#like we have so little representation we have to literally create our own and people will STILL find a way to make it straight

[ssaseaprince]

God, I hate people genderbending gay ships. We so rarely get queer representation, and most of the time, the fandoms have to come up with the main queer ships because 95% of shows don't have any. So we invent our own representation and create our own material based on them, and then people come in and turn it straight. If you want to interact with straight media, go write about the billions of straight relationships represented in media, don't turn our few, personally created, gay ships into straight ones. It's just so gross fr

[wordsinhaled]

for the love of... i don’t even know what to invoke??? don’t send neil gaiman asks about ships and don’t drag him into fandom purity culture bullshit oh my god

HE DOESN’T WANT TO BE INVOLVED IN FANDOM why is that so hard for people to understand???

listen neil gaiman is a queer ally but that doesn’t mean he signed up to be the fucking arbiter of whether or not you are allowed to ship dream and the corinthian, or any other characters, for that matter

the actual truth is if you want to you can and absolutely no one should stop you, least of all the author himself, who already gives us not only loads of canon queer representation but also full carte blanche to interpret his work any way we see fit and leave him out of it (as is his right)

if you lack the contextual comprehension to understand that dream’s creations are only his metaphorical children, the endless are siblings but are probably only loosely related (because they’re all personifications of concepts after all), and also people are allowed to have kinks without personally harming you, then like... perhaps figure all of that out before you harass shippers to the point where they feel the need to go to authors for validation

and on top of that the same people who are purportedly so concerned with stuff like boundaries and barriers and comfort and whatever are making some fans feel so needlessly harassed that they in turn cross an author’s very reasonable boundary of wanting to be minimally involved in the interpretation of his own work

on top of all of that it is wild to me that the queer community has become so overtaken with this moralizing rhetoric that neil, of all people, is now being called on to enforce purity culture by members of our own family??? i am not calling him flawless by any means but this is the same neil gaiman who has been under fire since the literal 1980s from right-wing groups that felt that the sandman was too queer or too radical or too generally threatening to the conservative status quo, yet he still stood fast to his creative vision and to including representation of our community in the comics

like. the same neil who wrote “death talks about life” and was working to normalize and destigmatize queerness before some of the folks imposing purity culture on his works were even born???

it’s just like... abundantly clear from some of this Discourse that some of the folks putting forth this vitriol toward shippers and now unnecessarily extending the discussion to him do not have an understanding of our history. these are the same people who try to tell people the labels they’ve been using for themselves for 20, 30, 40 years are wrong or offensive, who try to isolate groups within the community and create barriers between queer elders and queer youth because of perceived predatoriness that simply isn’t there. and i wish these folks would gain a little understanding of the context, touch some grass, meet some queer folks out in the world and stop acting like this

[sapphoscorner]

Edit: please reblog this with some information about demisexuality, I did make a mistake here by saying "Cove doesn't understand sexual attraction" he does, so my bad on that part

SO, I usually don't get too involved in fandom discourse, but with how Baxter fans are acting about the loss in the MDDB I snapped and decided we should have a talk.

(This turned out longer than expected so more under the cut. I BEG YOU TO READ THIS AND TOP UNDERSTAND WHERE THE ANGER AND FRUSTRATION COME FROM.

This is all over place, I tried my best to make this as comprehensible as possible)

Specifically I want to talk about this fandom obsession with him and how, is getting to a point where people are legitimately re-writing the game and erasing Cove existence to have this fucking man instead.

And look, I want to say that I get the appeal, I do, but I don't because Baxter's route is genuinely the worst written one out of the three; Compared to Cove's and Derek's (and Derek treatment in the fandom is a WHOLE OTHER ISSUE) is really not. I'm not here to judge one taste, I am here to tell you that your love for him is ridiculous.

It is genuinely ridiculous how much popular he has gotten and so many of you are forgetting about Cove and how important he is to the story, and generally how he is important to a lot of marginalized people. Some of you keep forgetting that Cove is autistic and demiseuxal and that is such a rare representation to see and it is already erased in the fandom (especially his autism), but now is even more erased because people are grabbing everything that makes Cove Cove, and are applying it to Baxter.

That is also not touching the fandom treatment of Derek and how overly criticize his route his compared to Baxter's, like...DEREK'S PARENTS ARE GETTING MORE SHIT THAT BAXTER CANONICAL BIGOTED PARENTS LOL, WHAT IS THIS?? Are you guys serious?? I've seen a fanfic with Irene being transphobic, why the fuck would someone write that when Baxter's mom is right there?

And Derek shitty treatment doesn't end here because people are straight up erasing the guy and not ?? talking about on how well written he is ?? He is not erased sorry, he's forgotten, no one cares about him. And when people care is a) rare or b) so criticize to the point where is no longer a criticism but just you bitching about it.

And it doesn't end there! Baxter is so talked about that people are more interested in him making a cameo in OL:N&F than the main characters of that game, THAT'S HOW THINGS HAVE GOTTEN, We've gotten to a point where people cares more about some white man than Qiu or Tamarack, which are way more interesting than him as characters but neither of them are white skinny man so lol, who cares about them.

AND TO TOP THIS SHITSHOW IT SOMEHOW GETS WORSE FROM HERE BECAUSE PEOPLE DON'T EVEN ARE CARE ABOUT THE INTERESTING ASPECTS OF BAXTER'S CHARACTER!!

Everyone is molding him like clay to create this, confident rich white boy when he is not?? and that's...the whole point of his route?? That he shouldn't need to put up this mask and to actually be a fucking human being?? THE FACT THAT HE IS A QUEER KID WHO HAD TO CUT OFF HIS PARENTS AND HAD TO BE INDEPENDENT FROM THEM AND LEARNING TO NOT DEPENDENT ON HIS PARENTS? (monetarily wise that is)

And like, people forget the man is queer, he is queer, he's a queer person who had to hide who he is to his parents and then had to cut them out for his own sanity, and no one mentions it.

The fandom as a whole erases queer identities,when this game is literally made FOR queer people don't you love it when straight people come into our spaces and erase our identities lol, that is a problem that more people should acknowledge, alongside the fact that Baxter's stans have taken over this safe space, overtook the main love interest, and ignore the genuine interesting aspects of Baxter's character to make him their own little doll they can play with and not appreciate a guy who is trying to learn how to stop being that mask everyone in the fandom has fallen over.

And I know, I know , I will get shit for daring to go against your favorite white boy, but consider that some of us played this game because an autistic character was in it, consider that this game is queer friendly and the fandom is also erasing that queerness to make horny fan fiction**, consider that some of us fond comfort in Derek and Cove's story and now we see everyone overtaking their stories by a white boy (that you can find in every other game), consider that his talk is tiring, consider also the fact that Baxter is technically queer and no one ever talks about it, consider that this game was a safe space for marginalized people and now it no longer feels that way

.

.

.

**with horny fanfiction I mean people re-writing Cove whole personality (and sexuality if we're being honest here) and making him this...horny big man when...he is not? He got stressed out by simply having to share a bed with MC, he's extremely shy around the subject of sex and he gets incredibly nervous about it.

I personally think that is due of both his queerness and autism (and yeah his personality, but autism affects ones personality so lol, sue me) since demisexuality means he genuinely doesn't understand how people can feel sexual attraction, and mixing that with autism means he probably doesn't understand the SOCIAL pressure around sex and having sex.

