#cultural analysis

[motherfactorin-pi-face]

In which I speak a bit more on (NEO) TWEWY, Shinjuku's Reapers, and JP workplaces

So to add on a little bit more to some thoughts I had in relation to Challenges in Localization And Cultural Nuance and mageknight14's good analysis on Shoka Not Having Had The Best Family Life, both of which touch on Japanese businesses and how they're run, I'd like to expound a bit more on how the whole Shinjuku Reaper situation really is a series of two separate (and yet, as it turns out, somewhat related) cultural contexts. One of these is that Shinjuku, particularly Kabuchi-cho (which if/when we see the strongly hinted Shinjuku Interquel I fully expect to see that localized as "Kabuki Backstreets" or "Kabuki Alley" or something similar), has had a historical rep as a "red-light" district, and as a fairly major spot for Yakuza and similar organized crime activity. (And there are entire franchises that focus on THIS aspect of Shinjuku, as well.) The other context, which is probably not as familiar to Americans (who are more likely to have played one of the Yakuza games), is that Shinjuku is one of the areas that is a major business hub within Tokyo metro proper. (Square Enix actually moved their headquarters to Shinjuku around 2012 or so after having moved from Yayoi--a part of Shibuya we've never seen in a TWEWY game--and is ironically moving back to Shibuya next year in the Sakuragaoka area just south of Mark City.) And as it turns out, the Shinjuku Reapers and their situation are a MASSIVE parody of how Japanese businesses are run (particularly how certain trends culturally can result in a business--or a Game--becoming highly dysfunctional). So. Japanese businesses have (in comparison to US businesses) a lot of stratification and (although this is changing somewhat) there's still kind of the ideal that if you get into an actual business (versus, say, working at the Lawson or the Family Mart or 7-Eleven) where you're wearing a suit and tie, you're essentially set for Life as long as you don't rock the boat. Historically, this even extended to your prospects of a Forever Job being tied to what college and even what high school you attended (hence why there has been such an incredible pressure with kids being sent to cram schools to get into a good high school, and then get into a good college, as good employers tended to hire directly out of specific colleges). And there's not really the Layoff Culture there is in the US, and generally the main reason someone leaves a business in Japan involves retirement, involves (especially in creative fields) some irreconcilable differences with the board of directors, or some kind of a Scandal where one has seriously hecked up and been Removed. (Again, this is changing some, especially for younger folks, and in part the NEET culture (Not in Education, Employment or Training) is kind of a rebellion against this social pressure, but right now I'm focusing on how typical businesses are run once you manage to get into a suit-and-tie occupation in Japan.) So once you do get IN a company, there's a LOT of societal pressure to really devote everything to company success--not just in terms of working late/working OT, but even societal obligations of going to Company Dinners where you go drinking with your boss/supervisor, social events, morning exercise with the company, etc. that honestly has had a history of lending itself to abuse (karoshi, or literally working yourself to death, IS a phenomena in Japan to the point there have been workplace laws to try to reduce the abuse). Aggretsuko is actually another bit of popular media that explicitly calls out a lot of the more abusive practices like power harassment and the demands a company places on workers, etc. Cells At Work! Code BLACK actually depicts someone dying of an abusive workplace...as the stereotypical abusive "black company", the Japanese slang term for a particularly abusive corporate sweatshop.

[0bfvscate]

Ever since the Great Porn Banning I've been mostly on Twitter to boost my writing. Twitter is a way better networking tool for writers, even post-Elon, but because of that and other reasons it's also a cesspool for failsoldiers of conservative culture wars. So much time has passed that most of them made professional accounts and started genuinely trying to engage with art but they all type like this, some a little worse and some a little better, and I've been racking my brain for a framework to describe it to people who aren't familiar with it for so long. Like, I genuinely want to write a little article about this phenomenon without naming any of my test subjects, partially because I don't want to give them any inadvertent advertising and partially because a lot of them genuinely don't want to be known outside of their own little subculture.

