The Capricious One

i did mean immediately

This is round 1 of determining the best K.K. song.

Best one ever😂❤️💃🎼🎵🎤

ONLY ENTIRELY FUCKING ADORABLE

more ms paint dragons (up in my kofi shop as adoptables!)  

proof lord vetinari is canonically hot

Congratulations to The Register for what might be my favorite coverage of the indictment.

Wait, the closing paragraphs are pretty strong, too.

Astronaut sculpture from an ex-physicist (Source/Credit)

Okay, last headcanon and I'll stop harassing y'all after this.

So you know how Mark Vorkosigan has been trained to have the same body language as Miles Vorkosigan, whose body language is really a less effortless rendition of Aral's? And then Dono is told to just imitate Aral whenever he's scared he isn't passing well enough and, well, do you ever imagine these four men being somewhere together and just accidentally striking the exact same pose or making the exact same gesture at the same time?

Like someone is explaining something and they are listening attentively, brows elegantly furrowed, hands in their pockets and feet spread apart in a manly, assertive way, and when the particularly complicated part comes along they all rub their chins in contemplation and it goes from manly dignity to absolutely fucking ridiculous?

I love this to pieces

BUT ALSO - consider! That Ivan’s primary make Role Model was also Aral Vorkosigan.

Wait. Shit. So was Gregor’s.

(Duv Galini sees is happen exactly once, with all six of them in the same room. After his brain stops gibbering nonsense about it, his first coherant thought is hm. There’s a Doctorate Thesis in there somewhere.)

Aral Vorkosigan has single-handedly changed Barrayaran body language to the point that 50 years later nobody will remember that people didn't use to regularly flip chairs and sit on them backwards. The Cetagandans use it to weed out Barrayaran spies, like the way they signed the number three would give away people in WWII.

(source)

Language says a lot about a culture. Like how Dutch has one word for smile.

And this many for 'punch'

How dare you hide this gem in the tags

True someone should bonk me

Another banger

Exactly 😌

please watch my favorite game changer clip ever

...Just read this thread. JUST READ IT.

The Least Intimidating bakery in the village has closed for good so now I’ve got to go to the Intimidating Bakery, it’s awful. If you don’t have a PhD in being French I don’t recommend going to that bakery, here’s the humiliating account of the 3 times I’ve visited it so far:

everyone has dreams about being lost at school, late to work, cant find bathroom etc but whats yalls most common Uncommon stress dream. ill always have dreams about having various problems with my fish tank

the last human died today in captivity. it was 137 years old. it passed away peacefully in it's enclosure, under a weighted blanket, clutching a Squishmallow (a type of pseudo-companion favored by the infamously social human species).

the last human's handlers are devastated despite knowing its end was near- the average lifespan of a human in the wild rarely exceeded 80 years. "it always wanted to talk to me" one handler tearfully recounted. "i'll never forget the smile it gave us every time we opened up for morning feedings. it was like i was its best friend. it really made you feel special". although the human had long since been removed from public viewings, those who had been lucky enough to see it during its exhibition days are similarly saddened by the loss. "i'll never forget," one former spectator said, "going to see the human exhibition when i was young. i was oddly frightened, but i was pushed to the front of the crowd in all the madness. it was quite the spectacle to see a human back then. i don't know if it could sense my fear, but for a moment, we made eye contact. and it waved at me. and i waved back. and it waved again, more excitedly this time." the former spectator chuckles. "they had to drag me away from the exhibit after that. i could have spent hours just sitting there with that thing, making motions at each other. how amazing it is, to be able to communicate with something so alien to you, in such a simple way".

You know what I realize that people underestimate with Pride & Prejudice is the strategic importance of Jane.

Because like, I recently saw Charlotte and Elizabeth contrasted as the former being pragmatic and the latter holding out for a love match, because she's younger and prettier and thinks she can afford it, and that is very much not what's happening.

The Charlotte take is correct, but the Elizabeth is all wrong. Lizzie doesn't insist on a love match. That's serendipitous and rather unexpected. She wants, exactly as Mr. Bennet says, someone she can respect. Contempt won't do. Mr. Bennet puts it in weirdly sexist terms like he's trying to avoid acknowledging what he did to himself by marrying a self-absorbed idiot, but it's still true. That's what Elizabeth is shooting for: a marriage that won't make her unhappy.

