depression: just skip today’s lectures and stay in bed all day and cry a bit
anxiety: you can’t skip any classes, don’t even miss a second, or you’ll fail and amount to nothing
me: can you AT LEAST not talk at the same time

vardasvapors:

veliseraptor:

okay, this article is really good and I am all about the analysis of the way nk jemisin uses apocalypse in the fifth season but 

Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis’s Narnia provide the blueprint; a just, magical realm is threatened with destruction by dark, corrupting forces, which must be beaten back by chosen hereditary rulers.

no, no, you’re wrong, because a) the force that defeats sauron is not a chosen hereditary ruler, and b) the really cool thing about tolkien’s cosmology is actually that he does this same thing where he uses apocalypse as both a destructive and creative force, the world has to be broken to be created, arda is created flawed and the promise of arda unmarred is a promise eternally deferred, peace in tolkien is fleeting and tends toward decay, I wrote an entire fucking thesis about this

when did I turn into a person who goes “tolkien’s universe is more morally complex than just ‘good vs. evil, chosen one defeats evil, the end’, fight me” because I’m not sure this is the person I want to be

The funniest part of that quote is that the main purpose and usefulness of lotr’s “chosen hereditary ruler” character is that…well, okay, this is a bit of a dubious rabbit hole, but even though Aragorn is not really a subversion of the destiny-driven heir-in-exile heroic trope, his big difference from other straight-played examples of it is that he knows that he’s really, really, not the protagonist of this particular story (not literally, but, like, functionally? When blocking out the in-universe factors that equate to narrative ones, which are abnormally self-aware here due to how meta LOTR is.) And further, he’s genre-savvy enough to realize that Sauron swears by the inevitability of predictable tropes in other people (because this has actually always worked for him – see: the Rings of Power, 2nd Age; Finrod Felagund, 1st Age) and therefore thinks Aragorn is the protagonist of this particular story.

And so, Aragorn’s main function is to take advantage of this misunderstanding by gathering up all the advantages of his chosen-one-hereditary-ruler-destined-hero-prophecy-fulfiller-ness – both personal (all his know-how and bamf-ery and connections acquired through the improbably cool past granted to him due to his membership in this archetype) and narrative (all the military resources and personal authority that are currently at his disposal due to plot events he was allowed to handle due to his membership in this archetype) – bundling it into a giant ball, and fastballing it at Sauron in the style of some kind of “Dark Lord vs Chosen One: which one can overwhelm the other one through superior might?” climactic battle as convincingly and distractingly as he can (not really expecting, but hoping, they will be of some help to Frodo and that Frodo will somehow save everyone). Which eggs on Sauron’s mistaken belief that he’s in a completely different story from the one LOTR actually is, thereby emptying Mordor of soldiers, focusing all the attention on the army outside the gate, and giving Frodo and Sam a clear path to Mount Doom. Weaponized protagonist-vibes used in the role of a supporting character, in order to serve the actual protagonist.

(yeah, ofc, big oversimplification of that B-plot’s many, many secondary meanings for the bigger scheme of things, but I mean, this is its primary meaning for the A-plot that everything else hangs on bc everything else is a lost cause otherwise.)

By “funniest” I mean…funny how so much lotr-inspired sci fi and fantasy tends to ape at face value the bullshit explanation of the plot that Aragorn fed Sauron/allowed Sauron to believe: “Yeah man, I’m totally the protagonist!! I mean, I’m the chosen one, and the heir of the guy who defeated you the first time, and everything, how could I not be the protagonist, and this attack is totally that big damn good vs evil battle that happens at the end of all the stories that’s against-all-odds for the dramatic tension, but which I expect to magically win due to being a protagonist, pay no attention to the hobbit behind the curtain, hahahahaha, hey, over here, keep your eyes on me, uh, remember this sword? Elendil!! Elendil!!”

seepunkrun

replied to your

post

:

That moment when you finally hit on the right…

I do this to myself all the time. Did you know Colorado Springs didn’t have a Trader Joe’s until 2014? I do. Because it almost ruined a story I was writing. And by “almost ruined” I mean I had to find a different store to send my guy to and I was grouchy about it for a week.

HA! Exactly! When I figured out the Purnell Center didn’t open until 2000 and Zach graduated in 1999, I was like “well fuck, now what back stage velvet curtain can be the scene of this memory Zach wants to share?” And it was surprisingly hard to figure out what the temporary digs were among the current theater spaces, or if they were all demolished. But I’ve got it now.  CMU has changed a lot since I was last there, and even since Zach went to school there. You’d think they’d accommodate us by having a time series of campus maps, but no. They are not that considerate.

entrenous88:

Bitching about Scrivener and avoidance, basically.

Keep reading

This is actually my exact experience with scrivener, actually.  I still hold out hope that it will be useful for a big ofic project, but more and more I see it as a stand in for a lit prof telling me I’m disorganized and worthless and will never be a real writer. 

I tend to be more of a gardener than an architect, and all that detailed outlining just depresses the shit out of me.  I’d rather get in the characters heads and see where they want to take a scene.  I always have a destination in mind, and a few forks in the road planned, but most of the plot details are really character-driven, and I can’t get to them until I’m actually in the character’s head and writing.  So the process feels backward.  idk.  maybe I’ll love it once I commit…

trekbedtimestories replied to your post “13, 30, 38”

OMG PTA president. Of all the things you mentioned I find that most impressive because I generally want to strangle other Moms and half the teachers.

Same actually.  I consider myself a reluctant PTA president.  Basically, the district is going through a lot of changes, and I’m one of the people standing up to the board and trying to not have them dismantle or weaken a bunch of programs.  And since I’m going to all of these meetings anyway… when the nominating committee asked me to serve, I figured I may as well.  I cannot wait for my term to be up, though my daughter really appreciates that I do it and actually thanks me when I have to miss family dinners and such to make it happen.   Once she gets to middle school, the proposed changes will matter less, so I won’t feel the need to keep an eye on everything.  My jb and my hobby will benefit.