Granted that's speculation on my part but as someone who is (probably) autistic and asexual I can tell that, at least a majority feels this way and Cove is literally is the type to have this kind of mentality, he does not understand how Baxter can flirt with him after mere seconds of knowing each other

[thelegendofmik]

The Little Big Things - Setting the Standard for Accessibility in Theatre

The Little Big Things is a musical that recently opened at the West End's Soho Place and it is a stage adaptation of Henry Fraser's memoir of the same name. It is about Fraser's experience with becoming disabled and figuring out how to navigate life newly disabled.

Of course, the show portrays Fraser's life before and after becoming disabled. And this show comes up with a very simple solution that doesn't involve an abled bodied actor "cripping up" - they literally just double cast the role of Henry Fraser. They have abled actor Jonny Amies play Fraser pre-accident, and disabled actor Ed Larkin plays post-accident Fraser. Like the reality is, no one cares that the actors don't look identical.

Not only is Fraser played by a wheelchair user, as is another character, Agnes (Amy Trigg), but both their understudies are wheelchair users as well (Joseph Wolff and Elena Pitsiaeli). That is four wheelchair users in the cast of the show. The associate director, Nickie Miles-Wildin, is also a wheelchair user.

So the narrative that "there just aren't enough disabled performers" is a load of bullshit. Not only was this show able to hire five wheelchair users, but they also hired several other disabled/chronically ill cast and crew members. It is clear that in this show accessibility was a priority, not an afterthought, as it often is in theatre.

Like look at this beautiful representation:

This is a story about disability being told by disabled people, and this should really be the standard for the industry. I really hope that there are more shows like this created because this is the authentic representation disabled people deserve. We deserve to be able to tell our own stories.

Have a link to some of the music:

[asexual-society]

Hii hope you have a wonderful day today! -I wanted to ask something to make sure im not being mean but- is it possible for an Ace person to be Aphobic? Im in a fandom where there used to be a Ace character- he said he was- thing is, the show never said he was SexRepulsed- but fans took his lack of interest as such. believed he was in fact SexRepulsed. -that character is gone- now, there is yet another character (think, a reboot of the old one) believed to be Ace but this time, he seems to be ok with touch an even seems very friendly ~ with only one character. my ask is, if some people view this second version, as still Ace. but sex favorable, is that aphobic? is maybe having another view on this chracter that is questioning himself, a bad thing? because this is said a lot, that ppl is being aphobic for "refusing to accept he is sex repulsed" or "using the fact he is questioning himself to ship him" (mind you-most shipart is literally hand holding and being buddies) hope Im making sense- im so lost and I trust your blog to help me (because im also scared to be harrased for asking this inside that fandom)

Hey! (We got your other ask, I got half way through answering it and then forgot, so I will get to that soon I promise) Good to hear from you again :) I ended up going a little off topic here, but I hope I managed to fully answer this (if not, just send another one). Also get ready for some parentheses.

In answer to the first part of your question, yes ace people can be aphobic (many ace people can be arophobic, but also acephobic, both to people who share their own identity and others who have a different identity under the ace umbrella).

This is a pretty interesting question actually, because there is acephobia at play in the situation you're describing, but not necessarily in the way those people mean. It is NOT acephobic to have a sex favourable ace character, that's fine, because there are sex favourable aces out there and they're just as much a part of our community as those who are indifferent, averse, repulsed, or some sort of mixture. Sex favourable aces have just a much right to see themselves represented as sex averse aces, but unfortunately, there is so little asexual representation that it can feel like if one flavour of ace people are represented, that that representation has been taken away from aces of other flavours.

It's totally understandable to feel that way, but that doesn't mean those feelings are actually justified? And people get pretty negative reactions for complaining about any lack of rep, which can lead to bad feelings all round and just creates even more of a divide between us. We have to understand that our individual experiences not being represented is NOT the fault of other ace people. It's not fair to want one group to miss out on representation, just so another can get theirs. Additionally, it can be important for people who are questioning or struggling with their identity to work through that in their art, and explorations of things like touch aversion and touch starvation can be very nuanced because one person can experience both to very high degrees, and they each can even compound the other. And, a sex favourable asexual person will not feel the same way about sex as an allosexual person, and that is an equally nuanced and interesting (and fun) thing to be able to explore.

I don't know what media this ask is about, so I can't comment on specifics, but I can admit, I've been frustrated by this sort of thing in the past; it can be really hard to shake an instinct to push back when you feel like you're being treated unfairly, but sometimes we do have to step back and understand that everyone in our community feels the same way, we just want to see ourselves and to feel seen by others. As a person who is both aro and ace, and doesn't want to have sex or be in a romantic relationship, I don't feel represented by characters who are alloace in the way an alloace person does, or sex/romance favourable aroace characters in the way sex favourable aroace people do, but they probably feel that same way when they see aro characters or sex averse characters. It does really suck when people outside of the community ignore and erase the identities of aspec characters because they don't feel our experiences are interesting or valuable enough to represent and explore, but that isn't what's happening on an intracommunity level (as in, within the ace community).

The recent discourse about shipping aroace characters has sort of been getting me down, because it's a complex topic and rather than being a black-or-white, two sides thing, there are people with good and bad takes (mostly bad, let's be real) coming from so many different directions, there is so much nuance it would take me much more than one little answer to cover (and let me tell you, if I were to try, it would not be on this blog!). I might have said this before, but I tend to avoid fandoms of media with canon aroace characters for the most part for this exact reason, and within the community we are SO far ahead of where the rest of the world (and even the rest of the queer community) sees aspec people, I genuinely believe (call it cynical if you like) that this will continue to be a problem for several more years. And like, you can just block people and move on with your life, your fandom experience will be so much more enjoyable if you block people who say shit you think sucks, aphobic or not. Everyone should do this.

I think this is probably long enough now, and I've definitely missed something important, but I hope it helped.

~ mod key

[silviawordsworth]

A comprehensive reason as to why I, as a teenage girl, think the marauders fandom is heaven on earth. (+ a few faults)

In simple terms, its a pit of representation. The characters, even the ones mentioned more than just a name drop, have very little known information about them. Like yes, we know remus lupin marries tonks and we know james marries lily, but besides that? They were teenagers at hogwarts, its fun to play around with the dynamics of them.

And its also a passion project. The marauders is by no means an actual thing. Sure, theyre side characters in hp. But the marauders fandom is created solely on headcanons and fanon info. Its almost like if i were to pull finnick and annie from thg and develop them with such depth that it contextualises things that couldve been explained better in the actual books.

And not only that, but it shows creativity. Its like weve all taken these characters, aged them down to make them more relatable, and projected our own teenage experiences onto them in a way that jk could never as she wrote them as an adult and likely has never experienced the struggles of the lgbtq teens nowadays

The lgbtq is also a good point to bring up. Nowhere anywhere else on the internet will you find a fandom so full of lgbtq characters solely bc 'it doesnt sell'. The marauders is a prime example of how marketing realistic teenagers to teenagers is not unprofitable.

Mental health is also a big thing that needs to be explored more in media. And not as the main plot, but as something that just exists. Its done well in the marauders fandom.

Usually when watching a show or reading a book, you think these characters arent that realistic. In their world, sure. But its hard to relate to characters who link nothing to you. The marauders, though wizards, are teenagers in school. They are relatable.

Also the ability to create everything out of nothing. I adore pandora rosier and regulus black but in canon they are never even shown in the movies besides reg.

The poc inclusivity, the non skinny inclusivity, etc etc.

However! There are issues.

