I-It’s Not Like I Want To Understand Your Character Or Anything, Baka!!!

saccharinescorpion:

Or: So I Realized Why I’m Not All That Fond of Karkat

Or maybe it’s better to say, why I’m surprised that other people like Karkat

Alex, Mickey, and any other people not caught up with Homestuck: here there be spoilers

Here’s a surprising thing I want to suggest: Karkat, for most of the comic, has very little effect on the plot.

I know this seems a bit weird to think of at first–I mean, he interacts with so many characters, and he’s very close to being a protagonist! But, let’s think for a second. Most of his influence in the story is based on character over plot.

In Hivebent, by needling Terezi he gets to the position of leader of the Red Team, and later the combined team. But his duties boil down essentially to helping the others with their issues, usually romantic in nature. For all his bluster and bragging, Karkat is a nice guy—not a “Nice Guy,” but a decent good person who happens to be male. He is a rarity among trolls, and his personality allows him to keep the team together through the game without letting themselves get caught up in their own personal dramas. He is an archetype that TvTropes refers to as “The Heart.”

It’s an important role, especially with his group of misfits. But it actually has little baring on the plot.

Now, let’s look at him post-Hivebent. And let’s take a few glances towards Hivebent. There’s quite a bit of examples I could use for this part, but I’d like to focus on the four people he has his most significant interactions with: Gamzee, Jade, John, and Terezi. His constant assurances that he is not Gamzee’s friend, his convulted Griefer/White Knight triangle of a relationship with Jade and his past and future selves, his misguided(?) hate-based attraction towards John and later staunch denial of such a thing, and his….everything with Terezi.

In it’s simplest form, KK’s relationship with all the people, and several others (see Kan, Sollux) can be summed up as such:

CG: I HATE YOU, YOU SUCK

CG: WAIT OH SHIT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU

CG: OH GOD NO NO NO NO NO

Obviously it’s a bit more complex that THAT, but in the simplest form, Karkat can be classified as a Tsundere: harsh and abrasive on the outside, soft and caring within. I usually wouldn’t fall back on overtly simplified character types, especially those of a “TvTropes” vernacular, but this particular term will be significant later on! So, allow me this a moment.

So. For a good deal of the story, KK didn’t really affect the plot in any story changing way, other than his mediating and his…Tsundereness. (ugh, hopefully I won’t have to use this too long)

But then!

Karkat’s biggest role in the story, the culmination of his mediation and “tough love”: the pacification of Gamzee. This was a really good arc in that instead of resorting to killing as everyone else had so far, Karkat followed his ancestor’s footsteps to bring about an answer that DIDN’T have to result in more heartache.

But there’s something about the way he calmed Gamzee. Where else have you seen an emotional, harsh-but-secretly-sweet character calm their friend/ possible love interest (who, based on the dynamics of moirailliegence, Gamzee is) who is going through a breakdown through a tender hug?

Why, just about

just about

just about

just about EVERY SHOUNEN ANIME EVER!

See, this is The Big Secret I’ve realized about Karkat: he has the traits of basically every Shounen Main Female. He is abrasive. He is aloof and sarcastic. Yet he is easy to cry, and easier to care. There are references to his strength, but it’s only really ever seen in passing. He is the glue that holds the other characters together. He has complex love-hate relationships with those he cares about most. His biggest impacts on the plot have to do with helping others. In short, he is a very emotional character, and a very emotion-based character, which is fitting of the character based around the sign of Cancer.

So, what you’re probably asking is: “what was the point of all this Latia?” Like I said before, I don’t hate Karkat, I just don’t like him as much as I do other characters. But, I am very surprised he is a fan-favorite.

Why?

Like I said, Karkat is basically every Shounen Main Female ever. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but those girls aren’t exactly

aren’t exactly

aren’t exactly

aren’t exactly POPULAR!

You see, in my years of Liking Stuff I’ve noticed that these types of characters tend to be the least popular (outright HATED( among fans and fanwork (except in porn, haha), and these types of characters tend to be female! Female characters who have turbulent love-hate relationships with others are “bitches,” female characters who cry or are scared are “weak”, female characters who tend to focus on keeping the group together over fighting are “useless.”

So why does no one ever bring these arguments up when the character is male?

Another good example: Mai and Zuko from Avatar The Last Airbender. A popular fancomic once pointed out that their temperments (surly, sarcastic, pessimestic) were very similar, and yet one character was loved by fans and one was usually hated for being the other’s love interest.

Guess which was a boy and which was a girl.

Now, a majority of Homestuck fans are fairly mature, and yet we still have these rather sexist roots that still rear ugly heads. Vriska is an irredemable homicidal bitch, Gamzee is a badass psycho clown with a tragic motive. Feferi is an annoying skank who toyed with her morial, Eridan is a cute tragic woobie killer who can be saved. Jade is annoying and weird, John is cute and lovable. Rose is boring and dull, Dave is cool and funny.

