#i need to re read the odyssey now

[alice-ar-na]

UNDERWORLD SAGA- MY THOUGHTS

My goodness you guys do I have thoughts.

FIRST- the way this is such an ensemble heavy saga the 'all i hear are screams' in the first song WOW. Its because they have the whole crew back. They're singing with everyone, and I hadn't realised how much independent and almost quiet it had gotten during the circe saga, which speaks as a metaphor in itself

SECOND- Polites is back!!! Thank youuuuu actual tears were falling, the way odysseus' voice breaks when he says his name, similarly to his mother (regarding his mum, holy moly [pun intended] he didn't know she was dead- the guilt he must feel 'i took too long' broke me) polities that sweetheart, I can imagine even his ghost is so encouraging to the crew that's left on the journey, they needed that guy for morale big time.

THIRD- aight onto the prophet, anyone who read the odyssey is screaming rn, the foreshadowing is soo good but mysterious and twisted enough that it fits greek prophecies soooo well. Piggybacking off that 'palace in red' when we get to the suitors that shit is going to POP OFF damn it I cannot wait. Mentions of penelope being under pursuit. The WHO?!?!?!? Oh. My. Gods YES THAT WAS BRILLIANT. he's so angry and he loves his wife so much, I will never stop gushing over the two of them. Perfect.

FOURTH- the third song, pretty sure I screamed. The tension. The foreshadowing. The regret. The guilt. IT HAS EVERYTHING. All the references back to previous events, giving perspective from the other characters to stop portraying them like the enemies is so so important for the legacy of greek mythology. Perspective is everything. Onto THE BRIDGE!! HELLO? THIS MAN IS BOTH A GENIUS AND ACTUALLY INSANE. HE IS A MADMAN AND I LOVE IT. Drop another infant from a wall..... I actually have no words that is insanely cool. Odysseus has changed so much. Athena needs to hit him up again, now he'd kill for his people, you can see just how tired he is and how much he wants to go home. He's scared for penelope and telemachus, literally nothing else matters anymore.

Overall. 10/10 and this is only HALF WAY can it even get better than this??

[dduane]

I've been enjoying the recent Middle Kingdoms works, and was especially taken by the ritual hospitality in "The Landlady". It seemed reminiscent of traditional Irish phrases I've encountered translated into English. If there any influence? To what degree has Ireland leaked into your understanding of the Middle Kingdoms and their cultures?

Re: the Irish influence: there's occasionally some effect on casual idiomatic usages in characters' general conversation, yes. In fact, while doing some editing work on TOTF3: The Librarian just a day or three ago, I caught Freelorn's edgy friend-who-killed-him-that-one-time, Sem, using phrases that unquestionably were not just Irish-originated, but Ulster-originated. :) (And plainly this is @petermorwood's fault. But since the character seems comfortable with the usage, and from where I'm sitting it sounds right for him, I'm not going to mess with it.)

As regards Irish influence on the Kingdoms' formal hospitality-language and culture, though, I'm not seeing much evidence of that. Not that I haven't done a fair amount of reading about Brehon law and other adjacent matters over time as a matter of casual research. But none of that seems to be reflected in any of the notes I made on the Kingdoms' cultures while developing them.

The connection I am pretty sure of is to translations of stock epithets and phrases (and the presence of various general concepts and actions) associated with the practice of formal xenia in ancient Greece, particularly as described in the Odyssey.

In particular, the Kingdoms' worldview seems to share a core concept with the ancient Greek one as regards xenia. This is the idea that personified Deity is walking around in the world, making itself responsible for the protection of people who call on others' hospitality. Both cultures have the idea that people's behavior may be tested by the gods—or God(dess)—to see how well they're obeying the rules set out regarding the welcome properly due to strangers and those in need.*

In the Kingdoms, the concept has had what seemed to me like a more or less logical expansion into the relationship between the heads of organized Houses—what we could equate with local familial lordships, though the actuality in the Realms is a lot less patriarchially hierarchical and more complex—and the people who come to hold land of/from the Houses' heads.

So it made sense to me that there would be basic gestures and phrases that express agreement to various aspects of the contract between a House's head and their holders. Since both writing and literacy died off during that alternate Earth's domination by the Dark, and had to be revived and relearned after its destruction, this contract was for a long time always verbal. Over the centuries, ritualized concrete practices—the exchange of bread and water between Holders and head of House, for example—grew up alongside the spoken content to make it plain that everybody understood the nature and intention of the contract. These, too, I derived from material in the Odyssey and other works of that period: situations, for example, where simply eating something that someone else has given you is itself confirmation that the contract between host and guest is in place and working.

Anyway: thanks for the question. Hope this helps!

*But then readers of the MK books will of course recognize this as the kind of thing the Goddess already does in Her world—not being one of those lurking-and-skulking sorts of deity who leaves you wondering all your life about whether they're real or not. Her basic contract with Her creation already contains the concept that everybody gets to meet Her personally at least once; and—either in Her proper person, or in the form of other people—sometimes more than once. Because yeah, She's busy... but what's the point of being a deity if you don't have the time to sit down with your creation for drinks every now and then...?

[nysus-temple]

omg you talk about Spanish translations and I'm 😱👀✨. I've seen sometimes recommendations of English translations around. May I ask for some Spanish ones, if you have preferences? I've actually never read the Odyssey in full despite Odysseus being my favourite since I was a little kid because I've never liked any translation I find.

Don't feel obliged to reply, of course!

(should I have sent this in Spanish? Somehow it felt more personal to do so)

Hi! No worries, I don't mind replying in any language, as long as I can speak it, of course xD I don't usually speak my native language since most of the people following my blog can't understand Spanish.

In any case, answering to your question: I do have some preferences. I answered someone else before, but I can't look for the ask now, so here you go:

My favourite translation (because it doesn't add random things) is from Germán Gómez de la Mata. The editorial (at least here in Spain) is La Esfera de Los Libros. It's an Spanish translation from a French translation, tho, but it really follows the original text ! It doesn't demonize Odysseus, but it doesn't ignore his mistakes either, it's my favourite to re-read :) Spanish translations tend to translate from another language instead of directly from Greek, since classics sadly don't have the importance they used to have :( but they're usually good !! Lingüistics have said more than once that French translations of the Odyssey are pretty good, which is why Spanish translations use them as a reinforcement when needing to translate.

And now, this is the favourite one from the rest of the people, if you search around the internet, you'll find that the most recommended one is the translation done by Luis Segalá y Estalella. The editorial is LIBRERO. In general, thankfully, it's pretty accurate to the original text. The reason it's so liked besides having some stuff that makes you go ¿🤨? it's because it's translated from Greek to Spanish directly ! It's old, tho, which explains why it's not perfect and therefore, not my favourite compared to the other one I mentioned; perhaps with some luck, classics will regain the importance they had once again, at least the Greek ones, Ancient Rome is very present in Spain at least ^^"

I think these two can be found as PDF documents too. If you were wondering about that as well.

Hopefully one day I'll be able to translate the Odyssey by myself, it has been my main goal since I was a child lol. Makes me very happy to see you've liked Odysseus since you were young as well !! He has been a very important figure in my life since I first read the Odyssey when being 10. It's a hard read when you're not used to all the epithets and long, loooooong descriptions and dialogues, but you get used to it.

