thedemo32

[thedemo32]

Alien, 1979

[thedemo32]

"In bringing together Kurt Cobain's 'most poignant lyrics and journal fragments' to demonstrate the ways in which both writing and reading about melancholy can be life-affirming, Saint-Aubin has created a wonderful memorial not only to Cobain's troubled genius but especially to his profound humaneness."

Neil Nehring, author of Popular Music, Gender, and Postmodernism: Anger Is an Energy

The year 2019 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Kurt Cobain, an artist whose music, words, and images continue to move millions of fans worldwide. As the first academic study that provides a literary analysis of Cobain's creative writings, Arthur Flannigan Saint-Aubin's The Pleasures of Death: Kurt Cobain's Masochistic and Melancholic Persona approaches the journals and songs crafted by Nirvana's iconic front man from the perspective of cultural theory and psychoanalytic aesthetics.

Saint-Aubin discusses Cobain's writings independently of the artist's biography, positioning these texts within the tradition of postmodern representations of masculinity in twentieth-century American fiction, while also suggesting connections to European Romantic traditions from the nineteenth century that postulate a relation between melancholy (or depression) and creativity. In turn, through Saint-Aubin's elegant analysis, Cobain's creative writings illuminate contradictions and inconsistencies within psychoanalytic theory itself concerning the intersection of masculin-ity, masochism, melancholy, and the death drive.

By foregrounding Cobain's ability to challenge coextensive links between gender, sexuality, and race, The Pleasures of Death reveals how the cultural politics and aesthetics of this tragic icon's works align with feminist strategies, invite queer readings, and perform antiracist critiques of American culture.

Arthur Flannigan Saint-Aubin is professor of French at Occidental College, where he teaches courses in Francophone literatures and seminars on the theory and practice of translation. His books include The Memoirs of Toussaint and Isaac Louverture:

Representing the Black Masculine Subject in Narratives of Mourning and Loss.

[thedemo32]

i really hate posthumous statements that try to evaluate what kurt cobain would feel about what people do with his art, but i also can't fucking imagine anything kurt would hate more than ai. nothing is more of a bastardization of all he stood for than a machine taking his voice to try to replicate his art. he literally called pearl jam, an actual band made of real people, "fake music" (a statement i don't agree with, kurt could be a bitch at times) so imagine how he would feel about this shit. no ai will ever replicate kurt's voice, musical style, or lyricism in a way that matters. he's dead. grow up.

[thedemo32]

Thinking about robots exchanging parts as intimacy.

Robot partners who are compatible enough they can swap out parts at will. It starts with just a few smaller spare internals, and theres just something... comfortable about having a piece of their lover inside them.

Then it's an optic, so they can see the world- and each other, through their partner's eyes. They look in the mirror and their new optic notes all of the things their partner finds wonderful about them.

Then they're exchanging plates, patches of false skin and sensors and even limbs, melding together, growing more and more familiar, until eventually they decide to take the final possible step.

Two machines sitting across from each other, outer plating shed around them in small piles, revealing their complex inner machinery, wires patched together in slightly different colors, lit by the gentle orange glow of a power core. Trey stare into their partner's mismatched eyes, mirroring theirs as they inch closer.

A familiar hand reaches into their chest, and they feel cool metal enclose around their power core.

Click.

They shake slightly as their senses begin to go dark, and warning lights flash inside their mind. Counting down the time until their reserve power runs out.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six...

they stare into their partner's dimming eyes as their other hand reaches back until their chest, feeling around to find the right place..

five, four, three, two...

Click.

Two machines sit in each other's arms, overwhelmed by what they've just done, kept alive by each other's humming artificial hearts.

[thedemo32]

The city unfolded before Theron, brighter than he'd ever thought possible. Thousands of lights drowned out the stars, glass buildings reflected them into the millions. A cacophony accompanied them; human voices, engines roaring, cars blaring horns. He didn't think it was possible for the world to get any louder than it was, and yet downtown Orem seemed intent to disprove him.

"How long were we locked up?" he muttered under his breath, looking for a single dark spot to hide the two of them. "The world's gone and grown up without us..."

Now you know how I feel, Jay said in the back of his mind. Or, at least, a little about it.

[thedemo32]

The life cycle of a xenomorph. Happy Alien Day!

[thedemo32]

Raped and Ruined: Themes of Sexual Assault and Reproductive Coercion in Alien (1979)

Exploring underlying anxieties around sexual assault, loss of bodily autonomy, and forced impregnation in Alien (1979) - a film where fear of rape and forced birth is applied to every character, not just female characters oversexualised to titillate the viewer.

A facehugger in Alien (1979). Via IMDb.

From Merriam-Webster:

Rape: unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against a person’s will or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception

Sexual assault: illegal sexual contact that usually involves force upon a person without consent or is inflicted upon a person who is incapable of giving consent (as because of age or physical or mental incapacity) or who places the assailant (such as a doctor) in a position of trust or authority

After a short preface, in this piece, I’m going to watch through Alien (1979) and do a close reading of the text, exploring and analysing themes of and including:

Rape and Sexual Assault

Reproductive Coercion

Pregnancy and Reproduction

Loss of Bodily and Personal Autonomy

The Body as a Resource — in regards to Labour and as a Worker, but also as a physical trading resource — in a society that desires profit

If any of these might be upsetting for you or you don’t feel as if you can stomach them at the moment, it might be a good idea to bookmark this piece and come back to it at another time.

