#not bestiary

In light of the video Alex Hirsch posted about the emails with Disney Standards and Practices, I’d like to remind everyone of the following: 

Creators often have limited control about what they are able to “get away with” on screen. S&P creates problems where there are none. And instead of telling religious people to fuck off (as they should) they bow down and cater to them. 

Yes, shows created in the United States are controlled by what the most religious people in the country will think of them. This is often because if Momma Born-Again Christian doesn’t approve of two men hugging, she won’t let Junior watch the cartoon or buy any show-based merch. 

So you get things like ‘bottles will be spun’ getting shit-canned because what if kids conjure images of kissing in their heads? How will they remain chaste for their future monogamous partner? 

It’s censorship under the guise of protecting children. And while this seems innocent enough–if a bit misplaced–it’s led to further censorship on materials written and meant for adults. I’m not going to link it here because then tumblr will tank the post, but look up a Virginia judge’s decision on “A Court of Mist and Fury,” wherein she opined that the book was obscene, and so as not to be seen by children, should not be sold in book stores. 

There are several other cases of book censorship in the United States RIGHT NOW, mostly involving queer material.

And with Democrats becoming disillusioned with the current administration and either not voting or (more confusingly) voting for Republicans, this is only going to continue.

Change does not happen overnight. The GOP has been playing the long game for over 50 years and are only now seeing their goals come to fruition.

With left-leaning voters’ impatience and resistance to playing the long game, I see attacks happening at the front lines denouncing shows for “not being representative enough.” If a creator tries only to be handcuffed by their network’s standards and practices department, the entire show is thrown in the trash. I often see the term “queerbaiting” thrown around without knowledge of what it actually means.

And just last week, left-leaners had a knee-jerk reaction against Lizzo–A known ally–telling her she should have known the meaning of a certain word and to literally “do better.” 

Lizzo, upstanding as always, changed the lyric to the song. The backlash was never necessary. Yet some people on Twitter have decided that the slip was unforgivable.

(And no–not everyone knows everything about every issue. This requires a whole conversation about positive Dunning-Kruger effect that would be too long to post here.) 

With left-leaning disillusionment, the initial response is always anger and dismissal. So often when well-meaning people make mistakes, they go vehemently unforgiven, especially when there is any initial pushback or questioning. 

While pushback and defensiveness are frustrating, I’ve often seen confused allies become initially defensive, only to change their mind with more information. Unfortunately, it’s become taboo to ask questions, which means by the time these people come around, they are unceremoniously dropped, and a new champion finds themself appointed in the eye of public scrutiny. 

And this cycle perpetuates. Perfection is expected. Any deviation from perfection is unacceptable. 

I will concede that after so many years, so many deaths, so much pushback from the right… Anger is often an appropriate response to many things. But it’s important to temper that anger and use it appropriately. When queer media is discarded for a single mistake, the people involved stop trying. When queer media is discarded, it sends a message to conservative networks that that media is not wanted, and so no more media of that type is made. 

Boycotting a show for not being representative enough does not send a message to networks that they need better representation. It sends a message that they need LESS representation. 

We also run into a new effect brought on by the age of the internet wherein well-meaning people essentially dogpile creators and messages of concern and constructive criticism are lost in a sea of absolute vitriol and rage. I’ve seen queer creators and allies run off their platform for a mistake they corrected many years prior, and I’ve also seen creators disconnecting completely from their fanbase to protect themselves. 

This leaves behind people who don’t care what you think. For example, no matter what you say, JK R*wling is never going to leave her platform. Conversely, no matter what you say, Jenna Marbles is never going to return. 

I know you’re tired. I know you’re tired of handholding. Again, I accept that the anger is righteous and oftentimes deserved, but it is SO IMPORTANT to remember that you are now a participant in a long game and you HAVE to play it. Become savvy. Learn who can be talked to and who is a lost cause. Reserve your anger for those who refuse to change. Try to give the people who mean well but made a mistake a second chance. 

I hope I was able to adequately able to convey what I wanted to say here. And I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of people whose response will be that it’s not their job to educate people. But the anger has gone so far as to be damaging, and I’m afraid what the future will bring if queer media is allowed to be censored for being obscene. 

I don’t really post about politics on here anymore, but… Biden should have immediately stuffed the court upon taking office. 

