lex

Folks with this whole "you're old once you hit 25" mentality are just buying into a repackaged "you need to have your life figured out by 18 and if you're not successful by 22 you're a failure" load of shit. Like....bruh, life doesn't end at 25. Idk how to tell you that the time limit you're silently imposing on yourself and your peers is largely responsible for your dissatisfaction with your life. Stop living your life like happiness has an expiration date. It doesn't.

nothing is better than finding a walking stick

*out in nature* *sees a thick n smooth stick that’s as tall as me* oh fuck. oh fuck yes. i have magic now

You ever see a pretty dress, a well-organised notebook, a peculiar balcony or read one line of poetry and get the overwhelming urge to reinvent yourself

i hate when girls feel dumb for trying to see the best in people and then end up hurt or disappointed like no!! it’s those people that were dumb for misleading you. they took advantage of your kindness and generosity, and they’ll rot for it 

Repeat this everyday you are not in the wrong for seeing the good in the world

https://instagram.com/thefemalewarhol?igshid=4qwu50zvnh22

Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl: Season 1 Episode 1

oof-

people on this website be like “it’s actually school’s fault that i don’t know how to read because i wanted to write my essay on the divergent trilogy and that BITCH mrs. clarkson made us study 1984 instead. anyway here’s a 10 tweet thread of easily disproven misinformation about a 3 year old news story and btw, who is toni morrison?”

i KNOW most of y’all are lying about being in the gifted program as children because none of you could pass the basic reading comprehension assessment they give third graders today

this post is mean and I never read divergent or whatever the fuck but 1984 sucks and is rape apologism so if somebody wanted to write about divergent or whatever good for them

this reply is like literally exactly what op is talking about lol. like firstly ops point isn’t “1984 is good”, ops point is that analysing complex stories teaches you how to form opinions and think for yourself. and like secondly in 1984 you’re supposed to think damn it’s fucked up that he’s thinking that way about her, i wonder if this ties in with the central theme of “a society like this will fuck you in the head”? (this is the thinking for yourself part). like do you think orwell just put that in for fun? do you think that just because winston is the protagonist you’re supposed to agree with everything he does?

You know I feel like this post just gave me an epiphany for what is wrong with how Tumblr Fandom/Internet Fandom responds to media-or not *wrong* but makes it very hard to respond to anything but a morally correct, and heroic protagonist. 

When an English teacher, or reader, taught or picked up 1984, it wasn’t with the intention they were going to love the protagonist. They picked it up with the intention of reading a whole story and trying to grasp the theme or catharsis from the story. If the protagonist was a *shitty* person it played into the the themes or the story, because it wasn’t about morally judging the book or *liking* or feeling attachment to the protagonist. Sometimes and often times, books were just about gaining another perspective. 

No one read Lolita expecting to endear, or like, or be inspired by Humbert. You are supposed to be upset by his behavior, you don’t read Lolita with the intention of being inspired. You read it to learn more about what the fuck is going on inside someone’s head when they behave like that. How children get sucked into abusive situations. Or read “The Great Gatsby” not because they want to fall in love with Gatsby or Nick, but to better understand and analyze the experience of the 1920s or destitution of the American Dream. 

A lot of internet and fandom culture has changed that though. When we say something like “I love the Great Gatsby” it comes with the idea or association that means you must *love* or relate to one of the characters. And maybe you do, but the first assumption is not longer about the quality of the work or themes, or cathartic impact-it’s about character admiration. And with that character admiration, in tumblr stan culture, or kin culture, or exalting characters with fanart/romance/so on you don’t just ‘admire’ or find that character ‘compelling’ it now translates to ‘you LOVE that character’ or you ‘DIRECTLY relate to that character.’ 

You can’t say “I love how Humbert is written, it’s so fascinating and dark”, without it directly translating you somehow relate to a child abuser or condone his actions. Taking in media has become an act of worship and connection. We no longer watch meant to just see the story as a whole, we watch expecting to connect to a character and if we offer them our “worship” as it’s become, as opposed to just attention or interest study as it traditionally was, it means we are condoning the character or saying we directly empathize with all their actions. 

I think that’s why there is often now so much fuss over *toxic* characters or not. Or whether that classical novel is showing good or bad things anymore. We’re treating the characters as people we should love or want to draw or write about. Sometimes a story is just about getting the the theme or catharsis or learning another perspective. We don’t NEED to like the character. Or we don’t HAVE to like a character to be impressed by how they’re written or intrigued by their behavior. 

I think if internet culture could learn to view stories as small insights into other lives or single takes of one perspective instead of purposeful moral inspirations we’d be a lot less worried about how toxic or not toxic they are. 

There is this idea that you’re supposed to identify with a protagonist, you’re supposed to see yourself in them, and therefore the protagonist has to be good, or at the very least sympathetic

If you dare to get into the head of a less-than-sympathetic character, it means that you sympathize with evil, and it apparently says something about you.

We don’t NEED to like the character. Or we don’t HAVE to like a character to be impressed by how they’re written or intrigued by their behavior.

