Sentimental Value

May contain BL, yuri, het, tentacles, futa and BDSM. View at your own discretion.

[vamptits]

it's just really apparent that people think it's okay to want pain but morally abhorrent to want to give it. sorry but the sadist gets to have fun too. it's actually pretty crucial to the process.

[charminglyantiquated]

that story where you challenge the fairy queen to a match of wit and skill to win back your loved one. and it goes … fine, you think? probably.

adapted from this very short Elsewhere University piece, changed slightly to be a little more self-contained.

other comics//tapastic//patreon//ko-fi

[catchymemes]

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

Okay. Say you ask a small child to draw you a house, and they come up with something like this:

For the purposes of this analogy the child is shit at colouring in, because I only wanted to give the general idea.

So, we can all agree that the child who draws a house probably isn't trying to communicate anything in particular other than “look at this cool house I drew”, right?

Cool.

So… Why is it seemingly in the middle of nowhere, when most children live in houses with neighbours?

Why is the main body a square and the roof a solid triangle when that doesn't look like any house that has ever been built anywhere?

Why does it have a wood-burning stove with smoke actively coming out of the chimney, even though the sun indicates warm weather?

Why is the sun smiling? Why is it yellow?

Answer: because the child has seen picture books, and films, and the drawings of other children, and has on some level absorbed that this is what a house is meant to look like.

Face to face, the child almost certainly wouldn't know where to begin communicating “yellow is a colour culturally associated with happiness and warmth, and two dots accompanied by a curved line symbolically represent a smiling human face, so I have combined these attributes with the sun to convey that it is a very warm and pleasant day”.

Or “historically most houses in my country used fire for heat and cooking, and even though this is no longer the case for the majority of households, most media portrayals of houses are inspired by other, older, media portrayals and therefore include the chimney. I have chosen to follow this trend.”

Or even, “I have poor motor control because of my age, and large, 2 dimensional shapes are easier to draw than anything involving detail and perspective”.

Yet this is all information that you can pick up from detailed study of the house drawing.

Ultimately, it's not about what the writer intended. That's what the whole death of the author thing means.

If you think of literature like as a conversation, then think of all the analysis stuff that your English teacher keeps trying to get you to look at as like body language. It's the stuff that the other person doesn't even necessarily mean to communicate, but that can tell you a hell of a lot about what they mean.

[undomielregina]

Authors make choices and sometimes that choice is based on “IDK, it just felt right” but that doesn’t mean you say, “okay it didn’t mean anything.” That’s the lazy answer, and it’s stopping before you’re actually done. The question then is “why might it have felt right, what about this makes it a satisfying choice for this work.” Sure the curtains are just blue because the author liked blue and felt like it, but that only works if they’re somewhere the curtains plausibly could be blue. There are lots or places where you’d wonder why this character would choose that color, or why they’d have curtains at all. And that’s what analysis is for, it’s about saying “why do these elements work together to give us a coherent whole, and what about that whole makes it a compelling and interesting piece? Why do we as a society return to and refer to it like this?” It’s not about the author making the choice, authors make a lot of choices for all kinds of reasons. It’s about why the choice works.

An exercise. These two poems have the same form, were written at the same time on the same subject, and convey the same message. Why does one of them work better than the other? That’s what we’re looking at when we talk about why the curtains are blue:

In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone, Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws The only shadow that the Desert knows:— "I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone, "The King of Kings; this mighty City shows The wonders of my hand."— The City's gone,— Naught but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon. We wonder — and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" No thing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.

[squidinkarchives]

Harry Fonseca 1979, “Coyote, When Coyote Leaves the Res”

Acrylic on canvas

Harry Fonseca began his art career using imagery from his Native American Maidu heritage in his art. His Coyote Series of paintings started in 1979. These works use the coyote as the trickster of Maidu ancestral stories, depicted in nontraditional clothing and settings. In this painting Coyote is dressed in black leather and other aspects of queer-dress experienced by the artist in San Francisco, expressing Fonseca's personal narrative as a gay Native American living off-reservation.

[source: Swann Galleries]

[blumineck]

This isn’t a dig at any creators or educators who use Robin Hood to talk about history or connect to the past, but it bugs me when films or TV use Robin in a bland or uninteresting way when he has such potential!

Robin with a posh accent, or Robin as dispossessed nobility, or Robin as a supporter of a good king against a comically moustache-twirling villain all lack the edge of a folk hero from ballads sung by commoners about a man who stood up to the corrupt church and the law to fight for the poor. And that feels like a Robin that would have some things to say about now.

