#an F for those on mobile it's the whole essay | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mystacoceti · 5 years

Text

“Style”, an essay by Vladimir Nabokov

A writer knows that there are no objective words for describing an objective world. Neither of the two exist.

You may reduce subject and style to their simplest combination and still not arrive at forming a standard sentence containing the truth and only the truth—that is, a truth that you cannot demolish or deepen. Naturally if in this simplifying process you pass a certain limit, you merely lapse into tautology, as for instance “wet water,” where you extract and display a certain character which at the same time remains contained in the drawer of the noun, which reminds me of that local small-town museum where I was shown the skull of the local bandit when he was a child and his skull when he was a man. Wet water is mere nonsense,—but as soon as you try to make it into a sentence adding the least you can do as the verb “is,” then you are making this statement with a definite purpose, say, teaching a child the idea of quality for what it is worth or else transcending tautology by actual experience: water is wet only if you are not completely in it. A naked Malay groping for pearl-oysters at the bottom of the sea cannot be called and cannot feel “wet” and so water is not always wet and there was no tautology in the initial sentence. This shows that as soon as you touch, no matter how slightly, the simplest word-thought, it wriggles; it is already alive, it is yours. “The water is cold” is already a platform for a breathtaking leap into the unknown. If you leave it at that, it looks objective enough, with no personal style or personal idea; but just because it lacks any definite spirit and application it does not contain a single grain of meaning. You have to say what water you mean and instantly your world, your style or thought, comes into being. You are criticizing a bath in a French boarding house, but on the other hand you may be looking at a picture and explaining why you feel that the artist has not quite rendered the temper of that tropical bay: the water is cold. Now all the implications and applications that you unavoidably have to make, when taking, as we have been doing, an idea of almost absolute simplicity, this implication and application and all the other imps and apples of your fancy form around it and infuse into it your personal style. It is also obvious that so-called corm [and content] are one. An egg is an egg whether you eat it or not. The intonation of “the water is cold,” when speaking of your bath, is different from the intonation of the very same words when you are referring to a picture in exactly the same proportion as the differences between the two subjects; indeed, it is the difference. Intonation and the position of your main idea in the sentence are the essential characters of style. Choice of words does not mean style, any more than the proverbial mixture of delicious ingredients makes a girl. A good method, if one’s memory is docile, is to read a couple pages of some good writer and then try to write down at once as many of his word combinations as can be remembered. A little practice will show that even if the exact words cannot be remembered the lilt, the intonation of the survivors and the extras, the general pattern of those wrong words in the right places—and the very feeling you have of this or that being wrong—will tell you a great deal about the author’s personal style.

You should also notice the counterpoint of style, the relationship between the arrangement of words in a sentence, of sentences in what Flaubert called “le mouvement” (which may or may not correspond to a paragraph) and the arrangement of such mouvements in the chapter if there are any chapters. The correspondence between these arrangements will be found to reveal a personal element of style.

There can be no personal style of writing without a personal vision of the world. The mere fact that you wee or feel a certain association between two details of life, which escapes other people, will naturally correspond to a personal association of words. The deeper your power of discover, the keener you feel the novelty of the world around you, the more Eve you are and the less serpent, the firmer you refuse to have your world limited y the association of things in terms of usefulness or habit,—the more individual your prose will be. A ready-made world unavoidably leads to the ready-made word, or worse still to the ready-made intonation, for in certain associations the stalest expression, the most hackneyed word may suddenly glow with new life or with life it once had.

To acquire true style is impossible without having creative genius, and more people have it than is generally though. Most children have it, many young people, very few men of settled habits and conventional tastes. On the other hand many a person who can at a moment’s notice produce a triolet or hash any given subject into rhyme, or is praised by his or her friends for writing such perfectly lovely letters, is generally much more hopelessly removed from ever becoming a creative writer, than the one who emphatically denies any literary knack, but will experience that authentic, that unmistakable shiver of creative response when getting to the passage where King Lear recalls the names of Goneril’s pet dogs.

An uncle of mine, a sporting gentleman of the old school, having returned from his first visit to Venice, was asked how he had liked it; Well, he answered, the beer was dreadful. This is already a phenomenon of style, and something far more poetic in the personal creative sense of poetry than many a retrospective swoon full of gondoliers.

As the preliminary mental process of artistic development of requires the complete dislocation of the given world and then a re-creation of it through the connection of hitherto unconnected parts, and as this process exactly corresponds to the process involved in actual literary composition—for I repeat style of vision and style of writing are really one and the same thing—as it is so, we must pay attention to the verbal dislocations and the verbal association contained in a writer’s creative prose. The dislocations refer to new strange-looking positions and intonations of words so that the reader who likes his fiction comfortable is annoyed and even appalled by finding all the objects displaced and some of them gone, but a more curious mind will soon discover that there is a definite order in the system of these gaps and odd perches—and this order is a characteristic of the author’s individual style. Likewise the verbal associations, the comparisons, the metaphors, and other dragon-like creatures whose labels have got rather mixed up since the days of solemn rhetoricians, may impress one as tomfoolery or lunacy as did for instance that beautiful word-connection in Gogol: the sky was the shade of that kind of cloth which is used for the uniform of soldiers, those good helpful and necessary fellows, whose only fault is a fondness for liquor. What had the liquor to do with the sky? queried the critics. Everything, for this was Gogol’s unique and harmonious world.

I have spoken of intonation. There is also rhythm, which is another thing—and perhaps the least telling, as it is often connected—especially in the case of quite first-rate, but not super-class writers—with the general rhythm of prose in the period they live.

So to sum up: there is no impersonal style or impersonal world; the most primitive sentence comes to life the moment you handle it in your personal way. Water is not always wet, two plus two does not always make four and when water is turned into wine, the artist wants to know what sort of water, what kind of wine,—and this is meant very seriously.

#an F for those on mobile it's the whole essay #pearl diver #whole hog

1 note · View note

leverage-ot3 · 4 years

Text

notable moments from The Rundown Job

leverage 5.09

the HEART EYES in parker and eliot’s eyes as they watch hardison crack the code of the vault is my religion

- - - - -

Hardison: Kiss for luck?

Parker: Who needs luck?

confident baby

- - - - -

(Parker begins doing elaborate moves and turns to get through the lasers, quickly reaching the far wall)

Hardison: I never get tired of that

THE HANDSHAKE BETWEEN HARDISON AND ELIOT BC THEY LOVE THEIR BADASS GIRLFRIEND

- - - - -

Parker (opens a case to reveal it is full of diamonds): Oh! Bup-bup.

(Eliot snaps at Parker to get her attention)

Hardison: Eight new schools. Okay, take care, sister Agnes. (hangs up)

(Parker closes the case and gives it to Eliot for mailing as Hardison dials the phone)

Hardison: Hey, Nate, we’re done in D.C. We’re flying back tomorrow. See you.

Parker: They’re so shiny. Couldn’t I have just kept one?

Hardison: Road to redemption, Parker. Just think how good it’s gonna feel when you get that Christmas card from those orphans. Hell, we may even get Eliot to smile.

parker deserves all the shiny things

“the road to redemption” THEY CHANGE TOGETHER

- - - - -

Riley: Why’d you quit, anyway? (pushes button again)

Eliot: Started running with some different people...

(Riley pushes button again but it doesn’t seem to be working)

Eliot: Like a hacker...

(Hardison enters room and nods. Riley pulls a gun from his drawer and shoots toward Eliot, but the gun is empty)

Eliot: And a thief.

(Parker taps on Riley’s head. He turns. She is holding the clip and a bullet from his gun)

Parker: Click. (tosses clip and bullet on table)

eliot “I started running with some different people” spencer loves his partners and I adore that with my whole (whole) heart

- - - - -

Eliot: Good night.

(Parker stuns Riley, who slumps on the desk)

I’m glad they’re enabling her tasering obsession

- - - - -

Eliot (checks his watch): I’m gonna keep her alive. You guys find a way to get her out of here.

Hardison: With what? I…

Eliot (walks away): You stole a Michelangelo with tinfoil and chewing gum. Figure it out!

eliot is like bitch please you’re smarter than this

- - - - -

the way the three of them back up to each other, covering their backs ,,,

- - - - -

Hardison: This is a violation of my constitutional rights.

Vance: You’re Alec Hardison. You cracked the Pentagon servers when you were 12. N.S.A. has a file on you a mile long.

Hardison: Do they? What do they say about me? I hope they gave me a cool nickname.

Vance: Parker here... No file on you, which is...

(Parker appears to be sleeping)

Vance: Is she asleep?

Eliot: She bores easy. What do you got on us?

hardison probably does have a cool nickname

also I LOVE how they still have no clue about parker

eliot being like “she bored easy” 🤷🏼‍♀️ the MARRIEDNESS

- - - - -

Hardison: Y-you’re talking about stopping a terrorist attack in an afternoon. We’d need all your intel.

Vance: That truck back at the crime scene... It’s an N.S.A. Mobile response intelligence unit–

Hardison: With the Schneier cryptography system and the j-dam satellite uplink? That... I know nothing about, ‘cause that would be treason and wrong. (to Vance) Are you for real

hardison: I wouldn’t know anything about that because that wouLd Be TrEaSoN

- - - - -

Vance: So, you grab the truck... (moves to sit by Eliot) Hell... Your girlfriend’s already out of her cuffs.

(Parker sits up holding the handcuffs and tosses them to Vance)

...they didn’t deny that parker was eliot’s girlfriend. they didn’t bother to correct him because it is, in fact, true that she is both their girlfriends. in this essay I will-

- - - - -

Agent: No, I can’t let you in the truck.

Hardison: A gigabyte gone... your job, gone.

Agent: Security clearances.

Hardison: You’re not gonna let who...

Eliot: What are we, terrorists? Okay, that was my plan was to come here, show you a real badge that I somehow got, and then bring somebody crazy to break into a secure vehicle? We’re gonna move this down the block. He’s gonna spend about an hour doing spot-checks on databases. I showed you my badge. Man, here, take my badge. (tosses it to Agent) Call it in. I got to deal with this guy

it’s funny because it’s true

- - - - -

Hardison: It’s got every database... N.S.A., CIA, FBI. It’s got hard backdoors into most commercial systems, live feeds into every security camera on the grid. Man, if this wasn’t such a gross violation of our civil liberties, I would be in love right now.

they never stop calling out the government and I’m Here For It™

- - - - -

Parker: Where do we start?

