#history of swedish politics

[eypril-eypril]

the king

when i was doing some research for a historical wilmon fanfic at the royal library’s archive last year i found a short story called the king by martin andersen-nexö from 1914. it was a story of a king who no longer held any power, but was worshipped by his people who didn’t dare to criticize him.  

“let him sit!”, the wise men of the country said. “he’s the unsound fantasies of the people, collected in one hand - it’s the cheapest option. and he is our only memory of the slavery of the past. the more he stands out, the more he brings attention to how far we’ve come.” 

the king stayed on his throne, but he wasn’t allowed to speak. the people traveled from east and west to see him, and he had to sit nicely on the throne while the people looked at him. meanwhile, the people invented a road of light that would lead talented people to success, no matter their social class. but the king’s throne cast a shadow over the road of light, which paralyzed the entire country. 

after some time, the king asked if no one was upset with him. the people didn’t dare to be mad at him, because he sat so nicely on his throne. finally, the king had had enough and his soul left his body, but his body remained sitting. once his soul was gone, nothing stopped him from sitting nicely. he sat there, deaf and blind, until humanity accidentally pushed his throne so that it fell over.  

i love this story because in my opinion, it pinpoints some of the reasons as to why i think monarchs - both the real and fictional ones - shouldn’t exist. it’s fascinating how a story published in 1914 so perfectly describes the themes of a tv show from 2021. because this could have been a fabel about wilhelm, who is forced to sit nicely on his throne as tourist attraction and a symbol of the past, which in turn harms not only the people but also wilhelm himself. and if he continues to sit nicely, his soul will eventually leave his body, because it won’t be able to stand it any longer. 

[kattahj]

Wealthy people complaining about taxes are in 99.99% of the cases just assholes...

And then there's Astrid Lindgren, who, due to an unfortunate combination of old and new taxes for self-employed people, one year ended up with a marginal tax rate of 102%, meaning that the MORE books she sold, the LESS money she had.

She wrote a fairytale about it that she published in the newspaper, and the minister of finance rather condescendingly claimed that she had miscalculated.

Only she hadn't. And this is considered a contributing reason why the social democrats lost the next election, for the first time in 40 years.

Ironically, Astrid Lindgren otherwise supported the social democrats.

[sinterhinde]

Christopher Hill's 'The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution', first published 1972 (Viking Press).

In 'The World Turned Upside Down' Christopher Hill studies the beliefs of such radical groups as the Diggers, the Ranters, the Levellers and others, and the social and emotional impulses that gave rise to them. The relations between rich and poor classes, the part played by wandering 'masterless' men, the outbursts of sexual freedom, the great imaginative creations of Milton and Bunyan - these and many other elements build up into a marvellously detailed and coherent portrait of this strange, sudden effusion of revolutionary beliefs. (Penguin, 2020)

On Hill:

Christopher Hill was born John Edward Christopher Hill in York, England on February 6, 1912. He attended Balliol College, Oxford University and later became the master of the college from 1965 until his retirement in 1978. In 1940, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, before becoming a major in the intelligence corps in the Foreign Office from 1943 until the end of World War II. He was a Marxist historian whose work examined the role of economic factors in the events of 17th-century England. His works included The English Revolution 1640, Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution, God's Englishman, Reformation to Industrial Revolution, AntiChrist in 17th-Century England, Milton and the English Revolution, The World of the Muggletonians, The Experience of Defeat, and Liberty Against the Law. He died on February 23, 2003 at the age of 91. (Google Books, nd)

[I'm not able to link the pdf of the text here, but it is available in my sweeties document or through careful googling]

I found out about this through Georgie Carr's brilliant writing on 'Triangle of Sadness'.

"On one level, Östlund seems to posit a direct relationship between an excess of vomit and an intensity of critique. In contrast to the radical tradition of “the world turned upside down,” which aims to write a new history from below, Östlund instead renders society merrily askew." (Carr, 2022)

I abandoned this film in favour of spending time tickling my lover's arsehole in their sleep and couldn't dream of articulating my thoughts on the film as well as Carr does.

I could say: Östlund has created a work that nudges at style, substance, and box-office sales, but manages to rock the boat only in his definition of the word 'satire'.

But why bother? Here is Carr's article:

[thatbitchsimone]

How do you not know who mao is lmao bitches are dumb and proud now

i know who the dictator mao is but idk his last name bc ppl usually just refer to him as mao or talk about being a maoist or whatever sry im having a woman moment

[starfirebird]

i've listened to quite an interesting variety of songs in the past few days so now the audiation part of my brain is alternating between "i am unworthy of your love, chaarliee" and "unopposed under crimson skies, immortalized over time, their legend will rise," etc, and it is /disconcerting/

[rotzaprachim]

some smaller bookstores, presses, and museum shops to browse and know about! Most support smaller presses, diverse authors and authors in translation, or fund museums and arts research)

(disclaimer: the only three I’ve personally used are the Yiddish book center, native books, and izzun books! Reccomend all three. Also roughly *U.S. centric & anglophone if people have others from around the world please feel free to add on

birchbark books - Louise Erdrich’s book shop, many indigenous and First Nations books of a wide variety of genres including children’s books, literature, nonfiction, sustainability and foodways, language revitalization, Great Lakes area focus (https://birchbarkbooks.com/)

American Swedish institute museum store - range of Scandinavian and Scandinavian-American/midwestern literature, including modern literature in translation, historical documents, knitters guides, cookbooks, children’s books https://shop.asimn.org/collections/books-1

Native books - Hawai’i based bookstore with a focus on native Hawaiian literature, scholarly works about Hawai’i, the pacific, and decolonial theory, ‘ōlelo Hawai’i, and children’s books Collections | Native Books (nativebookshawaii.org)

the Yiddish book center - sales arm of the national Yiddish book center, books on Yiddish learning, books translated from Yiddish, as well as broader selection of books on Jewish history, literature, culture, and coooking https://shop.yiddishbookcenter.org/

ayin press - independent press with a small but growing selection of modern judaica https://shop.ayinpress.org/collections/all?_gl=1kkj2oo_gaMTk4NDI3Mzc1Mi4xNzE1Mzk5ODk3_ga_VSERRBBT6X*MTcxNTM5OTg5Ny4xLjEuMTcxNTM5OTk0NC4wLjAuMA..

Izzun books - printers of modern progressive AND masorti/trad-egal leaning siddurim including a gorgeous egalitarian Sephardic siddur with full Hebrew, English translation, and transliteration

tenement center museum -https://shop.tenement.org/product-category/books/page/11/ range of books on a dizzying range of subjects mostly united by New York City, including the history literature cookbooks and cultures of Black, Jewish, Italian, Puerto Rican, First Nations, and Irish communities

restless books - nonprofit, independent small press focused on books on translation, inter and multicultural exchange, and books by immigrant writers from around the world. Particularly excellent range of translated Latin American literature https://restlessbooks.org/

olniansky press - modern Yiddish language press based in Sweden, translators and publishers esp of modern Yiddish children’s literature https://www.etsy.com/shop/OlnianskyBooks

https://yiddishchildrensbooks.com/ - kinder lokshen, Yiddish children’s books (not so many at the moment but a very cute one about a puffin from faroese!)

inhabit books - Inuit-owned publishing company in Nunavut with an “aim to preserve and promote the stories, knowledge, and talent of Inuit and Northern Canada.” Particularly gorgeous range of children’s books, many available in Inuktitut, English, French, or bilingual editions https://inhabitbooks.com/collections/inhabit-media-books-1

rust belt books - for your Midwest and rust belt bookish needs! Leaning towards academic and progressive political tomes but there are some cookbooks devoted to the art of the Midwest cookie table as well https://beltpublishing.com/

[kckt88]

Moth to a flame.