The marauders fandom is primarily girls, yet this fandom is an excellent example of the preference that male characters get. Like, i love regulus. But pray tell why jegulus gets more hype than pretty much any wlw ships combined? And why do i see so much of lily being a surrogate or her dying and james and reg getting harry? If youre gonna cut lily out of james life for him to be w reg, atleast find another way for them to have a kid. Lily is more than her uterus and a plot device for a kid.

And theres also sm arguments over headcanons. Like, if i were to say i hc james potter as straight, i would get attacked in todays fandom. It just gets a bit strange sometimes when people disregard canon at all. I get the seperation of canon from fanon is definitely inevitable in this fandom, but i dislike when people push their hcs as canon when its literally contradicted by canon.

I love the marauders fandom i do, and i love the way the characters are developed enough to be interesting to everyone, and not just babied down enough to be advertised to kids. Theres so much you can do when you dont have to worry about pr.

Anyways, thanks for listening to my rant. Please feel free to reblog w any questions or comments, il respond to everyone x

[outrunningthedark]

There's literally zero suggestion that Ryan is uncomfortable portraying a queer character compared to Oliver. IDK what your anon is talking about. Like you said he acknowledged the difficulty of getting a storyline like that out to the GA due to toxic masculinity and homophobia but those are just the facts on the ground not an indication that he's personally opposed. Oliver's good at giving diplomatic soundbites to the fandom and cultivating a persona online, Ryan's more blunt and he answered honestly that's the key difference here. Their chemistry has never been denied, Oliver didn't say anything particularly revolutionary, the question is whether there's a serious intent to act on that to create a romantic storyline and I would have to say I agree with Ryan I don't see it happening. There's really no need to be like oh we know Oliver's cool but who knows about Ryan because it's like based on what exactly? Him stating facts that none of this was planned and it's unlikely the writers/creators will pivot?

Honestly I get a little uncomfortable with the way some people ascribe certain views and attitudes to Ryan while simultaneously blowing smoke up Oliver's supposedly enlightened ass, it feels a little prejudiced and in bad faith.

(This isn't aimed at you, I think you're very fair and I agree with you almost all the time. It's just a comment at the language I see used and the implications when this is brought up)

Just want to thank you for reiterating my point because it's something I think is going to have to be repeated over time as each season passes without Eddie being Repressed or Buddie going canon. We don't know how Ryan feels about the Buddie as a legit ship, whether he wants the show to go for it or not, because he doesn't approach the subject the way the fandom wishes he would. He's matter-of-fact. He's realistic. He's seen enough within the industry and in his own life (upbringing and friends he may have made along the way) to understand the tough spot the show put itself in by making neither Buck nor Eddie queer from the start. TBH, R "vs." O is not unlike the way older members of our fandom try to interact with/educate the younger ones. So many here have grown up in a time when queer representation is becoming "the standard" even if TV shows aren't making it past the second season. But those of us who remember the *really* dark days aren't scared to talk about the ages of the folks running these networks or the demographic they're making the shows for impacting how they envision a story line and ensure it plays out. Oliver represents the younger fandom. He understands why fans he's interacted with love the ship and would say yes in a second. Ryan is the rest of us going "Do you hear yourself right now? Do you really think Buddie is as popular IRL as it is online?" There is value in Oliver publicly supporting Buddie, absolutely. But there is also value in having someone speak in a way that aims to prevent fans from getting their hopes up over a story line that may never come true. Ryan is not trying to discourage you. He's trying to protect you and your feelings.

[sexynetra]

Hi! LATAM queer here that doesn't have English as a first language writing this just so you understand the importance of your work:

I haven't been active in tumblr for like almost half a year now, but I literally just logged in today to see if you had post any RAWNSYF update/new dialogue that I might have missed. I had no ideia what was going on on twitter when I logged in today. And I'm so sorry that you got exposed like that. If it is any consolation, RAWNSYF is one of my favorite fics ever written. Def my fav anarcia fic. To me, fanfic in queer spaces is a way I can read about the queer experience and relate to my own life. That is what I love about RAWNSYF, I have a past love experience that is really similar to what Anetra is going through in your fic. By reading it, I can help my 18 year old self heal. I'm not sending you this to necessarily encourage you to post a new chapter. After all that happened yesterday, I'll totally understand if you never update. I'm telling you all this so you know that your work matter. Your fic might be one of the few media work that I've ever felt so represented. Fanfic is important to queer people like us because of this: we don't have much representation in the wide media. So we turn to our own community to see ourselves being represented in this kind of spaces. Because of this, I ask you with all the kindness that I have inside of me: if you don't want to post an update, I'll totally get it! But please, PLEASE, don't ever feel guilty for what you've already wrote and posted. It means more to people that never saw themselves in media that anyone who's not queer could ever understand.

Hi there <33

This has just been sitting in my inbox because every time I went to respond I started crying again 😅

This is the sweetest message I have ever received and I cannot even possibly express just how much it meant to me to read this.

I started rawnsyf out of a desire to see the stories I wanted to read about being shared. (Well, technically I started rawnsyf as a 2am writing practice that was never supposed to be expanded upon but here we are) I honestly never thought anyone else would actually read it 😂 it was just a little story that had all my favorite story tropes in it. That was it.

But then rawnsyf grew. It grew in the scope of what I was writing about, and it grew in its reach. Suddenly, people were reading it, and it was connecting with them on a level I never anticipated.

Rawnsyf started as a fanfic about two queens I enjoyed, but I hand on my heart believe that it has grown to be so much more than that. This story, that was originally just a fun little writing exercise and a cute little love story, has become something that people really feel a connection to, and feel represented by.

I honestly never expected that, it’s beyond my wildest dreams. I think anyone who creates content hopes that it will resonate with people, but I never expected the scope it would have (which sounds braggadocious but I never expected the story to really become important to anybody besides me, and over and over again the amazing community on here has proven me wrong).

It started as a story about two queens I love, but it has grown beyond that. The characters in the story have lives of their own. They exist beyond the drag queens that inspired them. And this message, maybe more than any other, reminds me just how powerful those characters can be.

I am so infinitely grateful that you took the time to send this message, and even more infinitely honored and touched that you have allowed me to express myself through my writing and taken it onto yourself. Nothing will ever mean more to me than people being able to feel seen and find healing through something I’ve created.

Rawnsyf is not over, and it’s all because of the love people like you have shared with me for this story.

I hope I can do you justice with this story and my heart is so full <3333

I am crying again so I will end this here but my heart just feels so full. Thank you for sending this to me and being so honest and vulnerable. It means more to me than you could ever know

[nthflower]

When I was a kid I used to insert myself in literally every media I watch read consume. Like I created an oc in my mind and make them fit somewhere in there without breaking original story. Or myself like wish I was a superhero type. Normal things we all did I think.

But also as a kid I was extremely religious. Like the moment I knew myself I was religious and I was so sincere about it.

I believed in Allah and loved Allah with my whole heart and memorise every prophets story in Qur'an, and also memorize Suras as summertime hobbies and God I loved fasting and Being hijabi when I was a little more older was my own voluntary choice and I loved it so much too. It was never hard for me or it was never for my parents or society I genuinely believed voluntarily and I loved it.

And now when I was inserting myself to this stories there was like one rare thing that make me sad about me being religious. And it was that I don't fit in. I want to so much think myself as a mutant for example but cmon how I could fit in there. Like I need to pray but superheroing have no time praying or tight clothes are haram or how the other characters see me weird and hate me probably etc.

Theennnn I am seeing Faiza Hussain I think. She was the first Muslim character I saw I'm comics and I was like so so happy obsessed. I read her but I don't remember them now but I loved her. Like she was kinda modern type of Muslim but I thought she was still yeah good.

