angry glasses

currently actively reading: -the poppy war, archenemies, the well of ascension, a world without princes -aup, nags, simb, tninmn, amkhi, dfg -bleach, furuba, sxf, mairuma, ichi, marriagetoxin -etc.

[clytemnestraaa]

like the problem with the mm hockey romance genre (and this one isn’t on reid or tierney this is the problem as a whole) is that it takes the bad apples approach to all of it because obviously things like racism and homophobia are problems but to admit they are deep-rooted systemic problems instead of individual makes it kind of impossible to resolve. so it’s easy to write about there being a couple of guys who suck. but when you have to deal with the fact that this is what men’s sports are like, yes ALL of them, yes ALL the men involved to some level, because this is what western notions of masculinity are based in, it makes it not a romantic fantasy but instead some sort of medium dot com thinkpiece. ultimately the issue to me is that sports romance novels are written for an audience that likes sports, which then precludes any real criticism of sports. and as i have said before the ideal mm sports romance novel is written by someone who hates men’s professional sports and not in a “flawed institution but noble intentions” kind of way.

[whatimages]

my personal take on this is that it's not even about the sports of it all, it's kind of baked in to romance as a whole. romance as a genre is really interested in recuperating institutions. specifically marriage! Romance Novels, as a genre, are about the fantasy of marriage as being able to meet women's sexual, emotional, and material needs. instead of, you know, being historically kind of a miserable saw trap where women have to trade their bodily autonomy and emotional lives for material wellbeing. and you can take this all the way back to Austen, but I'd argue that this is still pretty foundational to the modern romance genre. this is why billionaire is so popular, what if you had access to unlimited wealth AND incredible dick AND the guy was nice to you. the dream.

obviously we now live in an age where women don't have to be married to a man to have access to money, but the HEA expectation of romance novels is very much formed by this tie between romantic partnership and material wellbeing. no one ends a romance novel homeless, you know? the fantasy is that this institution can work. don't worry about patriarchy as a set of material and psychic conditions. this marriage is good and good marriage is possible.

so sports, in sports romance, are just another institution to recuperate. the structures are fine, don't worry about the structures! romance novels are, i think, fundamentally about a fantasy of navigating difficult social conditions in a personally satisfying way. and so that shows up in whatever the setting is, but I think it's a fundamental characteristic of the genre.

[yiiiiiiiikes25]

whatsy is extremely and wholly correct. i'm gonna add another thing to the pile, which is that repetition is necessary for recuperation. in order to convert the constitutive harm of structures/institutions into social narratives that can obscure their own second-order effects, you need to tell the story over and over again. sports is violence as entertainment; romance is marriage as entertainment. much of their overlapping* utility is that they are easy to consume, comfortingly predictable, and infinitely available. one romance novel can't flip marriage from the aforementioned patriarchal saw trap into the key to individual freedom *and* safety *and* happiness. a couple hundred thousand released into the cultural id...

with this repetition, the narrative fantasy (like gender, like genre) becomes a stable place you visit: sports is somewhere you can go where merit wins; romance is somewhere you can go where love saves somebody. what's striking about the rise of m/m sports romance in particular is that it raises the stakes of that fantasy even further--there is now somewhere you can go where THREE saw traps (marriage, violence, homophobia) become the conditions of happiness. i don't think it's a coincidence that as material conditions worsen, the escape fantasy becomes...more and more fantastic.

one more thing--much of sports romance's fantasy occurs via a specific elision of racism, particularly antiblackness. (sports in general does this much more transparently!) not a coincidence that hockey's the overwhelmingly white big 4 sport and also the locus of western** sports romance, particularly m/m sports romance. not a coincidence that the gays became repeatably consumable as desiring, deserving romantic subjects within the romance genre writ large before black people have. look at these goodreads shelf counts, and keep in mind that college-educated black women read more than everybody else, demographically:

romance as a genre is run by white women. consciously or not, the marriage fantasy these white women write over and over again protects whiteness more than it protects straightness. along this axis, the fantasy actually functions identically to the institution instead of transforming it. as the repetition of stories shows us, there's a hierarchy of which social conditions are onscreen, navigable such that 'marriage is good and a good marriage is possible', and which social conditions don't serve most creators' stakes in the marriage fantasy at all.

*for doing-my-real-job-today purposes i'm skipping some other very relevant overlaps between sports & romance--libidinal imaginaries, economies of ability and desirability, the temporal bound of a championship or a wedding, etc--but somebody else run w the ball pls

**i would really like to read some comparative scholarship on race overall in western romance and BL, if anybody has recs.

[chemiosmotic]

[Image description: two screenshots of a website listing showing that there are 26713 books in the Gay Romance category and 4218 listed as African American Romance Books. End ID.]

