allegorymetaphory

Poetry, other writing, art, mental health, TV & movie commentary. Cover image & avatar by Louis John Rhead.

[artruby]

Gabriele Picco, Nuvola (Cloud), 2005-2006

[habanerograndmas]

[ID: A cloud tied to the top of a two-door compact car.]

[hedge-rambles]

Something I loved in Platform Decay was the whole thing of "sigils" being, very clearly like, emojis. I can't recall if they're mentioned much before this book, but the way Sofi uses them makes it clear what they really are.

Which makes this reread funny when, a few pages in, I'm hit with this line:

I send Three the schematics highlighted where the potential security personnel were located; it replied with an acknowledgement sigil and an updated map projection.

MB: Vital mission information, potential dangers and schematics.

Three: 👍

[caressthosecheekbones]

nasa is using a 3D world graphic for the solar eclipse thingy today where germany is still devided in east and west adjfglkafdhgadfg. buddies, it's been almost 40 years.

[chthonion]

So I showed this to a physicist and they were like "Oh! Yes! It's a figure from Fred Espenak's very old paper where he did a bunch of eclipse graphics! I've been looking at these my entire internet life, basically, for every solar eclipse! They called him Mr. Eclipse. He just passed away recently 🥺"

Anyway apparently Mr. Eclipse made 5000 years' worth of solar eclipse graphics, which you can find the simpler versions of here

So now instead of laughing at NASA for their outdated graphics I'm emotional about Mr. Eclipse and his hard work

[what-even-is-thiss]

Gets stuck in the past and makes a random village get way smarter and less violent in a generational sense because I keep smacking people over the head with a stick and telling them that it’s the devil’s metal whenever they try to use lead for something in my presence and there develops a very niche regionalized superstition that an angry warlock will jump out of a tree and beat the shit out of you if you touch lead with your bare hands

[what-even-is-thiss]

Gets excommunicated by the Catholic Church for telling people that they can banish the devil from their water if they boil it therefore saving hundreds of people from a cholera outbreak but I don’t care and keep trying to convince the locals to use soap more often

[what-even-is-thiss]

Meets another iseksied person in the far past and beats the shit out of them for participating in the slave trade and eating moldy bread

[fiercestpurpose]

“I very proudly entered the forestry school as an 18-year-old and telling them that the reason that I wanted to study botany was because I wanted to know why asters and goldenrod looked so beautiful together. These are these amazing displays of this bright, chrome yellow and deep purple of New England aster, and they look stunning together. And the two plants so often intermingle rather than living apart from one another, and I wanted to know why that was. I thought that surely in the order and the harmony of the universe, there would be an explanation for why they looked so beautiful together. And I was told that that was not science, that if I was interested in beauty, I should go to art school. Which was really demoralizing as a freshman, but I came to understand that question wasn’t going to be answered by science, that science, as a way of knowing, explicitly sets aside our emotions, our aesthetic reactions to things. We have to analyze them as if they were just pure material, and not matter and spirit together. And, yes, as it turns out, there’s a very good biophysical explanation for why those plants grow together, so it’s a matter of aesthetics and it’s a matter of ecology. Those complimentary colors of purple and gold together, being opposites on the color wheel, they’re so vivid, they actually attract far more pollinators than if those two grew apart from one another. So each of those plants benefits by combining its beauty with the beauty of the other. And that’s a question that science can address, certainly, as well as artists. And I just think that “Why is the world so beautiful?” is a question that we all ought to be embracing.”

— Robin Wall Kimmerer, “The Intelligence of Plants”, from the podcast On Being with Krista Tippett (via peatbogbodyhasmoved)

[noctiscorvus]

Googled it and you know what, it is beautiful:

[floralprintsharks]

[ID: a photograph of purple asters growing amidst bright yellow goldenrod flowers. End ID]

[charlesoberonn]

Imagine being a civilian on a Starfleet starship.

"How was your day, honey?" "Not great. Had to pick the kids from school early because the ship went back in time. There's a confused Roman centurion in the living room, btw. How was your day?" "Couldn't get much work done because Jerry got taken over by a space parasite." "Again?" "I think at this point he's doing it on purpose."

[sign-seeker]

Child in the Enterprise daycare, drawing a picture entitled My Family: "This is me and this is my daddy and this is my daddy's transporter duplicate and this is my mommy and this is the subspace entity that poses as human that used mommy as it's template that calls itself her sister and this is our dog and this is the shape-shifting salt-vampire that snuck on board disguised as our dog but decided it likes dog food better than salt so now we have two dogs."

[charlesoberonn]

"And this is my brother Jacob."

"Why is he gray?"

"I tried to make him transparent to show how he doesn't fully exist in this timestream."

[omghotmemes]

I laughed way too hard at this

[mezimraky]

in case anyone is looking through the notes trying to find the original artist it’s will mcphail !! feel free to check out his site but also here are some other things he made too !!

[smooththegoofyshark]

OOOHHH CLICK ON THAT LINK THIS GUY IS FUCKING GREAT

[evilkitten3]

HOLY SHIT

this guy GETS IT

[murgaliciousdefinition]

He is also responsible for one of my favorite comics of all time.

I wanted to buy this print but last I checked on his site it was sold out. Here’s his shop though:

WILL McPHAIL

Giclée Print on Hahnemühle German Etching Paper Limited edition of 100, signed and numbered.  A4 - 30 x 22 cm Orders will be shipped

[faejilly]

There’s a Lady No-Kids Continued

Also Triangle is one of my favorites

[hope-for-the-planet]

Indigenous cultural practices are a climate solution, report finds

Indigenous lands are crucial for climate mitigation and resilience. Research shows their health is a direct result of Indigenous stewardship

While this isn't news to anyone who works in this space, it is useful to have this water-is-wet research to affirm that Indigenous knowledge and land management are extremely effective at storing carbon and protecting biodiversity.

