muddi [he/him]

Sounds like you might enjoy people being honest to you rather than enjoying compliments or criticism. Criticism is more blunt when said to someone’s face, but compliments can seem disingenuous, so maybe you don’t believe the compliments subconsciously

Lucifer’s Hebrew name is Helel!

They already have anti-China shit in the original show. The part with the Dai Li conspiracy and brainwashing.

Actually even before that, the Air nation being 100% based on Western exoticism of Tibet, which apparently means racially predisposed to being peaceful spiritual nomads (who live in one of several settled places nonetheless for some reason) and get genocided because their reincarnation prophecy challenges political goals of empire.

IIRC in some interview the show creators even pull out the line “hate the political party, not the people” when the topic came up

Phrases like “American Dream” and “Manifest Destiny” are just euphemisms for genocide and exploitation.

No other country has concepts like this. They have stuff like mottos and national ideals, but the people have existed long enough in the land to be their own motivation to exist as a nation. The US was created in order to commit genocide and exploit the land. They justify nationhood and citizenship after the fact.

I think it’s just the Anglo colonies that qualify for this, since European colonies “allowed” indigenous people to persist in some manner. Even then, there’s no eg. Canadian or Australian dream that I’ve heard of. So it’s just American being exceptional, exceptionally genocidal and exploitative.

I’m second panel unfortunately. I’m trying to research the evolution of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages. But any resources outside of Romance and maybe Germanic is so hard to find, especially if you’re not a linguistics student at a university…

I once tripped hard and believed I died. When I came out from the trip, I still had no evidence I hadn’t finished tripping, and am actually still dying as my mind fires its dying circuits in my deathbed.

But that doubt interferes with my ability to live a normal live which I am used to and strive for, so I ignore the doubt, mostly. I check myself with little tests now and then.

Same with other existential doubts in general. If you want some official names of philosophies, Nagel’s absurdism, Buddhism, Vedanta, and maybe pragmatism would be applicable. Basically: don’t kill yourself with doubt, keep on living with some sensibility in your senses, though keep a curious mind to keep yourself in check now and then.

Only thing I might say is that it focuses on the person only when grappling with the consequences of the bomb. That’s the point of the film though, but it might seem tasteless given that many more lives were affected to a far greater extent than Oppenheimer’s name itself

This is why I believe storytelling should include real world politics and be very explicit about it. Fuck escapism, embrace (good) propaganda

Meanwhile you have gamers rising up over the slightest apparent deviation from the norm, and Tolkien fans rising up about applicability not allegory

Though idk, despite the explicitness Star War fans also dig the fash vibes of the empire. I remember seeing a comment on the trailer for the Ahsoka show when they dropped the phrase “heir to the empire” or something and people said they actually felt chills wtf

I saw the Ahsoka show, they seemed to be copying or were inspired by the cinematography of this version of Dune…the wide aerial shots of megastructure thing. I think I like it. Part 2 seems more like a love story based on this trailer though.

Yes I know, just thought it was funny

Somewhat unrelated to the news but gave me a chuckle, but the judge ruling in favor of the decision is named Dhananjaya Chandrachud.

The first name translates to “conqueror of wealth” and the first part of the last name is “moon.” So he’s literally Moon-Chud the conqueror of wealth.

This song captures how I feel looking out at a snowy winter night: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sbOiD7PZsQM

It’s from an instrumental piano album called December by George Winston

I know that Wheel of Time was handed over by Robert Jordan to Brandon Sanderson, because he was dying. It can be very jarring to suddenly see a change in writing style.

Maybe that’s how historians of literature feel when they detect forgeries or misattributions.

I think maybe it would make more sense to have authors write individual stories and contribute to a shared setting. Not like spin-offs and fandoms, but like open source contribution I guess.

To be fair this is what most of fantasy does, even back when it was mythology…for example “-mor-” names, probably referring to French or Latin for “death:” Mordred, Mordor, Morgorth, Moria, some others from other franchises I can’t remember

If it was English instead of Latin roots, yeah, this is what it would sound like

I know this is like modern filmmaking phenomena but I wonder how much is related to Western culture, always living in the ruins and shadows of the East.

For example, Roman and Greek architecture and art is always portrayed as plain white marble structures (think Washington DC), even though they were actually very colorful. Similar thing happens with ancient Middle Eastern structures, portrayals and conceptions as collosal but plain, ruined structures (cf. Ozymandias, new Dune adaptions, the Ahsoka show now), even though there was once very rich culture around them.

In India, there are very old, now plain-looking temples, and new ones constructed as white slabs, but there are also very old yet ornate and rainbow/pastel-colored temples out there (eg. Ranganathaswamy Temple.

Idk I guess my thesis is that it is a continuous and living tradition, so the sublime is not thought of as this inhuman, unattainable looming object in the background used as a tool to indicate the power of men over nature and civilizations.

Like I see the Western motif in this way: a larger-than-life Great Man going around conquering lands, with scenes of him looking up at the colossal ancient wonders, showing he too is a collosus: Alexander, Napoleon, Paul Atreides, etc. Whereas in Hindu tradition, the tirtha-yatra or conquest by a cakravartin world-conqueror is more about touring the world and paying homage to each holy site and culture, looking up at these intricate temples and recognizing there is a deeper unseen world they are part of. Sometimes the final step in a cakravartin’s world conquest is to give away his global empire. Hence the image of ancient Hindu kings parading, just throwing gold and gems into the stretets.

Sorry for the essay, if anyone has any more info on this topic, I’d love to follow up. It’s very interesting to me to connect film and historical perceptions!

Ah yep that triggered the full memory for me…it was a book called Tikki Tikki Tempo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikki_Tikki_Tembo

Oh man this is stirring up some memories from early grade school about an English version of this that we used to sing about a boy with a long name and his younger brother.

I always wondered if that was just the moral of the story: don’t give your children long names. Which my parents did to me 😡

Unironically this illustrates my feelings against the “cosmic wonder” type of thing that you hear from science documentary hosts like Sagan and Tyson…“we’re star stuff” cool but most of us are laboring to survive and have no time to appreciate that fact.

Even then it’s not particularly significant that that eg. a star died to produce the atoms in our body, there are sextillions of them out there. It’s like being shocked about rolling dice and getting a 2 specifically.

I’ll check it out! Thanks for the rec

And about the Indian stories, I think you’ll find a rhythmic pattern. Maybe the translations can ruin it, I can’t confirm or deny this.

I think you’re right, I’m probably missing out on certain contexts and linguistic play reading the English translations. It adds to the melancholy in a way though, knowing there’s more beneath the surface of the words I can only barely grasp

I’m reading the Kathasaritsagara now! Reading those kind of collections of tales makes me feel like I’m living among the ancient/medieval villagers of India, an interesting perspective shift to say the least