And Karkat is everybody’s favorite Tsundere nubby horned pwecious baby.

Basically, I find it fascinating that AH gave these traits to a boy and made an interesting character. And I find it more fascinating that people were drawn to a more emotional character. And that’s great.

But I just wonder: would people still like Karkatina?

This is the question we must ask ourselves.

e: an addendum!

This is the original post that a good chunk of my Davekat post is based off, and man i am still fuckin floored at how on point and relevant it is considering it was written in 2011.

And like latias writing flow is just so readable and accessible and aaaaaah i love everything about this fuckin post, i hope i managed to do it a small degree of justice.

Anyway, please do yourself a favor and read pheonix flair and/or check out latias awesome comics–I’m a big fan of The Ghosts of Dolores Delmudo and Un Cien, Una Semana in particular. I need to play Us Lovely Corpses but i already know its gonna be excellent, im just too busy to live.

Anon with the book on gnosticism here, figured I should come off anon! After watching the latest Gamzee video, I thought it might be interesting (if not terribly relevant) to share a bit on Dyonisian cults/religion, more specifically their somewhat opposite cult/religion, Orphism. Orpheus is, in Grecian myth, the son of either a human man or Apollo, and Calliope (a name we all recognize), muse of heroic poetry. Orpheus was torn apart at the end of his life by the Maenads of Dyonisian fame.

Oh yes, I’m glad you brought this up. Me and the pals in the patreon discord talked about Orpheus a bit after this Dionysus stuff came out, and I think there are two solid ideas to consider.

The first is we should probably keep an eye out for an Orpheus themed troll in Hiveswap, since the story you mentioned is one of the more notable stories Maenads are involved in, so uh…we might be able to expect such a character might have trouble with Chahut. RIP @ that hypothetical guy, probably.

But it’s also possible Orpheus’ analogue is Already Here, in this guy:

We won’t get to this in video for a while, so lets just get into it here.

To start us off, yes–Orpheus’ dies at the hands of the Maenads, specifically for denying his former Patron God, Dionysus–who in Homestuck we can loosely understand as Gamzee in the flesh, and the Grand Highbloods and their ideology symbolically.

Gamzee kills Equius right when Equius turns his back on the Highblood’s ideology, and tries to stop Gamzee from murdering the lowbloods. So there are some legit parallels. An obvious issue here is that Orpheus is killed by the Maenads on Dionysus’ behalf, but there’s a couple things to consider.

If we’re reading Rage as the aspect of Theatre, then suddenly the masks and identifiers Gamzee wears become much more important. By identifying himself with Nepeta’s cat hat, Gamzee evokes the Maenads’ practice of dressing with panther skins, as Dionysus greatly valued the animal.

Note that Gamzee’s polka-dotted clown pants now suggest the spots on a cat, like the Panthers’.

Gamzee also enters the scene of Equius’ murder wearing Terezi’s shades.
Dionysian imagery plays into Gamzee’s treatment of Terezi already–Satyrs were known for “breaking down traditional values”, a good example of which is…Law.

So uh. That puts a new spin on all of Gamzee’s mockery of courts of law whilst pitting Terezi against Vriska. And his literal breaking down of Terezi–emotionally across the meteor, and physically before Game Over.

+ given how Gamzee basically dragged Terezi into his juggalo cult, I think we can–to an extent–read her as an unwilling Maenad, and so Gamzee identifying himself with her symbol here seems relevant.

Back to Orpheus, though. You’re right to point out the similarities between Orphic and Dionysian traditions–both were apparently mystery cults, fitting both the secretive nature of the Mirthful Messiahs and the unknowable nature of Void.

Orpheus in general comes off pretty Voidy–his mythology seems to feature a lot of water imagery, fitting Equius’ sweat motif, for example. But apparently, some held that Orpheus was a mortal version of Dionysus himself:

“Here his death is analogous with that of Pentheus,
who was also torn to pieces by Maenads; and it has been speculated that
the Orphic mystery cult regarded Orpheus as a parallel figure to or
even an incarnation of Dionysus.”

Which is certainly interesting because part of Dionysus’ myth is being ingrained in Zeus’ thigh until he grows to reach maturity. This “becoming part of the Patriarch God” narrative evokes, to me, Gamzee and Equius both becoming one with AR/Caliborn, who are both stand ins for Yaldabaoth, the sun-branded Demiurge described in Gnostic mythology.

One of the figures the term ‘Demiurge’ was born to describe was Zeus, and indeed, Caliborn’s arc in particular echoes Zeus at times–Caliborn banishing the beta kids into the house echoes Zeus’ banishing Typheus under Mt. Etna, which was also said to house Hephaestus’ forges.

