#so i guess it's area related

[balkanradfem]

Even after the devastating storm, the forest was nearly pristine in condition. After walking for hours, I only ever found one fallen tree, and that one was on a hill.

Forest have natural storm defense implemented in them; the trees that grow on the edges take on most of the wind, and protect all the trees inside. The trees inside are growing so thickly it's impossible for the wind to penetrate them, they're only getting a tiny amount of wind compared to the trees on the edges.

The edge of the forest is filled with trees that are used to the wind, and have grown to be able to withstand it. They only ever need to deal with the wind from one specific direction, and they grow resilient to that specific wind, so they're able to act as a barrier of protection.

All the human-maintained ares where the trees are planted with a lot of space inbetween them, like public parks, lawns, parking lots, landscaped areas, have had massive amounts of tree falling and tree damages. I've seen big spruces cut in half, and other trees completely wrenched out of the soil. These trees looked aesthetically pleasing, but had no community from other trees to protect them from such a catastrophic event. Trees are safer when growing in a dense forest. Forests know what they're doing.

Humans will sometimes believe they're doing a good thing when they're thinning out the forest, they'll cut the trees on the edge and any dense-growing trees to let 'other trees grow bigger', but what they're actually doing is making the forest less protected from wind, and less safe. Trees that are used to being in a dense forest, do not have strong enough trunks for wind protection, and will the first ones to fall during a storm. The forests grow their trees close to each other for a reason.

I noticed this every time when a natural crisis devastates the city. The storm, the heat wave, the drought, the city becomes inhabitable. I go to the forest, and the forest is undamaged and pleasant. The forests have figured out a solution to every climate problem. We would not be suffering all those problems if we just let the forests grow all around us.

[coquelicoq]

what i like especially about the pronouns in the goblin emperor is that this language doesn't just have the T-V distinction (aka informal vs. formal second-person pronouns, in this case 'thou' vs. 'you'), it also has informal and formal first-person pronouns. having BOTH of these distinctions in the same language lets you fine-tune your tone by mixing and matching. with only one axis of formality, when you use informal pronouns, are you being familiar in an intimate way, or in an insolent or dismissive way? when you use formal pronouns, are you being polite or standoffish? you can't tell just from the pronouns; there's ambiguity. but a language where you can use a formal first-person pronoun in the same sentence as an informal second-person pronoun allows you to distance yourself (via the formal first) while also being familiar (via the informal second), thereby achieving the conversational tenor known to linguists as Fuck Thee Specifically.

[pkmn-smashorpass]

NUMBERS BLOG YOURE BACK

[raayllum]

I think what gets lost amid the Viren-Callum and Callum-Claudia parallels is while sometimes you have characters foil each other primarily because of narrative placement (Rayla and Soren in some ways, switching roles as sworn killer to protector and then back again), you can also have characters that parallel each other primarily personality wise (Ezran and Claudia for example), and characters that parallel each other morality wise (Rayla and Harrow) and then you can also have characters that parallel each other in all of the above. Narrative placement, roles, personality, morality, flaws, etc. All of it.

And that is what I’m talking about when I talk about how Callum’s morality differs from his friends. Ezran does not have the capacity to be a dark mage. At most, he could be like Terry, and even then, that’s a stretch. He does not crave power. Opportunity and justice, which are adjacent to power, but not power itself. It is out of character for Ezran to revel the destruction and upper hand that power gives him. It is not for Callum.

Rayla, although she has personality similarities with Viren (paranoia, gruffness, repression, etc) and narrative similarities with Claudia (daughter given dark task by father, wandering Xadia for two years on account of Viren, etc) does not have the capacity to be a dark mage. It’s not in her; she doesn’t have the incentive or personality for it (or for magic generally). She craves protection, which is of course adjacent to power, but not power itself. It was out of character for Rayla to walk away from the dragon in 4x05, indicating a massive character change for her from 2x07; Callum’s choice in each situation would remain the same. 

