The Thing Is

BY ELLEN BASS

to love life, to love it even

when you have no stomach for it

and everything you’ve held dear

crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,

your throat filled with the silt of it.

When grief sits with you, its tropical heat

thickening the air, heavy as water

more fit for gills than lungs;

when grief weights you down like your own flesh

only more of it, an obesity of grief,

you think, How can a body withstand this?

Then you hold life like a face

between your palms, a plain face,

no charming smile, no violet eyes,

and you say, yes, I will take you

I will love you, again.

jewishpangolin asked:

Can selkies be walruses rather than seals?

(and would they show up on someone's doorstep in pinniped form to prank them?)

netherworldpost:

seananmcguire:

This is a very “what’s your angle” question. No one is the boss of folklore and mythology; there’s something to be said for treating any tradition that isn’t your own with respect, and never making someone else’s gods your monsters. That said, if you want to create a fantasy world where “selkie” is a catch-all term for any sort of pinniped that can turn into a human, go for it. No one gets to stop you.

According to actual folklore as we understand it? No. You’re not going to find a traditional Celtic story where a walrus takes off their skin and is a hot chick underneath. By that standard, calling a shape-shifting walrus a selkie is inaccurate and I wouldn’t do it, personally.

Either way, if you’re trying to preserve something of the classic selkie story, they aren’t big tricksters most of the time. I’d avoid it. But it’s your call.

A moment ago, I reblogged this straightforward without commentary because it is complete.

And

I like to talk

And have ten twenty minutes.

And I come across this exact line of questioning a lot.

Like. A lot.

It is a line of thought I think about regularly and discuss extremely frequently and therefore have lots of thoughts about it.

So to add, if I may

“October” exists in our world – currently, and in many calendars – due to a very specific set of circumstances that do not exist in Middle Earth, and it was woven into the Fellowship of the Ring:

Gandalf to Frodo: “You are in the House of Elrond and it is ten o'clock in the morning on October the 24th, if you want to know.”

Either because

A parallel, equal, but entirely separate, set of circumstances created the word “October” and aligned it with a specific month in Middle Earth

Or

Because the folklore method of bringing-alien-to-our-world-tale-into-our-world said:

“Hm. This happened within a compatible time frame and to translate this point most efficiently, we’re using ‘October’ as the word. It denotes the necessary connotation.”

Or

You, the consumer of media, simply accept it without review. This is similar to the second point but less sticky.

The second point involves a specific “this story is a story of another world, brought to ours.” This point is straightforward: it’s a story, no explanation needed. Very common!

Now the gooey parts. All of the following things are true:

  1. You do not have a legal obligation to be historically accurate in your monsters that are in the public domain. You cannot be sued because you create a walrus-based selkie. Or an elf that hates the forest. Or a monster within a culture you are not a part of. Or a mermaid that has leg bones instead of sorry sorry sorry getting off track. The key part here is legal obligation. (I suppose you can be sued, as in a case could be opened against you, but monster types are very unlikely to be legally protected. Especially in non-large scale work.)
  2. I would personally argue you have a social obligation to avoid this (key words here are “personally argue” because I do not specifically enjoy creating chaos, trouble, hurt feelings, and negativity.)
  3. If you purposefully utilize traditional monsters in non-traditional ways, especially outside of a culture you do not belong to, there are some folks who are going to be upset. A significant portion of people who agree about this are going to agree with them.
  4. If you do this this without realizing, you are likely going to have the same result. Corrective action, if you choose, may fix this. It may not! The emotions and viewpoints of others are theres to shift, or not. Thems be life’s bones.
  5. You (probably) cannot be sued, but you can have the typical non-legal negative response spectrum (lots of people negatively reviewing, boycott your other work, this piece simply not being consumed… etc.)
  6. This is a common risk in mythology work. Thems be myth’s bones.
  7. Whatever you do, someone is going to get upset somewhere. Some people do not like any work about monsters existing. Thems be the crossbones of life and myth.
  8. Taking #7 as a license to do whatever you want regardless of the consequences is not advice I am offering. It is a recognition that when you deal with monsters, at least some portion of the populace is going to say “I don’t like that” and react.
  9. Which is true of… everything, really. I digress.

“Wow Atticus mythology seems super hard and requires delicate care to handle, significant research, and thoughtful inclusions or exclusions or modifications, in all work, always, in every medium, forever, regardless of subject matter, environment, publishing method, and ten billion other circumstances.”

Yes.

Thank you very carefully worded sentence that will never be said but I would cry happily over, for like, five minutes, if it was ever said by people I write myths for.

“Okay so what do I do?”

You have a few basic choices.

  1. You can say “to hell with you, generally accepted connotations, I’m going to do what I want” and do what you want and possibly suffer the negative feedback. Not to my personal taste, but see above, you could do this.
  2. You can dig deep into mythology that have walruses and find ways of incorporating that into your story. You still run the risk of cultural insensitivity, so this is a complex option. I would start here, but it is not what I would recommend in terms of finishing.
  3. You can adapt non-cultural monsters. “Shapeshifter” is a neutral term. You don’t have to end with “shapeshifter” if it is too generic. You can adapt it. This pairs well with #2.
  4. You can create a monster out of the air, with their own species name, etc. This is more involved, but has more depths in options to create, and will require you explaining what it is since you invented it. This is a more advanced #3, and similarly pairs well with #2.

Monsters.

:)

Hard work.

But fun!

But far more difficult than it seems on the surface.

thebibliosphere:

Holly visited the new groomer today, and I just saw the “report card” they sent over as we drive over to get her.

Merissa always used to write “good girl” under “additional notes” section.