Summary:

Aemond has always had a thing for his older brother’s best friend.

Warning(s): Language, Kissing, Loss of Virginity, Smut – Fingering, Oral sex (M & F Receiving), P in V, Safe Sex, Multiple Orgasms.

MODERN AEMOND x Y.N

INSPIRED BY THE SONG - SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA FT THE WEEKEND - MOTH TO A FLAME.

Word Count: 2915

Taglist - @zeciex

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the House of The Dragon or Fire & Blood characters nor do I claim to own them. I do not own any of the images used.

Comments, likes, and reblogs are very much appreciated.

Aemond groaned in frustration as his brothers groans of pleasure grew louder, the rhythmic sound of the headboard banging against the wall.

“Selfish prick-“ muttered Aemond the jealousy bubbling in the pit of his stomach.

Aemond had always had a thing for his brother’s best friend, ever since they’d been introduced, she lived in the apartment across from them and Aegon being the more confident of the brothers had spoken to her first, with the pair of them becoming firm friends.

She was currently studying a degree in English and History at the local university in the hopes of becoming a teacher someday, all whilst working at a grocery store.

Aside from the fact that she was intelligent, kind, generous, and funny, Aemond also liked the fact that she was immune to Aegon’s garish attempts at seduction, politely declining his repeated advances until he finally gave up his pursuit.

But they struck up a firm friendship nonetheless and from then on Y.N had become a regular fixture in both of their lives. That was two years ago and every day since then had felt like torture.

In a way he was slightly envious of Aegon when it came to matters of the opposite sex, his older brother never had any issues charming the pants off literally every woman that took his fancy whereas he was still a virgin at the age of twenty one.

Gods it was so embarrassing, of course he wanted to have sex, but he just couldn’t get past his own shyness and insecurity over the scar on his face and his missing eye, that he never reciprocated any woman’s advances, not that there were many anyway.

He was convinced they were doing it out of pity or simply an attempt to mock him, and he didn’t want to feel vulnerable in that way, so he simply stayed away and guarded his heart and his feelings.

He liked to imagine all the ways he would please Y.N, with his fingers, his tongue, and his cock, he wanted her in every way possible, but he was too damn shy to even try so he resigned himself to fucking his fist whenever the urge got too much.

And now he’d missed his chance, Y.N was next door fucking his brother and it made him angry, gods Aegon was such a prick, he knew of his feelings for Y.N and still he’d pursued her and fucked her. How many times had they done it? How long had it been going on for? And by the gods Aemond would kill Aegon if he discarded Y.N like she was nothing.

Aegon wasn’t the best when it came to dealing with the aftermath of his pursuits, he enjoyed the chase, did what he had to in order to get what he wanted and then threw them away as if they were nothing.

Aemond had lost count of the amount of women who would come banging on their door, looking for Aegon after he had ghosted them, it was actually exhausting.

“For fuck sake” muttered Aemond as he rubbed his eye and stared at the alarm clock on his nightstand.

After figuring out that trying to sleep was a pointless endeavour Aemond got out of bed, not like he could sleep with that racket going on next door anyway.

Slipping on a pair of sweatpants over his boxers, Aemond left his room and walked into the kitchen, perhaps a drink and a smoke would dampen his ire, or maybe he’d finally check out that series on Netflix that Aegon kept insisting he watch.

After running a hand through his dark hair, Aemond opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, twisting the cap and taking a large gulp as he turned around.

“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST” shouted Aemond as he spotted Y.N sitting at the table, her face illuminated only by her laptop screen.

“Sorry -I didn’t mean to scare you,” said Y.N softly.

“W-What are you doing here?” gasped Aemond.

“My WIFI is out so Aeg said I could use yours-I have an assignment due at the end of the week,” said Y.N motioning to her laptop and the mountain of books beside it.

“No-I meant what are you doing out here, I thought you was in Aegon’s room”.

“Why would I be in Aeg’s room?” asked Y.N

“Well, I-I heard him with someone and-“

“-So you just naturally assumed that it was me?” muttered Y.N frowning.

“N-No-it’s just he said earlier that he’d asked you to come over” replied Aemond.

“He did ask me, but I had a shift at the shop, and then he said something about Cassandra”.

Aemond could feel his cock stirring in his trousers at the sight of Y.N sitting at the table in her short p.js, with one leg raised.

The material of her shorts rid higher on her thigh, exposing her creamy flesh.

“Oh, so that’s who’s in his room” muttered Aemond the feeling of relief washing over him.

“I guess so, he’s been trying to get in her knickers for a while, so his questionable attempts at flirting have finally paid off,” said Y.N shrugging.

“I guess” mumbled Aemond.

“You honestly thought that I was with him?” asked Y.N her eyes lingering on Aemond’s bare chest, her teeth catching on her lower lip at the sparse chest hair and the silver cross chain he wore.

“Yeah-sorry about that” whispered Aemond.

“I had hoped that you would think better of me” replied Y.N.

“I don’t think about you at all” lied Aemond his tone a little sharper than he intended.

“Oh really?” asked Y.N as she slowly rose from the chair.

“N-No” gasped Aemond, his face suddenly feeling very hot.

“I see the way you look at me-“ muttered Y.N

“I-I don’t-“ stuttered Aemond, his eye focused on the thin strap of Y.N’s top that had slipped down her shoulder.

“I like the way you look at me-“ whispered Y.N

“Y.N-“ exclaimed Aemond as she reached forward and gently cupped the scared side of his face.

“So beautiful” whispered Y.N.

“N-No I’m not” muttered Aemond lowering his head.

“Yes, you are-“ said Y.N as she leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to his scared cheek.

Aemond’s heart was pounding in his chest, he could smell the sweet scent of Y.N’s perfume and feel the heat from the proximity of her body.

Y.N seemed to be waiting for him to make the next move, she smiled softly as she reached down to take his hand, squeezing it gently.

Aemond stood mute, his mind screaming at him to lean forward and kiss her, the girl of his dreams was standing in front of him in her short p.js looking at him expectantly.

He wasn’t aware of how much time had passed but the heat of Y.N’s body suddenly moved away from him, taking his silence as a rejection of her advance.

“I’m sorry-“ muttered Y.N her cheeks tinged pink.

Aemond could only stand there as he watched Y.N rapidly collecting her things, she was clearly embarrassed.

“Tell Aeg thanks for letting me use the WIFI-“ said Y.N as she rushed towards the door, her breath hitching in her throat as she struggled with the door handle before pulling it open and running across the hall to her own flat.

Aemond blinked and slowly he came back to himself.

Y.N had propositioned him, and he’d just stood there like a complete twat and now she’d fled the apartment and would likely never return for fear of running into him.

No, that just wouldn’t do. Y.N was different from other girls; she didn’t look repulsed at the sight of his scar or pretend it didn’t exist.

She had called him beautiful, and he’d just stood there, and not said a word.

He could have been kissing her right now, and yet he was still standing there.

With a huff of annoyance, Aemond stalked forward and wrenched open the door, he didn’t care that he was only wearing a pair of sweatpants, he just wanted to make things right with Y.N.

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

She didn’t answer, so he knocked again and again.

“Please Y.N-Open the door” begged Aemond as he pressed his forehead against the wood.

He internally cursed his own stupidity and was about to give up when he suddenly lurched forward as the door flew open.

“Aemond-“ muttered Y.N.

“-Y.N” replied Aemond as he gently cupped her face with both hands and pressed his lips against hers.

He pulled away for a moment so he could quickly kick the door closed and then his mouth descended upon Y.N’s again.

Aemond couldn’t help the small groan that escaped his lips as Y.N’s pierced tongue slid against his.

