This is a community for discussing the topic of antique books. The books in question should be older or at least near 100 years of age. Feel free to showcase your antique books or ask questions.
A place for people to discuss their love of the Japanese sword and its arts. All are welcome (Sometimes we even discuss swords that are not from Hanbon.)
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I know this isn’t for everyone, between time constraints and storage availability, but I am spending today putting up food that I got in bulk. US Foods ChefStore is one of my favorite places to get bulk food. I went yesterday and got 50 lb bags of sugar, bread flour, and rice. These are things we use, not some apocalyptic food hoard. It’s actually the third 50 lb bag of bread flour I’ve bought this year. I make a lot of bread. These basics are about half the price of the store-brand at the grocery store. Enough of a savings for it to be worth my time to separate everything into smaller packaging for storage until needed.
But, the big win, I also bought a 40 lb box of chicken wings. We like wings and have them for dinner maybe once or twice a month. The box I bought was one of their pink tag sale items, nearing the sell-by date. $35 for 40 lbs of wings. That’s just over 87 cents a pound. They’re 2.99/lb at the grocery store. I spent about an hour cutting off the wing tips and portioning into vacuum seal bags, labeling and putting in the freezer yesterday. So worth it though. (I froze the wing tips as well, those will get used along with other chicken trimmings to make chicken stock, but that’s another story)
Semi-frugal, also bought a whole beef tenderloin. $14/lb which, for tenderloin is good, but for overall thriftiness maybe not so much. We have Father’s Day, our anniversary, and my husbands birthday coming up and we enjoy a nice steak on the grill. I’ll cut steaks today and vacuum seal and freeze for us to use for these special occasions.
Hi everyone! I landed a job that requires me to be “dressed up” and I have absolutely no work attire😩 (blazers, work pants, nice shoes) Id really appreciate recommendations on where I can find affordable professional clothes, probably thrift shops or consignment stores. Any recommendations? I’m near Hartford and willing to travel up to a half hour. Thank you so much in advance 🫶🏻
Been with other half for over 7 years, both divorced and in our early 50’s. Just over two years ago he decided he would sell his house and we talked about buying a place together. We looked at houses, went to see his mortgage advisor, got my place valued and went through finances. Suddenly he backed out and said he was buying a small property for his daughter to live in as she wanted to go up country to complete her masters degree. I was so devastated, hurt and felt like I’d been taken for a mug! The house meant she had somewhere to store her stuff and come back to if she wanted. The day she went to uni she came back home within 12 hours deciding it wasn’t for her. She got a good job locally and is earning really good money and my partner pays all the bills and charges her £200 a month rent! Meanwhile he pays me rent to live with me, so technically it feels like he’s a lodger in my house, but we still share our lives.
Fast forward to today. My mortgage is going up and up, three times more than it was 18 months ago. His daughter is nearly 27 and still living in partners house. Been talking recently about selling both houses, pooling equity to buy a place together, mortgage free. When I pushed for an answer to this, because I want to start planning and for us to be more financially stable and build on our future, the reply I got from my partner was, “I need to talk to daughter to ask her permission. I’m afraid if she doesn’t like it she will disown me as a father!” It’s worth noting he has a slightly older son who he treats so very differently. Daughter has not once come to the home we share since living together, partner always goes to her, especially when I’m away working. I’m now at breaking point thinking he’s controlled the pace of our whole relationship, but it feels as if his daughter is in charge of him and in a sense my life too. I have four adult daughters who I’m incredibly close to and all stand on there own two feet, but know I’m there for support and love. I’ve told my partner that I think we’ve come to the end of the road. I just don’t think I can trust him and honestly I think he should be putting us first. It seems to me that he is enabling her to be a spoilt adult princess, who will never learn the value of things or life and will have no coping mechanisms when things get tough.
I was wondering if you know a store or place in Vienna where it is possible to go and test headphones. I'm mostly interested on Sennheiser but others on the same place would be good.
There was a post from 8 years ago but the Sennheiser's flagship store seems to not exist anymore. I've found Sennheiser's office address near to the main train station, but IDK if they have there a physical store / showroom or if it's only mgmt and online sales.
Thanks!
A while ago, I posted a test that was to determine what kind of writer someone is, based on what part of the “modernist” spectrum they fall into. Part of the reason why I did this was to see how much I understand about the subject matter, since I will always have a postmodernist tell me that I am clueless as to what any of these are. Another reason is to have writers start realizing why they think the way they do, and possibly start questioning why they write how they do. I found out that, from the dozen or so people who took the test and posted their results to me, that most people I encounter and get along with online are modernist. A lot of these people reject mainstream media and they are secluded in alternative media sites because they don’t get along with the current overton window that’s among popular sites. I think it’s safe to say a lot, if not all, of these people are anti-woke, and they received 1 or 0 answers on the woke aspect of the test.
If I can pat myself on the back for anything, at least I can say I got the woke part correct.
Although the buzzwords I used for woke might be cheating since we all know I’m referring to something woke when I say something like “inclusivity” or “intersectionality” or “oppression”, because anyone who listens to even something like Joe Rogan will know these terms and treat them like they’re dripping with vomit and diarrhea. A lot of us, especially the classical liberal, center to center-right types, and even the center-left types, are tired of this woke nonsense. Even some guy who drinks beer while watching football and shopping at a basic store like Target is tired of this tomfoolery.
So this followup is to address a lot of the complaints I received and also to bring in some insight into how I wanted to conceptualize the test and how it turned out. I will also explain the relevancy of this type of test since some are wondering why something like scoring modernist means anything.
In philosophy, you are to hit 5 branches in order for your philosophy to be considered “full” or at least “full enough” to be granted a name. These 5 are:
- Metaphysics (study of existence)
- Epistemology (study of knowledge)
- Ethics (study of action)
- Politics (study of force)
- Aesthetics (study of art)
If you hit all 5 of these at least once, you have a full range of addressing the stuff that makes up a philosophy. I tried to reverse engineer these 5 categories into 22 questions, and after the fact(meaning this evening), I realized that I should have had 4 questions for each category and then 2 questions about the reader and then the writer. The number 22 is related to the major arcana in tarot, with the 2 extras being the fool(the writer) and the world(the reader). That or maybe something like “what exactly do you write in your story?” and then that can relate to worldbuilding or something. It would have to be a question that lets us know what the person sees as a good world to write in the first place, because then that would show us the world they aim for, which is related to their worldview.
