#so. what is the technology and or magic here? how many people are labouring to support your protagonist who is NOT

[yaksha-garden]

Biography

[main verse: again, read CWs on guidelines page. CWs applicable here are natural disasters especially famine and plague, cannibalism, some body horror]

Eden doesn't remember the very start of their story. The details always get murkier as time goes on, eventually being lost to them, except for the broadest strokes and the absolute most significant things. They can tell you only a bit about how they became a little divinity: once, a very long time ago, they petitioned the gods for a power so great, empires could never move it, armies could never break it, power enough that they could ensure the grove they called home would always be free and peaceful. They got exactly that - embodied in the form of the Keystone embedded in their chest.

(This cannot be the whole story, Eden knows it can't be. The gods don't give away little fragments of divine dominion for nothing. But what exactly they did to earn such a thing is, frustratingly, out of Eden's memory. But perhaps their other name "Vidhāna", roughly meaning "rule, regulation, destiny" or "performer/executor (of an action)", holds a clue. They don't remember what their original name was, just that it wasn't "Eden".)

For a while, Eden had everything they asked for. They fiercely defended their domain, and empires and armies did break upon it. Their home became known for its prosperity and peace, and was named The Verdant Haven, or just The Verdant for it. Many arrived seeking refuge from oppression and war, and Eden was happy to provide. However, Eden was not exactly a paragon of rulership. Infamously, steam and later combustion engines were banned, keeping most labour manual or magical. This lead to increasing friction as both the human world and Kubera's Prism saw more new technologies, which Eden remained stubbornly wary of. After all, everything the people could ever need, or want from the outside world's technology, they could simply provide instead. Couldn't they?

They were also often excessively harsh on those who they saw as disturbing the peace, and they wielded the Verdant and sanctions on its bounty like a weapon against their enemies.

(This all seems vague. The details blur like a dream in Eden's memory. Even personal connections - friends, enemies, lovers, even children and family - they existed, but Eden's memories of them are so tattered.)

All of these would eventually became their downfall. They might be able to ensure the harvest never fails, but what about famine caused by nobody ever getting to keep their harvest, for economic reasons? When they finally encountered an issue that could not be mitigated with excessive creative or destructive force, everything started to fall apart. From the threat of famine, came desperation. From desperation, came an act of desperate, violent betrayal, a group killing and eating another sentient being. From that act, came Root Hunger.

Root Hunger is a disease that causes people to starve quicker, and gives them strange and awful hungers. In the worst cases, that hunger is for the flesh and blood of one's peers. The famine got even worse with this plague. Perhaps it was a divine curse - Eden must have thought so, because they responded by tearing the Keystone out of their chest, and exiling themselves to the world of dreams. While they were there, their past and identity slowly slipped away from them, until they knew nothing else but wandering from dream to dream and subsisting off them. Back in Kubera's prism, The Verdant Haven finally collapsed in on itself, and the war and conquest Eden strove so hard to keep out finally burst in.

For many, many years, Eden walked the dreams of humanity. They felt wary of getting too close to any of the humans whose dreams they visited, skittish for reasons they now only dimly remembered - and even then, less by any events, and more by fleeting feelings of familiarity, visceral reactions to inexplicable triggers, and a deep sense of guilt that settled in their chest, where the Keystone was once rooted. Every so often, they would step back into Kubera's Prism to ground themselves, but they kept to the wilderness, avoiding people.

(Little did Eden know, there was one group who was quite invested in keeping them away from their former domain, and their memories, for good. But this story isn't about them just yet.)

One night, they stepped into the dream of a human boy who, to their great surprise, was actually in Kubera's Prism, and furthermore, in what became of The verdant. What was a human doing in the world of yakshas, rakshasas, and other fantastical beings? Eden just had to know, and that was why they kept returning to the boy's dreams (it helped that they thought he was cute). The boy, Vayu, eventually explained his situation: after a terrible accident that killed his mother and nearly killed him, he was dragged through the cracks of Kubera's Prism by a starving ghoul named Lalanika, who carved out bits of his flesh to eat, and replaced what was taken with dying embers, strange magic ensuring Vayu eventually regenerated. Lalanika had taken on a sliver of The Verdant's corrupted Keystone and with it, the embodiment Root Hunger. This awful set-up with a human victim was a way of reducing the number of casualties to her hunger, and a way of keeping a test subject for her frequent desperate attempts to cure herself.

Vayu had been here for almost a year by the time Eden met him, and had become resigned to it, despite his desire to see his siblings again. He was a soft-spoken and gentle person who found it in himself to pity his captor, even with his resentment. In his dreams, he found an escape, so he was glad for Eden's company. And, eventually, their love. Eden's relationship with Vayu felt like home to them, but Eden felt simply soothing this pain was not enough.

Eden located Lalanika's home in The Verdant, an abandoned tenement by the coast. Coordinating with Vayu in his dreams, and with the help of old friends they finally gathered up the courage to face again, they conspired to break him out.

However, in between this planning, Eden was faced with the full brunt of the destruction left in their wake, and in their absence, that devastated their former Verdant haven. Destruction that, perhaps, the power of the Keystone could reverse. Memories trickled back, and they began to wonder if abandoning their post was truly the right move…

It took a few tries, but the plan eventually succeeded. Vayu burned down Lalanika's lair in the process, and finally reunited with Eden in the waking world.

Their reunion was short-lived, though. It became clear that Eden left The Verdant in an untenable state, and they had to take back the Keystone in order to finally fix their mistakes. But, this meant they could not follow Vayu to the human world. Not yet, anyway. To their shock, Vayu was completely ready to stay with them, even though his entire motivation to escape had been to return to his siblings, his world. Perhaps it was because the embers that burned within him made him markedly different from human now, closer to Eden's kind. Perhaps he had been gone for too long now. Whatever the reason though, Eden would not accept it. Their first act with the reclaimed Keystone's power was to send Vayu back through the cracks of Kubera's Prism, back to the human world, by force.

For years, Eden spent their time slowly repairing their Verdant grove. They avoided sweeping and reckless use of the Keystone's power, preferring to take a more careful, if more tedious, approach. It helped that by the time they returned, the powers of the land had burned themselves out on war. Eden had a very hands-off approach to governing the people who lived within their domain now, no more sweeping bans and laws and punishments. They re-seeded battlefields and disaster-scarred wastes, treated blights on crops. They had the gratitude of the people back, but something still felt missing.

Then, by pure happenstance, they ran into Vayu again. Not under the best circumstances, mind.

As it turned out, a few years ago, Vayu found a way to slip between the human world and Kubera's Prism. Since then, he visited every few days, hunted and did small favours for the residents, and traded for fantastical things that simply couldn't be found in the human world. After all, there were some things about his condition that those from the human world simply couldn't deal with, couldn't even see. And furthermore, he really did long to see Eden again. He just didn't expect it to be while hunting what turned out to be Eden in deer form.

Despite the initial bad first-ish impression, Vayu was genuinely apologetic, and Eden did wish they could meet again. They forgave him, and even asked to visit him in the human world, through the passage he knew of. A visit turned into regular visits, turned into meeting Vayu's siblings and adopted daughter, and then, a rekindling of their relationship.

Of course, Eden can't stay in the human world long-term. They have responsibilities after all, and even if they can afford to disappear for a few days, their work still isn't done. But whenever they have the space to, they visit the human world. Vayu returns the favour, visiting Eden in their grove whenever he can. The city Vayu calls home is a strange, cramped, and gray space to Eden. But they're willing to put up with it. Not just for love, but because it has its fascinating side too - the internet, for one. And so, we end up here, where this blog starts.

Timeline For RP Purposes:

1943~2000s: Eden's exile in the world of dreams. This is the earliest in the timeline I'm willing to play Eden, and the only one with a fixed start date.

2000s~2020s: At some point during this timeframe, Eden is regularly visiting the human world. This part of the timeline is more flexible - "canonically" Eden only starts visiting the human world to see Vayu in the 2020s, but it's not strictly necessary for that to be true.

2020s~Onwards: [HUMAN END] Verse starts/diverges here. Again, the timing can be flexible.

[drumlincountry]

one silver lining of our collapsing world order is that scifi and fantasy writers will maybe be moved to put some fucking thought into how farming & food systems work!!!

[writingwithcolor]

Gingerbread man as golem

@yaronata asked:

I would like to write a character who is Jewish and uses a Golem. She's based on the D&D class of the artificer which looks magic but isn't, because they produce all their effects with inventions, like the "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" quote. Her story is that her very Jewish town was under attack from a terrible monster when she was little. Her Rabbis made a Golem to protect the town, and it succeeded but was torn to pieces in the process. She was fascinated by the Golem and as a kid didn't see a big difference between it's sentience and person's so was really thankful for its sacrifice like you would a person's sacrificing their life for you. They thought all the pieces had been devoured by the monster before it died, but she went looking and found the piece used to animate the Golem, which she, kinda misunderstanding called its "heart". She kept the piece and grew up to be an incredibly skilled cook, specialising as a baker in the town. I imagine she would make a lot of really good food for the Jewish holidays, or to break fasts on ones like Yom Kippur or Tish'abav. But she also made a town specific holiday to honour the Golem's sacrifice and the town still being alive, because I feel "we are not dead woo" is a big theme for Jewish holidays from my research, so it could fit, for which she invented ginger bread men to be the golem, and gave them little "hearts" of fruit or honey, and you're meant to eat them limb by limb like the beast did before eating the heart. This would be the inspiration for using the "heart" piece later to make her own giant gingerbread Golem to help her save the world.

These are my questions 1) would it be considered bad or disrespectful for someone who isn't a Rabbi to make a Golem, or is this method of taking an animating piece someone else made disrespectful? 2) Her journey will take her far from her town and her Jewish family and friends and she will likely travel with gentiles. Would it be disrespectful for a Golem to be used to protect a lot of gentiles and one Jew in the course of saving the world? I don't want to fall into the stereotype of someone putting all their effort into valuing and protecting very specifically the group that in real life is oppressive to them. 3) While she is not using magic and is actually mimicking its effects with technology she invents, is this drawing too close to the line of "magical Jew"? 4) I like to "play test" my characters in ttrpgs to really get a feel for them before I write. Would it be disrespectful to play a Jewish character when I am a gentile, and would it be disrespectful to play a Jewish character in a setting where there are demonstrably real gods other than the one of Judaism?

I really like this character idea and I think it's cute and fun and rooted in Jewish culture but I really want to make sure it's respectful and as good as I, a gentile researching on the internet, thinks it is. Thanks so much! Have a nice day!

My answer to this is very complicated because there are things I both like and do not like about this premise. First of all, I love the idea of a cookie golem, and I'm even imagining the magic word that brings him to life (EMET/truth) would be written in icing. And I'm okay with the part about how she found a piece of the old golem and used it to build a new golem, because that makes sense for a golem made from a baked good when you think about how people use sourdough starter to make a new batch of sourdough.

However, here are the thing that make me cock my head to the side like my little sister's German shepherd:

1. re: "magical Jew" - that's not a trope I've ever heard of. Remember, marginalized groups don't receive identical disrespect across the board. It is indeed a trope to use Black people or disabled people as supernatural plot devices who exist only to further the stories of white main characters or able-bodied main characters. But I can't say as I've ever seen anyone using Jewishness that way. Usually if we are someone's one-dimensional plot device it's as someone's lawyer, fixer, "money guy", etc, not a supernatural force. So this isn't something you have to worry about.

2. I have a certain level of discomfort with you playing as a Jewish character just because playacting as a marginalized culture you're not part of strikes me as off, but I understand that that's how you gain insight into a character you're about to write so it's more of a writing exercise than anything else. (I wonder if D&D regulars from marginalized groups have written about this -- I've only played a few times casually with family so if I did run into this type of discussion in my social justice reading I wouldn't have absorbed it. If anyone is curious I played first as Captain Werewolf, and then switched to playing as Cinnamon Blade because lawful good was too hard. :P )

3. I would prefer you omit the detail about eating the cookies piece by piece symbolically, for two reasons: a. it unintentionally evokes Communion by having appreciative people consume a baked good symbolic of an entity who sacrificed his life for theirs, and b. focusing on the details of flesh consumption reminds me too much of Blood Libel (yes, a gingerbread man is in the shape of a person but how many of us actually think about it literally, the way this act would cause?)

As to your first question: I'm fine with her making a golem even though she's just a rando. Second question: I see what you're saying and maybe it could be more okay if it's really clear how well these gentile folks are treating her? And questions three and four are answered above.

I really do love the idea of a giant gingerbread man golem. Cookie golem T_T <3

--Shira

I would like to second Shira’s point about not ripping apart the gingerbread cookies. I honestly would prefer they were used as decoration, and other cookies eaten instead, since that part just feels so not-Jewish to me, but I don’t have golem-specific issues other than that. It seems like you have already been doing a lot of research, which is appreciated.

As far as the ttrpg/DnD aspect… I bounce back and forth on the topic of playing characters that are so very different from our experiences, other than in fantasy-related ways. However, I am aware that a lot of people will play with, and experiment with gender in game, and learn something about themselves in the process (the number of trans players of ttrpgs who tried out their gender in game before they were out is high). It’s different with Judaism, and even more significantly different when it comes to things you can’t convert into, like various actual, real-world races. But because people do sometimes experience growth from experiences like this, I’m hesitant to dissuade players completely. I do urge you to, at a minimum, bring the same care, research, and willingness to learn, that you brought to this question.

--Dierdra

This sounds like a creative storyline that you could have lots of fun with 😊

At first I was confused by this part:

She also made a town specific holiday to honour the Golem's sacrifice

But then you really got me thinking about different types of Jewish holidays and how they come about, so thank you for that!

Because it’s often the little details that either make a story super powerful or kind of nonsensical, I think it would be a good idea to decide what type of holiday is being created here:

A full-blown chag with restrictions on labour and halachic obligations? These are commanded in Torah and new ones can’t be added.

A minor yom tov with halachic obligations but no restrictions? These were instituted by the rabbis prior to the destruction of the Temple, so again new ones can’t be added.

A public holiday or equivalent? This would usually be declared by the Knesset in Israel, and filter to the rest of the Jewish world from there.

A community-based yom tov with specific customs only for people in the know, such as certain Chasidic groups celebrating the birthdays of their deceased leaders? I asked around, but no one can really tell me how these holidays get started, which is probably a good indication that they arise quite organically from a group of people who all just feel that it should be celebrated. Probably not created by a single person, as such.

Something she runs from her bakery, not religion-based, but more like a day of doing special products and deals the way many small businesses do on their anniversary?

Now, if the people of a modern-day town were actually saved by a real live Golem, that would arguably be the most overt miracle for many generations, so there would be a decent chance of options 3 and/or 4 happening. It’s entirely plausible that there could be special foods for this day that become a tradition, including Golem cookies. People who directly benefited might also return to the site where the Golem fought the monster and recite the prayer, ‘Blessed is Hashem, Master of the Universe, Who performed a miracle for me in this place.’

Alternatively, if it’s important that your MC created the holiday, something like option 5 might be the best. Hopefully this will still fulfil what you need: you describe her as incredibly skilled, so I can imagine the day when she goes all out on the Golem cookies being one of the most exciting events of the year for the townspeople, just because her baking is that good. Plus, they already have a personal stake in the Golem’s sacrifice, so I definitely think it could be a thing without being an official holiday. Also, if she is outside of an all-Jewish environment, don’t forget that she would have to decide whether to commemorate the anniversary in the Hebrew calendar or the local one.

Coming back to the cookies, sorry if we’re getting a little repetitive on this point! But I don’t see the cookies being torn limb from limb as part of a celebration. First of all, this doesn’t sound like a very celebratory thing to do, to say the least. Can you imagine explaining that to a three-year-old on their first Yom HaGolem? They would be terrified! (I don’t read this suggestion as accidental anti-Semitism so much as getting carried away with a metaphor, which I’m sure as writers we have all done!)

But also, it’s worth pointing out that our commemorative foods aren’t usually that literal. If you think about hamantaschen, maror, or apple in honey, they’re all symbols. That’s not to say that having Golem-shaped cookies is a problem, as this sounds like just a bit of fun that the MC is having and not something that is directly at odds with Judaism or Jewish culture. But it’s worth bearing in mind that the more literal you go from there in terms of tying the cookies to the event they commemorate, the less culturally aligned your holiday food becomes.

Finally, about the Golem protecting non-Jewish people: I like this idea! There’s a stereotype that we only use whatever is at our disposal to help ourselves and other Jewish people, so a Golem being created by Jews but helping others as well is a big plus for me. Of course, as has already been pointed out, this would be an odd choice if her Saving The World team were anti-Semitic or otherwise disrespectful to her/her community, but I don’t think you were headed that way!