Y.N slowly slid her hands up the back of Aemond’s neck and into his hair and pulled it slightly, delighting in the little moan he made.

Aemond slowly moved his hands down Y.N’s body before roughly grasping her ass and hauling her up against the door.

Not having any clue at all where this bravado came from, but he was more than content to roll with it.

Y.N whimpered, gripping at Aemond’s shoulders as he slots himself between her legs, his tongue still invading her mouth.

Aemond presses himself against the apex of Y.N’s thighs, and he growls like an animal when she reaches down and palms his hard cock over his sweatpants.

“Fuck-“ groans Aemond as he begins grinding his clothed cock against her.

“Someone’s eager” whispered Y.N as she flicked her tongue against the corner of Aemond’s mouth.

“Oh-baby girl you have no idea” rasped Aemond.

“Bedroom” muttered Y.N.

Aemond nodded eagerly as he lowered Y.N to the floor and took her hand, his heart pounding in his chest.

Of course, he’d been in Y.N’s flat plenty of times for movie nights and game nights, but this night was totally different. It was the night that he would lose his virginity.

As they entered her bedroom, Y.N gently cupped his face and pressed her forehead against his.

“Are you sure?”

“More than anything-I want you” replied Aemond.

“If things get too much for you-We can stop” whispered Y.N.

“I know”

Y.N smiled as she stepped back from Aemond and reached down to pull off her strappy top.

Aemond stared open mouthed as he gazed at Y.N’s bare breasts, he reached out with a shaking hand and gently ran his fingers over her nipple that had hardened in the cool air of the room.

“You are so beautiful” exclaimed Aemond, of course he’d seen breasts before, but none as exquisite as Y.N’s.

“As are you my dragon”.

Aemond blushed as he watched Y.N hook her fingers into the waistband of her p.j shorts and pull them down.

His mouth watered as he gazed at her naked body, she was indescribably beautiful. Her pale flesh, her rosy nipples, the rose tattoo on her hip and the neatly trimmed thatch of hair at the apex of her thighs.

“Y-You are perfect” muttered Aemond as he leaned forward and pressed a series of gentle kisses to Y.N’s neck.

“Aemond” whimpered Y.N.

Suddenly coming to the realisation that he needed to be naked too, Aemond reached down and began to push down his sweatpants and boxers but Y.N stopped him.

“Allow me” muttered Y.N as she sank to her knees and pulled his sweatpants down.

Y.N’s eyes widened slightly as his hard cock sprang free and slapped up against his abdomen, sure she’d felt it over his sweatpants but to actually see it, was another matter entirely. Aemond had truly been blessed, he was very well endowed.

“C-Can I take you in my mouth?” asked Y.N.

“Yes” whispered Aemond, his chest heaving.

Gods it was like heaven, the moment Y.N’s warm, wet mouth enveloped his cock, Aemond knew he was done for.

The metal of her piecing rubbed against his shaft as she moved her mouth up and down his length.

“F-Fuck” groaned Aemond as his cock throbbed, his seed spilling inside her mouth.

Y.N hummed around his cock before she looked him in the eye and swallowed every last drop.

“Shit-shit, I-I’m sorry” exclaimed Aemond his cheeks tinged pink.

“It’s ok-really” replied Y.N wiping the corners of her mouth.

“I wanted it to last longer” whispered Aemond as he helped Y.N to stand up.

“Don’t worry. There are other things we can do whilst we wait for you to be ready again” replied Y.N as she took Aemond’s hand and led him to bed.

“I-I want to k-kiss you down there” said Aemond shyly.

“Ok” said Y.N softly as she laid back on the bed and opened her legs.

Aemond groaned as he gazed at her glistening folds, gods she was beautiful there too.

“Let me guide you-“ muttered Y.N.

Aemond nodded eagerly as he climbed onto the bed and laid down between her open legs.

“You can use your tongue, your fingers or both at the same time-let me show you”.

Aemond observed intently as he watched Y.N’s fingers encircled what she called her ‘pearl’ soon his insides were squirming, and his fingers were itching for him to take over and bury his face into her cunny and bring her to peak.

“P-please let me, I-I want to” begged Aemond as he pressed forward.

“Oh-“ moaned Y.N as she felt Aemond’s tongue gently run along her slit.

“Hm, are you always this wet” rasped Aemond.

“Only for you” moaned Y.N as Aemond’s mouth slowly descended on her cunny.

Ravenously, he pressed into Y.N’s core with his tongue, in and out.

Y.N clutched the bedspread above her head, her fingers digging into the fabric, gods he was a fast learner.

Aemond withdrew from her soaking wet core and lashed hard at her clitoris with his tongue, pulling on it with his lips. He was hard, fast and brutal, alternating between her assaulted bundle of nerves and drinking deep from her cunt.

Y.N ground down on Aemond, hard; his tongue speared deeper inside her, and she felt the warm curl of her peak approach.

“Are you going to come for me?” asked Aemond, his fingers reaching forward to caress her pearl.

“AEMOND” screamed Y/N arching off the bed as she peaked.

“Hm” muttered Aemond as he pressed a series of kisses to Y/N’s inner thighs.

“P-Please A-Aemond. Need you” begged Y/N.

Aemond rose from the bed, his chin shining with her slick, he smirked as he swiped his fingers over his chin and then put them in his mouth, savouring the delicious taste of Y/N.

“W-Was that alright?” asked Aemond nervously.

“You were amazing”.

Aemond blushed furiously as Y.N directed him to lay on her bed.

“I’m on the pill, but I have condoms” asked Y.N gesturing to the draw of her nightstand.

“No-I want to feel you” replied Aemond.

Y.N smiled as she moved over Aemond’s body, her slick folds rubbing against his cock.

Gods he was so hard, it was bordering on painful.

Y.N reached down and Aemond groaned as he felt her warm hand wrap around his cock and guide it to her wet entrance.

“A-Are you sure?” asked Y.N.

“Yes-Please Y.N I want you” exclaimed Aemond.

Y.N took a deep breath as the tip of his cock pressed inside her.

"Gods. You feel so good" rasped Aemond.

"Fuck, Aemond" moaned Y.N as she slowly sunk down on his cock.

“Please” begged Aemond his fingers digging into her hips.

“I’m going to move now” whispered Y.N as she rolled her hips against his.

“Yes” moaned Aemond as he began to thrust slowly, trying to prolong the feel of Y.N squeezing his cock.

“Aemond-“ whimpered Y.N as he began teasing her pearl with his fingers, his cock throbbing inside her.

Her hands ran along his arms, over his shoulders and down his chest, digging her nails into his pale skin.

“Gods, Y.N" grunted Aemond, speeding up slightly.

If this was heaven, then Y.N was at the centre of it, and he never wanted to leave.

Aemond looked at where they were joined, and he groaned at the sight of his cock shiny with her slick, this was everything he’d hoped it would be and he was glad that he got to share this with her.

“Aemond! I’m going to come. Oh, fuck!” screamed Y.N.

Y.N looked amazing as she came. Her head thrown back in pleasure, her eyes alive with lust, and her skin shining with sweat.

Y.N clamped down around Aemond’s cock so hard he could hardly move. That, combined with how glorious Y.N looked, pushed Aemond over the edge, the heat shooting across his abdomen.

“God. Y.N” groaned Aemond as he exploded. His cock throbbing and twitching as he spilled his seed inside her wet heat.

Y.N collapsed on top of Aemond for a moment, her chest heaving.

Aemond gently moved his hands up and down her back, savouring the feeling of his softened cock still nestled snugly inside her.

After a few minutes, Y.N slowly moved off Aemond and flopped onto the mattress next to him.

Basking in the after glow of his orgasm, Aemond moved onto his side and pressed his face into Y.N’s neck.