Or maybe to question what they read so that we can see what a writer finds interest in, so that it correlates with what they would write.
That was not critiqued by others, but I know I messed up on that. I was listening to a Jordan Peterson video where he said that a good survey questionnaire takes months of planning to get the wording right for the questions and the answers, and I looked at my test and saw I did it in a day, and went “well, I think I messed up, yeah.” My own critique will be taken into consideration so that I can remake the test and make it better. To repeat what I said in the test: I wish to use this to determine who to avoid when hiring and working with people, because anyone scoring even something like 2 answers on the woke mentality is something to be concerned about.
Other critique involves question 1 where the phrase “copy it” should be changed to “emulate it”. Yeah, I agree, that makes more sense, since copy makes it sound like someone is not putting their own spin on it or putting it in their own words. Imitate, match, resemble, something that intends to retain the purpose but including your own position on the matter. Question 17, how we get our knowledge, is a very open question about epistemology, and that one seems to have given a few people the woke answer by accident, even if they aren’t woke in the way they answer. The problem with the term “lived experience” is that people think it’s a normal term and it is one of the few woke terms that go over some people’s heads. The term is used commonly in correspondence with articles that feature globohomo artwork and they talk about how it’s important to have a person in your corporation or non-profit organization who holds “lived experience” and they are referring to living as a black person to know what a black person feels.
I find this incredibly woke because, as I’ll explain further later on, the woke are saying that the only way to know something is to be that thing, thus forcing writers to be, say, autistic in order to write an autistic character. Or they must be a woman to write a woman. Or they must be a black to write a black. This enforcement is what causes the demand for diversity hires, because somehow these diversity hires hold mystical magical knowledge that nobody else in the company would even dare to understand or comprehend unless they checked off some boxes first. On top of that, the term “pragmatic action” was poor wording and that’s my bad. I was trying to say something like “scientific realization” in order to attach the modernist to science. Something that is both pragmatic(able to be done practically) and part of some kind of education/training. You’ve done it, you’ve learned about it, you see others do it, that can be the modernist idea of knowledge.
Other than those two, I think every other question went over rather well, but I will still enhance them to be worded better as time goes on and as I revisit it with more of an organized “5 sets of 4 and the 2 big ‘uns” in mind. But then there comes the elephant in the room. The scoundrel who dared to question my authority and make a critique about the test. How dare they and stuff.
Jokes aside, I really like this kind of critique and it’s great that she put it into clear questions that I can firmly address. I like it when people are clear. It’s much better than that obfuscation thing the postmodernists always do when they complain about me without really having a reason other than something where they don’t like labels or they were offended that I dared to mention any category of anything. Page Zaplendam, a fellow writer, brought up 3 important questions which you can see for yourself
here:
- Where are the definitions of the terms?
- How do you justify reducing things to something like woke?
- How do you prevent people from rejecting pre-modernism?
I’ll address the first one to then follow through with the rest of the answers, because they all go in a long chain of “why, why, why” and “how, how, how”.
To begin the explanation, we’re going to need to establish what modernism is so that the others can be explained. It’s the word that created the reason we see a difference in aesthetics like this because this was the moment we engaged in what’s called the enlightenment. During the early 17th century and around that time, people started to remove their dependency on kingdoms and instead create nations and industry. Religion was also being questioned because scientific advancements through record keeping allows people to give better assessments on what causes something to happen in the world. The view of the world started to become more natural and so naturalism was common, as well as rationalism and empiricism. People were using logic to make their decisions and data to come to conclusions, rather than faith or scripture from prior.
During this time, the modern age, traditions were tarnished and deemed as unnecessary. Medicine allowed people to praise science instead of pray for a mystical cure. Predictions of weather with meteorology allowed people to reduce famines and starvation. Printing presses allowed books to become more common, machinery allowed more production of goods, and life went from depending on neighbors to depending on communities and global trade. This dramatic change in both lifestyle and mentality allowed art to enter the modernist art era, which is determined as art that experiments to search for new meaning and objectivity without the necessity of a deity, tradition, or the supernatural.
Mythology became psychology, alchemy became academia, and religion became fandom. Everything mentally changed under modernism to create an environment of experimentation, the romances took over, which led to the pulp adventures and existentialist works of things like noir. Weird tales brought us ideas of cosmicism, thanks to the lack of god or at least the lack of a god who cares about humanity. With this freedom from religion, the mostly liberal environment of modernism allowed people to make up their own rules, their own ideas of what’s real, and thus we were able to focus more on the individual, rather than the collective. Stephen Hicks has a great video where he lectures about how modernism came to be and what it is, but I can simplify it into the 5 categories he has on his chart.
Metaphysics: naturalism
Epistemology: empiricism and reason
Human Nature: Tabula Rasa(everything mental is gained from experience)
Ethics: individualism
politics/economics: liberal capitalism
As you can see, modernism caused this reliance on the self, but also reliance on science as a replacement for religion. It caused the worship of money, while also opening people up to other ideas thanks to the liberal mindset. The liberty to engage with other things allowed people to mingle with both good and bad ideas. This is actually why people, like James Lindsay, say that liberals caused things like Nazism and Communism to come into fruition, because the liberal is so open and accepting that they allow terrible ideas to take over the top of the social structure and they think it won’t touch them if they are on the bottom. This is also how dictators were able to trick people into treating them like a God, because the dictator convinced people that they were able to answer prayers and did this during their campaigns to get elected or during the revolution while they’re beheading their opponents in the streets.
In other words, the uprising of democracy had people rely on voting in the same way as people relied on prayers, but here it’s where we pray to a natural government and hope they do something we want.
