Monthly Archives: July 2020

Hugh Jackman made it past Disney+’s censorship with this ‘X-Men’ scene – Alternative Press

Posted: July 15, 2020 at 9:51 pm

The 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past was recently added onto Disney+ and was left completely uncensored. Now, Hugh Jackman is commenting on one particular scene that shows his behind in full view.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is the first PG-13 film to be left completely uncensored on the family-friendly streaming service.

Since its launch, Disney+ has remained relatively conservative with its censorship. This is in efforts to keep the streaming platform family-friendly for all its viewers.

The platform made headlines after the Lizzie McGuire reboot was put on hold over beliefs that the series wouldnt be appropriate for Disney+s target audience. As well, the Love, Simon reboot Love, Victor moved to Hulu after Disney felt the shows content wasnt age-appropriate. The censorship controversies have caused many other programs to look elsewhere for a streaming platform.

Most recently, Disney+ used CGI to cover up Daryl Hannahs behind in the 1984 film Splash which stars Tom Hanks. The latest cover-up for the PG-rated film further shows the lengths Disney+ will go to make sure it maintains its family-friendly content.

Now, X-Men: Days of Future Past has arrived on the streaming service and is completely uncensored. It is officially the first PG-13 movie to arrive uncensored on Disney+.

Along with the films rating, it includes adult content such as the f-word and a scene which shows Jackmans naked behind in full view.

Jackman took to social media this week to share the news about the film being added to Disney+. He also includes the infamous nudity scene with an emoji covering his behind.

Days Of Future Past becomes the first movie to air on Disney+ uncensored. That was my future but lets be honest its more like my past, Jackman says.

Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds also jokingly commented on Jackmans post saying that he hopes Disney+ will leave Deadpool uncensored, too.

Excited for them to do the same for Deadpool, Reynolds says. Its time children knew.

What are your thoughts on X-Men: Days of Future Past being left uncensored on Disney+? Let us know in the comments below.

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Hugh Jackman made it past Disney+'s censorship with this 'X-Men' scene - Alternative Press

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Democrat Councilwoman Who Said Toms River Too White, Claims She Received Threats, Calls for Facebook Censorship – Shore News Magazine

Posted: at 9:51 pm

TOMS RIVER, NJ After declaring that Toms River Township is not racially diverse enough for her liking, Toms River Councilwoman Laurie Huryk, a Democrat on Tuesday said she had received a threat in the mail. She waved a piece of paper in front of her, but did not read the letter. She did not say whether or not she reported the alleged threatening letter to the Toms River Police Department.

Huryk claimed the threat was in response to social media postings online after she told the township at the last council meeting that Toms River needs to do a better job at making the community more inviting to a greater diversity of individuals. Huryk has yet to explain how her plan to make the community more diverse would work and didnt explain how the current demographics of the community negatively impact the township.

According to census.gov, Toms River is 82% white, 3% black. As compared to the United States on whole which is 60% white and 13% black. New Jersey is 55% white and 15% black, Huryk said. We need to take a look at ourselves to examine what we can do as a community to make Toms River more inviting to a greater diversity of individuals and that of our state and the United States.

Huryk noted that the townships 82% white population is much higher than the state and national average.

Now, she claims she is being threatened and that her statement was twisted and misrepresented.

At our last meeting, I quoted U.S. Census data followed by self reflection inclusion, diversity and unity, Huryks said. My words were twisted and my meaning misrepresented on social media, resulting in escalating hateful and divisive commentary messages, voice mails, culminating in this disgustingly racist, threatening letter sent to my home. Im not going to read it, its extremely offensive and threatening.

Its where I live, with my family. As leaders in the community, it is our responsibility to be part of the solution, to work towards unity and condemn deceitful, divisive and hateful behavior. For the most part, this council and the previous have been shining examples of bi-partisanship, save one, she said, referring to Councilman Daniel Rodrick who has been working overtime to expose political corruption in Toms River government. Weve demonstrated that we can disagree but come to compromise and present civil for the most part.

Rodrick has been a key detractor in the townships plans to turn downtown Toms River into a fledgling city and has been speaking out against political corruption by other members of the council in Toms River.

Huryk said she also fully supports the organization Stop Hate for Profit which has organized a financial advertising boycott against Facebook to financially harm the social media companys business until it increases censorship on Facebook contributing to the dissent against the Black Lives Matter movement.

Whatever weve done is not enough, we must be ever determined in our efforts to stop the seeding and division and continuously work towards equality, inclusion and diversity and unity, Huryk said. Hate for profit has real consequences for real people. It is our job to return our world to civility and to quell the divisiveness and deception all day and every day.

Stop Hate for Profit seeks to remove public and private groups focused on white supremacy, antisemitism, violent conspiracies and Holocaust denialism, which is a very noble object.

The group also wants anyone on Facebook who talks about vaccine misinformation or climate denialism to also be banned from the social media platform.

According to the National Review, Huryks plan for forcing an unnatural demographic change in Toms River is part of her Democrat partys national platform to abolish the suburbs.

A story published by the National Review, entitled Biden and Dems Are Set to Abolish the Suburbs investigated Democrat Presidential Candidate Joe Bidens housing plan for America that seeks to eliminate single family zoning, as evidenced by the townships plan to build 7 story buildings through the Toms River downtown area.

Biden has embraced Cory Bookers strategy for ending single-family zoning in the suburbs and creating what you might call little downtowns in the suburbs, said Stanley Kurtz of the National Review. Combine the Obama-Biden administrations radical AFFH regulation with Bookers new strategy, and I dont see how the suburbs can retain their ability to govern themselves.