They didn’t, because they’re afraid of Republican retaliation when the Republicans are back in power. Thing is, Republicans are going to do what they want regardless of concessions done for them by Democrats. They don’t care about being fair, they care about being in power. The more power they get, the more they take. 

The best thing to do would have been to stuff the court, enact sweeping change (canceling student debt, universal health care) and cause the people who vote to not WANT Republicans back in power. 

We were in a rare position to control all three branches of government and push change through. We could have done away with gerrymandering and voter suppression by passing laws that the supreme court would then uphold. In a society without voter suppression, Republicans do not win.

We’re now in a society where Roe v. Wade is about to be overturned and over a dozen states have trigger laws ready to go.

We’re in a country where no one has constitutional anti-search and seizure rights within 100 miles of the border. 

You say that’s only for immigrants? It’s not. That’s the problem with laws like this. If you’re suspected of being an immigrant, you can be searched without a warrant. If an officer wants to search your house, they can just say they suspect you of being an immigrant, even if your last name is, say, Smith. 

Again: If you live within 100 miles of the US border, you are no longer protected from a search without a warrant. 

I don’t know what to do anymore, honestly. I don’t think this was ever a fight anyone could win. 

blurry-cow:

jeffyjeffy1023:

aspex-t:

zachsanomaiy:

i-wear-the-cheese:

demigodsavvy:

“Your art isn’t valued by the number of notes you get” okay but. If you spent 6 hours baking a cake for a party, but no one at the party eats your cake, it’s still disappointing.

This articulates something about the different between value and validation that I didn’t previously register on a conscious level.

This is why I tell people I feel more like an entertainer than an artist.

I want to hear them laugh, chat, comment, speak, roar, cry, get irrationally angry, I need people to respond to my art and get inspired and need more.

I don’t want a note, I want a response.

Responses are very nice. I like reading over them. They make me feel fuzzy. Of course, likes and reblogs are also very appreciated, but responses make me feel a special kinda fuzzy.

THIS. Whether it’s whispers in the tags, shouting in a reblog, or regular chatter in the replies. I want YOU to tell me what you think of my work, and to do the same for other artists.

Also, figured I’d mention this: Reblogs help spread art more than Likes do. On mobile you can quick-reblog. To do that, hold down the reblog button, then move your finger to the PFP of the blog you want the post to be reblogged onto, then release.

i want people to rage at me about my fics, i want page long essays, i want lots of angry capital letters

I put this in tags but I think a comment is better. 

It’s really heartbreaking to do art and get no comments in return. Part of my process is hearing what people think. 

And there’s a lot of artists out there who have been beat down so hard on this front that they’ll actually say “no, comments don’t matter. If you enjoy doing the work, then that’s its own reward.” I hate seeing artists that have been convinced of this. It’s not okay. And if you REALLY wanted no interaction with people, you wouldn’t have posted it to social media at all. 

Tumblr especially has become notorious for people who are only here to consume. I do get a few likes, but since there’s no algorithm for likes, it’s become a chore to post my art here. I have three sketches I’ve done that I just haven’t posted on tumblr because it’s not fun for me. Even a tag that says “wow i really like this” makes my day. 

I did an experiment a couple years back where I had a poll for people to take regarding how they shared art. And the biggest answer I got was that people DO share art, but my experience has shown me that they don’t. 

So I don’t know. This is an argument that has persisted for years on this site with no sign of people giving a damn and listening, so it’s better to put my energy elsewhere. 

(Although, for the record, there are a couple people here who almost always share my art, and for you, I am extremely thankful. <3)

smreine:

heywriters:

incandescent-creativity:

headspace-hotel:

dumbbookshit:

Writing advice is so contradictory bro it’s like “chapters are arbitrary breaks in the story to control pacing” then “chapters should be structured in a certain way”……like ??? Or “writing should include all 5 senses to create fleshed out descriptions of the setting” and then “avoid descriptions, it only slows the pacing down”

You just gotta pick out what you want to follow and ignore the rest

Writing advice is really just people sharing what they do in their own writing. Sometimes you hear it and go “Oooh, that sounds great!” and other times you go “absolutely not that’s stupid.”

Pretty much. Best to remember, most readers don’t know any writing rules, they just know what they like and that’s all that matters.

A lot of the different advice you get is based upon different genres, too.