One thing that we don’t like to realize is that colonization occurred because of a scientific superiority among the Europeans, and this scientific advancement was caused by years of wars and immense dedication to their royalty. Then there were areas they colonized that had a crazy amount of gold, such as Australia and the Aztec empire, and this abundance of gold allowed trade to skyrocket, while Indian trade and the silk road allowed wealth to spread across the globe. Diamonds and gold found in Africa, like a sick joke from God to force white people to go to such a hellhole to get the diamonds in the rough. It’s not that white people wanted to go around and rule the world. It’s that enlightened explorers and merchants wanted to make a crazy amount of money and these environments were inhabited by people who left these literal gold mines untapped, and these explorers used technology to take over.
No wonder modernism was full of that toga wearing utopia sci-fi stuff!
It’s not hard to realize why the Europeans took over entire empires with small groups of conquistadors. They had armor, guns, ships with cannons. Those Chinese must have their face red realizing they are the ones who sold them black powder. Every alchemist should feel bad and stuff that they are the reason guns were used versus the people who didn’t have guns. It was such a destructive force to use guns against savage tribes and kingdoms because it was both physical and psychological. It was like dealing with metallic robots who fired lightning from their arms and filled the area with a concealing smoke. That’s like showing a caveman a cellphone, their brains instantly melt trying to comprehend what’s going on.
So people are angry at the modernists for being… rational and empirical, and I guess being urbanized or industrialized. People are mad at capitalism for being effective and a good way to globally get along. They’re mad at liberals for being okay with race mixing. The utter nerve of such horrid actions. How dare people mix. I’ll make sure to tell my own future mixed kids that they should be ashamed of themselves for having parents who came from different parts of the Earth and that’s about it.
So modernism, do I like it?
Well, it’s not bad. A lot of my favorite stuff is modernist and usually when people say they want to go back to the old days, they point at modernism as the example. Hell, a lot of postmodernists now are saying they want to go back to modernism, and then they say they don’t, because they feel like it's superior, but they hate the idea of accepting that it’s modernist. I mean, that’s why it’s called postmodernism, it’s the thing after modernism is gone, it’s the rejection of modernism and also pre-modernism. But more on that one later.
I noticed a lot of people got mostly modernist as their answers on the test and it makes sense. Many people online, especially on alternative social media, will be actual liberals who are open to different ideas, which allows them to engage with things that both offend them and possibly something they see as evil. They’re open to having their minds changed and they are always willing to learn more because there’s a big idea on learning more and experimenting, which is something I can relate to because I’m always trying out new restaurants in my area and I don’t mind trying a genre that I’m not familiar with. For me, I have a bit of that liberal mindset because I try out a lot of things I’m not familiar with and I end up liking some stuff, but I usually stick to what I established as my firm ideas from prior.
For example, when I was a kid I hated eating beans and I refused to eat fish that wasn’t canned tuna. Now, after being more open, I love salmon and I love eating beans, which dramatically helped my nutritional intake. There is a healthiness involved with experimenting and there is also a risk factor. But if you know how to avoid dangers, I don’t see a problem with trying out something like a new genre you’re not used to, just to see if you can get into it.
I mention this because the modernist writer will experiment, but will also claim a truth that comes from rationalism, which assumes the world we live in is logical. Even if it’s chaotic and absurd, they’ll say it’s logical, because it’s predictable and we can interact with it. This allows their writing to hold to formulas through things like pulp, while also experimenting through things like weird fiction. There is repetition that happens, and this is why genres became a big thing, so the reader can tell what form of repetition they want to deal with through what they are familiar with. This caused what’s called a comfort zone, which is the state of mind where a person feels at ease because there is an abundance of familiarity and a lack of unwanted challenges. Genres create these comfort zones, and this is then where we have to talk about individualism.
Liberalism has the problem of causing individualism to slowly become sophistry and egotism. The person declaring they are the one who is to be relied on and they are the ones who make up their own rules becomes a person who can’t tell who they’re obeying. Especially if that person puts something above themselves, like race, or science, or nation, or the opinions of others through democracy. Thanks to romanticism during this modernist time, we were able to feel like we had an abundance of freedom and capability, but then barely a century later the rise of Naizsm and Communism caused people to realize that this capability is in relation to what the shadow is capable of. The darkest, most disturbing and destructive actions a person is capable of, beyond their imagination and beyond what we’d consider a “human act”.
This quick change into the most dangerous entity nearby is why I don’t trust anarchists when they say their utopia would be functional. When it comes to real life, that doesn’t work, we need a more powerful overarching thing to keep that shadow in check, and we need that entity above the human to be in check of its own shadow on top of that. And this shadow is also what causes the modernist to engage with things like dada and a hatred of art to the point where they can say the work is for them and them alone, or that all art is equal, down to where a turd on a pedestal is the same as the Mona Lisa.
The pro of modernism is a focus on the individual, which promotes movements like poetic realism and neorealism, which grants a look into everyday lives. The mundane can be put into the forefront and average people can feel like they relate, which allows the average person to buy the work. That is a great plus, and it’s why the most popular shows out there are stuff that involves soap opera style drama and an environment that is simple, like a hospital or a police station. The sitcom is a result of modernism, because only a modernist would find value in seeing a family hang around their house while you’re sitting in your house with your family watching someone else in their house with their family.
Now let’s get on with pre-modernism, after all of that introduction is said and done. Pre-modernism is everything that came before this enlightenment and this separation from God. Atheists like to say how atheism has been popular forever and they have simply been suppressed, but something crazy that they ignore is that every civilization, without ever talking to each other, before any contact with anyone else, became a religious, spiritual, civilization. We even have a name for this basic religion, called animism. This natural desire to be religious in humans comes from how we think when we are young, as well as how we think when we are not relying on science or even words.
I know this sounds strange but we think more in pictures and visions than we do with words when we don’t know how to read. Reading unlocks a vast amount of knowledge that can be gained practically instantly, but a lack of language in our ability to think causes an abundance of symbolism in our head to fill in the gaps, meaning the ability to read locks away this visual aspect. When we’re babies, we view everything as giant, threatening, and frightening. And why not? We’re this tiny soft thing that has a skull that can easily be dented and we’re unable to feed ourselves. We need someone to throw food into our mouths like bananas into the mouth of a hippo at a zoo. We have our parents doing stuff for us, and so our brain right away connects the two.
