I must not mock Gen Alpha. Mocking Gen Alpha is the mind killer. Mocking Gen Alpha is the little-death that brings total generational solidarity obliteration. I will engage with Gen Alpha lovingly. I will permit them to be cringe. And when they grow up I will turn my eye to their accomplishments. Where mocking has gone there will be nothing. Only generational solidarity remains
when i hear complaints about the boomers, i say "was it not boomers getting shot by cops while protesting against the war in vietnam? Were not boomers the ones who insisted that banks would no longer require a cosign from a husband or father for a woman to open an account or have a credit card? Did they not literally take us to the moon?"
When i hear complaints about gen x i say " did not gen x bear the brunt of AIDS and the creation of the 'inner city'? wasn't it gen-x marching for queer rights and women's body autonomy and a change in corrupt banking policies in some of the largest protests in the country's history?"
when i hear complaints about millennials, i say "have not millennials fought against and lived through so many 'once in a generation' disasters they should by all rights have given up by now? Are not millennials those who rally against the status quo? the industry killers, the cop protesters, they who live through unending hardship as the economic noose tightens, leading the charge for sustainability and socio-economic reform?"
when i hear complaints about gen-z i say "hasn't gen-z gotten involved younger, and been involved stronger, in the continuance of these noble traditions? Are they not living without even the broken pieces of the promise given to the generations that came before? haven't they had their childhoods derailed by the imminence of consequences for actions they were never even present for?"
when i hear complaints about generation alpha i say "HOW DARE YOU. How dare you malign these souls who will have to fix so much that they did not have a hand in ruining... or else die of these mistakes made before they were born. How dare you do the work of our shared oppressors and alienate our fresh blood. You are not to mistreat and mock the youngest soldiers in this fight, no! you point out to them the best targets, you share your rations, you show them how to stay alive, because anyone in the trenches with us is our brethren, our sistren. Our safety and our strength."
don't let the worst kind of stand up comedian tell you other generations are terrible. Don't let the worst kind of headline convince you each generation is against the other. Don't let the worst kind of oppressive force keep us divided along lines that mean nothing real. Because that is how they win.
“Capitalism is going to deal itself out of existence, but before it does that, you're gonna pay $50 for a latte, because inflation is going impoverish all of us before people get pissed off enough to realize that all of the last hundred years of economic progress was actually a shell game to create billionaires, while the great masses of people saw their standard of living eroded and destroyed.”
‘Caper in the Castro’ was thought to be long lost.
Caper in the Castro is a legendary video game, not because legions of die-hard fans continue to play it, but because it was thought to be lost forever. Now, what is largely considered to be the first LGBTQ-focused video game (it was released in 1989) is on the Internet Archive for anybody to play.
The game is a noir point-and-click that puts the player in the (gum)shoes of a private detective named Tracker McDyke who is, in case you couldn’t guess by the name, a lesbian. McDyke must unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of Tessy LaFemme, a transgender woman, in San Francisco’s Castro district, an historically gay neighbourhood.
OOOOOHhh!
The game was released as charityware – freely, with a strong request to give a donation an AIDS Charity of their choice. I’d like to push towards still following that and donating, if you’re able.
(And you might also want to donate to the Internet Archive, who is hosting it now, while you’re at it – they’re in the middle of a donation drive, and could use your support.)
sometimes i think about gay people who lived centuries ago who thought they were all alone who imagined a world where they could live openly as themselves who met in secret spoke in code defied everything and everyone just to exist and i’m like..i gotta sit down. whew i gotta sit down
If this little book should see the light after its 100 years of entombment, I would like its readers to know that the author was a lover of her own sex and devoted the best years of her life in striving for the political equality and social and moral elevation of women.
“The Great Geysers of California” by Laura De Force Gordon, 1879, unearthed from a 100-year-old time capsule in San Francisco, 1979.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all our letters could be published in the future in a more enlightened time. Then all the world could see how in love we are.”
the implicit politics of clan lavellan: keeper istimaethoriel is pretty great, actually
the exposure we get to clan lavellan is limited to a few dialogues and the war table operations, but i like what's suggested by the "good ending." the only outcome for the clan other than its wholesale destruction (don't even get me started) is its shift to a position halfway between a that of a regular clan and a group of regimented, politically unified, culturally and theologically traditionalistic city elves. the clan becomes sedentary, settling permanently in/near wycome. it's able to claim formal political power in a region where feudal systems aren't as deeply-entrenched and the sovereignty of individual cities is zealously upheld.
this opportunity is unprecedented, and clan lavellan is uniquely positioned to take advantage of it due to the preparations of its keeper. keeper istimaethoriel has been quietly readying for this sort of eventuality since before the story began, and this strange ending puts her in the perfect situation to implement the political program that's implied from the second she appears in the narrative.
in both dialogues with josephine and letters from the keeper, clan lavellan is characterized as aberrant inasmuch as they're relatively cosmopolitan and mercantile, relying on trade as a secondary mode of living. as a clan that's unusually dependent on trade, it's in their best interest to maintain cordial relationships with sedentary societies, and their attempts to do so have been more-or-less successful. keeper istimaethoriel says as much in her letters.
