#victorian socialists

[natsolute]

2022 Victorian State Election

As the majority of the election comes to a close for the lower house-- only 9 seats found to be in doubt, which will be decided by the pre-poll and postal votes as they begin to be counted over the coming days, Daniel Andrews has secured a historic third term as Victorian Premier and leader of the Victorian Labor Party. This means that, unless interrupted by a resignation or retirement from Andrews, Victoria will have had an Andrews Labor government from 2014-2026.

This state election was widely seen as a complicated and uncertain one; as typical of Australian elections, widespread media narratives, particularly those posed by News Corp associated orgs, all presented a tight race, which was reinforced by several Liberal Party officials, including opposition leader Matthew Guy, who all spoke positively on the campaign and claimed that they held a clear chance at winning majority government. As the votes came in, however, this was shown to be not only inaccurate, but bordering on delusional-- to put it in the words of the Victoria Votes ABC panel: "The Liberal Party needs to hire a new pollster".

Despite polls and front-cover claims from the majority of Australian news organizations, and the perspective provided by the Victorian Liberals, there was, in fact, a further loss of popularity for the Liberals. As currently standing, it is likely that Labor will retain the number of seats they had prior to the election, at around double the Liberal National Coalition's seats.

Key Quotes of Tonight:

Richard Willingham: "it's a raw moment for Matthew Guy, but he would know his political career is essentially over."

Ellen Sandell: "This shows that the old two-party system is dying, [...] we're seeing Labor get elected on Greens preferences."

Ellen Sandell: "If you look at something like Northcote, if you look at the Green vote, plus the Socialist vote, we're actually over the Labor party, [...] and what this means is that now, the Labor party can't get elected in the inner-city without the Liberal vote."

Kos Samaras: "[Liberals] are possibly a political movement that no longer talks to a significant number of Victorians, full stop. Political parties come and go; it's a historical fact, and I think that the Liberal Party is pitching to a constituency that doesn't live in Victoria all that much."

Major Key Points

The LNP vastly overestimated the presence of anti-Daniel Andrews sentiment in communities after COVID-19 lock-downs.

Matthew Guy will likely not remain Opposition leader for long; two consecutive losses as leader of the opposition will likely be enough to eject him from the position.

The results of the federal election provided an incredibly accurate prediction of how the Victorian State Election would result.

The LNP suffered greatly due to a combination of preferencing far-right candidates and preselecting ultra-conservative candidates for their own campaigns, which made them less appealing to voters.

While Victoria is broadly moving to the left (a ALP government with progressive values, an increasing Greens vote, etc.), voters are leaving the major parties either in the direction of groups such as the Victorian Greens or Victorian Socialists, or in the direction of "alt-right parties", as described by Victoria Votes panelists.

The ALP has largely benefited from their presentation of progressive politics, largely through the adoption of Greens policies; this has been regarded, as said by Ellen Sandell, as a victory for the Greens party.

My Analysis

The results of the Victorian 2022 State Election have compounded a set of pre-existing trends that I had begun to recognize in the federal election; some of these trends had been reported more widely, while others have been more personal evaluations of politics.

Firstly: Australians are rejecting the major parties; in the federal election, only a third of the country voted for an ALP government, yet that government was formed in the majority-- furthermore, these votes are going to three key categories:

Alt-right parties (One Nation, United Australia, DLP, etc.)

Teal independents

Progressive minor parties (Greens, Socialists, Animal Justice, etc.)

This trend, which was first present in the 2022 Federal election, mostly continued into the state election-- the state is now forming a stable majority ALP government currently at around 37.1% of the vote-- the opposition holds a total of 34.6%. The rest is split between an 11.2% Greens and 17.1% Other vote.

Within the Other vote, the first category of minority party voters are clearly present, with far-right parties such as Family First, Freedom Party Victoria, and Labour DLP getting a combined 5.7%.

