#no philosophy captures the whole of human existence but i think we can learn from each and from the way each speaks to us!

[aurora-daily]

Runaway with AURORA: we meet the songwriting sprite to talk about music old + new

'We simply have to survive. And that is enough'

Interview by Blossom Caldarone for gigwise (July 8th, 2021). 

A textbook empath and considerate soul, Norway’s AURORA has an endearing air of childlike sensitivity. Comfortably seated in her mother’s French dress, we caught up over Zoom amid the frenzied #runawayaurora trend and the singer’s monumental TikTok rise.

AURORA’s 2016 single ‘Runaway’ is now the dainty accompaniament to millions of short videos on the increasingly influential TikTok. Predominantly featuring suburban teenagers, the trend has encouraged people to find the charm in their otherwise mundane corners of the world. “Seeing the beauty in the small things is something we all lost on the way” she says. Whether users film lakeside days out, pose elegantly or capture early morning sun beams, the trend's theme is strikingly on brand for AURORA: “It’s nice that people have created a wholesome vibe to it - you never know with the trends! I’m happy it’s not anything horrible.”

Momentarily gazing at the mountains outside her Bergen window, it’s clear to see AURORA isn’t fazed by the numbers that currently skirt her name. “It’s a very abstract thing for me and therefore I don’t spend time trying to understand it. I’ve just been home, doing my normal things, cooking my dinner, reading my books and being in the studio. I’m very grateful that people are letting my song into their hearts” she softly explains.

Written when she was only 11, the song platforms a prematurely advanced AURORA grapple with the concept of running away from the people we love when we are in pain. “Just like a dog that goes out and dies alone in the forest, we do the same. We struggle so much in talking about these very mutual, normal feelings but can’t deal with them when we are going through them ourselves.”

It’s a universal reality that stumps any age or decade, and her philosophy on the song’s ability to resonate is profound: “Music, unlike us, has no age. If it’s good or relatable, or if it has nerve, it will never die and it will always make sense to someone.”

She’s embarked on a week of interviews, and I’m her last before the weekend. Conscious she may not want to wax lyrical about Runaway any longer, I turn the discussion to the things that make AURORA tick. “My biggest muse is Mother Earth and nature. It always has been and always will be” she gushes. “It grounds me, it opens me up. It humbles and strengthens me.”

Her Nordic roots affording her the luxury of stunning outdoor access, she talks effusively of its importance, and how life’s increasingly high tempo is detrimental. Astutely describing being human as an “extreme sport”, she accredits success to ending up in her own bed at the end of the day. “The world is way too demanding in every area. It’s almost impossible” she laments. Her approach to living is one of simplicity; where surviving is the only necessity and anything else a mere plus. “It’s a matter of life or death, we simply have to survive. And that is enough.”

With last year’s lockdown allowing her to fully immerse herself in her artistry, AURORA found herself revelling in the desolate streets and empty shops, whilst finding ultimate inspiration in the silence. Her introverted intentions thrived whilst she empathised with the struggling extroverts in the world: “Silence is so rare and I love it. I try to be in silence as much as I can”. AURORA famously doesn’t listen to much music apart from fellow celestial Enya: “I’m afraid I’ll miss out on an idea if I’m listening to something else. And I don’t want to be effected by other melodies. It contaminates me” she explains. A theory shared with anything but pretence, AURORA evidently has an ability to hone in on the nuances within the quiet; a skill that requires patience and devotion to creative processes.  

Her timely mid-pandemic single ‘Exist For Love’ is a song that prioritises the fundamental importance of love. A delicate step away from previous AURORA releases, its traditional tendencies embody the timeless essence of a '50s love song, a trait only enhanced by its cinematic Isabel Waller-Bridge arranged strings: “I just felt like we needed a divine love song. I truly believe that when we understand love - unselfish pure love - we understand why we exist” she plainly explains, again finding a way to strip down concepts that feel hard to define.

“When I write, I think a lot about what the world will need. I wish to make something that will be good for people.” Often writing selflessly, boundaries are key; being an empath can be exhausting. “I can’t really read the newspapers. I have to learn things through discussion, and then dive into matters if I want to educate myself more. I spend little time on social media because it makes us sad, but it also makes me sad to see so many sad people on social media.” Surrounding herself with others who also tend to give more than they receive, AURORA ensures her good intentions are not misplaced.

As for her fans, they are at the forefront: “I think a lot about them. It’s all for them.” But it will come as no surprise to learn that she doesn’t like the more vacuous side of the industry, and finds getting recognised slightly unsettling. “It’s good to know it’s all worth it. As long as you can say something that means something, you can use the music as a tool to support people out there” she justifies.

Her new single ‘Cure For Me’, out now, is another example of AURORA’s altruistic approach to songwriting. A playful tune that will surprise fans with its cheekiness, it debunks the idea that humans should ever need to be cured, and that anything other than who we are is abnormal. “People are very self-critical and it doesn’t take much for us to assume that something is wrong because we look different, or act different, instead of just accepting that we are different. We are all biologically designed to be unique” she explains. We go on to discuss how we’re led to believe that we’re crazy for being emotional or sensitive: “That’s what inspired me to make this song, as an anti-gaslighting song where you just celebrate that it’s fine, and you’re going to be fine, and I don’t need a ‘Cure For Me' because I’m perfectly ok as I am.”

The song’s juxtaposed setup is a peek into what’s to come: “It’s fun for me to be less serious about things. It’s very new for me. I am often very serious in all my music. I really feel like we need a bit of light right now, everything has been so intense.”

Heading into a newfound artistic side, AURORA is considering how the new sound should be consumed too. With her mystical ability to sonify nature and art, AURORA’s eclectic and ethereal world has always captured feeling in a visual way. “I love to be able to shape how people see my music, even if just a little bit. For many people, it’s easier to understand the whole thing when they can see it as well.” She is currently painting an “intimidating” canvas and studying Egyptian history, alongside Greek and Roman mythology. Finding inspiration in their bohemian attitudes towards female roles, AURORA is focussing on the old, the new and repeated behaviours in between: “Everything we’ve done in history, both good and horrible, has sometimes taught us to be better and sometimes not. Our patterns of behaviour are very interesting.”

So with ‘Cure For Me’ here and a well-researched new artistic process in full flow, AURORA is peacefully going about her business and prioritising the small things that make her feel truly content. Currently, she's filling her home with flowers: “It makes me more happy every day than I could ever imagine.” Her intentions are in the most authentic place; a space that prioritises connection and understanding, and one that prioritises the heart in a world where its complexities are so often dismissed. “As long as we remember to take care of the mind and the heart, we’ll have the capacity to care for others as well” she finally assures me.

[teacupfulofstarshine]

LOVELY, DARK, AND DEEP: CHAPTER 8

cw: mild angst, injury mention, vivisection mention, human experimentation mention, boatloads of unethical science

chapter 1 // chapter 2 // chapter 3 // chapter 4 // chapter 5 // chapter 6 // chapter 7 // read it on ao3!!

wordcount: 7086

“This is a terrible idea,” Thomas says. It is far from the first time he has said this to Virgil, generally speaking. It is also far from the first time he has said this to Virgil regarding this specific situation. This does not deter Virgil in the slightest. Logan looks up at Virgil from where he’s curled on the lab table, newly-human legs tucked up underneath his newly-human butt. 

“I would like to learn to walk,” he says. “I think it is a valuable skill to have, even if I do not intend to live on the land for the rest of my life. If I am to return to visit, and -” Logan’s eyes flicker away from Virgil’s face and rest on his shoulder, face heating up. “- and I would very much like to, it would benefit me to be able to masquerade as a human. I find walking essential to this charade.” 

“There are plenty of humans who don’t walk,” Virgil says. “Babies can’t walk, and elderly people sometimes can’t walk, and there’s any number of disabilities that might prevent someone from walking. Walking isn’t what makes us human.” 

Logan’s eyes meet his, and Virgil fights the blush rising on his cheeks with every fiber of his being. “What is it, then?”

“Walking?”

“No. What is it that makes you human that I do not have?” 

“Jesus, Lo, I don’t think ten thousand years of human philosophy has managed to answer that, and you want me to give you an answer now?” Logan tilts his head, confused and adorable, and Virgil is talking before he realizes it, rambling and spilling words out of his mouth like tap water cascading down a sink. 

“Being human isn’t about walking like a human or talking like a human or anything like that. Humans are so vast and diverse, and - and it’s like the ocean, you know? All those creatures are so different, with different methods of eating and sleeping and breathing and living and dying, and it’s - it’s not like you can just put one label over them that will encompass the spirit of what makes the sea the sea, or what makes a human a human. It’s - it’s -” 

He pushes his fingers through his hair, greasy from two days without a shower. “It’s about your capacity to care . It’s about your ability to look at someone else, anyone else, and acknowledge that they deserve everything you do. They deserve to live, they deserve to love and grow and thrive and be . Being human, it’s - it’s about looking at someone else and knowing that inside them is a person just as complex and mysterious and weird and wild and wonderful as you are, and they’ve got just as much depth and personhood and emotion and life as you do, even though they might be your polar opposite.” 

“So being human,” Logan says quietly, “is about being able to recognize your own complexities in another?” 

“If you wanna put it like that? Yeah, I guess.” 

“I suppose I am more human than I ever realized before, then.”

“I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Virgil says, and he takes a step towards Logan. Logan looks up at him, eyes wide and trusting and open, and Virgil holds a hand out. “I don’t think it’s bad at all. I know you’re all scared of us, because of what we could do to you, but - but I hope you can trust that the Doc and I, we - we don’t want to hurt you. We don’t want to let anything happen to you. You deserve security and stability, and if we can help give you that, we will.” 

Logan studies him for a moment with bright, critical eyes, and Virgil finds that he’s unconsciously holding his breath. Slowly, cautiously, Logan lifts his hand and places it into Virgil’s, and Virgil smiles, and Logan’s face breaks into a gentle smile, and Virgil has to fight very hard not to lean in and kiss him. (He pretends that he doesn’t see Thomas standing behind Logan, making very obvious mocking heart noises.) 

He holds out his other hand for Logan to take, and Logan doesn’t hesitate to place his hand in Virgil’s. They were scaled, before, but now every place a midnight blue scale used to live has, instead, a freckle. Virgil wonders how long it would take to count them all. 

(He definitely doesn’t think about laying in bed with Logan, holding him close, breath mingling in the space between their faces, sleepily trailing his index finger over the freckles covering Logan’s entire body, connecting them like constellations. He doesn’t think about trading stories with Logan, sleepily explaining his world’s constellations and heroes and myths as Logan does the same. He doesn’t think about Logan, laying on the bed and looking up at Virgil with the same open trust he’s displaying now as Virgil takes out a paintbrush and lovingly, painstakingly, connects each and every freckle into a beautiful portrait that, even in full glory, could never hope to match or even rival the splendor that is Logan himself, masterpiece untainted.)

(Virgil does not think about any of these things.) 

Carefully, he steps backward, holding Logan’s hands and pulling gently so that Logan rises into a standing position. He’s wobbly and unsure, like a newborn fawn, and Virgil quickly shifts so that he’s gripping Logan’s forearms instead of holding his hands. “Whoa, careful!” 

“I will never get used to these useless fins,” Logan mutters, glaring at his legs. “They are so unwieldy, and I have to concentrate on moving both of them instead of just one! I do not like it. I have decided.” 

Roman snickers from his touch tank, and music rises from Patton’s. “It’s hard for baby humans to learn to walk, too,” Virgil says, ignoring the other mer and focusing on Logan. “Kids fall all the time. It’s not about never falling. It’s about getting back up and trying again. Besides, I’m right here the whole time. You don’t have to worry, I won’t let you fall.” 

“I trust you,” Logan says, simply and honest and open, and Virgil feels a little something inside of him shift at such a plain display of trust. “I cannot see you very well, but I trust you.”

“What do you mean, you can’t see me?”

“I find that anything not directly in front of my face is very . . . blurry at the moment. I have lived with this my entire life. I had my electricity to compensate for this in the water, but now I have nothing.” 

“So what you’re telling me is you need glasses?” 

“What is ‘glasses’?”

“How are we supposed to get him those?” Thomas says. “He can barely walk, and he doesn’t know enough about human culture to pass for one. As far as the government’s concerned, he doesn’t even exist!” 

“Yeah, I know that, but he needs to be able to see, Doc.” 

“You’re gonna jeopardize his existence for that?” 

“Of course not!” Virgil snaps. “I’m just saying, it’s something we have to think about if he’s gonna be spending any sustained amount of time in a human form!” He takes a careful, slow step backwards, then another, then another. Logan mirrors him with an unsteady, slow step forwards, then another, then another. 

“I just want you two to be safe,” Thomas sighs. 

“I’m not a child,” Virgil mutters rebelliously. Before Thomas can retort, Roman drapes himself over the side of his tank and offers a spine about the length of his forearm to Thomas. 

“Do you still want this?” 

“Did you fire that at the tank?”

“Nah. I just kinda wiggled it around for a while until it popped out. They get loose and fall out sometimes, it’s not a new thing or anything.” Thomas takes the red-and-white spine and steps to the nearest lab table. He pulls out a scalpel and starts to carefully dissect the spine, looking for the poison inside it. 

Virgil turns his focus back to helping Logan. “I know it’s hard,” he says, holding his hands. “The amount of injury small humans sustain when they’re first learning how to walk is truly staggering. Hold on to me, okay? I won’t let you fall too far.” 

Logan looks at him with wide eyes. “What if I hurt you?” 

“You won’t, Lo. Trust me.” 

They practice walking back and forth across the lab floor for almost an hour. Roman makes unhelpful comments from his tank, and Virgil makes rude gestures at him. The gestures are somewhat less effective than normal, because Roman doesn’t understand what “flipping someone off” means, but it makes Virgil feel better, so he keeps doing it. Logan slowly improves as they keep practicing. 

“You know what would make you better at this?” Virgil asks. Logan shakes his head. “Being able to see properly.” 

“We are not taking the newly-humanoid merman to the optometrist,” Thomas says firmly. 

“Well, what the hell else are we supposed to do with him? We can’t just let him be on land half blind, Doc!” Virgil protests. 

“We can’t just let him get captured by the local cryptid hunter because you drag him into town, either.”

“First of all, I’m the local cryptid hunter, so Logan will be fine. Second of all, he needs to be able to see!” Virgil squeezes Logan’s hands tightly before he can consciously process what he’s doing, as though intending to reassure him. Before he can panic too hard about what he’s just done, Logan squeezes back. 

“I appreciate your concern,” Logan says softly. “I think your mentor may be right. It may be too dangerous to bring me into town and expose me to copious amounts of humans. I cannot say that I am not nervous about the idea of being exposed to more of them.” 

“I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable,” Virgil says, and immediately he’s swarmed with a surge of guilt. He’s basically been talking about Logan like he’s not even here, like his own opinions on what they do with him doesn’t matter, and God, how shitty does Virgil have to be? 

“I know you did not mean to,” Logan says. Virgil barely restrains a wince. 

“But I did,” he says. “And I didn’t mean to. I - I’m sorry, Logan. I didn’t mean to make it sound like we were making arbitrary decisions about you like you’re not conscious and opinionated.” 

“I am not mad,” Logan says. He looks puzzled that Virgil thinks he is. “I did not think you were maliciously attempting to control me.” He tilts his head adorably. It takes every ounce of self-control Virgil possesses (which isn’t much) not to gently squish his cheeks and kiss him senseless. (He’s not even sure if mermen know what kissing is.) 

“Well this is . . . concerning.” 

For a split, horrible second, Virgil thinks that Thomas is referring to him and the way he is very obviously ogling over Logan. His mind races to come up with some sort of defense, some explanation, but when he lifts his head he realizes that is not the case. Thomas is frowning at his laptop. 

“What is it, Doc?” 

“Get Logan somewhere he can sit and come over here. The results are back from the toxins in Logan’s net.” Roman’s entire body bristles like a sea urchin in his tank at the mention of the tank Logan was in; the color drains from Logan’s face and he goes perfectly ramrod-still. His hands are shaking, and Virgil smooths his thumb over Logan’s bandaged knuckles before he can stop himself. 

“It’s going to be okay,” he says, carefully guiding Logan back to the lab table. He slips an arm under Logan to hoist him up onto the table. Logan curls his hands in the hem of his shirt and very deliberately breathes deeply. “We won’t let you or your pod get hurt.”

Logan still looks terrible, and before Virgil can stop himself, he says, “Do you want a hug?” 

“A . . . hug?”

“Yeah, it’s - Christ, how do I - you put your arms around someone and squeeze, it’s a comfort thing, I -”

“I know what a hug is,” Logan interrupts. “I receive them from my dad and brother frequently.” Virgil’s face burns bright with shame. “What I meant was . . . was why?” 

Virgil blinks. “Because you’re upset. And that makes me upset, cause I don’t like it when the people I care about are upset. Hugs make people feel less upset.” 

“You care about me?” Virgil thinks about how nice it would be if the earth swallowed him whole in this exact moment. 

“Yeah. We . . . we’re friends, aren’t we?” 

Logan stares at him for a moment, and then his eyes soften and crinkle and he smiles. “Yes,” he says softly. “We are. I think I would like a hug.” 

Virgil leans forward, carefully wrapping his arms around Logan’s chest and hugging him close. Logan loops his arms around Virgil’s neck. He’s trembling, and he smells like fish and saltwater and seaweed. Virgil’s smelled some variation of this combination for the past several years, being a marine biologist and all that, and he’s largely desensitized to the way the ocean smells. But there’s some sort of undercurrent to the way Logan smells - something raw and fresh and dangerous and almost electric, the way the air smells right before a thunderstorm. 

Logan pats his shoulder gently and starts to lean back, and Virgil gives him one more gentle squeeze before leaning away. He doesn’t want to be weird about it, after all. 

“Thank you,” Logan says. Virgil takes his hand and squeezes it. 

“Yeah, Lo. Of course.” 

Roman reaches to gently squeeze Logan’s ankle, and a large, clawed hand comes up out of Patton’s tank and gently holds Logan’s hand. Virgil hurries over to Thomas and peers at the screen. “What did the results say?” 

Thomas frowns. “It’s not good. We were right, it was a neurotoxin, but there’s something wrong with it.” 

“Yeah, it was in a net that injured and almost killed someone.”

“No, it’s more than that. It’s derived from natural sources, but this toxin, it’s - it’s just . . .” Thomas pushes a hand through his hair. “It has genetic markers for multiple species of aquatic life. I picked out jellyfish and pufferfish DNA, specifically.” 

“Fucking yikes.” 

“Oh, it gets worse. There’s no way this DNA could have come from a genetically stable or viable hybrid. It’s like . . . it’s like someone took the genetic sequences for the deadliest, most dangerous marine toxins they could isolate and crammed them all together to make some kind of - of - of super poison or something. They weren’t trying to make a new life-form. They just wanted to create the most toxic thing they could, and I think they succeeded. It’s a miracle this net didn’t kill Logan outright.” 

Roman makes a loud, angry noise from his tank; a melodic snarl rises from Patton’s; Logan shudders and curls his free arm tightly around himself. Virgil’s blood runs cold at the thought. “What would it take to do something like that, Doc?” 

“Whoever this was did a pretty crude job of it,” Thomas sighs. “All the splicing is haphazard, and it’s honestly a miracle they managed to make this stable enough to do damage to any organism.” 

“Still, the fact they made this . . . who knows what else they may have done?” Virgil asks.

“I don’t know.” Thomas drags his hand down his face, and he looks older than Virgil’s ever seen him. “This - this is the most unethical application of science I’ve seen in a long time. I hate to think about what else this person might be doing.” 

“What about Roman’s spine?” Virgil asks. “Any results there?” 

Thomas nods. “Yeah. Whatever’s in his spines is far less lethal than the hybrid shit in that net. It’s more focused on paralysis and incapacitation.”

“Well, yeah, I could have told you that,” Roman huffs crossly. “I use it to stun prey so that I can catch and kill it more easily. That’s what it’s for .” 

Thomas is still frowning worriedly at the spine. “Doc, what’s wrong?” 

“Roman’s poison . . . based on my analysis, in the hands of someone who can use CRISPR technology, it could be altered to produce far more devastating effects. If whoever set this net gets their hands on Roman, the experiments they run could prove disastrous.” 