I want to draw special attention to this part of the article:

New research shows that approach overlooks the key role that Indigenous knowledge and culture can play in mitigating climate change. It also reveals a dangerous misconception that has taken hold in global climate discussions: the idea that Indigenous lands are so rich because they are remote or sparsely populated. Nothing could be further from the truth. The health of Indigenous lands and their ability to store vast quantities of carbon stem from the stewardship of the people who inhabit them.

[hope-for-the-planet]

I'm actually bringing this back around to say another important thing.

I get a fair number of asks and comments on my posts expressing sentiments like "human beings are a plague on this Earth", "humans ruin everything, we deserve to be wiped out", "humanity is inherently selfish, evil, and irredeemable".

I don't think the folks saying these things have bad intentions, I know their words come from a place of very understandable pain, fear, and anger. But to act as though humanity's impact on nature is inherently damaging and extractive is to erase thousands of years of Indigenous stewardship of nature. These ecosystems are thriving because there are humans living there.

This is your regular reminder that you don't need to feel guilty for being a human. You are part of nature--viewing humans as inherently separate from the rest of nature is actually part of the problem. You will be so much better served redirecting that guilt into supporting the humans who are helping nature or resisting those who are hurting it.

[depsidase]

[quasi-normalcy]

All of these industries like "comics" and "cinema" that are dying because they presuppose young people will have disposable income

[bloodraven55]

never forget when saruman literally told gandalf "you've been smoking too much weed bro"

[chasetriesagain]

"You're smoking too much weed," says the guy who got addicted to manosphere podcasts on his orb and started a fascist militia with a side hobby of deliberate environmental destruction. Started cutting down trees to own the woke elves.

[vampire-loving-vampire]

hey white people . if u dont know how to pronounce an ethnic persons name *google it* or if its someone ur talking directly to *ask them*. dont fucking do that "erm i dont know how to pronounce but __" or "im gonna butcher this haha" or "im not even gonna bother trying" . ur not funny. do u know what poc think when they hear u saying that ? u sound like a loser asshole and we dont want to spend time with u . im so fucking tired of watching youtube videos about media from my country and hearing those phrases. im tired of people saying that to my face . i respect someone who clearly looked it up and is tryong but says my name wrong over someone who just goes with whatever bad first guess they had without trying. u have too many resources at ur disposal to keep doing this. for the love of god just Fucking Try. if ur confused Just Try.

[despair-tea]

I highly recommend Forvo.com, the website where native speakers of a language contribute their time and voices to read words and names in their own language. It is a fantastic way to expand your world, open up your ears, and it's way more likely to nab a hit than just googling.

[vampire-loving-vampire]

wow , I didn't know this existed, thanks so much for sharing the resource !! I will absolutely be using it now too 🖤

[bunbuttbread]

Because Tumblr is very English speaking and some ppl like France a little too much I just want to remind you of a few things:

- France abolished the Code Noir 2 months ago. That law project that said hey you can enslave, mutilate, kill, cross breed, etc. black people at will bc they're not people they're property ? Yeah. Abolished 2 months ago. We are in July 2026.

- the last human zoo closed its doors in 1994 in France due to social pressure. Not bc they were running out of business, no. Ppl still visited that place until it closed its doors. No, it was bc (black) French people were fed up. That human zoo was specialized in displaying black (presumed Congolese) people in fake huts in enclosures, for white entertainment.

- now while this might no longer be the case, when I was growing up, I went to a French school (as in. It was an international French School w the French flag n all) and the way we were taught French geography was that France has the biggest and largest access to the sea in the world. And they'd show us a map of France and its colonies around the world. It's all occupied indigenous lands. I don't know if they still teach that. I hope not. But they absolutely did until I graduated high school in 2017. Again, I write this on July 21st 2026, for the record.

Anyways that's all I have for now. Y'all don't hate France enough. Y'all need to hate France more.

[bagofbonesmp3]

there's something about morticia and gomez, miss piggy and kermit, howl and sophie that is not at all cishet. at their core they're for gay people

[m-e-w-666]

[never-heart-blog]

Don't forget Jesse and James

[pan-galactic-enby]

🖤🤎❤🧡💛💚💙💜💙💖🤍💖💙

THE GAY AGENDA

BI 4 BI & T 4 T

🖤🤎❤🧡💛💚💙💜💙💖🤍💖💙

[theswisscheeserag]

You gotta be really publicly passionate about things if you want your friends to text you. Bc people will forget to text you because they’re human. But if you’re really openly the friend who loves identifying ants your friends will think of you when they see ants. And they’ll text you “what ant is this [blurry photo]”. And then they’ll ask you how you’ve been and we should get coffee sometime. But if they don’t know what you love they’ll never know what you like

[theswisscheeserag]

And then when the ant convention is in town they’ll be like dude… we should go to the ant convention. But they would never think to go if they didn’t know u loved ants

[theswisscheeserag]

And sometimes you need to ask them to go to the ant convention. But you Will not get anywhere hiding your passions

[allegorymetaphory]

[allegorymetaphory]

I met q friend

[chungledown-bimothy]

i genuinely don't think there's much, if anything, hotter than someone clearly having a blast doing something they're really good at. doesn't really matter what it is. the combo of competence and joy is absolutely lethal to me