Good luck with your reading, hope this answer helped a bit and that you enjoy the Odyssey at the fullest <3

[ettawritesnstudies]

Lute: what OC is most or least like you?

Wildcard: share anything that's on your mind regarding your OCs/writing! even if it's "hey I'm having a hard time writing right now," that's okay!

- for bard-themed ask game :)

Thanks for the ask! Sorry I'm answering this so late!

Lute: In Runaways, the most like me would be Hannah, to the degree that my mom called her a self-insert, at least an insert of my 14 year old self. I'd like to think I'm more mature than her now lol. But I very much did write this book for my younger siblings and as the sort of thing I needed to read when I was little, so it's inspired by a lot of my experiences growing up. The least like me would be Brigid, probably. She's too wise and saintly lol.

Wildcard: OH MAN I'VE GOT SO MUCH GOING ON HHHH. It's all exciting stuff, it's just kind of overwhelm paralysis of what next cool thing to work on next because I'm inspired/have the motivation for too many things at once.

Just got back my Runaways edits so I should dive into those

Announcing some big things re: monetization on my blog tomorrow!

I've got several short stories to write for an anthology with an August deadline that I've only partially started

Oh yeah wasn't I going to put together an anthology of Runaways short stories?

Oh yeah didn't I produce an entire sketchbook of 1101: A Space Odyssey drawings last October and promise to turn them into an artbook and then totally forget about that project?

I should probably get to work on outlining End of the Road so I can draft that during NaNoWriMo so I have another book to publish after Runaways is done lsdflkjsflkljkfs

I'm sure there's something else I'm forgetting here huh

[quantum-leap-writing-prompts]

1/24/2023

Hello everyone, and welcome to a remastered Masterlist of Quantum Leap Novels included on the Web Archive of Archive.org!

This is not a definitive list -- yet-- of every single Quantum Leap Novel on the archive; that post can be found here. from @fandomjoy ! Instead, this will be a WIP Masterpost of the "Remastered" Quantum Leap Novels, as they're uploaded them to the archive with the help of some volunteers !

What does "remastered" mean in this sense? Well, to start, all of the novels originally on the archive were just PDFs. and by PDFs I mean almost raw book scans, sephia background with black text and everything. Great for finding them in the first place, but not very accessible for people who need larger text, more contrast, or need some kind of audio format.

So, the "remastered" Quantum Leap novels that are linked in this post have been painstakingly edited from those original PDFs into actual, readable, editable Word Documents that were then exported into EPUBs (Generic ebook format, widely used), MOBI (old kindle format) AZW3, (new kindle format(?)) and clean PDFs of black text on a blank white background.

So now, you can download the file format of your choice; everything except PDF should have the option on your ereader or ereader app (ReadEra is my top Android recc, and Calibre for PC) to increase the font size, color, font style, and a ton of background and color options for more accessible reading!

and that's not all ! These links will also include homemade audiobooks of the Quantum Leap Novels, created using the program Balabolka :)

Anyways, it's already a long post, onto the links!

(please note, this is a work in progress, check back here often for updates!)

Begin Masterpost:

Book One: Carny Knowledge Here

Book Two: Too Close For Comfort Here

Book Three: The Wall Here

Book Four: Prelude Here (added 4/3/2023)

Book Five: Knights of the Morningstar Here (added 4/13/2023)

Book Six: Search & Rescue Here (added 4/4/2023)

Book Seven: Random Measures Here (added 4/3/2023)

Book Eight: Pulitzer Here (added 4/13/2023)

Book Nine: Double Or Nothing Here (added 4/5/2023)

Book Ten: Odyssey

Book Eleven: Independence Here (link added 2/8/2023)

Book Twelve: Angels Unaware

Book Thirteen: Obsessions

Book Fourteen: Loch Ness Leap

Book Fifteen: Heat Wave Here

Book Sixteen: Foreknowledge here: (link added 4/3/2023)

Book Seventeen: Song and Dance

Book Eighteen: Mirror's Edge Here (link added 4/3/2023)

separate continuities:

The Beginning (Novelization of the Genesis Part 1 Pilot):

The Ghost And The Gumshoe (Novelization of "A Portrait for Troian", released exclusively in the UK) :

End Notes:

As of 1/24/2023, we still need a physical copy of Foreknowledge to even begin the digitalization process! We were very lucky and two of us were able to get Mirror's Edge for under $60, but Foreknowledge is still very expensive out there!

If you have a physical copy of Foreknowledge on hand please consider DMing me or joining the Quantum Leap Lovers Discord to find out how you can help contribute :)

1/24/2023: Book 15: heatwave is currently being re-edited to make a cleaner page scan (no watermarks or fingers visible) and then it will get the Epubs, mobies, clean PDF, audiobooks, etc uploaded once the OCR has been cleaned up. 4/3/2023 done! original pdf has been cleaned up and reuploaded as an edit, and the other files will follow in the next hour or so.

4/3/2023: Someone uploaded an old book scan of Foreknowledge to the web archive ;)

[dweemeister]

2023 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (final results)

TAGGING (even some folks who didn’t do this but I hope will join/rejoin us someday): @addaellis, @birdsongvelvet, @cinemaocd, @doglvr, @dog-of-ulthar, @emilylime5, @exlibrisneh​, @halfwaythruthedark, @idontknowmuchaboutmovies, @introspectivemeltdown, @machpowervisions, @maximiliani, @mehetibel, @memetoilet​, @metamatar, @monkeysmadeofcheese, @myluckyerror​, @phendranaedge, @plus-low-overthrow, @qteeclown, @rawberry101, @rosymeraki-blog, @shadesofhappy​, @shootingstarvenator, @stephdgray, @the-lilac-grove, @theybecomestories, @umgeschrieben, @underblackwings, and @yellanimal

Hello all,

I know it's mid-January, but the book is finally closed on the Movie Odyssey for 2023 and the 2023 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (MOABOS XI) Final. For those who need a refresher, I refer to the whole collection of films I saw for the first time in their entirety over a calendar year as "My Movie Odyssey". It forms the backbone of my classic film blog on tumblr, which has been featuring the Movie Odyssey Awards (of which MOABOS is one category out of 26 total). The true reason for the blog's continuing existence are my film write-ups, tagged "My Movie Odyssey" (which remains stuck, unfortunately at 799 as of the writing of this wrap-up post).

INTRODUCTION AND A RE-STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Whether or not you participated in 2023's Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (MOABOS XI), I thank you for your consideration, your time, and your support. This eleventh edition of MOABOS was the tenth with outside involvement from family, friends, and tumblr followers.

Late Sunday night, I was asked by a MOABOS newcomer what was the true purpose of this strange competition/holiday tradition/social experiment/whatever you want to call it. It was, admittedly, a little jarring to hear that question again for the first time in perhaps a few years. Of course, there's the fun in seeing everybody's comments and rankings. The drama of folks complaining about the musical tastes of others they have never met is hilarious (high school friends side-eyeing coworkers; my undergrad and grad school friends having no overlap in taste – yes, I even find the disparagement towards my musical tastes as horribly funny. I get a strange kick out of conducting the single transferable vote of a few dozen people.

In the end, the purpose of MOABOS is twofold.

