My personal opinion is that even if you defend modern art/conceptual art/whatever from right wingers (which is good), the reason why you "don't much enjoy modern art" is usually because you've only ever seen bad modern art. You see, the media is obsessed with Bad Modern Art. You'll never ever find someone writing an article about a piece of conceptual art they liked. It's all drama, all the time. So if you actually went out and found some modern art to look at instead of just absorbing whatever the papers are bitching about passively you'd probably change your mind
You have noo idea how much it annoys me when people call some parts of sso "forgotten." specifically stuff like Icengate, Ashlands, the doors in the ground, et cetera. Like. Forgotten? Are you sure? Are you soooo sure about that because I think maybe, you know, the team are working on the main story and don't really have the time or space to weave in those elements yet?? And maybe??? They're even saving them for later??? To use later? In their story that has to be able to go on literally forever?? Because if they stop updating the game it'll die??????? Maybe??
Then again it's not like I actually want that to to canon either (although I guess the Mirrorverse take was okay. It's really just that I don't trust tv shows with romance subplots. If one pops up that doesn't suck ass it can feel free to prove me wrong but until then I'm gonna remain right where I am. On this hill I've chosen to die on. Wearing a tinfoil hat and rubber boots. In the middle of a thunderstorm.)
And sometimes, much like lies can shape themselves around the truth, it is only in the absence of something that we turn around and find that it was there.
Finishing deep space nine is taking forever and it's because for me personally being a ds9 fan is approximately like this; you will be having the time of your life doing your usual thing writing about your favourite characters kissing or analysing background shots or googling how they did the practical effects and then things get just. A little too quiet. And you turn your head and lock eyes with the little Doylist Media Critique Ghoul standing in the corner and it tells you the life story of every gay person who died before they could be with the person they loved and the tragedy of every soul who had to stay in the closet for their own safety and never got to be themselves and every human who was turned away or forced to change because they weren't masculine or feminine enough for the white middle-aged straight men who run the entire world and every victim of the aids crisis who wasn't alive to see the show air and every queer life story that ended in loneliness and silence in the space of a single shocked inhale and then you just have to go back to playing toys and pretending like you don't want to rip someone's head off with your bare hands
Oh Everyman - a zine I made recently! Click readmore for me yapping about the themes and thought process lol:
I wanna clarify; despite obviously including bits from Miles O'Brien's Wikipedia page, this isn't necessarily a dig against his character as a whole. Moreso this zine was made in anger towards the way showrunner and actors talk about the character — and the idea of a "default" kind of human existing to begin with. It's an uncomfortable reminder that Star Trek was, despite it's reputation as a very politically progressive show, made by a bunch of middle-aged American men and a handful of people who still felt that they had to cater to that group as the "default."
In my opinion, Miles O'Brien is the least relatable character on DS9. Yet, he's apparently the one I'm meant to relate the most to. His very bro-dude relationship with Julian is the only "real" relationship on Star Trek, that is to say, the only one the writers or actors felt they could personally relate to — therefore the only one that matters, I suppose. It's upsetting to realize that a lot of people spend their whole lives squinting at the screen, trying to find some way to relate to the straight white men that star in every movie, to then be told that the "stranger" or more "unique" characters are unrelatable and Star Trek needed an "everyman" to ground it, even if this everyman comes off as comically conservative in his post-scarcity space utopian society.
I think it speaks to a lack of practice, when seasoned sci-fi writers creating a world full of aliens completely fail to "relate" to a character because they aren't human enough; much in the same way that white men struggle to relate to characters of color or characters with a different gender or sexuality, while the reverse is expected as the norm, and calls for representation of the wide spectrum of human existence is treated as whiny. This is also very noticeable with characters of different neurotypes; hence I guess why it's supposed to be a funny gag when O'Brien can't listen to his friend talk about their special interest for five minutes without complaining. Then again, I guess middle-aged allistic Americans who kind of hate their wives deserve to be represented too...
Either way, hearing all this out of the mouths of widely loved actors and writers of a show that's otherwise very good at making me feel seen is... A rude reminder that DS9 was made in the 90's, lol. And, this goes without saying, I may be a little extra sensitive to this kind of thing due to how personally tired I am of having to be patient and understanding with incredibly privileged people while they continue to throw hissyfits every time you ask them to please stop pulling their favourite microagressions. I don't wanna have to "relate" to another everyman. I never wanna have to consider the emotions of the Everyman ever again, real or fictional. I'm so burnt out on patience. But I guess that's a me thing.
(And, because I can see this one coming; no, I'm not interested in discussing why Miles is actually really cool or totally bi-coded or how he wants to fuck Bashir, or whatever. You're completely free to those headcanons and I understand that it's hard for me to post an artwork like this and not leave at least some people feeling accused, but I really don't want to fight. I don't like the character, but we don't have to feel the same. We all have different interpretations. I'm not calling you racist for liking Miles O'Brien as a character, yeah? This is a meditation on the way the writers and directors talk about Miles, and the way they seem to interpret him.)
Also, yes! I did cut a hole in one page to work as a TV. Demonstration (ft. my cat) below:
