BC CULTURE
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Happy Monday readers, it's Dark Phoenix week! Over the next ten issues, we'll explore what is perhaps Claremont's most celebrated story that depicts the ascension of Jean Grey to the role of Dark Phoenix.

It's UXM #129-130, in which we are introduced to multiple X-mainstays!

 I warned late last week that these threads will include heavy topics, because I find it difficult to adequately discuss the D.P.S. without acknowledging its commentary on agency, sexual violence, & how privilege corrupts.

Please stay safe & mute me until Sunday if you need to!
Our first issue starts off where we left off on the shores of Muir Island following the team's defeat of Proteus!

It's incredible to think that just last issue, the team met their most dangerous opponent yet, but Proteus was only but a primer for what the team will face next.
Our team officially drops from 7 to 6, with Banshee, after many issues depowered following an injury, officially leaving the team to remain with Moira on Muir Island.

Scott's attempts to make up his membership losses are rebuffed not once- but 3 times by Jamie, Alex, & Lorna!
It's almost like Claremont was clearing the decks to make room for some new members on the team...
What feels like a throwaway bubble about Piotr's anguish over killing Proteus, actually sets an important thematic point ahead of the DPS in full.

The X-Men don't kill. Even when faced with a violence, death is not cause for celebration. What would happen if innocents died?
...and speaking of corruption, here's Wyngarde, still pulling Jean's strings and manipulating her already further into darkness.

Many of Wyngarde's manipulations center on reverse-sublimating Jean's dark desires in exchange of her adherence to social norms...
...signaling the inverse of what Freud would have called a mature defense mechanism.

After discovering that widespread sexual abuse of women was behind the trauma response then known as "hysteria", Freud quickly buried his findings and rejected its implications for society...
...all of which is pretty appropriately manifested in the ethos of the Hellfire Club, an group built on patriarchy, privilege, and the depiction of women as tools rather than individuals of agency.

Even Emma (hey queen!) is depicted as subservient, despite the power she wields.
Back on the Blackbird, we're given a moment addressing Scott's recent "just friends" dalliance with Colleen, where a sympathetic and compassionate Jean understands the extent of his trauma and the role it's played in the repression of his emotion.

Sorry, lots of Freud today...
Hey, Chuck is back from space and we're still only on #129!

I think more than any creative team at the time, the X-Office was really interested in the psychology of its characters... which as a social worker has been pretty hard to ignore.
Keeping with today's theme, it's clear here that after spending several months uncomfortably playing second fiddle and consort to his royal lover, Charles is acting, as Kitty might describe, like a jerk.

It's obvious he's projecting his own sense of inadequacy onto Scott...
...making Scott the avatar of his weakness, allowing him to say everything he wants to say to himself to another.

There's also reaction formation. I feel useless, thus I must loudly demonstrate my use to everyone.

You'd hope a psychic might have a better handle on psychology.
And now, the moment anyone familiar with #129 has been waiting for: the introduction of one Ms. Katherine Pryde, already finding ways to be iconic:

1. KISS poster
2. Kermit poster
3. Adolescent existential dread

We love to see it. Welcome Kitty, hope you survive the experience.
Over the next several years, Kitty will become *the* POV character for the book and there will be lots to unpack as we get to know her.

Rereading this reminded me of @GerryDuggan's current Marauders run- and the relationships Kitty will share with these two for years to come.
Two important facets of her identity that will play a major role in her characterization are quickly established:

Kitty is distinctly Jewish- something the team wants us to know as it places visual focus on her Star of David.

And she is a courageous, fierce hero in the making.
Ah yes, safety pins as piercings, what a way to clearly interpret this disco as ~one of those bad places~. Stop being such a square, Scott. Gosh.

(Safety pins are to Manhattan night clubs as smut shops are to Calgary neighborhoods, or something, I guess.)
Hey, it's an overtly Freudian concept again!

Thanks to Wyngarde's psychic interference, the walls of Jean's sublimation are beginning to crumble... forcing her to confront a reality, which frowned upon at the time, is true nonetheless...

...women are also... horny.
Jeez this thread is getting really long.

I mentioned earlier that the Hellfire Club is thematically built on the power of men and the objectification of women, and this exchange between Wyngarde & Shaw really captured that for me...
...Shaw is so privileged that he hasn't even considered others might be more powerful than him.

It's a level of arrogance- and an expectation subverted masterfully by Claremont & co.- that will become his undoing.