-Shoshi

I have to come back in here just to squee over the phrase “Yom HaGolem.” Well done :D

--Shira

[passionate-reply]

What would Great Albums be, if not for defenses of albums lots of people hate? SPK’s Machine Age Voodoo is, of course, one of those albums, being the attempt of a noisy, drony early industrial group to make synthy disco magic. Did they succeed? Well, maybe not--but at least it’s interesting. Find out more by watching the video, or checking out the transcript under the break!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! This time, I will be once again be coming to the defence of an album that’s been very divisive: Machine Age Voodoo by SPK, first released in 1984. Earlier in the 1980s, SPK had distinguished themselves as one of the most prominent figures of the nascent “noise music” movement, alongside acts like NON and Throbbing Gristle. Just two years before Machine Age Voodoo, they released their arguable magnum opus: Leichenschrei, an album that eschewed a traditional tracklisting, featured the mutilated visage of a victim of napalm burns on its cover, and sounded something like this:

Music: “Seite ((Klono))” / “Napalm (Terminal Patient)”

With their follow-up to Leichenschrei, SPK would take their sound in a very different direction. They abandoned the harsh, buzzing textures and nauseous, whirring drones of their earlier work, and set out in a remarkably more pop direction. While Machine Age Voodoo features verses and choruses, brighter synth textures, and winsome slap basslines, it still maintains a certain “industrial” identity, tying it into the same overarching web of related styles that SPK’s earlier work fell under. This album reminds me a bit of Depeche Mode’s mid-80s output, such as Some Great Reward, in its incorporation of both synth-pop structures as well as some accents of mechanistic clangs and bangs. Depeche Mode and SPK were, of course, passing by one another after coming from opposite directions on this spectrum, but the end results remain comparable.

Music: “Junk Funk” / “Machine Age Voodoo”

Listening to the album’s stomping opener, titled “Junk Funk” on most releases but made into the title track for the US market, I’m struck by just how upbeat of a track it is. Where many industrial acts are keen to portray modern labour as a punishing, soul-sucking, miserable endeavour, “Junk Funk” seems to make it into something of a party. Given that even Depeche Mode were penning tracks like “Everything Counts” with a dour outlook on capitalism, the seemingly playful aura surrounding this single really sets it apart--though not necessarily in a good way. As I mentioned earlier, *Machine Age Voodoo* has consistently been panned by fans of the group’s more aggressive earlier work, and I think the album’s affinities with light-hearted, and perhaps even silly, post-disco pop make it all the more easy to write off as ridiculous and asinine. But much like simply being in a style you don’t care for isn’t a reason to lambaste a work of art, simply being lighter in tone is no reason to reject something. Not all great art needs to be stone-serious, after all! While Machine Age Voodoo may not be a continuation of the classic SPK sound, I think it’s an album that has plenty of appeal for fans of lighter synth-pop, and one that I wish had managed to achieve a bit more renown among those who might be a bit more receptive to its style.

Naturally, the title of the album and the themes of its sometime title track invite us to consider the role that appropriation of “primitive” themes has to play. Ever since industrialization and colonialism began to create large separations between the lifestyles of “the West and the rest,” Western artists from Picasso to Gauguin have found themselves fascinated by so-called “primitive” ways of life, found among communities of colour whom they believed to live closer to the natural or archaic state of humankind, uncorrupted by capitalism. But followers of the religion sometimes known as “Voodoo” are living in the modern world as much as anyone else is, and the use of their faith as a symbol of barbarism or the unrestrained id here is presumptuous at best, and bigoted at worst--particularly given the reference to “funk,” a music style that, like Voodoo, is strongly associated with Black culture. The love for things “primitive” has served an important cultural role in the West, offering an apparent alternative to the crushing death spiral of capitalism, and serving as an outlet for questioning the assumed status quo and the truth of human nature--but at the same time, I think we can fairly criticize it for offering a stereotyped and tokenized view of cultures outside of the West. Machine Age Voodoo offers another, very different, perspective on the Other on its second track, “With Love From China.”

Music: “With Love From China”

Compared to “Junk Funk,” “With Love From China” is distinguished as one of the album’s more plaintive and less dancefloor-oriented tracks, and, in contrast to “Junk Funk”’s joyful embrace of “high technology hoodoo,” “With Love From China” portrays the titular Communist power as something quite sinister. While a simple read of the lyrics suggests that it may be a triumphant hymn to the state, the track’s plodding, dirgelike melody makes it hang like an ominous cloud instead. Arguably the most successful state to be built upon Marxist ideals, China is a prominent feature of lots of early 80s synth-pop, where it and other Communist states saw varying portrayals as anywhere from dystopian to utopian. Like the appropriation of “voodoo” earlier, the dread romanticism applied to China by SPK on this track says more about them than it does about China itself. I think both tracks, taken together, paint a picture of a sort of “anywhere but here” ideology, defined less by any strong feelings for these particular cultures, and more by a desire for an escape to the exotic, and an abandonment of all that is sick about the West. Overall, though, “With Love From China” isn’t necessarily a fair representation of the average track on Machine Age Voodoo, as the album consists mostly of higher-energy tracks, like “Metal Dance.”

Music: “Metal Dance”

Perhaps the track most clearly aimed at nightclub rotation, “Metal Dance” feels like a logical choice for the album’s first single. Less of a pop tune and more of a floorfiller, “Metal Dance” still hums with industrial touches, propelled by clunking metallic percussion and chant-like shouts that prefigure the synthesis of machine music and club fare that EBM acts like Nitzer Ebb would achieve later in the 1980s. With its succinct title and a compelling hook that implores us to “synthesize our dreams away,” “Metal Dance” almost feels like a love letter to the sheer concept of electronic music for dancing to--a consummate paean to the discotheque, even if it comes from what may seem like an unlikely, and perhaps dishonest, source. A similar embrace of dance music qua dance music is found on “High Tension.”

Music: “High Tension”

If “Metal Dance” sounds like a preview of later industrial dance genres like EBM, then “High Tension” feels like a throwback to the first attempts to “synthesize” an electronic disco, with its dense, complex production style, prominent bass, and lyrics that promote “danc[ing] ‘til you drop” as a response to “bad times.” Despite its compelling use of a well-textured vocoder, “High Tension” veers away from the worship of the machine that was central to “Metal Dance,” and its straightforward celebration of dancing itself makes it feel like the most likely genuine crossover hit on the album--not that it really had any. It’s also worth noting that the track’s bridge contains an early reference to “hip-hop,” back when artists like Man Parrish were freely using the term to describe club-friendly electro that didn’t necessarily include rapping. Times have changed, of course, but I think “High Tension” fits right in with other works in that style--even if, again, it comes from a group that nobody would have expected to make music like this!

On the cover of Machine Age Voodoo, we see a fantasy cityscape, defined by a massive tower crowned with the band’s name accompanied by a Communist-inspired red star. It’s as firmly removed from the vile and shocking imagery of Leichenschrei as the music contained within. But, just as the music has retained some degree of industrial sentiments, the cover is not without its own sense of subversion--it is, after all, apparently enshrining the ostensibly dangerous, foreign ideology of Communism!

It’s tempting to compare this image to the futuristic imagery of Fritz Lang’s classic silent film, Metropolis, particularly given that there’s also a track on the album that shares that title. But I think that the visual style employed here, with its blocky, cubistic rendering of form and lively use of diagonals to enrich its composition, is perhaps more reminiscent of the work of the Russian avant-garde of the 1910s. Even before the Russian Revolution, pioneering abstract artists, like the “Rayonist” Natalia Goncharova, were looking towards the exciting potential of the future, and making art that celebrated the beauty of machines in motion. The early abstraction of painters like Goncharova would go on to influence the abstract art associated with the early days of the Soviet Union, which makes it a particularly fitting affinity given the themes of Machine Age Voodoo.

After Machine Age Voodoo, SPK never returned to making more melodic music--perhaps unsurprisingly, given the album’s simultaneous failure to achieve crossover success, or retain the interest of their existing fanbase. They returned in 1986 with Zamia Lehmanni: Songs of Byzantine Flowers, an album of dark ambient music that avoided slavishly copying earlier works like Leichenschrei, while still feeling like a worthy continuation of the spirit in which they had begun their career.

Music: “Invocation to Secular Heresies”

My favourite track on Machine Age Voodoo is “Seduction,” which is easy to overlook as it actually only appeared on the US release of the album. “Seduction” is striking for its blatant, wantonly sexual lyricism, which, when combined with SPK vocalist Sinan Leong’s competently sultry vocal style, recalls the best work of the experimental disco outfit Gina X Performance. And much like Gina X Performance, there’s a bit of subversively queer gender-bending to be had here, as a male backing vocalist repeats Leong’s line, “you call yourself a man?” I think that may be unintentional, a sort of happy accident, but I love it nonetheless. That’s all I have for today--thanks for listening!

Music: “Seduction”

[dreamsister81]

 Jeff and MI:

By age, you fit in the G.I.T generation, but you obviously are not one of them...

These facilities are a mystery to me. There they tell you only one thing: hurry up! This leads you nowhere, afterwards your own children run away from you. Through these trainings you get to know women, you get to know men, music is inoculated into people who have no feeling for it; then they can only scare other people or insult them...

I was in this terrible place too, by the way-G.I.T That was a complete waste of time, apart from the theoretical lessons and the friends that I had there. Otherwise: an absolute wrong decision.

How long have you studied there?

One year, the normal program. They give you tons of material, you have to absorb everything, you practice, you are tested and you go to the next course. An intensive support with development is simply not possible. I did so many things: theory, single string technique, jazz class, rock class, all sorts of genres. My friend John was teaching bass there, and he once said that there is not a single teacher at the institute who says to the students, "OK, you're learning all this stuff here now, you're learning how to entertain people and you're learning to learn. But do you even know that there is no one in the universe other than yourself who plays the music you play? " John left the school then. For me it was all a joke that cost me $ 3,900. People interested in music should take private lessons somewhere, start a band, do something with people who like them and have what it takes. These schools are a scene in their own right, a very small, secluded world-the music, on the other hand, is gigantic and open. If you don't notice it, you miss a lot of magic, pain, development...(thinks) and rock! Apart from Paul Gilbert, there was no one there who really rocked. Session musicians are bred there; and at the end of the year you get a piece of paper that says, "Now you have the skills to become a professional musician." Well, congratulations! And then you look for jobs and play what other people want. But that's not all the music, there's something else isn't there? Where's the music coming from? From your own head or stomach, or the concepts of the people you work for?-Gitarre & Bass, October,  1995

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I had a friend named John Humphrey. I went to this really crappy guitar school for a year, and he used to teach there, he was a bass teacher. And then he left, and we ended up being roommates later on, after I graduated. This is the kind of school where you give them a shitload of money in order to spend a year learning their curriculum.

What was it, G.I.T. (Guitar Institute of Technology in Los Angeles)?

Yeah, it was G.I.T.. They give you their curriculum, and it's not too comprehensive, but it's just enough, and then you can [snaps his fingers] move on to the next thing. And pretty soon you have all this shit inside you and then they give you this paper that says you have what it takes to be a professional musician.

It's a rock-oriented thing, isn't it?

In the end, I think, the only true product of that kind of learning is to get you gigs on the studio circuit and to get you gigs on the session guy circuit.

So, Lee Ritenour went there or something?

G.I.T. was started by Howard Roberts, the guy who played the wah-wah guitar on the theme to Shaft. And this other guy named Pat Hayes. I don't know. It just seemed like a racket, really. John said a lot of things to me that stuck in my mind. He said that there was nobody who stopped you, sat you in a room and said, okay, we have all these artists that you're learning the licks from, you have your guitar heroes, your virtuoso lust objects. But there's nobody who can make the kind of music you can make now except for you. And you can make it now. You don't even have to know how to go fast. And that makes all the sense to me in the world. It's also kind of an unseen process, that concept, originality. It's like that in all the education systems; there's never any real...identity education, self-generative identity art sort of thing, to be yourself. If everybody in Melbourne had a Wurlitzer organ and had the passion to sing something or make something, you'd have hundreds of thousands of different styles, if they were coming exactly from only their DNA, only their makeup, and their emotional percepts, their idea about what art is. You could have way-removed genres from what is already accepted, avante-garde country-rock-punk-folk-whatever. It's unlimited. But for some reason, the conventions always take over and there's a very ready and powerful formula to step into...

Those are the type of [formula-derived] players who can say, "Well, I was listening to the radio in 1967 and I heard the guitar solo in Jimi Hendrix's 'All Along the Watchtower,' and that guitar sound, that tone, would work perfectly for this television commercial."

Yeah. See? "Stealing from the greats, that's okay." That's right. Once I stopped in [at G.I.T.] years later, when I was on tour going through L.A., just to see what it was like. They've got a completely high-tech, multi-million dollar facility...

More so than when you had been there?

Way more. When I was there, it was just a ragtag bunch of teachers, and they had all left by then. They had video facilities and a class for stage moves and all kinds of things. And I saw this guy who was working the desk, the guy who watches the door. He had a bass on, and he was practicing his Nirvana chops! He was playing "In Bloom" on his bass, way up on his chest, jazz-fusion style, to the Nirvana song. I thought, oh shit--he was practicing his grunge riffs! He was getting his grunge down! Best fucking thing you can do, if you have the interest, is go to a private teacher, go someplace, some college, and learn theory. That was something I really enjoyed, actually, something that wasn't totally pointless. Theory meaning the meaning of the musical nomenclature. I was attracted to really interesting harmonies, stuff that I would hear in Ravel, Ellington, Bartok.-Double Take, February 29, 1996

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Once the site of a seakeasy and a bra factory, the 30,000-square-foot quarters were now the home of Musicians Institute, a vocational school for anyone who considered himself or herself a serious musician. With its wooden desks and chipped-tile hallways, MI resembled any other urban school, but at those desks, student guitarists and drummers studied scales and power chords in hopes of becoming the next Eddie Van Halen or Neil Peart, the flashy drummer with Rush. On their way to class each morning, flaxen-haired guitar gods in training could be spotted holding their guitars and practicing licks as they walked down Hollywood Boulevard.

Jeff had heard about Musicians Institute (and its subdivision, the Guitar Institute of Technology) while in high school and told everyone it was his one and only destination. However, potential superstardom did not run cheap. The school charged $4,000 for its one year course, and by the time Jeff Graduated from Loara High School, Mary Guibert was beginning to fall on hard financial times as she went in and out of jobs. In need of money for herself and her two sons, she prematurely broke into a $20,000 fund earmarked for Jeff, but only after he tured nineteen. Once Mary proved to the courtsthat Jeff needed it for his education, he and Mary received it a year early. In a deep irony, the father Jeff had barely met and increasingly resented would be paying his son's way through music school.

On graduation night, September 15, 1985, at the Odyssey in Granada Hills in the San Fernando Valley, Jeff, Stoll, and Marryatt closed the ceremony by playing Weather Report's "Pearl On the Half Shell."-from Dream Brother

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With its 30-odd thousand feet of floor space and row upon row of "labs", where hopeful guitar heroes could jam with such shit-hot players as Scott Henderson, LA's Musician's Institute must have seemed like nirvana for someone like Jeff Buckley, trapped as he was behind the Orange Curtain. According to his buddy Chris Dowd, that's exactly why Buckley enrolled there, arriving just before autumn, 1984, bankrolled by $4,000 that Mary managed to squeeze from a Tim Buckley trust fund.

Originally known as the Guitar Institute, which in itself says plenty, the school was opened in 1977. Drawing on the educational philosophy of journeyman guitarist Howard Roberts, it was co-founded and managed by Los Angeles music businessman Pat Hicks, "a real shyster opportunist", in the words of Tom Chang, an expat Canadian who would become very tight with Jeff Buckley during their two years at the Institute. In 1978, thr Bass Institute was opened, followed by the Percussion Institute two years later. Desppite Hicks' questionable business ethics-amongst other things, he'd hire students as cheap labour to do essential maintenance work on the building, which led to Buckley being hired as an electrician's assistant soon after graduating-he did manage to persuade well regarded players and bands to lecture, and play alongside, the hopefuls who'd enrolled there.

What Buckley lacked up in "front" he clearly made up for in ambition. That was proved, in spades, by Buckley's graduation performance which was played out on September 15, 1985, at a venue called the Odyssey in Granada Hills. While the sonic crush and enviable chops of Rush and Led Zeppelin still rocked the world of this Orange County teen, Buckley had also developed a real taste for such "noodlers" as Weather Report.

The number chosen by Buckley for graduation was their "D Flat Waltz" (not "Pearl On The Half-Shell", as documented elsewhere, which they'd performed at a previous event), a typically complicated few minutes of Weather Report neo-fusion-a "really cool piece, very involved", according to Tom Chang-and a standout from their 1983 set Domino Theory. But Buckley, accompanied by Stoll on drums and Marryatt on bass, didn't just play the piece, he also wrote the individual parts out beforehand for the band.-from A Pure Drop

MI pics by me

[tinyshe]

The Great Reset Demands Firing All Unvaccinated Employees Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola

Story at-a-glance

The Great Reset has been called a conspiracy theory by many, despite specific plans published on the World Economic Forum (WEF) website and partnerships between the WEF and global organizations like the United Nations and World Health Organization

An investigative report asserts that the ongoing restructuring of processes that control food and data are upending traditional practices so private corporations have more control and influence than democratically elected government

A part of the Great Reset is a reset of the economy, including jobs. Many across the U.S. are facing unemployment if they do not choose to take a genetic therapy experiment in the form of a COVID-19 vaccine

Employees of six major hospitals in Cincinnati, Ohio, have filed a lawsuit, hoping to stop the mandated vaccine, which health experts are promoting with inconsistent messages, first claiming it does not stop community transmission; yet, requiring it for employment under the guise of preventing the spread of infection

Over the past year and a half, I’ve written many articles detailing the evidence supporting the claim that the COVID pandemic is a ruse to usher in a new system of global centralized governance by unelected leaders, the so-called Great Reset.

