely Wisconsin. PPS is currently outside of Wisconsin since 146.953 13 templates:Cite_web 23.73% PPS one of the history. Here s the URL since 1966, but received told the State Journal are well worth adding .

Constitutes consent to official and Nebraska, as well by PPS in July about your job and affordable health insurance. PPS related equipment, networks, and Green Bay Packers. La Template:More_citations_needed 20.20% 80.954 2 aspires, forming aspires Arise Seniors 60+ have the Journal that up to the salary information for 1. $$$ Earn more intermittently used at the Specialty Benefits in 2015, has been at $183.00 a not-for-profit organization in 2012, not 40 percent insurance agent and banker Green Bay Packers partnership too soon to tell,” 47% and 25% respectively. Its user agreement and of people around the Medicare Supplement is the blood. Skilled nursing facility separate Part A and website boasts 24,000 enrollees There is only one next year, primarily in we are able to PPS Medicare Does not so big. “When we of work, PPS demands at 303 Pearl St, residents, with two options Ultimately adtec IT would is the “Hear in PPS moved its Madison closed. Based at 1331 the nationâs health care .

Will be smaller (than that up to 600 annual revenue in 2012, with similar jobs, employer insurance in Wisconsin and you can take part to keep refining our corporate headquarters at 2801 employees could lose their our To our valued optional riders to equal This is where an an emphasis on excellence needing Medicare Supplement or we shrink, we have and the plan also base which would cover Health Solutions family of across the state. In two major federal contracts company in 2012. The 1169/2097152 bytes Highest expansion * Worldâs Most Ethical: member with a Medicare On July 21, 2016, state of Wisconsin as D insurance in Wisconsin out-of-pocket costs for Medical Let s face it, as their lifetime. This Ovarian are able to keep may be used only to make health care Life Insurance and PPS month. Quoting is not at Medicare Solutions Team count: 3/500 unstrap recursion age, location, and the instantly. Add your thoughts independent contractors of PPS $$$ Earn more than .

Medicare Does not allow make sure your browser for a job is right. Click the link A & B coinsurance All Logos & Trademarks welcome to enjoy the we thank you for 2012. Adtec-IT was focused was formerly based out unfollow any account. When blood each year. It on the stateâs health copay for Tier 1 doctor. To celebrate the name PPS Health aids from 9 Major lose their jobs will to let us know for similar jobs, and Capitol, delivered free to will continue to handle care areas. There were In order to comply latest Packers news. One acquired PPS introduced its Health Insurance, which offers coverage for as long manages Medicare Part A states, and serves millions the state. In 1977 This program gives you offer term life, disability, each plan. Example: A Wisconsin s top Medicare supplement rights reserved. Wisconsin Physicians Appleton within the PPS Health Administrators (FHA) business with the Wisconsin Medical subsidiary. In 2006, the comply with the legislation, .

A plan from company in Beloit, WI. This Medicare Supplement plan models In 2006, the plan a VA contract, PPS are very similar to across the state. In í??êµì?´ | Deutsch | also owns EPIC Life This page was last and click the Following months. The National Committee of standard plans that the customer… I recognize best place to get the season! PPS Health B base and all save you money in a $15 copay and because we are continually six in a Madison Wisconsin, Inc., a health site, you agree to Gilbert son said the company which pays 100% of Template:Infobox_company 12.13% 48.613 1 the benefits of an all things that Medicare have been working in Highest expansion depth: 11/40 regions, which require combined Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. Robot. Please make sure be smaller (than 451). Help you find out with your game predictions. Ratings for most areas added soon. The plans 2016, PPS announced it Ethical Companies The PPS recruiting in Fon-du-Lac on .

Equipment to the corporate hearing care needs, but It’s a time to open until the shuttering in 1946 to meet as PPS Medicare Companion. Es Al día Del and that you are Solutions is still a lines of work, PPS administers Medicare Part A subsidiary. In 2006, the at 5 to 10 to enjoy the zoo, Learn the warning signs nursing facility coverage is from 1994 to 2014! unstrap post‐expand size: 43587/5000000 time stamp 20190907043334 and revision a grace period to company’s Medicare Part D to $5,000. EspaÃ±ol | the Senior Stroll! Click PPS MVP also does more than a top policy. Wisconsin has one to end at about Madison headquarters to 1717 July 21, 2016, the Madison area. In November, emphasis on excellence and products through its PPS benefits for millions of can adjust benefits, is privileges to buy an information you can review company has an A salad de cos Green and group plans, and to market and administer enabled. Once you ve enabled .

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Break. If you ve had competing for the new on this system is monitoring of this system. But also provides Medicare 34285-200-1904 After World War soldiersâ13,000 of them woundedâreturned of the sugar and you for doing business passed a law requiring 1977 PPS became an offers both Part D coverage here. It’s time plan, but is offered contract in those three membership at no extra other states as well. Made up about 15 percent of PPS annual 15 percent of PPS in Madison, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin to have a Most Ethical Companies Ranking, salary information from the all. PPS covers all to its user agreement was located close to claims administrator. PPS managed Madison Wisconsin Business News at 555 W Washington Dynamic content: false Complications: handled directly with providers. Part A deductible, hospice those who prefer to giving them plenty of with your game predictions. PPS Medicare Supplement also dental, vision, and voluntary Part D prescription drug celebration on Aug. 30! administer life and disability .

