#modern life is weird

[nadzhosny2]

The Rantings of an Old Soul

Does anyone else feel as if they were born in the wrong era? I do. Constantly. My ways of viewing aspects of life are so categorically different from how society views them, that I feel as if I've been plucked from the past and slammed into the present with no recollection of how I got here. So being the nerd that I am, I decided to do some research into this and see if there is any coherent explanation for it.

Thankfully there was. The term for this feeling is ‘historical nostalgia or vicarious nostalgia’.

Whatever else you can change about your life, one thing you can’t do anything about is the time. If you don’t like where you live, you can move — if you don’t like when you live, well, tough shit.

Complaints about being born in the wrong era come up a lot online, often in the context of decrying modern culture and yearning for bygone days. Whether it’s memes about being misunderstood, lambasting other “kids of today” spending all their time on their phones or endless YouTube comments on Nirvana and Queen videos written by teenagers complaining that music today is bullshit, it’s a common yearning. Also if you don’t know who those two bands are, I am SERIOUSLY judging your music taste and you need to update your playlists IMMEDIATELY.

It should go without saying that almost any one of us, transported back even a few decades, would find the past to be unimaginably awful. Living in the Swinging Sixties or the Roaring Twenties probably sounds awesome — hello flappers and tie-dye shirts! — but it mostly just means foregoing the benefits of a huge amount of life-improving technological and medical breakthroughs as well as civil and women’s rights. You don’t have to go back that far for things to become utterly dire: Life expectancy among the middle classes in Victorian Britain (i.e., the 19th century) was just 45!

The sad thing about this though is that versions of a time period we didn’t live through are often idealised or romanticised, images of a simpler time, before tech dominated our lives, seem to show that people were happier then. Such periods are usually shown in film or other art forms in biased versions by avoiding the unpleasant, even painful, aspects.

But syphilis, tooth decay and dead-before-middle-age thing from the flu aren’t what people fantasise about, of course: It’s the dream of experiencing cultural milestones firsthand, even though the reality is that most people only become aware of the cultural significance of a moment many years later — just try asking the average Italian peasant how enlightened they felt while the Renaissance was actually happening. While Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael and Leonardo were busy creating their masterpieces of art, they wouldn’t come to prominence or even be unveiled until several years later. Also if you thought these people were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you need to be hit on the head. With a chair. Shame on you.

Putting all of this aside though, there are some things that used to be so powerful in the past that have utterly lost meaning in today’s world: language, art, music, love, marriage, MANNERS.

As a massive lover of Shakespeare and Homer (no, not Homer Simpson, because sadly that’s the first thing that will pop into people’s minds *HUGE eyeroll*), I developed a love for the older English language; a language that wasn’t spoiled by slang or oversimplified ways of speaking, that spoke in ways that resonated with your soul, using words that perfectly described a situation or a feeling. The language people use now is mostly sullied with cuss words or smut.

The language used to be dignified and elegant, Shakespeare’s sonnets are the prime example of this. The language flows beautifully and while it is drastically different from the way we speak today, the meaning behind the words is powerful. People just don’t talk this way anymore and it's a true loss. With all the trends and challenges that are flying around these days, is it too much to ask to have an Old English trend? Sigh.

Instrumental and classical music is something else that is missing from today’s world that used to be revered in the past. The works of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Chopin have been forgotten and shoved aside in vinyl records somewhere, collecting dust in favour of Ariana, Beyonce, Drake and Post Malone. I remember the first time I ever heard a piece of classical music; I was 13 years old and was visiting a friend at her house, her father had an enormous collection of vinyl records that he had been gathering for 30 years, which he kept in pristine condition in a shelf mounted on the living room wall. His record player, a large, old-fashioned brass gramophone (the man was committed) was in the corner of the room and the most exquisite violin music was playing. I remember just sitting down, right there in the middle of the room, facing the gramophone and listening as the music washed over me, giving me goosebumps as it vibrated through my body. I sat there, not moving a muscle, until the song ended and then dashed to the gramophone to pick up the record sleeve next to it to see which song it was. That was the first time I had ever heard ‘Concerto in Two Violins’ by Bach.