Stuff happening around us is caused by something like a parent, like an authority, like a sky father and earth mother. The father gives me brain stuff and the mother gives me food stuff. But then we’ll grow up and realize that something like the wind moves on its own, the moon comes up to replace the sun on its own, and the seasons change on their own. There’s something we can’t see that’s doing this, something beyond the sky and under the ground, and everywhere we can’t see, especially behind our eyeballs. There’s this strange image that appears behind my vision that is not of the world but of my mind, and I conjured it.
And if I didn’t conjure it, I had someone else put it in my head through a spell, in the form of words, which cast the symbol to occur in my mind. Writers in the pre-modernist age are spellcasters, wizards, that make sure something is explained about the mysterious and supernatural world that is beyond the stuff we see around us. This “rejection of the average” causes the pre-modernist writer to talk about stuff that are not only real, but hyper-real. It doesn’t speak about an individual and it’s not for an individual, because it’s attaching everyone under the same umbrella and form. This is why I find poor interpretations of mythology humorous but also rather useless.
People will look at something like Greek mythology where a god has a child with their sister and go “well, isn’t incest a bad thing?” Not only do they miss the point, but they forget that it's a god we’re talking about and it’s not a human. It’s not some biological thing standing in front of you. It’s the supernatural, it’s beyond something like biology. Or better yet when someone reads the bible and goes “why did Adam take a rib out to get a woman? Couldn’t God just make a woman without taking his rib?”
It’s like, you missed the point and you’re ignoring the importance of symbolism, and this symbolism grants all of the meaning that you’re missing from the bible. Yes, Eve is made from Adam, and yes, it takes a rib, because rib is a bone and bone is structure. A rib is near a heart, a protector of heart. Heart is courage, love, emotions, stuff that makes our blood pump. Blood is a humor based on air, and air is one of the 4 elements. The connection goes on and on and on, because this mythology is all connected together into one giant story that goes beyond the words stated in the story. Each tiny noun or verb means way more than it lets up to mean. I’ve been studying mythology for a while, and really trying to look into them before I say anything about them, and there is so much inner history with mythology that’s both present and reachable, but it’s practically endless with how everything connects.
And at the same time, all of this is essential, of a form, symbolic, and objective.
This relation to religion in pre-modernism causes the definition to be something like “the art form that depicts hyper-reality in an objective truth that involves the supernatural as a source of the natural and as the source of truth.
Stephen Hicks puts the politics of the pre-modernist as feudalism, but it’s more like monarchy, where you believe that there should be a king, because someone has a family line that was sacred enough to treat like one. In pre-modernism, we had ancestor worship in every culture, because your family line was important to keeping your existence relevant. This is because everything in the pre-modern age involved titles, which were granted by an authority, and many times this authority is a god or an ancestor.
Your title within your family is in relation to your family members and your last name determines your family’s title for others to recognize. If someone was a smith, they would get the last name smith, like say John the smith just becomes John Smith, and they will endow their established trade to their next of kin. So if the son of John Smith wants to make a living, he’s going to be a smith as well. There is this lineage and family business that is treated seriously, because if you step out of this title, you’ll have to create your own. People could do that by entering a trade or a guild, by learning from others, from gaining a title after being born a bastard, or whatever they could to get a title.
But the key factor is that title is important to the pre-modernist. What’s even more important is form, because this religious mentality creates the environment that perfection is possible. A metaphysical manifestation separate from the material world that is able to be aimed towards and sought after, even if unable to be reached. This was well portrayed in characters like Jesus, which Christianity dedicated itself to fulfill the traits of Jesus, due to Christianity being a religion where people follow the teachings of Jesus.
I would say that every religion had their own type of Jesus, the perfect form that someone or something has to uphold and look up to as inspiration.
Later on, alchemy came out of the prototype phase and started to connect all of these religions and symbols with each other to create more overarching symbolism that went for more core ideas. At this point, people could only argue against combinations and where something is in a hierarchy, rather than the validity of the claim of something like a single god or a creator. Sects of religions were made in order to determine different end goals, or different ideas in how a ritual should be done, or whether something like a church is important for worship, and these were the biggest sources of dispute possible.
You either followed God's will or you didn’t, and if you didn’t, you were a heathen. Heathens are sent to the bad place, believers go to the good place. We have a supernatural aspect of our body, beyond our body, beside our body, that went there for us, usually in the sense of a soul or spirit. The mind is an intermediary between the body and spirit that allows communication between the two at all times. This was usually depicted with gods like Psyche or Hermes or any other messenger god.
The gods would speak to us with omens and with us using clairvoyance. Any pattern in front of us or up in the stars could be used as a means to decipher a supernatural message. This message was easily able to repeat itself because there was an objective meaning to everything, which is why something like Zodiacs are constantly watched even to this day. Pre-modernist art retains this tradition of using mythology and symbolism to depict truths about the world. Romanticism was an attempt to return to this truth telling style during the modernist era, but Romanticism was absent of the religious aspect and was more of something like a neo-alchemical way of handing stories, where symbols were kept basic and for individual progress instead of a collective one.
A big part of pre-modernism is collectivism, especially the collective unconscious, which Jung coined later on when referring to his more pre-modernist analysis of psychology that heavily relied on alchemy and mythology. We used mythology to say something of value, with a universal or at least human level of objectivity, and the only way to miss the message is to deny that symbolism exists for them. Or at least, your level of symbolism in your interpretation would have to be so low resolution that it misses every point entirely and has zero context as to why mythology is important in the first place.
Mythology grants the idea that our world holds order, while the modernist idea is more about how the world is chaotic and we hold order to shape the world better. Fables grant the idea that particular personalities do particular things, while modernism declares that things change or can be grey and shows how. The black and white morality of the pre-modernist merged into grey once modernism kicked in, because there is the lack of theism under modernism.