She's grown up watching how miserable her parents make one another; she's not willing to sign up for a lifetime of being bitter and lonely in her own home.

I think she is very aware, in refusing Mr. Collins, that it's reasonably unlikely that anyone she actually respects is going to want her, with her few accomplishments and her lack of property. That she is turning down security and the chance keep the house she grew up in, and all she gets in return may be spinsterhood.

But, crucially, she has absolute faith in Jane.

The bit about teaching Jane's daughters to embroider badly? That's a joke, but it's also a serious potential life plan. Jane is the best creature in the world, and a beauty; there's no chance at all she won't get married to someone worthwhile.

(Bingley mucks this up by breaking Jane's heart, but her prospects remain reasonable if their mother would lay off!)

And if Elizabeth can't replicate that feat, then there's also no doubt in her mind that Jane will let her live in her house as a dependent as long as she likes, and never let it be made shameful or awful to be that impoverished spinster aunt. It will be okay never to be married at all, because she has her sister, whom she trusts absolutely to succeed and to protect her.

And if something eventually happens to Jane's family and they can't keep her anymore, she can throw herself upon the mercy of the Gardeners, who have money and like her very much, and are likewise good people. She has a support network--not a perfect or impregnable one, but it exists. It gives her realistic options.

Spinsterhood was a very dangerous choice; there are reasons you would go to considerable lengths not to risk it.

But Elizabeth has Jane, and her pride, and an understanding of what marrying someone who will make you miserable costs.

That's part of the thesis of the book, I would say! Recurring Austen thought. How important it is not to marry someone who will make you, specifically, unhappy.

She would rather be a dependent of people she likes and trusts than of someone she doesn't, even if the latter is formally considered more secure; she would rather live in a happy, reasonable household as an extra than be the mistress of her own home, but that home is full of Mr. Collins and her mother.

This is a calculation she's making consciously! She's not counting on a better marriage coming along. She just feels the most likely bad outcome from refusing Mr. Collins is still much better than the certain outcome of accepting him. Which is being stuck with Mr. Collins forever.

Elizabeth is also being pragmatic. Austen also endorses her choice, for the person she is and the concerns she has. She's just picking different trade-offs than Charlotte.

Elizabeth's flaw is not in her own priorities; she doesn't make a reckless choice and get lucky. But in being unable to accept that Charlotte's are different, and it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with Charlotte.

Because realistically, when your marriage is your whole family and career forever, and you only get to pick the ones that offer themselves to you, when you are legally bound to the status of dependent, you're always going to be making some trade-offs.

😂 Even the unrealistically ideal dream scenario of wealthy handsome clever ethical Mr. Darcy still asks you to undergo personal growth, accommodate someone else's communication style, and eat a little crow.

Elizabeth counting on Jane is something I hadn’t really thought about before, but makes a lot of sense.

#my one quibble with this post is that it writes off Mrs Bennet #and while I would absolutely Not Cope with her as a partner or parent #and her execution is awful #her priorities are... at least understandable #she wants to know her daughters are going to be provided for after their parents die #and yes it makes her seem silly and frivolous and ruins her relationship *with* her daughters #but 'self-absorbed idiot' feels like it misses the part of this picture she's there to illustrate #she's superficial but she's also the parent who's thinking practically about her children's future #I don't think she does it right but I can't say she's entirely wrong

see several people have said this and they are missing the ball. in a but the same way as people leaning so hard into defending charlotte for her pragmatic match they misunderstand lizzie's goals in life, actually.

mrs bennet is a self-absorbed idiot. the text makes this very clear and it affects the whole story and most of the major characters that this is so.

that doesn't excuse mr. bennet's parenting choices, but it's important that it's true. it's a fact.

her preoccupation with getting her daughters married isn't the problem, that's a sensible goal as far as it goes, with clear economic and social incentives.