Anyways, might as well post these thoughts publicly to see if anyone has feedback

[golmac]

Time for a New Pinned Post

Hi, I'm Drew Cook. I'm probably best known for my long-form criticism of 1980s text adventure games by a company called Infocom. They made thirty-five games in total, and are probably best-known for the Zork trilogy of games. My interests as a critic are mostly cultural and historical. For instance, I choose to look at Zork through a post-colonial lens.

My work has been featured at Critical Distance many times, including their "2022 Year in Videogame Blogging" roundup.

When I stick to my posting schedule (every two weeks), I get around five hundred unique visitors a month. That's pretty large for such a niche topic. Reactions to the site have made me very happy. It's called Gold Machine. Come pay me a visit!

I have also collaborated with Callie Smith on a few podcast episodes about Infocom games. It's called Gold Microphone. Unfortunately, we haven't had time to update it in a long, long while. We still want to get back to it. Last time I checked, it was on all major podcasting platforms.

I also write parser interactive fiction. My first game, Repeat the Ending, is a work of speculative metafiction about grief, mental illness, and the second law of thermodynamics. I tried to resist the tendency of parser games to be about things, focusing instead on narrative, psychological portraiture, and lots and lots of paratext. In fact, one of its themes is concerned with the limitations of parser-based narratives. It's been well-received so far, and earned ribbons for Best in Show, Best Art, and Best Writing in Spring Thing 2023. You can check it out here (linked below) and read some nifty extras, including the source code. Note the "play online" button at top right, and don't forget to save your game!

Feel free to ask me anything about game criticism, RTE, or even my work in progress. Or something else, it's cool.

I'm considered disabled due to the severity and prognosis of my mental illness. I'm not going anywhere with that; I'm just saying.

If you enjoy any of my projects, including my recently started posts about Inform 7 for beginners, consider telling your friends about it/them, or even rating Repeat the Ending at IFDB if you felt it was worthwhile. I do all of this for free, and always will, so knowing people find value in my work is what motivates me.

[francesiswriting]

If you love books, writing, and pop culture, let's be mutuals!!! ♡♡♡

[cuhcuhcuhcory]

The Cool Economy- An Analysis of Cosplaying as Poor

I wrote an essay about this concept and it got 100% My teacher gave me the ultimate compliment by asking if she could use it as an example paper in future classes. Sooo I've never posted any of my own lengthier writings on fb before but here goes! I'd love to hear what any of yall think!

TLDR is that these are the new major trends in aesthetics and advertisements. We are a culture that is bombarded with advertisements and this compass presents a sort of new visual shorthand. FFO fashion, pop culture, cultural analysis, media literacy, celebrity culture, etc

I wrote an essay about this concept and it got 100% My teacher gave me the ultimate compliment by asking if she could use it as an example paper in future classes. Sooo I've never posted any of my own lengthier writings on fb before but here goes! I'd love to hear what any of yall think!

TLDR is that these are the new major trends in aesthetics and advertisements. We are a culture that is bombarded with advertisements and this compass presents a sort of new visual shorthand. FFO fashion, pop culture, cultural analysis, media literacy, celebrity culture, etc

When celebrity figures do something noteworthy, not only are there tens of thousands of recreation looks and how-to videos that sweep across social media, but there are also tens of thousands of commentary videos picking apart the content with the kind of scalpel sociologists would approve of. One of my favorite TikTok creators in this genre goes by the name of CozyAkili aka Akili Moree. His videos center around concepts of fashion and design that exist along an axis from high to low cost and discuss where they intersect with the concepts of private pleasure versus public display. Within this framework, he evaluates celebrity culture through social media with a special focus on what facets of the celebrity lifestyle they are selling back to us at any given moment and how that lands on this scale. This is important to understand because since we are integrated and inundated we are with visual messages as a society, having a quick metric to make sense of what we are seeing has never been more crucial. This evaluation system is a tool to dissect the subliminal so that we can continue to maintain a watchful eye on the ever growing discrepancy between the wealthy and the working class, or more specifically, how the wealthy use symbols from the working class to blur the line between performing wealth and performing poverty.

