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wemarketresearchreport · 2 years

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Artificial Intelligence Market Overview and Regional Outlook Study 2016 – 2030

The global Artificial Intelligence market is valued at USD 129.12 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach a value of USD 1708.26 billion in 2030 expanding at a CAGR of 38.1% over the forecast period of 2022–2030.

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to a machine’s or robot’s ability to perform tasks frequently carried out by intelligent beings. The phrase is frequently used to describe efforts to develop artificial intelligence (AI) systems that have cognitive abilities similar to those of humans, such as the ability to reason, find meaning, generalise, and learn from experience.

The constant research and innovation carried out under the leadership of the tech giants in industries including manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and finance is fueling the adoption of cutting-edge technology. For instance, Intel Corporation bought Cnvrg.io, an Israeli start-up that develops and operates a platform for data scientists to create and run machine learning models, in order to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) business. Although technology has always been important to many industries, AI has elevated technology to the foreground of business.

Artificial Intelligence Market– Overview

Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as the ability of a digital computer or a computer-controlled robot to perform tasks that are commonly associated with intelligent beings.

The term, AI is frequently applied to the project of developing systems that are endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience.

The main characteristic of artificial intelligence is the ability of AI to rationalize and take actions that have the best chance of achieving a specific goal. A subset of artificial intelligence is machine learning that refers to the concept that computer programs can automatically learn from and adapt to new data without being assisted by humans.

Also, deep learning techniques can enable this automatic learning through the absorption of huge amounts of unstructured data such as text, images, or video.

Global Artificial Intelligence Market- Key trends Essential to achieve robotic autonomy to stay competitive in a global market The robotics business is currently undergoing significant change because to AI, especially computer vision and ML. Businesses have begun to think about fully autonomous robots that can observe, interact, and conceive the environment around them in order to stay ahead in a global market. Industries are looking for dependable and skilled technology partners as they start to traverse the current technological transformation. Artificial neural networks are used by deep learning models to handle enormous amounts of data, including texts, photos, and audio in order to produce correct results.

Get Free Sample:- https://wemarketresearch.com/sample-request/artificial-intelligence-(ai)-market/157/

Segmental analysis of the Market

Based on deployment mode

· Cloud segment

· On premise segment

The cloud segment has dominated the market over the forecast period. This is because it provides a lot of benefits, such as reduction in operational costs, hassle-free deployment, etc.

Based on solution

· Software

· AI Hardware

The software segment has dominated the market over the forecast period. This is because of prudent advances in information storage capacity, the high computing power, and also the parallel processing capabilities in order to provide and deliver high end services.

Based on end-user

· Advertising and media

· Healthcare

· BSFI

· Technology

The advertising and media segment has dominated the market sphere over the forecast period. This is because of the rise in artificial intelligence marketing applications that have significant traction.

North America is anticipated to amplify at a considerable CAGR

North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa are the major regions constituting the geographical landscape of Artificial Intelligence market. Among these, North America has dominated the regional market share. This is because of the favourable government initiatives in order to encourage the adoption of AI in various industries.

Access the Complete Report at: https://wemarketresearch.com/reports/artificial-intelligence-(ai)-market/157/

Competitive Landscape

The prominent players influencing the competitive hierarchy of the market sphere are

· Advanced Micro Devices

· AiCure

· Arm Limited

· Atomwise, Inc.

· Ayasdi AI LLC

· Baidu, Inc.

· Clarifai, Inc

· Cyrcadia Health

· Enlitic, Inc.

· Google LLC

· ai.

· HyperVerge, Inc.

· International Business Machines Corporation

· IBM Watson Health

· Intel Corporation

· ai AS.

· Lifegraph

· Microsoft

· NVIDIA Corporation

· Sensely, Inc.

· Zebra Medical Vision, Inc.

Table of Contents

1. Global Artificial Intelligence Market Introduction and Market Overview

2. Global Artificial Intelligence Market — Executive Summary

3. Artificial Intelligence Market Trends, Outlook, and Factors Analysis

4. Global Artificial Intelligence Market: Estimates & Historic Trend Analysis (2018 to 2021)

5. Global Artificial Intelligence Market Estimates & Forecast Trend Analysis, by Deployment

6. Global Artificial Intelligence Market Estimates & Forecast Trend Analysis, by Component

7. Global Artificial Intelligence Market Estimates & Forecast Trend Analysis, by Content Type

8. Global Artificial Intelligence Market Estimates & Forecast Trend Analysis, by End Use

9. Global Artificial Intelligence Market Analysis and Forecast, by Region

10. North America Artificial Intelligence Market: Estimates & Forecast Trend Analysis

11. Europe Artificial Intelligence Market: Estimates & Forecast Trend Analysis

12. Asia Pacific Artificial Intelligence Market: Estimates & Forecast Trend Analysis

13. Middle East & Africa Artificial Intelligence Market: Estimates & Forecast Trend Analysis

14. Latin America Artificial Intelligence Market: Estimates & Forecast Trend Analysis

15. Competitive Landscape

16. Company Profiles

17. Assumptions and Research Methodology

18. Conclusions and Recommendations

Major questions answered in this report

· What is the growth rate of AI market?

· What are the primary growth determinant of the market?

· Which are the major regions constituting the geographical landscape of the Market?

· Which are the prominent companies operating in the market?

About Us

WE MARKET RESEARCH is an established market analytics and research firm with a domain experience sprawling across different industries. We have been working on multi-county market studies right from our inception. Over the time, from our existence, we have gained laurels for our deep rooted market studies and insightful analysis of different markets.

Our strategic market analysis and capability to comprehend deep cultural, conceptual and social aspects of various tangled markets has helped us make a mark for ourselves in the industry. WE MARKET RESEARCH is a frontrunner in helping numerous companies; both regional and international to successfully achieve their business goals based on our in-depth market analysis. Moreover, we are also capable of devising market strategies that ensure guaranteed customer bases for our clients.

We Market Research

Phone: +1(929)-450–2887

Email: [email protected]

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vicecityhq · 2 years

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██████████████]99% LOADING...SUSPECT INTO THE APD DATABASE...

WITNESS(ES) SAY THEY REMIND THEM OF: Silk sheets, vinyl records, kiss swollen lips . With a slight resemblance to KWON SOONYOUNG of/the SEVENTEEN.

CLICK BELOW TO VIEW ENTIRE FILE.

FULL FILE:

Last Name, First Name: Moon, Yejun ALIAS: Moon Realm of birth(if earth, nationality): Age: 23 Gender: Cismale Preferred Pronouns: he/him Species: Nagini Occupation: Idol, Night Blood’s affiliate Sexual Orientation: Bisexual Any Associated/Owned Businesses: MBH Entertainment

VISUAL FILE:

Skin Color: tan Eye color: chartreuse Scars: none Piercings: both ears Tattoos: shooting stars behind his left ear Hair color: Black Abnormalities: forked tongue Horns/ wings/ etc: Transformed form: a large blue viper (reference)

RELIGIOUS BELIEF: n/a

SINS: lust / gluttony / greed / sloth / envy / wrath / pride

VIRTUES: chastity / temperance / charity / diligence / kindness / patience / humility

KNOWN LANGUAGES: fluent; Korean/English, conversational; Japanese/Chinese

SECRETS: Got help from Night Bloods in order to start his company. They currently own seventy percent of MBH Entertainment

SAVVIES: Singing, dancing, piano

Powers & Abilities: snake physiology, poison generation, poison immunity

Traits: Confident but unsympathetic

BACKGROUND CHECK:

Date of Birth: 7/15/1999

Date of Death: [ if applying for an undead character ]

Crime Record: N/A

Background/Biography:

From an early age, Yejun knew that he wanted to perform. As a child, he spent hours singing along to songs on the radio and frequenting karaoke rooms. His parents supported his love of the arts and enrolled him in an arts school. There, he got vocal training and found a new love in the form of dance. At fourteen, he was scouted after a school performance. He began training at MSB Entertainment while finishing high school. It was barely a year before he debuted as the main vocal and lead dancer in I2I.

The group was a big success. Nobody had anticipated the amount of success that the five boys would have. After five years of nonstop performances and being told exactly what to do, say and act, Yejun made the decision to leave I2I. During all of this, the only constant person that kept him grounded was his childhood friend, Dragan Jeup. They’d been thick as thieves , in their younger years and continued that bond as they grew older. That’s why it was a no brainer to ask the youngest Jeup to help him to build his own entertainment company. He didn’t need anything big. He just wanted a place where he could create music his way without hiding who he was and how he loved. He’d come out as bi and despite losing some fans, he gained even more. After a year, he finally released his first solo song and it was praised by fans and critics.

He was still topping charts and continues to do so, two years later. Yejun was well aware of the gangs of Agdoeg and he’d rather not be directly involved, considering his public image. But that didn’t stop him from accepting Dragan’s offer of letting them watch out for him and his company. They did own seventy percent of the company after all. Yejun is a very opinionated man. His blunt way of speaking was often considered sassy by his friends but he just saw it as not sugarcoating his words. He’d done that for way too long. The idol was often pictured with different men and women but he never admitted to what their relationship was. He’d rather leave the public guessing. Relationships had never been his thing since he never had time to really get to know anyone well enough to want anything more than sex. And he can’t see his opinion on that changing anytime soon. For now, Yejun just wants to focus on his music and enjoying his twenties

INTERVIEW QUESTION (para sample): “Just run us through what happened that night”. - Officer

Yejun stared at the officer, hoping that paparazzi hadn’t seen him brought into the station. He honestly had no idea why they were questioning him. It was clearly a case of wrong place at the wrong time. “Look, you can call my choreographer and she will let you know that I was at the studio with her. I have a sick performance scheduled for Saturday and we’ve been working out asses off to get everything perfect. When do I even have time to be involved in a murder? Have you looked at my schedule? Besides, I do not have time to be washing blood out of my clothes. That shit’s nasty.” He rolled his eyes and picked at his black painted nails. “Can I go? Can’t you like check out he cameras and just see who he was at the scene? Wouldn’t that be like the first thing to do? I know who to tell my friends not to call if I’m ever attacked.”

#vcaccepted #vccivilian #rp #rpg #oc rp #oc rpg #gang rpg #gang rp #mafia rp #mafia rpg #supernatural rp #supernatural rpg #literate rp #literate rpg

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fatehbaz · 4 years

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Non-places; strange allure of eerie landscape and liminal space:

Spectacular message.

Part 1: Ghosts, transgressions, thresholds, ecology, empire etc. Me being annoying.

Part 2: List of sources and reading recommendations.

Part 3, some excerpts I think you might like, here:

de Certeau, whose writing influenced Marc Auge’s work on non-places, from: “Walking in the City.” In: The Practice of Everyday Life. Translated by Steven Rendall. 1984.

Escaping the imaginary totalizations produced by the eye, the everyday has a certain strangeness [...]. [P]roper names carve out pockets of hidden and familiar meaning. [...] Ultimately, since proper names are already “local authorities” [...], they are [in the modern space, the non-place] replaced by numbers: the telephone number, [etc.] [...]. The same is true of the stories and legends that haunt urban space like superfluous or additional inhabitants. Their extermination (like the extermination of trees, forests, and hidden places in which such legends live) makes the city a “suspended symbolic order.” The habitable city is thereby annulled. [...] Objects and words also have hollow places in which a past sleeps, as in the everyday acts of walking, eating, going to bed, in which ancient revolutions slumber [...]. Travel (like walking) is a substitute for the legends that used to open up space to something different. [...] There is no place that is not haunted by many different spirits hidden there in silence, spirits one can “invoke” or not. Haunted places are the only ones people can live in -- and this inverts the schema of the panopticon.

----------

I think Giggs said it well, too. [From: Rebecca A. Giggs. The Rise of the Edge. 2010 Draft.]

Unlike the sublime, with its axiomatic relationship with nature and its place in a history of “the outdoors,” the uncanny is more readily associated with anti-natural concerns - degrees of deadness; animated corpses, ghosts, and artificial beings; dolls, automatons, and doubles. [...] Modern shopping malls that replicate identical layouts, and retirement communities wherein every residential unit is built in the mirror-image of the unit opposite – right down to the pearly patina of the laminex on the bench-tops. [...] The uniform architecture and visual parroting of W/a/l/Marts, Apple/bees, Best/Buys, Starb/ucks and Borders [...]. This doubling of place not only arouses the unnerving suspicious -- “I’ve been here before,” and “am I here, or am I in fact elsewhere?” -- but additionally reaffirms the underlying unnaturalness of all place-based experience. The local is eerie on account of it being familiar. In other words, it is precisely because the local is “homely” that it is capable of being shot-through with the “unhomely.” The uncanny exists because there is an environment. Many of us may be struck by the uncanny compulsion to repeat in these self-same environments -- to return in search of the small dissimilarity, the idosyncrasy that distinguishes the “here” from the “there.” [...] Standing in the aisles of I/kea, frozen to the spot, you are seized by an alarming vision; you are split prismatically, and somewhere else another you is holding another flat-packed E/ngan storage box in walnut [...]. As multinational corporations seek to comfort and disarm through their “commonplace” design, they also run the risk that such places become indirectly disturbing in their duplication. [...] Things are are ambiguous where there is too much multivalent, ambient information coming in from all angles. Human-animal-machine. Everywhere-anywhere-nowhere. Alive-dead-stimulant. Evolve-devolve-mutate. The uncanny concerns a dislocation of time [...] the resurfacing of intuitive misgivings into a space where there is no longer a clear language or psychological register within which they can be articulated. Hence, the uncanny does not disappear, but becomes more condensed and potent in societies where there is little room apportioned for the public acceptance of the pre-logical strangeness of experience. Where uncanny dubiety persists, it can no longer be assimilated into the hinterlands of the sacred or the mythic.

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And from Tim Edensor: “The ghosts of industrial ruins: ordering and disordering memory in excessive space.” Environment and Planning. 2005.

Within the interstices of the city there are a host of other spaces, part of a “wild zone”, a “[…] site […] which avoids the objective processes of ordered territorialisation […]”. What Ford (2000) calls the ‘spaces between buildings’, the unadorned backsides of the city, the alleys, culverts, service areas, and other microspaces, along with wastelands, railway sidings, spaces behind billboards, and unofficial rubbish tips, as well as the ‘edgelands’ or ‘urban fringe’ (Shoard, 2003), are spaces “where aesthetics and ethics merge and where there are no defined boundaries and constant ruptures […].” [T]his collection of marginal sites [...]. Staged […] through the intensified mediatisation and commodification of popular sites, myths, and icons […], mediated imaginary geographies circulate through adverts, soap operas, ‘classic’ rock stations […]. But […] the modern city can never become a wholly Appollonian, seamlessly regulated realm for it continues to be haunted by the neglected, the disposed of, and the repressed, most clearly in marginal sites where ghostly memories cannot be entirely expunged. [...] And yet their absence manifests itself as a presence through the shreds and silent things … a host of signs and traces which let us know that “a haunting is taking place.” […] Movement in ruins becomes strangely reminiscent of childhood […]. Crawling through dense undergrowth, scrambling over walls and under fences [...]. Such spaces might be compared to the ‘felicitous’ and ‘eulogised’ spaces – primarily the protective, inhabited domestic spaces, the ‘corners of our world’ – which provide the basis of feeling at ‘home’ […], but are also analogous to the dens of childhood, where the sensual experience of texture and micro-atmosphere are absorbed, “nooks and corners” which became “a resting-place for daydreams” that may reemerge during adulthood. [...] Being haunted draws us, “always a bit magically, into the structure of feeling of a reality we come to experience, not as cold knowledge, but as transformative recognition” […].

----

Also, from Bob Cluness: “I am an other and I always was…”: On the Weird and Eerie in Contemporary and Digital Cultures. University of Iceland MA Thesis. 2019.

On a material level, the eerie is often not located in the humanistic confines and locales of the family and home. Often, it is located in marginal spaces, in landscapes, sites, and structures where there is either a distinct lack of human presence, or there was once a human activity which has since disappeared. Various ruins, such as the ancient sites of Stonehenge […] to more modern locations such as abandoned buildings […].

Where society is increasingly on the move, movement turns a place into a passage of space, and therefore non-place. […] To facilitate the semblance of frictionless movement and exchange, the layout, design and production of non-places tend towards a structural homogeneity […]. Non-spaces therefore create a disavowal towards exhibiting any particular cultural roots or an innate historical connection with the surrounding area. […] The basic layout of a shopping mall or an airport is the same whether it is in Reykjavik or Rio de Janeiro. [...] Through their overriding spatial conformity, and the mechanical nature they invoke in the individual towards consumerism and social control, non-places invoke forms of eerie alienation [...] they allow the individual to psychologically disconnect, to drift […]. Such places (or non-places) are often where there is an absence of humanity, or where there is something or some agency at work that is just beyond our realm of understanding; “The eerie concerns the most fundamental metaphysical questions one could pose, questions to do with existence and non- existence.” As such, the eerie “is constituted by a failure of absence or by a failure of presence. The sensation of the eerie occurs either when there is something present where there should be nothing, or is there nothing present when there should be something.” This becomes evident with the use “eerie” as descriptive terms, such as there being an “eerie silence,” or an “eerie cry”; at the heart of the eerie, it talks of an absence of something, or the presence of something, but something that is unknown and outside of our normal frames of knowledge and reference. [...] Fisher asserts […]:

It is about the forces that govern our lives and the world […] In the case of the failure of absence, the question concerns the existence of agency as such. Is there a deliberative agent here at all? Are we being watched by an entity that has not yet revealed itself? In the case of the failure of presence, the question concerns the particular nature of the agent at work. We know that Stonehenge has been erected, so the questions of whether there was an agent behind its construction or not does not arise; what we have to reckon with are the traces of a departed agent whose purposes are unknown.

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justhewayfaringstranger · 4 years

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Aesthetic cover by: @otellosdeath

-Disclaimer- Despite the biblical inspiration (as I am a Christian witch), I have tried to make the ritual as inclusive as possible, so that it can be used by anyone.