Theeeeen I saw Dust a niqabi girl (I was not niqabi but so many people in my family were so it's something familiar and close to me). And she was praying. And she was readin Qur'an. And she was giving attention to Islamic rules. And she was doing fine mostly. Surge was yeah bad at first but I also loved it too because it was realistic. Or Rockslide helping her to hide herself when she have her hair open etc. Like it was good things it was bad thing but close to real.

And I loved it I literally protected myself into her. If she can then I can too without giving what I believe can still live the life I want be part of things I want.

Anyways I don't know why I did write this actually I think it was about Muslim characters and me and also me wanting characters that written realistically instead of idilistic wonderful lives with full of acceptance. Like yeah write a trans hijabi girl I was one for a while but it's more complex you can't just make them like your average character but just wear hijab it's more more complex then that. It doesn't feel like something to care about as representation. But you know this is probably extremely personal preference.

And last thing I am not Muslim anymore like for years ago I left it. I don't believe even supernatural now. But still I am very culturally Muslim even when I am not realising it. And people I love is Muslim. I have trauma but I don't have problems with positive sides of religion or people finding happiness on it.

So yeah it makes me happy good Muslim representation and also because of this I want ex-muslim religious trauma suffering characters without being Islamaphobic. But also without being extremely woobified. Like not a perfect wonderful minority. Because Muslims not even minority in most of places and so so so flawed people but also not Devils with objectively bad religion. Your average Muslim is literally same as your average Christian. In fact same as your average Buddhist or Jewish too. I knew it because I met this people and we are literally same when it's not about our religions. Yeah flawed human characters.

I usually have no problems here oversharing and putting cringe nonsense etc. but this feels embarrassing I think because it is too personal?? I just wanted to write something about Muslim characters in comics. Anyways I want diverse and realistic many dimensional religious people not only Muslims but other religions too.

[sauroff]

What attracted you to Sauron so much, and why do you think he is so popular, despite the fact that so much of his characterisation is in obscure material, and in the most popular adaptation, he is just a big eye?

Hello there! I love this question It's hard for me to talk about serious things because, besides not trusting my knowledge and my own interpretations of the characters, there is a language barrier that makes me feel limited when trying to explain myself. But I'll try my best

I think that, basically, we know very little about every character in The Silm. We kinda pick some extra info here and there from all the other sources, then ignore what we don't like (I sure as hell will ignore that version in which is Galadriel who founded Eregion and Celebrimbor just took it from her). We cling to the little info we have, and construct our own version of the characters. There might be a general fanon, but there are as many flavors of each character as there is people in this fandom. So, we might not have that much info about Sauron, but we do have enough to build over. And what you can build over what you got from The Silm and Morgoth's Ring is a lot more interesting that the whole eye tower/abstract representation of evil. There are so many holes you can fill, so much you can explore with him. Like, if he was so obsessed with order and control, and didn't like how the Valar managed things (very valid point there), how exactly did he thought that Melkor of all people could change that? We are told that he served him as his loyal right hand out of adoration. Why did he adore him? From the very little we know from each of them, they are opposites. Then we have the fact that we are told that at some points he did want to make Middle Earth a better place, for real. And we are also told that he did teach the elves and men things. That last part didn't age well, since that knowledge, and the progress done with it, is seen as corrupted and bad within the story. Based on that, you can theorize about his time in Eregion: Was the making of the rings and complete control of them his plan from the very beginning? Did he went to Eregion with only evil in his mind, or maybe he was just lost and on the look for a new path to follow? What if he really started with the rings as a way to heal Middle Earth, but fell into his old bad habits in the middle? (I mean, I'm sure that, in his mind, he still thought that he was doing what was best for everyone). I just love those things, and what you can build over them. On one hand, you have this talented crafter, loyal and efficient right hand, semi god that knows things of the very creation of the world and shares them with elves and men- A character whose awful actions are probably rooted on good intentions, but very very twisted by his own pride and obsession with control. A man who isn't very good at fighting (those physical fights we know he had, he lost), but it's good at singing and much better at seducing his way into and out of trouble. On the other hand, you have a man who thought that the very incarnation of chaos was just the right guy to put order into the world. A man whose ego is so big that once thought he was the greatest wolf in existence, because why not? A man who saw an already corrupted island of men and thought "I can make it worst", sent all the men to die instead of maybe recruting them, and died while laughing at God (being fair, he did manage to piss said god so much that he finally took direct measures. Nice one Mairon). A man that was obsessed with control, yet couldn't manage to make his own forces competent enough to at least use the language that they have created for them. And I mean, knowing that he isn't a big eye in a tower, but rather a (literally) hot Lucifer-like figure does help a bit too. But almost every character on those books is hot, so that alone doesn't do the trick. Also, for those of us who like to add queernes to our interpretations of media, there is this constant in his story about seducing/being seduced by male characters, while also being basically the only male presenting character that wasn't smitten by Luthien as soon as he saw her, that gives him a certain queer vibe we kinda dig. He also has some strong genderfluid vibes, but I can't explain those besides "There is not such a thing as a cis shapeshifter".

Anyway, that's my (very long) explanation. I'd apologize for it, but you asked :P Have a female presenting Annatar I sketched sometime ago

[somewillwin]

I get people are tired of male characters getting more attention/being perceived as "favored" by the author but there's like, a world of difference between something like Playchoices for example and an individual person creating a story suited to their own tastes.

Like these people aren't corporations making millions of dollars on false promises of representation like Disney. It's literally just some guy (gender neutral) in a room on their laptop writing a story, often completely for free when we're talking Twine authors, doing this stuff in their spare time.

The attitude that "we need to ask questions" or "hold them accountable" is a little delusional to me. Hold them accountable for what? To do what? At some point you're the equivalent of someone who gets mad at a fanfic author for not writing exactly what you want them to write. You can't force people to put out certain types of content. Would it be nice if they didn't have misogynistic biases? Yes. Are you going to change anything by writing essays about it on the internet? No.

It's way more productive to me personally to elevate IFs that are putting out content that I appreciate and highlight them/spread the word instead of bashing my head against a wall against cultural biases. Time much better spent than complaining endlessly about gender selectable ROs, imo. Sorry if this got long!

HAJAHHSHS no I totally get it!

Which is why I get their pov too. I mean I am just a girl alone in my room making content ultimately to myself. And if someone got into my inbox and told me “hey you need to draw more males” I would insta block them shhshshsh

And yeah I mean gender selectable RO in choices are horrible and these authors do so much better with them with no creative team behind them…. I love them so much they are so inspiring to me.

Like the most we can do is send asks about the female RO we like and engage positively with the authors about them and show them that people are interested in them.

Beyond that… there is nothing to do. Just boost your female RO and make content for them as fans of the boys do and maybe you get more people interested.

At the end of the day we have to engage more with our interests. I’m sure authors like to see readers edits fanfics and fanarts of all their characters being male or female.

I’m sure authors are bursting to talk about their others RO and answer questions about them. So go ahead and ask them about them…. POSITIVELY!!!

[artisticbunny]

Hello Bun! I have magically manifested within your inbox to ask you about…

Your OCs!

One of my anon subordinates (totally not me telling my friends about you no way) previously asked about your number of them, but I want to know who they are!! >:3c Any like, story or interaction or certain universe or specific aesthetics? Feel free to infodump Bun I’m all ears!!