And then there’s the most famous myth Orpheus is involved in–his quest to seek his dead wife in the Afterlife.

When Eurydice dies, Orpheus travels to Hades and charms the gods into letting her travel back to the world of the living with him…

“But thoughtless Orpheus forgot, and when he turned round and looked at his wife, she instantly slipped into the depths again.”

Void is the counterpart to Light, the aspect of the imaginary, the Humanities–the realms of thought. So ‘Thoughtless’ feels particularly Voidy here, especially since it causes a return to depths. Memory and Forgetting pretty clearly tie into Light/Void respectively, too.

I might be reading too much into the wording here, but the basic parallel stands–Equius doesn’t die to find Aradia, but his stint in the underworld coincides with dating a bunch of Aradiabots, and when he returns to the world of the living it’s without her, as…

A version of Yaldabaoth/Zeus, with a side of Orpheus/Dionysus attached. I’m not totally sure I buy this reading–if we were talking about any Aspect besides Void, which is literally linked to vague and unknowableness, I’d want to feel a lot more certain. Its possible there are other deities that might reflect the Zahhaks better.

But this seems pretty fitting to me, so I thought I’d raise the curiosity.

What do you all think?

Turtles, Crocodiles and Iguanas are reptiles, not amphibians.

revolutionaryduelist:

Fair enough, sorry for generalizing. Turtles and crocodiles both hang out on land and water at different points in their lives though, so the distinction I care about is still there regardless of the word we use.

Dunno if that’s true of Iguanas tho. Honestly if not I’m inclined to wonder if Hussie did his research on them. I don’t know jack about iguanas honestly so feel free to fill me in?

I got so many comments saying stuff to this effect, thanks all u guys. So yeah it looks like Iguanas are good too–the galapagos are even in the Pacific, where Jade’s island is. We’re all fools to doubt Hussie on any point, for any reason, ever.

There’s also this:

Which is an interesting thought.

Normally I’d laugh along but no. I really can’t. Imagine Rose Quartz shattering someone’s legs and then demanding that they apologize to her for no longer being able to walk. Vriska is a sociopathic bully. Rose Quartz, while probably very SELFISH, consciously made a choice to never kill anyone, to celebrate life, and to defend the rights of the downtrodden rather than add to their suffering..

dukeofriven:

revolutionaryduelist:

Did you like, not watch the new episode yet? Spoiler talk below

Keep reading

Thoughtful and nuanced responses as always, RD – and, yes, I did see the new episode. Here’s why I still can’t bring myself to your position, though.

Let’s start with an excerpt of one of the most sickening scenes in Homestuck:

AG: Apologize, Pupa!
AG: Apologiiiiiiiize!!!!!!!!
AG: Say you’re sorry for being a cripple! Wheeeeeeee!
AG: Aaaaaaaahahahahahahahaha!

Keep reading

I’m gonna keep this short and stick to the core points where we differ

1. If we’re getting personal, I’ve actually been put in the position of keeping secrets for someone even when everyone involved is a loved one and nuanced conversation could solve stuff. It isn’t fun.

That said, neither of our experiences is universal, so all I’m going to go off is SU’s text–and in that context sure, Pearl took some pride in keeping Rose’s secrets, but love is a strong word in this case. She was very clear that she wanted to tell Steven, but physically could not. She was denied her own choice.

The right to be forgotten is all well and good when you’re deleting stuff from Google, but Pearl isn’t Google. Pearl is a sentient person who was forced into complying with Rose’s agenda for millennia, well past Rose’s own death, when Rose didn’t have to deal with the problems and consequences of her actions anymore.

To answer this: `Let me put it yet another way – if Rose’s command to Pearl wasn’t geas but a request, if she had begged Pearl never to reveal the secret the way us ordinary mortals would have, would Pearl be in the right to break that promise?`

Absolutely. Rose is dead. Pearl’s pain and Steven’s denial of his own history are not. And Steven benefits quite directly from knowing, because knowing Pink Diamond’s history gives him something the Diamonds want–and Steven has empathy powers who’s full potential we aren’t sure he’s reached, so…there’s lots of ways this knowledge could be used for the better.

If she was hypothetically expecting a peaceful existence from now on, it’s only more reason she morally should have done so, because the Gems fought for freedom for everyone and her lies and command were objectively imposing a lack of freedom on the Gems to make their own choices.

It might have been understandable, but it’s also selfish.
And it’s an ideological betrayal of everything the Gems fought for.

None of which is relevant to the way Pink Diamond made the decision, or that Rose Quartz never removed the command from Pearl’s life or…y’know, just told the Crystal Gems the truth.