“Does this mean that your my girlfriend now?”

[nordickies]

What’s your favourite historical event/period for Finland? 🌟

That is a tough one! I don't think I can name a specific period; I don't really have one era I would have focused on more than others. I think I like looking at the whole picture and seeing how the country has gradually evolved into its current state. But sometimes, I just hyper-fixate on a specific period for a while and try to learn as much as I can. Perhaps Finnish history overall is rather digestible, being such a young country, that it's not that hard to keep track of it all?

You can't really read into Finnish history without being familiar with Swedish history; that's kind of inevitable because they were just the same country for hundreds of years. And due to the lack of earlier written sources, we don't really have much to go off of with pre-Swedish rule. But I can imagine this makes studying Finland's history harder for someone who doesn't have access to Finnish resources! It all just blends with general Swedish history; I doubt outside sources really bother highlighting Finnish events or characters from that era. They're so insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Due to Finnish history being overshadowed like this before the 19th century, the Autonomy Years and World Wars have always been the biggest focus, even in the Finnish curriculum itself. After all, that's really the only point when we can start talking about Finland's own history. But I feel like that era gets so overrepresented that I sometimes get a bit bored with it, personally. What more is there to say about, e.g., the Winter War? So I'd rather read about the politically messy Middle Ages with the various unions or the various developments in the 18th century (The Great Northern War is super interesting from the Finnish perspective, for example). Even more recent 20th-century history is super intriguing to me, too! Outside the wars, what decisions made Finland into the country it is today

My answer is kind of all over the place because I like so many different periods for different reasons! I have always loved studying history, so I'm very lucky to use my fixations through this medium. And I try to share Finland-specific stuff with others since I have access to such niche information to begin with! But thank you for the ask - I wanted to doodle something historical for you, so have this 17th-century cavalry (Hakkapeliitta) Finland

[batmanlovesnirvana]

— Absentee Empires: The Absence of Ottoman Influence in the Grishaverse and Its Potential Depth and Complexity

@aleksanderscult @siriuslyobsessedwithfiction @stromuprisahat @black-rose-writings Please share your thoughts on this—I’d love to hear your opinions!

One aspect of the Grishaverse that truly frustrates me is the absence of a nation inspired by the Ottoman Empire and the Arab world.

We have six well-defined nations—Ravka influenced by Imperial Russia, Fjerda drawing from Scandinavia, Shu Han reflecting elements of China and Mongolia, Kerch resembling the Netherlands, Novyi Zem based on the Americas, and the Wandering Isle inspired by Celtic cultures. But somehow, there’s no representation of the Ottoman Empire? It feels like a significant oversight, especially considering the empire's substantial power during the 16th century and its enduring influence into the 18th and 19th centuries, even amidst its decline.

While the Grishaverse hints at other “colonies” beyond the main nations, that doesn’t quite make up for the lack of an Ottoman-inspired culture. Just think about the richness it could have added! An Ottoman-inspired nation could have been filled with intricate politics, vibrant culture, and a fascinating history of diplomacy—especially with Ravka as a neighbor. The Ottomans had a complex and often contentious relationship with Imperial Russia, which included both trade and warfare. Imagining Ravka’s brooding intensity interacting with a nation influenced by Ottoman culture could have created such a thrilling dynamic, rich in both conflict and collaboration.

At first, I thought maybe some elements of Ottoman culture were reflected in Shu Han. But it’s pretty clear that Shu Han is primarily inspired by Mongolian and Chinese influences, making that connection a bit of a stretch. This feels like a missed opportunity, considering the Ottoman Empire was vast and influential, controlling significant parts of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. At its height, it was one of the world’s most powerful empires, playing a crucial role in European and Middle Eastern politics.

The potential for conflict between Ravka and an Ottoman-inspired nation would have been especially compelling. The 18th and 19th centuries saw numerous wars between the Ottoman Empire and Russia, primarily over territory in Eastern Europe and the Black Sea. These Russo-Turkish Wars significantly shaped the geopolitical landscape of the region. Instead of a straightforward narrative, we could have seen intricate power dynamics where alliances constantly shifted, leading to moments of both tension and unexpected cooperation. Imagine the political intrigue and skirmishes we could’ve witnessed…Instead of a simple “Good vs. Evil” narrative, we could have had layers of complexity, like “Who’s backstabbing whom today?” or “Are we trading grain or are we going to war?!”

But despite their military conflicts, the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Russia maintained a complex relationship that involved significant trade. As neighbors with intertwined economies, they exchanged goods like grain and textiles while competing for influence. A similar relationship in the Grishaverse could have added depth, showcasing how economic interdependence can exist alongside rivalry.

Additionally, the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and Fjerda could have been more diplomatic and friendly, especially given the historical context of increased interactions between the Ottomans and Scandinavian powers. The Danish and Swedish crowns sought to establish formal relations to protect their trade interests and gain support against regional rivals like Russia and Poland. For example, during the Great Northern War, Sweden sought support from the Ottomans against Russia. Although no significant military alliance was formed, the prospect of cooperation was explored. Diplomatic missions often resulted in the exchange of knowledge about military tactics, geography, and culture, enriching both sides’ understanding of each other. The relationship between the Ottoman Empire and Scandinavian countries was multifaceted, involving trade, diplomacy, and cultural exchange that could have deepened the tension between Ravka and the Ottoman-inspired nation. You know the saying, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"? The Ottoman nation would have taken that to heart!

Finally, an Ottoman-inspired nation might have treated Grisha in a way that reflects the Ottoman Empire’s approach to its minorities, offering some autonomy under a millet-like system but with enough restrictions to keep everyone on their toes. You know, like “You can have your own laws, but only if you don’t annoy us.”

In conclusion, the absence of an Ottoman Empire or Arab-inspired nation in the Grishaverse represents a missed opportunity to enrich the narrative with the complex dynamics and vibrant cultures that characterized these historical realms. The interplay between an Ottoman-inspired nation and Ravka could have introduced captivating political intrigues, cultural exchanges, and historical rivalries that would elevate the storytelling. The rich history of the Ottoman Empire—its intricate relationships with neighboring powers, its approach to trade, and its treatment of minorities—offers a wealth of material that could have added depth and complexity to the Grishaverse.

Ultimately, incorporating such a nation could have not only enhanced the world-building but also provided a platform to explore themes of power, identity, and coexistence in a compelling way, making the Grishaverse an even more engaging and multifaceted universe.

Any comments or opinions are appreciated it !!!

[thirdtidemouse]

i have to do more bc she isnt rly brought to life yet.. she will change a LOT... but this is dylan :-] (hammarlund? underhill?) i couldn't not do a hilda oc and i couldnt not make it a nervous werewolf. she stresses herself out but is surprisingly organised about cooking, one of the famously stressful activities. she spends a full day planning out a meal, cooking for herself and kaisa (thank god. that nerd cannot cook) and then asks for detailed reviews.

she is very stressed out about being a werewolf though. she has just finished being a teenager and this is kind of that all over again. she does not want ANYONE to find out and confides reluctantly only in kaisa. what she fears is people fearing her, and she feels like the moment her life has been pieced back together again, she's losing grip, again. it's almost a black hound situation when the people of trolberg hear about a werewolf sneaking around. some episode centred around the mystery ensues.

she likes food + music! although she's more of an amateur at music, she owns + plays a guitar, a mandolin, a banjo, and a harmonica. very folksy. she has a swedish-welsh accent. try and imagine it please.

