Life Doesn't Half Confuse Me

Just a random blog because i am trying so very hard not to do work

[audiobyte-moved]

peeing after robot sex so i dont get an hdmi

[shadesfalcon]

J. R. R. Tolkien: no, my books aren't about the war I experienced. It's just a story

J. R. R. Tolkien's works: you cannot go home, war ends entire bloodlines, you are mourning the death of your brother alone, you dug into the earth and permanently scored the land, you cannot explain what you have been through, you cannot go home, "that wound will never fully heal. He will carry it the rest of his life", leaving the women behind does not save them, the young die first, you cannot go home, the parent will bury their child, you have lost the wives and you will never connect with them again, "how shall any tower withstand such numbers and such reckless hate?", you are not the same, you cannot go home, you can never go home, your father will only side with those he sees as worthy bloodlines and you cannot change his mind, it is more meaningful Not to kill, sometimes your sacrifice accomplishes nothing, you cannot go home

[thinkinginquenya]

What he actually said was(paraphrasing): "I had no hidden messages in mind when I wrote the book, people are bad at guessing what an author's intentions are, and to those people who keep telling me the story is about the horrors of WWII: I fought in WWI, dummies."

Actual quotes from the foreword of LotR that I was paraphrasing:

"As for any inner meaning or ‘message’, it has in the intention of the author none."

"The crucial chapter, ‘The Shadow of the Past’, is one of the oldest parts of the tale. It was written long before the foreshadow of 1939 had yet become a threat of inevitable disaster, and from that point the story would have developed along essentially the same lines, if that disaster had been averted."

"The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion. If it had inspired or directed the development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would have been seized and used against Sauron."

"An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is inadequate and ambiguous."

"One has indeed personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead."

[argentumcor]

Tolkien's works were hitting popularity when it was becoming widespread to see fictional stories as metaphor. We live in that now, to the point where if there's any kind of racial tension in your fictional universe people assume the groups involved are a stand in for one real-world group or another.

His experiences inform a lot of his writing, as they do for all writers, and his themes are truths about life he learned. But the Ring is not a metaphor, though it can be likened to some things. The animosity between the elves and the dwarves is not a metaphor, though it is a lesson on getting over the past to unite for the good while still holding onto the good things about your own culture. The nearest thing to a metaphor might be the Scouring of the Shire, but I think it's more a reflection on the way the shadow can touch even places and people you think are safe.

Heaven help us in genre fiction, no one argues Flannery O'Connor's continuously writing metaphors about having lupus. Fantasy and sci-fi stories are not necessarily- in fact, are rarely- metaphors, but even non-readers and non-academics are addicted to understanding them as such and it brings everything down.

[thinkinginquenya]

My understanding of Tolkien's writings on fiction is that he's fine with people seeing his works as metaphorical, as long as it is understood that *you* are bringing the metaphor to the table, and he has simply given you the tools to make a metaphor applicable to your own concerns.

[lets-steal-an-archive]

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[shutyourmoustache]

[hostilemakeover]

[g00seg1raffe]

Holy fuck you illegally downloaded a cardigan

[thelatestkate]

[kooldewd123]

actually the craziest impact animorphs has had on me is that i never really got an urge to eat cinnamon buns from reading them BUT the phrase "the refreshing beverage known as vinegar" has forced its way into my head every other week for years to try and convince me it would be a good idea to chug a whole glass of it

[kooldewd123]

tyhe voices in my head are gettinh louder

[sarifel-corrisafid-ilxhel]

Vinegar is what we used to use as the acid in our sodas before we switched to Carbonated Water in the 19th century, and vinegar-based sodas trace their roots all the way back to the Bronze Age Meditteranean! The Romans called it Posca! The Ottomans adopted it from the Romans and called it Sharab, which means "Drink", and then American colonists acquired the recipe from the Ottomans in the 17th century and changed the name to Shrub!

There's a famous example of Posca that most people misremember because we don't drink Vinegar much anymore. If you're familiar with the Crucifixion of Jesus in the Bible, you probably remember the bit about the Roman soldier offering Jesus a sponge full of vinegar to drink. Most people think the Roman dude was mocking Jesus, but that's wrong. That was a sponge full of Posca. The Roman dude was like "Well this sucks. Want a Sprite?"