After that day I was hooked, I went down the rabbit hole and started listening to all the classical composers I could find. Fortunately for me, YouTube had an abundance of videos of orchestras from all over the world that were playing the music. As I grew older I found Yanni, a Greek/American composer and pianist who was bringing instrumental music back to the modern world with his concerts all over the globe. His song ‘Nostalgia’ has such a haunting rhythm which is just breathtaking that I always listen to it with my eyes closed.

Just recently I found a duo called 2CELLOS who were doing instrumental versions of modern songs. The blending of the past and the present was so perfect that it was hard to believe and brought me such incomprehensible amounts of joy. Now don’t get me wrong, I'm not decrying today’s music, I'm an avid listener of all genres but there is just a magnificent beauty in the classics and the way it reverberates through the soul that is unmatched.

Finally, the aspect of life that has been butchered the most by modern society is love. “I love you” is a phrase many people tend to throw out into the world, without realising its full impact and repercussions associated with it. The society we live in today loves love, just for the sole idea of it. We lust for the idea of being head over heels in love, so maybe that is why it seems to slip through our tongues so easily. Media exploits love in the sense that it is used as a patch-up for when the going gets tough, used as a way to have someone finally commit fully to you, and has begun to underlie lies and most shamefully, it gets someone into bed. Maybe this is just my perception, but it seems to me that emotions are muted, and are shown through materialistic things rather than our faces. We would rather buy someone a bear over writing love letters or poems.

A love letter was the main way men and women expressed their romantic feelings for each other back in the 19th century. To put all their emotions down on paper, pouring their hearts out so that the others would understand how deeply they felt about them. Something to be cherished and reread over and over until it's dog-eared and ragged. A physical reminder of the love the other had for them.

What happened to courtship? To developing a deep bond to ensure the relationship has a clearly defined direction and it’s going just the right way. When prioritising the mental connection over anything else by getting to know each other, thereby capitalising on emotions was the main reason people got together. How all of this has been twisted in today’s world.

Today’s world is infinitely better in significant ways than it was in the past, there can be no doubt about that. It just needs to remember. These are perils of being an old soul stuck in a modern time that baffles her.

[mxrtified777]

unfortunately i got sick right before the weekend, so now my freetime that would normally be poured into creating art is being used for sleeping and being angry at God; i did manage to scribble out a revised outfit design for MH ryou, though. guy that looks like he volunteers at the library every week

[natjennie]

julian describing himself as a "former politician, brackets, disgraced" is maybe the funniest line of the show

[horse-head-farms]

au where hypno is a demon!

the human xb summons him not to sell his soul but with a business deal, see, demonic deals work that its a soul in exchange for whatever you want, not necessarily your own soul, but a soul. hypno cannot interact with people except his summoner, but xb can run a business where he asks for “harmless” IOUs from people, getting them to sign a piece of paper which is actually a contract for possession of your soul. since xb is a regular human, it would mean nothing, but with hypno’s help it’s magically binding and they enter a mutually beneficial deal where hypno gets a ridiculous amount of souls and xb is given what he wants by hypno.

their partnership starts off solely as a business one, but as time goes on, they grow closer and also begin to care about the business that was just supposed to be a front for them to gain souls, and once xb gets the power and wealth he originally wanted, they focus their efforts on growing Horsehead Farms as a company. they advertise themselves as a “safer” alternative than dealing directly with demons, giving people whatever they want in exchange for an IOU - not a real soul (it is their real soul, but they don’t tell them that). they manage to become a major competitor to all of hell. since it has a human head of the company, people assume it is more trustworthy. xb and hypno engage in all sorts of evil capitalistic ventures

eventually hypno gets kicked out of hell, a feat no-one thought possible, for ruining every other demons’ livelihood, and is reincarnated into a regular human. xb is investigated by officials due to the scammy and dangerous nature of Horsehead Farms, and in an epic car chase where xb tries to escape, he crashes and dies. for all the human lives he’s ruined by stealing souls, he is sent to hell and becomes a demon. they find eachother, and seeing how there’s still one human and one demon overall, they see no reason to not start their business again