The second category of minority party voters can be seen through the 6% Independent vote; interestingly, the number of independents in the lower house will have dropped by the end of this election, as two key rural independents were ousted by successful Nationals campaigns. Contrarily, however, traditionally Liberal electorates faced major competition from independents in the east, particularly in the case of Hawthorne, a state electorate within the federal electorate of Kooyong, where independent Melissa Lowe followed the example of Monique Ryan in the Federal Election and is poised to defeat John Pesutto, who was vying to retake the seat after having it taken by ALP member John Kennedy in 2018.

The third category of minority voters can be seen through the 11.2% Greens vote, 1.4% Victorian Socialist vote, and 2.3% Animal Justice vote, totalling to a 14.9% vote.

By looking at the state of Australian politics-- preferences by the LNP towards alt-right candidates, hyper-conservative News Corp biases, and rampaging issues of misogyny, racism, inequality, corruption, and mistrust in each consecutive government, whether it be at the state or federal level, it is easily identifiable how this escape from the major parties has occurred, and particularly through explorations of COVID-19 and the impact of it on working class families, as well as the manipulation of the pandemic by far-right groups to promote fascist ideologies, it is understandable how there has been an increase in the alt-right vote.

While the expansion of the fascist vote in Australia is concerning, there is a hopeful counter-movement rising in the establishment and rapid expansion of leftist organisations such as the Victorian Socialists; while the Victorian Socialists were unable to take any lower house seats, and it is too early to call whether they were successful in their move to disrupt far right politician Bernie Finn's place in the Western Metro legislative council ticket, it is important to acknowledge the success of what could soon be one of the most successful Australian socialist movements in decades.

Founded in 2018, and first running in the Victorian state election that same year, the Victorian Socialists are an expansion of various socialist groups in Australia, particularly the Socialist Alternative; while they lacked major presence during the 2018 election, they packed genuine influence in the 2022 Victorian election. As expressed by Ellen Sandell's previously mentioned quote, the Victorian Socialists were actually responsible for the election of a fourth Greens member through preferences, and if their fight to overtake Bernie Finn in the upper house is successful, they would be poised to put one of the first socialists in Australian government in 70 years.

In a similar vein of recognising the influence of progressivism in Victoria, it is important to acknowledge the key role that progressive movements such as the Victorian Greens have played in influencing the political attitudes of the Andrew's government, and how said part can be key in making the best out of a ALP majority government. Climate commitments and the commitment to re-establish the SEC, for instance, both directly link back to the policy proposals of the Victorian Greens. Additionally, here is hope from Greens members that, despite not succeeding in creating a hung parliament with the Greens holding balance of power, their influence could be key in further strengthening environmental policies, and I am personally hopeful that the influence of the Victorian Greens could result in the expansion and improvement of the current proposed SEC, which is highly flawed and needs major changes before it is able to succeed.

As stated by members of the ABC Victoria Votes panel, it is highly likely that the catastrophic losses experienced at both the 2018 and 2022 state elections by the LNP are symptoms not of a failure to recognise issues within their party's campaign, but rather a symptom of a party that is no longer relevant or necessary within the state.

For progressives, the ALP majority government is not the ideal outcome, but it is one that can be utilised to the advancement of leftist politics, and the success of the Andrews government, even if by an arguably thin margin, is proof that Victoria could remain safe from the far-right toxicity attempting to enter Australian politics through the actions of the LNP.

This post may be followed up on in the near future; for now though, I will leave my commentary as is, because I need sleep. I have just done 9 hours of volunteering for election day, followed by a 5 1/2 hour watch of the election results, and now, the 1 1/2 hours that it has taken to fully write this analysis. Thank you for reading, and I hope my analysis was one of value. :)

[axvoter]

Blatantly Partisan Party Review XVIII (Victoria 2022): Victorian Socialists

Prior reviews: VIC 2018, federal 2019, federal 2022

What I said before: “This is modern, environmentally-concerned socialism framed in broad terms to bring together as many socialist tendencies as possible.” (federal 2019)

What I think this time: This was meant to be a big-tent party bringing together various socialist factions into a unified and more competitive party. Unfortunately, it has somewhat fallen apart, with the Socialist Alliance walking out. This year, Victorian Socialists are running upper house candidates in every region, with particular emphasis on the races for Northern Metropolitan and Western Metropolitan, and lower house candidates in most electorates of Melbourne's north and west.