First, at the most basic level, it's to keep in touch with all of you. The second purpose is more complex, and may or may not be of coequal importance. Like the Movie Odyssey Awards it is a part of, and especially those movie write-ups stubbornly stuck at 799, MOABOS is meant to introduce all of you to films you may not have otherwise encountered – especially classic movies of yesteryear.

No one looks at you funny when you say you read an old book, or go to see centuries-old art in a museum, or listen to what is now being called "oldies" music. But for film? Not so much. I hope MOABOS has helped demystify and make more accessible/less intimidating the movies featured here. Yes, I'll always toot the horn of Old Hollywood. Unabashedly so, as it has so much to teach us and entertain us. But may you also have found enjoyment in MOABOS's brushes with animation from outside the major American and Japanese studios, the formative decades of Bollywood (far removed from the Hindu nationalism of the present day), the largely unexplored works of classic film south of the American border (preservation, restoration, historical neglect, and lack of access forming a hydra of problems from Mexico to Brazil and in-between), and even works that come my way as Artistic Director of Viet Film Fest (VFF).

It's been a privilege for the last eleven years to take you all on this cinematic/musical journey – one aspect of many of the Movie Odyssey. And I'm honored to have your trust in me to be a guide.

RESULTS

Remember: the MOABOS final is not like the prelim. It isn't primarily decided on the points system used in the final. It, since 2018, is decided on single transferable vote.

First, the standings on points. It should be noted that MOABOS XI just pipped last year for the participation record for a final. We had 40 rankings (including yours truly) last year; this year had 41 in the final (the only bad news: we had 44 people participate in this year's prelim and I invited extra people in the final, so this number definitely could've been higher).

STANDINGS ON POINTS (USED ONLY AS THE FIRST TIEBREAKER... the actual final result is the list below this one). Using the method used in the preliminary round, the count would’ve looked like this (“Song”, Film title (points) / #1 votes).:

“Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)”, The Color Purple (225) / 11

“Suzume”, Suzume (223) / 4

“Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de l'amour?”, Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (207) / 7

“Esse Mundo é Meu”, Esse Mundo é Meu (179) / 1

“Chattanooga Choo Choo”, Sun Valley Serenade (164.5) / 3

“Ciao Papa”, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (160) / 4

“Hooked on Your Love”, Sparkle (154) / 3

“I'm Just Ken”, Barbie (153.5) / 3

“Danger Zone”, Top Gun (139) / 1

“Tiền”, Good Morning and Good Night (129) / 0

“Trời Sáng Rồi, Ta Ngủ Đi Thôi (Good Morning and Good Night”, Good Morning and Good Night (102) / 1

“Return to Sender”, Girls! Girls! Girls! (98) / 0

“Animal Crackers in My Soup”, Curly Top (95) / 1

“Barsaat mein hamse mile tum sajan (In the Rainy Season, We Met One Another)”, Barsaat (94) / 0

 “I Know Why (And So Do You)”, A Mighty Wind (90) / 2

Using the points system tiebreaker alone, this was a nailbiter. "Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)" eked out a 2-point lead over "Suzume". What was even more surprising is that "Miss Celie's Blues" has set the record for most #1 votes in MOABOS final (11, breaking the nine #1 votes that "9 to 5" received in last year's final).

When looking solely at points, this is tied for the third-smallest margin ever recorded at the top (there have been two ties on points: MOABOS VII in 2019 and MOABOS IX in 2021). 

THE OFFICIAL TABULATION FOLLOWS AND DETAILS CAN BE FOUND IN THE READ-MORE. We used a single transferable vote (which is explained visually here). With 41 respondents, a song needed 50% + 1 vote of all #1 and transferred votes to be declared a winner. Thus, a song needed 21 votes to win. One ballot was discarded very late during the final tabulation due to that person ranking nine songs, but having their top nine completely eliminated as the count progressed. 40 ballots remained, but the magic number to win remained 21. The top ten songs became nominees; the bottom five are considered honorable mentions:

2023 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (FINAL STANDINGS) (playlist)

“Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)”, The Color Purple (1985)

“Suzume”, Suzume (2023, Japan)

“Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de l'amour? (What Do We Do with Love?)”, Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (2022, France)

“Chattanooga Choo Choo”, Sun Valley Serenade (1941)

“Ciao Papa”, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

“Hooked on Your Love”, Sparkle (1976)

“I'm Just Ken”, Barbie (2023)

“I Know Why (And So Do You”, Sun Valley Serenade (1941)

“Esse Mundo é Meu”, Esse Mundo é Meu (1964, Brazil)

“Danger Zone”, Top Gun (1986)

“Trời Sáng Rồi, Ta Ngủ Đi Thôi (Good Morning and Good Night)”, Good Morning and Good Night (2019, Vietnam)

“Animal Crackers in My Soup”, Curly Top (1935)

“Tiền”, Good Morning and Good Night(2019, Vietnam)

“Return to Sender”, Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)

“Barsaat mein hamse mile tum sajan (In the Rainy Season, We Met One Another)”, Barsaat (1949, India)

The bottom five all received honorable mentions. The top ten received nominations.

SUMMARY

"Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)" from The Color Purple (1985) eked out the title in the closest result MOABOS has seen since adopting the single transferable vote in 2018. With forty ballots remaining and on the twelfth and final count, "Miss Celie's Blues" and "Suzume" were actually tied, 20-20. In other words, when you eliminated all the other songs, twenty respondents had "Miss Celie's Blues" ranked higher than "Suzume" and twenty respondents had "Suzume" ranked higher than "Miss Celie's Blues". One person (the discarded ballot) did not rank either - and could have easily swung it had they put one or both of those songs down.

So when the transferred votes are tied, the first tiebreaker is points (as seen in the preliminary round). And from there, "Miss Celie's Blues" edged out "Suzume", 225-223. 

(Hypothetical): If we were somehow tied on points, it would then go to #1 votes. "Miss Celie's Blues" would have won that tiebreaker, 11-4. If #1 votes were somehow tied, it would have gone to the average placement on my ballot and my sister's. We both ranked "Miss Celie's Blues" 3rd for an average placement of 3rd. I ranked "Suzume" in a three-way tie for 13th (effectively rendering it 14th on my ballot) and my sister ranked it 10th - an average placement of 12th.

With the music written by Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton and lyrics by Jones, Temperton and Lionel Richie, "Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)" was nominated at the 58th Academy Awards for Best Original Song, losing to Lionel Richie's "Say You, Say Me" from White Nights (1985); yes Richie lost to himself that night). Steven Spielberg's 1985 adaptation of The Color Purple is based on Alice Walker's book of the same name. Set in rural Georgia, it follows Celie Harris (Whoopi Goldberg in her breakthrough role; Desreta Jackson as young Celie), who suffers of parental and spousal psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. Her light in the world is her sister, Nettie (Akousa Busia), and the two form a world of their own – away from the darkness of their world. It was one of the best books I read in the 2010s, and the film adaptation – despite the limitations of its LGBTQ+ depictions and themes due to American politics and studio politics at the time – was one of the best films I saw in 2023 for the first time ever.

The 1980s becomes the first decade to defend a MOABOS title. But it comes in the form of a song that no one would peg as being written in the 1980s. It comes the blues, a distinctly American musical genre that grew from the spirituals and work songs of black slaves and freedmen in the American South. It is the first song from the blues tradition to win MOABOS.Runner-up "Suzume" is the best-performing anime song ever in MOABOS, eclipsing the title song from My Neighbor Totoro (1988, Japan) 

– which earned 4th place in MOABOS V (2017). Makoto Shinkai, perhaps these days moreso than Hayao Miyazaki, is the most important director in anime film at this moment.