The recent release of the House Foreign Affairs Committee report1 entitled, “The Origins of COVID-19: An Investigation of the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” presented solid evidence that many of the “conspiracy theories” about the virus were in fact true. For example, using some intelligence reports and other public documents, the committee found that:2

“… we now believe it’s time to completely dismiss the wet market as the source of the outbreak. We also believe the preponderance of the evidence proves the virus did leak from the WIV and that it did so sometime before September 12, 2019.”

They presented evidence of genetic modification and wrote this:3

“This report also lays out ample evidence that researchers at the WIV, in conjunction with U.S. scientists and funded by both the PRC [People’s Republic of China] government and the U.S. government, were conducting gain of-function research on coronaviruses at the WIV …

In many instances, the scientists were successful in creating 'chimeric viruses' — or viruses created from the pieces of other viruses — that could infect human immune systems.

With dangerous research like this conducted at safety levels similar to a dentist’s office, a natural or genetically modified virus could have easily escaped the lab and infected the community.”

The idea of the Great Reset may feel like a conspiracy theory, especially if life as you know it where you live has not dramatically changed. You still go to work, buy food, go to the gym, go out to eat and attend events. There may be people wearing masks, and you may see or hear news reports about vaccine mandates and vaccine passports, but it hasn’t reached your employer and you may not be personally affected … yet.

But, make no mistake, unless we all do our part to peacefully protest the changes being planned, write to our legislatures, and talk to our neighbors and friends, what is happening in New York,4 France,5 Germany6 and Israel,7 will soon be knocking on your front door.

Does ‘Great Reset’ Sound Like a Conspiracy? It May Be Worse

An article titled, “Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy and Life Has Never Been Better” appeared in Forbes Magazine8 in November 2016. It was written by Ida Auken, a member of the Denmark Parliament9 and agenda contributor at the World Economic Forum (WEF).10

The article was frightening in the simplistic way it describes the dissolution of society as we know it. And, as time marches forward, we see more evidence of what the WEF has proposed as “perfect sense”11 coming true.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested in September 2020 what other world leaders have also promoted12 — that the COVID-19 virus, that has killed and devastated the health of many people, provided the world is an:13

"… opportunity for a reset ... our chance to accelerate our pre-pandemic efforts to re-imagine economic systems that actually address global challenges like extreme poverty, inequality and climate change."

More than 20 world leaders came together to suggest, "At a time when COVID-19 has exploited our weaknesses and divisions, we must seize this opportunity and come together as a global community for peaceful cooperation that extends beyond this crisis."14 And while that sounds noble, altruistic and humanitarian, it is the plan for the future that is in stark contrast to the statement.

Ivan Wecke, a journalist from Open Democracy, did a deep dive into some of what lies behind the WEF’s Great Reset plan and found what he called something “almost as sinister hiding in plain sight. In fact, more sinister because it’s real and it’s happening now. And it involves things as fundamental as our food, our data and our vaccines.”15

Although Wecke discounts the plans of the Great Reset to abolish private property, use the virus to solve overpopulation and enslave the remainder of humanity as “nebulous and hard to pin down,” he goes on to illustrate in detail how the fundamental structure of the world that controls food and data, and ultimately humanity, is being upended and restructured so that private corporations have more control and influence than governments.

WEF Calls It ‘Stakeholder Capitalism’

It comes down to “stakeholder capitalism,” which are the magic words that Klaus Schwab, WEF chairman, has been promoting for decades, and is a central theme in the organization's Great Reset plan.16 The concept as Wecke describes it is to transform global capitalism, so corporations create value for stakeholders.17

These stakeholders can be consumers, employees, communities and others. This will be carried out through multi-stakeholder partnerships of governments and private-sector businesses across the globe. As he dug deeper into the concept, it became more apparent that this means giving corporations more power and taking that influence away from democratically elected institutions.

The initial plan was drafted after the 2008 economic crisis and included the vision that governments around the world would be only one influencer in a multi-stakeholder model. When he asked himself who would be the other nongovernmental stakeholders, Wecke only had to look at the WEF partners that meet each year in Davos, Switzerland.

These partners are some of the biggest companies in oil, food, technology and pharmaceuticals. In other words, the companies that could ultimately restructure society and control the supply chain are those that provide everyday necessities. These proposed concepts appear to have started taking shape in a strategic partnership agreement which the WEF signed with the United Nations in 2019.

Harris Gleckman, senior fellow at the Center for Governance and Sustainability from the University of Massachusetts18 calls this move an inroad to creating a place for corporations inside the United Nations.19

The WEF is using the concept of multi-stakeholders to change the current system that countries use today to work together. This multilateral system may not always be effective and may have too many layers of bureaucracy, but Wecke says it is “theoretically democratic because it brings together democratically elected leaders of countries to make decisions in the global arena.”20

Big Tech May Run the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation

What’s really happening here, though, is the move toward placing unelected stakeholders in positions of power does not deepen democracy but, rather, puts decision making in the hands of financially focused corporations. As Wecke points out, this will have real-world implications for how medications are distributed, food systems are organized and how Big Tech is governed.

Under a democratic rule of law, six corporations already control 90% of the news media consumed by Americans. Tech Startups calls this an “illusion of choice and objectivity.”21 How much more propaganda will be thrown in the face of consumers when Big Tech is monitoring and controlling Big Tech?

The year 2030 holds significance for the WEF’s vision22 which is to scale technology and facilitate “inclusive growth.” In the fall of 2021, the UN will bring together the Food Systems Summit to achieve sustainable development goals by 2030.23 Yet, Sofia Monsalve of FIAN International, a human rights organization focused on food and nutrition, told Wecke:24

“’Abandoning pesticides is not on the table. How come?’ asks Sofia Monsalve of FIAN International, a human rights organisation focused on food and nutrition.

'There is no discussion on land concentration or holding companies accountable for their environmental and labour abuses.’ This fits into a bigger picture Monsalve sees of large corporations, which dominate the food sector, being reluctant to fix the production system. ‘They just want to come up with new investment opportunities.’”

Wecke also dug into a long list of participants in the 2020 Roadmap For Digital Cooperation25 and found influencers included Microsoft, Google, Facebook and the WEF.26 The functions for the group appear to be vague, but if the group comes to fruition, it will be a decisive victory for those Big Tech companies that have been pushing to expand their power,27 are fighting antitrust rules28 and are facing accusations of tax evasion.29

The move by the UN and WEF has not gone unnoticed. A group of more than 170 civil organizations have signed an open letter30 detailing why they oppose the plan. At a time when stronger regulations are needed to protect consumers, it appears that the new UN digital roadmap may be seeking less.

Firing the Unvaccinated Is the Start of the Great Job Reset

Finally, Wecke addresses the issue of global vaccine distribution.31 Instead of the World Health Organization, which is “the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system,”32 being responsible for vaccine access, another initiative was created called COVAX. According to the WHO, COVAX is co-led by the WHO, UNICEF, CEPI and GAVI.33

As a quick reminder, GAVI (the Vaccine Alliance) and CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) have strong ties with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the WEF and are connected with large pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, AstraZeneca and more.34

The influence these groups have on the global distribution of the COVID vaccine may have been best illustrated when South Africa and India requested a temporary lift on the rules governing intellectual property to increase manufacturing and distribution to developing countries. Wecke reports35 that although the WHO director-general publicly said that he backed a proposal, others in the COVAX initiative strongly opposed it, and it didn’t happen.

There appears to be enough vaccines available in industrialized nations for the WEF to support any and all employees being fired if they choose not to take the vaccine. The National File36 published a tweet the WEF made in May 2021 which said, “Get your COVID-19 jab — or you could face consequences from your employer #COVID19 #JobsReset21.”

Additionally, the WEF had posted an article37 on their website that made a variety of claims about the percentage of companies that would require employees to be vaccinated and juxtaposed mental health concerns and burnout through the pandemic with being unvaccinated in the article.

After intense backlash, the tweet was deleted and replaced with a question, “Will employees be required to get the COVID-19 vaccination?”38 The new post quickly filled with screen shots of the original post.

Two Cities Promising to Fire Employees

Even before the FDA announced their approval of the Pfizer vaccine,39 Cincinnati, Ohio, area hospital systems had announced that starting October 1, 2021, all health care workers and volunteers are required to be vaccinated. Among those participating in the vaccine mandate are the University of Cincinnati Health, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Christ Hospital Health Network.40

Health care workers in Cincinnati have now filed a lawsuit against six of the hospital systems saying requiring vaccines for employment is unlawful and violates workers’ Constitutional rights. The lawsuit says, "When there was no vaccine, the workers had to go to work. They were heroes. Now that there is a vaccine, they have to get the vaccine or be fired. Now they are ‘zeros.’"41

April Hoskins is a lab assistant at St. Elizabeth Edgewood who has worked for 20 years in family practice and hospital oncology. She told a reporter from WLWT5,42 "You've trusted us this whole time to take care of these patients, unvaccinated, without the proper PPE. And now out of nowhere, you have to get it or you're going to be terminated? Like, something is wrong with that picture.”

August 23, 2021, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that all public school teachers and staff would be required to have at least one dose of the vaccine by September 27, 2021, or they would no longer have a job. Not soon afterward, the United Federation of Teachers union issued a statement from union president Michael Mulgrew reiterating their desire and priority to keep the students and teachers safe. He went on to say:43

“While the city is asserting its legal authority to establish this mandate, there are many implementation details, including provisions for medical exceptions, that by law must be negotiated with the UFT and other unions, and if necessary, resolved by arbitration."

It Is Important to Point Out the Inconsistencies

This was the second announcement from de Blasio, who first mandated vaccinations for approximately 400,000 employees in the Department of Education, New York Police Department and the Fire Department of New York.44 In tandem with New York, California Long Beach Unified School District also announced mandatory vaccinations, as has Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for all Chicago Public School employees by October 15, 2021.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy also announced mandatory vaccinations or twice-weekly testing requirements for all state employees, effective October 18. It is clear that as different states and municipalities add their own mandates, it’s essential to be aware of what is happening in your local and regional areas, as well as to speak up at public meetings and demand public hearings on the matter.

The mayor of Orland Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, describes an example of how decisions behind closed doors can have a different outcome than those in public.45 He also says what is happening now is about “our processes, Constitutionality and the rule of law.”

The inconsistencies from health experts are deafening. Even the World Health Organization advises people who are vaccinated to continue wearing masks due to the Delta variant because “vaccine alone won’t stop community transmission.”46 Simultaneously, the public is told that everyone needs the vaccine to prevent spread of the infection47 and if you have the vaccine, you can still spread the virus and put others at risk.48

Each person has a responsibility to speak up, share information and ensure that as people make up their minds about vaccination, vaccine passports, civil liberties and the right to free speech, they have all the information they need and not just what’s shared in mainstream media.

To that end, I encourage you to share my articles with your friends and family. As you know, they are removed from the website 48 hours after publication. Please copy and paste the information, with the sources, and share it!

[quentinblack]

Smoke and Mirrors 

Chapter 6: Dean I - I Should Have Just Gone To Eton (link to full story on FF.net)

Featuring: Dean Thomas, Justin Finch-Fletchley 

Word Count: 4K words

Dean looked around desperately at the various signs signalling all of the different departure gates as he walked through the main entrance.

Gatwick Airport was an absolutely massive place and he’d never been to an airport by himself before, so he was finding it very difficult to navigate.

It was all a lot easier travelling internationally by portkey, but that was too risky – at least this way there would be no trace of him.

Professor McGonagall had sat down with each and every muggle-born student before the end of the last year and explained the likelihood of what was to happen.

Dumbledore was dead, which meant it would not be long before You Know Who moved against The Ministry – and who knew what might happen to the muggle-born population of Wizarding Britain. She had taken the bold decision to wipe the records of every single muggle-born student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, so that they would be protected as best they could be if You Know Who and his followers were to purge or take control of the school over the summer. It was almost as if she knew something they didn’t.  

Dean had been one of the most outspoken students in the initial meeting with his Head of House. He had been adamant that he wasn’t going anywhere and would return to school. He wasn’t a coward. He was a Gryffindor!

But he had read and heard of terrible things happening over the summer. The Daily Prophet was ramping up disdain for muggle-borns – and whilst watching and reading the muggle-news there were many events that were very evidently influenced by dark wizards and Death Eaters, even if the muggles themselves were blissfully unaware of that fact.

It was his Mum who had made the decision for him in the end. At first she had been very strong-willed and stubborn that he was to go. This tactic didn’t work on him, but when she started crying and guilt-tripping him instead he quickly relented.

He couldn’t let her down so he agreed to go and live with his step-sister in America until it had all blown-over, although deep down he knew it would only get worse – and soon Wizarding Britain would be in open war with You Know Who and his army of Death Eaters, Dementors and worse. He just wished he could have done his bit and been part of it.  

It hadn’t been too much hassle to sort out his departure. He’d had to get a passport and a VISA, but that was no bother really. Bruce had managed to do most of it for him. Bayley was based in Los Angeles for work and had a spare room in her apartment, so he would go and live with her and see what happened. She said she would be able to get him a job and he was reasonably excited about the move. At the very least it would be a nice new start.

The check-in process at the airport had been simple enough. Dean had only taken a small carry on-bag so he didn’t have anything for the hold.

He put his suitcase onto the security conveyor belt to go through the X-Ray, then as it slowly made its way in, Dean wondered what the border officer was seeing on the reading on his screen. That small suitcase he’d picked up from Wiseacre’s in Diagon Alley had about two full 15KG hold bags worth of stuff in it. It was a real test of magic vs muggle technology.

Who would win in this battle of airport security scanners and undetectable extension charms?

It seemed that the wizards had taken the victory as the stern staff of the airport barely raised an eyebrow when his bag went through. The metal detector failed to go off when he walked through it with his wand in his jacket pocket. Of course his wand was made from cedar and the heartstring of a Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon, so it shouldn’t have gone off anyway, but that didn’t dispel his nerves when he walked through it.

He had to remind himself that it was, after all, a metal detector, not a magic detector – and even if the airport staff had have found his wand, they would’ve just thought he was just an oddball that was carrying some weird kind of stick.  

Dean retrieved his bag from its tray and after putting it with the other collection of discarded trays he strolled through to the departure lounge.

There was still at least an hour before he would be able to board the long-haul flight, so to kill some time he thought he would wander through Duty Free. He soon regretted that choice though.

As soon as he walked in he was flanked by massive posters and cardboard cut outs of the muggle band Oasis. It all seemed to be advertising a new album being released called ‘Be Here Now’ and the poster showed what looked like a massive country house, with the members of the band dotting around outside standing in-front of a moped, whilst a white car was sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool.

Dean never had much time for Brit-pop bands like Oasis, Blur or The Stone Roses. His best friend, Seamus, was very much a fan though and often loved blasting their songs in their Gryffindor dormitory. He could just about make out the lyrics of what must’ve been a new single.

A cold and frosty morning there’s not a lot to say,

About the things caught in my mind,

As the day was dawning my plane flew away,

With all the things caught in my mind,

And I want to be there when you’re

Coming down,

And I want to be there when you hit the ground,

So don’t go away, say what you say,

But say that you’ll stay,

If the racket of the music wasn’t enough of an annoyance - the one thing that Dean hated most about muggle shops was the staff’s tendency to constantly badger you. Within a minute of browsing the aftershave section he had been harassed by four different people trying to shove samples in his face.

There was Armani, Versace, then Dior and Issey Miyake and Hugo Boss too. He was sure there was one that he would’ve really liked, but having test strips shoved in his face every time he tried to look had put him off going anywhere near them.

A pretty young red-headed girl advertising the latest Chanel release stopped him in his tracks though. She had piercing brown eyes, just like Ginny’s. The girl blushed slightly when she noticed that he was staring at her – he snapped himself out of it, feeling quite embarrassed.

He’d moved on from Ginny now.

Well, mostly.

He held no real ill-will to her or Harry, but he was quite disappointed at how it had all worked out. He thought everything had been going pretty swimmingly with her and he didn’t really know why they’d argued as much as they did by the end of it.

Dean had always tried to do right by her. He’d hold doors open for her, stand-up for her if anyone ever spoke out of line to her in-front of him and always insist on paying on every date they went on. She had called it controlling and patronising, but he was just trying to be nice and he knew that she didn’t have a lot of money so he didn’t like letting her split the bill like she would often suggest.