In 4x06, upon finding Soren’s armour, everyone else is focused on Soren. Rayla is beating herself up for letting something happen to him. N’than is being brutally honest. Ezran is trying to mitigate harm and look on the bright side for their friend. Callum does not take his eyes off of, and is entirely focused on, Rayla. Yes, he’s optimistic about what may have happened to Soren, but that’s specifically presented in him reassuring Rayla (and then again in 4x07 as well). 

Callum craves power (and freedom). He craves magic. He has a strong heart and a strong mind just like his friends, but he’s also a mage in ways that even Claudia is not. Claudia can look at ancient ruins and never wonder how to use them. She’s brutal out of perceived necessity. Callum is brutal even when he doesn’t need to be. Callum learns about moon magic and, like every magical object he’s encountered, he wants to learn how to use it. Just knowing is not enough. 

Viren and Callum are both people willing to do “anything” to protect their family, even if Viren’s more complicated because he’s also more willing to sacrifice them, and Callum is not (with perhaps the sole exception of letting Ez be under the ice for a dangerously long time). This is especially highlighted in S4, textually. Ezran and Rayla are both willing to sacrifice precious items connected to their fathers. Callum (at least for now) is not. 

Callum is genuinely tempted down the path of being a dark mage when he thinks he has no other magical options. He rejects it still holding onto hope, perhaps, that he can be a primal mage. And like I’ve already said, Rayla and Ezran would not have been tempted into it at all. Claudia isn’t either because she doesn’t see anything wrong with dark magic in the first place. But Callum does. In this way, Callum’s pursuit of magic has the most in common with Viren’s, where he knows it’s dangerous, and knows it may not always end well (“I have nothing left to lose”) and yet he chooses it and Aaravos anyway. Callum also has a self-preservation streak that Viren, Rayla, and Ezran do not (at least marginally). He rarely throws himself into anything in which he has zero hope for survival; even when he takes Ez’s spot in 1x02, he still argues with Rayla on behalf on his own life; he easily is talked down by one word from Rayla when it comes to letting Sol Regem burn him to a crisp in 3x01. (Compare and contrast with how Rayla argues with him for her own death in 3x08, or how Viren places his life in Aaravos’ hands in Lux Aurea.) 

And yet in spite of how much the show emphasizes just how much he loves magic, and loves using magic (“figure out how he could use the cube” and what he could “achieve” with it, S2 novelization), it also shows us time and time again that the people he loves - namely Rayla and Ezran - are even more important to him than magic. 

[Cue Callum dropping his staff - “It means a lot” - to pick up Rayla’s sword only to then throw that away, too, when he sees her hand to run right at her]

And even over his freedom and well-being:

C: I was his puppet. I felt so weak and out of control. I’m not afraid that he’ll hurt me. I’m afraid that he’ll use me to do awful things. Or hurt people I care about. That’s why all I’m asking is that if he takes control of me again, you have to kill me. I need you to promise. 

Among the trio, Callum is the one with a more skewed morality and greater capacity for remorseless violence. He’s the one with a raging and then ice cold temper. He’s the one who has the most in common personality and morality wise with Viren and Claudia and even Terry. Not entirely the same, of course - there’s a reason he’s not on their side - but the most similar, I think. 

And I think that’s why 1) Callum is such a fascinating character, especially for a protagonist and 2) disappointing sometimes, when people take away his claws and teeth. Because he absolutely has them, and I hope we can only continue to see them play out even further as we go along.

[ampharosite]

me when we "fell back" an hour a few days ago: wow! this is great!! it's bright when i leave for work and my car isn't iced over in the mornings! what a beautiful day! 😁👍

me now, upon realizing the full extent of what pitch black darkness at 6 pm does to an mf:

[emdotcom]

*remembers what they did to Vanny* 500 FUCKING PIPEBOMB ATTACK.

[healingheartdogs]

I love being in America where I have to decide if the pain of something clearly going wrong inside my body is urgent enough to risk getting COVID at an ER from sick people and doctors who are no longer masking and having to deal with a grossly inflated medical bill that I already know I can't pay because I have no insurance or income currently.

[aaronymous999]

“The Barbie Movie is anti-men!”