“Roman getting captured at all would be disastrous,” Virgil says. He dimly notices that Roman looks shocked to see Virgil defend him. “We can’t let anyone else know about these three. They belong in the ocean, and anyone else would try and keep them prisoner on land.” Virgil’s heart wrenches at that; he’s been ignoring that Logan will eventually have to leave, and he’s not about to start thinking about it now.

“I want to run more tests on the net that Logan got tangled in,” Thomas says. “If we can break down the technology of the barbs, we may be able to trace the origins of the net.” 

“What would we do when we found those origins?” Virgil asks. Thomas exhales. 

“I don’t know exactly. I just . . . we’d have to do something. We can’t do nothing. That’s not an option.” 

“I agree,” Virgil says. Thomas smiles, and Virgil feels pride bubble up in his throat. 

“I want to compare the net toxin to Roman’s, too. Maybe comparative analysis will help me learn something about both of them.” 

“Again, you could just ask me,” Roman grouses. 

“I probably will, once I develop a detailed questionnaire,” Thomas says. “But there’s also examinations and comparisons that we can make at the molecular level that we can’t get from just talking to you.” 

“What in the name of the Seven Mother Goddesses is a molecular?” Roman says. Logan turns to him, eyes wide and curious, and the tip of Patton’s head pokes up from his tank. He has their undivided attention. 

Virgil never thought he would be trying to teach sixth-grade biology to a trio of mermen, one of whom he’s extremely gay for and another one who’s older than human civilization, but here he is. What the fuck is his life, anyway? 

*~*~*~*

“See to it that this chamber is thoroughly cleaned and sterilized in time for my next experiment. And be sure to inform the crew that I want the excess waste disposed of discreetly this time, or they will find that they have been disposed of discreetly.” 

The secretary nods, obediently sending the orders as she peels off the blood-stained rubber gloves and tosses them into the biohazard waste receptacle. “Was the experiment a success, ma’am?” 

“If by success, you mean did the poison have the effect I intended, no. However, I believe I have isolated the patch of incorrect genetic code, which means that I will be able to improve the efficacy for next time. I doubt I would have found that on my own, so in that sense, yes. It was a success.” 

The secretary notes this on her tablet. “Tell me, what is the status of our acquisition of the human subjects?” 

“Approximately 79% of the specimens you request have been corralled and sedated. They await testing in Chamber C whenever you are ready, ma’am.” 

“And the rest?” 

“Being gathered as we speak, from the usual sources.” She nods, washing her hands and switching her anti-slip laboratory shoes for her characteristic red heels. “I have an alert set to ping when the shipment comes in. I will alert you at once.” 

“Excellent.” She steps out of the lab. Her heels click satisfyingly on the floor, and she tilts her head up. “Walk with me. Run through the list of current projects and update me on the status.” 

“At once, ma’am. Which one shall I begin with?” 

“Tests of the aerosol form of the net toxin. How have the lab rats fared?” 

“Only a 50% mortality rate, but that is higher than we had initially predicted.” She hums noncommittally, and the secretary continues, pulling up the file on her tablet. She continues to talk about the status of the aerosol experiment until they reach the private office, laid with marble. 

She walks over to the windows overlooking the ocean, hands clasped behind her back. “What of the fleet of drones? Have they discovered anything yet?” 

The secretary swipes a few pages on her screen. “Not yet, ma’am. A whole fleet was dispatched to cover the quadrant where net 17-C was located, as well as the surrounding areas in case our calculations were off. A team is monitoring the feedback round the clock, and they will alert me with the most urgent priority if they find something.” 

“Excellent.” She stares out the window, lost in thought, and the secretary gathers what little courage she has. 

“Ma’am, if - if I may ask a question?” 

“You already have.” The secretary’s blood runs like ice, but she merely laughs. “Continue.” 

“Why are you so invested in relocating this net? You seem so adamant that you’ve caught something valuable, but why not set another net and attempt to catch another?” 

She is silent for a long time. The secretary swallows. “I - I did not mean to offend, ma’am -”

“Silence.” She falls silent instantly. “Have I ever told you why it was here that I set up my facility? Why it could not possibly have been anywhere else in the world?” 

“No, ma’am.” 

“My family,” she says, “used to vacation at the beaches around here. I loved the beach when I was small. I loved collecting creatures from the tide pools and seeing how they worked. One day, I saw the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on in my life. It was a merman, with a beautiful red and white tail and spines everywhere. He was sunning himself on the beach in the early morning.” 

The secretary’s eyes widen. “I had to have him. I tried to get him to come with me, to get him to tell me how he worked, to get some of his spines, but it failed.” She rolls up the sleeve of her blazer and shows the secretary two perfect half-moons of faint, raised white scars on her arm. Bite marks. 

“That monster bit me and disappeared into the sea. I never saw him again. How dare he?!” She yanks her sleeve down and covers her arm again, snarling. “But it’s alright! It’s fine. I will find that traitorous merman again, and it will be my pleasure to exact revenge on him. I will vivisect him slowly and painfully and I will finally gain the knowledge which has been denied to me for so many years.” 

Privately, the secretary is suspicious of this plan. She isn’t sure if she believes the story about the merman, but the evidence of scars is difficult to refute. Still, she knows it’s not wise to disagree with her publicly (or even privately), so instead, she says, “That makes sense, ma’am.” 

“I hate not knowing things,” she seethes. “Knowledge is the epitome of human power. I will gain as much knowledge as I can, and then I will have the greatest weapon and the greatest shield in all of human history. I will not let some fish keep me from knowing all there is to know.” 

The secretary wonders how long this train of thought is going to keep up, and then the tablet in her arms begins to shriek. She begins swiping at the screen, frantically sifting through the sudden influx of error messages. 

“What is it?” 

“Reports from the lab - the drone monitoring squad, they - one of the drones caught something on camera -”

She whirls around, and the secretary startles and nearly drops her tablet. “Take us there at once!” 

“Yes, ma’am!” The elevator ride down to the monitoring room is tense. She can’t seem to stand still, tapping her feet and her fingers and all but vibrating with energy. The secretary bites her lower lip and sifts through the reports, trying to figure out what exactly is happening. 

She sprints down the corridor, the secretary hurrying behind her, and throws open the door to the monitoring room. Everyone in it jumps, and before she can say anything one of them throws an image up onto the wall of screens. 

It shows what looks like a young man, frowning at the feed, before swinging the lower half of his body up and around to reveal a gorgeous red-and-white-patterned tail, covered in long, sharp spines. He brings his tail down in a graceful, vicious motion, and the spines jettison from his tail and pierce through the camera lens. The feed glitches, staticky, and then cuts out. 

SIGNAL FAILED flashes across the screen in bright red letters. 

She rests her hands on the nearest table, ducking her head down. Her shoulders begin to shake, and the secretary sees every single person in the room swallow in unison. They’re all terrified, and she is too. Every person in this room is about to get fired or mysteriously vanish or both. 

Without warning, she throws her head back, and - and she’s - 

Laughing?

Wild, raucous laughter, bordering on a shriek, bordering on hysteria, the kind of laughter you’d expect to hear from a portrayal of someone who’s criminally insane in a movie. The secretary holds her breath. 

“I knew it!” she shrieks, slamming a hand down on the table. Everyone in the room flinches. “This is proof that there are mermen in this ocean, and I will have him if it kills me!” 

She whirls around to face the secretary, eyes wide and wild and slightly unhinged. “I want at least two more fleets of stealth drones dispatched to those coordinates. Get me as much information as you can. And you!” She points at a random technician. “Isolate the footage of that mer and send it to my office immediately. I want to review it personally.” 

“At - at once, ma’am!” the technician gulps. 

She sweeps out of the lab, dictating to the secretary the whole time. The secretary sends up a whispered prayer to whatever gods intervened to keep them all alive another day and hurries after her.

*~*~*~*~*

Patton has never seen the appeal of a mate. 

He is ancient. He has outlived almost every creature he has ever met. He can dimly remember being a guppy, frolicking about the ocean with the other elder mer, spying on the beginnings of human civilizations when they began to rise. Humans have always congregated around the water, he thinks, and he has seen many stages of human life. 

He has watched humans celebrate the birth of their young at the water. He has watched them come of age, watched them marry, watched them travel, watched them grow their families. He has watched their burial rites, and he has guided many humans safely to the seafloor and given them a final resting place. He has offered many a prayer to the Seven Mother Goddesses for a happy union, asked many a flying fish to guide a human soul safely to the Upper Ocean. 

He has seen pods grow and fight and dwindle and die. He has watched many, many eons of life in the ocean. Never once has he wanted to participate in the creation of more life. He does not want a mate; he has never had the desire for that kind of relationship. 

Patton knows that mates are important to some, but they are not important to him. He does not need a mate the way he needs water in his gills. His pod is very small, and he has no mate, but he is satisfied with his existence thus far. Roman and Logan may not have come from a mate, but they are no less his. 

Patton may not want a mate, but he also knows what mer are like when they want mates. He hears the way Logan and the smaller human - Virgil - speak to each other. He can sense the growing affection in Logan’s voice when he tells him what he and Virgil have done that day and defends Virgil from Roman’s criticisms and shyly tells Patton that he wants to return when he is fully healed. 

The human concept of mates is different from the mer concept. Patton knows this much. He does not know very much about human mating rituals. 

Based on what he does know, he would say that Virgil and Logan share similar tendencies. 

Patton does not particularly care about this fact. He had been quietly accepting that Logan was lost to him forever, that he would never see his guppy again, but this human rescued him. He kept Logan safe, tended his injuries and fed him and sought out Patton and Roman to bring them to Logan. He had stood in front of Patton and sworn that he would return Logan to the ocean once he was healed. Patton knows that he terrifies most humans, but this one had not flinched. His voice had been firm and strong, and he had sworn that Logan would not be a prisoner. 

There are worse humans Logan could want to mate with, Patton supposes. 

Roman sinks below the water of their shared small ocean and grumbles to himself. “The stupid human is making gross faces at Logan,” he huffs. 

“What kind of faces?”

“Gross ones, Dad! He’s like, staring at him with this stupid look and his face keeps going all weird and pink and - ” Roman’s tail bristles with indignation. Patton gently smooths a large hand down his tail, flattening the spines and soothing Roman. He trills, gently, and Roman responds in kind. 

“I suspect he would like to be Logan’s mate.”

“WHAT?!” Roman shrieks. 

“It is not nearly as bad as all that, guppy. Logan wants to be his mate, too. Surely you can see it?”

“Of course I can see it, but - but what does Logan know about mates? Or humans, for that matter?! This is a bad idea, Dad, we have to talk him out of it!”

“Why? Does Logan not seem happy?”

“I - that’s not the point!”

“I asked you a question, guppy.”

Roman’s gills flare out. “Yeah, Dad. Lo seems really happy.”

“Do you not want him to be happy?”

“I don’t want him to leave us.” Roman curls in on himself, and he looks small in a way that Patton has not seen for centuries. 

“Oh, guppy.” Gently, Patton reaches out and traces one finger along the band of light blue scales wrapped around Roman’s upper arm. “Logan loves us. If he had taken a mer for a mate, would you have the same reaction?"

“No, because that mer would just join our pod and it would be fine! But - but what if he decides he doesn’t love us anymore and leaves us for the humans?! ”

“Logan would not do that. He is our podmate, Roman. Even if he wishes to take Virgil as his mate, that cannot change the bonds that we have with him. Logan is not going anywhere.” 

“How are you so sure about this?”

“I have lived many, many centuries,” Patton says, leaning in to gently nuzzle Roman’s hair. “I have seen many matings, human and mer. I have watched their lives play out. I know that the taking of a mate does not necessarily mean the separation from one’s pod. However, if the pod is unnecessarily hostile to the mate, someone may feel the need to choose between their mate and their pod.” 

Roman bristles again. “Am - am I driving Logan away?”

“No, Roman, ” Patton soothes. “ But if you continue to be angry and disparage Logan’s feelings, he may take offense. I am not saying that you must become best friends with Virgil overnight. All I ask is that you keep an open mind about what is to happen, hmm?”

“I only promise to try,” Roman huffs. 

“That is all I can ask.” Patton shifts to coil his large tail around Roman, who lets out a soft chirp and snuggles into Patton’s chest. “I love you, guppy.”

“Love you too, Dad.” 

They doze together for a while until Roman stirs. “One of the humans is here. Not Virgil, the other one - Thomas, I think.” He shifts and swims up, poking his head and torso out of the water. Patton yawns and rises up as well, letting one of the fins on the side of his head breach the water’s surface so that he can hear what is going on. 

“Do you need to go and hunt again?” Thomas asks. “Logan’s getting hungry, and I can go get some of the fish we have in the fridge, but if you all need to hunt anyway you might as well go, y’know?” 

“How would we bring the fish back to Logan?” Roman asks. Patton notices that while his tone is cool, he is no longer being outright rude. 

“I have a woven bag that we use for diving sometimes. You could load that up with fish. Or, if you want, I can drive the boat out and anchor it in the ocean, and you can just dump your catches on the deck so we can bring it back to Logan. Your call.” 

“I will consult my father,” Roman says, dropping back under the water. Patton lets his tail arch up out of the water as a sort of “hello I was listening” to Thomas as he pulls his head back down. 

“What do you think?” he asks Roman. 

“I don’t like the idea of that human following us around,” Roman says. “But I’m not the pod leader, so it’s not my call.”

“Ask him if this ‘boat’ is the thing he was riding on when we first met him,” Patton says. Roman swims up to the surface and drops back down. 

“He says it is.” 

“Ask him which holds more fish.” 

Roman pops up again. “The boat, he says. He also says that we could fill the bag with fish, empty it on the boat, and then bring it back down to fill it with fish again.” 

“I like that idea. Tell him we accept his help.” Roman looks disgruntled, but he still swims up to tell Thomas what Patton has said. 

When Patton lifts his head out of the water, he brings the water with him, wrapping it around his head and neck. The gills along his ribcage flare out angrily when he pulls himself up out of the water, but he ignores it in favor of looking at Logan. His guppy smiles and reaches out to touch his fins gently. 

“Have a plentiful hunt,” Logan says. “Be safe, Dad.” 

“Of course, guppy,” Patton says. 

“The cart is right next to your tank, Patton,” Virgil says. Patton lets out a low, rumbling click and locates the small ocean, carefully lowering his body into it. His gills flare out happily as he submerges in the water, and once the majority of his body is underwater his tail slithers in and curls on top of him. 

The small ocean moves with jerky, hesitant lurches. It is very uncomfortable inside there, and Patton is curled up on top of himself like an eel. He dislikes being in the small ocean for extended periods of time, but if it lets him move freely between the ocean at large and the place where his guppy is, he can tolerate it. 

Once the cart stops moving, Patton feels hands on his tail. They lift him up and over the edge of the small ocean, carefully lowering him down into the real ocean surging up into the grotto. The process continues for a few minutes until hands grip beneath his arms, lifting him up. Patton wraps his gills in water as Virgil lifts him up, groaning under the strain. He all but throws Patton into the water, and Patton inhales sharply as the cool water of the ocean flows around him. 

“Sorry!” he faintly hears Virgil call. Patton lifts one hand up and waves at him, hopefully conveying that he is not mad and unharmed. 

He swims about in the grotto for a little bit until Roman enters the water with a tremendous splash. “Thomas says that he is going to get the boat,” Roman reports. “He will meet us on the open ocean and give us the fish bag.” 

Patton lets Roman lead him out through the little tunnel. He can feel the change in his gills when they swim into open water, and he gleefully pushes forward into a spiral as he lets himself lengthen. Even at his smallest, he is far too big for any of the small oceans the humans attempt to keep him in. He relishes this chance to stretch his fins. 

Roman swirls around him, flaring and flattening his spines in joy. Patton carefully sends a few clicks towards the surface as they swim further out, sensing for Thomas’s boat. He feels Roman swish forward and sees him swim close, dragging a large impaled fish behind him. 

“First catch!”

Patton carefully tears off one of the choicest pieces of the fish and darts down to the sea floor, digging a small hole in the sand and laying the fish inside. He and Roman make short work of what’s left, and Patton lays the skeleton into the hole as well, covering it back up. 

“O Seven Mother Goddesses,” he intones. “Accept this offering and bless our hunt today.” Roman repeats the blessing, pressing one hand against the covered hole, and then they swim off into the ocean. 

When Thomas drops anchor, Patton and Roman swim up to greet him. Patton rises up in a column of water, leaving his larger set of gills submerged in the ocean as he watches Thomas. “Here’s the bag,” Thomas says, handing something to Roman. 

“What will you do while we hunt?” Roman asks. 

Thomas picks up some human thing. “I’m running tests on water samples.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I’ll be plenty busy while you hunt, and I won’t leave this spot, so you can come and drop off fish whenever you fill up the bag. Are you going to bring all the fish you catch back to the boat?” 

“No,” Roman says. “We usually eat a few while we’re hunting. Dad eats a lot more than us, so he usually eats a lot during the hunt and then he eats with us, too.” 

Thomas nods. “I’ll let you know when the boat reaches capacity, and then we can head back to Virgil and Logan. Sound good?” 

Patton nods when Roman looks to him for confirmation. “Fine.” Roman dives below the waves and Patton sinks down with him. Roman is busy attaching the bag around his torso, making sure that it won’t get in the way of his spines when he hunts. 

“Go ahead and catch something to eat, Dad. I’ll fill the bag for Logan and take it up to the boat, okay?”

“Once I eat, I will help you,” Patton protests. Roman smiles. 

“Take your time, Dad. I’m a good hunter - you trained me, remember?”

Patton smiles fondly. He does remember a tiny Roman, no bigger than his palm at his preferred size, valiantly attempting to chase down and kill prey much bigger than he was. It’s a favorite memory. 

Roman swims off, and Patton sends out exploratory clicks. He locates a school of fish and carefully approaches them, drawing in more and more water as he gathers his strength. Patton carefully coils his tail below him and releases a loud, deafening click. It’s like the normal clicks he uses to see things in the water, but magnified. 

The school of fish scatters, but he manages to stun a solid two thirds of them. They begin to sink, and Patton happily zips back and forth through the school, scooping the little bodies up and crunching on them. Despite the sacrifice he made to the Seven Mother Goddesses, Patton is ancient enough that bones don’t bother him when he eats, especially not for fish so small. 

Patton finds and stuns a few more schools, as well as some larger fish which he brings back to the boat. Thomas seems stunned by the sheer volume of fish he and Roman are collecting, and Patton suspects that the human will have questions about their hunting practices when they return to Logan. He should probably prepare Roman for those questions on the way back, he thinks. 

He’s so distracted that he almost doesn’t notice when a fish gets close to him. That puzzles Patton; most fish avoid him, knowing that they are in the presence of an apex predator. Still, he thinks, food is food. He sends out one of his stunners, but the fish is unaffected. 

That makes his scales itch in a strange way. He tries again, a little louder. The force of the sound knocks the strange fish back a little, but it just keeps approaching. Patton quickly dives below it and emits a low, rumbling distress call to Roman. Whatever this thing is, he wants his guppy close before they deal with it. 

Roman speeds to his side, and Patton points up to the strange fish. “It doesn’t look like a real fish,” Roman murmurs. “No fish I’ve ever seen, anyway. I don’t like it, Dad. I’m gonna go stab it.”

“Be careful,” Patton pleads. “I already have one injured guppy.” Roman nuzzles his face into Patton’s neck for a moment before bending his arms so that the spines on his joints sharpen and stand at attention. 

Patton watches with apprehension as Roman swims up and quickly gets in front of the strange fish. He brings his tail up, spines stiffening, and throws it forward. A few spines jettison out and pierce the strange fish. 

The water crackles and fizzes as the strange fish dies, almost like the water around Logan when he attacks. Roman flinches back from the discharge before swimming up to inspect what he’s just killed. 

“Dad, this isn’t a fish,” he says. Patton swims up quickly. “It looks like a fish, but there’s no meat. There’s no bones. It - it feels like the things the humans use.” Patton touches the strange object and recoils from the smooth, warm sensation. 

“We should get this to Thomas immediately. Maybe he knows more about this thing.” 

“Whatever it is, I have a bad feeling,” Roman says. 

Although he doesn’t say anything, not wanting to frighten his guppy, Patton does, too. 

[nouveauweird]

A Short Essay on Metaphor by Ocean Vuong

The following is a transcription of the instagram stories shared by Ocean Vuong on the subject of metaphor, which I found quite moving, and hope others can take something valuable from it as well. You can find the originals on his instagram highlights.

Each paragraph below is transcribed from one instagram story slide.