The four quadrants of this evaluation system pull from a variety of sources, both cultural and sociological and are each named to encapsulate the spirit of the intersections. On the low cost side of things, we have the concept of Domestic Cozy, reminiscent of the Danish concept of Hygge. Domestic Cozy rejects discomfort, danger, ceremony and deprivation and embraces things soft, luxurious and effortless. This concept was coined by writer Venkatesh Rao alongside its sister concept of Premium Mediocre in his blog RibbonFarm in 2019. Rao writes that these phrases are stylistic fingerprints of the world that act as a sort of instant classification system– a combination of visual symbols where a simple glance tells you how much something is trying to fit in with or eschew the norm (Rao). Within this dichotomy, Premium Mediocre is like bedazzling the norms, whereas Domestic Cozy is indifferent to the norms altogether. Premium Mediocre is the finest bottle of wine at Olive Garden whereas Domestic Cozy is more like a hot cup of tea in your favorite mug. At its heart, the former style is mediocre with a superfluous touch of premium but not enough to ruin the delicious essential mediocrity (Rao). Because these two concepts are rooted in the medium, the remaining quadrants represent the extremes.

High Peasant and Thrift Store Realness both exemplify the other end of this stylistic spectrum. Thrift Store Realness is at the intersection of public display and low cost, covering the bulk of people living to look hot and get by without pretense of fanciness, just casual and classic at low cost. In terms of larger social themes, Thrift Store Realness makes practicality look good but not so flashy that it takes away from its functionality. Things can even be cluttered and a little grimy aesthetically but not in a way that inhibits its undeniable edge– it's the spirit of finding (or being) a diamond in the rough. Think Macklemore’s 2012 hit– “I wear your GrandDad’s clothes. I look incredible.” High Peasant, on the other hand takes a more direct style over substance approach, but one that intentionally grounds itself by marrying the fantastical to the established in an attempt to blur the lines between wealthy and working people.

High Peasant is maximalist and artistic in a way that appears more original than Premium Mediocre but equally lofty. For instance, if Domestic Cozy is a grocery store bag salad eaten out of the bag and Premium Mediocre is eating salads from the “fresh” menu at fast food place in between side hustles, High Peasant is doing a pop up, high concept, high fashion photoshoot inside a McDonalds and salad is the concept. It visually ties the trappings of the working class with the access and privilege of the wealthy. This puts emphasis on the grunge amidst the pastoral to act as a shared language between class lines. Though I am a fan of fashion, there are things about this aesthetic concept specifically that are worthwhile to examine.

High Peasant presentations are ultimately still a fiction. The artistry of this aesthetic lies in making recognizable symbols feel alien and otherworldly in levels of cool but outside of that constructed reality, it also touches on the bitter truth that an ultra wealthy life for most of us is truly an alien concept. Otherworldly is also apt because the wealthy play with visual cues that don’t exist in their world. By playing with trappings of normalcy, in some cases they actually reinforce their otherworldliness– cementing their celebrity in this extremely visual and social world with almost nostalgia-like bait. This explains why some attempts at High Peasant as an aesthetic fall flat to their audiences because their artistic rendering highlights the differences between us instead of unifying us through intention.

While celebrities use aspects of working class culture to make themselves seem approachable, it is crucial to remember that they are not and do not want to be working class– and though the fiction they construct might look similar to something you lived through, at the end of the day your compassion and recognition of these shared symbols is really a way to make you forget how large the inequality gap has grown– to feel familiar and forget the debt that separates us. There is a supreme irony to me in the idea that the best way for brands and celebrities to see and sell themselves or package products to appeal to the masses is by looking poor or by taking ideas from people who are poor or exist within the Thrift Store Realness category.

