#heterodoxy

[prokopetz]

Heterodox Roman Catholic theologian arguing that you can't go to Hell for objectively funny sins.

[candypalace]

Translation: Heterodoxy Pamphlet. Music Writers Reflect on 20 Years of the GazettE, Part 1/6 (2002-2004)

Hello friends! As promised long long ago, I'm starting the Heterodoxy series where music writers reflect on their work with the band in the last 20 years. This might take some time since not all the texts are ready just yet, but I will do my best to finish them as quickly as I can. This is Part 1/6, hope you enjoy it!

scan credit: @rad-is-more

Text by Hiroko Yamamoto [1]

the GazettE was born in March 2002. The band was formed by Uruha and Reita, who were dear friends from elementary school, Ruki, who they crossed in the previous band (back when he was a drummer) and who later changed to vocals, and their first drummer, Yune, who also invited his buddy from a previous band, Aoi. Two months later, they played their first show at Meguro Rokumeikan, a live venue that can be described as a gateway to success for visual kei bands. Their first maxi single "Wakaremichi" has a melancholic, catchy melody and an impressive fast-paced sound. During the encore of their 20th anniversary live at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in March this year, Ruki looked back on the beginning of the band: "We are the GazettE, and 20 years ago we got together thinking this would be the last band of our lifetimes”. It was during those young days when the band was standing on the stage with recklessness and foolhardiness when such strong headbanging songs as “Kantou Dogeza Kumiai” and “Waifu” were created, yet they continue to stay popular to this day. The band's forward momentum is best represented by the time when they had to play “Kantou Dogeza Kumiai” over and over again because they didn’t have many original songs yet. While they were firing the audience up with their so-called "violent songs", they also had an amazing ability to write emotionally rich compositions with Showa-inspired melodies, such as "Juunanasai" (later included in the pamphlet with CD for their first Nippon Budokan concert). Everything in the GazettE of those early days, up to their make-up and costumes, was elusive and funny in a good way, as conveyed by "Sentimental na Onigokko", a song about bullying, which presents the listeners with a droll world view of a locked room.

The band’s first turning point came the following year. In 2003, when their first drummer left the band, Kai, with whom they had played together in session shows, quickly took his place. This made the current five members, and the band moved to a new office. It was Ruki who made a last-minute call to Kai, and the drummer had to join in right from the next day's show. From this point on the band’s rapid progress officially began. the GazettE of those times actively participated in organized taiban [2] events. They were even nicknamed “taiban killers”, as their heat-packed shows helped them steal away fans who had come to see other bands. In the next three months they released three consecutive four-track mini-albums, "COCKAYNE SOUP", "Akuyuukai" and "Spermargarita", which increased the number of their fans in geometrical progression. Incidentally, at the time they called themselves "Dai Nippon Itan Geisha Gazetto" [3]. The name derived from the thought of what the word “Visual Kei” would sound like if it was a Japanese word [4]. On their 15th anniversary in 2017, the band held a concept show at the Yoyogi National Stadium. On that stage today's the GazettE performed songs from the Dainippon Itan Geisha era, so hopefully fans who didn’t know their early days got to know them. The sense of unity between band and fans that rose steam from the live house, the "Jump to us!" screams, and the band's stage presence all developed during that exact period. Back in September of 2003, the band sold out a two-day one-man show at Takadanobaba AREA, and only four months later, in January 2004, their one-man show "JUDGMENT DAY" at SHIBUYA-AX was sold out. On the day of the show, the venue was overflowing with fans, and the venue’s doors were barely closing. The band was not informed that the tickets had been sold out until the day of the show, and how they were surprised by the scenery in front of them and the crowd’s enthusiasm almost seems funny today.

