lbsy:
lbsy:
Where’s the cat
this is the original they photoshopped in the cat
put it back
the thing about lotr that the movies don’t convey so fully is how the story is set in an age heavily overshadowed by all the ages before. they’re constantly traveling through ruins, discussing the glory of days gone by, the empires of men are much diminished, the elves (especially galadriel) are described as seeming incongruent, frozen in time….some of the imagery is even near-apocalyptic, like the ruins of moria and of course the landscape surrounding mordor
this is a strange thought to me, somehow: that the archetypal “high fantasy” story is set at the point where the…fantasy…used to be much higher? this is not the golden age; this is a remnant
LotR is Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome of the elves.
i want to emphasize that people have added excerpts of their theses in reply to this post but this is still my favorite reblog
Take creators stepping in and dismissing fan theories and interpretations of their works with a grain of salt. This is a lesson I learned early, from Anne “my vampires aren’t gay and also I might sue you” Rice.
During the peak of my Vampire Chronicles love, I – at that time, a very petty fifteen-year-old – set out to underline every single really queer moment in the whole series. Spite aside, I quickly realized that in a series where the protagonist runs away to Paris with clearly his violinist boyfriend, and convinces his next super angsty obviously boyfriend to MAKE A VAMPIRE CHILD WITH HIM to keep said angsty boyfriend from leaving, this was easier said than done.
I mean, she’s not fully wrong – Lestat’s not gay, he’s very bisexual. Louis and Nicki are both hella gay, though.
Anyway, I’ve meandered. The point is – creators can say wildly inaccurate things about their works sometimes. Anne Rice went Christian and didn’t want her books to be SUPER FUCKING QUEER anymore. Creators’ views on what they’ve made can change over the years. You never fucking know.
Sometimes I just want to wave my English major wand over fandom and cover everyone in “the author is dead” pixie dust. Because…it doesn’t matter??? The second they put their creation out into the world, they forfeited the right to be the sole authority on its interpretation.
One of the most important things anyone ever told me, as both a writer and a reader, was when my AP English teacher said to me, “Your thesis statement can be whatever you want it to be. You can tell me that King Lear is gay and in love with Kent, and divvying up his kingdom between his daughters is his way of divesting himself of the role of heterosexual fatherhood he’s been forced into. I don’t care what you say – you just need to show me how the text supports it.”
Creators put things in their work that they didn’t consciously intend to. Creators intend things in their work that don’t come through in the text. Once it leaves their hands, it’s yours now.
So I have just learned something life changing from your AP English teacher via tumblr osmosis that I failed to grasp during my entire high school stay, including my own AP English.
every story is told to a different person and to every person it is a different story. and that’s not just okay, it’s wonderful.
hey, can i do a little zen sidestep on this one –
as an author, i do not embrace ‘death of the author’, because when i write i’m deliberately trying to convey the actual specific story i’m writing; whether i communicate it well enough for you to hear it the same as i said it is up to my skill, our cultural similarity, and so forth, but the damn thing does exist, for crying out loud. i’m not an infinite number of monkeys.
also, in this as in so many areas of life: don’t tell me what i fuckin’ said.
and yet. and yet, my darlings. sometimes when the author fails to convey themselves as they wanted to, the message you recieve in error is waaaaay cooler than what they wanted to say.
there are two messages here, the one sent and the one percieved, like a starfield image distorted between the stars and the radio telescope – it’s nonsensical to say those stars don’t exist just because your telescope didn’t image them, but it’s also nonsensical to say that the data you recieved isn’t just as real – and, if you happened to discover a really cool gravitational lensing event, tons better.
the death of the author is based on an illusion, that only one end of that transmission is real.
ask yourself instead: can fandom be better than canon?
and the answer to that, i believe, is: well, duh.
whether it’s permissible, or even desirable, to squirt an egotistical hack with a squirt gun and tell them ‘no’ in a firm voice, is less clear-cut.