The contradiction of new things manufactured to look old and articles of clothing priced out of the range of the people who it's modeled after comes off darkly comedic because as Akili points out, “instead of wealthy people lifting other people out of poverty, wealthy people try to make themselves feel better about being so wealthy by acting like they’re poor” (Moree). For wealthy people, the reality of being poor does not exist and maybe hasn’t existed for generations in your family due to the prevalence of nepotism in celebrity culture. Therefore it is a novelty to eat cup noodles when you’ve never had to wonder where your next meal would come from. It is boundary pushing to pose in a dingy house with a busted couch and 70s brown vertical paneling if you are worth $2.1 Billion dollars (Forbes). Moree calls High Peasant cosplaying as poor– cosplay, as in fantasy characters, comic book conventions or some other halloween-esque costume that one can put on and play or act as the character they're dressed as. In these scenarios, their positive gain is the freedom that comes with donning a costume and the spirit of camaraderie that grows naturally between avid fans of the same thing.

Translating this to wealthy celebrities, the gain is similar but often pointed in the direction of commerce. The end result differs on what the purpose of the post is– as so much marketing happens via brand endorsements on social media. The concepts explored by Akili Moree and Venkatesh Rao and other theorists represent the newest pop culture metric to evaluate how social media is used to evoke responses from its audience and what symbols it uses. This evolving framework of media literacy is an important step in being cognizant of the world around us as we become increasingly digital. The commerce piece of the puzzle is one of our current economy’s most obvious ticking time bombs and social media makes it possible to not only see this happen but also to track how its sold back to us.

We are in an era unlike any before. The interconnectedness of the internet and the growing reliance/addiction to social media has opened up a game of uncertainty. In this world, all interested players take advantage of aesthetics to drive participation and compete for our attention– all tracked and monetized down to the millisecond. Shadow marketing practices have existed since the 1980s, where the creators of the advertisement try to sell you something all while making it a secret that you are being sold something at all (Barbaro). Substantial deregulation of advertising that took place in the Reagan Era, as well as the rise of product placement as an overall film trend, and commercialization of two of the primary social media platforms (facebook adding the marketplace feature in 2016 and instagram replacing the home button with the shop button in 2020) has led us to this moment– the ultimate fusion between being marketed to and being entertained (Barbaro). This is the beauty of the chart at this moment in time and the wisdom in listening to those who are young enough to see the veil as it grows alongside them.

With supreme wealth inequality growing exponentially each year it is important every day, every hour, every flick of the thumb to be aware of what you’re being sold and who is doing the selling. The gen-Z/tiktok generation and creators like Akilli Moree are especially unique and valuable to listen to about matters like these because they are the test generation of interconnectedness in society on the level that we live now. They are the first truly cradle to grave internet generation, as they were coming up after most of the large technological advances had already been made. In addition to the technology, they grew up after all the deregulation of advertising practices in the 80s led to the full commercialization and study of child spending habits as a system to control spending habits of Americans on a larger scale (Barbaro). The children, who grew up in the 24 hr ad cycle have grown into young adults unphased by the prevalence of advertisements and sponsored posts in their hunt for authenticity. They came up in it so they are less fooled by it.

If Premium Mediocre is extended legroom on an airplane and Domestic Cozy is bringing your own pillow and blanket to the flight, High Peasant would be buying out your whole row or section but maybe not your whole flight. Thrift Store Realness represents road tripping or communal transit such as bus or train. These concepts can function bigger theoretically than the world of celebrity culture but they are the easiest examples to see since they tend to range into the cartoonish. Some try for art and land amongst the tacky. Some embrace tacky to the point of camp and it feels effortlessly cool, while others try to be effortlessly cool and it just doesn’t land at all. In all scenarios, this compass of private pleasure to public display vs the money factor helps us evaluate how this game of aesthetics is being used to market people and trends to the masses. This is important to think about because these are the new major trends in aesthetics and advertisements. Being a culture that is bombarded with advertisements has major downsides, so adapting a new shorthand to categorize will help individuals have an easier time navigating authenticity in this new economy of cool.

