Mulder, did they check you for head trauma?

Lynn (she/her). 30s. Librarian. History nerd. Champion procrastinator. Blue dot in a red sea. Country music lover. Has a weakness for 90s sci-fi.

[sg1]

Stargate SG-1, 03.20 Maternal Instinct

[wonkyfaint]

what can't women do when we decide to do it together

[maimonideznuts]

I know there are bigger problems, but I fucking hate the appropriation of the word "golem".

Just say "elemental construct" or something.

I don't think there's an argument here, it's a Jewish culture term... Invent your own terms and leave ours alone.

[maimonideznuts]

Flesh golem? That's a homunculus.

Magic caster created golem? That's a magical construct.

Naturally occurring golem? That's an elemental.

-

A setting without Jews by definition cannot have golems.

Only a Rabbi can create a golem.

[maimonideznuts]

I am also bothered by the liberal use of the Eyn Sof in Fantasy media, especially animation. Full Metal Alchemist, The Owl House, Black Clover... I've even seen it used on the packaging for a vibrator/dildo.

It's not just Jewish, it's Kabbalah, a restricted practice even within Judaism and it has a cameo in an Owl House magic school classroom and on the package of a vibrator?

[queermystic]

Its always been truly strange to me that the only two instances I can remember of Actual Golems in popular media, with Jewish characters involved in the plot and and a some what legitimate explanation of what Golems actually are and that they're Jewish in Origin was......

Supernatural and The Simpsons.

[pleasestopthese]

there was also the dc comics miniseries the monolith

[maimonideznuts]

I'm not familiar, but the synopsis on Wikipedia looks interesting.

In the present the reader is introduced to Alice Cohen as she receives her inheritance from her recently deceased grandmother. This inheritance consists of a lone house in an area of Brooklyn where all the other buildings have been torn down. One of the first things that Alice discovers is a walled off section in the basement from which a voice calls to her to read stories. Alice's first choice for this is her grandmother's diary.

^ small excerpt

[sunspotpony]

I would like to continue to propose Lārem. In Latin, a Lār is a protective spirit of a place. So it’s got historical/linguistic roots and isn’t made-up wholecloth. It ties a thing to a space and has the exact same number of syllables, and at worst most folks will go “oh you’re just being unique and calling it something Fancy for your setting, just like how every fantasy story competes to come up with wild spellings for Mahgick.”

It just fucking fits. It’s so easy. I’m not remotely Jewish by any definition of the word, so I cannot speak for anybody, but instead I offer you this very practical taken on “golem.”

Let’s say you hear conflicting takes by Jewish folk on whether or not you can use “golem.” Some say you can, some say you can’t.

Rather than making it a moral matter — consider, some folks asked you not to and said it sucks, and you know they’ve got a fair argument even if you don’t agree with it. Since it’s so easy to not do, why not just, not be a dick?

If you want to look at it not as a moral matter, but look in purely practical terms, by refusing the request to call it anything else, it’s bein’ a bit of a dick.

So use mine. Call them Stone Lārems and everyone will understand immediately.

[flightyquinn]

You know what? No. Just this once, I'm not going to be respectful of other people's beliefs.

Not because I have anything against Judaism in particular.

Not because I'm particularly attached to "golem" as a term.

No, it's because this is a stupid hill to die on.

Fantasy steals. It appropriates. It uses familiar terms so that people don't have to check a glossary to keep track of a bunch of terms that they won't remember because every piece of media out there is suddenly making up their own words for shit. And you know what? Fantasy steals from everyone, without prejudice. The only qualifier is that the word be well enough known that people will know what you're talking about.

So, if anything, having your word used as a general fantasy term means that your myth was considered recognizable enough to be used for clarity.

If you still want to be offended? Go ahead. Be offended. That's your right. But you'll be neither the first nor the last to find a fantasy work sacrilegious. You aren't special. Get in the fucking melting pot.

[jadwigaspeaks]

"Cultural appropriation in the genre is fine because the genre often has cultural appropriation in it" is not the winning argument you think it is

And if you see someone from a minority group that has experienced literal millennia of attempts at forced assimilation criticise an example of cultural appropriation, and respond with "get in the fucking melting pot"... well, forgive me if I'm skeptical of your claim to not have "anything against Judaism in particular"

[jadwigaspeaks]

Actually, you know what? One more thing to point out about that response:

"you'll be neither the first nor the last to find a fantasy work sacrilegious."

^ This reads like an implicit comparison to stuff like Christian fundamentalists calling for a fantasy book to be banned because it depicts the use of magic or has a demon in it or whatever. And if that is the intent then it's an insidious fucking comparison because again, this is a response to a member of a marginalized ethnoreligious group (yes, Jewish people are marginalized) pointing out that a thing that fantasy works frequently use is actually very specific to their culture and the way fantasy uses it is both inaccurate and appropriative

[indecisiveavocado]

There are ton of really fucking cool mythological elements that I'd love to use in my stories! But I frequently don't, because they're from (say) Aboriginal Australian groups, and those aren't my fucking myths!

I see it as potentially one-directional. It's okay if it's a marginalized culture using myths and folklore from the marginalizing cultures -- you wanted me to assimilate, buddy! But the other way is just ... no.