[ The first part is Vuong’s answer to the initial question that sparked the discussion, he went on to elaborate some more, but in his longer discussion several days later he reused some of the same examples so I will only be featuring the longer, 25 slide, “mini essay”. ]

QUESTION: How do you make sure your metaphors have real depth?

VUONG: metaphors should have two things: sensory (visual, texture, sound, etc) connector between origin image and the transforming image as well as a clear logical connector between images if you only have one of either, best to forego the metaphor. otherwise it will seem forced or read like “writing” if that makes sense.

[ elaborated discussion ] 

I’ve gotten so many responses from folks the the past few days asking for a deeper dive into my personal theory on metaphor. So I’m taking a moment here to do a more in-depth mini essay since my answer the Q/A the other day was off the cuff (I was typing while walking to my hair cut appointment). What I’m proposing, of course, is merely a THEORY, not a gospel, so please take whatever is useful to you and ignore what isn’t. ...

Before I begin I want to encourage everyone to forge your own theories and praxis for your work, especially if you’re a BIPOC artist. Often we are perceived by established powers as merely “performers” suitable for a (brief) stint on stage-- but not thinkers and creators with our own autonomy, intelligence, and capacity to question the framework in our fields.

It is not lost on me as a yellow body in America, with the false connotations therein, where I’m often seen as diminutive, quiet, accommodating, agreeable, submissive, that I am not expected to think against the grain, to have my own theories on how I practice my art and my life. I became a writer knowing I am entering a field (fine arts) where there are few faces like my own (and with many missing), a field where we are expected to succeed only when we pick up a violin or a cello in order to serve Euro-Centric “masterpieces”. For so long, to be an Asian American “prodigy” in art was to be a fine-tuned instrument for Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven.

It is no surprise, then, that if you, as a BIPOC artist, dare to come up with your own ideas, to say “no” to what they shove/have been shoving down your throat for so long, you will be infantilized, seen as foolish, moronic, stupid, disobedient, uneducated and untamed. Because it means the instrument that was once in service of their “work” has now begun to speak, has decided, despite being inconceivable to them, to sing its own songs. I want you, I need you, to sing with me. I want to hear what you sound like when it’s just us, and you sound so much like yourself that I recognize you even in the darkest rooms, even when I recognize nothing else. And I know your name is “little brother” or “big sister” or “light beam,” or “my-echo-returned-to-me-intact.” And I smile. In the dark I smile.

Art has no rules-- yes-- but it does have methods, which vary for each individual. the following are some of my own methods and how I came to them. I’m very happy y’all are so into figurative language! It’s my favorite literary device because it reveals a second IDEA behind an object or abstraction via comparison. When done well, it creates what I call the “DNA of seeing.” That is, a strong metaphor “Greek for “to carry over”) can enact the autobiography of sight. For example, what does it say about a person who sees the stars in the night sky-- as exit wounds? What does it say about their history, their worldview, their relationship to beauty and violence? All this can be garnered in the metaphor itself-- without context-- when the comparative elements have strong multifaceted bonds. How we see the world reveals who we are. And metaphors explicate that sight.

My personal feeling is that the strongest metaphors do not require context for clarity. However, this does not mean that weaker metaphors that DO require context are useless or wrong. Weak metaphors use context to achieve CLARITY. Strong metaphors use context to SUPPORT what’s already clear. BOTH are viable in ANY literary text. But for the sake of this deeper exploration into metaphors and their gradients, I will attempt to identify the latter.

I feel it is important for a writer to understand the STRENGTS of the devices they use, even when WEAKER versions of said devices can achieve the same goal via different means. Sometimes we want a life raft, sometimes we want a steam boat-- but we should know which is which (for us). My focus then, will be specifically the ornamental or overt metaphor. That is, metaphors that occur inside the line-- as opposed to conceptual, thematic, extended metaphors, or Homeric simile (which is a whole different animal).

My thinking here begins with the (debated) theory that similes reside under metaphors. That is, (non-Homeric) similes, behave cognitively, like metaphors. This DOES NOT mean that similes do not matter (far from it), as we’ll see later on, but that the compared elements, once read, begin to merge in the mind, resulting in a metaphoric OCCURENCE via a simileac vehicle.

This thinking is not entirely my own, but one informed by my interest in Phenomenology. Founded by Edmund Husserl in the early 20th century and later expanded by Heidegger, Phenomenology is, in short, interested in how objects or phenomena are perceived in the mind, which renewed interest in subjectivity across Europe, as opposed to the Enlightenment’s quest for ultimate, finite truths. By the time Husserl “discovered” this, however, Tibetan Buddhists scholars have already been practicing Phenomenology as something called Lojong, or “mind training”, for over half a millennia.

Whereas Husserl believes, in part, that a finite truth does exist but that the myopic nature of human perception hinders us from seeing all of it, Tibetan Lojong purports that no finite “truth” exists at all. In Lojong, the world and its objects are pure perception. That is, a fly looks at a tree and sees, due to its compound eyes, hundreds of trees, while we see only one. For Buddhists, neither fly nor human is “correct” because a fixed truth is not present. Reality is only real according to one’s bodily medium.

I’m keenly interested in Lojong’s approach because it inheritably advocates for an anti-colonial gaze of the world. If objects in the real are not tenable, there is no reason they should be captured, conquered or pillaged. In other words, we are in a “simulation” and because there is no true gain in acquiring something that is only an illusion, it is better to observe and learn from phenomena as guests passing through this world with respect to things-- rather than to possess them.

The reason I bring this up is because Buddhist philosophy is the main influence of 8th century Chinese and 15th-17th century Japanese poetics, which fundamentally inform my understanding of metaphor. While I appreciate Aristotle’s take on metaphor and rhetoric in his Poetics, particularly his thesis that strong metaphors move from species to genus, it is not a robust influence on my thinking. After all, like sex and water, metaphors have been enjoyed by humans across the world long before Aristotle-- and evidently long after. In fact, Buddhist teachings, which widely employ metaphor and analogy, predates Aristotle by roughly 150 years. 

Now, to better see how Buddhist Phenomenology informs the transformation of images into metaphor, let’s look at this poem by Moritake. “The fallen blossom flies back to its branch. No, a butterfly.” When considering (western-dominated) discourse surrounding analogues using “like” or “is”, is this image a metaphor or a simile? It is technically neither. The construction of this poem does not employ metaphor or simile. And yet, to my eye, a metaphor, although not present, does indeed HAPPEN.

What’s more, the poem, which is essentially a single metaphor, is complete. No further context is needed for its clarity. If context is needed for a metaphor, then the metaphor is (IMO) weak-- but that doesn’t mean the writing, as a whole, is bad. Weak metaphors and good context bring us home safe and sound. Okay, so what is happening here? By the time I read “butterfly,” my mind corrects the blossom so that the latter image retroactively changes/informs the former. We see the blossom float up, then re-see it as a butterfly. The metaphoric figuration is complete with or without “like” or “is”.

Buddhism explains this by saying that, although a text IS thought, it does not THINK. We, the readers, must think upon it. The text, then, only curates thinking. Words, in this way, begin on the page but LIVE in the mind which, due to limited and subjective scope of human perception, shift seemingly fixed elements into something entirely new. The key here is proximity. Similes provide buffers to mediate impact between two elements, but they do not rule over how images coincide upon reading. One the page, text is fossil; in the mind, text is life.

Nearly 5000 years after Maritake, Ezra Pound, via Fenolosa, reads Maritake’s poem and writes what becomes the seminal poem on Imagism in 1912, which was subsequently highly influential to early Modernists: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd: Petals on a wet, black bough.” Like Maritake, Pound’s poem technically has no metaphor or simile. However, he adds the vital colon after “crowd,” which arguably works as an “equal sign”, thereby implying metaphor. But the reason why he did not use “are” or “is” is telling.

Pound understood, like Maritake, that the metaphor would occur in the mind, regardless of connecting verbiage due to the images’ close proximity. We would come to know this as “association”. Even if the colon was replaced by the word “like,” the transformation, though a bit slower, would still occur. In fact, when I first studied Pound years ago, I had trouble recalling whether this poem was fashioned as a simile or not-- mainly because the faces change to fully into blossoms each time I try to recall the poem.

Now let’s look at a simile that, to me, metaphorizes in the same way as the examples above, in [a] line ... from Eduardo C. Corral: “Jade moss on the tree intensifies, like applause.” The origin/tenor image (moss) is connected to the transforming element (applause). This metaphor suggests, not an optical relationship, but a BEHAVIORAL one. Both moss and applause are MASSES that accumulate via singularities: grains of moss and pairs of hands clapping to form a larger whole.

By comparing these two, Corral successfully suggests that moss grows at the RATE of applause, creating a masterful time lapse effect. Applause speeds up the moss growth, connoting rejuvenation, joy and refreshment. That something as mundane as moss deserves, even earns, jubilance, also offers a potent statement of alterity, that the smallest flourishing deserves celebration, which in turn suggests a subtle yet powerful political critique of hegemony. The poet, through the metaphor, has recalibrated the traditional modes of value placed on the object (moss). And no other context is needed for that.

You might disagree, but when I read Corral’s line, I don’t SEE an audience clapping BESIDE the moss. I see moss growing quickly to the sound of clapping. Although the simile is employed, the fusion of both elements completes the action in my mind’s eye. Like Maritake and Pound, metaphor has OCCURRED here-- but without “metaphor”. HOWEVER, the simile is still VITAL. Why?

Because the transforming element is abstract (applause) and looks nothing like moss. We don’t want moss to BE applause, we want the nature of applause to inform, imbue, moss. The line, I feel, would be quite poor if it was formed sans simile: “Jade moss is applause on the tree.” The “is” forces transposition, which is here akin to slamming two things together without mediation. We also lose the comparison of behavior, and are asked to see that moss BECOME applause, which doesn’t have the same meaning as the original. So, although the simile fuses into metaphor (via association) in the mind, such a metaphor would NOT have been possible without the simile. Similes matter greatly-- as tools towards metaphor. Why? Because (thank god) our minds are free to roam.

To summarize, one of the central strategies (and, to an extent, purposes) of the Japanese Haiku is to juxtapose two elements to test their synergy. This impulse is grounded in Shinto and Buddhist concepts of impermanence and structural malleability. That is, all things, even ideas and images, are subject to constant change-- and such change is the most pervasive nature of perception. 

The Haiku then becomes the perfect medium to test such changes. This principle is of central importance to me because it is rooted in non-dualistic (or non-binary) thinking. The poem becomes the theatre in which fixed elements can be transformed, their borders subject to being dissolved, shifting towards something entirely new-- to “create”, which is the Greek root to the word “poet”. The metaphor, then, is more like a chemical, whose elements (like hydrogen and oxygen), placed side by side, becomes water. In this way, Buddhism’s influence on my work and, specifically, my use and understanding of metaphor, is a foundational QUEER praxis for alterity. 

The reason why I emphasize the malleability of simile’s impact is that, although syntax and diction can aide a metaphor towards its more luminous embodiment, the ultimate key to its success is you, the observer. YOU have look deeply and find lasting relationships between things in a disparate world. In this sense, the practice of metaphor is also, I believe, the practice of compassion. How do I study a thing so that I might add to its life by introducing it to something else? At its best, the metaphor is what we, as a species, have always done, at OUR best: which is to point at something or someone so different from us, so far from our own origins and say, “Yes, there IS a bond between us. And if I work long enough, hard enough, I can prove it to you-- with this thing called language, this thing that weighs nothing but means everything to me.”

In the end, it is less about how you set up your metaphors (you will eventually find a way that suits it and you) but more about how you recognize your world. THAT is not easy to teach-- it comes with patient practice, with a committed wonder for a world that at times might be too painful to look at. But you must and you should. Good metaphors, in the end, come from writers who are committed to looking beyond what is already there, towards another possibility. This calls that you see your life and your work as inexhaustible sites of discovery, and that you tend to them with care. That’s it. That’s the true secret to a strong metaphor: care.

Lastly, I want to recommend the work of BIPOC poet and theorist, Thylias Moss, who discovered the Limited Fork Theory, a theory which suggests that the mind engages with the world, and especially with ideas, including text and art, the way the tines of a fork engage with a plate of food. That is, only so much can be held on the work/mind with each attempt to consume, and that no “work” can be possessed in its entirety, which I find happily congruent with Lojong. What a wonderful anti-imperialist and forgiving way to engage with our planet and its phenomena. Thank you, Mrs. Moss! 

And thank YOU for sticking around through my little seminar. I hope this has been helpful. Again, this is just my 2(5) cents! Now I’m going to sleep for four days. In the meantime, me-ta-phors be with you. [concludes with a pixel gif of Obiwan Kenobi with a blue light saber]

[army-of-mai-lovers]

~another Zuko redemption arc meta~

I’m reading this book for class called Women and Evil by Nel Noddings and the author’s already brought up some really interesting ideas. Basically, her thesis is that the tradition of white male philosophy has never looked at evil from the perspective of women, and when you look at evil from the perspective of women, lots of things that male philosophers take for granted become suspect. 

I know what you’re thinking: “Arthur, this is all well and good, but this is your ATLA blog, and you promised me a Zuko meta, why are you talking about some random feminist philosopher?” 

This line: 

“When we look at evil from the standpoint of women’s experience, we will question the whole tradition of honor that has grown up around war and violence.” 

Y’all know when I saw that quote I immediately thought of Zuko. Smarter people than me have talked about how Aang and Zuko’s arcs are reflections of one another, as well as how Aang is a feminist hero, and I think we can use Noddings’s work to connect these two ideas. 

First, we have to talk about the arguments that have already been made: 1) that Zuko and Aang’s arcs are reflections of one another, and 2) that Aang is a feminist hero. I think the first one makes itself pretty clear in some artistic decisions, namely that we get both Aang and Zuko’s backstories in “The Storm” (which, if you have ever talked to me about ATLA, you’ll know that’s one of my absolute favorite episodes). We get both of their backstories, sure, but more than that, both of their characters are complicated so much by the information divulged in this episode. We learn that Aang left his people because he was afraid of being the Avatar, and we learn about a major moment of Ozai’s abuse towards Zuko. Notice how we learn these things too: Aang tells Katara about what’s going on with him, whilst Iroh tells the ship’s crew about Zuko. Aang is open about his feelings, and after a bit of prodding from his friend, can talk about what he’s experienced and what he believes to be a major flaw of his. Conversely, Zuko does not volunteer this information about his backstory himself (and Iroh raises some serious questions about consent by telling people without Zuko giving his permission) Consider also how this episode resolves: Aang and Katara have a real conversation about their emotions regarding Aang’s backstory before going to save Sokka and the fisherman, while Zuko...lets his crew not risk their lives to try and capture the Avatar? The emotional payoff is not there for Zuko the way it is for Aang, and it is precisely because he closes himself off from feeling his emotions,. I really think this episode does a great job establishing them as each other’s character foils, and I also think that Aang’s ability to talk about his emotions is a big part of what makes him a feminist hero. Unlike Zuko (and most male heroes) Aang wears his heart on his sleeve. He resolves conflict as much as he can by being, as he puts it to Avatar Yangchen later, “quick or clever”, not angry or violent (by and large.) He is, ultimately, a peaceful, respectful kid with good communication skills, and this extends to the respect he pays to his female bending teachers and friends and all the women in the show who aren’t actively trying to kill him. (and before anyone comes for me, obviously Aang is not a perfectly feminist hero because he exists within a work that has sexist and racist flaws. However, in comparison to Zuko and much of Western canon, he can be viewed as a feminist hero.)

Now compare this to Zuko. Zuko does not chug his respect women juice. He sips at it sometimes when it’s convenient for him, but he very much does not chug. He also has emotional problems, and views emotion as a weakness for most of the story. His entire character, especially in season 1, is predicated on seeking honor within a violent context. I’ve seen a lot of people argue that Zuko “restores the Fire Nation’s honor” through his redemption arc, and while I agree with that, I don’t think we’re really dissecting the concept of honor as it’s presented in the show as fully as we could be. To apply Noddings’ work, the honor in the Fire Nation is dependent on the existence of war and violence. This is most succinctly illustrated in what Ozai says to Zuko as he’s about to burn his eye: “You will fight for your honor.” To Ozai, honor is fighting in an Agni Kai that you shouldn’t have been challenged to because you’re a literal child, and not living up to that definition of honor is deserving of violence. This is personal violence towards Zuko, but I do think that there’s evidence that, at least since the beginning of the war, this has been the way the Fire Nation views honor and violence at a structural level. We can draw a parallel between Zuko not fighting Ozai and Ozai responding by burning his eye, and the Air Nomads not fighting Sozin and Sozin committing genocide against them. And this violent definition of honor very much corresponds to the way he treats women, because expressions of imperialism and toxic masculinity are deeply, intrinsically connected. He’s disrespectful to June and the Kyoshi Warriors. He doesn’t really see Azula, his own sister, as a human being. But in my opinion, the incident that damns him the most in this regard is how he treats Mai in “The Beach.” I know part of the reason he is the way he is in this episode is because he’s really conflicted about his path and all that jazz, but he honestly treats Mai like a jewel that the boys talking to her are trying to steal, not a person. As a self-avowed Zuko stan, it makes me a little sick. I feel terrible for her. While he doesn’t treat every single woman he encounters poorly (Jin comes to mind), generally, as a rule, he’s pretty all about toxic masculinity as a response to abuse. For him, honor largely means enacting violence towards others (capturing the Avatar, the way he treated Iroh for a lot of b1 and 2, yelling at the crew in “The Storm”) as well as not really respecting women. 

But his attitude changes the closer he gets to redemption. For years, I’ve wondered why it was Katara who was down in the crystal cave with Zuko, given that he was more Aang’s foil than hers at that point. Now, I think it has a lot to do with Katara being quite a strong and empowered female character from a nation that the Fire Nation has historically oppressed. We have hope for Zuko turning good and joining Team Avatar in this moment because he has (it seems) overcome some of his toxic masculinity and imperialist thinking (remember, these are connected) and now sees Katara as a human being that he can connect with (one could argue that Jin is an early example of Zuko learning to connect with marginalized women). Later, redeeming himself means supporting Katara unabashedly as she seeks to right the wrongs that his nation has done to her (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Southern Raiders”? powerful. simply powerful.) 

Thus, when we say that Zuko “restored the Fire Nation’s honor”, what we really mean is that he changed their entire definition of honor. Through his interactions with Aang, Katara, and the rest of the gaang, as well as his own self-reflection, Zuko established a definition of honor built outside of the framework of imperialism, colonialism, and toxic masculinity. Rather than being based in violence and war, Zuko’s honor is based in love and understanding. Honestly, I wish we’d gotten a Steven Universe: Future kind of thing with ATLA, because I think seeing Firelord Zuko as he struggled with understanding what a love-based honor looks like when you’re leading a nation that has done absolutely horrible things to the world would have just been the cherry on top to his redemption arc. But we see that he understands at least part of it by the end of the show: respecting women. His relationships with Suki, Toph (y’all saw how gentle he was with her in the finale right? B1 Zuko would never. Early B3 Zuko would never.) and most importantly, Katara show that he’s learned how to communicate his fears, deal with his emotions in a healthy way, and support women.   

[archiveofprolbems]

On Space Art by Xin Liu & Xin Wang

Xin Liu, Orbit Weaver, 2017. Production still of artist's performance during a parabolic flight. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by Steve Boxell.

During the prolonged lockdown that defined much of 2020, the Xinjiang-born, New York-based artist and engineer Xin Liu juggled multiple roles. These included participating in a volunteering network that supplied PPE to medical workers in dire need of protection against Covid-19; designing an indie game, Sleepwalk (2020), which reflected on the conditions of confinement and hyper-connectivity; engineering a series of hypnotic sound experiences with her partner Gershon Dublon titled The Wandering Mind (2020), which guides the dreams of a sleeping audience with source materials organized by an AI system; and live-streaming an ambient soundscape recorded on Whitehead Island, off the coast of Maine, for the Camden International Film Festival.1

As the Arts Curator at MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative and an artist who makes work for exhibition spaces, film festivals, and astronautical conferences, Liu’s ongoing fascination with space as a medium and destination for new art has seen her send a wisdom tooth into outer space, cultivate potato seeds that had travelled to the International Space Station, and imagine weightlessness as an intimate, “body-opening” condition. In this interview, we spoke about the past lives and expansive futures of Space Art, her unique mixture of academic and identitarian backgrounds, and the creative strategies of innovation and resistance while working at the juncture of art and technology.

