#netflix needs to be tarred and feathered

[mentallydatingahotcelebrity]

[daincrediblegg]

Is Lady Terror an original female character or, like, the human personification of the Terror ship? Like Doctor Who and Idris/Tardis?

OH MAN NONNIE! FUNNY YOU SAY THAT!!!

So yes. SHE IS an original female character... but as I originally conceived her she was, in part, a human personification of the ship.

because you see, I'm a whore about television shows. Sometimes I mix and match them for au's to fit my needs, even. And at around the time I re-watched the terror in the early months of this year and summarily got myself INTO this mess, I was also watching 1899, which everyone was pissed about netflix cancelling (and I completely understand why- just another on a whole laundry list of genuinely amazing shows that were not given what they were due- my personal grievance among the likes of The OA and Teenage Bounty Hunters... seriously it's such a shame), and that having a bit of a (spoilers) sci-fi twist in it got the gears turning for what the lady terror thing would actually become. It was just a nickname- one for the AI (and one that could conceivably be reader inserted) that ran the terror SPACE ship, and who happened to have the ability to pop into their alternative cryosleep victorian reality- and one that francis fell (and falls) in love with... again and again and again upon every loop on the ship.

But then I got Serious about the plot, and came up with some stuff that was even better in the context of the plain ol canon context, but the nickname stuck like feathers on tar (because in fairness it is a DAMN good nickname). But now divorced from its original context it still holds the same amount of weight for me- if not MORE than it ever did. Now it has a nasty and even sexist implication to the men who gave it to her (since she was originally designated to the HMS EREBUS, but over the course of the story ends up spending more and more time on Terror... so there you have it)... but also I think of all the things that Francis himself says a ship is to a man... and I think a lot also about how much of a "terror" that she herself is also by defying a lot of the rules that such an objectifying nickname might lay out for her (as so many of them tend to do). And it's just too bloody good and delicious to think about and I can't let it go for the life of me now 😂😂😂So there you have it. Lady Terror: Origins

[spookyoregon]

We're Just Here for the Cult Stuff

Oregon has a weird history with cults. While I wouldn't say Oregon is a cult haven, outside of the I5 corridor there are expanses of land and people value their privacy. Oregon is also extremely tolerant to different religions from, Christian denominations to New Age groups. This makes for a combination that can be rich in opportunity for people wanting to start their own religious movements.

Known Cults Let's get the most infamous out of the way: Rajneesh. Famous enough to have a Netflix documentary, the Rajneesh were lead by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who acting as a guru, preached free love and living in the moment. Buying property near Antelope, OR, over 7,000 people moved into the very small town, creating a divide between the new devotees and the "old timers" of the town. The Rajneesh have the morbid distinction of being the first bioterroists when the leaders of the movement were arrested after attempting to poison the population of The Dalles with Salmonella. Their reasoning was that they wanted county elections to go in their favor. Antelope still stands as a ghost town, now run by a paramilitary Christian group.

The Brides of Christ were centered in Corvallis, OR. Started by Franz Edmund Creffield in 1903, the cult drew in women of wealth who were enamoured by Creffield's charisma. He claimed to have a direct line to God and was seen as a Jesus figure by many of the women in the cult. Creffield had his way with many of the women in his congregration, garnering the ire of the husbands, fathers, and brothers of the women. They went so far as to tar and feather Creffield in 1904 but this did not deter him; what did was when he was arrested and sent to prison for adultery, at the time a crime in the State of Oregon. The church fell apart after Creffield was killed by the brother of a child bring he had planned to wed.

The Alleged The following have...a reputation within Southern Oregon as being cult-like, however everything I am about to listed is all ALLEGED cults in the area. There are first hand reports from individuals who were involved with these groups and many of them appear to follow the BITE Model (Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional Control) to keep their followers in the flock.

