#multivalent

[cytgen]

Abstract In this experiment the development of the various chromosomal interchanges in Sowa (Anethum graveolens L.) was accomplished with the help of Gamma irradiations. The pollen mother cells of Anethum graveolens were observed to be perfectly normal in untreated plants and displayed a regular formation of eleven bivalents at diakinesis, followed by normal separation (11:11) at anaphase I. Cytological manifestation of chromosome configurations at diakinesis and metaphase-I exhibited translocation heterozygotes by the formation of either ring or chain of chromosomes in PMCs of Sowa, particularly at higher doses of Gamma irradiation (200 Gy). The translocation lines showed discernible prevalence of rings (56.58%) over chains (43.42%). In chromosomal configuration, PMCs of Irradiated plants, shows the presence of minimum one or more quadrivalent and bivalents, besides this, some PMCs showed other configurations such as trivalents, pentavalents, hexavalent, and octavalent along with variable number of univalents. At diakinesis, stage of PMCs, 2III + 1IX + 2IV + 1II + 1I configuration was observed in maximum (12.88%) followed by 6II + 1IV + 1V + 1I (12.37%) and 1VII + 1V + 2IV + 2I (11.85%). The configuration 1X + 2IV + 2II showed the lowest (5.15%) frequency. However, a variety of anomalies such as unequal separation (34.93%), laggards (21.91%) and bridges (12.32%) were also recorded. Pollen fertility was reduced (41.21 ± 0.19%) in translocation lines as comparison to control plant (98.59 ± 0.25%). Translocation heterozygotes might be used as an initial foundation for developing aneuploids with novel gene combinations.

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

yes yes there's a lot of Fitzjames and Jopson in here but also we cannot deny that Sophia Cracroft is haunting the FUCK out of this playlist

LIKE HE'S REALLY NOT OVER HER HUH

[amrv-5]

Sorry to vaguepost but noticing trend driving me insane. Instead of describing people’s features as objectively unattractive / as negative in relation to a standard (as though there is any valid or objective standard of attractiveness) and applauding yourself for finding that combination attractive Despite your assertion that their features are noticeably ugly / undesirable, I recommend trying to re-approach that thought at the angle that any features can be and are attractive for themselves. “He’s hot despite the fact he’s got a weird nose / double chin / unmuscular build” <- bad take, implies existence of or at least acceptance of the idea of a Correct, Objective, Most Attractive Way To Have A Body, and that these traits are Obviously agreed-upon to be Undesirable or Weird—that they are the markers of “average, unhot people” who can “still” be attractive despite not living up to the Usual Standard. “His big nose / double chin / unmuscular build are attractive/sexy” <- better, rejects categorically the idea of a Standard of Objective Attractiveness (which traits or features are defined in relation to, even when describing an appreciation for), focuses attention on attractive features for themselves, not reifying the Standard by contrasting against it

[thesilicontribesman]

Danebury Iron Age Hillfort, Hampshire

[lepertamar]

i’ve made more highlights in this chapter than maybe any other chapter other than ‘choking’ L M A O

[cavedweller1st]

i need help with my science hw its naming polyatomic compounds and ions COMPOUNDS ---------------- iron (II) sulfate [the (II) is roman numerals] would the roman numeral be the charge? [e.x of what i normally do when there is no roman numeral] lithium nitrate = LiNO₃ [thats a small 3] IONS ------ nickel (III) sulfate once again asking the same question... [e.x of what i normally do when there is no roman numeral]

sodium chromate = Na₂CrO₄

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

Not so long ago, Tennessee was not merely a more bipartisan state but a model of bipartisanship, an example to others. Keel Hunt, a columnist for the Tennessean newspaper (and a Democrat who once worked for a Republican governor, Lamar Alexander), wrote a book about the 1980s and ’90s, an era when moderate Democrats and liberal Republicans ruled the state; when Tennessee sent Alexander, Howard Baker, Al Gore, and Jim Sasser to the U.S. Senate; and when many of the decisions that paved the way for Tennessee’s current investment boom were made. The book is called Crossing the Aisle: How Bipartisanship Brought Tennessee to the Twenty-First Century and Could Save America. So much has changed since then, Hunt told me, that the book “might now qualify as an obituary.”