☼ Milk & Honey ☼

Milk and honey recalls the biblica image of a perfect land so fertile its green hills flow with honey dripping from its hives, like liquid gold in the sunlight. A spacious land covered with pink hawthorn, red cyclamen, and white rockrose. There are the flowers of its myriad wild fruits, and the warm valley air smelling of their nectar.

This ritual is therefore meant for: Peace, prosperity, success, fertility, thanksgiving.

Associations: It is a ritual linked to spring and the sun.

Colors: white, yellow, gold.

When: There is no fairer time than another to do it. Made in the hottest hours of the day, when the sun is at its peak it could be a little more powerful, but do it whenever you want or need it.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of honey (about 50g) - sweetness; representation of gold.

Half a cup of milk (about 125ml) - prosperity; success; protection; nourishment. If you don't like milk from an animal or are sensitive to dairy, you can use any other type of vegetable milk associated with your intentions (e.g. soy milk is great for job success).

Your favorite incense (if you do not have or cannot use incense, replace it with essential oil of your choice or olive oil).

A white candle on which you will engrave a symbol or seal that corresponds to your intentions.

A gold-colored candle (also yellow or white is fine) to clean the space, give more push and power.

How to cast:

After having dosed the two ingredients separately, mix them together in a container until a homogeneous mixture is obtained. If you prefer the mixture to remain denser, you can use yogurt.

When the mixture is ready, ignite the incense and pass the mixture into the smoke (if you don’t have or cannot use incense, pour three drops of essential oil of your choice or olive oil into the mixture).

Say: I make this offering to (the earth, your divinity, the universe, ancestors, etc.). As tank for the many blessing I have received and those I shall some day receive. I know mote it be.

Light the candles (if you are doing this spell for a particular reason (you want work or school success, because you need economic peace, you want to thank your divinity for something in particular etc.) you can write your intention on a sheet of paper and burn it in the candle flame. It isn’t necessary, but it can be useful to center your intentions).

Apply the compound obtained on the root and length of the hair accompanying the action with gentle massages. Continue to massage for a few minutes (the mask should be applied to dry hair before shampooing).

Leave on for about 15 minutes, covering your hair with a bathing cap or plastic bag.

While you wait, you can relax and meditate, write on your book of shadows, do other spells, sit in the sun, draw, or do your chores while listening to the music that you remember the spring / summer, the sun or your divinity etc. anything related to the sun, light or spring / summer is fine.

After the laying time, rinse the head thoroughly, taking care that all the product is removed, to avoid the appearance of unpleasant halos after drying. Then proceed to wash your hair with your usual shampoo.

When you are finished, blow out the candles and instead let the incense burn (let it consume itself).

WORNING!

If the scalp is irritated, avoid applying this hair mask by consulting a specialist doctor.

Check that you are not allergic to any of the ingredients (even if you use essential oils instead of incense).

If after applying the hair mask nourish a sense of irritation, rinse the head thoroughly and do the shampoo again.

OTHER USES: If you don't want to cast this spell / ritual as a hair mask, you can change the way you use it: you can then use it as a face / body mask or as a drink, keeping the rest of the ritual unchanged. Note: if you use it as a drink, don’t use essential oils or olive oil inside. As said before, if you don’t want or cannot use incense to purify the mixture, if you have to ingest it, use cinnamon or vanilla instead of incense.

If you use it for hair, know that:

Honey deeply moisturizes the hair, in fact it is the ideal ingredient for brittle and dry hair that needs nourishment from the roots to the ends, regaining softness and lightness even to the touch.

Honey strengthens the hair and thanks to its restorative properties it repairs the internal breakages of the hair. For this reason, the hair mask with honey and milk especially benefits hair that breaks, as it is weakened by the action of external agents such as the heat of the hair dryer and plates, the constant washing, the action of the sun.

In addition, honey restores the dull and dry hair to new shine and radiance, giving the face even more vigor.

Honey has a prolonged action over time so it is sufficient to apply this type of hair mask once a week.

If you use it as a face / body mask:

Both honey and milk possess antimicrobial and cleansing properties. These properties are enhanced when the two are taken together. Numerous cleansers are prepared using milk and honey, because the mixture gives the skin a healthy glow. One can also enjoy a milk and honey bath, by mixing them in equal quantities in the water. The combination is often used in popular spas throughout the world.

If you use it as a drink, know that:

Help the digestion

Honey has long been known as a source of prebiotics, which are nutrients that stimulate the growth and development of probiotics, which are beneficial bacteria that grow and develop in our intestines and digestive system.

Prebiotics have demonstrated a stimulatory effect on bifidobacteria, a type of probiotic that is found in milk. The carbohydrates and oligosaccharides in honey promote the healthy and proper function of these beneficial bacteria that are essential for the healthy maintenance and function of the GI tract. When the bacterial balance in the digestive tract is good, it eliminates a number of irritating conditions, including constipation, cramps, bloating, and it prevents the development of detrimental bacterial growth!

Help the resistance:

A glass of milk and honey every morning is known to improve a person’s stamina. While milk contains proteins, honey contains the necessary carbohydrates required for effective stimulus of the metabolism. Milk and honey provides a boost in strength to everyone, including children and the elderly. Animal proteins from milk are broken down by enzymes into their basic amino acids, and are then reformed to create usable proteins for humans. The excess material in this transformation is then oxidized as usable energy. Proteins are an essential part of the human diet, and honey helps to stimulate their metabolism!

Help Bone Health:

As research on honey continues, it is gradually becoming clear that honey acts as a carrier and a transport of nutrients from food throughout the body. Specifically, honey has shown itself to be integral in the body’s uptake of calcium, of which milk is a rich source. Therefore, consuming honey and milk together will not only give your body the necessary nutrient (calcium) to benefit your bone health, but also the nutrient to maximize the absorption of it into your body. Proper calcium levels can prevent conditions like osteoporosis and inflammation of the joints as we age!

Help for Insomnia:

Honey and milk have both been traditionally used as remedies for insomnia and sleeplessness. Individually, they are both effective, but the effects are strengthened when taken together. Honey is one of the rare sugary foods that causes a controlled increase in the amount of insulin being secreted, which also promotes tryptophan to be released into the brain. Tryptophan is normally converted into serotonin, which induces a feeling of relaxation. Furthermore, serotonin is commonly converted to melatonin, a well-researched sleep aid. Through that rather confusing chemical pathway, honey and milk can be used to reduce sleeplessness!

Have Anti-Aging Properties:

The combination of milk and honey impacts not only the skin, but also the rest of the body, by making it agile and youthful. People in many ancient civilizations, including the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Indians, drank milk and honey to preserve their youth. Since milk and honey can help to ensure long life, the combination was known as “the elixir of life.”

The many antioxidant properties that occur when milk and honey are combined are the scientific explanation behind the anti-aging properties, because antioxidants attack the free radicals which so drastically affect the organ systems. They are also one of the primary causes behind skin degradation, wrinkles, blotches, and general failing health of your body’s largest organ, the skin!

It owns Antibacterial Properties:

Research has shown that milk and honey have a more pronounced effect on staphylococcus bacteria than milk or honey when taken alone. It is also believed that honey, added to warm milk, cures constipation, flatulence and intestine disorders. It is also good for treating respiratory disorders such as colds and coughs.

The benefits of honey and milk on the human body are so enormous that the phrase “land of milk and honey” meaning “a place which has plenty” is commonly used. Jerusalem is referred to as the land of milk and honey in the Old Testament, so they probably enjoyed a wealth of health benefits back then!

For all those interested:

The phrase “a land flowing [or ‘that floweth’] with milk and honey” appears 20 times in our King James Bible—

Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17, Exodus 13:5, Exodus 33:3, Leviticus 20:24, Numbers 13:27, Numbers 14:8, Numbers 16:13, Numbers 16:14, Deuteronomy 6:3, Deuteronomy 11:9, Deuteronomy 26:9, Deuteronomy 26:15, Deuteronomy 27:3, Deuteronomy 31:20, Joshua 5:6, Jeremiah 11:5, Jeremiah 32:22, Ezekiel 20:6, and Ezekiel 20:15.

Curiosity: X

Stay safe and follow your instincts!

Blessings !!

#witch #afro witch #bruja #brujo #brujeria #witchy #witchraft #sun witch #sun #honey #milk #kitchen witch #solar witch #light witch #christian witch #elements #elemental #elemental witch #green witch

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vezely-a · 4 years

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Mordor’s Geography and Demographics

*this is based on canon, non-canon sources (New Notion Club Archives/former MERP, Shadow of War DLC), and headcanon.

Mordor’s Geography

Mordor concocts an image of a barren, ash-ridden wasteland with Mount Doom rising in the background. However, this land, locked by three sides of mountains, has a more diverse landscape. Gorgoroth, which lays to the southwest of Barad-dûr is the name of the arid plateau. But in the southern most part of Mordor is Núrn. It is more fertile and farm-worthy with soil enriched by the ash blown from Mount Doom. The inland sea of Núrn, a saltwater lake, also sits with many settlements at its edge. Tributaries bring in fresh water from various points.

Mordor’s economy also sustains its populations, feeding and paying them. It relies on trade for the import of goods and fresh slaves to work the mines, clear the roads, and to rebuild the tower of Barad-dûr. Iron ore mined from Ephel Dûath is Mordor’s primary export, though the mines and forges also produce weaponry to be sold to Variag lords who are constantly warring among each other.

Mordor’s Residents

Variags and Núrnish Men

Núrn consists of two mannish populations: Núrniags, a slave-population descended from the original inhabitants of Mordor and mixed with a generation of slaves of Easterling and Haradrim origins. And Variags, a free warrior class who are the local lords and rulers.

The Núrniags work the plantations alongside snaga-orcs. Others are craftsman, technicians, cattle herders, farmers, fishers, and other lower ranks of taskmasters. Several distinct classes of more or less privileged slaves emerge depending on craft. Capable slaves could also respectably rise to become Variags and priestesses.

The Variags of Núrn descended from tribes who migrated in the mid-Second Age under the order of Lord Ûvatha, one of the nine mannish kings who accepted a ring of power. They conquered the local farmers and made them serve the Dark Lord. (The Variags of Khand, which lies east of Mordor, are the same warrior class crafted a century earlier under Ûvatha’s rule in the lands of Khand).

In both Mordor and Khand, Variag society is divided by a ruling-caste of warriors, mercenaries, a small caste of female priestesses, and a lower class of Variag-bastards or slaves. They see themselves as the “chosen people” and care little of other races. They revere Sauron as a god (who they call “Tûmrakhi” in their language, Varadja).

To other nations, Variags are known as a fierce people, skilled warriors, and horseman. Haradric and Rhûnish lands hire them as soldiers and assassins. Mordor employs them as its mercenaries, slave-traders, assassins, and guardians of the caravans and pilgrimage routes. Khand’s loyalty to Sauron brought Khand wealth despite it being a mostly dry and barren land.

Orcs

Various orcs inhabit Gorgoroth including Uruk-hai, common or lesser orcs, Gûshmurashi (a rare crossbreed of the former two), and snaga-orcs. “Snaga” is the orcish term for “slave” and referred to a smaller orc breed.

The orcs did not live among the Variags, but the two interact and Variags employ snaga-orcs for amusement.

Other slaves (not of Núrniag origins)

As Mordor expands its population in preparation for war, there is a need to sustain it. While Núrniags and snaga-orcs are one source, slaves from Haradric and Easterling origins (war-slaves) are brought in. Slaves clear roads of mass debris from the constant eruptions of Mount Doom; a tremendous and deadly task. Slaves also mine ore from the Ephel Dûath mountain range, ploughing fields, harvesting, and later in the Third Age, rebuilding Barad-dûr.

Outliers

Mercenary groups who stand unaffiliated with Mordor reside in territories such as the eastern sector. This inhospitable and were-worm infested land is considered of little strategic or resourceful worth to the empire. In Lithland, an Easterling mercenary group by the name of the Vanishing Sons took up residence in an old Númenórean fortress. They brokered a deal with orcs stationed at Shindrâm, getting paid a monthly bounty to deal with bandits that interfered with marauder camps and supply lines. Mordor covertly commissions this group to conduct campaigns outside Mordor, in regions where Sauron has yet to take political or religious control. These jobs, such as the disruption of trade routes or a murder of a political or religious official, are those which Mordor wants to appear unconnected.

Nazgûl

In T.A. 1980, the Nine, led by the Witch-king of Angmar, come to Mordor to prepare for Sauron’s return. During this time, Mordor attacks and conquers parts of Gondor including laying siege to Minas Ithil in T.A. 2000. After a two year siege, the tower is taken and transformed into Minas Morgul. As Mordor quietly prepares for its master’s return, Nazgûl help direct and oversee the rebuilding.

Sauron does not reveal himself until he departs Dol Guldur so rather he acts under the guise of the “Necromancer,” a great sorcerer on the hill of Amon Lanc. There he secretly searches for the One Ring, delves passages as breeding pits for orcs and trolls, and quietly rebuilds his armies, sending his new orcs south to the plains of Gorgoroth and Núrn.

The Nazgûl and sorcerer-priests act as his agents, furthering his mission in the east and south by conscripting men to do his bidding. the slow corruption of Greenwood into Mirkwood and the waning of Gondorian power in Rhovanion (where the Wainriders, Balchoth, etc. invaded) are phase one. Phase two is a mass migration of Easterlings into the region causing chaos for Gondor and deterring them from knowing of Mordor’s rebuilding.

Hierarchy

Until Sauron returns, the Nazgûl are in charge of operations, though with oversight from Dol Guldur. Caste systems keep the mannish- and orc-slave populations in check (though they hold their own hierarchies). Others are ranked in each occupation. Lieutenants, captains, generals, and so on for armies, masters and apprentices for crafts and trade, lords or chieftains for tribal affiliations, etc. Each ranking system is respective to culture, orc or Variag. There are overseers, advisers, and councils for various sectors.

#hadgalah gazar; archive.#oršin suuh gazar; residence (mordor).#long post.#(( i am proud of this so giving it its own post to reblog #and yes. i think a damn lot about mordor's inner workings since my muse spends centuries working there ))

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biostudyblog · 4 years

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Sensation and Perception

For us to sense the world around us, our sensory organs receive stimuli. The messages those organs produce go through a process known as transduction. This means that the signals are transformed into impulses that travel through the thalamus to the appropriate cortices. Our bodies are constantly sending signals to the brain, but if it were to register every sensation, it would be overwhelming. Imagine feeling, seeing, hearing, touching, etc.. everything. This doesn’t happen due to the combination of sensory adaptation (the decrease in responsiveness to stimuli due to constant stimulation) and sensory habituation (our perception of sensation is partially due to how focused we are on them.) Now that I mention it, you likely will start to feel the socks on your feet, even though you hadn’t noticed that before, as you weren’t focused on the sensation. This connects to the cocktail-party phenomenon which is the idea that as your focus changes, you ignore certain stimuli, for example, at a party, if you’re focused on your friend talking, and someone yells your name across the room, your focus may involuntarily shift to whoever is yelling at you, causing you not to hear what your friend is saying.

ENERGY SENSES

Vision

Step 1: Gathering Light: Light reflects off of surfaces and hits our eyes. The colour we perceive that surface to depend on a few things; one, the light intensity which is to say, how much energy is in the light that hits the eye. The second is the light wavelength, which determines the hue that we see. (Or if we even see it at all- wavelengths longer than visible light such as infrared waves, microwaves and radio waves or shorter than visible light such as UV waves and X-rays aren’t registered by the eye) A mix of all the visible hues of light produces white. When an object appears a certain colour, it has absorbed all other colours and reflected the colour we see it as. A green plant, for example, would not be able to survive in the green light, as it would reflect the green, causing it to starve.

Step 2: Within the Eye: Reflected light enters the eye through the cornea which is a clear protective covering over the eye. The light travels through a hole known as the pupil. The iris (what make your eyes a certain colour) is a collection of muscles which work to constrict the pupil in extremely light situations, and expand the pupil in dark places- this is known as accommodation. The curved lens focuses the light like a camera focuses on an image. The image is flipped upside down as it travels through the lens. This now focused, inverted image project itself on the retina which works as a screen. On this screen are specialised neurons which are activated by light.

Step 3: Transduction: The light needs to be translated into neural impulses to be registered by the brain. There are two kinds of neurons which do that job. Cones, which are activated by colour and rods, which respond to black and white. Rods outnumber cones, and are especially useful in dark situations when colour cannot be registered at all; this is why in the dark, it is nearly impossible to figure out what colour an object is. There just isn’t enough coloured light being reflected for the cones to be activated properly. Cones are concentrated in the centre of the retina. At the very centre of the retina is the fovea; where the highest concentration of cones exists. Peripheral vision depends on cones, while your centred of vision depends on cones (in light, of course). Once enough rods and cones fire, they activate the next layer of bipolar cells; ganglion cells, whose axons make up the optic nerve, sending impulses to the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the thalamus. Messages are relayed to the visual cortex in the occipital lobes. The optic nerve has no rods or cones and is known as your blind spot (different to the driving blind spot). There are two parts to the optic nerve. Impulses from the right side of both retinas go to the right hemisphere, while impulses from the left side of both retinas go to the left hemisphere; it is that separation of the optic nerve that allows this to take place. The spot where the optic nerves cross each other is the optic chiasm.

Here’s a fun experiment to show where the blind spot is. (Here is the original link for anyone curious: https://visionaryeyecare.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/eye-test-find-your-blind-spot-in-each-eye/- it has a few more interesting experiments to try as well)

Sit with your nose between the cross and black circle. Cover your left eye, and look at the cross with your right eye. Move towards the computer while still using your right eye. Eventually, the black circle will disappear and reappear, showing you your blind spot. Do the same with your left eye, except now focus on the black circle. Weird right?? (Science rules!)

Step 4: In the Brain: There is still a lot of debate as to how our visual cortex actually works to register vision. Some say the visual cortex is where sensation ends and perception begins. Some say interpretation begins at the retina. Some say it begins at the thalamus. Scientists David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel were responsible for finding that groups of neurons in the visual cortex respond to different types of visual images. There are feature detectors for vertical lines, curves, motion, and so on.