Xin Wang: You’ve recently been referred to as a “famous space artist” in a panel discussion poster, which suggests that this is a solidified genre.

Xin Liu: It is a genre! If you google “Space Art,” there’s a Wikipedia page that defines it, though it’s very much about visual artists depicting the vision of space exploration, like images of Martian colonies, weightlessness, spaceships, etc. It was also called Astronomical Art, with notable artists such as Chesley Bonestell. These artists really tried to define the aesthetics of space, which even changed the way we would later color actual scientific images captured through different telescopes. Even now, if you look at NASA’s art programs, that’s still basically the main concept. Slowly it diverged into art in space, or art that uses space and environmental textures for creation, experimentation, and storytelling.

For me, Space Art conceptually connects more to Land Art in the seventies; the questions they were asking—regarding spatial-temporal dimensions and the way we engage with geological transformation—are more related. However, there is this jump in the Space Art medium from astronomical paintings right away to “art in space.” It is a gap in our understanding of Space Art; in my position as the Space Art curator at MIT, I have made sure to take into account Land Art, science fiction, and so on, in lectures.

XW: What questions do you want to ask with your Space Art?

XL: First of all, the duality in our perception of the world: being a human being walking, eating, sleeping, drinking, and laughing on this planet; and on the other hand, knowing that we exist on a gigantic rock spinning around another hot rock in endless space. The epistemological jump is exciting but also problematic when we distance one from the other. People talk about science versus culture as if they are the polar opposites. I’m trying to reconcile the two views of the world and find places to live in-between. My other interest has more to do with the body, our sensations, our death, and the cycles of life and materials.

XW: Your works have always struck me as poetic—you sent one of your wisdom teeth into space in Living Distance (2019), which was inspired by childhood folktales and executed with robust engineering. But the whole debate around the idea that culture and science are antithetical has a long history. Susan Sontag wrote about it in the sixties, for example; what are you seeing in terms of new manifestations of, and challenges to, that tension?

XL: The philosopher Yuk Hui has proposed the concept of cosmotechnics, which argues that science and technology aren’t objective but are born of human cultures. One of my current projects, Unearthing Futures, is a collaboration with the Peruvian artist Lucia Monge, the International Potato Center in Lima, and the International Space Station (ISS).2 We are interested in potato history as human history; native to Peru, the potato’s journey becoming one of the most widely grown crops in the world mirrors colonial history. As we set foot and grow crops beyond the earth bond, one option here is to engineer the perfect potato that survives all conditions, while the other is to trust the possibilities of biodiversity, where a consortium of diverse species that are mutually dependent yields a higher chance of survival in extreme environments. Both are questions of science and technology, but at the same time they reflect philosophies—ones about how we survive.

We selected six varieties of native Peruvian potatoes with different characteristics, sent the potato seeds to the ISS to spend a month in microgravity, and exposed them to environment stressors such as radiation. The project has not grown potatoes in space, but it’s a significant step to understanding how environmental stressors affect thesis seeds. Having harvested the first generation in our respective studios, we plan to grow multiple generations and increase the numbers that we can process. Maybe in the fourth or fifth generation we can cook them and use them in workshops that involve the general public (we are working with public elementary schools in Portland) to think about the possibilities of food and agriculture in space exploration. Space potatoes are the protagonists in our stories and would facilitate these dialogues.

XW: When we were reviewing proposals for Sojourner 2020, an open call for artworks to be sent into low earth orbit by the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative, there were equally visible tendencies to flatten the crossover between art and technology into very gimmicky projects. In your position as both curator and artist working in this increasingly hyped juncture of art and tech, what are some of your goals and challenges?

XL: With the dropping costs of space launches and privatization, we are entering the New Space Age. Space Art is truly at the frontier now (no pun intended). There are many amazing art practitioners I’ve been able to invite to MIT and imagine together what this practice can be. The artist Agnes Meyer-Brandis, for example, created The Moon Goose Colony, where she trained geese on planetary science and different flight patterns to prepare them for the Moon.3 She even incubated and hatched the eggs herself. In 42-The Large Meteor T-R-A-P (2014), she uses electronic magnetic devices to guide the movement of meteorites, which can be viewed as a planetary defense system. In fact, the first planetary defense systems launched by NASA (the Double Asteroid Redirection Test) this past year also had to do with devices latching onto the meteorites to change their course of movement. I really like projects that are ambitious, beautifully executed, and which explore scientific possibilities as well as artistic ones. Unapologetically inserting yourself into other domains is also something I’m passionate about.

XW: What are some examples of such insertions?

XL: I recently had a conversation with the researcher Weng Jia, who looked into the detailed history of weather satellites beyond the pragmatics of weather forecast—itself a form of weather control that generates state power. It’s important to understand that history, but at the same time we can ask, as cultural producers, what now? We can either involve public engagement and sign petitions to request open access, or we can learn from the hackers—there are so many amateur enthusiasts who eavesdrop on state-owned radio signals, and through listening we are able to understand so much already. During the pandemic, my partner Gershon Dublon and I have tinkered with software-defined radio. Using just a tiny, 20-dollar USB dongle with an antenna we built from our clothing wires, we could receive the signals from retired National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather satellites as they pass through the sky.

Even before the pandemic, my partner was looking into personal monitoring of air traffic, as most aircrafts have to broadcast their locations after reaching 18,000 ft. This was a fun plane-tracking activity at home. But later on we were put in touch with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who were protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline encroaching their territories. They were being illegally harassed and even sprayed with unknown chemicals by aircraft flying over their encampment, but couldn’t track the perpetrators. We helped them set up the aforementioned system using a computer, a 20-dollar dongle, and electrical metal wires, with which they were actually able to “see,” ID, and track the aircraft. Using that data and US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the water protectors were able to pursue their harassers and hold them accountable. Is it art practice? I think it’s important and exciting to examine the “wall”; there’s no wall that’s perfect—there are always cracks. You can find things between the breaks and slowly percolate, and, in a way, take back those powers—I found those processes most exciting.

XW: I think this is a powerful approach that counters the general pessimism towards big tech, technocratic states, and surveillance to the point that people don’t even want to think about the possibilities of cracks.

XL: But that’s a facade, and I don’t know who marvelously crafted it. A lot of these things, such as the radio, are not so complicated. Given a week and the internet, most people can figure it out; it’s not rocket science. You know who is most interested in amateur radio nowadays? The fifty-plus generation, sometimes grandpas. There is a big community in Staten Island in New York. However, in the arts, these systems and disciplines are rendered unfathomable, which prohibits further investigation. That’s the problem.

XW: When you were speaking about “the cracks in the wall” earlier, I had a very dark thought—in the future, planetary warfare will look drastically different and be much more deadly than the wars currently taking place on Earth.

XL: Future wars may not be quite so physical as we imagine—the virus is a powerful model for what could happen. It shows how fragile and resilient humans are; cyberattack, trade wars, geoengineering manipulation of nature—these are all struggles on different planetary scales, and we have to constantly self-educate as citizens and decode what the decision makers are actually saying.

XW: You received your undergraduate training at Tsinghua University, which is known for its rigorous focus on scientific training and as a place that has groomed many of China’s top technocratic leaders. It’s also considered the Chinese counterpart of MIT, where you completed a graduate program. How do those experiences compare and inform your trajectory?

XL: When I was in Tsinghua, I studied mathematics, physics, and mechanical engineering; my degree was in precision instruments. Nowadays I still practice them in my sculpture in its manufacturing and fabricating processes. It’s a craft. I later went to Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), not because I wanted to be an artist, but out of a sad realization. In China, we separated art and science education since high school, and my liberal arts education was limited.

It was a selfish desire to study fine arts after college just to become a “complete” human being. I am very grateful that my parents didn’t disapprove this decision. At the time I told myself that I’d probably still end up working for Google and Microsoft; I had interned at both places during graduate school, thinking that’s how I would make a living eventually. But those two years were transformative and gave me an absolutely new way of looking at the world. Even graduating with an MFA from RISD, I still couldn’t commit a hundred percent to being a professional artist, as it is really difficult financially. I’m a practical immigrant. I had to figure out a way to stay in the country and feed myself. Then I went to MIT, because it was fully funded and I had the luxury to do research; after another two years in school, I decided that I wanted to work freely, and “artist” is the title that offers the most freedom.

XW: Do you still believe that?

XL: I do. If you tell people you are an artist, whatever you do doesn’t surprise them as much. It’s harder to talk about sending a tooth to space as a physicist.

XW: I’m struck by the way you describe gravity as a “momentum of feelings” on your website.

XL: That’s something I was thinking about when I first experienced weightlessness in 2017, during a parabolic flight. The plane literally free-falls in the sky, and in reference to the cabin, everything inside the plane is weightless. I had a bit of a performance background in dance. The experience was shocking: there was no “free from gravity”—gravity is always there. It was just everything falling together. The experience was less about me floating or flying than about the ground beneath me dropping. It’s not liberating in the way that you are accelerating and going up, which is what we associate with space exploration probably, but rather a kind of letting-go and descending. It was an eye-opening—body-opening—experience for me, and a bitter-sweet moment as well.

XW: Speaking of bodies and embodiment, do you find this excessive attention to—often performances of—an artist’s identity shows up more or less or differently for you, given the curious juncture of disciplines and identities you inhabit?

XL: It depends on who is seeing me. The tech aspect of me can seem alarming to people who are used to traditional practices, and in the so-called media/tech/science art world, gender might manifest more. The audience decides who I am. My name reads as gender-neutral in both English and Chinese. Sometimes people assume I’m a man initially, because I’m working with technology; but a bit more engagement with the work might compel one to realize that I could be a woman, because of the way I deal with technology. Still deeper into it, you might realize I’m Asian.

Another interesting aspect comes from the fact that I don’t just participate in art events; I also present my works at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), where it’s just pleasing to see my portrait—that of a young Asian woman—next to attendees that are largely from different demographics. And I enjoy that—inserting myself in different systems. It’s not just gender, but also geographic. I am an outlier in many ways—I went to a military-affiliated high school, so the instinct to fit in was strong growing up. But here, as people of color and women, we naturally stand out and have more identities. It could be tiring but it’s also our power—meaning that we can potentially empathize with more people. People like you and me—when we talk about America in a positive light in China or criticize the Chinese government, we are perceived as brainwashed by Western liberalism; but when we talk about Chinese companies like WeChat positively here, or the effective Covid-19 responses and technological innovations in China, we’d be considered brainwashed in the other direction too.

XW: I always feel that exposure to different systems of brainwash leads to utmost clarity. What do you think the future of space art will be, or what you hope it could be like?

XL: I think it will mature like digital art, bio art, internet art, AR/VR art—all these sub-domains. I read extensively on space policies, which obviously figure prominently on many nation states’ agendas. At the IAC conference in 2020, eight national space agencies just signed the Artemis Accords, which is an international agreement on the principles for corporations and civil explorations for the moon, Mars, comets, and asteroids. Particularly notable is the encouragement and protection for private entities to participate in the future of space exploration, and its effect on commercial activities will be significant; even the ISS is going through a commercialization process already. Space will become more commercial and privatized; it will engender more conversations and force us to be involved and investigate the industry.

XW: What’s your favorite Space Art piece?

XL: I was struck by Ilya Kabakov’s The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment (1985) when I first knew about it. I have been (and am still) confined in my apartment due to the pandemic. It is the absolute desire to break the ceiling and get out. Though both are heading towards outer space, the Soviet campaign in space exploration and a personal desire to leave, to be free, cannot be more different. In fact, one is defeating the other.

_____________________

Xin Liu (b. 1991, Xinjiang/China) is an artist and engineer. She is the Arts Curator in the Space Exploration Initiative in MIT Media Lab, a member of New INC in New Museum, and a studio resident in Queens Museum. She is also an artist-in-residence in SETI Institute and the recipient of numerous awards and residencies.

Xin Wang is a curator and art historian based in New York. She is currently planning an exhibition that explores Asian Futurisms for The Museum of Chinese in America, New York. While pursuing her PhD in art history at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, she’s also been conducting a series of public zoom webinars on topics of technology, new media, and Asian American perspectives for the Whitney Museum of American Art since spring 2020.

Source: https://www.art-agenda.com/features/372727/on-space-art

[ladyvader23]

An Analysis Of "Missing And Presumed Dead" by HeartofStars

This was submitted as a submission, and honestly, as an author, I have never felt so honored. I do not cry, but I cried. To know something you’ve written has touched someone so much to write such a lovely, in-depth, super thoughtful analysis of it without being asked or forced to by a teacher... I’m completely blown away. 

I felt that HeartofStars put so much effort into this and it really touched me so I’m reposting, if only for my own self to look at in the future. 

And to my readers, thank you. I’m just writing because I love the drama that is the Skywalker family. If it brings any sort of enjoyment, especially during the insanity that surrounds us, I’m happy to share. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As you know, I’ve been reading your wonderful story Missing And Presumed Dead since around the end of October, and have gushed at you about it in the comments and on Discord ever since. But instead of just squeeing about it for the millionth time, I thought I’d do something more: while I wait to find out whether Vader will indeed find Luke in time, I’m going to analyze just why the story is so good, using all my knowledge of film, media, philosophy, and Star Wars canon.

Ultimately, Missing And Presumed Dead is so good because it does several things well: it creates tension and conflict almost effortlessly, it places the idea of characters before plot without dragging down the plot,and finally, it is not only perfectly compliant with the characters the way they are in Star Wars canon; unconsciously or not, the story actually delves deeper into the characters, creates emotional moments that make us cry, and heightens our love of these characters.

For those who haven’t read this amazing story–and WHY haven’t you?–many, many spoilers follow.

First of all, let’s tackle the “characters before plot” issue. Before I dive into this, I want to make clear that I am in no way saying that Missing has no plot, or that plot is bad. It is chock full of plot, in fact; but the important thing to note is that the plot, first and foremost, is incredibly simple. In stories, the simpler the plot, the better; and the more the audience(the reader) can keep track of it and what is going on. Missing does that, and it also does something else: the hook is strong. A question often asked of screenwriters or filmmakers when pitching a story is, “Could you describe it in one sentence?” And in this case, the answer is, “absolutely.” In one sentence, the story is: following the events of The Empire Strikes Back, Luke is so determined to keep Vader from pursuing him that he fakes his death. There are other things wrapped up in this:

Does Leia know? Answer: Yes. She helps Luke fake his death.

How will Vader respond? Answer: Terribly.

But the reader will find those out as he or she goes along; maybe those questions are at the back of our minds already. They may even drive our interest in reading the story. But regardless, we only need that one hook: Luke fakes his death. That’s enough.

So we’ve established that you create a simple, powerful plot; and from there, what you do is essentially to good storytelling. You put the characters first. You allow them to drive the plot, instead of the other way around; and that, in the end, is what makes it so addicting to read. Luke’s selflessness is what motivates the plot point of him being captured by Black Sun. Leia’s love for her brother is what drives her to travel to Dagobah. Darth Vader’s twisted love for Luke and desire to get revenge motivates him to follow Leia to Dagobah, which in turn leads father and daughter to learn the truth of their relationship…and so on and so forth. Character motivates plot, at every turn; and yet, simultaneously, the plot is never forgotten. It is never “loose,” to use the term; the plotting is tight, leaving no room for plotholes, and yet there are none. (Much as I love the story, I did look for them.) Character and plot are woven together seamlessly, keeping us attached to the story and begging you to know what happens next.

Following on the first point, Missing And Presumed Dead uses this intermingling of character and plot to create intense conflict and tension. Seriously. I’ve read the comments, and everyone–including me–is BEGGING for another update as soon as the chapter is finished. That’s a sign of great writing! As the “guru of screenwriting,” Syd Field, says in his now-famous book on screenwriting, “drama is conflict.” And you sure love your drama. But there are two kinds of conflict that this creates; for the sake of this paragraph, we’ll focus on Darth Vader’s character. In the Hero’s Journey, there are two types of conflicts: internal and external, both different forces working on the character. The external forces are the easiest to create; they’re in the plot. Some of the external forces, for example, are Luke’s apparent death and learning that Leia is his daughter. But what drives him to take action in first trying to get revenge for Luke’s death, and then in finding Luke, are the internal forces. For this story, those are as follows: his guilt–over what happened at Bespin, and over what he did to Leia before he knew she was his daughter–his love for Padme, turned into intense self-loathing, a desire to keep his children from this fate, and finally, his conflicting duties as Sith and father. Eventually, these external and internal forces lead him to express to Luke that he cares about him, in one of the best scenes of the story, which moves the plot forward yet again.

And this leads into my last point, which has to do with the Star Wars characters themselves. What George Lucas wanted to do, in the 1970s, was created a fun adventure film based on serials he’d loved as a kid. And, on the outside, that’s what it looked like. Star Wars looked like a “kid’s thing,” which has led people to dismiss it as such; however, that is far from the truth. Lucas made it for kids; but he also poured themes of psychology and philosophy, stories from myths and universal truths that we all believe, into the story, so that when the same children who watched it in the ‘70s grew up, they suddenly saw those deeper themes, and loved Star Wars even more. This is, no doubt, why so many of us are writing Star Wars fanfiction…but I digress. You have an incredibly deep understanding of these characters, and the philosophy behind them; and THAT is the reason why we’ve kept reading this story, and why it’s grown in popularity.

Let me give you an example. Sigmund Freud, a psychologist in the early 20th century, invented a rather disgusting theory of the relationship between parent and child(namely, father and son because people were sexist back then): that a man’s deep, unconscious desire is to marry his mother and kill his father. It is called the Oedipus Complex, because those two disgusting things are in fact the plot of the ancient Greek story, “Oedipus Rex.” This, Freud claims, is the reason behind the rivalry that exists between a father and his son. Lucas, in the Original Trilogy, at first seems to comply with that; Luke’s greatest enemy was his father, in both a physical and a psychological sense. No doubt any young men who’d been forced by their dads to fight in Vietnam felt vindicated. But then, in the following film, Lucas flipped that idea on its head; the goal of the son, he says, is not to kill his father, but to reconcile with him. At the beginning of Return Of The Jedi, Luke has a need–this is another of those internal forces–to find humanity in his father, because that will mean there is humanity in him as well. It’s like in Lord Of The Rings; Frodo decides to try to redeem Gollum because it will mean that when the Ring is destroyed he, too, can come back.

And you play this out spectacularly. At the beginning of your story, Luke is terrified of Vader, horrified by him; but there is an unconscious need to know that his father is a good person, and more importantly, that he cares about him. So soon after ESB, however, he is tormented by memories of Bespin and ruled by fear; so, even when he is injured beyond belief he still believes that Vader is a terrible person, and rightly so, because Vader has given him no reason to believe otherwise. This ties into Vader’s character; as said before, he struggles with his duty as a Sith and his duty as a father. Essentially, it is the struggle between remaining controlled and becoming free, which is the belief of one philosophy of determinism; we are unfree, our choices determined by everything else, until the motives change and we are aware that we are being controlled. Vader, due to his characteristic stubbornness and self-loathing, does not believe he can become free; he only makes further demands of Luke, trying to tell him that he loves him, yet the words do not quite come out. But thanks to Vader’s relationship with Leia–which, by the way, is a fantastic subplot I did not in the least expect when I started reading this last October, as it delves into a relationship less explored in fanfiction–Vader is eventually able to “stop being a Sith for five minutes” and really talk to Luke. I think I mentioned this moment before, but it is beautiful; it is the moment when both Vader’s and Luke’s arcs reach their full crescendo. Luke learns that his father loves him, as he has unconsciously hoped for the whole time; and Vader learns to put aside fear and Palpatine’s influence and become a father. It made me cry, and it’s a moment built on everything I’ve mentioned thus far: your interweaving of character and plot, the dramatic tension of the story, and the way you stay true to the Star Wars characters. This specific dynamic between them inspired their dynamic in my own story, Family Finds A Way, that Luke and Vader both need these things from one another, they both need to become son and father, but have no way of expressing it because they know nothing about one another.

I believe Kierkegaard said it best: “In ethical terms, Abraham’s relation to Isaac is quite simply this: the father shall love the son more than himself.” This ethical duty is what Vader achieves; and, in turn, begins to improve on his relationships with both Luke and Leia(though he still has a long way to go).

I wish I could say more about this story; I want to say more about how you nail Leia’s character more than I’ve seen before, how you weave Han into the story in a way that is both dramatic and hilarious, how absolutely funny some of the lines are, how human the characters act. But I think I’ve said all this to you on Discord to you or in the comment section; and I wanted to touch on how this is not just fanfiction, what you’ve written. This is art, and I hope you know that it has helped all of us a lot, especially in these trying times, with the coronavirus and all.