Eliot: We start with getting you two on a plane out of here. You didn’t sign up for this. Trust me.

Hardison: And you? You’re going to handle this by yourself? Come on, she’s a lady, man. She needs the right touch. What you gonna do with your big punching hands... Punch the screens? No.

Parker: We agreed we all change. Better or worse, we change together.

Eliot (after a moment): What do they got on the gunman?

ELIOT JUST WANTS HIS PARTNERS SAFE

also,,, for better or worse, we change together??? BITCH THOSE ARE WEDDING VOWS

- - - - -

Parker: Do you know why you bring a cooler full of ice to a robbery? No? I do. Everything we need to know is in that basement. I’ll drive.

Hardison: Hold on.

Eliot: Exactly.

Hardison: No, hold on. (holds on to table)

Eliot: Oh, you... oh, hell, man (sits down in chair across from Hardison. the van horn honks twice and eliot looks around, fumbling) No seat belts up in this thing- (looks at Hardison) d-do you got a seat belt?

Hardison: No, uh-uh, hold the wall (holds the wall)

eliot and hardison being exhausted boyfriends at parker’s reckless driving, I love this song

- - - - -

Parker: How do you lose track of a whole laboratory?

Eliot: There’s over 200 tons of uranium missing from the United States nuclear storage.

Hardison: The air force lost a hydrogen bomb off the coast of Georgia.

Eliot: Countries are big things, Parker. A lot of secrets slip through the cracks.

wow I love knowing these things and having to live with it

- - - - -

Hardison: The Spanish flu killed 50 million people during World War I, and now somebody’s got it. (opens door)

Parker: Look, we can do this. Just treat it like any another job.

Hardison: This isn’t just any other job.

Eliot: All right, all right. Stay focused.

Hardison: I focused! That bug in there killed 50 million people! 50! And that was when the population was lower.

Parker: Now?

Hardison: Now? 150 million people. 150 million dead. Hey, we’re thieves, man, and we’re good at what we do, but this is way, way out of our league. And you expect us to go catch some psycho with a city killer? A country killer?

Eliot: You scared?

Hardison: You’re damn right.

(Hardison turns to enter the truck but Eliot grabs his wrist, holding him back)

Eliot: I’m not. I got the best thief And the smartest guy I know chasing this guy.

(Hardison looks at Parker, but Eliot grabs his head and pulls him back)

Eliot: Hey, listen to me. You’re smartest man I’ve ever known, Hardison. I need that brain to get me to him. ‘Cause you know if I lay my hands on him, it’s done. Get me to him. (lets Hardison go)

tHe WaY hE gRaBs HaRdiSoN’S fACE

eliot knows hardison is spiraling but he also knows how to get him out of it because he knows hardison like the back of his hand and knows how to get through to him

THEY LOVE EACH OTHER

- - - - -

there are so many good ot3 shots in this episode it brings me so much joy

- - - - -

parker climbs hardison like a T R E E to turn off that detonator as eliot provides counterbalance

- - - - -

Eliot: Did it work?

Hardison: I... I don’t know. I’m trying to get the phone speaker.

Vance (on phone): Move, move, move! Get to cover! Pull everyone back to the perimeter!

Eliot: Ohh! My boy! (hugs Hardison) That is what I’m talking about!

tHe HuG, yOuR hOnOR

- - - - -

they really be playing grand theft auto in this one

- - - - -

(Udall fires toward the trio and they dive for cover. Eliot and Parker look at each other and nod. Parker looks at Hardison)

Parker: For luck.

(Parker kisses Hardison, then she and Eliot nod at each other. Parker grabs the briefcase and runs off the train while Eliot runs toward Udall. Hardison goes after Parker, and Udall shoots Eliot in the leg. Eliot reaches Udall and punches him, knocking him out. Hardison continues after Parker, who stops and opens the briefcase)

F O R L U C K

also high key the look parker and eliot share? it had the same vibes as “we do the things that they can’t, won’t”

parker high key kissing hardison “for luck” but also kissing him because eliot can’t

- - - - -

Hardison: Yeah. Yeah, that’ll do... that’ll do it. (he pulls her into his arms) Don’t do that to me. I can’t lose you. Do you understand? I can’t lose you. Don’t scare me like that.

Parker: Yeah.

Hardison: I can’t

he loves her so, so much

- - - - -

Vance: Promise you’ll at least consider working with us again.

Eliot: I work with them now.

Vance: Honor among thieves?

Eliot: Something like that. (walks away)

something like that,,, HE LOVES THEM, YOUR HONOR

- - - - -

Vance: World can always use some more good guys.

Parker: Yeah, well, too bad we’re the bad guys

smh, “sometimes the bad guys are the best good guys”

- - - - -

Parker: You’re shot. You should go to the hospital.

Eliot: I don’t do hospitals. (drops crutch)

Hardison: I told you. He takes getting shot very lightly

he drops his crutch to lean on parker and hardison THIS IS NOT A DRILL

- - - - -

after watching this episode, I agree with y’all wholeheartedly that this was an ot3 GOLDMINE

edit: also, notice how much is written in pink (the colorcode for ot3 notes and meta). like, more than half of it. because LITERALLY ALL OF THIS IS OT3 MATERIAL

#leverage #leverage 5.09 #leverage 5x09 #The Rundown Job #notable moments #mine #leverage season 5 #season 5

220 notes · View notes

smokeybrandreviews · 4 years

Text

A Tale of Mages and Servants Eternally Retold

I’m on record as being a massive TYPE-MOON fan. I’ve been one for years, since the initial release of Fate/Stay Night way back in 04. The original ero-game was my first flirtation with the company and i fell in love with it almost instantly. The story told, behind all of the boobs and sex scenes, was incredible. It was awash with unique ideas and creative force. The more I played, the more I was endeared to the characters and the world and, ultimately, the entire universe Nasu crafted. Over the years, as i delved deeper into the lore, i realized there was a real backbone behind that initial conflict between mages. There were Vampires, Outer Gods, True Magic, Magecraft, Reality Marbles, Noble Phantasms, True Ancestors, Grand heroes, Type-planets, Beasts; This web of stories was vast, intricate, and full of passion. Tsukihime, Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, DDD, Kara No Kyokai, Melty Blood, NOTES; All of them connected, adding to the over mythos and mystique of the Nasuverse. I’m a sucker for narrative and what Nasu birthed is one of the best. But Fate, specifically, holds a special place in my heart.

I absolutely adore Fate/Stay Night. When I heard it was going to be adapted into an anime, I was all over it. I remember watching the show when it originally dropped back in 06. While i enjoyed the hell out of it, i always found my interests falling more toward the other two routes; Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s Feel. UBW eventually got it’s own, gorgeous adaption. Two actually. The series is far superior but a lot has to be said about the original film. I don't think, without that initial movie, we'd be sitting here with such a resurgence in the property. As much as I enjoyed the UBW animations, Heaven’s Feel definitely captured my heart. I’m a sucker for a good tragedy and Feel is one of the most tragic stories in the entire Nasuverse. It eventually got a film trilogy and, my oh my, is it a gorgeous watch. Of all things Fate, Feel is the most beautiful by far. Also, i mean, i adore Sakura Matou and Medusa Gorgon. They are my favorite heroine and servant, respectively. Well, servant can be disputed. Medusa was the first i really enjoyed, then came Alter, followed by Nero, Semiramis, and Mordred, but none of that would be possible without the very first Fate/Stay Night. The fact that it was so well received, bore a plethora of spin-offs and alternate tales, all of which are incredible in their own right, is testament to the powerful storytelling therein.

Watching the Fate franchise explode in popularity has been a real joy for me. Seeing all of the individual tales get their own fleshed out narrative is absolutely amazing. Fate/Zero was an outstanding prequel and Fate/Apocrypha turned out to be a pretty spectacular experience. Apocrypha actually carries two of my favorite characters in the entire franchise, Mordred and Semiramis, even if the overall narrative is a little wonky. It’s kind of a muddled mess story-wise, but it’s still a great watch with interesting ideas. Those are two of my favorite tales under the Fate umbrella but i have to say, Fate/EXTRA is, as an entire franchise unto itself, my favorite after the original. EXTELLA, CCC, Link, and Fox Tail all have their charm. Even if they’re all derivatives of the EXTRA tale, they are given their own, unique, twist on the formula.

The EXTRAs are so diverse with how they tell their stories, you can’t help but love them. Plus, Nero. I mean, all of the introduced Servants are dope in their own way, I actually really enjoy Gawain, Elizabeth, Attila, and Charlemagne, but it's definitely Nero. Look, I'm a sucker for a good Saber and Nero is one of the best. She's haughty, gorgeous, hilarious, and an absolute cinnamon roll. Fate/EXTRA Last Encore, the anime adaption of the first EXTRA narrative, goes a long way to endearing our darling Red Saber to the audience, even if it is the most SHAFT animation ever. Fate/Prototype, Fate/Type Redline, Carnival Phantasm, Fate/Requiem, Prisma Illya, Fate/Strange Fake, and Lord El-Meloi II Case Files all take place in the Fate universe. They all deserve their own essay to gush about each of their respective merits. They all enrich the Nasuverse as a whole. They're all incredible stories in their own right. Each has a universe, lavish and diverse, but contribute to the greater narrative, none of which would be possible with out the very first Fate route. The original Fate/Stay Night series will always be my favorite, even if it’s not the gem of the entire franchise anymore. No, that honor definitely belongs to Fate/Grand Order.