I honestly think PD was just comfortable with exerting power fairly thoughtlessly, as is the role she was born expected to perform. Social conditioning is a powerful force, and PD was conditioned to assert her authority over others and be comfortable doing so. Old habits die hard!

The thing is, thoughtless abuse of power was behavior PD was expected to perform. In the same way, sadistic violence is behavior Vriska was raised being expected to perform, which she was intimately aware of.

It seems misguided to me to apply all this context to PD, but not to Vriska. Alternia demands cruelty and vicious callousness from its subjects by design, on explicit pain of death. They were traits Vriska personally had to develop just to reach her teenage years. And that’s before we even mention Doc Scratch’s exploitation of the girl.

You don’t get forced to become a serial killer at like 10 and come away from it well-adjusted and nice–you figure out ways to live with yourself and justify your own actions, and the trouble with justifying violence is that it becomes a lot easier to justify more violence down the road.

Which is exactly what Vriska does–she’s fairly explicit about the fact that, fucked up as her behavior was, in her own head she was trying to make Tavros stronger to help him survive on Alternia.

Obviously, that’s not what she did. But she’s a deluded 13 year old deeply alienated from her own sense of self, so it’s no surprise she doesn’t understand that her intent didn’t really match her actions.

Vriska is being cruel and sadistic, but she’s also kind of forcing herself to be on some level, out of what she fairly accurately perceives as necessity–she expected to grow up and join Alternia’s army, not to get whisked away into Sburb.

All of which is explicit in the text, since Vriska is told so by…

(Vriska) herself. I don’t really agree with your opinion that (Vriska) like, doesn’t count because she’s dead? She still tells us plenty about Vriska’s past and her potential growth as a person. And honestly it’s a little weird to me you’d shoot down (Vriska)’s contributions to the narrative using like…

The exact argument Vriska uses herself? Like, idk, I see this opinion pretty commonly that Vriska is ultimately the one who mattered and (Vriska) does not, and I just don’t feel it. Vriska is p clearly a parallel to Lord English, and (Vriska) is the one who ends up with her girlfriend, happy and showered in symbolic and literal Light/Importance.

Homestuck is not unambiguously taking Vriska’s side on any of this, and if anything I’d suggest it does the opposite. (Vriska)’s arc tells us more about Homestuck’s core themes, in terms of explicit, unambiguous text, than arguably any other character but MAYBE Calliope and Caliborn.

None of which excuses Vriska’s actions when they’re garbage, which is often, btw. But there’s plenty of context for her actions, just the same as with PD.

And uh, my silly meme post led us into discoursing about not just one, but both of them simultaneously, so yeah in terms of my original intent of paralleling their moral greyness and tendency to polarize fandom discourse (which is all I was really commenting on–A Vriska in terms of how Vriska was received by fandom, with all her layers and moral ambiguity, not in terms of the characters’ arcs being particularly similar) I’m going to say I’m sticking to my original claim. Even so, this conversation has been p fun!

newtgeiszler:

newtgeiszler:

newtgeiszler:

newtgeiszler:

exgaypositivity prediction

she’s a terf troll blog trying to build a story arc about trans tumblr forcing her to suppress her lesbianism

there’s no logic in her saying that homosexuality is a disease that makes you miserable but being trans isn’t. no one actually thinks that way. it’s a parody of how terfs THINK trans people and trans allies act. hell, half of TRANS PEOPLE think being trans is a disease that makes us miserable.

she’s going to build a story where she ends up dating a man. mark my words–a GAY man. an ex gay man. this plot point will go on for some time until olivia comes out as a gay trans man. and oh, it’s a happy ending because she got over her internalized homophobia by denouncing lesbianism and becoming a trans man.

because that’s what the evil transes want. to convert your precious cis lesbians into straight female fujoshi trans men through the power of trans inclusive conversion therapy.

alright everyone mark your calanders.it’s may 12th 2018, 12am est. let’s see how long it takes this arc to come to fruition.

well that was faster than i thought

hello??? reblog this fucking post. i don’t like to watch people falling for transphobic scams.

Did you ever end up recovering from that shit show last year that like killed your patreon? Also what even was it that happened? I just remember your money going done by like half and everyone yelling.

kyleehenke:

i really don’t want to get into it. but! here i go anyway, because i’m so tired of keeping quiet, i’m so tired of suffering in silence for fear if stirring shit back up, so here the fuck goes anyway. multiple times now i’ve had all my hard work ruined by ridiculously fucking false accusations that i’m supposedly a pedophile despite NO proof of it. i’ve had my shit wrecked by “guilt by association” situations, too, where i was supposedly responsible for the mistakes of a friend, shit i wasn’t even AWARE of. all it took was a small loud group of people who decided they wanted to destroy me, and they absolutely accomplished that.

