Don't panic. @lobotemy - Tumblr Blog

the politics of ghost in the shell are interesting. for such a foundational cyberpunk work it's incredibly notable that the main characters are... the police? and they routinely break protocol and apply unnecessary force. they even skim off the top more than once. and the series seems aware that them having all that power isn't exactly a good thing, but it also doesn't really seem interested in interrogating the topic. here and there we get a throwaway line about "this is what it takes to get the job done" in that very tough guy ends justify the means kinda way. the police need all this power because it's The Future and the bad guys also have a lot of power, end of conversation. the rookie character is framed as naive for even questioning this. the possibility of The Good Guys becoming The Bad Guys is sort of explored but it's treated with a "we'll handle it when it happens" kind of attitude; as long as they're the good guys, it's fine if they break some rules. the plight of the common people is largely ignored, and our protagonists actually generally treat them with cold detachment. the first story very purposely shows that Motoko isn't there to save any of the people stuck in the factory, she was just there to get a job done, and then she leaves them to fend for themselves. because Motoko isn't a good person. she's cool and funny and hot, but she's also a high ranking law enforcement officer who treats human life as largely disposable. she's fun to root for, but she's also singularly unsympathetic if you think about her place in the world for even a minute. and that moral greyness serves to make her a very compelling character... but sometimes you get the feeling the writer doesn't really understand that it makes her morally grey at all.

iondream

I've had this argument before about Shirow, because it's not always clear whether the writer is trying to tell a good story, or if they are trying to make a point, but I always maintain that the point is to tell a good story. Motoko is not a good person. But you need her to be a bad person to get the story you want. You've got a guy who watched too much 70s cop and military movies taking the best parts out of them and imagining a future where everything is like it is in an imagined America but more. America as seen through the lense of popular media and news stories that reached Japan. Hyper real. The guy isn't trying to make a judgement on morality, he's putting together a world to play out the scenarios he finds interesting. He loves machines. Guns, robots, cybernetics. He loves action and gore. He loves scantily clad women. He loves hyper competent protagonists, especially women. The story is in service to that. But he's not an idiot. He knows the problems this sort of world, these sorts of characters create. So he includes that in the story. He points to how fucked up it is that the system works this way by having characters discuss it, he doesn't shy away from the reality that these are killers we're rooting for. He shows you what they are really like. What cops are really like. Its up to you to make the moral judgement on what they are doing. It's not that the author doesn't get that the stuff they do isn't right, its that the characters believe they are right. If they didn't it wouldn't be realistic. He is making a world that he wouldn't want to live in, but is fun to watch. So does he realize that the characters are not just morally grey, but totally compromised? I think he does. The responses to the teams interventions are realistic. People complain. Coruption persists. Nothing is fixed. Nobody is saved. Because cops don't save people. They kill people.

cat-mermaid

this this this, all of this

Shirow was writing a fun cop comic that came out with a chapter once every 3 months from 1989 to 1990, because of that publishing schedule he went with a very "heres today's cool crime thing the awesome badass robot cops gotta blow up!" story telling format

which isn't very friendly to telling a story with character's having backstorys/flashbacks/anything that would confuse readers picking up the manga for the first time.

@iondream is spot on with the "Masamune Shirow just threw all the stuff he thought was cool into a blender and made a The Ghost in the Shell smoothie outta it" thing, the man wasn't trying to make any kind of morality lesson or shine a spotlight on certain issues (at least not directly/intentionally)

I think thats what makes it kind of jarring watching this manga put into the weekly episodic anime format in modern day is that we're used to getting long inner monologs or flashbacks about why characters do what they do, so when they do (insert bad thing here) the audience can go "oh yeah that was totally justified/oh poor baby is just so BROKEN because of the REASONS"

but we don't get any of that in The Ghost in the Shell, in fact that last episode (at the time of me writing this) "Dumb Barter" is like the most perfect example of this

so. fucking. much. of what the hell is going on with Toru Soma and section one is just straight up spoken out loud by Mokoto and Daisuke, especially in that last scene in the above screenshot⬆️

like this episode was as expo dumpy as hell. usually in anime/other media, during a character's exposition, there'd be cuts to the thing they're talking about-

(like in the above image, in fact i think this is the only time we actually get shown an actual flashback scene while a character is talking about something that happened in the past)