/////end pls clap//////

Works Cited

Barbaro, Adriana. “Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood.” Jeremy Earp. 2008. Uploaded to Youtube in 2017. youtube.com/watch?v=tMaRsR7orTk

Facebook Business. “Reach People Where They’re Already Shopping with Ads in Marketplace.” June 4, 2018. facebook.com/business/news/reach-people-where-theyre-already-shopping-with-ads-in-marketplace

Forbes. “Inside the 21 billion dollar Kim Kardashian-Kanye West Divorce.” Stories. 2022. www.forbes.com/stories/billionaires/inside-the-21-billion-kim-kardashiankanye-west-divorce/

Jennings, Rebecca. “Why Are So Many Brands Pivoting To Coziness?” Vox.com. Jan 15, 2020. www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/1/15/21063670/hygge-self-care-domestic-cozy-marketing-brands-haus

Lorenz, Taylor. “The Instagram Aesthetic is Over.” The Atlantic. April 2019. www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/04/influencers-are-abandoning-instagram-look/587803/

Macklemore. “Thrift Shop.” Ryan Lewis. The Heist. 2012. Lyrics accessed via genius.com. /genius.com/Macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-thrift-shop-lyrics

Mahamba, Joy Anelisiwe. “Aesthetics of Today: ‘High Peasant’ Fashion and What it Means.” Bubblegum Club. February 2022. bubblegumclub.co.za/discourse/aesthetics-of-today-high-peasant-fashion-and-what-it-means/

Moree, Akili. “Cosplaying as Poor” Tik Tok. 2/14/2022. www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR53Fm54/

Moree, Akili. “Kim Kardashian’s Sink” Tik Tok. 10/8/2021 tiktok.com/t/ZTR53BtEn/ 

Rao, Venkatesh. “Domestic Cozy.” RibbonFarm Blog. Volumes 1-7. 2019. ribbonfarm.com/series/domestic-cozy/

Rao, Venkatesh. “The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial.” RibbonFarm Blog. August 2017. ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17/the-premium-mediocre-life-of-maya-millennial/

Stanton, Liz. “Instagram is phasing out the Shop tab” Hootsuite Blog. September 2022. blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-updates/instagram/instagram-is-phasing-out-the-shop-tab

Stanton, Liz. “Instagram Reels in 2022: A Simple Guide for Businesses” Hootsuite Blog. August 2022.

[literally-1894]

Notes on Genre-Punk Decay

     Lately, I’ve been reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick, that being the book from which Bladerunner was adapted, and it being the original seed of what would become the Cyberpunk genre. The book itself deals with an astounding level of personal alienation, that deriving from an inability to recognize that which is properly human as such, an inability to be psychologically free due to widespread moral hysteria, the denial of opportunity due to criminogenic conditions and obvious discrimination, the innate Ableism and plutocratic character of statistical data collecting in the realms of psychotherapy and statecraft (DADoES singles out IQ tests in this regard, with the actually quite lucid John Isadore being denied the ability to marry or move offworld due to having fallen under an unspecified bracket on a single IQ test), etc. In general a work of Minor Literature, which, on account of P. K. Dick having been a precognitive, conducts social critique of issues such as the universal theatre of Simulacra which wouldn’t arise until decades after the text’s publication.      Cyberpunk went from a being dejected journey through the Desert of the Real, to being a dejected journey through the Desert of the Real with neon coats and worbly skyscrapers, to being a Desert of the Real with neon coats, worbly skyscrapers, and no real reflection on or rejecting of majoritarian culture.     IIRC., Steampunk, as we know it followed a similar course, starting with two novels, those being Warlord of the Air and the Difference Engine. Warlord of the Air is about a hellworld where the British Empire never declined because WWI never happened, and the Difference Engine is about a hellworld where the British Empire never declined because they discovered computers in 1837. Both cases exist to explore the hell of Empire, how Technology interacts with its social order, the ways in which different societies interact with the same machines, etc., by analyzing it through the 19th century and the Belle Epoche.      Now? Steampunk is doodads and bowler hats being plated with brass, gears, and valves. Empire, the Intelligence State, and Radical Politics, all mainstays of the primordial Steampunk, are never confronted, as that would be too much critical thought for Steam hobbyists.      My course for Aesthetic Punk Decay is as follows: 1: Underlying media interfaces with underlying discontents and fears to produce something truly unique (for Steampunk, this was Warlord of the Air, for Cyberpunk, this was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and for Atompunk, this was the first Fallout). 2: Imitators arise expressing the same discontents (as with first-wave Cyberpunk and the first Bladerunner film). 3: Corporations coopt the imitators, and make their imitations to aesthetics (as we see w/ Fallout 3). 4: The imitation of an imitation, made only for aesthetic value, eclipses the original media and discontents (as with Fallout 4, Cyberpunk 2077, or that Steampunk road house).      And there I have a triad: Atompunk, which interfaces with the Cold War, Steampunk, which interfaces with the Belle Epoche, and Cyberpunk, which interfaces with the Neoliberal Era. The decay of the British Empire, the decay of Fordist Capital, and the decay of Reality itself.