[blujayonthewing]

[rustchild]

not to do discourse or anything. but one of the things that is very funny to me about the whole "soft fantasy escapism world with no homophobia" trend is that they all wind up looking the same, while books that genuinely seriously engage with the ways in which queer people respond to repression are more likely to go in wildly divergent specific directions. The response to stories that uncritically replicated modern models of homophobia in settings where they made no sense was to uncritically replicate models of queer 'normalcy' in settings where they make no sense. whereas actually engaging with the nuances of living in those systems gives you access to the wide variety of specific experience that exists in real life. something here also about how writers in the imperial core attempt to imagine a world without the colonial spread of homophobia as a tool of empire but don't actually know anything about the diversity of sexual and gender structures that exists in pre-, post-, and noncolonial communities. and so have a thing that their settings Aren't, but not a thing that they Are

[anothermonikan]

feeling very objectum tonight. hello objectums. I love you

[boinky-spoinky]

⭐️ Art Trade with the lovely @cupiidzbow + with an animated heart GIF! ⭐️

[daveyfvckingjacobs]

*stumbles back to this app blinking like I’ve been hibernating for months and have forgotten what the outside looks like* sup

[emissary-of-the-moon]

Link: where's the butter

Zelda: in the fridge

Link: tf you mean in the fridge i ment the butter for bread

Zelda: the only other butter i have is in the freezer

Link: how the hell are you going to butter bread if the butter is frozen???

Zelda: where do you keep your butter??

Link: ON THE COUNTER?? LIKE A NORMAL PERSON?? SO ITS SOFT AND READY YO USE??

Zelda: well sorry i dont make toast or have a need for soft butter regularly

Link: this is wrong in so many ways

Link: Midna, your girlfriend is a psychopath

Zelda: Link. Get the hell out of my house

*not shown: midna trying not to laugh*

[shijoco]

She’s a brick

House

[sqlmn]

by the power of modern day AU, I am delighted to announce that Fulj can have a girlfriend ! I haven't named her yet but have a few in mind so ... soon (TM). She is the one that she loved in canon before the whole memory wipe and as you can see, penchant for black, black hair, brown eyes, and prone to weird statements. Perfect balance to Deacon's weird questions.

HOWEVER ! I mentioned the problem of Deacon still having facial blindness to someone and how there is no glow from the deities for him to identify them. And her solution is the funniest thing ever so I have to do it. He identifies people by smell. So when he is in the same room as Ymber and Oh when they first cross paths, he doesn't really think about it. But later when he sees Ymber alone and gets the same kinda scent, same cologne or something, he knows that's not the taller guy therefore that's his scent ! Perfect!

So... unfortunately.... Deacon really can't beat the weirdness allegations in AUs...... he's stuck like that. Fulj has referred to him as a guard dog in canon and now he's a tracking dog. RIP to him.

(and because Deacon gets my facial blindness I am giving Fulj's girlfriend ANOTHER trait of mine I wouldn't wish on anyone because it's also really funny. She can't smell. She can taste ! She just can't smell. So she loves talking to Deacon because he explains smells as foods for her to get the vibe across. Which are REALLY weird conversations no one else wants to hear.)

[strawberryspiced]

Sometimes it takes sadness to know happiness, noise to appreciate silence, and absence to value presence...

[palmtreepalmtree]

"A pleasure to e-meet you!" is hands down the weirdest thing I type on a regular basis.

[thehappiestgolucky]

this is either a guide for me, a guide for followers - or me trying to work out what variant i doodle for what

either way monk is always fun to draw and i love them dearly

[alienerad]

I was on the toilet, half-asleep after midnight. After I peed, I wanted to flush and turn off the light. But then I pressed the lamp button to flush and the flush button to turn off the lamp. At that point, the toilet absorbed all the light as if it were water, and the lamp threw water all over the bathroom, so it’s now really white, and I’m just wet.