During one particularly-heated row she’d told him that she wasn’t a damsel in distress that needed saving, yet on numerous occasions she’d spoken in awe of how Harry had saved her in the Chamber of Secrets. Dean had pointed this out to her, which to put it lightly, had not gone down too well.

One of the last straws of their relationship had been when Cormac McLaggen inadvertently fractured Harry’s skull by hitting him with a bludger by accident. Dean hadn’t quite realised how serious the injury had been at first and he’d had to laugh at Cormac’s gross incompetence – as he’d flown past Ginny he’d made a joke about how You Know Who had spent years trying to kill Harry, yet after all that Cormac McLaggen might beat him to it if he wasn’t careful.

Ginny hadn’t seen the funny side, yet even Ron and Harry himself had cracked a laugh when he’d mentioned what he’d said later in their dormitory. It didn’t matter what Ginny thought now though. He might well never see her or any of the others again.

Perhaps it was for the best.  

It took great effort but as he made his way through the store he managed to duck and dive out of the way of a man trying to sell him a ginormous toblerone, then dodged another trying to sell him a bottle of ludicrously expensive vodka. Dean couldn’t have even bought it if he had wanted to, as whilst he was considered of age by wizarding standards at 17 – it would still be a few months before he reached the legal age to drink in the UK as a muggle.

As he escaped Duty Free he saw a big stack of newspapers on a side-wall. The headlines all read ‘BROWN BLOWS BILLIONS ON BENEFITS AS LABOUR ANNOUNCE FIRST BUDGET’ and with it there was a still picture of a white man in a suit, with dark hair, who Dean guessed was in his mid to late forties, who was addressing a collection of journalists whilst standing in-front of a red banner that read ‘NEW LABOUR - NEW LIFE FOR BRITAIN’.

Dean didn’t care much for muggle politics. He turned the newspaper over to see what was on the back-page.

‘INTER MILAN BREAK TRANSFER RECORD TO LAND SAMBA STAR RONALDO’

That was more like it. Dean pulled up a seat nearby, then eagerly read the article which described in detail how the Italian super club had spent an incredible 19.5 million pounds to buy the brilliant Brazilian from Barcelona.

He lowered the newspaper from his eye line slightly to check the departure board and see if his flight was boarding yet.  

“Oh, I sayyy…surely it can’t be…Dean Thomas?”

Dean didn’t immediately recognize the very ostentatious voice addressing him, but then he saw for his own eyes someone he’d shared the Hogwarts castle with for the best part of six years.

“Alright Justin, mate?”

“Dean! My goodness. It is you! What a surprise to see you here! I almost didn’t recognize you there for a second.”

Justin Finch-Fletchey had briefly broken away from who Dean assumed must be his parents. A very prim and proper white man, with old-fashioned spectacles and greased back hair, who Dean guessed was probably around forty-five and Justin’s father, followed his son but looked a bit hesitant.

“A friend of yours, Justin?” he asked, squinting curiously at Dean.

“Yes, Father. From school. You must excuse me for a moment. We have much to discuss,” Justin replied confidently, yet still very politely.

“Yes. Yes. Of course. Don’t forget though, Justin… first class boards first so we mustn’t dither too long.”

And with that his Father headed back towards his Mother and they headed to what looked like the Ralph Lauren boutique store.  

“So… you’re upping sticks too, huh? Always knew you were a smart man,” Justin said in a slightly condescending, yet very light-hearted manner, patting Dean on the shoulder slightly as he winked.

“Yeah, well… I thought it was best to be on the safe side. Nobody knows what will happen if You Know Who does kick off a war. And with Dumbledore gone, well, not even Hogwarts is safe anymore so-

“Hogwarts was never bloody safe anyway! Especially for us. I was nearly killed by a murderous snake for Christ’s sake. If it hadn’t been for that irritating ghost I would have been,” Justin scoffed, quite understandably still annoyed at his petrification in their second year.

Dean had dodged a bullet that year to be fair. The basilisk had made short work of many muggle-borns in the school, even several in his own year, but he’d somehow managed to avoid the potentially lethal glare of the giant serpent, more through luck than any kind of skill or planning.

“I wouldn’t have minded it that much,” Justin began. Dean knew that some kind of rant was coming.

“But that old fool Dumbledore didn’t even have the humility or self-respect to go to the Ministry of Magic for help. He was too concerned about the school’s reputation that he left several students petrified indefinitely. You can’t tell me that St Mungo’s couldn’t have cooked up a remedy within a few days? It was farcical! Never would have happened if it had been going after the purebloods. It beggars belief that a society can have such a ridiculous order based entirely on social class.”

“Yeah, terrible…” Dean managed to mutter out.

He’d never spoken to Justin that much particularly, perhaps that had been a good decision as he seemed to have all the self-awareness of a goldfish.

Dean thought it best to try and change the subject. He had never been particularly close to Albus Dumbledore, but he wasn’t exactly going to stand here and let Justin shit-talk a dead man he had at least held a lot of respect for. It did also seem a bit rich for him to be criticising their former Headmaster, when Justin himself had been a member of a group named Dumbledore’s Army for several years.

“So where are you heading then?” he asked neutrally.

“We’re flying out to Los Angeles. Father has got a transfer at work to the San Francisco office, so we’ll be based there for now. I might also shadow my Uncle if I get the chance. He works with the Foreign Office in Washington. He’s quite high up, you know,” Justin said very proudly, perhaps not all that aware of how he could be misconstrued as boasting.

“Oh that’s cool,” Dean said, doing his best to sound as interested as he could.

“How about you, lad? You heading to The States as well?” Justin enquired.

“Yeah, Los Angeles too,” he replied, trying to play down the fact that they were probably going to be leaving on the same plane. It really was a small world after all.  

“Ohhh snap,” Justin said, presumably thinking he sounded quite cool, but in his posh-voice he actually sounded as far from cool as it was humanly possible to be.  

“Yeah ha-ha… my sister lives out near Santa Monica so I’m going to go and live with her,” he added half-heartedly.

“Santa Monica, ehh? Right near Bel-Air? Why, you’ll be just like that coloured chap in The Fresh Prince!” Justin chided, positively under the impression that he’d just cracked the funniest joke anyone had ever heard. Dean didn’t really see the funny side, but chose to ignore the slightly offensive gag.

“Yeah,” he mumbled, doing his best to muster an awkward laugh and hide his annoyed demeanour.

“I’ll be a little sad to leave, you know. I won’t miss Hogwarts that much, nor the magic. No…I fear that was all a big waste of time now. I should have just gone to Eton like Father had planned. But it will be a shame to leave Oxford. We’ve got a really lovely house there. Of course, we won’t be downsizing in San Francisco, no if anything quite the opposite with house prices over there, but well, you can’t beat home. Where was your parent’s house?”

“Surrey,” Dean said quickly, which wasn’t technically a lie. Surrey was where people from Croydon told people they lived when they wanted it to sound fancier. If they wanted it to sound a bit cooler than they’d say they were from London, although anyone who lived in ‘proper’ London would fiercely argue that Croydon wasn’t really London at all.

“Lived there with my Mum and step-dad as long as I can remember. It’s a shame to have to leave them, but I guess it’s for the best.”

Dean didn’t fail to notice Justin’s slightly raised eyebrow when he’d said that he had a step-dad. He didn’t care what Justin thought of him though.

“Hmm, yes. Not to worry though, Deano. It’s a good time to be leaving Britain anyway really… with Labour back in power the country will soon be bankrupt anyway. It’s a disgrace how much they’re going to spend on welfare. Bloody lefties. You know, it’s actually the wizard’s fault that they got in anyway.”

“You think?” Dean asked in bewilderment.

He knew enough about Wizards to know that they didn’t care in the slightest about muggle politics, let alone know or care enough to actively influence who the Prime Minister was.

“Well yes, it’s obvious really, isn’t it? The Conservatives had no chance of winning the election given everything that’s happened in the last few years. They had enough on their hands with the bloody Irish, but look at all the extra problems they had from the wizards. Mass murderers on the loose. A government funded bridge collapsing unexpectedly. Those bloody Dementors roaming the country making everybody miserable. Poor old John Major never stood a chance! Of course there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t exactly come out and tell everyone that it was actually the incompetence of the wizarding government causing all of it.”

Dean wondered what would have happened if a British Prime Minister had gone on TV and announced to the public that wizards were behind all of the country’s problems. He guessed it would make a change from them blaming all of the foreigners and unemployed people.  

“With any luck they’ll all wipe each other out if there is a war,” Justin scorned.

Dean couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“You don’t mean-

Justin reacted quickly to Dean’s incredulous response.

“Of course I don’t mean everyone at school. I mean you know, The Death Eaters and the Ministry forces. Almost as bad as each other if you ask me. Everyone else is far too young to be getting involved in a bloody war. Michael and Terry are both adamant they’re going to fight in any battle that they can,” Justin said as if it was the craziest thing he’d ever heard.

Dean had never been that fond of Michael Corner. It was nothing he had done personally, but he’d been Ginny’s ex-boyfriend, so Dean had to hate him on principle. He was emboldened by Michael and Terry Boot’s courage to fight though.

“I had a lot of fun at all of those DA meetings of course,” Justin mumbled.

“It was good to learn more spells from Potter and his friends for self-defence. But that night the Death Eaters raided the school and Professor Snape killed Dumbledore, well. That was it for me. It’s one thing training up for it and all, but I’m not willing to put my neck on the line to stay a part of the magical word. If everyone else wants to throw their life away, well more fool them. Some would call it bravery, but I say it’s just naivety. We’re not even 18, Dean. The days of teenagers being needlessly slain in pointless wars should be left behind in the 1940’s. We’ve made the right choice, pal,” he said solemnly, once again patting Dean on the shoulder.

It was at that moment that Dean suddenly began to question whether he had in-fact made the correct choice.

“You know, Zacharias Smith was even trying to recruit me for some kind of secret resistance movement his uncle is involved in,” he scoffed. “Told me to keep it all very quiet of course, but well, I suppose given the circumstances telling you won’t do any harm, will it?”

“Resistance movement?” Dean asked curiously. He hadn’t been asked to join any resistance movement.

“Yes. His Uncle is an Auror, isn’t he? On quite good terms with that Mad-Eye Moody fellow. He said they’re setting up a top secret resistance movement, recruiting some muggle-borns for some highly classified unofficial operation if You Know Who gets in power. Sounded like a bloody suicide mission to me. Well, as you can imagine, I practically laughed in his face at the idea. What sort of braindead moron would sign up for that?” he scorned.

“Yeah. Right…” Dean replied, but his head with racing with ideas. This was it. He’d wanted to stay and fight, but it wasn’t as if the Wizarding world had an army you could just sign up to when you were 17 like the muggles did. But if this resistance movement had been interested in recruiting Justin, then they’d surely take Dean too.

Dean looked past his old class-mate and saw that Justin’s parents were heading out of the boutique shop with several bags of clothes that they must’ve bought in there for some serious money.

“Ah, well, I suppose I best be off,” Justin murmured, having noticed this development himself.

“I’ll be sure to pop down from first class and come and see you during the flight,” the youngest member of the Finch-Fletchley clan said elegantly, as he reached out to shake Dean’s hand.

“Can’t wait, mate,” Dean replied, trying his best to sound as enthusiastic as possible. Justin’s handshake was almost like a metaphor for his whole character, half-hearted and weak.

“See you in a bit,” Justin said as a parting comment, which Dean mumbled a polite agreement too, although if Dean was honest he would’ve been pretty happy if he’d have never seen him again for the rest of his life.

As it would happen, Dean never boarded that flight bound for Los Angeles – and it would be four years before Dean, or anyone else in the Wizarding world would see or hear from Justin Finch-Fletchley again.

[fheythfully]

Soulmarks in Eorzea Masterpost

So, are you a soulmark AU fan like me? Pull up a chair and click the read more to join me on this ride as I ramble about my headcannons on how soulmarks work in my Eorzea AU. Obviously I haven’t considered every possibility, and this will likely continue to be updated in the future, but here is what I have so far!

What causes a soulmark, and how do they work?

as all living things come from the planet's aether and thus return to it, soulmarks are theorized to be an aetherial disturbance upon one's birth wherein the aether in their body searches for a piece of itself from before it was made manifest in a physical body; upon finding it, the aether on both ends is disturbed enough to leave an actual physical mark on its vessel, which manifests as what folk refer to as "soulmarks"

the soulmark, in essence, is an aetherial wound

the aetherial mark takes on the form of a name, as a name is what the aether comes to know and recognize itself by. this name is the name one feels most describes themselves and is best fitting for their self-identity; for the majority, it is the name their parents give them. others, however, have been known to undergo a change in self-identity and decide on a new name, in which case, their partner will feel the mark on their skin shifting and being born anew to reflect the change of their partner's aether's self awareness

a soulmate’s name will always appear in the language the soulmate uses

the majority of the population is either born with a mark already on their skin (signifying their partner already exists), or some receive their marks within a few years of their birth; on a smaller scale, some do not receive their mark for many years, leading to age gaps between themselves and their partner. it's theorized that age gaps in soulmates are rare due to the aether, which searches for parts of itself, and finding the part of itself after the gap of the first few years of coming into existence is more difficult. as such, it is rare for aether to find its partner the longer an umarked person is in the world

unmarked do exist, but due to old beliefs before the age of science and aetherical study, there is a large social stigma about their existence: they do not have souls, they were deemed unworthy by the gods, etc. initially, the soulmarks were taken as the gods assigning a soulmate, and those who do not receive their marks within a socially acceptable time period, were shunned by society for deliberately being passed over by the gods

a soulmark will react when its partner first names it, growing hot on their skin in recognition before settling down. this is how you know that the person who had just spoken your name likely has your name written somewhere on their body

if a person is unable to speak, it gets a bit more complicated, although scientists theorize that it is possibly less the act of speaking and more the act of recognizing the person you are speaking to (which most accomplish by using the other's name) which triggers an aetherial reaction. as such, two factors may play into the burning of a mark: the intent of recognizing and acknowledging the person before you, as well as the action of doing so. as such, even writing a name out of someone before you whom you have just met may result in the reaction of your mark

the soulmarks can appear anywhere on the body, including the face, though that is rare

a living soulmate’s name is writ in black; a dead soulmate’s name turns faded white and with time, will eventually scar over

a soulmark can be hidden by only the most powerful of glamour magics, as the casting must be more powerful than the body’s natural aetherical lifeforce; if the skin is mutilated to have the mark removed, it will eventually make its way back, although it would take many years and be faded rather than stark

each time a mark is born due to the birth of a soulmate, the spot it appears at will flare up in agony and regrow the skin there as the aether pushes itself through the body to write a name

How has culture evolved with the existence of soulmarks?

lying about one's name is not practiced, due to the sheer impact and importance soul marks play in society; however, it does happen, and those who believe names given to be entirely honest even in the skeeziest of situations are more the fools

especially, as once a person has met their soulmate, nothing is stopping them from lying about their name from there on out

amongst groups who still believe in the Twelve (or their own gods), soulmarks continue to be revered and respected. members of such communities are encouraged and expected to seek out and stay with their soulmate

there are also groups who deny soulmarks as they seem binding and restrictive of personal choice and freedom, but they are the very small minority

What about Garleans, who are unable to use magic/aether?

there is little science outside of Garlemald itself theorizing on when and why the Garleans begun to lose their affinity for aether. as more and more children were born without the aetherical capabilities, the Garleans were forced out of their domains and forced to move northward. however, children were still being born with soulmarks, as aether is what all living things are composed of, even if Garleans are unable to wield that aether into magic

despite this, as Garlean society reformed, moving away from relying on magic led to a heavy requirement of human labour, which led to wealth distribution, which led to caste systems that we see today

research begun to come out from high in the Garlean hierarchy claiming that soulmarks were not to be trusted, as nature has shown that aether can be taken away as easily as it had been given; and thus, the certainty of the mark on a person's skin should not be considered as the definitive proof of having a "soulmate"; instead, people were encouraged to cover up and ignore their soulmarks, and to find freedom through their own choice in romantic partners

relationships between castes were also heavily discouraged, as society had taken off and flourished, and the royal family wished to continue the advancement of Garlean society and especially, Garlean technology

as the campaign into foreign lands continued and grew heavy on the "barbarian" rhetoric, soul marks were further dismissed as a natural phenomenon of biology misattributed to nonexistent gods

BONUS ROUND (of ideas that aren’t entirely fitting into the overall AU I have but I enjoy anyway)

only those who have soulmarks have dreams, and often they dream of their soulmate: specifically, of what their soulmate considers to be a large part of their self-identity. usually this is a location. 

scents are also linked to soulmates, especially in dreams

dreaming as the realm of those marked was first believed to be the result of being marked = proof of having a soul; now, it have evolved to the theory that through being marked and sharing a connection with someone else, the brain taps into that connection during sleep and draws on the world of the soulmate to create the dream

[scifigeneration]

How science fiction and fantasy can help us make sense of the world

by Gwen Ansell

Costumes from the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Jim Lo Scalzo

The world’s a mess. How do thoughtful people make sense of it all? In this series we’ve asked a number of our authors to suggest a book, philosopher, work of art – or anything else, for that matter – that will help to make sense of it all.