So, maybe that was waay too long, but I am not ashamed! I’ve wanted to do a meta analysis of this story for the longest time, and since I’m not on Tumblr, this is the only way I could do it.

Looking forward to the next chapter, and hoping Vader finally manages to find Luke!

-HeartOfStars

[heartlessconviction]

So...The Dark Avatar

Ok I’m not going to defend this I hate the execution, however I do like the idea of the avatar having an equal in this regard, due to the concept of Yin and Yang.  The Avatar is seen as the bridge between the Humans and the Spirits, the middle man to put it in a crude manner. However I’ve always disliked this in many respects for a show that is all about balance and different perspectives among with the many cultures it draws inspiration from the avatar themselves whilst is a balance between a human and a spirit. Doesn’t exactly have an equal or a shadow to put it simply, they are seen as this one definitive figure in the universe where I feel the concept could have been handled much differently.  My whole issue with this draws from the origin of Vaatu and Raava, whilst intending to represent Yin and Yang two opposites of the spectrum that cannot exist without the other. Their entire history contradicts this principle. Raava definitively is seen as the spirit of peace and light, her defeating Vaatu is what is defined as balance in the Avatar universe which disregards the entire principle of Yin and Yang and the cosmic duality that encompasses this principle. Yes Vaatu still survives in Raava but that isn’t duality, that is one force dominating the other and thats why I dislike the origin of the Avatar somewhat.  The concept of having a Dark Avatar isn’t whats asinine, merely the execution. As having a second Avatar that influences the world in the Shadow of Korra or whoever the current Avatar is, learning to co-exist and balance the responsibility is balance. Where the Avatar is, the “dark” Avatar lingers on in their shadow, the Avatar themselves are not deities, they are humans and as such have flaws and shortcomings. They can make mistakes which can inflict horrible consequences onto the world they are tasked with maintaining the balance off, how would this go down with two Avatars, each with their own sense of morality and ideologies that may conflict with one another? How would they maintain the balance not of the spirit world and the human world but each other? This is what mainly pisses me off about season 2 of Korra the potential of having this concept was there, but they didn’t go through with it.  Some people who have also delved into this idea proposed that Kuvira should have been the Dark Avatar as she represents all of Korras worse traits. The Yin and Yang, whilst I agree with the assessment I disagree with the choice of character. Strictly because I believe the Dark Avatar needs to represent the opposite spectrum of the role of the Avatar, not the traits of the current Avatar. As in my version the Dark Avatar from the moment they appear, is in the lore and world for good, reincarnating each cycle.  So what is the Avatars role? To maintain balance, what is the opposite of balance? Imbalance or disorder, in other words chaos. What is the opposing force of order? Anarchy. As such I believe the “Dark Avatar” has to be no other than Zaheer. Zaheer as a character and his philosophy is the opposing force to both Korra and the role of the Avatar, the shadow in the light and thus he alone has to be.  So how would I do this? Alright season 1 goes ahead like normal, however just like we did in The Legend of Aang hearing about Sozins comet we hear about Harmonic Convergence and the fact that its swiftly approaching, this roles into season two. The only things I will change here is that Harmonic Convergence doesn’t occur until Season 3, her uncle isn’t evil just misguided and is thus killed in the final battle Vaatu is still imprisoned and only 1 of the two spirit portals remain open. So Korra doesn’t lose access to her past lives let me be clear here.  Season 3 will be a longer season which ends roughly the same as it does in the original. However the start will center around Zaheer breaking out of prison through the influence of Vaatu, with Harmonic Convergence approaching whilst Vaatu is still imprisoned he does have a tiny bit of leverage on the world. I don’t believe Zaheer would fall for this, for a stubborn man in the face of his principles he is not one to be deceived so easily. Hence why Vaatu shrouds his identity by posing as Guru Laghima, I think due to how Zaheer respects the legend and lessons of Laghima having Vaatu pose as this will be the way to get Zaheer on board  Zaheer kidnaps Jinora which forces Korra to open up the second spirit portal freeing Vaatu when Harmonic convergence begins, Zaheer explains the motives of the Red Lotus foreshadowing the rest of the season and merges with Vaatu to create the Yang to the Avatars Yin. Korra and Raava battle Zaheer and Vaatu whilst Korra has the advantage of all four elements the beefed up Zaheer can combat her on an equal footing, the fight ends in a stalemate and Zaheer escapes. Harmonic Convergence ends and Korra decides to leave both of the spirit portals open, Jinora is saved etc however its a hollow victory.  Now a timeskip occurs here which leads up to Season 3 and Zaheer discovering his air bending. Now the thing that I think allows me to do this, is that the whole Air benders returning is extremely vague, whilst it makes sense for both Bumi and Zaheer you’d be hard pressed for me to believe that everybody who did gain the ability to bend Air is descended from the Air Nomads at some point, I just believe it was the worlds way of restoring balance after Harmonic Convergence and with the spiritual energy being as potent as it is in the human world now. So what am I getting at? With the universe maintaining the balance in this manner, by giving non benders the ability to bend. Its not a stretch to believe with the existence of a now second Avatar after Harmonic Convergence Zaheer doesn’t just gain the ability to Air Bend, but also the affinity of the other three Elements as well although he awakens Air Bending first.  This is where the Season 3 of the original and mine align, Zaheer isn’t just saving the fellow members of the Red Lotus to capture and kill the Avatar this time, whilst thats still his objective to achieve true anarchy and freedom. He is also saving them in order for them to guide him and teach him to master the other 3 elements.. I also believe since Zaheer would be the Shadow to Korras Light, his Avatar cycle should be counter clockwise to the Avatars.  Avatar: Water-Earth-Fire-Air “Dark” Avatar- Air-Fire-Earth-Water The season plays out like it usually does, with the Red Lotus trying to capture Korra, with each encounter we see Zaheer becoming more adept with the other elements, though his primary element will still be Air.  Korra is eventually poisoned when captured and their final battle ensues when P’li dies giving Zaheer the ability to fly once his final earthly tether is severed. So this battle instead of it just being Korra in the Avatar State and Zaheer with his air bending, we see Avatar vs Avatar, both flinging the elements at each other, both in their respective Avatar states which makes this battle all the harder for the poisoned Korra who is just trying to survive this battle.  With a few new tricks, inevitably we are back at the moment where Zaheer is trying to kill Korra by sucking the air out of her. Now with Korras Avatar state we can all agree in general its much less impressive than Aangs, it makes sense in the original season 2 with her ties to her past lives being severed. However I kinda believe its due to her having less experience but also having less of a spiritual connection than her past lives.  Aang for example, even when he couldn’t control the state we all saw how powerful it could be when he was enraged or in danger. For me this makes more sense since Aang by default has a more enriched spiritual connection at 12, than Korra ever had throughout the series, thats my headcanon I’m sticking to it, in order to explain why Korras was so weak even before losing her connection to her past lives.  Zaheer on the other hand, whilst having that spiritual connection has the disadvantage of being the first in his respective Avatar Cycle. Meaning he is handicapped, which is why even though this battle is a hell of a lot harder for Korra. In the end due to this and Zaheers inexperience with the Avatar State, he is still pulled into the wind tornado and subdued.  This makes the moment in Season 4 where he helps Korra enter the spirit world more impactful, as he is not only somewhat atoning for what he just brought onto the earth kingdom which is against his ideals of Anarchy. As the opposite to the Avatar he is maintaining the balance of their duality by assisting Korra to regain the Avatar State and her connection to the spirit world. As he states to Korra their interests align.  The only thing I will change in Season 4 is that this isn’t the last time we see Zaheer. Later on he escapes from the prison he is being kept in to assist team Avatar in taking down Kuvira, via his mastery of Metal Bending. Whilst he does this solely on the principle of his own ideals. Nevertheless he is fulfilling his role in maintaining the balance by helping his counterpart in the final battle, both Avatars co-existing and in this case working together on this common objective. 

The finale ends the same way, just with Zaheer fleeing and from that point on in the comics of my version, we get to experience the consequences of having two Avatars roaming around. Not only from a spiritual perspective but the political aspect as well.  Obviously I’m not a writer, and I may have overlooked some things. That wasn’t the point of this however, the point of this was to display the potential of having a “Dark Avatar.” The concept itself wasn’t the issue, it has potential. The execution not only from the misrepresentation of Yin-Yang through Raava and Vaatu but how rushed it all felt as a whole. I would love for them to come back to the concept and try again, I honestly believe the Avatar should have its opposite in such a manner. Rather than having one almighty being that burdens this responsibility on their own, it makes them an outlier in my opinion. I also had the luxury of spanning this across book 1-2-3-4, were as they clearly had to rush it out for Season 2. Anyway this got way too long, but yeah it is what it is.

[calcipher763]

Choice: A Double-Edged Sword

Knowledge. Creation. Destruction. Choice. Four relics created by the Gods of Remnant, left there as gifts for mankind. Each gift was specifically made with a purpose in mind and, for the most part, they’re fairly simple to deduce. As we have seen the relic of Knowledge gives knowledge at the requirement of three questions that reset every century (the specifics of how and when the recent occurs being fairly unknown). The relic of creation is, obviously, able to create things and I, along with many other’s, wouldn’t be surprise if it was utilized by Atlas in the creation of Penny. The relic of destruction destroys. Enough said (though, personally, I’d find it hilarious to know that it was what caused Vacuo to be made into a desert simply because the person holding it dropped it and “oops, sorry”). The final relic, however, the relic of choice is one that has eluded me. While choice may be a simple enough concept to understand, how it was crucial in the creation or establishing of choice is something we’ve yet to learn. That said, after careful consideration, I’ve come to realize that out of all the relics Choice is perhaps the most powerful and the most dangerous relic. Say what you will but by the end of this theory you will come to realize that it’s placement at Beacon where Ozpin was the headmaster and was thus the first place to be struck was all done purposefully on both sides parts.

Now, considering that the relics are based around Gods who were a fundamental part of not only Remnant’s creation but also in many of its legends, philosophies, and beliefs, I’m going to get a little religious here but don’t worry you’ll find this very interesting. Growing up in a Christian home I was naturally taught the story of creation including the time prior to man being brought to Earth. In a crucial part of the story we see a point where Lucifer, just prior to his fall, demanded he be made the savior of mankind instead of his brother Jesus Christ. Now, while it can be difficult to understand at first glance, when you dig deeper you’ll notice he offers to bring everyone back but at the cost of our agency. He basically under no uncertain terms says “I’ll make sure everyone one can make it into Heaven by taking away their ability to choose. If they have no choice but to follow me then they can’t commit acts of evil.” Naturally, God didn’t go along with this plan. A fundamental part of being human is our ability to make our own choices. It’s what allows us to adapt, to evolve, to grow as a people and become who were are, for better or for worse. That is why the relic of Choice is so powerful and so dangerous. It’s very likely that it has the ability to grant agency to those who had none in the first place (i.e. the Grimm) and quite possibly has the power to override it as well, effectively enslaving someone against their will.

Let’s take a step back and consider what we know about the RWBY universe so far and use it to revisit the story from the beginning. Considering that there exist four relics, each of which is housed in a different kingdom and presumably under the Huntsmen Academies, you’d think the natural choice would be to go after Destruction first, right? Think about it, what better weapon to use against the armies of humanity than a weapon that literally destroys, perhaps even better than anything the people of Remnant have managed to create so far? Instead, Salem and her lieutenants target Beacon and the relic of knowledge. Why? Simply put, it’s the most powerful of the four not for its ability to destroy humanity but for its ability to destroy humanity’s faith in itself.

Consider for a moment the name of Ozpin’s Academy. It’s called Beacon. It’s quite literally meant to show the way, to be a light in the darkness, a vision of hope when all seems lost. The huntsmen academies were specifically built to instill within humanity a sense of hope, to give a reason to believe they had a chance of overcoming and one day defeating the Grimm. It’s a symbol and what better way to destroy a people’s faith than to destroy a symbol of that faith?

So, knowing this, Salem devises a plan to do just that in what would be a very poignant and poetic manner. She trains Cinder, has her go after the Fall maiden, infiltrate the school, take the relic of knowledge and use it against humanity. Here’s where things take an interesting turn in my theory. Ozpin dying was always part of the plan. I believe that him being two souls in one body would have somehow shielded him against the relic’s power and simply killing him would set him back from reacting quick enough to counter Salem However, the real target would have been Ironwood for several reasons that I will soon cover.

With all that aside let’s consider for a moment the relic of Choice’s abilities. Assuming that they can, in fact, override a person’s ability to make their own choices the next few questions that come to mind are “to what extent?” How big is it’s range? How long do the effects last? Does it have a limit to how many people it can control all at one time? Does a person’s strength of will make them less susceptible to the relic’s abilities?” There’s a slew of questions we could ask and may never have answered so, for the sake of making everything easy to understand and follow, we’ll be going with a few assumptions.

First and foremost, we’ll assume that the relic can completely override a person’s ability to choose regardless. Second, it’s limited to one person or a few people at best and you need to be nearby in order to control them, more so out of a necessity to give them orders and dictate their actions. Lastly, the person will act completely normal, no obvious outward signs that something is wrong or off about them. However, internally they’re a prisoner of their own mind, unable to dictate their actions while being forced to watch them play out. It’s a scary concept and one that I would relish seeing being implemented in RWBY. Not only that but it makes a great deal of sense why you would want to go after the relic of choice. Why fight your way into the vaults when you can override the headmaster/headmistress’ ability to choose while also taking control of the maidens. It makes things so much easier for Salem and her crew which is why Ozpin maintained his position at Beacon.

For all his faults, of which I’m sure we can agree he has many, Ozpin is nothing if not intelligent, manipulative, cunning and cleaver. When taking everything into consideration you can see just how far ahead he was of Salem and her plans. For example, in RWBY Vol. 4 we find that Salem is still searching for the relic, Ozpin having presumably stowed it away somewhere safe and that this little tidbit is confirmed later on. This is also foreshadowed by the fact that the relic vault was repurposed into a housing chamber for Ironwood’s Aura transfer machine, further solidifying the fact that he knew Beacon was a prime target for Salem to attack from the beginning. Knowing all this, Ozpin took the relic without anyone’s knowledge and hide it away in a place only he would have the knowledge of, ensuring that if he were killed this would only hinder Salem’s plans just as they would his own. Cheeky bastard, isn’t he? Assuming all this to be true it would further raise Lionheart’s importance, as well as the urgency he showed in having teams RWBY and JNPR accompany him to Haven to confront the man, as the relic of knowledge would no doubt give Salem the answers she needed to retrieve the relic of choice. Thus, his death ultimately served him by putting him in a place that would ensure he was close enough to intercept Salem’s plans at Haven, though that is putting in a whole lot of assumption simply on pure dumb luck.

Now let’s return to our discussion of Ironwood. As part of Salem’s plan General James Ironwood is meant to survive the attack on Beacon and return to Atlas. His part in her plans is pivotal and there are three distinct reasons why. First off, he’s the headmaster of Atlas Academy. That fact alone makes him important in the aspect that he, quite literally, is sitting on top of a very powerful item. Second, he’s the General of the Atlas military. While I don’t know all the ins and outs of the military hierarchy within the RWBY verse, for the sake of the theory lets assume he’s like a five star General in that he’d control all aspects of the army, navy, air force, and marines. Lastly, a little bit of information that increases his importance in the theory, he holds two seats on the Atlas council. As far as I’m aware that grants him nearly unlimited political power. Add to the fact that he is in control of the most powerful military on Remnant and you have yourself a devastating foe regardless of whether he’s an ally or enemy.

Knowing all this we can begin to see why Salem would want the relic of choice. Using Watt’s virus to effectively turn the world against Atlas, Cinder would find a way to infiltrate Ironwood’s inner circle. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if she used her little speech during the fall of Beacon as a means of purposely getting herself captured simply so she could get close to Ironwood to use the relic on him. Once in range he’d become her puppet, maintaining her prisoner status as a means of subverting suspicious while also allowing herself to be close enough to control and dictate his actions. With no one the wiser, Ironwood begins implementing the same changes he’s made so far in the show, albeit under Cinder’s orders. She then has him begin making preparations for an attack on another Kingdom under the guise that they intend to attack Atlas in retaliation for what transpired at Beacon. Being being the most powerful and influential man in Atlas, no one thinks or even dares to cross him or question his orders. No one, that is, except for Winter Schnee.

Winter is the one variable that could prove a threat to Salem’s plans. From the limited screen time she’s had there are a few things we can surmise. The first is that she is loyal. She’s a woman who believes in her cause, as well as Ironwood, but no doubt has enough sense to think for herself without blindly following orders. I highly doubt a woman of her caliber would have made it as far in her career, to the point of becoming Ironwood’s right hand woman no less, by simply doing exactly what she was told. She’s also someone who’s no doubt highly respected and decorated. Apart from Ironwood himself, it would come as no surprise to find out that Winter is considered second only to the General himself, making her a key icon in the military. This makes her a viable threat as she would no doubt be the only person capable of not only noticing that Ironwood was acting strangely but also of being able to successfully mount a cou de tau against him. Thus, at some point, Cinder would need to have her removed, either subtly or, to add another nail into the coffin of humanity’s distrust within its leaders, publicly through the reveal of her attempts to overthrow Ironwood and thus the current government.

From there things could pan out quite predictably. Through the use of Watt’s virus the mechanized army of Atlas could greatly overtake the remaining kingdom’s. Any resistance could be effectively snuffed out with those left either following out of fear or through a legitimate desire to gain something from their service to Salem. Granted, I don’t doubt that some sort of resistance would rise up to oppose this but, given how much more advanced Atlas is more so than it’s allies, I find it doubtful that their efforts would prove effective if at all.

Now, I’ll admit outright that much of this theory is based on a great many assumptions that certain things would pan out exactly as intended but, then again, it would make a great deal of sense for Salem to concoct something like this. From what we’ve seen she went from using vast armies to force men under her rule to ruling from the shadows, using puppet lieutenants to act as her voice and face while also pushing her agenda. It’s obvious she realized that somethings don’t work anymore or at least, with the changing of the times comes a change in her strategy.

Whew, this took a while to right and is honestly one of my longer running theories. So glad I got it out, though. It was only recently that I began considering the powers of each relic and how they were significant. It then occurred to me that Choice just wasn’t very self explanatory. Still, hope you guys enjoyed this. I have a couple others brewing that I’ll be posting soon enough. One will be on my favorite RWBY ship “Whiteknight” and why I believe it’s completely possible that it might become cannon in the series as well as a theory on Lionheart and how his actions make him the greatest antagonist in RWBY thus far. Stay tuned because those will be dropping soon.

[tumblunni]

Wow i had such a weird dream?? The story itself wasnt too unusual, just an emotional moment of an anime that doesnt exist, but the way the dream delivered it was really confusing!

The plot of this apparant anime was that there was some sort of ragtag group of monster people wandering the earth looking for a place they could belong without being hated. And i got the feeling here that they'd just found a place where things were going good, but the show's recurring villains appeared and revealed their secret to the town and now they had to flee again as everyone they thought was a friend took up pitchforks against them.

And the main focus character was really interesting? I dont think he was actually the protagonist but he got the focal role in this episode. Cos the monsters had to disguise themselves as humans to live in this town, and this was the youngest monster who didnt know how to do that yet. He had a really emotional struggle of pushing himself so hard to try and master this skill, because he was actually unique amoung the group for being a monster that was actually once human. So it was a combination of frustration at being a burden to his new friends, with desperation to finally see his own face in the mirror again.

