We need to embrace the fact that the tumblr userbase is aging. What’s everybody’s favorite kitchen appliance?
Hi neil!
I got into the sandman comics about a year ago, and then subsequently the show (which is just fantabulous), and after telling my uncle about it he sent me the Death volume (she’s been his favorite character for decades). at the end of the volume there was a comic where Death teaches the reader about AIDs and safe sex.
I was wondering what it was like to originally publish that comic, when (i’m assuming, i wasn’t born yet) they were such touchy subjects?
A friend of mine, Don Melia, had just died of AIDS. Before he died we talked and he urged me to do something to help. Martha Thomases at DC Comics and Alisa Kwitney then assistant editor on Sandman put us in touch with the right people, and got what I wrote fact-checked carefully by an AIDS organisation, and found the helpline and information that we put on the back of the original 8 page supplement (to comics) and handout (sent free to comic shops). A lot of comic shops got them to libraries, high schools, or gave them out to customers. It didn't seem like governments were telling people how to keep safe. We could and we did. I'm still grateful to DC Comics for making it happen, and to all the comics retailers who gave them out or distributed them to people who needed them.
Just wanted to say thanks again, because reading that comic, and having my dad hand me that issue, in a way that framed sex education as normal and in parts funny, made it much easier to talk about sex and sexual health together.
Having that as a third-party we could talk (what Death says or what Neil Gaiman says) made the conversation less embarrassing, especially since you’re the exact same age as my dad. So yeah, thanks Neil.
I'm so glad. That was what it was for.
I grew up during the worst of the AIDS epidemic and before an elder could explain what I needed to know, they were dying of this disease.
There are plenty of other reasons that this lesson is still important.
My thanks, Neil. I am here in small part because of this sound advice.
is-the-owl-vid-cute
Anonymous asked:
Are toucans a bird of prey ?
what if you are a fruit or perhaps a berry
is-the-owl-vid-cute
PoV: you are a fruit or perhaps a berry
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Helpful writing tips for my friends.
medusas-heir
OH SHIT.
inspired by a post on my dash but i think one of the issues w the “pronounce peoples names right! there is no excuse not to!“ convos is that if you actually pronounce my deadname (or the names of any of my brothers, or any of my family for that matter) right you have to completely snap out of english for the word. like english just doesn’t have the same cadence or like consonant and especially not vowel sounds as finnish and you literally do have to say it “wrong” or you will disrupt the flow of the rest of the sentence. that’s why we also have an english pronunciation for words that are from different languages (eg. sauna); they get molded to fit the actual language it’s used in. and i’m sure there’s other people who feel the same way, and others feel differently, and in any case just mimic the way the person introducing themself says it. anyway
like: my brothers name is arttu, which is one of the finnish versions of arthur. you can get really close to the english way of saying it by thinking R2 like R2D2 the star wars dude. but that is not the correct way - in finnish the stress is on the double T (which english doesn’t really have. like the way double letters work in finnish is really distinctly different from how they work in english) and finnish R’s are strong/sharp/rolled. you have stress on the first Ar turning into a distinct double T turning into a short u, which isn’t the english u, the finnish pure U doesn’t exist in english. the closest you get is like a ghostly OoOooOoH but even that has too much Y sound in it. like it’s just not a word you would ever say right in the middle of an english sentence as an english speaker. and frankly i also don’t pronounce finnish names or finnish words right when i’m speaking in english
This is exactly how I feel. There are quite a few Yiddish or Hebrew words in English and I'm just like... Fine with people pronouncing them in an anglicized manner cause that's how language works. The same with my name. I describe it as being pronounced like Kyle with a hard G - and that's not wrong, per se, for English, but in Hebrew the vowels are sharper, the L is a harder sound, so obviously if you're going to say my name in Hebrew or in English, it's going to sound a little different. Languages don't always interact with each other 1:1. I'm not going to ask everyone to pronounce Cherub with a ח/χ sound instead of a ch, because that sounds doesn't exist in English. And honestly, at the end of the day, that's fine. That's how cultural exchanges work. It's not the same as willfully misunderstanding how to pronounce someone's name, but it's also understandable if they literally do not have the ability to Do That With Their Mouth.
I once asked a friend of mine if she ever wished people would use her Chinese name, and she said not really, because non-speakers really can't hear the tones in Mandarin without a lot of ear-training and practice, and it would be a fruitless endeavour to try and teach every person she met to hear and repeat them upon meeting her.
And I personally know from experience that not everybody can easily make certain sounds their own language doesn't use. When I've explained to other people that I have a Hebrew name and a Bengali name, the latter is usually fairly easy for them to get, but the hard CH in my Hebrew name usually ends up with them pronouncing it Ra-Hell, which is... wrong. But it's not malicious or anything; they're just not used to using the muscles and making the sound that's required.
This can be true with non-names as well. For example: It's apparently extremely hard for native German speakers to say the english word 'squirrel.'
Obviously, if you're close with somebody and they really want you to learn how to say their name in certain way, you should do your best to accomodate, but some people may never get it 100% right for all the effort in the world, because they can't hear accents or tones, or they can't make their muscles work a certain way that's not standard, and I think it's important not to shame anybody for that. And I think it's also totally fair if some people prefer to have an English version of their name that doesn't require them to break out into a language lession with every random person they meet. Not everyone cares enough or has the patience and that's fine, too.
I think the constant dichotomy of Tumblr posts that say, “you MUST do this thing or you’re a terrible person” and ones that say, “just try you’re best, your effort has value, you’re not a terrible person” is fascinating.