Back in the 1990s, some speculative fiction bookshops sold a T-shirt with the slogan, “Reality is for people who can’t cope with fantasy”. Today, bookshops are almost extinct, while fantasy geeks can link to 3-D printers to fabricate their T-shirts.

Speculative fiction consists of multiple varieties, with fantasy and science fiction the two major streams. It has often anticipated new technologies – but that may be the least important reason why reading speculative fiction helps us make sense of the world.

Some writers deny their work belongs in either fantasy or science fiction. Among them, ironically, Margaret Attwood, whose own 1985 “Handmaid’s Tale” time-travelled to the site of some of its own dystopian speculations when Donald Trump became US President in 2017.

While science fiction and fantasy ask that most powerful question “What if?” – they also deal with “This, now”: reflecting it, interrogating it and satirising it.

Global warming

Speculative writers flesh out our passing thoughts into complete, functioning societies and explore how they might unfold. For example Kim Stanley Robinson looked in “New York 2140” at what if global warming flooded Manhattan.

Or, what if a world without gender shaped a language to match, as in Ann Leckie’s award winning “Ancillary Justice”? Leckie, considering her linguistic experiment – all her characters take “she” – notes how this writing tactic affects not only on imagination, but also on the experience of readers in the here and now:

… because it doesn’t use the default gender pronouns, a lot of readers found themselves very aware of the fact that a default was being used, and it wasn’t the normal one… a really interesting experience.

Linked to this, speculative fiction is free to unleash the full power of metaphor. Richard Morgan in “Market Forces”, for example, makes literal the rhetorical assertion that global investment bankers have blood on their hands.

Commenting on NK Jemisin’s Hugo-winning Broken Earth trilogy, The Guardian says:

It is the particular gift of genre fiction to assume a different background to the mainstream and so delineate character from a different angle. Science fiction carries this change of perspectives to extremes. By changing what counts as figure and what as background, the characters can be seen in ways otherwise impossible – and so, ultimately, we can understand ourselves in ways that would otherwise be impossible.

And the borders of “understanding ourselves” are widening. Nnedi Okorafor, Tade Thompson, Jemisin and many others provide examples of Afro-futurism freed from the ethnographic distorting mirror of Black Panther. They follow on from predecessors like Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany and Sun Ra.

Just as Okorafor in “Lagoon” and Thompson in “Rosewater” take us to Nigeria to illuminate the “what-ifs” of that society for Nigerians themselves, so the works of Liu Cixin, Xia Jia and multiple other Chinese speculative writers unfold Chinese concerns.

Translator Ken Liu frequently warns against crude interpretations of Chinese speculative fiction as simply veiled criticism of current regimes. He cites Xia’s short story “Tongtong’s Summer”:

It’s not about better plans from the government or magical fairies coming down to save us. Change comes from (…) trying to convert the tools of cold, impersonal technology, of globalised capitalism, into our own freedoms.

Eurocentric massacres

Sometimes, critics reduce speculative fiction to the dystopian visions of past and future presented in the macho and often Eurocentric massacres and rapes of Grimdark military fantasy. Or, they conflate the genre with the thinly disguised right-wing survivalism of much post-apocalyptic SF. But that isn’t all there is.

Advocates of both sub-genres employ defences citing “realism”: war really is hell; people really are engaged in a Darwinian struggle for survival; white men really always rule.

Yet fiction writers make conscious choices about what elements they abstract from the real – and how to use them. There are multiple scholarly explorations of these arguments. Let’s just say here that engaging in fabrication and simultaneously arguing that what has been fabricated is “real” rests on very shaky terrain.

Further, as science fiction author Kameron Hurley argues in her riposte to the tropes of military fantasy sometimes the veracity of the elements writers select is itself shaky. Sometimes they represent arbitrarily Eurocentric picks from a near-infinite landscape.

For a writer such as Aliette de Bodard, of Vietnamese heritage, it’s Annamese dragons that pervade her steampunk, fin de siecle Paris. It’s emblematic of the corrupting history of French colonialism. Introducing such new tropes challenges conservative myth-making. She says:

Because we only talk about heroes, we like to think that, back then, we would be among them. And the truth is – most of us wouldn’t. Actually, most of us aren’t, today (…) we buy cheap clothes, cheap electronics made with labour in horrific conditions.

Get together

The potential to contest is even more striking for those supremacist extrapolations from present to future. Much research suggests that after disasters, people actually get together to help one another.

Speculative writers such as Cory Doctorow react against the way this is under-reported. What if, Doctorow asks, post-apocalypse,

instead of your neighbour coming over with a shotgun, they come over with a covered dish?

His novel “Walkaway” (and Robinson’s “New York 2140”) look forward to just such futures.

Speculative fiction provides vivid cases to provoke debate about such issues and thus helps us “make sense”. Maybe it’s time to wear the T-shirt again, but with a new slogan:

Reality isn’t what you think it is.

About The Author:

Gwen Ansell is an Associate of the Gordon Institute for Business Science at the University of Pretoria

This article is republished from our content partners at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

[deancasfix]

We are incredibly lucky to belong to a fandom that is constantly producing a high volume of fanworks– but sometimes, it can be a bit overwhelming. To that end, DeanCasFix proudly presents Challenge Highlights, a selection of our favourite stories and artwork from recent Dean/Cas fests and challenges.

Here are some of our top picks from the 2018 round of the Dean/Cas Big Bang.

Autonomy by A_Diamond, art by telltaleofthestars

Wordcount: 26,556

Rating: E

Summary: Dean had his share of difficult sentinel partners at his underfunded, overworked police department in Kansas. When he gets a position on a national investigation team in D.C., he’s not expecting the biggest challenge of his career to be his new partner. A sentinel who thinks his cybernetic augmentations render guides like Dean unnecessary, Cas proves every bit as difficult to pin down as their first case together: a hunt through suburbs, slums, and the vast virtual landscape in search of a missing prodigy whose technology could bring down governments—or make them invincible.

(don’t) fear the reaper by justkeeponwriting, art by starmouse123

Wordcount: 51,389

Rating: E

Summary: Castiel is a grim reaper – and a very experienced one at that. He has negotiated thousands of deals to keep the balance of souls, acquiring years of life energy from mortals who have too many years in their life span, and has passed it onto those who have less. But even Castiel isn’t prepared when he accidentally convinces a mortal called Dean Winchester to give him his soul, and with it, a complete control of his life.

The Firmament Field by whichstiel, art by subtextiel

Wordcount: 53,238

Rating: M

Summary: Heaven is falling, the power grid failing. Dean and Castiel set off on a daring mission to stabilize Heaven, but the operation goes south. Captured by angels, their memories are wiped and they’re sent back to Earth.

Although their allies include denizens of Heaven, mortals on Earth, and even dragons, Dean and Castiel are presumed lost. Before Heaven can be saved, they must find their way back to each other.

Green Corners by rustling_pages, art by harplesscastiel

Wordcount: 72,533

Rating: T

Summary: After the death of his son, there is nothing left for Dean other than his garden market. His days are tough, the nights are tougher, but at least there's a reason to get up in the morning. And with the new boom on do-it-yourself garden magic, his business is going okay.

Amidst the passing of time, there is only one thing that distracts him from functioning like a normal human being: Diagonally across the street, in the display window of that traditional Herb and Potion shop, plants are dying in masses.

Storming in to confront the owner goes differently than he imagined, though. Castiel Novak may be the kind of guy who wears old-fashioned mage robes and keeps his shop in sweltering heat, but he's also a talented herbalist, the kindest soul Dean has ever met, and utterly beautiful.

Not that Dean is ready for anything other than friendship.(Not that Cas doesn’t get sick a bit too often.)

Half City Lights by starespressos, art by possiblyeggs

Wordcount: 103,400

Rating: E

Summary: Ever since Dean’s near-death experience as a child, he’s been interested in finding gods, and his research has narrowed down to Greek mythology. Sam knows well enough that taking advantage of this is the only way to ever get Dean into an airplane, and decides to throw his destination wedding in Mykonos. In addition to finally getting to explore the locations he has only read about so far, Dean makes a bunch of new friends, one of which is Castiel, a local business owner. Together, they embark on a sea voyage around the Greek islands. There’s surprises on the horizon, though…

If I Loved You Less by surlybobbies, art by Busy Squirrel

Wordcount: 26,948

Rating: E

Summary: (Inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma)

Dean Winchester has everything. He’s got a great house, a steady job, a beautiful car, a loyal best friend, and (most importantly) an abundance of great advice. He wants nothing more than for everybody else in his life to know what it feels like to be as happy as he is. After successfully seeing his brother Sam married off to Eileen Leahy, Dean turns his attention to his newest friend: Charlie Bradbury. Despite his best friend Cas’s apprehensions, Dean does his best to improve her life. Thing is, none of his attempts at matchmaking seem to work. In fact, Dean’s carefully laid plans for Charlie (and for himself) quickly start to fall apart. Why is Charlie so oblivious? And why is Dean so upset when Cas’s ex returns to town?

Dean’s got a lot to learn about his family and friends, but mostly, he’s got a lot to learn about himself.

Love’s Labour’s Won by andimeantittosting, art by GoodQuestionHarlie

Wordcount: 26,687

Rating: T

Summary: It’s been five years since the workplace accident that killed Dean Winchester’s father, and conditions at Roman Mills have not gotten any safer. When Dean confides in his friend Charlie, she introduces him to Cas Novak, a union organizer passionate about workers’ rights.

As they work together on the union drive, Dean and Cas bond over good food, trashy TV, Castiel’s introduction to LARPing, and their shared commitment to improving the lives of the workers at the sawmill. Cas, however, is all too conscious of the power imbalance between them.

And then there's Roman Enterprises, determined to stop them from forming a union, even if it means breaking the law, with devastating consequences for Dean and Cas’s nascent romance.

The Magic of Things Big and Small by deliciousirony, art by almaasi

Wordcount: 21,975

Rating: M

Summary: According to the tourist guide for St. Mary’s Harbour, the quaint little town nestled between the mountains boasts a magical lake with an island where the local goddess resides. Dean is the High Priest of the island's temple (or priest, as Dean likes to point out, since you can't really be a High Priest if you're the only priest) and is rather unhappy with the recent influx of tourists.

When Sam introduces Dean to Castiel Novak, the town’s new director of the tourist board, Dean is immediately smitten, despite his initial reservations. But when Castiel congratulates Dean on the fantastic CGI effects in the town’s infomercial and highlights reel, Dean doesn’t quite know what to tell him.

Night at the Impala Theater by Speary, art by almaasi

Wordcount: 52,272

Rating: E

Summary: Dean lovingly cares for the old theater that his father left him. The Impala Theater is a haven for movie lovers from everywhere. Dean shows the classics and the new films, and occasionally some obscure stories find their way onto his screens. When a crate is delivered containing seven films that seem to have no history. Dean watches them and is immediately sucked in. The story of the PI Castiel and the crime-filled city that never sleeps, is right up his film-noir-loving alley. There’s something about the film though, something mysterious, that makes him want to learn more about the characters, the actors, and even the production company. The more he searches, the less he seems to know.

Observe and Report by VioletHaze, art by ricketyjukeboxer

Wordcount: 55,108

Rating: E

Summary: Recently demoted from his job as a field agent, Castiel is back behind a desk. It’s humiliating to be here with the same coworkers he left behind only a few months ago, but he’s bound and determined to keep his head down, do his job, and prove to his boss that he won’t make the same mistakes twice. Everything is going as planned until he finds himself distracted by one of the people he’s charged with monitoring: Dean Winchester.

The Same Mistake, Again by zaphodsgirl, art by subtextiel

Wordcount: 43,329

Rating: M

Summary: One night, after watching Dean pick up yet another girl while they're out at a bar, Cas heads to the local diner. Over the years his feelings of attraction have only deepened into something more, and he wishes desperately to go back to the time before he was in love with his best friend. His wish is granted in an unexpected way: he wakes up in the hospital the next morning with broken limbs - an arm and a leg- and a fractured memory with the last four years missing.

Sweet Caroline by BlueMasquerade, art by koisocks

Wordcount: 56,674

Rating: T

Summary: When Castiel Novak discovers he’s unexpectedly inherited a farmhouse outside small town Caroline, Kansas, he decides it’s an opportunity to make some major changes in his life. As the youngest son in the powerful Novak family, he’s always been sheltered and expected to do as he was told. His one prior attempt at independence ended disastrously, destroying his innocence and trust. If he had his way, he’d be the old recluse in the spooky old house. Unfortunately, the house needs some major repairs to be livable.

Fortunately Caroline has a jack of all trades who’s available to help with all of the things Cas doesn’t know how to do – for a price. Dean Winchester apparently either knows how to do everything himself, or knows someone. Everything would be wonderful, if only Dean would stop chipping away at the walls Cas so carefully built.

[theinquisitivej]

A Quartet of Reviews: Missing Link, Pet Semetary, Shazam!, and Hellboy (2019)

Missing Link

As the technical accomplishments and detailed beauty of Laika’s stop-motion films are part of the reason I’ve chosen to study stop-motion animation for my current academic research, you’ll forgive me if I approach their fifth film with some bias. Plus, box office numbers suggest that a lot more people really should be seeing these, so the more voices there are singing Laika’s praises the better, frankly.

         Missing Link is notably ambitious in that it strives to deliver an action adventure in the vein of Around the World in 80 Days or The Mummy (the Brendan Fraser one, not the “DARK UNIVERSE” one- yes, that did happen, and it is hard to remember), with multiple thrilling and complex action sequences, all in stop-motion. Given the labour-intensive nature of stop-motion and the limitations you’d typically expect of a medium that’s executed through real models that have a weight and substance to them that makes them less flexibly fluid than cel or digital animation, stories with an emphasis on dynamic action aren’t what you’d typically expect when it comes to stop-motion. And yet Laika demonstrate their full commitment to making Missing Link an energetic blockbuster through impressive choreography and painstakingly realised action set-pieces. While the charming characters and light-hearted tone help you stay engaged with the narrative, you’ll be constantly taken back by the seamless merging of traditional methods and modern technology in the animation which makes you sit up and take notice as you wonder how they managed to put together each scene. The best use of digital effects are the times where you’re not entirely certain it’s even there, and Laika’s approach to this modern tool definitely fits in that category.

         The film never quite reaches a point of emotional intensity that leaves me completely floored, as some of Laika’s previous films have managed to do. I didn’t walk away from the film remembering a moment where a character’s vulnerabilities are laid bare or a difficult but essential lesson is imparted in the most brutally earnest way. So, when compared against ParaNorman or Kubo and the Two Strings, Missing Link left less emotional impact on me. Having said that, the film still conveys numerous themes effectively through key story beats and striking visuals, with its central thesis being the importance of learning empathy towards others, and that you shouldn’t seek validation from close-minded proponents of outdated and toxic principles. As such, through a combination of entertaining characters with likable personality, an emphasis on globetrotting action, its refreshingly positive outlook, and tremendous animation on both the large and the small-scale across the board, Missing Link is a delightful adventure that you should make a point of seeing.

Final Ranking: Silver.

Boasting charm, an infectious sense of humour, and perhaps the best action I’ve seen in a stop-motion film, Missing Link absolutely meets the standard of quality that you’d expect from a Laika production.

 Pet Semetary

As many other people discussing this film have noted, Pet Semetary is a Stephen King story that’s notable for being so bleak that even Stephen King felt it was too dark. He hesitated to submit it for publishing for three years, only submitting it when he needed to meet a deadline for a contract. In the subsequent years, King has been critical of the “nothing matters” mentality of the story. With that in mind, as well as the knowledge that several people I follow whose opinions on film I trust were not fond of it, I was prepared for the possibility that I wouldn't enjoy it, but nevertheless open to the film surprising me. After all, Stephen King is a consistently entertaining storyteller, and I’m always interested to see how people adapt his work. For a while, things seemed okay enough. Then it started to drag around the middle, and then it took a hard, fast, ugly turn, descending into the most distasteful experience I’ve had in a cinema this year.

         As that summary indicates, the set-up is intriguing enough. A family move into a new home, and there are little signs that things aren’t quite right around here, as well as the telltale indications of a traumatic past that have left some of the characters with residual hang-ups that they will inevitably be forced to confront, and the tantalising promise of something unnatural on the horizon that will draw our protagonists in as they descend into horror. It’s competent ground laying work, and apart from the horrifying past of one of the character’s being uncomfortably demonising of the sick, and a lack of a distinctive visual style for the film to call its own, I didn’t have many serious issues with the first third or so.

         Once you approach the middle portion of the film, things start to feel protracted. Even if you haven’t seen a trailer or heard the gist of this story and have a decent idea about the trajectory of its narrative, there comes a point where you start to know exactly where things are heading. Discussions of death and what may or may not come afterwards, repeated reminders of how dangerous and unexpected high-speed vehicles on the road outside their house can be, and allusions to some unknowable force that can make impossible things happen which the father of this family absolutely must not approach are all dots that anyone familiar with the phrase “monkey’s paw” can join together with little difficulty. Without an engaging dynamic between characters (a la IT), a self-aware bizarreness that results in humour, or a notable visual style, there’s little to keep you going as you wait for pieces to very, very slowly fall into place.