Grand Order’s genesis as a gacha game is problematic but, having played it for a few years, you kind of get over that. I hate mobile games and it’s one of the only two i actually play so that’s testament to it’s strength of world building. Indeed, Grand Order is almost all fan service if you know Fate lore. It pulls from every aspect of the Nasuverse and creates it's own, intricate, web of stories. Some are better than others but the few that stand out, do so with extreme prejudice. I can’t speak on the Lostbelts as i haven’t got a chance to play those but the original Singularities all have charm to them. I was partial to the Babylon and Camelot arcs but there is something for everyone in all of the tales. I can't say any of them give Heaven’s Feel a run for it’s money but they are still some of the best stories told in the franchise. More than that, i love the expansive background the Servants get and the seemingly limitless amount you can summon. A lot of the more intimate detail is lost for the all age demographic, but there are little conversations and interactions you can unlock, growing a relationship with the player. It's dope to see and, if you're like me, mad addicting. Hands down, Ritsuka Fujimaru, the player's avatar, is probably the second best protagonist in the entire franchise after f*cking Deadface. Watching a few of these stories getting anime adaptions is pretty cool, too, even if they seem a little convoluted in motion. The way Babylon turned out on TV is a little embarrassing but i have high hopes for Camelot and even Fuyuki was dope to see. I heard rumblings of a Solomon animation and, if true, I can't wait.

I love the Fate franchise. I love how even throw away ideas like Prototype and Apocrypha, can be fleshed out, giving those stories a proper chance to garner a fanbase. I love the intricacies of the world and the laws set to guide them. I love how Fate/Type Redline and Fate/Strange Fake take what we already know, and remix it into something brand new. I love how Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya is basically a Magical Girl anime a la Card Captor Sakura but it still plugs into the Fate universe perfectly. I love how El-Melloi II and Today's MENU for EMIYA family all take place in the aftermath of the Holy Grail War, each looking at completely different aspect of the fallout. I love how all of the principal characters get completely fleshed out, given life and pathos, but allowed to be flawed. I love this entire universe. As a creator myself, i envy the depth of storytelling, the expansive lore being demonstrated, and i use it as a blueprint to create my own worlds. It’s rare a universe can be filled with such complete characters and narratives and I respect what Nasu was able to create. TYPE-MOON has come a long way from it's humble Comiket beginnings and I hope it continues to grow. I hope Fate continues to grow. Also, Mordred is best girl.

#Fate #Fate/Stay Night #Unlimited Blade Works #Heaven's Feel #Fate/Grand Order #Fate/EXTRA #Fate/Zero #Lord El-Melloi II Case Files #Type-MOON #Saber

10 notes · View notes

super-oddity · 5 years

Text

The Johnny Depp / Amber Heard allegations,

Told to the best of my ability.

Bold, colored links are the most relevant, most informative court documents. Colored links are to court documents. All other links are to related articles/videos.

If I’ve missed anything you feel is important, please let me know.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard met on the set of The Rum Diary in 2009/2010.

June 19, 2012: It is made official that Johnny Depp has split with his significant other of 14 years, Vanessa Paradis.

June, 2012: Depp and Heard go public with their relationship.

January, 2013: Depp and Heard separate. Heard reportedly engages in a relationship with Marie de Villepin.

April 27, 2013: Depp and Heard seen holding hands at a Rolling Stones concert, their first public appearance together since the split.

2013: Heard petitioned to change her legal name back to ‘Heard’ from ‘van Ree’, the name she shared with her partner of five years Tasya van Ree. It was granted the following year.

March 31, 2014: Depp confirms engagement to Heard.

May 23, 2016: Amber Heard files for divorce citing irreconcilable differences and asks for spousal support. The filing followed the death of Depp’s mother, who passed away three days prior.

On May 27, 2016, she filed for and was granted a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Depp. Note: She appears at the court with bruises on her face, which in the filing she notes is from Depp hitting her with his iPhone. Also note: The judge ordered Depp to stay at least 100 yards away from Heard, but denied her request that he attend anger management courses and steer clear of her pet Yorkshire terrier Pistol based on “insufficient evidence”.

Her court filing details that Depp was abusive through the whole four-year relationship and that he had a substance abuse problem. (In addition there are witnesses sworn in her statement: Raquel Pennington, their neighbor who details her recollection of the night she witnessed and Tillet (iO) Wright, a mutual friend on the phone with the couple during said night.)

Sidenote: linked here are both Wright’s defense of Heard and Doug Stanhope’s defense of Depp. Both are powerful essays that tell very different stories. For shorter opinions shared by co-workers, friends, and strangers to the couple, this article includes nine.

May 21, 2016: Included in Heard’s submited photos were those supposedly taken during the May 21st incident. Photos include that of her abuse and and Depp’s rampage through the house. (We don’t have pictures of his rampage officially taken from the court filings, but the reference to them states that he picked up a ‘magnum bottle of champagne’ and used it as a baseball bat to 'smash everything he could’.) Newer photos show the suposed destruction he wreaked on Heard’s studio.

LAPD and NYPD confirm the calls to them exist (calls made by Wright at the request of Heard), but the responding LAPD officers found no evidence of a crime. At the time, Heard claimed it was a verbal dispute, and that Depp wasn’t even at the scene of the crime (which, by this point, he was not). Note: LAPD Sgt. Marlon Marrache stated that 'A crime did not occur so the officers left the scene and left a business card’, Marrache added that if there had been any signs of abuse, police would still have conducted an investigation even if Heard had not wanted to press charges.

Officer Melissa Saenz stated that Heard was crying but that she did not see any marks, bruises, swelling or signs of injury on her face. She also testified to inspecting the apartment and finding no signs of shattered glass or broken items. Saenz said Heard repeatedly "shook her head" in response to questions and did not want to talk, and that she had no probable cause to believe a crime had been committed. Officer Tyler Hadden shared similar testimony.

More recent statements made by Depp’s team assert that photos provided by Heard alledging abuse or destruction of property were provided as hardcopies, without the original images nor the associated metadata. Note: this makes it impossible to prove the images were taken when Heard and Pennington claimed them to be, which would have been before the arrival of LAPD officers Saenz and Hadden.

An analysis of the testimonies was performed by YouTuber Incredibley Average by means of a (currenty?) three part video series. He points out potential inconsistencies, but beyond that provides a thorough layout of the penthouses where the incident occurred. If as nothing more than a visual aide, Questions you should be asking (part 1) and (part 2) are worth a watch. His first video, the lies not talked about, fucuses on the inconsistency within Wright’s claims and examines photos of Heard taken within the next few weeks of one highly publicized ‘severe incident’ that allegedly occurred on December 15th of 2015 where she ‘truly feared for [her] life’. His newest video addressed contradictions in Haerd’s April of 2019 filings.

The incident of December 15, 2015 in question detailed Heard as having a ‘cut and bruised lip, a swollen eye and a chunk of hair missing from the top of her head’ soon after ‘an intoxicated Johnny tried to suffocate her with a pillow’. This allegedly occurred the day before her appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden on the 16th.

(Warning: the linked video contains profanity and violent behavior.) A video emerged of Depp slamming cabinets and throwing a wine glass into a sink in his and Heard’s shared home. TMZ published the video on August 12th of 2016, and was said to have been filmed (by Heard on a mobile phone) before the May 21st incident. Note: it has been suspect that the video was filmed the day after Depp discovered he had lost millions to his now-former management. Also note: the video was acknowledged as “likely inadmissible in court”, based on it being highly edited in nature and excluding a beginning to the argument. It has been suggested that Heard may have encouraged Depp’s anger, citing his comment of “you wanna see crazy? I’ll give you f—king crazy” as reason to believe Heard had called him crazy moments before.

“The finger incident” has been traced back to a finger injury in 2015. The injury in question stopped the filming of Pirates for a while. On May 31st of 2016, a source informed ET Online that Depp’s injury occurred during a dispute with Heard. By August, the story developed through Heard’s court documents (though these are not public) to claim that Depp cut his finger and then dipped it in blue paint to write the message “Starring Billy Bob” and “Easy Amber” because he believed Heard was cheating on him with her former co-star, Billy Bob Thornton. Photos of these messages and his finger are part of Amber’s testimony, and included in the link above.

March 1, 2019: Depp has always denied the occurance of such extravagant accusations on his part; in new documents from Depp’s defamation lawsuit against Heard (from March 1st, 2019) he claims that the finger injury was a result of Heard throwing a ‘glass vodka bottle at Mr. Depp – one of many projectiles that she launched at him in this and other instances’, the bottle shattering ‘as it came into contact with Mr. Depp’s hand, and the broken glass and impact severed and shattered Mr. Depp’s finger’.

August, 2018: In the court documents obtained by PEOPLE in August of 2018, Depp claimed Heard ‘assaulted him after he arrived almost two hours late to [her] 30th birthday dinner on April 21, 2016. The document claims Depp, who was ‘not drunk or high on drugs,’ was reading in bed when Heard, who had been drinking, allegedly became ‘aggressive and violent, punching him twice in the face.” This was described in paragraph 30 (page 10) of this particular filing, and images have since come forward (as of March, 2019) of bruising supposedly from the incident.

Paragraph 28 asserts that Heard has admitted to the physical abuse of Depp while under oath. Note: Depp has never admitted to any form of abuse on Heard in the eyes of the court; at least not in documents readily online.

On April 27th of 2018, Dan Wootton published an article titled How can J.K. Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife-beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film? through The Sun. The article’s title has since been changed.

On June 4th of 2018, Depp sued The Sun for libel (£200,000 in addition to £10,528 in legal fees) through its publishing company, News Group Newspapers Limited (NGNL), alongside Wootton himself. Because the suit is taking place in the UK, NHNL needs to prove their assertions were true rather than Depp proving they were false.

On July 11th of 2018, NGNL filed their defense.

On January 22nd of 2019, Depp made his first witness statement against NGNL and Wootton. Paragraph 12 cites evidence Depp intends to use if the event goes to trial. The following sections describe the incident from May 21, 2016, citing the witness declarations of Sean Bett and Jerry Judge, Depp’s two active bodyguards at the time. Both state Depp never came within 10/20 feet of Heard during the incident. The couple’s then-neighbor, Isaac Barunch, also declared seeing Heard on multiple occasions between May 22nd and May 27th without any signs of mark or injury. This was followed by two declarations of their building employees, both attesting that Heard had no injuries. One, Trinity Esparza, stated that there were no visible injuries until six days after the alleged ‘wifebeating’. Also listed is security camera footage of Heard in their building on May 24, 2016.