I think that most of the center-left's horror at what is happening to the right of the aisle is well founded, insofar as right wing people, en masse, have clearly gone insane.

However, and I say things to this effect regularly to the many leftists I know in my embodied life, their bewilderment astonishes me. They genuinely have no idea, or at least very consistently and adamantly profess to have no idea, what has gotten into the Right to make them act this way. They really seem to think on a fundamental level this is coming out of nowhere. They don't display the slightest impulse to reflect on why it might be that the Right seems so angry and so hard to work with. Usually when pressed they can offer explanations that I think are accurate, but this knowledge clearly makes no actual impression on the pillars of their mental universe. They continue to behave instinctively as though this has all essentially come from nowhere.

I would respect them more if they could be honest--for example, they could say transgenderism and its associated gender ideology, to pick one issue, is here to stay, and anyone who thinks otherwise is no longer in the boundaries of civil society, and we have no interest in compromising with them on this issue. But even this would have to admit that the terms for admittance to civil society shifted. They demonstrate no capacity for this level of reflection, it seems beyond them even to notice that things have shifted dramatically in the last ten to twenty years.

[thetendertongue]

multivalence — the quality or state of having many values, meanings, or appeals

[infamousmonkey-cat]

there are a couple of people in the s*verance fandom On Here who keep making posts about how “the show has told us again and again that innies and outies are the same person” and being rude and patronising about other readings and like ??? when tf did the show ever say anything that definitive and lacking in nuance?? like whether they’re the same person or not is one of the core questions at the heart of the show and the ambiguity is one of the most interesting things about it why are you like this

remember when i said i should stop engaging with fandom. well. progress is not linear

[wellofdean]

Peer review! And from all my tumblr faves! Thanks, fellas. Love your blogs so much. xx and like, boop.

@ilarual : #seconding ALL of the above^^#queer theory + queering a text is VERY MUCH about SO much more than just ''is there a character who explicitly expresses a queer identity''#(though to be clear even by that narrow definition SPN would still VERY much fit the bill)#(given that NUMEROUS major characters are explicitly and canonically queer)#but more relevantly: as OP so well outlined queering something is very much about the process of interrogating normative ideas#about interrogating and transgressing boundaries that the cisheteropatriarchy draws around How Things Work#I remember reading an absolutely fascinating academic essay about queering *time*#(for instance)#which was a reflection on how cishet expectations about the timetable on which we're supposed to meet certain life milestones#is queered by the experiences of queer individuals who may experience these milestones much later or much earlier#because of the unique experiences of queerness#and how that very act of interrogating the expectation of a certain middle class life timeline is a queer act#*even if* the interrogator is not themselves a queer person#like that is the kind of analysis that queer theory is really about#and in that regard SPN has been a deeply deeply DEEPLY queer text from the literal second Dean busted into Sam and Jess's bedroom#the proverbial Outsider intruding on Sam's heteronormative domesticity to disrupt the expected flow of his normative college boy life#spn

@ironworked : #queer includes gender/sexual/romantic orientations or identities or expressions that fall outside of societal norms#and it applies to individuals as well as couples and groups#so queer is about lesbians and about gnc individuals and about poly relationships and about ace/aro folks and queerplatonic relationships#myriads!!#so... I mean... before we even get into romance or attraction SPN had things to say about expressions of masculinity for example#as well as about the white picket fence apple pie life versus hunting. versus life on the road#that sounds pretty damn queer to me#also wrt A Plan to write a queer story... Kripke's famous 5 year plan was a few sentences on a napkin (paraphrasing)#they knew some stuff they wanted to do but like OP says a lot of it they built to take into account... everything#chemistry between the actors and audience reaction and actor availability and changing trends in the industry and writer preference etc#and again like OP says somehow *wink wink* they chose the queerest path again and again and again#that's not an accident#Tv: Supernatural#long post

@luckshiptoshore : #wellofdean is a SCHOLAR#this is so so so good#and is also kinda queer theory 101 for anyone interested in it as a concept#queernatural

I read your post about Supernatural being queer somehow from season 1 and I have two questions.

