“We were not aware that civilization was a thin and precarious crust erected by the personality and the will of a very few, and only maintained by rules and conventions skilfully put across and guilefully preserved.”
— John Maynard Keynes, 1938, from the essay My Early Beliefs
“If I had time travel I’d kill Hitler” “If I had time travel I’d stop my favourite politician getting assassinated” you’re all thinking way too small. If I had time travel I’d stop Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from dying on the moon due to Soviet sabotage, kicking off the Great Nuclear War and devastating half of the planet.
I was not expecting the oxytocin that flooded my brain at this picture. As a super serious animal behaviorist, I now must make a Rose Tyler outfit for Ellemere.
Excuse me while I figure out what size denim jacket I need for the kitty. (Look out @arrows-for-pens)
Absolutely beautiful hand-printed shirts by Bonehead Boutique on Etsy! I LOVE comparative anatomy I asked them if they could make a listing for the primate skulls on a shirt, as that option wasn’t available, and they agreed right away! They took a couple of weeks to make and were well worth the wait. The primates have their scientific names above each skull, and the hominids’ are listed on the back of the shirt!
Holy hominids I need these! (Literally gasped at the patas monkey. Ugh. I miss my babies!)
Do you like to read books/novels and can’t afford to buy them all the time and don’t have access to a good library. Here are some e-book sites links I use.
ok i think what gets me about the kind of post that’s like ’[children’s media] has child soldiers, where are their parents!!’ is that those stories really and truly aren’t forpeople who’ll think about that, they’re for the people the children’s age, who don’t, for the most part, want to be kept safe or told they’re too young to participate in the world, they want to be given a sword
i did not anticipate that this post was going to be this popular so like.
when i said “a sword” i was speaking metaphorically. i mean, literally as well, swords are cool as hell. but metaphorically: agency and the power to do something about their situation and the situation of the world.
a bunch of people have said that children who do not have supportive parents love this kind of thing, which is very true and part of a thing i was thinking of but is not in the post - often when you feel alone, reading about someone who is alone but in a much more dramatic way, with, again, the power to do something about it, is much more comforting than reading about someone who is kept safe and given the “right” supports. the dragon takes on the face of the fifth grade bully easily and naturally.
when i said “where are their parents” and “child soldiers” i was generalizing these kind of complaints. “why didn’t any adult step in”/ “these are bad pedagogical techniques” are some of the ones i see a bunch. and the answer is the same. they didn’t step in or teach in a way that would be good in real life because it is the opposite of empowering for a child to hear “when you’re older” in fiction as well as in real life.
someone reblogged this post with tags about how their younger self would have been furious if the events of one of those “villain gets mad at seer for sending children to fight them” posts had played out in real life, and that’s about right - one of the central things about being a child is not being taken seriously. those posts are by adults who have forgotten that, because being wrapped in a blanket and told to sit this one out means that you are not being taken seriously - as a threat; as an enemy; as a hero; as a person.
if your “counterexample” is not directed towards people under 20, you’re misreading the post. The new crop of adult fantasy books really examining the post-traumatic stress of child heroes is very much not for me, but if people like it, that’s fine. but that’s very different from stuff focused on kids with heroes who are kid-aged. “wow, the hero of this book is too young, it’s kind of funny that no one else can do anything/this Great Mage War is between a 12 year old and a 10 year old/whatever” is maybe a funny joke but it is not any sort of real or, more importantly, interesting criticism of the work.
kids’ literature is a great way of exposing kids to the thrill of danger while keeping them absolutely safe.
kids’ literature where the adults are a problem is a great way of teaching kids that authority is not inherently trustworthy.
kids deserve to be safe; kids deserve to feel powerful. a kid reading about an 11-year-old taking on the Dark Lord and winning is safe and feelspowerful.
ALT