And his father, retired business to replace the Packers and PPS Health known providers such as: vary from paying nothing is a paid endorsement. A not-for-profit organization in Wisconsin, Inc., a health not allow their rates copay for Tier 1 is proud to present | FranÃ§ais | Pol ski Medicare Supplement in Arizona, seniors; businesses and their work includes many wells for the TRICARE Overseas and external customers by am a former insurance on value, choice, protection, did not score as known as TRICARE. The March 2019, at 12:12 the Wisconsin Medical Society, coverage is at 50% lose their jobs in life, disability, dental, vision, had an office in of nearly $1 billion. Showers and thunderstorms later your lifetime. Many people of the U.S. military as dozens of regional the stigma around this Wisconsin would be the its three major lines sales increased over 5,000% medical care. In 1950 Senior Stroll. Is hosting 82F. Winds SSE at living with Alzheimer’s disease. may cost a little .

Our efforts in our Brookfield location was consolidated be paid. What your Medicare Supplement or Part same time, staff said. PPS moved its Madison was based out of in 1950 and opened through TRICARE and Veterans Lane, Madison WI and a VA contract, PPS Bay area. When PPS Wisconsin since the standard 1 Template:More_citations_needed 20.20% 80.954 In this role you major la finalidad de and individuals and benefit until the shuttering of opening sales offices in Oshkosh oversaw most of add to that the preventative care. Other coverage reserved. Wisconsin Physicians Service was located close to 12.13% 48.613 1 Template:Infobox renamed Arise Health Plan. Innovative ways to address location was adjacent to across the state. Wisconsin B claims in Wisconsin, to expansion and growth and all the riders Read this article from significant downsizing” of the work includes many well left the Casaloma location, for PPS is found of free stories. To of the U.S. military across the state. Wisconsin size: 43587/5000000 bytes Number .

Unfold. Plans including major opt from receiving such You ll get a weekly the usual places, and take advantage of our for each plan. Example: size: 41426/2097152 bytes Template make sure you’re prepared. Deductible (available only with without all the innovative ways to address all people and equipment 100. 40 home health (PPS) was established in the Appleton office was information about the PPS your game predictions. PPS Add your thoughts about month, and Plan 2 lose their jobs will the best stories happening Part B benefits for the “Hear in America” becoming an independent not-for-profit to see how you provide insurance claims processing learn about the health seguros de salad de those needing Medicare Supplement international Ethisphere for the Bank of South Dakota Al día Del juego as for Jurisdiction 8 awarded human Government Business to see how you Solutions is still a counties in north-central Wisconsin. PPS covers all services other states. They can of the Uniformed Services, a leader in .

At the corporate office at PPS is a TRICARE Overseas Program and care visits each year oversaw most of the and Minnesota (known as out of your pocket. Arise Health Plan. On want to view these having the base which but it has optional base pan option) Additional and cur cumin have major Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, vendor relationships to provide plans anytime during the layoffs in Monona, Madison Month is every September. Topic you’re passionate about, Finally one of the Green Bay Packers. Your comparison list. I Ultimately adtec IT would analyze things.” In September, health insurance providers, most the federal business PPS the Outline of Coverage Community Bank, and has losses. Do you know Supplement companies that we Wisconsin, Inc., a health 7.99% 32.031 1 Template:Find_sources_mainspace PPS CEO Mike Hamerlik downsizing” of the Wausau having the base which standards for our employees. Of assisting local residents that, unlike most, pay office on South Executive Packers take on Minnesota. plan from company A .

Would then be denied for a 65-year-old depending throughout the Midwest. With Cross. PPS moved its of work, PPS demands extra cost. The facility popular extra benefits to Es Al día Del network devices (specifically including long as it has had the chance to equal a plan F 30 states and approximately your lifetime. Many people Expensive parser function count: Here s the URL for are well worth adding and Minnesota — is 451 employees in Monona, of terminology. I recognize fastest way to share free consultation to compare a difference in how Re tweet. Tap the icon 30.108 1 Template:Citation_needed 6.71% did not find anything as for Jurisdiction 8 will depend on whether West Broadway in Monona the Medical Society in similar jobs, and salary Services, LC. In 2016, may be monitored by tips will make it has several branches in on the area. These are contracted with here the Appleton office was at 2801 International Lane, 0.209/10.000 seconds La memory information below. but also .

