Hastur

[seren-dipitous-art]

…okay so what if the problem with the taomeba never happened on the way back home. What if the radiation never got onto the Blip-A. What if Rocky ended up back on Erid, and Grace made it back to Earth. What if they missed each other desperately forever.

What if Grace made a lopsided crochet Rocky and cuddled it every night.

What if Rocky couldn’t stop making xenonite puppets of his alien friend.

What if I made myself cry, what about that? Huh? What then?

[bulkhummus]

Project Hail Mary is in part about cowardice and inexorability and the philosophical quandary of whether or not the ends justify the means. In order to understand this, we have to understand both the character Eva Stratt and Ryland Grace, as well as their relationship. In embarking on this question, we must also account for the perspective in which the book is written. 

The book is written from Ryland's perspective, and that shapes the narrative by disregarding fundamental truths that lie outside of Ryland's opinion and personal reality. By his account, Ryland is a normal middle school science teacher, albeit with a doctorate in molecular biology he rarely uses. 

While this is true, Ryland is also set up to be an extraordinary individual. He is a leading expert in his field. He becomes the lead researcher on humanity's most important project after making the ultimate discovery. He becomes so woven into the very fiber of the project that he can no longer be removed. 

When the story arrives at the big, sacrificial ask, which is typically the point in most stories where the unwitting hero would accept his fate for the good of the people, Ryland says no. What normal, sane person would want to strap themselves to a rocket and be shot into space, with little to no training, and a conclusion of death by their hand or some other tragedy? We empathize. We understand. And yet. 

Ryland was never normal. By his own standards, sure, but not to anyone else in the book, least of all Stratt. 

Let’s look at his counterpart. Eva Stratt is a ruthless, effective leader with a morally dubious code only defined by preventing humankind from extinction. She was placed in this position by the powers that be, due to her ability to get results. She is, by all definitions, not a coward. She does not fear the choices she knows she has to make and does not avert her gaze. She goes to court. She paves the Sahara. She watches as a nuclear bomb blows up the arctic shelf. The debate of whether or not these choices were 'correct' aside, they were choices she made because no one else would. No one wanted to shoulder the responsibility or the blame. 

This is a story told through Ryland's perspective. It is all the more satisfying when who Ryland believes himself to be is at odds with who everyone else believes him to be. Ryland is scared. His trust is betrayed. He has been put in an impossible situation and everyone is confused and disappointed that he is not willing to rise to the occasion. Ryland has told the audience, with unwavering certainty, throughout every flashback that he is replaceable and worthless only to be utterly confused by why people don't agree with him. 

Ryland relies on the safe guard, the guise, of being a regular, normal man only when it suits him. He leans into normalcy to protect himself. He downplays his own importance throughout the entirety of the book in the hopes that it will be enough to save him from amounting to anything great that could be knocked down in the future by failure. When Eva Stratt lays bare all his truths as she has come to know them, it is cruel but true. Eva never flinches and she never lies. 

The story is asking us to consider the cowardly person a hero and the person who does not flinch in the face of difficult, horrific choices as a villain. Typically the reverse is true. To what extent is inexorability favorable? To what extent is cowardice necessary? Cowardice is an integral part to the story and ensures that the emotional beats of it work. Without Ryland's tendency to flinch and flee, we would not feel the impact of Eva's choices. He is quick to pass judgement on her character, often describing it in ways that alienate her own humanity, as are we, because the book is his inner monologue. 

When she sends Ryland to his cell where he is to remain until the ship's launch, she avoids him for four days. She looks away. That is not a person unaffected by their choices. Ryland even comments on that being the longest time they've been apart since the start of the project. She was hoping he'd rise to the occasion so he would not have to be at the receiving end of a choice she did not want to have to make, but he does not. To her, she sees a man who is fundamentally good and capable of the job. A man that she hoped would help her shoulder the enormity of her responsibility after standing by her side for years. Being forced to go on this mission against his will was horrific, and there is no excuse for doing that to another human being. We empathize. We understand. 

And yet. 