Look, I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about policies because Victorian Socialists are exactly what they say they are. No misleading party name here, just a straight-up socialist platform. It’s one that is attuned to current issues rather than litigating past fights or deploying rhetoric that has not been persuasive outside a very narrow circle for at least fifty years. I think it’s well presented and that any Socialist member of parliament would make a useful contribution in establishing a fairer, more equitable society with better services.

Also, happily, Victorian Socialists are one of the very few parties with an explicit policy to abolish the anti-democratic Group Ticket Voting system. Prior to the close of nominations, before Animal Justice revealed their sting on Glenn Druery and kicked off the public uproar about GTV, only two parties stated directly that they would abolish GTV if given the chance: the Greens and the Victorian Socialists. Ironically, if VS does get into parliament this election, it will likely be because they’ve scored a winning group ticket for either the Northern Metropolitan lottery or the Western Metropolitan lottery.

My recommendation: Give the Victorian Socialists a good preference. Remember to vote below the line on the large ballot for the Legislative Council so that your preference goes where you want it to go; all ballots with 5 or more preferences marked below the line are valid votes.

Website: https://victoriansocialists.org.au/

[other-peoples-coats]

On the off chance there's any fellow victorians following me, reminder the state election's coming up, and you should go check your enrollment's up to date.

Early voting from the 14th, democracy sausage map here as ever (not a whole lot of points yet, for obvious reasons), and the election itself is on the 26th of november (I mean, obviously).

Also postal voting's open for enrollment as of today (2nd nov), though the website seems to be a bit janky atm so maybe try later in the week - ballot packs start being posted on the 14th; enrollment for postal votes closes the 23rd at 6pm.

[criphd]

eleanor marx, photographed 1867 & 1877

[swallowtail-ageha]

Im all for fanfiction writers writing what they want and as badly as they want but there are certain moments where shit is so badly written i drop the thing out of embarassment you can't have a japanese businessman in his 50's in what is 300 years in the future say shit like "woke" "liberals" and "cancel culture" the shit is so anachronistic it makes me crumble into dust

[iowiymiw]

you know what nan astley (of sarah waters’ tipping the velvet fame) is dislikable i think thats okay. she’s going through a lot and its not her fault there is so little gnc lesbian characters already she just happened to be one that kind of sucks

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Thinking about how the Aesthetic Movement was so throughly mocked in popular Victorian culture, the fact that nowadays we don't really associate it with the progressive elements that were within in it (dress reform), and the fact that progressive trends are often mocked in society as they gain strength..........

[mooncyclereader]

I love it when i pick up socialist ideology in a book and i look up the author and he is in fact a big socialist of his time. Rock on Robert L. Stivenson!!

[parentsbesluts]

after a full month theyre finally done . these designs took a lot out of me to make but i really like how they all turned out. more design info for each under the cut

patton: black cis man, he/him, 6'0 (the tallest except for remus*). 4b hair. he has patches of skin that developed into frog skin following the events of svsr. its functionally similar to vitiligo, as it was caused by the high amounts of stress patton went through, but not the same. his shirt was a gift from janus that was suggested by remus. he has chronic back pain (not a part of the design but this is important to know). he wears the bff bracelet that roman made for him when they were young. he has stretch marks around his shoulders and chest.

roman: italian + latina bigender woman, she/he/star, 5'10. he dyes her own hair often but favors stars natural color with streaks of blond. her sword is longer than that when star actually uses it. i fucked up the proportions when drawing it and didn't have the strength to fix it. she had an entire royal cape but he opts not to wear it in most situations. similarly he owns a lot more jewelry than just the stuff stars wearing in the picture but its often not practical. her bff bracelet is in a drawer in his room right now.