(I did a longer rant about this with a more context on Patreon if you’d like to hear more of my thoughts)

[dependsoncontext]

[awed-frog]

thanks I hate it

[siderealsandman]

You Got a Friend In Horse 

[garrettauthor]

YOU DO NOT HAVE A FRIEND IN HORSE

[britcision]

You Got A Lotta Friends In Horse

[ailithnight]

CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH THAT THOSE ARE NOT FRIENDS IN HORSE

[justanothercalamity]

#smh at cassandra spoiling the mood as usual

[ode-on-a-grecian-butt]

動画一覧｜映像でみる明治の日本　The Meiji Period on Film - 祝！日本映画120年！「映像でみる明治の日本」を公開しました。芸能、文化、記録など多様な映像をご覧ください。

[cnc-pet]

I think it's really important to realize how much of a vulnerable position sadists are putting themselves in when they participate in pain play. This is particularly important in established relationships, as opposed to casual settings, but important in both nonetheless. Also, this post is strictly addressing participants of kink who practice it responsibly and care about their partners.

When sadists do pain play they are having to grapple with the fact that they get pleasure out of causing pain to someone who has put their trust in them. This can be devastating if they feel as though they have in any way compromised that trust. Especially since even people who know about aftercare and try to do it, often overlook the aftercare that sadists, or even dominants as a whole, need. I imagine this happens a lot with pain play scenes, as so much emphasis is placed on taking care of the masochist. Obviously, that's important, but it should not be one or the other. The point I'm trying to get at is this:

Masochists/subs, please remember to give your sadists/doms aftercare. The biological and psychological functions that cause subspace and subdrop can have the same effect on doms. Doms are just as capable of experiencing that rush of adrenaline and endorphins, and just as capable of crashing, once the scene is done. Tell your sadist that you still trust them and feel safe with them. They need to hear it.

Sadists/doms, please remember that there is nothing wrong with having sadistic thoughts and feelings if you're acting them out in risk-aware and consensual settings/dynamics. I think I speak for all masochists when I say that we are so thankful for sadists who participate in responsible kink. Remember that there's more to aftercare than just caring for and comforting the sub. You deserve to be reassured and to receive the care that you need.

[lontra-ohiensis]

still not over how much I love this

[tenporcupines]

Posts that would kill a peasant from 1173

[imjustusingthistolikeartists]

Mephistopheles and Margaretta, A Double Statue - medium: sculpture, sycamore wood, sculptor unknown, 19th century. Currently located in the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad, India.

[weaselle]

i’ve reblogged posts featuring these two separately, but they go great together

[tlatollotl]

[sinattea]

A beautiful rendition of a Maya myth.

The god Quetzalcoatl took human form to wander the world, and upon finding himself tired and hungry, met a rabbit who kindly offered to feed him with its own life and body, so Quetzalcoatl repaid this kindness by immortalizing its image on the moon.

Such a beautiful tale!!!

[marcetimetraveller]

Yoo the japanese also have a much alike tale, wonderful how these two cultures would share so much.

[thepioden]

I'm developing a curiosity and interest in fiber arts, someone please stop me before it's too late

[thepioden]

Girl help the fibercrafters who live in my phone are calling out to me like the sirens of legend, entreating me to dash myself upon the rocks of Having A Yarn Stash

[elen-aranel]

fibe Crafts perfec t hobby for give tumblr user s\omething to do! yarn and fabric very Soft and Comfort tumblr user touch tumblr user do Fibre Craft. Tumblr User Do Fibre Craft. no problems ever with fibre ccraft because very Entertaining and Practical for tumblr user weak of things to do. Afibre Craft yes a place for tumblr user do fibre craft can trust fibre craft for pleasantly occupying tumblr user. friend fibre

[shadow-banned-the-hedgehog]

Or water fountains, public washrooms, outdoors tables, etc, etc

[infectedwithnyanites]

Notice how removing seating doesnt actually prevent people from sitting it just makes them uncomfortable and makes public spaces more hostile it doesnt actually work at controlling their behavior not till a pig comes along anyways and they'll harass a homeless person/teen whatever they're sitting on.

[petzah394-deactivated20250503]

Btw keep in mind how this also more dramatically affects disabled people, not everyone can stand for hours at a time or feasibly sit on the floor

[prof-grace-aspen]

That’s a major train station in NYC btw. A place where people, are, y’know, WAITING. For extended periods of time. That’s why everyone is sitting. They’re tired.

[undomielregina]

this is absolutely true, however, in this case there’s a waiting area with seating, and it’s relatively easy to access. It’s just also not very obvious, so I (who pass through that station regularly) did not know it existed until July, when I was with someone who really needed to sit while waiting for the train. The problem with it is poor signage not making the area and the access to it obvious.