^^^^^^^
Hi, do you know if we will get a lore article for the Legends Retold legends?
If not, do you know what's the lore behind Stangg and Stangg Twin? They don't have a wiki page and the new name (Echo Warrior) is making me wonder if they aren't actually twins and he's an Echo Warrior like the D&D subclass that summons a copy of himself.
Anyway, have a great day!
I’m not aware of any Stangg lore, but I’m fairly certain it’s an echo warrior situation where he copies himself,
How did Zur obtain immortality?
We don’t know
This is one of my favorite lore tidbits from the Dominaria United spoiler season.
“We thought about how Zur was on a quest for immortality, realized how many other Dominarians have been immortal at this point, and decided ‘why not? Zur gets a little immortality, as a treat.’ No we will not be providing an explanation.”
i kinda think the booktok thing is overblown. there was already a huge market for trashy, cheap, sappy, poorly written novels. and there was already a niche in the media pushing these books, and an incentive to write toward that audience. the only difference i see is that these books are getting promoted by influencers and algorithms instead of oprah
Research has shown that pleasure affects nutrient absorption. In a 1970s study of Swedish and Thai women, it was found that when the Thai women were eating their own (preferred) cuisine, they absorbed about 50% more iron from the meal than they did from eating the unfamiliar Swedish food. And the same was true in the reverse for the Swedish women. When both groups were split internally and one group given a paste made from the exact same meal and the other was given the meal itself, those eating the paste absorbed 70% less iron than those eating the food in its normal state.
Pleasure affects our metabolic pathways; it’s a facet of the complex gut-brain connection. If you’re eating foods you don’t like because you think it’s healthy, it’s not actually doing your body much good (it’s also unsustainable, we’re pleasure-seeking creatures). Eat food you enjoy, it’s a win-win.
what
no seriously
what?
PLEASURE IS A NECESSARY PART OF HUMAN HEALTH, BOTH PSYCHOLOGICALLY AND PHYSICALLY
this is why you should be eating your chips with salsa and guac instead of beating yourself up for not eating a salad with tomato and avocado (unless you are a salad bitch like me then enjoy both of them!)
uh oh this pronunciation of polycules is gonna stick in my head for a long while
thinking about how orpheus turning to look back at eurydice isn’t a sign of mortal frailness but a sign of love
“Eurydice, dying now a second time, uttered no complaint against her husband. What was there to complain of, but that she had been loved?” ― Ovid, Metamorphoses
This is true no matter the version you're reading.
1. Eurydice trips and Orpheus turns to help her because he loves her.
2. Orpheus cannot hear Eurydice behind him, and fearing that he's been tricked, turns to make sure she's there.
3. Orpheus makes it out of the Underworld, and so full of love and excitement to be with Eurydice, turns to embrace her, forgetting that they both need to be out of the Underworld.
No matter what happens in the story, Orpheus loses Eurydice because his love for her compels him to look.
Orpheus, I can forgive you, then, There’s not a soul alive who wouldn’t have looked back
The Descent, by Tyler King
Don’t forget Gluck’s opera, where Eurydice doesn’t know Orpheus is forbidden to look back, Orpheus is also forbidden to tell her, she assumes he must not love her anymore, and Orpheus finally looks back to reassure her of his love because he can’t bear her anguish.
In that version in particular, but possibly in all retellings, a part of us wants Orpheus to look back, because his failure proves his love.
What gets me is that Orpheus’s love for Eurydice is the reason why he descended after her in the first place... but its also the reason he failed. Had he loved her a little less they would have made it out. Had he loved her a little less and he never would have gone down after her at all.
— If the meds were switched, then when I got them mixed up, I… I accidentally switched them back, so… I gave Harlan… — The correct doses, yes. But not accidentally.
KNIVES OUT (2019) dir. Rian Johnson
I love this moment, not just because of the twist, but also because Marta has been dying the whole movie with not only fear and grief, but guilt at having caused the death of her patient, her friend.
For Benoit to take the time to reassure that this was not her fault, in way that is so kind and so clear, was lovely.
“You are a good nurse.” You can tell when he says that the he truly understands what is paining her the most. Just beautiful.
I have so much love for this film, and for the moment following this where Benoit tells her that, if Harlan had listened to her, he would still be alive. The blame is taken from her, in the kindest possible way, by someone she trusts. After all the goalpost moving and ‘ah, gotcha!’ and obsession with spoilers in cinema over the last decade, with characterisation abandoned and plotlines left unresolved, knives out is a kind film. It isn’t obsessed with tricking you or catching you out, just wants you along for the ride
i learned that the Twilight Zone was created after Rod Serling’s teleplay inspired by Emmett Till’s murder was heavily censored by networks and advertisers. The censorship led Serling to rethink his approach and delve into the era’s social issues through a filter of science fiction and fantasy (x)
“The writer’s role is to be a menacer of the public’s conscience,” Serling later said. “He must have a position, a point of view. He must see the arts as a vehicle of social criticism and he must focus the issues of his time.”
I’m printing this out for my wall.
Other fantasy fans: I’d like to read this series you keep mentioning but I’m a bit worried about gatekeeping.
Discworld fans, slamming 41 books onto the table: Now, these books can be read in almost any order, but you are under no obligation to read all of them if you don’t want to. Would you like a list of recommendations? I have some reading charts if you want a visual guide. Here’s a hard-drive with all of the audio books on file. Or I can read you a section of a book each night over video-call? What’s the best way to help you enjoy this series?-
That’s brilliant; so happy that my post helped you get into this amazing series!