1. Don't you think it straight-appropriates the word "queer" to say it just means "not normal"? That argument seems disingenuous to me, and a lot of us want representation, and to see that word applied to explicit depiction of queer sexuality, and it's a cheat that they don't. Queer studies did start as the study of queer sexualities and the experience of queer people.

2. Are you saying that the makers of Supernatural intended for it to be "flesh on queer bones"? Do you think they intentionally sat down to tell a queer story?

Those are good questions my anonymous friend. Thank you for asking. Here are my thoughts:

To answer your first question: no, I don't think it appropriates anything. Here's why: firstly, if we're talking about sexuality and gender, it's queer 101 that no one owes anyone a justification of their queerness, and not everyone who is queer is interested in labeling it or making it legible to you, and they have no obligation to do so, and not doing so doesn't make them any less queer. Furthermore, some people who are queer are not interested in sex, so what about them?

All of that together is why, for me, the entire queer project is much more deeply about non-compliance with hegemony, and specifically with hegemony around gender roles, sexuality and to put it under a big umbrella, patriarchy, than it is about who you fuck. Those things extend into so many other aspects of life that I think you can easily talk about "queering" a very wide range of topics, and possibly? ANY TOPIC.

You are responding to this post, I think, and in it, I made a choice to talk about family and hunting, and our heroes roles and characterizations in that, and did not talk about gender shenanigans or sexuality, because my point was that even before we get to anything to do with it, Sam and Dean are immersed in a queered world in a fundamental, structural way. That said, I assure you that if you go back into season 1 of Supernatural, you will find LOADS that could be said about gender and sexuality, too. As well as other things, and a particularly important area, as @ironworked pointed out in the tags, is blue collar/white collar class issues.

As I said, the depth of queerness in Supernatural is actually dizzying just in terms of the story's BONES to say nothing of how they flesh it out. Queerness is about deviation from the norm. It's about rebellion and disobedience against hegemonic systems for the sake of personal authenticity and love.

Think about Cas for a minute. Cas's whole story is that he rejects his role in a hegemonic heaven. He rebels for love, and that is pretty explicit as early as season 4 when he tells Dean "We're making it up as we go". Fellas, that is THE QUEEREST SHIT EVER even if he didn't do it for Dean, and like... HE DID IT FOR DEAN. Cas did not have to tell Dean he loved him for me to know it, and for Cas to be a deeply queered character. When he DID say it, I wasn't the least bit surprised he was in love with Dean, because seriously, we been knew. I was only surprised I got to have the immense pleasure of hearing him say it and looking at Dean's face while he took it in. Jesus. I will NEVER RECOVER.

This is my perspective on representation in Supernatural: It's excellent, and I relate to, and feel seen by it as a queer person. Nobody needs to get fucked on the maps table for me to do the math that this is a queer story. It is very, very, very thoroughgoingly canonically queer in so many ways, and not all of them are to do with sex. I think some fans will only allow it to be called queer if dudes make out in it. I am not one of those fans.

As to your second question, I think there is a wealth of evidence in the filmic oeuvre of Eric Kripke to suggest that as an artist and a writer, he is concerned or maybe even preoccupied with masculinity issues and issues around family, and around the way patriarchy fucks men up. So, yes. I think he knew what he was doing and he knew that queerness was part of the mix. For fucks sake, it's a family of men who hunt monsters. That is very fucking on the nose. Do I think he kicked off Supernatural in 2005 planning a 15 year operatic queer romance between Cas and Dean? No. I don't think anyone planned for it to go as long as it did, and it's a matter of record that some things were influenced by fan response, actors' chemistry, different writers and showrunners' preferences and etc. What I will say is that when they had a choice to "straighten shit out" or lean into the queerness, they fucking leaned in, nearly EVERY TIME. Like, it's pretty amazing how consistently they lean the fuck in.

I'll admit -- I wasn't watching it with those eyes the first time, and I didn't give it much real estate in my mind when I watched it as it aired from 2006 to the end, but the last three episodes reshaped it for me and made me angry, and also made me need to watch it all again, this time with an explicitly queer lens, and BOY HOWDY let me tell you this: the Supernatch rewatch journey is a wild and wonderful trip to Queertown. It is legit more difficult to argue that Dean is straight than it is to argue that he is queer. There is a full on CORNUCOPIA of story evidence to support that read and relatively little that convincingly counters it on the straight side, and that starts right at the beginning, when they bend pretty baby Dean over a police car in episode one, and he smirks insouciantly in his lip gloss. Do I think everyone involved knew how that looked? Sexy, submissive and a bit gay?

