#of our modern sensibilities however

[thegrapeandthefig]

Dissecting ancient Greek wedding customs (or “How to adapt the clusterfuck they are into something somewhat doable for the 21st century”)

This post is going to be a bit different. I could stick to writing about the customs we know of from a purely historical perspective, and while it would be informative, it wouldn’t reflect what I’ve actually been up to. Some of you might already know, but I’m getting married, so I approached this topic with the intent of seeing what I could do (and get away with).

So this post is going to be more about method and the practical challenges that come with doing the groundwork of adapting very old (and often outdated) traditions in a way that makes sense for our modern times.

I do have some disclaimers to make before I get started:

Most (if not all) of the literature around ancient Greek marriage is hetero-normative. However, this does NOT mean that marriage rites shouldn’t be adapted for queer marriages or that queer marriages can’t be done within Hellenic paganism. It’s our job as reconstructionists and revivalists to rework and adapt to our needs.

Similarly, this post is bound to mention or detail cult practices that are no longer in line with our modern sensibilities. I also want to make it clear that this post is not a tutorial. I’m not saying how things should be done, I’m only exposing elements that I consider reworkable and propose suggestions so that it can help others make their own research and decisions, with the level of historicity that they deem fit.

While the wedding customs from fifth century BC Athens are decently known, the ones from other cities and regions of Greece are much more obscure outside of anecdotal and fragmentary details (with the exception of Sparta). For this reason, the Athenian example is what I’ll be using as foundation. If you reconstruct practices from other areas of the Greek World, you might find something valuable in this article: The Greek Wedding Outside of Athens and Sparta: The Evidence from Ancient Texts by Katia Margariti.

Basic/simplified structure

The typical Athenian wedding would spread over three days, and be marked by several steps, some of which are listed below. Note that the order of these steps is not precisely known and might have been flexible:

Pre-wedding:

Decorating: korythale at the door, decoration of the nuptial bedroom

The Proteleia

Filling of the loutrophoros

Wedding day

Nuptial bath

Adornment of the bride

Wedding Feast

Hymenaios

Anakalypteria

Nymphagogia

Katachysmata

Day after

Epaulia

Gamelia

Final sacrifices

Some of these steps included specific customs and traditions, not all of which are reconstructible for various reasons.

Decorations

The korythale: the korythale was a sprig, usually from an olive tree (or laurel), which was placed at the groom’s door (and perhaps the bride’s too). The word in interpreted as deriving from “koros” and “thallein”, which would translate “youth-blossom”.

The korythale is very reminiscent of the eiresione, which was a similar kind of branch of laurel used during the Thargelia and/or the Pyanepsia that had apotropaic purposes. Athenian weddings included a procession from the bride’s home to the groom’s house, so the presence of the korythale at the doors would indicate that a wedding was taking place involving the decorated homes.

While I haven’t seen any one make this interpretation, I would still be tempted to argue that decorating the thresholds of houses has a similar protective and luck-bringing purpose than the eiresione, which was also hung above the door of Athenian houses.

The thalamos (nuptial bedroom): While there is no doubt the houses were properly decorated for the occasion, we have mention of special care given to the nuptial bedroom.

It’s important to understand that the procession from the bride’s house to the groom’s went up to the bedroom door, it was generally an important location and its preparation is seen represented on ancient pottery. Euripides mentions the adornment of the bed with fine fabrics, while Theocritus mentions the smell of myrrh (sacred to Aphrodite). There is also evidence that, in the Imperial period, the practice of hanging curtains to create a canopy above the bed was adopted, very likely from Egypt.

When it comes to adapting this today, it is pretty straightforward and there is plenty of room for personalization. The korythale could be challenging depending on how easily available olive or laurel are in your area. I would also argue that the custom could be more loosely adapted so that instead of being at the houses’ doors, it could take the form of a floral arrangement at the door of whatever venue you are using.

Proteleia

In short, the proteleia refers to sacrifices and offerings that would be made to various gods before the wedding. The exact timing of these is more or less unknown, but we have reasons to believe they could be done a day or a few days before the wedding, and perhaps also on the day of the wedding. These offerings were made independently by each family.

It is in this context that the offering of a lock of hair and of childhood items is best known for brides. The recipients of the offerings are varied: In Athens the most mentioned are the Nymphs and Artemis, but various sacrifices to Aphrodite, Hera, Athena and Zeus were also performed. In other parts of Greece, pre-nuptial customs often included sacrifices to local heroines. Plutarch, in the 2nd century AD (and therefore way after the focus of this post) mentions the main five nuptial deities to be Zeus Teleios, Hera Teleia, Aphrodite, Peitho and Artemis.

Today, I believe the exact choice of who to offer to and what to offer very much comes down to personal preferences and circumstances. While we assume that both families made prenuptial sacrifices, we know very little of the groom’s side of things, since the focus was on the bride, and the rite of passage aspect was not present for the groom in Ancient times. This is a gap that leaves room for modern innovation eg. including Apollon to either replace or accompany Artemis or choosing a group of deities that is more couple-centric rather than family-centric.

Personally, I have settled on Aphrodite, Hera and Artemis and have integrated a Spartan custom that includes the mother of the bride in the sacrifice to Aphrodite. Hera Teleia will receive a lock of my current hair, while Artemis will receive a lock of hair from my first haircut as a child (that my mother has kept all these years), alongside some other trinkets. The groom will honour Zeus Teleios in a passive way. And I will honour the Nymphs through the the rite I will explain next.

Nuptial baths

Both bride and groom had a ritual bath before the wedding. Its purpose was of cleansing and purificatory nature, and is consistent with other water-based pre-sacrifice purifications. What made the bride and groom's baths distinctive was their preparation. The bath water used to be drawn at a specific spring or river. At Athens, the water for bridal baths came from the Enneakrounos, the fountain house for the spring Kallirrhoe, but each city had its dedicated source. The water was carried in a special vase named the loutrophoros (bathcarrier) and the act of fetching the water and bringing it back to the homes constituted a procession. The loutrophoros was often given as offering to the altar of the Nymphs after the wedding. It was an important symbol of marriage, to the point that, if a woman died before being married, she would often be buried with a loutrophoros.

This will be more or less difficult to adapt depending on circumstances and environment, but the logic of a purifying bath (or shower even) can be kept (though I would discourage bathing in water you are not sure of the cleanliness of). The idea of having a specific vessel can also be kept. Personally, I plan to have a special vessel for some type of purified water, and while I may not bathe in it, I plan to sprinkle it and/or wash my hands with it.

Adornment of the bride (and groom)

Traditionally, the bride would have a nympheutria (which we could equate as a bridesmaid, but seems to have often been a female relative) charged of helping the bride get ready. I won’t get into the details of the clothing we know about, mostly because there seems to be a lot of variation, and because I consider this to be a very personal choice. However, we can note that both groom and bride were adorned with a wreath or a garland of plants that were considered to have powers appropriate for the occasion (sesame, mint, plants that were generally considered fertile or aphrodisiac). Perfume is also something attested for both bride and groom, especially the scent of myrrh. The bride would wear a crown, the stephane, which could be made out of metal or be vegetal (the stephane is now the object of its own crowning ceremony in Greek Orthodox weddings). The bride’s shoes were also particular for the event, and named nymphides. The bride’s veil was placed above the crown.

Hymenaios and Feast

I am grouping these two since they are linked. The feast was more or less the peak of the wedding ceremony and lively with music and dances, as Plutarch indicates (Moralia, [Quaest. conv.] 666f-67a):

But a wedding feast is given away by the loud cries of the Hymenaios and the torch and the pipes, things that Homer says are admired and watched even by women who stand at their doors.

The hymenaios was a sung hymn in honour of the couple and the wedding, and there were other songs that were specifically sung at weddings. However the hymenaios wasn’t only for the feast, these songs would be sung also during the processions. The hymenaios also had the purpose of ritually blessing the couple, a ritual that bore the name of makarismos.

As for the feast, it was obviously abundant with food and the prenuptial sacrifices provided the meat that would be served. There is otherwise very little difference with what a modern wedding feast would be like: food, drink, music and dance around which gathered friends and relatives of the couple. Like today, the wedding cake(s) was an important part of the celebration. It was called sesame and consisted of sesame seeds, ground and mixed with honey and formed into cakes to be shared with the guests.