Also, this, unrelated to the above point, for your pleasure:
This is the 1st of many disgusting moments where Wyngarde psychically and literally assaults Jean.

The creation of the Black Queen is a really profound moment in looking at dissociation as a trauma response. Victimized, she builds a personality whose sexuality belongs to no man.
Which compared to these panel... is something a vulnerable Jean has done to protect herself as others have failed to do so.

It's subtle, but I noticed this parallel about the idea of using Jean as a tool. Despite his love, Scott still sees Jean as a weapon to be wielded in war.
For a final set of stray thoughts, I wanted to welcome Dazzler to the book and view her as a symbol for the privilege of passing in the mutant metaphor, which stands out against this moment with Kurt, where he describes the professor's anger about his decision to live "out".
It's one of the earliest indicators of the flaws in Xavier's dream. Assimilation requires the abandonment of identity, which for any oppressed people, is a form of erasure and genocide.

Kurt's panel is an argument for the existence of Krakoa, in case you still can't get it.
Did you know there's a max limit to the number of tweets you can post in a thread at once? Evidently it's this many.

In any case, here's another hint toward the true identity of Jason Wyngarde, and a terrible omen of what's to come for the team.

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1. Atomic Habits by @JamesClear

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2. “social anxiety is overwhelmingly common. Natural selection shaped us to care enormously what other people think..We constantly monitor how much others value us..Low self-esteem is a signal to try harder to please others”


The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

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Grandstanding

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Warriors and Worriers by Joyce Benenson

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1. Now that Stan Lee is being eulogized far and wide, it's important to remember how marginal Stan Lee and his collaborators (Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko) were in the 1950s and 1960s.

2. Marvel Comics (before that Atlas) was just a cog in the machine of a bottom pulp publisher run by Martin Goodman, the husband of one of Lee's cousins. It was the lowest of the low in the publishing world.

3. Now Mario Puzo (not yet the author of the Godfather) shared offices with Stan Lee in the 1950s and 1960s. Puzo wrote for garrish men's adventure magazines and, like Lee, dreamed of writing a novel & breaking out. But Puzo looked down on Lee.

4. Flo Steinberg, 1960s secretary at Marvel: "They were always making jokes about us. They'd come in and giggle. mario Puzo would look in and would see us all working on his way to the office and say, 'Work faster, little elves. Christmas is coming.'"

5. When JFK was killed, the whole office of Magazine Management was stunned and quiet. Except Lee. He continued working. "He was still working on the comic books," Puzo said. "Like that was the most important thing in the world."
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Cory Doctorow #BLM
Cory Doctorow #BLM
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One of the most Monkey's Paw things about my life is my relationship to books. When I was a teenager, I read all the way through the school and public libraries, spent everything I had on books, and still couldn't get enough and dreamt of more.

1/


Today, as a reviewer, I have more books than I can possibly read, huge, teetering mountains of books that I'm desperate to read, far beyond my ability to ever get through them. Periodically, I declare "book bankruptcy," sweep away the backlog and start over.

2/

Even then, my eyes are bigger than my stomach: I keep back a few books that I can't bear to part with and promise myself I'll read them someday. Usually I don't, but I just did, and boy did I ever make the right call with @TheUniverse's BROAD

I have read a LOT of histories of computing, and I had a front row seat for a lot of the events depicted in this book - people I worked with, people I worked against - and yet I was surprised over and over again with details and perspectives I'd never encountered.

4/

For example, for some reason, my ninth grade computer science course included lengthy readings on ENIAC, Univac, the Mark I and the Mark II, but none of those mentioned that they were all programmed exclusively or primarily by women.

5/
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Welcome back to #Y4SJBookClub

Today we are going through Chapter 1 of "Sexing the Caribbean" by Kerala Kempadoo

Please share widely and contribute your own thoughts about the chapter.

The convention is:

No brackets are paraphrases from the book (brackets is tweeter opinion)


Global media often portrays the Caribbean as exotic and "backward"

A sex crazed and not advanced society.

This book aims at undoing this Colonial view of the Caribbean.

(some Caribbean people share that colonial view 😒)

#Y4SJBookClub

As Frantz Fanon (we should be reading his work soon as well) said:

"Colonial Discourses are deeply embedded in the psyche and behaviour of the colonised"

(we see this frequently in how we police women like its the early 20th century still)

#Y4SJBookClub

Caribbean sexuality is of significance to understanding the past, present and future of the Caribbean

(one YSJ member highlighted how 🇹🇹 has not done a proper post colonial introspection. Hopefully works like this help)

#Y4SJBookClub

The book uses the broadest definition of the Caribbean as possible, but indicates that some sections would only apply to sub definitions of the Caribbean.