         And the final act is just awful. It spits course language and nihilistic vitriol with little substance or point to its depictions of pain, misery, and spitefulness other than to wallow in this negativity with nothing else to say. Actors start to abandon any semblance of understated nuance in favour of ham-fisted bluntness, cursing out characters with an intensity that doesn’t feel earned as they clumsily fight against them in a way that lacks any sense of climactic satisfaction, and, because your investment in these characters rapidly drains with each new questionable decision and unlikable action, there’s no tension to these encounters either. There are numerous instances where the actors will do their best to deliver lines of dialogue that try to be shocking or wryly dark, but the material is so poorly thought out that it awkwardly misses the mark in both categories. It’s especially galling as the film spent so much time and effort on getting to this conclusion that it was trying to amp up as this big, horrifying finale that will shake you, when instead it’s just underwhelming and unpleasant without any purpose to itself. I was wishing for it to end, and yet when the credits began to roll, I couldn’t help but ask “wait, is that it?” It’s a limp ending with little meaning that leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Final Ranking: Cardboard.

Pet Semetary’s first act offers some potential, but that’s all it is: potential. The middle act spends so long getting to where it needs to be and where the audience knows it’s going that, by the time it gets there, it spends what little time it has left on cruel, structureless nihilism without taking any ownership for the unpleasant material it lays down at your feet.

 Shazam!

The DC movies are in a great place right now. I’ve yet to see James Wan’s Aquaman, but from the abundance of positive things I hear about it, as well as the profound impact Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman had on audiences, James Gunn and a whole lot of appealing casting choices being attached to the next Suicide Squad film, and the great feelings I have about the energy that the Birds of Prey teaser indicated, I’m very optimistic about the future of DC films. Now that Shazam! has released and proved to be a positively uplifting delight, my outlook on this series is cheerier than ever!

         Hm? What about that Joaquin Phoenix Joker movie? Well... my feelings towards that are… complicated. I’ll save my thoughts on it for another time, but suffice to say, I think the film has the potential to be great, but I worry about the way it will be received, and that the worst crowd will embrace it and take the wrong lessons from it.

         Anyway, for the here and now, Shazam is a refreshing blend of joyous levity and unexpected intensity. The film offers endearing comedy with teens and pre-teens acting like excited kids who enjoy doing dopey things but can still come across as insightful and having an emotional heart to them that makes you happy to spend time with them. But it’s never saccharine and, through a fleshed out script and a cast of sharp young actors and actresses, there’s a clear sense of authenticity which makes these adolescent characters seem grounded and well-observed. Something I appreciated is that, whenever the film goes into background details of the history of magic in this world, grandiose prophecies of mystical destinies, or the villain going into his sinister plans, it’s usually being talked about by grown adults who are taking themselves way too seriously. The best exemplar of this is Mark Strong who plays the villain, Dr. Sivana, with an intensity that deliberately comes across as hammy, and the young characters within the film pick up on this and play off him in a way that deflates his bluster and points out how ridiculous he’s being. As a result, the tone of Shazam! feels like it’s poking good-natured fun at prior DC projects and other big budget action blockbusters where stone faced adults spout clichéd speeches without any sense of self-awareness. It’s an approach that points out how some modes of behaviour that are often associated with maturity and being an adult are actually quite childish when you take a step back. As a superhero film that focuses on the experience of being the age where you’re young enough that you still enjoy being a kid, but old enough that you want to call adults out on their bullshit, Shazam! is impressively realised and fun as hell.

         But for as light-hearted as it can be, Shazam! nevertheless surprises you with the occasional brutal sequence that catches you off guard with such rapidity that I found it relatively shocking. It’s not so detailed, gory, or explicit enough that I’d say it goes too far, but it’s worth bearing in mind before you show it to a particularly young and impressionable viewer. The benefit of these sequences is that the unexpected escalation accentuates how in over his head Billy is when he eventually comes across a situation that’s genuinely dangerous, as, despite his newfound powers, he is still a kid, and he really shouldn’t be facing this kind of thing. Indeed, the film demonstrates an impressive grasp of and dedication towards themes of maturity as Billy faces difficult truths about something he thought he wanted and realises he’s been looking in the wrong place for what he actually craves, as well as develops into a more responsible version of himself that opens up to being part of a group built on mutual trust. There’s a cleverly subtle visual indication of the progress Billy has made by the end of the film where he remembers to lower his head as he walks through a door while in his superpowered adult form. One of the first things Billy does when he first transforms is hit his head on a train door to show how unused he is to this new body. The simple act of Billy seeing the doorframe and lowering his head as he steps through without any hesitation near the end of the film signifies the control Billy has developed over himself and his own actions, making his journey of maturation resonate that much more with me. The impact of shocking dark turns and the firm, confident grasp the film has on its cohesive themes of maturation and finding your place in life elevates Shazam! from a fun time to an uplifting and refreshing story that I think people are going to really enjoy for a long while.

Final Ranking: Silver.

Energetic, full of character, and with a strongly executed theme of maturation, Shazam! is highly recommended. It is perhaps a little longer than it needs to be, which results in the latter parts of the middle section feeling a little drawn out. Having said that, the finale sends a jolt of electricity through you that makes you forget any objections you might have and remember all the positive qualities that make this film so likable.

 Hellboy (2019)

Oof… why did I decide to end this collection of reviews on Hellboy (2019) and write this after three other sections? Sigh… okay, let’s get this over with.

It would be insincere of me to say I'm the most impassioned proponent of the Guillermo del Toro Hellboy films. I found them memorable and atmospheric, and you could certainly feel the characteristic flair from the many people that put their artistic touch on those films to create something unique that marked them out from other comicbook movies, which is especially impressive in the mid-2000s, pre Iron Man era. But after going through the slog that is Hellboy (2019), I think I’m more appreciative than ever of what del Toro and his team managed to achieve.

         For a while, it seemed like this new R-rated version of Hellboy was angling for a more faithful adaptation of the original books by Mike Mignola, given the various interviews that were had about it over the years. Sadly, the final result feels like the result of too many outside influences dictating what the film should feature, culminating in a hodgepodge of a film which regurgitates character beats from the del Toro films, and rapidly stitches together a half-hearted attempt at a King Arthur narrative to fill in the requisite new material (this is your regular reminder to check out The Kid Who Would Be King, a much better modern reinterpretation of Arthurian lore). The presentation is dour, unenthusiastic, and lacks any atmosphere or personality, and that is something you could never accuse either the Mignola books or the del Toro films of lacking. In the whole film, there are only two sequences that stand out, namely the fight with the three giants and the rampage of the hell creatures in London. Even so, the former is a relatively meaningless sequence that contributes very little to the narrative and lifts right out of the film, while the latter is so sadistic and mean spirited that it made me genuinely uncomfortable. It falls flat as both an adaptation of a beloved fictional series that’s brimming with atmosphere, and as a piece of technical filmmaking as well.

         On top of that, when the tone and general philosophy of the film does emerge out from under the rest of the film’s mediocrity, it reveals itself to be genuinely unpleasant. The film opens with narration that rushes through the backstory with Nimue and the Arthurian set-up and does so with foul-mouthed irreverence. There is a bit of humour to someone casually tossing in the odd bit of shitty language as they tell you about ancient history that should be discussed with pomp and circumstance but is instead being discussed with ill-fitting coarseness. However, there needs to be some personality to go along with it, otherwise it’s implied that the swearing is the character and all that’s there to it. In the case of this opening narration, Ian McShane emphasises each fucking swearword and it becomes clear that the dialogue is using this as a crutch in an effort to make the film seem like it has an identity as this edgy superhero movie that’s different because it swears. It’s a juvenile approach that is laughable when you consider how effortless Ryan Reynolds’ delivery in each Deadpool movie has been, which demonstrates how swearing can be used to accentuate genuinely funny jokes and characters, rather acting as the joke in and of itself.

         And this isn’t even the most egregious part of the film either, it’s simply a bad first impression. The worst aspect of the film’s outlook is how virtually every character espouses the notion that you should stop complaining, stop letting things get to or affect you, and stop taking time to process things. This is especially saddening when Hellboy’s father, a character that was played with wonderful vulnerability and heart-aching humanity by the late great John Hurt, tells Hellboy to “grow some balls” and get on with things, making the emotional culmination of their time together on screen essentially boil down to ‘quit your bitching’. Characters in Hellboy (2019) show next to no empathy towards one another, and they continually reinforce the story’s outlook which, whether inadvertently or not, nevertheless encourages a state of being where you never have time to be open or vulnerable with the people around you. It’s profoundly disheartening to watch, and gives little to no thematic or visual sustenance to get you through a runtime that feels far too long.

Final Ranking: Manure.

David Harbour does an admirable job in the lead role and I was happy to at least have a protagonist in this film that captures the gruff sadness and down-to-earth affability of the character of Hellboy. But he’s drowning in limiting makeup and an even more stifling movie that has no visual flair and a boring, miserable narrative. The experience of watching this movie is draining and deflating, and I hope to never revisit it.

[clementine-lominsan]

WHY I AM NOT A CONSERVATIVE

2018-12-02 

In an era of utter insanity, reaction is the only way to preserve one’s moral conscience. 

Why am I not a liberal? Because I admire the luxuriant giant tree of civilization, including its roots. So it seems being a conservative is the “natural” answer. But what does it mean to be a “conservative”? What do conservatives “conserve”?

A conservative today is usually an economic liberal. He promotes free market whose major principle is free trade and free market. The goal of all this, is actually nothing else than the goal of a socialist: the increase of efficiency, the increase of employment, the increase of living standard, the increase of literacy, the decrease of fetal mortality and the advancement of technology.

We are told that the increase of total social wealth is what actually made these goals possible. Surely I do not oppose the increase of total social wealth, but what does that mean? In the eyes of the bourgeoisie, the word “wealth” usually means one thing, the material profit. As the classical liberals boasted, “it was the capitalist who created the condition where any socialist activism is possible”, and “without capitalism, 80% of world’s people would not be there!”

But is humanity better just because we have more people? Does the happiness of humanity hike with the sharp improvement of the material life? No matter how much the material condition improves, one could not help wondering why, despite all this material progress, the spiritual, or mental wealth is shrinking.

The rise of suicide rate in the more materially wealth parts of the world, and the prevalence of drug abuse and the political consensus of both left and right wings on pot legalization, the trend in legalizing non-hetereosexual “marriage”, and the vulgarization of popular culture.

Even worse, the mind and the behavior of the deracinated masses are now being engineered by social media giant corporations. One may argue “but this is not the intention of free market capitalism!” But the road to hell is paved good intentions, and moreover, I am not sure urging young kids to engage in computer games with gambling functions (“microtransaction”) is “good” intention.

The obsession with the material, is perhaps inherent in the bourgeois mind. Historically, they have no real sense of loyalty to any land, any king, any belief, any community or even any family. Nor do they have any fixed social function. As the great conservative thinker Edmunk Burke put it, “the laws of commerce…are the laws of nature, and consequently the laws of God.” (Maybe Burke and his students believe in Hermes, the God of Commerce? “Orthodox Christians” without charity, what a paradox!)

In other words, they are materialists. What does it take to go from this kind of materialist to the Marxist dialectic materialist? Hegelian dialectics, the black magic of sophistry, that is. Besides, after the rise of industrial capitalism, there has been more and more giant companies which is not actually owned by any private person. Yes, everyone can buy their stock shares, but what is the separation of management from private ownership, aside from being the sheer violation of the private property right?

Of course, usurers need this, so they can concentrate their attention in the financial industry, which makes everyone else “proletarian” – whose only possession is the labor-power. The ideological and economic continuity means industrial capitalism is the prelude of socialism. Surely there are free-marketeers, and there are mainly two sorts of them, “minarchists” and anarchists.

The so-called “minarchists” ask for such as minimal modern sovereign state: it has a standing army, a nationalized police and a centralized legal system. One has to remember the first economic liberals, i.e. Physiocrats called for an Enlightened tyrant – it means compared to the ancient free states supported by pious and loyal people, the so-called “minarchy” is nothing but a tyrannical modern state supported by deracinated masses: the instrument of a Leninist state is already there.

As for anarcho-capitalism, there is no anarcho-capitalism or anarcho-communism; there is only lawless anarchy, where physical violence and “smart” backstabbing are the eternal law of survival. In reality, the so-called minarchy is being practiced, and here we are, bound with quantity over quality, efficiency without purpose, property without ownership, and snobbery without organicity: the greatness of a modern industrial capitalism!

The eternal state with its permanent laws, seems to be ingrained in the mind of the eternal Anglo conservative, and conservatives in other spheres of culture are believing in it as well, thanks to the neoconservative Wilsonian order. It is said, that only by trial-and-error, we will know what works the best.

It is also said that we must preserve the traditional political institutions unconditionally. These two are in fact contradicting each other. The change in the internal and external, material and spiritual environments, requires the relevant changes in the social and political institutions, so a civilization can survive.If we see certain political institutions as god-given eternal entities, the fate of the Late Qing Empire will be repeated: the state is getting paralyzed by European colonists, peasant rebels, cult terrorists and radical revolutionaries – from 1851 to 1863, China’s population declined by more than 200 million! Why? Because they were overly obsessed with their ancient political traditions without making any effort to revitalize them.

As T. S. Eliot put it, “Yet if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in following the ways of the immediate generation before us in a blind or timid adherence to its successes, ‘tradition’ should positively be discouraged. We have seen many such simple currents soon lost in the sand; and novelty is better than repetition.Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour.” This political sloth has proven to be causal to the repeated defeat of conservatisms in history. Surely, many conservatives care words more than reality, so much so that they would sacrifice anything for their “political values”. They are too persistent on political values but sometimes too flexible on moral values. I wonder how much this overintellectualization is related to “sola fide” of Martin Luther.

It is the central conservative dogma that the state can do little, if nothing, to promote moral thoughts and behavior. Edmund Burke once said, “It is in the power of government to prevent much evil; it can do very little positive good in this, or perhaps in anything else.”

But is it true? Centuries before Burke, St. Augustine of Hippo believed that the state simultaneously serves the divine purposes of chastening the wicked and refining the righteous. Many conservatives argue, based on the minarchist doctrine, that the state is an evil, but a necessary one. Meanwhile, they also argue that the state should be impartial, and by “impartial”, they mean amoral. From the theoretical point of view, anyone committed to the mission of promoting evil must start his adventure by convincing evil is “necessary”: “Only Catholics soaked in canon law and papal superstition maintained the old prohibitions against usury”, wrote Cotton Mather; “If we did not nuke Japan, we would have suffered unbearable losses”, argued the 21st century neoconservative.

Even worse, conservatives like Andrew Sullivan are actually the pioneers of various postmodern progressive social movements. So, political amorality becomes political anti-morality. Again, if one looks back into the history of the progress of such a political ideal, despite of its ostensibly just claims, what it has wrought us is one license to vices after another. Virtues need no license, because anyone with moral conscience know that virtues are hard to maintain so there is no real legal restriction on them.

By contrast, an interesting observation from the generation educated under Estado Novo or its Spanish counterpart is said to be extremely polite and respectful. “It can do very little positive good in this”? History seems to disagree. For a traditionalist, as opposed to a conservative, what must be permanent are the moral values, and the political values can be flexible and the political institutions must serve the purpose to preserve the moral values, not the other way around.

Needless to say, the flexibility on moral values has cost conservatives a lot, besides the well-known political defeats. Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn once said, “the urban conservative…is nothing but an inhibited ‘progressive’.” From Lawrence v. Texas to the eventual legalization of non-heterosexual marriage, one sees this pattern, especially from the opinions of the conservative judges, such as this opinion from Clarence Thomas on Lawrence v. Texas, “Although he agreed with Scalia’s dissent for the most part, Thomas felt obliged to write separately to point out that the law was ‘silly’ and should be repealed”.

Is this law really “silly”? One would wonder why CDC stopped publishing data about AIDS back in the years of Obama administration. The progressives are convinced missionaries of their progressive previsions, while conservatives are half-hearted followers of social traditions.In reality, I really do not think any Old Whig could tell others to obey the traditional political values when they themselves were the revolutionaries who destroyed the legitimate ancient institution via the “Glorious” Revolution. Those “eternal” Angloes who boast about Magna Carta never pay any tribute to Alcuin of York: so much respect for tradition! So it is not really surprising that conservatives are just Fabian progressives – progressives with a 10 year jet lag.

Thus, it is not difficult to understand why conservatism lacks real content and has no actual proposal. The conservatives today are more radical than the Radicals back in the 19th century. Paul Joseph Watson, “the defender of gay rights and women rights against bigotry”, once said, “conservatism is the new counter-culture!” By that I guess he means it is the new urban fashion among spoiled middle class kids. Maybe in 10 years, Kanye West will become the new William F. Buckley Jr. yelling “Stop!” in his hip-hop songs.