Anakalypteria

Note that there is a bit of a debate around this step, which is the unveiling of the bride. Some believe the bride kept her face veiled until this part of the wedding, where her face would be uncovered for the groom to see. Others interpret this step the other way around, where the bride is then veiled as a result of being now married. The timing of the unveiling is also up for the debate. It might have been during the feast (at nightfall), or after once the couple was escorted to the bridal chamber. There doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus.

The concept of unveiling the bride is otherwise something that isn’t unknown to us as a modern audience. As with everything else, how to interpret and modernize it is up to personal preference.

Nymphagogia and Katachysmata

The nymphagogia aka the act of “leading the bride to her new home” took place at night, likely after the feast. It is at this point that the groom ritually led the bride to his home by taking her by the wrist in a ritual gesture known as χεῖρ’ ἐπὶ καρπῷ (cheir’ epi karpo). The relatives and friends of the couple formed a festive procession that accompanied them to their new home accompanied by music and songs. The mother of the bride led the procession carrying lit torches, while the groom’s mother awaited for the new couple in their home, also bearing lit torches.

Once there, the rite of the katachysmata would happen. The couple would be sat near the hearth and the guests would pour dried fruits, figs and nuts over the bride and groom as a way to incorporate them into the household and bless the union with prosperity and fertility. As part of this rite, the bride ate a fruit (either an apple, quince or pomegranate). It is only after this step that the couple would be escorted to the bridal chamber.

These two rites are tricky to adapt in a modern context because of how location-specific they are (and that’s not even taking into account the implications of having family escort you to your bedroom etc). My take would be that the katachysmata is not too far off from the custom of throwing rice/flowers at the couple after the ceremony, and could probably be incorporated as such. The torches could also be replaced by any source of light placed in a meaningful location, depending on the where the wedding is being held. The nymphagogia could also do with an update, the easiest of which could simply be holding hands while leaving the wedding ceremony.

The day after (Epaulia, Gamelia & sacrifice)

The epaulia refers to wedding gifts to the couple, which would be given the day following the ceremony. At this point, it is implied that the couple has consummated their marriage and are officially newly-weds. Pausanias informs us that the term “epaulia” (also?) refers to the gifts brought by the bride’s father in particular and included the dowry.

After the epaulia, the bride's incorporation into her husband's house was complete. This might have been when the groom held a feast for his phratria (aka direct family), as a way to conclude the wedding.

As for final sacrifices, the bride herself may have marked the end of her wedding by dedicating her loutrophoros at the sanctuary of Nymphe, south of the Acropolis.

The epaulia could be adapted, in modern terms, with having a registry. Should someone choose to have a specific vessel linked to the ritual bath today, it could very well be kept, dedicated to the Nymphs and used as a small shrine. Considering how symbolic the object is, there is also room for it to become a piece of family heirloom.

Final words

This is really only a small summary of what a wedding could have looked like, sprinkled with a few ideas of how to manage the gaps, discrepancies and limitations. As I said in my introductions, there are details I haven’t mentioned. Some of the customs detailed here have clear modern counterparts, but others don’t. I’d like to conclude by addressing these.

First, the ancient Greek (Athenian) wedding is completely devoid of priestly participation. It was entirely planned, organized and led by the two families. Religious responsibilities were entirely self-managed. I find this point important to remember because it makes it much more accessible than if modern Hellenic pagans had to seek out an external authority.

Some of you might have noticed the absence of wedding vows, at least in a formal form like the one we are used to in our modern days (derived from Christian and Jewish traditions), this is not an oversight, there simply were none that we know of. As a sidenote, I would also advise against turning a wedding vow into a formal oath. I’m still debating on what to do myself, but I’m leaning towards a religiously non-binding vow that won’t curse me should things go wrong.

Adapting the structures and rites of the ancient wedding to today’s framework of ceremony will naturally lead to changing the order of things, on top of sacrificing elements for the sake of simplicity, practicality, personal preferences and, very likely, visibility. Unless you’re lucky enough to do a private elopement, chances are that relatives and friends might be there, and not all might know or even approve of your faith. I hope this post shows that there can be ways to include traditional religious elements that will go unnoticed to the untrained eye, like I hope it showed that the private nature of the ancient Greek wedding rites is a significant advantage for modernization.

[seeminglyseph]

I really appreciate that Eurylochus in Epic I am pretty sure is adapted from a character in the original who is at the very least somewhat antagonistic and cowardly in characterization and has spun him into a compelling and interesting character who has genuinely caused the fandom to basically to be like “but was he wrong though?”

Because like, the fact that at multiple points both Odysseus and Eurylochus have been right at different points of their adventure and just too fucked up emotionally or too “we can’t talk about things” to like. Clear up the issues they were having, means that they just. Became a tragedy.

And it is especially beautiful because Eurylochus and Polites bring this weight of friendship and loss to Odysseus in Epic, despite their existence in the Odyssey fully lacking that characterization. Though I think it is part of the miscommunication at times because like. Perspective. And if you try to look up extra information from the source text to give more context, Eurylochus is so different in that source text that like… it will back up arguments in favour of Odysseus more easily. But modern sensibilities side with Eurylochus more easily due to monarchs and tyrants like… heavily falling out of favour. So things like kings, gods, princes, captains, status, and rank are like… they exist but they aren’t seen the same.

Like the Odyssey is set in the Mycenaean age, late Bronze Age. This was a tale of ancient times when Homer was telling it. So by modern standards things can’t help but be archaic in ways. Especially given that The Iliad and Odyssey have so much to do with colonization and war and just like. Contemplating it. Existing in it and the aftermaths of it, and being conscious that it is being told to a world of people who are still acting and living in a unifying country due to colonization, that is expanding and growing its power with war and language and colonization. And the stories of the past wars are both glorious and tragic because of the necessity for glory to the heroes of the past but caution and understanding that…

Like Troy was once favoured by Zeus, that favour can be lost or swayed. Only the gods can count on their power lasting for eternity, men must know that a grudge can bloom anywhere and topple the mightiest kingdom if he does not mind his actions carefully.

The Aeneid, by Virgil which is written much later and I admit I have only read a summary, refers to Odysseus (through his Roman name Ulysses) really negatively, but that’s partially because the Romans kinda saw themselves as refugees and survivors of Troy. So like. By the time the Aeneid was being written, it was kinda the story of “those bastards who burnt our home down” from what I understand.

“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” For realsies. Looking things up apparently the Aeneid was the most popular version of both the Odyssey and the Iliad for a while and it wasn’t until the World Wars that Homer’s versions came back into fashion. Part of that was translation issues but still, damn.

This has become the most unhinged ramble, I’m sorry. I don’t know what any of this is even about. Translation? Perspective? Adaptation? The power of storytelling? All of it? Honestly the fact of the matter is that Eurylochus has been adapted to a new character for Epic, but he fits the narrative of the Odyssey especially as far as we need it to be told today because of how power structures work, but it’s been executed extremely well.

It keeps the technicalities of the traits of the poem “cowardice” and “mutiny” and creates a character with insecurity and missing sense of self who is afraid in a reasonable way and in order to overcome that fear reacts with aggression or violence. But in a way that is encouraged, acceptable or rewarded for a soldier. However, as a second in command, he is accustomed to having a role where he checks Odysseus’ plans for flaws. This is a good position to have him in when you’re plotting a battle action, it’s a bad position to have him in when you need him to provide a united front to keep the crew from panicking.

His position as both one of the crew and Odysseus’ Right Hand Man puts him in a position where he gets part of Odysseus’ picture, and is used to a relationship where he can be comfortable and doubtful and easy with Odysseus, however Odysseus as the Captain and the King cannot be fallible in the eyes of his men, because his men need to be able to follow his orders without question in the case of a crisis or it will be a serious issue.

Honestly the whole “I need you to be able to trust me and follow my orders in a crisis” is… part of general insubordination going on into modern day practice in crisis response and military as far as I understand it so like. I do get that. Though like. They are… two deeply damaged and traumatized men who just… cannot have a proper conversation with each other.

And also I am of the opinion that Odysseus in Puppeteer, when he brushes off Eurylochys’ attempted confession with his

“There's only so much left we can endure”

I am pretty sure that is not just brushing off, that is fully Odysseus admitting to Eurylochus like “I can’t handle anything else, please.” Like. My brain is making parallels to FMA “terrible day for rain” and Eurylochus drops it because he’s looking at a man on the verge of breaking down, and grants him some dignity or peace.