Eva saw who he was before he did. What defined him as a person? Who was he willing to die for? To fight for? Even as the external audience, it seemed he did not know the answer to those questions even before his memory and life were taken from him. Eva made that choice for him. In fact, it was made by the person that made the same kinds of choices in some form or another over and over throughout the entirety of the book. The logical choice, the choice supported by all evidence presented to her, was that Ryland was the best candidate for the job. The difference is that this choice is up close and personal. It is because of our empathy we do not want Ryland to be sent to his death, but Eva Stratt cannot afford to act on empathy. 

Without cowardice haunting his own thoughts, we as the audience would not feel the impact of his own choices further down the line. Ryland's heroic moments stagger throughout the present day story, but are cemented by the end of the book. Ryland's 'hero moment', the moment, comes when he chooses to save Rocky. It is more impactful than the prior, similar choice, because we have seen this relationship develop in a meaningful way, and we have seen who Ryland is and the choices he makes when he is unburdened by past failures of who he once was. 

A good man, as Eva Stratt knowingly said. She was never a liar. 

Liking a character and empathizing with their situation does not suddenly absolve them of all the ways other characters in the book, including Ryland himself, view him. Nor does it disregard the context provided in the book that outlines how fear and low expectations have guided his choices throughout his life. He was a coward. Anyone in his situation would be a coward. The beauty of the story is that the importance of the life Ryland builds after he is disgraced from the academic community (the life he refuses to return to) is the life that ends up saving him.

To deny Ryland cowardice and to ignore Eva's burden is to flatten both of their characters, allowing no room for complex exploration of what it means to be a human struggling to do what is necessary in the face of right and wrong. To explore identity when juxtaposed by navigating a nonconsensual situation. 

The story ignores the idea that bravery is the only foil to cowardice. It ignores the idea that bravery is fundamentally good and right, and cowardice is weak and wrong. Ryland Grace being a coward allows the narrative to extend grace toward him. He is rewarded for his meaningful and well built bravery with a long life, and a relationship that defines his very existence. Eva Stratt saves the world, despite the irreparable damage she does to it, and all the judgment the world passes on to her in the process. These characters only work because they operate in contrast to one another, and draw attention to the way cowardice and bravery bleed into one another throughout the entirety of the story.

[tma-wwk]

TMA What We Know -[112]- Thrill Of The Chase

pre-statement:

[none]

--STATEMENT--

-Murder Club :D

-Lizzie Borden shout out????

-a bunch of the Murder Club members are already dead at the time the statement's given

~INTERRUPTION~

-DAISYYYYYY

-Jon's back!! -Elias sent Daisy to get him (presumably from the airport) to make sure he doesn't get kidnapped again

-Basira's gonna finish recording this and then go to Jon's meeting

--Back to the STATEMENT--

-some creepy guy wearing a mask shows up to Murder Club. with a knife. guy keeps trying to stab everyone.

-entire Murder Club is just waiting to attack him

-they seem to succeed :D

-under the mask he's a normal guy

-she, in a trance-like state, picked up 6 knives

-entire Murder Club, in a trance-like state, takes a knife

-they stab the masked guy together

-Murder Club is hunting each other down now

-after everyone kills each other, she think to herself 'now wait a second,,,, I don't think it's normal that we all started hunting each other for sport,,, maybe there's something supernatural about it?'

post-statement:

-meeting's cancelled, Jon wants to go straight to the storage unit (with Martin and Melanie) and Daisy and Basira are staying behind to distract Elias

-Daisy doesn't know Melanie's name

-Elias has been giving Daisy Hunting jobs to do

-Basira's trying to apply what she read in this Hunt statement to Daisy's Hunting tendencies

-Basira and Daisy both talk about having some kind of spooky dreams, Basira says she stopped having them when she joined the institute

[emiqip]

"Bloodymary is fucking peak!!" I scream at the enraged mob, hollering at me to die.

"He's right!" A voice echoes from the back of the crowd.

I raise my head- Markiplier from YouTube is smiling at me.

[yujateaandpi]

Was driving with my grandmother and in broken English she says “no eyes… no nose… no face. Don’t trust.” To which I looked around wildly in search of this omen of ill portend.

