#mb posts

I think the framing of this discussion leaves something out? Because I genuinely think Pale is Wildbow's best paced work.

Sounds super weird to say that when it's so long, right?

But I think there's a difference between length and quality of pacing, and I think the key to understanding what Wildbow's doing is this:

Pale is paced like a television show.

I know, I know, it’s been a fucking AGE since we’ve been around. All of us have had some major shit going on in our lives. 

However! At least one, MAYBE two of us are back for the most part and as such, the blog’s activity will be picking up.

Please be patient with us as we do this. Also, we most likely will be cleaning our likes and drafts and that means a lot of older posts from people will be showing up. Which is cool because that means we get to revisit content! :)

Please send us stuff!! Things we’d like from you:

1. Blog recommendations that have heavy Seb and Chris content

2. Fic recs to reblog

3. Promotion for us!

If you are new here, and obviously haven't seen us post much, please note:

WE DO NOT ENGAGE IN DRAMA OR GOSSIP ABOUT OUR BOYS. EVER.

That’s the entire reason we founded this blog, getting away from that crap and showing pure love for our boys. Anyone sending us that stuff  will be blocked. We have a strict no tolerance policy.

We will always credit any creator we post. If we don’t know who it is, we will ask and note.

We strive to keep this place PG-13 and will tag if otherwise.

Thanks and we hope to hear from you soon!

Hello, citizens! Since tomorrow is Gotham Academy’s Homecoming, show me your outfits/anything else. I will post my teammates outfits soon (per their request).

it could be accidental, but lyra and will being forced to stay in separate worlds plays really interestingly with the series’ ideas about death.

pullman’s arguing against traditional religious rhetoric, of course, hdm being the anti-narnia. the religious argument is usually that life after death would be better than oblivion. the amber spyglass turns that on its head and says: okay, but not necessarily. if the afterlife is horrible, that’s worse, actually? indeed, the ghosts come to see dissolution as a liberation preferable to eternal existence. death is their happy ending.

“death is better” feels like a big contrast to modern transhumanist atheist arguments, where the argument is "death is inherently bad," but the show takes pains to emphasize its dissolution is a positive, almost pantheistic thing wherein one becomes part of everything, in contrast to metatron’s abyss which is just nonexistence.

ultimately, i think pullman’s a pragmatist: his project isn’t to build a transhumanist immortality (though maybe his work could be an inspiration for one) but to get people to see things as they are. i suspect he would say something along the lines of “we have to acknowledge the reality of death instead of living in a fantasy (as he might put it) of eternal life.”

and that sucks! that’s really hard, that’s really painful, to think that those you love are just gone! i think pullman knows how painful that is, to really look unavoidable death in the eye and not turn away.

so he has lyra and will go through the same thing. the universe is structured in such an unfair way as to cause them inescapable grief.

they could have tried to ignore it—they could have left a portal just for themselves—but that would mean taking away what they did to free the dead. death and this loss are linked.

so pullman’s saying: the mature thing, the responsible thing, is to bear the truth of your grief honestly, instead of deferring it into religious ideas. honor those who are gone, but don’t run away from the truth of loss, either. hard as it is, we have to bear it.

—How'z life?

—Taking forever.

—Let'S dance?

—And take forever with US?

—Yes.

—Let'S go.

—We're so poor.

—We'll work it out.

—I want you just this way. To never have to go away.

From you. From US. Allways kissing, adored.

The rest. And smiling. To hold you when we're happy, we're lazy. Sad. When you're stubborn. When you're brave. When you're mad. When you're scorned. But allways beside me and my moods.

—That's too easy.

—Then be difficult.

So, I've finally gotten a little time and I'm trying to resurrect this here page!

At any rate, you'll probably see the posts pick back up.