Kurtz said that the Democrats latest platform attacking the predominantly white suburbs is geared towards winning elections for the party, not a plan for the greater good of the people who already live there.

They will lose control of their own zoning and development, they will be pressured into a kind of de facto regional-revenue redistribution, and they will even be forced to start building high-density low-income housing, Kurtz said. [That], of course, will require the elimination of single-family zoning. With that, the basic character of the suburbs will disappear. At the very moment when the pandemic has made people rethink the advantages of dense urban living, the choice of an alternative will be taken away.

Is Huryk concerned about diversity in Toms River or is she now just towing the Democrat political party line for Joe Biden heading in the 2020 Presidential election?

This week, in Oregon, a politician was caught writing himself a hate letter he claimed was sent to him online.

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Democrat Councilwoman Who Said Toms River Too White, Claims She Received Threats, Calls for Facebook Censorship - Shore News Magazine

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Federalist Radio: Ted Cruz And Michael Knowles On Censorship, TikTok, And The Chinese Communist Party – The Federalist

Posted: at 9:51 pm

SUBSCRIBE TO THE FEDERALIST RADIO HOUR HERE.

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and host of the The Daily Wires podcast The Michael Knowles Show Michael Knowles joined Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss everything from censorship by big tech to TikTok and the Chinese Communist Party. Sen. Cruz and Knowles co-host the political podcast Verdict With Ted Cruz in which Cruz gives his take on the most important national news. You can watch the trailer in the tweet below.

The senator argued that although media bias has been around forever, its immensely dangerous that a handful of monopolies now control every means of discourse. Similarly to China, the left, who controls all the major institutions in America, doesnt want people to thoughtfully communicate their ideas because they dont work. They must suppress free speech and silence the truth, Sen. Cruz said, because truth prevails if the discourse allows for it.

I think the threat of of big tech censorship is the single greatest threat that democracy faces, that political discourses faces, that free speech faces. Weve got a handful of giant monopolies with massive power, and their arrogance is growing exponentially. And they have demonstrated a repeated willingness to silence, to stifle, to muzzle speech they disagree with, he said.

Listen Here:https://mp3.ricochet.com/2020/07/Fed_200713CruzKnowles_FINAL.mp3

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Federalist Radio: Ted Cruz And Michael Knowles On Censorship, TikTok, And The Chinese Communist Party - The Federalist

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How Victorian Writers Navigated Censorship And Suppression Of Free Speech – Science 2.0

Posted: at 9:51 pm

In an open letter published in Harpers Magazine, 152 writers, including JK Rowling and Margaret Atwood, claim that a climate of censoriousness is pervading liberal culture, the latest contribution to an ongoing debate about freedom of speech online.

As we grapple with this issue in a society where social media allows us all to share extreme views, the Victorian writers offer a precedent for thinking differently about language and how we use it to get our point across. How limits of acceptability and literary censorship, for the Victorians, inspired creative ways of writing that foregrounded sensitivity and demanded thoughtfulness.

Forbidden Books.Alexander Mark Rossi

There are very few cases of books being banned in the Victorian era. But books were censored or refused because of moral prudishness, and publishers often objected to attacks on the upper classes - their book-buying audience. Writer and poet Thomas Hardys first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, was never published because the publisher Alexander Macmillan felt that his portrayal of the upper classes was wholly dark not a ray of light visible to relieve the darkness.

However, more common than publishers turning down books was the refusal of circulating libraries to distribute them. These institutions were an integral part of literary consumerism during the Victorian period as the main means of distributing books.

Most influential of these was Charles Mudies Select Library, established in 1842. Mudies library was select because he would only circulate books that were suitable for middle-class parents to read aloud to their daughters without causing embarrassment.

This shaped how publishers commissioned and what writers could get away with. Victorian literary censorship, while limiting, managed to inspire writers to develop more creative and progressive ways to get their points across.

George Eliots publisher, John Blackwood, criticised her work for showing people as they really were rather than giving an idealistic picture. He was particularly uncomfortable when Eliot focused on the difficulties of working-class life.

In Mr Gilfils Love Story(1857), Eliots description of the orphan girl, Caterina, being subjected to soap-and-water raised Blackwoods censorious hackles:

I do not recollect of any passage that moved my critical censorship unless it might be the allusion to dirt in common with your heroine.

As well as dirt, alcohol consumption was also seen as an unwanted reminder of working class problems. Again in Mr Gifils Love Story, Eliot describes how the eponymous clergyman enjoys an occasional sip of gin-and-water.

However, knowing Blackwoods views and anticipating she may cause offence galvanized Eliot to state her case directly to the reader within the text itself. She qualifies her unromantic depiction of Mr Gilfil with an address to her lady readers:

Here I am aware that I have run the risk of alienating all my refined lady readers, and utterly annihilating any curiosity they may have felt to know the details of Mr Gilfils love-story let me assure you that Mr Gilfils potations of gin-and-water were quite moderate. His nose was not rubicund; on the contrary, his white hair hung around a pale and venerable face. He drank it chiefly, I believe, because it was cheap; and here I find myself alighting on another of the Vicars weaknesses, which, if I cared to paint a flattering portrait rather than a faithful one, I might have chosen to suppress.

Here, literary censorship enriches Eliots writing. Eliots refusal to suppress her work becomes part of the story and reinforces her agenda to portray Mr Gilfil as he really is, a vicar who mixes gin with water because he is poor.

As well as inspiring narrative additions, censorship was also powerful because of what was left out of a text.

