I will never have the chance to test that hypothesis

Hi ✨

[handweavers]

having institutional access never stops feeling sort of crazy to me because you can literally type in any country and time period and find at least a handful of peer reviewed articles somewhere that discuss a specific aspect of people's lives in depth and at length like "what was considered pop culture in late imperial russia" or "how did the textile trade work in northern mali in the 1600s" or "children's toys in pre-colonial philippines" and it's just sitting there but the majority of people on planet earth aren't allowed to read any of it

[alpaca-clouds]

I am honestly also so weirded out how people just internalized that kids are just dumb. People will just parrot this idea of "minors are not neurologically developed", and like... no one who is parroting this has actually read any neurology paper on brain development, or actually knows anything of what is actually developing and what is not.

And I just have so much hatred for people who parrot ideas without even putting effort into understanding them. If you actually read the associated papers, you would know actually what abilities do develop over time. But you would also know that a lot of how those abilities develop and at what point is actually very clearly bound to culture, and cultures that do not treat minors like things actually generally show different brain development in them. Because, guess what: brains develop very dependent on cultural context.

Those same people also do not get why adultification and parentification are actually a problem. Spoiler alert: it ain't because you let kids make decisions, it is because of the pressure, the expectation to perform and often associated emotional neglect.

[utopians]

people aren't even exaggerating indeed is literally like that. walmart attendant $13 an hour, target attendant $13 an hour, AI dick sucker $40 an hour, home depot attendant $13 an hour, guy who designs bullets that can only kill children $160k a year plus benefits, gas station manager $18 an hour

[kookiedeadbutterflies]

Dear IWTV Writer's Room and Production Team...

Dear IWTV Writer's Room and Production Team,

Hi, it's us. The fans and viewers ofAnne Rice, The Vampire Chronicles and AMC Immortal Universe.

We wanted to have a talk with you that’s been long overdue. And I think it's best to address this as Louis would. With hard words and soft words.

Soft words. The AMC Immortal Universe is a massive dream come true for a lot of us. The fans who have read Anne Rice books since the 80s and the fans who grew up watching the 1990s and 2000s IWTV and QOTD movies. And then there's the new fans who came on board from other spaces like the Hannibal fandom who found a new gothic fiction home when we felt like we lost ours in 2015.

The initial reaction to the revival of what was IWTV was I'm sure mixed, what with Louis being reimagined as a Creole man and Armand being a brown man. Not to mention all the sexy gay vampire themes that were going on that I'm sure not everyone was on board with. But you stuck to your guns and you made a whole new universe with confidence and surety that this is what was meant to be. And you were right. We're so glad that you decided to take the show in the direction that you did and for a lot of us, this is what is cemented as The Vampire Chronicles.

Other things that have never failed to amaze us are the perfect casting choices for every character, the magic that Daniel Hart's music brings to the story, and the costume and make up team that always brings passion to the fashion. The aesthetics of this series is truly something to behold. We truly love this series with all of our hearts. IWTV was such an explosive array of wonder since its pilot and it has been a wonder to all of us since then.

Hard words. We have witnessed the noticeable drop in writing quality in the new season The Vampire Lestat and that is not our only concern. We have also noticed a major pacing issue past episode 2, flanderization of characters, the meta commentary ad nauseam, and most notably the consistently antiblack writing for characters of color.

The AMC Immortal Universe has never been shy about issues of race and racism since day one given that Louis had been cast as a Creole man with Jacob Anderson and Armand as a French-Bengali man with Assad Zamman. Seasons 1-2 masterfully handled these themes in not only New Orleans, but also Romania and Paris. In fact, it was one of if not the central thing in IWTV that was praised among fans and critics alike when it aired. The incredible details to historical facts, rich cultural aesthetics, multilingual mastery, and confronting the brutal truths of America and Europe's history of slavery and racism were what we could consistently and confidently hold pride in when we recommended this show to others. But after this new season, we are unsure if we still hold that pride within us.