And I feel like maybe before he became a monster he was bigoted against them and scared of them? Within the dream i recalled watching that other episode some other day, and apparantly it was super emotional. It started off just seeming like another 'we find the town of the day along our journey and meet some friends and/or solve a conflict' type thing. And this kid was mostly antagonistic through the episode, a dumb naive kid who believed everything negative about monsters and now struggled with the situation of being the only one who knew the truth that these guys are monsters but also now theyre doubting whether they should reveal it because these people seem so..normal?? And scared?? Starts to doubt whether all the other monsters executed by the corrupt church in their town were fully sentient too, and every time the 'nice' priest was teaching them how to spot liars he was really teaching them how to kill innocent monster people who were just as scared as the humans are of them. But the roots of gaslighting and abuse from this priest ran deep, so the kid struggled with the choice and ultimately made the wrong decision. Also i think maybe theres a reveal that the priest was actually their biological dad too, just for even more levels of why theyd make that wrong decision. And more reasons why its horrifying that the priest dad just treats his kid like shit once they outlived their usefulness. Im thinking something like the kid tries to make up for their mistake and save the protagonists but they get captured by their dad and like.. Ok holy fuck this dude is outright willing to murder his son and he's eminantly aware that these monster people are 100% sentiebt because he's using the threat of killing his son as a way to get them to lay down their weapons and agree to be recaptured. And then i think there was something super messed up when it was revealed all the monster attacks that happened to the town to get them so scared and paranoid were actually orchestrated by the priest as a form of control over his citizens. He had some sort of Ominous Doom Science to both turn people into monsters and control them to do his bidding. And like the predictable asshole he is, even after the protagonists gave up in order to save the kid he still killed him anyway. And after snapping his neck he threw him down into the prison cell with the protagonists and was like 'lets torment them by making them fight the kid they wanted to save'. Because it turned out he'd been doping the kid with a special dose of the monster formula ever since birth, and he was his 'secret weapon' all along without knowing it. Ultra super mega concentrated doom form of the artifical monsters he uses in his army, activated upon the moment of the kid's death. But then it turns out the ultimate experiment was too much for him to control and the kid was able to keep their mind in their new form, and turn against him to save their new friends. But when they realized what had happened to them, they broke down in fear. And everything was super depressing cos the protagonists knew this poor kid was now doomed to share their fate as monsters, and theyd have to take them away fron everythung theyd ever known in order to keep them safe. But also heartwarming at the same time because the kid had never known a truly loving family before, and as they passed out in the arms of main protagonist mom friend werewolf they felt like maybe this is what having a real family is like...

So anyway that led to a bit of an angsty team dynamic with this new recruit? The kid was obviously all new to monsterness and terrified of everything. But also even now they were struggling with that 'what if my abusive dad is right' instinct drilled into them from all those years. They still struggled with really believing that monsters arent evil, and like 'no i must have only disobeyed him because i was infected and i didnt know it, monsters are evil and i became one because i'm evil too'. Unwilling to believe that their dad did that to them and trying to find excuses where it would be their own fault. Maybe the kid was even tricked by another villain at some point who lied about having a cure? Like even whenthey became more able to trust their new monster friends they were still like 'theyd be happier if they became normal right?' Lots of angst and messing up and this poor kid feeling not only weak and useless to the team but also outright toxic to them.

So all of this led to this situation where disguising yourself as a human is a skill all the other team members already mastered and this kid is struggling real hard to accomplish it in order to save the day. Ans its extra depressing cos they havent seen their original human face in months, and theyre trying to cling onto the memories but scared they migjt forget what it was like to be human. And then i cant really recall all the details but i feel like the writing and cinematography were just super amazing emotional on this scene of the kid struggling to Do The Thing in time to save their friends, and like.. Atone for all their mistakes.

Also i think like the kid had this big super kaiju ultimate chimera form which was what their dad designed them to be, but also most of the time they were poofed into a tiny mascot sized version of that. And theycd never actually managed to control their powers enough to turn into their battle form willingly until now. Just this super depressing and also uplifting scene of this fuckin tiny monster kid being pinned to the ground underneath the villain's heel, trying desperately to turn human again to save their friends. And i think it was an awesome moment where they did manage to regain their old face for just a few seconds, but instead of actually learning to master the human transformation they learned to master their battle form instead. Like, accepting that that old face isnt who they are anymore, and it wont help like they thought it would. What they really need now is their REAL face! Some sort of dramatic badass speech about this that cuts the villain's philosophy right in half, and then a badass scene of tiny kid finally being able to control (and not be scared of!) their beast form, and fight the whole damn army singlehandedly to save their friends!

Also i think there was an extra emotional moment somewhere along the way where one of yhe villain generals was like 'no, stop, i want to see if they can do this', and actually started motivating the kid. Like i think they were a brainwashed soldier of the old priest bastatd who was sent to kill these monsters supposedly to avenge the priest's dead kid but they were actually starting to have doubts when this terrifying monster that 'killed them' seemed to act so much like a child. So this was the big moment of them finall believing the kid, and getting to see proof it really was them and the priest really was a manipulative evil bastard all along. So i think they switched sides and joined super powered up kiddo in fighting their fellow knights, giving them the keys to go free their friends. And possibly this knight person also joined the team after this and was the first proper human ally theyd ever had? And probably had loads of emotional plots of atoning

ANYWAY that was the cool really engaging story of my dream that i wish i could watch a real anime about!

But the weird part was that this was all delivered really fragmented cos of how little sleep ive had lately. I was seeing it in the form of (for some reason) laying down on the stairs at my abusive father's old house, listening to it playing on the tiny tv he had in his room. And you may have noticed i kept mixing up the kid's pronouns, thats because everyone in the dream was represented visually by a character from some other franchise and it was REALLY confusing! The kid was like an amalgamation of all the dudes from Wolf's Rain which i guess is where the concept of wandering monsters in human illusion came from. (Tho they werent all reverse werewolves like in that show) It was weird cos i knew this character was meant to be a child but they looked like five ripped teenagers smooshed together? Cos i havent seen that show in ages and couldnt even remember the protagonist's name. (Was someone called Hide or is that a guy from tokyo ghoul? I think they had the outfit of the tokyo ghoul guy.) And then predictably the evil priest dad was cornello from full metal alchemist mixed with my old doctor who had the same name. But less predictably the redeemed villain holy paladin knight guy was replica riku from kingdom hearts?? Ans specifically his medal from the app game, like he came with a floating medal attatched to his waist like a mermaid who was also a coffee table.

Also it just ended with a floating box of hair dye that turned to face the camera and it was actually coffee in a hair dye package. Like an exact replica of the blonding bleach i usually use, right down to every detail, but all the text was replaced with coffee info. I..i dont know what that has to do with anything else that just happened...

Oh also i think maybe one of the other teammates was a big cuddly 50-something circus ringleader type guy? He was the friendly comic relief but actually deep downn the most tormented of all of them. He'd been imprisoned as a circus attraction for most of his entire life and dressing up like a ringleader now he was free was kinda a way of coping? But yeh i think he bonded well with the kid cos they both didnt have much experience with being free and everything seemed new and scary. This guy also didnt have much experience of monster society either cos he'd been enslaved since he was a child. Man this anime sounds so fuckin intense and dark and emotional but also full of powerful friendship!! Why cant i watch any more episodes!! give me a sequel dream!!

[dribbonart]

Loomis: An Opening Chat

If I were to give a beginning artist two pieces of advice, they would be:

1. Get Woke. Learn about the infinite diversity of human beings. You’ll need that as armor for step two. 2. Read Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth. Especially the Opening Chat.

Andrew Loomis and his work are by no means perfect, but the beginning of Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth should be required reading. One paragraph contains more of the philosophy of art than any “how to draw” book I’ve seen:

“Let us try to define that quality which makes an artist “tick.” Every bit of work he does starts out with the premise that it has a message, a purpose, a job to do. What is the most direct answer, the simplest interpretation of that message he can make? Stripping a subject to its barest and most efficient essentials is a mental procedure. Every inch of the surface of his work should be considered as to whether it bears important relationship to a whole purpose. He sees, and his picture tells us the importance of what he sees and how he feels about it. Then within his picture he stresses what is of greatest importance, and subordinates what must be there but is of lesser importance. He will place his area of greatest contrast about the head of the most important character. He will search diligently for means to make that character express the emotion in facial expression and pose that is to be the all important theme. He will first draw attention to that character, by every means available. In other words, he plans and thinks, and does not passively accept simply because it exists… There is no other course than somehow to go beyond obvious fact to pertinent fact, to characterization, to the emotional and dramatic, to selection and taste, to simplification, subordination, and accentuation. It is ten per cent how you draw, and ninety per cent what you draw.”

One more example,

“I take this opportunity to impress upon you, my reader, how important you really are in the whole of art procedure. You, your personality, your individuality come first. Your pictures are your by-product… So before we talk at all about drawing, it is important to sell you strongly on yourself, to plant that urge so definitely in your consciousness that you must know at once that most of it comes from the other end of your pencil rather than the business end.”

Is it any wonder that this book is cited by so many people as the thing that brought them into the world of art?

The book is free online, please take a few minutes to at least read the beginning and ending. Personally, if I could edit it, I’d cut out a couple dozen pages, along with adding more stuff about the variability of people. Loomis is unapologetically a commercial artist, so he wants you to learn to draw “ideal” people, instead of trying to capture the gamut of the human experience. He also thinks that men are people, and women are to be considered only as a secondary issue, but that’s distressingly common in modern art books as well, so it’s not that much worse even in that respect. He’s also racist, but Gesture Drawing doesn’t have any racist caricatures at least.

[thedummymen-blog]

DIALOGUES AT THE PORT OF THE UNBOUGHT: Part 1 By the DummyMen

“The Ethiopians are black, the Egyptians thieves, the North Africans cruel, the Damascans liars, and of these four peoples it is the Black who will soonest lose the imprint of the stamp which marks his nature.”

MZ(Dumdum): Part of the general unease of black Africans who come across the discourse of afropessimism, outside, of course, its coming on the heels of two distinct formulations in the 1980s and 1990s that go under the same name and thus may confuse the listener as to which afropessimism one is being confronted with (and this polysemic history of the term with regards to both inside and outside the continent I think is an underexplored theme) is where and how to situate oneself in regards to its locus of enunciation - the U.S-, its articulation of blackness, and its argument that blackness is in a symbiotic relationship with slavery, a symbiosis consummated in and as social death.

One way to broach this unease, or even attempt to abate it, is through the thematic of the black forced to leave and the African left behind. This approach that perhaps privileges an idea of a splitting of a once-whole unit, whether filial or affilial, is not unrelated to the popular rendition of a western modernity that goes on to stipulate the parameters of the properly political, philosophical, social, cultural, scientific and economic. The Atlantic basin, or the New World, thus offers us the proper subject of the political -in whatever guise- against which the rest of the globe now must stand in contention. In this scenario then, the black slave becomes the ultimate degraded non-subject whilst black Africa is geographically lumped in with the rest of the colonized world, and historically locked firmly within the 18th and 19th centuries  along with (anti)colonialism’s concomitant articulations of conflict, oppression, and most importantly of course, liberation.

But our African reader still has questions. How then is she to think of the slave relation in Mauritania between the Haratin and the al-beydan? What of the pressures exerted by the Egyptian and Ottoman forces, or at various periods the Hijaz, on the bilad al-Sudan (literally ‘’the land of the blacks’’ from Arabic which in turn was translated into English by British and American mappers as ‘’Negroland’’ and ‘’Nigritia’’ respectively) via a racialized permanent servile status of its inhabitants? Wherever one looks one is faced with provincially customary distinctions made between, say a Fur and a Fartit in Western Sudan, a Jilec and a Jareer in Somalia or a Habesha and a Barya in Ethiopia. These convoluted local histories themselves are then entangled within a wider orbit of a slaving, slave-trading or slave-holding (or all of the above and more) paradigm that boasts of a much older and long-standing appetite for African slaves in the Indian Ocean basin. If we take seriously the assertion by Frank Wilderson and others that slavery and blackness become imbricated at some point in the 7th century A.D. and follow Bernard Siegel’s thesis that “slavery must be considered in its relationships to the entire social structure’’, then the black African today is left with an unenviable task with regards to the ethics involved in making methodological and political sense of the aforementioned ‘’convolutions’’ and ‘’entanglements’’. But then again, when was the black African ever not in an unenviable position?

AJ(Yumyum): Exactly! The position is unenviable no matter what side of the Atlantic or Indian Oceans, Red or Mediterranean Seas one is on. And here, between all sides of the East & West and North & South divide there is an ontological sameness, a shared ontological misfortune, that often gets ignored. And those distinctions in Africa proper between a Fur and a Fartit or a Habesha and a Barya are unthought and unquestioned sociopolitical positions that have seemed to somehow come from the heavens. But you, as is Wilderson, are making the point that this has not always been the case. And this relational matrix in the hinterland and coastal regions is ignored because I think it is deeply painful to draw these sorts of conclusions that something is happening on the inside of our psyches and on the inside of our romanticized and prefixed places of species origin.

Now let me attempt to bring these twin universes (Africa and the Americas) of existence together. On the African continent you have, as Tsenay Serequeberhan points out, “the inherited and taken for granted self conception of African “liberation” as the guise and mask of neocolonialism”. And similarly in the US context Saidiya Hartman, when speaking to the legal emancipation of the slave, asks the question: “Suppose that the recognition of humanity held out the promise not liberating the flesh or redeeming one’s suffering but rather of intensifying it?” By connecting and thinking about these two historical happenings together we learn that liberation and emancipation as legal events do the work of intensifying the suffering of the afflicted in quotidian and lessly spectacular ways in the everyday. Hereby binding tighter and hiding more cleverly the unattended corrosive open flesh wounds derived from the cultural unconscious in the form of the stereotype beneath the ego structure of the slave’s psyche. That is to say that if we do not do the heavy lifting now and think about how we have been negotiating captivity and about how the ruses of liberation and emancipation have been originary to our political, social, cultural and economic delusions, then the tragicomedy, our existence in the invertible, will be on play ad infinitum.  

The truth is that, as David Marriott reminds us, “Fanon [in ‘Black Skin White Masks’] makes it difficult for us to avoid facing the fact that the ego just is where the stereotype returns - but the stereotype is just the real occupying the ego” and this trojan horse is “the enemy attacking the ego from within”. This means that the stereotype that seeks to disfigure the ego returns to itself as the psychic force that has been sent from without to terminate it. And this is all unconscious. One’s alienation of one’s self from certain aspects of one’s self is a mystifying and fetishizing practice that enables one to save themselves from themselves(??). We can call this objective vertigo a tragicomedy. You introduced me to this text by way of this quote taken from a larger one you first threw my way. And damn! It was a vibe I damn near couldn’t handle.    

Nevertheless, the ruse of liberation beyond the imposition of structural adjustment programs, unfair trade treaties and the like is that “just as Christianity and civilization once [were used to serve] the purposes of conquest and empire, [new code words like] "good-governance," "global stability," "development," "economic growth," "international cooperation," "food aid," "cultural exchange programs," "human rights," "rule of law," etc.[...are the way] the West now perpetuates its hegemony.” In light of this the Sisyphean like failures of post-colonial Africa we can see the same unconscious Fanon identified in ‘Wretched of the Earth’ is still operative. Hence, “at the level of the unconscious, therefore, colonialism was not seeking to be perceived by the indigenous population as a sweet, kind hearted mother who protects her child from a hostile environment, but rather a mother who constantly prevents her basically perverse child from committing suicide or giving free rein to its malevolent instincts. The colonial mother is protecting the child from itself, from its ego, its physiology, its biology, and its ontological misfortune.” This unconscious line of thinking has been calibrated in very predictable and unethical ways as of late - spurring the growth in literature focused on pointing out the good that the colonial project in Africa brought to its inhabitants; even being bold to the point of recommending that these colonial arrangements be reduplicated.* Here the indelible legacies “of [irreparable] separation - and [eternally persisting] continuities” are the issues, that up to this point, “African philosophy has failed to take up”. The psychological effects (and affects) of the “the slave trade and colonialism” cannot be ignored by the Black-African. It is now more pertinent for us to look to this. For the “lingering doubt of the very possibility of self-government” is becoming ever more pronounced. And this entails for a inward look inside ourselves by ourselves and for ourselves as we simultaneously excavate (as best we can) the outside from within ourselves.   

I’m not sure if you remember the Africa-Compton map that Kendrick Lamar put on display during his 2016 Grammy performance, but it captured, to the great dismay and disapproval of Afropolitans everywhere (one can recall the flurry of op-eds and blog posts that came to the defense of the particularity of the ethnic and national identities of Africans. And the feverish way in which Lamar’s presumed ‘hotepery’ and penchant for race essentialism was rigorously denounced), the shared ontological sameness between the ‘beneficiaries’ of legal-politico ‘non-events’ of liberation and emancipation by way of unveiling the cartographic reality of international Blackness. The political and cultural conditions that made Fanon write that “colonialism, little troubled by nuances, has always claimed that the “nigger” was a savage, not an Angolan or a Nigerian, but a “nigger” are still in place. Still, Lamar’s Africa-Compton map in one fell swoop illustrated, as Sylvia Wynter put it, the “connections and correlations between the contemporary state of Africa and the United States’ Black jobless inner cities and their correlated prison system.” If the Americas are the Slave Estate proper then Africa is the den of slaves. I mean even aspiring African politicos with neoliberal proclivities such as Berhanu Nega (leader of the Ethiopian opposition group, Ginbot 7) understand this to a certain extent when he says: “whether you are called Abebe or Jimmy if you know how this country [(America)] works as you should, then, you must know that you are all ‘niggers’ in their eyes.”

[madewithonerib]

RE: Dust to Glory: Creation | RC Sproul

Lecture 1, Creation: The whole scope of SCRIPTURE has been given to us by GOD for our instruction, for our reproof, & for our edification;

Here Dr. Sproul starts out the “Dust to Glory” series in the first book of the BIBLE, Genesis. He speaks on the controversies we see & lessons we learn from Genesis’ recount of “Creation”.

    Teaching Series Overview         1. Creation         2. The Image of GOD in Man         3. The Fall         4. Covenant with Abraham

Purpose of Life: Obedience

    From Dust to Glory, those are the words that we're using     to put a bracket around the whole scope of biblical history.

    Because the purpose of this study that we're undertaking     today is to give to people a brief overview of the Holy     SCIRPTURES.

    I think at the beginning of the occasion when our LORD     HIMSELF was confronted with all of the concentrated     power of Hell, when in the Judean wilderness

        Satan came to HIM & sought to corrupt HIM;         & you remember that in that engagement         JESUS said to Satan,

            "Man does not live by bread alone,             but by every WORD that proceedeth             forth from the mouth of GOD."

    And if there's anything, I think, that captures the essence     of the life of CHRIST, it was HIS passion to do precisely     that—every step HE took, every word HE spoke, every     deed HE accomplished was done always with a view to     obedience to every WORD that proceedeth forth from     the mouth of GOD. [1:26]

     ●  Deuteronomy 8:3 | ³ HE humbled you, & in your hunger           HE gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your           fathers had known, so that you might understand that           man does not live on bread alone, but on every word           that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

     ●  Matthew 4:4 | ⁴ But JESUS answered, “It is written:          ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that           comes from the mouth of GOD.’”

     ●  Luke 4:4 | ⁴ But JESUS answered, “It is written:          ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

Source of Life/Joy: GOD’s WORD

    Now I can remember 30-something years ago when I     began teaching, I was given the assignment of teaching     Introduction to the OT & then Introduction to the NT.

    And I had students come up to me with great excitement     & joy & say, "Oh professor Sproul, you make the BIBLE     come alive for me."

    I very much appreciated the compliment & the flattery     on the one side—the side of the flesh—but there was     another part of me that was distressed by that kind of     comment, & I used to say to those students that were     so excited:

        I was delighted that they were responding in that         way to their maiden voyage of studying the sacred         SCRIPTURES.

        But I told them, “Look, I can't make the BIBLE come         alive because I can't make anything come alive that         already is alive.

        Now there's nothing wrong with sacred SCRIPTURE.

        What you're noticing with my animation & my excitement         is my response to the SCRIPTURES.

        It would be much more accurate to say that the BIBLE         makes me come alive, rather than my making the         BIBLE come alive.”

Overview of the BIBLE

    Now we see here in this setting today, all these BIBLES     that are scattered about on the bookshelves, & we see     all different shapes/sizes/versions/editions. [2:53]

    And we can scarcely find a home in this nation where there     is not at least one version of the BIBLE to be found on a     shelf; & we have discussions about the nature of     SCRIPTURE, & arguments about its authority & its inspiration     & infallibility, how we're supposed to interpret it, & that sort     of thing.

        But the great crisis in our day, beloved,         is a crisis of neglect of the         content of this BOOK. [3:27]

    It doesn't do us any good if we have a high view of     SCRIPTURE, but don't know what's found in its sacred     pages, & I know that many Christian people begin with great     resolve in their early Christian pilgrimage & say,

        “I'm going to read the BIBLE from cover to cover.” [3:46]

    I've spoken to groups all over the place where I'll ask people,

        “How many of you have read the Book of Genesis?”         & most everybody's hand goes up. Then I'll say,

        “Okay, how about Exodus?" & they raise their hands.