-but Shirow was all about "we're in the moment, just like in a cool american cop movie!" or whatever the hell he was thinking back then

"wow this anaconda guy must be really important!" you think, "everyone is talking about him so much, he's gonna show up later for sure!" no sweet baby they already killed him off screen so shushy

where i'm going with this is that all these self contained chapters/episodes can feel really blunt and confusing storywise because we're so used to receiving a lot more background/explaination in modern anime/manga

hell even that Toru Soma guy feels really flat as a bad guy cos he only talks in the first scene and never again. in almost any other story we would have gotten words more from a guy who's trying to get revenge on the protagonist who tricked him into killing his own son, even a "to hell you you!"

but no he just gapes at her and dies

it feels really flat and rushed but i chalk it up again to the constraints of the "one chapter every 3 months" thing, just no point or time to really flesh the bad guys out beyond grrr they r bad and thats also contributes to why this whole story feels kinda gross to our modern sensibilities

cos it almost feels way too western "saturday morning cartoon bad guy", but again, kind have 2 not overthink it too much cos ultimately this manga was just a dude's "wow wow hot robot lady shoots the guns that makes the peoples fall downs and SCIENCE!!!" self indulgent story

laughcentre

alientitty

a few indian brutalist buildings

roadhogsbigbelly

i'm not saying people shouldn't be reading more books, but i do think it's funny how many people thinking "reading comprehension" is just about how good you are at reading books and not like. criticial thinking skills.

fedoranon

Before my niece was in school and her first few summers, I babysat her pretty often, natch. Occasionally I'd take her to a movie (mostly as an excuse to watch a "kids" movie, ha) but there was a lot of PBS and Netflix because then I could lay out the grapes and crackers.

And after the movie, or every few episodes, I'd ask her, you know, what her favorite part was, or what did she think would happen next? Total glass eyes. Okay, okay, favorite is a bit much. Was there a part she liked? A character? ..... Any character's name?

I told my sister I was concerned of course. I got blown off. And then she started school and started getting notes about her reading comprehension and my sister was like but she knows how to read, I know she knows what words mean! And I was like no no no this is what I was talking about and like. Obviously I read the four year old picture books too but the example that came to mind was being disappointed we couldn't finish Carmen Sandiego and either not knowing or not wanting to tell me the main character's name.

And she's like, well that isn't reading.

Okay! So! The skill isn't named correctly but that's what it is!! That's what it is for a 4 year old, they should at least be on that level!

It's not about knowing the most words or the most complicated grammar, it's about being able to give a basic summary of a post and add a semi-relevant anecdote (lol). on its most basic level, it's about not pissing on the poor

parasite-core

A handful of people have told me I should have put my tags in the actual post so here you go:

handsaniti

The good thing about critical thinking skills is that they can be developed and improved upon with patience and practice

clockworkcanary

A lot of the things you think “just come naturally” or are “common sense” are actually things that you learned at some point. You just don’t remember learning them!

The one that I know that I learned in college because I remember having problems with it, and then it finally clicking, was warm and cool colors. Golden hour, or how to indicate cool or warm in art. It’s one of my very favorite ways to play with color, NOW, but, it took me most of a semester in a color focused art class, in my early twenties to SEE it.

Ugh. So many assignments where the teacher was like, “nope, bot there yet.” So many!! (So long ago, too. We were doing slide photography and showing the slides in class, every class meeting)

It was useful, to me, to encounter something that took so much work for me to actually see it. Before that, I had mostly just done what was easiest, what people told me I had a “talent” for.

No. The skill of learning new mental skills? The frustration tolerance to get through and get it to click? THAT was the most valuable thing I encountered in college because it applies to everything all the time everywhere.

And it’s good to understand that it is ALL SKILLS! All of it. The easy and the hard stuff. You CAN learn it. Figuring out how to get yourself to actually grasp it is harder, though. Different people learn in different ways.

The frustration tolerance, though. That was really hard for me. I am still working on it.

elumish

Both as a writer and as a general member of society, reading comprehension is a super important skill to have.

I think one of the ways that a lot of people get frustrated by how reading is taught in school is that some teachers will focus heavily on very specific details in books, and so you will end up being tested on reading retention rather than reading comprehension. I had a teacher in high school whose reading quizzes were all about random details in whatever passage we had been assigned for homework (e.g., how many minutes did it take for the floodwaters to get from Town A to Town B) rather than on the actual comprehension of the passage. This can make you feel like you can't do reading comprehension or are bad at it, because it's what you've been tested on (especially if you never took a literature class post-high school).