Those who saw our rankings will know that my sister and I were deep outliers here. "Suzume" was tied for 13th on my ballot; 10th on my sister's. For the sizable anime fan faction who are currently sharpening their knives, I would consider yourselves lucky that, even though MOABOS is somewhat modeled on Academy Award processes, it doesn't replicate it entirely. "Suzume" was ineligible for Academy Award consideration because it is the second song in the end credits. Arbitrary as this sounds, only the first song during the end credits are eligible for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, in order to ensure that the category honors songs that significantly contribute to a film itself. No such rule exists for MOABOS.

* * * * * * * * * * *

If MOABOS was truly a popularity contest, then two films that defined their respective years would have won this in a walk – Barbie and Top Gun. In the end, "I'm Just Ken" and "Danger Zone" – the two most visible contenders of the whole bunch – finished a disappointing 7th and 10th. Reading many of your comments, the reasons for their underperformance often had to do directly with the films themselves (whether or not one has seen them).

Elsewhere, no MOABOS entry featuring Glenn Miller and His Orchestra has failed to secure a nomination in the MOABOS Final. "I Know Why (And So Do You)" and "Chattanooga Choo Choo" – the latter one of the most popular songs of its era, an unofficial anthem for Golden Age 20th Century Fox – will be the last appearance for Miller and His Orchestra as they made only two films on their contract and no more. Thanks to Glenn Miller and his mates for wonderful contributions to MOABOS IX (2021) and MOABOS XI.

And hey, I'm just happy fellow Fox contractee Shirley Temple finally made a MOABOS final. Many of you vehemently disagree, but Temple's mark on film and film music history is undeniable. When I started MOABOS a decade ago, the last generation of moviegoers who saw her films in theaters could attest to that. Today, that generation is almost all gone.

Moreso than the other major American studios, 20th Century Fox was one of the least willing studios to make its back catalogue available for home media/streaming/general availability. Following 20th Century Fox's purchase by the Walt Disney Company in 2019, the situation has only gotten worse, as Disney (for all intents and purposes) decides to further bury the Fox library for anything that might not perform well on streaming or isn't franchise-able. But hear it from me: there are still 20th Century Fox musicals from Golden Age Hollywood to come for MOABOS. No one is saying that they have they have the musical mastery of MGM or Warner Bros., but Fox's musicals need to be treasured, too.

Speaking of access, last February, I saw Esse Mundo é Meu at the Academy Museum in LA and found the a capella version of the title song a hopeful, plaintive ode to better days. The print was not in good shape; the Museum had to redo the subtitles themselves. But it was a glimpse into classic Brazilian cinema seldom seen outside of Brazil itself. How lucky I was; and here's hoping that the telling of Latin American film history becomes more than the afterthought it too often is.

Sparkle (1976) is not a great movie. Black audiences in America might disagree furiously with what I just said. But, as someone who grew up with '50s-'70s R&B and soul as a major part of the soundtrack of his childhood, it had to have a place here. Congrats to all those on Sparkle.

A disappointing result for Good Morning and Good Night, failing in both instances to secure a nomination. But we shall see more VFF entries in the future.

Oh yeah, Elvis made a lot of movies. The King will be back again, certainly, in hopes of a second MOABOS title.

I'm glad that many of you liked "Ciao Papa" from Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) – the film is on Netflix for those who have it, and it's a beautiful take on the original tale.

Lastly, I was perhaps most heartened how many of you were exposed to Ernest & Celestine for the first time and how much "Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de l'amour?" resonated with many of you. I saw the sequel with my sister last summer in a near-empty theater at a prime weekend timeslot; it was still one of my favorite watches of the year. And as for the original, when it was first shock-nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, I must have mentioned it to everyone who would listen. No one I knew outside of my sister saw the film.

Please find Ernest & Celestine (2012) and its 2022 sequel. Both films shatter the fictions that 1) non-English-language animation is inherently more "serious" than English-language animation and 2) a "children's movie" can only best be enjoyed by children. Please seek out and learn more about animated films beyond the major American and Japanese studios.

CONCLUSION

MOABOS is only a small glimpse into the larger 2023 Movie Odyssey. But I hope you enjoyed even this sliver of a look into that moviewatching journey.

Our winner joins these past winners for MOABOS (winners' playlist):

2012 (Special): To be contested

2013 (I): “The Gold Diggers’ Song (We’re In the Money)”, Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

2014 (II): “Rainbow Connection”, The Muppet Movie (1979)

2015 (III): “Amhrán Na Farraige (Song of the Sea)”, Song of the Sea (2014)

2016 (IV): “Stayin’ Alive”, Saturday Night Fever (1977)

2017 (V): “Remember Me (Recuérdame)”, Coco (2017)

2018 (VI): “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing”, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)

2019 (VII): “I Wish I Didn't Love You So”, The Perils of Pauline (1947)

2020 (VIII): “Can't Help Falling in Love” , Blue Hawaii (1961)

2021 (IX): “Lullaby in Ragtime”, The Five Pennies (1959)

2022 (X): “9 to 5”, Nine to Five (1980)

2013 final 2014 final (input from family and friends began this year) 2015 final 2016 prelim / final 2017 prelim / final 2018 prelim / final 2019 prelim / final 2020 prelim / final 2021 prelim / final 2022 prelim / final 2023 prelim

Every time MOABOS comes to an end, I never know whether or not we are going to do MOABOS for the new year. I never know what movies I will discover come my way during a calendar year (and which ones have original songs in them to be a part of this). So it is my hope that I will see you again next year, for what might make it a dozen editions of the Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song. For the final time for MOABOS XI, thank you so much for participating!

41 ballots were submitted; twenty-one #1 votes and transferred votes needed to win

2ND COUNT: 1 ballot to "Qu'est ce qu'on fait de l'amour"

3RD COUNT: 1 ballot to "Suzume"

4TH COUNT: 1 ballot to "I Know Why (And So Do You)"

5TH COUNT: 1 ballot to "Ciao Papa"

6TH COUNT: 2 ballots to "Chattanooga Choo Choo", 1 ballot to "Hooked on Your Love"

7TH COUNT: 3 ballots to "Suzume"

8TH COUNT: 2 ballots to "Chattanooga Choo Choo", 1 ballot to "Ciao Papa", 1 ballot to Miss Celie's Blues"

9TH COUNT: 3 ballots to "Suzume", 1 ballot to "Chattanooga Choo Choo", 1 ballot to "Miss CElie's Blues", 1 ballot to "Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de l'amour?"

10TH COUNT: 4 ballots to "Miss Celie's Blues", 1 ballot to "Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de l'amour?", 1 ballot to "Suzume"

1 ballot was DISCARDED on the 10th count; 40 ballots remain; 21 to win

11TH COUNT: 8 ballots to "Suzume", 3 ballots to "Miss Celie's Blues"

12TH COUNT: "Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)" 20, "Suzume" 20. "Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)" wins on the first tiebreaker on points, 225-223.

