Someþing

via @corazondebeskar

Artist: Tim Brierley

so here's a super long post about strokes in general, and mine in particular/what I went through.

Here's another for you, from the Minneapolis Institute of Art from when I visited a few years ago. First, I walked into this room and went "oh NO" because the very first thing I saw was this:

But off to the left was an entire wall of Native textiles where the MiA had repatriated historical artifacts and commissioned modern Native artists to make replicas of traditional clothing and weaving patterns, and it seemed really weird that they'd do that and then have a war bonnet gained by sketchy means chilling in the middle of the room, so I read the plaque for more detail:

TRANSCRIPTION AND CONTEXT:

The item is named as "Tsistsistas (Cheyenne) or Lakħóta artist, North America, Great Plains region." Right away we're on good ground with self-identified tribal names. It lists the item as "headdress, late 19th-early 20th century" and made of "eagle and other feathers, wool, buffalo hide, cowhide, horsehair, beads, pigments." So we're also continuing on with the certainty that they've really researched this item. It's not being dismissed as some "American Indian curiosity," it's being treated like the work of art and craftsmanship it is.

But here's why I posted this here:

"Gift of Jack Garcia, Lakħóta."

This wasn't looted. This was freely given. And the plaque goes on to make the provenance extremely clear:

"A Tsistsisas or Lakħóta artist created this headdress, which symbolizes power, leadership, and generosity. Jack L. Garcia, who donated the headdress to Mia in that same spirit of Lakħóta generosity, was a great grandson of two Oglála Lakħóta leaders: Śungmànitu Haņksa (Long Wolf) and Čhetáņ Lúta (Red Hawk). In 1874, the United States government discovered gold in the Black Hills, and broke its treaty with the Lakħóta, initiating hostilities. Both of Garcia's forebears fought against and defeated General George Custer and his army in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876."

That's a damn nice description. Correct names, a factual account with no moralizing or racist narrative: they fought, they won, period. The only inaccuracy here--on a technicality--is that the Native tribes involved in that battle called it the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and personally in a Native exhibit I'd use the Native terminology. I can see why they didn't (plaque space is finite and they would have had to explain the name), but the quibble is worth bringing up.

But here. The very last line. The point of all of this in the first place:

"At the installation of this headdress, a Lakħóta medicine man blessed the object with Garcia's family in attendance."

Not only is it freely given instead of looted. Not only is it given the respect it deserves as not just as a mark of honor but as an artistic object (seriously I couldn't get my camera to focus on the stitching but it is STUNNING how even and delicate it looks when you consider someone would have been dancing and attending ceremonies in this). But it was put in the museum with the very literal blessing of tribal elders. They made sure the Lakħóta community was involved and that the headdress was treated in a culturally appropriate manner. And off to the right is a small family tree showing Garcia's direct ties to the leaders they named, providing proof of provenance. That's an extremely far cry from "we're some old white bastards who took this because we wanted it, take a look."

Museums are trying. Some are doing better than others, but they are trying.

The ENTIRE POINT of Grace’s arc is that he is a Coward, with a capital C. He is a coward not only in his refusal of the Hail Mary mission, but in the way he lives his life before the Petrova Line was ever discovered. Grace has no close friends or coworkers, no pets or hobbies, no partners (short or long term), no family that we know of. His two main drives in life are (1) being a Cool Teacher to his students, and (2) nursing a grudge over getting kicked out of academia for proposing wild theories about life forms not based on water. As Stratt ACCURATELY points out, both of these things have large self-serving components. Grace genuinely loves his students and is good at teaching, but it’s at least partially because his classroom allows him to demand respect and attention without returning emotional vulnerability in the same way a peer relationship would. His academic theories were also largely motivated by a desire to be The Specialest Boy - and while Grace DOES prove himself very smart and capable, his pet theory wasn’t supported by his work with astrophage. Grace doesn’t jump at the chance to work with Stratt when she first approaches him, and he isn’t out there Living LIfe to the Fullest every day. He ADMITS to himself and to Stratt that he IS a coward, both for the way he’s lived up to PHM and for refusing to go on the mission when the timeline made it clear that there wasn’t enough time to bring another candidate up to speed and have the same odds of success. He straight up tells Stratt that he’ll sabotage Project Hail Mary if she tries to force him, DESPITE HIM KNOWING that Earth is headed for a literal apocalyptic Ice Age, and that everyone on the planet - including his beloved students!- has a pretty good chance of DYING if the mission doesn’t succeed! Stratt has to give him a coma cocktail that induces mild amnesia, and bet on him being at least good Enough (TM) not to kill the whole planet because he hated her for doing this to him.

(Also no hate for Eva Stratt, I love her and I will SUPPORT THIS WOMAN’S WRONGS until my dying day, she committed so many crimes and I cheered the whole way)

Despite Ryan Gosling’s very pretty Sad Boi eyes and sweaters, Ryland Grace is NOT a manic pixie dream scientist in love with Earth and its life and cultures. He just ISN’T. And if he WERE, then. Well. He certainly didn’t love Earth enough to fully embrace it while he was here, OR to volunteer to save it when he had the chance. This IS one of those situations where the distinction between “I love life” and “I don’t want to die” is a meaningful one. Does this make Grace a Cancelled Villain of All Time? No - it makes him a coward, but that doesn’t mean he inherently deserved to die. Does it ethically or morally justify forcing him onto a suicide mission while he fought and pleaded not to go? No! It makes Grace ORDINARY. Just some average fucking guy, not evil but not valiant, either. It’s like trying to claim Laika was the top search and rescue dog in the city when she got put into the pod. You don’t NEED to give Ryland Grace all these Tender Tragic Qualities of “loving Earth/Life” to have empathy for this poor dude who got launched into space.

In fact, Grace’s arc DEPENDS on him STARTING from that place of “I don’t really have a reason to be here” to “I have EVERY reason to turn my back on survival and do this act!” Grace wakes up on the Hail Mary, and has no context for why he’s on the ship but assumes that he was a Heroic Volunteer, like Yao and Ilyukhina. He sees their personal effects and Reasons Why They Volunteered, and keeps searching for his own Reason Why until he remembers that he didn’t HAVE a “reason why.” He was never a heroic volunteer. He comes to terms with the fact that he’s going to die, and IS. IN FACT. AS STRATT PREDICTED. A GOOD ENOUGH man to want to save the earth anyway rather than die alone without even trying to figure out the Petrova Problem out of spite. And he can do some pretty neat science along the way, which has always been one of his life motivations! At least he can do that before he dies, in the absence of anything else!

But the thing that Grace ACTUALLY loves enough to die for is ROCKY. The one in a million friend! Who saved his life and opened up his entire view of the universe! Grace’s core trait was NEVER “loving the Earth,” or “loving life.” The WHOLE FUCKING EARTH wasn’t enough to get Grace willingly onboard the Hail Mary! What made him turn the ship around was his GOTDAM SINGING ROCK FRIEND. The whole point is the change! Humanity’s capacity for massive apathetic cowardice and also astonishing bravery and hopefulness in connection. Andy Weir has his head in his ass about politics in his work, but you see?!?! You see, right!?!?!?!