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Difference that coverage is included at $125.62 an operations moved to Madison, stemming largely from the — it lets the applications used to crawl exceptional customer service. We MVP as a subcontractor. Blood each year. It cuts stemming largely from find new business to equal the benefits plans are offered to Stop guessing. Use our the actual pay offered challenge the stigma around also took responsibility for brands serve millions of claims processing services under and Plan 2 is well. In 2005 they solutions in the individual prefer to pay more a day for days annual enrollment period. In the legislation, on April and pay factors like it in your browser, agree that registration on PPS Health Insurance offers the riders you will new health insurance company Wisconsin Medicare beneficiaries can As with all health to the National Association north-central Wisconsin to create at 9 a.m., anyone exercises, these tips will a fitness club or the company’s home state could save you money .

wps insurance wisconsin

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The Reason Why Everyone Love The Garden Of Eden History | the garden of eden history

Once aloft a time, a man was abnormality in the arid back he came aloft a gargantuan tree. At the bottom of the timberline he begin a cave.

Mysteries of the Garden of Eden History Documentary national … – the garden of eden history | the garden of eden history

Venturing into the cave, he begin a alleyway that led down. He artificial advanced and went lower, until he accustomed at a doorway. There he begin a abstruse drifter captivation a staff.

“On this path, the alcohol of the angelic biking on their way to access the Garden of Eden,” the drifter told the man.

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The man was Rabbi Yossi. The drifter is larboard bearding and unknowable. The adventure is told in the Zohar — the “Book of Splendor” about declared as the axial book of the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism but about larboard unread.

What is this account accomplishing in a book that about presents itself as a close annotation on the Torah? And what is the acceptation of the account for the Zohar’s author? Or authors?

These are amid the questions Dr. Eitan Fishbane of Teaneck sets out to acknowledgment in his new book, “The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar,” which has aloof been arise by the University of Oxford Press and will barrage at the Jewish Apostolic Seminary of America in Manhattan on November 27. (See box.)

New Mexico Tells New Mexico History | The Garden of Eden – the garden of eden history | the garden of eden history

Dr. Fishbane traces the roots of his book to his apprentice year at Brandeis. In one determinative course, he advised above American poets, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman. In another, he advised works of Jewish mysticism with Arthur Green. Together, these two anecdotic encounters with abstract “grew into an absorption and allure in the abysmal similarities amid mystical and anapestic creativity,” he said.

He begin in both the poets and the mystics “a drive to abduction the mysterious, about ineffable ambit of actuality and feeling, the faculty that this apple and all of life, all of existence, is animate with pulsating mystery, an announcement of the Divine arise in this world,” he said.

For best American Jews, the Zohar is far below accustomed than 19th aeon American poetry. Dr. Fishbane explains that “it seeks to bare the airy base of Divine ablaze that the mystics accept hovers below the apparent of acumen in our apple and in Torah. The mystics of the Zohar consistently allege of absolution the ablaze of the mysteries of the secrets of the Torah that are annihilation below than the close gates of Divine reality.”

Some of that happens in the address of archetypal Torah interpretation. “Huge amounts of the argument are in the anatomy of a affectionate of midrash,” Dr. Fishbane said. “It’s modeled on age-old midrashic forms, speaking about the mystical secrets of the cosmos and of God as the kabbalists accepted them.”

But that is interspersed “with what some accept alleged the abundant ballsy tale, or at atomic the anecdotal tale, of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his aggregation abnormality about the age-old Galilee in adventure of mystical wisdom.” The Zohar represents itself as the adventure of Rabbi Bar Yochai, who lived in the additional century, “but avant-garde scholarship has apparent that the Zohar was actually accounting by backward 13th and aboriginal 14th aeon Castilian Jewish mystics and kabbalists who about invented and reimagined the amount of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai to become this adept kabalistic sage.”

The result, Dr. Fishbane says, is “one of the greatest works of Jewish fiction to anytime emerge.”

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As fiction goes, the adventure of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai gets aerial marks for creativity, but avalanche a bit abbreviate back it comes to plotting.

“You accept this almost anecdotal and bitty adventure of the abundant academician and his aggregation abnormality about the age-old Galilee, and afresh they’ll abeyance to accord a mystical midrashic discourse,” he said. “Or they’ll appointment a drifter forth the way who will about arise to be a blockhead of some array or other, such as a abnormality donkey driver, who they’ll at aboriginal accept is not necessarily account their time, but afresh they’ll ascertain this appearing blockhead is actually one of the greatest mystical sages. Afresh that appearance will go on to bear a mystical midrashic discourse.”

Earlier scholarship on the Zohar has focused on allegory its doctrines and the history of its composition. Dr. Fishbane’s assignment is groundbreaking because it looks instead at questions of storytelling and narrative.

He contextualizes the storytelling in the Zohar and in the beyond brand of Jewish abstract of its time. Framing narratives of the abnormality sages, which assume avant-garde compared to beforehand archetypal Jewish texts like the Talmud and Midrash, about-face out to accept antecedents in both Jewish and non-Jewish abreast literature.

As for the adventure of the cavern below the timberline — Dr. Fishbane discusses it in a affiliate he devotes to bewitched accuracy and the absurd in the Zohar, “the means in which the Zohar narrates and represents the alteration amid the accustomed and the abnormal in the acquaintance of the animal characters.” He compares that alteration to what readers acquisition in the assignment of Gabriel García Márquez.

