Back Through The Looking Glass

A weird mix of writing, fantasy, fandoms (West Wing, AtLA, various book series), cooking, Judaism, politics, and life.

[ahb-writes]

"If you love friends, you will serve your friends. If you love community, you will serve your community. If you love money, you will serve your money. And if you love only yourself, you will serve only yourself. And you will have only yourself."

-- Stephen Colbert (Commencement Speech, Northwestern University, 2011)

[ominous-signs]

Sign I saw near a beach in California a few years ago.

[snowygracetheriver]

We don't talk enough about Aang's answer to Katara during the intermission...

[archives468833]

Aang sees Katara as the preachy one?

[sokkastyles]

This is it, the line that made me hate kataang when I watched the show for the first time. I went from thinking about it as a nothingburger ship to outright hating it. I also actively started shipping zutara after The Southern Raiders, and let me tell you, what a wild ride those last six episodes are for a show that wants you to ship Kataang.

[sawasawako]

- lighthousekeeping, jeanette winterson

[nonbinary-wrath-month]

The reason why so many of y'all's feminism sucks is because you still believe deep down in your hearts that there are only two kinds of people in the world: precious, ethereal, fragile dollthings called "women", and violent, lustful, rage-fueled apes called "men". Until you throw that idea away, 3rd-grade-tier "girls rule boys drool, girls are princesses and boys are stinky :(" is as feminist as we'll ever get-- and I hope it's obvious that that's lightyears away from the bare minimum of where we need to be.

[iswearbyalltheflowers]

Have You Considered Talking To Israelis?

While conducting research for his book on the ways American policies and culture complicate parenting, my friend Tim Carney traveled to Isra

[riseofthecommonwoodpile]

you make one fucking post where the point is “women are encouraged to develop disordered eating from a very young age and that impacts how we view the ‘natural’ size and shape of women” and too many reblogs later i am being accused of saying short people wouldn’t exist if they ate better growing up. i’m sorry but if you genuinely think i was saying that you are just a buffoon. i cannot and will not sanction your buffoonery.

[fuck-customers]

[psychic-waffles]

More details

Lawsuit Claims Eightfold AI Unlawfully Collects Job Applicants’ Data, Ranks Their Candidacy in Employer Reports

A class action lawsuit claims Eightfold AI unlawfully collects job applicants’ data and provides it to employers without candidates’ knowled

[jewish-sideblog]

Pleasantly surprised to see everything I’m feeling about Platner summed up perfectly by Vox of all news websites. I had given up on them

[abyssalaquarist00]

pick up that non-fiction book

[abyssalaquarist00]

not all of us can live in fantasy 100% the time like i see some people on here do and it's refreshing to learn something new. its been philosophy, essays, and history for me and i feel much more at home on planet Earth for it knowing that people have been struggling and wishing similarly for millenia.

its not that fiction doesnt have its place, its important and healthy to exercise the imagination, but non-fiction can do so much to boost and supplement that. if not for yourself, for your art or for the people you're around

[abyssalaquarist00]

"representation matters!" but you wont read or engage with non-fiction works about any demographic outside your own

[abyssalaquarist00]

this version of the post doesnt seem to be getting much traction but this is arguably the most important reason why we should be reading nonfiction in addition to fiction

[creatingblackcharacters]

Stamp of approval

[dragon-in-a-fez]

actually I think you should be normal about ordinary citizens of authoritarian countries and yes that applies even to that country you're thinking of right now

[tvarchive]

[s-leary]

Amazing moments in Dads: my friend’s dad’s critique of Frankenstein was, “I just don’t think the author had read science fiction before.”

[introsquirrel]

County roads

Full of holes

On the route

I need to go

Road construction

Lane obstruction

Let me go

County roads

[assignedmale]

[mariacallous]

How do Jews do it? How do you stay sane after 2000 years of everyone else in the world hunting you for sport? How can you look at any non-Jews and not see a Nazi just waiting to happen?

I can’t speak for all Jews but I feel like just out of self-preservation and sanity that it’s neither healthy nor helpful to think that way. There’s a difference between wariness and vigilance and being careful and operating out of fear and mistrust fundamentally.

Plus it means the Jew haters win. And that’s something I fundamentally refuse to accept.

[zaprowsdower27]

How do we do it? I can tell you in one word: tradition

*bursts into song*

[curliestofcrowns]

[biglawbear]

Really though, I just keep on being Jewish. I grieve and hold a grudge and then just keep being Jewish.

[sapphic-agent]

"Why is every discussion about Katara about who she ends up with?"

Idk, maybe because her lackluster post-canon character is a direct consequence of her being the main character's love interest?

This question gets thrown around a lot and I think it's pretty disingenuous. Mostly because a lot of Zutara shippers/Kataang antis bring up a ton of points that have nothing to do with Aang. Like her not getting a statue. Or her just being a healer. Or her not doing anything with healing. Those points can absolutely be discussed separately from her relationship with Aaag and I've seen many people do it.

But it's also the irrefutable truth that Katara was sidelined so much because she was Aang's love interest. Evidenced by Toph who wasn't Aang's love interest not being sidelined.

It's also a (small) part of Katara's character that she wants to find love, which is something people who make that argument ignore. That's why she's so receptive to Jet and why she keeps bothering Aunt Wu. So even if you try to make this argument, Katara's character is already established as wanting to eventually be with someone. Discussing it when analyzing Katara is not being a "fake feminist." It's considering every aspect of her character. Take it up with Bryke, not us.

Zutara antis are exhausting.

(This OP also tried to imply that they were neutral and don't like either side but one look at their profile tells us very clearly that they're a Zutara anti and Kataang shipper. Like buddy, just own it)