We’re half way through the explanation and now we come to postmodernism.
Pre-modernism establishes that the supernatural causes order to cause truth, modernism changed that to say a secular natural world causes chaos to have us find truth. So what does postmodernist do to change all of that?
It rejects both and says both pre-modernism and modernism are wrong, and instead says everything that can be perceived is subjective and the objective is unknown to us. Stephen Hicks says in his video that postmodernists are really intelligent and well read into an abundance of stuff, and he’s impressed by that. I would have to disagree with him because it’s not like they read everything they did in order to understand it. They read everything and continue searching because they intend on claiming it’s not true, and use their personal interpretation to claim such. It’s very much like when a person studies mythology to then say “you know, the gods committing incest and magically transforming is really weird.”
Before I get deep into postmodernism, I would like to explain the concept of realism. Realism, in both philosophy and art, is to depict a thing as how it truthfully is. There is accuracy, there is something there that really exists, and it has attributes that causes it to really exist. Both modernism and pre-modernism have this as an axiom. Postmodernism on the other hand is ANTI-realism.
You cannot believe in something being “real” as a postmodernist because to claim something is real is to claim an objective truth, which a postmodernist is allergic to doing. They are unable to claim anything as true, because there is no proof for them to use, thus any statements they make must be an opinion and any statement they see must be perceived as an opinion as well. In all honesty, I have trouble finding postmodernists who go this far down the rabbit hole. All of them focus on subjectivity, but they’ll still try to tell others that things can be real in a colloquial way that lets them blend in with modernists. It’s hard to get people to follow you when you claim things aren’t real, so there is a form of deception and contradiction that occurs, but it’s also acceptable to the postmodernist.
This is because postmodernists don’t care about logic, and anything they want to claim as “true” is based on a social subjectivism that can also be considered an overton window that shows them what is acceptable to say and what isn’t. A lot of them try to push it, others try to blend in with it, with the intensity depending on how far they want to push their deconstructionism and reductionism. For example, phrases like “we’re all just stardust floating around” is a way for the postmodernist to seem deep with their reductionism, but it’s actually their way of saying they are nihilistic while trying to sound deep and poetic.
Stephen Hicks does have an amazing point in his presentation where he says truth no longer matters to the postmodernist and what does matter is power. That kind of concept comes from Nietzsche’s will to power (which is why Nietzsche is considered a proto-postmodernist, one who helped birth it into existence) and Marx’s historical materialism. The thought that human labor forms the material basis of society, and this idea being spread out into every 3rd world country(aka communist country during the cold war) means that a big chunk of the world is convinced of this concept of power through labor and power through capital that’s seen as “stolen labor” when it’s a bourgeoisie.
This leaning into Marxist terminology, thanks to communists and hippies, causes postmodernist politics to be considered leftist, and exclusively leftist. There is no way for a right wing postmodernist to even occur because the right winger believes in a truth through natural rights and there is no way to remove that aspect. This is why Stephen Hicks calls the postmodernist political and economic idea socialist, which what he really means is leftist. Although, socialist works a bit more for the political aspect since socialism is a wonky word that means whatever the socialist wants it to mean.
They think the worker owns the means of production and that some form of social relevancy should happen and the rest is dependent on what they want to advocate for. Not surprisingly, this socialist aspect quickly turned into syndicalism and later corporatism when relying on the government to enforce this social power upon the masses, also known as a cult of personality. The cult leader, or leaders, tell everyone that they have power, they tell everyone that they’re special, the people don’t question it because they think it’s a common opinion, and so the cult grows unrestrained. We see this at all times when people will both hold water for a politician for any little thing and also attack their opposition for any little thing, no matter how much of a double standard or fallacy they apply to their advocacy.
To the postmodernist, advocacy is labor geared towards power, with advocacy being the only thing you can do to socially stay relevant.
When it comes to postmodernist media, the key idea is exploitation, because the goal is to get as many views as possible and break as many boundaries as possible. Modernist rating systems are pushed and pushed constantly into exploitation to the point where new ratings are made and R rated material becomes the new norm. The grindhouse is a common place and is normalized, even though before these would be considered taboo, because the way the overton window moved more towards the left through their advocacy. The leftist postmodernist demands power as the social structure and so they demand power and are slowly granted it over time. But there is a bit of a weird thing that happens between how Hicks and I see postmodernism.
In his chart, he labels postmodernism as collectivist and egalitarian. I see this as a bit misleading since the leftist is not really for collectivism in the same way as a pre-modernist would claim we’re all connected. The postmodernist believes that we’re all connected in how we’re all trapped in our own subjective constructions, as if we’re all islands in this massive chain of islands and the water between us is the subjective separation.
For example, let’s say I look at a dog and another person looks at a dog. We both see the dog but the dog is one dog for me and another dog for them and there is this supposed infinite number of dogs who make up this single entity that takes up the space where the perceived dog resides. And not just an infinite number of dogs, but infinite number of things between what the dog is made of, with an infinite number of those for each smaller thing. I guess, to him, that’s collectivism, and the egalitarian thing comes from how leftist demand that people are to be treated equal, as well as all art to be treated equal.
Just like dada, which was a proto-postmodernist art movement, the postmodernist thinks that all art is equal, with the Mona Lisa holding the same aesthetic value as a turd on a pedestal. This allows the postmodernist to use juxtaposition to combine something of high regard with something of low regard, like say having classical music play during a moment where someone is being tortured in a grindhouse way. Or maybe another example is like how Tarantino combines low quality exploitation movies with high quality dialogue that people praise for its realism and tension. This is why surrealism became popular under postmodernism, because surrealism juxtaposes a high concept symbol with nonsensical low concept literal images or events.
Another aspect of postmodernism is the idea that art and real life has merged into a type of hyperreality that blurs the line where life and art meet. People record their lives online and turn that into media, thus turning even things like talking about people who are in media into a form of media itself(aka Hollywood gossip stuff and youtube drama).