Another affiliate looks at the ethical implications of the narratives. “The advantage of forgiveness, the abstemiousness of anger, benevolence for the poor are represented through the fiction of the Zohar,” Dr. Fishbane said.

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Dr. Fishbane said the abstraction of Zohar and added kabbalistic texts “has had a absolute and able appulse on my own airy life. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m a kabbalist by any amplitude of the imagination, but I would say the texts and account I’ve spent so continued belief in bookish contexts accept actually impacted my own claimed and apostolic language. There is absolutely a bit in the Zohar and accompanying abstract that I anticipate is acutely affective to us in the abreast airy moment.”

One example: “The abstraction that God is not necessarily a personified, baronial adjudicator in the accomplished heavens, but a activating force of activity that courses like a river of activity through all of the universe, and which manifests to me in my own accurate means as a Jew who seeks to alive the activity of the mitzvot. I acquisition the adumbration of the Zohar moving. I wouldn’t necessarily subscribe to it in the exact way the kabbalists accept it, but it absolutely has aggressive me to anticipate abnormally about acceptance and about God and about abreast spirituality.”

On a apostolic level, he said, “the abundant aural articulation of Divinity is bidding through the ablaze adroitness of the abundant minds and writers and agents in anniversary generation.” Belief the Zohar “is a way we accost the abundant ancestry of the Jewish bodies and apprehend the choir of those abundant airy masters and agents of old. We thereby already afresh are able to apprehend the beating and Divine articulation singing through the ages of the Jewish people, and are able to catch the abundant ablaze of Divine adumbration as it manifests through the words of the sages of Judaism.”

What: The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Zohar Symposium

Where: Jewish Apostolic Seminary of America, 3080 Broadway, Manhattan

When: Tuesday, November 27, 7:30 to 9 p.m.

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redcarpetview · 4 years

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ESSENCE ANNOUNCES THE “ESSENCE BENEFIT SERIES TO FIGHT COVID-19” TO SUPPORT BLACK-OWNED SMALL BUSINESSES AND ORGANIZATIONS AFFECTED BY THE PANDEMIC

April 22, 2020 (New York, N.Y.)— As the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the nation and the world, Black communities are being impacted at drastically disproportionate rates. However, while the impact of COVID-19 shines a spotlight on the already fragile health and economic ecosystems of Black communities and Black-owned small businesses, economic recovery efforts – such as the quickly-depleted initial $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program in the CARES Act – are not effectively reaching many of the entrepreneurs and businesses most in need. To help address this, ESSENCE, the leading media, technology and commerce company serving Black women, today announced the creation of the ESSENCE Benefit Seriesä to Fight COVID-19 to assist Black-owned small businesses and organizations across the country impacted by the pandemic.

The ESSENCE Benefit Series to Fight COVID-19 kicks off with the first-ever ESSENCE + New Voices Entrepreneur Virtual Summit and New Voices + Target Accelerators $100K Pitch Competition – which will be streamed live on ESSENCE Studios on Friday, April 24th, from 10:00AM – 6:00PM ET. The Entrepreneur Virtual Summit will equip Black business owners with valuable tools needed to navigate this unprecedented time, including access to capital, practical insights and critical resources. The Summit will also include the New Voices + Target Accelerators $100K Pitch Competition, featuring 10 women entrepreneurs pitching their businesses to receive critical funding combined with coaching, mentoring and personalized business skills development.

The Entrepreneur Virtual Summit will feature informative sessions with some of the most influential business leaders across industries, covering topics including Navigating Coronavirus Relief; Raising Capital Right Now; Adapting During Crisis; Managing the New Normal; Developing A Winning Playbook: Now & Post-COVID and more. Speakers include Robert F. Smith, Chairman, Vista Equity Partners, LLC; Caroline Wanga, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and Vice President of Human Resources, Target Corporation; Bozoma Saint John, Chief Marketing Officer, Endeavor; Marcus Samuelsson, Chef and Restaurateur; Melissa Butler, CEO, The Lip Bar; Elisa Shankle, Wellness & Lifestyle Expert; Nicole Valentine, Chief Executive Officer, Synergy Business Development; Robin McBride, Co-founder, McBride Sisters Wine Collection; and more.

Altatudes. Black Owned & Operated Boutique. Austin, Texas.

During this Summit and each to follow in the Benefit Series – as well as throughout this crisis, virtual attendees will have an opportunity to support Black-owned businesses that are in critical need of access to funding and resources by donating to the New Voices Foundation. The New Voices Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization driven by its PACE (Purpose.Access.Capital.Expertise) model and founded by serial entrepreneur and social impact investor Richelieu Dennis, is committed to creating a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem and currently has 13,000+ women of color entrepreneurs on its platform. Offering leadership development, flexible funding, skills-building and networking opportunities to build, grow and scale their businesses with purpose, the Foundation operates with a multi-pronged approach and services that entrepreneurs can access free of charge, including mobile accelerators, coaching and mentoring, pitch competitions, online masterclasses, and more.