Paragraphs 13-25 clarify that the divorce agreement prohibited either party (Heard or Depp) from pursuing libel, slander, or defamation against one another for anything that took place before August 16, 2016. It does not, by any means, restrict Heard from participating in legal proceedings if she is to be summoned. Paragraphs 26-28 state that a release from the confidentiality agreement was sought and subsequently denied on the basis of its irrelevance/lack of necessity.

On August 15th of 2016, a $7 million divorce settlement was reached. With this, Heard dismissed allegations that Depp had ever physically abused her and retracted her request for a permenant restraining order. Heard dismissed the case with prejudice, which means she cannot re-file it at a future time. The following is the joint statement made by the pair:

“Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love.

“Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm.

“Amber wishes the best for Johnny in the future. Amber will be donating financial proceeds from the divorce to a charity. There will be no further public statements about this matter.”

Note: the wording is careful, and often picked apart by skeptics. No false accusations were made “for financial gain”, and there was never any “intent” of physical or emotional harm.

On August 18th of 2016, Heard announced her intention to donate the settlement money in its entirety: one half to American Civil Liberties Union, “with a particular focus to stop violence against women,” and the other half to the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. The Children's Hospital Los Angeles revealed in its 2017 annual report that Heard donated between $1 million and $5 million at some point during the July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017 fiscal year.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The following section is ongoing, and where I will add updates. Unrelated updates associated with Depp’s finances will be in a seperate location.

On April 11th of 2019, Heard responded asked a judge to dismiss the $50 million defamation lawsuit filed by Depp over the op-ed.

The video surveillance footage mentioned in Depp’s lawsuit (from May 25, 2016, three days after the alleged fight where Heard claims her publicized bruises occurred) is now public.

Depp’s team claims to be seeking accounts from Elon Musk and Heard’s associates, in searchof the truth.

Samantha McMillen, longtime stylist for Heard, testifies against ever seeing facial injuries after the actress claimed Depp beat her up.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The following section is in regards to both Heard and Depp’s past legal troubles.

Often referenced and perhaps most relevant is Heard’s past involvement with domestic abuse. On September 15th of 2009, Heard was booked for misdemeanor assault in fourth degree after she allegedly grabbed and struck then girlfriend Tasya van Ree’s arm in the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Heard spent the night in jail and appeared in court the following day, but the prosecutor declined to move forward with the case because the women both lived in California. In an audio recording of her trial, we hear the judge warn Heard that prosecutors could reconsider and refile within the 2-year statute of limitations.

Note: van Ree stated that the arresting officer, appeared ‘misogynistic’ and ‘homophobic’ once it became apparent that she and Heard were domestic partners and not friends. van Ree said that Heard was wrongfully accused and this incident blown out of proportion and is still friends with Heard. The officer in question, Beverly Leonard, who is herself a gay woman, insists an arrest was made because ‘an assault occurred’ and ‘the parties were in a domestic relationship’.

In 2016, Heard was prosecuted for illegally bringing her and Depp’s dogs into Australia. Her subsequent punishment was a one-month good behavior bond of $1,000, and the couple released an apology video for their negligence.

In 1989, Depp was arrested on suspicion of assault on a security guard in Vancouver, Canada. Note: This arrest was not domestic.

In 1994, Depp was arrested on criminal mischief charges after inflicting nearly $10,000 worth of damage to a hotel room. Note: This arrest was not domestic. Charges were dropped when Depp agreed to pay the $9,767 in damages.

In 1999, Depp was arrested after threatening paparazzi with a wooden plank while in London. Note: This arrest was not domestic.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The following secretion is in regards to relationship timelines. Rumored or spotted outtings that were never commented on by either party will be struck through.

Depp:

Lori A. Allison: 1983-1985. Note: “He would never lay a hand on a woman and isn't capable of hurting anyone. Lori [stated] Johnny never got physical with her during their relationship ... he never even screamed.” She called him a ‘soft person’ who is even kind to animals. Lori and Johnny, had a dog during their marriage and she argues that he was more loving with the pooch than most parents are to their kids. Lori and Johnny are still friends.

Sherilyn Fenn: 1985-1987.

Jennifer Grey: 1987.

Winona Ryder: 1988-1994. Note: “I can only speak from my own experience, which was wildly different than what is being said. He was never, never that way towards me. Never abusive at all towards me. I only know him as a really good, loving, caring guy who is very, very protective of the people that he loves. I wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened. I’m not calling anyone a liar. I’m just saying, it’s difficult and upsetting for me to wrap my head around it. Look, it was a long time ago, but we were together for four years, and it was a big relationship for me! Imagine if someone you dated when you were—I was 17 when I met him—was accused of that. It’s just shocking. I have never seen him be violent toward a person before.”

Traci Lords: 1990. Note: “He's the kind of guy that would be really sweet to a girl and bring her flowers, but still take a pee in the alley."

Tally Chanel: 1990-1991.

Juliette Lewis: 1993.

Tatjana Patitz: 1994.

Ellen Barkin: 1994.

Peggy Trentini: 1994.

Kate Moss: 1994-1998. Note: “There’s nobody that’s ever really been able to take care of me. Johnny did for a bit. I believed what he said. Like if I said, ‘What do I do?,’ he’d tell me. And that’s what I missed when I left. I really lost that gauge of somebody I could trust.”

Naomi Campbell: 1998.

Vanessa Paradis: 1998-2012. Note: “Johnny Depp is the father of my two children. He is a sensitive, loving and loved person, and I believe with all my heart, that these recent allegations being made are outrageous. In all the years I have known Johnny, he has never been physically abusive with me and this looks nothing like the man I lived with for 14 wonderful years.”

Christina Ricci: 1999.

Kristen StephensonPino: 2010.

Antoinette Kalaj: Aug-Sep 2010. Note: she has denied dating rumors.

Kiley Evans: 2011.

Robin Baum: 2011.

Julie Ellis: 2012.

Amber Heard: 2012-2016.

Ashley Olsen: Feb 2012.

Lisa Marie Presley: 2018-2019.

Heard:

Alejandro Monteverde: 2004-2005.

Valentino Lanus: 2005-2006.

Mark Wystrach: 2006-2007.

Sean Faris: 2007-2008.

Crispin Glover: 2007.

Austin Nichols: Oct-Dec 2007.

Tysa van Ree: 2008-2012. Note: “Amber is a brilliant, honest and beautiful woman and I have the utmost respect for her. We shared 5 wonderful years together and remain close to this day.”

Arthur Wybrands: Apr-Aug 2009.

Johnny Depp: 2012-2016.

Marie de Villepin: Jan 2013.

Elon Musk: 2016-2018. Note: It is Depp’s belief that this relationship began before his separation from Heard; both Heard and Musk have denied these claims. At the time of Musk’s initial break up with Heard in 2017, it was reportedly because “Amber can be very manipulative and selfish” and “he’d heard certain things about her behaviour that didn’t sit well with him”. Another sourse says the split was mutual and had to do with bad timing/busy schedules. Their final split in 2018 was said to be on good terms, the couple “both still caring deeply for each other”.

Sean Penn: March 2018.

Vito Schnabel: May 2018.

Andy Muschietti: March 2019-present.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The following secretion is in regards to other incidents less discussed.

On June 1st of 2016, Heard’s text messages to Depp’s assistant, Stephen Deuters, leaked and were published via ET Online. The messages were supposedly from the May 25th 2014. By June 2nd, Deuters had come forward with a statement claiming that the messages were doctored and that he knew of ‘no acts of abuse toward Amber at the hands of Johnny’.

On June 5th of 2016, Kevin Cohen, a computer forensic consultant, examined Heard’s phone backups and determined the messages to be authentic.

Depp has also accused Heard of soiling their bed after becoming angry with him for being late to a party in the Apil of 2016. Heard stated the excrement was left by Yorkshire terrier Boo, who has bowel problems, though witnesses say the turd in question was too large to have been Boo’s doing.

Also often referenced are two videos: the first is Heard beibg pranked by Depp and her father on ‘Overhaulin’ in the October of 2015. The second is of an encounter between Depp and Kate Winslet at the Palm Springs Film Festival in the January of 2015.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The following section is in regards to Depp and Heard’s respective changes in appearance over the course of their relationship.

Before; 2009. Depp (46) Heard (23).

Initial; June 2012. Depp (49) Heard (26).

End; May 2016. Depp (52) Heard (30).

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The following section is in regards to Depp’s recent legal trouble with his former lawyers and management team.

October 17th of 2017: malpractice lawsuit filed against Depp's legal team, BHDRLFS&G (Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal LaViolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman, specifically Jacob Bloom). Note: no direct mention of Heard can be found.

August 28th of 2018: Court’s ruling. Depp v. BHDRLFS&G Jury Trial is set for (updated date) September 16, 2019. Note: no direct mention of Heard can be found.

January 13th of 2017: lawsuit filed on the basis of professional negligence, breach of dudy, and fraud by TMG (The Management Group, specifically Joel and Rob Mandel). Note: no direct mention of Heard can be found.

January 31st of 2017, Depp’s financial troubles are made public in the initial cross-complaint filed by TMG. The legal documents are public, and in the ensuing struggle Depp allowed Rolling Stone to do a very revealing profile. Note: If you’d like to learn only of directly Heard-related topics in the legal document, mention of Depp’s choice to not get a prenuptial agreement against the better judgement of his family and TMG can be found in paragraph 70 (page 16).

June 19th of 2017: TMG’s opposition to Depp’s motion to “squash the subpoenas” were filed as the suit continued. Note: no direct mention of Heard can be found.

June 24th of 2017, PEOPLE released information obtained from legal documents filed that May (no official documents are available to the public) that allegedly cooberate Heard’s abuse allegations.

July 20th of 2017: The second amended cross-complaint by TMG was made. Note: Mention of the Heard/Depp wedding's price can be found in paragraph 93 (page 27).

November 26th of 2017: A complaint for judicial foreclosure was made by TMG against Depp. Note: No direct mention of Heard can be found.

March 20th of 2018: Depp denies the assertion that TMG is entitled to judicial foreclosure. Note: No direct mention of Heard can be found.