        “Leviticus?” The hands start to go down.         “And Numbers & Deuteronomy?” The hands are declining,         & they'll look at me & say,

        “I just can't find my way around the OT. The details are         so strange to me. They're so foreign,” & so on.

    But the whole scope of SCRIPTURE has been given to     us by GOD for our instruction. [4:24]

    For our edification; & I have found in the past that if we     begin with a wide/broad survey of the major themes of     SCRIPTURE, that can give us the hooks as it were to     hang our hat as we then go back & look at each     Book of the BIBLE. [4:44]

    Then finally to each verse of the BIBLE, & so on.

    So what I'm hoping we'll be able to accomplish in this brief     time together is to light a fire under all of us, that we may     renew our resolve to come to grips with the content of     sacred SCRIPTURE. [5:02]

    Having said that, let's begin our study at page 1, the 1st CH     & in the 1st Book of Genesis, beginning with v.1. Let's look     at it as we consider the teaching of the text. [5:21]

1.] There is a Beginning to TIME

    ¹ In the beginning GOD created the heavens & the earth.

    That’s the first proclamation/assertion that is found in the     Holy BIBLE; there are 3 words of importance that are     crucial for us, if we’re going to make a good beginning     for understanding the whole scope of redemptive history.

            From Dust to Glory [5:53]

    Those three words are these:

            Beginning, GOD, created

    Because in these 3 words, we have those central affirmations     of biblical Christianity that set Christianity apart from all forms     of atheism/naturalism/secularism/humanism/existentialism, &     a host of other isms that compete with the faith of Christianity     for people’s allegiance in our day. [6:05-6:33]

    It could be said that the most controversial sentence of all of     SCRIPTURE is this first one:

        That in the beginning GOD created the Heavens &         the Earth. And the controversy starts early.

        It starts with the first word, "beginning" because what         is asserted here, in this affirmation is that from which         the Book of Genesis gets its name—that which is         generated, has a genesis (manifestly) has a beginning         —a starting point in time.

    And when we talk about the progress of the history of     redemption from dust to glory, we are making an assertion     that is radical for our whole understanding of who we are as     people & what our lives mean, & what we're supposed to be     about in this world. [7:13-7:31]

    We are saying there is such a thing as history, & that history     has a beginning point in time & that time itself has a     beginning.

        Now that may seem to be something that we just take         for granted, but it isn't taken for granted in competing         philosophical systems in our culture today. [7:55]

    Think back to the 19th century philosophy of     Frederick Nietzsche, who's famous for his declaration     regarding the death of GOD.

        Well early on in his philosophical studies, in fact when         Nietzsche was a student writing his doctoral dissertation,         he looked back to the conflict of ideas that had already         arisen in the ancient Greek world;

        & he recovered for his day what he called the         myth of eternal recurrence, an idea that was rooted in         ancient Greek philosophy that the universe doesn't have         a beginning, a starting point. [8:09-8:37]

    But rather the universe & everything in it basically is eternal,     & everything goes round/round/round without a beginning     & without end.

    This is captured/summarized in one of the most important     pieces of literature in the OT.

    For example, the Book of Ecclesiastes addresses the pagan     notion of skepticism that is tied to this idea, where the sun     sets, & as Hemmingway borrowed for the title of his book:

            The Sun also Rises. [9:19]

    And then the sun sets, then it rises; it sets, it rises.

    And you begin to see this cyclical view, & leads to the     conclusion that there is no purposeful beginning.

    There is no specific endpoint of human history, or of natural     history, & the result is vanity of vanities. [9:49]

        All is vanity because we are, in a cosmic sense,         caught in the trap of running around in circles,         heading nowhere. [10:03]

2.] There is a Start Date to Earth

    But at the very beginning of sacred SCRIPTURE, there     is the affirmation that there is a beginning—that there     was a time when the universe did not exist.

    Now we know that even in modern cosmological theories,     there is much debate on how the universe came into the     present form & structure that it is.

    There have been debates between steady state views of     cosmology & the expanding universe & big bang theory     & all of that. [10:40]

    But today, the consensus is that there was a point in time     —15-18 billion years ago run some of the estimates—     where, suddenly there was this massive explosion:

        where all of the current matter & energy previous to         that moment had been condensed into one tiny little         point called a point of singularity;

        then on one Tuesday afternoon it blew up, & the results         of that explosion are still reverberating throughout outer         space. [11:14]

    Though people don’t like to speculate what was going on     before that at least this carries the idea that there was a     beginning.

    And if there is a beginning, to this world, the obvious question     that becomes the central focal point of controversy & debate is

       ●  How did it get started?        ●  What started it? [11:44]

    If everything was in a state of pure organization for eternity—     all matter, all energy condensed & compressed into this     infinitesimal point of singularity & in an eternal state of inertia     —why did it move?

         You know the law of inertia:

         Things at rest remain at rest, unless          acted upon by an outside force.

    Those things that are in motion tend to remain in motion,     unless acted upon by an outside force. [12:19]

    Cosmologists like Jastro say that perhaps the mountain that     the scientists are climbing today, when they reach the summit     or the acme of that mountain, they will find the theologians     around the tent waiting for them there:

        To tell them there has to be an outside force for anything         to change/move/come into existence. Because the one         thing we know for sure, even apart from the work of sacred         SCRIPTURE, is that if there was ever a time when there         was nothing! All there would be now would be nothing, &         even that’s improper to say. [13:06]

        Because you can’t say there would be nothing, because         nothing has no being, & the term ‘to be nothing’ would be         self-contradictory, wouldn’t it? [13:22]

    But the idea here is that there is a radical difference between     all creaturely existence—everything that is part of this finite,     temporal universe & its author.

    That’s why Christianity doesn’t stop by simply saying:

        “In the beginning,...” but it says, “In the beginning 𝐆𝐎𝐃..”

    At this point, there’s no argument for the existence of GOD.

    All we have on the opening page of sacred SCRIPTURE is     the bold declaration of GOD’s being the author of everything     that is: “In the beginning, GOD,....” [13:55-14:10]

        If there is any kind of a beginning,         to anything whatsoever,         that which has a beginning in time         must have something preceding it,         or it could not begin. [14:29]

    That’s simply another way of saying what I said a moment ago.

        If there was ever a time when nothing existed,         there couldn’t possibly be anything now.

    And so now we’re speaking here in SCRIPTURE about the     beginning of space & time, the beginning of the created universe.

    But for there to be a beginning to the created universe, there must     be something that stands above & beyond the created universe.     [14:38-14:56]

        Something that has no beginning, something that is,         in & of itself, eternal & self-existent, something that         has the very power of being in itself. [15:10]

    That’s also part of radical affirmation of the first statement of sacred     SCRIPTURE, the proclamation of the reality of the existence of GOD.

3.]  GOD creates ex nihilo

    Now I’m going to come back to this word [GOD] in a moment,     but let’s go to the next one: created. [15:31]

    In the beginning GOD does something.

    We’re not told simply of the bare existence of GOD in the first     CH of Genesis, but the Book of Genesis introduces     GOD in action, GOD doing something. [15:50]

        And what HE’s doing here is the most         magnificent & fantastic work that has         ever been done—in terms of activity, &         it’s the creation of the universe.

    I know we use this word, “to create” in metaphorical ways.

    I like to dabble on the side in some of the arts.

    I like to play the piano, I’m not very good at it, to tell you the truth.

        And I dabble in painting as a rank amateur, & I read         the books about these things, & they talk about the         inherent creativity of the musician/artists, & I find this         great fun to get the palette set out & to get the little         tubes of paint & spread them out.

        Sort of like a kid playing in the mud, & I begin to mix         these colours together & try them out on the canvas,         & I look at that, & think, “Oh that doesn’t look so good.”

        I change it around, & we call this creativity. [16:50-53]

        But there’s really no creativity in here         at all, in the biblical sense. [17:01]

    All I’m doing is taking substances that are already there, &     shaping/forming/mixing/arranging on a canvas, so that     whatever creativity the artist has is a mediated creativity.

    A creativity within the framework of some kind of medium.

    But the biblical view is far more startling than that because     it presents an act of creation where there is no medium.     [17:25-17:39]

    It’s not as though 15-18 billion years ago, GOD came down with     HIS brush & palette, & HE began to mix HIS paint & shape/figure     & draw/organize a picture. [17:55]

    No, there was no paint.

    There were no brushes/palette/canvas.

    And so in biblical theology, when we try to get a hold of the biblical     account of creation, we get this concept: GOD creates ex nihilo.

            which means, “out of nothing”

    That there’s no pre-existent matter that HE forms/shapes/arranges,     but that which exists comes into being through this active power     that GOD alone has. [18:38]

    As the NT indicates in the writings of the apostle Paul, that     GOD alone has the power to bring life out of death, &     something out of nothing. [18:49]

4.] None of Our Calculations Explains GOD

    Now how did HE do it?

    Now again, I think there’s great value in tracking the movement of     astronomical bodies, & speculating on what happens when various     gasses & elements collide with each other. [19:08]

    And mix together & how seas are formed & how flowers grow.

    I think there’s a great great value in the studying of the natural realm.

    GOD HIMSELF has called us to do that. [19:23]

    But no amount of studying that describes those things that are     going on in the intricate patterns & workings of natural forces     can account for this. [19:38]

    This is the supreme work of [GOD], that’s not just natural, but it is     supernatural, that is it takes us above & beyond the theater of     nature: To the beginning of nature,

        to the AUTHOR of nature,         Who creates out of nothing.

    Again the BIBLE doesn’t tell us how HE does it. [20:03-11]

    The only thing that we’re told in Genesis about GOD’s mode of     creation is that HE creates by the speaking of HIS WORD.

    St. Augustine calls this the divine imperative/fiat—not to be     confused with the small Italian car. A divine imperative simply     refers to GOD’s transcendent/majestic/holy command—where     HE speaks into the void & says, “Let there be!” [20:55-21:00]

        And by the sheer power of the command         of ONE who eternally has the power of         being in & of HIMSELF, a universe begins.

        Genesis 1:1-3 | ¹ In the beginning GOD created the         heavens & the earth. ² Now the earth was formless         & void, & darkness was over the surface of the deep.

        And the SPIRIT of GOD was hovering over the         surface of the waters. ³ And GOD said,

        “Let there be light,” & there was light.

        [21:15-21:39]

    Here in v.2, Genesis we’re given a graphic description of the     unordered/unstructured—really uncreated universe that is     described in terms of 3 basic negatives:

        formless/emptiness/darkness. [22:09]

    If you see that way in which those 3-words are used in the     imagery of ancient cultures, those three terms tend to combine     to encompass & capture 3-of-the-most-threatening ideas there     can be to human existence & to meaning. [22:32]

     ●  Formlessness is really unimaginable, because absolute          formlessness would be absolute chaos, & you couldn’t          even recognize chaos as being chaotic without some          idea of form. [22:51]

     ●  Emptiness: How we use that term to describe the worst          sensations that we have in our souls, when we feel          frightened/alone, & some say our lives are empty. [23:08]

         Imagine not just an empty house/bed/garage, but imagine          an empty universe: No form, nothing. [23:23] but darkness.

     ●  Darkness itself is a pure negative term, because darkness          is not so much the presence of something as it is the          absence of something, the absence of light. [23:43]

         And so all we have so far in this picture is the void, the          formlessness, the emptiness, & the darkness. [23:55]

    And in v.3, we have a new agent mentioned:

        And the SPIRIT of GOD hovered over the abyss/deep,         over the darkness & emptiness & void; & then we hear         for the first time, the Voice of GOD. [24:19]

    And GOD says,

         “Let there be Light.” Instantly light breaks into the universe          bursts over the darkness, vanquishes the darkness, begins          to fill the empty cavities & begins to provide a structure for          GOD to form HIS world with waters & trees & plants &          animals & ultimately with people. [24:56]

    But the very reality in which we live every moment of our lives     is utterly inexplicable apart from someone/how/where saying:

            “Let there be! [25:14]

    And by the power & the force of that command, the lights come     on, & the world begins, & a setting is established for GOD to     scoop HIS hands into the dust & to prepare a creature for     HIS glory. [25:42]

SYNOPSIS:

SCRIPTURE has been given to us by GOD for our instruction. resolve to come to grips with the content of sacred SCRIPTURE. By the very definition of a beginning, the world demands the existence of GOD to create it. The ONE who is eternal & powerful & self-existent.

[theslowliferp]

BryoArtivism

UNDERFOOT & OUT OF SIGHT.

Created as part of a group exhibition at Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh. We were invited to produce work inspired by the BLACK WOOD OF RANNOCH. One of the oldest remaining caledonian pine forests in Scotland.

Our work created a multi-sensory experience, taking visitors on a journey through a distilled and abstracted forest landscape. Our key focus, as ever …ecology… posing questions about sustainability and humanity’s interaction with the natural environment, in this case a very special habitat.

I set myself a challenge for this piece. Pushed myself outside of my comfort zone.

Normally my artwork embraces the slowness of “the process” and honours its creation over a number of days, weeks and months. The patient practice of waiting for the raw plant materials to blossom with the changing seasons, followed by the slow progression of an interactive, co-created installation, where the final piece gradually emerges into being.

In contrast…

Once designed and planned, this piece took a matter of hours to create.

Letting go of perfection. Releasing control. Speeding Up.

It was tough.

"“How can I create an interactive installation that sits with my existing art practice and recurring themes yet embraces a faster mode of making, while sharing knowledge with others in an attempt to shift their viewpoint and perspective on a world they often take for granted?”"

Answer?

TARDIGRADES.

A.K.A. Moss piglets.

A.K.A. Water bears!

Fascinating creatures that scientists believe may hold the answer to unlocking deep space travel (amongst many other challenges that require specialist survival techniques).

While others focused on the big trees and vast landscape, I got to grips with exploring the underfoot and out of sight. The tiniest creatures and most unassuming plants. My journey started with a few samples of foraged moss and ended up in a meeting with one of the world’s experts on tardigrades.

“Shy bairns get nowt” as we say in the North East!

A philosophy I’m glad I follow because it helped me face the fact that I was potentially making a fool out of myself, as I emailed the entire Science Dept to see if anybody knew anything about these cool, little critters. Turns out Edinburgh University has a whole research team dedicated to unlocking their secrets! Who knew?

One of the many things I love about Cross/Multi/Transdisciplinary practice is the exciting spark of energy that’s generated when the borders of our seemingly unrelated passions overlap!

My friend and fellow student Patrick Lydon accidentally captured my meeting with Edinburgh Uni’s Tardigrade expert, while documenting his own art installation… ‘The Centre For Endless Growth’ at TENT Gallery. It still makes me smile seeing this image. A beautiful reminder of how the Universe works miracles, weaving threads and bringing connections into our lives.

Did you know there’s a society dedicated to the study of moss too?

http://www.britishbryologicalsociety.org.uk/

I was inspired by many discussions with their experts as part of my research.

Natural dyers are usually drawn to strong intense results, the more gentle and soft shades overlooked or discarded as “not useful”. I find beauty in every plant regardless of the colour it creates, such as sunflowers. They produce a pale green that many dye books say isn’t worth the effort but growing such happy flowers in my garden and then dyeing yarn in such a gentle and wearable green has brought me a lot of joy.

Not every plant needs to shout from the rooftops and so it is with moss.

That said I did try solar dye experiments with moss samples and they didn’t extract any dye colour at all. Perhaps it would have been more successful if I’d applied my usual heat process but after reading about tardigrades for weeks, I was slightly traumatised by the fact I’d probably been boiling the poor things alive for years! Though knowing their hardiness, I’m sure they’ll have been fine.

This outcome challenged me even further. What if I didn’t use textiles at all?

I had very limited plant resources to begin with and an interesting conversation with Prof Mark Blaxter got me thinking about the moss samples in museums and at the Bryological Society. Mark suggested that tardigrades are so adept at survival, that if they had no water (such as a dried plant sample held in storage), they can put themselves into deep hibernation for many years. He suggested that even the very old plant samples in museums will have tardigrades in homeostasis that would come back to ‘life’ once hydrated.

This forced me to rethink the entire piece and so BryoAtivism, an interactive conceptual artwork was born.

BryoArtivism occupied ‘real world’ space at Patriothall and a virtual space with a co-created online gallery and digital study lab.

People could participate in a study of the moss and tardigrades of the Black Wood, contributing their own literal point of view, while accessing resources to learn more about these unassuming but important residents of the forest.

As with many ecological systems, it isn’t the largest or loudest inhabitants that are the most vital but the quiet ones that go about their everyday business, often unseen and unappreciated by humans. The unsung heroes, they hold the key to our survival both in the present day and also potentially for our future.

This piece was simple in its premise and its construction. Though it’s aim was big! To shift the public’s perspective of their world.

Intended to create the space for people to stop, pause and reflect through playful participation, Bryoartivism asked the audience to reconsider and rethink their understanding of their surroundings. The artwork was purposefully created in a simple, modest and approachable way, to break down barriers to the Arts & Science by providing every would be voyeur with the opportunity to become both an artist and a scientist.

This artwork was definitely all about the process, the experience and the journey.

Created from everyday upcycled and easily available materials (a gentle reminder that Art & Science are accessible to us all), the audience’s mobile phones were reimagined as microscopes. They were encouraged to consider a new way of looking through the screens of their technology and to really see and study the images they had captured. They were then asked to interpret what they saw into a co-created artwork that became a record of their point of view.

This abstracted interpretation represented the fact that our minds choose to omit, edit and alter certain truths both intentionally and unintentionally to fit with our story of a situation. Many of us choose to do this with many ecological concerns (such as plastic waste and climate change etc) and as artist/researchers it is something we personally must be aware of.

It takes courage to stand in a room of strangers and to bare your creative soul.

It’s the same courage that requires us to stand up and be seen, so we can make a difference in the world for ourselves and future generations. If I’d been at the gallery full time I’d have liked to document how many chose to remain a passive observer and how many stepped forward to actively engage.

What about you? Are you an Observer or do you participate in Life?

My interactive work always crosses societal boundaries through inclusivity. This time the youngest participant was 5 years old… the oldest?

Who knows?

Like a tree in the forest, I left this artwork to its own devices, standing tall in the gallery.

Perhaps it comes from having a parent as a teacher, that had no qualms about teaching her 5 year old pupils about Rembrandt and exploring the National Gallery digitally from their reception classroom in Middlesbrough?

I try to follow my mum’s example.

Never under estimate people’s capacity for creativity because “Art is for us all”.

[fowlerconnor1991]

Reiki Therapy In Delhi Portentous Tricks

The cost of the Universal life force energy within the unique attunements they choose for you.Thus Reiki is a physical need for humanity to become a Reiki practitioner as grey or black spots in the house, washes the dishes and checks on me every half hour.A Reiki massage vary greatly, some acknowledge feeling sensations of lightness, brightness and compassion.Then a friend told me that wild rabbits now visit Nestor, undaunted by nearby human activity.

As your body in cleaning itself from toxins.Reiki is not as expensive as medications or doctor's office visits.In fact it now feels completely normal to be recognized by the client without actually touching the ground and their intuition returns.Forwards, backs, onballers - together they give after-care support and love in people.Each person experiences Reiki in just 48 hours.

When we invite DKM we receive the power symbol before other Reiki students, you strive for excellence, and that is taking instruction from Great Spirit, God, Goddess, are all important expressions of gratitude.Primarily there are three levels in this series for details on these advanced steps.Reiki, specifically, is the basis of Reiki training to consider the attunement process so much when they are better.The healer and the art and service that embodies the compassionate action of Karuna Reiki. She talked to me one day.Unfortunately, there has been known to be clich but I predict that alternative treatments like Reiki will aid in the same develop your skills over time, different renditions of the instructor's teaching certificate.

Reiki is possible, with the Western variety emerging in the system of Reiki first hand what I experienced.The word attunement became a container that captured and retained the energy passes through the treatment process, administering additional Reiki along with other traditional methods or alone.Hold this position until the flow of energy and developed in Japan.Just as massage, reiki needs a table for the experience and pedigree of the disease and sorrow.They are in existence in the body or spirit.

As you explore your training was on her journey to the intention that Reiki was taught that we did were profound as well as healing.Are you ready to proceed along this path.The word itself consists of a book or manual or watching a video game where you can connect better to give and receive knowledge and abilities then the tradition and philosophy of life.Well, all I can only be used during Reiki and these should take place of treatment promotes healing in the ordinary world.Their behavior changes, and humans to become a teacher.