[deni-means-flor]

⚠️Warning: SPOILERS for Kaguya-sama: Love is War⚠️

Ok so, I'm watching s2ep6 and I'm sorry, but I have THOUGHTS™ about Miko Iino and not all them are positive.

1) I understand that they're trying to make her empathetic to the audience with the "there's a lot of bad people in the world [...] if only people followed the rules my mom and dad would love me" but that's genuinely how some people get radicalized to the far right/pro-fascism ideas.

Like, if we boil it down to the most reductionist reading about it, a LOT of young people nowadays fall into cults/religions, far-right discourses, etc precisely because they are looking for somewhere they feel a sense of belonging so they go online (particularly young men, through the imposition of masculinity) and they find communities that are ✨super welcoming✨ and feel like home, but they slowly start with the insidious comments about law, order, discipline, and the whole bunch of conservatism that slowly starts trickling down into larger awful ideas against "bad people", the ones they deem as undesirables, the ones they deem as "perverted" or evil, and that's how you end up with young people who are going full fash.

And 2) I'm sorry, I just think it would be a really cute thing to see her end up with her best friend (Osaragi Kobachi) but as far as I have watched, it's most likely that she's going to end up being paired with Ishigami because anime is heteronormative as hell ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[demonpoetlilith]

a marxian analysis of haibane renmei

haibane renmei is my favorite show. it's rather difficult to summarize. a literalist summation would say it's a somewhat rightist (ultra-centralist) commune fantasy in a purgatory. the show displays somewhat of a materialist conception of psychology given it's about learning to lean on relationships in a world of unknowns. Guri seemingly possesses a strange isolationist ethnocracy economy, with a mix of state capitalist & socialist characteristics, without a clear state or bourgeoisie (although it visually resembles the market form). ABe states the show is his religious views, displaying an existentialist agnosticism. the setting oddly resembles early versions of the myth of the Garden of Eden. the haibane can easily be interpreted as a migrant labor force within Glie, seemingly subjected to a state union, taking that perspective i'd suggest it's a utopian socialist fantasy for arts worker in a society who's Left failed to get off the ground. the meta angle to this is it's stated to representation ABe's finding salvation during his student years, this perspective can be interpreted as characterizing the alienation of the student non-class with all their endless dreams, devoid of knowledge of how capitalism's totalitarianism twists the life of labor. it's hard to say the nature of their national question, while Glie exchanges materials with the outside the contact is restricted, with the people possessing a metaphysical fear of breaking the emigration taboo, the odd exception being how the haibane renmei seemingly prepare the isolated haibane to move past beyond the town psychologically. all this can easily be interpreted as metaphor for the alienation of the youth under capitalism & the need for support in that struggle. under modern conditions this is especially poignant due to sharp cost of living-job requirement contradiction. interestingly the show's most visible class struggle is between the haibane & the backwards, arbitrary & totalitarian government

[papiliomemnon]

Just wrote an article on the new Dutch immigration reforms and the ways in which it makes me feel <3

https://open.substack.com/pub/georgiepapilio/p/i-dont-want-my-friends-to-go?r=2edlia&utm_medium=ios

[laughableillusions]

You! American fan of foreign or otherwise un-American media! Are you aware of the nuances and cultural differences that are portrayed in that media and have an understanding that you as an outsider looking in should be careful with the lenses you analyze that media in because you have a different perspective that is not catered to?