#johnny depp #amber heard #io tillet wright #tasya van ree #lori a allison #winona ryder #vanessa paradis #dan wootton #the rum diary #pirates of the caribbean #captain jack sparrow #aquaman #mera #queen mera #fantastic beasts and the crimes of grindelwald #gellert grindelwald #i believe him #i believe her

5 notes · View notes

jtoybox · 5 years

Text

The Venus Project: A Revolutionary Social Movement

p.tab { margin-left:40px; p.par { text-indent:2em }

The Venus Project began as the brainchild of Jacque Fresco and Roxanne Meadows (pictured above) in 1975. Together, they had conceptualized self-erecting, energy efficient architecture, partially based on Fuller's geodesic domes, that could serve as both housing and research facilities. This was only the tip of an iceberg that would evolve into one of the most grandiose and revolutionary futurist social movements of the 21st Century. Fresco and Meadows had a vision of a globalist society that would make war obsolete by means of a resource-based economy, beyond bartering, governed by an artificially intelligent system. It would develop into a postmodernist outlook that melds premodern and modern societies, wherein the emphasis is on scientific advancement rather than management, and engineering benefiting humankind rather than bottom-line profiteers. The project eventually became an official non-profit organization, and their group created a living breathing model located in Venus, Florida. One can tour it, or even live and work there. But this is still a mere glimpse into its potential.

By way of a simplified example, suppose that your research comes to involve the ability of desert reptilian life to adapt to a colder climate, and you're based somewhere on the California coast. Someone in Arizona is researching desert fauna in its natural habitat. In your neck of the woods, someone else may be filtering the Pacific's water for the sake of potability, while another may be involved in the producing computer chips from the silicon extracted from the surrounding sands. The facilities in Arizona can trade you the necessary biological samples for clean drinking water, silicon chips, or even both. In general, whatever one location across the globe holds in abundance could be traded, by necessity, with whatever another location has, and these trades would be determined by the governing system mentioned above.

In this brave new world “the age-old inadequacies of war, poverty, hunger, debt, environmental degradation and unnecessary human suffering are viewed not only as avoidable, but totally unacceptable (The Venus Project, 2019, About).” It would make for a global society whereby “human rights are no longer paper proclamations but a way of life (The Venus Project, 2019, About).” We would all become the change we'd like to see in the world, whether our interests lie in researching sustainable food and energy, educating the young, or even a life dedicated to the arts, everyone would contribute to the whole.

What could bring about such a radical concept? Why would Jacque Fresco come to promote such a profound futurism? Let's examine the birth of the Venus Project from several sociological angles. The most obvious approach would be that of Marxist Conflict Theory. It makes a certain amount of sense to begin here, since Fresco hit his teenage years, growing up in Brooklyn, at the advent of the Great Depression (Gore, 2011), Jacque learned first-hand how capitalist classism can become an open invitation to the oppression of the majority. But it should be pointed out that at one point, “He was thrown out of the Young Communist League for declaring that Karl Marx was wrong (Kelly & Carlisle, 2014).” Besides which, Conflict cannot fully explain how an American like Fresco would take such a huge leap from a proletariat uprising to such a flamboyant geopolitical shift. The Venus Project may have had its roots in Conflict, but it landed somewhere else entirely.

A Symbolic Interactionist might look at the project from the initial perspective of what's currently abound in international affairs. In order to gain some perspective of the kind of person Fresco was, he once joined the Ku Klux Klan for the sole purpose of performing a feasibility study into the potential to change White Supremacist minds, and actually made a slight bit of headway (Fresco, 2012). From this, it seems perfectly probable that Fresco took a look at the social interactions of the world, and began to churn out ways of changing that. We could be satisfied with this and delve further into the matter using this theoretical framework, but I want to look at this from one more sociological theoretic.

Functionalism is not a theory I tend to turn to. All too often it seems, in my personal opinion, that functionalists think in terms of some universal guiding hand. In their world, it appears to me, all social organizations serve their purpose, ultimately contributing to good on the balance, even when their output tends to be negative. But in this particular case, it does seem realistic to me that Jacque Fresco considered the functions of social constructions which led to war, poverty, inequality, and the like, and pondered a way of life in which those outcomes had become so impractical that they're abolished. Furthermore, every base of operations in Fresco's world serves a positive function to the holistic realm. He saw a global effort where the function of every province and state, the purpose of every nation, is enforced to provide gains to humanity, or perish. Within this context, I could see Social Functionalism lending an explanation.

For whatever reason it began, the Venus Project exists, and it speaks to a world that I would personally like to see come to fruition. Based on Neil Smelser's value-added theory, it well may. As time marched on since 1975, the structural conduciveness of such a shift became more and more widely apparent, with the arrival of movements such as Occupy Wall Street and Peoples Climate Movement, and with both of these social movements being largely ignored, social strain is waxing, and this opens the door to precipitating factors, where finally, should general belief lean towards such a shift, mobilization could occur (lumen).

You can learn more about The Venus Project by watching the film below. At the very least, I believe you'll find it a fascinating thought experiment. Perhaps you'll even come to join the movement.

References

Fresco, J. (2012, March 6). The Immaculate Pig Experiment.

TVP Magazine. Retrieved April 23, 2019, from https://web.archive.org/web/20120306181818/http://www.tvpmagazine.com/2012/01/the-immaculate-pig-experiment-by-jacque-fresco/

Gore, J. (2011, October 12). The view from Venus. Orlando Weekly.

Retrieved April 23, 2019, from https://www.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/the-view-from-venus/Content?oid=2248863

Kelly, L. C., & Carlisle, F. C. (2014, June 18). Utopia and the

Golden Corral. The Miami Rail. Retrieved April 23, 2019, from https://miamirail.org/essays/utopia-and-the-golden-corral/

lumen. (n.d.). Collective Behavior | Introduction to Sociology.

Retrieved April 23, 2019, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sociology/chapter/collective-behavior/

youtube

#HACCSOCI201 theory socialmovement thevenusproject

2 notes · View notes

smokeybrand · 4 years

Text

A Tale of Mages and Servants Eternally Retold

I’m on record as being a massive TYPE-MOON fan. I’ve been one for years, since the initial release of Fate/Stay Night way back in 04. The original ero-game was my first flirtation with the company and i fell in love with it almost instantly. The story told, behind all of the boobs and sex scenes, was incredible. It was awash with unique ideas and creative force. The more I played, the more I was endeared to the characters and the world and, ultimately, the entire universe Nasu crafted. Over the years, as i delved deeper into the lore, i realized there was an backbone behind that initial conflict between mages. There were Vampires, Outer Gods, True Magic, Magecraft, Reality Marbles, Noble Phantasms, True Ancestors, Grand heroes, Type-planets, Beasts; This web of stories was vast, intricate, and full of passion. Tsukihime, Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, DDD, Kara No Kyokai, Melty Blood, NOTES; All of them connected, adding to the over mythos and mystique of the Nasuverse. I’m a sucker for narrative and what Nasu birthed force is one of the best but Fate, specifically, holds a special place in my heart.

I absolutely adore Fate/Stay Night. When I heard it was going to be adapted into an anime, I was all over it. I remember watching the show when it originally dropped back in 06. While i enjoyed the hell out of it, i always found my interests falling more toward the other two routes; Unlimited blade works and Heaven’s Feel. UBW eventually got it’s own, gorgeous adaption. Two actually. The series is far superior but a lot has to be said about the original film. I don't think, without that initial movie, we'd be sitting here with such a resurgence in the property. As much as I enjoyed the UBW animations, Heaven’s Feel definitely captured my heart. I’m a sucker for a good tragedy and Feel is one of the most tragic stories in the entire Nasuverse. It eventually got a film trilogy and, my oh my, is it a gorgeous watch. Of all things fate, Feel is the most beautiful by far. Also, i mean, i adore Sakura Matou and Medusa Gorgon. They are my favorite heroine and servant, respectively. Well, servant can be disputed. Medusa was the first i really enjoyed, then came Alter, followed by Nero, Semiramis, and Mordred, but none of that would be possible without the very first Fate/Stay Night. The fact that it was so well received, bore a plethora of spin-offs and alternate tales, all of which are incredible in their own right, is testament to the powerful storytelling therein.

Watching the Fate franchise explode in popularity has been a real joy for me. Seeing all of the individual tales get their own fleshed out narrative is absolutely amazing. Fate/Zero was an amazing prequel and Fate/Apocrypha turned out to be a pretty spectacular experience. Apocrypha actually carries two of my favorite characters in the entire franchise, Mordred and Semiramis, even if the overall narrative is a little wonky. It’s kind of a muddled mess story-wise, but it’s still a great watch with interesting ideas. Those are two of my favorite tales under the Fate umbrella but i have to say, Fate/EXTRA is, as an entire franchise unto itself, my favorite after the original. EXTELLA, CCC, Link, and Fox Tail all have their charm. Even if they are all derivatives of the EXTRA tale, they are given their own, unique, twist on the formula.

They're so diverse with how they tell their story, you can’t help but love it. Plus, Nero. I mean, all of the introduced Servants are dope in their own way, I actually really enjoy Gawain, Elizabeth, Attila, and Charlemagne, but it's definitely Nero. Look, I'm a sucker for a good Saber and Nero is one of the best. She's haughty, gorgeous, hilarious, and an absolute cinnamon roll. Fate/EXTRA Last Encore, the anime adaption of the EXTRA, goes a long way to endearing our darling Red Saber to the audience, even if it is the most SHAFT animation ever. Fate/Prototype, Fate/Type Redline, Carnival Phantasm, Fate/Requiem, Prisma Illya, Fate/Strange Fake, and Lord El-Meloi II Case Files all take place in the Fate universe. They all deserve their own essay, gushing about their merits. They all contribute to the Nasuverse as a whole. They're all incredible stories in their own right. Each has a universe, rich and diverse, but contribute to the greater narrative, none of which would be possible with out the original Fate/Stay night. The original Fate/Stay Night series will always be my favorite, even if it’s not the gem of the entire franchise anymore. No, that honor definitely belongs to Fate/Grand Order.