Theories of Colour Vision

A lot is still unknown about how we see colour. The oldest theory is the Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic theory which hypothesised that we have 3 different typed of cones which detect, red, blue and green. They are activated in different combinations to produce the spectrum of colour we see. There are issues with this theory; namely afterimages and colour blindness. That’s where the opponent-process theory of colour vision comes in. (Not to be confused with the opponent-process theory of emotion. I’ll get to that in a later post). This theory states that sensory receptors are arranged in pairs: red/green, yellow/blue, and black/white. When one sensor is stimulated, its pair is inhibited. This explains after images. Try this illusion out: Stare at this image for 30 seconds, and then look at a white surface. If the flag doesn’t immediately show up try blinking a few times.

What’s happening is that you’ve exhausted your cones, and so the opponents will fire. This is why dichromatic colour blindness also tends to be consistent as to which two colours are affected such as red-green colour blindness, or yellow-blue colour blindness

Hearing

While both vision and hearing are considered energy senses, they are very different stimuli. Sound waves are vibrations in the air, instead of electromagnetic waves used to produce images. The vibrations are captured by our ears and transduced into neural impulses which allow the brain to register and interpret the sound. Sound waves have amplitude and frequency. Amplitude is the height of the wave and determines how loud the sound will be. Frequency is the length of the waves and determines the pitch of the sound. High-frequency waves are densely packed together, while low-frequency waves are spaced apart.

The process of hearing works much like a Rube Goldberg machine, where one thing moving activates the next part of the sequence. The pinna (outer ear) collects sound, which travels down the auditory canal. The sound reaches the tympanic membrane (the eardrum) which vibrates as sound hits it. Attached to the tympanic membrane are the ossicles; the smallest bones in your body. The tympanic membrane is connected to the hammer/malleus, which is connected to the anvil/incus, which is connected to the stirrup/stapes, which all transmit the vibration to the oval window, a similar membrane to the eardrum. The windows membrane is connected to the cochlea, a snail-like structure filled with perilymph, and endolymph. The vibration of the oval window causes these fluids to move. At the base of the cochlea is the basilar membrane, lined with hair cells connected to the Organ of Corti, which are neurons activated by the moving hair cells. The Organ of Corti fires neural impulses and those impulses travel to the brain via the auditory nerve.

Pitch Theories

Place Theory: Place theory states that hair cells in the cochlea respond to different frequencies based on their location. Some bend to high pitches, and others to low pitches.

Frequency Theory: Research has shown that while place theory is accurate for high pitches, but not for low tones, who are sensed by the rate at which the cells fire. We sense pitch because hair cells fire at different rates (frequencies) in the cochlea.

Deafness

For each step in the hearing process, there are just as many ways those steps can go wrong. Conduction deafness refers to a problem conducting sound to the cochlea (so any point in the ear canal, to the eardrum, ossicles, or oval window). Sensorineural deafness occurs when the hair cells in the cochlea are damaged. Often this is caused by overstimulation, causing a high pitched ringing. Prolonged exposure to that much stimulation can severely damage the hair cells which do not regenerate.

Touch

There is one more type of energy sense and it is just as different as the other two. Our skin contains millions of different types of receptors. Some (nociceptors) respond to pain, some (thermoreceptors) respond to temperature. Some (Messiner’s Corpuscles) respond to plain old touch. Some (Pacinian Corpuscles) respond to pressure, all of which can be found all over the skin. The relationship between these receptors is not well understood. What we do know is that the brain interprets the amount of indentation (temperature change) and the intensity of touch. Where nerve endings fire also determines where the touch is coming from. Certain parts of our body have more concentrated amounts of receptors.

For example, in my physiology class, we did an interesting experiment where a friend took a paper clip and unfolded it until it had 2 ends. The friend would poke me on different parts of my skin with either 1 or 2 of the ends and see if I could guess how many ends I was being poked with. On the fingertip, I guessed with 100% accuracy, while on my shoulder, I was guessing the whole time.

Gate-control theory explains how pain is experienced. Some pain messages are more important than others. When a priority message is sent, the “gate” swings open for it and swings shut for lower priority messages. This is why scratching an itch gets rid of the itch. The scratching is a higher priority message, and so the itch is temporarily ignored in order to prioritise the itching. That’s also why you shouldn’t scratch an itch- you’re not doing yourself any good. Endorphins also work to shut this gate, working like morphine to shut off any pain.

CHEMICAL SENSES

Gustation/Taste

Fun fact before I start: I remember that taste is gestation because of Gusteau from Ratatouille who was named after the French word for taste. When you eat food, the tastebuds are not responding to energy, but rather the chemicals on the tongue. These tastebuds are located on papillae, which are bumps on the tongue. There are 5 different kinds of tastebuds scattered throughout the tongue which respond to Sweet, Salty, Bitter, and Umami (savoury). The more densely packed the taste buds, the more intense the taste is. The tongue is not unique to taste; you’ll know this if you’ve ever tried to eat a jalapeno because spicy food stimulates nociceptors, which is why the experience is agonising for some people. Weaker nociceptors increase a person’s spice tolerance, which is why certain cultures do better eating spicy foods; they’ve adapted to the pain.

Smell/Olfaction

Olfaction is created by chemicals entering the nose and being absorbed by receptors on the mucous membrane. A lot is not known about these receptor cells- some researchers estimate there are as many as 100 different types. These cells are linked to the olfactory bulb which gathers messages from olfactory receptor cells and relays them to the brain. The nerve fibres from the olfactory bulb connect to the brain differently than all the other senses; instead of going to the thalamus, the message is sent to the amygdala and then the hippocampus. This could be why smells can trigger memories much more strongly than other senses can.

BODY POSITION SENSES

Let's get something out of the way: you do not have 5 senses. How many you have depends on who you ask, but a prominent one is the sense of position.

Vestibular Sense

Your vestibular sense helps you determine where your body is in space. The semicircular canals in the inner ear are responsible for this. The canals are tubes partially filled endolymph. When the head moves, the fluid moves too. The hair cells activate, sending signals to the brain telling it that the head has moved. Dizziness is caused when the brain receives several conflicting signals in a short period of time, caused by rapid movement, or when you’re in a boat, and the eyes register a static view, while the inner ear is registering all kinds of movement.

Kinesthetic Sense

While vestibular sense tracks the overall orientation of the body, kinesthetic sense tracks the position and orientation of specific body parts. Receptors in muscles and joints send information to the brain, helping the brain track the body.

PERCEPTION

Perception is the process of understanding and interpreting sensations. Psychophysics is a branch of psychology which studies the interaction between sensations and how we experience them.

Thresholds

Senses have limits. The absolute threshold is the smallest amount of stimulus we can detect. There are several videos online helping people track the absolute threshold of pitch that they can detect by playing higher and higher frequencies. The proper definition of the absolute threshold is the minimal amount of stimulus we can detect 50% of the time as things such as other sensory inputs can make studying the absolute threshold extremely difficult. Stimuli below the absolute threshold are referred to as subliminal.

Another important threshold is the difference threshold. This is also referred to as the just-noticeable difference and is rather self-explanatory. It is the smallest amount of change in a stimulus needed for us to detect a change. This threshold is determined by Weber’s Law, discovered by psychophysicist Ernst Weber (it is sometimes called the Weber-Fechner law.) The change needed is proportional to the original intensity of the stimulus. The more intense a stimulus, the more it will need to change before we notice a difference. Each sense varies according to a constant (which differs between the senses). The constant for hearing is 5%- when listening to a 50-decibel tone, it would need to reach 52.5 decibels to notice a difference.

Perceptual Theories

Signal Detection Theory: This theory investigates the effects of distractions and interference we normally experience in our lives. This area of research revolves around attempting to predict what we will perceive. It takes into account how motivated we are to perceive specific stimuli and our expectation. These are known as response criteria or receiver operating characteristics. A false positive is when we think we are perceiving a non-present stimulus. While a false negative is the failure to perceive a present stimulus.

Top-Down Processing: When we use top-down processing, we perceive by filling in gaps what we sense. For example, when reading this sentence: I _m t_king p_ych_ _ gy, you can pretty easily fill in the blanks based on the context of what you read before, and the letters I did give you. In other words, top-down processing uses background knowledge to fill in gaps. Our schemata are mental representations of how we think the world should be. They can create a perceptual set or a predisposition to experience something a specific way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bafuyg98no4- Watch this video about backmasking (”hidden” messages in songs when played backwards.) Try looking away when the song starts playing and then reading the supposed message. I know personally, when I did this, I couldn’t understand the hidden message until I read what I was supposed to be hearing, and then I could hear it clearly. Several parents became worried about this phenomenon, likely because they had schemata of the music their kids were listening to as dangerous.

Bottom-Up Processing: This is also known as feature analysis, where only the features of the object are used to build a perception. This is an automatic process, however, is much slower than top-down processing. As a result, it is less prone to error.

Principles of Visual Perception

There are numerous rules for visual perception. One of the first decisions the brain makes is the figure-ground relationship. This is self-explanatory; what is the figure and what is the background? A famous illusion connected to this principle is the vase face illusion. Do you see the background as black or white? Do you see the figure as the vase or the face?

Gestalt Rules

Gestalt psychologists at the beginning of the twentieth century noted several principles which explain how we perceive groups of objects, and theorised that we perceive images as groups rather than individuals. (Hence the name “Gestalt”) Here is a great diagram from https://www.verywellmind.com/gestalt-laws-of-perceptual-organization-2795835 illustrating those principles.

Proximity: Objects that are close together are more likely to be perceived as a part of the same group

Similarity: Objects that look similar to each other are likely to be perceived as part of one group

Continuity: Objects creating a continuous form are likely to be perceived as part of the same group

Closure: Similar to the sentence connected to top-down processing. Objects making a recognisable image are likely to be viewed as part of the same group

Law of Pragnanz: You are more likely to perceive and interpret complex images as the simplest form possible

Law of Common Region: Objects grouped together within the same region of space tend to be viewed as their own group.

Constancy

Our ability to maintain a constant perception of an object despite a constantly changing world is known as constancy. Here are a few types.

Perceived Motion

Our brains can detect how fast images move across the retinas and use our own motion to determine the speed the object is moving. This causes some interesting phenomena where the brain thinks a still object is moving. For example, you may be familiar with the stroboscopic effect. This is what causes perceived motion in flipbooks. There is also the phi phenomenon. Movie Marquees use this phenomenon by turning on and off lights sequentially, creating the appearance of one moving light.

Depth Cues

Depth perception is what allows us to perceive the world in 3-dimensions rather than 2. Eleanor Gibson performed an interesting experiment known as the visual cliff experiment, which found that crawling toddlers can perceive depth. In this experiment, the infant is placed onto one side of a glass table, creating the appearance of a cliff. The infant would not crawl onto the glass. There are two categories of cues that we use; monocular (needing one eye) and binocular (needing two)

Monocular Cues

Artists tend to use monocular cues to create the illusion of depth in their art. A wonderful artist on deviant art created a really helpful diagram, illustrating each of these ideas. https://www.deviantart.com/akenon/art/Monocular-Cues-34065283

Linear Perspective- In order to draw a faraway house, artists tend to draw two lines which converge at a focal point, taking advantage of the linear perspective cue.

Relative Size Cue- When drawing two similarly sized cats, one far away and one nearby, an artist will draw the faraway cat as significantly smaller, creating the illusion of distance.

Interposition Cue- If the artist draws a cat that is partially obscured by a tree, we will view the tree as closer than the cat.

Texture Gradient- Another way artists create the illusion of distance is by making close up objects more detailed than those faraway

Shadowing- By using shading in an image, an artist can imply a light source, further implying depth in the image.

Binocular Cues

Binocular Disparity/Retinal Disparity- Each eye sees an object at a slightly different angle. The farther away an object is, the more similarly the eyes will perceive it, the closer it is, the more retinal disparity there will be. Notice in this diagram how the trees don’t seem to move, but the finger moves drastically?

Convergence- As an object comes closer to our face, the eyes must move towards each other to keep it in focus. The more the eyes converge, the closet the object is.

How Culture Affects Perception

One of the more interesting (in my opinion) parts of psychology is exploring how culture affects us. Some of the perceptual rules that for years psychologists believed to be innate are actually learnt. Cultures which don’t use monocular depth cues in their art don’t see depth in pictures using these cues. It also affects how optical illusions affect our brains. The famous Muller-Lyer illusion often does not affect cultures that don’t use right angles and corners in architecture.

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peterstanslizzie · 4 years

Text

Reacting to: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Season 5 Episode 1)

Episode Title: Horde Prime

Introduction

Just before starting this episode, my heart was beating so fast. I was so excited and could barely contain myself. At the same time, I’m kinda sad that the whole series is coming to a close but I’m positive that She-Ra will end on a high note. So, without further ado, let’s begin my review of episode 1:

Spoiler Warning: Kindly proceed if you’ve already seen the episode or are able to handle spoilers.

Key Highlights

‘Adora’s isn’t She-Ra anymore’ Complex

She looks so good with her hair down like that

Adora is struggling with the fact that she can no longer transform into She-Ra after breaking the Sword of Protection in the Crystal Castle in Season 4′s finale. So, she’s trying to over-compensate this by constantly charging herself into battle to prove that she isn’t useless. And people like Bow, Mermista etc. reminding her that she’s not She-Ra anymore definitely triggers her even further.

After facing a near death experience when Horde Prime’s robot army invaded their base camp, she finally realizes that she doesn’t have to save Etheria alone and she should allow her friends to help her. Personally, I totally understand why Adora feels this way. The main reason why she’s known to be this hero to everyone is because she’s She-Ra. But I just hope that her stubbornness in always having to be only one saving the day won’t keep coming back in future episodes.

The Newest Guests of Horde Prime (HP): Catra and Glimmer

As a lot of people have predicted on social media, Catra has a lot more freedom than Glimmer to roam around Horde Prime’s base. Glimmer always has to be escorted by HP’s clones whenever she leaves her prison cell. Catra also pleads her allegiance to HP but that doesn’t seem to be enough for him because he can tell just by her body language and heart rate that she has feelings for Adora. Hmm, do tell 😬....I think HP was referring to the part where she scratched the dining table when he mentioned Adora’s name. It was such a dead giveaway.

It’s becoming a possibility that HP is either going to brainwash Catra or do something to make sure she’s 100% committed to serving him. It’s probably the former because he called her “little sister” towards the end of the episode, just like he calls Hordak his little brother. I’m not sure how Catra’s going to be redeemed in season 5 but whatever the case may be, I’m pretty sure she’s going to double cross HP but the result of her defecting will probably cost her a lot.

As for Glimmer, she’s feeling very hopeless at the moment because her powers don’t work there and she knows that HP’s army is threatening her friends and people back in Etheria. Unfortunately, in order to prevent HP from killing Adora, she reveals to him that in order to get the Heart of Etheria to work, She-Ra is needed.

In terms of the current dynamic between Glimmer and Catra, not much has changed this episode from before. Catra is trying to convince herself to Glimmer that she’s still in alliance with the Horde, regardless if it’s with Horde Prime this time. Glimmer thinks that Catra is foolish to trust him because of what happened to Hordak. I definitely agree with Glimmer here.

Adora’s Dreams

Lately, Adora has been seeing a glowing She-Ra figure in her dreams as well as visions of Horde Prime and a special, hidden part of the Whispering Woods that Madame Razz is familiar with. Her dreams remind her that the Rebellion does in fact, have another place that they can seek refuge from HP because their first hideout had already been discovered. And this place so happens to be that secret place within the Whispering Woods.

As for her specific visions of She-Ra, it’s probably there because she’s now more than eager to transform back into She-Ra. But I’m also pretty sure that it’s part of some kind of message that the spirit of She-Ra is trying to send to Adora.

The Princesses of Power

I was so pumped to see Perfuma, Mermista, Frosta and Scorpia use their powers to fight off HP’s army. Right now, they’re needed more than ever because Adora can’t use her powers and Glimmer isn’t around. I’m especially happy that Scorpia is now playing an active role in the Rebellion and she’s gotten really good at using her lightning powers.

As for Entrapta, I just love her so much. Like Scorpia, I’m glad she’s with the Rebellion and working with Bow to upgrade Mara’s ship so that they can go into space to rescue Glimmer, wherever she may be. I also hope that she will be one of the ones to travel to space because she definitely still has some unfinished business with Catra and Hordak.

Key Questions

Is Shadow Weaver Trustworthy?

With King Micah coming back, he still has some resentment towards Shadow Weaver for having betrayed him and the fellow sorcerers of Mystacor. The two of them disagree on what the Rebellion’s plan of action should be; Shadow Weaver is adamant that they should use the Heart of Etheria against HP’s forces but that definitely isn’t a possibility since Glimmer and She-Ra aren’t available. So far, Shadow Weaver hasn’t done anything villainous in a long time but I still don’t trust her because she can act really shady at times. However, she did save King Micah from one of HP’s bots by throwing a bottle of acid at it lol.

Will We See Madame Razz in the Whispering Woods?

We last saw Madame Razz in the Season 4 episode, ‘Hero’, where Adora finds out the truth about Mara and how she actually saved Etheria unlike what was told to Adora by the corrupted Light Hope. Since the Rebellion will be setting up their new base within the Whispering Woods, I wonder if they will bump into her and will she be of any help to them? But first of all, Adora needs to stop that constant flash of images running through her mind that’s been giving her such a bad headache.

Random Thoughts

1. My boy, Sea-Hawk makes a really brief appearance, without any dialogue here. But why was he polishing his sword with a leaf? LOL

2. Did you catch the Sword of Protection shining a little? Was it the reflection of the sunlight or was it the sword itself?

3. I’m glad to see the other Mystacor sorcerers actually doing something. I’ve always wanted to see more from them.

4. I’m loving the new dynamic I’m seeing here between Scorpia and Swift Wind. They do seem to share really similar personalities.