There should still be more benches, but this is also the busiest transit station of any kind in the hemisphere, so making it possible for a staggering number of people to move through it very quickly by keeping impediments low is actually a high priority for this specific part of the station. There’s another part of the station where the design creates a dangerous crowd crush very easily and it’s terrifying and I go out of my way to avoid it. So it is both super hostile architecture and also somewhere where that seemingly vast empty space becomes nearly unnavigable with like 200k people rushing through it during rush hour and at those times benches actually would limit traffic flow meaningfully. The rest of the day, it looks ridiculous and feels punishing.

The challenge of foot traffic at rush hour, which now involves vastly more people than much of the architecture was designed to accommodate, is a significant one in NYC. The majority of the major transit centers were not designed in this century. Prior to the minor renovation of the 34th street concourse, the rest of Penn was effectively impossible to move through when it got busy. Grand Central similarly sees vastly more foot traffic than it was built for (or than it saw back when it still had seating), and most of that traffic passes through very quickly with minimal time spent waiting for trains, because regular commuters tend to cut it very close. That makes maximizing traffic flow an absolutely imperative goal of station design in essentially all parts of the system (the subways are the same way, they’ve opened only 11 new stations since 1968, so the vast majority of the system is designed for a metro area with at least 5 million fewer people in it.) The current population simply renders much of the system design unsafe unless traffic flow is heavily prioritized.

[sunderwight]

me: *chuckling at some of the absurd premises and heteronormative weirdness endemic in a lot of trendy romantasy series*

someone: these aren't real books this is not real literature this is horrendous brain rot and the downfall of society

me: I'm gonna die fighting for dangerous crow boy and his plastic-wearing bogan

[anokibuu]

His loyal Hound, most trusted Blade and dearest Love.

His hound would bury his teeth in the neck of any who would oppose his King.

Islay and Seik

[owlcryptid]

Discussing manga with my mom

[prospitianescapee]

Crest of the Royal Family (王家の紋章, Ōke no Monshō) is a shōjo manga by Chieko Hosokawa. It has run in the monthly magazine Princess since 1976.

-- Wikipedia

It turns 50 next year.

[camaelczarka]

Louis dressing Lestat:

Armand dressing Lestat:

Lestat dressing himself:

[chillyfeetsteak]

from this article, which is well worth the read, if only for the fun of seeing zuck get dunked on

[undomielregina]

Let’s be clear, AI models are extremely good at the specific tasks they have been trained to do. It’s not just medicine and scientific research, a well-trained machine learning model now better at weather prediction (which is incredibly complicated and involves stupendous numbers of variables) than the gigantic supercomupters that are the current standard. If you have a single complex task with more variables than a human can effectively hold in their head, training a neural network is very likely a good answer, because what they do is basically produce results using weighted averages affected by a number of variables way beyond what humans can consciously track. The problem is that LLMs are not this.

It turns out you can only train a neural net to do one thing, and if you try to train them to do a second thing, they forget the first one. Which means that LLMs, specifically, are very, very expensive toys, because what they’re trained to do is produce coherent text as part of a dialogue with a human user. They’re not trained to produce facts or anything else except human-readable text that generally accounts for the context of the prompts that preceded it, and because they’re able to track so many variables, they’re usually pretty good at staying on topic (this is part of why they tend to break down so stupendously on edge cases: the places they fail are usually the ones where they don’t have enough data to produce high-confidence predictions.) The art models work the same way: the reason humans so often have weird numbers of fingers and all the details are in soft-focus is that the model is averaging information from its training model, all of which has slightly different poses, and using that to predict the most likely pixel colors based on the nearby pixels it’s already generated. So both sets of major user-facing models right now are trained to do something that does not involve meaning, only the appearance of coherence, and you can’t re-train them to produce meaning without having them forget to be coherent.

The interesting thing is that we got here because we don’t actually understand intelligence or sapience very well at all. We don’t know anything about how it develops or why it works. And LLMs, in particular, were very much an experiment testing a thesis about the nature of these, that being fed information and being given the ability to speak coherently on topic was the same as understanding the information and so would naturally lead to a general intelligence that could function like a human mind and process multiple types of information multiple ways. And instead we got ChatGPT, which just proves that Derrida was right and language doesn’t inherently contain information, something that is difficult to grasp as a human because for us, language is inherently tied to its information content. And that’s why it’s so hard to believe that an LLM doesn’t think: for us, for humans, the distinction between the symbol and the actual, the signifier and the signified, is so small that we can’t really understand that it exists, if something is speaking sense it must understand what it’s saying. And instead an LLM is purely operating on the symbols/signifiers, it’s sense totally divorced from meaning, and we’re simply not equipped to cope with that.

And that’s why I think everyone needs to learn about Deconstruction, which is the critical theory that actually explains what’s happening here.