Without much of a message or objective symbolism, a lot of postmodernist media focuses on playfulness, because messing with things is all that there’s left as a means of entertainment and media making. Personal interpretation as the only means of experiencing causes the postmodernist to aim for open interpretation work, using vague wording and dog whistles to hide intents that they believe a common audience wouldn’t like, but select circles would catch. And with this demand for social power came the rise of corporate media, where corporations crank out stuff with self made trends and control groups who guide the corporation towards more money, thus more power.
There is also a combination of media, usually in the form of merchandising, so that a form of media will still be advertised and thought about, even when not engaged with the media directly. For example, GI Joe started out as a toy for kids. Then it became a comic and a show for kids. Now it’s a movie series for kids. Transformers, He-Man, I think even Gundam. These things aim for sales first and then plan the story after, because it’s all one big marketing campaign. There’s nothing in these that try to say what is true, they simply try to say things that will have people think they agree with it, or at least can’t argue against it to where they disengage with the product that’s being sold.
This has caused postmodernist media to become both highly marketable but also highly forgettable. Things easily get outdated even if the tech level stays consistent because of intertextuality, which is the relationship one media has with another to grant the user of intertextuality with relevancy that can have the audience understand the reference. This is a fancy way of saying something like an inside joke or a typical reference like a meme that we see online. If you ever want to understand this one, just think of any Channel Awesome reviewer. They will try to make jokes that reference something in media, probably something they reviewed prior, in order to keep the dedicated fans in the circle of attention and make the new fans try to keep up with this intensifying requirement of knowing jargon.
Intertextuality can also be seen as a sort of specialized culture within a franchise or company or genre or just stuff that is similar, so that the people who are of the fandom can all enjoy speaking some special language with each other and keep out the people who don’t know about their niche idioms and references.
This combination of reality and media, along with removing objectivity from the equation, with high and low arts being combined through playfulness and for marketing, is why our media is the way it is today. It’s made like fast food, doesn’t offer anything for the brain to work with, and is actually more for our brains to turn off if anything. People like Ray Bradburry saw this issue with TV and determined it was going to turn us into Idiocracy, which he explored in his book Fahrenheit 451. People are indulged and distracted by the idiot tube, they stop questioning things, books start being called evil, the government enacts a war against books, all people have left are things that keep them dumb, and then they can’t even see a war that’s happening all around them and in their own backyard.
The benefit of postmodernism is that it can appear more creative and people get entertained. That’s about it. No more feeling like you need to tell the truth, now you can make a story about whatever. The only benefit quickly becomes the main problem with it: it’s a bad influence. Postmodernists can only deconstruct and so they’re never pleased.
We see this all the time with Channel Awesome reviewers where they will miss the point of everything in a movie, like say Last Action Hero, and even though Last Action Hero is a postmodernist deconstruction of action movies, the reviewer will scream and holler about how the movie can’t be taken seriously. Then when they are challenged on the integrity of their review, they will spin it around and say they were just being meta and knew it was satire all along, that nobody should take any review of theirs seriously or as their actual opinion.
Or better yet, a postmodernist fan will chime in and speak for the reviewer, like when I said Spoony’s review of Final Fantasy 8, yet another deconstruction work that people were conflicted on, was misguided and wrong. A bunch of fans came in and said “Well, that’s not his REAL opinion. He didn’t REALLY say what he wanted to during the months he spent working on that review.”
I guess the point of postmodernism is to NOT say what you mean. Because how can they? That would address there is an objective idea in their head of what they mean, and that can’t happen under postmodernism. So you’re left with this endless chain of people trying to make a satire or make fun of something that is already making fun of something and that thing is already not to be taken seriously, and… you get the picture.
But then, recently, a sort of organized idea sprouted out from postmodernism. This idea that everything is both power and subjective, while also being a social construct, coagulated into a unification of something under what is called intersectionality. In 1989, Kimberly Chrenshaw coined the term, which already was working off of ideas during postmodernism such as second wave feminism and critical race theory. Through the idea that extreme egalitarianism is the way, in a subjective way, these defenders of the marginalized demanded that media should cater to whoever they deem as marginalized.
This branch of postmodernism is known as woke.
For wokeness, there isn’t much of a history or even aesthetic choice to shift through, but there is an awful lot of jargon to explain so that people know what I’m talking about. So for the majority of the woke explanation, I will be explaining the special words used that the woke will both claim are super important to know, but will also refrain from defining because they want to keep it on the down low. They mostly want to do that because they know their reasoning doesn’t make any sense and because it’s self contradictory, but that’s okay for them because they are, by their own admittance, anti-logic and “there is no real wokeness”.
Actually, before I explain the jargon, I want to get into that “there is no such thing as woke” talking point they always do. This is the same thing as saying “I want everyone to do x and there is no x”. Or when they are less radical, they will say something like “Everyone should do x, but nobody has done x yet.” But recently it’s been more like “This thing in the media has always been x, which is why we need it to be more x”.
As you can see, the narrative is always changing and they are always telling people to do something. This is the opposite of postmodernism in how it’s authoritarian, but is part of postmodernism because of the subjective aspect, as well as the neo-dada form of anti-art. The “art” of woke art is meant to express representation, and this representation is supposed to be of a group, and this group is supposed to look a particular way, absent of any stereotypes, negative or positive, and absent of any grand narratives, pre-modernist or modernist.
Therefore, all we’re left with is… appropriation and exploitation of marginalized groups.
Something tells me they didn’t think this through. It’s almost as if their goal is to be the thing they claim to fight against, but they don’t want to be called racist or sexist or whatever phobic because they don’t want to lose social power. This enforcement of an ideology, an ideology that tries to equally exploit for money, is put under the acronym DEI: Diversity, equity, and inclusion. This is a profitable business to get into, because DEI is estimated to have corporations annually spend $17 billion on DEI programs and organizations by the year 2027. In 2003, it was estimated that corporations spent $8 billion. In 2022, that number was recorded at $9 billion.
What do these numbers mean? It means companies are wasting money on this and they’re losing money after enacting woke policies.