5. This HP clone’s cute-startled face does kinda look like Hordak’s. By the way, Scorpia’s impersonation of Hordak was so accurate.

6. Horde Prime is starting off as a strong and intimidating villain so far; Far beyond Hordak ever was. He really knows how make even the boldest (Catra) crack under pressure.

Closing Off

Thank you all so much for reading my review of episode 1. I’m so excited to see what will happen next! Tune in tomorrow for my review of episode 2. Bye!

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bluewatsons · 4 years

Conversation

Philippe Mikriammos, A Conversation with William Burroughs, 4 Rev Contemp Fiction (1984)

Philippe Mikriammos: To what extent is the prologue to Junky autobiographical?

William S. Burroughs: Largely.

Philippe Mikriammos: Several people have mentioned a text of yours called Queer, which would be a continuation of your Mexican adventures and of Junky. What has become of these pages?

William S. Burroughs: It’s in the archives. Now, the catalogue of the archives was published by the Covent Garden Bookshop. It took us five months to get all the manuscripts, letters, photographs, etc., from fifteen, twenty years. And the archives are in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. Whether they will let it be transferred to Columbia University in America, I don’t know. But Roberto Altmann, who has the archives at the present time, has not made them available yet. He is setting up something called the International Center of Arts and Communication in Vaduz. But they had a landslide which destroyed part of the building, and they haven’t opened it yet. The catalogue’s a very long book; it’s over three hundred pages. And I wrote about a hundred pages of introductory material to the different files, and where this was produced and so on and so forth. Literary periods, what I wrote, where, and all that, is in the catalogue, and the material itself, including this manuscript Queer, is in the archives.

Philippe Mikriammos: Did you use parts of the Queer material in other books?

William S. Burroughs: No, no. Frankly, I consider it a rather amateurish book and I did not want to republish it.

Philippe Mikriammos: In The Subterraneans, Kerouac spoke of “the accurate images I’d exchanged with Carmody in Mexico.” Does this sentence refer to experiences in telepathy and non-verbal communication between you and him?

William S. Burroughs: Well, I think we did some elementary experiments, yes.

Philippe Mikriammos: Have you been influenced by Celine?

William S. Burroughs: Yes, very much so.

Philippe Mikriammos: Did you ever meet him?

William S. Burroughs: Yes, I did. Allen and I went out to meet him in Meudon shortly before his death. Well, it was not shortly before, but two or three years before.

Philippe Mikriammos: Would you agree to say that he was one of the very rare French novelists who wrote in association blocks?

William S. Burroughs: Only in part. I think that he is in a very old tradition, and I myself am in a very old tradition, namely, that of the picaresque novel. People complain that my novels have no plot. Well, a picaresque novel has no plot. It is simply a series of incidents. And that tradition dates back to the Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter, and to one of the very early novels, The Unfortunate Traveler by Thomas Nashe. And I think Celine belongs to this same tradition. But remember that what we call the “novel” is a highly artificial form, which came in the nineteenth century. It’s quite as arbitrary as the sonnet. And that form had a beginning, a middle, and an end; it has a plot, and it has this chapter structure where you have one chapter, and then you try to leave the person in a state of suspense, and on to the next chapter, and people are wondering what happened to this person, and so forth. That nineteenth-century construction has become stylized as the novel, and anyone who writes anything different from that is accused of being unintelligible. That form has imposed itself to the present time.

Philippe Mikriammos: And it’s not vanishing.

William S. Burroughs: Well, no, it’s not vanishing. All the best-sellers are still old fashioned novels, written precisely in that nineteenth-century format. And films of course are following suit.

Philippe Mikriammos: Would you say that Kerouac also belonged to the picaresque novel?

William S. Burroughs: I would not place Jack Kerouac in the picaresque tradition since he is dealing often with factual events not sufficiently transformed and exaggerated to be classified as picaresque.

Philippe Mikriammos: Isn’t it a bit striking that a major verbal innovator like you has expressed admiration for writers who are not mainly verbal innovators themselves: Conrad, Genet, Beckett, Eliot?

William S. Burroughs: Well, excuse me, Eliot was quite a verbal innovator. The Waste Land is, in effect, a cut-up, since it’s using all these bits- and-pieces of other writers in an associational matrix. Beckett I would say is in some sense a verbal innovator. Of course Genet is classical. Many of the writers I admire are not verbal innovators at all, as you pointed out. Among these I would mention Genet and Conrad; I don’t know if you can call Kafka a verbal innovator. I think Celine is, to some extent. Interesting about Celine, I find the same critical misconceptions put forth by critics with regard to his work are put forth to mine: they said it was a chronicle of despair, etc.; I thought it was very funny! I think he is primarily a humorous writer. And a picaresque novel should be very lively and very funny.

Philippe Mikriammos: What other writers have influenced you or what ones have you liked?

William S. Burroughs: Oh, lots of them: Fitzgerald, some of Hemingway; “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” was a great short story.

Philippe Mikriammos: Dashiell Hammett?

William S. Burroughs: Well … yes, I mean it’s of course minor, but Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler in that genre, which is a minor genre, and it’s not realistic at all. I mean this idea that this is the hard boiled, realistic style is completely mythologic. Raymond Chandler is a writer of myths, of criminal myths, not of reality at all. Nothing to do with reality.

Philippe Mikriammos: You have developed a personal type of writing called the “routine.” What exactly is a routine?

William S. Burroughs: That phrase was really produced by Allen Ginsberg; it simply means a usually humorous, sustained tour de force, never more than three or four pages.

Philippe Mikriammos: You read a lot of science fiction, and have expressed admiration for The Star Virus by Barrington Bayley and Three to Conquer by Eric Frank Russell. Any other science fiction books that you have particularly liked?

William S. Burroughs: Fury, by Henry Kuttner. I don’t know, there are so many of them. There’s something by Poul Anderson, I forget what it was called, Twilight World. There are a lot of science fiction books that I have read, but I have forgotten the names of the writers. Dune I like quite well.

Philippe Mikriammos: There is no particular science-fiction author that has notably influenced you?

William S. Burroughs: No, various books from here and there. Now, H. G. Wells, yes, The Time Machine, and I think he has written some very good science fiction.

Philippe Mikriammos: What about the other Burroughs, Edgar Rice?

William S. Burroughs: Well, no. That’s for children.

Philippe Mikriammos In The Ticket That Exploded you write: “There is no real thing— all show business.” Have Buddhism, Zen, and Oriental thinking in general exerted a strong influence on you?

William S. Burroughs: No. I am really not very well acquainted with the literature, still less with the practice of yoga and Zen. But on one point I am fully in agreement, that is, all is illusion.

Philippe Mikriammos: Has the use of apomorphine made any progress that you know of since you started recommending and advocating its use?

William S. Burroughs: No, on the contrary. Too bad, because it is effective.

Philippe Mikriammos: In a recent interview, you said that apomorphine combined with Lomotil and acupuncture was the remedy for withdrawal. What was wrong or insufficient with apomorphine to require the combination of two other elements?

William S. Burroughs: I found out about Lomotil in America some time ago, and then doctors have been using it here with pretty good results. The thing about apomorphine is that it requires pretty constant attendance. In other words, you’ve got to really have a day and a night nurse, and those injections have to be given every four hours. And it isn’t everybody that’s in a position to do that. But at least for the first four days, it requires rather intensive care. And it is quite unpleasant.

Philippe Mikriammos: And it’s emetic…

William S. Burroughs: Well, no, there’s no necessity; see, it’s not an aversion therapy and there’s no necessity for the person to be sick more than once or twice when they find the threshold dose. They find the maximum dose that can be administered without vomiting, and they stick with that dose. You’ll get decreased tolerance; sometimes the threshold dose will go down. Usually, almost anyone will vomit on a tenth of a grain. So then they start reducing it, but as the treatment goes on, you may find that a twentieth of a grain or even less than a twentieth of a grain produces vomiting again. You may get decreased tolerance in the course of the treatment. So it’s something that has to be done very precisely, and of course people must know exactly what they’re doing. It’s very elastic, because some people will take large doses without vomiting, and some people will vomit on very small doses. Continual adjustments have to be made.

Philippe Mikriammos: And acupuncture?

William S. Burroughs: Well, I thought immediately when I saw these accounts, as well as a television presentation of operations with acupuncture, that anything that relieves intense pain will necessarily relieve withdrawal symptoms. Then they started using it for withdrawal symptoms, apparently with very good results, and are using it here, I think.

Philippe Mikriammos: Most of your books definitely have a cinematographic touch. The Last Words of Dutch Schultz actually is a film script, and The Wild Boys and Exterminator! are full of cinematographic details and indications

William S. Burroughs: That’s true, yes.

Philippe Mikriammos: Why haven’t we seen any film made from one of your books?

William S. Burroughs: Well, we’ve tried to get financing on the Dutch Schultz script, but so far it hasn’t developed. Very, very hard to get people to put up money for a film.

Philippe Mikriammos: What films have you liked recently?

William S. Burroughs: I like them when I go, when I see them, but it’s rather hard to get myself out to see a film. I haven’t seen many films lately. I saw A Clockwork Orange; I thought it was competent and fun, well done, though I don’t think I could bear to see it again.

Philippe Mikriammos: Do you write every day?

William S. Burroughs: I used to. I haven’t been doing anything lately because I gave a course in New York, and that took up all my time; then I was moving into a new flat there, so that during the last five months, I haven’t really been doing much writing.

Philippe Mikriammos: When you write, how long is it each day?

William S. Burroughs: Well, I used to write… it depends … up to three, four hours, sometimes more, depending on how it’s going.

Philippe Mikriammos: What is the proportion of cut-up in your recent books, The Wild Boys and Exterminator!?

William S. Burroughs: Small. Small. Not more than five percent, if that.

Philippe Mikriammos: Parts of Exterminator! look like poems. How do you react to the words poem, poetry, poet?

William S. Burroughs: Well, as soon as you get away from actual poetic forms, rhyme, meter, etc., there is no line between prose and poetry. From my way of thinking, many poets are simply lazy prose writers. I can take a page of descriptive prose and break it into lines, as I’ve done in Exterminator!, and then you’ve got a poem. Call it a poem.

Philippe Mikriammos: Memory and remembrances of your youth tend to have a larger and larger place in your recent books.

William S. Burroughs: Yes, yes. True.

Philippe Mikriammos: How do you explain it?

William S. Burroughs: Well, after all, youthful memories I think are one of the main literary sources. And while in Junky, and to a lesser extent in Naked Lunch, I was dealing with more or less recent experiences, I’ve been going back more and more to experiences of childhood and adolescence.

Philippe Mikriammos: Parts of Exterminator! sound like The Wild Boys continued. We find again Audrey Carson, and other things. Did you conceive it that way, as a continuation of Wild Boys, or is it just a matter of recurrent themes?

William S. Burroughs: Any book that I write, there will be probably…say if I have a book of approximately two hundred pages…you can assume that there were six hundred. So, there’s always an overflow into the next book. In other words, my selection of materials is often rather arbitrary. Sometimes things that should have gone in, didn’t go in, and sometimes what was selected for publication is not as good as what was left out. In a sense, it’s all one book. All my books are all one book. So that was overflow; some of it was overflow material from The Wild Boys, what didn’t go into The Wild Boys for one reason or another. There are sections of course in The Wild Boys that should have gone into Exterminator!, like the first section, which doesn’t belong with the rest of the book at all; it would have been much better in Exterminator!, the Tio Mate section. There’s no relation really between that and the rest of the book.

Philippe Mikriammos: There was the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and then The Wild Boys, subtitled “A Book of the Dead.” Am I stupid in seeing a connection between them.

William S. Burroughs: Oh no, the connection I think is very clear: everyone in the book is dead. Remember that Audrey is killed in the beginning of the book, in an auto accident.

Philippe Mikriammos: Did you inspire yourself from the old books of the Dead?

William S. Burroughs: To some extent, yes. I’ve read them both; not all of the Egyptian one, my God, or all of the Tibetan one, but I looked through them. In other words, the same concepts are there between birth and death, or between death and birth.

Philippe Mikriammos: You have kept an unchanged point of view about the origins of humanity’s troubles. In The Naked Lunch you wrote: “The Evil is waiting out there, in the land. Larval entities waiting for a live one,” and in Exterminator!, “The white settlers contracted a virus,” and this virus is the word. But who put the word there in the first place?

William S. Burroughs: Well, the whole white race, which has proved to be a perfect curse on the planet, have been largely conditioned by their cave experience, by their living in caves. And they may actually have contracted some form of virus there, which has made them what they’ve been, a real menace to life on the planet.

Philippe Mikriammos: So the Evil always comes from outside, from without?

William S. Burroughs: I don’t think there’s any distinction, within/without. A virus comes from the outside, but it can’t harm anyone until it gets inside. It is extraneous in or??ìp

Philippe Mikriammos: Speaking of coming in and out, as you were arriving in London for a visit late in 1964, you were allowed only fourteen days by the authorities, without explanations. Have you had to suffer from a lot of harassment from authorities?

William S. Burroughs: Very little. That was straightened out by the Arts Council and was of course prompted by the American Narcotics Department. Allen Ginsberg had the same difficulties. The American Narcotics Department would pass the word along to other authorities. Well, I got that immediately straightened out through the Arts Council; I’ve never had any trouble since.

Philippe Mikriammos: May I ask the reasons for why you are moving to New York?

William S. Burroughs: Well, I like it better. New York is very much more lively than London, and actually cheaper now. I find it a much more satisfactory place to live. New York has changed; New York is better than it was; London is worse than it was.

Philippe Mikriammos: You have always described the System as matriarchal. Do you still have the same opinion?

William S. Burroughs: Well, the situation has changed radically, say from what it was in the 1920s when I was a child; you could describe that as a pretty hard-core matriarchal society. Now, the picture is much more complicated with the pill and the sexual revolution and Women’s Lib, which allegedly is undermining the matriarchal system. That is, at least that’s what they say they’re doing, that they want women to be treated like everyone else and not have special prerogatives simply because they’re women. So, I don’t know exactly how you would describe the situation now. It’s certainly not a patriarchal society—I am speaking of America now—but I don’t think you could describe it as an archetypal or uniform matriarchal society either, except for the southern part of the United States. You see, the southern part of the United States was always the stronghold of matriarchy, the concept of the “Southern belle” and the Southern woman. And that is still in existence, but it’s on the way out, undoubtedly.

Philippe Mikriammos: You call for a mutation as the only way out of the present mess. Right now, what positive signs, factors, or forces do you see working toward such a mutation?

William S. Burroughs: Well, there are all sorts of factors. Actually, if you read a book like The Biologic Time Bomb by Taylor, you’ll see that such mutations are well within the range of modern biology, that these things can be done, right now. We don’t have to wait three hundred years. But what he points out is that the discoveries of modern biology could not be absorbed by our creaky social systems. Even such a simple thing as prolonging life. Whose life is going to be prolonged? Who is to decide whether certain people’s lives are going to be prolonged and certain other people’s are not? Certainly politicians are not competent to make these decisions.

Philippe Mikriammos: You hate politicians, right?

William S. Burroughs: No, I don’t hate politicians at all, I’m not interested in politicians. I find the type of mind, the completely extraverted, image-oriented, power-oriented thinking of the politicians dull. In other words, I’m bored by politicians; I don’t hate them. It’s just not a type of person that interests me.

Philippe Mikriammos: What are your methods of writing at present?

William S. Burroughs: Methods? I don’t know. I just sit down and write! I write in short sections; in other words, I write a section, maybe of narrative, and then I reach into that, but if it doesn’t continue, I’ll write something else, and then try to piece them together. The Wild Boys was written over a period of time; some of it was written in Marrakech, some of it was written in Tangiers, and a good deal was written in London. I always write on the typewriter, never in longhand.

Philippe Mikriammos: What is, in The Wild Boys, the meaning of sentences like “A pyramid coming in…two…three..four pyramids coming in…”?

William S. Burroughs: That is an exercise of visualizing geometric figures which I have run across in various psychic writings.

Philippe Mikriammos: Would you be interested in testing psychotronic generators too?

William S. Burroughs: Yes, the various devices described in Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. They have now come out with another book called A Handbook of PSI Discoveries, which is a how-to book telling just how to do Kirlian photography how to build all these machines and generators and so on. I’m very interested in experimenting with those if I have the opportunity, time, and money.

Philippe Mikriammos: In the mid-seventies, you write that you wanted to create a new myth for the Space Age. Is it what you are still trying to do, and do you use the word myth in a particular sense?

William S. Burroughs: I feel that I am still working along the line of a myth for the Space Age and that all my books are essentially one book. I use myth in the conventional meaning.

#interviews #writing #greats #writers on writers #literature #william s. burroughs #contemporary fiction #critique #drugs #drug addicts #science fiction #space age #mythos #matriarchy #society

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talbottoalam · 4 years

Photo

Hedi Slimane by Benjamin Chait

Aesthetics define photography and they also help in shaping a fashion sensibility. For French designer and photographer Hedi Slimane (born Paris, France, 1968) they are one in the same. Slimane is most widely recognized for his work as a fashion designer and creative director for the houses of Yves Saint Laurent, Dior Homme, Saint Laurent, and currently for his position at the house of Celine. His fashion designs are in many ways married to his photographs, specifically in their shared obsessions with youth, rock n’ roll, glamour, and California. Born in Paris, Slimane remembers picking up his first black and white camera at age eleven to begin recording the time he was living in.According to him, his preference for black and white photographs dates back all the way to Nadar, who Slimane feels is the father of the French photographic tradition he participates in with his camera. Following his departure from his first appointment at a fashion house in 2000, Slimane began a residency at the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin and published his first book of photographs. Throughout his many high-profile and highly profitable appointments within the fashion industry, photography has remained a constant focus for Slimane.