[rylandgraces]

[the most low energy you have ever seen me] we’re about to go crazy mode

[angry-glasses]

awoooo

[kaibacorpintern]

DSOD is actually crazy for the surveillance state stuff because if the only friend you've ever made that you're also psychosexually obsessed with disappeared off the face of the planet with no explanation and it feels like abandonment and betrayal and you're a billionaire child with almost no impulse control and controlling neurotic tendencies, perhaps you would ALSO implement a system that lets you track everyone's movement across time and space?

this is not an endorsement of the kaibopticon btw. i just think DSOD is crazy for this. atem disappeared. kaiba doesn't know how or where to. kaiba said "okay well i'm never losing track of anyone again." movie about grief of all fucking time

[kaibacorpintern]

I made an error in this post th correct term is kaibanopticon. better flow smoother mouth feel. plz surface to all staff

[this-user-is-always-bored]

Tbh with the way the author was handling Cattleya, it felt as if she was this one party member that appears in the middle of the game and is a direct upgrade of an existing one so you either swap them out or not (because you feel reluctant to part with the one you are used to). At least to the author. ... if he wanted to use both he should have given them more space to develop instead of this weird situation where Cattleya is clearly in possession of better narrative potential including due to having actual character connections outside of tarot club but Alger is used more (but the parts that can distinguish him from Cattleya beyond pathway and being a guy are also struggling to be developed)

alger has one (1) relationship outside of the tc. he and qilangos were childhood friends when they were servants in the church of the storm together, and qilangos went on to become a pirate (betraying the church) while alger is also wanting to do the same but not in such a way that forces him to commit to a dangerous lifestyle. this relationship does not matter because qilangos dies early on in vol 1 before they can even have an actual conversation. 

thing is this relationship does nothing. it’s supposed to build upon alger’s themes of his fear of confrontation and refusal to actually commit to anything (as seen by his flippancy towards the church of storms & his mentorship of derrick), but because alger is not a character with any kind of development or arc, these themes are there as set dressing to give him an illusion of interiority.

this is, once again, because of cf not juggling the ensemble cast well & also writing a webnovel. webnovels are nearly obligated to be longwinded and  overly drawn out in order for their authors to get paid, and so they’re encouraged to make things so much more convoluted than it should be. why can’t cattleya be rhe orphan raised by the church of storms with qilangos, then losing contact w him as bernadette adopted her, and now them meeting again as fellow pirates of differing approaches to rebellion against the state?

nothing is wrong with this. in fact, it makes it go a lot more smoothly because shit that had to be split off into two characters can just be concentrated into one. you wouldn’t have to worry about the blue avenger feeling like a tacked on accessory to alger’s background, because it doesn’t exist now and the future’s crewmates are more fun as comedic relief! cattleya choosing to be a pirate (rebelling against the state) is given more credence through her experience being raised in the church + being neglected by bernadette. derrick having her as his mentor creates a good ‘breaking the cycle of abuse’ narrative that ties back into the roselle/bernadette/cattleya conflict that would’ve gone nowhere.

but they can’t do that, because bringing more characters into your story to stretch things out and add further complications to everything makes rhe average chapter longer, meaning they get paid more. and also misogyny but i figured that was obvious.

[innerchildabortionclinic]

mind palace that was formerly a palace until the ruling family was killed mercilessly for its crimes. and now it's the thinking woman's socialist republic.

[eliseliedl]

Saya~💚

[egophiliac]

the squeakquel

(no worries, this is the last one) (...for now)

[daftpatience]

and what if the character wasn't directly rejected but at every turn they were made to experience situations that made them feel completely irrefutably unwanted. what then

[sabotsen]

*wanders over from morimenswrite prompts* Hello, I was told to inquire about the wonders of Doresalv here?

A ha hahaha ok so apologies if this makes 0 sense at all, I am about to pass out for bed for work at 5am so you get this now or at 5am there's no middle ground strap in.

The two of them initially gave me brain worms bc of how polar they are to each other in many aspects .

The man who mutilates his body to save vs the man who devours to remember/honor

The man who disregards himself to the point of erasure vs the man who takes others unto himself and they are remembered/become a part of him

The man who neglects himself bc his body is just a tool/vessel vs the man who cares for himself bc the body must be treasured

Like. They foil each other in a lot of ways. Salvador, who likely eats very little if at all and its always plain meals, vs doresain who makes sure every meal is nutritious and brings out the best of the ingredients bc to do less would shame the life taken/lost. The fact that Doresain takes great pleasure in feeding others and Salv literally needs someone to remind him to care for himself.

You can turn it into communion themes, if you want. To take a piece (of flesh) unto yourself; to nourish and be nourished by. The fact that Doresain thrives when he can feed and nourish someone else, to ensure memory is honored and food is partaken. Communion turned sacrilegious and erotic.

Plus there's the fact thar Dore would also find it rather amusing imho to needle Salv.