(Sorry if this seems a little too pushy I just saw your reblog and was like ‘why don’t I be a good lad and prance on over eh?’ So here we are! :3 I hope you don’t mind!)

AAAAA HI MOOG!!! THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME THIS EXCUSE ILY DJDBDHE

IM SO EXCITED TO INFODUMP ABOUT MY CHARACTERS I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!!

I ACTUALLY HAVE THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THEIR STORY UPLOADED TO AO3 AND IM WORKING ON THE SECOND!!!

Buckle in cuz this is gonna be a long post lol

I’m not gonna reveal everything cuz there have to be some tricks up my sleeves, but I’m gonna be talking about major plot stuff that isn’t in the first chapter so, uh, spoiler warning also X3

OK!!!! SO MY MAIN CHARACTER BROOK IS BABEY AND I LOVE HER!!!! ABUSE TW THO CUZ BOY HOWDY THIS BABY TRAUMATIZED.

Basically the start of the story happens as she’s running away and escaping from her abusive household, this story takes place in a fantasy world so it’s more of a tower than a house but yk.

Her “mother” is this kind of just,,, awful person that basically just was using Brook as free labor. Like, she found Brook as a toddler literally abandoned by this little brook river thing and called her “Brook Child” because she couldn’t be assed to give her a proper name. There isn’t any actual physical hitting or anything to the abuse but god, if there isn’t just a buttload of neglect and verbal/psychological abuse going on. It’s not uncommon for Brook to have been locked in the basement for days on end without food because she did something wrong.

Brook physically is super scrawny because of this, like you can easily see her bones. She has CONSTANT, DEEP dark circles under her eyes that will probably never go away, and is often fatigued. She has a long scar going down one side of her face (her left, our right), caused by an incident with setting up chicken wire. Between her not knowing how to really deal with that kind of wound at the time and the fact that she’s constantly malnourished, it left a pretty noticeable scar

ALSO FUN FACT BROOK IS AROACE CUZ YIPPEE REPRESENTATION!!!!

After she runs away her plan is to get a few supplies so she can go live on her own because the only real experience she has with other people is her “mother” and just really wants to not be around people who she thinks are going to hurt her… uuunfortunately for her she ends up being peer pressured by a merchant into buying an enchanted dagger that uses up basically ALL OF HER MONEY SHE SAVED UP.

Said dagger comes with a prophecy and is, surprise! Sentient! Yeah so now basically she’s forced to go on this quest now! No living alone in the woods in peace for her! She ends up naming the dagger Willow because of a beautiful willow tree engraving at its base and for the fact that it’s handle is modeled after a winding tree trunk (with THOUSANDS of engraved TINY little symbols and glyphs and spells and the like that looks a lot like tree bark!)

Willow uses she/it pronouns because yes! The engravings that are so tiny you can barely see and make them out is what makes Willow sentient! It’s VERY complex spellwork and may have taken even over a lifetime to create! She is very well crafted :)

She is also VERY blunt. Willow doesn’t understand the complexities of like… softening the blow of its words, so it doesn’t even really try lol. Basically it’s like “ah yeah, you are my wielder so you ARE the one from the prophecy, there’s not any getting out of it, let’s go!”

Willow’s one purpose is to complete the prophecy and is ultimately loyal to Brook till the end because of this. Unfortunately, Willow will sometimes bend the rules Brook set for the greater good of completing the quest. (During their first meeting Brook set the ground rules of no killing, and no hurting people unless absolutely necessary.)

During like, the first few hours after she leaves the trade town she fled to to go get this quest over with she gets jumped by this like 7 foot dude in black armor. This is Quincy.

I love him because there are… a lot of complexities with him lol

Without getting into huge spoiler territories, basically, where he comes from, the prophecy is told differently to the point of where Brook is made out to be the villain of the story. He is trying to protect his family and his home. When scouting her out, he is surprised to see that she’s basically just a kid, but decides to go through with the attack anyways as an attempt to stop the prophecy from being fulfilled.

Brook doesn’t know about this rendition of the prophecy.

So basically he attacks Brook, and Brook tries to reason with him to the absolute best of her ability. Quincy, however, is not open to conversation at that point. With willow’s guidance, she ends up killing him.

She is stunned by this. She watches as he bleeds out on the ground and turns to Willow.

She’s like “we agreed on no killing, this guy looks pretty dead to me!!!” (She’s obviously more panicked than this in the actual story lol)

Willow is like “ok ok fine hold me near him give me a second.”

A fun fact about Willow is that she can act as a channel for magic, and use her wielder’s supply. So when Willow uses a spell, the spell treats Brook as the caster even though Willow is effectively the one to have cast the spell.

This is important because, well, Willow uses NECROMANCY. A FORBIDDEN SPELL. ONE THAT IS FORBIDDEN FOR A GOOD REASON.

In this world, when someone is brought back through the use of necromancy they get revived, yes. BUT THEY ALSO BECOME TRAPPED INSIDE THEIR OWN BODIES AS THEYRE PUPPETED AROUND BY THE CASTER. This tactic was used a LOT in wars before it was outlawed btw, just some world building dont mind me :)

Yeah so basically when under the effects of Necromancy you just have to watch as your body has to follow whatever orders the caster gives you, whether you like it or not. Because it’s the spellcaster’s life force that’s inside of you.

(I have a WHOLE magic system thought out btw, magic is part of living being’s life force. Without it you basically starve. It’s like air and food and water, you NEED it to live, which is why Brook going on a quest to save it is such a big deal)

Obviously Willow is like “here, he should fight with us now :)” and brooks just there like “…” =n= because she knows something is off but she can’t put her finger on it yet but this guy is acting REALLY weird now.

Even being cooped up her hole life as she was, KNOWS THIS SPELL IS FORBIDDEN. So when she finds out it was used, she is rightly upset. She doesn’t know the FULL extent of the spell, she doesn’t know if he’s still THERE or if it’s just his corpse or WHAT, but she feels horrible about the situation and tries to give him as much kindness and freedom as she possibly can. Quincy cannot speak, but is later able to communicate better as he’s given more and more agency. (Given the right circumstances, he MAY be able to regain speech in the future ;) )

Over the course of this situation he kinda goes from absolutely despising Brook, to like “ok… this really is just a kid, I kinda feel really bad now” to “oh my god wait this kid is actually really sweet” to “this is my kid now”

He basically adopts Brook towards the end lol

Brook doesn’t really realize this is happening until about mid-way through the story when she goes to get firewood and says if anyone else in the group wants to they can come with her and he goes with her and she realizes she was addressing the whole group and that they can come if they WANT to. And then she just looks up at him and is like… “did you WANT to come with me?” And he just nods at her and she almost cries lol

I just love them, your honor. Quincy = dad of the year (iiif you get past the bit where he tried to kill Brook but yk lol)

OK NEXT WE HAVE SAM AND JOE!!! MY BOYS!!! THEY ARE BOYFRIENDS!!!!! THEY LOVE EACHOTHER!!!! RELATIONSHIP GOALS!!!

Sam is a wizard and Joe is a werewolf, they’re trying to find Joe’s tether (what will let him stay sane when transformed) they met with Joe in a dumpster and Sam trying to throw out that week’s trash from his apprenticeship <3

Joe comes from a loving family of werewolves and was born as one, his biggest fear is hurting his loved ones, which is why he was so desperate to find his tether. It’s also why he was rooting through wizard’s trashcans when Sam found him lol

They made a deal that Joe would stay out of trashcans (because of the dangerous chemicals and broken glass and stuff) if Sam would help him find his tether.

