Land of Paper & Stars

Hello you! It's lovely to see you. Here we have pop culture, history, design, poetry & prose and art in every form. Home to lots of laughter & plenty of positivity est. 2011 🌟

[owlmylove]

i may not know a lot abt life but i know it’s how keith haring said “touching people’s lives in a positive way is as close as I can get to an idea of religion” and how kurt vonnegut said “and I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exlaim or murmur or think at some point, if this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is,” and olga jacoby said “to leave a good example to those I love [is] my only understanding of immortality” and smiley poswolsky said “I think we found the answer to the universe which was, quite simply: spend more time with your friends”

[projectcatzo]

I was not expecting there to be so much peeing in Is God Is

[foodiewithdahoodie]

Just finished watching this movie and the way Sterling K Brown ate as being the best portrayal of an abusive man who speaks so softly, gently, before becoming the monster he truly is. The twin sisters Racine and Anaia both embody the qualities of their parents, and are really believable with their reactions as survivors of being burned/being in the foster system/having irresponsible self centered parents.

I like how it's a timeless tale of revenge, where if you go that route prepare to lose something about yourself. I like how we don't actually know where exactly everything is taking place, just that the homes get progressively better looking compared to how the twins were living. I like how they're twin sisters but they still are own person. I like how Anaia keeps learning the hard way about discernment when it comes to her grace and kindness while Racine leans into the violence cuz no one protected her so she becomes dangerous as a response.

And the women, the moms, and that lawyer who all gave excuses to the dad's vile ways. The half brothers who refused empathy to their sisters. This movie packed so much about how no one wins when you give abusers chance after chance after chance and that sometimes the answer is just to kill them. Also Janelle Monae and Erika Alexander killed it as the worst pick me women using classism and religion to diminished what the sisters went through.

Fuck my city for only having this movie played in certain theaters late at night with only 1 showing available per day. They really don't want this to be another Sinners of complex Black characters with the MCs being twins.

[kuntakoochie]

I got to watch "Is God Is" last night and I loved it I also love the fact that the director/writer was inspired by Greek tragedies which made sense watching it

[thediscossessed]

"I wanna be the one to stomp on someone, just to know what it feels like. It must feel good, the way everybody else won't stop doing it."

[mercury-motif]

While watching is god is this Friday, one thing I couldn't stop thinking about is my favorite quote from Their Eyes Were Watching God and how it fit perfectly with the story and narrative:

"Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood" - Zora Neale Hurston

[hungry-hobbits]

i keep thinking about Is God Is and one thing i really love (and am heartbroken by) is the two stark and very real depictions of spousal response to domestic violence

angie, for all her faults, is a victim and i think we can all acknowledge that. but she's a victim that lived in comfort and extravagance (stark contrast to how the Twins were raised), she stayed until her boys were old enough to take care of themselves (seemingly unaffected by or unknowing of their fathers violence and abuse towards their mother). she saved money, made plans in advance, and timed everything to a T. and she would've probably gotten away if the Twins had not intervened

but she knew more than she admitted, not the full picture because obviously he left things out, but she knew ruby was also a victim. she just assumed that ruby was the "bad" kind of victim that stayed to be abused rather than leave. that she did everything right while ruby did everything wrong

what ruby did was everything she could. we have to assume she had no money to pack up and relocate, especially with two small children, because she was still in "his" house when he came back. she got a restraining order, tried to keep him away. but we all know the stories of men violating restraining orders to go back and kill their wives. they just don't work, plus factor in being a young black woman so how fast do you think the cops would come if she called? she admitted that she tried to just be complacent (probably with the idea that he would leave) and it still got her hurt

and the sad thing is that angie and the twins could've worked together to take him down, to stop his violence. because angie had to know that he would just do that to another woman (but considering her views, she probably would've blamed the woman). he ruined ruby's life, he ruined divine's life, he ruined her life to an extent, all he did was carve a path of violence, blood, and abandonment through the south. the only way it would stop would be for him to die. instead she was intimidated by being forced to acknowledge the parts of the story he lied about (that he said they died rather than admit that he didn't want the girls) and scared of them ruining her way out because she didn't want to end up like how she perceived their mom to have ended up.

i think that's another reason why the movie makes certain people so uncomfortable, they've never had to address the different narratives and reasons for why victims leave or stay or are killed. its easier to just blame the woman for doing everything "wrong" in a situation they've never had to navigate

[borkborkheresadork]

Everyone go see Is God Is right now and worship the doomed narrative

[harsleywrites]

“Is God Is” was spectacular. An indictment of an intracommunity system that props up, enables, and sanitizes the reputation of abusers. God and her children were seen as disposable, growing pains for a Man who never actually grew. Children he abandoned and abused will still defend him over the women in their lives. Grown men will cower in fear of him and never seek their own justice. The victims will create hierarchies, decide empathy on a case by case basis. And even knowing all that he’s done, for a second you might even believe him.

[receptor-antagonist]

still burning all the while

[forbidden-interlude]

One of the most glaring themes in Is God Is is the way his sons fight tooth and nail to uphold his tyranny. The fight to uphold the patriarchy they are bound to inherit and benefit from, despite the destruction it does to their own mothers and sisters.

Ezekiel didn’t even know his father, but he was prepared to commit murder in his name. Because that’s his God. All he knows of him is the altar. Just like the biblical story of Ezekiel, he believes his dad is coming back/there will be restoration. Despite being so clearly exiled. And he’s ready to kill about it. While Riley was choking out Anaya, he made sure to let her know that he didn’t care what his brother did. The twin brothers probably knew their mother was being abused but their alliance is with the patriarch.

[achillesinhighheels]

mary vieyra in “the woman with the knife” dir. by timité bassori (1969)

[anarchistmemedistro]

[fforsythiaaa]

Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.

[playthings2007]

Completely lost all concepts of joke comprehension for a moment because my instinct was to register this as a new type of kitchencel

[atomikats]

my personal take on the matter

[genderfluid-druid]

[ID: A comic of Grace at a table with the Hail Mary astronauts. Shapiro, with her arm around Dubois, asks, "You're sure you and Stratt aren't a thing."

"Absolutely positive," says Grace.

"You've never even kissed?"

"Nuh uh. Nope."

Dubois joins in, saying, "But if she asked you to... say... get your arm surgically attached to hers. Would you?"

"...huh???" says Grace, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, would you?" asks Yao.

Grace looks thoughtful. "Like. I mean. If it was pertinent to the mission, then..."

"Never mind," says Ilyukhina. "Something much more concerning than sex is going on here." End ID]

[bedupolker]

Opposable thumbs are handy

[bedupolker]

Dunno if this is real or false memory but I grew up watching soviet cartoons and "cute sturgeon wearing a bandana over her head" was like a reoccurring character design. But I haven't been able to find any screenshots. So either slavic bandana sturgeon is lost media, an original idea that came to me in a dream, or Google is falling apart piece by piece and we wont be able to find anything online ever again

[trochaic-mutant-ninja-tetrameter]

🎶Google falling apart! Mermaid drawings!🎵