I mean Mutiny calls back to Puppeteer when Odysseus calls Eurylochus out, he would have done the same. Eurylochus wanted to cut and run on Circe’s island, leaving the men she had to their fate. But since Odysseus has all the power he carries all the blame, which makes it easier when any of the others make a mistake or something goes wrong. And it’s part of the reason Ody goes back to being Captain as soon as the crew is in trouble again. If they’ve angered a god, it’s better and easier to have Odysseus deal with it.

Unfortunately for everyone Odysseus has now crossed the Despair Event Horizon and all that matters is Penelope, Telemachus, and Ithaca. Everyone else can go fuck themselves.

Which, you know. Bodes well for all the fucked up dweebs who’ve been harassing his family for years. That’s probably gonna go great for them considering all the last shreds of his humanity he sacrificed to get home and see them safe.

[marzipanandminutiae]

The post about "we need feminism because there's a men's rights movement in LGBT" is from radfems. "Baeddelations" has a pinned post about being a baeddel, "men's rights" in this context pretty much means trans men speaking about being trans men. (I'm not denying issues in the community but I know you've wanted it pointing out when you've missed dogwhistles before, and the post is all very thinly veilled references.)

I did some looking into this, because I was not familiar with the term "baeddel."For anyone else who didn't know: It's an Old English word generally meaning "effeminate or castrated man" as far as I can tell, and some transfem people adopted it primarily back in the 2010s (although some still use it, like the user in question). Baeddels in the modern sense claim to focus on transmisogyny and trans women's issues...but as you say, some can lapse into prejudice against trans men. To the point where, while it doesn't seem like they ALL hold that view, it has become one of the most prominent things about the movement. Kind of like radfems and transphobia. The poster in question seemed, when I looked through their blog, to come down in the middle- there were some comments that raised my eyebrows, but not as extreme as things I saw on other blogs.

I went back and forth about what to do re: the post in question, though. Because I don't want to be associated with hatred of trans men, since. You know. I don't hate trans men. However, I do feel that the modern left, and even the LGBT community, believes misogyny has been fixed and refuses to examine the undercurrents thereof that women in these circles still struggle with.

(Trans men can be misogynistic. NB people can be misogynistic. Anyone can be misogynistic, and the community letting misogynistic people off the hook because they're not cis men, or the expectation thereof, is a real issue that I have witnessed/experienced IRL. Shoutout to the trans guy who insisted I let him do everything for me out in public, and got mad when I didn't want to, because it "made him feel more masculine" so I should apparently just shut up and act helpless, for example.)

(There's also been a lot of "not all men" going around in response to women expressing frustration with the bullshit we face for our gender, which is like. Come on. I thought we all figured out in the 2010s that no-one sensible is talking about LITERALLY all men; we just shouldn't be expected to water down our anger to make men comfortable. Tacking "but what about trans men?" onto that doesn't negate the entire rest of the conversation.)

I disagree that the post is "all thinly veiled references" because it looks like most people reblogging it are like me- folks who aren't familiar with that term but feel that there's a still a misogyny issue in progressive and queer spaces. However, because of the association with a specific movement I am not part of and largely disagree with an apparent key point of, I will be deleting it.

Do not mistake this for me recanting my personal sentiments on the matter. There is a misogyny problem in my community, because the misogyny problem in broader society remains. Trans men and NB people are not exempt from being misogynistic. This needs to be talked about, and it is deeply frustrating to me as a queer woman.

Do I even have to say "this is not for t*rfs?" Well, just in case, it is Not. Fuck off.

[poppletonink]

The Marauders Fandom and How It Has Changed The State of Fandom Culture

The Marauders Fandom defies the natural state of fandom culture. Within the realm of the spiderweb of links, clicks and likes, fandoms have been born, have been nurtured and have been destroyed. Typically these fandoms follow a particular mould: by focusing on canon events, characters, and relationships between said characters, more art, writing and wonder is born. However, the Marauders fandom is unlike any of its predecessors or any fandoms being born today. Though its characters were once residents of the world of Harry Potter, in the eyes of the fans they are no longer bound to the confines of their original character archetypes (and their minimal development) as provided by writer J.K. Rowling. The internet has created a fandom renaissance - a rebirth of the characters who were originally solely there as ancestors and side characters to the so-called Golden Trio.

With this rebirth comes a subversion of what people think they know. James Potter (the father of Harry Potter) and his friends are no longer the distant memories of a forlorn, mistreated young boy. Through headcanons, fanfiction, edits, and fanart, and the "fanon" versions of these characters, they are given substance, personalities and backstories much richer than those that were scrawled into the pages of the Harry Potter series. From All The Young Dudes by MsKingBean89 (the most-read fanfiction on Archive Of Our Own) to Crimson Rivers by bizarrestars, formerly known as zeppazariel, these characters are given new life.

A queer utopia - perhaps that is the best way to describe and define this fandom. As it has settled into its cozy corner of the web, the fandom has become more bold and outlandish in their ideas. Debates have run riot over romantic pairings and sexual orientations projected onto any and all characters clawed into the cast that is beloved by this ever-growing group of people. Is Remus Lupin "as gay as the day is long" (as he was described in the original print of Casey McQuiston's Red White and Royal Blue) or is he a bisexual man (as unfortunately rare as they are in the literary world)? That is just one of the many questions thrown around from tongue to tongue, from text to text, in this fandom. The importance of queer representation has been established again and again in our modern world, but it has existed and prevailed within the world of the Marauders Fandom.

The pairings in this fandom range from canon, sensible and strongly backed up with evidence from the original books (like James Potter and Lily Evans), to wild, wacky and completely obscure (like James Potter and Regulus Black). However, the fandom has decided to take their own route, no longer caring what words the creator Rowling has to say about her characters. On numerous occasions, J.K. Rowling has stated that Sirius Black and Remus Lupin do not have romantic feelings for each other, and yet 'Wolfstar', as they are so-lovingly nicknamed, is one of the biggest ships in fandom history. Alongside this, after the proclamations of Rowling's transphobic views mid-2020, the fandom took a stand declaring many of the characters (especially Regulus Black) to be transgender in their eyes. Through this, the Marauders Fandom has made these characters even more relatable for those who read about them. Even more notably, they have used these characters to take a political stand - to make it clear that we must stand up for those in our society who are shoved aside and discriminated against.

Fandom culture is taking art and making it into something even more beautiful, making it something that people relate to and adore even more than they did before. While the art originally belongs to the person who creates it, once it is put out into the world it becomes open to interpretation. People project onto songs, onto books, onto art and it helps them to escape the trials and tribulations they face within their realities. After all, isn't that what entertainment is truly made as - an escape? As a result of the Marauders Fandom, we can look towards a future where fandom is no longer defined by its canon, where it becomes a group of people who love something and share creative ideas together. As a result of the Marauders Fandom, fans have the ability and the opportunity to have a sense of more artistic expression, which ultimately leads to more media and literature for us to enjoy. The Marauders Fandom is a fundamental and quintessential part of fandom history - it is a story of its own, born and bred of minuscule threads and mere sentences about interweaving characters. It shows just how we as people are powerhouses of creativity and that, as is said in Dead Poet's Society (1989): "poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for".

[moiraimyths]

just wondering, out of all the options for clothes at the tailor which one is the ‘masculine’ one, if that applies?

Temair's fashion sensibilities, especially among the upper classes, are in general very airy and loose regardless of gender. Take the following example: Cethor wears more traditional garments (inspired by historical Irish clothing), i.e. a léine (the long yellow tunic) and ionar (the vest), which may strike as rather dress-like or feminine when compared with modern clothing. Keagan conversely wears a newer style of clothing in Temair, popular with the middle class; a caftan (the robe-like garment), high collared tunic, trousers, etc. These are not especially historically accurate from a regional perspective; caftans/kaftans were more popular with the Ottomans, Russians, etc. But unfortunately the pool of historical Irish clothing with visual references is rather small (little is known pre-12th century, and the English banned a lot of Ireland's traditional clothes 😩), so we occasionally (often) need to "eeehhh?? sure".

So anyway: In the tailor scene, the 'masculine' garment would be the caftan outfit, which in our mind's eye blends these two styles together. You're dressed in a long saffron tunic (similar to Cethor's) with a mauve caftan (similar to Keagan's). Seelie love their spring/summer colours, and vibrant/colourful clothes are status indicators.