This piece is going to go through the film Alien (1979) and talk in-depth about particular scenes in chronological order, with quotes from the script and screencaps throughout, so there will be spoilers for the whole of the film.

Read in full here!

[thedemo32]

I could just be reading the room wrong but it seems from their reactions like a lot of people are coming out of Alien Romulus only just now realising the Alien movies are actually about capitalism and sexual violence.

[thedemo32]

The fact that the Nostromo's computer is called Mother. The fact that xenomorphs are born from an unwanted pregnancy. The fact that Ripley is a mother who'll never see her child again. The fact that Newt is a child who'll never see her mother again. The fact that they find solace in each other. The fact that the xenomorph queen is a vengeful mother. The fact that Ripley 8 is nicknamed Mother. The fact that the newborn kills it's mother. The fact that Ripley 8 kills it. The fact that Amanda Ripley stumbles into the same fate as her mother while looking for her.

[thedemo32]

I don't want to die. 😥

Israel continues the massacres in Gaza.. 232 souls taken in less than an hour! We are dying before your eyes—please, don’t leave us alone! Save us, do something... protest, donate, participate. I don’t want to die!

Vetted by: @90-ghost here

Donation link:

[thedemo32]

[thedemo32]

nightmares

[thedemo32]

part of the fun of the original alien is the horror of the nostromo itself imo. it’s a cell of corporate greed ferrying narrowly-trained workers across barren space. it’s huge and yet claustrophobic, cockpits crammed with machinery giving way to yawning berths dripping chains and water. the supercomputer is named mother in a stroke of human anthropomorphization, but instead of providing comfort or protection, it’s only a courier between its creator and its wailing brood. ripley yells “mother! mother!” at a matronly-voiced computer that speaks calmly over her helplessness. the ship is full of endless details and patterns and unlabeled buttons and dials the audience can’t entirely make sense of; to do anything on the ship is a rigorous, technical process, and we must depend on the characters to know it. the internal mechanics of the ship are so alien that a literal alien can hide among the bits and bobs and not be noticed. it’s great.

[thedemo32]

ripley :)

[thedemo32]

obsessed with this art style

another little comic abt wander's time as the interim guitarist for ninety ounce nihilists .... i cannot stop thinking abt it

single image spread, transcript, thumbnails & other ramblings under the cut

TRANSCRIPT:

[an empty stage with a ninety ounce nihilists banner hanging from the top. the work lights are on, showing nobody but wander coiling a length of wire onstage. tumbleweed hums to himself as he works, but within a moment, the lights flick off with a loud CLUNK]

TUMBLEWEED: ummm... hey! couldja turn those back on?

[no response, so wander goes back to what he was doing in the dark]

TUMBLEWEED: s'pose not

[a band member appears in the next frame. she has a head like a hammerhead shark]

BAND MEMBER: hey, tumbleweed

TUMBLEWEED: well hi there!

BAND MEMBER: how come you still stick around?

[tumbleweed looks away sheepishly, but he still responds]

TUMBLEWEED: well, you're my friends! mr. threat is, too... he just don't know it yet

BAND MEMBER: ...he hates you. and he treats you like garbage. he's...he's making money off you, and he's not even giving you any credit. much less the cash you generate!!

[tumbleweed shrugs.]

TUMBLEWEED: never expected him to.

BAND MEMBER: wh...well, you should.

[tumbleweed takes his hat off and stuffs the coil of wire inside as he speaks]

TUMBLEWEED: it's alright. i'm doin' him a favor. y'all needed a guitar, n' i happen'ta have one. i don't expect nothin' in return

[the band member glances off stage with a sour expression towards three other members of the band, including major threat himself.]

BAND MEMBER: let me give you a hand.

---

ok so the band member i included doesnt have a name, but here she is in the show, along with the rest of the ninety ounce nihilists, all vaguely middle-aged

i really realllly wanna draw them all when they were active as nozn because i love to dress up funky guys like them. theyre so fun. anyways.

i think wander is the reason nozn breaks up in the first place. they get back together in the future, yeah, after major threat makes up with them, however he goes about that. but like, the comical lengths i think major threat would go through just to keep wander at arm's length would be a tipping point for the rest of the band, because they'd start to realize how poorly they were being treated.

i think the straw that breaks the camel's back would be wander attempting to provide backing vocals and being immediately kicked out of the band. the kicker being that it's for a song he wrote, and all the other members would quickly follow him, because, hey, what the fuck, dude. what did he ever do to you. what did WE do to you for that matter.

