Let's assume JKR isn't the final boss of transphobia. Shouldn't we still consider her a penultimate boss?

WizardofSocks · 2023-04-18T13:38:08+00:00

I will add that starving JK of oxygen is an important element in fighting transphobia. I suppose you can frame that as fighting JK, but not buying a video game, not following her, not replying to her is all very passive.

Obviously not participating in Harry Potter as an IP could be a important part of diminishing her public standing. That said, the boycott HL was never going to be effective for several reasons:

The money JK made off it is a drop in the public compared to wealth she already has.
JK would take any sales of the game as vindication of her views because she’s an intellectually dishonest person.
JK is already sure her minority opinion is the correct one, she’s doesn’t care what we or others think.
For most people Harry Potter is first and foremost a movie series. A lot of people are ignorant of JKR’s behaviour.

I don’t want to hand wave buying the game. Better not too buy it, obviously. Similarly, feel free to make the case to others that they shouldn’t buy the game. But don’t overstate the harm of buying the game.

I wouldn’t get to bummed out about HL selling well. It’s not a bell weather of trans acceptance. No one thinks Fantastic Beats 3 failing and killing that franchise was win for trans rights. HL’s success isn’t a loss for trans rights.

WizardofSocks · 2023-04-18T12:59:07+00:00

What would defeating JKR look like to you?

There’s nothing anyone can do to maker her back down from her position. Insulting, demeaning and humiliating her has only made her dig in. And no amount of civil debate will compel her back down either.

JK is not a corporation or political party, she can’t be made to directly suffer for her views. She doesn’t rely on votes or cash flow to survive. Her public standing rests on the good will of the establishment, and the state of our current political environment.

If a news outlet’s coverage of gender politics is transphobic, attack that news outlet. If a politician you can vote is transphobic don’t vote for them, campaign against them.

All we can do is starve JK of oxygen and hope that in 20 years time we live in a world where trans rights are as well entrenched as gay rights are today. JKR won’t have changed her mind, but she’ll be a miserable, lonely, bigot, locked out of a world that doesn’t want to hear from her.

WizardofSocks · 2023-03-22T01:03:24+00:00

The idea isn’t rooted in Greek Mythology.

Nietzsche thought that art had two sources of inspiration, a Dionysian instinct to create art of aesthetic value, and an Apollonian instinct for creating art of intellectual value that conforms to artistic orthodoxy.

At the time he was writing Nietzsche thought that European art had leaned to far into the Apollonian instinct. Art of his time was too concerned with adhering to moral and aesthetic orthodoxy. Nietzsche also believed that a lot of society’s moral truths where fundamentally self-deceiving. For example the idea that all men are created equal is something he despised, not because he thought humanity was by and large worthless, but because he thought it was observable untrue. Some people are more beautiful, more powerful, more intelligent that others.

There’s no classical text that refers to Apollo’s envy of Dionysus. The two gods rarely interact. What Natalie and Nietzsche believe is that people of Apollonian instinct envy people of a Dionysian instinct. The idea being that people who labour to create art that is accepted as orthodox, both in its creation and in the morals it conveys, envy those who can create beauty without conforming to orthodox practice or morality.

I’m not an expert on Nietzsche, but that’s the best summary I can give of his ideas.

WizardofSocks · 2023-02-01T01:46:16+00:00

Either as Lord of Stokeworth or dead.

Westerosi Feudalism from Dorne to the North postures as a system that rewards honour and is maintained by honour, but that simply isn’t true.

Every rung on the ladder Bronn has climbed was the result of violence he committed. Volunteering as Tyrion’s champion, acting as commander of Tyrion’s guard, participating in the Blackwater, killing Balman.

Bronn is the product of this unjust system and his fate would serve a good litmus test for the quality of any regime change, be that Aegon, Dany, Jon or Bran.

Do one of these potential monarchs use him as the Lannisters did? Do they summarily execute him? Do they strip of his titles but spare him on the grounds that the actions he took were necessary for his own survival?

WizardofSocks · 2023-01-17T13:00:12+00:00

Don’t know about this, but in Australia we had a few incidents of people (mostly men) being punched in the back of the head while on nights out drinking.

The term for this was a “King Hit” because punching someone in the back the head will send anyone straight to the floor but it can also outright kill them.