logan: indigenous (specifically mayan) agender person, they/xe, 5'6 (the shortest except for remus*). xyr hair has gone gray from stress despite attempts to fix it, so they have accepted their fate and moved on. xe has a nose ring because virgil is a terrible influence on them. the heart on their cheek marks the first spot that virgil ever kissed xem. xe's been carrying around that orange book a lot recently for some reason. xe has stretch marks around their chest, shoulders, armpit, and hips.

virgil: irish (she makes their skin gray just because) genderfluid person, she/he/they, 5'8 ½. he took up smoking (though they prefer weed over cigs) to try and reduce her and thomas's anxiety. it's seemingly working but now their room smells like weed. her rat tails are 100% real. after accepting anxiety she cut off their jacket sleeves and jean shins to show off more of his body. we love body positivity. the scar on his face is remus's fault. they have many anxiety reducing habits such as can tab collecting and biting her nails. enrichment. the heart on his neck marks the first spot that logan ever kissed her. he changes hair color in accordance with shirt. she has stretch marks around their hip and armpits.

janus: french + spanish trans male, he/hiss/venom, 5'8. the cane is not optional. despite having the fashion sense of an upper class victorian man hi is actively socialist. ve claims he's "reclaiming the style". the tree patterns on hisses overcoat and gloves have absolutely no symbolism related to them whatsoever. the eye he wears around venoms neck is made from serpentine. the ring pattern on hisses gloves is solely because its hard to put rings on over gloves, even though it doesnt matter at all and ve could simply summon rings on hisses fingers if he wanted to. the snake pattern around venoms coat is not sentient.

remus: italian + latino unlabled person, he/it/that thing, height is incredibly unstable but averages to around 5'10 most days. it can see out of the eyes on his earrings and right sleeve. the spikes on that things clothing are indeed real teeth. it misses his friends. it wears some sort of weird lingerie under his uniform. that thing ended up getting the uncontrollable hair genes and it dyes its hair in shrimp colors. he wants to dye its hair with virgil again. the chain can be stored inside of the mace handle, allowing the mace to be used as a morningstar. the preportions on it are also bad sorry. that things shoes are sentient and want to kill you. it wishes janus wasn't so busy. he doesn't want to be alone.

[publicdomainreview]

Socialist, theosophist + women's rights activist Annie Besant was born #onthisday 1847. Read @ResObscura on her book Thought-Forms (1901), an intriguing work grounded in the theory that ideas, emotions, and even events, can manifest as visible auras https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/victorian-occultism-and-the-art-of-synesthesia #OTD

[thethirdromana]

Some context for the 1890s

I thought it might be fun to look into the period when Dracula was written and set in a little more detail.

Key facts

In 1897, the population of the UK was just under 40m - so about 60% of what it is today. (By contrast the US population at the time was just 21% of what it is today). Only about 6m of them had the right to vote - about 40% of adult men.

With a population of 6m, London was the largest city in the world and would be for another 20 years.

Politics and imperialism

The British Empire wasn't yet at its peak, which would be at some point between 1913 and 1922 depending on whether you define it by land or population. This was the time of the Scramble for Africa - in the 1890s alone, Britain colonised the countries that are now Uganda, Zanzibar, Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, parts of Sudan and parts of South Africa. (Ish - matching 1890s borders to modern ones is tricky).

All the same, the sense of effortless British dominance was fading, because countries like Germany, France and the USA were starting to catch up. In 1896, the book 'Made in Germany' by Ernest Edwin Williams was a bestseller, bemoaning that cheaper German goods were crowding out British ones in shops. (It's available for free online; just google it if you're interested.) Here's 1890s Berlin:

Britain was only just emerging from what the Victorians called "The Great Depression" from the 1870s to early 1890s. The wealthiest and most powerful country in the world didn't always feel that way to the people living in it.