Naturally his talent as a photography and his talents at clothing designers would bleed into one and another, (and with the power appointed to him by his role as creative director) and so Slimane began shooting his own fashion campaigns, first at Saint Laurent and then at Celine. Before Slimane’s first runway debut for Celine’ Spring/Summer 2019 collection, he began “teasing” the world with his vision for the house by posting his photographs to the brand’s Instagram account. Fashion critic Robin Givhan noted that the photographs were united in that they all featured “young, androgynous models staring into the camera and looking vaguely dissolute.” This choice of subject is something that crosses over between Slimane’s fashion work (both photography and design) and his personal photographs.

Slimane’s photographs that were used as advertisements for Celine (figures 1-3) show a range in his fashion design abilities, but a rather singular, if not limited vision as a photographer. All the photographs were presented through Instagram with the Celine-branded format. The portrait of Liv is one of the teaser shots and shows a thin female form wearing an extravagant couture dress. What makes it Slimane is the messy unkempt hair and skeletal frame. Having Liv’s back positioned towards the camera adds an aura an anonymity—this could be any woman, hopefully a client. Within this series of ads is a similar photograph, but here the work is a color photograph and of a male model with long blonde hair modeling a leopard-print jacket. The texture of long shaggy hair is almost surfer life, and beautifully contrasts with the pattern of the jacket. Slimane does not often use color in his work, but it may have been a pressure brought about by the demands of social media (color photos tend to be more popular) and the business side of Celine who may feel that a color image better shows a range in offerings from Slimane’s collection. Fashion photographer is a tricky art to master as there are other considerations beyond the story and the aesthetic needs of the image; the clothes must look desirable. The concept of fashion photography is nothing new to Slimane, who has shot stories for Elle, V Magazine, and Vogue Russia. He told The New York Times, “Occasionally, I would shoot fashion photography, but it is a photographic repertoire of its own, and about a certain romanticism, precisely composed, with a production, groomers, stylist, etc.”

One of the ads, by default considered a fashion photograph, is a still-life shot of disco balls in Berlin taken by Slimane. Without product visible in the shot, the suggestion is that music and night clubs are an essential part of the Slimane’s vision for the brand. The music scene has been a relentless reference for Slimane, along with the subcultures of skating and surfing which he started shooting in 2007 when he moved to California from Paris. While at Saint Laurent Slimane photographed a series of rock icons such as Courtney Love, Marilyn Manson, and Joni Mitchell in an ongoing campaign. The obsession with these subcultures is best documented on Slimane’s website, hedislimane.com/diary. This ongoing photo project was launched in 2006 and is full of thousands of images of his life in Los Angeles and around the world. They are all in black and white with high contrast and strong grain. Most images do not feel stage, but instead assume the atmosphere of a photographer on commission to capture a secret youth society that you will never be invited to join. Prevalent in this body of work is Slimane’s obsession with young, thin, blonde men. This is evident in three photos from a series published on his website in the fall 2017 (figures 3-6). Two photographs are live action shots of skateboarders in action. The long messy blonde hair mirrors the style seen in his later Celine ads; from a Californian skate park to a high fashion house in Paris. The shots are irreverent and also extremely beautiful. The black and white adds a sense of balance and serenity to the chaotic scene taking place. Though Slimane has stated he likes to keep his photographic work under his name to protect his creative boundaries, there are clear trends between his life in Los Angeles and his fashion collections. His photographs provide the key to this. Though the handsome young man in figure 4 is a part of the Californian skate subculture, his likeness in Slimane's photograph stamps him with a fashionable, even sexualized gaze. His skinny frame, boy-like features, and undefined age suggest a creepy aspect to Slimane’s work. Slimane's fascination with a certain type of youth (white, thin, rebellious) penetrates his personal and professional fashion photographs. The only difference is really the background and the context. Slimane told the Business of Fashion that he is trying to recapture parts of his youth through his photographs, saying, “I always looked at my own youth with a distance. I was not really part of the action, and watched all my friends around me through a lens, the observation of the fields of possible emerging talents and restless behaviors.”[8] His photographs, whether they be his fashion photographs or his personal diary, display a singular style of the highest technical quality. Together they form a unique vocabulary, making mundane sub-cultures and grungy rock shows feel glamorous, and injecting a sense of rebellion and youth into high fashion.

The young kids that populate his photographs and inspire his fashion collections, be them models, rock stars, or skaters, surrender their devil-may-care sense of cool to Slimane. Slimane is not cool himself, per se. But his photographs are, and so are his collections. Of course, the lives of those skater kids are not particularly enviable. They only become so after they are glamorized, really aestheticized by Slimane’s lens. This is why Slimane is not—contrary to his own beliefs—a reportage photographer. Furthermore, participating in the fashion system only makes one a cog in a larger capitalist machine. Buying a Celine leopard-print jacket will not transform one into a cool long-haired skater, the kind of man Slimane fetishizes in his photographs. But perhaps that is the very brilliance of Hedi Slimane; he makes things appear more desirable than they actually are. His consumers are on some level conscious that his photographs fuel the desirability of his clothing collections. And yet they buy them anyway. The subjects of Slimane’s diary photographs will never be able to purchase the clothing he designs, and yet they pose for him. Each camp markets in what the other will never have. Slimane acts as the middle man. Through his photographs and collections, he has mastered and commodified the one thing that is certain to fade: youth.

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rivaltierno · 4 years

Photo

I’ve been meaning to update Mmeeie’s profile + reference art for a bit now, and after a good two weeks of work on it, I’ve finally done that.

The updates to her design is mainly just the different color palette, though her profile is changed a bit more. Most notably, I significantly fleshed out her backstory and added sections talking about the most important relationships she has. I also tweaked a couple other things like her personality and explained some of her powers more in-depth.

The profile itself is written under the cut, but before that a few notes to help clear up some things that may be confusing while reading it:

- I don’t know the names of the DC Earths, so I just tried to vaguely describe each universe she went to in her backstory. If it’s not clear, the universes she went in order are: the Hanna-Barbera Superfriends cartoon, the 2003 animated Teen Titans series, the Teen Titans Go! cartoon, and the Static Shock cartoon.

- Since Teen Titans Go! has no consistent timeline (or continuity in general really), the timeline part of her backstory is based on Static Shock (or how I’m interpreting its timeline at least). She first goes to the Static Shock universe in mid-Season 3 (between “Showtime” and “Romeo in the Mix” specifically), and then the second time is in early Season 4 during the episode “She-Back!”.

- I’m operating under the idea that these universes have parallel timelines of sorts, which is why the modern-day Teen Titans Go! universe exists at the same time as the early 2000s Static Shock universe and Mmeeie can so easily jump between them. (Since the Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans crossover movie those had universes interacting with no timeline trouble I’m going to say that's kinda canon anyway.)

Name: Mmeeie (pronounced as the letters M-E)

Other Aliases: Emmy Maxwell (only used while in human disguise)

Species: Fifth-Dimensional Imp

Age: 15

Gender: Mmeeie doesn’t know nor does she care to find out. Will dismiss people if asked what her gender is.

Pronouns: She/Her; no pronouns (when back home in Zrfff)

Sexual Orientation: Attracted exclusively to girls

Birthday: December 1st (Sagittarius)

Home Location: Zrfff, Fifth Dimension

Alignment: Neutral, leaning towards Chaotic

Height: 2′9″ (normal), 4′9″ (human disguise)

Weight: Weightless

Physical Description: Short and fat. Dark green eyes and matching hair, her hair pulled into low-hanging pigtails, the ends perpetually curled upward. Grayish-blue skin color.

When in her human disguise, still short and fat. Blue eyes and black hair, her hair worn down and the ends still pointed upwards, but split into two sections on each side. Pinkish-white skin color

Clothing Description: A green full body suit with a high popped collar and gold-colored insignia with the letters ‘M’ and ‘E’ inside a pointed-down triangle on the chest. Gold-colored gloves reaching just above the elbow, gold-colored boots reaching just below the knee and curving down in a ‘V’ shape at the top, a gold-colored belt wore at the waist and curving down in a ‘V’ shape, and a gold-colored headband. A light orange flight disc with boot-shaped latches on top.

When in her human disguise*, an orange t-shirt with a "Burger Fool" logo on it and a light blue-and-gray stripped long sleeve undershirt. A calf-length dark blue denim skirt. Tan boots with pale yellow fluff at the top. A light blue headband with orange butterflies on it, and five jelly bracelets (two orange, two tan, and one black) on each arm. A light orange walker. *Note that the clothing for her human disguise changes based on the universe she's in to try and blend in better. The clothing seen/described here is specifically for when she's in the "Static Shock" universe, since that's really the only time she uses this disguise at the moment. The walker stays the same, however.

Powers/Abilities:

Reality Warping: Like all Imps, Mmeeie has the ability to change reality to her own desires. She mainly uses this power to transform objects/create new objects, though she will sometimes use it to change the physical environment around her into something else.

However, her ability to create new environments is noticeably weaker than her ability to change objects. This is partially due to her inexperience in using her powers (as she simply creates new objects more often in her daily life than changing the physical landscape of things), and partially because wide-scale changes such as environmental ones requires a lot more focus from her, which she doesn’t like to give most of the time.

She also has difficulties disappearing objects once she’s created them, again due to still learning to fully use her powers. This is why she prefers to summon up objects that can easily be gotten rid of (money, food, etc.). To give the illusion that she can just as easily disappear them, however, she hides them away in a pocket dimension she has access to, since that’s where she keeps all of her things when she’s traveling around anyway.

Likewise, her objection creation is limited to only items without a consciousness, so if she wanted/had to create something that was alive, she couldn't summon up an animal, but could a plant. This is because only adult Imps are able to properly create consciousness for their items, which is also why Mmeeie isn't able to bring inanimate objects to life with her environment-warping abilities.

Mild Omniscience: Also like other Imps, Mmeeie is omniscient, though it’s mild. Her omnisciency level requires her to be both physically in a particular universe and near the people she wants to learn about to fully gain knowledge about them. For example, she could learn everything there is to know about a person, including everything they’ve ever done and why, within a minute or two just by looking at them, but she has to be in close proximity to them for it to work, and she can only do it to one person at a time.

This is only the case for learning about people, though; to fully learn about a universe’s history and past major events, she simply just has to be in the universe proper, not near where the actual events took place. However, she tends to focus on just events that particularly interest her or she’s asked about directly, as learning about events/history takes a lot more focus than learning about people, and like with her reality warping, she doesn’t like to give it most of the time.

Further, she can learn about current/active events without being in a universe physically. She has the ability to open “universe windows” to other universes and peak in on them. She can’t interact with the universe’s inhabitants through that window, and can only watch one event in that universe at a time, but she can see everything that’s going on without anyone else being aware of it. She can also open multiple windows at a time if she wants to, but the images get blurrier/less detailed if more than one is being used.

These limitations to her omnisciency are mainly due to her age - only adult Imps have the ability to gain full knowledge of a universe’s history and inhabitants instantaneously - though some of them, such as only being able to have one clear window at a time, is due to her still learning to fully use her powers.

Teleportation: Teleportation is Mmeeie’s method of traveling between universes/dimensions, though it can also be used on a smaller scale to get from place-to-place as well. Similarly, it is also her preferred method of movement when she cannot use her flight disc.

She is also able to take objects/others along with her when she’s teleporting, but only if she’s directly holding onto them. She can’t teleport objects/others by themselves, either, again due to her inexperience with her powers.

Weapons: Mmeeie can conjure up weapons, though she she very rarely uses them as she’s not a physical fighter. Since these weapons are mainly just for fun/show, they are cartoony looking, being black, magenta, cyan, and yellow in color. Her favorite is the giant mallet, though she has a saw blade and a laser gun as well.

Personality: Mmeeie’s main goal is to enjoy herself and live life exactly as she wants it to go. Due to being an Imp and having the powers that comes with it, she views herself as inherently better than most others. She puts her own thoughts and desires before everyone else, only taking others seriously and considering their feelings if she’s fond of them. For everyone else, she enjoys bothering and inconveniencing them just to bother and inconvenience them, ignoring all of the consequences and criticisms that doing so brings.

Despite her self-focused thought process, however, Mmeeie does legitimately enjoy having close relationships and hanging out with others, and was genuinely distraught to find out that her ego and constant ribbing of people weren’t endearing traits to those in other universes like they were on Zrfff. For those she’s fond of, or at least wants to gain some kind of acquaintanceship with, she does attempt to curve her personality to be more likable, but that generally results in her just being overbearing and inserting herself where she wasn't asked to be.

Like other Imps, Mmeeie does enjoy playing games and making deals. She takes deals very seriously, making sure the rules are followed as closely and getting very upset if someone breaks them. She’s also very particular about who can play her games - she makes sure civilians and other people who didn’t agree to play never get involved, feeling like it would be too dangerous for them to do so. Even with that concern, though, her games rarely get violent or even that physical, as she doesn’t find it fun to put people in serious danger and would much rather play a game that involves outwitting or annoying someone. If her games/actions do get physical, it is a cartoony style of violence, one that doesn't leave lasting damage to her or the person attacked (ex. being bonked over the head with an oversized hammer), and likewise serves more as a distraction than an actual attempt at fighting.

Likes:

- Seagulls

- Loud Music

- Layered Clothing

- Puppets

Dislikes:

- People named Richard (She just hates the name that much)

- Being compared to/called a “Mite”

- Authority figures

- Pizza

Fears:

- Animals with long necks [Giraffes, Geese, etc.]

- Very large animals [Giraffes, Elephants, etc.]

- Being mind controlled

Family: Ooccaaer (Father), Ttooniee (Father), Glldngllb (Grandmother)

Love Interest: Jayna (Teen Titans Go!)

Notable Relationships [more in-depth]:

Zrfff

Family: Mmeeie gets along very well with her family. They’ve always been very supportive of her, including when she decided to become the first one of the family to become an ‘adventurer’, and she’ll always defend their decisions when people in other universes question how they raised her.

However, there was a divide in how she was raised in a major way: her father Ttooniee and her grammy taught her to be very proud of her power and to ignore anyone trying to stop her living the way she wants to, while her father Ooccaaer taught her that, even though she is indeed more powerful than those in other universes, there does need to some level of order in the world and that never thinking about others will only lead to trouble.

This never caused any fights amongst her family, but it did cause confusion for Mmeeie when she was first out on her own and couldn’t rely on her family to make important decisions for her. She tries her best to blend the two viewpoints together, but that usually results in her coming off as a hypocrite to those around her.

Mr. Mxyzptlk: Like most Imps, Mmeeie idolizes Mr. Mxyzptlk. She grew up hearing stories of his amazing adventures and exploits, and since she dreamed of leaving Zrfff and exploring the multiverse some day, she wanted to be just like him. When an opportunity to study under him came she took it, taking everything he said to heart, even if it wasn’t very much.

Mr. Mxyzpltk, however, doesn’t think much about Mmeeie. He views her more as a means to the end than a true student, and only ever interacts with her when it is convenient for or required of him.

Teen Titans Go!

Robin: At first, Mmeeie and Robin were just each others’ rivals, trying to one-up each other in an on-going competition to see whose the best. They clashed heavily due to how similar their personalities are, with them both demanding everything be their way or the highway and both being willing to mess with other people to get that to happen. However, they quickly realized that because they're so similar, they could confide in each other in a way that they couldn’t with others/without a feeling of being judged, and began to do that as well.

They’re still not really friends, as Mmeeie is willing to pull out more dangerous game just for him and Robin enjoys it when she gets herself caught up in them, but at the end of the day they can still laugh it off and do appreciate the relationship they have.

Starfire: Starfire was Mmeeie’s first full-blown crush. The two of them got along really well at first, bonding over the fact that both of them were still learning the ropes about certain parts of Earth culture and that they both enjoyed making fun of Robin. However, Mmeeie eventually realized there was a major problem preventing a relationship between the two of them: Starfire wasn’t attracted to her in the slightest, and didn’t even seem to realize Mmeeie was flirting with her. Not wanting to lose her friendship with her, Mmeeie simply pretended the crush never happened (not that Starfire would have minded if she knew). Starfire is still her favorite person on that particular Titans team, though Starfire doesn’t view her as anything more than a causal friend.

Jayna: Mmeeie and Jayna hit it off right from the start: Mmeeie admired Jayna’s dedication to her family, as it reminded her of her own family life, and Jayna not only was glad there was someone capable of being assertive when she wasn’t in the mood, she actually appreciated Mmeeie’s direct and constant affections for her, as (naturally) she did enjoy being treated a separate person from her brother despite their closeness.

As they grew closer, Jayna became one of the few people Mmeeie trusted to be actually caring when she suggests Mmeeie try and improve herself, and not just be critiquing her “for no good reason”. Mmeeie does try to tone down how overbearing she is with Jayna to a more causal level to keep her more comfortable, and even starts to truly consider how Jayna feels when doing things around her (and not just in a “oh pretty girl” way). Jayna, likewise, indeed does actually care about Mmeeie, and does really think Mmeeie does mean well and just needs to learn how to control herself better.

Within a year of meeting one another they decided to try starting a romantic relationship together, and while they haven’t been on any major dates, they (especially Mmeeie) do actively refer to each other as “girlfriend” to other people.

Zan: Mmeeie didn’t think too much about Zan at first, viewing him just as “Jayna’s brother”. She ribbed him just like she did everyone else, and was pretty pleased that he seemed fine with it. However, as she spent more time around him, she realized that the only reason he didn’t complain like most others did was because he was used to being the butt of the joke. Since they had somewhat bonded by then (and also because she wanted to cover up the sudden guilt she was feeling for the first time), she decided to throw herself into defending him and truly trying to become his friend.

Zan, for his part, was overwhelmed by the sudden change in Mmeeie’s treatment of him but did appreicate it - especially since it meant she was treating him like his own person instead of just “Jayna’s brother”. He was receptive to it, and they ended up forming a relationship around trying to improve one another; Mmeeie trying to get him to become more assertive and Zan trying to get her to consider people’s feelings more often and not just when they directly impact her. (Neither of them have been partially effective so far.)