However, if you're looking for an outfit without any 'pomp', you can opt for the simple tunic and trousers instead - similar to what the lower class NPC sprites wear. They're as gender neutral as jeans and a t-shirt would be, but not terribly exciting either.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Studying Attic Greek at uni with a bunch of pretencious people who base their personalities on The Secret History really is something! Forgive me for being judgmental, but they make it very hard to not be lol (I do keep my judgements to myself ofc) I tried to hide my greekness at first, but my teacher quickly picked up on my accent and called me out in front of the others. It’s just so hard to lose the accent when there are so many similarities with modern Greek! 😅 He was positive about it tho thankfully and encouraged me to keep the accent if it was more comfortable for me, emphasizing that the Erasmian pronunciation is just a convention and used to differentiate between ancient and modern language. The students however are not so positive and love to compare ancient Athens to the modern city and lament Greece´s conversion to christianity. As if it is somehow a degeneration of the «perfect» Ancient Greece. I let them talk, but inside I am rolling my eyes hard lol

Uuuugh the Secret History type of students get on my nerves. The lament about Christianity is the most condescending thing ever 🤦‍♀️ It undermines the thousands and thousands of Greeks who turned into the faith willingly, and also dismisses the slander and crimes of the Polytheists against the Christians. And it completely disregards the fact that many ancient Polytheist customs got into the Christian worship and Greek Orthodoxy is a distinctly Greek way to worship, with an anthropocentric character.

Of course same thing with how Greece has "devolved" over the years 🤦‍♀️ In their minds our achievements in all other eras don't matter just because our statues and columns are of a different style after 2.000 years. Huge yikes.

I'd say don't be afraid to let them know about the history of Greece (because as gemsofgreece once notes, this period wasn't actually good for all Greeks) and let them understand that they're not respectful to the culture when they treat it like an object to obsess over. Just say it to 2-3 people and I'm sure it will spread xD Or just slip little details here and there of all the similarities and how the language and customs have evolved. What's the worst that can happen if you don't keep the judgement to yourself, ya know? They already behave like airheads and you don't have to remain silent if you're boiling on the inside.

I am so glad that your professor spoke about the true use of the Erasmian and encouraged you to keep your Greek accent when reading.. Greek! xD He did the bare minimum but still it would be unfair to not give him credit for being sensible. I don't get too many stories like this on my asks.

[pelagaye]

hair as silver as coins

fandom: honkai star rail pairing: jing yuan x reader summary: jing yuan would be the fairest one of them all among everyone from the six flagships, if only you can tell him that is. no matter, his lazy demeanor and unbelievable appeal are two reasons to keep it to yourself. it takes one walk to change your mind. notes: this fic is inspired by snow white but it isn't an au of it. you'll def see some refs if you squint tho !! n e ways i dedicate this to my cousin who is obsessed w this man. he said he really had fun reading it so i hope that you guys do too ^^

the interrogation begins once the both of you were far enough from the populated areas of the luofu and the setting was simple. jing yuan’s back facing you, he who has coerced to follow him through the evergreens and tall grass. then there was you, who doesn’t mind if you end up collapsing from the strong warmth of the beams above any second now knowing the jing yuan would have no choice but to carry you back.

“lady fu does not take your irresponsibility lightly, general, you are aware of that, yes?” you claim, pushing away an overgrowing tree branch.

"ah, that is very spot on of you, my dear. remind me to commend the master diviner herself," he turns his head to the side catching a glance of you, "however, i do not see how it should affect our delightful stroll. do you not enjoy it yourself?"

the way how jing yuan easily dismisses your question leaves you incapable to suppress an upcoming groan. you swear he does these things on purpose. the audacity of him to call you "dear" is one of them of course, like, who even does that?

"anyone would agree that they too do not see such form of ecstacy with the overflowing papers on your desk, my general," matching up his pace, further reasoning with him. "your seven sparrows don't even make your situation lighter as they enable your procrastination."

"centuries would tell you otherwise. besides, if i were anyone else, i'd assume you were simply jealous of my feathered friends," jing yuan chuckles. "but as *i am* your general, it is alluring to me how you noted their exact numbers, this is exactly why i tell them about you."

he proceeds to tells you that you're nearing your destination but your mind is racing nonstop over the little things:

one, he noticed you referred to him as "my general" when you assumed he'd let it pass. two, he gossips you to the sparrows and although it catches you off guard because who talks to sparrows, you can only hope they're only good things.

—

you immediately detect the pride that surfaces on jing yuan's expression the moment he presents to you the main attraction of your walk.

in front of you stands a sturdy structure of a well. nothing too old but certainly not close to modernity. you wonder if you were just there to get a pail of water and bring it back to the luofu like a mad woman, a strange request not uncommon for the general with you.

he remains sensible, however. "finally" being the general he is supposed to be, you jest. jing yuan laughs at your retort after suggesting you look deeper into the well, promising to not push you down if you ever accuse him to.

so you do trust him, with all of your heart, because what choice do you have when he has already a hold of it way before all of this.

it takes you one peek before jing yuan follows behind you, almost making you- makes you want to believe he intentionally trapped you between the water reservoir and his body as he relaxes his head over your shoulder.

it is not explicit in any way but for safety measures, you remain motionless as you let your heart execute all the remaining movement you can muster.

"this well has become quite special to me for these past years of becoming an arbiter-general," his narrative begins. "you see, if your vision can reach the exact position where its liquid is, you can catch a clear reflection of yourself, no ripples to destroy the image you hold."

this provides you the courage to turn to him with a smirk. "is this your narcissism talking?"

"not particularly, i just like looking at it to remind how after all these years, i am still the same person i have made myself to be." he grins back. "but yes, there may be times i enjoy staring at myself, do you not do the same?"

was the question supposed mean if you enjoy staring at yourself or was it implying if you like staring at him? you will never understand. why does the general like complicating your life like this.

as you discreetly push the question aside, you ask a more important question.

"have i ever made a wish with it? what do you suppose to mean with that?" jing yuan questions.

fumbling with your pockets, you present a single gold coin to the man before you as you turned around, breaking the source of warmth you were getting from each other. "in other planets, you'd make a wish and throw this in the well as if it were some peace offering and hope it comes true!"

"ah~ i seem to understand it better now," the male exclaims. "then i must wish that lady fu does not poison me in any way~"

a laugh escapes your mouth. "and how do you suspect lady fu is to poison you, general jing yuan? she's too prideful for that sort of lousy play, how do you even expect her to execute that?"

"anything can happen, my dear! she might as well use a single apple to make things easier!" jing yuan continues the banter. "but i wouldn't fret knowing you'd be there, i'm sure you'd help break my curse! unless- you are to work alongside with that divinator then i will never get my true love's kiss!"

your heart starts doing its own thing again while your breathe hitches for a moment, unsure if you were in the right mind to respond. "how bold of you to think it's a true love that can only break such intoxication, general."

and out of the blue, jing yuan holds you close as his hands reaches for your cheeks. he stares at you with the utmost adoration that you had been denying for so long but despite it all, it's evidently there.

"that may be correct but at least," his face coming closer to your own. "even without a kiss, i am more than sure about my true love."

[litres-of-cocaine]

you people don’t know what death of the author is.

it’s from Roland Barthes’ essay of the same name about the viewpoint of academic interpretation. the essay argues that literary criticism should base itself around the reader’s interpretation rather than authorial intention. essentially saying what the author was TRYING to convey is irrelevant in comparison to what the text ACTUALLY conveys. there is some debate about the value of this method, but it is almost universally preferred by academic literary circles.

crucially, it does NOT refer to amputating a writer from the ownership/creation of their work for whatever reason. so people claiming death of the author to justify buying harry potter stuff is just plain wrong. what they are doing is (unsuccessfully) separating the art from the artist which is a dumb as fuck concept anyway but also notably different to what death of the author is.

death of the author does have some relevance to jkr if we are thinking about her attempts to retcon/add/change elements of the books outside of the narrative (i.e. on twitter and even on pottermore to an extent), as it problematises the literary norm to decenter authorial intention that has been a standard since Barthes’ 1967 essay.