Here are some skills that I think are important for reading comprehension, whether you're approaching fiction, non-fiction, persuasive writing, or anything else:

Understanding the meaning of a sentence in isolation, a paragraph, a section, and the entire piece. That is to say, having the ability to both parse the meaning of a sentence on its own but also understand how a set of thoughts fit together. A great way to practice this is to try to explain what something means to someone else (can be a real person, a pet, a stuffed animal, whatever). When I'm working with the people who report to me to edit their writing, one of the things I will often ask them is to explain what they're saying in a very simple non-business way. This also works with someone else's writing--can you take what was written in explain or describe it in plain terminology? Can you summarize a chapter or even a book in a few sentences?

Fitting the writing within the context in which it was written or published. If you see an essay talking about women's safety, for example, that phrasing will mean something different depending on who is writing it. It is often clear from the rest of the essay what they mean by it, but it is key to comprehending the writing as a whole to understand the context in which it was written or published (for example, to know whether it is being used as a transphobic dogwhistle). Can you identify biases in the writing, either through how it's written or what you know about the author or place where it was published? We know some of the biases that will be present in a piece put out by the Heritage Foundation versus Planned Parenthood, even without knowing the author.

Identifying themes or messages in the writing. Some authors and some writing focuses much more heavily on themes or messages than others (for example, a persuasive essay will have a much greater focus on a persuasive message than an encyclopedia entry), but no writing is truly neutral, and themes, messages, or goals (intentional or not) are present in virtually every piece of writing. You don't need to write a five paragraph essay about everything you read, but it can be good practice to spend a little bit of time thinking about how the piece of writing presents certain information or people. If someone is described as "stubborn" versus "obstinate" or "brave" versus "foolhardy", it gives a sense of the message being presented about this person. if all characters of a certain race, gender, religion, etc. are presented a certain way, you can start to identify the message that the story is sending about that group--whether or not the author intended it.

Maintaining a critical view of information. This isn't strictly reading comprehension as much as media literacy, but I think they are connected enough to include here. Not everything you read is accurate or true, including things that agree with your pre-existing worldview, and the follow up to the three things I listed before is to identify what something is saying, the context in which it is saying it, and the messages it is putting across, and engaging critically with them rather than assuming it's all correct. To be clear, I'm not saying don't believe science or anything like that, but, for example, a lot of science reporting in major media is kind of awful and misleading, especially in the headlines. If you see a headline that reads bacon always causes cancer, it's important to look at the actual reporting, potentially even look at the study it's citing, and understand what is actually being said, not what looked flashy in a headline. Similarly, if you only see a piece of major news in one place, particularly not from a pre-established reliable news source (by which I mean something like NBC and not A Partisan Podcaster on Twitter), you need to double check it. That's not to say it's necessarily fake or misleading, but there's usually a reason only one person is saying something happened.

flameraven

This is why teachers make you write essays, by the way. Trust me, teachers hate essays even more than you do. They are a bitch to grade and take a lot of time as well mental energy, much more than just marking a multiple-choice test. Every teacher I know is always like "uUuuGH, essays" and procrastinating on grading them. You don't want to write an essay? Try having to read fifty of them over a weekend when you'd rather be doing something fun. BUT! They assign them anyway because they are genuinely a really useful tool in evaluating reading comprehension. Writing out an essay (should) force you to think about the material and demonstrate your understanding of it. And the process of thinking about it and translating those thoughts into words is the point. We live in a very word-based society. Reading comprehension is the cardio of training your brain muscles. It's an important foundation for everything else.

idhren

Reading comprehension is the cardio of training your brain muscles.

sexchangedotcom

the internet is a place for reading wikipedia articles and watching every movie for free. social media is an invasive species. never forget this

bozemane

Yoji Shinkawa illustration for the Ghost in The Shell 2026 anime adaptation.

anscathmarcach

All this discourse over who does "painting with light"

Hiroshi Nagai's paintings need sunglasses to look at.

They look like how it feels to walk across a parking lot on a 98° summer day without a speck of shade in sight.

They look like heaven but also like you'd burn your bare feet on the ground.

Even when you can see shade you know it's not enough and the minute you step out you'll be burnt to a crisp like a vampire.