I love the Fate franchise. I love how even throw away ideas like Prototype and Apocrypha, can be fleshed out, giving those stories a proper chance to garner a fanbase. I love the intricacies of the world and the laws set to guide them. I love how Fate/Type Redline and Fate/Strange Fake take what we already know, and remix it into something brand new. I love how Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya is basically a Magical Girl anime a la Card Captor Sakura but it still plugs into the Fate universe perfectly. I love how El-Melloi II and Today's MENU for EMIYA family all take place in the aftermath of the Holy Grail War, each looking at completely different aspect of the fallout. I love how all of the principal character s are completely fleshed out, given life and pathos, but allowed to be flawed. I love this entire universe. As a creator myself, i envy the depth of storytelling and the expansive lore being demonstrated and use it as a blueprint to create my worlds when i write my stories. It’s rare a universe can be filled with such complete characters and narratives and I respect what Nasu was able to create. TYPE-MOON has come a long way from it's humble Comiket beginnings and I hope it continues to grow. I hope Fate continues to grow.

0 notes

asfeedin · 4 years

Text

Best Vocabulary Apps To Learn Words Meticulously.

The average teenagers use about 800 different words in a single day. It also estimated that the average English-speaking individual has an active vocabulary that includes about 20,000 words. The passive vocabulary of the average adult includes an estimated 40,000 words.

Many people are looking at how to improve vocabulary. This is a common search among teens and adults alike. Older individuals may be looking at vocabulary building apps for adults. There are a few apps that people are able to try. Many of these apps are available on mobile devices, making it easy to expand a person’s vocabulary on-the-go. This post takes a look at some vocabulary apps that people can use. The goal is to increase both the active and passive vocabulary of the person.

Enhance Your Word Skills With best Vocabulary Apps

Skills can be developed at any point in time if you want to improve. Knowledge is imparted through various mobile learning apps that can change the whole dynamics of understanding. With these vocabulary apps build your word strength and never run out on words.

1. Word of the Day

Word of the Day is our first app that is great for people who want to increase their vocabulary. This is part of the Helium Apps Education program. The app is perfect for anyone who wants to not only improve their vocabulary but also enhance their general understanding of the English language.

Features of Word of the Day best dictionary app for Android:

Favorite words can easily be saved;

Each word comes with a complete definition;

Get a list of synonyms for every word.

Each day, a new word of the day is featured.

Download this best vocabulary app for Android

2. Vocabulary Builder By Magoosh

The Vocabulary Builder app by Magoosh is another excellent option. The app is free to install and is compatible with most Android devices. This app has more than 1000 vocab words. All the words that are detailed in the Vocabulary Builder app have been chosen by a GRE tutor who is an expert in the field of language.

Features of Vocabulary Builder best vocab app:

Sentence example for every word;

Games provided to the user for added fun;

Levels to unlock to get additional words;

Different sections from beginner to advanced.

Download this vocabulary builder app for Android and iOS

3. Words With Friends 2

Most of the vocabulary building apps for adults are in the form of applications. This can sometimes be boring. Those who want something different should definitely take a look at Words With Friends 2. The idea of Words With Friends is to add a fun element to multiple educational mobile apps that can make learning quicker. A game that gives friends the ability to compete against each other.

Features of Words With Friends 2 app

50,000 new words to choose from;

Play challenges alone and get a strong vocabulary;

Crossword style puzzle for an added challenge;

Build teams and beat each other’s scores.

Download this vocabulary building game for Android and iOS

4. Word Domination

Another great option when looking at vocabulary apps that provide a fun experience is Word Domination. This is another game where people are allowed to challenge each other and see who has the largest vocabulary. The game allows people from all over the world to join in and have some fun – and at the same time, learn something new.

Features of Word Domination English vocabulary learning app:

The game features new events every month.

Opt for an essay writing service.

Collect boosters and get explore features;

Challenge mascots and get surprised words.

Download this best app to improve English vocabulary for Android and iOS

5. A Word A Day

A Word A Day is an app by INAPP that introduces the user to a new word every day. The application is straightforward and has no special learning curve. The user is able to save the words they like the most. There is a specific tab for the favorited words, which the user can visit at any time. The app provides vocab of the day so that you are able to learn new words everyday.

Features of A Word A Day word applications for android:

Google Voice integration for correct pronunciations;

Share new words with friends and educate them;

Play an interesting quiz of your favorite words;

Add the home screen widget of the app and access it.

Download this English vocabulary improvement app for Android

6. AnkiMobile Flashcards

Anki is a mobile app that takes a traditional approach to give the user an opportunity to expand their vocabulary. The app uses a flashcard system to introduce the user to new words – then the user is asked about the word that they were just shown. It is useful to have a thesis statement generator handy with this app, as it will allow the user to explore the word further than just learning it.

Features of AnkiMobile Flashcards the best app to improve vocabulary:

See graphs and stats of your growth;

Get up to 10,000 cards from card decks;

Automatic storage of media for offline access;

Beautiful and controllable UI.

Download this one of the best free vocabulary apps for Android and iOS

7. 7 Little Words

Another good option among the vocabulary building apps for adults and teens would be 7 Little Words. This is another game – it is actually a crossword puzzle game with a twist. The player is given seven words, and he needs to solve a series of problems with these words. It is a great way to expand on vocabulary, leading to a reduced need for a free plagiarism checker when writing a paper due to a poor variation of words.

Features of 7 Little Words English vocabulary learning app:

Find through words that are mysterious;

Solve clues to know the real word;

Bite-sized puzzle to learn quickly;

Guess unlimitedly and get the words right.

Download this best app for improved vocabulary for Android and iOS

8. Vocabulary.com

Learn new words everyday with this app and gain knowledge through Vocabulary.com an effective and hassle free app. You can be the master of new words as they are taken from the world’s fastest and smartest dictionary called vocabulary.com. Play fun and addictive games to get a strong grip of the newly learned words.

Features of Vocabulary.com one of the best vocabulary apps for iPhone:

Usage of algorithms for enhanced learning;

A comprehensive program customized for everyone ;

Interesting questions asked to teach new words;

Read friendly explanations for every new word.

Download this best app to build vocabulary for iOS

9. Alphabear

This word puzzle game is provided by Spry Fox and is a sequel. It is an innovative app that catches the attention of wordsmiths like you and addicts you. The app displays a bear every time you get the word right and the bear keeps growing for every word you choose right and earn more points.

Features of Alphabear best English vocabulary learning app:

Collect bears and get them to help you in future rounds;

Amusing backgrounds nd props that spell words in a funny way;

Words posted according to chapters with difficult vocabulary;

Receive wacky replies from bears and enjoy the game.

Download this English vocabulary app for Android and iOS

10. FluentU

Listen to interactive videos by people and learn to pronounce every word correctly and fluently. FluentU focuses on your fluency and pronunciation. With this app, all your videos, music, trailers turn into a learning class which helps you to attain information in an easy way.

Features of FluentU improve vocabulary app:

Learn many new languages and their vocabulary;

Comprehend new words in a natural way;

Ask yourself questions regarding new words;

Listen to audio movie dialogues for correct pronunciation.

Download this free words app for Android and iOS

Conclusion

The average person has a somewhat limited vocabulary. Many people want to increase their own vocabulary, often with the idea of sounding smarter in conversations. This is why many are looking at how to improve vocabulary. There are a few apps that people can turn to. These are excellent for giving a person access to more words than their current vocabulary includes.

With these apps, you can learn new vocabulary and expand your knowledge through interactive and fun challenges. Learning new words was never easy before. If you like these apps to increase vocabulary let us know in the comment section down below and read our detailed mobile application reviews to know about different kinds of apps that are taking the app industry by the storm.

Written By

Vikram is an experienced wunderkind, who embraced technology at a very early age, and today he is at the helm of it. Mobile apps are something that excites him the most, and now he is up to give this vertical the best shot. He routinely catches up with the new apps and comes up with the top apps that can excite you to the core.

Source link

Tags: Apps, Learn, Meticulously, Vocabulary, words

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2Yuav4L via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress #Asfeed.in #asfeed #asfeedin #asfeed blog

0 notes

onlyjihoons · 7 years

Text

concert sonata;p.j.h

synopsis: you bring your boyfriend along to a dance concert to support your best friend, and unbeknownst to you, your dance classmates and annoying cousin are there to tease you and your boyfriend.

warnings: childish banter, sinful amounts of fluff

genre: fluff

a/n; ok tbh i had this idea as soon as i came back from my friend’s concert,, shy jihoon and bf!jihoon cough @ myself is also something i want to see too!!!! and also for the lack of pd101 scenarios on tumblr :”) p.s i had a hard time choosing between jihoon and daehwi and my loyal ass and my friend picked jihoon,, im sorry daehwi i promise you will have a fic of your own too

listen

“Please?” You donned on your cutest puppy-dog eyes as you pleaded your boyfriend to accompany you to your best friend’s dance concert.

“No.”

“Why?” You frowned.

“Do you want your boyfriend to get caught having a girlfriend?”

“No one can see your face in the theatre, as long as you don’t freaking wink at people, Jihoon,” You rolled your eyes.

Jihoon snorted, “What has my wink got to do with this?”

“You’re the wink boy, who knows how many hearts you stole with that stupid wink,” You huffed, folding your arms.

An affectionate grin spread across Jihoon’s lips, as he hugged you lovingly, “I’m kidding babe, I’ll come with you.”

“Really?” Your eyes brightened up, as he giggled at your cute actions.

“Yes, I will.”

You placed a sweet peck on the boy’s lips, “You’re the best,”

Jihoon winked, “I know.”

With that, you pulled away instantly while rolling your eyes once again, “I’m breaking up with you.”

“Thank god you don’t dress as bad as people describe you to be,” You muttered under your breath as you spotted your boyfriend walking your way.

Jihoon was in a simple white stripped pullover with classic skinny ripped jeans, a pair of round framed glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose and a black beret nestled comfortably on his head. To be honest, he actually looked good as compared to the “fashion terrorist” label that was thrown onto him.

“Babe?” Jihoon waved his hands frantically in front of your face, “Why are you staring at me like that? Do I look bad? I can go home to change--”

You placed a finger on his lips, shutting him up, “Shh, you look fine. Okay, correction, you look good.”

“You’re not lying to me right?”

“Nope. I’m serious.” You shook your head as you smiled.

“I swear if people stare at me weirdly I’m--”

You silenced the doe-eyed boy with a sweet peck, which made his eyes dilate as big as saucers as the tips of his ears began to turn red.