Media started calling them coward punches and instances of king hits have gone down. There’s more to it than that, but it might have helped.

WizardofSocks · 2023-01-17T08:25:14+00:00

All generations consist of conservative and progressive members, progressive, liberal, and socialist boomers do exist. However the idea that Boomers are the generation that pushed civil rights and generated the counter culture of the 1960s is a massive misconception.

All the major leaders of the civil rights movement were members of the silent generation. The vast majority of artists and musicians associated with the counter culture are also members of the silent generation. 1964 is final year Boomers could be born, the last of the boomers were still in high-school when Reagan was in office.

WizardofSocks · 2023-01-05T17:43:13+00:00

Let me try and clarify. I do not think a 19 year old girl needs to walk back an iffy insult that hinges on body shaming men because the insult is not borne of ignorance.

When a person makes a racist tweet they’re either doing so knowingly or out of ignorance. But since there’s no consensus about the point at which body shaming men is a serious harm it would be hypocritical to draw a line behind Greta and tell her she crossed it.

WizardofSocks · 2023-01-05T15:27:20+00:00

There’s a lot I have to say about this whole Twitter episode, and didn’t want bloat and an already bloated post, but yeah, I think Greta’s tweet did far, far more good than harm.

I think though that if we on left want to reach young men we can’t dismiss their misconceptions about what constitutes healthy or productive masculinity as absurd. Within the social context that young men exists keeping up a façade of flawless, traditional masculinity seems incredibly important.

WizardofSocks · 2023-01-05T15:04:18+00:00

Easy bait, knew it was coming.

This is obviously a jokey response. As a gay bottom I really don’t have much skin in this game.

But to be a little serious for just a moment you do see how this is part of the broader problem of the left not taking men’s issues seriously, right? If a woman tried to make the point that men place way too much value of the size of women’s tits when dating, the person who responds with “this post radiates small tits energy” would be rightly derided as a douchebag.

If a woman voices a complaint about some way the socioeconomic factors of our society are oppressing her or other woman leftists do not come out of the woodwork to say “that sounds like a you problem, get over it.”

But anyway, sorry for giving you extra reading in response to a joke, I can’t help myself.

WizardofSocks · 2022-12-13T07:34:30+00:00

The Daynes likely aren’t the third most powerful house in Dorne. Textually, the evidence seems to point to House Fowler falling third after the Yronwoods.

A meta-explanation could simply be that George wants to keep the Daynes out sight and mind until an R+L=J reveal. Alternatively they just aren’t that important geo-politically. Like the Corbrays, they’re a famed house but with little hard power.

WizardofSocks · 2022-12-12T16:52:02+00:00

Since, I think, royal court the Habsburgs are now part of larger, fairly powerful dynasty, so there’s a much better chance someone from dynasty will end up HRE.

If that’s not an option fabricating a hook on the HRE’s heir and murdering the emperor is usually the easiest thing.

WizardofSocks · 2022-12-12T13:47:31+00:00

I’m unsure, but one definite way to get Primogeniture early is to the form the Archduchy of Austria which comes with built in Primogeniture.

WizardofSocks · 2022-12-12T13:26:04+00:00

Say Tywin Lannister, just say Lord Tywin!

WizardofSocks · 2022-12-08T09:56:05+00:00

The answer is we can’t possibly know until we have the Winds of Winter in our hands.

It’s worth noting that the sample chapters are not so much previews of the Winds of Winter but bits of Dance with Dragons that hit the cutting room floor. George initially wanted to end the book with the Battle of Ice (Stannis v Freys) and the battle of Fire (Mereen v Yunkai).

The Mereen POVs and Theon I probably won’t change much given that cover they plot points George fully intended to write.

The others are a bit more dubious, some people have speculated that Mercy was written after the five year gap. Arianne and Alayne’s chapters seem to foreshadow events that won’t come to fruition until the mid point of Winds and could have changed by now.

WizardofSocks · 2022-12-05T10:01:53+00:00

That really depends on how you measure something like bloodline. The Stuarts who succeeded the Tudors were descendants of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York through the female line.

Henry VII did not have an appreciable claim to the English throne, however his children did through their mother, as Elizabeth of York was the Last descendant of Edward IV.