No. The Barbie movie was just not made for u s. I honestly didn’t find the movie all that relatable outside of Allan but it’s still a GOOD movie! I wasn’t bored during it, it was funny, the music was good, it’s thematically a great movie. I was just not the target audience and that’s okay!! Seeing my 49 year old mother crying at the end of the movie was all I needed for the movie to make me happy, knowing that it touched my mother in a way that other movies don’t often do. And that’s okay :)

Barbie is a movie for anyone who has lived the female experience, especially older women like my own mother who grew up playing with Barbie. That doesn’t mean that you can’t relate to it just. As a human being, and I have lived a female experience briefly in my life but I didn’t relate to the movie. And that’s okay! If you relate to this movie fucking awesome!!! I’m so glad that there’s a movie that means a lot to you :) /gen

I’m just beefing with the other men on the internet who didn’t relate to it like me, yet they insist it’s a bad or “anti-men” movie when it’s clearly not???

Also shoutout to Allan he was literally made in a lab for the transgenders

Only critique? I wish it was more anti capitalist and anarchist but that was never really the point so I get it I will wallow in my corner praying for a progressive movie to arrive that fulfills my genderfuck anarchy goals. ( Idk maybe I’ll write something to fulfill my own dreams ❤️❤️ )

[sureuncertainty]

at least now i've gone through an important tumblr rite of passage, watching a longtime mutual become a radfem :/

[flovverworks]

guy who goes to north vast (and any other snowy hell place) and goes yes just like my experience in northern country (almost dying from the cold)

[rohirric-hunter]

So I physically went into a bank and asked for a new debit card and they gave me one. So. The Mess has finally been cleaned up.

[zorquil]

Great post on plastic fake leather now cover the massive amount of waste in the animal industry. How about how most micro plastics come from fishing nets (at sea) and tire particles (on land). How are herd animals moved around in mechanized agriculture? Oh, right. Extensive trucking industry. Now check out vegan leather made of fungi mycelium.

... Wheh?

[coquelicoq]

it's interesting, a few people on my post yesterday about the dandelion dynasty told me they were taking it as a rec for the series, but i didn't actually recommend the series in that post. it's making me think about whether i would rec it to people, a question i hadn't fully considered yet (as it is a very different question from "do i like this book?"). so this is me figuring out the answer to that question. i'll keep it spoiler-free (though i make no promises on brevity).

i just finished book 3 (of 4) and each installment has left me more invested than i was before, but the series started out very slow, and i didn't really get into it until halfway through book 2. i wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people bounce off the first book; i didn't, but only because 1) i almost never give up on a book that i've started (it's a character flaw of mine 😕) and 2) my trust in ken liu is ridiculously high because the other stuff i've read by him is so beloved to me. so my reaction to feeling kind of meh about book 1 was "okay, let's see where he's going with this" rather than "i guess this just isn't my cup of tea."

i should say that the problem might just be my own ignorance/lack of familiarity with the form. i don't read a lot of epic fantasy - in fact, lord of the rings is the one series that i have given up on reading a couple of times because it just left me totally indifferent. so if you like epics, you are starting out way ahead of me and can maybe just ignore the rest of this post lol, but i think i had to adjust to what the form is asking of me and what it's best suited to accomplish before i could get fully on board.

the main thing i struggled with is the writing, like the actual sentence-level mechanics of voice and style. this surprised me, because i usually find his writing very beautiful, or, when not beautiful, i can get a sense of the effect he means to achieve by employing a certain style. but in this series, the writing came across as kind of awkward and one-note to me at first, and i couldn't see a reason for it to be that way.* the dialogue especially - different characters don't really have different ways of speaking, they all feel pretty much the same. this was one of the main things i had to adjust to, but i do get it now. i don't just mean that i got used to the style and it doesn't bother me anymore, though that is true; i mean that i now understand the effect he means to achieve by employing this style, which gives it purpose and inextricably ties it to the story he's telling (this becomes especially clear in book 3, as it's directly related to a major theme of that book). if the style were different, he would be telling a different story; that's the sign of a successful execution, i think.