Like if you’re writing a political thriller like Dan Brown, you’ll probably go for these really short chapters strictly to help pacing, whereas you might write longer chapters in fantasy.

Action-oriented genres (like thrillers) are also likelier to skip description for pacing.

Category romance novels might be 90% dialogue and inner monologue, and the senses are only really used to remind us how hot the hero is.

Whereas there might be almost no dialogue whatsoever in that avant garde horror novel.

Writing advice should really be segmented by genre, IMO, because different genres have different conventions.

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God I love me some dinosaurs, and Prehistoric Planet didn’t disappoint. F*ck me if I’m giving Apple any money, though, so I got their free trial so I could watch it. That last statement has nothing to do with my review. Apple can just kiss my ass.

Anyway.

I’m not really a paleontologist, but I read most of the more interesting papers that come out about paleobiology, especially those about dinosaurs and sometimes plants. (Although I’m no Ellie Sattler, so the plants don’t interest me as much.) The point is, I’m pretty well-versed when it comes to dinosaur anatomy, agreed-upon appearance, and biology. So I can say for certain that the models are absolutely some of the most accurate ever portrayed in dinosaur media.

And where our current knowledge base failed, decent theoretical portrayal filled in the holes. We don’t know if other ceratopsians besides psittacosaurus had quills, but it’s a decent leap. Quills take a lot of evolutionary energy to create, which means they have a purpose, which means evolution isn’t going to drop them after a single species. It’s nice to see these details in the show.

I’m also so, so happy that none of the dinosaurs were shrink-wrapped, and actually looked like real animals. I like that the tyrannosaur adults had down-like feathers. I love the speculation when it came to sauropods and the fact that large bull animals definitely want to fight for mates. And I loved the pterasaur sex/gender breakdown based on modern sandpipers called ruffs, which have four different genders.

And while I love that the concentration was more on the everyday life of these dinosaurs–I don’t necessarily need to see scenes of predation for every carnivore depicted–it confused me that the show felt the need to constantly kill babies. It’s not necessarily an unrealistic thing. I passively study falcons in my spare time, and only about 1/3 of the babies make it to a year old, but if predation isn’t being depicted, why then kill so many babies?

And to be fair, two of the babies that were supposed to be dead actually made it out in the end, but this directorial choice was a little… odd? It’s not as if depictions of blood were banned. I can only imagine that it’s a fact of life that’s very rarely portrayed. Even so. Weird.

I would have also liked to see more speculative writing on the care and raising of chicks. Because it’s been proven that dinosaurs like maiasaura and oviraptor were fierce and protective parents (the latter even remaining on her nest of eggs as a possible volcanic eruption killed her and all her offspring) it would have been nice to see more of that. While the male T-rex in the first episode had his chicks in tow, there was no real interaction seen between them, and that continued with many other portrayals of offspring. It was odd to me that most pterosaurs were depicted as abandoning their young.

Concerning other speculative biology, it’s fair, and I’m glad the writers weren’t afraid to guess. It’s likely that many dinosaur species had adaptations and behavioral patterns that we can’t even guess at, because those things aren’t preserved in rock. But dreadnoughtus using air sacs for display and giving a really clever use to carnotaurus’ tiny arms was pretty reasonable. Usually speculation is only limited to the biology we absolutely know for sure. IE: tyrannosaurus had sharp teeth, so it ate meat. So it’s cool to see the writers using current-era adaptations to hypothesize what dinosaurs might have done or looked like.

I highly recommend grabbing a free week of AppleTV+ so you can watch the show. The depictions of dinosaurs are accurate and the speculative biology is fair.

Four stars. Only took one star off for the baby murder.

Sometimes it hurts when people I creatively admire say things like “I can’t believe none of this cool stuff would have happened to me if I hadn’t reached out that one time to someone I admired.” I want my reaching to connect with someone, just once. I just need that one lucky connection that leads to better things. I don’t begrudge those people their success, but I wish I knew what to do to find my own. Just once I want to reach out to someone I admire and say “I have an idea for a collab” and have them respond that they’re excited to work with me.

berlynn-wohl:

I’ll tell you what’s problematic about being over 40 and being friends with someone under 25: if you say “but I am le tired” they do not understand that they are supposed to say “well have a nap AND ZEN FIRE ZE MISSILES”