YES I DO.

[jessicalprice]

I think the thing that most Christian atheists who are rebelling against authoritarian Christian backgrounds don't get is why Jews remain Jewish.

Like, I get it, you engaged in your practices because you were told that God would punish you if you didn't, because you're told you're supposed to fear God.

(Incidentally, we don't even use the same language about this. The term that gets translated in most English bibles as "fear" is, like many classical Hebrew words, a lot more multivalent than the English term, and has more of a connotation of "awe." (See, for example, the Gilgamesh dream sequence: "Why am I trembling? No god passed this way." A god is something in whose wake one trembles.) It's what one feels when one is faced with something bigger than oneself, something overwhelming. For some people that may be fear of being harmed. For others it may be wonder or even ecstasy, standing outside oneself.)

But in 2023, Jews have the option (and, indeed, still the cultural pressure) to completely abandon Judaism. Very easily. We can, in fact, do it quite passively. If we're not actively trying to engage with it, it will very much drift away from us.

And it's not fear of divine punishment keeping most of us engaged.

The thing is, if you proved to me tomorrow that God doesn't exist, I'm not sure anything about my life or my practice would change. (I'm already agnostic, so *shrug*. I don't believe in a God-person. Sometimes I believe in a unity to reality, a life and a direction to it. Sometimes I don't. I just don't have the arrogance to think I understand definitively the way the universe does or doesn't work.) I still would celebrate Shabbat, I still wouldn't eat pork, I still would have a mezuzah on my doorway.

I do all that stuff because I'm Jewish, not because I think God will get mad if I don't. I do all that stuff because it's part of a cultural system that I see as wise and life-giving and therapeutic and worth maintaining.

And the thing is, the cultural system that Christian antitheists want us to assimilate into, under the guise of "getting rid of religion", is very much a white Protestant culture. It's not culturally neutral. It has practices, and it has a particular worldview, and it has cultural norms that are just as irrational as any other culture's.

It's also very telling that Christian antitheists purport to be harmed by Jews continuing to be Jewish. Why? We don't impose our norms on anyone else, and we overwhelmingly vote (and organize, and engage in activism) against the imposition of Christian "religious" norms, such as the curtailing of reproductive freedom, blue laws, etc.

So you're only "harmed" by our continued existence in the same way Christians purport to be harmed by it: by claiming that the very existence of a group that doesn't share your worldview and practices is somehow an act of oppression against you.

Which is, you know, white supremacist logic.

You're still upholding the logic of Jesus's genocidal, colonial Great Commission even though you supposedly don't believe in the god that ordered it anymore.

That's gotta be one of the saddest things I encounter among my fellow humans.

You took down all the crosses in the church of your mind and chucked them out the window, but you still refuse to step foot outside the church building, contenting yourself with claiming it's not a church, and firing out the windows at the synagogue and mosque down the road, the same way you used to.

[thesilicontribesman]

Danebury Iron Age Hillfort, Hampshire

[maxknightley]

Which Touhou Girls Can You Plausibly Read As Butch? A Comprehensive Overview

Earlier on Tumblr I saw a post complaining that someone called Hecatia Lapislazuli from Touhou Project butch. This is Hecatia Lapislazuli:

Obviously, like most Touhou characters, she is in fact quite feminine - she just shops at Hell Hot Topic. But it got me thinking: In a series like Touhou, with a cast overwhelmingly defined by feminine (if rowdy) ladies, how many characters could you say are 'butch' without sounding like a complete doofus or significantly redesigning them to fit your headcanon?

CRITERIA

I'll be using four main criteria to judge characters' butchness. In real life, of course, butchness is a multivalent and extremely personal thing, but I'm talking about funny cartoon women from a video game here, so I'm willing to be a little reductive.

These criteria, in order of descending importance, are:

FASHION. In a series where goddamn near everyone is in either a dress or a skirt, the mere act of Wearing A Dress Shirt can be enough to make a powerful statement. Hats may also play a role here, given how many Touhou characters have gay little hats.