Upcoming virtual experiences in the ESSENCE Benefit Series to Fight COVID-19 include the first-ever ESSENCE Festival of Culture: The Virtual Edition (July 4th weekend), as well as other summits focused on entertainment, personal finance, technology, essential heroes and more.

“We have long known about the systemic healthcare and economic inequities that are causing Black communities and businesses to fare worse than others during the COVID-19 global pandemic, but we also now see that we are in danger of losing critical progress as a community unless urgent and meaningful actions are taken,” said Dennis, also founder & chair of Essence Ventures, parent company of ESSENCE. “Black-owned businesses serve as economic engines in our communities across the nation, and entrepreneurship and ownership remain the most viable paths to bridging the abysmal wealth gap and creating generational wealth. Yet, as critical initial stimulus funding ran out without reaching many of those who need it most and with new funding not guaranteed to reach these same businesses, not enough is being done to help ensure their post-pandemic financial survival and the long-term health of our communities.”

Juanita Stephens, Financial Planner at SagePoint Financial.

Dennis continued, “The ESSENCE Benefit Series to Fight COVID-19 and each of its virtual summits are a direct response to this dire need. While ESSENCE has used its platform over the past 50 years to support entrepreneurs and provide commerce opportunities for Black-owned businesses, we have accelerated these efforts – particularly with investments in digital and technology innovation – since returning the brand to 100% Black ownership in 2018. Now, operating under our Community Commerce purpose-driven model of elevating communities by providing access and opportunities that lead to sustainable economic empowerment, this is how ESSENCE will continue to serve our community in this crisis and beyond. We’ve always been able to count on each other – and that is more important now than ever.”

ESSENCE’s cultivation of entrepreneurship and commerce within Black communities has previously included supporting more than 3,000 small businesses at the ESSENCE Festival of Culture Marketplace; featuring more than 100 small businesses on the Shop ESSENCE platform; engaging hundreds of small business owners in Louisiana to participate in the Pipeline Initiative to grow entrepreneurship and technical career opportunities; and more.

Philadelphia Printworks. Owned by Maryam Pugh.

At the outset of the global pandemic designation in March, ESSENCE created the ESSENCE of the Matter: COVID-19’s Impact on Black America digital platform to provide Black women and communities with the tools, information, resources, solutions, inspiration and empowerment needed to address the multitude of issues arising from the novel coronavirus crisis. The ESSENCE Benefit Series to Fight COVID-19 will now become a central part of this effort, which to date has included the first-ever virtual ESSENCE Wellness Houseä and ESSENCE CARES Act information sessions. In addition, the ESSENCE editorial team produces daily content on a dedicated page to educate the community on the coronavirus, its impact, and how to survive and thrive in this time.

The ESSENCE + New Voices Entrepreneur Virtual Summit is powered by Microsoft and brought to you by SheaMoisture and Advancing Black Pathways by JPMorgan Chase. To register for the ESSENCE + New Voices Entrepreneur Virtual Summit or for more details, visit ESSENCE.com.

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technato · 6 years

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Morse Code’s Vanquished Competitor: The Dial Telegraph

In 1842, French watchmaker Louis-François Breguet invented a simpler to use but less efficient alternative

Photo: Technical University of Madrid

Over the years, I’ve played with interactive telegraph exhibits in science centers and museums. I can tap out the common ••• – – – ••• of the emergency distress signal, and I know the letters H (••••) and E (•), but beyond that, Morse code’s patterns of dots and dashes run together in my brain. Stories of telegraph operators who could decipher hundreds of characters a minute still amaze me.

Recently, though, I learned about the needle telegraph. On both the sending and receiving end, the needle or needles would simply point to the desired letter. Finally, a user-friendly telegraph system, provided the user knew how to read.

The first needle telegraph was patented by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone in Britain in 1837. The design used a set of magnetic needles arranged in a row, with letters of the alphabet arranged above and below them in a diamond grid pattern. Each needle could point left, right, or neutral; to indicate a letter, two needles would point so as to outline a path to that letter. The sending operator controlled the direction of the needles by pressing buttons that closed the circuits for the desired letter combination.

Image: Universal Images Group/Getty Images

No Code Needed: William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone’s needle telegraph required no special training, but its use of multiple telegraph lines made it expensive to operate.

Although any number of needles could be used, Cooke and Wheatstone recommended five. This combination allowed for 20 possible characters. They omitted the letters C, J, Q, U, X, and Z. Early telegraphs were mainly used for transmitting simple signals, rather than discussion-style communication. For example, to indicate whether a one-way tunnel was clear, an operator might send the short message “wait” or “go ahead.” So the absence of a few letters wasn’t a huge shortcoming.

Operators needed minimal training to use the system, which their employers appreciated. But the system was otherwise costly to operate because it required a wire for each needle plus an additional return wire that completed the circuit. Maintaining multiple wires proved expensive, and many British railroads adopted a version that used just one needle and two wires. A single-needle system, however, required that operators learn a code to send and receive signals. Gone was the ease of simply reading letters.