Particular about every aspect of their performances, videos, sets, playing their music live, even coming up with their own ideas for photoshoots and never stopping the work until they are satisfied – this is the GazettE. When I was covering them in a magazine for the first time, I felt that a band of an entirely new generation that took over from the royalty of Visual Kei (although there was no such term back in the day) had entered the scene. I remembered their down-to-earth attitude, in which the live show and the fans who attend it are the most important thing. I also remembered that young the GazettE had a simple goal of keeping the band going, rather than becoming a band that was listened to by a certain number of people. Come to think of it, that hasn’t changed a bit. Truly an ironclad band.

[1] Hiroko Yamamoto / Born in Tokyo. Impacted by glam and punk rock as well as blues in her college days, she started a band and spent her life immersed in music. After working for an entertainment editorial production, she became a freelance writer. She covered the GazettE for the free papers and visual-kei specific magazines like Neo Genesis. She was particularly impressed by the band’s stance with its emphasis on live performances and believing in their music and their fans without being influenced by trends or critical opinions. Currently writes columns on music, as well as films and doramas. (From the pamphlet’s credits)

[2] 対バン (taiban) - A live with several bands performing. Usually those are beginner bands that split the venue and equipment rent as well as other costs.

[3] 大日本異端芸者 (Dai Nippon Itan Geisha) can be translated as “Heretic people of art (professional performers) of the Great Japan”. We know Ruki never chooses names for anything without putting a lot of meaning into it, and I’d say there are many layers to this title as well. 

大日本 (Dai Nippon) initially referrs to the Japanese Empire (大日本帝國 Dai Nippon Teikoku, 1868–1947), which embraced the Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa eras in Japanese history, though nowadays it is considered a nationalistic way of referring to Japan. Dai Nippon expressed the overall aesthetics that the GazettE (then - Gazetto) was working with at the time: Japanese flags on the Wakaremichi cover, the silhouettes of children wearing Imperial Japan school uniforms on the COCKAYNE SOUP cover, lyrics (Oni no men) and the use of traditional melodies (Back Drop Junkie [Nancy]), their iconic indie photoshoots with lots of elements clearly inspired by Japanese culture and so on.

異端 (itan) means heresy. This word is also clearly important for the GazettE’s vision and positioning since we see it literally everywhere: in the fanclub name, 20th anniversary live name, merch etc. If we look up the meaning of the word “heresy”, we’ll see the following: “an opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted”. Not only “being profoundly different” is a key principle of Visual Kei, it is also one of the grounds the GazettE exists and continues to work on.

Finally, 芸者 (geisha, “a person of art”) is a pretty well-known word internationally. While most people associate geisha with professional female performers, the Japanese word itself doesn’t have any gender markers, and the first geisha, which appeared around the first half of the 18th century, were actually male. At the same time, it might refer to the androgynous nature of Visual Kei.

[4] “Visual Kei”‎ is partially a gairaigo — a word that came from a foreign language. The question they asked themselves was “if the concept of v-kei had to be translated through the prism of Japanese culture and values, what would a Japanese word describing it sound like?” And the answer is, apparently, “heretic people of art”.

[heresylog]

Idle curiosity: Is there a difference between heresy and heterodoxy, or is all heterodoxy considered heretical?

the tl;dr is basically that heresy is an absolute no-no. heterodoxy is kinda not allowed but not banishable.

[kleptoyade]

The live report you Sixth Guns have been waiting for is finally here!

FRONT ROW at a GazettE live: HETERODOXY Vol.3-IMMORTAL CREED- 2024/09/12

[sillyjewishbug]

a common syncretism question

i get asked often how i syncretize judaism and islam (understandably!) but probably my least favorite "question" is when people say "well you can't syncretize that because X and Y beliefs are different." i fear people don't know that syncretism isn't just simultaneous practice of several beliefs but is indeed the forming of new beliefs/traditions from those original ones.

also, if religions A and B had no differing beliefs, they would be the same religion!! thus making syncretism impossible in the minds of some people. i respect the confusion but it gets so tiring to explain this specific thing lol

[is-this-really--life]

I sincerely hope one day you can escape from the RadFem cult and learn that you don't have to live your life in fear. It can be hard to recognise propaganda at first but there are resources out there to help you. However, it can't start until you're ready, so until then us good members of society have to run damage control on your awful politics.