Gone With the Wind (1939)

I am going through the films listed in TCM’s Essentials, Volume 1.  I watched Gone With the Wind in two parts last week and I’ve been trying to figure out what to write about it.  What to say.  I took my time watching it.  It’s a 2-DVD movie!  I cried a good amount in the second half and, what’s more, I enjoyed the second half as well as the first.  But why?  The guilt I have for liking this movie!  Such white guilt.  So I’ve been mulling this one over.  And I read some stuff on line about what different African American celebrities have to say about it and tried to work out why this movie is a target when I have seen much worse stereotypes in other films.  I came to the conclusion that Gone With the Wind is more problematic than some other films because of how popular the movie still is.  Without considering it being a story about some of the people that wanted to keep slavery, the confederates, and don’t we feel bad for them and damn those yankees but, wait, they’re the bad guys so damn them!?  Somehow none of that crossed my mind as I watched Scarlett blow it with Rhett time and time again.  I didn’t think about Mammy being her slave when they traveled to Atlanta and Scarlett failed to woo Rhett and thus hooked a moderately wealthy shopkeeper instead.  I didn’t think about Prissy being her slave as she twirled and sang to herself trying to avoid telling Miss Scarlett that no doctor was coming to help poor Mellie.  These characters are presented as servants in Downton Abbey fashion only Prissy and Mammy weren’t paid.  Gone With the Wind is problematic.

Visually, Gone With the Wind is a gorgeous film.  It’s so lovely that the first ever credit for production design was given to its designer, William Cameron Menzies.  The clothes are lovely, the setting is lovely, the actors are beautiful and the whole thing speaks epic.

Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable are an incomparable pair.  Their characters are equals in venom, ambition, and beauty.  Both love the other but neither can get it right.  But when Rhett finally proposes to Scarlett as she mourns her second husband’s untimely death, well, that is my favorite part of the movie.  That scene is priceless.

I also love Olivia de Havilland’s character of the pale-faced-mealy-mouthed ninny, Melanie.  She is so weak yet imperturbably kind.  The sort of character you would love to hate because she is so good but you can’t hate her because she is so devoted to Scarlett.  Melanie even helps hide the fact that Scarlett shot a Yankee intruder, just like Vincent Vega shot Marvin, in the face.  She’s Scarlett’s only friend.

Then there’s Mammy, played by Hattie McDaniel.  Mammy, the first black person to win an Oscar and the only black person to win for the first 34 years of Oscar history.  I can be pretty sure the only African American woman to accept an award given to her at a segregated Academy Award ceremony.  When you say it like that, it almost sounds condescending.  But I love Hattie McDaniel in this film.  I love it when she tells Scarlett she can’t show her bosom before 3 o’clock.  I love it when she gives Rhett the mean face and then later has drinks with him as his daughter is being born.  And I really love how she cries as she tells Mellie how the death of the Butler child has ravaged Rhett and Scarlett into monsters.  I cried too.  And I thought about Hattie with that rag on her head, remembering to talk like Mammy as she cried and cried and I thought she was wonderful.  And as Hattie McDaniel, herself a child of a slave, once said, ‘I’d rather play a maid than be one’.

Gone With the Wind is everything people say it is.  Racist, cinematically stunning, well-acted, problematic, perpetuating stereotypes, and a classic film.  I’m sure I left something out.  I’d love it if you gave me some feedback.

—

It is.

lmao at mozilla having to be like “not only did we not get rid of the fox in our logo but if all the people yelling at us actually use our browser they should have known that 🤔”

this one’s real though

lol, i’d been wondering if i’d missed an update or something.

ANYWAY i fucking love how that firefox article discusses memes as a part of the misinformation news cycle. Good. Correct. 

Also please install firefox please, i’m begging you. The reason all of your school sites and work sites and whatever can insist on only working in chrome browsers is because there’s no diversity in the browser market and you should be using firefox because it is GOOD and on almost every computer it’s going to be as fast or faster than chrome (nearly TEN YEARS AGO there was an issue with firefox being somewhat slower but that isn’t the case anymore) and the extensions are wonderful and it now has native tracker blocking and you can import all your bookmarks and

!!!!!!! There is an extension called Auto Tab Discard that sleeps tabs you haven’t looked at in a set amount of time to save your computer’s resources!!!!!

And also firefox is free and open source and it is not a giant advertising engine, like, i posted the other day about the sponsored sites thing but you can turn that off with two clicks, how much fucking effort does it take to get chrome to stop pushing fucking google products at you fuck chrome FIREFOX IS SO FUCKING GOOD PLEASE USE IT AND HELP TO BREAK GOOGLE’S NEAR MONOPOLY ON THE BROWSER MARKET

Also you can install firefox mobile on your phone and put ublock origin on it and you can block browser ads in your phone like I have no idea why everyone isn’t already doing that I haven’t seen a browser ad in fucking YEARS (you can watch youtube in your browser ad free. Why are you still looking at ads? I’m so confused)

In Conclusion Please Use Firefox.

1 - to all of the people sharing desktop computers with parents and spouses and siblings I feel you. HOWEVER! Just because your mom is using chrome doesn’t mean you have to! Your computer is almost certainly capable of running two browsers at once and if that’s slowing it down you can set firefox so that it automatically reloads all your windows and tabs after you close it

2 - Seriously just run multiple browsers if you need chrome for school or whatever then use chrome for school only and don’t give google a second more of your day than you can absolutely help.

3 - I forgot to mention how amazing multi account containers are. Basically firefox lets you create account containers like “work” and “shopping” and “personal” so I’ve got my work’s amazon account open in one tab so that the behavior and cookies from that account don’t follow me all over the internet. I’ve got three different tumblr accounts logged in right now. Read all my free articles for [insert publication i’m certainly not going to pay for *cough* the atlantic *cough*] this month? Open in new container tab. Going on Facebook (disgusting) only in facebook container.

Also here are the basic extensions I use:

learn to be done. not mad, not bothered, just done. protect your peace at all costs.

✨ Harry Potter Rewatch 2021 ✨  ↳ “That wand’s more trouble than it’s worth,” said Harry. “And quite honestly,” he turned away from the painted portraits, thinking now only of the four-poster bed lying waiting for him in Gryffindor Tower, and wondering whether Kreacher might bring him a sandwich there, “I’ve had enough trouble for a lifetime.” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part II (2011) dir. David Yates