i said in the tags on yesterday's post that one reason the series doesn't have much of a fandom on here might be that the characters aren't natural blorbos. of course every character is probably the blorbo of somebody somewhere, but i don't know that these characters were designed to be blorbos, if that makes sense. not that they're plot devices either! every single one of them is conflicted and complicated and compelling, and most of them are followed over a period of many years, so we see them develop as people over time. but there is no protagonist, for example. you could also say that every character is a protagonist. the "list of major characters" at the beginning of book 3 is six pages long, and there are stories to be told about each of these characters, and none of them are told in isolation. but in a way, the characters themselves are not the point, or if they are, it's in aggregate - it's in the ways they're all complex, the ways they all have motivations that make sense to them (and that make sense to us, once we get to know them). and it's about power and the roles that the characters play in their society, rather than the roles the characters play in the story. or maybe those are the same thing! because ultimately, the main character of this story is the society. and the plot is the history of this society, rather than the journey or life of a single person or handful of people.**

(sidenote, there will be a period during book 1 when you will think to yourself, "wow, all the women characters are super one-dimensional and the narrative doesn't seem to respect them." this is on purpose. just keep going.)

the plotting is intricate while also feeling very organic. he's got dozens of plates in the air at once, he's maintaining them over a long period (these books are MASSIVE), and he's somehow making it seem like a real history, not like an author pulling strings. i haven't finished it yet, but my guess is that he's going to pull off a very satisfying conclusion that's at the same time very open-ended. definitely looking forward to it.

and the worldbuilding. oh, the worldbuilding. this is some of the most detailed, complex, realistic*** worldbuilding i've ever encountered, and he covers SO much ground. you want linguistic worldbuilding? you got it. philosophy? it's here. psychology of empire? coming right up. the nitty-gritty of everyday governance? buddy, pull up a chair. mechanical engineering? how much time you got?? (it better be enough time to read 3504 physical pages, because that's how long this series is.) and he's drawing on chinese history and cultural narratives rather than slapping lipstick on a tolkien clone (see his comments here, but stop reading at "In this continuation of the series" if you want to avoid spoilers). he WILL go on for a hundred pages about a single invention, but it's SO interesting that he is allowed. this is a story about how technology (including language, and schools of thought, and agriculture, and...) shapes, and is a product of, its time and place and people, so again, this is all to purpose. but it's also just. really cool.

the last thing i'll say, and this is mainly for other ken liu fans, is that one of the things i most love about his short stories is how they tap into emotions i didn't even know i had, as though they're reaching inside of me and drawing to the surface ways of experiencing consciousness and love and mortal life that i had no idea were in there. this series is not causing emotional revelation for me in the way his other stories do, which isn't a bad thing - i don't mean to say the series is not engaging or that it inspires no emotions! i just mean, iykyk. if you've read the paper menagerie and are expecting that experience, you will have a better time here if you leave those expectations at the door. i am invested in this book because it's engaging my intellect, curiosity, sense of wanting to find out what else the characters will learn and what's going to happen next...less because it's turning my heart inside out inside my chest. and like thank goodness, because i don't think i could survive four entire 900-page books' worth of that! but anyway. word to the wise.

tl;dr: yes, i recommend it, especially if you like epic fantasy. if you're a fan of ken liu's other work, this is quite different, so just know that going in!

*this opinion is of course subjective and not universally shared. for instance, see this review of book 3 (full of spoilers, so don't actually read it lol) which says "There's Liu's voice to hold onto, though — beautifully deployed here and fully in command of the language of his imaginary universe." so ymmv. maybe it's an epic fantasy thing.

**this is making me realize that the story is commenting on this very thing through a tension between bureaucracy (founded on interchangeability) and monarchy (informed by a specific personality). dude. that's so meta!

***though sometimes i'm like, "really? you scaled up that invention to use untested on the battlefield in the span of like two weeks? sure, jan." so sometimes he falls down a little on translation of ideas into logistics, but it makes for such a great story that i'll allow it.

[fruitsyrups]

I tried to type the word lives but accidentally said loves and then it autocorrected to lobes. What.

[dexaroth]

121 links and counting hehehe. i didnt think compiling links would take this long but goddamn

these are all from my bookmarks so ive yet to search through ones ive tagged as ref and such and then ill publish the page

[loversandantiheroes]

Tomorrow is tooth day and a bitch is mildly freaking out about it.