RV Saltshakers are an antiabortion group that practice street evangelism, but is mostly known in the area as protesting in front of Planned Parenthood. An article from the Rogue Free Press discuss how ex-member Gabriel Macias felt that he was brainwashed by the group. “Rules and regulations mean nothing to them,” Macias said. “They’ll push everything to the limit, just enough to get their message across. Now, when I was with them, they never talked about doing anything violent. It was just getting in people’s faces, yelling, screaming, harassing. Things like that.” Intimidation tactics and threats of eternal damnation were used to keep members inline. RV Saltshakers are still around, but activists have sprung up to counter the group, such as the RV Peppershakers.

Spirit Weavers are an all women's group in Cave Junction, OR. Focusing on holistic medicine, alternative practices, and handmade items, the group bills itself as a place where women can explore themselves and the nature around them. An exworker took to Reddit to write what she had experienced as a worker with Spirit Weavers: "We were told it wasn’t safe to leave the grounds of Spirit Weavers, that the people of the town were out to get us and only a few, pre-vetted stores and bakeries were safe to interact with. Most of us believed the leader and stayed on the grounds, which were gated and guarded “for our protection”. ... Worse than that was the mental toll- the leader and the people she sent to us to lead our work groups told us that were had been brainwashed by the “toxic world out there” and needed to stay at Spirit Weavers to undo the damage that had been done. They encouraged us to stop taking prescription meds. ...The mothers left their children unsupervised in the tents in the rain, took psychedelics, and danced around the bonfire literally all night."

Ashland is home to a growing "spiritual movement" called Twin Ray. Essentially, this group will sell you extremely high priced items and tinctures to help elevate you into your higher state. The leaders allege to be reincarnated from multiple past lives spanning eons. Perhaps most interestingly, they have a store front on the main street that intersects Ashland. An Ashlander going by Bee Kay has been documenting TwinRay for the past year.

sources: KOIN, State of Oregon, KGW8, Rogue Free Press

[majingojira]

Brief Review of Every Dinosaur/Prehistoric Documentary/Educational Short I’ve ever seen (1923-1996).

And thanks to a certain project, I’ve seen a LOT! 

Evolution (1923) - This is the oldest of the bunch, a silent film.  Mostly it uses modern animals to represent ancient forms, with a few statues and brief animated bits to fill things out. The only real highlight?  Seeing where some of the “film real” segment from Gigantis the Fire Monster comes from! 

Monsters from the Past (1923) - A short documentary with original stop motion (this was pre-The Lost World, so that’s to be expected).  Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, and Brontosaurus are the key creatures. Included as an extra on the second DVD release of The Lost World. 

Prehistoric Animals (1938) - Reuses footage from The Lost World (1925) for its prehistoric segments. This will not be the last time it happens. 

Prehistoric Times: The World Before Man (1952) - This thing is so quintessentially 1950s, it’s highly riff-able.  It uses a mix of paintings, sculptures and some live animals to represent prehistoric life.  

A World Is Born (1955) - Ya know what Fantasia needed?  Overbearing Narration! That’s it.  That’s what this documentary is.  I saw this thing rebroadcast in the 90s on the Disney Channel, believe it or not. 

The Animal World (1956) - Ray Harryhausen.  Willis O’Brian. Their stop motion segment is the ONLY notable part of this documentary.  This is also the only part that has seen some release in modern times, as a bonus feature on the DVD of The Black Scorpion.  

Prehistoric Animals of the Tar Pits (1956) - Black and white, but also quintessentially 50s and riff-able.  Aside from the bones, it shows some wooden models to represent the animals. 

Journey into Time (1960) - Fantasia this is not, but it TRIES to be.  Lord it tries.  Or, rather, there’s a Fantasia-adjacent thing elsewhere which does the same thing.  Has some unique choices for animals to represent, including showing Permian forms like Scutusaurus and Inostrancevia. 

Dem Dry Bones: Archaeology, Paleontology, Identification, and Preservation (1966) - This was a lucky find, it was on Youtube for half a second.  And not worth digging out, really.  Stuffy, dry, and mildly condescending.  It was still interesting looking at the dinosaur hall of the Smithsonian back in the 1950s. 

Dinosaurs - The Terrible Lizard (1970) - The stop motion here is pretty neat, if slow and plodding, it’s refreshing after all this crap. The puppets for many of these would later be re-used for The Land of the Lost.  Including Grumpy, Alice, and Spot. 

