#material analysis

[lesb0]

Word of the day from my research: "unguentaria"; bottles that usually contained perfumes that were often poured on relics during ceremonies. The smell of relics were (are???) so strong and recognizable as real, true relics, essentially a mixed vat of perfume, that Venetian thieves used stinky pork to cover up the fragrance coming from their stolen Santa Claus bones.

Renaissance people believed that bodies (dead or alive) anointed with sweet smelling, floral perfumes conveyed how pure and immaculate they were. Smells that were sweet = Christian, goodness and smells that were spicy, rich, musky, or anything else suggested that someone was impious, not Christian, or just physically ill.

I'm going to buy an unguentaria to carry my Cheirosa 62, but I am curious to see if the custom fragrance boutique in the fancy part of town could whip up a mock sample of this Filippo Sorcinelli scent for me...

Brazinski, P. & Fryxell, A. (2013) “The Smell of Relics: Authenticating Saintly Bones and the Role of Scent in the Sensory Experience of Medieval Christian Veneration”, Papers from the Institute of Archaeology.(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/pia.430

[marxist-lelouchist]

King John Plantagenet of England is a much-maligned figure, due to folklore and propaganda.

Obviously, as a feudal monarch, he is condemnable, but it is a very shallow study of history to condemn all past figures of power in the broadest of strokes.

It is far more engaging and informative to actually try to answer the questions:

Who was on the side of the progress of history, intentionally or not? Who was battling against the progress of history?

It is worthwhile re-examining all of history and knowledge, not simply things since 1945, 1917 or 1789.

The pivotal event of interest in John's reign was the revolt of the barons, the event which led to the Magna Carta.

The only reason the Magna Carta appears is because John taxed the nobility. The nobility, in attempting to avoid the taxes John imposed upon them to rebuild the kingdom's treasury after his wars, but primarily the much-lauded Richard the Lionheart's wars and adventures, placed the weight of these taxes, as always, upon the serfs and drove them into rebellion against the king.

Who was on the side of history in this struggle?

As odd as it may seem, it is definitely John.

Why? The interests of the progressive class, the artisans in the cities, lay with the king, against the regional nobility.

The king's interests coincidentally sit with those of the artisans for the simple fact that he is the lord of the cities.

The development of the king's cities is the development of city capital, the development of city capital is the weakening of rural stagnation, the weakening of rural stagnation is the march of history.

Until the bourgeoisie has the power to form a republic, the king is unwittingly leading the charge of history against his vassals.

John had no intention of being a historically progressive force, but he was by the very nature of his actions.

And finally, on the topic of the Magna Carta:

The Magna Carta was simultaneously a step forward and a step back.

It was a step forward in that it was the birth of the concept of a constitution, a step backwards in that it was a massive victory for the rural nobility and a weakening of the central government, therefore a weakening of the cities and enrichment of the rural nobility, therefore a weakening of actual capital development and strengthening of feudal stagnation and parasitism.

[jittery-heart]

The material condition of my decaying body is yet another symptom of class struggle.

[lordandgodoftheobvious]

[closetgremlin]

Still working through episode 91, but like - so I saw this post about Beau, it was from her point of view and how her background seems much less… sad?? Maybe? Compared to others in the group. How she was less special, the more “normal,” the… almost like her personal issues were less important than those of others in the group.

And like… as I was just listening now, Fjord feels similarly. That his personal goals and quests and whatever have taken a backseat in order to deal with, you know, Stopping The War and Stopping Theresdune etc.

And Jester, too?? I think feels this way?? Like… she’s sort of had the… “kindest” relationship with her family, and the nicest home life out of the group. Nott was bullied, Caleb loved his parents but also killed them, Fjord doesn’t Have parents, Beau’s parents kinda suck, Yasha… well either we don’t really know her home life or I forgot it, so either way ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, Molly had the circus but also was Dead before that with Who Knows what kind of home life, Caduceus seemed to have a nice(?) one but he’s Super Lonely… so like, by comparison, growing up sheltered and Super Loved by her mother is like, the best situation of the group. And if i recall correctly, she’s sorta voiced that herself - that she feels sad that everyone had such sucky lives growing up while hers was, like, Nice.

So it’s all just sort of… idk, just like - the Parallels. I think that’s the word for it. They’re all a bit similar in that way, thinking that their personal issues don’t matter/are less important compared to other people in the group or compared to like, saving the world from Theresdune or whatever. I just… think that’s interesting.