While some Dalish clans hate humans and wish nothing to do with them, Clan Lavellan has always dealt fairly with all and wished only for peace.
and in one conclusion of the same operation,
We would be a distraction if we came to the Inquisition itself, our hunters arguing with the humans as they so easily do.
clan lavellan finds itself in and around human settlements often enough that the hunters arguing with humans is a known tendency. it's also notable that relations with humans are, while tense, sufficiently civil that the hunters are arguing rather than being forced into armed conflicts. you only get into debates with people who are not actively attempting to massacre you.
choice-dependent dialogues with josephine buttress this characterization of the clan as one that has been effective in forging ties with its sedentary neighbors.
PC: The human towns we traded with ate the same food and suffered the same weather we did.
PC: The main difference was that they had homes, while we wandered.
the reference to "village mobs" in an alternate part of the same dialogue tree emphasizes that pursuing these relations can be dangerous, but you know which sedentary population is most likely to trade fairly/least likely to stab you for being an elf? one composed entirely of other elves: the wycome alienage.
it's not stated that clan lavellan has had prior dealings with the elves of wycome, but it's not an unrealistic inference to make based on how the two groups treat one another.
Keeper Istimaethoriel: Some of the elves of Wycome fled their alienage to warn us. Others fled to escape the harsh treatment they are suffering in the city.
I fear violence will come soon, da'len.
the fact that the city elves of wycome begin fleeing to clan lavellan even before the purge indicates that 1) the city elves believe it plausible that the clan would grant them refuge 2) the city elves feel obligated to warn the clan of potential dangers. based on these attitudes, there’s a sense of solidarity between these two groups; the city elves trust and attempt to aid the clan, trust that the clan proves justified by accepting refugees and risking themselves to intervene militarily. the “dalish are isolationist” claim a few city elves make elsewhere in the series is a clan-specific complaint borne partially of ethnic prejudice, and the attitudes they display towards each other indicate that it’s not a widely-held belief among the elves of wycome or at all applicable to this clan in particular.
and all of the traits given to the clan through the war table operations, dialogues, etc. are compatible with and implicit in the initial premise of the game. lavellan is sent to the conclave as a spy, and it makes more sense that she’s able to move in culturally human circles so easily if she’s used to being tasked with doing so. the pc was only at the conclave in the first place because this keeper is atypical in her keen, consistent interest in foreign politics.
Solas: Your clan was unique in having enough interest in human affairs to send you to spy upon the Divine's meeting.
it's a common criticism that lavellan's narrative pretext for being present at the conclave is weak, and while i don't disagree, it's less true if sending spies to meddle in human business is exactly the sort of thing deshanna would do. this conflict will affect elves, and judging by her reactions to wycome, deshanna considers all elves to be her business. she is an established meddler, and she knows exactly what she's doing here.
one of the details i like best about this is the departure from inquisition's standard treatment of economic modernization as inextricable from cultural assimilation. you can play a lavellan who is proudly and unapologetically dalish, having received extensive cultural instruction from the keeper herself (the line in the temple of mythal about being taught the prayers to falon'din, among others). keeper istimaethoriel is progressive in most respects, but not at the cost of maintaining the clan's robust cultural legacy. this keeper has pursued economic modernization and diplomatic outreach without sacrificing her cultural preservation/transmission efforts because she sees them as linked goals - in order to preserve the people, you need allies, new members, the ability to adapt without losing the things that make you who you are. becoming the partial ruler of a multiracial polity is the absolute ideal outcome for someone with these beliefs.
in origins, lanaya, the first to keeper zathrian, says that when the elves find a homeland, all elves - even "those who have forgotten," or city elves - will live in safety and reclaim their traditions. if the player character intercedes prudently, keeper istimaethoriel has secured them a home, one where close interaction between dalish- and city-born elves is an inevitability. she doesn't have to wait for the rise of a second elvhenan to share lost lore with those who want it or materially aid elves across ethnic lines; if the clan survives, she can begin that work immediately.
deshanna spends her whole micro-narrative prepping for this, and because she has, i can see it going incredibly well. go get ‘em ma
something something the inquisitor's hand becoming a holy symbol that people can't help but want to look at, to touch, to kiss like the rings of a king. nobles grasping at the inquisitor's wrist during the halamshiral ball, nails like claws. soldiers clasping hands with the inquisitor, hoping for just a glimpse of that holy protection to shine upon them before a battle. commoners dropping to their knees and pressing their faces against the inquisitor's palm for mercy, for protection, for vengeance. do you see it.