being accused of being dangerous to my fanbase, or even my baby nephew and having people believe it without question (because so many folks take callout posts at face value without fact checking), crushed my fucking soul. i lost 75% of my monthly income and had to go back to relying on my parents for financial support. i’ll be straight up honest. when i took down all my social media last winter, it was because i deadass almost killed myself. i had a plan and everything. cops showed up. it got ugly.

i’m back from that brink, i have a wonderful support system, therapy and medication, but i never fully bounced back after that.

it’s almost a blessing i got riddled with back and wrist injuries and had surgery so that i’ve been forced to take time off from content creating and just take care of myself, it may have saved my life. but that doesn’t mean i don’t have a lot of fears and hangups about what to do from here, because i just don’t know. i’m not big enough online to stay afloat if someone decides to take a big loud shit on my reputation. i’m not safe, i’ve been doxxed, people know my name and address, and the risk vs reward ratio for content making is so skewed anymore that i have lost almost all of my passion to make. just. anything, really. why bother, if anyone can destroy everything that gives my life meaning in a single day?

i’ve stopped animating entirely, drawing became a chore long ago, my creative fire was completely snuffed. i don’t know how to come back, i’m honestly just taking it one day at a time because it’s all i CAN do to function. it’s an ongoing struggle, and will continue to be as long as the status quo remains. something’s got to give, but you can’t critique callout culture on tumblr without someone accusing you of being an apologist for this or that, so i flat out stopped trying. it’s not a fight i can win. you have no idea how badly i want to fade off into obscurity and disappear, take up a different alias and start over, but i can’t. i need to make a living. i’m in too deep. i put 15 years of hard work into building the viewership i have and establishing my presence on social media.

i’m sad and scared every single day. i don’t WANT to give up, because giving up is as good as a death sentence on my happiness. i don’t plan on quitting, not anymore. but fucking hell, can you blame me for feeling like it’s all kind of pointless? my future, which once seemed all figured out, is now a huge question mark. i’ll have to wait and see now, i’ll have to re-evaluate what it means to be a creator, and rediscover why i loved making art in the first place.

all i can ask of people is to take everything you read online with a grain of salt. fact check, be a critical thinker, and make your own conclusions. most of all, realize that lives are literally at stake. falsely calling people out is not a fucking game. we have to stop scaring content creators out of creating. we have to be better.

Jesus, I had no idea, Kylee 😦

If any of ya’ll are wondering why I find callout/purity culture fucking insipid and vile, well, here’s what your “progressive action” produces. Less happiness, less content, less people following their dreams and connecting to each other online, when we need all of those things now more than ever.

I don’t know what to say. You’re in my thoughts.

Normally I’d laugh along but no. I really can’t. Imagine Rose Quartz shattering someone’s legs and then demanding that they apologize to her for no longer being able to walk. Vriska is a sociopathic bully. Rose Quartz, while probably very SELFISH, consciously made a choice to never kill anyone, to celebrate life, and to defend the rights of the downtrodden rather than add to their suffering..

ectoflowermaid:

revolutionaryduelist:

Did you like, not watch the new episode yet? Spoiler talk below

Keep reading

I kinda love the comparison to Vriska in the sense that I sort of see their character arcs running opposite to each other? (This is all spoiler free)

Like, when we are introduced to Vriska she’s shown to be just this awful person with little to no redeeming qualities, who seemingly doesn’t care for anyone but herself and will do whatever it takes to achieve her means. As Vriska’s arc continues, she’s shown to have much more complex feelings and relationships and actually does care for and have the capacity to connect with people, and though she has done some bad stuff, she eventually reaches a moral grey area.

Whereas with Rose Quartz, she’s first shown to be the Perfect Being; Rose can essentially do no wrong. We first see her as this martyred figure up on a pedestal who was endlessly kind and patient and curious and forgiving, when in reality, she is manipulative, careless with those around her, and doesn’t understand the gravity of her actions, nor are we shown her taking responsibility for the consequences of said actions. Rose is taken down from the pedestal and shown to be more complex than this ideal martyr, and eventually reaches the same moral grey area as Vriska, but coming from the complete opposite end.

Sorry to jump in I just really liked the comparison!!

I agree completely, personally. I dig this a lot, thanks!

I’ve just drowned myself in the October Daye series and thought I was fully caught up when I saw mention of some short stories for your patreon supporters? How do I become one of these so that I may read these additional stories because I need everything I am so obsessed now. The Luidaeg is simultaneously my fave and the one I’m most terrified of. I ship Tybalt and Toby like it’s my job. There are at least sixteen mysteries I need answers to. And the found family of allies is everything!

knitmeapony:

vaspider:

seananmcguire:

WHY HELLO THANK YOU FOR PUTTING A QUARTER IN THE “WHY PATREON IS AWESOME MACHINE.” Now sit back, relax, and let the kitchen proudly present for you…

…my Patreon.