NOVA: The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs (1977) - Robert Bakker’s first appearance in a documentary.  HE HAS SUCH LONG HAIR!  Not bad, a little dry, with National Geographic titles.  It reminds me of 1990s documentaries, just so show how long it’s taken for various ideas to filter down.  Currently, it’s available on Archive.org. 

Dinosaurs: A First Film (1978) - The art style for this half-animated 70s abomination makes identifying various prehistoric animals almost impossible.  Almost painful to sit through. Stops with the Dinosaurs. 

Dinosaurs: The Age of the Terrible Lizards (1978) - Similar to the above, but available from Rifftrax, so much more watchable.  Also, it’s actually animated!

Dinosaur (1980) - Wil Vinton Claymation with Dinosaurs.  A few edits of this exist, the latter works a bit better, but the original is interesting to track down. Most of the edits are audio only, so you aren’t missing anything.  The dinosaur sin this are top notch for color and design.  They even have Corythosaurus and Tyrannosaurus not dragging their tails! 

Cosmos (1980) - the animated segment covering Evolution is still wonderful if only for the narration from Carl Sagan. 

The Age of Mammals (1981) - A follow up of sorts to Dinosaurs: The Age of Reptiles.  Decent stop motion if a little slow.  Decent variety for the time. 

64,000,000 Years Ago (1981) - A solid stop motion short film.  Still worth checking out for stop motion fans.  Available on Youtube legally! 

Dinosaurs: Fun, Facts, and Fantasy (1981) - Nostalgic for some, but aimed at a rather young audience.  Some interesting stop motion bits in here too... if awkward in that way British stop motion can be outside Aardman Studios. 

Reading Rainbow “Digging up Dinosaurs” (1983) - Definitely nostalgic for me.  Besides, it’s Reading Rainbow!  And opens with a clip from One Million Years B.C.!  What’s not to love?

Prehistoric Beast (1984) - One of the best stop motion shorts on this list.  Included because it INSPIRED a documentary from it.  Phil Tippett firing on all cylinders.  Well worth watching.  And he uploaded it on Youtube himself! 

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs (1985), More Dinosaurs (1985), Son of Dinosaur (1988),  Prehistoric World (1993) - Gary Owens and Eric Boardman have a series of documentaries on dinosaurs and prehistoric life.  The presenters are what really make these work. Colorful, fun, and yes, silly, these still hold a nostalgic gleam for people like me.  The last one has Dougal Dixon talk about his After Man speculations.  Fun times. 

Dinosaur! (1985) - Hosted by Christopher Reeve, this is one of the best documentaries of its time.  Reeves loved dinosaurs and was happy to work on this project with Phil Tippet behind the animation.  Covers a lot in its hour long format, and well worth watching.  Do you know how good this special was?  When Reeve died in 2004, the Discovery Channel (or similar station) re-aired this thing as a tribute.  It holds up that well! 

Tell Me Why: Pre-Historic Animals, Reptiles and Amphibians (1986) - This is something I had when I was a little kid.  Dry, straight forward, a “Video Babysitter” at it’s best. It consists of a narrator while looking at pictures of the Invicta Dinosaur Toys that were also on the poster. 

Dinosaurs! A Fun-Filled Trip Back in Time (1987) - Wil Vinton’s Dinosaurs! tied with a short setup/framing device with the kid from the Wonder Years involving a low-animation music video (this was the MTV age) and a guide through art from various dinosaur books from the 1950s through the 1980s.  Rather meh, but Wil Vinton is why we are here.  This was the only way to get Wil Vinton’s short back in the day, and is the version of the short shown in Museums like The Academy of Natural Sciences.  

Digging Dinosaurs (PBS-WHYY) (1988) - Something I managed to record of TV back in the day, though not much of it, about the uncovering and preparation of Avaceratops. Bone Dry. 

Maia: A Dinosaur Grows Up (1988) - A VHS version of the picture book, with narration and the whole spiel.  Actually not to bad for what it is, but it is what it is.  The art for that book is rather wonderful. 

Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives (1988) - David.  Attenburrough. Need I say more?  Not one of his best, but still wonderful. Hard to track down.  

Dinosaurs (1989) - From the Smithsonian Institute, one of the video followups sold in various museums (I have one from the Royal Tyrell, but haven’t been able to track it down).  Not great, but I’ve seen worse. 

Infinite Voyage: The Great Dinosaur Hunt (1989) - A rather dry documentary, but one I find extremely relaxing and calming.  Very nostalgic for me.  But still dry. 

Vestie Video Sitter: Dinosaurs (1989) - This is for babies. It hurt to watch. 

In November, 1990, Jurassic Park (novel) was released, and thus began the great shift. 

In Search of the Dragon: The Great Dinosaur Hunt of the Century (1991) - a.k.a. The Dinosaur Project, The Great Dinosaur Hunt, The Hunt for China’s Dinosaurs.  Edited into a 1 hour NOVA special from a nearly two hour documentary, all about the joint Canadian/Chinese Gobi Desert Expedition in the 1980s that gave us Mamenchisaurus among many other species.  With another stop in the Arctic for good measure.  Some good stop motion and pencil animation for Troodon round this one out. 

A&E’s Dinosuar! (1991) - There’s so many things named “Dinosaur” that I have to specify.  Hosted by Walter Cronkite, this is rather dry, but still entertaining documentary series has some nightmare-fuel puppet-work.  The ‘sad’ music gets caught in my head sometimes when I think about it.  It is 4 episodes long.  “The Tale of a Tooth”, “The Tale of a Bone”, “The Tale of an Egg”, and “The Tale of a Feather”

T. Rex: Exposed (1991) - a Nova Documentary on T. Rex.  Not too bad overall, focusing on the Wrankle Rex unearthing. Parts of it are available on Youtube, but not all of it.  

The Case of the Flying Dinosaur (1991) - the third in the “NOVA” 91 trilogy, this covers the bird-dinosaur connection as it was still contentious at the time. 

PBS’ The Dinosaurs! (1992) - A gold standard for documentaries on dinosaurs. The hand drawn animation with colored pencil style still hold up today. The narrator has a bit of an accent and pronounces “Dinosaur” oddly, but that is the only complaint I can really give. It has 4 episodes: “The Monsters Emerge”, “Flesh on the Bones”, “The Nature of the Beast”, “Death of the Dinosaurs.”

Muttaburrasaurus: Life in Gondwana (1993) - A half-hour short about dinosuars and mesozoic life in Australia. Solid stop motion animation. Australian Accents makes it fun to listen too.

NOVA: The Real Jurassic Park (1993) - Jeff Goldblum narrates this bit of scientists going on about “But what if we really did it?” Quite fun, lotta fun details the movies and even the books didn’t get into. My favorite bit had Robert Bakker talking to a game keeper at the Rockefeller Refuge in a Louisiana Cypress Swamp about what could happen if they kept a few dinosaur there (Edmontosaurus, Triceratops, and T. Rex).  Namely, he talks about housing ‘about a thousand” Edmontosaurs on the 86K acre facility, with 2 or 3 mated pairs of Rexes.  It’s fun getting numbers like that. 

Bill Nye the Science Guy “Dinosaurs” (1993) - BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL!  Not a bad kids entry for documentaries. Available from Netflix. 

Paleoworld (1994-1997) - Running originally for 4 years, and being revamps once along the way, this rather dry, “Zoom in on paleoart” style of documentary was a good holdover for bigger things, and covered some pretty niche topics.  Much of the later version has been uploaded to youtube. 

Dinosaur Digs: A Fossil Finders Tour (1994), Dinosaurs: Next Exit (1994) - These films hurt me.  They hurt me so much.  I’ve seen some painful things, but these are hour long tour advertisements for road trips with annoyingly earworms.  Available on youtube, but I ain’t linking anything! 

Eyewitness: Dinosaur (1994) - Not a bad documentary, but I still hold a grudge on it for replacing Wil Vinton’s work at my local museum! Still, it is narrated by Martin Sheen. The clip selection is wide and varied, but we’re still getting The Lost World (1925) footage. 