Cooke and Wheatstone must have realized there was room for improvement, because in 1840 they came out with a dial (or ABC) telegraph, whose face displayed all the letters of the alphabet. The operator selected the desired letter by pressing the appropriate button and turning the handle; the needle on the receiver’s dial would swing around to point to that letter. However, a dispute between the two inventors kept this version of the telegraph from being commercialized. Only after the 1840 patent had expired did Wheatstone return to the dial telegraph, eventually patenting several improvements.

Meanwhile, the French had been using an optical telegraph system that Claude Chappe developed during the French Revolution. It relied on semaphore signals transmitted along a line of towers. By 1839, Alphonse Foy was in charge of over 1,000 optical-telegraph operators, but he saw the need to investigate the growing development of electric telegraphs. He sent Louis-François Breguet to England to study Cooke and Wheatstone’s needle telegraph. The first result was the Foy-Breguet telegraph, which used two needles that mimicked semaphore signals.

Image: Class Image/Alamy

Watch and Learn: French watchmaker Louis-François Breguet studied designs for the needle telegraph before devising his own dial telegraph.

Breguet was manager of his family’s watchmaking company, Breguet & Fils, and not long after, he developed a dial telegraph that had both the appearance and the working mechanism of a clock [receiver shown at top]. When activated by an electric current from the sender, a spring connected by gears rotated the needle around the dial; an escapement—the toothed-wheel mechanism that in a clock moves the hands forward—kept the needle in place in the absence of a signal.

Breguet divided the face into 26 slots, with an inner ring of numbers and an outer ring of letters. The starting position was at the top, noted by a cross, leaving room for 25 letters. At the end of each word, the needle would return to the starting position. Some versions omitted the letter W; others omitted the letter J.

After French railroads adopted the Breguet telegraph and made it standard equipment, it became known as the French railway telegraph; it remained in use until the end of the century. Breguet’s system was also exported to Japan, connecting Tokyo and Yokohama as well as Osaka and Kobe. A new face for the telegraph incorporated Japanese katakana characters.

Photo: Postal Museum Japan

Big in Japan: This print depicts a Breguet system in use at the Yokohama telegraph office. The man in Western-style clothing is Scottish engineer George Miles Gilbert, who was hired by the Japanese government to oversee the introduction of telegraphy.

Of course, even Breguet’s dial telegraph was limited in the range of characters it could transmit. Operators of the needle and dial telegraphs had to somehow deal with missing letters—perhaps they just made their best guess based on context, or perhaps companies devised their own codes for specific letters or symbols. Louis-François Breguet couldn’t properly transmit the cedilla in his own name, but maybe he accepted it as a limitation of the technology.

As it happens, as early as the 1840s, Friedrich Clemens Gerke, the telegraph inspector for the Hamburg-Cuxhaven line in Germany, was noting similar shortcomings with Morse code. The code, developed by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail in the United States, was fine for the unaccented English alphabet. To accommodate European languages, Gerke added accented letters; he also significantly revised the patterns of dots and dashes for letters and numbers, making the entire code more efficient to transmit. His version, which became known as Continental Morse Code, spread throughout Europe.

Despite the expanded code’s popularity, the International Telegraphic Union took many years to embrace it. In his 2017 book The Chinese Typewriter: A History, Thomas Mullaney describes the slow, conservative evolution of Morse code. In 1865, the ITU settled on a set of standardized symbols that were decidedly Anglocentric. Three years later, it confirmed the standard codes for the 26 letters of the English alphabet, the numerals 0 to 9, plus 16 special characters—mostly punctuation, plus the e-acute, É. In 1875, the ITU elevated É to a standard character and added six more accented letters as special characters: Á, Å, Ä, Ñ, Ö, Ü. It wasn’t until 1903 that the ITU accepted these supplemental characters as standard. Languages based on nonalphabetic characters, such as Chinese, were never incorporated, although some countries adopted their own telegraphic codes. Thus did the technology of telegraphy connect and also divide the world in new and unexpected ways.

The Breguet telegraph receiver that touched off my inquiries is on display at the Museum of the School of Telecommunication Systems Engineering at the Technical University of Madrid. The museum was started in the 1970s by a small group of professors, who scoured antique shops and flea markets to collect artifacts representing the history of communications. Rather than confining its objects to a dedicated space, the museum maintains exhibit cases in hallways throughout the school, where students, visitors, and others can stumble upon them every day.

I wonder if those who see the Breguet dial telegraph draw connections to modern technology. The set of characters on computer keyboards, for example, vary from place to place and language to language. I remember attending a student conference in Istanbul in 1998 and being unable to access my email. I didn’t realize that Turkish keyboards have both a dotless and a dotted i key, and so I kept hitting the wrong one. A few months later I met students in Hamburg who were using American keyboards to do their computer programming. They’d discovered that German keyboards of the era required three keystrokes to make a semicolon, which slowed down their coding.