And then Caduceus! I’ve seen posts on him, how he’s just so passive that sometimes it’s easy to overlook him, and that only really Jester has checked in on him out of the group. But he’s judge-y, and mean (at least, “cruel to [his] siblings,” as he himself said to the Gentleman), and we sort of don’t know him, and his whole stuff is also kinda taking a backseat here but he’s passive and go-with-the-flow-ish that it’s easy to forget, but we don’t super know him either and I just! I wanna know?? Him?? I wanna know them all. They’re all important.

[lordandgodoftheobvious]

Before I begin, this is not an argument for voting. While I still intend to vote at this point, that’s mainly just on the off chance that I’m wrong about everything--dedicating one day every other year to electoral politics is not too much effort to expend to safeguard against that, even for me. No, this is something even more cringe than that: it’s a callout post. See, there’s this person who conflates any hypothetical with idealism and uses people arguing that things would be even worse right now if Trump were still president as their go-to example. Thus, using dialectical materialism to demonstrate one way in which we would materially be worse off under Trump is only fitting.

To be clear, there are also ways in which Biden is worse (e.g. he’s been more effective at ginning up anti-China sentiment for his new cold war than Trump ever was), and the whole issue of who is worse on the whole is rather moot when the two political parties that have a stranglehold on power in the US both take their marching orders from the propertied class. And I also don’t know what kind of arguments this person has been getting--perhaps they have been getting nothing but idealism. This is just a demonstration of a principle, okay? Don’t take it too seriously.

Now, then: where do anti mask mandate mandates come from? This particular expression of the partisan games the parties play over COVID-19 isn’t a random outgrowth of the Republican party--they have material reasons for doing this. Ones that they occasionally even speak aloud: mask mandates do, in fact, slow the spread of COVID-19 somewhat, and therefore if “blue” counties are allowed to impose them they might lose fewer people to the pandemic than “red” counties and thereby “flip” some of these states Republicans won on razor-thin margins.

So the question becomes, does this incentive still exist for Republicans on the national level? Yes. Obviously. Even more so, as mask mandates in “swing” states that went blue in the election will put them further out of reach in the next one.

Which means that if Donald Trump were still president, we would in all likelihood have a nationwide anti-mask-mandate mandate by now.

My reasons for believing this are entirely based in the material conditions of the United States--the parties, while serving the same ultimate master, still compete with each other for power in our laughable electoral process; the Nash equilibrium of that system is that anything that doesn’t jeopardize the power of their true masters or give a third party an opportunity to meaningfully participate will be on the table as an electoral strategy--and as the last few years have amply demonstrated, the ruling class does not care about our lives. Further, as weaksauce as masks and vaccines are compared to the measures they take in a country where the government actually cares about its citizens (say, China), they do provide better protection from the virus than literally nothing, which is what Republicans have been corralled into offering by their talking heads--which means that the Republicans’ concerns that this might lead to more Democrat voters than Republican voters surviving the plague are valid (as gross as it is to use that word in this context), and anti-mask-mandate mandates are the perfect solution to this problem. (Especially since densely-packed urban areas tend to vote Democrat and isolated rural areas tend to vote Republican.)

[closetgremlin]

Imagine Dragons: “Immortals”

The Magnus Archives

*spoilers*

~

“They say we are what we are/but we don’t have to be”

Avatars of the Entities are monsters lacking humanity, the human extremes of what they represent. They are what they are; but Mr. “the Archives” Sims doesn’t have to be.

Johnathan Jarchivist Sims may be turning into a monster or whatever, but he doesn’t wanna be inhuman like the rest of the avatars. He doesn’t have to lose his humanity while becoming inhuman.

“I'm bad behavior but I do it in the best way”

Picture: Martin setting fire to the statements

“I’ll be the watcher (watcher) of the eternal flame/I’ll be the guard dog of all your fevered dreams”

The watcher - Mr Jarchivist Sims

The eternal flame - the Desolation? Idk

The guard dog - Daisy? Was she the one marked by the Hunt? Her.

“'Cause we could be immortals, immortals/Just not for long, for long,”

Elias has been immortal for awhile (but not for long, ‘cause hopefully he’ll get what he deserves in season 5)

“And live with me forever now,/You pull the blackout curtains down,/Just not for long, for long”

John and Martin in the bunker - John wants to stay and not leave the safety of this space, but Martin wants to go out and put an end to the apocalypse

“Sometimes the only pay off for having any faith,/Is when it's tested again and again everyday”

Picture: the cult of the lightless flame, raising little Agnes

“I'm still comparing your past to my future”

Elias preparing Gertrude then Johnathan for the Ritual; both marked by an entity at a young age, both getting marked by more entities through their jobs as archivists

[smokey-eyes-and-bright-ties]

How Anti-Imperialists Respond to the Charge of “Campism”