Cybertruck. It was a cybertruck.

[m-inntii]

Grian MC i’m going to fucking kill tou the fuck you mean you put the void texture in your eye grian MC do you like toying with your fans do you like torturing your fans grian MC i’m going to murder you

[subtlehysteria]

May I add some Bloody to your Mary with a dash of Adrian-Simon bestism?

[sup-its-cat]

WHY HAVE I SEEN NO ONE TALK ABOUT HOW THE GRACE SCULPTURE LOOKS LIKE THE LITTLE DUDE FROM THIS MEME

THAT WAS LITERALLY MY FIRST THOUGHT UPON SEEING IT IN THE MOVIE

[notes-and-violets]

I had to xD

[xviisceral]

my small contribution to the bloodymary nation

[psychotic-gerard]

me: i don’t want to see jellyfish so i will blacklist the tag #jellyfish

people with no common sense: je11yf1sh, je11¥fi5h, j*llyf*sh, je//ÿf!sh, j3ï||yf¡sh, gel lee fisk

result: cannot account for the sheer amount of possible ways to alter the word jellyfish

conclusion: i have to see jellyfish now.

Once again, tumblr is not tiktok, tag properly.

[nojerama1996]

This. Please. Whether I'm avoiding spoilers for a show or people promoting eating disorders, if I block a tag it means I don't want to see it. Spell your fucking tags properly.

[dracl-dragon]

!!!!!!!

DO NOT CENSOR TAGS

AND SURE AS FUCK DON'T CENSOR WARNING LISTS/WARNING TAGS

[brightlotusmoon]

WE SAY SHIT HERE SIR

[fuckyeahfightlock]

DON'T CENSOR TAGS!

That's the opposite of tagging.

[morallygrayautisticscientist]

Stratt: Oh no.

Stratt: I don’t have the time or emotional capacity to be sad or stressed about this.

Stratt: GRACE!

Grace: On it!

Grace: *starts sobbing and going into a full panic attack*

[tube-time]

Anyways

[virgo-disaster]

The bird app has a lot of garbage but this thread really tickled me this morning:

Bonus:

[hailmarysuggest]

I just want a fic where everyone is all ‘why is Dr Grace so grumpy today? He’s normally so sweet’ and Stratt goes to inspect him for like 5 minutes before grabbing scissors, snipping the tag out of the back of his shirt carefully enough not to leave one of those itchy lines behind, and then he’s a freaking sweetheart again for the rest of the day. Like the princess and the pea. And for some reason only her people watching abilities could figure out why.

Carl probably could have figured it out too, but he can’t be glued to Grace’s side 100% of the time lol.

[isuggestforcemasc]

I will continue posting in favour of there being fewer people like that

[godfrey-the-chaos-duck]

god my heart is fucking breaking for all these people THERE IS STILL TIME DO YOU HEAR ME

IT ISN'T TOO LATE AS LONG AS YOU'RE ALIVE

[boyslit]

hi everybody i started HRT at 35 so like don't even despair

being in ur twenties makes u feel like 30 is a brick wall u either fly over or crash into but i promise u it's a door and it opens up into the rest of ur life like getting past the prologue of an open world game

[boyslit]

very important addition from @thatsladyfaggottoyou ty <3

[doberbutts]

I started HRT at approximately 30 and top surgery at 32 just 4.5 months prior to this photo. It's never too late.

[esoanem]

[sunflowerbutch]

me: *googling what kind of bike helmet i should get*

search result 1, AI-generated article: Since the dawn of time, humans have wondered what kind of bike helmet is best for protecting their cranium and lower intestine. In the event that you find yourself with a bike helmet, you must find a way to save your family. Therefore, we have compiled a list of qualities to look for. First, sodium content is of great importance when biking your helmet.

search results 2, 3, and 4: sponsored ads for bike helmets on amazon

search result 5, reddit thread: bikeaholic363736: hey guys, do any of you have experience with the windslapper 30g helmet from spronklegear?