(this does get tricky though if we are thinking in terms of popular culture rather than academic standards, as authors commenting upon their work and elaborating on the world their characters inhabit is a perfectly acceptable thing in modern publishing. i would say jkr’s excessive interest in exerting control over her fiction does encroach upon both lines, however, as she tries to alter the potential interpretations of her work without any textual basis and problematises academic interest as well as just the leisure associated with understanding)

this is mostly in response to people saying that death of the author doesn’t work when the author is alive and /no/ you are thinking of ‘separating the art from the artist’ which is a separate but not unconnected idea.

what annoys me about this is that it not only completely misuses death of the author but also suggests that separating the art from the artist can ever work. (it does not).

although they might seem fairly similar they actually assume completely different things. decentering authorial intent does not mean that the artist is unconnected to their output. if we were to analyse The Importance of Being Earnest, ignoring Wilde’s own experience with living a scandalous double-life would be short-sighted. we can’t isolate literature from their contexts and death of the author doesn’t try to do that. The implicit attributes of Wilde’s life seeping into the play’s narrative is a fact and we can talk about that without considering what Wilde intended. What Wilde wanted in his narrative is irrelevant, whether he intended the parallels to his own life is irrelevant, the fact that these similarities are there is interesting. The artist is the creator, a very significant factor in the text’s construction, but they don’t get to decide what their text means with any more authority than the next person.

if we ‘separate the art from the artist’ this is negated. suddenly we cannot analyse the text with any kind of seriousness as the foundations of the text have disappeared. you cannot separate jk rowling from harry potter because so much of the text is built upon white english middle class sensibilities. what we write and how we interpret what other people write is based on our identities, and who we are. you take that away the book might as well be empty.

so yes separating the art from the artist doesn’t work in jkr’s case because it never works, and what you are talking about is definitely NOT death of the author.

if someone wants to buy crummy wizard hats then they should go for it, but pretending that you’re safe from blame is ridiculous .

[opheliashur]

its before 10am and i got maybe five hours of sleep so im porting my unhinged worm take here to keep it from being lost in the discord sauce [i dont actually think this is a sensible interpretation it just forced itself out of my brain one day]

The entities in Worm can function as a counterpoint to Posadist views on alien life. In Les Soucoupes Volantes, le processus de la matiere et de l'energie, la science et le socialisme, Posadas argues interstellar travel requires a society which, if not explicitly human-defined communist, surpassed self-centered capitalist systems. Posadas implores us to view their passivity in our plight not as apathy, but an enlightened belief in self-determination; With the people's assent, these strangers among us would surely be willing to help us crawl out of the muck of poverty and despair.

In Worm, the entities take this logic and turn it on its head. Zion's ancestor remembers their homeworld as peak survival-of-the-fittest excess, a hellish loop of boom and bust cycles which leaves less left to consume every time.

"The ancestor knows this, and it isn’t satisfied.  It knows its kin aren’t satisfied either.  They are quiet, because there is nothing to say.  They are trapped by their nature, by the need to subsist.  They are rendered feral, made to be sly and petty and cruel by circumstance.  They are made base, lowly."

Through a leftist lens, this becomes a mirror for the circumstances of modern society. People are forced to scrounge and suffer and harm each other for survival's sake, ligating their emotional capacity and cauterising their descendants' livelihoods. The ancestor responds in a capitalist fashion; Rather than call on cooperation and efficiency, it proposes to its fellows that the advancement of a species depends on the necessity of constant growth and constant conflict. The conclusion they reach is to, quite literally, eat each other alive; Not simply to live, but to find new frontiers, obliterating their homeworld in the process. I find this neatly matches up with how capitalism naturally leads itself to colonialism (not to imply imperialism is solely the domain of capitalism) as the rich and powerful grow ever hungrier for new toys to hoard, new people to enslave, leaving nothing in their wake.

If the entities simply went around acting like generic alien invaders (which is 99% of the time just white people persecution fantasies and you cant prove me wrong) afterward, this interpretation wouldn't exist. Posadas wasn't concerned about the possibility of alien invasion for the same reason nobody worries about car bombs, unless they're Margaret Thatcher or a sex symbol in a Wildbow sequel. It just isn't relevant.

However, the entities aren't just machines of consumption. Their modus operandi, at least with Eden and Zion, is far more subversive. They upend the status quo with powers, or innovations, often placed in a way to cause the most possible disruption and thus the most possible conflict, or profit, with an end goal seemingly to ensure they can eat and reproduce forever no matter the cost. The destruction they wreak seems to be almost tangential to their main goals, borne not of cruelty but of apathy.

This is in direct counter to Posadas' perception of extraterrestrial life as benevolent. Despite granting great power to the oppressed, they're not a clarion call of ascendance, but instead harbingers of the end. In essence, the entities represent a form of bad-faith leftism— They take advantage of existing injustice with cloying language (their avatars) and grand yet poisoned gestures (powers), with a move-fast-and-break-things mindset utilising their generational wealth (also powers) from eons of exploitation to avoid consequence.

Unfortunately, this interpretation doesn't end with Posadas.

I found myself realising as I wrote this that the entities aren't just representative of bad-faith actors in leftism. In another sense, they are the revolution as perceived in many online circles. A nebulous rapture-like event, upending the status quo by giving power to the marginalised and downtrodden, creating people who are not only possessed of the agency to change things, but a resolve to do so as well. Agency is suddenly given to those who'd otherwise be trapped in their own cycles, subject to hunger and rent and all the little things that the complacent at the top have long since forgotten happens to other people.

And it only results in more suffering. (at this point im talking more conceptually than what happens in worm but bear with me im almost done lmfao)

Parahumans finally have the ability to speak the right things and be heard, to hurt the right people, and it doesn't help solve anything. It's all just senseless violence directed outward.

The ending, then, takes a different note from Posadas, and from the paradigm of finding the right people to kill or the right things to say. Taylor kills Zion not through sheer power, but through communication and cooperation— By forcing him to look inward, at the one void that no amount of conflict and data and profit could fill ever again. There was no magic bullet, no force from outside to save the day. Only the emotions that everyone carries within them.

A revolution from the inside. (okay that was abrupt but my brain is fried now lmao hope you enjoyed it bye)

[semper-legens]

74. The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley

Owned?: No, library Page count: 343 My summary: In the near future, the British government are experimenting with time travel. A select group of historical personages have been brought forward to the present, people snatched away at the moment of their historical deaths, and the Ministry is now attempting to resettle them in the 21st century. One of these people is First Lieutenant Graham Gore, lately of Franklin's Lost Expedition, now fish out of water over one hundred and fifty years in his future. A young woman has been assigned to him as a 'bridge', to live with him for a year and help him assimilate. But as time wears on, their relationship starts to get less and less professional…and that's not the worst of it. Not all is well at the Ministry. It seems our duo might soon be in for a nasty surprise… My rating: 4.5/5 My commentary:

Okay. So. Here's the thing. As longtime readers of this blog may know, I have something of a fascination with the history of survival cannibalism. (Bear with me!) As such, the lost Franklin Expedition is definitely on my radar, and as part of that I both read and watched The Terror not too long ago. And then I heard about this book through the grapevine. A book that is, essentially, rpf of Graham Gore, one of the Expedition who died before the survivors set off on their last, fatal journey overland. And, to quote my least favourite New Who Doctor, my whole brain just went 'what the hell'. I was expecting this to be a bit silly, a bit weird, and a bit gratuitous, but honestly I wound up genuinely liking it a whole lot more than I was expecting. Kudos to you, The Ministry of Time. You did good, kid.

Our unnamed protagonist is a woman who is the daughter of a Cambodian refugee, mixed-race, living in London, and working for the government as a translator. She gets involved in the time-travel project without knowing what it is, but seeks to do her best for Gore and the other time-travel refugees all the same. She's an interesting character - I am fascinated by the choice not to give her a name, as well as how slow the relationship between her and Gore was to build. There was obvious attraction between the two of them, but it's not until the final third that they consumate their relationship and lay out what is lying between them. Which I appreciated - it felt a lot more natural than if this man from the 1840s was immediately jumping into bed with the first woman he saw! And it would have been wholly unprofessional and unethical for the narrator to do so. As written, however, we get to see their relationship develop smoothly and naturally over the course of the book before they get together, which is neat. Another thing I really appreciated was the subtle hints of what, in-universe, this book is. I won't spoil the ending, but the narrator is writing this for a purpose, and there are bits of foreshadowing and subtle clues scattered throughout as to what will go down. I guessed a bit of it beforehand, and was very satisfied to see my suppositions ring true.