Most people already know this part, but I’m going to include it for the five folks in the back who don’t: Patreon is essentially a micro-transaction platform geared specifically at allowing people to support artists and creators directly, rather than going through the usual middlemen. It’s a tip jar writ large, and it’s a gamechanger. Because see, one of the biggest trials of being a creative professional is being unable to estimate, month upon month, what your take-home pay is going to be. Imagine having a part-time job which, you know, pays $24,000 a year. No matter how many hours you put in, that’s what you get.

(This is a sort of unrealistic analogy already, because even that degree of confidence in your income is unlikely for most creative professionals. Just work with me.)

Now, logic says “$24k a year, that’s $2k a month, I can budget with that.” Sadly, logic is wrong. Maybe you don’t get paid for six months, and then in month seven, you get $14k just handed to you. And that feels like a lot of money–that is a lot of money–except you haven’t paid any bills in six months, so mostly it feels like a lot of screaming and buying toilet paper.

Patreon smooths out that disconnect between estimated numbers and actual numbers. If you pledge $1 a month to someone, they will get $1 a month (minus minor handling fees, which we are happy to pay so you don’t have to), and can budget accordingly. Even as pledges come in/people reduce or cancel their pledges, we can see our estimated totals. It’s magic.

My Patreon is here: https://www.patreon.com/seananmcguire

I charge for short stories; I charge once a month; all patrons, regardless of level, get access to the short stories. If you become a patron today, you’ll have access to all prior stories. (You can find them by choosing “posts” and then “paid by patrons.”) Higher levels get access to additional rewards, like the advice column ($3), the Poetry Project ($5), and the Positivity Email ($10). They do not, at this time, get access to additional fiction. Patrons are also the first to know when we find something unusual, like a box of out-of-print CDs or short run T-shirts.

Patreon has honestly changed my life, and not just mine: I know quite a few creators, both independent and traditionally published, who are using this wide, shallow well to keep themselves afloat. And it’s magic.

My Patreon money pays for my cellphone bill, my medication, and my pups’ dog food.

Also for me to get a pedicure once a month because self care is a human thing.

Without my Patreon money I would have a lot more financial uncertainty. It also lets me try out things with fiction that I might otherwise not.

I’m kind of restating the above, but can I list ways that Patreon is awesome for me from the opposite perspective, as a reader and patron?

1) The obvious: I get new stuff from the author. I get short stories or snippets or previews early or all the stuff that you think that you are paying for. That’s the obvious thing. Here are Cool Arts that would not exist with out the Patreon. Rad. But also….

2) I get better stuff from the author. When someone isn’t worrying about where they’re getting this month’s food or tp or heating bill from, when they’re relaxed and comfortable, they do more and better work. This isn’t something that’s measurable, but I fully believe that even if all this stuff was created for free on the internet before, since my money makes someone’s life better, their creativity is free-er and they can spend more time on making better stuff.

3) I get unusual/interesting stuff. Patreon lets artists experiment! I’ve gotten poetry from prose authors. I’ve gotten music from poets. I’ve seen 2-D artists try sculpture, and digital artists try traditional methods. I’ve seen artists who might not have found an audience for their specific collaboration get to collaborate and share with both of their patreons. I get wild, weird, experimental stuff! Even if it would have existed before Patreon, it probably would have been shoved in a box under a bed. Now it’s published, and I get to enjoy it!

4) It comes to my in-box! I don’t even have to think about going to a store or to Amazon, I don’t have to show up at specific locations or go to specific concerts or anything. I have a Patreon filter in my gmail. Most weeks, I get 8-10 emails there. MOST of those emails are awesome, exciting things to read!

5) I get to conversate with some artists in a quieter space! Most of the artists that I pledge to hold AMAs and answer comments and discuss processes and take suggestions and because it’s a quieter space without All Of The Internet shouting at them, they sometimes give longer, more thoughtful, more complicated responses! Not always, of course, and you’ve still got to be a decent, polite person, but it’s a kind of social media they can curate and prioritize a little bit which leads to better brain space for the artists which leads to cooler interactions in general.

6) I get to feel helpful! Artists and authors and the like do not get paid nearly enough, because capitalism. Small individual one-off fundraisers help, but often folks end up stuck in the same emergency >> broke >> broken thing >> emergency cycle. By banding together and getting $XX/month to someone, you totally get to watch your love join with other people’s love to make a clear difference in the life of someone you think is awesome. The art you get on the regular is usually thanks enough, but the occasional ‘hey, I did x thing and it was great and thank you’ email makes you feel like a superhero, even if all you can afford is $1/month. You’re part of something. You did A Good. That kind of hope and optimism and community building should never be undervalued.