“I’m hungry, let’s find something to eat~” You linked your arms with your now stunned boyfriend(with a stupid grin plastered on his face), as you dragged him around the mall to find food to fill your growling stomach.

“I told you no one would recognise you,” You assured Jihoon with a pat on his back when the lights in the concert hall dimmed.

Jihoon hummed, as he placed his arm around your shoulders droopily. Your heart was palpitating wildly, even the slightest display of affection from Jihoon could make your heart run wild. Nonetheless, you nestled your head into Jihoon’s shoulders, as the curtains were raised to commence the first performance.

Just as Jihoon was about to place a light peck on your forehead, you heard someone whisper your name from the back. You whipped your head around, it was your classmate in your dance class. Jihoon turned his side slightly, but he whipped his head back facing the front as soon he saw your alarmed expression. It totally slipped your mind that your dance friends were there to support your best friend too. You may have ditched them to have dinner with your boyfriend, which you were slightly guilty of.

“Y/N!” Your friend smirked, “Who’re you with?”

“Uhh my...” You bit your lip to come out with the best relation you could think of, “cousin!”

Unfortunately, your friend didn’t quite buy that, as she whispered playfully to the rest of your classmates seated beside her, “I don’t think your cousin will kiss you in a concert hall, at a dance concert.”

“Fine... he’s my boyfriend okay?” You huffed, as they giggled a little too loudly for your liking, “Let me enjoy the concert in peace will you?”

You turned your head back towards the stage, and slumped in your seat, as heat rose up to your cheeks. Jihoon saw your dejected expression, he interlocked his hand snugly into yours, as his thumb drew calming circles on the back of your palm.

As soon as the emcee announced an intermission, you dragged Jihoon out of the concert hall as fast as you could towards the toilets, in hopes that you wouldn’t bump into your friends.

“Luckily they don’t watch Produce,” You sighed as Jihoon placed a comforting arm around your waist, “ Or you’ll be dead.”

“They will find out about me, sooner or later,” Jihoon grimaced, “And I’m not worried about it at all, about them knowing that I’m on Produce.”

“What about your company?” You pouted, as you waited in line for the toilet, “Aren’t they against dating?”

“I told them about it,” Jihoon confessed, “They were fine with it, honestly, I was shocked when they supported it.”

“Please don’t tell me to break up with you when our relationship goes public,” You squeezed his cheeks playfully.

“I won’t,” Jihoon laughed as he pried your hand away from his cheek. A buzzing sensation could be felt in your bag, you frowned as you fished for your mobile phone. If it was your friend, you were ready to hang up. But it wasn’t her.

It was your cousin.

You never really hated your cousin, to be fair. 3 years younger than you are, she truly tested your patience to your limits. The thought of your cousin attending your best friend’s concert slipped your mind as well, since it was her school’s dance concert, after all.

Being the filial niece you were to your aunt, you grudgingly picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Y/N!” Your cousin chirpped, “Are you at Y/B/F/N’s dance concert?”

“Yes I am,” You admitted, “What is it?”

“Where are you?”

“I’m...” Jihoon pointed to the male toilet, which was currently empty, and mouthed, “I’ll be back.”, you nodded as you grimly replied your cousin, “ at the toilet near the cafe.”

“I’ll see you there in 3 minutes.” With that, she hung up the phone.

“She’s so rude...” You mumbled.

---

As you finished doing your business, you were greeted by your smiling cousin. You smiled back out of manners, as you pushed the tap knob harshly to wash your hands.

“Are you here for Y/B/F/N?”

“Yeah I am.”

“Are you with your friends?”

“Sorta.”

“Sorta?”

“I’m actually here with my boyfriend,” You gritted your teeth, “And yes, my mom knows about him.”

“Really?” She raised her eyebrows, “You’re not bringing up one of your another imaginary “oppas” to shake me off, aren’t you?”

“You’ll know when you see him,” You smiled sweetly as you exited the toilet with your cousin.

“Babe, what took you so long-- oh.” Jihoon complained as soon as he saw you, then kept quiet when he saw your cousin beside you.

Your cousin’s jaw went slack, you smirked, she was definitely not expecting the Park Jihoon to be your boyfriend, at all. You knew that she was an avid viewer of Produce, by the various snaps on her snapchat story.

“Meet Jihoon, my dear cousin, and meet my cousin, Jihoon.”

After the concert, Jihoon was still a blushing mess when he met your cousin, and he toned down on the skinship a whole lot. You smiled, shy Jihoon was cute, and you haven’t seen him in a while. Your friends saw him as well, they all wished you and Jihoon would last forever, and all those sappy stuff. That made him a lot more shy, hiding his face in your shoulders, unable to face anyone.

“You’re so cute when you’re shy,” You hummed as you hugged your shy boyfriend.

“Shut up,” Jihoon whined as he pouted, making you giggle.

“Nope, not gonna shut up,” You stuck out your tongue as Jihoon’s jaw dropped.

“What if I can shut you up?” Jihoon stopped in his tracks, holding your hands in his.

“How?”

“Like this,” Jihoon leaned in swiftly, softly kissing your tinted lips. You smiled into the kiss slightly, as Jihoon pulled back slowly.

“Did that shut you up?” Jihoon looked at you earnestly.

“For the sake of you, yes.” You smiled.

For the first time in 2 hours, Jihoon’s face was decorated with a grin of endearment, all the way home.

#park jihoon #produce 101 scenarios #produce 101 season 2 #produce 101 #maroo entertainment #fluffy writes

49 notes · View notes

kendall4change · 6 years

Text

The impact of social media in social change

It has been debated since the uprising of social media as to how it may affect society as a whole, and thus social change by proxy. Many people believe social media to be a source of generational narcissism and vanity, where as others view it as a positive force that connects strangers who otherwise would live completely seperate lives in a positive and meaningful way.

An article written by Park Et. Al. titled Being Immersed in Social Networking Environment: Facebook Groups, Uses and Gratifications, and Social Outcomes highlights the utility of online communities such as Facebook. “Because of this applications ability to recruit members and spread messages easily through social networking, diverse political, social, and other specia-interest (e.g., global issues, health concerns) organizations are creating online groups and utilizing the useful and fun enhancements of Facebook Groups.” Once a person belongs to a political or civic group on Facebook, these individuals may receive mobilizing information that may not be available elsewhere, all within the access of their fingertips. The political climate in todays day and age is fed via online communities, in both negative and positive ways. Many people find it easier to rally and connect through shared opinions, as shown in the Park. Et. Al paper, but I find that even in my own online communities, it is easy to create an echo-chamber for yourself. Because we as people do not like to be faced with opposing opinions and confrontations, it is seemingly possible to crop those unwanted opinions and voices out of your online eye. Doing so makes it a much larger possibility to only hear thoughts that echo and mirror your own back, and this can have various negative consequences.

Contradictory to the endearing tone expressed earlier, Gayle R. Bessenoff explored the possibility of social media creating negative self image and lowered esteem. Her study titled Can the media affect us? Social comparison, self-discrepancy, and the thin ideal sought to find how exposure to thin-ideal advertisements may increase body dissatisfaction, negative mood, levels of depression, and lowered self-esteem. She found that women with high levels of body image self-discrepancy were more likely to engage in social comparison from exposure to thin-ideal advertisements, as well as have those comparison processes induce self-directed negative consequences. With depression rates rising and the age of onset beginning earlier and earlier, we have to question how much social media plays a role. While access to information and connections to the outside world is a largely positive force, this open access also makes way for negative self inflicted feelings of worthlessness. It is often hard to recognize that the images that are portrayed in media are doctored or edited in one way or another, and that the comparison models are not realistic. As people become more and more obsessed with appearing perfect, they alter their online life and voice- feeding into the cycle. I find this to be an important point of interest when discussing social change, as mental health is a huge contributor to a society and how people interact with each other.

Since the rise of the Internet in the early 1900s, the world’s networked population has grown from the low millions to the low billions. Over this same period, social media has become a fact of life for civil society worldwide, involving normal citizens, celebrities, activists, CEO’s, governments, and more. Clay Shirky in an essay titled The Political Power of Social Media written for the Counsil on Foreign Relations points out that this raises the question, “how does the ubiquity of social media affect US interests, and how should US policy respond to it?” The use of social media does not have a single preordained outcome, therefore attempts to outline its effects on political actions and movements are often reduced to dueling anecdotes. Empirical work on the subject is hard to come by, in part because social media and social tools such as it are so new and in part because relevant examples are reare and hard to come by. Despite this, social media has become a coordinating tool for nearly all of the worl’d political movements, and thus should not be discounted.

Social media and social change are highly related, in my opinion. The use of media can influence societies to feel, look and dress a certain way, as well as influence political activism and alertness. Because social media and the Internet as a whole is still so new, I don’t feel like we have enough data to blatantly say if it is solely positive or negative. Like many things, social media should be used in moderation and in a way that suits your needs and lifestyle, not anyone else’s.

As always, thank you for reading.

Sources:

Bessenoff, G. R. (2006). Can the Media Affect Us? Social Comparison, Self-Discrepancy, and the Thin Ideal. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30(3), 239-251. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2006.00292.x

Park, N., Kee, K. F., & Valenzuela, S. (2009). Being Immersed in Social Networking Environment: Facebook Groups, Uses and Gratifications, and Social Outcomes. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12(6), 729-733. doi:10.1089/cpb.2009.0003

Shirky, C. (2011). The Political Power of Social Media: Technology, the Public Sphere, and Political Change. Foreign Affairs, 90(1), 28-41.

