u/Marblubbles

Looking for new magical realism authors, for reference I don't really like Murakami, love Allende, and I'm kinda mid on García Márquez (I know I know).

I wanted to talk about this because I haven't seen it brought up anywhere.

When the characters agreed to destroy an Incan site to build a space elevator it left a bitter taste in my mouth. At first I thought there was going to be some commentary about colonization, maybe about how "progress" is so often built off the suffering of colonized peoples, but they didn't do that.

The characters say something like "it's just a pile of rocks that only dead people cared about", which felt like particuarly crass writing to me, so often indigenous people in real life are treated with this same attitude of "well they're basically gone so who cares". It reminded me of real life proposals to build pipelines on indigeonus land.

The descendents of the Incans are still alive today, they are the Quechua people, and given that rich people were the ones who got to upload first, and the cultural beliefs Quechua people have about their land... I kinda doubt that most of them chose to upload, or would even get the opportunity. It also felt odd because they even brought up "reservations" for UIs, but like then the show plays the destruction of actual indigenous land completely straight.

It kinda feels like the characters/writers were like "oh well it's just the people who've already suffered the most off "progress" who will have to suffer again, who cares". I wish the writers had thought that plot point through a little more.

Cirque de Soleil is going to have a big top show in my city this year, none of my friends want to go with me, is it weird to go alone? I've always wanted to see them.

Being a bi woman is like being able to step outside of an invisible jail cell and see that I was never trapped there to begin with, and it makes me sad for straight women.

Society can't gaslight me about how hot women are, and that includes myself.

So many times throughout the day my partner asks "why did you that?" or "why did you do that this way?" or "why are you struggling with x task", and then when I explain my logic, or say that it was an unconcious action he'll say something like "it would have made more sense to do it this way", or "why can't you just not do that?" or "it's easy, just do it".

I'm so tired of justifying how my brain works, if start washing the dishes, stop and make the bed, then go back to washing the dishes it shouldn't be a whole conversation. If a task takes me longer because I'm overwhelmed I shouldn't have to justify why it takes me longer as long as I get it done in time.

I'm so tired of feeling like I'm a failure for things I can't help.

I can't get her Xenogensis series out of my head, I read it a years ago and I still think about themes from that book reguarly. I've thought more about her as an author since facism has been on the rise again.

I often think about the whole "humans are fundementally hierarchal" angle of the series, and wonder if it's true, and if it's something we can ever truly break away from as a species.

I keep seeing people chose to place themselves in positions of power over others instead of having solidarity with others, even in situations when having solidarity would serve everyone, including themselves, better, and I think of her writing.

Warning some rambling ahead.

I've been thinking lately about how much content on the internet is not primary content itself but is a reaction to something else. How many video essays are there analyzing some obscure piece of media versus actual obscure pieces of media? How many reaction videos are there of people dancing versus clips of people dancing? How many posts are made reacting to just one event?

One of the many side effects of a system that rewards immediate engagement, is how reactive internet content has become, in the literal sense of see something, react to it. There are thousands more comments on a video, reacting to the video, than there are seconds of footage in the video. Making something that is non-reactive requires creativity, or at least spontaneity, reacting requires much less effort, and less vulnerability, from the creator of the reactive content.

I read Simula and Simulacrum awhile ago, and it's got me noticing how much of the internet is just a reaction to other content, even this post is just that. I'd be interested in hearing any thoughts other people have on this topic.

And no half assed swaying, if this is you I wanna see you absolutely breaking it down.

I'm looking for new R&B music that has a sort of ethereal feel it it, (I'm not sure if this subgenre has a name), some examples for what I'm talking about would be anything by Jhene Aiko, Interstellar Love by ThunderCat or Good Days by SZA.

I don't trust them, makes me think that these men would be perfectingly happy to see women suffer forced unwanted births if they're ok seeing female pets suffer through birthing too many litters.

incidentally I've never met a women who is passionately anti fixing pets.

Booked round trip digital tickets with TrenItalia from Bologna to Venice, do we need to validate them before departure and if so how do we do that? I've read conflicting information on traveling with TrenItalia and I'm confused.

There's something about the particle board and cheap plastic made to imitate high quality scandi furniture that just fucks with the vibes of a space. If a room must be furnished cheap I’d honestly rather see plastic lawn chairs and stolen milk crates as furniture, at least that look has no pretensions to quality.

Maybe it’s because I’ve moved so much and been in temporary living spaces so often, so the Ikea look reminds me of instability and shitty landlords. Ikea furniture is the universal aesthetic of landlords who refuse to admit that they are slumlords.

Or it could be the hyper consumptive implication that this type of furniture is meant to be consumed and discarded, not cherished, not cared for, not treated as a fixed or important part of your life.

Or maybe it’s the aesthetic banality of it all, the white and beige corporate standard that refuses to make an aesthetic or artistic statement, and in doing so makes a statement of late stage capitalistic blandness, at least lawn chairs as furniture are just chosen because they are cheap and not out of a mix of cheapness and aesthetic cowardliness.

Gonna be in Bologna for a couple of days and looking for any interesting or more obscure cultural activities, museums, bookshops, art exhibits etc. you might know of, espeically anything that's very specific to the region or city.