Just my opinion but maybe the mlm’s are right that redneck revolts outreach to conservatives makes them vulnerable to infiltration by fascists and it’s something they have to constantly remain vigilant against and maybe the anarchists are also right that impoverished working class white people aren’t completely devoid of any revolutionary potential and they happen to be the majority of the population in communities where redneck revolt has branches so there’s some utility in reaching out to them and giving them the opportunity to attain some class consciousness
wow it’s almost like sectarianism weakens pretty much all worthwhile analysis. who knew
Idea for a game show: it’s a cooking competition with no recipes, just a lil old granny judge telling the contestants how to make dishes that have been passed down in her family from generation to generation. All the contestants have to follow along as she talks, and her instructions are super vague. There are no actual measurements, just things like “Add the basil. How much, you ask? Just enough.” or “Put it in the oven until it’s done.” Every week it’s a different judge with recipes from all over the world until the finalists must face the Ultimate Grandma™
“-now a pinch of salt.”
“One fourth of a teaspoon or one eight of a teaspoon?”
“No, a pinch.”
10/10 would watch obsessively
ok so let’s talk a bit about jobs vs passion. my last fulltime job was at a big game development studio; the kind of job you’re (supposedly) passionate about. most of my colleagues adored the games we made, and so they didn’t care that the company had a major diversity problem, that our salaries were below average, that we didn’t get overtime compensation yet stayed ‘til 11PM more often than what’s healthy, and that the company promoted an unhealthy alcohol culture. because we were passionate. this was the kind of job you grow up dreaming about; don’t go throwing it away because some colleagues are harrassing you or because you get no recognition for your efforts!
for more than a year I was tired. stressed. in constant pain. my anxiety was through the roof. I worked on these “dream projects” and I felt dead inside.
when I quit that job I started freelancing as a writer. I got some really good jobs. I also got a bunch of small-time, low-paid, “hey at least your name is on it so isn’t it enough to pay 10$ for this text?” kind of jobs.
with the typical millenial housing situation of an apartment that I could barely afford on a fulltime pay and a constant stream of job offers that were underpaid I spent four months doing what I love, while constantly overwhelmed by stress. my insomnia got really bad, and when I managed to fall asleep I would dream about my bank balance. I would dream of losing whatever stability I had left in my life, simply because I couldn’t afford a “normal adult life”.
and so, today I got a job. it’s a fairly standard QA job at a medium sized game development studio. unlike any other game companies I’ve been at they offer humane working conditions. they don’t expect me to show up too early and stay too late because I’m passionate. the hours are nine to five, and they disapprove of overtime. the pay is slightly above average, and I get health benefits. I’ve been through several interviews, and at no point has someone tried to belittle my career or tried to convince me to work for less than I’m worth.
for the first time in many years of my career, I’m happy. I’m at ease. I applied for this job because I wanted to get away from the passionate part of the industry. I wanted a job where I could go home at five and dedicate my freetime to my own writing projects. I wanted to work at a place that didn’t eat my heart and soul and energy as I contributed to projects that wouldn’t even bear my name in the end credits.
so what I’m trying to say is that there’s nothing wrong with having a “normal” job. you’re not giving up on your dreams if you take a job outside your main interests. if it offers stability in your life, it’s enough.
This really resonates with me because I left the architectural industry last year. The hours were unreasonable, work stressful and devolved into the new projects filling me with dread. My boss kept hinting I wasn’t doing enough, I wasn’t passionate enough… I finally left, and after a difficult half year, I finally found a job outside the industry. It is not a dream job, and it is not where my passion lies, but the work lets breathe. And I tell you, I now value “breathing” over “making my dream come true” any day.
if you have a job that you can do reasonably well without intense stress and leave at the office when you leave, you can actually spend as much free time as you like Making Your Dream Happen
like, yeah, you can settle down in a cafe on sundays and write your novel, because you have that time carved out and you can afford it. you can put extra money towards materials for your sculpting project. save up for a kiln or fancy paints or whatever. get a gopro and convince your friends to act in your arthouse zombie movie on the weekend because it’ll be fun.
dreams can be dreamed on many levels. jobs only have to be successful on one level, and that is the level where you make enough money to live your goddamn life.