Static Shock

Static: Mmeeie decided that Static would become her rival without her even asking him about it first. In her mind, all she had to do to get him to agree was show off her amazing powers and constantly praise him, which she proudly did. Despite from the slight ego boost her praise gave him, Static was annoyed by her badgering and spent most of the time trying to ignore her, having to angrily trick her into leaving by the end of it. Mmeeie was in complete denial of this rejection, however, assuming it was all acting on the part of their “rivalry”.

When they met for a second time, Mmeeie’s view of Static was slightly more nuanced - but only because she was mad at him for how he was treating Shebang, as that shattered her view that he was a flawless hero. She actually felt a bit betrayed because of it, which Static was able to use to his advantage once he was able to properly confront her again, since she was too emotionally distraught to be as tricky as she usually was.

After Static realized all this was Mmeeie’s strange way of saying she liked spending time with him, he was slightly hesitant to send her back. He did think there might be potential for her to be a halfway decent person - that and having someone with reality-bending powers on his side would be very useful. He did end up still convincing her to leave, of course (as he didn’t want her to stick around that much), but made sure she knew she was welcome back at some point in the future. Mmeeie gladly accepted his offer to return.

Gear: Mmeeie and Gear hated each other at first, with most of the tension coming from Mmeeie’s side. Between her irrational hatred of people named Richard and her belief that Gear was inferior to Static, she took every chance she got to insult and belittle him. Much to her anger, however, Gear retaliated against this and treated her the same way.

Their relationship didn’t improve until outside forces intervened, convincing Mmeeie to consider Gear as a person (and not just a name to hate) and to start treating him with some basic decency. However, even with this change in Mmeeie’s behavior, the two of them still regularly bickered with and insulted one another; they just learned to tone it down when they had to work with one another. Their relationship just changed from pure hatred to reluctant and undesired acquaintanceship. Mmeeie prefers it that way, though, because it gives her an “acceptable” way to act out her instigative nature. (Gear, for his part, doesn’t like to think about their relationship at all, ever.)

Shebang: Mmeeie was attracted to Shebang the moment she met her, both literally and because she felt a connection to her due to their shared desire to make friends. She was incredibly perturbed by the fact that Static and Gear found her annoying, when clearly she was just trying to be nice and offer her friendship to them, which she didn’t even need to do because she was obviously better than the both of them anyway. Because of this self-projection, Mmeeie decided that she was going to be Shebang’s friend, following her around out-of-uniform and purposefully annoying anyone that was even slightly rude to her.

On the one hand, Shebang herself was annoyed at Mmeeie’s actions, finding her to be overbearing and trying too hard to be her friend. But on the other hand, she did appreicate that she seemed to be the only one who wasn't actively avoiding her and was at least attempting to understand her point of view. That, and because Mmeeie’s plan actually somewhat worked and got Static and Gear to quit complaining about her so much. Because of this, Shebang did, albeit hesitantly, vouch for Mmeeie in the end, and was the first one in that particular universe to try and talk her into being more considerate and to think through her actions. (Mmeeie was more receptive to Shebang’s requests because she was already fond of her, but it was still an uphill battle.) She still doesn’t consider Mmeeie that close of a friend, though.

Backstory:

There was nothing about Mmeeie’s childhood that inclined her towards becoming an adventuring Imp more than others her age; no one in her family had ever left Zrfff before - which they were perfectly content with - and she knew very little about the universes existing outside of the Fifth Dimension. In fact, due to one of her fathers, Ooccaaer, working as a court clerk for the Imp court system, she had knowledge about some the more illegal and morally questionable activities adventuring Imps got into that the general public didn’t know, so she even knew that not everything was what it seemed when it came to traveling to other universes.

However, none of that ended up mattering, as Mmeeie fell in love with the idea of becoming an adventuring Imp the moment she heard Mr. Mxyzlptk’s stories for the first time. She adored the theatrics of them, the cunning and wit he had, and most of all, the idea of having a personal rival to compete with, especially if it was someone as famous as he said Superman was. This desire for adventure grew each time Mr. Mxyzlptk returned to Zrfff, and she decided that she was going to leave to explore the Multiverse the first chance she got.

And, at the tender age of 13, she got it.

During one of Mr. Mxyzlptk’s trips back to Earth, he decided to start an “internship program” to help give back to the community that loved him so much; he would select a lucky few young Imps to teach the ways of multiversal travel and relations, so he could make sure the next generation got to experience the joys of adventuring. In truth, it was just a stunt to further deepen the general public’s adoration of him, as he knew perfectly well that the only reason the court never punished him too severely was because they feared a full-on riot. But it was still a successful stunt.

Mmeeie was one of the many young Imps who auditioned to be part of his program. Her plan to win Mr. Mxyzlptk over was to focus on explaining how much he inspired her and how much she would “appreciate the opportunity” to work with him and be the first in her family to travel outside of Zrfff (she made sure to later thank her family for that line in particular). She didn’t think that would be particularly impressed by her powers, anyway, since literally every Imp could do the same things, and she wanted to make herself stand out as much as possible. That and a little praise never hurt, either.

Much to her joy, her plan worked, and Mmeeie was chosen to “study” under Mr. Mxyzlptk. He told her it was because he was impressed with how close she was to her family - closeness is a key component in having a good rivalry with others, he explained - and how supportive they were of her. Unbeknownst to her, however, the real reason she was chosen was because her father was a court clerk, and Mr. Mxyzlptk wanted to leverage that to get some influence into the court system, even if he had to start at the lowest level. If Mmeeie’s explanation of her father was correct, then he certainly wouldn’t risk ruining his child’s happiness by not listening to him, right?

The training Mr. Mxyzlptk gave his chosen students was just a crash course into the powers they had but didn’t really use on Zrfff, such as how to tap into their omnisciency powers and how to tune their teleportation to the proper frequencies so they could get into any universe they want. That was it. No etiquette on how to act in other universes, no suggestions on what to do when they get there, not even a list of the universes that existed. Just “these are your powers so go use them however you want”. Mr. Mxyzlptk promised it was more fun that way, and reminded his students that they were the powerful ones, so it should be those in other universes listening to them and not the other way around anyway.

Mmeeie was a little disappointed with the training she received, as she was hoping to get more information from Mr. Mxyzlptk on how to get a proper rival, but she tried not to dwell on it too much. Especially since her family actually seemed pretty pleased with what she had learned; her father Ttooniee and her grammy were both glad that his lessons focused on maintaining personal pride even in under pressure from other universes, and her father Ooccaaer was relieved to learn that he was sending her off on her own instead of roping her into one of his schemes. With her family believing that she was indeed properly prepared to go adventuring, and with them reminding her multiple times that she could return home whenever she wanted to, Mmeeie went off to explore the universes outside of Zrfff.

Her initial plan was just to follow in Mr. Mxyzlptk’s footsteps until she figured out what to do. The first universe she decided to visit was one that he often told stories about, one in which the Superfriends was the premier hero team. Adopting, with some slight alterations, the uniform the Wonder Twins wore (her favorite amongst the team members she saw there) so she would be taken more seriously, Mmeeie stormed into the universe demanding that Robin be her rival. Since she didn’t know what made a proper rival, she decided that someone she wanted to personally fight would do, and besides, Robin was as well-known as Superman, right?

This plan did not go well for her. Due to the Superfriends already knowing how to deal with Imps because of their past interactions with Mr. Mxyzlptk - and the fact most of them were grown adults and Mmeeie was barely a teenager, which they made sure to reminder her of - they quite easily outsmarted her and convinced her to leave. Humiliated, Mmeeie vowed to avoid all superhero teams with adult members when searching for her next universe.

Staying with the idea that becoming rivals with a Robin was the best way to go, Mmeeie looked around until she found a universe where not only was Robin not working with his Batman at all, but he and his team of fellow teenage heroes seemed to be the only team around, so she wouldn’t have to worry about any kind of adults ruining her plan. So she stormed into that universe, again demanding that Robin be her rival.

This plan also did not go well for her. Much to her shock, The Teen Titans of that universe informed her that they had dealt with an Imp before as well, though that shock quickly turned into anger when she learned it was a Mite they interacted with. Offended at the comparison, she spent more time screaming at Robin than trying to convince him to be her rival, and the Titans were able to use that frustration against her to get her to leave on her own.

Fortunately for Mmeeie, however, the third time was a charm. It didn’t take long for her to find the next universe to go to; she just hoped over to one that was like the previous one she tried but with everyone being very small in stature. When she declared that the Robin of that universe was going to be her rival, that Robin jumped on the opportunity, even reassuring her that he was totally just as famous as Superman. Not only that, that Robin was even more punchable than the previous two, so Mmeeie felt that this universe was were she needed to be.

She spent the next year there, becoming very fond of it in the process. Mmeeie’s rivalry with Robin remained steady, with her often tagging along on the Titans’ adventures just to bother him, his teammates encouraging it most of the time. Through these adventures she developed a mild friendship with the rest of the Titans, most notably Starfire, who she got a major crush on (though it was unrequited and didn’t last long).

In that time, Mmeeie also met the Wonder Twins of that universe. She was immediately smitten by Jayna, and Jayna actually liked her back. (Mmeeie was more indifferent to Zan, though.) She began to spend her time split between the Titans and hanging out with Jayna (and Zan), with the latter being a good influence on her; because she was spending more time with the Wonder Twins as opposed to the more selfish and impulsive Titans (or anyone from back home on Zrfff), Mmeeie began to realize new things about herself, like how she still felt proud of herself even when she did consider Jayna’s feelings along with her own, and how she was starting to feel guilt for how mean she was being to Zan without him ever doing anything to her. These self-realizations didn’t impact her relationship with anyone outside of Jayna and Zan - in fact, it only made her act angrier towards Robin, because she had to get her inconsiderate feelings out somehow (and their whole rivalry was built on that fact anyway) - but it was something Mmeeie kept in the back of her mind the more she stayed in that universe.

Then one day Mr. Mxyzlptk arrived to “check up” on her. In truth, he didn’t actually care how she was doing, but had to keep up the image of mentoring her and the other young Imps. He stayed long enough to take brief, mental notes on what she had been doing to report back to her parents, and then offered a couple of general pieces of advice before leaving, pointing out that staying in just one universe doesn’t really count as ‘traveling’, and reminding her that Imps don’t let those from other universes tell them what to do. Oh, and to call her parents more often.

Though he barely told her anything, Mmeeie took everything she did get to heart and decided to get moving again. However, remembering the embarrassment she felt traveling to different universes beforehand, and not wanting to completely lose the relationships she had already built in this universe, she decided to take a different approach. She would pick a universe she knew ahead of time that she would want to stay in, and divide her time between it and her current universe, making sure to go between them enough to still qualify as ‘traveling’. She didn’t have other ideas on how to judge this universe choice besides her previous plan of finding a rival, however, so that had to be modified as well.

Trying to keep in mind the whole “considering others’ feelings” thing while not going against her Imp heritage, Mmeeie decided to find a universe with two rivals for her - one that she could compete with in an angry, serious manner like she and Robin did, and one that could compete with in a more causal, relaxed one. This meant more ‘research’ into the universes themselves had to be done before she left, but that’s what universe windows were for.

Her plan to only focus on universes with teenage heroes being the premier heroes didn’t change, but her desire to have a famous rival did; She promised Robin he would be her only rival using that codename, so she strayed away from universes that had other Titans teams and instead focused on ones with heroes she hadn’t necessarily heard of before.

During this research she found a universe with a high percentage of superpowered youths, yet Static was the only teenage hero she could find at that moment. Since he just so happened to be working with the Justice League at during that time, she was going to just skip over his universe, until she saw him go against the League’s commands in order to save his friend. That got her full attention. In fact, it got her full adoration.

It didn’t take long for Mmeeie to decide that Static would be a perfect person to have a causal rivalry with, and fortunately for her, it wasn’t much longer before she found someone to have a more serious rivalry with, either. Watching Static’s adventures a bit more, she learned that the friend he had to save also had powers himself, and his name just happened to be Richard. It was like she was destined to be in that universe.

Wanting to avoid the mistakes she made in previous universes, instead of storming into this universe demanding Static be her rival, she stormed in and started praising him hoping that it would get him to listen to her. Static still ended up ignoring her, however, since she happened to arrive while he was in the middle of a battle. Upset that he wasn’t paying listening to her, she tried multiple things to get his attention, up to and including kidnapping Gear, which gave her a chance to go ahead and start up her rivalry with Gear. In her opinion, it was very successful; The two of them spent the time waiting for Static to arrive either yelling at one another or trying to beat each other at trivia games, which is exactly what she wanted.

Once Static finally found where she was, Mmeeie tried again to praise her way into getting him to listen to her, but that kept getting interrupted by her needing to snap at Gear everything time he said anything. She was able to get one thing through during their muddled conversation though: she would leave if Static played along. So, wanting to get rid of her, he made a deal with her that he would become her rival if she left for a while to give him time to “think about how to do it properly”. Mmeeie whole-heartedly agreed, leaving thinking that she successfully got herself two more rivals.

She spent “for a while” back with the Wonder Twins and the Titans, continuing to develop the relationships she had in their universe, most notably starting a romantic relationship with Jayna. (She also started calling her parents more regularly during this time.)

When it was time for Mmeeie to return to Static’s universe, she did not get the greeting she was expecting. In fact, she was barely noticed at all, as Static and Gear were busy dealing with the return of a different person she didn’t know, Shebang. Watching over the situation for a little bit, she decided that Shebang was actually the one in the right, and became greatly upset over how Static was treating her. She flipped her script, starting to praise and focus all of her attention on Shebang instead, and berating Static when he questioned the change in attitude.

This just created a new host of problems between her and Static - not to mention that she wasn’t having a great start with Shebang either considering how overbearing she was being - and unlike before when Mmeeie was confident enough to ignore these issues, she was now too frustrated to do so. So when that visit ended like the last one did in an angry debate, she ended up admitting more than she intended to about why she wanted to connect with a rival so badly. This admission did get the situation to calm down a bit, though it left Mmeeie embarrassed.

It also put Static in a predicament. On the one hand, he could tell that she honestly did want to be his and Shebang’s friends, and thought that she could be a decent ally in battle if she just focused her powers. But on the other hand, he could also tell that it would be a long while before she got the point of dealing with others in a more appropriate way - espeically if her treatment of Gear was any indication - and he didn’t want to spend all his time teaching her how to be a better person.

So Static made another, more legitimate, deal with her. Mmeeie would be allowed to come back and hang out with him and everyone else, but only when they specifically asked for her. (Since she could set up “notifications” of sorts on her universe windows that alerted her whenever something she was looking for happened, it wouldn’t be an issue for her to find out when that was.) That way, they could still maintain a relationship, but without being overwhelmed by her. Of course, Mmeeie agreed to that.

She now spends her time between staying with the Wonder Twins and Titans in their universe and working on her relationships with Static and his friends in their universe. She does tend to stay in the former universe more often, since that’s not only where her girlfriend lives, but where she doesn’t have to focus so much on self-reflection and can just enjoy herself more freely, but she still appreciates the time she gets to spend in the latter when Static calls upon her (especially since these requests slowly start to increase in frequency the more she gets to know everyone there).

Other Important Notes:

- Mmeeie can levitate and fly. However, while she can levitate without issue, her flight is very slow and unbalanced, usually leading to her hurting herself, or at the least getting incredibly frustrated. She uses a flight disc to help her get around, with latches to place her feet inside so she can’t get knocked off of it. When in her human disguise, the flight disc becomes a walker.

- Mmeeie's parents and grandmother are apart of the younger generation of Imps who embraced the use of vowels in naming, hence Mmeeie's and her fathers’ names mainly consisting of vowels, but her grandmother’s not having any at all.

- The act of spelling/saying her name backwards will not banish Mmeeie back to Zrfff.

Trivia:

- Mmeeie speaks in an unnaturally high, chipmunk-like voice. When in her human disguise, her voice is more natural-sounding, but is still high-pitched.

- Mmeeie is squeamish around blood and other serious (i.e. non-cartoony) injuries.

- Mmeeie picked up juggling as a nervous habit and is actually quite good at it.

- Mmeeie gets inebriated when drinking apple juice, but not drinks with actual alcohol in them.

#mmeeie #DC oc #mod's art #i'm actually super proud of the art for the ref though idk what about it i like so much

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jiadamanalo-blog · 5 years

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COMM 10 Assignment #2

a. What are the differences between primary oral cultures and literary cultures? How arethey related with each other?

Differences in oral and literate cultures settle in the notion of methods in structuring both oral and written pieces and the media used. Primary oral cultures, defined as “a culture untouched by writing” is characterized by having less elaborate and fixed grammar and is implied as rather more dependent on linguistic structure. Oral cultures deliver knowledge through repetitive direct spoken utterance and are only limited in the minds, whereas literary cultures provide substantial storage of information because the texts are applied in spaces and forms. Writing introduced changes in thought and expression which transformed human consciousness. This paved the development and modifications of communication from the oral verbalization to literacy and vice versa.

b. What does Walter Ong mean by the intersubjectivity of communication? How does this differentiate communication from media?

According to Walter Ong, communication is intersubjective. Human communication is never one way. This means that in the sender-receiver position of channeling messages, the two persons communicating should both be the sender and receiver. It follows that this can only be achieved through exchanging feedbacks to one another. In the media model, however, the message is moved from sender-position to receiver-position. Thus, an actual feedback does not surface. For a genuine communication to manifest, each party should somehow create some sense of mental connection.

c. How does the ‘media’ model of communication show chirographic (i.e. writing) conditioning?

Dwelling with the media model of communication shows chirographic conditioning. Chirographic cultures generally consider speech as more specifically informational and more performance-oriented than oral cultures. Further, the written texts come apparent to be a one-way informational street where no real recipient (reader, hearer) is present when texts are brought into existence. But of course, in speaking and in writing, some recipient must be present or there can be no text produced. Instead, the writer conjures up a fictional person or persons. ‘The writer’s audience is always a fiction’ (Ong 1977, pp. 54–81).

d. What are the industrial or economic factors in the evolution of media from print to radio to television?