Patreon is totally a net good in the universe, and the raw Dollars:GoodThings ratio just can not be beat.

Patreon’s empowered me to provide more value for my Patrons in several ways. Making videos is time consuming and creatively intense, so it requires real focus, and Patreon support bought me that focus over the last year, enough that I could increase my production from once a month to twice, so double the content.

Not to mention the artists its allowed me to commission to innovate and expand the scope of the project, so I can provide a more cohesive and immersive experience.

Or the community aspect! Running a discord that’s partly buy-in but also gives Patrons some leeway to bring friends in through our reward structure has let me craft a unique and interesting community that I’m honestly really proud to call home. There’s not many places out there for homestuck positivity right now, and I’m proud I can say I offer one of the best 🙂

And of course, the more patreon support grows, the more ambitious I get, meaning more and better content for everybody. It’s really a win/win setup.

Do try patreon, if you’re able. The world is becoming a more interesting place through it.

after watching your videos i’ve become increasingly interested in gnosticism. i feel strongly drawn to the symbolism, but i don’t know where to start in terms of reading. wikipedia articles can only get you so far. where did you learn about gnosticism/what are some introductory readings you’d suggest?

fateoftheundead:

revolutionaryduelist:

Let’s be clear here: I barely know anything about Gnosticism. It’s a spiritual tradition that as far as I can tell has been mostly dead for ages, and it’s roots are tangled with Christianity, so the history we’re dealing here is massive, complex, and often contradictory.

I learned about Gnosticism simply by taking note of thoroughly Modern works that play with its symbols and ideas, and not always in a completely sincere way, or at least not an overtly religious/spiritual one. It’s compelling imagery for worldcrafting! Useful for fiction writing.

And Japan in particular seems to like making God the bad guy in some video games–a suitable threat level for a long campaign, I guess–so a lot of my understanding comes from comparing these modern works and seeing how they use the same symbols the same way, or very very very VERY similarly.

Some of those works are:

-Homestuck

-Mother 3, the sequel to Homestuck’s namesake, Earthbound (and to a lesser extent, Earthbound itself)

-Revolutionary Girl Utena

-The Dark Souls series

-Angel’s Egg (anime movie; it good)

-Persona 5, and generally the Persona series through its Jungian themes.

But when I say Homestuck is a Gnostic work, I don’t mean it’s literally to be understood solely through that particular spiritual doctrine. I just mean it draws from Gnosticism in crafting itself, and deliberately plays off Gnostic themes. Homestuck draws just as much from Greek, Egyptian, and potentially even Judaic myth.

And with most of these works, there’s a lot more going on than just those themes. My other big source here is Carl Jung, a psychoanalyst who was quite influential in the field and in pop culture, too.

RGU, Homestuck, and Persona all explicitly work his ideas into their worldbuilding, and though Jung himself was known to be a Gnostic, he had more to offer than just regurgitating Gnostic ideas per se. He’s probably the biggest source of Gnostic inspiration for modern writing, though. You can find a free compilation of some of his Gnostic writing here.

You might also want to check out Herman Hesse’s Demian, a novel I’ve read (its good) explicitly dealing with Gnosticism set just before the beginning of WWI. It’s a well-known influence on Utena in particular, and reading it illuminated some of the prominent symbolism across all of the works I just mentioned, too.

Hope you have fun with this! I’d probably reccomend engaging with any or all of the more modern works and seeing what comparisons you can draw to Homestuck, rather than trying to force yourself to read relatively dry ancient literature without context. This is all for fun!

Homestuck is terrible, and not every work that uses Mamichaean dualism is necessarily Gnostic in origin. Not trying to take away from the response, just adding to it.

1) I don’t particularly care about your bad homestuck opinion, and it’s hard for me to imagine how that extremely stale take adds to anything. Please don’t add boring drivel to my posts if you’re trying to be interesting or constructive; it makes it really hard to care.

2) I am genuinely interested in your mention of Manichaean dualism because, as I’ve said, I’m no expert. I may well be misidentifying things here, and I don’t want to be inaccurate.

I’ll risk assuming you’re talking about Dark Souls judging by your avatar, so If you’re willing, I’d be interested to know if Manichaean dualism has meaningful things to add to our understanding of:

1. The egg the Ashen One breaks/damages at the end of DKS3

2. The Dark Soul, and the Abyss

3. Gwyn (I don’t think Gnosticism is too directly linked to him, but I do think he takes quite a bit from Zeus, who’s probably the original deity the concept of a Demiurge itself is drawing from, since the idea was Greek before it was Gnostic. And ofc, the mark of Gwyn’s dominion is the Sun, which Yaldabaoth is strongly associated with.)