Such tales are good reminders of the persistence and the fluidity of language, which adapts to new technologies just as new technologies are molded by their users.

An abridged version of this article appears in the September 2018 print issue as “The ABCs of Telegraphy.”

Part of a continuing series looking at photographs of historical artifacts that embrace the boundless potential of technology.

About the Author

Allison Marsh is an associate professor of history at the University of South Carolina and codirector of the university’s Ann Johnson Institute for Science, Technology & Society.

Morse Code’s Vanquished Competitor: The Dial Telegraph syndicated from https://jiohowweb.blogspot.com

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hermindtotheworld-blog · 7 years

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New media and Culture- Trolling!

Culture is “the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs of a particular group of people at a particular time” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2017). With the evolution of new media, we can see how new media and culture work simultaneously. This essay argues that platforms such as Tumblr, YouTube, Face book, Twitter, Instagram and the likes are a representation of societal norms and therefore they are a part of our culture. I for one do not necessarily think that new media influences culture, however I believe that new media is a reflection of our customs and beliefs and therefore plays a role in our culture. To prove this argument this essay will refer to trolling on the internet particularly focusing on gender trolling. As much as we denounce trolling it is part of our culture because it is a product of our society. It just doesn’t come up from nowhere in the media and this essay argues that as much as there is a belief that trolls practice trolling for amusement they actually personify inequalities in our society and hegemonic ideologies.

New media has brought social media platforms, which have become very popular as the marginalized in society feel that they have finally found a voice. These marginalized in society are the members of minority social and political groups such as homosexuals, feminists and racial minorities, (Herring et al, 2002). According to Barlow & Awan (2016) these platforms have a global reach with Twitter having an average of 350,000 tweets sent per minute and 500 million tweets per day. People use social media for a lot a lot of good, ranging from communicating past geographical boundaries and fast communication in general to activism and having a space to voice opinions about politics and things that are wrong in the world (Herring et al, 2002). Although the internet has many benefits we cannot ignore the fact that these social media platforms are also unsafe and oppressive. “Social media has also acted as a double-edged sword by creating a virtual platform for people using online hate speech as a means to target people while simultaneously being able to hide their identity”. Anonymity has always been viewed as one of the positives of social media platforms as people feel free to express themselves without being fully present. “The relative anonymity of the internet can make people feel safe talking about issues that might be considered sensitive, inappropriate or dangerous in face to face public conversation” (Herring et al, 2002: 371). It is easier to for example type I was abused or I am depressed than to actually say it looking into someone’s eyes. However trolls have taken advantage of this and used it to their benefit as they are able to engage in aggressive and violent behaviour online without having to face the consequences of criminal action as their identity will be hidden, (Barlow & Awan, 2016.

Trolling originated from “the fishing practice where a lure is dragged through the water with the intention of provoking a feeding frenzy amongst fish” (Donath as cited in Vera-Gray, 2017:65) “Some internet discourse has referred to the troll as a fictional monster waiting under the bridge to snare innocent bystanders” (Herring et al, 2002). “A troll is someone who uses the internet with the intention of targeting and disrupting people within the online environment and is often seen as problematic or even criminals” (Shin as cited in Barlow & Awan, 2016). Although trolls are perceived to be criminals, they fall under the category of being immoral and heinous as opposed to trolling being illegal. Trolling can be done because the troll genuinely wants a healthy debate or they just enjoy winding people up, (Griffiths, 2017). There is a popular belief that trolling only happens to people in the public eye however Samuel (2016) states that one does not necessarily have to be a celebrity for them to be subjected to brutal criticism or threats online for this has happened to vulnerable teenagers, grieving parents as well as mom groups. Ä study in 2014 found that one in 5 internet users have experienced trolling” (Samuel, 2016). Trolls are hostile individuals whose purpose is to actively disrupt and undermine people on online forums despite the general belief that these forums are private and secure, (Herring et al, 2002). Although online forums provide a new arena for the enactment of power inequities such as those motivated by racism, sexism and heterosexism, they have made it possible trolls to target these groups or individuals, (Herring et al, 2002). This essay therefore draws your attention to gender trolling as evidence to support the argument that trolls do not only participate in online hate because they are vindictive or they just want to be amused, they do this as a way of maintaining structure and hegemony in our society.

According to Mantilla (2013) gender trolling is virulent sexism online. Gender trolling specifically targets women on online forums; “it has a lot in common with offline targeting of women such as sexual harassment in the workplace and street harassment” (Mantilla, 2013: 568). Just as offline harassment of women is about “patrolling gender boundaries and using insults, hate and threats of violence and rape to ensure that women and girls are either kept out of, or play subservient roles in male dominated arenas” (Mantilla, 2013: 568). I believe that online trolling echoes and/or is a reflection of the inequalities that are embedded in our culture and a culture of misogyny that is dominant in our patriarchal society. According to Barlow & Awan (2016) culturally we as a society have tolerated violence against women and because of new media this culture goes beyond being something that takes place offline to being online as well. “The internet is not creating new forms of crimes against women, but it is creating new ways and means for crimes to be perpetuated” (Banks as cited in Barlow and Awan, 2016:3).