the default sister dynamic is kaisa getting home from work late (she probably lives in a flat in/around the library), and dylan being in the midst of homemade ravioli or something with a sauce that took 6 hours. kaisa asks about her day to be polite. dylan tells her about the sauce that took 6 hours, a long hike, 3 different invasive plant species, a lot of butter, and the use of powertools. kaisa has been re-shelving niche history of magic books but got so caught up re-reading them that it also took up 6 hours. when they have eaten dylan asks for her opinion and scribes the whole thing down in her notebook as kaisa voices her 5 star yelp review. they do not ask anything else about each others days and interact mainly through dylan slow-motion fake-punching kaisa while she is trying to just hang out in the living room or do her work and is ignored. only when she is in a very good mood will kaisa fake-punch back. dylan has a lethal case of younger-sister-that-is-taller syndrome.

sorry for my handwriting but the vague outline of her backstory WHICH MAY PROBABLY CHANGE is:

from the time she was 8 and kaisa was 21, they lived alone together. kaisa became a full-fledged witch between then and age 25, when suspicion against witches was on the rise for a short while - dylan never became a witch, but the only trusted adults in her life (basically kaisa and tildy) were, and they decided it would be best for her to grow up somewhere less troublesome. they were both pretty messed up about her having to move away, dylan holding some kind of spite toward her sister for a while, and kaisa feeling incapable, guilty and ill-equipped to take care of her.

she went to school in wales at 12, living with as-yet-unspecified family members/friends, and while kaisa almost immediately regretted sending her away, dylan adjusted quickly and spent the rest of her school career there. after a few years she forgave kaisa, because she ultimately enjoys her life, but she is stilll missed at home. at 17 going on 18 she became a werewolf (whether she was bitten or it was always in her somewhere?) and four months later she finished sixth form and called kaisa out of the blue asking if she could come and move in. since they didn't live in trolberg before, she's new to the city.

i will write more cohesively about her relationships to other characters/flesh her out more later, ESPECIALLY the werewolf stuff, but now i have to go to bed. thank you for reading :-] feel free to ask/suggest anything about her!! i love discussing hilda ocs

by the way this is i think my first ever actual OC? i've made up others before but they've just been single designs i've never really thought much about their actual selves because i suck at writing. dylan is the first one thats really stuck. part of her is based off myself and people i know, most of her is not. the main similarity between us is double-denim.

this is fun though. critique is welcome

(obviously her werewolf self is a swedish elkhound. i know the design kind of just looks like a furry im working on it)

[godinvent]

So I saw this post about how in the books, Dracula is actually an old man and I always imagined Dracula looked like older Christopher Lee, who played him while he was a kid. While looking him up I accidentally discovered that Christopher Lee was the coolest person in the universe and there is a non-zero chance he was actually Dracula in real life

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE CStJ (May 27th 1922 - June 7th 2015), Sir because he was knighted in 2009 for his charity and his contributions to cinema

So first of all, I saw that he actually knew 8 LANGUAGES (English, Spanish, French, Swedish, Italian, German, Russian and Greek) and was also a staggering 6 feet 5 inches in height. Born in Belgravia in London, one of the most Dracula sounding places I’ve ever heard of, here’s some insane facts about him

•His father, Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Trollope Lee of the 60th King's Royal Rifle Corps, fought in the Boer War and World War 1

•His mother, Countess Estelle Marie (née Carandini di Sarzano) was an Edwardian beauty who was painted by Sir John Lavery, Oswald Birley, and Olive Snell, and sculpted by Clare Sheridan

•Lee's maternal great-grandfather, Jerome Carandini, the Marquis of Sarzano, was an Italian political refugee

•Jerome’s wife was English-born opera singer Marie Carandini (née Burgess), meaning that Lee is also related to famous opera singer Rosina Palmer

•His parents would divorce when he was four and his mother would marry Harcourt George St-Croix Rose, banker and uncle of Ian Fleming, making the author of the James Bond books Lee’s step cousin. Fleming would then offer him two roles as the antagonist in the film adaptations of his books, though he was only able to land the antagonist role in The Man With the Golden Gun. It’s believed his role in the film is significantly better and more complex than his book counterpart, played as “a dark side of Bond”

•His family would move and they lived next door to famous silent film actor Eric Maturin

•One night, before he was even 9 years old, he was introduced to Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, THE ASSASSINS OF GRIGORI RASPUTIN, WHOM LEE WOULD GO ON TO PLAY MANY YEARS LATER

•Lee applied for a scholarship to Eton, where his interview was in the presence of the ghost story author M.R. James, who is considered one of the best English language ghost story writers in history and who widely influenced modern horror

•He only missed by King’s Scholar by one place by being bad at math, one of the only flaws God gave him

•Due to lack of working opportunities, Lee was sent to the French Riviera and stayed with his sister and her friends while she was on holiday, and on the way there he stopped briefly in Paris with journalist Webb Miller, a friend of his step father. Webb Miller was an American journalist and war correspondent and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the execution of the French serial killer Henri Désiré Landru, also known as BLUEBEARD. He also helped turn world opinion against British colonial rule of India

•While staying with Miller he witnessed Eugen Weidmann’s execution by guillotine, the last public execution ever performed in France

•Arriving in Menton, Lee stayed with the Russian Mazirov family, living among exiled princely families

•When World War 2 began, Lee volunteered to fight for the Finnish Army against the Soviet Union in the Winter War, and a year later, Lee would join the Home Guard. After his father died, he would join the Royal Air Force and was an intelligence officer and leading aircraft man and would later retire as a flight lieutenant in 1946

•While spending some time on leave in Naples, Lee climbed Mount Vesuvius, which erupted only three days later

•After nearly dying in an assault on Monte Cassino, Lee was able to visit Rome where he met his mother’s cousin Nicolò Carandini, who had fought in the Italian Resistance Movement. Nicolò would later go on to be the Italian Ambassador to Britain. Nicolò was actually the one to convince Lee to become an actor in the first place

•Oh yeah Christopher Lee was seconded to the Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects where he was tasked with HELPING TRACK DOWN NAZI WAR CRIMINALS

•Lee’s stepfather served as a captain in the Intelligence Corps

•He was actually told he was too tall to be an actor, though that would honestly help him considering one of his first roles was as The Creature in The Curse of Frankenstein

•He was cast in Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N (1951) as a Spanish captain due to not only his fluency in Spanish but also he knew how to fence!

•Lee’s portrayal of Dracula had a crucial aspect of it which Bela Lugosi’s didn’t have: sexuality, a prime aspect of the original novels.

•While being trapped into playing Dracula under Hammer Film Productions, Lee actually hated the script so much that he would try his best to sneak actual lines from the original novel into the script

•Ironically, he was rejected from playing in The Longest Day because “he didn’t look like a military man”

•Christopher Lee was friends with author Dennis Wheatley, who “was responsible for bringing the occult into him”. He would go on to play in two film adaptations of his novels

•His biggest regret in his career is not taking the role of Sam Loomis from Halloween when offered to him

•Christopher Lee was the only person involved with the Lord of the Rings movies to have actually met J.R.R Tolkien

•When playing Count Dooku, he actually did most of the swordsmanship himself

•Christopher Lee was the second oldest living performer to enter the Billboard Top 100 charts with the song “Jingle Hell” at 91 years old. After media attention, he would get No. 18, and Lee became the oldest person to ever hit the Billboard Top 20 chart

I really am leaving some stuff out here and I may go on

[snarkesthour]

United By Music Hatred Of The Jury  

Eurovision has been dogged by allegations of cheating, corruption, bad judging calls, and hatred of the jury for many years. This year brought that to a head with Sweden’s win over the public favourite Finland, in an allocation of points that shocked Europe.

Sweden received only 243 points from the public vote, without a single “douze points” from any country. Finland received 376 votes from the public, the second highest amount ever, including the coveted 12 points from eighteen different nation-states. How, then, did Sweden manage to win? Finland was only awarded 150 points by the professional jury, while Sweden was given 340, sailing their singer Loreen, a previous Eurovision winner, to victory.

