u/Beagle313

So, I'm a new Keeper (though a fairly experienced GM in other systems), planning a scenario that will be my players' first or second contact with CoC and Lovecraftian horror as a whole.

The idea is for them to play as themselves in a more or less modern world, where I invited them to meet me at a vacation, paid tickets and all (irl I really am away, we'll play online). The thing is I'm not there yet and they are to meet me at a showing by a traveling troupe. Of course they are performing KiY. My players do not know what that is. At all.

I sent that invitation when I got cursed by the book, which I've found at an antique shop and got a bit too curious. They get flown here to join the cult, as they can be good seedlings for it back in our home country.

Now, the question - does this make sense in the Mythos? And how to present that in a way that does not make it obvious from the start, but still gives them a chance to avoid insanity? I thought about someone maybe briefly gaining sanity and shouting some warning before the show, maybe some clearly cultish things happening before the play? Or people rambling about yellow and Carcossa and the Pallid Mask? What do you think?

Many of us have this one moment, the episode that struck us as simply sad. For some it may be the death of a beloved character, or their tragic backstory revealed. It may also be the entirety of certain media, the topics they encompass. And yet, despite actively feeling bad while watching, bawling our eyes out, having our hearts torn to pieces, we look at the end credits and say “this was good”, feeling refreshed somehow. This is catharsis.

Originally catharsis (gr. κάθαρσις) meant “purification” or “cleansing” both in medical and spiritual sense. Aristotle first connected the word to tragedy (despite the concept already existing, just without that name), noting in his "Poetics" that

>Through pity and fear it [the tragedy] effects relief [katharsis] to these and similar [that is negative] emotions.

Greeks used this concept often in theater, showing disturbing, graphic imagery, like stories of murder and injustice within the family (such as in “Antigone” by Sofocles), and especially the heroes being unable to evade their fate no matter how hard they tried, like in the aforementioned tragedy where Antigone tries to find a balance between her own morality and the law, failing miserably. Those exact images of course were a shock to the viewers back then and that was by design. To get purified one needs to get sad. Only by touching the bottom of the ocean can one go up to the surface. 

I really like the example of a more laid-back anime like Ikkou Nikki (which received a full adaptation this year). A josei slice-of-life drama doesn’t really seem like the right place to find a story of overcoming sadness and dealing with grief in our own ways. And yet we do. The catharsis begins with the first scenes. The heroine’s parents die. They just do. A freak accident, something that while possible is not considered often. This shocks both her and us. The next vignette we get shown is the funeral, where she feels empty, showing for the first time her mind - an empty desert, a place unfit to live, barren and unwelcoming. And so, so lonesome. We don’t see her crying that often. She grieves in her own way. But each episode you feel the pain that she endures. Her struggle to look normal, to feel normal. How she cannot really accept that they are gone. Looking through the things they’ve left behind, her mother’s journal, clothes, cups, all of it reduced to memories. This brings with itself a lot of emotional hurt for us as viewers. Empathizing with her makes us sad, that’s logical. And when we become the saddest, the catharsis slowly buds. Time and time again we see the desert of her mind, slowly becoming less barren. An oasis, a cactus, a traveller, lights. We see her cope, and cope ourselves. It heals us as much as it does her. The weight on our hearts is gone. The last episode feels simply refreshing, a shower of cold water after travelling in the desert, to use the show’s favorite metaphor. With the sadness that the show brought, we also wash away other kinds of negativity, such as stress, sadness and maybe our own grief. Catharsis heals us through pain.

The theme of catharsis is also something that often gets associated with more militaristic media, like antiwar movies, which use the effect, to first make us seriously consider the impact of fighting while also providing some sort of closure and finally ridding us of the pain. Say in 86, at least the part adapted into anime, sadly haven’t gone further than that yet, we see a story of exclusion, inhumane practices and finding a spark of humanity in that mess. There is bloody and unannounced death strolling about, tension of war and fear, children soldiers which are disturbing just as is, but the show piles on so much more. The show doesn’t shy away from much. It is graphic in a way a cathartic show should be - painful, but not gross. The personal tragedies hurt more than a mass murder of thousands who lack faces. This is what we see (especially in the first part of the show) with the main crew. Each death among them resonates with us. Their departure to a safer place relieves us of the tension, finally flushing the emotions out of us. 

It is still catharsis, but a different brand of it. This is much more and less in a sense. More traumatic events, but less chances to delve into the minds of the heroes. This is not intrinsically bad or good. It is simply different. We get beaten by a bat multiple times instead of a slow cut with a dull knife. It will still hurt, but in another way. There are many ways this trope, or rather psychological effect, manifests, but there is a constant you can point to - it hurts to get better. That second part is important, as forgoing it may result in a critical error of putting nihilistic media in the same basket, when they are clearly not the same. The goal of catharsis is to heal, but nihilism just hurts. The line is often quite thin and differs by person, but it exists. 

Here’s a good example of yet another type of catharsis, one that does not have much closure, but rather leaves things to sort out yourself - the two endings of Evangelion. The whole show is meant to make us realise how much of a mess Shinji really is. That his mind is broken, and so is everyone else’s at NERV really. The ending really sinks that premise. We do not get a happy ending - we get the Third Impact, everyone dies. In the series we see the inside of the boy’s mind. He’s conflicted, hurts, and so do we after the journey with him through exploitation, false hopes, hate, and so much more. He’s seen everything bad that this world’s got to offer, but so few of the good things. Of course he would be a mess inside. And we get an exclusive look into it. We go with him and don’t really get anywhere. And yet closing the show feels relieving. The hurt flushes out of us and heals us internally. We have to create our own closure, draw our own conclusions. End of Evangelion’s last scene is a bit more of a closure, with the two pilots looking into the horizon after a cataclysm, but much more than that it feels like a question - what now? You’ve arrived at the finish line and now what? The ending still leaves a room for us to reminisce, to create our own catharsis.

So this feeling that was forged by the Greeks to make better tragedies haunts us even now in the 21st century, and it does its job well. Again, you have to touch the bottom of the ocean to spring to the surface. Catharsis brings us to the worst places we can imagine, but we get out clean, less stressed, fulfilled. This power is something fascinating and an effect that makes sad media a refuge somehow. It is our empathy giving us therapy, an internal cleaning. So enjoy it with your preferred choice of trauma and be on your merry way.

I want a tablet for notetaking, looking at documents and maybe taking calls using my headphones for less than 1250zł (339 USD) with the pen. The consensus about the S10 Lite is... well that's where I got lost.

There seem to be differing opinions - some say that it's great for notes, the laminated screen, pen and software are all amazing for the price. However, I've also seen some rather unflattering opinions about its hardware, namely the CPU, which is mediocre on a good day.

The question is - will that really matter? Is the processor really bad enough to disqualify this model? And is there something better in the price range?

EDIT: Should've added that - I'm in Poland

As the title says mostly. I live in Poland and my budget is ~1000-1250zł (US$ 271-339). I'm looking for something to use for college to take notes, have documents opened, possibly browse a bit and such. My main criteria are:

1. It needs to survive my time in college
2. The notetaking experience must be good
3. The pen is in the price and is nice(ish)
4. The battery can't die quickly
   My main guesses as of now are:
   - Galaxy Tab S10 Lite + Pen retailing for 1099zł (US$ 298)
   - Lenovo Idea Tab + Pen for 899zł (US$ 244)
   I'll preface any IPad ideas by saying that they are expensive. Just the tablet is barely withing the budget. And that's used. And I want a pen to make notes with