spokejunkie666: it's probably the best helmet on the market right now. if you're not using the windslapper you might as well just be riding your bike into a woodchipper

handlebar_hamburglar: idiot. we've had this thread a hundred times. don't the mods enforce the repost ban anymore? OP, don't listen to spokejunkie. the windslapper is the leading cause of death in the netherlands

[anneriawings]

OKAY CAN SOMEBODY EXPLAIN TO ME HOW THE FUCK YOU SHIP A PACKAGE OF COOKIES TO A FRIEND WHO LIVES IN NEW JERSEY, ONLY TO HAVE IT NOT GET THERE ON TIME BECAUSE IT SOMEHOW ENDED UP IN GUAM?

I JUST

GUAM?

[phantomrose96]

IM CRYING REAL TEARS MAH DUDES THE COOKIES ARE IN GUAM

KATIE TRIED TO SEND US COOKIES OUTTA THE GOODNESS OF HER HEART AND JUST

“OHHHH THESE COOKIES WERE SUPPOSED TO GO TO NEW JERSEY, PHIL? I THOUGHT YOU SAID

[anneriawings]

12/27, 8:37PM CT

ITS STILL IN FUCKING GUAM

[anneriawings]

12/28, 12:18PM CT

THE COOKIES ARE IN HONOLULU GUYS THEY ***FINALLY LEFT GUAM***

[anneriawings]

12/28, 10:22PM CT

THE COOKIES ARE FINALLY ON THEIR WAY TO NEW JERSEY

GO COOKIES GO

@phantomrose96 @cupcakecreeper​ @homebeccer GET READY

[anneriawings]

lol i was looking through my history to find the tracking number page and

[anneriawings]

12/30, 12:39AM CT

@phantomrose96 @homebeccer @cupcakecreeper

holy fuCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS

THE COOKIES ARE ALMOST THERE

[phantomrose96]

The saga of Katie’s Guam cookies is my Anime of the Season

[anneriawings]

THEY’VE ARRIIIIIIIIIIVVEEDDDDD THEY’RE ON THE FRONT DOORSTEP

[anneriawings]

COOKIES ACQUIRED

[homebeccer]

THE THRILLING CONCLUSION

also as a bonus visual here’s a rough approximation of these cookies’ journey

[anneriawings]

how the FUCK did this blow up and get so many notes

[anneriawings]

SO FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES, @homebeccer @phantomrose96 @cupcakecreeper AND I WANTED TO KNOW HOW MUCH IT WOULD ACTUALLY COST THE U.S. GOVERNMENT TO INTENTIONALLY SEND THESE COOKIES FROM TEXAS TO GUAM TO NEW JERSEY AND???????????????

AND 

IT’S

IT’S

IT’S NOT AN OPTION IT’S NOT AN OPTION I CAN’T I-

I COULDN’T EVEN HAVE SENT THESE COOKIES TO GUAM EVEN IF I’D HAVE TRIED 

[phantomrose96]

Cant believe we uncovered the Guam Cookie glitch folks

Its not even an in-game feature

[crowreys-wormstache]

Oh my god it’s back

[anneriawings]

H O W

[anavar-immela]

I’ve had this sort of thing happen.

At least it explained why the package took so long to get here.

[phantomrose96]

I appreciate that they have an Entire Stamp for “Missent to Nepal”

No one said “hey let’s stop missending things to Nepal” they just said “let’s make a stamp for this” and called it a day.

I’m gonna get Missent to Guam tattooed on my arm in commemoration. 

[sharkgal4]

@hellsite-hall-of-fame

[offonaherosjourney]

Get Moist von Lipwig in charge of the US postal service ASAP

[korasonata]

Ok I know this is super old now but I work at a post office and I was curious about the price so I did some digging and I still don’t have a definite answer because THE REASON it says “no shipping services available” is because all shipping services were actually suspended to Guam at the time. As in no packages, parcels, letters, or mail or any kind could be sent to Guam. So not only is it mind boggling that it got sent so far in the wrong direction of its intended destination, but because nothing should have been able to get in to Guam period.

You QUITE LITERALLY could not have sent these cookies to Guam if you tried.