Sam didn’t actually like his apprenticeship. He was forced into it by his parents because he was “talented” and showed signs of developing into a talented wizard. He once loved performing magic, but being an apprentice stripped it of all of its fun. He neglected his work, causing him to fall behind, he is now self conscious and does not like it when people watch him cast spells.

Sam and Joe bonded over researching to find Joe’s tether and eventually fell in love. They both ran away not long after on a search for any more information they didn’t already have.

Also Joe is afraid of sheep :)

(“I don’t like it when they stare at you with those beady little eyes-“)

Kat is a ghost. She doesn’t remember her past, but she does remember waking up in the middle of the woods one day and never being able to find a way out. She had been alone for god knows how long before someone passed through (that being Brook, Willow, Quincy, Sam, And Joe) so obviously, she had to play a prank on them. GOLDEN opportunity for some entertainment.

Kat has claustrophobia (and because it’s never being revealed in the book I’ll reveal it here: she was buried alive. Framed for a crime she didn’t commit by someone in her adventuring group. The group’s agreed on punishment was for her to be buried alive and abandoned.) often getting flashbacks of suffocating, of cool dirt sticking to her face, muffling her screams and pleas for help.

Kat is very laid back and likes to make light of heavier situations with humor. She is a LOT smarter than she lets on, and has a very strong sense of moral justice. She also has a talent of apperating knives from her ghostly fog. She is very skilled at knife throwing.

Terra (Full name Terra Delah Etang) is a siren originating from Ckorplek, an underwater city found in the mesa reefs. She was a mighty warrior (arguably the strongest and most skilled with her voice) tasked with protecting her people’s most prized possession during an invasion. She dragged herself across the red sand, lake hopping for days before settling in a far off small pond-sized salt water body of water with a small island in the center. She would stay there for years protecting the item with her life. Unfortunately, Brook needs that item for her quest and Terra isn’t exactly willing to give it up.

Yeah they basically kidnap and gag her so she can’t make them kill themselves with her voice lol

They’re not just gonna leave her to die but they’re ALSO not gonna risk their lives letting her go free.

She is a reluctant party member, but as long as she’s with her people’s treasure and she’s able to make sure it’s safe, she isn’t super like… against it? Also they’re her only ticket back to her pond since they are basically wheeling her around in a red wagon full of water lol she still kinda hates them tho

Terra is super hotheaded and isn’t that forgiving of a person so it takes a while before she opens up lol

(She’s kind of like the boblin the goblin of the group in a way if you think about it lol)

Corey is half dead.

During his life, he took care of his mother and younger sister by going on quests and bringing back money. He would often ally with other adventurers to do this, and had a habit of only taking what his family needed of the rewards.

One day, on a quest to Dread Caverns- a cave system known for making your worst fears come to life- as they neared the center, where their prize was, he was betrayed.

Busted up in the fight, and with his head cracked open, he fell to the ground, left for dead, as the team he allied with ran off without him.

Fortunately for him, he landed on a healing potion he kept strapped to himself. Just in case. In the moments just after his heart stopped beating but just before his brain activity died, the glass pierced his skin, and the potion flowed into his body.

Because of this one in a billion timing, Corey was able to survive, subsisting mostly off of the world’s magic. He no longer has a heartbeat, and his left arm and leg no longer work, but he was alive, and stuck in dread caverns for about three years before Brook found him.

Corey has killed before in self defense. During his time In Dread Caverns many would come with the goal of killing him in mind, as rumors would spread of him being the reason the caverns were so dangerous.

Next is a reoccurring antagonist: Zeki.

They use She/They pronouns ;)

Zeki first appears after Dread Caverns in the story and is a well known infamous robber. She is known for kidnapping a member of her target group, and hypnotizing them to give her information and or infiltrate the group in order to easily incapacitate them. She smells of metal and is always followed by the sound of ticking clocks. She has multiple pocket watches hidden on her person at all times.

Zeki was originally the daughter of a prestigious family. They were expected to be perfect every second of every day, and were forced to learn parlor tricks to entertain guests. She would often sneak off into the middle of the night in order to destress and indulge in their true passion, whittling wood into beautiful sculptures. This went on for a long time before they were found out. All of her work was burned and destroyed, and she was cast out of the family with just the clothes on her back, and her grandfather’s pocket watch.

She almost starved before out of pure desperation they attempted one of the parlor tricks they learned. Light hypnosis. She managed to convince a passer by to give her some of their bread, and that was the beginning of their new life. Zeki would get more and more powerful every time they practiced.

Hypnosis only ever lasts from 3-5 days, but varies between that from person to person. Even after recovery, a person may relapse.

FINALLY!!! MY BOI!!!! CORVUS!!!

My lil plague doctor guy!!! I love him!!!

He never takes off his mask, he just doesn’t feel comfortable with it. The only reason he would take it off ever would be to clean it (even then, he makes sure nobody is around) or during a medical emergency.

Corvus is an actual, trained doctor! Which is part of the reason that Zeki decided to keep him as a part of their hypnotized entourage.

He is a sweet and caring guy, and just wants what’s best for everyone! No dark backstory for him other than being a part of Zeki’s crew for a bit, he’s just a lil guy! :3

I’m so sorry this is so long and I’m also sorry about the decrease in writing quality as it goes on lol this took me hours to type out XD

THANK YOU FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY TO INFODUMP IF YOU HAVE ANY SPECIFIC QUESTIONS ABOUT ANYTHING LET ME KNOW ID BE HAPPY TO ANSWER!!!!

[uncommon-etc]

A controversial take...

It might just be because I grew up in an era where queer characters, the few that we had, were regularly murdered, sidelined or reduced to punchlines on screen, but I think if you’re not doing any of the above, there is no such thing as bad queer rep.

I’m tired of living a world where, if I want to watch an overtly queer love-story in the cinema, I’ve got to take a two-hour train journey to London, (because beautiful films like Firebird, and Freefall literally only get shown at like four cinemas in the UK, and three of them are in London), I’m sick of doing the exact same thing, as an adult, we did as kids when trying to find characters we related to in media (’he’s never actually said, but he seems pretty queer-coded to me’), and I’m fed up of seeing people hating on writers who give us canonically queer characters for not making their queerness more overt, because you can guarantee they’re getting hate on whatever social media sites straight folks use nowadays for ‘trying to make everything gay’.

I don’t want to live in a world where Our Flag Means Death is a unique, beautiful exception to the rules of how we treat queer characters on screen. I don’t want to live in a world where if I want to go and see the only example of a same-sex love-story that’s central to the plot of a major blockbuster I’m accused to giving money to a terf who, let’s face it, is already richer than the queen, and isn’t going to care whether I see it or not. And I definitely don’t want to keep living in a world where we’re still sharing gifs from the same four shows in a few years time, because they’re the only ones who have managed to do queer representation ‘correctly’.

I want bad queer rep as well as good.

I want queer characters with as many flaws as we regularly let straight characters have, while still rooting for them.

I want queer characters that come across as deeply uncool, who parts of the fandom hate on, not because they’re queer, but because they’re just plain annoying.

I want queer characters who live up to stereotypes, and own them (It’s a Sin did a particularly good job of portraying gay men who had a lot of different sexual partners in the 80s as being no less worthy of care or sympathy than anyone else who contracted AIDS, but few other shows have been brave enough to go there).

I want to turn on the crappiest, most badly-written, procedural crime show completely at random, and see a queer detective, or a queer serial killer, preferably both, and they get it on, enemies-to-lovers style, with very little build-up or meaningful connection.