One of Hardys most loved books, Tess of the DUrbervilles, highlights the crimes of sexual harassment in the workplace and of rape. Because Hardy had to be careful about the way that he presented the sexual abuse of Tess, his descriptions were very subtle. This is how he portrays the scene where Tess is sexually assaulted by her employer, Alec DUrberville:

The obscurity was now so great that he could see absolutely nothing but a pale nebulousness at his feet, which represented the white muslin figure he had left upon the dead leaves. Everything else was blackness alike. DUrberville stooped; and heard a gentle regular breathing. He knelt, and bent lower, till her breath warmed his face, and in a moment his cheek was in contact with hers. She was sleeping soundly, and upon her eyelashes there lingered tears.

The influence of censorship meant that Hardy could not describe this scene in graphic detail. Instead, his depiction is more sensitive and thoughtful. Hardy does not dehumanize Tess by depicting her as a sexual object to entertain the reader.

By focusing on Tesss gentle regular breathing and the poignant image of her tear-stained eyelashes, Hardy avoids gratuitous depictions of violence while at the same time making us painfully aware of the injustice she has suffered. This makes his portrayal of Tess more powerful and poignant. It can be argued that this was achieved because of the limits placed on his writing, not in spite of them.

In these instances, we can see how literary censorship influenced writers to tread more carefully upon difficult territory. It made them think about whether including violence or socially controversial depictions were necessary or gratuitous to their narratives.

For Hardy and Eliot, censorship and its limits inspired creativity, sensitivity and thoughtfulness. These examples can provide food for thought in the debate today about free speech and censorship. As Hardy and Eliot wrestled with as they wrote, can things be said differently and, in some cases, do they need to be said at all?

By Stephanie Meek, PhD Candidate in English Literature, University of Reading. Meek receives funding from South, West & Wales Doctoral Training Partnership. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Cancel culture, George Orwell and reasoned debate – The Guardian

Posted: at 9:51 pm

Thank you to Billy Bragg (Cancel culture doesnt stifle debate, but it does challenge the old order, 10 July) for a thought-provoking article and for drawing attention to the statue of George Orwell outside the BBC in London. Mr Bragg says that the quotation on the wall next to the statue If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear is a demand for licence, not a defence of liberty, and argues that liberty must be tempered by equality and accountability.

There is no doubt that very many tweet-friendly quotations are taken from Orwells works and used out of context by people from all parts of the political spectrum. However, the statue quotation remains a powerful statement against censorship. The essay it is taken from was titled The Freedom of the Press. As Mr Bragg says, it was written as a preface to Animal Farm. In fact, it was not used at the time and was only published long after Orwells death, in 1972.

Orwell argued for equality and democracy (accountability was not a term much used at the time) to go hand in hand with the liberty he defended. We are delighted that Orwell is the English writer that Mr Bragg admires the most and that he continues to engage in the reasoned debate for which Orwell is renowned.Quentin KoppChair, The Orwell Society

Re Nesrine Maliks piece (The cancel culture war is really about old elites losing power in the social media age, 13 July), what is at issue here is not the right of people to attack the opinions of others on social media, but the tendency to overreaction when someone expresses an opinion that is at variance with that of self-defining justice warriors.

Opinions that are lawfully expressed may well deserve robust criticism; what they do not deserve is for the person expressing them to be no-platformed, hounded out of a position of influence or traduced as some sort of fascist. Years ago, that sort of behaviour was confined to the wilder fringes of the Socialist Workers party. Now it seems to be all too common among people who should know better. Roger Fisken Ashampstead, Berkshire

Join the debate email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Read more Guardian letters click here to visit gu.com/letters

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Cancel culture, George Orwell and reasoned debate - The Guardian

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India-China conflict: A move from the Himalayas to the high seas? – The Interpreter

Posted: at 9:50 pm

Last months clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh was the most significant conflict between the two countries since 1967. Despite signs of a partial tactical pullback in some places, there is considerable risk of further confrontations and even escalation along the disputed border. Some have been urging the Indian government to respond to Chinas moves in the Himalayas by placing pressure on Beijing in the Indian Ocean. What are Indias options and how likely is it to take such actions?

The Indian Ocean holds a particular place in the India-China strategic relationship. In almost every dimension, whether it be economic, nuclear or the conventional strategic balance along the Line of Actual Control in the Himalayas, India is probably at a considerable strategic disadvantage to China. Only in the Indian Ocean, which includes Chinas vital energy routes from the Persian Gulf and Africa, does India have the upper hand.

This has important implications for the strategy dynamic. Decades ago, prominent US Sinologist John Garver argued that in the event of a conflict between the two countries, India might be tempted to escalate from the land dimension, where it may suffer reverses, to the maritime dimension, where it enjoys substantial advantages, and employ those advantages to restrict Chinas vital Indian Ocean trade.

In strategic jargon, the Indian Ocean represents interior lines for India where the Indian Navy is close to its own bases and logistics and exterior lines for China, where its navy is operating with limited logistical support, away from home. Strategists tell us that you should meet your adversary in your own interior lines and their exterior lines. (That is the reason the Indian Navy is far from keen to get into any confrontation with China in the South China Sea.)

Short of all-out war, or perhaps an Indian Ocean equivalent of the Cuban Missile crisis, any attempt to interfere with trade would be subject to massive pushback from countries around the world.

This vulnerability gives the maritime dimension of the relationship a special significance. For example, the 2012 Non-Alignment 2.0 report by leading Indian strategic thinkers advocates that India should leverage potential opportunities that flow from peninsular Indias location in the Indian Ocean as part of an asymmetric strategy towards China.

