“We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs. They surpassed us only in phrases and in cleverness; the first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces. While they continued to write and talk, we saw the dying. While they taught that duty to one’s country is the greatest thing, we already knew that death-throes are stronger. But for all that we were no mutineers, no deserters, no cowards.We loved our country as much as they; we went courageously into every action; but also we distinguished the false from true, we had suddenly learned to see. And we saw that there was nothing of their world left. We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through.“
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Latest Posts by wanderingscribe309 - Page 3
Desert Silhouettes - Sistani & Baluchestan
It puzzles me when people cite LOTR as the standard of “simple” or “predictable” or “black and white” fantasy. Because in my copy, the hero fails. Frodo chooses the Ring, and it’s only Gollum’s own desperation for it that inadvertently saves the day. The fate of the world, this whole blood-soaked war, all the millennia-old machinations of elves and gods, comes down to two addicts squabbling over their Precious, and that is precisely and powerfully Tolkien’s point.
And then the hero goes home, and finds home a smoking desolation, his neighbors turned on one another, that secondary villain no one finished off having destroyed Frodo’s last oasis not even out of evil so much as spite, and then that villain dies pointlessly, and then his killer dies pointlessly. The hero is left not with a cathartic homecoming, the story come full circle in another party; he is left to pick up the pieces of what was and what shall never be again.
And it’s not enough. The hero cannot heal, and so departs for the fabled western shores in what remains a blunt and bracing metaphor for death (especially given his aged companions). When Sam tells his family, “Well, I’m back” at the very end, it is an earned triumph, but the very fact that someone making it back qualifies as a triumph tells you what kind of story this is: one that is too honest to allow its characters to claim a clean victory over entropy, let alone evil.
“I can’t recall the taste of food, nor the sound of water, nor the touch of grass. I’m naked in the dark. There’s nothing–no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I can see him with my waking eyes.”
So where’s this silly shallow hippie fever-dream I’ve heard so much about? It sounds like a much lesser story than the one that actually exists.
![[screenshot] It Was Too Perfect](https://64.media.tumblr.com/97f4351206aa96be984149644d30cab0/922e3c89ac7cd85c-d8/s640x960/0a1e41eb4883865442f52b6f87e3f4f87ac7f85c.jpg)
Drew this for @notthestarwar 's Cody Pikmin au, which I LOVE! 🤣 Cody trying to give the little guys orders , and they are doing their best!!! 😄
On the Suffolk Coast (1885) by Willard Metcalf
Sumerian Veteran: *has severe PTSD but doesn't know it because the term won't be invented for another 5000 years* I fight the same battle in my dreams every night and my relationship with my family has fallen apart.
Sumerian Healer: *saw hundreds of veterans with the exact same affliction before* You're cursed by desert demons.
Yeah I'm old enough to remember when every man on the planet idolized a chemically castrated, virginal momma's boy who took orders from women.
This is what peak performance looks like.
The Sea (c. 1865) - Gustave Courbet
Four of Swords. Art by Jesse Lonergan, from The Unveiled Tarot.
Cobra Chicken. Would rather nip your ankles or fight an elephant. Never seen one give ground.
I lose every time.
Just finished the first season, really good so far! Definitely interested in seeing where the rest of the show leads
Emily Vancamp as Emily Thorne and Josh Bowman as Daniel Grayson in REVENGE 1x01
Josef Mandl (Czech, 1874–1933) and Jaroslav Panuška (Czech, 1872–1958)
This was a fun one to look at. Whoever made this I hope it blew off some steam for them
Making good use of my Computer Science Degree
Pikmin transporting unusual stuff (part 1)
If my boss emailed me in space while paying HIS debt saying my wife's cooking is mid as hell, I'd just crash the ship and kill myself
brand new pikmin character his name is newport and he loves cigarettes look for him in pikmin 5 and 6
The four penguins from Madagascar are, somehow, isekaied in the middle of the clone wars
▸Games Played in 2024
Katana Zero (2019) dev. Askiisoft