[jazzfordshire]

love me some greece au inspo! i forgot that was one of your wips (cause you have so many amazing fics 🤩) and now i’m sooo excited and gonna re read those chapters tonight! also i completed my play-through of odyssey a few months back and i want to restart it too 🤭

Lmao it’s easy to forget, since I haven’t updated it since August!!!! I’m working on it though, it just takes longer than any of my other WIPs because I keep getting sucked into research rabbit holes over historical details that are totally inconsequential to the story but I’m having a good time reading about and then it’s been several hours and I haven’t written anything. Like do I need to read multiple articles on Peisistratus and Hippias because I’m basing Lex loosely off of them?? No. Will I????????? Absolutely

[entropy-game-dev]

v0.15 alpha testing and patchnotes

In this test, my composer P, had their first go at testing the game.

He had a rough start due to P skipping the tutorial and opening cutscene(s) accidentally by pressing ESC a bunch. But enjoyed the music that I had added to the game. I will never get sick of a music track having both an exploration and battle variant that fade cleanly into each other, and he got to see that in action for the first time.

I also added debug controls for him to scroll through the tracks as needed, so he could listen to things in different contexts. Even more debug controls were added to bypass fuel restrictions using shift+click. I made notes to take those controls out before the release of the game, but I am sure that something (or multiple things) will still slip through...

His main criticism was that the way text was delivered (and the speed of which), through the text box, was hard to read. That set me on a multi-day odyssey of refactoring the entire textbox object to allow it to be scrollable. Not as easy as one might think due to my use of a very handy text displaying object. But that is a story for another post!

P is a big fan of SMT and RPGs in general, and so I am looking forward to hearing more of his feedback on the game as it comes...

Patchnotes are after the cut as always; thanks for reading!

v0.15 Features: PINK

Balance: Base carry capacity 50->20 Research carry capacity 20->10

Polish: Clamped fuel to not go to negative Removed fuel use when using debug transport Messages in rel nav screen no longer overlapping ROBOT feature label text x,y position now rounded to stop misalignment Made recruitment heart and dialog pink Stopped showing recruitment % when the enemy is already recruited Put AI matrix title text back in box Capitalised some AI matrix slot titles Research screen text: Expected result -> Result when completed + blue coloured All base facility left/right arrows now blink Debug controls: pgup/pgdn to scroll between songs Swapped some songs around Made stats slowly increase to max while in the ship Changed crafting tutorial to tell you how to get recipes Made status effect application text depend on whether they were good bad/applied to ally enemy Added some base full screen tutorials Wall features now check there's at least one walkable tile ON PLACEMENT before generating

Bugs: Fixed crash when adding new options to the options map Fixed CRASH when going to a sector with a number of dungeons lower than the current sector Fixed not getting free transport at the beginning of each sector Fixed music goes loud right before it is stopped Fixed log chance acquisition being 200% due to debug value Fixed egress chute not working to return to ship due to debug value Fixed units' current resources constantly decreasing when overloaded (only max should decrease) Fixed moving in battle when you are the same unit as the enemy being fought updates the enemy instead of you… Fixed log text messages not appearing in the right order Fixed Energy Drain move icon not showing Fixed music not being properly deleted if cycled too fast Re-enabled gameover Fixed tutorial code not inputting all triggers into priority list

[alexturntable]

Ok so from that interview do we gain any more insight into what Mirrorball means? Is he saying it's like fragments (the way a it's made up of lots of tiny mirrors). So self reflection or the mirrorball is a song? It's too early and I'm short circuiting!

I’ve been thinking about this since I re-read that interview. Here is the full quote for context:

"I always wanted to use the word ‘Colorama’ in a song ever since I saw Antonioni’s Blow Up. It was an unplugged neon light at the back of my mind for years. Some lyrics are declarations of love or hate written in blood or carved in a bus stop, in need of little or no melodic illumination. Some, I believe, are there almost entirely to facilitate it. If I ever thought about it at all I’m sure I used to think the melody was the vessel that carried the lyrics but more recently it has occurred to me that the opposite is often true.

The problem with the neon sign analogy is that neon signs are invariably bolted to the wall and full of gas. Melody seems as though its poured rather than sprayed and doesn’t feel as though whatever holds it ought to be fixed to anything.

I sometimes imagine each word to be made using a three dimensional open-top glass alphabet. Each letter built to harness and transport the mirror ball liquid marble of the melody. When the ‘substance’ fills up the syllables they seem to shimmer and become weightless. With the addition of close harmony I see colours swirl together, parts of the lyrics glow and the way in which they float suggests that something like the ‘star gate’ sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey is happening deep inside them out of view.”

So in this neon light analogy the letters are like containers made of glass which are meant to transport the melody. The melody is a "mirror ball liquid marble". Mirror balls reflect lights directed at them in all directions and liquid marble would create this effect of colours swirling together which when put together would look something like the star gate sequence he mentions. So I guess what we can understand from this is that in this analogy the mirror ball is part of the substance that represents the melody which fills the lyrics.

In There'd better be a Mirrorball, he may mean that he hopes that there will be "melodic illumination" or music accompanying this separation he's describing. After listening to Body Paint I feel like Mirrorball could also be a self-refelction song, probably the whole album. So maybe the "relationship" he seems to be ending is actually his relationship with the current persona he's been putting on that he's moving on from to start the process of writing a new album. That's why he starts with "don't get emotional that ain't like you". Maybe it was easier in the past to get rid of a persona but as he gets older it's more difficult to do so. "Yesterday's still leaking through the roof / that's nothing new" some parts of the previous persona are still present but it's always been this way. "I know I promised this is what I wouldn't do / somehow giving it the old romantic fool / seems to better suit the mood" he never wanted to write gooey songs or direct, staright-forward lyrics but now maybe he is.

"So if you wanna walk me to the car / you oughta know I'll have a heavy heart / so can we please be absolutely sure / that there's a mirrorball?" If the old persona wants to walk him to The Car, meaning the new album, he will be sad about parting with the old one so he wants to be really sure that this it's worth it, that there is a really good melody / song to use for this new era. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that this could be the same mirror ball metaphor he had in mind when he made that analogy in 2016 and this is how I would interpret it but it could also be a complete coincidence that he had used that word before. Either way it's fascinating to read the words he uses, his brain will never seize to amaze me.

[emeritus-fuckers]

how do you do, fellow queers, look how fucking professional i'm being this time, sending an ask like commonfolk/j

for the match-up re-run bc i wanna see nyx struggle with repugnant <3

1. Your identity! i'm sorry for the research nyx

i can very proudly call myself a faggot. my pronouns are they/she/he/xey/per/ghoul, but i'm slowly moving away from the "standard" ones. multigender, but they're all xenogender (ghoulgender, ghoulettegender, gooregender, chaosgender). multisexual (pansexual, asexual, lesbian, aegosexual, orchidsexual, berrisexual). aroallo (aegoromantic, desinoromantic, grayromantic, demiromantic). autistic. theistic satanist.

2. Who do you like?

repugnant. death metal racoons my beloved.

3. What do you look like?

there's a picture. i just dress more like a metalhead now. still wearing too much jewelry. i'm still short (it is a tragedy).

4. What's your personality?

i hate whoever came up with these questions (ekhem, myself).