This book could have died so quickly if Gore was mischaracterised, so I am happy to report that he is utterly charming and very plausible. While not understanding the 21st century, particularly not initially, he isn't shown to be a lost little lamb, he was a middle-aged man with experience of sailing to unfamiliar places and surviving there. Thought we don't know much about Gore the real person, the author's afterword lays out why she characterised him the way that she did - the smoking habit comes from a description of him, there's evidence that he was a pretty good shot, that sort of thing. He's very real. While he displays era-appropriate bigotry, he learns and grows the more he is exposed to the modern world, though there are some sensibilities he never loses. He's got a sense of humour, he makes friends with other 'expats', he is self-depreciating and proper and exasperated and loyal. He's a very credible person, and the author shows him off so well that, like the narrator, you can't help but fall a little in love with him.

I also really liked the other 'expats' that we see - Arthur, a man brought forward from 1916 who is a flaming fruit, and Maggie, a woman from the 1600s who adapts to the future the best and also is a giant lesbian. See! Complicated portraits of people from the past! (It's also hinted that, while Gore claims no experience with women, he may have had some experience with men, being a Navy type.) The Ministry actually has some trouble with Maggie, because she's running riot, downloading Tinder and Lex and having a wild old time. I love her to pieces. (And I also liked that our protagonist displays some attraction to her, as well!) Arthur is also very adorable in that older gay man kind of way. Every character in this book felt like a full person, with thoughts and opinions and a life outside of the purview of the narrative, which is always good to see. They were very memorable, and very entertaining.

And all in all, this book just had so much charm. The premise itself is interesting in a soft sci-fi sort of way, very clearly skipping over the complicated physics of time travel in order to get to the sociological meat inherent there. Seeing these people adapt to modern society in their various different ways is interesting in the variety - some characters are more conservative in their outlook, others more open-minded, different people struggle with different things, that sort of thing. I liked that the emphasis was less on the romantic/sexual relationship between our protagonists (though, of course, that was there) and more just on the relationships that develop between bridges and expats, and between different eras of expat. And the larger plot with the Ministry and the protagonist's shady boss balanced out the more character-driven drama brilliantly. Again, I won't spoil the ending, but I liked that the book did not have a straightforward happy ending, though it was bittersweet and still somewhat hopeful. That felt more true than the alternative, and I really admire the choice that led to it.

Next up, back to Outlander, as Claire and Jamie make their way in an America teetering on the brink…

[blurrypetals]

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

originally posted sep. 5, 2024 - ★★★★★

Goddamn it. It's books like this that make reading worth it. Fuckin' A. I'm speechless, but I'm going to try to say words about it all.

First of all, I fucking knew this was going to have a cliffhanger after a little while, but I kept hoping I wouldn't need to wait a year or more for the next book, and alas, here I am, struggling not to scream beside my sleeping husband about that fucking ending.

I am absolutely bananas for every single one of these characters, I love the isekai fantasy premise, everything about the setting and plot is just absolutely fantastic. It's exactly how I felt about In Other Lands a few years ago, one of my favorite books. It was unexpectedly wonderful, and I find this to be the same.

I think one of the more enjoyable things about this book was how Rae behaves here. First, I loved that she didn't know or remember everything about the book series, and that Eric read a different version of the story, so neither of our "real world" characters know 100% of what happens, or they misremember details, leading to a much more interesting story from there.

More importantly, however, I think most lesser authors would have taken this premise and not only have the protagonist be an expert superfan of the book series, but they would likely also try playing along with the story as they knew it, fearing the changes they might cause, ruining the story in the process.

Instead of any of this, Rae embraces the fact that she's playing as a villain sentenced to death and decides to be reckless, evil, and it's an absolute delight to see her modern sensibilities and manner of speech colliding with everyone else's medieval accents and confusion about how Rae and Eric behave. I most especially adored Key and Rae's relationship and I absolutely can't wait for more of it whenever I get to devour the next book.

In all, this book was everything I wanted and then some. I am so stoked we get to have more of it someday, even if I do have to wait several months for more. Until then, I'm definitely going to read more of Sarah's back catalogue to tide me over!

[daitheflu-mx]

“The Menorah,” by Theodor Herzl

(Published in Die welt, December 31, 1897)

ONCE THERE was a man who deep in his soul felt the need to be a Jew. His material circumstances were satisfactory enough. He was making an adequate living and was fortunate to have a vocation in which he could create according to the impulses of his heart. You see, he was an artist. He had long ceased to trouble his head about his Jewish origin or the faith of his fathers, when the age-old hatred re-asserted itself under a fashionable slogan. Like many others, our man, too, believed that this movement would soon subside. But instead of getting better, it got worse. Although he was not personally affected by them, the attacks pained him anew each time. Gradually his soul became one bleeding wound.

This secret psychic torment had the effect of steering him to its source, namely, his Jewishness, with the result that he experienced a change that he might never have in better days, because he had become so alienated: He began to love Judaism with great fervor. At first he did not fully acknowledge this mysterious affection, but finally it grew so powerful that his vague feelings crystallized into a clear idea to which he gave voice: The thought that there was only one way out of this Jewish suffering — namely, to return to Judaism.

When his best friends, whose situation was similar to his, found out about this, they shook their heads and thought he had gone out of his mind. How could something that only meant an intensification and deepening of the malady be a remedy? He, on the other hand, thought that the moral distress of modern Jews was so acute because they had lost the spiritual counterpoise which our strong forefathers had possessed. People ridiculed him behind his back. Some even laughed right in his face. But he did not let the silly remarks of people whose judgment he had never before had occasion to value throw him off his course, and he bore their malicious or good-natured jests with equanimity. And since his behavior was not otherwise irrational, people eventually left him to his whim, although some used a stronger term, idee fixe, to describe it.

In his patient way, our man displayed the courage of his conviction over and over again. There were a number of changes which he himself found hard to accept, although he was stubborn enough not to let on. As a man and an artist of modern sensibilities, he was deeply rooted in many non-Jewish customs, and he had absorbed ineradicable elements from the cultures of the nations among which his intellectual pursuits had taken him. How was this to be reconciled with his return to Judaism? This gave rise to many doubts in his own mind about the soundness of his guiding idea, his idee maitresse, as a French thinker has called it. Perhaps the generation that had grown up under the influence of other cultures was no longer capable of that return which he had discovered as the solution. But the next generation, provided it were given the right guidance early enough, would be able to do so. He therefore tried to make sure that his own children, at least, would be shown the right way. He was going to give them a Jewish education from the very beginning.

In previous years he had let the festival which for centuries had illuminated the marvel of the Maccabees with the glow of candles pass by unobserved. Now, however, he used it as an occasion to provide his children with a beautiful memory for the future. An attachment to the ancient nation was to be instilled early in these young souls. A menorah was acquired, and when he held this nine-branched candelabrum in his hands for the first time, a strange mood came over him. In his remote youth, in his father’s house, such little lights had burned and there was something intimate and homelike about the holiday. This tradition did not seem chill or dead. The custom of kindling one light with another had been passed on through the ages.

The ancient form of the menorah also gave him food for thought. When had the primitive structure of this candelabrum first been devised? Obviously, its form had originally been derived from that of a tree: The sturdy stem in the center; four branches to the right and four to the left, each below the other, each pair on the same level, yet all reaching the same height. A later symbolism added a ninth, shorter branch which jutted out in front and was called the shamash or servant. With what mystery had this simple artistic form, taken from nature, been endowed by successive generations? And our friend, who was, after all, an artist, wondered whether it would not be possible to infuse new life into the rigid form of the menorah, to water its roots like those of a tree. The very sound of the name, which he now pronounced in front of his children every evening, gave him pleasure. Its sound was especially lovely when it came from the mouth of a child.

The first candle was lit and the origin of the holiday was retold: the miracle of the little lamp which had burned so much longer than expected, as well as the story of the return from the Babylonian exile, of the Second Temple, of the Maccabees. Our friend told his children all he knew. It was not much but for them it was enough. When the second candle was lit, they repeated what he had told them. And although they had learned it all from him, it seemed to him quite new and beautiful. In the days that followed he could hardly wait for the evenings, which became ever brighter. Candle after candle was lit in the menorah, and together with his children, the father mused upon the little lights. At length his reveries became more than he could or would tell them, for his dreams would have been beyond their understanding.