Understandably, people are upset.

One reason that Finns have said it hurt to lose to Sweden is due to their history. Finland was colonised by Sweden for over 600 years, after Sweden annexed them (a long process lasting between the 1150s and 1350s at least). Sweden is still seen as superior in a number of ways. The Finnish language is often considered weird and ugly. Käärijä, the singer representing Finland, went to Eurovision to prove that a song sung in Finnish could win.

The professional jury clearly shows bias against songs sung in native and minority languages and not English. Time and time again, they vote for the most generic pop songs instead of performances laced with languages and culture from the performing countries. Last year in 2022, France sent a song in Breton, a language with a long history of oppression in France, with Celtic iconography. They received only 9 points from the jury. Meanwhile, audiences enjoyed the performance, and were happy that France finally sent something other than a modern chanson song, French audiences included. Keiino included aspects of Sami culture and language in their song in 2019, and lost out to the Netherlands, falling several places due to the jury vote. The Eurovision Song Contest exists to showcase and celebrate the full cultural richness of the competing countries, and it is wholly wrong for the jury to penalise that.

This argument is unhelped by those that often complain about the amount of Anglophone pop songs, yet then vote for the same due to loyalty, or the attractiveness of the singer, or politics. There is nothing wrong with voting for an English language pop song if you think it is the best song that year, but one way to help these non-English language songs is to allocate them a smaller amount of votes and save the rest for your favourite. This way these countries know that other people did enjoy their performances, and that they would like to see more of the same.

During its occupation by Sweden, Swedish became the dominant language in Finland, spoken by the upper class, administration, and education. It was only under Russian rule that the Finnish language started to gain traction and recognition, finally achieving equal status as Swedish legally in 1892. This is part of why it was so important to Finns to have a winning song sung in Finnish, their only previous win being in English. To show that their language is not rough and ugly sounding, and to demonstrate what it means to sing in your native language. The crowd sang along to Käärijä’s performance in Finnish; people who are not Finnish and have never spoken a word of Finnish. I cannot imagine that feeling. Käärijä also performed topless, with a perfectly normal body, unlike the heavily chiselled bodies favoured by Hollywood, which are, only produced by extreme diets, workout regimes, and dangerous levels of dehydration. It is no surprise he became a national treasure. Finland redecorated statues and had green shrines in their libraries and supermarkets. The country was so excited. Then they lost to Sweden over the jury vote.

Norway got the third highest votes this year from the public. They also won the televoting in 2019 too, but lost because of the professional jury votes that propelled Netherlands to the win. It was said that Norway may have had some voice trouble during the finals week, including her jury performance. The BBC praised her jury performance, but Swedish newspapers allegedly said it was very rough, and that she missed nearly every note.

The professional jury doesn’t judge the same Grand Final performance that everyone else sees. The jury judges the final jury performance, a separate show where the public is not allowed and only press accredited people can attend. Performers will obviously give it their best, but that does not guarantee it will be their best performance. It is also reasonable to assume that some singers might have a lower energy performance during the jury performance due to exhaustion, or in order to save up for the grand final, among other possibilities.

It is clear that everyone needs to be voting on the same show – anything else is just blatantly unfair. Votes cannot be accurately distributed if people are voting on two different shows.

If the juries are unbiased, we have a huge problem. Even if Finland got 12 points from everyone voting in the grand final, they would have only scraped a win with 11 points. They scored the second highest votes in Eurovision history, second only to Ukraine last year, a win that itself was mired in allegations of cheating and corruption. And yet Finland still lost.

The weighting of the votes is undoubtedly tilted towards the jury. As mentioned earlier, Finland received the second highest amount of televotes in Eurovision history, and won the public vote, yet lost to Sweden based on the professional jury. This is a kick in the face to members of the public that watched and voted. It sends a clear message that the public and their opinion clearly does not matter at all and they might as well have not voted. The public pay for Eurovision, the public stream and download and buy the songs, and as such, the publics vote should count, otherwise why bother? Why have a competition?

As it stands right now, the Eurovision Song Contest is essentially voted on like a US Presidential Election. The professional jury vote is essentially the Electoral College, capable of snatching the victory from the clear public winner that secured the majority of public votes. If we are going to complain about this system being used for American elections, then there is no reason that it should be acceptable here.

One way to fix this is to change the weighting of the jury versus public votes. The professional jury was established to prevent nations from simply voting for their neighbours or allies, yet it is remarkable how often the professional juries’ votes reflect these politics anyway. A 30/70 split to the public votes will allow the jury to make clear who they think should win while also not holding enough sway to alter the public results.

An overhaul also needs to be made to the professional jury itself. It is no secret that corruption is present within Eurovision. Keeping the names of the jury secret to prevent this from happening is only going to make it impossible to know when it has happened. Instead, the jury list should be transparent, and the juries themselves should be diverse, with a number of musical styles represented. Eurovision has a wide range of musical styles perform, and having a jury compiled of industry professionals from only one or two genres will only harm these entries, especially those that draw on traditional music styles. Many fan favourites were cheated by the voting system because their songs and performances weren’t “normal” or “palatable” enough for the jury. As mentioned earlier, these trend towards songs that have considerable influence from the culture of the country, including native and minority languages. It was also caused by the “war” between the juries, as evidenced by the graphic put out by Eurovision showing the difference between the jury favourites and the public favourites. Sweden and Finland sat in the middle of each half, essentially causing a fight over who would win by each half voting only for that one country.

Worldwide voting should also be removed. There should be a return to form when it comes to who can vote, as it was last year. Those that did not pay for Eurovision should not be able to vote, and worldwide politics could tip a win or loss by a considerable amount. The US has a population of almost 332 million people. India has a population of 1.408 billion. Imagine if any country with a population like this had even a fraction of its people cast a vote based on socio-political reasons.

Even within the voting process itself, there are problems. Votes should cost the equivalent amount everywhere. It ranges from 15p/17ct up to over a euro to vote, depending on where you are. This is going to have an impact on who can vote, and therefore who will win. Even on the app, it costs money to vote. This will not be a fair competition until everyone can vote equally and the organisers need to get on top of this rapidly.

Equality is the basis of every democratic vote, but Eurovision does not treat all of its competitors equally. The Eurovision Song Contest explicitly acknowledged the war in Ukraine and the need for another nation to host because of it. They sanctioned Russia by banning them from entering, this year being the second year in a row after their initial ban last year. This is considered the right thing to do, but it has raised several questions. The Eurovision Song Contest declined to let Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy address the audience at the grand final, saying that it would politicise the event, ignoring the fact that they had already politicised it by acknowledging the very real events happening in the world that caused something as drastic as a change of host nation. They also politicised it by denying Russia entry. The politics are even implied in the theme. While seen as the correct thing to do, it means they have, to an extent, been hypocritical. They have then taken it one step further though, with the inclusion of Israel.

Israel’s participation has long been debated due to geographical location and politics. However, to ban Russia for the invasion and war against Ukraine while allowing Israel to compete is hypocrisy at its finest. Israel has carried out the same actions against Palestine as Russia has against Ukraine, yet they have not been banned. Instead, they have hosted in recent years, often receive a decent amount of points, and this year had a previous winner featured during the interval act. Many people with the job of awarding points made statements in support of “peace and unity!” only to immediately award points to Israel.

This disparity of treatment is most obvious at two previous competitions. Israel hosted in 2019 when the Icelandic group Hatari famously waved Palestinian flags during the grand final, causing them to be deported and banned from the country. They were later fined for breaking the no politics rule.

