Things I Wish I Had Known Sooner

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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
yournewapartment
angualupin

I feel like I need to tell everyone how brilliantly the Globe incorporated a deaf Gildenstern into the 2018 Hamlet and then force all of you to watch it

ok, so Gildenstern is played by a deaf actor, Nadia Nadarajah. he* signs all his lines, and either Rosencratz interprets for him, or the person he’s talking to says something that makes it obvious what he just said, depending. how each character reacts to Gildenstern is completely in-character and often hilarious

  • Claudius and Gertrude are intensely awkward around Gildenstern. they obviously don’t know BSL so they just gesture emphatically but aimlessly when they talk.
  • Hamlet, who of course is friends with R&G, *does* know BSL. he starts off by signing fluently whenever he’s talking to them but, as his distrust of them grows, he signs less and less until he’s only signing the equivalent of “fuck off” whenever he talks
  • Polonius just shouts really loud whenever he tries to talk to Gildenstern

it’s all brilliant and adds another layer of humor and pathos and you should all watch it

*casting at the Globe right now is gender neutral so I’m just going to use the character’s pronouns

angualupin

guys I know I’m wittering on about this but the thing I want to emphasize is that there is no tokenism here. they didn’t just shove a deaf actor into a speaking role so they could pat themselves on the back about how progressive they are. they went to the effort of fully integrating Nadarajah’s deafness into the story so that it not only fit organically within the narrative but actually enhanced it. watching Hamlet’s signing disintegrate as his trust in R&G disintegrates adds a depth to that storyline I’ve never seen before. Claudius has exactly the awkwardness of someone who thinks of himself as a good person and therefore thinks he’s being kind and generous with his accommodations for disability, but has never even once actually asked a disabled person what they need, which is so on-point for his character it hurts.

I know Michelle Terry gets a lot of hate mail for her policy of race-, gender-, and disability-blind casting, but fuck all those people. long may that policy continue.

lostsometime

the glenda jackson production of king lear on broadway did something similar with the Duke of Cornwall, and it was actually the best part of the play, imo.  because when Cornwall was speaking to Lear or to the Court, he had a sign language interpreter to speak the actual literal words aloud, but when he was talking to and conspiring with Regan, his wife, they were just signing back and forth with no translation for the audience, and it emphasized the intimacy between the two even as they turn against literally everyone else in the play, which was fantastic.

and the best part of it was, by the second half of the play, you were so used to it, that you didn’t even blink anymore when watching him and listening to the spoken words come from the interpreter - you just watched the actor playing Cornwall and let the words come from the other guy, but the guy kind of fades into the background.  it didn’t hurt that the actor for Cornwall was one of the tallest on stage, and had bright red hair - it was easy to watch him, instead of his interpreter.

which is why it was so shocking and so perfect when the interpreter is the one who kills him.

See, they folded the character of the servant who kills Cornwall into the person of this character who had been such a non-entity that you almost forgot he was on stage - until you realize, no, this is another person, and he’s been here, watching all this the whole time, and he finally gets to the breaking point where he can’t stand by and translate anymore, he has to do something to stop the cruelty he’s seeing, and it’s not just a random guy who comes in for the scene and sees them blinding Gloucester, it’s the man whose been by his side for the entire play, the man who was his voice who finally has a line of his own.  who finally speaks on his own behalf to say “no.”

and then, of course, he gets killed, but Cornwall dies in the same scene so it’s not like they need to get a new translator or anything.  but it was the most fucking brilliant choice i’ve ever seen re: casting in a Shakespearean production, and the rest of the play pales in my memory in comparison.

Source: angualupin
sigmundsdottir
apersnicketylemon: “ironbound-oberon: “I have cochlear implants and I can only buy parts to fix them or upgrade then from 1 corporation bc of tech exclusivity. upgrades to get new processors for both ears cost $23k & insurance only covers 90% (and...
ironbound-oberon

I have cochlear implants and I can only buy parts to fix them or upgrade then from 1 corporation bc of tech exclusivity. upgrades to get new processors for both ears cost $23k & insurance only covers 90% (and it’s “good” insurance)

cyberpunk dystopia is already here for the disabled. fight for universal healthcare, fight against capitalism NOW.

apersnicketylemon

For real, it’s nearly every disabled person who deals with this shit. Artificial limbs cost more than many make in a year. Medications you need to literally stay alive, that keep your heart beating or your lungs breathing, your body processing sugar which is in everything, that keep your hormones’ regulated. Items that let you see or hear or walk. 