Planet of Life (1995) - This documentary series is rather dry, but boasts some interesting coverage of topics.  Though some of it’s conclusions regarding dinosaurs are... not great.  Still, the episode “Ancient Oceans” is a favorite of mine. 

Once Upon Australia (1995) - The bests stop motion documentary on Australia’s prehistory. Has some humor to is, and Australian fauna that it does cover is solid.  Though finding out how one of the animals is spelled, ( Ngapakaldia) drove me nuts for literally decades. 

Dinosaurs: Myths and Reality (1995) - Like a little more polished episode of Paleoworld, with a lighter-voiced narration, this covers common myths about dinosaurs. Overall, a Meh.  But it has a LOT of movie clips. Which makes sense given it was funded by the Disney Channel! 

The Ultimate Guide: T. Rex (1995) - The Ultimate Guide series of docs were overall rather solid, as was the Tyrannosaurus one.  Stop Motion animation along with puppets and some minor CG help round out the normal talking heads and skeleton mounts.  Along with a solid narrator, it has a real mood to it.  

The Magic School Bus “The Busasaurus” (1995) - The original Magic School Bus was a solid series, and their episode on Dinosaurs bucks trends even the reboot didn’t cover.  The core thrust here wasn’t just dinosaur information, but the idea that Dinosaurs were not Monsters, but animals.  And they conveyed it in a unique way.  

I may do more of these mini-reviews, but there are a LOT of documentaries post The Lost World: Jurassic Park that don’t have as much easy access.  Like, I’ve seen them, but digging out links/citing places to watch them is a lot harder. 

[camryndaytona]

The Last Wish

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski Series: The Witcher #.5 Published by Orbit on July 18, 2017 Genres: Fairy Tales & Folklore, Fantasy Format: eBook Pages: 320

Geralt of Rivia is a witcher. A cunning sorcerer. A merciless assassin. And a cold-blooded killer. His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good. . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth. For fans of the video game and the uninitiated alike, The Last Wish is the opening chapter of The Witcher series.Witcher collectionsThe Last WishSword of Destiny Translated from original Polish by Danusia Stok

Amazon The Book Depository Barnes & Noble Barnes and Noble Target If you purchase through these links, CamrynDaytona recieves a small commission.

Rating Report Plot

Characters

Writing

Cover

Enjoyment

Worldbuilding

Overall:

Like many people, I’ve recently started reading The Witcher books on account of how insanely good both the books and the Netflix show were. (I mean, I read it in January and I’m only just now getting around to reviewing it in JUNE, but hey, it’s been a YEAR okay?)

Overall, I did really like the book. It’s comprised of several short stories, which span decades (if you thought the timeline in the show was wonky, this is a whole new level). I’ll do a quick rundown of all the short stories below:

The Voice of Reason

Not a storyline that is featured in the show.

I’m not sure if the “voice of reason” that’s referenced in the title is Dandelion or Nenekke but I’m going to say it’s Dandelion because that would be so much funnier.

The most confusing timeline of all. Told in weird flashbacks between the other stories.

Mother Nenekke could stab me and I would thank her

The Witcher

This tells the story of the Striga, as seen in episode three “Betrayer Moon”

Honestly for such a hyped story (it’s also the first scene in the first game) I found it dry and boring

An entire short story dedicated to Geralt being tired of everyone’s shit but too broke to just leave them to their own demise

A Grain of Truth

Not a storyline that is featured in the show

Weirdest Beauty and the Beast Retelling I’ve ever read.

Dandelion should have been in this story because that would have brought the weird sexual tension to all new heights.

Geralt, whenever he has to make a choice between two evils

The Lesser Evil

The story of Renfri that’s featured in episode one “The End’s Beginning”

Renfri is Snow White so that’s 10/10 from me

Geralt, trying to leave the betrothal.

A Question of Price

The betrothal storyline that’s featured in episode 4 “Of Banquets, Bastards, and Burials”

Beings with the most dramatic haircut of all time

Instead of being drug to the party by Jaskier/Dandelion, Geralt is sort of kidnapped which is a much less interesting plot if you ask me.