In 2021, the Israeli entry was a song called ‘Set Me Free’, a song title that was mocked and by many for its irony. The day before the grand final, Israel launched a missile strike against Palestine (reminiscent of the harrowing news that the hometown of the Ukrainian entry was bombed moments before they took to the stage this year simply from the other perspective) as part of a series of escalations that included threatening to evict Palestinian families from East Jerusalem and nightly clashes between Palestinians and the police during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Many people felt that it was wrong for the performance to go ahead. For a considerable time, YouTube searches for Israel’s grand final performance only returned results for the semi-final.

Despite all this, Israel faced no sanctions at Eurovision. Contrasted with Russia, who has faced sanctions for their actions in Ukraine, fans are understandably angry and upset with Eurovision’s lack of consistent positioning on this issue, calling for the end of the hypocrisy. The double standard shown here, in the disparity of Eurovision’s treatment of Russia and Israel, is a symptom of racialised Eurocentrism – something which remains a massive problem in Europe and a subject which deserves its own post.

Speaking of the war, the UK did not utilise enough Ukrainian talent, or songs. The UK hosted on behalf of Ukraine, yet little of Ukraine was represented. Previous performers Verka, Go_A, and Jamala (who herself faced controversy for her entry at the time, it being an allegory to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the same year as the title under the excuse of “allying with Nazis”) returned to sing their Eurovision entries, and last year’s winners Kalush Orchestra returned with an extended opening sequence. Beyond this, and one Ukrainian presenter, Ukrainian representation was far below what it should have been. Other Ukrainian groups or previous entries should have been invited to perform, and the three previous groups that performed should have had the option to sing additional songs if they wanted to. This was a serious let-down by the UK, especially given the interval performance. Famous songs of Ukraine could have been sung instead, or even some of those Liverpudlian songs translated into Ukrainian and sung by Ukrainian performers.

Moving on from those who didn’t perform to those who did: Loreen, too, is facing accusations of rudeness and arrogance. She has already won Eurovision once before and has returned to try and win again. The popular opinion is that those who have won Eurovision before should be allowed to return and perform as part of interval acts, but should not be allowed to enter again. It is unfair to the other contestants; they have already had their moment, and should move on to allow the new competitors a fair chance under the spotlight.

Viewers noticed that it was strange that the hosts kept mentioning Abba, and that a member of Abba even made a recorded appearance. Eurovision has nothing to do with Abba’s 50th anniversary next year. Abba won Eurovision for Sweden in 1974 when the UK hosted on behalf of Luxembourg. Now, 50 years later, Sweden wins Eurovision again, in the UK hosted on behalf of Ukraine, just in time for Abba’s big anniversary. No-one can deny that this coincidence seems suspicious, especially considering the jury versus public votes Sweden received and the landslide amount of votes won by Finland.

And that brings us to the plagiarism. Many fans say Loreen’s song this year, “Tattoo” is very similar to her previous winner ‘Euphoria’. An even more common accusation is that her song is very similar, or even identical to ‘Flying Free’ by Pont Aeri. Indeed, the openings are almost a complete match. It seems hard to believe that she could compose an identical opening without having heard the original at all. Sections of the instrumentals are also similar to Loreen’s entry.

Having not heard about this controversy before the grand final, the comparison this blog draws is with Abba’s ‘Winner Takes It All’. Perhaps this is why Sweden scored so many points from the jury this year? After all, Abba constructs very enjoyable, musically excellent songs. This was only noticed when my own father heard Sweden’s entry and began singing along with Abba’s lyrics, only realising that something was different when his lyrics didn’t match Loreen’s. He has been a fan of Abba since they won Eurovision and owns several records and CDs. And even he thought it was a dance remix of Abba.

During the judging section of the competition where the points are awarded, the crowd kept booing, and chanting Käärijä’s name and “cha cha cha” while the hosts were trying to announce Sweden’s victory. This chanting continued during Loreen’s victory song, as well as many other competitors immediately making their way to Käärijä to chant and support him. It was very clear who people thought the winner should be, and it was not Loreen.

No-one remembers who won the year Verka performed. They remember Verka. That’s what’s going to happen this year. This won’t be remembered as the year Loreen won Eurovision for the second time. This will be remembered as the year the juries finally went too far, and the year Finland was robbed.

Next year we should all just send our previous winners. And maybe question if Israel has a place in this competition anymore.

[djuvlipen]

♀️latscho diwes djuviale♀️

💞 I made this blog to highlight the specific struggles Romani women face based on our sex, our race and our class

💞 I'm anti-gender, anti-sex trade, anti-religion, anti-capitalist

💞 I support women's and LGB rights. My feminism is female only!

💞 I'm a half-sinti, half-white working class homosexual woman living in Western Europe

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(first design by @/sapphos-darling)

[octuscle]

As a Christian born and bred it's always been a constant thought of mine of what if I had been born into a different faith, how that would change the person I am. What if I slid the faith settings from Christian to Muslim?

Brother, if you change the attitude now, not much will change. Now you're not going to trim your dick, I guess. You will grow a beard. And your Muslim brothers will despise you as a convert a little less than an infidel. So, in fact, we have to intervene in your history. Your parents separated shortly after you were conceived. Your mother fell in love with a Syrian refugee for whose sake she converted to Islam and married him before you were born. So even though your gene pool is unchanged, your social and religious background is a completely Muslim one.

Your father was not particularly devout. But your mother and sisters had to learn early on that women are subservient to men. And you, as the prince of the family, were carried around by everyone. A wish? Already fulfilled! Fortunately, your father quickly found a job as an engineer and was able to finance everything you wanted. In return, however, you were trimmed to be macho right from the start. Politeness and respect towards your parents. But you never had to show respect to infidels in particular. This probably also explains your somewhat divided relationship to the observance of rules and laws.

Your home is the shisha bar, the gym and Hassan's barbershop. That's where you meet friends and where you do business. Let's say you make your money importing and exporting. Of different things. Mostly with the help of cousins in Syria, Lebanon and Turkey.

Except for the blond hair and your Swedish passport, you are one of your bros. Hardly a difference. Okay, maybe you're in the mosque a bit more often than them… But that's normal if you grew up with a convert as a mother.

By the way, I found your picture @truevikingblood-blog too.

[salteytakesonmanga]

I know it's rare for ANY translation to do so, especially English to/from Japanese since the languages are so dissimilar, but can you think of any time where a translation added to a scene, or made it better in your opinion?

Oh plenty of times! There’s even one in this chapter. I try to call them out when I notice them because I appreciate them myself. I don’t have a specific tag for them, though.

The thing is…

Sorry, Anon. You accidentally triggered one of my rants. If you just wanted an answer it's up there ⬆️

Good translations are not rare. Good translations aren’t even rare in manga anymore. The reason a lot of people think of all translations as bad is because people used to not take translations of manga seriously. They wouldn’t give it any care or attention, they’d just whip off whatever sounded close enough, and if they got whole-ass words wrong here or there then it didn’t really matter. Because it’s just comics, right? Who cares about that kiddie crap.

Translation - good translation - is HARD. It’s not just understanding two languages. Linguistic differences between source and translated language are not the reasons translations turn out bad. It’s cultural differences. You have to understand the literature and art and history of both languages, because that informs the environment that the author wrote in and the environment the readers are reading in. You have to make sure someone can just pick it up and read. Giving people cultural context in asides and footnotes and a glossary is great and all, but the experience of reading should be about the TEXT, not about the language. A good translator has to know about cultural and regional backgrounds and tensions in both languages.

Turning a Kansai accent into a Southern accent is a great example of what NOT to do, because the two regions have vastly different cultures that aren’t comparable. An easy illustration is that the stereotype about Southerners is they’re very polite and gracious and charming and speak slowly, while the stereotype about people from Kansai is they’re blunt and aggressive and outgoing and speak fast. But it was the industry standard for years to just slap a “funny accent” on any character speaking with a dialect.