ANYWAYYYZZZZ if anybody has like name suggestions for them or anything let me know! honestly i'm defaulting to calling them all different alien variations on trent and reznor because i think it would be funny to do

[thedemo32]

pivotal moment where wander "has to" integrate sylvia into the hivemind and it EATS at him and it's the catalyst for a great deal of his redemption arc

GOOD PROMPT!!!! VERY GOOD PROMPT!!! i'm sorry the captions and timing are a little fuckedup but i could not REST until i finished this. i do recommend pausing to read some of this, and if that ends up being tedious, i'll put the thumbnails with a transcript under the cut!!

TRANSCRIPT:

[interior, planet yonder. wander growls in distress, green lightning sparking around him]

MR. METEOR: peepers, we gotta get outta here! [he grabs peepers by the hand and takes off]

WANDER: N-N-N-NO! YOU WILL NOT UNDO ALL MY HARD WORK!!

[wander growls again. sylvia covers her head to protect from falling objects]

SYLVIA: WANDER! are you okay??

WANDER: I'M FINE!!!

SYLVIA: really?? cuz this place is lookin' like it might not hold up much longer!!

WANDER: NO!!!

[wander rubs his forehead with his fingers, grimacing with effort. the lightning dissipates. cut to mr. meteor and sir peepers, at a crossroads. mr. meteor is looking up and around the ceiling as peepers scampers around him, looking for the way out]

SIR PEEPERS: ohhhh where'd we park?? which way is out??? ohhh grop it all looks the same!!! we're trapped!!!

MR. METEOR: it stopped...

SIR PEEPERS: [glances upward] ...huh.

[cut back to sylvia and wander]

SYLVIA: that's some willpower you got there, buddy...

WANDER: sylvia?

SYLVIA: hm?

WANDER: i want you to go after them. and i want you... to hurt them.

SYLVIA: wh...what...?

WANDER: i believe i've made myself clear.

SYLVIA: [shakes her head] no. i'm not doing that. you don't want me to do that.

WANDER: AND WHO ARE YOU TO ARGUE??? FOR THE GOOD OF THE COLONY, SISTER, I ORDER YOU TO GET THEM!!!

[wander breathes heavily from the effort of screaming. sylvia looks disgusted.]

SYLVIA: [removing her cloak] alright.

WANDER: w-w-wait, what're you doing?

SYLVIA: i'm leaving. [she wads up her cloak into a ball] if this is the kinda operation you're running now, i don't wanna be part of it. have fun spreading kindness across the galaxy.

[wander stares at her, wide-eyed and baring his teeth in an intense frown, as she walks away]

WANDER: [reaching out to grab her with several arms] YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!!!!!

[cut to mr. meteor and peepers, who are running down a tunnel]

MR. METEOR: are you sure we're going the right way??

SIR PEEPERS: i have NO IDEA sir

MR. METEOR: it opens up ahead! this might be the way out!

[camera zooms in and focuses on the end of the tunnel. something drops from the ceiling right in front of the exit, unfolding itself to take the form of sylvia. she has two mushroom arms sticking out of the sides of her head, connected to the ceiling, and her cloak is on again.]

MR. METEOR: UH-OH!

SIR PEEPERS: OH GROP

[closeup on sylvia's face. she snorts]

MR. METEOR: she doesn't look too happy, peepers!

SIR PEEPERS: why are you saying that like it's MY fault??

[sylvia mimics rolling up the sleeve she doesn't have and crouches, preparing to leap. peepers reaches for his sword.]

SYLVIA: GRRH!

[sylvia leaps into the air, screaming, aiming for peepers]

SYLVIA: YAAAAAAAAH!!!

SIR PEEPERS: ENGARDE, SHE-BEAST!

[shot changes to a flat shot from the side, and sylvia sails over peeper's head, crash-landing on the floor with a smack. she slides forward until she arrives at mr. meteor's feet.]

MR. METEOR: uhh...?

[sylvia shoots back to her feet, grabbing mr. meteor by the collar and winding back to punch him in the face}

MR. METEOR: WHOAWHOAWHOAWHOA WAIT!! NOOOOOO NOT THE FAAAAAAACE!

[sylvia's fist makes surprisingly gentle contact with hater's jaw. he looks at her in confusion, and sees her crying]

MR. METEOR: uhh. okay. um.

[he begins to scoot past her and away. sylvia crumples to the ground, shaking]

MR. METEOR: seems like you're goin' through a lot right now, and...if you're done, y'know, trying to kill us, or whatever that was...

[he trails off and makes eye contact with Sir Peepers. They dash off down the tunnel and disappear.]

[thedemo32]

Does Lord Dominator exist in your AU? If so what does she look like/what would be her role?

she's been swapped with westley! she's a former member of wander's hivemind, separated by mr meteor and sir peepers and desperate to return to her life of drifting in her own mind. she was a willing member, but the reason she joined was because she was convinced she'd never find any sort of companion on her own, on account of her abrasiveness and cruelty. she'd work with meteor and peepers (mostly unwillingly) to find her calling in life, something that's not violent or mean or directly ruining other people's lives! i settled on "vigilante hacker" for her, because i headcanon her as a techie who built all her own stuff in the show itself. she'd help meteor and peepers from the sidelines!

(i've posted these before but i figured i'd drop them here too for context)

ofc this means westley takes dominator's place! he's dangerously incompetent and full of so much anger.