When he had resolved to return to the ancient fold and openly acknowledge his return, he had only intended to do what he considered honorable and sensible. But he had never dreamed that on his way back home he would also find gratification for his longing for beauty. Yet what befell him was nothing less. The menorah with its growing brilliance was indeed a thing of beauty, and inspired lofty thoughts. So he set to work and with an expert hand sketched a design for a menorah to present to his children the following year. He made a free adaption of the motif of the eight arms of equal height which projected from the central stem to the right and to the left, each pair on the same level. He did not consider himself bound by the rigid traditional form, but created again directly from nature, unconcerned with other interpretations which, of course, continued to be no less valid on that account. What he was aiming for was vibrant beauty. But even as he brought new motion into the rigid forms, he still observed their tradition, the refined old style of their arrangement. It was a tree with slender branches, whose ends opened up like calyxes, and it was these calyxes that were to hold the candles.

With such thoughtful occupation the week passed. There came the eighth day, on which the entire row of lights is kindled, including the faithful ninth candle, the shamash, which otherwise serves only to light the others. A great radiance shone forth from the menorah. The eyes of the children sparkled. For our friend, the occasion became a parable for the awakening of a whole nation. First one candle — it is still dark and the solitary light looks gloomy. Then it finds a companion, then another, and yet another. The darkness must retreat. The young and the poor are the first to see the light. Then the others join in, all those who love justice, truth, liberty, progress, humanity and beauty. When all the candles are ablaze everyone must stop in amazement and rejoice at what has been wrought. And no office is more blessed than that of a servant of this light.

Theodor Herzl, “The Menorah,” in Harry Zohn, trans., Zionist Writings: Essays and Addresses (New York: Herzl Press, 1973), vol. 1, pp. 203-206.

[mockedandmonitored]

Mocked and Monitered, Armada edition (PT.1)

This has been- Long overdue after these guys won the poll.I was here I thought it was gonna be a tied- so you want more stuff on the toilets themselves huh? Fine by me! This is going to be more leaning on what the toilets as a civilization do now that the war is over rather than specific individuals such as G-toilet or wrinkly prune.

Modern day M&M AU (20 years After the official end of the war.)

Mostly everything is rebuilt within current date of the timeline and has expanded past our modern technology to a more Sci-fi situation. With the war effort being over with and a new workforce under their control, to sum it up to a comparable game? Overwatch environments with that level of tech. They have many settlements and cities scattered across the world however they keep to a large circle of a megalopolis surrounded by cities. Titans forbid I try to name it right now at midnight but you get the idea.

Society has rebuilt to what you imagine a normal city to be like, new generations of Skibidi running around, going to school, having hobbies and free time. Most heavy work is forced upon hardware leaving the toilets to do whatever they wish! Being artists, chefs, actors? You can name it! Don't have to worry about Labour heavy tasks when you got trusty non-sentient robots running around. well so propaganda goes anyways. Skibidi have gotten rather squishy and complacent since the war, with hard work going to the alliance members. Those who actually participated in the war more prepared then those after them, treating the Alliance members more then mindless beings. They've seen the damage they can do and know not to underestimate them.

There are of course still enforcers within a new world to maintain order. Our policemen which ensure everyone (mostly hardwares) abide by the law. Think the police toilets from the early days of the show then buff them up around six to seven times. These folk work alongside the Whistle Blowers and keep rebellions from arising, occasionally "reminding" disobedient units of their place. The older Armada soldiers which were dissatisfied with the end of the war possibly turned to this to as their new jobs.

Finally we have sympathizers, while somewhat rare, they are still present. Whatever you do though, try not to say it aloud or get the attention of the enforcers. With enough sympathizers, things could start changing for the hardware, and No one sensible wants that right? Most sympathizers hide their beliefs when public eye a well kept secret example of a sympathizer would be DJ toilet, His Night Club while also being THE place to be, it has also sheltered plenty of rebels and strays before. "It ain't groovy how the Speakermen are stuck to one type of music, its like getting stuck to country, eugh, it just ain't right!". (Someone has asked this soo! Might as well put a little something here.)

Finally, with the time skip (EST updated to 20 yrs), there are new generations of the armada, those untouched by the war and bloodshed. How toilets make more toilets? Its best not to question it. Look to the left, whistle a bit then ignore those intrusive thoughts. Most merely listen to the generations before and believe that the units are nothing more than dumb robots. But of course, sooner or later questions are gonna come into play, perhaps new Sympathizers or more Enforcers, it's truly dependent on the environment.

Thats all for now! Have a nice Day , Noon, Or Night! Don't forget to ask questions if you're curious or just drop around and interact,

[namandabu]

Dharma Listening

One of the most important lessons I have learned from my experience of the Jodo Shinshu tradition is how to listen to the Dharma. I am utterly incapable of doing it properly, however. Still, when I have gleaned insight from it, it is because I could, for even a moment, truly hear what the words of the Dharma are saying.

When we read books, we are not just reading words off a page. We are conceptualizing the meanings of those words in their context on the page through our own lens. We never just read a book. We derive meaning from it by bringing our own biases to the reading.

This isn't always a bad thing. In fact, many creative authors rely on this to subvert the reader, creating an amazing story by tricking us into believing one meaning while communicating another. Authors also grapple with this problem of bringing our biases, and they become skilled at writing according to their audiences in order to facilitate a change of mind in the reader. Such twists and turns are what make reading, as well as other forms of media, fun and intellectually stimulating.

Authors who teach the Dharma must grapple with the same tendencies. And it is often difficult for new readers (like myself) to fully internalize what the author is saying because we either don't understand or don't *want* to understand what they are saying. There have been many times when I read a piece about Buddhism and simply ignored or discarded a line that doesn't suit my sensibilities. An example from Rennyo: "The mind/that even once/relies on Amida: that mind/is in accord/with the true Dharma."

This verse is from Rennyo Shonin's letters (Letter 4, Fascicle 4). It is truly a mind-boggling statement. The idea that such high attainment (being in accord with the true Dharma) is so easy (relying on Amida for a single moment) is hard to believe on its own. Yet it is at the core of Jodo Shinshu: With the one thought-moment of reliance, we are immediately saved by Amida from birth and death and are certain to be reborn in the Pure Land. So why is it so hard to believe?

When I read that line initially, I thought of...laziness. I thought of how such a view is lazy. Surely, this is a teaching for people who do not want to put in the work necessary for enlightenment, I thought to myself. And when I read it now, those thoughts still come up! However, they are also accompanied by a small joy that I have not experienced before. Even though my mind tries to scream and cry to drown the words out, I still "hear" them.

These thoughts come from a mindset that I brought to the text when reading it. In my life, people who don't want to work have been called lazy time and time again. I myself have done this, and I have also been called lazy myself. Growing up, this dichotomy of "lazy" versus "determined" was drilled into me from the cultural norm known as the "protestant work ethic." This is the attachment of value to hard work, especially concerning one's job. American folklore is filled with examples of this, from John Henry and Paul Bunyan to the myth of the self-made millionaire or billionaire in the modern day. But this is antithetical to what Rennyo is saying here, as well as other Jodo Shinshu writers going all the way back to Shinran.

Hearing these lines now, I must confess that I still struggle with this conflicting set of views. But I know that they are true. After all, the goal of a Buddha is to make others like themself: free from attachment and affliction and able to act with perfect wisdom and compassion. The best way to do that is to make a path that is so easy that anyone, regardless of capacity, could complete it. Hence, Amida realized the name and forged his vows to create this easy path.

In my mind, I'm immediately skeptical of shortcuts. And while the Jodo Shinshu path is still difficult in some ways, it is certainly easier. But here, the Buddha is saying, "Come on! I made this shortcut for you! Trust me, and you'll reach the other shore!" And I have to blame only myself and my preconceived biases for being hesitant.