The new groomer went with “SWEET PERFECT ANGEL” in all caps with multiple exclamation points, so I think it went well 😅

thebibliosphere:

naamahdarling:

superdillin:

saintjosie:

transarsonist:

transarsonist:

i think a LOT of you with chronic conditions should learn this one magical phrase to get your hospital doctor to shit his entire pants, which is leaving the room and saying “im going to go discuss your behavior with the ethics committee, i think you might need a reminder of what your job is”

examples of when this would get a doctor to shit himself: if he mentions that you need to loose weight, go straight to the ethics committee and ask if its ethical to withold treatment until weight is lost, the answer is no and they know this.
if a nurse etc, wont wear a mask and you NEED them to, the ethics committee, upon review of the case, will not be happy
many such cases, remember that doctors and nurses at hospitals have an Oversight Board

while this is well intentioned, also please remember that this is only really an option for white people.

bipoc people have been loudly stating tor a long time that doctors are to bipoc women what cops are to bipoc men.

not saying don’t try this but also consider bringing someone with you, being on the phone during an appointment, or recording your appointment. solidarity is an effective tactic when appealing to the system is not.

Patient Advocate here to a. validate everything Josie has said above and b. add some extra advice from things I have seen in my career as an advocate.

BIPOC women and Queer folks tend to be more likely to receive retaliation when advocating for themselves. Red Flag notations like “noncompliant” or “malingering” get resorted to much faster for these patients and can impact your care going forward. My suggestion instead of the OP advice is, if you request something that is denied, ask “can you document my request?” This is less likely to trigger defensiveness but sometimes, this will prompt a physician to rethink their decision. However, if they still don’t honor your request, do not tell them you are reporting them to Ethics (or Patient Relations, or your local Department of Health, etc), simply walk out and do it. The documentation can’t be deleted once your visit is closed, so there will be a paper trail of your request.

These scrutinizing bodies are ruthless, and even if Physicians themselves don’t act frightened by them, the organizations they work for absolutely HATE having unnecessary case reviews on their plate. In some cases, citations from the DoH can lead to the hospital being reimbursed less money from insurance providers. That speaks the language of shareholders and CEOs and can move a lot of needles, if you catch me.

As near as I can tell, tipping your hand is never helpful. If you feel politely trying to resolve it would be pointless and you have to escalate, do it. Do not warn them. Do not threaten them. Just do it. Clinic managers can be helpful if you aren’t at a hospital big enough to have a patient relations person.

Bring an advocate/witness who ideally will take notes of their own, have the doctor document any requests they refuse, and when you get home, follow up with a completely neutral message in the patient portal restating what was stated in the appointment, and asking for confirmation that you understood everything. Even if they do not respond, you at least have an un-alterable account of what was said, time stamped, from very shortly after the appointment.

A lot of places now have rules about recording and while I think this is horseshit (I know why the rule is there but it’s still horseshit, we should be allowed to protect.ourselves), and in many places is legal to do without their knowledge, if it is against clinic policy they can fire you as a patient, so be prepared to take that hit if you reveal that you did record something.

State medical licensing boards are moderately helpful. They are of necessity staffed by doctors, not regular people, so they have the same biases as the medical community at large.

As a disabled white woman who was maliciously described as “non-compliant” and a “difficult patient” by a doctor who didn’t like that I said, “I feel like you’re not listening” (I shit you not. That’s what I said to the doctor who put the initial note in my file), resulting in years of medical abuse and severe neglect that almost resulted in my death, @naamahdarling is correct.

I cannot begin to imagine how much worse my treatment would have been if I wasn’t white. Granted, my abuse wouldn’t have lasted for decades, but that’s only because I wouldn’t have survived long enough to endure it.

You need to read the room and do what’s safe for you. Sometimes it’s safer to just thank them for their time, walk away and report their asses after.

despazito:

i can’t believe i’ve witnessed several practicing veterinarians defending extreme brachycephaly by arguing that brachycephalic skulls occur naturally in several species in the wild. yeah debrah the difference is that tarsiers evolved flat faces over millions of years and humans have squished pug skulls in like 200 years. none of its insides have otherwise adapted to that shape it’s all crammed in there.

image
image

look how neatly arranged and tidy the tarsier jaws are, that just isn’t comparable to a longer snouted animal we have selectively bred to be very short in a fraction of the timespan.

image

n3bulas-and-satelites:

kieran-granola:

You know how there’s a subset of martial arts Tiktok where people post short vids of them doing a quick routine/choreography?

People in Gotham post blurry clips of the Bats, and a few martial artists challenge each other to reproduce the moves. One vid goes viral and more people start to give it a try, including non martial artists, who just meme with the choreography/try to imitate some moves just in good fun (and whoa some dancers and gymnasts do surprisingly well)

It naturally gets back to the Wayne brood, except, of course, the real challenge for them is to fail in a believable way.

—

Tim, on camera: “I was nearly good enough for the Olympics, surely I can do that…? Let’s find out.”

[cue footage of him falling down, cartoon-style, right as Damian was walking by and getting both of them drenched in Dami’s smoothie]

—

Jason sees the compilation someone made of Bruce’s ridiculous attempts at reproducing the moves (Tim and Steph roped him into their shenanigans.)

Two days later, a video of Red Hood goes viral: it’s him condescendingly explaining how to throw a punch and challenging Bruce Wayne to do it properly because “no Gothamite should be so shit at fighting”

Bruce is verklempt when he watches it, because some of it is word-for-word how he taught baby!Jay

—

Tim gives Damian blurry, grainy footage of Black Bat to imitate. After that, Dami spends days hounding Cass for training because he nearly broke his nose tripping over his own feet.

—

Dick flawlessly lands a flip in front of all the others with “ASSERTING DOMINANCE” written on screen before winking at the camera.

Right before the video cuts, Tim’s voice can be heard saying, “Whatever, your ass is still flat compared to Nightw—”

@thebibliosphere