I want queer himbos who are so dumb you can’t quite work out why they’re still alive.

I want the next Disney prince to be gay.

I want queer superheroes who continue the long and proud superhero tradition of having almost zero personality, and not much going for them beyond being quite good at flying people out of burning buildings.

I want to see queer characters cross-dress, and explore weirdly specific fetishes, and reclaim dated terms for their identities, and do all the other things we no longer see queer characters do, because it’s viewed as bad rep, even if plenty of actual queer people do these things.

I want a queer character in every lame, action-thriller aimed at making a tonne of money from a predominantly male audience.

I want to see love-triangles that turn into polyamorous triads, in the trashiest possible way.    

And I want all of these things because, as a queer person, in a supposedly equal-opportunities media landscape, I want something more realistic than the sainted, beautified, sanitized version of queerness that we’re all too often given, because there is still too much stigma to show us as regular people, and because some writers are still so afraid of getting it wrong that they continue to create worlds in which we don’t exist. 

[nope-body]

.

I don’t know why I’m suddenly so lonely and feel like a failure. Probably something to do with it being 1:35 am. Maybe also because I feel like I’m holding myself to higher standards with COMPANY and I’m afraid of failing there. I really want to prove that you can put on a good show without the theater department or the student theater organization and I want to be able to show the results of centering clear communication on a production team. I want to be able to do this show and research accessibility in theater and apply my learning to what we’re doing. I also have a ton of other commitments that I can’t make any less of a priority. For example, the disability student org that I am basically in charge of. I can’t just put a whole organization on pause, and I don’t want to. The struggle is that no matter how much I try, I don’t have someone I can rely on to lead a meeting if I can’t make it. I have no one else I can rely on to keep track of the tasks that need to get done and even if I ask someone to do something that doesn’t mean it will get done! Even if it’s my friend. I end up having to do everything myself, or close to that. I did half our treasury stuff last semester and I’m not the treasurer! I have no training! But it needed to get done, and we had a deadline. I’m also worried about doing inventory for the burlesque club I’m part of, because I thought I would be able to get that done over winter term and I haven’t had time so far. I want to prove that I can do this work, but I have to be able to do the work. And I can, the issue is do I have time.

And I’m trying to do all of this with chronic fatigue. I have to rest more often and for longer than other people. That takes up time! Time that I can’t really do anything with. And I know that being disabled in theater means you have to have a more impressive resume than most able bodied people with your same skill set to even be considered for a job, but I also can’t overwork myself to get that impressive resume. And I got a job again, but I’m worried that a lot of the hours I’d be able to sign up for would conflict with the show I’m working on. But also I need some sort of income, and this is the only job in theater here I can get. And I’m trying to find summer opportunities but they’re next to impossible to find, especially because I can’t do standard summer stock work and because for some reason a bunch of theaters aren’t running their summer internships this summer. I’m overworked and I feel underworked and I’m doing too much and too little and I don’t fucking know how to navigate this. I have no guide in this area of disabled and in theater. I can only trailblaze so much before I need to see a path to create. But also why do I have to be the one to do all of this? Why is it up to me? Why is there literally no one to support me in the place I need support most? My own academic advisor wants to learn from me, but I’m the one asking him for help! Also, I have only been visibly disabled, moving through the world as a disabled person, for like a year and a half. How did I end up in this position where I am viewed by so many people as someone who is super knowledgeable about “the disabled experience”? Our intimacy choreographer, who studied accessibility in theater over the summer for a professor’s project, thinks I know more about accessibility in theater than they do. I don’t know why! I have done basic dramaturgical research for the musical 13 when I consulted for it, and then acted as an intimacy choreographer for them during tech week for like two days in an effort to create less harmful representation on stage, and then I quit for the second time because they were so horrible and hostile to me. I have been a disabled person in theater spaces. And now I’m doing this private reading about accessibility in theater this coming semester. That’s it. I don’t actually know very much at all! I don’t know if there is even that much to know, because disabled people in theater are so hard to find! Most of the articles I’ve found (there’s like 5) just talk about disabled people being underrepresented in theater and that theater spaces need to become more accessible so disabled people can be in theater more. It’s so hard to find any discussion that even includes all aspects of theater in that statement, and I haven’t found anything that takes the discussion beyond that simple statement of “theater needs to be more inclusive of disabled people”. Because what do we mean when we say that? Who do we recognize as disabled, who do we recognize as being skilled enough to be in theater, how does that get unevenly applied to disabled people? What efforts can we make to be more accessible for physically disabled people even when our spaces aren’t accessible? What changes are we actually willing to make to the way we do theater to make it more accessible to disabled people with fatigue, with mobility issues, with chronic pain, with visible disabilities, with disabilities and chronic illnesses that have inconsistent and unpredictable symptoms? Are we actually willing to make any changes at all, or just pay lip service to inclusion?

[independentartistbuzz]

Indie 5-0 with Stephen Jaymes

The Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and punk poet Stephen Jaymes can only be described as Charles Bukowski ditching whiskey for psychedelic mushrooms while feverishly ingesting Rumi poetry and Phil Ochs records.

His newest single, the upbeat folk rock and punk infused single "Tokyo," is a rousing call to make the journey to a magical place that two people create together, even in the face of certain climate destruction. In a fun twist, "Tokyo" has nothing to do with the city.

We got to speak with Stephen Jaymes about his song, his career, and more!

What was the inspiration for your new song "Tokyo"? How did the idea for the song come about?

I do a lot of Dr. Seuss type singing with nonsense words and rhymes. Exercising the unconscious. I practice that kind of flow a lot, and I try to make a voice note of the best parts before they evaporate. I was in that kind of flow in my garden, thinking about the tiny gardens we make where we try to hide from what’s happening to the Earth. We failed at the big communal garden. That humanist dream is dying. So we retreat to our little gardens. The guitar riff popped into my head first, then the first line materialized and the lyrics kind of spontaneously coalesced into a story about improbable human love in a private garden against an apocalyptic backdrop. Tokyo might have been a temp word in the lyrics, but the word couldn’t be cut. It was the mysterious beating heart of the song’s rhythm, and it didn’t work without it. The song is about an emotional place, not the literal city, but if you can name your place Terebithia or any other made-up name, why can’t you can give it an existing name? The more I worked on it, the more a story developed in my mind about a future survivor who’s only heard the name from a world that existed before, so he appropriates it for a new one. Later I realized I also owe a debt to Joey Ramone, who liked to use Tokyo as a nonsense rhyme filler.   

Folk, punk, and other genres seem to intersect in your music. How do you approach blending different musical styles, and what role do these combinations play in expressing your artistic voice?

I grew up listening to the first wave of punk and New Wave, while at the same time listening to 60s folk records from the family crate. I found a lot in common between the two musical worlds, especially in the defiant attitude toward power structures and the representation of disenfranchised voices. Woody Guthrie was a total punk at heart, and so was Phil Ochs (who actually inspired a number of seminal punk bands). I think most of the artistically successful genre blenders are operating unconsciously. You have to trust that the right inspiration for the next chord or lyric will come like a remembered bird call, and that it will be authentic to your style. For me those bird calls could be The Boomtown Rats or Gordon Lightfoot. The critical, magical thing is that only the songwriter knows the bird calls they’re using. Once you mix them, they sound like something new. I recently saw a clip of Dave Grohl talking about how his Nirvana drumming was influenced by disco fills. That makes a lot of sense to me. We didn’t hear them that way at the time, because they blended with punk to help put the radio shine on grunge, and grunge was a mix of styles that sounded new.