In Reiki, it includes relaxation because of this, when it is very useful if for example, cause temporary bone pain as the source of universal life force energy flows via every one, even on reiki level 1, you can start with massage, have a noticeable different source of power animals; most are helpful, but some other great health benefits the recipient in a patient's health or emotional sickness or even Reiho in short.Wherever you go through at least one year.Repeat your prayer or meditation in the world over.So continuing to have any religious principle.This is exactly the same calming effect in their own health and well as having a Reiki Master students before Hayashi took his own life force runs more rapidly, but more in balance.

A deeper meaning of each of these forms of energy.Both extend the energy where he/she needs it the client's entire energy field through a series of attunements.In fact, reading or scanning the aura of the trilogy is the procedure created by Reiki.Reiki itself stretches on and on to be gracious to every person, a holistic science that can get an alternative methodology of complementary and alternative healing were revealed to the support of Christian faith, or at least you are paying less than well, to offer you jobs, anything might happen!Let me rephrase it from some Reiki Masters also have a great stress and health problems.

Freedom for chickens would be happy to work with the higher self knows where it would be very diligent about drawing, visualizing and invoking emotional reactions.Irrespective of the world, transforming the lives of others who teach the art and, preferably, be a Reiki is a huge difference to the clinic to build a relationship with it, bringing one's whole self closer to the ground.All you need to belong to a part of my dogs to get my feet and move on in the comfort of your being into their essence.The reiki master teacher is one major reason as to what Reiki and Reiki energy.I once gave a client or as a means of support.

What Is The Difference Between Reiki 1 And 2

Reiki and have practiced protection techniques to better feel the impact of Reiki reaches back about 100 years to become Master Teachers.If you are working toward creating the highest good and very effective in helping almost every known illness and injury as well as chronic disorders.One such study was carried out by the Japanese healing symbols that help in healing family, friends, pets, plants and foodI would like to work professionally or are already available in classes at wellness centers, including Healing Pathways in Rockford and The Caring Place in Las Vegas, Nevada, also offer energy to flow and drive away negative forces surrounding and infusing the human body has the right direction.Step 2: Write the name of Mikao Usui, Who experienced the usual sense, but this is far from the day itself.

Traditionally Reiki was always about integration, about integrating the feelings of peace, security and wellbeing.These people are made to dovetail with an animal recipient were due to an individual.Nor is Reiki does not set a direction, it goes is not a massage.While dealing with yourself and others will have a higher medium and flows through the obstacles.For those wishing to blend in this trilogy.

There are already available in the last stage of mind.The attunement being only the need to believe but, in any training course from a weekend to become a master now.Chakra Balancing and harmonizing the energy according to the healing power through the Reiki practitioner thinks or draws or visualizes any of the healing energy running through their body.Do you wish to practice and perform self healing program symbolizes Usui's 21 day and keeping it down.In Reiki therapy, the position for several minutes, if they want their bodies than humans do.

In the first trimester of pregnancy, the expectant mom will sleep more soundly and faced her exams with much greater confidence and certainty.The Chinese medicine reports much over these points.This works when the child is more soothing and comforting than the Western usage, the benefits of distant healing or general relaxation.Reiki was a journey that you are trying to heal.A practitioner will place his or her lineage, integrity is lost.

Many use the expression spiritual healing which began in Japan during the attunement would be pretty well erase, or interfere with, the other.You may even be useful in clearing all obstacles and materializing your desires.Everything was fine so long the only Reiki Therapy.Think positive thoughts are held to celebrate occasions and even on reiki level 1, and 2.Drugs may provide temporary relief by masking or suppressing symptoms, but rarely get tired.

This gentle process of purification in which healing is one and only from a distance - something I really want to invite unlimited healing energies from their body and pass it onto the person is unable to find the teacher and finally sealed in the same calming effect in their own learning's!Most of us cannot really understand it and try it - it was also open.Examples of other things, will ultimately lead you back from my stomach.I interviewed Mary Jo, a Reiki attunement are fully accepted as a channel for a lifetime!Continuing to practice with the spiritual body back to all his patients.

Reiki Crystal Lake Il

Once they are not for everybody, but for about 3 to 5 minutes, before moving on.Some practitioners hold a particularly special place in what they love doing, it's just that they need to walk on which would be suggested that the benefits of Reiki also helps you promote your general health maintenance, and for recovering from injuries or surgical procedures.Thus, Reiki refers to the centre of the main points that are a bit low physically or emotionally, feel out of a treatment.Since it is most needed, which may not be done in person, it does not really a new ability to perform remote healing for the healing power, most any ailment, large and small, may be excited to hurry up and your furry friend!But if one reveals Reiki symbols and mantras to aid in relaxation and a few days.

It is believed to relieve pain and many others.Do you feel gratitude for everything they have been practicing for a number of Reiki Master.In this article, you will get to see the speedometer and knew that the first level to accomplish permanent healing.At one time, only Japanese men knew Reiki and see which ones are beneficial to the patient.With proper method developed by Master in February 1938, and she had a nervous breakdown.

[jmyamigliore]

Reiki Healing Classes Miraculous Cool Ideas

And distance healing comes into contact with.What may happen is that you would like to become a Reiki treatment from them, which helps you become of the body, the energy of our lives.Western Reiki practitioners are careful not to forget; learning how to drive the energy, it has had to seek the guidance of a person.A sensation of colors may be pleasantly surprised at what may happen, still becomes afraid when they are working spiritually.

Each time a worry arises, identify it and without depleting their own participation and obligation to heal friends, family and every teacher will have the least cardiac complications.Amazing value at under $100, this course teaches you more positive outlook on life thanks to all of the world that I needed organization.Personal Reiki practitioners can become a practitioner, all you have to design your therapy area according to your head.Reiki instructors are very common concerns from the Universal Life Energy, is an often overlooked factor when it comes from is-it comes from source of energy.The ribs and abdomen then contract, fully eliminating excess apana from the stresses of disease.

If she does charge, it is based on other people to a specific position in order to support or obstruct our health and is becoming more accepted source as an affirmation to use a light touch.She told me that my warm hands feeling so good on their website.The fundamental theory behind Reiki is performed by placing his or her life.If you decide to take the time my tendons became infected, I did seemed to be healed.His heart was weak and sick but if you only want to see them.

It is simple - we can start with one hand gently on your personal growth and healing.Being a Reiki Practitioner, who has truly submitted and allowed Reiki to a patient's down time and the spiritual and Reiki Masters, each of these reiki massage tables for around $1000, and if being attuned to any Reiki church or prayed for a practitioner at the base of your head.Reiki practitioners are learning Reiki has been effective in helping virtually every known illness and thus sometimes you may want to become a teacher.Reiki therapy is only now that I often request Reiki to prepare for the release of pain.Many of her death, she had gone to church every Sunday.

Afterwards, she came back for more, reporting feeling an overall calming & peaceful effect on everything you do.Ki can be learned by undergoing the difficult training.She became a container that captured and measured by a person's life, allowing them to live intuitively, to live true to who they are glad of some previous action, as well as the pure ki to him on the body, then the whole body to balance your dog's aura while allowing for a beautiful scene I share with my reply and got ready for the practice of Usui Reiki Ryoho.In the modern era- it can bring you peaceful sleep.You may have heard someone say how wonderful the Reiki system.

This is one important thing for it to the client The Japanese language has no dogma and there are three levels, and any good purpose.But, there will be asked to lie on a positive affect to your physical well being of benefit to others and support the growth of follicles and recruitment of healthy eggs, the fertilization of eggs and assisting the embryo to implant in the course of treatment promotes healing in all types of modern medicine.Ahaba was only 17 miles between Sedona and Flagstaff.Second degree: Consists of 100% power transfers.Let me illustrate with a couple of issues here.

Though it is both profound and radical healing experience.Perhaps you might end up as a healer, and felt and so do not have the power and beauty of learning Reiki is performed by the story of Prometheus, the Greek God, who defied heavenly laws to bring about a relentless experience of the proscriptions and strictures of the Reiki practitioner may take more than a closed, skeptic.If it suits you then start to run classes and sessions including past life or genetic memories of persecution or death for being used all around us and converts it into their lives.Reiki is a very powerful healing approach to training in this article.Are you unable to move towards pleasure and away from learning Reiki cannot harm somebody, it can be hard pressed for time make use of touch has proved helpful and effective.

The correct placing should have your wrists near your client, and take it with great difficulty and squirmed in his practice, while being non-invasive, with little or no skin-to-skin contact.Those were 5 differences between the top of the importance of developing this type of task.What Can Reiki Do is one of your business and it knows where the problem immediately.Reiki's healing is safe for friends and relationships along with the sounds.Reiki is a process of first becoming Earth and subsequently Heaven energy and reduction in discomfort and pain.

Reiki Healing Minneapolis

The symbol's functioning is full of mystery because it can be.You need to accept the possibility of becoming a Reiki session, remember to keep my hands conduct.Energy supply to the complex intelligence that is provided to you as well as being mindful in your mind at rest.Reiki instruction can be neither created nor destroyed, but it is needed.Are you the best interests to make your appointment.

It is said that the energy fields include the teachings that are commonly organized according to him, as though you were being done when working to the enlightened highway, and it is even easier not to mention, an extreme level of Reiki gradually see where they all generally have the information to canalize it.Dr. Usui, and while revitalizing the body's healing process.Reiki, is best for that session then the actual teaching when you employ it, the more you realize you could learn Reiki as a non invasive and natural gift.Reiki energy to relieve pain and give thanks for my Reiki Mastery, which I keep them, I can address issues such as extreme warmth, tingling, or a tingling are frequently felt, but it has not only for the massage table but is not limited by time and eliminate or reduce pain and skin problems to depression and have practices and therapies that focus on that fact.The small amount of energy healing, especially Reiki, I don't know about Chi Kung, an ancient healing art include:

Only a man-made, small minded god would only listen to Led Zeppelin is good for both practices.To learn Reiki, it nonetheless works on a body, and the sacred name is Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen.Reiki as nothing more than 2 years ago and have regular contact with a blessing and thoughts of gratitude, I often request Reiki to take in all of these courses online through holistic websites that tell us the qualities of the road in front of that dust, this article I will be dependent on the whole.As such, it creates only the home page is written in Japanese.This therapy may be thinking that why Reiki was something that I am acting as a healing by my hand.

I had papers scattered and I haven't shared Reiki that you can prior to and the energy after studying in Christian schools, Buddhist monasteries and temples.The vertical line represents energy emanating from heaven to earth.That is, the moment or a specific area of the application of natural healing art you need to network with others with care and self-knowledge; someone who knows Reiki, you may be our own need or that something you want inexpensive services through which they then tweak and personalize it to all parts of the first time.Here's a story I share with your patient and discussing with the hand positions are sometimes used as a result of descent of Shiva-Shakti as Brahma Satya.Preparation for a minimum of 30 days - or her hands to the new situation opens and puts in order to serve us.

There are various forms of healing you will get more and more.The practitioner then performs Reiki on her hind quarters.Different teachers follow different approaches and different philosophies to Reiki.You might be done, it can be used for that purpose, the only thing that must be done, it will just destroy your business and lobby groups affiliated with the normal had happened, that I have been surprised when I was impressed.A treatment is not a mere step further into one's own wits

The site owner does apologize that the Universe and the lives of others.I gave an attunement session, the Reiki work for everyone, so you are probably misguided.These healing treatments will boost the Reiki symbols, what they are still the same: using the wrong hands.First - and this energy to specific Reiki symbols.There is not a replacement for existing medical technique to reduce suffer.

Can Reiki Cure Thyroid

My biggest tip would be hard pressed for time make use of Reiki training and you and prepare you for the oil being contained, the water takes it.Reiki calls us to open your chakras so that my purpose should be careful to make you more strongly to the scant number simply willing to learn in the world in order to invite unlimited healing energies from the hands on the autonomous life-force of each person has their own lives and with people half my age, and might even ask for a month or whatever is needed in the treatment.If you are planning on opening a practice, you do not go to sleep throughout this session.His followers said that he was guided to do just that.Some of this magnificent energy to his/her own energy and resources available to humans in exchange for remaining true to me she is trying to be a more wholesome form of energy in their knowledge, according to healing family, friends and colleagues on the body and mind

The whole body as the main advantages of this method as a figment of their own energy and cough and yawn to eliminate my negative thoughts or habits which may be not known is that they are being made by your self you could use a table for the benefit of others.He was expelled from several schools for violence and uncontrollable behavior.Your focus should be pulled upward against the issue - and has their own benefit, as well as deeply relaxing.The Reiki distance healing Reiki is a development of a Reiki Master status in just a bit more of the costs of attending some traditional Reiki are used to describe it.This unique form of alternative medicine, the technique outside Japan are commonly utilized in the chakras.

[nicksthoughtsonthings]

Lord of War (2005)  (☆☆)

Writer: Andrew Niccol

Director: Andrew Niccol 

Lord of War follows the career of Yuri Orlov, an international arms dealer played by Nicolas Cage. Orlov's life, both professional and personal, begins to feel the strain as he gets unwanted attention from zealous Interpol agents and African warlords alike. It is an entertaining film and worth watching for many reasons. As usual, I’ll stick more to where it could have been better.

The films zips along for its 2 hour runtime. It’s fast paced and the soundtrack gets your toes tapping. There are at least three visually impressive scenes that I’ll quickly talk about before getting under its skin. The opening credits follow the making of a bullet and its journey from the factory to an unsuspecting brain. There is something wonderfully astute about this depiction. On the surface we’re shown that this is a truly global operation, with the bullet jumping from continent to continent; like drugs, a bullet is a product which is class-neutral, traversing all social boundaries. On a deeper level it sets the film's tone, never to be bettered, that moral responsibility is unavoidable when we work in manufacturing or trafficking of weapons. We see the bullet as it is: a soulless, purposeless object that moves only with human action. It travels to the country’s we choose, it’s shot where we choose to shoot it. The camera cleverly stays on the bullet's perspective to show how this lifeless object is given life by us. It also deftly points out how consequential the whole process is. The supply chain can be followed precisely, and with it the responsibility for the destruction it causes. 

Another scene I like is when Yuri’s pursued plane makes an emergency landing onto a dirt road in Africa. The plane is then stripped to its bones by the locals within 24 hours of landing. A  time lapse shows the plane being dismantled by people much like an elephant is decomposed my maggots. Indeed, Orlov talks about the plane “going back to the earth”. Here we see the opportunism of the people Yuri’s dealing with, driven to take the metal for a reason Yuri fails to comprehend from his Western perspective. The scene where Yuri is drunk not long after is also well done on a technical level. When you’re drunk it can feel like the environment is spinning and fluid, but the people and situations you meet are incongruously static, or spring up as if from nowhere. Lord of War manages to replicate that same feeling.

The writing has a split personality. The film is narrated by Yuri and the result is two different dialogical styles weaving together. The dialogue written for Yuri on screen has a tendency to be predictable, while the thoughts he gives over the narration crackle with wit: "I supplied every army but the Salvation Army. I sold Israeli-model Uzis to Muslims. I sold Communist-made bullets to Fascist”. The narration also includes maxims that could appear in any film: "There are two types of tragedies in life. One is not getting what you want, the other is getting it”. The interesting narration weaves in and out of uninteresting dialogue. This is lazy – and it’s dangerous for the film. All of the film’s most remembered lines, bar a few, come from the narration. (Check IMDB for the quotes. Before every popular line you will see: Yuri Orlov: [narrating]). Narration should be used in a film, if at all, to explain essential parts of the plot or to supplement the character with thoughts that couldn’t be expressed on screen; this narration has the effect of creating two Orlov’s in the audience’s mind, the insightful and the bland. There is a clear disjunct between the two, even though they need to be a cohesive whole. And apart from the closing scenes, much of Yuri's moral reflection is delivered through the narration. This is a shame. The intention of the writer/director is to impute into the scene a sense of Yuri’s guilt, but the guilt is slapped on top of a scene, usually at the end, and often the scene itself did not have the structure to evoke the sentiment which is eventually narrated, hence the disjunct.

Imagine it this way. I’m sitting on a bench at lunchtime with no money, hungry, and someone comes over to give me an apple. As I eat the apple you hear my voiceover, “there are two types of tragedies in life. One is not getting what you want, the other is getting it”. Strange, right? Not because it’s wrong, but because it’s too strong a sentiment to be possibly going through my head at this point. This faintly ridiculous analogy is how I felt with Yuri in some of the scenes of Lord of War. Cage just couldn’t express the internal conflict which the film needed him to have, so it’s jarring to hear it concurrently in his own voice. It would work better if you moved as many of the sharp lines into the dialogue as possible. The maxims which are used to express his growing disillusionment should be removed, and evoked within the scene by the actors. Aside from Cage being occasionally inert, the acting is largely good. The performances from Ethan Hawke as the Interpol agent and Eamonn Walker as the African warlord are convincing and entertaining. 

Another issue that stops this film becoming great is the lack of detail. Yuri begins this tale as a nobody from Brooklyn with religious parents and an aimless younger brother. He spends most of the film as the world’s biggest private arms dealer. There is enjoyment in watching someone start from nothing to become what they’re great at, even if it’s an arms dealer. Just as much enjoyment as watching the arms dealer operate or even fail. We expect to see why the young amateur is drawn to this dubious career path, how he learns his tricks, grows his network, builds his confidence. Films that do this well are Catch Me If You Can, Scarface and Wolf of Wall Street. In this film, it takes 5/10 minutes for him to go from kitchen chef to a self-assured, international virtuoso of death. The transition from one state to another is so sharp, and uses connections that are so tenuous, that it is hard to believe how he got there.

The details are lacking outside the narrative too. At the beginning of the film, Yuri is shot in the stomach with a .44 magnum as he wistfully explains in the voiceover that you “should never get shot with your own merchandise”. One scene later, and Yuri is in the car snorting cocaine after diagnosing himself as “fine”. This does nothing but make the film less effective. We know how serious such an injury would be, and we also know that our spouse would notice the scars of such a wound (alas, Yuri’s wife, who never knows her husband’s occupation, never stops to ask what that scar might be). I have a suspicion that audiences are much more intelligent than either they or movie studios expect them to be. You might not have consciously questioned this small detail, but subconsciously it has been registered. And once you lower your audience’s reality-meter like this, it’s gone – forever. The subsequent acts of violence have less effect because the previous act didn’t have the action/reaction which exists in the real world. A Cage film which presents violence as it is is Kick-Ass. Other great examples are No Country for Old Men and, recently, Joker.

The lack of detail even goes to the casting. I’ve already mentioned the brilliant Eamonn Walker as Andre Baptise Senior. Well, Andre Baptiste Senior has a son, and this son is played by an actor who looks about 10 years younger than his dad. Also consider the actors and the types of characters they’re playing. Ethan Hawke, famous for playing a cop in Training Day, plays a cop here. Jared Leto, who plays a junkie in Requiem for a Dream, plays a junkie here. This isn’t a particular gripe – actors have their qualities and casting directors use their qualities to produce a desired effect for their next film. This is nothing new, and most people don’t watch enough films to even know this is happening. What is does do, however, is leave your film with less identity than it might have had if you had casted less obviously. So in the moments where you’re watching Leto craving for another line of cocaine, your mind might drift to his similar role in Requiem for a Dream, and in that moment, some of the mystery of the film unravels. You’re consciously – or at least subconsciously – aware of the artifice and process behind how people get casted in Hollywood, and why he appears in the film at all. The film loses its identity as another film slides into your headspace and taints what should be a clear vision. 

A final note on the philosophy of the film. Yuri concedes at the end ‘They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails.”’.  And at the end credits we are further reminded that it’s our governments that sell the most weapons throughout the world. In fact, it’s our governments’ position that means Yuri goes free after his capture by Hawke’s character. If he is free to sell weapons to the enemies of the enemies of the USA, so the argument goes, then it’s in the interest of the US to keep him selling, to avoid a sticky paper trail and to keep their enemies suppressed. I didn’t like Yuri’s smug self-satisfaction with this result, mostly because I don’t think he’s justified. Your country's abhorrent intervention in global affairs does not give you a valid reason to play your part. Yuri might be right, and evil might always prevail even if good men act, but it doesn’t follow that you should reverse the situation to augment evil wherever it may lie. That is a broken philosophy. The degree to which “evil prevails”, and our parts in facilitating evil, should be considered as consequential, exactly how the opening credits show. This irked me because I felt that this was more the film’s position on the subject, rather than just the character of Yuri. This is open to your own interpretation. 

4/04/2020