ISTP-T, according to a quiz i did just before writing this. i'm relatively apathetic, only ever getting truly emotional when i'm overwhelmed. touch-repulsed, but touch-starved when it comes to people close to me. i'm quiet and distant around strangers, but get talkative and open with friends. i struggle with serious self-esteem issues (diagnosed depression, cheers) and i get very anxious about my friends just not liking me anymore and usually need to be yelled at to get my shit together. and then cuddled because i got yelled at. my relationship with emotions is complicated, as i only feel a very faint outline of an emotion most of the time, but i've learned to adapt to it over time and i'm pretty good at adapting my behavior so it looks like i feel a complete emotion.

when it comes to affection, i'm like a cat. i love it, but only when i want it. otherwise i will run away. i also show it in inconvenient ways, i suppose, like randomly grabbing my friends with a weird noise or sometimes (if we're really close) biting them. i feel very uncomfortable around most children, so i despise them.

5. Tell us about your interests!

i'd say repugnant, ghost and in this moment would be my top three bands to listen to, but i also like vocaloid and dolly parton. i always have to have something playing in the background or it's too quiet for me and i lose my shit. i like to read, but i much prefer to overanalyze everything and come up with ridiculous theories and headcanons to write about (i think emeritus-fuckers is proof of that). I like writing, but only stuff i actually enjoy writing, not whatever bullshit they're coming up with for uni. I can't write porn, yet people seem to think that i can, which is honestly hilarious to me.

i like making bracelets and other arts and crafts things, though i suck at it and usually it looks like trash.

i like video games, mostly sims 4 (finally figured out how to furnish it hallelujah) right now, but i like classic assassin's creed games (which means everything that came out before Origins/Odyssey bc fuck i hate these), the saints row series and skyrim too. and uncharted, too. and i guess tekken, but i'm just there for the hotties tbh.

i don't really watch movies, but if i had to pick a favorite, it would either be scream, pearl or shrek.

6. Trivia time!

i know way too much about butterflies and moths.

i have a framed attacus atlas.

my favorite food is instant cupped carbonara.

i have a dog (everyone has seen her at this point tbh).

i have a figurine of the batman who laughs and his three robins.

i love juice. especially apple-cherry juice.

i'm a terrible cook, i can make like three dishes and that's it.

i hate working under pressure and/or with deadlines.

i have a rather controversial sense of humor.

i love wearing too much jewelry.

i adore matching things, from jewelry to tattoos.

and here's a few pics of my cuddle monster.

This post is part of the 1000 followers match up event. Entries for the event are now closed.

Your match is…Mary Goore... and DD Sars... and kinda the rest of the band...

Hear me out on this haha, I have spent way too much time thinking about this and well you'll see XD - Nyx

So you met Mary first. They thought you looked cool so they went over to you.

You got chatting and you just kinda clicked with each other. Especially since you both have a controversial sense of humour. Mary enjoys throwing a few playful insults at you and getting all of that back and some.

You met up a few more times, enough so that you became comortable around Mary and them you. Although there was a discussion about your boundaries when you had to explain that you are like a cat, you only want affection when you are in the mood. Which of course Mary respected.

Mary after really getting to know you declared you one of their favourite ever people by lightly biting your shoulder. (This was okay as you way of telling them the same was to display your affection with a bite.)

Mary then proudly introduced you to the rest of the band. You quickly became close with all of them as to be with Mary is to be with the band. When Mary mentioned you had a dog E. wanted to see lots of pictures. He just kinda quietly sat there as you scrolled through them.

You made them all bracelets, G. got very excited by this. You said they look like trash and DD just kinda rounded on you. He firmly told you about how they weren't trash and how could you be so stupid to think so low of yourself. You just kinda nodded and then spend the rest of the day being cuddled by G.

DD does however get you. He never says it to you but its shown through his actions. He will just quitly sit and listen if you want to talk about it. He might say that you are a fucking weirdo but his expression tells the real story. He understands you and he knows what its like to have a complicated realtionship with emotions. There is a really nice companionship you two have because of this.

Mary noticed how you look at DD like you want him to sit on your face. So one night they say to you while pointing at DD "all you have to do is ask, you know, DD would be more than happy to" and then they gave you a little wink. Mary left it with you, it's totally up to you if you want to follow through on that or not...

~

Written by Nyx

[celiastjamesoscar]

I still can't believe J.K Rolling wrote the Harry Potter series considering the topics it's tackled vs her own takes. Like, she had to have had a ghost writer or something. Don't even get me started on the obvious favoritism of gyrffindor. How does she not know her characters?? She literally wrote them

I honestly love that Rick is the one doing this series. And the movies are definitely nostalgic for me. I don't hate them, just think the writing could've been better. But I could still watch them over and over again, either way

There's so many moments I can't wait to see in the series. The Percy Jackson books were how I spent most of my time in elementary (+6th grade when I had to re-read the first book) From the graphic novels to the chapter books. I had a big greek mythology phase, whatever greek mythology book I saw in the school library I immediately checked it out

The thing about greek mythology is there's sm to be explored, lucky means more books

Oh she definitely had to have a ghost writer, but then again some of the plots are absolutely wild 😭 the favoritism toward Gryffindor is painful to watch, like what you mean they get extra points for being decent people???

Getting the author to partake in the creation of the show is a dead giveaway that it’s going to be awesome. The movies are also nostalgic for me, especially whenever they enter the casino and Poker Face starts playing

You’re making me want to go read the books now! Honestly though, who didn’t have a giant greek mythology phase during their childhood? It’s such an interesting piece of history that needs to be studied more in schools. I wish my library during middle school had books on it :(

If you haven’t played it, I highly recommend playing ‘Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.’ It’s one of my favorite AC games and I easily put in over 50 hours on it. It takes place during the Peloponnesian War, and the Greek mythology in it is amazing, especially if you get the DLCs

[septimaseverina]

⥉⥉⥉ Greeting ⥉⥉⥉

.

🌹 I'm Sept. This is my personal blog. Very random one; half serious and half shit posts.

🌈 Making gifs, sometimes. [Here]

🌏 South East Asian woman who extremely doesn't support Western Taiwan (AKA PR China)'s, both internal and international, policies.

📕 Yogic. Ayurveda. Epicurean. Stoic (trying to be).

I reblog everything I want, I like, I love and I need. Containing my preference, obsession (somes are academic, but somes are not) and fandom stuffs.

Also I ramble, talk, doing-carthasis. And I'm not gonna tell you what I don't wanna share here.

And these are my permanent obsession list.

⁂ Fandom ⁂

✵ Star Wars

Searching my blog by Characters' names and the name of the shows. For main films, I tagged as 'prequel trilogy', 'original trilogy' and 'sequel trilogy'. Also, I reblog Star Wars' reference.

✵ Tolkien Universe

The reason I'm back to the fandom because of many things. Please bare with me, I'm re-reading books right now. Love both Peter Jackson's films and Prime's Rings of Power.

✵ Assassin's Creed

Haven't played Origin, Odyssey and Valhalla yet.

✵ Dishonored

✵ HBO Game of Thrones + HBO House of the Dragon + A Song of Ice and Fire

✵ Diego Luna, Pedro Pascal, Dev Patel, and David Tennant They are my husbands and loves of my life

✵ Bollywood

✵ Doctor Who

✵ Period Dramas

✵ Tele-Series

✵ Films

✧༝┉˚❋ ❋˚┉༝✧✧༝┉˚❋ ❋˚┉༝✧✧༝┉˚❋ ❋˚┉༝✧

⁂ Academic Things ⁂

✵ Art

Fine arts, Aesthetic, Fashion and Jewellery design, etc.