In the first two seasons you had core Black writers in the room who were Ben Philippe, David B Harris, and A. Zell Williams who brought their experience and expertise into the scripts. As did director Keith Powell. Their absence and the absence of any Black writers in the writing room this season has reflected in the show’s overall quality, especially in the characters. To say that you have handled it poorly is an understatement.

There were 4 new Black characters introduced to the show yet they have had no character development and were more or less used for plot device and decorative stereotypes. The scammer. The crack whore. The eye candy boyfriend. What will you do with the Queen, we wonder. We also couldn’t help but notice that you hired a South Asian writer this season and yet she has contributed virtually nothing to Armand’s development this season. In fact, the brown characters in this show constantly seem to be the bad guys doing bad things to Black people. Claudia’s monologue in the seance scene was riddled in racist and misogynistic connotations including casually throwing around the word “slave” and “nappy headed” and claiming that she hated Louis more than her literal rapist and murderers. Nevermind the fact that she said Lestat was her “blood” and she liked him better, which contradicted all of S2 Claudia’s development as a Black female character. Louis had lost practically all of his character growth from the first two seasons that he was reduced to a “pimp” and a failure of a “good Negro” who bends to others around him. Even before the gory torture scene, the fandom was literally asking “Why do the writers hate Louis?”. And we most certainly did not miss the off brand "bucket of Louisiana fried chicken" joke in episode 4. Nor the highly uncomfortable absolutely tone deaf excuse filled After Dark for episode 7. This is more than just character assassination. It’s character undoing and erasure.

And as a bonus, it’s not just your writers, but your own production designer, Andres Cubillan, who is making statements like this about the actors of color in interviews:

When we see these things happening so frequently and repeatedly, we seriously need ask ourselves, what kind of people are running this show and what are they allowing in the production environment that makes them believe that this is possibly acceptable. What exactly are you subjecting your actors of color to?

The antiblackness is so prominently highlighted in the season that even non-Black viewers and fans are feeling increasingly uncomfortable from the implicit and explicit bias. Some have deemed it a resentment of the black writers and their work. Others have completely tuned out and have ran back to their stack of Anne Rice novels.

The thing is there is a fundamental difference between non-Black writers who think they understand racial issues and Black writers who do understand racial issues down to their bones. But even with the best intentions of a group of non-Black writers and production crew, it isn’t enough.

It's also concerning to us, the fans and viewers, that the production and marketing team is going to Reddit of all places for fan input when it is well known that moderators there are known to silence and remove any Black and LGBTQ voices when it does not follow their agenda. It was absolutely jarring to us when we heard executive producer Mark Johnson say that the audience has no sympathy for Armand and that fans didn't like IWTV S1-2. Neither are true. “Make IWTV Great Again”? Please, no. There's a reason a lot of us are on Tumblr instead of the massive echo chamber that is Reddit.

Here’s what Tumblr thinks:

There’s only so much that a 10 photo limit of a Tumblr post can show you, but here’s a few more:

https://www.tumblr.com/lilacs-in-the-wind/821942164762329088/the-showrunners-chose-to-make-louis-and-claudia

https://www.tumblr.com/covenendearment/821949622662610944/i-think-besides-the-racism-perhaps-this-seasons?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/hes-brad/821502051373744128/i-dont-understand-the-flattening-out-of-louis

https://www.tumblr.com/meanmisscharles/822144983189585920/my-post-about-the-vampire-lestat-im-going-to

https://www.tumblr.com/coldeveryseason/822027586819489792/the-way-some-people-who-love-tvl-arent-content-to

https://www.tumblr.com/murfpersonalblog/822127770870104064/i-just-sent-my-email-today-my-email-was-long

https://www.tumblr.com/certifiedlurker/821909922547744768/can-i-ask-ive-not-seen-the-most-recent-episode

https://www.tumblr.com/hollowwaveremnant/821874241595211776/the-way-sa-is-treated-in-this-show-as-a-joke-or-a

https://www.tumblr.com/lottafeelingsinhere/822142370097348608/if-you-complain-about-the-best-queer-show-on-tv

https://www.tumblr.com/subcrypha/822002542727823360/pre-the-vampire-lestat-finale-thoughts-ramell