the problem is that she puts her own emotions about everything first, at all times, to the exclusion of being considerate of anyone's feelings at all or realistic about the actual circumstances. this makes her a huge emotional and practical burden on her daughters, who must spend a lot of time and energy managing her moods and cannot look to her for any real support, and who in fact get repeatedly sabotaged in the marriage market by her poor judgment and manners.

she's got an anxiety disorder and makes it everybody's problem. she is loudly stupid and determined never to learn anything new. she is not aware enough of other people's needs to even be capable of actual kindness.

there are a lot of elements in mrs. bennet that are pretty clearly drawn from a pool of features of the generic 'most unpleasant without ever being actually abusive' middle-class mother that continue to resonate to this day.

she and mr. bennet have both comprehensively failed to make any actual effort or inconvenience themselves in any way, ever, for the sake of their daughters. they are both very bad parents.

that's what the character is there for. to be awful and unhelpful and embarrassing and in the way and demanding and never, ever any help to elizabeth. to be the absence of a positive role model, and the evidence of what it looks like to tie yourself to someone you cannot hold in esteem.

(actually very deft of austen to pull some of the gender out of the concept by making it be lizzie's father she identifies with and her mother the example case of a terrible choice of partner, so it's clear that the issue here is the human question of sharing your life with a person, rather than the more obvious gendered issue of putting yourself under the power of a man you can trust.)

she's not there to make the point that marriage is important; austen's readers knew that. the relentless trudge of the genteel young woman's need to make a fine match consumed their lives and the bulk of their literature.

we today need reminding that the pressure was real and practical and economic and not at the base of things frivolous at all, but emphasizing that risks overemphasizing it to the point we miss that that was the baseline reality austen was writing against. she didn't need to say it, only to tease it out and hold it to the light and say, what part of this pressure is real? what part of success will really make you happy, and what kinds of happiness will last and not curdle on your tongue?

mrs. bennet is specifically the societal message that marriage is so important you should snatch shamelessly at any one you can get that isn't outright awful; the pressure to chase a man and count on catching one to make your life work out.

and as real as the reasons for that are, austen is also putting forth the argument that you can't let that pressure drive you to make a choice you'll regret.

being stupid gets mrs. bennet off the hook to a certain extent; she doesn't quite get how having neglected to save up money all these years or arrange better educations was cutting their girls off at the knees, or how bad she's making them look. mr. bennet definitely understands better, he's just decided it's too much work to care.

i think he's more morally culpable because his decisions are more conscious. but mrs. bennet doesn't have any bragging rights.

mrs. bennet isn't being selfless in worrying about her daughters' marriages, either. remember that her chances of remarriage are approximately -0 and she has nothing in her own name; she is guaranteed if she lives long enough to find herself in the same state of dependency Elizabeth is risking. These are her own fortunes she's securing, or rather cartoonishly failing to secure.

when she wanted Elizabeth to accept Mr. Collins it was very much because that would mean she got to stay in her house as a widow, and continue acting as the mistress of the place until she died. as far as she was concerned, this would solve most of her problems.

Lizzie's happiness was not particularly on her radar, not in any realistic sense.

If mrs bennet knew for sure she wouldn't outlive her husband, or if Mr. Collins didn't get Longbourne until she was dead as well, I don't think she'd care about seeing the sisters married even half as much. She'd care more than Mr. Bennet, still, because she's interested in marriage and it's a status thing and she has some sense of responsibility toward them, I think, that meddling in their love lives would satisfy.

But if like her husband she could say 'welp, i'll be dead before that's a problem' her intense interest in the subject would not, I think, survive. Because she is a self-involved person with a limited mental capacity and a worse education, and these facts about her are actually kind of important to the plot.

okay that was an awful ramble.

tl;dr mrs bennet being both self-absorbed and stupid in a way that has caused her to be worse than useless to her daughters their entire lives is explicit in the text, and impactful to the point of load-bearing for both the plot and the themes. you can't get rid of it.

both bennet parents are delinquent in their duties of personal care, and mrs. bennet's motives for being invested in the sisters' marital success are somewhat suspect, since unlike mr. bennet who is secure until his death, her own future comfort is likely to hinge on it.

Chinese bronze sword with turquoise studded, gold inlaid rock crystal hilt

Warring States Period, c. 4th-2nd century BC