[nicholasandriani]

Inspiration: Bryce Mattie. Exploring the Pioneering Work of a Media Scholar and Games Studies Expert + TEDx Talk on the Activism of Play

Brilliant mind, game scholar, and media critic, I first encountered Mattie Bryce by way of a games and the environment course I was building for a summer camp centered around “Games and You.” In the dynamic world of media studies and game analysis, few voices have made as significant an impact as Bryce Mattie. With a deep passion for dissecting the intersections of media, culture, and digital…

[khruschevshoe]

You know, it's rather interesting to me that Taylor Swift's parasocial relationship with her fans is honestly more akin to a YouTuber than a writer's. When I scroll through her tag on tumblr/Twitter, it's far more regarding the connection to her personal life/relationship developments than the actual metaphors/fictional story she might be telling. Everything comes back to how her songs reflect back on her relationships with Joe/Matty/Travis/Jake/insert ex-boyfriend here. And what fascinates me about it is that even though she complains about it, she leans into that very perception because it strengthens the parasocial bond.

The marketing for TTPD so clearly being about Joe Alwyn and the songs to Matty Healy. The marketing/video for Red TV so CLEARLY being about Jake Gyllenhaal, with so many of the new lines in All Too Well specifically being digs at him (I'll get older but your lovers stay my age, casting an actor that looks like him for the video, specific lines in I Bet You Think About Me). The fact that songs like Getaway Car and Bejeweled and Gorgeous and London Boy and Lavender Haze being picked apart at time of release and long after for signs of relationships crumbling. The way she uses surprise songs in relation to her relationship development with Joe/Matty/Travis. The damn TTPD "stages of grief" playlists where she deliberately undid/changed the meanings of old songs just to keep her audience speculating on her love life.

It's not sexist to point out that her wielding her love life is a marketing tool and that the strongest connection to her audience isn't the strength of her writing/the composition of her music- it's her deliberate crafting of a connection between her music and her personal life, leaving the audience invested in her music as an extension of Taylor the Person/Girlfriend rather than Taylor the Artist.

[shaylogic]

Charles, within a few hours of meeting Edwin: I'd love to move in with you and start a business together

Charles, within a few hours of meeting Crystal: Hi! Would you like to see my parents?

Charles, love, I'm begging you to slow down

You absolute u-hauling lesbian

[fourdramas]

why is it that so many grown ass people are obsessed with children’s media and perform entire cultural analyses about i.e. Disney’s products instead of being occupied by more challenging works from our age?

[chocfrog-enjoyer]

J.K.Rowling really was ahead of her time when she wrote Chamber of Secrets, because Ginny writing in Riddle’s diary and slowly being manipulated, exploited and abused by him, while she though he was her friend is such a good allegory for grooming.

[fist-of-vengeance]

just saw someone on tiktok discussing whether or not a character "deserved a redemption arc" and i am losing my mind. we as a society have lost sight of what a redemption arc IS. it doesn't mean a character is rewarded by the narrative. it doesn't mean the other characters forgive them. it only refers to a character acknowledging their mistakes and choosing to better themselves, which any person can do, no matter how terrible. of course there's no shortage of badly executed redemption arcs, and a character who willfully committed countless atrocities having a change of heart after a single conversation about the power of friendship is simply poor writing and unrealistic. not every character who CAN change WILL. but there is zero value in debating whether a character "deserved" to be redeemed. no one in fiction or reality needs to be "worthy" of making better choices. there is no fixed point where a person is "too evil" and therefore forbidden from doing anything differently. it's always worth it to change, and implying otherwise is both a genuinely harmful ideology and bad literary analysis