...Fun fact, I know this because the phrase "Refreshing Beverage known as Vinegar" got stuck in my head one night at work, and I started googling "Does anybody drink vinegar". I had to know. It turns out the answer is yes! And you can still find vinegar-based soft drinks today! Switchel is a vinegar-and-ginger drink you can find at some bars in the US, and it goes back to pre-carbonated soft drinks.

Also, I know several people who drink pickle juice regularly, and white vinegar is a key component of pickle juice! So that's also where vinegar as a drink can pop up in your day to day life.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

There's also a trendy New Age beverage called fire cider that's literally just vinegar, cinnamon, spice, and pretensions. RIP Ax, you would've loved the fire cider craze.

[kooldewd123]

op here. imagine how i feel. i've been dealing with this propaganda in my notifications all week.

[foldingfittedsheets]

Alright so one of my past jobs was working at an on tap place called Oil and Vinegar store. It’s supposed to be for salad dressings and stuff. People would bring in their bottles and we’d fill them up.

Vinegar is basically just made from fruit sugars so we had. The most. Amazing vinegars. There’s this one made with mango pulp that I straight up would have just drunk but if you add it to soda water it was truly the most decadent beverage imaginable. So there’s like passion fruit, raspberry, elderflower- just every wonderful sharp flavor imaginable.

We had pregnant ladies who’d buy several bottles at a time because it’s really great for nausea.

What I’m saying here is that Ax wasn’t wrong at all, that dude knew what was up even if he was probably chugging boring household white vinegar.

[mitaukano]

Gonna leave these tasting history videos down here

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

[ralfmaximus]

The note inside a bullet.

B-17 bomber is riddled with German anti-aircraft fire but miraculously survives. Later they discover the explosive shells were all inert; sabotaged by Nazi slaves working in armament factories.

Inside one empty shell is a written note: it's all we can do for you now.

[gothlovingoth]

The most important part of all this is that these small acts of bravery and noncompliance cannot be known as long as the enemy still stands, and might never be known. Just because it doesn’t seem like anyone is doing anything doesn’t mean it’s true. The best malicious compliance or subtle sabotage is the one that’s never detected, but makes ravages nonetheless.

[weshallbekind]

A critical part of any resistance is

Do not post your crimes

Do not brag. Do not look for brownie points. Do not publicly recruit. Keep your mouth shut.

[itssjanedoe]

[s-h-a-s-e]

[thememedaddy]

[ginstermotte]

Nobody:

Gävlebocken:

[little-grey-dowitcher]

So many people never learned to live with harmless discomfort at any point in their lives and holy fuck does it show

[little-grey-dowitcher]

“But I wanna know!” You’re gonna have to learn to be ok with not knowing some things, especially when those things involve personal details about strangers that they’re not comfortable sharing.

“But it’s confusing!” If you take the time to educate yourself it’ll no longer be confusing. Otherwise you’re just gonna have to learn to be ok with being confused.

“But it’s weird!” You probably do weird things all the time. Everyone does weird things sometimes. Life goes on.

“But it scares me!” Is it hurting you? No? You’ll be fine. Being scared and being harmed are not always the same thing. Learn to tell the difference and then act accordingly.

“But I want it!” And I want a million dollars. You can’t always get what you want.

[little-grey-dowitcher]

A lot of people were also never told “no” as children and the consequences of that manifest in similar ways. Learn to be ok with being told “no.” You’re not gonna die if you don’t get your way in every single situation ever.

[sanrio-stud]

every year i forget how impossible it feels to function when you're cold and under a blanket. u really expect me to be productive right now? to think about things? outside the warmth and safety of my blanket? kind of messed up to be honest

[troutlawyer]

Grandmas were so right about puzzles and knitting and crocheting and solitaire and reading slow and slippers and baking and watching deer in the backyard send post

[cinewhore]

[3rabbit]

[immortalbeingz]

[athelind]

If you search "Keyhole Gardening" on StartPage or any other search engine that isn't AI-corrupted, you'll get a bumper crop of information.

The Wikipedia page is very detailed.

[victusinveritas]

Also adding some book recommendations on Permaculture from the fine folks at Lithub.

[mythigal1966]

@gallusrostromegalus