Work to live, don’t live to work.
To all my followers who want to write, animate, and create – this is very real and true! Please take note!!
Academia is really bad about this. “Passionate” is conflated with “willing to work 60-70 hours/week, move anywhere in the country for a new job once a year, live apart from your significant other for years at a time, put your family life on hold, etc etc.” If you’re not willing to do all that, you just don’t want it badly enough. Fuck that. Fuck any employer who thinks that way.
Writing a historical novel means knowing how far they can travel on a horse, This is good info right here.
(via Pinterest)
Important thing to point out about travel by foot or horseback: if you’re traveling over mountains, you can basically cut those distances in half on a clean trail, and in thirds or quarters on a trail you have to blaze yourself. Although someone who’s been in the mountains for months or years may be able to travel at the paces listed above for several days at a clip. (For instance, it’s not uncommon for an Appalachian Trail thru-hiker, carrying about 30 pounds, to do 20 or even sometimes 25 miles a day, six days a week, once they’ve had enough time out there to build up into an endurance athlete.)
Just some impressions from the making of Fury Road to remind you that they used as less CGI as possible. Thank you George ♥
George Miller the realest person you’re ever gonna meet.
are you fucking kidding me that was two straight hours of ACTUAL EXPLOSIONS
The best part is that, from my understanding, there were quite a few scenes where George Miller said “No this is too dangerous we’ll do this in post” and the rest of the crew was like “NO LETS DO IT NOW WE CAN DO IT”
are you telling me this was fucking cirque du soleil in the desert with fucking explosions
Tom Hardy described it as slipknot meets cirque du soleil
This map shows every state where women are more likely to live in poverty than men
Wait… hold up. Every state is colored in. That can’t be right… right?
Unfortunately, the map is accurate. And it’s especially problematic for millennial women, who are much more likely to have a bachelor’s degree or higher than millennial men, but who are consistently earning less living and living in poverty more.
SLAMS THE REBLOG BUTTON
“But women earn more degrees” and still get paid less, so eat my whole ass
Something I see a lot of people missing in the reblogs: KIDS KIDS KIDS THIS IS LIKE 92% ABOUT KIDS
Yeah, there’s other factors too, but “women don’t ask for raises” and “pink-collar jobs aren’t valued” are smaller factors than the simple fact that caring for your own children is mandatory for women and optional for men.
Here’s the life story of, I’m going to say, about half the women I’ve ever worked with:
– Had children. Possibly voluntarily, possibly through lack of contraception education and/or funds.
– Broke off relations with the father. Frequently this was for a reason that was not a choice on her part, like he abused her or went to prison or just plain disappeared.
– Kept the kids. Even if it was an amicable split, she likely has weekday custody and is the one who takes charge of the vast majority of their needs.
– Dad may or may not pay child support, but even if he does, the average child support is $2550/year and the average cost of raising a child in a low-income family is $8610/year.
– The mother can’t afford paid childcare, but she has some friends/family members who can will agree to watch her kids, but they can’t commit to a consistent schedule, which means she can only work limited hours and has to take a lot of unplanned time off.
– This drastically limits both which jobs she can take and how much she can earn from those jobs, and completely locks her into poverty until the youngest child is old enough to be home alone. But by then she’ll have an unimpressive resume of assorted part-time gigs, plus likely health problems from 15 years of eating junk and barely sleeping, so it’s not a fabulous career launch point.
There’s lots of factors in why women get paid less than men, but lack of childcare is hugely, gigantically more important than stuff like “women don’t speak up enough in meetings,” or even stuff like “female neurosurgeons make less than male neurosurgeons.”
letdiegolunatouchjabbathehutt:
Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher watched the Yoda – Rockin’ and Rollin’ video together
just moving along like everyone else 