even that sacred blaze
time made semi-divine
each second's jewelled
breath in a silk damask pouch
detailed in beadworked tears
even that endless breath
feeding the cataclysms
of life unfettered by aging
even the spinning of multiverses
shivering through the dance
of fiercely imagined gods
glimmering in and out
of reality's spotlights
even the endless aeons
would not be time enough
to map the gift
of your skin
@Aphelion what is gravity if not love? The irresistible attraction to pull existence together from the endless void is an effort so courageous and foolish in the face of infinite entropy that it could only be called love.
"Burning Man has countercultural roots and, once upon a time, it was a celebration of creativity and a counterpoint to mindless consumerism. Over the past few years, however, it has become massively commodified and started attracting some of the worst people on earth. Nowadays, it is an excuse for influencers and Silicon Valley types to take a bunch of drugs and party in the desert while pretending they are doing something meaningful that elevates the world’s consciousness. Burning Man is supposed to be about “radical self-reliance” and yet a number of attendees appear to be flown in on private jets and shacked up in luxury accommodation with air conditioning. I don’t care how exotic the drugs or how interesting the art is: once people such as Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk show up to your party, there is no longer anything countercultural about it. You are not rebelling against the man. You are the man."
As someone who watched the Burning Man scene begin, evolve, and become what it is today, it was clear from near 2000 on that it was destined to become a parody of itself.
Plus, as someone who has spent their life working to encourage creativity and preserve it, something about Burning Man always struck me as deeply wrong on a spiritual level. I think of all of the wonderful artworks that could be adorning our streets and walls that are nothing now but ash on the playa and it honestly makes me want to smack my head into the wall. I get the point of sacrifice, of creating art for art's sake, and respect the mythos of the Wicker Man, but shit has gotten too far out of hand.
If you really want to be revolutionary, bring your art back to your neighborhood. Live it every day, not just during summer vacation. Put it out there for free if you want to flip off capitalism, but don't destroy it. That which inspires you to create is holy and a part of your soul, and it's result deserves much better than the flames.
@Ryntastic Sorry for hijacking a month-old comment of yours, but it inspired me to speak out, and I've been holding my tongue about the BM scene for a long time.
Can we PLEASE make the top bar be customizable already? Or at least filter NSFW by default? It's a really bad look whenever I open this and "jailbait" is at the top of my screen almost every time.
@jcrm Lol - I figured out how to do this accidentally. You may have noticed that Jailbait doesn't appear in the top bar anymore.
It's because I posted this to it (sfw and 18+ by a long shot, but you'll still want eyebleach). Apparently that top bar of communities prioritizes those that have no posts. Take a look - you'll see every suggested community is empty. Posting to one removes it from the selection algorithm.
Pinging @ernest as it looks like the sorting on that top bar algorithm is achieving the opposite of its intended purpose.
@inkican Damn - wish I had seen this sooner. I loved the Uplift War and the Postman - if you're still in contact, I be curious if he ever thought about combining the two types of novels.
My particular premise based on this idea (and inspired by both of Brin's works) - AI enhanced neurosurgical nanobots escape into wild species. Following their programming for human cybernetic enhancement, they integrate and enhance the language centers of each infected species' brain, equipping them with wifi to allow them to communicate with each other, and giving them access to the internet.
No one notices at first, but it all goes to hell once the rats learn how to code.
The basic plot is your standard apocalyptic polka, with bits of War with the Newts - the potential for bionic beavers to get busy in this scenario cannot be ignored. Our protagonist is tasked with traveling across America a century after the infection started, in landscape full of new intelligent species now just as technically adept as humans once were at the height of their civilization.
what if we kissed in the haunted liminal arctic town i just dreamed about where everyone leaves during winter so it's completely dark and empty for 6 months so the town is left to the bioluminescent ghost deer, and also it's facing the effects of rapid climate change so it floods and also mysterious blocks of rosin have been washing in, along with a recently unfrozen high school friend of mine, but it's ok that it floods because the ghost deer are light enough to skip around on the water surface
@momo ...sounds like a kiss electromagnetic, wrapped in the spark of the arctic, a mystery in those months of endless night, as the dark gives way to light...
Annnnd this is why I find pdfs to be an unhelpful and unwanted reading format 🙄 illegible on an eReader because it was formated for two column reading and can't change the layout...
@Crazypedia what's your preferred format? I ask as due to my volunteer work as a shadow librarian, I often post .pdfs thinking they're the most readable from desktop, but it's becoming clear that alternate formats are preferred for those with other devices... and I have access to a wide range of other file types depending on the book.
Side note, the new series, Strange New Worlds, especially the 2nd season, is the best Trek in decades. I think if you give it a shot, you're going to dig the characters - they're fun in all the places where the other Treks usually get boring and preachy.