I narrowed my eyes at the flyer before pulling off the contact tab. I really hoped this one was for taming monsters, not training them to be worse. I kept getting cheated out of my fee.
Context is everything. Each little tidbit could mean a hundred different things depending on what you do with it. Have fun!
How do we know who “he” is? And how does “he” differ from “himself” when we interpret it? In this week’s episode, we talk about the syntax and semantics of pronouns: how we can place them in sentences, how they link up to variables, and the role of context in how we interpret them.
Hope everyone enjoys the video! And the eyepatch. We’re looking forward to hearing what people have to say. ^_^
It’s the Ontario election today and my friend’s niece is the best kid on the planet (fb is her nickname):
Doug Ford is Ontario’s boogeyman. FB is right and she should say it.
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Also - if you haven’t done so already, get out and vote!!
If you’re worried about lines, like we saw last October with the federal election, that wasn’t my experience at all. Obviously can’t speak for all voting locations, but I was in and out in minutes.
Doug Ford fucking needs to go. Let’s get him outta here
i like how we invented our own use for the tag system. “these are for finding similar posts” nah these are messages i wrote with the invisible ink pen i got from the book fair that i leave for my friends
In my youth I find it hard to understand the concept of death that the deceased aren’t just hiding around the corner. This may seem strange as my practice directly involves the dead but I appear to have lost myself in a fairytale world. I feel that the truly terrifying part of dying is aging, loss of everything you once had and the inability to stop it. Whilst I cannot fathom that I will never see my grandfather again, my breath catches in my throat and my hands shake at the thought of my mother leaving my life. I put this down to me being much more involved in her aging process, I can see it and it feels so real. I believe that this is where the idea for the ‘Host’ series branches from. These three sculpture/instillation pieces combine everything that I think and feel about death, as hard as it is to grasp.
Each piece contains the preserved corpse of a rat playing the role of my Grandfather. It is impersonal and hard to comprehend; suddenly the rat is simply a piece of meat, a soft toy. You’ll never see life in the beads that pretend to be eyes. Each piece also contains herb or fruit bearing plants that play the role of my mother. The first time that you see her she’s young, glowing and immortal. Her branches strong, her leaves luscious, nothing can defeat her. Slowly but surely time scoops her up in his endlessly moving hands and you see change. The branches, once strong begin to weaken; the leaves that were so luscious begin to wilt. You realise that you can never rely on something so frail. You are lost in the depression of death and decay; you cannot see the bigger picture, but you’re the fruit and there is hope. Despite the horror and torture of aging and loss, we must appreciate the beauty and magic that surrounds all life. Yes, you’re mortal but cherish the hope of humankind.
In ‘The World of Perception’, Maurice Merleau-Ponty states; ‘one of the great achievements of modern art and philosophy has been to allow us to rediscover the world in which we live, yet which we are always prone to forget.’ I think that this is a beautiful statement, I often find myself lost in a dream world, with dulled senses, wondering where all the time has gone. I feel that this theory is a large contributor of what got me into taxidermy, searching for a wakeup call. Taxidermy art cannot be ignored, it is in your face and abrupt, it hides nothing about the world we live in.
From my artwork I want viewers to feel their mortality, but also the hope of a larger picture. To gain comfort in the fact that life will continue after them and that every decision and move they make is a small (but nonetheless important) part of human history. I want viewers to find peace and a lessened fear of death. I want them to have an experience.
Leonardo da Vinci said ‘While I thought I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.’ Death is an inevitable part of the world in which we live and through learning about death, we remember life.