These considerations have driven the Indian Navy to adopt a strategy of building its naval capabilities near the Indian Ocean chokepoints, particularly around the Malacca Strait, to create an implicit threat of interdiction of Chinas sea lines of communication. The navy considers that its previous threats of blockade made against Pakistan in several previous conflicts had a significant impact.

Indeed, in the aftermath of the Ladakh clashes in June, the Indian Navy was placed in a heightened state of alert and reportedly deployed additional ships to sea, although it is not clear precisely where. In recent weeks, Indian naval commentators have suggested that while India would have a difficult time imposing a blockade on Chinese shipping, it should nevertheless consider interdicting Chinese tankers as they pass near Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands, or otherwise deter, delay or divert shipping traffic to and from China.

Others have also noted the potential for Washington to move its carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt into the Malacca Straits/Bay of Bengal area to deter any serious escalation of conflict in the Himalayas. (Which, incidentally, would be an interesting replay of President John F. Kennedys decision to send the carrier USS Kitty Hawk to support India during the 1962 Sino-Indian war.)

This has not gone unnoticed in Beijing. According to Chinas Global Times, the PLA Navys Southern Theatre Command (which has responsibility for Chinas operations in the Indian Ocean) responded with naval drills in the South China Sea on 18 June.

Putting aside all this sabre-rattling, what are the realistic options for India (or others) to pressure Chinas trading routes in the Indian Ocean?

In fact, some naval analysts are deeply sceptical of the ability of any navy to impose a distant blockade of China in the Indian Ocean. Short of inspecting every ship which would be a huge task how could a blockade identify those that are actually headed to Chinese ports? What is to stop ships being rerouted in transit, a common event even in normal times? Even if a blockade could be successfully imposed, could China obtain sufficient energy supplies from other sources (which currently includes an epic 73 million barrels of oil reserves floating off the coast of China)? Just as importantly, what is to stop China retaliating with its own blockade or interdictions?

Even more important than these practical considerations, the political and diplomatic costs to India would be enormous. Short of all-out war, or perhaps an Indian Ocean equivalent of the Cuban Missile crisis, any attempt to interfere with trade would be subject to massive pushback from countries around the world including from Indias most important strategic partners.

In short, the Indian Navy might (or might not) have the capability to block Chinese trade through the Indian Ocean, but would Beijing take the threat seriously?

This article is part of a two-year project being undertaken by the National Security College on the Indian Ocean, with the support of the Department of Defence.

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India-China conflict: A move from the Himalayas to the high seas? - The Interpreter

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Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship Hosting World’s Only Biker Cruise in 2021 – Cruise Fever

Posted: at 9:50 pm

The worlds only biker rally cruise, High Seas Rally, will now take place on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship October 22-29, 2021.

Riding with all the excitement and camaraderie of motorcycle rallies, the High Seas Rally will sail on Royal Caribbeans Mariner of the Seas from Port Canaveral to Nassau, Bahamas; Perfect Day at Coco Cay, Bahamas; Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic and Labadee, Haiti.

2021 will mark the 21st High Seas Rally sailing, each powered by legions of bike enthusiasts who come together for a first-class vacation that celebrates love of motorcycles and the freedom of the high seas. Rally cruisers also share a passion for helping others, which is the engine behind the High Seas Rally Dialysis Program and its rich history of giving back to the community.

S.A. Chakraborty Tells Us the Best Writing Advice She Ever Got in Reddit AMA – tor.com

Posted: at 9:50 pm

Photo by: Melissa C. Beckman

S.A. Chakraborty is the Locus Award, World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award, Crawford Award, and Astounding Award-nominated author of The Daevabad Trilogy, which she describes as an epic fantasy inspired by the folklore and history of the medieval Islamic world that I dreamed up while working in a medical office and finished ten years later during a pandemic. Beginning with The City of Brassand followed by The Kingdom of Copper, the trilogy is now complete with The Empire of Gold, released in June.

For her next project, the writer is taking on a historical fantasy trilogy about an adventure heist thats a bit like Pirates of the Caribbean meets Oceans 11, set in the 13th century Indian Ocean, featuring ex-Crusaders and pirate mothers. (More details here.) A week after her AMA with r/Books (which we highly recommend for those interested in craft), Chakraborty dropped by r/Fantasy for another AMA, where she talked about post-trilogy-completing feelings, writing advice, historical medical procedures, a mythological tree that bears human fruit (!), a very cocky medieval guide to con artistry, parents (ranked), love, stealing a horse on the high seas, and much, much more. Here are the (spoiler-free) highlights!

[Editors note:Questions and responses may have been edited for length and clarity.]

How does it feel to wrap up The Daevabad Trilogy?

I am very, very tired. Haha, no honestly, my emotions have been all over the place. Ive been working on the Daevabad Trilogy for over a decade, nearly my entire adult life, and these fictional characters have been living in my brain through job changes and relocations, marriage and parenthood. Its hard to let them go! But for however sad and wistful Ive been, I mostly feel very, very satisfied. Writing these books put me through the wringer, but Im incredibly proud of the conclusionand more than that, I feel honored to see their reception among readers. People send me fan art! Theres fanfiction! Do you know how freaking cool that is a creator to see?? Its just been an awesome experience.

Can you rank the parents of The Daevabad Trilogy for us?

I feel like theres a spoiler version of this question but Ill resist!