HAIRSTYLE. Short hair is not the be-all and end-all of butchness. I, myself, am Decidedly Butch even though I've been growing out my hair since college. But the length and styling of the hair are still a valuable indicator of how someone thinks of themself and wants to be seen.

'TUDE. Could this character be accurately described as "kind of a frat boy?" How do they speak to others? Do they just kind of seem like a character who ought to be butch, regardless of their looks? Do they even lift?

COMEDY FACTOR. Self-explanatory. This will probably only come into play if I run into a weird edge case.

I'll also emphasize that we're grading on a curve here - butchness is being assessed relative to the characters who do not appear on this list. Nobody in this series has a buzzcut, you know what I mean?

THE TIER LIST

AS CLOSE TO CANON AS WE'LL GET

Fujiwara no Mokou. The girl wears a dress shirt, fucking suspenders, and trousers. Not shorts, actual full-length pants. She's also in a perpetual love-hate mutual-murder situationship with Princess Kaguya, who is femme as all fuck. Obviously you don't have to be butch to date a femme - I'm just saying it feels Fitting given their whole deal.

Yuugi Hoshiguma. Most of the time, her fashion sense is actually quite feminine - but her look in the most recent chapter of Cheating Detective Satori, with the one exposed shoulder and the sarashi and all that, significantly alters the balance. Her hair actually reads as more masc to me when she keeps it long and unruly - when she puts it up in a ponytail, she ends up looking very kempt, even elegant. The deciding factor here is 'Tude: Her sheer levels of butch swag are off the fucking charts. (Still, I wouldn't blame someone for arguing she should be knocked down a tier - especially since I'd argue the Comedy Factor works in reverse here. She's way funnier if she doesn't think of herself as butch in the slightest.)

Minamitsu Murasa. In his original appearance I'd argue that Murasa is in "Reasonable" tier - maybe even as low as "Kind of a Stretch." But her big gay Jotaro jacket in Sunken Fossil World, combined with the emphasis on the weightiness and solidity of his trademark anchor, put her over the top. One of the only Touhou girls I consider worthy of being He/Himmed.

Shinmyoumaru Sukuna. The other He/Him-worthy Touhou girl. Very short, slightly messy hair; wears a kimono, not a dress; inheritor of Issun-Boshi's legacy; wears fucking dinnerware as a hat. Why do you want to be Big so badly, huh? So you can pick up women more easily? So you can carry your awful wife through the upside-down threshold of your upside-down bedroom?

Raiko Horikawa. For the longest time I thought her skirt was a pair of shorts because I straight up could not parse it as anything else. Even now I'm like "that can't possibly be a skirt, ZUN just drew it weird. She has to be wearing a full two-piece suit." Skirt aside, her jacket/dress shirt/necktie are still undeniable, as is her short hair. Also, she is a taiko drum given life, and I feel like taiko and timpanis are naturally butch. Maybe if she was a tambourine or a set of bongos I'd rank her lower?

Momoyo Himemushi. Rough-talking miner. Wears a dress shirt, leaves the top button(?) undone. Tromps around a big weird cave with no shoes or socks on. Wears bows and bangles basically everywhere but in her messy, tangled hair. Also, maybe I'm stereotyping here, but I just can't picture a centipede as being femme.

REASONABLE

Wriggle Nightbug. The dress shirt, cape, and puffy shorts all paint a vivid picture, but I just feel like I don't have a strong enough opinion on Wriggle as a character to put her in the top tier. In other words, she's got plenty of points for Fashion and quite a few for Hairstyle, but I just don't think the 'Tude is sufficient for me.

Reisen Udongein Inaba. The skirts are a strike against her, but her whole "dress shirt + necktie + sometimes suit jacket" thing makes a big difference, especially given that we're grading on a curve. Her rumpled ears and (particularly in Inaba of the Moon, Inaba of the Earth) pathetic demeanor go a long way towards giving her a vibe somewhere between "overworked salaryman" and "Detective Columbo."