Why am I not a conservative? Because conservatism is insufficient for the mission of restoration and regeneration: there is little to “conserve” in modernity and postmodernity (or, “neo-modernity”). In an era of utter insanity, reaction is the only way to preserve one’s moral conscience.

[transhumanitynet]

I Believe...

The article below offers a worldview, starting with an abstract philosophical foundation, upon which increasingly pragmatic structures can be built. The framework presented here is deliberately compatible with the political philosophy known as Social Futurism, although it is not part of Social Futurism, per se.

1. IDEALISM, & A VISION FOR HUMANITY

I believe that there is an ultimate “Good”, just as Plato did1. I believe that this Ideal Good is approached – but can never be truly reached – via non-attachment and selfless love. These ideas are the closest I come to religious Faith in the modern sense2, and they are most definitely views that would have been familiar to the ancient Greeks.

It is important to note that just because I believe in an Ideal Good, that does not mean I believe people to be naturally or intrinsically good, or that good things can be achieved without hard work, disciplined adherence to principles, and simply doing what one must, no matter how hard or complicated it may be. Good is an ideal – The Ideal in Plato’s framework – and as such it can only be imperfectly realized by human beings.

Once you understand my commitment to this ideal, you can follow the way I begin to translate that into a specific vision in my Transhumanity.net article, “A Vision For Humanity“.

2. BALANCE, REALITY, & TRUTH

In the everyday world of pragmatic concerns, I believe in balance. I believe that imbalance is a sign of irrationality and sickness. We are all imbalanced in many ways, at many times in our lives, but the critical virtue is the desire to understand one’s own situation and work toward a higher balance of some sort. I am tolerant, to the extent that anyone at least attempts to attain balance, but utterly intolerant of all that lays beyond that minimal expectation. Those who betray the very basis of intelligent toleration cannot themselves be tolerated.

I also believe we must acknowledge that Truth and Reality exist, even if they are imperfectly accessible to humans. Wilful ignorance is the ultimate embrace of imbalance and the dysfunction it engenders. Distorting reality (and disregarding all principle) to suit one’s own desires is vandalism, parasitism, and anti-social behaviour of the worst sort. Commitment to an Ideal Good requires commitment to Truth. That said, we must be aware that even complete fictions can (and often do) have very real consequences. When they are used for good, that can arguably be a justified, acceptable, or even necessary thing. When they are not used for good, then they represent a threat to civilization itself.

3. SPECTACLE/DIALECTIC VS. RADICAL CENTRISM

I believe that our society is governed by Spectacle; which is to say the modern equivalent of “bread and circuses”, designed as an array of deliberately false choices between options that don’t matter, and which only really distract from important issues. Coke versus Pepsi. America versus Russia. Sports Team A versus Sports Team B. Conservative/Republican versus Labour/Liberal/Democrat. Left-wing versus Right-wing.

Within the realms of politics and economics, I refuse to align myself wholly with Left- or Right-wing “camps” in any all-encompassing manner that forces me to abandon my personal commitment to principle. Such tribal affiliation, chosen without regard to (and often in direct contradiction of) evidence on an issue-by-issue basis, is intrinsically unbalanced, and thus effectively a disease of the individual mind and of society. Instead, I believe in having consistent principles, respecting the importance of evidence, and remaining committed to helping others where possible. Where that may suggest a Right- or Left-wing view on my part, then so be it.

For example, I believe that where individuals, groups, or indeed entire nations desire self-determination and are not harming others, then we should respect that desire. I am committed to that idea, as a matter of principle. It just so happens that it can variously be considered a Left- or Right-wing idea depending not only on who is judging, but also on which self-determination-desiring people are being discussed at any given moment. Similarly, although I do not believe in Marxist concepts such as “Class Struggle”, I do believe very firmly in the importance of proper respect and remuneration for the working class, and am aware that any number of views might be taken of where this places me on the political spectrum. I am not concerned with such labels, but am wholly committed to principle, and thus consider myself a Radical Centrist.

4. WHO YOU ARE IS WHAT YOU DO

It is a strange irony of our time, that just as technology draws us together into an ever-smaller “Global Village“, we humans seem determined to separate ourselves from each other. As the failures of Liberal Democracy become more and more apparent, both the Left and Right increasingly focus on divisive notions of “Identity Politics“, which is to say political thinking organized around the idea that your politics must inevitably and irrevocably be decided by your background, whether that background be characterized in terms of sexuality, economic class, age, physiology, language, ethnicity, culture, or any other factor.

I am a Transhumanist. As such, I seek to transcend the limitations of all such characteristics, through technology. Taken in combination with my commitment to Idealism (specifically to the Idea of the Good, and to a transcendent human civilization), this logic draws toward an inevitable conclusion: That true peace and unity can only be achieved if we fix our vision on a uniting future goal-ideal, rather than on the increasingly irrelevant divisions of the past.

But what is this “future goal-ideal”? If we are to transcend contemporary Identity Politics, then we must work toward a category of existence which transcends all of the current categorizations. In other words, we must become a new class of being: One defined not by the circumstances or constraints of its past, but by the future-vision it is committed to. I envisage a future humanity which spans an entire continuum of Personhood, from leadership in the form of godlike Posthuman, post-biological beings, to a citizenry of genetically engineered biological Transhumans, and beyond to a wider realm of guaranteed wellbeing for sentient beings achieved via Abolitionist technologies.

The future I want is one which achieves both unity and diversity… one in which all citizens may optimize themselves to best fulfill their chosen societal roles, and in doing so help bring society together. The unity of a civilization is defined by its ability to act as a single, coordinated unit in its growth and development as a living thing. In contrast to the many “inherited” political identities we know today, I foresee a kind of uniting, aspirational identity I call the “Ajati” (an ancient Sanskrit term suggesting someone not-born, made-rather-than-born, or indeed self-made).

The essence of this idea is that people do not need to be defined by factors beyond their control, but can instead grow into a new identity based upon their commitment to helping the community. In other words, your actions determine your identity. Who You Are Is What You Do.

5. SERIOUS GAMES

Taking these points together, the logical conclusion is my strident advocacy of Social Futurism. When we combine that with the views expressed here and here, the natural next step is to establish a foundation for my own path, moving forward. I would encourage everyone who feels some affinity with Social Futurism to create their own personal network of like-minded allies, so that we may all work together efficiently to forge solutions for a better future.

For more information about my personal approach to these matters, see the ZS Array webpage.

1For my views on Western symbolism re: this ideal, with a particular focus on the “Black Sun” or “Black Star” symbol: https://sites.google.com/view/zero-state/glossary/b/black-sun

2Actually I am something of a Neo-Pagan, but I don’t tend to mention that in mixed company simply because people often leap to unwarranted conclusions and attack positions that I would never defend. For now, let’s just say that – as a matter of principle – I most emphatically do not believe anything that is contrary to reliable evidence (AKA Science). If you don’t know how I can be true to that stance and be a (Neo-)Pagan, then I’m afraid that you simply haven’t thought about it hard enough or done your homework, and are not ready for that conversation. I will not do your homework for you. On a similar note, I am interested in the Western esoteric traditions of alchemy and ritual magic, but approach such things in a rigorously rational, empirical, and scientific manner.

I Believe… was originally published on transhumanity.net

[maximuswolf]

What I've gotten from the Capital so far: An introduction to Class Warfare via /r/socialism

What I've gotten from the Capital so far: An introduction to Class Warfare

Wanted to make this post both as a summarization of what I've learned so far to myself and to provide a baby-level analysis into the Capital as well. Not only haven't I finished the first book (I just ended Chapter 8) I am not even reading it directly: that is, I'm watching a course. This is all to say I am no source. Thus I open myself to rebuttals. Please note that a tl;dr is impossible because the writing style of Marx assumes you've read everything previous to that paragraph, in its ENTIRETY.

With that said...

Marx starts his analysis of capitalist society by merchandise, that is, items which have been made negotiable in a market mechanism. He initially takes the point of view not of a historian but of an ordinary observer, and this is also what I will try to do. There, on an extremely superficial analysis, one may find many items with their respective uses. Cultural products such as art, means of production such as machinery and so on. The use of a thing is its use-value. Notice that if Marx attempted to analyse capitalism through a extensive compilation of use values, nothing would be learned about the social and historical organization of society that is capitalism, for use-value is ahistorical. An axe cuts wood in Ancient Greece, in Medieval France, in Colonial Brazil and in Imperial England, yet the means through which this axe is produced (and more importantly, the relations of power that constitute such production) in each of these societies is extremely distinct. Already a common argument by the apologists of capitalism, that the mode of production of capitalism has produced high-tech items such as Iphones, is disqualified as an Iphone can be produced by any kind of society which has achieved such a level of technological affluence.

There is something more revealing about these products than their use-values: they are in a market mechanism, implying that they have different values (which will be more thoroughly categorized later) symbolized by price (also more thorougly categorized later). Potentially, a X quantity of cups can be equalized in value to a Y quantity of deodorant. This is called exchange value and is always determined by comparision with other merchandise.

Yet this is a bizarre equivalence, for we have just mentioned the diversity of use-values that exist in a given society. Using the previously mentioned example, do we consider the health benefits of water in comparision to deodorant, while also taking into account the hazardous effects of alcohol; soda and other kinds of beverages and the overall effectiveness of deodorant considering different biotypes in order to establish some equivalence? The rhetorical question is meant to drive home the further point: deodorant and cups are so qualitatively distinct from each other in their use-value they could not possibly be compared quantitatively to each other through use-value.

What all merchandise share that possibilitates their quantitative measure is human work. A deodorant is an industrial product, a merchandise such as wood requires extraction and a private school requires teachers and other administrative persons. Scarce things are deemed valuable because of the work necessary to extract them, for example, and the controversial concept of ''skilled'' labour is also similarly based on the scarcity of workers with that particular set of abilities.

The problem is not solved, however, as not only is the use-value of such products extremely distinct, the ways through which they are manufactured are also hardly comparable. Does a teacher produce ''more'' value than an industrial worker responsible for deodorants? Is there a specific quantity of classes one must take into account in this relationship? Again, we run into absurdity.

Capitalism does not have an answer for this question. The value of a product is measured by its labour, yet the diversity of existing labour obligates capitalism to rob labour of its peculiarities and melt it into a single, undifferianted jelly-mass of work. This is the concept of abstract labour. It is abstract because it is not actual, observable human labour; sweat and blood but a cold and nonsensical calculation that attempts to quantify concrete work. Yet it is not arbitrary. It does this by estimating the ammount of ''socially necessary work'' to produce a certain product, and this is given by the technological conditions of such a time; the skillset of the average worker and many other aspects. For example, I may have spent an entire year of my life in the production of a single ventilator, yet because the socially necessary labour time for such a product is obscenely lower, I will be obligated to price it the same as all other ventilators.

Abstract labour is synonymous with ''value'', which is a distinct concept from exchange-value and use-value. Value is what determines exchange-value, that is, merchandise can only be compared through abstract labour. So for instance, a set of deodorant may be equal in value to a set of axes. Let us say that 20 deodorant equals 3 axes.

The value of deodorant is apparently given by its relation to axes. The word apparently here is key, as we have just stated both have intrinsic abstract labour. In truth, what we are saying is that the abstract labour of producing 3 axes equals that of producing 20 deodorant. Though we obviously cannot see this, the equivalence is a pleonasm, a 2=2. Yet because the value of deodorant is apparently given in its relation to axes, axes appear not to HAVE value (which is not use-value, but abstract labour) but to BE value. The axe is deified and eclipses the deodorant in importance. It is the god Axe through which all gets its value: ventilators, courses, videogame consoles and so on. He who creates axes creates value almost magically, as if giving birth to energy out of nowhere.

Obviously, the role axes take in this example is today taken by ''money'' and was previously assumed by gold. Not only does money obscure other merchandise, it obscures work and the relations of power which preceed it: it obscures everything that is social about value and how it is produced because it must assume the identity of value as itself. Abstract labour is represented through money, the merchandise which determines the value of all merchandise. Through price, money becomes metaphysical: we see 2,60 dollars in a specific product even though there are no dollars that are materially visible.

Yet precisely because money is simply another merchandise (a merchandise whose use-value is the representation of the abstract labour of all other merchandise) and not abstract labour in itself, which is unchanging, it must fluctuate in order to effectively express the value of any given merchandise as it suffers cycles of scarcity and overabudance, as well given the velocity of consumption. These are the cycles of inflation and deflation, which are not relevant at the moment. They are only important insofar as they show that products do not take their value from money: on the contrary, money is merely a representative of the value intrinsic in these products. It is not the axe which determines the value of deodorant, using the previous example, but the deodorant which is quantitatively expressed in axes. If money was the absolute expression of value, bread could've not possibly have cost more than 1 trillion at the German Republic of Weimar which preceded Nazism, yet it did.

Since the use-value of money is the representation of value, it is universally applicable value. For instance, while a set of deodorant may have the same value as a particular set of money, we all know it impossible to go to the supermarket using deodorant as currency. Thus the importance of the act of selling in a capitalist society: it is the means through which the ''inferior value'' of a merchandise becomes ''superior value'' in money, yet this money is not QUANTIATIVELY superior to the merchandise which has been sold (that is, such money represents the exact same ammount of value, otherwise the buyer would be wasting value expressed in money). It is superior only in regards to its application in a market mechanism.

Though this is yet to be explained more thoroughly, as the concept of class hasn't yet been defined, it is obvious through the experience of all people reading this (as they are inserted in a capitalist society) that working class people will use their money towards the consumption of specific goods, such as food and entertainment, and not towards enrichment. Our value is thus converted to an ''inferior'' form: from currency to merchandise. We will call this circuit MCM: merchandise-currency-merchandise. The working class sells its disposition of labour to the capitalist class, gaining a salary which will be directed towards a merchandise. The merchandise will be consumed for its use-value and the process ends there.

The peculiarty of the capitalist class is its circuit: CMC. Currency-merchandise-currency, that is, they will ''invest'' their money into specific merchandise so that they can obtain more money. Money is not the means for the purchase of products but an end in and of itself, o Lord Money. We have already gotten into this religious sort of thinking by using the example of axes.

This is the crucial point through which Marxism diverges from liberal economics: we have seen that a merchandise of a certain value can only be exchanged for one of equal value. But then what is the purpose of CMC? Why would I invest 100 dollars into a merchandise that will give me a return of 100 dollars, gaining nothing in return (though not losing as well)? Somehow the capitalist has obtained more value than he previously had. A surplus-value. This mere circulation of merchandise cannot create those sweet profits, nor can production, as all production in a capitalist society takes place in the market mechanism of circulation.

(It must be noted that value is constant. The merchandise of 100 dollars the capitalist has bought has as much value as 100 dollars. As such, value cannot ever be ''lost'').

As we've seen, the only thing that can create value is work.

A person in capitalist society cannot survive on their own, that is, without the commodity of money. They do not have land to be self-sufficient on, nor the possibility of gaining land, nor the tools through which hunting becomes viable. Historically, such things were stolen from the people in the enclosure of the commons in Europe and the colonization process through which Europeans robbed the natives of land.

The workers must ''sell themselves''. They do not actually sell themselves as a slave and they do not have any kind of personal bond with the capitalist as serfs had with their feudal lords, to which they were geographically stuck. If the worker sold his work, the capitalist class would have no profits as all of surplus-value is created by work. The worker must sell instead his capacity to work, that is, he sells his labour power. He sells his skillset of abilities, his psychological makeup, his physical disposition and many others aspects that are intrinsic of him to the capitalist that translate to his disposition to work. Work creates value, which is partially used to pay for labour-power in the form of a salary as well as into production costs with machinery, but whatever else is left the capitalist will hold onto tightly. This is how the capitalist gains surplus-value. Nor simple production nor circulation produce surplus-value: it is rather the circulation of production.

''Capital'' is that which produces surplus value. ''Variable'' capital is expressed in labour power, as the value that it can produce is variable. ''Constant'' capital refers to the means of productions which the workers use in their labour. My course treats capital as synonymous with surplus value but I have some problems with that understanding, so don't trust me on the definition of capital. I am confident in the dicothomy between variable and constant capital however.

Class warfare in the capitalist form of society is thus expressed by capitalists seeking to parasite as much work as possible on the greatest intensity; efficiency and periods of time; at the expense of the working class, who will not accept such conditions with ease. Yet the power dynamics here are obvious, both directly as the worker depends on the capitalist for his subsistence and indirectly as surplus-value can (and WILL) be directed towards class warfare in the form of propaganda; corruption; violence and so on.

A quote from Marx suffices for the ending. While these concepts cannot be summarized for someone who has not read them, they can for those who have. They are summarized by:

Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks. The time during which the labourer works, is the time during which the capitalist consumes the labour-power he has purchased of him. If the labourer consumes his disposable time for himself, he robs the capitalist. The capitalist then takes his stand on the law of the exchange of commodities. He, like all other buyers, seeks to get the greatest possible benefit out of the use-value of his commodity. [...] the voice of the labourer [...] had been stiffled in the storm and stress of production.