“The voivode with the hard-to-remember name, who must have heard something about the affairs and problems of Fourhorn, politely asked whether the mares were foaling well. Geralt answered yes, much better than the stallions. He wasn’t sure if the joke had been well taken, but the voivode didn’t ask any more questions.”

Geralt’s sense of humor is 10/10

Dandelion’s inner monologue at any point in the novels. Not that he’d admit it, of course.

The Edge of the World

As featured in episode 2, “Four Marks”

Geralt and Dandelion’s first meeting was much different and apparently involved Dandelion almost getting tarred and feathered but Sapko doesn’t show it because he’s a coward.

The Last Wish

As featured in episode 5, “Bottled Appetites”

10/10 for Dandelion being a dumbass

0/10 for Yennefer

In the book, Geralt didn’t even think the Djinn was real but he just wanted to take the bottle from Dandelion on the off chance that the bard somehow managed to injure himself with it and I think that’s beautiful.

Characters

My favorite character is, without a doubt, Dandelion. He’s such a bumbling idiot and a horrible flirt, but there’s something charming about him.

Geralt is my second favorite character. He’s much, much more talkative than the version from the show (which I love) and he’s just a sad old man who needs more friends.

Yennefer I do not like and never will.

Ciri has no part in this novel, which was wonderful, because I found her parts in the show to be super boring.

Fairytales and Folklore

You may have noticed that I’ve shelved this book under “fairytales and folklore” which is a category I usually reserve for retellings. Well, this actually has several retellings in it, because apparently Dandelion is the Witcher version of Hans Christian Anderson and all the fairytales are based on Geralt’s exploits.

Bathtub Rating

In honor of the Witcher Fandom’s patron saint, Bathtub Geralt, I did a bit of figuring (because what else is the search and find feature on kindle meant for?):

The word Bath is used thirteen times

The word tub is used six times

The most memorable bath was when Yennefer and Geralt soaked in the tub together, despite the fact that Dandelion was actively dying and they’d only met about ten minutes earlier.

source http://camryndaytona.com/2020/06/the-last-wish?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-last-wish

[theliterateape]

The Artist’s Cross to Bear in an Increasingly Strident AntiArt Paradigm

by Don Hall

"Democratic nations will habitually prefer the useful to the beautiful, and they will require that the beautiful be useful." -- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

For as long as I have been alive, American culture has been charged with obligations once considered the exclusive responsibility of American politics. Instead of our impotent and corrupt politicians dealing with the homeless, the jobless, the uninsured, the rot from within caused by greed and weakness, the unchecked stomping of the leviathan Corporations on our lives and environment, American culture has taken up the challenge of becoming a form of a deeply committed social worker.

The idea that artists must first deal with a social commitment apart from the quality of the work begins a slow system of rewarding organizations and individual artists that fit a specific social responsibility regardless of whether or not the art is any good. Those companies who refuse to fall in line with this system are inevitably relegated to the impoverished ghetto of the laizzes-fair capitalism because they don't have a cultural outreach program or a children's theater branch.

Currently, the artistic form most under fire is comedy. Oh...and movies. And theater, fashion design, television, museum art, and knitting. Yes. Knitting is under fire for not being appropriately woke in the wake of the Great Over Corrective Wokeness Patrol.

In a post entitled “A Letter on My Not-So-“Cozy” Doocot Sweater: aka My First and Last Kate Davies Project,” Helen Kim (@keinhelm4 on Instagram, who describes herself as an advocate for antiracism and an astrophysicist), wrote:

As more and more voices in the fiber community discussed their concerns about racism and lack of representation, I patiently waited for the designers I respected to do the same. Days went by, weeks, and yet I naively found myself wanting to give these makers the benefit of the doubt for withholding their views while they continued to advertise their products and snowy winters.

