cicergay

she/they | SFF, classics, theater, other things PFP from Makowka on picrew

[smaller-comfort]

I've known Justice of Albis for five minutes but holy shit. You think for the longest time that Breq's whole deal is because of her Circumstances but no. No, it's because she's a fucking Justice.

[wingdingle]

[velvetvexations]

Weird Fantasy (1950) #18 written by Al Feldstein and drawn by Joe Orlando, with editor Bill Gaines

[velvetvexations]

So he said it can't be a Black. So I said, "For God's sakes, Judge Murphy, that's the whole point of the Goddamn story!" So he said, "No, it can't be a Black". Bill just called him up and raised the roof, and finally they said, "Well, you gotta take the perspiration off". I had the stars glistening in the perspiration on his Black skin. Bill said, "Fuck you", and he hung up.

Al Feldstein, Tales of Terror: The EC Companion

[iconuk01]

Just to add context for those not aware of the impact of this story.

The reason it was so important for narrative purposes, was that the plot concerns the visit of the Astronaut, in his completely opaque spacesuit, to a planet populated entirely by self-aware robots (originally from Earth) who have built their own society and are petitioning to be allowed to interact with Earth again as equals.

They have a democratic government and free choice of careers etc. as the orange robot serving as guide tells the Astronaut.

The Astronaut notices that there are two different types of robot on this world; the orange ones, who are in charge, gifted access to all information and facilities. and the blue robots, who are seen as more limited in function, have less access to information and resources, and are not allowed positions of power or as wide a choice of employment opportunities. Even transportation is segregated.

The Astronaut investigates further and discovers that the blue and orange robots are actually structurally identical, there is absolutely no difference between their potential or capabilities, and it is only because the orange robots are instructed by their Educator system to consider themselves superior, that the difference exists.

The Astronaut tells the robots they are not ready for re-alignment with Earth, until they come to terms with their own unfairness, and how Earth had had to deal with this issue themselves. When that time comes, the robots will be able to ally with Earth.

Then he leaves in his spaceship, and it's only in that one final panel that we see the Astronaut is black.

Not subtle, nor should it be, but for 1950 this was a breathtakingly powerful statement, perhaps the first of it's kind in the genre.

The black character was not a caricature, or comedy relief, he was a main character in his own right, a human who "simply" was black.

[xiaq]

When I was a professor I fucking LOVED teaching this comic. You can read the full thing here (and please read the letters to the editor at the bottom as well—including a message from Ray Bradbury).

[sabrebash]

I'm so glad people added the appropriate context here. Genuinely, this is one of the most important panels in the history of comics.

[greelin]

not a day goes by that i don’t think of this

[big--naturals]

⚠️warning⚠️ this transgender faggot on the internet will permanently alter your vocabulary options. would you still like to befriend them?

[sabriel-writes]

Murderbot, absolute monarch of haterism. It gets friends for the first time in its life and immediately designates one Mortal Enemy [if anyone touches him they're dead]. It runs away, meets another intelligent bot, and immediately gives it a nickname that starts with Asshole. It goes to Preservation and starts one-sided beef with a hauler bot for no fucking reason. IT'S ENRICHMENT

[cryptotheism]

The term "book of the dead" doesnt really give you perspective to how big a lot of Egyptian funerary texts are.

Imhoteps book of the Dead is 64 feet long.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Okay, but a lot of books would be that long if you laid the pages out

[nsomniacsdream]

the average printed page is 6 inches wide. so if a book is 128 pages, its 64 ft long. I dont think I own a book with fewer than 128 pages.

[cryptotheism]

It's honestly not that impressive at all. Fuck Imhotep and his pathetic short book.

[psykocharm]

would you guys like to see a real illustration from an actual published scientific paper? of course you would

link to the paper

[zordonmlw7]

Hey op kinda buried the lead. This isn't just some illustration. ITS THE ABSTRACT.

[stellanix]

my mushoomb,, :D

[chemkitt]

one musruum..

[werewolf-transgenderism]

irritating as fuck when people get mad at Black people existing in premodern historical fiction/fantasy media. like first of all, you're racist. and second of all, you are acting as though Black people didn't exist in premodern Europe which is simply false. especially when we're talking about the Mediterranean, like what the fuck do you people think is along the southern half of the Mediterranean Ocean?? everyone's on boats, there are GOING to be interactions with Black people in Northern Africa, and there are GOING to be Black people in Mediterranean Europe. stop being stupid. your imagined homogeneous white European past is not historical reality, get over it you massive losers

[userfish]

this pride month we’re all going to be radically pro transgender. or else.

[userfish]

hey so this means radically pro ALL transgender. don’t put limitations on this. all trans people are radically accepted here.

[vaguelyluciddragon]

Trans women are radically accepted on my page.

Trans fems are radically accepted on my page.

Trans men are radically accepted on my page.

Trans mascs are radically accepted on my page.

Nonbinary people are radically accepted on my page.

People with neopronouns are radically accepted on my page.

People with xenogenders are radically accepted on my page.

All transgender people, no matter how "weird" their identity is, are radically accepted on my page.

[revolutionnaire-farouche]

i think something might happen tomorrow

[kosmogrl]

[yaoiblackmold]

Top 3 things people love insisting they don't have despite it being impossible

Pronouns

An accent

Bias

[victorhugewhore]

*whispering into your ear while you sleep* you can do it... untwinkify your Grantaire... it's fine... you can love a character who is ugly... there is nothing wrong with that... a fairy will die if you draw him pretty... come on make him ugly... I believe in you...

[quidam-vir]

Ancient Posting

Ecce, behold, some underrated bangers from the trove of ancient graffiti:

Classic human emotions on display here.

Personally a big fan of this one that just says "Columbus you are evil"

'Pervert' here is misleading as 'cinnaedus' is a slang & invective term for a bottom.

not sure what was happening with bears in Herculaneum

The most popular genre is just signing your own name, or saying hi to your friend.

Some of them are just inscrutable though. No clue what the intention was with this.

Very popular to write some variant of quotation of Vergil's epic, the Aeneid.

Some of them got further than others! This is basically the complete first line.

Here is someone showing off their knowledge of the Greek alphabet

Caelus evidently signed his own name and then decided to write a bit more, and naturally it was Vergil.

In case you thought only Book 1 of Vergil's Aeneid was popular, there are quite a few (frequently misspelled) quotations from the beginning of Aeneid Book 2.

Some of these are just comical though

I will make like Echio's friend and bid farewell, but should you want to look at these graffiti more, I've put their CIL numbers in the ALT text. Valete!

[swallowtail-ageha]

And when its time to discuss pedophilia in ancient greece and rome, they always name pederasty. Pederasty pederasty pederasty. And its not as if the normalization of teen boys sleeping with grown men is not horrific and disgusting, but i have to notice how they always focus on the male children, as if it wasn't standard for fifteen year old girls to get married to men twice their age, as if child sex abuse is horrifying only if it happens to the boys, because to the girls it is normal, guaranteed, its their role, times were different back then

[womanguy]

you should get a second evening for reading fan fiction. And you should get an extra day in the week to do arts and crafts.