This Blog Is Like My Nest Of Treasures And I Have No Clue How I Still Have Any Of Them

Vintage Comic - Twilight Zone #016

Pencils: George Wilson Inks: George Wilson Colors: George Wilson Goldkey (July1966)

Instagram credit: thenovelacademy

Deep in the night we are waiting / holding our breath, letting go

COPIA !!

I love the post-apocalyptic genre as much as the next horror fan, but there is something to be unpacked in how they often reinforce very reactionary political ideas. Not just in the more bluntly conservative ways of thematically rewarding ideas like

“shoot first ask questions never”

“never offer mercy”

“torture works”

“Strong Government may be doing Bad Things but it is the only thing stopping people from becoming roaming bands of cannibal rapists unless Strong Men with police or military training maintain order once society collapses”

But also in the less easily recognizable reactionary beliefs like

“power vacuums are real and inevitable” (implying that unless you plan to exert a similar level of power and take the top of the hierarchy then you should not seek to dismantle power)

“the people who survive are the best— the strongest and smartest and most resourceful, the ones who deserve it most.” (implying that eugenics is an inevitable biological force rather than a political ideology)

“If someone who deserves to live dies, it is due to the actions of a villain, ‘good’ ‘important’ people do not just die from sickness or hunger or chance or mundane accidents” (more eugenics tbh, or at very least a just world ideology & confusing storytelling conventions with how the world works)

I think this becomes an issue when people—who have not studied, for example, the way that communities engage in mutual aid during natural disasters even if disconnected beforehand—will assume that collapse will inevitably lead to evil cannibal hoards as the biggest threat to survival and therefore the most important thing to prepare for, instead of understanding that collapse is much more likely to lead to an absolute need for community interdependence and cooperation to survive in the face of environmental disaster. I think it’s an issue if you can’t picture disabled people during collapse because you watched a hundred depictions of post apocalyptic shows where disabled people are eerily absent or die immediately, instead of internalizing the much more likely reality that if you survive disaster even if you were able-bodied previously, you and everyone you know will likely be surviving as disabled people.

like the media is fun as a form of storytelling, but if you are approaching your imagination of the future with increasing climate crisis with images you got from zombie shows, you do need to take a break from the fiction and learn from communities that have actually experienced natural disasters in real life.

20 things i learned in 2020

(inspired by shannon barry)

at a moment’s notice, in the blink of an eye, from one second to another, everything can change. there’s no preparing for it sometimes. just accepting it. 

being apart doesn’t mean we lack togetherness; there are a multitude of ways to forge connection with someone aside from physically being with them.

it really is the little things – never underestimate just how healing a warm walk or reading a good book can be.

empathy is still a foreign concept to many so surround yourself with people who care about more than just themselves.

just because the world stopped spinning for a few months, doesn’t mean time stopped moving; the months may have bled into each other but that doesn’t mean we were living in an endless march - october still came and it blessed us with orange leaves and crisp skies. july brought the fireworks it promised it would. december still came with christmas. it may have felt different, but it was still there.

don’t be afraid to stand up when others are telling you to sit down; don’t be afraid to shout when others are telling you to be quiet.

the people in your corner will save you in more ways than one and maybe, just maybe, you’ll be saving them too.

you don’t need a reason to do your makeup or wear a fancy dress. look like you’re going to prom in your backyard, eat mcdonald’s with your face beat. who cares? “just because” is always reason enough.

that thing you’ve always wanted to try? do it. instead of starting your thoughts with “what if i” or “i could just” – do it. nothing’s holding you back except for you.

the world will turn upside down in more ways than one and you are going to turn with it; all you can do is hold on tight and go with the flow. 

it’s okay to be scared, it’d be scarier if you weren’t. 

injustice doesn’t stop because the world stopped; hatred will always be loud and ugly and it’s up to us to turn that pain into promise through education and action.

being alone doesn’t have to be lonely. learn to fall in love with spending time with yourself. 

we’re all connected in ways we never realized and we affect each other’s lives in more ways than we’ll ever truly understand. we’re all connected someway, somehow. 

just because it seems like everyone else is hustling, doesn’t mean you have to as well. move at you’re own pace. 

don’t stop taking pictures just because things are ugly now; one day, you’ll look back and be glad you did. 

we haven’t lived through a chapter of a US history textbook – we are still living through one. just because the page is turning doesn’t mean everything is changing. be patient. 

you’re allowed to just be. you’re allowed to just exist. 

don’t stop chasing happiness just because it’s harder to get a hold of.

keep trying. keep fighting. keep loving. keep living.

(cc, 2020)

Knock loud, I’m home - Lee Madgwick

elias in hades, perchance?

if tma were a hades-style roguelike I think it'd be entertaining to have elias just show up like a little bitch and give you tasks that eventually give you rewards. I don't think he'd show up as the final boss until much later on in the story (equivalent to the hades epilogue) where he'll become the eye's pupil and the player (presumably jon) has to kill him to stop the eyepocalypse or smth (don't question my thought process too much I haven't actually rationalised it all in my head yet lol)

Jon,,,Jonathan sims,,,,,

my april fools prank is drawing something adn finishing it