Alongside anxieties about Britain's place in the world, the other major political topic which dominated the 1890s was the question of Irish Home Rule - essentially whether Ireland should be allowed its own parliament and responsibility for domestic affairs while still remaining part of the UK. The Second Home Rule Bill passed the Commons in 1893 but was defeated in the Lords. Here's 1890s Dublin:

Society

Less than a percentage of the British population would have been people of colour. The 1921 census showed just 75,000 people born in India - 1897 wouldn't have been much different. All the same, the University of Oxford - i.e. one of the most elite institutions in the country - had its first black student as long ago as 1873.

This was a period of growing rights and freedoms in the UK (starting from a very low base). In 1891, children under 11 were banned from working in factories; in 1893, education was made free and compulsory for children up to age 11; in 1882, the Married Women's Property Act allowed married women to own and control property in their own right. Many socialist and trade unionist organisations were founded at this time, including a precursor to the Labour Party.

A social concern at this time were the "surplus women" - there was perceived to be a relative excess of women compared with men, prompting fears they wouldn't be able to marry and would have to work. Women were about 40% of the labour force.

If a man and a woman got engaged but the man then broke it off, the woman could sue him for "breach of promise" as this was considered a binding legal contract. The woman could break the engagement with no legal penalty. (You might recognise this as the basis for several Jeeves and Wooster plotlines).

The fertility rate was falling fast - from an average of nearly 5 children per woman in 1880 to 4 in 1895 (this would fall to 2 by 1930). Around 1 in 5 children died before the age of 5, and around 1 in 200 births resulted in the death of the mother.

Daily life and prices

There were only a handful of cars on British roads - so when Mina says she and Lucy "drove up to the house", she means by horse, not by car. But there were ~25,000km of railways in the UK, compared with about 17,000km today.

The rise of the railways and people actually getting days off meant that this was the golden age of trips to the British seaside. Train fares were a penny per mile, meaning that London to Whitby cost about 20s or a week's labour for a solicitor's clerk, with the purchasing power of £64 today.

As a full-blown solicitor, my guess (though it's only a guess) is that Jonathan is earning about twice that. A female teacher's salary was around £75 a year or 28s a week. A housemaid would earn just £10 a year, though she would get bed and board as well.

The first edition of a novel cost about a shilling and reprints cost even less - as little as a penny or two for the cheapest books. Literacy was nearly universal in the UK.

Also available for a penny were magazines like the hugely popular Tit-Bits, which was the first periodical to sell over a million copies in the UK. It consisted of short, mostly human interest snippets of information, as well as short stories. Lucy and Mina probably wouldn't read Tit-Bits, but Mr Swales might.

References, youtube links and a couple of bonuses for fanfiction writers on my original post here.

[axvoter]

Blatantly Partisan Party Review XIX (Victoria 2022): Socialist Alliance

Prior reviews: federal 2016, NSW 2019, federal 2019, federal 2022

What I said before: “Do I really need to tell you much about this party’s platform? They’re proper eco-socialists whose policies cohere around a belief in workers’ solidarity, hostility to capitalism, and radical action on climate change.” (federal 2019)

What I think this time: Socialist Alliance left the Victorian Socialists electoral alliance two years ago and are standing candidates separately, but they have not yet regained party registration with the VEC. This means that their candidates appear as independents on the ballot.

There are four Socialist Alliance-endorsed independents, all of them in lower house seats: Arie Huybregts (Broadmeadows), Angela Carr (Geelong), Sarah Hathway (Lara), and Sue Bolton (Pascoe Vale). Bolton is already an elected representative at the level of local government: she has won multiple terms as a councillor in the City of Merri-bek (formerly Moreland). In two seats, Socialist Alliance-endorsed independents are going up against Victorian Socialist candidates: one of Huybregts’ opponents in Broadmeadows is VS’s Omar Hassan, while in Pascoe Vale, Bolton’s rivals include VS’s Madaleine Hah.