Aya Shameimaru. All you need to know about Aya is that her "human reporter" disguise looks like This:

Mononobe no Futo. Butch, but in a really weird, circuitous way, imo. Like. She's sort of wearing a dress, but it's sort of a robe - the contrast of the hemline with her big flowy sleeves makes it hard to pin down - and her outfit quite notably has tassels rather than any kind of frills. I don't know what the hell is up with her hat but it's definitely not femme by any stretch of the imagination. Then thou hast the wayes in which she speaketh all "faux-olde-timey," even though nobody else in the setting does that... she transferred her soul into a plate, but she also throws plates around as weapons... It's like she's constantly putting on a performance that only she truly understands. It's like she reverse-engineered "masculine womanhood" by hanging out with a bunch of queens and doing kind of the same thing but kind of the inverse. The more I think about Futo the more I think she's entirely on her own wavelength, but I think "Reasonable" tier is a... uh, reasonable... approximation for the sake of this post.

Sagume Kishin. She dresses like if Bill Nye were a woman, and I think that cuts to the heart of it - she reminds me of a professor who you're not ever sure is gay, but you kind of pick up on a vibe, and near the end of the semester she offhandedly refers to "her partner" and you're like HOLY SHIT I KNEW IT. I went back and forth between putting her in "Reasonable" and "Kind of a Stretch"; ultimately, the Comedy Factor decided it because I couldn't stop thinking about a scenario where she says she's a woman, accidentally upends her whole understanding of gender in the process, and ends up taking testosterone while still ID'ing as a lesbian. I don't actually know if her powers would work that way and I don't care.

KIND OF A STRETCH

Eiki Shiki. I don't have a lot to go on, here, because she hasn't had many official appearances and seems to spend most of her time lecturing people or tormenting sinners. Her uniform(?)/apothecary outfit(??) is pretty snazzy; combined with the hat, it gives her a vaguely "military officer" look to me. We'll call her "butch pending further investigation," which I think she would agree is the correct course of action.

Sekibanki. She's here partially because of the cape, and partially because being sandwiched between Wakasagihime and Kagerou makes her look way more masc by contrast. I know what I said.

Ringo. It's pretty much just the hat and the pants, though - as a butch woman who Loves Eating - I am also inclined to project my own experiences onto her.

Aunn Komano. She reads as more "tomboyish" than outright "butch" to me, what with her whole puppy-dog vibe, but at the same time... she's very much wearing shorts and the kind of goofy-looking button-up shirt that is central to my own wardrobe and the wardrobe of other butches in my life. I'm willing to count her.

Takane Yamashiro. A living testament to the power of small character design choices. I would never in a million years call Nitori butch, even with her gay little hat and all the pouches on her outfit - she just looks like a girl scout. Takane, though? Takane, with her little hair swoopy, and the fucking suitcase slung over her back, and her camo-print dress? I mean - ultimately it is still a dress, which is why I can't justify scoring her higher, but she's definitely chewing tobacco and riding around on an ATV on weekends.

Chiyari Tenkaijin. If she's butch, it's not really because she's trying to be butch, it's just because being femme seems too expensive and time-consuming. She's got better things to do (drink blood all day). Still, I think an argument could be made.

DEFINITELY A STRETCH, BUT I RESPECT IT

Renko Usami. ZUN is kind of inconsistent with how he draws her hat - sometimes it's more of a porkpie/fedora type thing, other times it's round-topped and looks a bit like Koishi's hat. To me, this is a crucial distinction. In a more general sense, I feel like Renko's outfit gets a little less plausibly-masc with each passing album, which says a lot about our society. Or her society, anyway, since she lives in the future. Still, the capelets and bowties...

Rinnosuke Morichika. I think it would be really funny if the only significant male character in Touhou wasn't actually even a dude. I'm not aware of any real textual support for this interpretation, though.

Shou Toramaru. Pretty much only on here because of the hair and because I think there's a certain je ne sais quoi to her whole deal of "she's not a real tiger, she's the idea of a tiger that pre-Meiji Japanese people came up with from secondhand accounts."

Seija Kijin. Not even remotely butch by any stretch of the imagination... But if she did consider herself butch, isn't that exactly what she'd want you to think?

POTENTIALLY NOTEWORTHY EXCLUSIONS

Cirno. "Tomboyish" is not the same thing as "butch," to me, especially if you exclusively wear dresses. Also, I'm not sure Cirno even knows what a lesbian is.

