I wonder how many people who treat stringent content moderation and cancel culture as civilization’s first, last, and only line of defense against a world of widespread misogyny and racism understand how many of their favorite bits of entertainment would be unacceptable by today’s standards. 

And no, I’m not talking about books written in 1884, when Mark Twain could drop the n-word more often than a hyperactive squirrel with paws coated in butter would drop an acorn and have no one bat an eye. I’m not talking about movies released in 1961, when a white actor could play a racist caricature of a Japanese landlord to widespread praise from critics. I’m talking about 2006. 

That year, Markus Zusak gave us The Book Thief, an eerily beautiful coming-of-age book set in Nazi Germany whose virtues would be drowned out by the flood of trigger warnings modern gatekeepers would attach to it. Opening with the death of Liesel’s brother (tw:death, tw:child death, tw:parental abandonment) it includes a loud, abrasive foster mother (tw:abuse, tw:child abuse, tw:verbal abuse, tw:mental abuse) who is portrayed as a headstrong protector of her family (tw:abuse apologism) and the Jew they hide in their basement (tw:white saviorism), as well as a meek foster father who kowtows to his wife’s ways (tw:domestic abuse) and teaches Liesel to roll cigarettes (tw:smoking). It’s narrated by Death (are there even enough trigger warnings for that?) who, rather than condemn characters who have embraced Hitler and Nazism, points to the bitterness, grief, and misinformation catalyzing their fervor (tw:Nazi apologism). 

For those of you readying a barrage of rebuttals to that summary, scrolling down to the comments to tell me that I stripped the book of any nuance—that’s the whole point. The Book Thief is a very nuanced story that conveys its message in shades of grey. Few characters are wholly good or wholly evil. Death is a neutral figure, condemning the horrors of war while pitying those who fight it no matter their side, portraying the nightmarish consequences of hatred while showing the reader how it is born. But since when has nuance ever mattered to someone riding high on a wave of righteous anger? 

Moving on, 2006 was also the year My Chemical Romance released The Black Parade, which sees Death (tw tw tw) telling the story of The Patient, a man whose life was filled with war, depression, political unrest, PTSD, religious guilt, self-loathing, broken relationships, and near-constant suicidal ideation—a life that ends in his thirties from heart complications due to a long, painful, emotionally draining battle with cancer. Millions of depressed kids, teens, and adults have found catharsis in the album’s raw, honest lyrics, but those same lyrics would earn the band a #CancelMCR hashtag today. To wit: 

Another contusion, my funeral jag/Here’s my resignation, I’ll serve it in drag: Mocking drag queens and men who crossdress. Using a very real expression of gender identity for shock value. Blatantly transphobic. 

Juliet loves the beast and the lust it commands/So drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands Romeo: Toxic relationship. Probably violently abusive. #DumpThePatient, lady, and #MCRStopRomanticizingAbuse. 

Wouldn’t it be grand to take a pistol by the hand?/And wouldn’t it be great if we were dead?: Oh my fucking god, they’re romanticizing suicide now? How was this album even allowed to be made? Who let this happen and how soon can we #cancel them? 

If you’ve heard the album, you know none of the above interpretations are remotely true. You’ve probably shaken your head at the Daily Mail’s infamous claim that My Chem promoted self-harm and suicide, but the sad truth is that if The Black Parade were released in today’s climate, that claim would probably be taken up by the very people who now consider themselves fans. The raw honesty that resonated with so many could easily be taken as a stamp of approval on the very suicides its songs have prevented. The anti-suicide anthem, “Famous Last Words,” could be ignored or twisted into a mockery of those who condemn suicide, and the darkly wholesome “Welcome to the Black Parade” music video would likely be taken as enticement toward teens who want to end their lives: “Look at all the cool things you’ll get to see once you’re dead and gone!” 

Again, anyone who is even a casual fan of The Black Parade knows this is a deliberately malicious misreading of the material. My Chem’s music has been gratefully embraced by LGBTQ+ kids looking for a place to belong, and the band members have been outspoken in their support. They’ve been quoted, on multiple occasions, speaking out against suicide and self-harm. We know Parade is not pro-anything except pro-keep on living. But we know this because we gave the band a chance to tell us. We assumed good intent when we listened to their music, and so their intended message came across without interference. Were Parade released today, in the era of AED (Assume the worst, Exaggerate the damage, and Demand outsized retribution), the resulting furor (and refusal to hear their objections to the rampant misinterpretations) could very well have forced My Chem to vanish into obscurity. 

And look. I’m not against content moderation wholesale. I actually think it’s done some good in the world of entertainment. Podcast hosts and book reviewers who warn audience members about triggering content allow them to avoid that content before they suffer an anxiety attack. As a librarian, I have personally and enthusiastically recommended Does the Dog Die?, a website (doesthedogdie.com) that tracks hundreds of anxiety triggers in media, to colleagues who work with kids so they can allow their students to request a different book or movie if the assigned one would cause undue distress. Trigger warnings can prevent anxiety attacks. Content moderation allows audiences to make informed choices. 

