silentauror's Blog, page 42
August 27, 2021
August 24, 2021
lady-byleth:
mysharona1987:
Ohoho now let’s get into thi...
Ohoho now let’s get into this shit, shall we? Time for some numbers!
Estimates actually put the death toll between 30 to 60 percent of the European population, there were so many dead and so much variation from area to area you can’t accurately estimate how many it really was
People who got infected by the “Black Death” were to 80% dead within 3 to 5 days, the population was reduced so dramatically that it took between 80 to 150 years to regrow to where it was before, varying from location to location
Some places were almost entirely depopulated. Over 60% of Norway died within two years, China’s population was reduced from around 125 million to 65 million in the late 14th century, at its peak Damascus reported around 1000 dead every day, between 75 and 200 million people died overall in a time where the world population didn’t even reach 500 million.
And let’s not even get into the persecution the Jewish had to face. No wait, let’s do that actually. “The Jews are poisoning our wells” was something people liked to say because they couldn’t think of anything else and hey, why not blame the Jewish? The Jewish communities in Mainz and Cologne were completely annihilated (not a lot of character development happening in Germany, hmm) and about 2000 more people were killed in the Strasbourg massacre. Simply because they couldn’t figure out where the disease came from and hated the Jewish enough to blame them without evidence
Fun fact, the word quarantine originated in the time of the first global outbreak. It comes from the Italian word for 40, which was the period of time people were isolated if they came from infected areas.
The world didn’t survive the Black Death, too many people died for the disease to spread effectively
And then it came back several more times, including two more major pandemics and many more outbreaks. The most deadly one in modern times was, buckle up, 2017 in Madagascar where it killed 170 people and thousands more were infected.
Now, before someone starts worrying, here’s the good news: thanks to modern medicine the fatality rate was pushed down to around 10%. I think we can all agree significantly better than before.
So next time someone says “the plague went away without vaccines”, now you have numbers. Have fun.
August 21, 2021
tonkysexist:
The Black Widow movie highlights all the pro...
The Black Widow movie highlights all the problems I had with the way Joss Whedon approached the forced hysterectomy aspect of Nat’s background.
As Yelena notes when she shows Nat her vest- the girls of the Red Room don’t have bodily autonomy. They can’t make any decisions for themselves. The hysterectomy bit in the plane acts as a very vile and vivid example of this.
Joss Whedon chose to put all his focus on the “no kids” angle instead of the bodily autonomy angle. In his eyes the horror was the absence of child bearing, not the absence of choice. To him- it’s a given that all the girls in Red Room would’ve had babies if their lives had gone differently- bc women who can’t have children are monsters and societal outcasts.
When Nat inquired about Yelena wanting kids she replied that she wanted a dog. I take this as Yelena doesn’t want kids, BUT she still mourns the loss of that choice. She resents how she never had a chance to come to that realization herself. Which, for most women, will hit home more than just “shes infertile and it’s the worst possible thing that could happen to her.”
Alllll of this
August 14, 2021
The Legacy of Martha J. Hudson - SilentAuror - Sh...
The Legacy of Martha J. Hudson - SilentAuror - Sherlock (TV) [Archive of Our Own]
I’m still feeling sad about the loss of Una Stubbs, and someone told me earlier today that they were, too, and that re-reading this story had actually helped. I think it really depends on how people process their sadness, but I’m also someone who needs to vibe with that sadness in a parallel way, maybe, rather than being someone who wants to be cheered up or distracted. If you’re in the first category, then this story might help. Be warned: if the title doesn’t give it away, Mrs Hudson dies in this story. Read with caution. This is not a new fic; this one was posted in May, 2016 with this simple summary: A story of wrongs made right, of love and of death and of vengeance. It’s the second saddest story I’ve ever written (the first being The Final Proof). It’s a little shy of 41,000 words, written in my customary single-chapter/novella format. Just if you want it.
Sending love and comfort to you all. <3
August 12, 2021
sp0tlessmxnd:
angel0logy:
Beautifully said.
I M P O R T...
Beautifully said.
I M P O R T A N T
August 10, 2021
I finally got another little slice of writing in tonight!...
I finally got another little slice of writing in tonight! The new fic is at 4,200 words and just getting itself established now. :)
August 8, 2021
bemusedlybespectacled:
lectorel:
digitaldiscipline:
mck...
the movie is great, with amazing acting:
and the original graphic novel is phenomenal:
I highly recommend them both
seeing all the 14-17 y/o queer kids who don’t know what v for vendetta is…. u mean the blockbuster film written by two trans women about a masked vigilante who decides to singlehandedly take down a fascist alternate version of england set in the distant year of 2020… and his driving force was getting justice for a lesbian who he never met but whose diary he found, who was separated from her wife before being killed by said fascist gov…. and it stars natalie portman…. okay
and they’ve never been more relevant
“People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.”
There’s strong subtext that V is a trans man and A)the lesbian from the diary or B)her wife.
frankly I prefer the movie over the comic, for three reasons:
1) lewis prothero as a rush limbaugh/glenn beck/bill o’reilly type is both more applicable and way funnier than a 1940s radio propagandist
2) it has stephen fry as gordon detriech, and makes him explicitly gay and pretending to be attracted to evey as part of being closeted than actually attracted to evey and having sex with her while she hides in his home.
3) the movie came out in 2005; that is, only four years after 9/11, while the Iraq war was still in full swing, and while xenophobia and Islamophobia were not just acceptable, but tacitly encouraged by the administration at the time. which makes the following exchange even more poignant and sweet:
Evey: [seeing a book in a glass display case] What is that?
Gordon: It’s a copy of the Qur’an, 14th century.
Evey: [shocked] Are you a Muslim?
Gordon: No, I’m in television.
Evey: But why would you keep it?
Gordon: I don’t have to be a Muslim to find the images beautiful or its poetry moving.
just… the easy acceptance of it. the idea that a religion that he doesn’t believe in and that has been explicitly outlawed in-universe is a source of beauty. I’m not Muslim, either, but that particular moment really stuck with me emotionally.
I love this movie so much. So glad to see this appreciation for it! I watched again when Covid started and it hit in a whole new way. I cry every single time.
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