Davies then withdrew as a speaker from the Edinburgh Yarn Festival citing health reasons following a campaign led by Kim to have her disinvited. Kim, who was probably Davies’s most vocal critic, concluded a story entitled “Call Out” (which can be found at the top of her Instagram profile) with the following:

To those who worry about [Kate Davies’s] career and the impact her own reactions have caused her, perhaps you should consider that historically BIPOC have been the ones who have been wronged and oppressed. Ask yourselves: in what ways do you hold power? In what ways do you hold power over BIPOC? How have you been complicit in that structure of power? How do your actions, inactions, and privileges reflect systemic racism? How do you want to acknowledge the system and your complicity? […] KD actively SILENCED those who are different from her and tokenized them. That is called RACISM and DISCRIMINATION. As a white woman knitwear designer with over 75K followers and international renown, Kate Davies was NOT vulnerable. Rather, she was in a position of power.

SOURCE

There will always be artists whose primary fixation is a focus on inequity in the world. There will always be comedians who find fault in the power dynamics of politics and mock the wicked, the stupid, and the ludicrous. As much as the Wokesters really hated Chapelle’s and Burr’s Netflix specials these are comics who make a living pointing out our own hypocrisies and pretentions and make us laugh at ourselves. If you aren’t laughing, you’re the butt of the joke and may have lost your self reflective ability to see yourself as an object of mockery. 

Artists who are useful to activists and who are activists themselves are sometimes extraordinary (Samantha Bee) and other times tedious (Hannah Gadsby) and this ratio is no different from those who eschew wokeness as a badge of inclusion. It is ridiculous to demand that all artists follow the dogma of either conservative or progressive political thought because that demand shaves off the rough edges.

And yet that demand exists and is proliferated through the veil of self righteousness and the vilification of what was beautiful or ugly or hysterical or tragic throughout a history misunderstood or reviled by the NeoThought of the Identitarian Left and Right.

"The biggest favor we do for people is to release them. Society, culture, puts them in jail—and we let them out. The rule-makers, whoever they are, decided a box you're going to live in. We need to be reminded that you can step out of the box—and you can go right back in again if you want, too." — Billy Connolly ("Satiristas: Comedians, Contrarians, Raconteurs & Vulgarians" by Paul Provenza)

In this revision of art history, where do the works of Shakespeare land? Van Gogh? Bukowski? The Beatles? Given these are all white dudes, my guess is they don’t have sway anymore for a very small, very vocal segment of society. So? Art is subjective and the ‘cancelling’ of an artist doesn’t effect most people (see the raging popularity of Chapelle despite the critical mob pissing and moaning about him).

Sometimes a knitter is just a fucking knitter and isn’t out to participate in your narcissistic psychodrama. Sometimes your issues don’t mean a goddamned thing to them. If you’ve ever hung out with a garage band practicing in a cramped room with a single six-pack of PBR amongst them, they pretty much don’t give a fuck about your take on Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. They’re making music.

At one point in history, the Roman Catholic Church banned any art that was not taken from the Bible and approved by the clergy. At one point in history, the Nazis burned any art that Hitler labeled degenerate art. Today in history, the Woketivists use social media to tar and feather artists who do not fall in line with their perversions of academic theory, sociological mumble jumbo, and moralizing.

It is not the job as artists to make the world a better place to live. Artists make art. Period. It is our duty to entertain and illuminate, to provide opportunities for the audiences we have to momentarily separate from the grind of daily existence and in that moment, give them food for thought. It is our job to create excellent artistic presentation, the quality of the experience being our number one priority.

Mel Brooks, known for his plethora of acclaimed comedy movies, said political correctness was becoming a stranglehold on comedians.

"It's not good for comedy. Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks," he said.

"Comedy is the lecherous little elf whispering in the king's ear, always telling the truth about human behaviour." SOURCE

Artists refuse to stay in the box. Artists do not work within the system. Artists seek stories that show the triumph or failure of the individual versus the conformity of the System. Artists do not sacrifice the integrity of their work in order to market it better or develop their audience. While everyone can create art, not everyone is an artist. An artist is not defined by his or her income. Artists do not solve problems, they reveal them and provide insight. Artists can make you laugh, cry and question your own place in the world. Artists do not accept the Standard Party Line.

And, if ideas and words are prohibited by the masses or the government, it is the artist’s right to express those things that have been banned. Or at least knit them.