Dore literally faced a god and was feasted upon by it. You can argue that he's linked to / partially assimilated into that god if you want. So here is this funny little lizard in front of you who speaks of an "All-Father" god and yet that very god does not stop this fool from bleeding out and carving chunks of flesh from himself or neglecting himself. Its almost like that god is encouraging this damaging behavior. I imagine, to me, that's their first interaction. A clash if religious conflict. And then Dore notices the way this bishop constantly reeks of blood. And that gets his interest so he digs a little and a little and a little. And he finds out this fool of a man is mutilating his body and is practically malnourished.

And for what? What has that god done for you, Salvador? Have your prayers truly been answered or have you carved flesh from bone to make your own miracles in the silence?

It's just fascinating to me how their relationship would grow from Doresain needling Salv for mild amusement at first, shifting when he realizes just how poorly Salv takes care of his health and eats, and how Dore stubbornly needles his way into Salv's daily life to feed him.

I will not let you starve yourself for a god that will not answer your devotion in kind. Partake of me and be nourished, in body and soul and memory.

They mean a lot to me, tbh. How do you teach someone who has long forgotten that kindness and concern can be unconditional? How long has it been since Salv was cared for and looked after without any strings attached? Without expectation he will carve flesh and bone from his body and break upon those stone tablets to repay the debt? How do you help someone relearn that their life has value beyond their "use" to others? How do you love someone and care for them when they think so little of themselves they fail to understand why you worry in the first place? How do you remind someone that they must live and care for themselves so that they can truly live and be remembered?

I am trying and failing to cobble together every scattered yelling I've done in the discord chat bc I have subject warren to it so fucking much I gave them a disease.

Take snips from the chat (nsfw mentioned) bc this took longer to write than I thought and I fr need to sleep for work

Tldr. they are the cumulation of that quote : "it's rotten work to care for me." "Not to me. Not if it's you."

[k49a]

Awoken God

[beastenraged]

Prompt #5: Bound

@morimenswrite

The chains keep Salvador trapped in place. Kneeling.

He can feel his blood dripping down his wrist, down where the metal is taut against his skin.

A particularly cruel trapping, a mocking from the Lightbearers. At least he was able to handle the beasts that they sent after him, before they pinned him in place. Before those beasts could wander off to attack innocent souls with their chains.

The feel of a familiar soul moving into his range. Cold, patchworked, achingly beautiful in what he can sense of it.

"Ah, is your god that demands such a cruel binding, priest?"

Doresain.

"Or is this your choice alone?"

A heavy sigh. Salvadaor feels the breath on his face, as its source presumably squats down next to him. A few moments later, he can feel tugging at the chains.

An attempt to loosen them.

"When I said that your religion keeps you trapped, this is not what I meant. You do not have to do this to heal the other followers of your...Silver Flame."

Oh. So Doresain thinks he has done to himself of his own will. That's alright. The man doesn't need to know what really happened.

Only pain lies that way.

Salvador finds his words on cracked lips and tongue. "But if I do not heal them, who will?"

A hand tracing along his shoulder, along one of the deeper wounds. "Who will, indeed."

[azspot]

“Because the truth is, tech doesn’t have an image problem. It doesn’t have a message problem. It has an intention problem. What’s wrong with the axe murderer who broke into my house is not that he hasn’t successfully persuaded me to buy into his narrative. What’s wrong is that he’s trying to kill me with an axe. Similarly, when you launch a product that’s designed to put millions of people out of work, block access to sources of verifiable truth, replace human creativity with slop, and lower the barriers to every sort of atrocity, the problem isn’t that you haven’t told the public a good story about those things. The problem is that you are trying to do them.”

— The 40 Most Rage-Inducing Problems in Tech

[santhipoma]

[sleepyblobb]

they know lolol

[soleminisanction]

I'd like to see more Robin!Steph designs with a muted color pallet -- not quite Damian's black-and-gray aesthetic, but like. Keep Spoiler's hood and use the Cluemaster-esque face mask from the Todd Nauck WWYJ design, and mute the red down to more of a reddish-gray and the yellow to a faint brown.

Partially because it'd be an amusing visual play on female robins (the birds) having more muted plumage colors than their male counterparts, but mostly because it would lean into and even highlight her skill as a spy and infiltrator.

[mamawasatesttube]

the thing about media literacy is that understanding why the author chose to specify that the curtains are blue is the same skill set as understanding that the way the author characterizes all black characters as angry or all chinese characters as meek and silent is racist. it is the same skill set as being able to identify when a news source is biased or when someone is feeding you propaganda. the ability to ask "why did this person choose to present this premise in this specific way?" is a critical skill in a world full of misinformation. why are the curtains blue? maybe it's a characterization detail. maybe it's extraneous worldbuilding. why is this character written as being right all the time? maybe you're intended to disagree with them. maybe it doesn't matter. maybe you should still ask why.

[q6meow]

baek saheon criticizing bronze for being a shady selfish excuse of a bureau agent unlike HIS paper boat jisan agent will never not be funny not only bc of the fact paper boat agent is kim soleum but also because of baek saheon's own, equally selfish and shady personality, i love his hypocritical ass