Saki Kurokoma. Not actually butch, just a horse girl. (And a horsegirl.)

Mike Goutokuji. Can't tell if she's wearing a skirt or shorts. She's got short hair, sure, but the whole "matching bell collar and wristbands that also have bells attached" thing makes her look more like a Very Online Trans Woman who just figured herself out and hasn't started hormones or bought any new clothes yet.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Reference saved in our archive

There's a plateau in covid vaccine efficacy. This is one reason why we need more multivalent vaccines targeting the latest-breaking strains.

[pmamtraveller]

CULT AND FESTIVALS OF DIONYSUS

Dionysus (Bacchus in Roman mythology) is the Greek god of wine, fertility, festivity, and ecstasy. He is a representation of two opposites, which is: joy and chaos. His cult consisted of ecstatic rituals known for music, dances, and wine consumption, which allowed one to be freed from the burdening societal norms.

1 City Dionysia

The City Dionysia (Great Dionysia) was the most prominent festival, held in Athens, usually during March or April. Celebrating the coming of spring and the grape harvest. It often presented dramatic contests, where tragedies and comedies would be featured, and marked the beginning of classical Greek theatre with works by playwrights Aeschylus and Euripides. The festival was a prestigious competition, usually judged by prominent citizens.

2 Rural Dionysia

The Rural Dionysia was a winter festival, largely observed in December. It was more of a local festival, connecting agricultural communities to the worship of Dionysus. The procession had a decorated phallos carried in it, which centred on fertility rites. Villagers would celebrate with wine and dances, praying to Dionysus for fertility and prosperity, emphasizing on the agricultural origins of the Dionysian cult.

3 Lenaia

The Lenaia was a winter festival in honor of Dionysus, held in January. It was an important festival for theatrical performances and took place within the city of Athens. This festival conducted dramatic contests, but it had greater emphasis on comedies through offering a platform for comic playwrights like Aristophanes showcasing the lighter side of the worship of Dionysus

4 Anthesteria

Anthesteria was a three-day feast (late February). It celebrated the new wine and appealed to the spirits of the dead. A great variety of rituals was performed: from opening casks of new wine to going out in procession to the tombs of the ancestors. On the second day, called Choes, people had drinking competitions, and there was playful revelry. The last day (Chytroi) was dedicated to the offerings and libation to the dead.

5 Thargelia

Thargelia was a May ceremony in honor of Apollo and Dionysus, marking the beginning of the harvest season. It had an element of purification rituals associated with it. The festival included sacrifices, offerings of first fruits, and the "scapegoat" ritual whereby two human figures, known as "pharmakoi," were sacrificed to purify the community.

The festivals of Dionysus, though very ancient, mark the multivalence of Greek religion, society, and culture. They were not simple religious rites but communal gatherings that fostered artistic expression, social cohesion, and an active celebration of life and nature.

[tanadrin]

I think premodern people's understanding of wolves, especially in Europe, hewed a lot closer to monstrous than you're suggesting, and werewolf folklore is informed by attitudes about nature, sure, but it's mostly about that monstrosity. Really it's about the monstrosity of antisocial violence, someone who looks human but is in fact dangerous and destructive. SFX costs do seem key to the move to humanoid werewolves, but also in modern times the wolf just isn't the monster it used to be.

not that we're bound by the traditional valence of the wolf as a symbol, but i think the premodern attitude toward wolves was pretty multivalent! for one, dogs exist, and wouldn't if at some times and places humans weren't willing to be pretty friendly to wolves. the wolf is a common traditional heraldic symbol, one that often connotes fierceness but also a certain nobility (like the lion, or eagle!). and while our society has many fewer pastoralists in it who might regard the wolf as their implacable foe, i think the symbolic resonance persists. after all, symbolic resonance isn't confined to things anybody has personal experience of or which even actually exist--the vampire is an incredibly potent symbol despite being 100% fictional.

and sure, like all good monsters, the werewolf isn't "really" about one thing. it's an indeterminate symbol, an idea that can be turned to many different sorts of stories, which is what makes it so interesting. and i think the wolf half of that duality being an actual wolf is just more interesting.