https://www.tumblr.com/prettycoolforaperson/822363140861870080/what-does-amc-want-from-the-audience-other-than

https://www.tumblr.com/usaginoir/822489362253152256/circling-back-to-this-after-the-after-dark-episode

https://www.tumblr.com/usaginoir/822490367705350144/the-tvl-ad-train-wreck

https://www.tumblr.com/usaginoir/822495197067984896/tvl-after-dark-i-watch-it-so-you-dont-have-to

https://www.tumblr.com/gaypeople/822488912270376960

If you care to see more of such valid criticism, all you have to do is search #tvlcritical or #thevampirelestat.

You or others might say "Well if you don't like it, then don't watch it", which of course is always a choice, but that is not what we choose to do. We choose to hold you accountable for your writing choices this season and to not enable them. Which is also why our answer to Ryan Kattner's PR stunt on Instagram before the airing of episode 6 is a resounding "NO". We won't be wowed with glamourized trauma porn and we won't bend to pity filled soap boxes.

It isn't enough to hire stellar actors of color who will undoubtedly do a stellar job on screen every single time. When you made a choice to cast them, you had the responsibility to make sure that they were represented fairly. In a world of pro-capitalism where racism and antiblackness runs the consumer's world stage, we really rather this show not be part of that equation. You’ve lost the wonder that this show used to have and replaced it with something else. We want that wonder back.

We need you to do better and we are demanding that you do better in the next season. If you get a next season. Because to us, this is not a joke. Clean up your act and hire more writers who can represent these characters or we're pulling out.

Sincerely,

Us, the Fangs

[kookiedeadbutterflies]

This is the open letter to the IWTV writer’s room and production team I’ve been working on. You’re free to RB and share to other platforms including Twitter and Reddit where the writers are more likely to see it.

You are also free to use it for the emails to the AMC marketing team and NAACP in this call to action here:

Reblog by @sixpomseeds

💬 107  🔁 88  ❤️ 134 · EDIT - reposted because I had reblogged the wrong version previously with the other concerned fan still tagged. The re

[t4tvampireisms]

Hot take maybe, but I don’t think white people from any western country/power have the right to lecture Americans of color on their standing as citizens of the imperial core. I don’t care if you’re not an American citizen, you as a white person from any given western nation have more privileges than the average person of color in ANY part of the world; you have no right to lecture people on their place on the food chain, when you yourself can’t even criticize your own.

[t4tvampireisms]

This isn’t to say that you can’t talk about how Americans of color still benefit from imperialism simply by being born in America whatsoever; I’m a Black/Mexican American communist. I just find it particularly ironic when white people from France or Australia think they have any room to try and take the high ground over us in these conversations. I don’t take half of you guys seriously, not sorry to say.

[valend]

Yahhh I have to build Rome. Yup it’s due tomorrow.. noo I haven’t started yet haha is that bad?

[imwiremother]

every emotional fandom post is written like this

oscar the grouch, who lived and loved in a trash can

oscar the grouch, who ate rotten bananas because he didn't have the self esteem to try for fresh ones

oscar the grouch, who pushed big bird away because his love burned as bright as the sun and oscar the grouch knew he was the moon

[historicallythiswascool]

Andy Serkis being racist just...... isn't surprising at all.

[lesbianbloodritual]

my facial feminization surgery is in less than 3 months, my family is helping me cover the cost of the surgery itself but i'm still trying to raise money for blood work, CT scans and travel necessities, please consider donating if you are able, thank you so much

Donate to Help Joan raise money for facial feminization surgery (FFS), organized by Joan G

Hello, I'm a 31-year-old transgender woman. I've been medically tra… Joan G needs your support for Help Joan raise money for facial feminiza