From best to worst:

The Sens

MYSTERY

Hatset

Seif

MYSTERY

Daras parents

Kaveh

Manizheh and Ghassan, Ghassan and Manizheh.you know what, Im very barely putting Manizheh before Ghassan. Hes still the worst.

I think Nahri would make a good mom. Im sure shed be super anxious about it, but shes been through enough horrible things and fought for her own ambitions that I can see her being very understanding, supportive, and fiercely protective.

Lets talk about love! What made you decide to take Nahris romantic arc where you did? (Editors note: This answer is spoiler-free, but you can find the full, spoiler-filled version here.)

Ah, but the romance. With the Daevabad Trilogy, I really wanted to center the romance from Nahris point of view and explore the different ways love, attraction, and passion might weave in and out of her life throughout a period of years. And I wanted it to feel as real, nuanced and messy as love often does in real life. What is it like to have her first crush? To learn how to trust? To be betrayed? To have to navigate a political marriage? How would all this work in terms of her own agency and desire rather than prioritizing the feelings of male characters? And I wanted the story to reflect how Nahriherselffelt about love: that it could be a sentiment not to be trusted, a distraction. That in the end, there were other things she desired just as much, if not more.

Non-spoiler thoughts on romance since I have a spot to put them: I am not unaware this topic has roused some passionate debate among readers! Frankly, Im content to have written the canon and let readers find joy in shipping whoever they want. Its an adult book and were in the middle of a pandemic, steal your happiness where you can find it. But I hope people can do so without tearing into each other. Fictional men (heck, many real ones) arent worth that much negative energy.

How did you approach writing the trilogys complex medical characters and scenes?

I knew I wanted to make my main character a healer, but I also wanted to get it right (I was working in an ob/gyn clinic at the time and watching my own spouse go through medical school and a grueling residency). I wanted to play with some historical techniques and procedures such as the theory of humors, cupping, and trepanation. But more than that, I wanted it all to feel real. I wanted Nahris training to be as grueling and time-consuming as a modern medical student. I wanted some of her patients to be incredibly difficult and I wanted her to make mistakes that would get people killed. It was important to show the arc that gives her the confidence to do surgery in the third bookbecause you need a certain level of insane confidence to cut into someones head! But this also comes with responsibility. For all the politics and war and magical shenanigans (and romance, yes) her overriding ambition is to survive and take care of her patients.

The scenes! I really like the history of medicine so first came the research (and some memorable trips to medical history museums in both the US and the UK). But for the final pass, I always made sure to run everything by the aforementioned spouse. Theres always plenty to nitpick and criticize when you read any book, but let me tell youI know I got the brain surgery correct!

And what about developing and realizing the arcs of characters caught between conflicting loyalties?

I really just wanted to make these characters as messy and real and human as possible and with every revision, I tried to bring this more to the surface. No matter the magical world, theyre dealing with things that rip apart both the larger world and peoples heart everywhere: struggles with faith, duties to community, family drama. I spent a lot of time both sitting with each new dilemma/scene and trying out various paths (so much rewriting and words that will never see the light of day). There is no rule, no craft secret Ive stumbled upon (I had essentially no creative writing background or experience before these books which I can admit now in public since theyve been nominated for awards enough 😉 Its just practice. Critique and revise as many times as you can.

Whats your favorite, most outlandish myth from the medieval Islamic world that you wish youd included in the trilogy but didnt?

Oh man, this is legitimately difficult as there are so many to choosebut the waqwaq tree. Which varies among tellings but is essentially a tree that bears human fruit. Yes. Sometimes children. Sometimes women. Sometimes just heads that wail and scream omens. Theres a bit of a mystery because sometimes its also referred to as the island of Waqwaq, which may or may not contain heads. But you can find elements of the story dating back to earlier Persian tales and the Alexander romances.

What book about that particular period of history would you recommend?

There are a lot but I really enjoy The Book of the Wonders of India. Its set up as a collection of sailors yarns by a tenth century Captain Buzurg ibn Shahriyar (who may or may not have existed) and it just captures such a wide-eyed and woundrous (and wild and often extremely racist!) look at traveling the seas in the early medieval era. From monsters and mermaids to deathly gales and dodgy piratesits one of those books that reminds you how very human the past was.

Any favorite books you came across while doing research?

Theres a great translation coming out from the Library of Arabic Literature of al-Jawbaris Book of Charlatans which is essentially a medieval guide to being a con artist, written by someone who was SUPREMELY full of himself. Its magnificently bizarre and contains an anecdote about a scheme using a trained monkey said to be a bewitched Indian prince to guilt people out of money of the mosque (where said monkey makes his ablutions and performs prayer!)

Lets talk writing advice. How did you get yourself to write when you first started out and not fall into the whole am I good enough to be a writer trap?

I have what is probably both a depressing and inspiring answer to this: I truly, deeply did not ever imagine my dream of seeing these books published would come true. I wanted them to! Desperately! But I had no creative writing background and was not raised with the idea that the arts could be a career (not that my parents discouraged mebut I was a first generation college student from a working class family: financial stability was the dream). And I didnt want to let myself dream too much because I didnt want to me crushed if it all came crashing down. So I wrote the books because I wanted to. I did the work of getting them critiqued and looking for an agent because I had people in my corner who loved them and pushed me, but I didnt let myself get hopeful. I meanI still havent and the trilogy has been optioned by Netflix so you think Impostor Syndrome would start to fade but apparently not.