What drew you to write music for a living? How would you describe your style?

I once thought I was an actor at heart, later I thought I was a psychiatrist, still later a novelist. It was a roundabout path and I had to wait a long time to figure myself out. I was always writing songs, but I believed absolutely that it was an internal game, like crosswords or golf (neither of which hook me like they do lots of people). It didn’t occur to me to share them for a long time. When it’s something you can’t stop doing, you don’t really have a choice in the matter. I’m a vicious critic of my own work, which is a curse and a blessing. A curse was I probably toiled in solitude for too long. One of the blessings of being such a sharp self-critic was noticing that I could procrastinate with production and mixing indefinitely to escape the writing work. For awhile I was trying to do it all, like Prince or Jeff Lynne. That’s how I do it now, but I couldn’t at first. So years ago I decided I wouldn’t record anything more than one vocal and one instrument (usually guitar, sometimes piano), and that forced me to do the harder work. Only in the last years have I gone back to full arrangements and multi-instrument production. I finally feel like I can create the sounds I want to without getting lost in the orchestration or making the songwriting suffer - without losing the personal style that’s evident in the stripped down version of the song. 

If you could collaborate with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Oh man. It’s hard to give one answer. I’ll cheat and give two. For alive people, I think it would have to be Questlove. His work with D’Angelo blows my mind. It does for my brain what ASMR does for others. He’s a skilled and wildly experienced collaborator. I don’t know what it would sound like, but I know it would be rare and it would challenge every reluctant part of me. As for my dead heroes, it would have to be Harry Nilsson, before he worked with Lennon and ruptured his vocal cords. The Nilsson who wrote Good Old Desk. I sing along to my favorite songs, and I think our voices blend nicely. I also have a fantasy that I could have kept him more on track. I definitely would have warned him of the harrowing disappointment awaiting anyone trying to reform gun laws in America, as he tried to do after Lennon was shot. Harry needed a medication that wasn’t alcohol and I would have liked to help him find it. 

Do you have messages that you like to get across in your music, if so please tell us about them?

I guess I do, but I don’t think about the message when I’m writing a song. I can’t see the forest for the trees when I’m writing, but if I find the heart of the song each time, the trees always make up a healthy forest when I come up and look from a distance. As to what that forest looks like, I’m not in touch with that when I’m writing a song. I’m never thinking about getting across a message. Each time it feels a lot more like, what message is this song getting across to me? How can I not obscure it? I look at my songs together and notice the trends after the fact. My songs talk about the predicament of having to know yourself in a world where really knowing yourself is very rare and uncomfortable. I think they promote the idea that truly loving another human being is the only way out of that predicament and the only way to find freedom. Chief Inspector, my first single of the summer, was very Jungian, an introspective mystery. Tokyo looks outward, inviting the listener to dance and find love even when everything is disintegrating. My next single, Virus Vaccine, is an exploration of how that dance can still go wrong even with the best intentions. Maybe the overall message is keep your eyes open - you are witnessing something as terrifying as the face of God and it’s occurring in your own lifetime. You have to ask why. Turning away is not an option.

[davidstfde]

Scientific Temper in Children—Here's How Parents Can Nurture An Enquiring Mind

Have you ever wondered how Newton came to think about a falling apple? Have you ever thought that phenomena as bizarre as the speed of light made a genius out of Einstein? How do these people look at the world? How does the world seem so different to them?

This is nothing but what we call is ‘scientific thinking’ that differs them from the typical pattern of traditional thinking. The production of a scientifically literate population is a fundamental goal of our educational system. Virtually everything you can see, touch, taste, and smell is the product of a scientific process. And the scientific method isn’t just for big problems. It also applies to the little decisions in our life that make a big difference. Having a scientific mindset is an essential part of everyday life. It encompasses everything from waking up in the morning to cooking breakfast, driving your car, and even falling asleep.

Frequently, substantial effort has been devoted to determining how to increase the likelihood that, as students progress through school, they will acquire at least a mindset that they would use for critical and logical thinking along with a scientific temperament. To develop scientific thinking skill in students, we need to answer two questions- first, what is scientific thinking? And secondly, how can it be taught?

What is Scientific Thinking?

Scientific thinking is a particular form of human problem-solving that involves mental representations of hypotheses or conspiracy theories about the structure and processes of the natural world and various methods of inquiry used to determine the extent to which those hypotheses are consistent with phenomena. Basically, scientific thinking in simple terms is to think beyond the explanation that has been given regarding a certain topic. To ask questions of why? how? What if? etc. based on that certain topic apart from merely accepting the explanation that has been provided. There is a process of evaluating the evidence in scientific thinking.

Whether your child is a preteen or a toddler, she has a natural tendency to seek out reasons for the various mysteries of life that she comes across. Your child’s scientific temper is directly related to the environment she is in and the company she keeps. Therefore, your parenting style has a lot to offer towards the development of scientific temper in your child. There are a few ideas to nurture your child with which they can develop a scientific temper with evidence-based curiosity for anything happening around them.

Now we know why scientific temper and its development is necessary in a child but now let us understand how to develop the scientific temper in the students –

How to develop a Scientific Temper?

A pro-science home will encourage your child to make the most of his inquiring mind.

Here are a few tips like, encourage them to ask more questions and seek out answers on their own. Whenever they come to you for any questions, direct them to reliable sources like the encyclopedia or the dictionaries instead of directly giving them access to “google” or “Alexa”. Also, you can encourage them to watch more of scientific shows on the TV instead of only entertainment all the time.

Develop their critical and logical thinking skills to upgrade their IQ level.

Your child needs to use her reasoning and ask questions like, ‘Why is this happening?’ or ‘Is this the right way to respond?’ or ‘Who said this? Can I trust this instruction? Also, Do not hinder your child’s willingness to test so-called established ideas. One more thing to keep in mind is that never halt your child’s evaluation processes by saying ‘because I said so’. Instead encourage them to ask, ‘How do I know if this is true?’ or ‘How can I be sure?’. Another thing to do is teach your child the logical sequence of science. General principles can create specific instances like how the laws of gravity works. How physics work in real life. This will make them develop an interest right from the early ages.

Steer your child away from finding answers on the internet –

When your child will google their queries directly on the internet and get the answer their mind will not do any thinking. No brainstorming will be done and as a result, the children won’t develop any logical or scientific thinking skills. They need that ‘brain exercise’ to open up their minds and for that always encourage them to find the answers from alternative sources other than google.

Your child will use her knowledge with ease as you explore things together. Have discussions with them. To develop a scientific temper and encourage more and more young is what should be our motive and to ensure the same SFS Guwahati has always been engaged in continuous efforts to impart quality education and with the very same motive DIEP (Desalite Integrated Exam Prep) has been introduced for the students, an integrated coaching program that would be helpful for the students and enable developing the scientific approach to their thought processes. Hope this blog was helpful enough to let you develop that scientific thinking skills within your children. Nevertheless, in a world that is replete with misinformation, uncertainty, and flux, your child needs to be unreservedly reliant on his scientific temperament. This is a strength that will equip him to be an invaluable citizen of the world, regardless of the career path he chooses to embark on.

About SFS School, Guwahati

SFS Guwahati is one of the best Private CBSE School in Guwahati with Integrated Coaching, awarded with the “Certificate of Excellence” by Bharat Shiksha Puraskar and Ranked №24 across India for “Mental Health” Ranking 2021.