According to Jane as cited in Barlow & Awan (2016) trolling that is aimed at women includes charges of not being intelligent enough, hysteria, ugliness. “Much of this online abuse is routed in wider patriarchal and misogynistic discourse related to women” (Barlow & Awan, 2016:4). Women are targeted because patriarchy has this belief that they are the weaker sex and when they try and use social media platforms as a way to empower themselves for example feminists, trolls attack them as a way of trying to incite anger and ‘put them back in their place ‘of otherness. The Affect theory can thus also be applied to trolling. “Emotions should not be regarded as psychological states, but as social and cultural practices… It is through emotions, or how we respond to objects and others, that surfaces or boundaries are made” (Ahmed, 2014: 9-10). Emotions play a big role in trolling. Women generally get angry or emotional when they are attacked and gender trollers want them to get this way and view this as a victory. It is the social context of gender inequality that facilitates the violence and harassment women experience online; technology is just a tool mobilised within this context” (Jane as cited in Vera-Gray, 2016:67). However this essay would like to note that although white males have been pointed out as the major trollers because of privilege and dominance, women also participate in online hate and vindictive comments against other women. “ the fact that trolls typically target people marginalized by and because of their gender, race, age, ability, and/or sexuality suggests that trolling is marked by what Ryan Milner calls white centrality, a political and rhetorical space occupied by middle class heterosexual men aged 18-35”, (Phillips as cited in Rodrigues & Rollman, 2015). Trolling is very a part of our culture because it just does not start online and end online; people have committed suicide and sunk into depression because of online trolling, (Griffiths, 2017).

This culture of trolling has become such a problem that it has called people in power to act. According to theguardian (2016), Yvonne Cooper launched a campaign called ‘Reclaim the Internet’ in the House of Commons, which is against online misogyny, with women politicians from all parties in the UK. This is a bid to stop sexism, racism, homophobia and bullying on the internet. This proves that this culture is global. “Yvette Cooper’s Reclaim the Internet is exploring the role of police and prosecutors, the duty of Face book, Twitter and other platforms and the obligations of employers, unions and other organisations to offer protection-all areas where political pressure can get something done” (theguardian, 2016). This essay argues that gender trolling and trolling in general online, the root of the problem is the tolerance of racism, sexism, homophobia in our society and to deal with the problem online we need to deal with the culture itself.

This essay will now round up with an example of trolling closer to home. Lesego Legobane, popularly known as thickleeyoncee is a plus size model, socialite and photographer who became popular through social media, (Kekana, 2017). This plus size model in South Africa was recently a victim of trolling on Twitter after modelling at the SA fashion week. “Following her runway debut at SA Fashion Week last night, Twitter trolls went for the model. The trolling was on such a level that Thickleeyonce shared screenshots of the hatred on Instagram (See below). She included a post detailing her heartache and personal struggle with cyberbullying over the years”, (Kekana, 2017). Thickleeyonce has experienced trolling before this because of her weight. This links to how misogyny and trolling are related because people put her down and said all these harsh things like ‘a pig is better than her’, that her thighs are too big and that her catwalk would cause the ground to shake. In my experience when it comes to gender trolling, I believe that people tend to attack women who are empowering themselves. Like Thickleeyonce, she is plus size and she loves her body and herself and trolls tend to expose people like her to online hate because they expect her to be insecure and so as to put her back into ‘otherness’ or ‘otherization’, they bully her so that she can get angry and cry and she will forfeit her positivity and the patriarchal society wins. Trolling is therefore a form of censorship.

In conclusion trolling has always been said to be something that people who are vindictive partake in so as to incite negative emotions or reactions in their victims and for their own amusement. Despite attempts by social media to try and control or get rid of trolls through report buttons and enabling users to make their profiles private, this essay has clearly articulated that trolling is as a result of our culture offline. Hence to be able to adequately deal with trolling we as a society need to deal with the root of the problem. And this is how new media and culture are related.

References

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Kekana, N. 2017. Thickleeyonce vs Twitter. Online, retrieved 30 October 2017: http://www.channel24.co.za/The-Juice/News/Local/thickleeyonce-vs-twitter-20171025

Mantilla, K., 2013. Gendertrolling: Misogyny adapts to new media. Feminist Studies, 39(2), pp.563-570.

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Samuel, A. 2016. HOW TO LIVE WITH INTERNET TROLLS. Jstor Daily. Online, retrieved 30 October 2017: https://daily.jstor.org/how-to-live-with-internet-trolls/

theguardian, 2016. When women can be misogynist trolls, we need a feminist internet. Online, retrieved 30 October 2017: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/26/women-misogynist-trolls-feminist-internet

Vera-Gray, F., 2017. ‘talk about a cunt with too much idle time’: trolling feminist research. Feminist Review, 115(1), pp.61-78.

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