Which is a long rambling way of saying there is no good enough to be a writer. Write if you want to write, if you have ideas and stories burning in your brain. Write them because you deserve to have a creative outlet in your life regardless if it goes anywhere that pays the bills. And if it does one day? Fantastic! if it doesnt? Every sentence you craft is practice that makes you better. Trust me: I know this is hard to internalize. I agonized over whether or not writing was selfish when my daughter was a baby. But you get to have this.

Coming from a historical background, how did you transition from something grounded in data and archives to building a fantasy world?

I think by both constantly trying to internalize that theyre different things and by reading other works of historical fiction to remind yourself that most arent getting down every tiny detail. Youre trying to sketch out an atmosphere, a scene, a tastenot argue a thesis.

Do you have any advice on adapting existing folktales and mythology without insulting their religions and cultures of origin?

This is a question that needs a far longer answer than I can provide here, but I try to flip the question and not ask what I can do without insulting such traditions, but what I can do to honor and respect them. People (often in the majority demographic) get horribly offended when they think theyre being toldnotto write something when really the attitude of questioning your intentions, trying to internalize and sit with critique, and considering existing power structures, your place in them, and the particular work under consideration will take you pretty far! And probably make you a better, more empathetic author!

In general, I dont think Id feel comfortable doing a deep or edgy reinterpretation of a living religion that isnt mine. Not because of fears of getting called out, but because it doesnt really sit right with me and isnt my lane in a way I think every writer needs to decide for themselves (and I think we should normalize both these discussions and the idea that people can learn). For example, I think the Mahabharat contains some of the greatest storytelling in history, and in particular I find Karna fascinating (the hidden family trauma! the loyalty to the one man who treated him right!) But I wouldnt try to retell his story. Im neither South Asian nor Hindu and it doesnt feel right. I might be inspired by elements of his character or arc, but I wouldnt try to make him as Karna mine. I couldnt do justice to him. (though relatedly, there is a fantastic YA space opera by a South Asian author that takes both Karna and the Mahabharat as its framing and its really, really good: A SPARK OF WHITE FIREhttps://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/sky-pony-press/9781510733817/a-spark-of-white-fire/

Whats the best writing advice youve ever gotten?

Best advice: FINISH THE BOOK. Dont get worn down into despair over a single scene or spend three months on the first ten pages. Writing is a very personal process but I do believe it is generally easier to see a storys larger arc or where the pieces need to go once you have a draft, even if that draft is half outline.

So tell us, how does one steal a horse on the high seas?

So I wrote the stealing a horse on the high sea as a nod to an anecdote from Ibn al-Mujawirs 13th century travelogue about the constant thieving between the so-called pirate amirs of Kish and the free agent pirate contractors horse merchants would hire to steal their horsesbackfrom the amirsthan realized I might want to use it in the next book so I might make you hunt the details yourself for now!

Head on over to r/Fantasy for the full AMA. For more, check out the AMA she did with r/Books last week.

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S.A. Chakraborty Tells Us the Best Writing Advice She Ever Got in Reddit AMA - tor.com

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Louis Vuitton Menswear is taking to the high seas for SS21 – i-D

Posted: at 9:50 pm

Ever since the shadow of coronavirus first started to creep up on us during the AW20 womenswear shows in Paris and Milan, questions have proliferated on just how fashion houses could go about showing their work at this time -- packing coughing guests tight next to one another for hours on end is not, after all, a savvy move during a global pandemic.

As weve seen during this most recent couture week, the overwhelmingly favoured option for debuting collections has been the fashion film. And with the first-ever Paris Fashion Week Online kicking off today, were sure to see the mediums reign continue, for this season at least.

At Louis Vuitton, however, a quick online flick isnt all well be seeing. They are indeed part of the official Paris Fashion Week Online calendar, showing a creative film at 14:30 CEST. This is, however, simply the introduction to an itinerant series of events that will see Louis Vuittons Message in a Bottle -- the title of Virgil Ablohs SS21 collection for the house -- travel the world.

Shot at Louis Vuittons Maison de Famille at Asnires, just outside Paris, tomorrows screening will see movers packing up Louis Vuitton shipping containers and loading them onto a barge, which sails down the River Seine and leaves Paris, according to a release. It isnt just the collection that youll find on board: on it, a colourful crew of animated characters called Zoooom with friends are hiding as stowaways.

After a month at sea, the shipment will dock in Shanghai, where a full-scale Louis Vuitton SS21 Mens runway show will take place on August 6th. Later in the year, therell be a third event in Tokyo, with further possible stops on the collections world tour to be announced.

As for the collection itself, itll be an extensive offering of around 80 looks, comprising new looks made from recycled material, looks repeated from the AW20 collection, looks freely created by the studio during the lockdown using recycled material, and new looks created from existing ideas.

Louis Vuittons proposed showcasing model is certainly future-forward, capitalising on the universal accessibility of film, while quenching a thirst for live runway shows. Its also a clever move at a time when border restrictions around the world prevent the full roster of typical show attendees from descending upon the industrys traditional centres en masse. Who knows, if Louis Vuittons proposal is anything to go by, we may just be entering an era in which, rather than going to see the shows, the shows come to you.

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Louis Vuitton Menswear is taking to the high seas for SS21 - i-D

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A different Life: a West End family’s adventures on the high seas – The Westender

Posted: at 9:50 pm

Living the Life

Four years ago, weekends started with coffee and breakfast at the West End markets or a walk along the river to Southbank. Three days a week I cycled over Highgate Hill to work while my partner, Justin, dropped the kiddies at childcare, on my days off I met friends in The Froggy Park or attended Toddler Storytime at the West End Library. On the surface we were the typical young family negotiating a work-life balance. We were busy and tired.