But some things are toxic in high amounts, and when it comes to content moderation, we’ve long since passed that mark. 

When trigger warnings are used not as honest labels of content, but as a means to frighten people away from material they might otherwise enjoy, trigger warnings become toxic. 

When self-appointed content moderators tell others what interpretations they should take from a piece of entertainment, rather than allowing them to come to their own conclusions, content moderation becomes toxic. 

When artists are afraid to produce their most honest work for fear their honesty will be twisted into something dark and ugly, the world of fandom becomes toxic. 

Content moderation is not bad in itself. It can actually be a valuable tool for sufferers of anxiety, PTSD, and other disorders. But when it goes hand in glove with cancel culture, it becomes a monster, keeping audiences from discovering something they might otherwise enjoy by twisting the content into something it’s not. 

By all means, tag your triggers. Warn about your content. But don’t tell your followers to expect something horrible that isn’t even there. 

lucy: twain just learned that humans can fit a lightbulb into their mouth with ease but cannot get it out without shattering it

lucy: I had to physically restrain a grown man from putting a lightbulb in his mouth

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835–1910) AKA Mark Twain.

Warm summer sun,
   Shine kindly here,
Warm southern wind,
   Blow softly here.
Green sod above,
   Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
   Good night, good night.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835–1910) AKA Mark Twain.

Good-bye! a kind good-bye,
I bid you now, my friend,
And though ‘tis sad to speak the word,
To destiny I bend

And though it be decreed by Fate
That we ne'er meet again,
Your image, graven on my heart,
Forever shall remain.

Aye, in my heart thoult have a place,
Among the friends held dear,-
Nor shall the hand of Time efface
The memories written there.
Goodbye,
S.L.C.

“Es mejor tener la boca cerrada y parecer estúpido que abrirla y disipar la duda”.

— Mark Twain.

American writer Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, is pictured here in Nikola Tesla’s laboratory experimenting with lamps lighted by electric currents passed through his own body. Mr. Clemens holds a loop of bare wire in his hands. Currents are induced in the loop by means of a resonating coil over which the loop is held. These currents traverse the body of the Mr. Clemens, and at the same time, as they pass between his bare hands, they bring two or three lamps held there to bright incandescence. Although the currents experimented with are of a voltage in the hundreds of thousands, they do not distress the experimenter in the slightest. The extremely high tension of the currents which Mr. Clemens is seen receiving prevents them from doing any harm to him.

Hayat öyle kısa ki;

Tartışmalara, özür dilemelere kıskançlıklara, hesap sormalara zaman yok.

Sadece sevmek için ‘bir an’ var…

Mark Twain

05.05.2022 09:46#newsharing

DA Poets

Honestly, any poetry is DA poetry if you can recite it from memory or sound intelligent while speaking of it.

• T. S. Elliot 

          Didn’t write much poetry, but what he did write is dense with meaning

• Wisława Szymborska

          Any of her poems are instant winners, for a great collection I would recommend Map: Collected and Last Poems

• William Shakespeare

          Classic, cannot go wrong with any of his works

• Anne Sexton

          For bonus points, listen to the song “Mercy Street” by Peter Gabriel based on the poem “45 Mercy Street”

• John Milton

          Paradise Lost is always recognizable by name

• Homer

          Both The IliadandThe Odyssey are the best known works, bonus points if you are able to read them in their original Greek for the full effect

• Edgar Allen Poe

          Although The Raven is his most notable work of poetry, his short stories are also enjoyable

• Robert Frost

          An acquired taste compared to my other favourite poets, but my top four are definitely “The Road Not Taken”, “Mending Wall”, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, and “Acquainted With the Night”

• Mark Twain

          Recognizable in name and work

• Lord Byron

          An older poet, much of his language is obsolete in the modern era yet conveys meanings we could not hope to comprehend without it

• Sappho

          An excellent romantic, “Slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl” Bonus points if you read it in the original Greek for the full effect

• Walt Whitman

          The modern-day version of a classical poet: free verse is his specialty!  

• Edgar Allan Poe

          The O.G. dark academic, the literature teacher’s favourite Halloween lesson.  Nothing can beat the simple and unsettling Poetry of Poe!

• Oscar Wilde

          Nothing will ever be as iconic as The Picture of Dorian Gray has become in the DA aesthetic! a definite must-read.

『トム・ソーヤーの冒険』第26章 宝はほんもののどろぼうの手に

マーク・トウェイン:著

吉田甲子太郎:訳

OTAアート・プロジェクト　馬込文士村　空想演劇祭2021

『花子とアン、甲子太郎とトム・ソーヤーのイラスト展』出展作品

Tales From The Riverbank 2 - Two Ways of Seeing a River

Tales From The Riverbank 2 – Two Ways of Seeing a River

Seascapes haven’t been the only marine subject this summer – as I said in the first of the riverbank posts, I have gone back to drawing the River Thames more since the Big Burn Out after Lockdown 1 where it was the only nearest subject I had, and it became stifling as much as I tried to vary it. Boats have been a frequent subject in my work included messing around with boats and Kingston Regatta,…

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