4. The Primordial Serpents, and the duality they present

Lastly, if you’re willing, I’d like to understand why you’d make the case that Dark Souls is specifically drawing on Manichaean dualism in distinction from Gnosticism. As in, how is it different?

And if you’re aware of the symbolism here, I’m kinda curious–do you have any clue why I haven’t seen it in the wider analysis sphere? This seems like the sorta thing Vaatividya would be all over, but I’ve never seen a wink of it outside of like, the Angels’ Egg video, which is only the tip of the iceberg as far as this stuff goes.

Thanks for your time and thoughts, should you be willing to offer them.

You reblogged a post that said “the only harm [non-photographic child porn] can do is if you read it” and I think that’s an irresponsible view for an author to hold. Fiction does affect reality, or good minority representation wouldn’t be important, Birth of a Nation wouldnt have led to a resurgence in the KKK, etc. Writers have an obligation to keep in mind what kind of impact their work will have on the people who read it, and normalizing sexual relationships with children is harmful.

annleckie:

nkjemisin:

annleckie:

Really? You think I haven’t thought about this issue? Is a story about recovery or dealing with trauma, is that “normalizing sexual relationships with children”? Should that be forbidden? Is that harmful? Should someone trying to deal with their own trauma by writing fiction that addresses it directly, should that be forbidden because it’s harmful?

Should I write only the sunniest, most proper fiction that never mentions anything disturbing or awful just in case some reader, somewhere, takes it as normalizing that awful? Is it my job to purge my work of anything that some kid, somewhere, might take in a way I didn’t intend and maybe be messed up by? Fuck no. Because let’s be 100% clear here, you actually can’t entirely predict what a reader will take away from a piece. One does one’s best. And I can’t tell another writer what to write, I can only tell them to be sure they mean to write what they write.

And the problem here is the sweeping condemnation of, what, the number of fics with particular tags? Seriously? As if it’s that simple?

Are you absolutely sure that every work tagged “pedophilia” on AO3 is wankfodder? Every one? None of them are stories where characters experience and process it, or just talk about it? None of them are stories where the authors are trying to process their own experiences? It’s never permissible to even mention pedophilia, lest someone be influenced wrongly? Should survivors never talk about or fictionalize their experiences? Really?

Do not lecture me on the responsibilities of authors–I have thought long and hard on the issue, and have come to the very considered conclusion that I have no interest in purity tests. Rape is bad, but not all stories about rape are bad. Racism is bad but not all stories about racism are bad. Pedophilia is bad but…you get the picture. Just saying “look at all these fics tagged “pedophilia” AO3 is doing a bad thing hosting them!” is so incredibly stupid I just don’t know where to begin. Are some of those fics toxic? Surely. Pretty much every other tag has toxic fics in it, too. Are all of them? I seriously have my doubts.

I am prepared to say that adults having sex with kids is bad, no nuance. I am NOT prepared to say that any fic about that topic is unambiguously bad. Because that’s not true.

I’m not in the business of telling people what to read or what to write. And you can take your list of things people somehow can’t write about because they’re bad and fuck all the way off.

What she and Foz said. And as to the anon’s point of fiction affecting reality re “Birth of a Nation” helping the KKK – let’s be super-clear, here, everyone. BoaN by itself did not resurrect the KKK. A toxic combination of economic motives, political cynicism, cowardice on the part of supposedly non-racist white people, and vicious opportunism caused that. BoaN was simply the best propaganda available for use by white supremacists who already existed, and who had long before implemented Black Codes and the Lost Cause myth and other means of retrenching America’s racist caste system. If BoaN hadn’t happened along when it did? The KKK would have found, or made, something else to use as its rallying cry.

Do I hate racist art? Yeah. But I deal with that by a) heeding warnings about it, and picking when (or if) I want to engage with it so that I minimize harm to myself, b) complaining about it when the people who publish it seem oblivious to the fact that it is racist art, and c) when I’m ready, writing anti-racist fiction that engages with it. I believe wholeheartedly in the notion that the job of the artist is to speak truth to power. But truth is many things. Truth is, sometimes, people writing out their rape fantasies so they can try to understand themselves better. Truth is people erasing the black characters from fanworks featuring their favorite media properties – and then getting called on it, and learning from the ensuing discussion. (Or not learning, and getting dismissed by a big chunk of fandom for it… and meanwhile, more quietly, truth is other fans learning from their fuckups.) Truth is critique, not blanket condemnation. (And not uncritical aggrandizement either.) This shit is too complex to handle with simplistic, black-and-white thinking. Love it or hate it, discourse ™ is the way to go.

Word.

Also read @nkjemisin’s books if you haven’t already.

did i really just read “a single movie revived white supremacy” as if it ever in the history of america ever, ever died? i am literally agog at this degree of delusion