Friends would ask, Now you have kids are you going to buy a house in the suburbs? But why leave West End? We loved our community. One evening I sat on my balcony trying to feed a child in tantrum mode, to keep calm I watched the active commuters cycling home along Riverfront Drive or Brisbane Ferries shuttling workers home up river. At that moment my neighbour walked past looking up and I waved sheepishly, embarrassed by the noise. Five minutes later, the same neighbour walked through my door and joined me on my balcony with wine and bubbles, I could have cried with relief. We shared a drink and laughed ignoring the now quiet toddlers captivated by bubbles. So to answer the question about leaving West End, I answered vaguely, not just now, never elaborating. But we were planning to leave our beloved home because we had a secret: an alternative plan for our life.

Love West End, miss West End. But leave we did. Not for the burbs, but for a life unknown. We eventually told our friends that wanted to live on a sailboat. A boat? With tiny kids? Is it safe? WHY?!

In June 2016, after selling or giving away almost everything we owned, we quit our good jobs, bundled the remaining items into our car and drove south to visit family and to practice living in a small space. We borrowed my Mums caravan and went camping in a Victorian winter. Ahhh, think of the FREE TIME, I thought. Having forgotten in the euphoria of departure that looking after two toddlers in an unknown, unbounded space is a full time job. Despite spending most of our time running after toddlers, we had fun and learnt how to live together. Three months later, we felt ready to take the next step and move our family to Malaysia where we would try living on Justins parents boat.

Before the boat would be ready for us to live on, it required some work, so we found a little house on a little Island near a marina. For two months, Justin and his parents worked full time on the boat while I embraced child care. Looking after young kids alone in a foreign country was tough, I couldnt even work out how to feed us. I had no car, two toddlers and the nearest shop was 500m away. Unfortunately, not eating wasnt an option so I went shopping.

Off down the road I traipsed with toddlers in the midday heat past the rice paddies and buffalo. The shop: dark skinny aisles piled high with yet-to-be-stacked goods; the air thick with humidity and the smell of onions left too long; two toddlers playing hide and seek; and me, trying to read ingredient lists in Malaysian Bahasa. I remember the first thing I made resembling a meal chicken stir-fry with sweet soy and noodles it felt like a pivotal victory in the battle Family vs Adventure Unknown. Things got easier and there was a pool at the marina, so most afternoons we would make the 45 minute journey. The pool was our happy place, and we swam and splashed away our afternoons. One afternoon at the pool, a wonderful thing happened. Another boat child arrived. Suddenly, I wasnt the only crazy mum, I didnt feel so alone. We bonded while running after toddlers in a swimming pool and were still friends to this day. Eventually the boat was ready for us and the next big adjustment loomed boat life!

We moved onto the boat, trading rice paddies and buffalo for waves and fish and pointed the boat north toward Thailand. Justins parents planned to jump off in Phuket a week later. We swam in turquoise water, learnt to handle the boat and revelled in our new cruising life. Bliss. On the last day to Phuket we had light wind, so Justin put the engine on. Moments later the 30 year old engine turned its last. Kaput. A week into our adventure afloat it was over. Back on land, I looked for a place to live while Justin and his parents looked for a boat yard to haul out and replace the engine. Again I was alone caring for kids in a new country. Justin and his parents worked hard in the sweltering Thai heat and humidity to dismantle the boat and organise a new engine. Nothing happens quickly and a month into our Thai visa, encompassing Christmas and New Years in Phuket, we were ready to try again.

With the boat and shiny new engine back in the water, Justins parents departed. Alone now, we headed across the large bay to visit friends living an alternative life and there we spent an idyllic afternoon on a quiet beach drinking beer together. From that beach every possibility lay in front of us. But right in front of us, we could see trip boats ferrying tourists to a dazzling sandy island, and we thought, why not go there? We can go for free! The sandy island was a little exposed being almost covered at high tide, but newbie confidence had our anchor up and the next morning. As we arrived at the tiny little island, I looked windward to see a line of cloud and rain inbound. I assumed, wrongly, that we had time to drop and dig in the anchor. With the anchor barely touching the bottom, boof, the wind started pushing us toward a cliff. Newbie confidence was quickly replaced with newbie panic. Abort abort! Up came the anchor, back to our safe little beach. Lesson one in becoming-a-sailor: know your limits, assess the risks, dont be afraid to accept a lesser option. Slowly we learnt our lessons while simultaneously learning to find food in every bay and give kids daily exercise. During the evenings we poured over charts and researched places to visit. One particular island group called us further north: wild and remote with superior snorkeling. The Surin Islands were several days sail along the open coast. If we could get there, we would know we could do anything, but we had no pilot guide and little experience, still we decided to try.

We started inching our way north, stopping in manic Patong to run the gauntlet of tourists and ladyboys to buy food. We met other cruisers coming south who gave us maps and advice. We didnt realise it, but as a family sailing with young kids we stood out among the grey nomads: others were looking out for us. Along the way we found white sandy beaches shared only with seagulls. We discovered Thailand without tourists. We connected with other boat families and went to a full moon party in a bar built of flotsam. And we dropped anchor at the magical Surin Islands! We snorkelled with baby sharks, sat in the luminous aqua water and had fishes nibble at our toes, we climbed rocks and spied clown fish peeking out from anemones. We were happy drunk on life, our success and possibilities. Sadly though, the clock was ticking on our Thai visa. Good things really cannot last forever. Crash bang reality. Now we needed to make a big decision. With the wet season coming, what should we do next? We sat down late one night, looked at each other and asked the question are we ready to give this up? NO!