✵ Archaeology

✵ History

✵ Architecture

✵ Linguistic

✵ Anthropology and Cultures

✵ Botany

✵ Astronomy

✵ Astrology

And many things.

✧༝┉˚❋ ❋˚┉༝✧✧༝┉˚❋ ❋˚┉༝✧✧༝┉˚❋ ❋˚┉༝✧

🌺 Fan fictions writing's blog -> @septimaseverinawannawrite

🌻 Resource section -> @sept-resources (Highly recommend for everyone who don't want messy-ish dashboard, but want to explore my personal blog)

🌱 Fan fictions rec blog -> @septimaseverinaficrec

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ Important. DO NOT SKIP ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

Homophobics. Misogynists. KKKs. Scammers. Empty blogs. Below 18 years old. Spammers. P*rn blogs. Nazis. Fascists. "Sending me your n*de photos and videos". "I want a romantic/s*xual relationships with you". Fallacies.

YOU WILL BE BLOCKED. NO ANY EXCUSE.

But for friendly and allied blogs, you're always welcome. 😊😊😊

(Gif by me, Man's World - Marina)

[gone-grl-gone]

Once @amalthea9 and I were talking about a fairy tale called Jorinda and Joringel, about an engaged peasant that has misadventures when they step in the lands of a Witch who turns Jorinda into caged bird so Joringel has to find a magic red flower to release his fiancee.

When discussing fan casting @amalthea9 proposes Ioan Gruffud for Joringel, and i proposed Nina Sosanya for Jorinda.

That looks like a lovely story, although I am not familiar with the story. Maybe as a retelling of the story (more like a sad, gothic, or horror story) where Hornblower is given command of the Renown (now renamed to HMS Imagination, but that doesn't change the character of the ship much), and his men start experiencing mischievous hauntings (and tragic nightmares) on board. Turns out, the Spirit of Archie is bound to the ship and wants to be set free. His memories of abuse under Simpson and Sawyer, his life in Prison, and even his happiest memories with Hornblower and Bush are re-lived and shared amongst the sailors.

Occasionally (and only with Bush, Styles, Matthews, and Hornblower), he would actively prank them or actively engage them. However, he is most helpful at saving the lives of the sailors, giving them hints to help them find a way to release his spirit from being bound to the Imagination. I can picture Hornblower talking to himself, or saying "I'm going crazy, Archie...." and talking to Archie in his private quarters as to not seem like he's going crazy (which he's not, Archie is there and can hear him). Slowly, he starts calling the Ship "Mr Kennedy" instead of "The Imagination" as the story continues.

Off they go on crazy adventures where the boundaries of logic and the laws of the natural go way off course, and everyone gets major character development. Hornblower gets a real psychological rollercoaster for this one (and more Bush-Kennedy shenanigans. I love these two. They needed more screentime together.).

Real emotional scene: They maroon the ship on an island, and then out of the ship, they can see Archie's Spirit form - as if he were still alive with the bullet wound, but glowing and smiling. He comforts them, has a few final laughs and cuddles with Bush and Hornblower before he crosses over to the light. Maybe a final confession and request...perhaps?

It's symbolic as Archie is telling Hornblower to leave his horrible imaginations and false beliefs about himself behind on that island - everyone loves and supports him, and that he's just imagining that he's undeserving of promotion and happiness.

@ariel-seagull-wings @amalthea9 @silverfoxstole

Idk, that's another take on the story. Never read it, but that is what I could conjure up.

Btw, thanks, now I'mma cry.

And no, it was no coincidence that I called the Ship The Imagination, I was watching and listening to the Soundtrack of Neil DeGrasse Tyson's "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" - it's a beautiful series about the universe.

EDIT:

Another tragedy-romantic thing to add more drama to this ship.

Archie is aware of Bush's unrequited love for Hornblower. As they go on the journey in the Strange Waters, Bush develops the Hanahaki Disease (Flowers from Unrequited Love Disease). He tries to dismiss it or hide it - but Archie's Spirit is aware of it. Eventually it becomes known, but they don't know what it is or what to do (except for Archie, because he's a ghost now and has a hive mind to tap into). But cut to the scene where they maroon the Imagination with Archie's Spirit now free to crossover, Archie tells Horatio about Bush's love for him. He tells Horatio to forgive himself for his shortcomings and instead realise that he should learn to practice self-compassion, and see the love others have for him.

"Horatio, I believe you do know what love is, but you don't recognise it even when it's smushed into your face. A la, Mister Bush.”

“Get out of your head, Horatio! Don’t you see William? The love that you have been looking for all this time is right there- dying before your eyes!!”

"Love each other for me. Love Mr Bush for my sake - he's a git, but he's a loyal, stubborn, but steadfast git. Someone you need when you need to be saved." he says with a sad smile.

"Mister Bush, please save Horatio from himself. He's knows what love is, but doesn't even recognise it in himself or around him. He's that daft." Archie says to a semi-conscious, dying Bush (with a huge bloody Chrysanthemum bush growing out of him - hahaha Bush, get it? Also, I didn't know that in European Countries Chrysanthemums were symbols of death - he probably knows it's fruitless to love Horatio because he's got the booty for Duty and High Standards).

Maybe Bush dies as well, knowing his love will never be on par with Horatio's sense of duty and high standards....idk, made me sad again....or maybe he doesn't when Horatio's extension of Friendship and maybe even love that grows over the coming weeks afterwards does the disease get stemmed. In my headcanon, the strong friendship stems the more damaging and lethal part of the disease. This instead replaces Bush's amputation, and instead makes him more like an Asthma patient.

[soul-dwelling]

Thoughts on the concept of a unlicensed continuation of a story that isn't a "fanfic". I know this sounds like a weird question, but I guess it is possible to write a story without being an author of the original material, without engadging with it in a "fan" way. Like Goethes Faust was an adaption of an old legend and I'm not sure if the german guy had a room full of Faust memorobilia lol

Right, there's Faust, as well as how creators like Homer, Shakespeare, and so on took already well-known or cult favorite legends, stories, and history and turned those into new tales (Odyssey, Hamlet).

Or, Percy Jackson.

I don't have much of an answer, aside from that this prompts a question about when someone is engaging with the original material in a "fan" way. It doesn't just have to be merch. I mean, sure, I do buy, collect, or received as gifts merchandise related to those works (Edgar Allan Poe action figure). But being a "fan" also means I pick up relevant books and research as I need them. Even if I'm not making fan art or writing fan fics, my "fan" way of engaging with the text is sometimes just talking and analyzing it.

My fan engagement tends to be more academic sometimes...which then gets complicated when you have an academic field of studies like "fan studies" that is itself about how fans engage with content, but that's an oroboros I can't cut apart.

I think "fan way" in writing or illustrating depends on whether what you create is more like a continuation (some of Gaiman's stuff, or like I said Percy Jackson), or it has to be a work so old that someone writing or making a new version isn't seen as a fan but as just re-making an old story (remaking Christian bible stories, remaking Greek and Roman legends). And tone is part of it, too. If you keep making in-jokes and Easter eggs, you don't think it's a "serious" work, you think it's for fans.