#blog #blogging #blogger #social media #social change #social media in 2019 #social media activism #influencer

0 notes

ericarohmering · 4 years

Text

the everyday in writing

another thing to feel ambivalent about

this leslie jamison essay in the new york review of books is very good on the mixed feelings about the ordinary:

‘Ever since those days, I’ve been mustering all my literary credentials to muscle every ordinary story across the threshold of what we call beautiful. I spent years convincing my editor that my book about addiction needed to include the stories of “un-famous” alcoholics alongside famous drunk writers; I wrote an essay about a museum full of household objects donated by people who had gone through unremarkable breakups; I wrote a passionate homage to a photographer who spent thirty years photographing the same rural Mexican family. At the MoMA press preview, I felt proud to stand in the basement with these personal artifacts of human experience while other critics gazed at the masterpieces upstairs. But this pride was hounded by a nagging sense of shame—the abiding embarrassment at finding too many things wondrous: a leaf, a bug, a stranger’s face, an ASPCA mobile bus full of homeless kittens.‘

“The Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti spent an entire decade of his life making his sculptures smaller and smaller until they were just tiny clay stick figures that crumbled in his hands, and sometimes it feels like I’m doing some version of that by pursuing this stubborn love affair with the unremarkable—approaching an untenable asymptote by trying to find beauty in every single moment of every single life. If this toddler playing in the snow is beautiful, and this awkward boy sipping his sweet wine, and this stay-at-home mom looking bored, and this halved pineapple full of fruit salad, and etc. etc. etc., then how do we ever turn away? There is no end to this version of profundity. There are no edges.“

‘It was only after several months of taking my baby to the museum that I noticed a cluster of photographs on the fourth floor that seemed to show a woman taking her baby to a museum. They were artifacts documenting the artist Lea Lublin’s 1968 Mon Fils (My Son), in which she cared for her seven-month-old son, Nicholas, at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, installing a crib in one of the galleries. She had cared for her son in a museum and it counted as art. I was caring for my daughter in a museum and it…didn’t. Or did it? What made one labor, and the other art? Describing her installation in an interview, Lublin said, “The previous year, my great joy had been the birth of my son and I said to myself: the best thing for me to do is displace a moment of my everyday life to an artistic space, the Museum.” The critic in me felt the crucial word here was displace, that it was this sense of displacement that made her childcare art—the jarring notion that it didn’t belong. It was only by harnessing, exploiting, and illuminating this whiff of not belonging in the museum that her performance of motherhood made itself artistic enough to belong there.What belongs in a museum, anyway? An epic landscape painting, sure. A crib? A baby? A photograph of a crib and a baby? Though we often understand art as representation, it actually operates through exclusion and distortion. Art changes the world—distills it, transforms it, and rejects it—in order to focus and electrify our attention. Beauty rises from what feels recognizable and faraway at once: the craggy mountain glowing with human love; the crib in its white-walled gallery. My great joy had been the birth of my son. Art doesn’t just replicate our lives, its force lives in its acts of framing and reimagining, its juxtapositions, and—as Lublin put it—its displacements.So yes, the critic in me felt the crucial word was displace.The mother in me felt the crucial word was joy.”

“Leaving my toddler at home so I can watch home videos of other toddlers is one iteration of the essential estrangement of art—the departure and return it invites. Art asks us to briefly abandon our lives in order to come back with a changed gaze. It’s the daydream and the homecoming. The point is the residue; the fact that we have not left untouched. When I leave my toddler in order to watch videos of other toddlers, it’s like seeing my own life through the wrong end of a telescope. Or maybe it’s like seeing earth from space, how you can see the whole of it at once. It’s another version of leaving the beauty of a museum for the beauty of the world past its exit, full of Siberian elms and mysterious purple windows. We come alive to it by leaving it. Beneath the citizen-self who wakes each day to make oatmeal for the child, who scrubs the toilet bowl clean and finds fossilized spaghetti behind the radiator, there is another self—howling with ache and desire, thirsty for the sublime registers. Every once in a while, it flashes into sight through a rift in the skin, to announce, here I am.”

i also liked this discussion between kathryn scanlan and kate zambreno in granta

lots of mentions of durational works and artists who are interested in the emotional texture, movement of the everyday (but is that different from everyday textures - which are kind of gross, if you think about it, oil, seepage, hair, stripping back, everyday is constructed again to not accumulate, we wash, we tidy, we clean)

- i am very attracted to all these things, another part of me thinks that the emotional side of it is far more complicated for some people, there are structural things that make the everyday everyday which can’t be included in the slow durational process, the focus on the domestic, but that’s also *the point* of making these works right - to valorise it, to make it important, critique it from the inside, but show it lived

#the everyday #quotidian #leslie jamison #archives #kathryn scanlan

0 notes

suzannemcappsca · 6 years

Text

Optimism in Mediation: Part I – The Captain Goes down with the Ship

Martin Svatoš

You are usually at a disadvantage for you will take over the boat in midst of the conflict storm without having the chance to prepare the crew and to check on the ship. Yet you are charged to navigate the vessel through all perils of misunderstandings, mistrust, and perceptions. It takes time to make sure your course is correct. You have to watch for small signs revealing directions – be it a familiar shape of the land of interests, the lighthouse of apology or little buoys represented by small concessions. And then, as the gale of dispute turns in a breeze of negotiation, you see you are in safe waters once again. You shall never abandon your optimism. For if a captain is lost, so is the whole ship. You are not the one who should give up. Remember, the captain goes down with the ship.

The Importance of Being Optimist

Last week in Paris, I had the opportunity to participate in the 14th edition of the ICC Mediation Competition that was accompanied by a rich additional programme. Once again, this event proved to be full of challenging negotiation simulation led by students from literally all around the world. Apart from the main programme, one was able to engage in roundtable discussions, challenging workshops and countless little encounter with fellow mediators during coffee and lunch breaks. Those little chats gave an opportunity for a gathering of inspiring thoughts and ideas and the only pity was that one cannot recall all of them. However, I retained one especially remarkable. It was a discussion of the indispensability of optimism in mediation.

Optimism is a mental attitude reflecting a belief or hope that the outcome of some specific endeavour, or outcomes in general, will be positive, favourable, and desirable. As such, it is an inseparable part of our personality and is both determined by genetic predispositions and acquired through conditioning and impact of the social surroundings. While the psychologists do not agree on what influence the state of our optimism, they do agree on the positive aspects this characteristic proves to have to our life. Countless studies substantiated that being optimistic improves people’s health, work performance, and other factors relevant to social mobility. Optimistic persons also proved to be more successful students and businesspersons.

Optimist and Pessimist

Despite the lack of similar empirical survey, one would bet the optimistic negotiator would be more successful than pessimistic ones. When it comes to dispute resolution, the ante is even upped. I believe you have to be optimistic (not naive!) to be a good and efficient mediator. And there is a couple of reasons for this statement.

An optimist and a pessimist, Vladimir Makovsky, 1893

First of them is a subjective perception of the disputants. There is a wonderful painting by a Russian artist Vladimir Makovsky called Optimist and Pessimist. I usually show that picture to my trainees and ask them, which of those two persons would be more probably picked up as a mediator by a reasonable third party should the pool of mediators be limited only to this couple. While this is obviously a hard task to do as the respondents are not allowed to question the respective persons’ experiences, training, and skills, the vast majority of attendees opts for the optimistic one without any hesitation. The second (and more important) reason is the faith in the procedure itself. The disputants are coming to the mediation table with distrust to the other party, often stressed and in an emotionally difficult state. Let’s suppose, the parties have met prior to mediation and tried to reach an agreement. They failed. This scenario should be (from the optimistic perspective) read as at least two good signs:

1) The parties showed a will to reach an amicable settlement although for the time being failed. 2) Furthermore, they have found their way to a mediator.

Despite this, the only thing the disputants bear in mind is a purely pessimistic evaluation of their situation. Following are the sentences I am hearing quite often in the early stage of mediations: “Clearly, the settlement of our case is difficult or even impossible.” or “We believe mediation is a useful tool, however, we have tried negotiation by ourselves and were not able to reach an agreement…Mediation will not help in this case…”

Reasonably Optimistic Skipper

Sea wave during storm Designed by bearfotos / Freepik.com

In contrast, mediators must have faith and confidence in the process. In the case they are fully invested into mediation, faith and hope will also transfer to the parties. No need to add, that pessimistic and distrustful mediators will mirror their perception to disputants and make the possibility of settlement even more difficult.

Back in 2009, we were sailing in Balt when a storm accompanied by a gale appeared. The sea turned rough quite quickly and high waves with dense streaks of foam were just terrifying. Our captain, an experienced sea-dog and friend of mine remained calm and optimistic during all the journey. He kept giving us instructions and tasks with good humour. Later that day, after having safely anchored in the marina, we had an interesting conversation:

– “Frankly, were you not frightened…? You did not even look concerned…” I asked him. – “Well, I was aware of all perils we had to tackle but I was sure of my ship and of the educated and well-prepared crew. Should this be different I would never dare to come offshore. You have to be reasonably optimistic as a skipper.”

Today, I believe this concept of reasonably optimistic skipper should apply in mediation too. Though it is not always an easy task. You are usually at a disadvantage for you will take over the boat in midst of the conflict storm without having the chance to prepare the crew and to check on the ship. Yet you are charged to navigate the vessel through all perils of misunderstandings, mistrust, and perceptions. It takes time to make sure your course is correct. You have to watch for small signs revealing directions – be it a familiar shape of the land of interests, the lighthouse of apology or little buoys represented by small concessions. And then, as the gale of dispute turns in a breeze of negotiation, you see you are in safe waters once again. You shall never abandon your optimism. For if a captain is lost, so is the whole ship. You are not the one who should give up. Remember, the captain goes down with the ship.

Life Orientation Test

In the first part of this post, I wanted to share with you some thoughts as to the necessity and nature of optimism in mediation. In the other one, I would like to write about some hints in relation to keeping and even improving optimism in mediation. While waiting for it you might be interested in measuring the optimism of yours. There are numerous ways how to do it, yet the most often used is known as The Life Orientation Test invented by Michael F. Scheier and Charles S. Carver. Its reviewed version is based on answering ten simple questions:

1. In uncertain times, I usually expect the best. 2. It’s easy for me to relax. 3. If something can go wrong for me, it will. 4. I’m always optimistic about my future. 5. I enjoy my friends a lot. 6. It’s important for me to keep busy. 7. I hardly ever expect things to go my way. 8. I don’t get upset too easily. 9. I rarely count on good things happening to me. 10. Overall, I expect more good things to happen to me than bad.

To all those questions, you are supposed to give an answer on the scale (0 Strongly disagree – 1 Disagree – 2 Neutral – 3 Agree – 4 Strongly agree). While the counting of the points is quite complicated, you might be considering to use the following LOT-R Answer Sheet to come out with the results. I will be happy to know what are the outcomes, so if you are willing, do not hesitate to share either in comments or via email.

To be continued