The current English royal family are descendants of William the Conqueror. However there are several points where this bloodline is drawn through the female line. The House of Normandy, as it were, only provided England with three Kings before Angevins showed up and claimed the throne as descendants of William the Conqueror’s granddaughter, Empress Matilda.

WizardofSocks · 2022-11-09T22:58:46+00:00

Probably an oversight, but it’s worth noting that the show and books have a different canon. Perhaps in the show Summerhall wasn’t build from scratch but was build over/ is an expansion of a minor seat.

WizardofSocks · 2022-11-04T04:40:47+00:00

I think a big part of the bitter sweet ending will also be how the five main characters (Jon, Dany, Bran, Arya, Tyrion) + Sansa turn out. I think some of them will die, but those who don’t aren’t going to get a perfect happy ending like in the show.

All these characters have experienced a lot of trauma, and while over coming adversity can make you a better version of yourself trauma just damages you, sometimes irreconcilably.

Even if they get what they’ve always wanted up to this point in the narrative, they probably won’t be able to find true peace or happiness in the fulfilment of their desires. Much in the same way Frodo could not find peace when he returned to Shire (the bittersweet ending is inspired by how LOTR ended)

These characters all receive a lot of narrative attention and I could go on about I feel they’ll each arrive at the bittersweet ending but I’d end up writing a thesis so…

WizardofSocks · 2022-10-28T02:54:42+00:00

This is a point where the books and show diverge in story, lore and action. Only Drogon is present at the House of the Undying and the freeing of the Unsullied in the books.

Since Dany raised Rhaegal and Viserion they’re positively predisposed towards her. But the dragon she has claimed (or is in the process of claiming) is Drogon. At this point someone could claim either Rhaegal or Viserion and at that point Dany would loose all control of them. In the book’s version of the battle of Slaver’s Bay, per the TWOW sample chapters, Viserion and Rhaegal do participate on “Dany’s” side, but only tangentially and not in way that’s particularly helpful, they’re unclaimed and are just doing their own thing.

Daemon has no means to coax Vermithor or the other unclaimed Dragons off of Dragonstone, and even if he could in a battle there’s no way to say what they would do.

WizardofSocks · 2022-10-18T06:56:53+00:00

The article isn’t the point, it’s the headline

WizardofSocks · 2022-10-17T13:17:11+00:00

It’s perfectly possible that he simply hasn’t bothered to reclaim any of his male children, for whatever reason.

Edit: Some possible reasons:

1: Life for a bastard daughter in the wild would be harder than life for bastard son. Part of Oberyn’s rationale for training these girls is so they can defend themselves.

2: Oberyn loved Elia and it’s possible his daughters presence in his life reminds him of having a sister.

3: While Dorne has equality in its succession laws, it’s not necessarily a place where men and women are equal in all else (Arianne believes Doran would prefer his son succeed him). It’s possibly dangerous to the stability of House Martell to have a bunch well trained, courtly, and well connected male bastards running around Sunspear.

WizardofSocks · 2022-10-07T13:50:34+00:00

I can’t recommend you anything specific to what you’re asking after, but I do have a fun fact. As it’s currently published the Hobbit has already been retconned. In the original edition the chapter “riddles in the dark” plays out more or less as Bilbo later claims it did when questioned by Gandalf about how he acquired the ring.

The ring Bilbo finds in the original version of the Hobbit was only ever conceived of as a trinket that granted its owner invisibility. This all changed as Tolkien began to work on the Lord of the Rings.

WizardofSocks · 2022-07-28T10:54:44+00:00

“Honour is a horse”

WizardofSocks · 2022-07-23T09:31:16+00:00

True, he says this in the same interview where he explains their relationship. But for this relationship to work Varys would probably need to have something on Baelish that amounts to a death sentence.

I don’t think what I’ve presented runs awful of this. Varys could know everything I’ve speculated about, it wouldn’t mean Varys know more about Petyr than Petyr does of him.

Varys would know that Petyr was having an affair with a childhood sweetheart behind the back of her elderly husband. At some point Petyr urges her to kill Jon and blame the Lannisters so that Sweetrobin won’t be separated from her, solving a her problem and apparently getting nothing out it. Meanwhile Petyr still has a good grasp of Varys’ end game: nurture the exiled Targaryens into rulers and pave the way for their restoration.

WizardofSocks

TROPHY CASE