The Addams Family (1991) Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld

Hero Rats

A Taxonomy of Magic

This is a purely and relentlessly thematic/Doylist set of categories. 

The question is: What is the magic for, in this universe that was created to have magic?

Or, even better: What is nature of the fantasy that’s on display here?

Because it is, literally, fantasy.  It’s pretty much always someone’s secret desire.

(NOTE: “Magic” here is being used to mean “usually actual magic that is coded as such, but also, like, psionics and superhero powers and other kinds of Weird Unnatural Stuff that has been embedded in a fictional world.”)

(NOTE: These categories often commingle and intersect.  I am definitely not claiming that the boundaries between them are rigid.)

Keep reading

what if vampires are like mosquitoes and only the ladies drink blood

"Here, we should also mention the origin of the name "Ukraine. " Of course, this is not a "okraina" [russian] (there is no such word in the Ukrainian language at all - there is "okolytsia"), because in the 12th century, when this name arose, there was not a single state nearby that could call the powerful empire its "okraina" (Moscow, for example, was only founded in 1147). Instead, it is likely that the name "Ukraine" consists of two words: "u" (that is, "in", "inside") and "kraina" (country). This was the designation of the metropolis, or the ethnic lands of the Ruthenians, the owners of the empire of Kievan Rus, without taking into account the colonies. That is, Rus (the empire) minus the colonies equals the U-kraina ("inner lands"). In German, there is also a similar term - Inland (in - in, Land - land, country), which is used as a counterweight to Ausland. The emergence of this name was determined by the then processes of the empire's disintegration and the need for a separate designation of its "non-colonial" territories. But the old name Rus was preserved for Ukraine until the middle of the 15th century, as evidenced by numerous documents and chronicles, and for its separate parts until the 19th (Halychyna) and 20th (Transcarpathia) centuries. And Russia has approximately the same relation to the historical and cultural heritage of Kyivan Rus as its former colony Romania has to the corresponding heritage of the Roman Empire (Roma)..."

(c) Mykhailo Krasuskyi - THE ANTIQUITY OF THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE

Happy New 2018 Year!

Happy 2018, all! Delighted to bring out a new print - @davidmackkabuki watercolored @neilhimself’s words for the new year. (I will donate to @CBLDF & to @GaimanFND as well as a tiger rescue or two) http://www.neverwear.net

Тигроснежка и семь котиков

Тигроснежка и семь котиков

“Lilith and Eve" by SAYAE Heroika Arts, 2018

If someone said "show me the cutest animal I've never seen before", what would you show them?

the pygmy jerboa!

We might have misunderstood Hogwarts Houses for years

I have a theory that the valued quality of each of the four Houses isn’t really about the personality of its students.

The valued quality of each of the four Houses has to do with how they perceive magic.

Stick with me a second: Hogwarts is a school to study magic. Magic as Hogwarts teaches it can be seen as many things: a natural talent, a gift, a weapon, etc.

So how you believe magic should be used will both reflect your personality and change how you handle that power.

“Their daring, nerve, and chivalry set Gryffindors apart,” Gryffindors perceive magic as a weapon. Gryffindors tend to excel in aggressive forms of magic, like offensive and defensive spells, and they are good at dueling. But a true Gryffindor knows that the power is a responsibility, and so they must always use their powers to stand up for what’s right. They are the sword of the righteous, which makes them as good at Defense Against the Dark Arts as they are at combat magic.

Hufflepuffs believe that magic is a gift and that the best gifts are to be given away. Hufflepuffs, “loyal and just,” would naturally abhor the idea of jealously guarding magic or using it to hurt someone else. So Hufflepuffs share their magic to benefit of Muggles, like the Fat Friar, to protect the overlooked, like Newt Scamander with his creatures, or to oppose those who would use magic to torment and bully, like the Hufflepuffs who stood with the DA and the battle of Hogwarts.

Slytherins are the opposite: they believe their magic is a treasure that they have been entrusted to protect. The Slytherin fascination with purity, with advantage, with cunning and secrecy–all of which were perverted by the Death Eaters–comes from the idea that people with magic in their veins have been given something special that it is their duty to protect at all costs. And perhaps they aren’t entirely wrong: power in the wrong hands can be dangerous. And power interfering at will with Muggle affairs is a gross presumption that could turn the course of history. Though the series shows some of the worst that Slytherin can be, “evil,” is not a natural Slytherin tendency. “Cautious,” is.

Ravenclaws believe that magic is an art form, one that is beautiful and should be appreciated and studied for its own sake. If “wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure,” then asking what magic is for is useless. It’s more important to immerse oneself in magic for its own sake. Ravenclaws push the boundaries of magic to see if they can, hence Hermione’s spell experiment on the DA coins being dubbed a Ravenclaw quality, but like Luna Lovegood in the pursuit of extraordinary creatures: they can also be content to plumb the depths of what already exists.

So while you can see where personalities will overlap over Houses, perhaps in Sorting we should be asking ourselves less what we think we are and more what we think we believe.