On top of all of those concerns, comics has the additional limitation of space. The translation must meet all of the previous requirements, and also fit into a speech bubble. There is no getting around that. You have to sacrifice meaning somewhere in situations like that, and in an ongoing series with as many twists and late reveals as One Piece it can be hard to guess which word is the one that is crucial to the plot.

There are times I definitely think the translators did a great job, it's usually most noticeable with wordplay and puns, but I'm not sure "better than the original" is how I'd describe that. I think it’s very risky for a translator to try to make the work “better.” The original Swedish translation of Dracula did that back in the day and what they wound up publishing was basically fanfic. (It’s supposed to be really fucking good, though. It just has no more than a passing resemblance to Dracula.)

What does “better” look like? Is it when everything makes sense and is easy to read? But maybe the author wanted this scene to be challenging so you’d slow down and think about it. Is it when you take that random joke out of the serious scene? But maybe that joke was there to balance out the tension of the scene. Is it when the characters always act the way you expect them to? But characters, like people, have contradictions and inconsistencies, and if you take those out the character will be flat and boring.

That’s why I think a good translation is one where the translator is invisible. If they’ve done their job right, you should never think about them. But then, if they’re that good, it’s easy to forget how hard they work to get the product that good. And that’s when people start to think we don’t need translators, we have language learning models and machine translation… But that’s a different rant for another time.

Side note, Viz still pays actual human translators for their work. So do Yen Press and Seven Seas, last time I checked. I’m not about to tell you to NOT pirate shit, but if you buy one of their books you’re actually paying for a person to translate it.

Anyway, sorry/thank you for giving me an opportunity to rant about this. As you can see, it means a lot to me.

[eretzyisrael]

by Adam Levick

For the third time since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, the Guardian has published an op-ed evoking the antisemitic comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany.

The first piece employing the comparison was written by Swedish Jewish academic Raz Segal, appeared in the Guardian only two weeks after the barbaric attack by the bloodthirsty pogromists, and was titled “Israel must stop weaponising the Holocaust” (see our post here), while the second such comparison, written by US writer John Oakes, was published last month (see our post here).

The latest such antisemitic libel approved by Guardian editors was written by an Israeli-born Jewish professor at Brown University named Omer Bartov (“As a former IDF soldier and historian of genocide, I was deeply disturbed by my recent visit to Israel”, Aug. 13).

Though editors no doubt thought they were checkmating the Jewish community by publishing two pieces by Jews hurling the Nazi analogy, the cynical exploitation of such “Jews Against Themselves” by non-Jews trying to popularise anti-Jewish lies dates at least as far back as medieval Europe.

While, during that time period, such Jewish defamers were often converts who Christianity, those who renounced their faith and became “Jewish informers”, today they are more likely to be activists and academics who, rather than denouncing their identity, actually fancy themselves better Jews. Whereas, in the 13th Century, such Jews were likely motivated by the desire to escape persecution, today’s variant are often merely trying to ensure social and professional acceptance within their coveted political or intellectual circles.

To get a sense of the flimsiness of the case Bartov makes in the Guardian, he cites, as his first ‘example’ of Israel’s putatively genocidal Nazi tendencies, the anti-terror policies of then Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin during the First Intifada.  It was under Rabin’s leadership, he opines, that the IDF began “heading down a…slippery path” akin to “the indoctrination of the armed forces of Nazi Germany”.  Tellingly, he sees no evidence of racist indoctrination of Palestinians in, for instance, the five year campaign of violence largely targeting civilians in the early 2000s known as the 2nd Intifada – a traumatic period in the country’s history that he omits entirely from his nearly 7,500 word piece.

Bartov also cites grossly misleading quotes by Israeli leaders to allege genocidal intentions.

For instance, he omitted that defense minister Yoav Gallant was referring to the Hamas terrorists who had, two days prior, committed the antisemitic massacres as “human animals”, not, as he would have readers believe, all Gazans. Similarly, the Guardian columnist recycled the disproven framing of comments by the country’s prime minister citing the biblical reference to Amalek.

Conversely, he sees no such genocidal or Nazi pattern of behavior by Hamas, not in the annihilationist antisemitism codified in their founding charter, not in the savage ethnic cleansing of Jews they carried out on Oct. 7th, and not even in statements made by Hamas leaders promising to repeat the October massacre again and again.

More evidence that the writer was engaged in a pre-determined conclusion in search of evidence is found in the fact that nowhere in his op-ed does he mention – or try to challenge – experts who have argued that the IDF has taken more measures to avoid Palestinian civilian deaths than any army in history, and that the civilian to combatant casualty ratio is among the best of any army engaged in similar urban combat.  It’s also far, far better than the international average of civilian to combats deaths during conflicts.

The Israeli army’s accomplishment is even more impressive when you consider the challenge posed by Hamas’s human shield policy – their exploitation of the civilians and civilian infrastructure for terror activities.

Those, like Bartov, who frame the total number of (Hamas-claimed) deaths in Gaza as evidence of genocide are engaged in an intellectually and historically unserious assertion, as a recent op-ed by six former U.S. federal prosecutors of perpetrators of Nazi genocide argued:

Genocide is a crime based on intent, not one that is based specifically on numbers. If it were based on numbers, then the World War II Allies would have perpetrated genocide in Germany, where their forces killed 300,000 to 400,000 civilians in air operations alone, even apart from loss of life that occurred during ground offensives. No serious observer would contend that the Allies committed genocide against Germans during World War II. German fatalities instead occurred as a result of the Allied waging of a manifestly defensive war to bring an end to aggression, war crimes, and genocide perpetrated by Germany. And those German civilian fatalities continued to mount until Nazi Germany at last surrendered — just as Hamas can and should do, at once, to end the war and the associated suffering in Gaza and Israel. Israel too is waging a defensive war against ongoing aggression, war crimes and genocide, but it is taking far greater steps to protect civilian lives than Allied forces did.

Bartov’s myopic focus on Israel contrasts with his lack of intellectual or moral curiosity about the decisions and motivations of those who carried out the worst and most brutal massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, what one journalist who watched the unedited 40 minute film of Hamas’s atrocities described as “pure, predatory sadism”:

“The videos show pure, predatory sadism; no effort to spare those who pose no threat; and an eagerness to kill nearly matched by eagerness to disfigure the bodies of the [Jewish] victims. In several clips, the Hamas killers fire shots into the heads of people who are already dead. They count corpses, taking their time, and then shoot them again. Some of the clips I had not previously seen simply show the victims in a state of terror as they wait to be murdered…”.

It also illustrates what Balas Berkovitz described as the anti-Israel left’s campaign to turn October 7th into a “non-event”, citing the impact of an anti-Zionists’ “ideological edifice” which forces adherents to “dismiss real-world evidence that…challenge their established interpretations”.  Instead of engaging in soul-searching, or reactions along the lines of “this is not how we imagined Palestinian resistance,” activists, and outlets like the Guardian, have only doubled down on their hatred of the Jewish state.

Further, the Guardian’s Nazi libel is more than just a morally reprehensible inversion of reality and ‘dismissal of real-world evidence’. It also constitutes another example of their editors publishing content that, particularly in light of an unprecedented surge in antisemitism in the UK, serves to incite more hatred against British Jews, granting a permission structure for antisemites by effectively casting British Zionists as not just grossly misguided, but as accomplices to evil.  

We’ve argued that the Guardian’s coverage since the Oct. 7 massacre has been effectively pro-Hamas. To that we’ll add that it’s also been antisemitic, in effect if not intent.