Listening to the Dharma as someone new to Buddhism requires us to put aside our own views as best we can and open our minds to a new way of thinking about the world. Even if we disagree with what it is saying, we will only get the message if we can listen with an open mind. If we project our ideas onto the Dharma, we will just be reading a copy of our own thoughts. It is difficult, however, to put one's ideas aside and listen to something new with an open mind. After all, if detaching from our erroneous views were easy, then there would be no need for the many paths of Buddhism. Therefore, We should be thankful for authors who speak on the Dharma in ways that are designed to bring us to a new mode of thought from our current condition or in a way that is so plain and direct that misinterpretation becomes nearly impossible. I have found that many Jodo Shinshu figures, like Rennyo, Yuien-bo, and Shinran, fall within the latter category. As a result of reading them repeatedly, the walls of my own views are broken down by their straightforward words, which are easy to understand and digest. I cannot help but come to understand them, even when I am at the same time entrenched in my own views. This example is just one concept in Jodo Shinshu that is difficult to internalize, but I am happy to say that, little by little, I'm starting to get it.

[unsociableandtaciturnbarbie]

Bridgerton is just socially acceptable Jane Austen Fanfiction, change my mind.

I have a friend who is really into Dungeons and Dragons and one of the most interesting things I’ve learned from her because of this is how mainstream role playing games have become. There’s a TV show on Amazon Prime called Vox Machina that’s actually based on a Dungeons and Dragons campaign called Critical Role that was streamed on Twitch and as a Podcast on Spotify. In other words, a game of roleplaying between a few friends has become a popular TV show for people who don’t even roleplay to enjoy. Naturally, when I heard about The Good Society, I was curious to see what content is out there on the internet. So, I searched it up on Spotify and, lo and behold, a podcast of people playing The Good Society does exist. Each episode is approximately 4 hours long, and I unfortunately do not have the time to dedicate to listening in full. However, the latest episode (from December of 2020) is titled “Zombies”, so I had to at least give it a brief listen (Here’s a YouTube link to a video of them playing through this episode, but I listened in Podcast format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TiAgFD4DMw&t=9256s). In the episode description itself it’s called a “one-shot” which I feel like I only ever hear applied to fanfiction (more on that later though). 

I started by listening to the first 10 minutes. In those we got an ad break, a brief introduction of the players, and also a song meant to give an overview of the game containing the lyric, “ballers gonna ball”? Then they start to move into the full description of characters, kind of along the lines of what we did in class today. At this point, I learned that they were combining legitimate expansion packs with names like, “Sense, Sensibility, and Swordsmanship” and “Pride, Prejudice, and Practical Magics”. I really needed to see what was going on when they threw all these things together so I just skipped to a random point in the podcast and tried to figure out what was going on. I landed around the 2 hour and 33 minute mark where they are in the letter writing part of the game. This was really interesting because the letters are very “in character” interactions where the players are all talking in accents and using not super modern vocabulary where the rest of the game seems like just a lot of friendly chatting and hanging out. I stuck around just for long enough to find out that they’ve come up with a character who’s going to bring some zombies into the house that’s central to their game. At this point I’d listened to ~30 minutes of this episode so I called it a day, but it was definitely fun to listen to them really get into character and then work together to set some things up and then get in character again and it kind of made me want to play too. 

All I could really think the whole time I listened (and when I first was reading about this game) was that it felt very fanfiction-esque? These characters felt a little more different from Austen characters than our characters, maybe because the players are more experienced and had more time to develop the characters’ personalities, but when we were playing in class today, I felt like if you changed a few names we were just writing Elinor Dashwood/George Wickham fanfiction. When I first heard “Jane Austen roleplay” I thought it was a crazy idea, but the more I learn about it I feel like it’s just Jane Austen fanfic in a collaborative way and I kind of love it.

Having heard about the Dungeons and Dragons show I started to think about what a The Good Society show would look like, but then I thought: Bridgerton exists. Would the writers of Bridgerton call what they did roleplaying? Probably not. But I bet they did sit down together and do almost exactly what we did in class today, coming up with characters and relationships and finding ways to sort of connect them based on that. That kind of got me thinking about the like levels of social acceptance of these things, so I made a meme.

The template here being where as you go down the diagram the description is supposed to be of cooler and more “mind-blowing” things, but all of the items are sort of interlinked as like small steps up from one another. Seriously though, why don’t we call Bridgerton Jane Austen fanfic? I don’t mean to suggest that all regency-themed things are Jane Austen-based; she did not invent the regency. But, the tropes and character hallmarks utilized by Austen show up again and again in fanfic, in romance novels, and yes, even in Bridgerton, whether it's in the meddling mother characters or the brooding rich men. I'm not sure whether we like to pretend we're totally original or admitting to writing fanfic is still too socially unacceptable, but on some level, the background in which modern-day regency romance is set is the world created by Jane Austen, and I think as long as the regency romance genre is around we’ll always be able to find a new bit of Austen within it.

[centrally-unplanned]

Gonna try to do some seasonal anime takes, lets start with:

Heavenly Delusions

Episode one of HD has a shot that I really liked in episode 1, where main girl Kiruko is getting undressed for the first time (giving off a great impression out the gate aren't I?), and scars that riddle her body are revealed:

So, for one, the cracked mirror is just cool ya know, she is scarred, her world is scarred, good shit. Its also clever though - like sure, her shirt is covering her nipples, but sans that crack this would be a very risque shot. But we don't want it to be, this isn't meant to be a risque scene - she needs to be unclothed to show us her damage. So the crack is arranged to cover the breasts and make the scene work to organically highlight what its supposed to. It does double duty, and that is a sign of good directing.

Now, what isn't a sign of good directing is the entirety of the somber tone is undone by the following scene being a classic someone-walks-in-oh-no-I'm-naked moment and you get some minor but full-on fanservice...but its anime, its gotta hit its quota, whatever. And I will credit the show that jumping between comedic and extremely serious is what it does on the daily, it is being consistent here.

Yet it turns out I was a little bit wrong on the double-duty thing; this is more like triple duty. Because we learn in episode 2 that our girl Kiruko kindof isn't a girl - she is dysphoric:

There was even additional events during that original bathroom scene that suggested this too, so the foreshadowing intent is clear. Now I really like that original shot - the cracked mirror now cleaves his actual body, a split to mirror his own fractured identity. The fact that it downplays the sex organs is probably just a coincidence due to the others factor mentioned, but it still works thematically even better now!

But before you scramble to tune in to watch this egg hatch, its not what is going on here. This is an apocalyptic sci fi story, and Kiruko is actually Haruki, the brother of Kiruko, who died in a monster attack and had his fading brain swapped into Kiruko's body for mysterious reasons. Haruki/Kiruko is now questing to figure out the mystery of how that happened and why his sister died while he was saved. Its a dysphoria born of aberrant circumstances over identity.

Now that isn't the slam dunk it might come off as - using ~plot dynamics to create a new context for metaphorically exploring a real-life issue is a classic technique. It allows distance from the petty minutias of reality to apply focus on the author's own interests, allows the author to push boundaries intellectually with their creative freedom, and generally allows people who don't experience the issue in real life to relate via making the experience more universal. A show could absolutely do some interesting stuff with how someone copes with a body swapped and sex-swapped reality.

Here however is where genre rears its head; its just not going to do that. With its action-comedy premises and modern shounen-adjacent sensibilities (even if it is Seinen), its not interested in that kind of story. The premise reveals that - the 'origin story' for Haruki's swap is all about violence, betrayal, mystery, revenge. These concepts externalize the problem, placing the cause of them in other people and therefore the *resolution* of the problem in the hands of external interactions. I'm not saying there will be no complications, and hey, its episode 3, maybe I will be wrong! But when you have scenes like her male travel partner having his confession shot down this matter-of-factly:

To me all signs point to this being a plot device for drama or even comedic shenanigans than a vehicle for metaphorical identity & gender explorations.

Not helping is I looked into interviews with the author Masakazu Ishiguro, and while I find a little bit on gender exploration I what mainly found was a whole segment on his brother-sister complex, which really makes you think that might be the greater focus for the show.

This may came off as harsh, and its a critique for sure, but overall I am enjoying Heavenly Delusion's great art & character designs, fun setting, and mystery plot. I am just saying that the mirror shot I was so fond of is likely not going to deliver thematically on the meaning its directing imbued it with, which is disappointing to me.

But maybe we will at least get some fun genderbending flirting with the main duo along the way!

(We won't, sigh, this isn't even a good translation, HaruKiri is using the word bishounen, which you wouldn't translate as good-looking, its more specific - 'getting that pretty-boy look young girls favor', something like that. The tone is way more specific, and therefore less flattering. Anyway...)