Current media trends are shaped through the changing consumer preferences and the traditional media outlets constantly trying to keep pace. Consumers’ media habits have fundamentally changed and the shift toward digital consumption is due to more convenient and personalized engagement the new media provide. Millennials now watch video content on their devices, stream on music services like Spotify and subscribe to online news and entertainment contents. Although experts say that media industry transformation is still in its early stages, media and communications companies are pressured to rethink how they monetize audiences by cultivating an ecosystem of producers, distributors, and partners.

e. What does the digitization of videos mean for information producers and consumers?

Industries that utilize digitization in which any form of information are converted into digital formats have the big advantage of lower cost and shorter span of production. Video digitizing is the process of capturing, converting and storing video images for use by computer. Video is a medium of communication that delivers more information per second than any other element of multimedia. For consumers, digitizing information makes it easier to preserve, access, and share compared to physical video media which are subject to damage, loss and sometimes exclusivity.

f. What are the pros and cons of media accessibility?

The accessibility of media has created a platform for societies to be connected. People from all over the world can know what is currently happening, learn the cultures of others, and respond to arising crisis across the globe. However, the ‘accessibility’ of the media itself pose these people to risk and danger of data exposure, theft and loss. As we establish ourselves in this platform, the concern of privacy and identity protection has become an ever more necessary measure.

g. What constitutes a convergent media? How is it differentiated from traditional media? Would you consider convergent media under the categories of new media? Explain your answer.

Media convergence is simply the merging of different media types into one. It is a ‘cooperation and collaboration’ between previously unconnected media forms and platforms. While media convergence can be referred as an innovational and emerging dynamic platform, traditional media however is the conventional means of mass communication that had existed since time immemorial and that has been used by various communities and cultures. From the definitions, we can assert that media convergence is the interaction between old (traditional) and new media forms, thus new media is just a component of media convergence.

h. How does convergent media empower individuals to assert themselves in the bigger society? Think of the metaphor of David and Goliath.

Media convergence can be regarded as a powerful tool that can yield the appropriate person more than enough power to somehow control or manipulate the mass or society. An individual can establish oneself in a media convergence platform and influence his followers through giving content of their same interests.

i. Compare and contrast the evolution of communication from orality to literacy and the evolution of media from traditional media to convergent media. Reflecting on how these developments came about, what could be assumed (or predicted) for the future of media production and consumption and/or mass communication?

The evolution of communication from orality to literacy and the evolution of media from traditional media to convergent media emerged through the interactions between each of their components in order to develop and modify means of better communication. Though their evolution are not entirely similar for convergent media is a unified technological media platform while literacy is a developed and modified communication from orality. Through these we can assume that the future of media production and consumption/mass communication will be in constant effort to produce or create a platform in which the demand of time, necessity and creativity are met.

j. What is Bitzer’s definition of a rhetorical situation?

Bitzer defines the term rhethorical situation as “the context in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse”. Bitzer emphasizes the importance of the situation which people have to respond to. For Bitzer, rhetors create arguments when a situation demands some kind of response. Since there is rhetoric, Bitzer argues that there must be a situation/context for rhetors to create arguments. One example is Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address that was in response to a particular situation.

k. What are the different aspects of a rhetorical situation?

The three main components of a rhetorical situation are: 1) Exigence is an urgent problem which demands a response; something in the world is not how it ought to be, but can be fixed by using rhetoric 2) Audience who must listen, interpret, and (hopefully) be moved to action 3) Constraints beliefs, personal histories, values, etc. which affect the rhetor and the audience.

l. Which of the issues you encounter today do you think warrant rhetorical discourse?

I really want all of the people to conduct a global campaign and discuss about the situation of climate change. For the past years, the scientists have been giving us facts and data that climate change is happening and it is real as it can be. But people tend to ignore this and instead discuss other irrelevant things. It’s as if those things will keep them alive or provide them a natural habitat.\

m.i. What were the different persuasive strategies mentioned in the chapter?

1. Taking and Avoiding Sides 2. Explicit Appeals to Common Ingroup Membership 3. Constructing Aspirational Identities 4. Implicit Displays of Rhetorical Alignment 5. Who are “We”? Flexibility and Vagueness in the use of First Person Pronouns 6. Using Pronouns to Display Complex Political Allegiances 7. Using First Person Plural Pronouns to Convey Ideological Messages

m.ii. Of these strategies, which have you encountered during political campaigns?

Constructing Aspirational Identities strategy is very common especially the use of an alternative strategy termed as constitutive futurity. It is widely used especially by position runners in the national elections. Duterte for instance promised to the Filipinos that in our country, “Change is coming.”

m.iii. Were these strategies effective for you? Why or why not?

I don’t really rely on these facades when I look into the qualifications of a prospect national leader. But I must admit that when we will all go back to the time of election campaigns where Duterte has not yet committed violations in the constitution, the people are quite moved by his promise. Duterte has been known to be an effective mayor in Davao, and he uttering those words just doubled the impact. Who wouldn’t want change? It is basically what Filipinos wanted from the previous presidents and administrations.

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daresplaining · 6 years

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I haven't read a lot of DD comics, mostly only the modern ones (I think the earliest ones I read are from 2006?), but i guess I'm unsure exactly how Matt's radar sense works? Is it supposed to be a sort of echolocation? It's kind of unclear to me.

Don’t worry, it’s not just you– it’s unclear in general. There has been tremendous variation in the way the radar sense has been depicted over the years, and pretty much every creative team treats it differently. When first introduced in Daredevil #1, it was described as Matt experiencing a type of mental signal that warned him of nearby obstacles.

Matt: “But my most important new ability is in the form of a built-in radar that I seem to have developed! It enables me to walk anywhere safely, without bumping into anything! I feel a strange tingling sensation when I approach any solid obstacle, warning me which way to turn!”

Daredevil vol. 1 #1 by Stan Lee, Bill Everett, and Sam Rosen

You may notice that this early iteration bears some resemblance to Spider-Man’s “spider sense”, which isn’t surprising since Matt was modeled quite heavily on Spidey.

However, within a matter of issues the radar sense had transformed into a much more comprehensive ability, something closer to echolocation, which is the form it has retained to this day– though its parameters still vary in every respect. In early issues, some writers approached it as literal radar/sonar (this is no longer true). Some creative teams (Soule and co. included, for a recent example) have suggested it can pass through solid objects, allowing Matt to pick up on the interiors of buildings, etc., while others (and this is my preference, and the interpretation most often used) indicate that it would just bounce off the outside surface. This comes up a lot when Matt tries to drive cars… which happens more often than you’d think.

Matt: “Never was much for driving. Radar sense just throws the inside of the windshield right back at me.”

Daredevil: Reborn #3 by Andy Diggle, Davide Gianfelice, and Matt Hollingsworth

Its scope varies, both in how far it extends and how much detail it provides. For example, there’s a lot of inconsistency in whether or not Matt can use it to detect facial expressions. Waid provided a nice description of this elusive method of perception– including Matt’s own struggle to define it– in the first issue of Daredevil: Road Warrior:

“Imagine there were a color only you could see. What name would you pick out for it? Would you even bother to name it if no one else could experience it? When I was a kid, I was permanently blinded by radioactive waste. The radiation– the universe’s attempt at balance, if you believe in that sort of thing– compensated by giving me an indescribable way of perceiving my surroundings. Vaguely like some crazy, 360 degree form of echolocation. The ability to picture the shapes and contours around me, sort of. Akin to this constant sensation of living in a world of silhouettes. Kind of. Ghaah. All my life, I’ve been groping for words to accurately describe it, and I’ve yet to find them. My shorthand phrase for it is ‘radar sense’.”

The baseline concept for the radar sense in its most up-to-date form is this: Some kind of 360 degree signal is sent out, interacts with solid objects, and bounces back to Matt in such a way that he gets an idea of the physical layout of his surroundings. (What that signal may be has never been clear– it might be sound, if we interpret the radar sense as echolocation). He does this automatically, though obviously he can choose not to pay attention to it, and as with all of his hypersenses, he is constantly having to filter and interpret the sometimes unclear or overwhelming input the radar sense gives him. He receives this information quickly and frequently enough that he is able to pick up on rapid changes in his surroundings– e.g. when he’s tracking an enemy’s movements in a fight or swinging at high speed through the city. The “image” that returns to him is entirely non-visual, and doesn’t convey flat surface details (writing on signage, pictures on screens, etc.). As with his other remaining senses, it allows him equal degrees of perception in all directions simultaneously.

Matt sometimes struggles in chaotic situations with a lot of motion, such as fights involving many people, because his radar sense has too much to bounce off of and he can’t keep track or form a solid mental image (though this, too, varies from writer-to-writer). Concussions and illness have also, at various points, messed with his radar sense, a few times causing him to lose it completely. It functions very poorly underwater (as do the rest of his senses. Matt and water do not mix.) And again– because it cannot be emphasized enough, and because it is still frequently referred to as a sight replacement– it is non-visual, and does not give Matt all of the same information that sight would.

My opinion is that the radar sense should just become echolocation. Since that’s a real thing with clearly defined parameters, it would both ground the ability and get rid of all of the confusing inconsistencies. Plus, Matt definitely uses echolocation, and that’s pretty much how the radar sense is written nowadays anyway. His version would still be superhumanly acute thanks to his enhanced hearing, so not much would be lost, and it would become more than just this vague, amorphous power. Chip Zdarsky, if you’re reading this, here’s a chance to make your mark on Daredevil continuity forever!

In any case, here, here, here, here, and here are a few other posts that go into the radar sense in more detail. And if you haven’t, please be sure to check out The Other Murdock Papers! Christine Hanefalk is an expert on all things Daredevil, but particularly on his sensory array, and she has written a lot about the radar sense over the years.

Hope this helps!

#lostinthespeedforce #Daredevil #Matt Murdock #Sensory Shenanigans #Asks

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qqueenofhades · 6 years

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The Punisher as Medieval Romance: Tropes, Themes, and Characters

So a few days ago, an anon asked about more mythologies/inspirations for Kastle, apart from Hades/Persephone, and I mentioned that Frank’s character and his overall story arc have substantial (and fascinating) parallels with medieval romances. I was just answering quickly, but I then started to think about it in more depth, and realized that in fact, damn near all of The Punisher can be read as a modern-day medieval romance, sometimes subverting long-established tropes and sometimes playing them almost straight. This extends into Daredevil canon as well, as the characters around Frank also fit into recognizable mythic-medieval roles, and… yes. I resisted writing a long and research-heavy meta, clearly what I needed to do on the last week of term, for oh, forty-eight hours. Then, well, we know how that goes.

A note that I work specifically on medieval history, rather than medieval literature, so if I say anything clangingly bad, I hope my brethren and sistren medievalists can forgive me for it. Also, I don’t know if any of this is intentional on the part of the writers, so it’s not like I am identifying anything they’re specifically doing (or if they are, I don’t know about it), but this is just me, as a nerd, wandering into the candy store and being like “OH HEY GUYS LOOK AT THIS.” Of course, not all the examples fit in every aspect between medieval romance and modern Marvel canon, but there are still enough of them in a number of ways to make this interpretation plausible. And indeed, considering how Marvel stories have become ubiquitously embedded in our popular lexicon almost exactly in the way Arthurian legends and stories did for their medieval equivalent, it’s a noteworthy comparison.

(As you may be able to guess, this will be long.)

Let’s start with the source material. The medieval Arthurian romances are part of what is known as the Matter of Britain: the vast corpus of texts, written and rewritten across several centuries and by countless authors (usually French or English) that deals with some aspect of this mythology. Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, the Knights of the Round Table, and other characters appear in various guises and playing different roles in each of these texts. They are still “themselves” on each appearance, but the interpretation and the storyline is largely up to each individual author. One may remark that this bears some similarities with the Marvel comic universe. The characters have been written and re-written in a vast array of formats from their first creation to their present modern iteration (and likewise, Hollywood is still making a King Arthur movie every other year). They have been interpreted by many authors and given different plots and re-imaginings, and are part of our collective pop-culture reference in the way that Arthurian romance and chivalric literature was in the medieval era. If Twitter had existed back then, we would have fans begging for Arthur Pendragon to be saved from Camlann the way we now have fans begging NASA to save Tony Stark. It’s a kind of cultural entertainment that you’re probably at least aware of, even if you’ve never participated in, and thus has reached similar levels of saturation. The Arthurian romances inspired endless knock-offs. We likewise have an omnipresent superhero genre. It reinvents and redefines the hero’s journey for its particular day and age on a massive scale. In some sense, we don’t even need to explain these characters or tropes, because everyone already knows who and what they are.

So… onto Frank. At first glance, he is a considerably unlikely medieval romantic hero, right? He’s rough around the edges, has (to say the least) grey morality, and is generally regarded as an outcast and a loner in his community, rather than some idealized, flawless Sir Galahad type who has never done anything wrong in his life and nobly avoids all temptation. But he’s actually a hero in the middle of his trials and tribulations and the corresponding loss (and eventual reaffirmation) of heroic identity. The broad strokes of Frank’s character arc, as seen in Daredevil season 2 and Punisher season 1, are these:

Separation from home and family;

Exile from society and the implied loss of chivalric (military) virtue;

Test of honor/contests against other knights, good and bad (Matt Murdock, Wilson Fisk, Lewis Wilson, etc);

Search for the Grail (life, restoration to honor, vengeance for his family, completion of the chivalric quest);

Partnership with worthy knights on the search (David Lieberman, Curtis Hoyle);

Resisting temptation from a knight’s wife (Sarah Lieberman);

Saving a fair maiden and having to be worthy of her love, while bound by a code of secrecy (Karen Page);

Confrontation of betrayal by an intimate/revelation of the dark side of chivalric honor (Billy Russo);

Menaced by a quasi-mythical and possibly demonic figure who must be defeated, who fights him in a parallel battle at the beginning/end of the story (Agent Orange/Rawlins);

Attempt to re-enter society and re-establish identity (end of s1, though that will be once more disrupted and complicated by s2);

All of this is, basically, the overall character arc for a medieval hero. Pretty much beat by beat. Also, while we’ve gotten used to think of ‘chivalry’ as implying a certain kind of idealized and virtuous behavior around ladies (holding doors, gentlemanly actions, whatever) that was only a small part of the overall code of chivalry – which, at its core, was an ethos about fighting, military prowess, and the display of valor through acts of war. Frank says that he loves being a soldier, and this would be a sentiment familiar to a medieval knight. Chrétien de Troyes has a line about how, essentially, only morally suspect half-men prefer peace. The soldier’s proper right, duty, and true joy in life is the practice of war, and he earns chivalry – martial renown – by doing it. It is not merely a pretty or romantic veneer on courtly behavior (though that is often how it is presented), but about war, the military, the destruction of opponents, and the very nature of being a constant soldier. To say the least, this fits Frank’s character extremely well. He is the consummate soldier who in fact needs a constant war to fight, and who has built an honorable legacy for himself (decorated Marine, Navy Cross, etc) prior to his forcible separation from society. This darker, grittier underside of chivalry, when the violence, bloodshed, and distortion of self was a constant concern, also fits very well with the tone of The Punisher.

That separation is often the keystone for a medieval hero’s journey, and functions to drive him out from the context in which he has until now been respected and earned his living. Sometimes we have an outright reason for that action, sometimes the hero just leaves Camelot and sets out on a quest, but Frank’s separation from society bears some similarity to Bisclavret, a twelfth-century werewolf romance written by a woman (Marie de France), and interesting for various reasons. (Some literature is available via Google Books.) In this case, the hero (the eponymous Bisclavret) is driven from society by the treachery of his wife, who hides his clothes so he can’t turn back from a wolf into a human and is forced to spend seven years in the forest as a beast. Of course Frank loses his wife, rather than being betrayed by her, but there’s still the connection between loss of wife – loss of home – loss of self, resulting in exile to the margins of society and transformation into a “monster.” Bisclavret never gives up his principles and identity even while forced to remain a wolf, and Frank gains a reputation as the “Punisher,” but likewise adheres to his own code of honor. He remains a knight, even if a knight-errant.

Bisclavret is rescued and brought back from the woods by an unnamed king, who sees his humanity and treats him well even as a monster (and yes, there are some definite homoerotic undertones in the fact that it’s the king’s love that restores him to himself, after his wife rejects him for his monsterhood or arguably, queerness). However, you could credibly parallel this to Frank and David Lieberman, who believes that he can help Frank and they can restore him to his former self/his good name. David of course physically helps Curtis care for Frank after his injuries in TP 1x05, and in general performs the humanizing role for the “monster.” He serves as Frank’s companion in the wilderness and believes that he is not the way the rest of society sees him (just as everyone else in Bisclavret sees him as a werewolf and has to be convinced by his good behavior that he’s really a man). Likewise, Karen recognizes early in Daredevil season 2, and never gives up in believing, that Frank still has honor. He’s (literally) not a monster to her. He has been expelled from the chivalric society in which he operated before, but he has not completely abandoned his morality.

Next, as noted, the motif of contests against other knights is essentially a central theme in all quest narratives. Frank must match his wits and skills against challengers, and be paralleled and anti-paralleled to them. One of his most obvious foils is against Matt, as they are explicitly set up as reflections and reverse images of each other. In some sense, Matt is the perfect chivalric knight, at least in DD s1/s2. His morality tends to the black and white, he always has some sense of how his faith informs or restricts his actions, and he constantly incorporates the church’s teaching into his sense of self. As Richard Kaeuper discusses in Holy Warriors: The Religious Ideology of Chivalry, this is basically exactly what the medieval church would want for a knight. Some degree of coexistence (sometimes a great deal) exists between chivalry and Christianity, but the underlying question of violence and sin always underlies it – can a man who makes his living by killing people really claim to be acting in a holy cause? Matt avoids this paradox (or tries to) by not killing anyone, but Frank almost exactly embodies the tension between these two ideologies that was ever-present in the medieval era. Clerical moralists always worried that knights were too comfortable with killing, violence, and general unethical behavior (even as they needed and co-opted that violence for their own purposes, such as the preaching and popularization of the crusades). For their part, the knights often selectively used the parts of Christianity that they liked, and fashioned it into their own ethos, just like Frank does to justify his campaign of vengeance.