Hey. So here's an essay on cult-like thinking from this wonderful reidentified woman and lesbian writer I just discovered:

Emotional Manipulation and Cultish Control in the "LGBTQ Community"

Free your mind, and the rest will follow...

I don't agree with everything this author says, but I agree with most of it, and I think this perspective is important.

On radical feminism: I found a community to surround myself with that prioritizes women, celebrates our gender nonconformity and critical thinking, and raises awareness about the depths of misogyny and male violence.

I'm not in a cult anymore. I no longer avoid information from sides I disagree with. I regularly engage with ideas that differ from my own. I'm open to changing my mind about things, but I know why I believe what I believe. This was not the case when I was in radical queer spaces.

They regularly misrepresented the beliefs of an entire branch of feminism and the group that closely aligns with it, telling everyone to "block and stay safe" and "you're bigoted if you start to think biological sex (with a diversity of expressions) matters more than gender identity" or even that "Trans women are trans women, and don't share many of the experiences that biological women do as female bodied people."

If you reposted from one of the blacklisted accounts, usually something feminist and nothing to do with trans people, you were a suspect, and you would be dog piled on unless you deleted it. They all began to interpret basic feminist consciousness as a red flag until everyone who didn't listen to radfems stopped posting about feminism altogether. It's a little better now than it was a few years back. But it's still not great.

This attitude is not only found online anymore. There is a group of people who are no longer my friends because I started asking questions and disagreeing with them about the nature of "gender" as a sociological concept, as a social role assigned to the sexes, rather than a highly individual internal feeling and identity that everyone supposedly has. These were the type of people who refused to engage with opinions that differ from their own. These were the people ruled by a fear of stepping out of line. They would cut people off for the smallest perceived missteps. I don't befriend people locked into that cult-like mentality anymore. No matter what end of the political spectrum it comes from.

P.S. I've been talking openly with my normal, very offline cousin about every "radfem" belief I have, including the feminist ones criticizing male violence, and the ones criticizing the very online behavior of the group of people shouting that "sex isn't real" or "isn't overwhelmingly dimorphic" or that "trans people are being genocided in the U.S." or whatever, and she 100% agrees with everything I say. Can you say the same? Or do very offline people get weirded out and concerned when you talk queer orthodoxy bullshit? Just asking.

[brynhildr13]

Second sketch done! And with way less tries. 🤔 I guess once you have a favorite that never changes. 🤷🏻‍♀️😂 added a little bit of reference color to it too.

the GazettE -Heterodoxy-

Uruha sketch

Graphite and Colored Pencil on Paper

**Work in Progress**

[gnosisandtheosis]

I wanted to throw together a bit of an intro before I start using this blog properly.

45/Enby/Australia. I've been a member of a Gnostic Christian church for almost 15 years now. I'm a seminary dropout (though that door may reopen again one day). My interests are primarily in the mystical and contemplative aspects of Christianity.

I enjoy exploring both orthodox and heterdox Christian traditions, so I'm as likely to be inspired by the Philokalia as I am the Nag Hammadi Library. My church is open canon so we are free to explore what we find spiritually edifying so you can expect some references to other faiths here.

This blog will mainly be me reblogging stuff I like, and occasionally using it as a place to ramble my hot and tepid takes, and my half thoughts. I just want to explore what it means to live a life in connection with the Divine and how that translates into a life following Christ's commandment to love one another ass He has loved us.

Reblogs and asks are welcome.

Things I'm not interested in discussing however: 1. What is or isn't heresy. Everyone is a heretic to someone 2. The existence vs non-existence of God(s). The atheism vs theism debate is just painfully dull

Not sure if anyone will end up following me but if you do I hope my posts aren't too painful to read.