Calm。

it's interesting to me that torture just works to us, as a literary device. It's everywhere in movies and stories and whatnot, from big-budget dramas to little grindhouse short stories. It fits neatly into the requirements of plot: character doesn't want to offer information, Gets Tortured, has to offer information.

the issue with this is that it isn't how it works.

torture is a display of power. It fouls interrogation, this is known; a person being tortured will tell you whatever you want to hear to make it stop, which is more often than not a lie, made up on the spot, or if the truth an incomplete and useless version of it. It isn't generally done for information's sake anyway, but as a form of what the ancient Greeks called hybris, the violent exhibition of your power over another person.

This is, every once in a great while, done right in fiction, but it's a challenge to write vs. the idea that it's a shortcut to one character revealing plot-critical information to another. Pretty much every form of torture works this way, even the ones that are legally permissible. Psychological torment or physical discomfort also produce an animalistic desire to escape harm and foul interrogation. The forms of torture the cops can do? The cops do it not to gain information (or if they think it will, they're lying to themselves) but because it makes them feel powerful.

There's probably a master's thesis in it for somebody studying the rise of torture as a plot device since the beginning of the war on terror and the contemporaneous development of the Broken Windows theory of policing. I'm not really aware of any similar level of disconnect between what Works in fiction and what happens in real life!

I really think THE single most surprising false truth that was revealed to me in adolescence is the classic “bad people lie and cheat” statement.

By age 17, it was basically rammed into my head really hard that a lot of people we on the surface believe are “good” are subject to doing all the stuff that “bad” people do, and a lot of people who are mistreated and shoved to the side are actually really good people with bad curb appeal who just get misunderstood.

But yeah - I absolutely am still shocked by how many “good” people I’ve met who just openly cheat in relationships, manipulate others, steal things, lie, used to bully - all sorts of shit.

It’s just a bit unsettling to think about how most of us have secret lives in one way or another, yet we feel so ashamed of that aspect of our nature that we just push our society’s false truths onto the younger generations. It just makes them feel responsible and guilty for things that most people frankly have for many, many years been unable to master in their lifetime. https://www.instagram.com/p/BvSuSvFA10M/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=n4h648t2nlk6

クールキャット 陽 ver. (COOL CAT yáng ver.)

For just $30.00 Are you yin or yang? Either way, you're a COOL CAT。 Printed via DTG on 100% cotton。 - Designed in Miami, FL by Alex Lopez and Luke Stuart。 - Pro…

For just $30.00 Are you yin or yang? Either way, you’re a COOL CAT。 Printed via DTG on 100% cotton。 - Designed in Miami, FL by Alex Lopez and Luke Stuart。 - Produced in Miami, FL 。 - Photography by Alex Lopez and Luke Stuart 。 Please machine wash on cold and keep him away from dryers to maintain print vibrancy。 This item is a pre-order! We will be attending AnimeNYC from November 16-18th, henceforth orders will be fulfilled in the couple of weeks following the event。

I still really like the guitar/sticker pics taken a few months back 🌱

These Gloomy sticker sheets are also available on shop-Jammo.com! They’ll be up for sale at AnimeNYC as well, plus a couple other sticker packs I haven’t photographed yet 🤖🥁

(Of course the other ones are not by be and I do not take credit for them at all. They are just on my guitar. If I photographed my other guitar and used it for advertisement, it would be very… illegal because of how much that’s on it lol)

#drawing#art#illustration#manga#ink#comics#guitar#ギター#スタンプ#stickers#stickersheet https://www.instagram.com/p/BqDAl82gRV0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4fsvxg25rr6i

...I feel like we could all have a more mature conversation about the nature of art if we realized that a lot of people view the answer to the question of "Is this art?" is based on "Do I perceive this as interfering with the production of art I make/want to see exist?"

Like, legit, that's the barrier for most people from what I can tell, and a lot of paradoxical behavior starts to make sense when you look at it like that.

Thank you to everyone at AnimeNYC who made this weekend amazing! I met some amazing people if only for mere moments. Shoutouts to Alan, Jon and @eggrooooll for helping so much this weekend at the show, and Mat for helping so much on the way to here. I’ll have some new comics soon! Thank you thank you thank you 🖤 https://www.instagram.com/p/BqWCFz1AB-9/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=18j2eg2tw0wmi

Wow

FOOM! (@finfangfoomforever / @foomfamily ) is a hip-hop collective/band which fuses rock, R&B, jazz and rap. This Friday, they’ll be performing at Coral Gables Art Cinema before a screening of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin I’m honor of the Wu-Tang Clan’s debut album, “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)”!

Swipe right —> to see event info and shirt pics (the shirts will be sold there!!)

Fin!Fang!Foom! on Spotify. Link to their music in Linktr.ee on my bio!