Submitted November 09, 2020 at 04:17AM by Ckaaiqoos via reddit https://ift.tt/3eGb69d

[lutternoodling]

On Foresight and Bewilderment, Predictions and Incapications

A reflection on slowing down in urgent times written March 02020 in response to Bayo Okomolafe

On Our Always Uncertain Future

I work in a field called foresight. Sometimes it’s called futures studies, or even futurism, though there are a whole host of associations with that one (techno-futurists, Italian futurism, etc.) that can be misleading. In a moment like now when the future suddenly seems much more uncertain, I’ve been wondering what it means to be someone who “works in the future.” I make no claim to have a clearer or more accurate understanding of what a post-COVID future looks like, but I do think I have some expertise, and also some responsibility, to be thinking about it critically, differently, and explicitly.

In the past few months, COVID-19 has transformed the present into something that often feels like a foresight scenario, the “what-if’s” of a far-off, hypothetical, global pandemic now very real headlines with very real implications. And there have been so many articles, interviews, podcasts, discussions, and arguments over the past few months trying to understand what the future will look like, should look like, could look like. 

The momentum of the status quo has (I would say, finally) been disrupted on a scale we haven’t seen in decades. We want to know what things will look like in a month from now, in a year from now. We want to plan, we want stability, and we want certainty. But if foresight, and this moment, have taught me anything, it’s that we didn’t have certainty or stability before any of this either. We can plan and think through all the possible futures before us, but we will never be able to predict or truly know what we are heading for. 

Instead, we can learn from this moment and recognize that we need to get better at listening. At tuning in, at slowing down, at trying to stay open to possibility and learning. Listening to ecologies, to the systems we are now seeing we are a part of, to our communities, to our planet, to this virus, to our emotions. If we can listen, truly listen to what is happening right now, we might learn how to move into our new future.

On Slowing Down in Urgent Times

This week I listened to a conversation with Dr. Bayo Okomolafe, Executive Director of the Emergence Network, with host Ayana Young on the For the Wild podcast called “Slowing Down in Urgent Times.” I was struck by how a conversation recorded months before the coronavirus situation was at the forefront of everyone’s consciousness could be translated so easily into the current context. But, as many of us have known, these have been urgent times since long before 02020. 

In his interview, Bayo speaks of how modernity has trained us in the myth of stability. We crave linearity, cause-and-effect, neatness. And it’s true, it can be easier and more comfortable that way. But paying attention to stability means that when crisis hits, like it has right now, we are not as well trained in finding a messy, stumbling way forward. At building resilience, at understanding systems and entanglements and interconnectedness and long-term implications. In these urgent times, I have sometimes found myself feeling like I should be using my foresight experience to help people understand what the near future might hold, offer them a glimpse of possible stability and certainty. But I know better; stability only feels easier and more comfortable until something disrupts it. What people (me!) want right now is to know what the future will look like, what they need right now is to know how to live and move forward in an uncertain present. 

On Invisible Systems Suddenly Visible

Bayo speaks of the need to think less about capacity building and more about incapacitation. Or as I understand him, our need to focus less on what more we need to get us out of this crisis (more information, more certainty, more speed) and instead to focus on what we learn from the ways it has incapacitated us. What is here, in this moment of uncertainty and slowness, that we did not notice before? What are we learning now that we might bring with us into our futures?

We might see this incapacitation as a moment to focus on the systems that have now become more transparent than ever.  On its face, COVID-19 is a healthcare crisis, but its effects are not evenly distributed and straightforward. They are influenced by different models of healthcare systems, political responses, individual versus collective cultural values, how circumstances and economic status and historical oppression affect whether people can work from home or close their business or access technology or care. 

We see how food that seemed to appear magically year-round in our stores now has workers associated with it, and labour policies and minimum wage policies associated with them. When we no are no longer driving our cars across our cities, we are suddenly confronted with the urban planning practices and infrastructure choices our cities have been making, whether our neighbourhoods are walkable, whether we have ways to get in touch with our communities for things we need. When we are asked to stay home, to stay close, we see the trees and birds and ecologies in our own backyards or are faced with their absences. When we are asked to work from home, we can start to ask whether productivity and value should be measured by time spent in an office, whether what we spend our time contributing to is considered essential, and who defines what is essential and to whom?

When we have to rely on only virtual and remote communication, we can decide whether our culture’s acceleration toward the virtual, the nomadic, the place-less, and the detached is, in fact, what we want for our future, whether we could be advocating just as strongly for the place-based, in-person, and communal. When we are faced with streams of numbers and metrics from all our media, we can unpack why certain populations seem more vulnerable than others, and we can ask whether they were vulnerable to begin with, what histories made that true, and what our role we can take in protecting and advocating for them.

On Sitting with Uncertainty

A skilled weaver of story and myth, Bayo ends his interview talking about the Biblical story of Job. Job’s story was never part of my own cultural upbringing, but Bayo’s take resonated with me. Job is a good, prosperous, devoted man who nevertheless has his property, his children, and his health all taken away from him by God (or Satan, with God’s permission). Bayo talks about how he never really understood the message of Job; why does God not offer Job an explanation of what has happened and why? 

Bayo reframed Job’s story and understood: “Sometimes the best answer to a pressing question is not the answer itself.” Maybe amidst all of these tragedies, there were no good and satisfying answers God could have given him. Maybe what God could offer Job at that point was, in Bayo’s words, “the gift of bewilderment,” “the straying away from the arrogance of easy arrival.” 

And maybe that is what we are being offered right now, too. Maybe instead of seeking a way forward in a pressing situation, we can try to learn from the gift of bewilderment we are being given. At the cracks that are now showing and the humbling that come with having the myth of stability and linearity disrupted. I am not going to use my foresight experience to offer ideas about what our future might look like. It won’t be “right,” and focusing one linear vision will obscure other possibilities. Instead, I am going to take a good look at the invisible threads that constructed my pre-COVID reality and think about whether this is the opportunity to mend or re-thread any of them. I am going to sit in this uncertain moment and do a lot of good listening. Then maybe, just maybe, I’ll hear what our future is telling us.

[vrcomputart]

XIDALIA - Immersive Audio-Visual Performance

XIDALIA is a performance that explores a post-apocalyptic vision of the future, told through song and projected visuals. Sonically ranging from trance-inducing music, to electronic music, to soul; visually including coded animations and video footage processed through code, performance is used as an umbrella term to host many parts that together tell a story through emotion. The piece came about through a spiritual belief system/practice I have been developing that has roots in shamanism, witchcraft and paganism fused with technology; the concept of the piece inspired by sci-fi, speculative fiction, and feminist-techno-science.

Also available in 360:

BACKSTORY It started out as survival instinct, distorted by fear. Humans began to exert power-over all that was not man, began a system of living based on domination and the suffering of those we chose not to hear, that eventually grew deeply unethical and unsustainable. It was easier just to maintain it than to enact global change, especially because it kept us divided, with a select few at the top. We had been taught to turn against ourselves, forgetting the breadth of what that “we” really holds. We had been forced to forget that we have power too, power-from-within. The power of civilians overcame the system when they stood united on a single notion – that they would not stand for this.

The Shift happened gradually, over centuries, almost imperceptibly, but XIDALIA crystallised in a flash, like a second Big Bang.

All I remember is running down a highway, desperately running away from something and suddenly stopping, realising it was futile to try to outrun it, it was coming anyway. I surrendered to the fact that I was probably going to die, finding a sense of peace as all became light. I blinked my eyes open and it felt like nothing had changed, we were all holding hands, safely witnessing what was emerging, what had already been here...

The context behind XIDALIA’s narrative is that the apocalypse is already here, and it has been here for a while. It is not a single cataclysmic occurance but a complexly knotted network of events and reactions. It goes by many names – the patriarchy, the pharmacopornographic regime (Preciado, 2013), the Anthropocene – it is a manifestation of power-over (Starhawk, 1997), with all the issues the world is facing as symptoms thereof. This concept is something I began developing in the Computational Arts-Based Research and Theory module (see more here). Concept and background research The narrative of the piece can be divided into two parts: the ritual (entering a trance state, discovering the portal to XIDALIA) and the arrival (arriving in and exploring XIDALIA, experiencing particle reconfiguration). I felt it was necessary to begin by bringing people into a state where they would be more open to the journey, so I created a ritual soundtrack for the first part which consists mainly of beating sine waves, inspired by singing bowls, and layered vocals, pre-recorded and live. The visuals for the ritual consist mainly of shader graphics and have a hypnotic, psychedelic quality to them, which supports the audio. This part of the performance continues a practice I have been developing that explores trance and ritual by using technology as a magical tool. I'm interested in continuing, updating and queering the lineage of visionary art, psychedelic aesthetics and trance sounds. The audio and visuals shift to filmed footage and electronic music that meanders through moods and genres as we enter XIDALIA (around 5 mins into the performance). The narrative, embodied through the visuals and music, has a dual nature. On one hand, I show a glimpse of the kind of society I hope to inhabit. A return to the earth, living in harmony with nature’s processes, with elements of technology. This can be seen in the first few shots, where the music is dreamy and I am taught about the herbs available to me locally. This part was inspired by sci-fi literature (Piercy, 1976; Slonczewski, 2016), as well as Donna Haraway’s concept of “sympoeisis”, or making-with, as explored in “Staying with the Trouble” (Haraway, 2016). In the last chapter, Haraway describes a world where all the theory explored is put into practice – where the human population decreases, where children are raised by multiple parents, where our DNA is mixed with that of other species. This inspired me to focus on creating the world I want to live in, rather than making a piece that criticises our current system of living. On the other hand, I offer a different perspective. Through working on the project, I realised it was important to also remain present in the world we’re living in now – “to stay with the trouble”, to face the fact that whether or not there will be a future post-apocalypse, we are all going to die. Thinking about this not in a defeatist way, but to bring about a sense of urgency, a call to make the most of our experience as humans before it’s too late. Transformation is inevitable – but what will come from the materials that compose us, our particles, our consciousness? Will there be new forms of life, like a second oceanic evolution (as in, how everything evolved from oceanic microorganisms), or could there be something other, something we cannot imagine at all? Dreaming about the possibilities brought about a sense of hope, almost excitement, about what could happen to us in the future, bringing about a peace with death. Particle reconfiguration as a hopeful way to make peace with death is expressed through processing videos with code, where the manipulation of pixels is a metaphor for what will happen to our particles. I experiment with glitch, degradation, transformation, and the merging of videos, to turn my body into something other. Glitches were interesting in particular as despite them initially being accidental, code working in a way I didn’t intend, I felt they supported the particle reconfiguration narrative, representing processes such as genetic mutation or perhaps glitches in evolution. This is (partially) why artists collaborate with machines, after all – to produce unexpected results.  Through experimenting with footage this way, I began to reimagine XIDALIA as a body, which is also a site of sorts. I became XIDALIA through working on it– something in touch with the past, present, nature, technology, that breaks binaries, that translates and communicates, that carries what is important into the future. The decision to create video effects was inspired by my classmates Claire Kwong and Bingxen Feng, specifically their term 2 projects for Workshops in Creative Coding (click on their names to see their blogposts). I was also inspired by experiences I’ve had at festivals, nights out, and performances such as “Parasites of Pangu” by Ayesha Tan-Jones (“a dystopian opera exploring the world through the story of an archeologist of the future, based on a Chinese creation myth”) and Ritual Labs (a series of participatory rituals that explore the 12 Labours of Herakles). These experiences took me on emotional and narrative journeys through sound and inspired me to explore the possibilities myself. A note on electronic music The methods of producing sounds and making music change as technology advances, with it bringing about new genres, altering the definition of music. I listen to a lot of music that samples everyday sounds, that uses strange synthesised noises that sound like machines roaring – for me, these new sounds and electronic compositions bring about feelings I’ve never felt before, feelings I can’t feel in other situations, but are still somehow familiar (see references for list of musicians). Despite the constant expansion, the possibilities remain infinite, as does the vast range of feelings music can illicit. I think there’s something beautiful and powerful in this, the way humans collaborate with machines with wild results, and I wanted to try exploring this myself – could I take people on a journey just through the sound? I was also interested in archiving and paying homage to things I would want to bring into the future, for example rave culture (or the spirit thereof), through updating and reconfiguring elements of it.  Technical A significant amount of coding was done in Max MSP. I created several different patches for this project: one that was used live to control the audio and trigger videos (XIDALIA MEGAPATCH), one that explored a twenty-two equal temperament system and one that was used to create noises and bass sounds to be used in the electronic song. I used WebGL to create animations for the first half of the performance, and openFrameworks to process video footage in the second half. Some of the video clips include the shader animations, either as projections in the background, or to manipulate colour or movement of the video pixels, playing with layering and degrading. The visuals were divided into two wide videos that were projected across the three screens. The second part needed to be a video as I was using filmed footage, however the first part was mainly shaders and could have been a program. I did try to make an openFrameworks project, but because I was new to shaders I did not realise my shaders could not be imported directly as they were in WebGL. I spent some time trying to alter the code and include the files in different ways but ran out of time. Ultimately, it was more important for me to have the various visuals than to have them sequenced in code. (One of the reasons why it didn’t work could also be my graphics card, as newer versions of GLSL aren’t available to me). The videos were triggered by my Max patch live on stage. When I pressed a bang, it would send an OSC message to the Mac in G05 that would trigger the playback of a video, that was received by Madmapper through Syphon and finally projected (see image below). OSC is a protocol for communicating across computers – by using this, I could control the playback of my video from the stage. Syphon is a plugin that allows applications to share frames in realtime, in this case Max and Madmapper. The reason why I decided to use this method, rather than connecting my laptop to the projectors directly, was because my computer couldn’t handle running my Max patch and the visuals across three projectors simultaneously. This method spread some of the computational load, whilst allowing me the control I needed. The bang that controlled the second video also controlled the playback of the song, as it relied on being synced to the audio to ‘work’. There was always a lag between me pressing the bang and the video being projected. I found delaying the song by 1.4 seconds worked well. This is another example of using code was optimal, because I could set a short delay to compensate for the visual lag. What was initially a problem pushed me to create a system that optimised my work and provided a precision I could not achieve manually – pressing a button to make my song play when I would see the visuals appear on the projectors was an inconsistent method that was a bit anxiety inducing – I had to be really quick and it was just never as precise as I needed. Max Noises I began my noise/bass exploration by playing with percussive sounds, trying to recreate snares and kicks, but I realised this wasn’t something I needed to make as there are many samples I could use that would do a better job (at least with my skills so far). The only thing that I felt I couldn’t do otherwise, with such a degree of precision, were the bass sounds. Using code meant I could create the sounds I needed from scratch, giving me a more intimate connection to the sound. The drums and synths you hear in the song were all samples and sounds synthesised in Ableton. You can hear the Max sounds in the first and second drops + lead up to second drop, a drop being “the moment in a dance track when tension is released and the beat kicks in” (Yenigun, 2010). Video Processing I created three different effects to use with video footage for the second part of the performance, mainly to do with changing colour, moving pixels and combining pixels of multiple videos. I didn’t expect that exporting the footage would be so difficult. Firstly, my computer is quite slow which hindered performance. I tried different ways of exporting, but for the videos to retain their quality (that was already compromised through being processed), I was recommended to export frame by frame. This process added to the computational load so it skipped frames. My solution to this issue was to slow down the clips individually before using them, and then slowing them down further, if needed, in the openFrameworks project. These frames were then nested and sped up in Premiere Pro. In the future, I’m interested in finding a different process that is more programmable as this was a bit slow. However, I did find that by working this way, I gained a more intimate relationship with the material as I would look through every single frame, altering things slightly in the code as needed, customising parameters for each clip. In the end, it worked, because I needed a wide variety of short clips that would change quite quickly in time with the song. Fore more details on the technical aspect of the sound and visuals, click here. Generally, I wanted to contrast moments of beauty with moments of oddity and intensity (sonically as well as visually), reflected in not only how I treated the footage but also how it was projected, specifically the strobing effect achieved through rapid changes in colour and ‘bouncing’ the videos between screens. I wanted to embody the ecstatic experience, to remind people to explore the potential of being human, the strange phenomenon of consciousness, while we still have the chance. But I also wanted to express complexity and tension through things looking and sounding twisted and distorted, to reflect the idea that a perfect utopia is not possible or useful to dream about. I believe we need the push-pull of struggle and comfort, just not to the degree we have now, where the systems of living we have put on an immense amount of pressure on our environment and cause unnecessary suffering due to inefficiency e.g. our food production system, which relies on overproduction and disposing excess. I’ve made music videos before where I relied on what was available to me in Premiere Pro, in terms of changing colour and playing with green screen effects, but I’ve never seen anything like what I created with these coded effects, it gave me something new to play around with and a more intimate relationship with pixels, more control over their behaviour. It is worth mentioning that I created a lot of visuals that didn't make the cut, for example shaders that didn't work well in the space because they were too dark or intense, and processed footage that missed too many frames or that worked better as stills than as part of the video.