And it's BEAUTIFUL

dbarenzu626

I'll throw in the wonderful Eizin Suzuki into this ring too, a man whose work just breathes light without actually using dynamic lighting in the usual way. It's no surprise both Nagai and Suzuki are both considered prolific in art pertaining to the city pop genre because they're able to paint these kinds of scenes with a delicate touch.

This feels like I could trip on that radio and fall right into that water, feeling the crystal waves as I drop in.

And this, a nice stroll down a resort strip, where my sunscreened skin could literally feel cooked if I leaned too close to the tiling.

And then a nice stretch of summer street, wherein you could see your face in the flushed red of that car provided it didn't blind you from its sunny reflections.

I don't think I even need to say anything more, Suzuki's a massive influence in how he even places colours so warmly in such unorthodox manner. It's a naturally sunkissed talent~ 🌊

gaybichon

i think i found my new favorite artist on twitter

(source)

gaybichon

👆 me

weirdlandtv

DISCO DRACULA (1982). From German horror series, John Sinclair.

70sscifiart

Everything else aside, you have to admit that this would be the sickest party you’ve ever seen.

robotslenderman

The recent hot VS cold polls have made me realise that a lot of people have no idea how to cool down.

As someone from a hot country that's regularly on fire, here's some tips:

WATER IS YOUR FRIEND! WATER! IS! YOUR! FRIEND! You can transfer SO much heat into this bad boy! You cannot cool down without water!

Wrists under the cold tap. Splash your face and the back of your neck. Fan yourself.

In some countries you can buy a little handeld fan with a water sprayer.

Damp tea towel around the neck. Stick an ice pack in there on hotter days.

Half fill a water bottle with water, stick in freezer. If you use a bottle with a straw, make sure it's lying on its side with the straw side up and out of the water. When frozen top up the rest of the way with tap water and off you go.

Desperate to cool off? Wet T-shirt. Sit in front of a fan. This will nuke it, just don't get hypothermia and don't fall asleep like this.

Cold showers are also your friend in summer. Some people get psyched up by these. Personally, I sleep like a baby, so I'm good to have them before bed. Just keep in mind that it takes a bit of time for the cool to circulate, so your body will tell you that you're colder than you actually are. I find that when I have cold showers I need to step out of the spray when I think I'm cold... I'll just wait, and thirty seconds later the temperature has evened out and I actually need to step under again. Rinse and repeat until you maintain coolness even after stepping out for a bit.

If you can't do cold showers, turn the cold shower on anyway and just stick your arms under. When they're cold, lift your arms up above your head. The sensation of cool blood draining into your body is fucking weird and kinda unpleasant but less unpleasant than being hot.

Feet in a tub of water with ice. Blood naturally flows to your extremities when hot, so take advantage of this. If you don't have a tub of ice water, sticking a wet rag on your feet in front of the fan works too, it's the less powerful version of the wet T-shirt.

Drinks lots of water but make sure that water has electrolytes as well. Stay in the shade.

Keep air circulating. Fans don't actually cool rooms down, they just help transfer heat from your body to the moisture on your skin or the air via evaporative cooling.

Block north facing windows early in the morning so the sun doesn't get in. If you're in the northern hemisphere, this is opposite for you. Keep in mind that if your home is brick, the bricks will still heat up and slowly release heat into your home even after the sun goes down so this will only do so much.

If it's hotter inside than outside, close all your windows but two, making sure they're on opposite sides of the house/unit you're in. Point a fan out of one window, making sure that the doors between the rooms with the open windows are all open. This will help create a mini pressure system in your home, pulling cooler air in and pushing the hotter air out via the fan. Bonus points if you can get that fan high up where the hot air rises; even within a single room the top is much hotter than the air by the floor. Adjust the amount of open windows based on how many fans you have, but generally you want more windows with fans open than windows without fans to keep the pressure correct.

Obviously, use your common sense for these. Not everything WILL work for you, just use the stuff that does and adjust what needs to be adjusted. Some of these will be impossible to use in the workplace but others you can still use. Others are best used at home. If humidity impacts your ability to use any of these, get a dehumidifier if that's an option, or use more ice instead of evaporation.

Also keep in mind that the skinnier you are, the faster these will work. More fat means more insulation, means more heat, so you may need to be more patient with some of these or use them in combination.

robotslenderman

Bringing this back for my dying mutuals