For this book
Caribbean = all the islands plus Belize, Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana

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#DoYouKnow -The place where
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There is a Legend #story & it is related to this beautiful #sculpture of Kshetrapuraneswarar & Ambal Lalithambigai #Thread 👇


#Legend #story
It is believed that this is birth place of Kashyapa Maharishi’s sons, Arunan& Garudan. Arunan(charioteer of Surya)was physically handicapped.He was a Shiva devotee.Arunan wanted to visit Kailash to have Shiva Darshan,but Surya Dev denied permission.

So Arunan disguised as a girl & was on his way to Kailash.On the way Surya Dev saw this girl & outraged her modesty.Shiva was very angry with Suryan for misbehaviour & cursed him to get darkened. Whole world plunged into darkness.Surya Dev pleaded to Bhagwan Shiv to forgive him.

Shiva Bhagwan asked him to go to Thirumiyachur & worship him there. As advised, Surya Dev performed rigorous penance, placed murthi of Shiva& Parvathy on an elephant & took them to the clouds.Shiva in this temple is known as Meganathaswamy,Devi is known as Lalithambigai


Even after severe penance,Shiva does appear,so Surya Dev cries out in agony.Disturbed by his call, Parvathy protests.Siva pacifies her & offers relief to Surya Dev.The sculpture of Shiva pacifying Ambal shows her sullen from one angle &smiling from another.
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A thread.

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First, prioritise its existence.

Second, prioritise its improvement.

The technology you use is irrelevant.

- WordPress
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It doesn't matter which you choose,

What matters is you have a website.

Pick a platform that you're comfortable with.

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Again, at such a key moment in UK and at such high political levels, evidence of deep misunderstanding of EU: The PM is under pressure in some quarters to delay #Brexit vote to allow her first to “improve” deal in Brussels BUT EU is determined not to budge at this stage

2) All EU leaders watching tomorrow’s vote. Of course they want to avoid a no deal #Brexit BUT they feel the deal - so painfully negotiated between EU and UK - is too fresh to re-open. Clarifications, yes but fundamental renegotiations, no.

3) The EU’s international reputation as a tough deal-maker is at stake here too. If Brussels now suddenly “gives in” to U.K. on EU red lines (eg backstop) then that would weaken the EU’s reputation in future trade negotiations with other non EU countries

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sriram \U0001f1ee\U0001f1f3
sriram 🇮🇳...
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Saptapadi

The most essential rite (Sanskrit: rītī) of a Hindu marriage ceremony is Saptapadi (English: seven steps, saptapadī). Saptapadi is a Sanskrit term that means "seven steps." The wedded couple walks seven steps after tying the Mangalsutra, which is known as Saptapadi.


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This is because the bride and groom exchange marriage vows and hope for a happy married life together.

1. The first marriage vow, out of seven, is a petition to the Lord for nutrition and nourishment for the Hindu bride and groom.


2. Hindu Bride and Groom: The second marriage promise is for strength in sickness, health, good times, and terrible times.

3. For the Hindu Bride and Groom - The third marriage promise is for the Hindu bride and groom's prosperity.

4. For Hindu Bride and Groom - The fourth pledge is to stand by their families in good times and bad.
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Ok, I'll hop on this Elizabeth Warren/Native American testing bandwagon (gently and non-politically).

I've been a @23andMe customer for a while, and have followed their ancestry updates closely.

All is more or less as expected....except for this bit about Native American.


The family is almost completely composed of Spanish peasants (from various regions) who emigrated, along with a massive wave in the late 19th-cent./early 20th-cent., to Cuba back when it was a booming economy (richer than Spain's) and worth emigrating to (Communism killed that).

Also, the native population of Cuba was annihilated early on---was the first place the Spanish colonized after all. Having a native background in Cuba would be like having the same in, say, Massachusetts, particularly if you're (say) mostly Irish. Just really, really unlikely.

(Note: the North African/Arab background is less mysterious. The Iberian peninsula was part of the Muslim world for centuries. It would be odd *not* to have some Arab/Middle Eastern background coming from Spain. Given the family is mostly from Northern Spain, it's small though.)

I have a Spanish passport, have been back to the ancestral villages in Spain, seen the church where my grandmother was baptized, my grandfather told me stories about growing up as the child of Spanish colonists in rural Cuba. The native bit just clashes with all the family lore.
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