We have been studying James’ novella at college this year and it was really this book that got me more interested in the gothic romantic genre. It’s the story of a governess who takes care of two children, Miles and Flora, at a large country house in Essex named Bly. Throughout the book James portrays the governess as mad and delusional, but at the same time, it is possible to interpret it in another way - she’s sane and the house is truly haunted by the ghosts of a previous servant, Peter Quint and the children’s previous governess, Miss Jessel. The governess, if she is delusional, eventually scares Flora into a fever, is almost oblivious to Mrs Grose, the housekeeper’s true feelings and kills Miles as she desperately defends him from Quint’s ghost. If, however, she is correct and the children have been influenced and ‘corrupted’ by the apparitions, then the novella may end with Miles being purified - not killed.
To be frank; you can’t be sure which way to read it - James leaves the whole tale up to interpretation by the reader. The context and themes are very important to attempting to understand the novella. It does seem that a lot of social critiques are made, especially of sexuality, religion and class; but what is interesting is how we understand the story now, compared to how someone would have read it in the late 19th/early 20th century.
Personally, I prefer to read it as a typical ghost story, but in any case, as Oscar Wilde said, The Turn of the Screw is 'a most wonderful, lurid, poisonous little tale’.
Something I’ve always maintained is that sex is only as good as the context you place it in. Pumping away at someone can be the least attractive thing in the world if you’ve done nothing to lead up to it, nothing to frame it in a way that makes it attractive. It’s just a physical action without the mental obsession behind it.
And Dominance, submission, and all that fun bondage is a way to provide some context. That’s not all it is, by a long shot, but in the moment, when you’re pumping away, doing that physical action, that is what’s driving you, and making it feel so fucking good. I’ve been known to obsess over cultivating that context, making sure it’s as powerful and perfect as I can.
But in the apex, the climactic moment, I can’t help but feel that that context is entirely irrelevant. In that moment, I can barely think, let alone hold in my mind everything that I’ve done to get myself to that moment. I’m not claiming to understand how the female mind processes an orgasm, but if it’s even remotely close to how my mind processes it, it’s an entire cessation of thought, at a fundamental level.
Well, maybe there’s one thought. It’s usually an expletive.
I’m not placing a huge amount of importance on that idea though, as interesting as I find it. Because sex isn’t about the climax, not really. The climax is (really (fucking)) great, but I can climax all on my lonesome. There’s a reason we look for someone to climax with. It’s better with two. And it’s better with a whole lot of context, a whole lot of foreplay, and a whole lot of framing.
Sex is in your mind, eating away at the frayed edges. It’s much better to just let it in and surround it with the things you love.
Writer’s Quote Wednesday is a weekly feature where I delve into famous writer’s words of wisdom and share how I have interpreted the meaning for my own creative endeavors to maybe help inspire yours!
Understand me. I am not like an ordinary world. I have my madness, I live in another dimension and I do not have time for things that have no soul.
Context of current drama embroiling all of science fiction:
Genre’s self-exiled asshole trickster-god Nick Mamatasreveals that promising up-and-comer Benjanun Sriduangkaew (who has a story in an upcoming anthology of his) is also notoriously harsh and divisive critic Requires Hate/Winterfox/A Cracked Moon.
To be coldly cynical for a moment: I’m sure more moderate and civil POC, many of whom have been on the receiving end of her ire, are horrified. But I think that if Sriduangkaew/RH did not exist, we would have to invent her. Every minority needs an angry, scary radical to point to and say “see, I’m not like that, I’m reasonable” in order to legitimize their opinions; and nothing ingratiates you with the old white hegemony like condemning a fellow queer/POC/woman/etc. Call it Solanas’ Law.
Conversely, if you secretly agree with her, you now know who will flip out and who will be more receptive to your criticisms.
Understanding the Johansson/Disney lawsuit thanks to Twitter wisdom…
Here’s part of Disney’s statement…
Yes. They’re excusing a breach of contract over the pandemic. Oh. So righteous.
And because context is everything…
Some say Johansson made a dick move because Disney is “the hands that feeds her”. I wonder if they’d say the same thing if this was Tom Cruise or Robert Downey Jr or some MAN of the likes.
Last, but not least:
I say: good for her. Go after the mouse. Let it all burn if you have to.