Socialist Alliance’s state platform covers the same ground to their recent federal platforms, so I’ve not much to add to my 2019 and 2022 entries about the bigger picture. What sticks out to me is that they have made an effort to include policies specifically relevant to where their four candidates are standing. For the Geelong and Lara candidates, there is a commitment to a new public hospital in Geelong’s northern suburbs. For the Pascoe Vale and Broadmeadows candidates, there is a policy to duplicate the Upfield line that passes through these electorates—the lack of double track between Gowrie and the terminus is why it has such appalling frequencies.

Another big state-specific positive is that Socialist Alliance want investment in accessible public transport to match the level crossing removal programme in quantity and speed of delivery. A large proportion of Melbourne's public transport network does not meet basic accessibility standards, particularly trams and buses. The network is required to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, but the timeframe for compliance has been extended to 2032, and who knows if that won’t be pushed back even further. Other parties could really take a hint from Socialist Alliance and make this a priority too.

My recommendation: Give Socialist Alliance-endorsed independents a good preference.

Website: https://socialist-alliance.org/elections/state/2022/election-campaign/community-need-not-corporate-greed-2022-victoria-state

[1966jpg]

Critical Theory Recommended Reading List:

Principles of Communism (Friedrich Engels)

Wage-Labour and Capital Value, Price and Profit (Karl Marx)

Das Kapital (Karl Marx)

The Communist Manifesto (Karl Marx)

On Practice & On Contradiction (Mao Zedong)

The Motorcycle Diaries (Che Guevara)

Latin America Diaries (Che Guevara)

Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War (Che Guevara)

Guerilla Warfare (Che Guevara)

Che (Jon Lee Anderson)

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (Friedrich Engels)

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (Friedrich Engels)

Orientalism (Edward W. Said)

The Unwomanly Face of War (Svetlana Alexievich)

The Wretched of The Earth (Frantz Fanon)

A Dying Colonialism (Frantz Fanon)

Black Skin White Masks (Frantz Fanon)

Inglorious Empire (Shashi Tharoor)

Remembering Che (Aleida March)

Against Empire (Michael Parenti)

Blackshirts & Reds (Michael Parenti)

Revolutionary Suicide (Huey P. Newton)

Confessions of an Economic Hitman (John Perkins)

The Mismeasure of Man (Stephen Jay Gould)

The State and the Revolution (V.I. Lenin)

Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (V.I. Lenin)

Imperialism in The 21st Century (V.I. Lenin)

Liberalism A Counter History (Domenico Losurdo)

23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (Ha-Joon Chang)

October (China Miéville)

Kill Anything That Moves (Nick Turse)

Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany (Norman Ohler)

Late Victorian Holocausts (Mike Davis)

Ten Myths About Israel (Ilan Pappe)

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Walter Rooney)

Reform or Revolution (Rosa Luxemburg)

Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat (J. Sakai)

Killing Hope (William Blum)

Unequal Exchange and the Prospects of Socialism (Arghiri Emmanuel)

Unequal Exchange: A Study of Imperialism and Trade (Arghiri Emmanuel)

The Wealth of Some Nations (Zak Cope)

Divided World Divided Class (Zak Cope)

The Law of Worldwide Value (Samir Amin)

Unequal Development (Samir Amin)

An Economic History of the U.S.S.R (Alec Nove)

Human Rights in the Soviet Union (Albert Szymanski)

Is the Red Flag Flying? (Albert Szymanski)

Soviet Democracy (Pat Sloan)

The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia: The Socialist Offensive (R.W. Davies)

Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation (Sidney and Beatrice Webb)

Socialism in the Soviet Union (Jonathan Aurthur)

The Soviet Form of Popular Government (The U.S.S.R Academy of Sciences)

Workers Participation in the Soviet Union (Mick Costello)

The Great Conspiracy (Michael Sayers and Albert E. Kahn)

The Soviets and Ourselves: Two Commonwealths (K.E. Holme)

The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (Hanna Baratu)

South Yemen A Marxist Republic in Arabia (Robert W. Stookey)