When we combine wokeness with the socialist/Marxist mentality of the postmodernist, we end up with a constant drain of capital on the end of the media maker. The one making the art LOSES MONEY when they go woke, which is why we say “go woke, go broke.” There is no intention on making money with wokeness. This is why governments added wokeness to what is called the ESG score, which is a score that governments use to subsidize companies that follow things like climate change advocacy, DEI, and following whatever regulations a country puts in like mask regulations.
Follow these things, get closer to the “leader” score, and you get more money from the government. This is why companies don’t care when they lose customers, because at the end of the day, they are kept afloat by tax dollars. Then the people in charge of these companies buy the lowered stock that was hit by a controversy, and they have it go back up between woke projects. This is why the CEO of a corporation loves woke backlash, as long as they can pretend they had nothing to do with the woke decision. This is why, for example, Budlight decided they had nothing to do with hiring Dylan Mulvaney AFTER the boycotts worked, instead of, you know, while hiring him to be a spokesperson for the beer on April Fools day of all days.
So the go broke part is for the company itself, while the people using wokeness for their benefit are grifting and taking short term gains. Same thing was for something like BLM, which is an organization that revealed the money donated for the purpose of helping black communities was instead used to buy the founders mansions. The idea that wokeness brings in the cash and it can be called “woke capitalism” is absurd due to the lack of longevity the concept has. This is like calling a stolen item that gets sold at a pawn shop “illegal capitalism”. It doesn’t mean much, and it’s just trying to tie capitalism in with something negative, which is hilarious since wokeness is meant for the left.
With that out of the way, I’m going to get into the jargon, which will allow us to see some of the “philosophy” behind woke. The first one is “critical theory” which is what everything under wokeness is based on to enact a policy. This is how they choose who is marginalized and who isn’t. The term critical race theory originated in the 1980s through discussions about laws because some people decided that equality was not enough. It’s not enough that you can treat a person as an equal, like how a liberal does, because somehow a person born in 1980 is influenced by their ancestry from 1480. Judith Butler helped popularize critical queer theory, which lost the critical part once that aspect was seen as bad, thanks to critical race theory.
They kept all of the critical theory roots, but they removed the word critical because they don’t want to appear… critical. This also happened when Lisa Tuttle popularized the current form of feminist theory, where they remove the critical part because of the stigma they know the word has. No matter what, deception and omission must be used to get their agenda through, because that’s all they know how to do. They cannot get power unless they deceive people into giving them their power. And I find that a little odd since critical theory is a Marxist theory that came from the Frankfurt School from a man named Max Horkheimer, way back in 1937.
Max’s idea was that the enlightenment was a mistake, making him anti-modernist, but the postmodernists of this school of thought will still insist that there is something modernist about critical theory. They claim it’s because Marx was objective because Marx thought something objective is whatever is practiced, yet nothing he claims that is practiced was ever true, so it’s sort of a strange way to misdirect people into thinking that his appeal to his own version of rationalism was somehow actual rationalism. In other words, it’s wordplay. But, we can still say something like his attachment to science being a key element of his ideology, with science trying to be used to determine the natural world, is sort of modernist.
And this is the first step into getting confused as to what anything is, which is why people need a clear explanation as to what something like a modernist is. A good way to explain if something is actually modernist is if you can ask a writer if they believe in marxism and objectivity. If they say no, then we can see that Marxism appeals to the postmodernist in a way that is by design, not by accident. This is why Jordan Peterson is forced to call actual Marxists “neo-Marxists” and “cultural marxists”, because of the constant wordplay that is used by the very same Marxists.
Now, I want to harp on Marxism due to the fact that every single critical theory that the woke adopted is a Marxist theory. Critical theory was based on Marxism and critical theory declared that cultural equality was required in order to prevent fascism. It determined that individuals are not the ones behind social problems, but instead these problems were caused by social structures and cultural bias. What are these problems and what are the solutions, you may ask?
Well, critical theory doesn’t have any of that covered. In fact, the goal was to NOT cover any of those and to just say “social problems are at the social level” and that’s it. Congratulations, theory complete. The social thing is about society and society is how individuals interact. So it’s not the individual’s fault, it’s how they act with each other that’s the problem. So the theory is saying we need to change our act in order to solve the problems, and this was followed by the feminists who say we need to help the women get up in life. This was followed by the CRTists who said we need to help certain races get up in life. This was followed by the Queer Theorists who said we need to help the LGBT get up in life. There is the body positivity, the handicapped, the “don’t slut shame me" movement, and the list goes on and on.
Now we’re in a world where all of these things are in our media and forced into our media because somehow critical theory is the new normal, but you’re not allowed to say it’s forced. If you say it’s forced, some people might reject it and then the enforcers lose power, so they will always say “this is how media always was”. This is how we now have people claiming that ancient civilizations were pro-trans and pro-gay, even though they weren’t and I thought the entire point in CHANGING society is because these social problems are ingrained into society?
This is how the woke say one thing and then mean another. They want the power, but claim the power is given to someone else, while they take the power for themselves. Something like gender is told to be super important and something even worth committing suicide over, but then the lady who made up queer theory says that gender is performative, meaning that it doesn’t matter. Feminism is told to be super important because this is how we can help women become equal, and then we’re told by the person who made current feminist theory that “you’re not born a woman, you become one, even if you were born a male.”
This “equality of power” that the critical theorists said they wanted quickly turned into an “equality of babbling”. Nothing under wokeness makes any sense, and neither does the origin of the term woke. It is meant to mean a person is awake, that they were sleepwalking through life and now they are aware that bad things are happening in society. What are these bad things? Well, whatever you can make up and convince others is bad, since it’s all subjective. If someone steals a VCR and they are black, you can say the police who arrested the thief are evil because they are oppressing a desperate black man who “wouldn’t have stolen if society just treated him better.”
Of course, this implies that rapists only rape because they weren’t treated well enough by society, but only of that rapist is a particular skin color. The woke quickly tie the “need to rape” with skin color, and then call others racists. Actually, now that I’m on the race topic, let’s lay out CRT and how they view race from their supposed “law related origins”.