It's not that I think it's sacrilegious, I think it's cultural appropriation! Those are different!

The golem in particular is deeply rooted in Jewish persecution and fantasies of escape from that, and erasing that context and making it into some vague Thing is...not cool. The golem is fundamentally a Jewish fantasy that Jews told about people hating Jews. You cannot remove it from this context. There are no golems without Jews. Not fantasy knockoff Jews, but Jews.

You don't get to steal our legends about some mythical creature protecting us from your ancestors. That's not sacrilegious -- that's just unethical and bad.

[pagecommando]

People don't actually WANT Jews in the 'melting pot' nor do they actually believe in the melting pot. They want what Jews create and build but the only "melting pot" they really want Jews to get into is a crematorium after they take everything we made that they like, because they are entitled to it by virtue of THEM being human and us being... Not/and/or directly comparable to christian hegemony. Exotic enough to fetishize, then inhuman enough to throw on the garbage heap of history and then fear like a boogeyman after not all of us die. It's deeply ironic that 10 years ago people pretended to care about Golems in D&D and Goblins in harry potter being antisemetic while remaining silent about the venomous rising Jew-Hate in progressive and also fandom spaces as they expanded along the fandom-cult model. Now they don't even have to pretend about their hobbies with Jews! It's THEIR colonized space! They Took These Things. It's theirs.

Now get in the melting pot so a nerd-game that took off mainstream in the last 10 years because it got played like a radio/tv show can still use the Jew Word. How DARE you ask me to do introspection. Introspection is for humans.

[indecisiveavocado]

you know what we didn't coin "melting pot" but since it was Israel Zangwill (who, you'll be absolutely shocked to hear, was Jewish) I'm taking that back too. you get to use it when you stop being appropriative.

[clayandsorcery]

@flightyquinn your argument about clarity is wrong given how often non-Jewish story tellers use “golems” as henchmen and villains and enemies to be destroyed.

That’s the opposite of a golem. In fact, if you read a story about the Golem of Prague where the Golem goes mad and kills too many people leading to its unmaking - that’s a Christian telling of the Golem story (“those crafty jooos protected themselves too much!” -Christians, probably)

Golems are protectors, exclusively.

So when people outside of our story telling traditions say “hey, we’re going to water your stuff down, for clarity” that sounds asinine to us.

[indecisiveavocado]

"hey actually your protectors are threatening to us" yeah don't try to kill us and they won't hurt you. have you considered not killing jews. are we really so fun to kill?

[mariacallous]

[keep-calm-and-trust-carter]

First of all, that comparison is just fucking stupid, full stop. But setting that aside, the idea behind accepting gay rights after knowing someone who came out is the realization that LGBT people, by and large, are just like their non-queer/trans/etc peers, and should therefore be treated like everyone else.

Graham Platner is not "just like everyone else." He is, given what has come out so far, a neo-Nazi (I absolutely do not buy that he didn't know that that tattoo was), a war criminal (though unindicted) a pathological liar, an adulterer, and an abusive asshole, among other things. The idea of pretending that he's "an average white guy" is deeply insulting to most white guys, who would not say or do the shit he has said and done.

[mariacallous]

[spideytracker]

RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983) dir. Richard Marquand

[iminye]

Luke Skywalker ‐ Leia Organa ‐ Han Solo

[sophsun1]

GILLIAN ANDERSON as Dana Scully

The X-Files – 3.17: Pusher

[cobbbvanth]

star wars, but it’s just the memes pt. 1

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

[chamomile-teabag]

WHAT ARE YALL READING RN you must tell me

[wokeuphighbyvanessacarlton]

My thoughts regarding trump are "whatever he did I'm horrified I'm in a perpetual state of disgust and horror, wake me up when he actually does the world a favor and dies"

[utenavhs]

think about the first movie you remember seeing in a movie theater. not necessarily the first one you saw in a theater, but your oldest memory of seeing one in a theater. what genre of movie was it?

comedy/dark comedy/satire

action

sci-fi

fantasy

horror/thriller

romance/romantasy

historical/period drama/biopic/documentary/historical fiction/political

drama/tragedy

adventure/epic/superhero

mystery/crime

i have a memory of a film but am not sure what film it is (describe?)

i have never seen a film in the theater/cinema in person

Voting ended onApr 28

for the purpose of this poll, things like "animation" and "musical" are not options here because those are mediums and can be any genre! i also sort of felt like inclusion of either of these would result in them dominating this particular poll. so instead, think of which of these selections MOST sums up the movie you're thinking of. it's okay if multiple of these apply, but just pick the one that would sum it up best.

also, you obviously don't have to, but please consider leaving the movie and the year it was released in the tags! i am probably going to make a letterboxd list of everyone's responses, especially if this spreads around enough. check back for the link!

[trailertrashgrog]

love posts where the OP has blown their own mind with information that's factually wrong

[dankxsinatra]

[apolladay]

If you know the meaning of the word "defenestrate", do you remember how you learned it?

Yes (put it in the tags please I'm curious)

No

I don't know the meaning of the word defenestrate

Voting ended onApr 18

[ateazure]

"and the stars look very different today..."

[icebear4president]

The Artemis II crew filmed an 80s sitcom style video on their way to the Moon