The Arab Left (Tareq Y. Ismael)

Post-Marxism and The Middle East (Feleh A. Jabar)

The Unmaking of Arab Socialism (Ali Kodri)

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine (Rashid Khalidi)

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Ilan Pape)

A Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine (The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine)

Roadside Picnic (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky)

Blood in My Eye (George Jackson)

Why You Should Be a Trade Unionist (Len McCluskey)

The Pitfalls of Liberalism (Kwame Ture)

[pseudowho]

Loving your work as always 🥹💜

What are your top 5 favorite artworks (can be fanfics, books, games, tv series, movies etc) and why?

Oooh!! I like this question. So in no particular order:

An Arundel Tomb, poem by Phillip Larkin: this was a poem that spoke about love almost jealously-- Phillip Larkin was notoriously jaundiced about love and romance as an institution, and how he manages to weave his scorn with this dreadful wistfulness and envy speaks so much about a man who was written off as grumpy and cynical. Arundel happens to be an old family name for me, too. The grave he wrote this poem about is still visible in Arundel (which has the most exquisite tulip festival in Castle grounds every year) to this very day.

The games of Hidetaka Miyazaki (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, Sekiro): I am sadly woefully useless at playing this sort of game (I'm more of a tactical roguelike gamer/platform gamer myself), so Mr.Haitch plays them to my excessive enjoyment. The artwork, the incredibly detailed lore, which is frightening and heartwrenching in equal amounts, the attention to detail...it all speaks to the maximalist in me. They are truly works of art.

Darkest Dungeon (a game by Red Hook Studios): a tactical rogue like game which forces the player to form parties of unlikely bandits (vestals, plague doctors, highwaymen, bounty hunters...and more) to 'flush out' the unholy eldritch horrors plaguing the foundations of an old mansion. It's brutal and unforgiving and I'm very good at it 💀 It actually inspired my Infiltration series, and contributes half of the items in my tattoo sleeve.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley: A wonderful book about a post-office worker (Thaniel) in Victorian England, who becomes embroiled in a bomb plot with a Japanese Watchmaker (Mori) who can see the future. It's wonderful, gothic, steampunky and horribly romantic. It makes me swoon.

Stranger than Fiction (movie starring Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal): honourable mention; man inextricably bound by obsessive time constraints, his wristwatch, and the monotony of daily office life, falls in love with tattooed pixie-cutted socialist baker who sweeps him off his feet, all while trying to avoid an omnipotent narrator who writes 'his story' and has predicted his untimely death. I've loved this film for years and in hindsight, is shockingly Nanami Kento x Haitch coded 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ in my head at least, shh. I've considered writing a Nanami Kento fic inspired by it.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, poem by Robert Frost: I have had hauntingly ethereal dreams about this poem, for so many years. The image of a man and his little horse passing through the soft hush of snow, and the line "I've got promises to keep/and miles to go before I sleep/and miles to go before I sleep" became a sort of mantra for trustworthiness and hard work for me. It makes me tear up every time I read it.

I gave you six there...sorry. Phew!

-- Haitch xxx

[metamatar]

for a hashtag problematic and corny romance novel i highly rec sarah waters' very kinky, very lesbian, working class victorian novel tipping the velvet. there are power dynamics. theatre. prostitution. an aristocratic woman who keeps the main character in an actual sex prison. dead almost girlfriends named after marx. and then the whole thing ends at a socialist fair where the happily ever after is obviously with an organiser and an adopted baby.

sarah waters is probably better known for her novel the fingersmith which got adapted as the handmaiden but imo this is her better novel!

[catdotjpeg]

Great turnout for student strike for Palestine ... at the State Library. ✊🇵🇸

-- Victorian Socialists, 28 Feb 2024

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A post shared by Students for Palestine (@studentsforpalestinevictoria)

From Students for Palestine Victoria: "Over 1,000 came out to say we stand [with] Palestine, we will not sit back while a genocide is carried out."