In other words, Matt and Frank are perfect symbols of the struggle between church and chivalry, with Matt embodying one side (reconciliation) and Frank embodying the other (estrangement), but neither of them are completely excluded from knighthood despite their differences. They’re in fact the central tension of its existence – how violent can a knight be, and how much consideration, superficial or otherwise, does he have to pay to the church’s restriction of his ethics and behavior? There is some argument that chivalric literature was written as an attempted correction or moral instruction for real-life knights, who were supposed to take it as guidance on their own behavior and be more merciful. This isn’t always the case, since as noted, the literature exalts the very kind of violent behavior that built a chivalric reputation, but there was always that inherent wariness about how much was too much. Matt and Frank push and pull each other on this very question, end up working together at points because they are both within the system, but can’t fully reconcile.

(Also I’d like to point out: Stick, Matt, and Elektra as Merlin, Arthur, and Morgana. Stick is the mysterious, possibly immortal mentor, who teaches and mentors both of them, but also misleads and manipulates them for his own purposes. Matt becomes the ‘hero,’ son of the dead/fallen king (Uther Pendragon/Battlin’ Jack Murdock), while Elektra becomes the villainess/feared sorceress, marginalized by a society frightened of her agency and unwillingness to play nice. Also, one of Arthur’s two half-sisters, usually Morgause but sometimes Morgana, is the mother of his illegitimate son, Mordred, who is prophesied to be his destruction. So there is a dark/forbidden/taboo sexual aspect to their relationship, and just as Mordred causes the ultimate fall of Camelot, Matt and Elektra are literally caught in a falling building at the end of Defenders, which destroys their current identities. Matt enters Once and Future King stage after that and at the beginning of DDS3, where he is ‘gone’ or sleeping or suffering a crisis of faith and must summon up the wherewithal to return, and the character of Benjamin Poindexter becomes one of the many Arthur imposters. There are also some parallels for Elektra with Nimue, the ambitious young student of Merlin’s who overthrows him, ends his reign, and imprisons him in a tree.)

Anyway, back to Frank. So what are knights actually doing with all this questing? Well, various things, but they’re most often searching for the Holy Grail: symbolic of eternal life, forgiveness and atonement of sins, return to self. For this reason, few of them actually find it or are able to encounter it without being changed. It too has a deeply underlying Christian context, and Frank, the ex-Catholic, has been estranged from his belief but not separated entirely. (Likewise, if you were not worthy to look on it, you could be blinded, so… the fact that Matt himself is blind is arguably a commentary on who he actually is vs. how he imagines himself.) The Grail is also, interestingly, in the custody of a figure known as the Fisher King. He is the keeper of the castle where the Grail is hidden, and in the context of the Punisher, he’s basically Curtis.

The Fisher King, for a start, is always wounded in the legs or the thigh, and unable to stand. Some scholars have interpreted this as a metaphor for castration (since “thigh” is often a euphemism for the genitals), and that the Fisher King is passive and impotent because he is physically unable to perform warfare and thus to acquire chivalry. Either way, the Fisher King is the keeper of eternal life, but is physically disabled and needs the help of a knight to activate that power. Curtis is to some degree a subversion of this trope, because he is explicitly not helpless and functions to enable other questing knights (veterans with PTSD) to search for the Grail (health and reconciliation to society)… but in TP 1x09, he still needs Frank to save him. Frank has to encounter the Fisher King and make the correct choice/ask the right question (which wire to cut) to save him and continue his own path toward the Grail. Curtis, by running the veterans’ group, is symbolically the keeper of eternal life, where questers have to literally ask questions/talk to each other to restore themselves, and Frank, by going at the end of s1, is still trying to reach it. But true to form, with the beginning of s2, he’s not going to be able to entirely get there. There is still another obstacle/quest to overcome.

So what about Karen? Visually and to some degree topically, she is set up as the lady whose love Frank needs to obtain and maintain, even in the wilderness of his exile. Karen is blonde-haired and blue-eyed, which was often viewed in the medieval era as the ideal/most beautiful kind of woman (because white supremacy in Europe has always existed to some degree, even if in differently constructed ways. However, the thirteenth-century Dutch romance Morien, and some other ones, feature black and mixed-race protagonists, who are just as able to achieve the predicates of the heroic quest as others). She is also, as discussed above, one of the only people to believe in Frank’s honor and to reach out to help him. However, this relationship has to be kept secret, and has the potential to destroy them both if revealed. This is a fairly close parallel to another of Marie de France’s romances: Lanval (adopted in fourteenth-century English form, by Thomas Chestre, as Sir Launfal).

In brief, Sir Lanval, after being cast out from Camelot, meets a fairy woman and they become lovers, and she promises him that he will have everything he needs, as long as he keeps her secret and never mentions her to anyone. (Marie’s original version of this is much less misogynist than Chestre’s, which adds Guinevere making sexual advances to Launfal and her jealousy being the cause of him being thrown out, so yes, Dudes Ruining Stuff has a long history.) This is not an exact analogue to Frank and Karen, but keeping the code of secrecy (Karen obviously can’t tell anyone about Frank, Frank receives what he needs from her in terms of information, emotional support, etc, but likewise can’t tell anyone about it) is paramount in both relationships. Speaking about the relationship or revealing it to the outside world will result in its destruction, and the fairy lady has to vouch for Lanval’s goodness to the court in Camelot, just as Karen stoutly defends Frank to the court of public opinion/literally everyone. In some sense, while the knight has to rescue the fair maiden, the fair maiden is also the arbitrator of his fate and his overall reputation. (Also, all of TP 1x10 is basically Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, in which Lancelot must rescue the abducted Guinevere from Meleagant, and having to struggle with the revelation of this relationship and the fact they can’t be together and the dictates of public/proper behavior. Anyway.)

Lastly, Frank’s initial and final conflicts, and the overall shape of his quest, are dictated by his encounters with two archvillains: Billy Russo and William Rawlins, or “Agent Orange.” These are made especially painful for him by the fact that they are or were both close to him. Billy was his best friend, essentially part of his family, and as noted, there is a major theme in chivalric literature revolving around a betrayal (and subsequent murder) by those closest to you. We already discussed King Arthur being overthrown and killed by his incestuous illegitimate son, Mordred; the best-known version of that tale is of course Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, though only the seventh book, as linked above, actually tells the story of Arthur’s death. There is also Arthur’s half-sister and Mordred’s usual mother Queen Morgause; in the Morte, she is killed by her son Gaheris for committing adultery with Sir Lamorak and dishonoring her husband, King Lot. So in one sense, the knight is always doomed to face a betrayal from within his family, or from a close friend.

However, Billy Russo is also straight-up one of the demon knights of Perlesvaus, or, The High History of the Holy Grail. In Perlesvaus, Lancelot is haunted by the specter of these demon knights, who engage in a dark mockery of chivalric behavior, excesses of violence, and satanic imagery, and are otherwise the “dark side of the force” of honorable knighthood, as Richard Kaeuper puts it in Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe. Honor and chivalry are not permanent or unchangeable qualities, and in fact are very fragile. The perfect knight can and should have both of these, but he can also lose them very quickly by impious, dishonorable, murderous, or otherwise wrong actions. The demon knights are a metaphor and a commentary on the same tension we discussed in regard to Frank and Matt: when does a knight-errant become a bad knight? When does his behavior permanently transgress him and cast him beyond the reach of repentance? Billy outwardly embodies the same qualities as Frank, has been through the same wars, is part of the same order, but he isn’t a hero on a quest whose chivalric identity can eventually be reconciled to him. He has crossed too far to the wrong side of the line; now he is the embodiment of evil, a shadow parallel and a cautionary tale. He is not a knight-errant, he is merely a monster.

Then, of course, there’s Rawlins/Agent Orange. Noting the fact that his nickname is also color-coded, we can see some parallels to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In short, in this tale, a mysterious “Green Knight” challenges any man to strike him, with the condition that he will get to return the blow in a year and a day. Sir Gawain accepts and beheads him, after which the Green Knight stands up, picks up his head, and remains Gawain of his promise. Gawain has to struggle to both honorably keep his bargain and avoid dying, and is eventually struck at in return by the Green Knight, wounded, but not killed. In some interpretations, this has just been a test all along for Gawain to prove his honor, or an attempt by Morgana to deceive him and cause him to betray his chivalric ideals, and the Green Knight is just a pawn to achieve this. In others, the Green Knight is a potential embodiment of the Devil. (He also has a dual identity, as the Green Knight/Sir Bertilak, as Rawlins does.) Frank strikes at/beheads/blinds Rawlins, as seen in the flashbacks of TP 1x03, so Rawlins literally wants to do the same to him (an eye for an eye) in TP 1x12. In the story, Gawain and the Green Knight part on cordial terms, but in this case, Frank has to actually complete the death/destruction of his opponent. Like Gawain, however, he is wounded but not killed, and must find some way to survive his encounter with a possibly demonic entity determined to pay back in exact measure the physical wound/symbolic beheading inflicted earlier.

So. . . yes. Overall, both in the broad parameters of his character arc, in the obstacles he confronts, and the other people he meets and the encounters he plays out with them, Frank is actually an excellent hero for a modern-medieval romance. The essential core of the medieval romance was not about love, though that was often present, but about identity, adventure, and the challenge to self, and while in some places these tropes have been updated or nuanced or subverted, in others they’re played as recognizably or directly descended from their medieval counterparts, and the way in which we have thought about stories and enjoyed them for a very long time.

#mcu #the punisher #the punisher meta #frank castle #kastle #frank x matt #medieval history #medieval literature #yes of course i ended up writing this #i am nothing if not predictable #long post

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vezely-a · 4 years

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Chapter 3: Of Mordor

Disclaimer: This is a mixture of canon, notion club archives (former merp)/extended Arda/non-canon, and headcanon. Links to various sources provided for my reference. Basically, I am digging into Mordor mechanics to aid my portrayal.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Leaving Rhovanion

c. Third Age 2780

Following her betrayal and botched execution in her homeland, Vezely flees southeast to Khand. She hides her identity, calls herself “Vez,” and wears a headscarf (to cloak her undamaged ear). There she seeks clans of Khandish mercenaries for work. These bandit chieftains are independent of the Variag lords (see below) and conscript individuals from all backgrounds and repute. As sell-swords, they fight battles for coin, guard caravan routes, headhunt, etc. While an uncertain start (of proving herself again and again), it was not long until she starts running her own operation.

But as decades pass and appearance fails to age, she begins considering moving on. Unforgotten was the promise made to the cult who saved her to continue to serve the Dark Lord. It was then, fortuitously, that she met a slave-trader from Mordor. With rumblings of Mordor’s refortification continuing to surface, she decides to take her company, those willing to follow her, to lend aid.

*Before continuing with Vezely’s story, I’ll define Mordor’s geography, demographics, and labor systems during this period in the late Third Age.

Mordor’s Geography

Mordor concocts an image of a barren, ash-ridden wasteland with Mount Doom rising in the background. However, this land, locked by three sides of mountains, has a more diverse landscape. Gorgoroth, which lays to the southwest of Barad-dûr is the name of the arid plateau. But in the southern most part of Mordor is Núrn. It is more fertile and farm-worthy with soil enriched by the ash blown from Mount Doom. The inland Sea of Núrn, a saltwater lake, also sits with many settlements at its edge. Tributaries bring in fresh water from various points.

Mordor’s Residents

Variags and Núrnish Men

The Núrniags work the plantations alongside Snaga-Orcs. Others are craftsman, technicians, cattle herders, farmers, fishers, and other lower ranks of taskmasters. Several distinct classes of more or less privileged slaves emerge depending on craft. Capable slaves could also respectably rise to become Variags and priestesses.

The Variags of Mordor descended from tribes who migrated in the mid-Second age under the order of Lord Ûvatha, one of the nine mannish kings who accepted a Ring of Power. They conquered the local farmers and made them serve the Dark Lord. (The Variags of Khand (which sits east of Mordor) are the same warrior class crafted a century earlier under Ûvatha’s rule in the lands of Khand).

In each locale, Variag society is divided by a ruling-caste of warriors, mercenaries, a small caste of female Priestesses, and a lower class of Variag-Bastards or slaves. They see themselves as the “chosen people” and care little of other races.

Needless to say, they revere Sauron as a god (who they call “Tûmrakhi” in their language, Varadja).

Orcs

Various orcs inhabit Gorgoroth including Uruk-hai, common or lesser Orcs, Gûshmurashi (a rare crossbreed of the former two), and Snaga-Orcs. “Snaga” is the Orcish term for “slave” and referred to a smaller orc breed.

The Orcs did not live among the Variags, but the two interact and Variags employ snaga-orcs for amusement.

Other Slaves (not of Núrniag origins)

As Mordor expands its population in preparation for war, there is a need to sustain it. While Núrniags and Snaga-orcs are one source, slaves from Haradric and Easterling origins (war-slaves) are brought in. Slaves clear roads of mass debris from the constant eruptions of Mount Doom; a tremendous and deadly task. Slaves would also be mining ore from the Ephel Dûath mountain range, ploughing fields, harvesting, and later in the third age, rebuilding Barad-dûr.

Nazgûl

Sauron was not in Mordor Yet

The Nazgûl act as his agents, furthering his mission in the east and south by conscripting men to do his bidding. The slow corruption of Greenwood into Mirkwood and the waning of Gondorian power in Rhovanion (where the Wainriders, Balchoth, etc. invaded) are phase one. Phase two is a mass migration of Easterlings into the region causing chaos for Gondor and deterring them from knowing of Mordor’s rebuilding.

Sidenote: For the Balchoth (Vezely’s tribe), their agent was Khamûl, known as the Shadow of the East, the Black Easterling, the second of the nine mannish kings to accept a Ring of Power.

Trade

Mordor has an economy that sustains its populations, feeding and paying them. It relies on trade for the import of goods and fresh slaves to work the mines, clear the roads, and to rebuild the tower of Barad-dûr. Iron ore mined from Ephel Dûath is Mordor’s primary export, though the mines and forges also produce weaponry to be sold to Variag lords who are constantly warring among each other.

Hierarchy

Until Sauron returns, the Nazgûl are in charge of operations, though of course with oversight from Dol Guldur. Caste systems keep the mannish- and orc-slave populations in check (though there hold there own hierarchies) while others are ranked in each occupation. Lieutenants, captains, generals, and so on for armies, masters and apprentices for crafts and trade, lords or chieftains for tribal affiliations, etc. Each ranking system is respective to culture, orc or Variag. There are overseers, advisers, and councils for various sectors.

*okay, I probably could go on but back to Vezely’s story.

Walking into Mordor...on a Road

As a Khandish clan, Vez and her Men are not denied entry, especially when escorted by their contact, the slave-trader met earlier. They use the Caran Road, which, among others, intersects with the Khand Road and ran to the town of Caran on the Sea of Núrnen. Expectations are for her crew to be given mercenary positions or to be set up as guards for trade caravans. This is almost the case until she was outed a few weeks in by an Orc-overlord who could smell she was not a man. The entry of an elf caused an uproar, leading to the involvement of various overlords on each side. It was then and never after that Vezely evoked her prior name and exploits (see Chapter 2), calling forth inquiry by Khamûl to know her allegiance.

She is given leave to stay, but set to work in the most inhospitable and, for lack of a better word, soul-draining sector of Mordor’s economy; to oversee the slaves in the task of clearing the endless plateau of Gorgoroth. This is needed to make way for the building of roads in preparation for grand hosts . To crack the whip is to lose all empathy. If she could accomplish this task, then, it is believed, she is truly disconnected from her blood.

There are moments when she wanted to quit, but in her stubbornness she could not let anyone prove her incapable. She begins to embrace the cruelness, setting fear into the thralls as is expected to keep them working. Rebellions are dealt with swift and mercilessly.

They call her “corrupted one” in Varadja, and slave-traders spark fear in their fresh hauls by telling tales of a dark elf who could twist their insides out. She begins to forget her name, starts to wear all black to emulate the Nazgûl, and embraces the power this feeds her. Before long, she is overseeing larger and larger parts of the operation, organizing its trade, setting details to numbers, and as a top advisor and trade ambassador, reworks Mordor’s broader economy, making it ready for the Dark Lord’s return 150 years later.

Sauron’s Return

In Third Age 2951, Sauron openly declares himself and departs Dol Guldur for Mordor. The tower of Barad-dûr is rebuilt, a huge operation requiring even more slaves. His direct power further commands the march towards war. While already an order exists to collect tribute and maintain allegiance of various peoples, emissaries grow in demand. In particular, they are needed to reach even further into the east and south to conscript all the men possible.

In charge of this operation is the Mouth of Sauron, also known as Mordú, who holds the title of Lieutenant of Barad-dûr and is considered the most devote of Sauron’s heralds. This individual is a mortal who is chosen to sacrifice his voice to Sauron and become the vessel for the Dark Lord to voice his will. That is, it is a title, rather than an individual, though the individual selected must be the most devout.

While Vez’s main engagement is trade, her foreign connections lend her to conscripting armies. Under Mordú, she is given lessons in sorcery to be put to work in this task. She, however, is loathed to use the practice believing negotiation skills are enough. Indeed, she helps secure several tribes in the Mistrand region of Rhûn as well as aiding in the upheaval in Dorwinion to force their alliance to Sauron.

For the War of the Ring, Vezely is given the title of Captain under the Lieutenant of Barad-dûr, and she leads a contingent of Variags to fight in the Battle of Pelennor Fields in 3019. The end, for now...

#character study.#hadgalah gazar; archive.#meta.#long post.#slave tw #(( apologies for the long scroll esp. those on mobile #i feel i could expand but i'll leave it at that #vez vc: give me a few years and i'll run this joint #also this is the reason i have her as a trader/financier in my other verses cause it best defines her role during these centuries #she's more of a trade ambassador i suppose #rather than emissary #and yes. she remembers her name after the war. quite tragically actually ))

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