And then there is "fan way" that is used disparagingly whenever a work tries to expand on representation--which, to emphasize, is just utter bigoted bullshit. Star Trek seems like a likely example, given how Kirk and Spock led to so much development of LGBTQ+ fan content. You'll get people angry about any expanded representation and disparage it as like fan fic...when it's about making sure your fiction reflects your present reality. But now you have Trek itself including LGBTQ+ characters and relationships amongst its main characters, which is great! So, that's a "fan way" that works in creating content!

...But then I try to sit through Star Trek content like like Lower Decks, which comes off as just "bad fanfic" (forced jokes, forced Easter eggs, overly obsessed with making sense of details from earlier iterations that just don't need to be explained). Or, I try to read Ian Flynn's runs on Sonic the Hedgehog, and instead of thinking, "Oh, this is an official continuation and an official adaptation," I keep thinking, "Ugh, why are we over-explaining stuff like this is a fanfic, just focus on story and stop trying to 'fix' the setting." And seeing as Flynn comes out of fan creation work, I don't know how much of my annoyance has to do with how much storytelling has changed after fan fics got more and more popular in the early 2000s to now, where now those storytelling tropes are normalized in larger pop culture and just one common storytelling tool, and how much of it is me just not liking these elements, not because they come from fan fiction but because, even if they didn't come from fan fics, they are still poorly constructed tropes that lead to bad results in storytelling.

[travellingwiththedead]

Ok, obligatory long rambling thoughts post for e6, behind read more because spoilers:

Ouch, poor Louis is looking rough. Not sure those rats are gonna cut it. No wonder he took ages to heal if he's not eating properly.

"Flying vampire apocalypse" xD

Fellow physician I like you xD I saw a post that he's apparently a character from the later books but eh, I have read those only once and remember nothing. Anyway, if I had access to a vampire I'd definitely be poking and prodding them and getting tissue samples. I want to know what they look like under a microscope, sue me xD

I laughed for like 10 minutes about Louis yeeting Lestat's coffin off the balcony. It was hilarious xD (also, you lot are really surprised the neighbours think you need an exorcism if you pull stuff like that?)

Why does Lestat in short sleeves look so off? o.o like, I don't think that's a good look for him, nope. No me gusta.

Doc pulling that butterfly needle out looks real o.o the blood effect people did a really good job (or someone on the crew was like "yeah, you can poke me with needles, all good" xD tho I'm pretty sure it's a practical effect). I am way too happy about this when mostly every damn show has no idea how syringes work (no, you do not push them straight through your damn arm, ouch!)

When Louis has Rashid play the re-recorded song is it just me or does Daniel look like he recognizes Lestat's voice? Or maybe he just looks like he digs it, not sure.

Louis really was so pissed off he swam through the Mississippi, huh? And while keeping a hold of the record, too xD

Rashid the little fuck walked right through that beam of sunlight, no burning to be seen and yet, later....ugh, what the hell is his deal xD

Well, pretty sure they trashed Antoinette's bedroom good.

I want to know what household rules one to three are xD

And again with the short sleeves. Why does that make him look like a Florida soccer dad or something? (Or, you know, like Dexter xD )

ok, now can people stop saying he made Paul jump? I don't know where people get that from, anyway

Sam Reid, that whole scene with Lestat talking about Magnus, chef's kiss.

"I have a capacity for enduring"...he sure does

Well, living in that household must have been fun....not. Louis, how did you not lock those two in a room and make them fight it out?

He didn't turn Antoinette yet, did he? They just faked her death, right?

"And brat that he was, he didn't like being told what to do" xD that's him in a nutshell.

Wow, Rashid was very insulted when Daniel called him a rent boy xD those two are gonna have fisticuffs, I tell you.

I laughed way too much about Lestat being nasty in the train cart. But his outfit was on point and he was being a little bitch. But also, doggo.

Well, Claudia's definitely mad now.

Not sure I buy Louis just going along with plotting Lestat's murder like that but we'll see

Loving Daniels dream memory of meeting Louis in the gay bar. Look at them, so cute xD

once again, what the hell is Rashid's thing? Did Daniel just dream him into this but he wasn't actually there? Was Rashid there? Odyssey of Recollection or something something something

And still going strong with the ace erasure.

Ok, I'm done. So rude they'll make us wait two weeks now :(

[jonathankatwhatever]

Okay, it’s 31 May 2024 and I want to get this Galois stuff out of the way. BTW, why when I read the words do they not follow the melody without the music. I mean the punctuation. That stuff drives me crazy. I know that’s it’s a manifestation of the inherent bipolarity of everyday existence. The difficulty in expression is right in front of me, so I’ll try to get it out. The bipolarity of existence transforming into expression is a step from an End to a Between in which criticism of the pathways across to the other End can dominate or distract, like stops along an odyssey can entice or repel or both.

I would represent each stop as a finite field composed thus of a factorization into gsPrimes. The next step is cool: if you choose to stay in that finite field, then you leave the Observer, like you’ve died, which is how that incorporates the Penelope in a prime. What a beautiful thought: primes are Pennys because Penelope would only know you’re gone. You are no longer in that story.

This is what life is like: one way of expressing existence is that each of our lives is unique and thus factorable, and our stories all follow the rules, can only fit together in so many ways, so our pathways are constrained as tangible objects. I keep hearing lines about eternal beauty versus physical beauty, but I need to see a connector between tObjects and iObjects.

Look at definitions. A tObject is a Thing with a Boundary in [D3-4], meaning it physically exists within regular space. I tried to say every rotation within regular space, but that isn’t true because some physical things can barely be detected and others are only detected at long intervals. I’d rather use the colloquial regular space when we know we mean [D3-4] as shorthand for not only Euclidean space and space-time but also the I//I processes by which D-structure generates these.

A Thing with a Boundary means we Attach or count layers which identify that Thing. This models as a Boundary inside which there is a tObject and an iObject. Remember, we’re collecting these Objects to ideal sizes to fit. We can go so far as to say this represents within the concept of cosets: the nature of the 1-0Segmenting which manifests as cosets would generate a polarity of tObject and iObject, so the mass would be at one End attached over the pole and through gsProcess to its intangible End. And vice versa.

A Boundary is thus what appears in each relation, so memory creates a Boundary which others encounter, same as with a path through a meadow. And thus a clear Boundary is death.

That leads to the idea we die each day, each night when we sleep, and a new one of us comes forth each day. Choose the best version of yourself today. The math of that is the intangible self can heal you if you let yourself hear it. That doesn’t sound like math, does it? But it is, and that’s my issue with how Jo works: she sees and accepts those connections are math because she sees it as variance within the relationship between the intangible self, modeled as one End, and the tangible self, modeled as another, located with the same physical being because they manifest the inherent polarity and duality of 2:1, meaning the persistence of Triangular within gsSpace. Think of an End that has a pole inside, a diameter. It’s not that one side presents while the other is hidden, but that one draws a picture which is also drawn on the invisible side through the diameter and that the invisible side draws a picture on the visible side which fits with the picture drawn there by the physical End. Thus one can look one way, act another, have a list of varying gender characteristics or handedness or other choices. Sleight of hand. Being a good performer. Being yourself in different circumstances.

I need to take a break. A saw has been running next door for the last half hour.

I’m seeing Galois now. My understandings about it have merged, old and whatever you call now other than new. I think it’s the Jewish concept of teshuvah, or return. A boomerang is a form.