This is literally reality already for millions of people, including people you know. “Don’t cry to me when your ability to run is behind a paywall’ my ability to breathe, see, concentrate, and sleep already are. Help us. Fight against it NOW and stop joking about how it’s a hypothetical future because we’ve been suffering, we are suffering, and we’re dying and we didn’t make any choice. 

Help us. 

Source: radical-eve
the dystopian future is now
chemistfail
bauliya

image

just gonna leave this here

princecharmingtobe

I’ve said this before, possibly even on this post, but this also means throwing out that shitty attitude of “You can tell this was made by cishets for cishets” just because it doesn’t relate to your specific queer experience. I have seen works created by queer creators based on their own experiences get labeled “by cishets for cishets” because it didn’t reflect a particular experience/reflected a different experience from that of those criticizing it. There is no universal queer experience. Just because it’s not YOUR experience doesn’t mean it’s not queer.

Source: bauliya
identity politics
and-then-bam-cassiopeia
anaryllis

The analogy  that  has  helped  me  most  is  this:  in  Hurricane  Katrina,  hundreds  of  boat-owners  rescued  people—single  moms,  toddlers,  grand-fathers—stranded in attics, on roofs, in flooded housing projects, hospitals, and school buildings. None of them said, I can’t rescue everyone, therefore  it’s  futile;  therefore  my  efforts  are  flawed  and  worthless,  though  that’s often what people say about more abstract issues in which, nevertheless, lives, places, cultures, species, rights are at stake.

They went out  there  in  fishing  boats  and  rowboats  and  pirogues  and  all kinds  of small craft, some driving from as far as Texas and eluding the au-thorities  to  get  in,  others  refugees  themselves  working  within  the  city.  There  was  bumper-to-bumper  boat-trailer  traffic—the  celebrated Cajun Navy—going toward the city the day after the levees broke. None of those people said, I can’t rescue them all. All of them said, I can rescue someone, and that’s work so meaningful and important I will risk my life and defy the authorities to do it. And they did.

Of course, working for systemic change also matters—the kind of change that might prevent calamities by addressing the climate or the infrastructure or the environmental and economic injustice that put some people in harm’s way in New Orleans in the first place.

Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, Rebecca Solnit

Source: anaryllis
direct action
gallusrostromegalus

Top Tips for Clues, Red Herrings, and Breadcrumbs

aye-write

One of the most important parts of writing MYSTERY is figuring out what to do with clues and red herrings - and how to use them effectively. Here’s some advice that’s never steered me wrong: 

  • Hide the real clue before the false ones! Most people, so by extent your readers and your sleuth, tend to focus on the last piece of information presented to them. A good strategy is to mention/show your real clue and then quickly shift focus. 
  • Do a clue cluster! Squeeze your real clue in among a whole pile of red herrings or other clues, effectively hiding it in plain sight. This works especially well with multiple suspect mysteries. 
  • Struggling to think of what a clue could be? Try this list: 
    • Physical objects: Letters, notes, tickets, emails, keepsakes, text messages, diaries, etc. 
    • Dialogue: voicemail recordings, overheard conversations, hearsay, gossip, rumours. All of these can hold grains of truth! 
  • Red herrings distract and confound your protagonist and your reader, so you should be careful not to overuse them. Well balanced, red herrings should lead your characters down false paths to create confusion, tension, and suspense.
  • Contradictions! Have characters claim they did so-and-so at such-and-such a time, but other characters have evidence that contradicts this.
  • Balance! Avoid a clue that’s so obvious it’s like a neon sign saying “Look at me, I’m a clue!” but don’t make it so obscure it’ll be missed entirely. A good clue should leave a reader saying “Damn, I should have noticed that” 
mhalachai

You can also have the red herring be a real clue to another mystery. It’s all about misdirection

Source: aye-write
writing prompts
prismatic-bell
moonlight-at-dawn

Why did “be critical of your media” turn into “find all its flaws and hate it” why did people become allergic to FUN

sayitwithsarcophilus

Because people confuse “critical as in critical thinking” with “critical as in criticizing something,” so they think that “look for something bad, no matter how far-fetched” is what “being critical” means.

prismatic-bell

They also don’t realize that “literary criticism” means…


Okay. What literary criticism IS, is like taking a mechanical clock apart to see all the gears and learn how it fits together and approach your next clock with more knowledge of what makes it tick.


What they THINK literary criticism means is, you take the clock apart and beat all the pieces with a hammer, then scream at it because it doesn’t tick for you the way it used to.

Source: moonlight-at-dawn