We began boat hunting, in the Mediterranean.

We hired a house for a month in La Coruna on the north west coast of Spain, where we spent days exploring a new culture and nights researching boats. After two months and another move to visit Justins family in Scotland, the right boat turned up in Southern France. She was a fixer upper, but affordable. Justin and his Dad flew down to have a look: she was a keeper, but required a couple of months of work before she could be launched. So, for the third time in a year, Justin was working full time on boat maintenance and I plunged back into full-time childcare. Alone, I moved myself, the kids and ALL our possessions to France, where at the end of a twelve hour day, I hired a car and learnt to drive on the other side of the road. As I crashed into a new bed that night after nearly no sleep for two days, I yearned for simple life of work, childcare and weekends. I felt alone, I speak no French and I had no internet. One night my son stopped breathing. I tried to call an ambulance, but I didnt know the number, my address, how to say respiratory distress and didnt even have phone reception anyway. Fortunately he was OK, but I was shaken to the core. Another important lesson learnt: plan for the unexpected. This wasnt the adventure I signed up for, but the boat was paid for, there was no going home now.

In the year since we left Australia, nearly half was spent on boat work. I look back on it as one of tough times, but also one of discovery, hope and optimism. The savings went down fast, but now we had our own floating home and we were the masters of our destiny! Or so we thought.

We launched Dizzie on 13 October 2017, just in time for winter storms in the Mediterranean to make sailing a potentially precarious activity. By October, holiday makers have retreated back to their colder northern homes and full time sailors retreat into a marina. So as soon as we started sailing, we stopped! We chose a marina with other boat-kids, in a little town at the bottom of Sicily. I didnt know it at the time, but it was exactly what we needed: to be surrounded by sailors more experienced, to be still and connect to a place.

The kids joined the state preschool five mornings a week where no one spoke English, Justin worked flat out on Dizzie and I embraced learning Italian.

Learning a new language was something for me, an accomplishment that I could own. Being a boat Mum, meant that everything I did was for the kids or the boat. I was used to working hard and owning the satisfaction of achievement. Now I was working hard and had nothing to show for it, it was wholly unsatisfying. Turns out this is a very common feeling among boat Mums. My confidence plummeted. All I did was cook and clean (which I wasnt doing entirely successfully). Learning to speak Italian gave me something of my own as an achievement. I needed it for self-confidence and to communicate with the preschool teachers. After six months of a delightful winter shared with wonderful families and salty sailors, we were ready FINALLY to realise our dream of sailing and living on our own boat. FINALLY, nearly two years after quitting our West End life, we were on the cusp of living our dream.

We left, said sad farewells (in broken Italian) to preschool, threw the dock lines and headed out into the open sea. Our first stop was a day trip to Malta and we had champaign sailing, but before we even had the chance to see the historic capital city bad weather chased us back to Sicily. Here we waited for better weather in a big safe harbour beside the captivating city of Siracuse. One month into the five month sailing season it felt like all we did was wait for good sailing weather, or run from bad weather. and it was still too cold to swim. I felt deflated: for more than a decade Id had a goal and now I had none. If you aim to climb a mountain, you plan, prepare, practice, you do it. You stand on the top, you raise your arms in the cold wind and cheer, you look down at where youve come from and realise an amazing achievement. There is resolution, completion, and acknowledgement. Well. we had reached our summit and there was nothing there. No-one gave me a high-5 and said, You worked hard! You made it! I looked on from my proverbial mountain and all I saw was more path, not up, not down, just onward into the mist. When I realised why I felt so down, I was able to grow past it and start enjoying life for what it was. Life is brief, the world is fascinating, and I have the front row seat to watch my kids grow. I saw the roses in the mist.

Im happy to say that since arriving in Greece two years ago, we have now found our groove. We travelled from Greece through the Med, across the Atlantic Ocean to South America and the Caribbean. Our lifestyle gives us the opportunities that other travel lacks. We rummage for the best apples with everyone else in the markets, we explore ancient ruins, but delve deeper into the issues of modern culture, we catch buses with the residents and avoid cruise ship days because we can. We boat-school in the morning and become free spirits in the afternoon. We are in tune with planetary rhythms; we eat dinner at sunset, marvel at the fish life on a new moon, feel the temperature drop before the rain comes.

Its not an easy life, but its never boring and we are living it together.

Lynita and family are currently in Martinique and will be heading south in another week or so.

All images by Lynita Howie

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A different Life: a West End family's adventures on the high seas - The Westender

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Monthly Archives: July 2020

Hugh Jackman made it past Disney+’s censorship with this ‘X-Men’ scene – Alternative Press

Democrat Councilwoman Who Said Toms River Too White, Claims She Received Threats, Calls for Facebook Censorship – Shore News Magazine

Federalist Radio: Ted Cruz And Michael Knowles On Censorship, TikTok, And The Chinese Communist Party – The Federalist

How Victorian Writers Navigated Censorship And Suppression Of Free Speech – Science 2.0

Cancel culture, George Orwell and reasoned debate – The Guardian

India-China conflict: A move from the Himalayas to the high seas? – The Interpreter

Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship Hosting World’s Only Biker Cruise in 2021 – Cruise Fever

S.A. Chakraborty Tells Us the Best Writing Advice She Ever Got in Reddit AMA – tor.com

Louis Vuitton Menswear is taking to the high seas for SS21 – i-D

A different Life: a West End family’s adventures on the high seas – The Westender

The Prometheus League

Breaking News and Updates

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