[bowlinggwithmargo]

this has probably been said before but I keep thinking about how much of the violence in Sharp Objects is predicated on the legacy of slavery. The south as a society was/is founded and defined by intense brutality. It's a society where white women weren't the lowest rung on the oppression totem pole because there was always a class below them to torture...a society made up of white women that, in the decades after the end of slavery, have been forced to externalize this desire to control, manipulate, dominate, and torure slaves onto each other. This legacy of pain had to go somewhere or else the teeth of being seen as less than, or property of, their white male counter parts would be harshly felt. That's why Joya tortures Adora who tortures Marian, Camille, and Amma. Amma goes onto to torture other little girls to reaffirm her self worth but Camille seemingly breaks the cycle by redirecting that pain onto herself. Camille is the liberal of the show for doing so (I don't think it's an accident that the only person who notices her self-harm is the black woman who knew her in high school.) But she is just that, a liberal, who understands this legacy of pain but is dismissive of it (making fun of Calhoun day for one thing) and thus is unable to truly reconcile with it to truly move forward (much like how America refused to deal with/reconcile with slavery and the evils it wrought.) I think that's why Sharp Objects ends the way that it does. Camille writes her little article on the events of the show but, because of this lack of reconciliation, is shocked to see the cycle of violence repeat in Amma and can do nothing to truly end it.

[zemily]

unsurprisingly I'm seeing more news articles about poor air quality and the orange skies that usamercians are experiencing rather than information about the actual wildfires in northwestern ontario that are displacing hundreds if not thousands of residents and destroying entire First Nations reserves and indigenous land

[thunderstruck9]

Behjat Sadr (Iranian, 1924-2009), La porte fermé [Closed Door], c.1986. Paper collage and oil on C-print laid on board, 47 x 60 cm.

[spiralmindz]

what im learning from my years of being one of the annoying woke black people on here is that a Lot of white and nonblack people really do not understand what racism is and what it has done to African Americans. like when we learn abt it in schools they dont really tell you abt the mass rape and genocide and torture of Africans by white slave owners, they dont talk abt the murder of babies and the cannibalism either. its all in The Past so we should just get over it, lol. and then when nonamerican's colonial past gets brought up they start throwing tantrums too, because antiblackness is a global thing, many countries have exploited Africa and its people. this isnt unique to one nation. its so funny how all these Smart Communists are so ignorant abt racism in america and globally, and then when black leftist/progressive tumblr users try to say anything abt their real actual Lived Experiences as Black people its met with dismissal and hatred and condescension and Um, Actually, im not from america, can you talk to me like im 5 about racism please :) and if youre anything but Nice they will call you a slur

[guiltfactory-moved]

everything is a reference when you're crazy

[ohwolfling]

I do not have caveats. I do not have to qualify anything. I hated this season from moment one to the last. Red flag, after red flag, became cruelty after cruelty. Adapting Baby Jenks that way, the stupid fucking TikTok filters on everyone, the AI slop looking credits sequence, making the band 40 year olds Lestat hates, the idiocy of children in Halloween costumes for an adult book that had just been released, little Claudias at his door and it meaning nothing to Lestat, the music sucking violently dated ass, the "bi/pan means hypersexual" of it all and that is NOT what drinking blood is or requires WHAT, Daniel being an incurious and apathetic version of himself, blood no longer expressive of emotion but empty splatter, vagina vagina vagina, it SUCKED ASS THE WHOLE TIME. There is no credit due. I saw it for what it was immediately and I was right. It just got worse and more hateful all the way to the bottom, into fucking oblivion. Gene Wilder "You Get NOTHING" unto infinitum, fuck you, Rolin Jones, and fuck Hannah's we more or less adapted The Vampire Lestat. Lestat wasn't here. Lestat never stepped foot on that set.

[ohwolfling]

If you are writing about Lestat du Lioncourt, perhaps for television, and you find yourself confused about what the violence he experienced and the violence he commits mean to him, I would like to recommend a helpful guide.

[cloudabserk]

“fujoshis are harmful to gay men” not this gay man.

[cloudabserk]

on twitter this got a bunch of responses like “wow even the evil fujoshis? the homophobic yet hypocritically fetishistic ones? what if the fujoshi is racist?” and like well no obviously not in that case.

[cloudabserk]

“shoutout to everybody from new jersey!” “even the new jersey serial killers…?”