CRT determines that race doesn’t actually exist, that white people created race to then create racism. I’ll say that again to make sure if you caught that. CRT, a belief about how race works, claims that race doesn’t exist. But then it blames a particular race because… it’s not racist. Did I mention that this belief is anti-evidence and anti-reason? Yes, they do not want reason or evidence to be used for laws, because these things are biased. Instead they want storytelling from the marginalized person, who is called black, even though they don’t believe black as a race exists. This storytelling can be something like “I was walking down the street and I saw a police officer and I felt fear. I should not feel fear. That means the police officer is racist because I’m black and they made me fear.”
To make it even worse, they determine that color blindness from laws causes racist laws to form, because discrimination can occur from certain laws like murder rates, drug use, and theft. Something like being on time to work is considered racist, because a clock is a construction by white people to keep black people down. There’s always something designed by the white man to “keep black people down” because they believe white people only have power because they can keep others down. This is why they advocate to pull all of the non-whites up by forcing white people to hire non-white people into roles in movies or something like a job or using affirmative action to force black people into college classes by reducing their requirements.
Apparently, when you go to the military, the goal is not to have a good soldier but to allow more women to get in by reducing the standard for them. The goal of getting black people into college is to reduce the requirements for them so that they can get in, while increasing the requirements for Asians because there are too many Asians in college. But if we look at media, and only the US media, we can see there is a lack of Asians, so Asians are forced into film sets. Yes, there are plenty of Asians in, you know, Asian countries, soaking up all of the film time, but they don’t count.
In fact, they don’t count because white people don’t watch them as much, so now we have to have an enforcement of Asians being translated into English for western audiences to indulge in Asian culture, which is why Netflix transfers money from the west to the east and tries to get a bunch of Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai content out. A lot of this Asian content is also LGBT, because even though these Asian countries don’t care for such content, the west must believe that the east is super open about it. There will be something like a comedy about a pregnant male that comes from Korea, and the west will take that and say it’s empowering because it fights against gender norms.
Meanwhile, the story is just a postmodernist joke about how it would be funny if men felt pregnancy pain. And it’s because there was a postmodernist comedy called Junior which had the joke “wouldn’t it be funny if a big buff Austrian dude was pregnant?”
My point is that wokeness is just appropriation, through and through. If it’s ancient bigotry, they will say it’s woke. If it’s modernist liberalism, they’ll say it’s woke. If it’s postmodernism making fun of wokeness, they’ll say it’s woke. No matter what, they will spin something to call it woke, just so that they can say liberalism is evil and equality is evil. Their goal is to have an equal outcome, which is their excuse to give certain groups more money and fame, all while ignoring merit. The very idea of rejecting merit as a qualifier is the reason woke media is designed to lose money, and is also a way to tie woke to postmodernism.
I think this is enough explanation of the jargon for now. Not sure if I missed anything, but I think enough of a point is made on that part to have anyone understand how wokeness works. The metaphysics is the same as postmodernist, it’s all subjective. The epistemology is through lived experience because of the storytelling that’s deemed as superior to reason. The ethics is social justice, because they demand equity, aka equal outcome. The politics are marxist, meaning their goal is to remove capitalism because capitalism is an evil product of liberalism. And finally the aesthetic is what I would call anti-art.
I guess I might be able to explain the aesthetics, but it’s rather loose. The problem is that art to the woke is just propaganda. The don’t really give a story or plot with woke media, instead they just take something generic and roll with it, assuming they even give it a plot. For example, there is a woke comic from Marvel(since every comic from them is woke now) where a superhero gets stopped by a cop for being native american. This female, possibly lesbian, native american uses her powers to have the cop realize he’s racist by mind controlling him into thinking he’s racist.
Work with me here…
So the cop is at his house later and decides that he can’t live with himself as a racist person, so he shoots himself in the head. The native american woman watches him from afar and goes “my work here is done” and considers herself a hero for the day. Comic book issue over. So the plot of that story was “super hero uses powers to make a random cop kill himself because racism.”
There is nothing in the story we can call true, nothing we can call interesting, nothing can be called entertaining, nothing can be called useful, nothing can be called anything other than utterly pointless. But the point was to say “racism exists. Stay woke.” That’s the message. That’s the reason an artist spent a month working on a comic and that’s why a company invested money into it to sell it to people who decided to pay money for it and read it. I have no idea who paid money to read that, but I can safely say it wasn’t that many people.
The goal is not to have people buy the product, it’s to simply say the product exists and point to it and go “see, a company put money into that group.” This is kind of like an updated version of “everyone gets a trophy” but instead of everyone, it’s the non-whites, non-cis, non-straights, and non-males. And instead of a trophy you get a product people don’t want to buy.
This is why I consider any answer as woke in my test as an indication of a person being woke. You really do need to jump through a bunch of hurdles to get stuck into this kind of mentality and the only question that people got woke was the one where lived experience is the answer. I think a better term might be anecdotal evidence, because like I said, the woke will reject reason and evidence and instead focus on storytelling, with storytelling here meaning you’re saying what you thought happened through your subjective opinion, and this can be anything you want it to be.
Hell, I can say something like “I felt like a unicorn” and that is considered a lived experience, because somehow I know what a unicorn feels like and somehow you now need to believe I did. So maybe anecdotal is the proper term to use, but then the woke will avoid that one since they know it looks like a fallacy and they can’t socially bring themselves to be stigmatized like that when they think it’s not acceptable. So it’s one of those things where I can either have one wording that causes a false positive or the other wording that will cause a false negative. But, then again, if someone is woke already, they would fail other questions anyway, so maybe I can put that one as not really important to worry about.
So there you have it, definitions and grave detail into all 4 types. I’m sure someone will conjure up more questions and I’m sure a postmodernist will say I’m wrong about everything, but at that point, I did my part so it’s not my problem.
Onto the next section that follows the next question: How do you justify reducing things to something like woke?
Reductionism is when you take something that is complex, like a story, and reduce it to particular fundamentals to provide a sufficient explanation. This is something like when a story gets reduced to a genre when you label it with a genre, because the genre is fundamental. This can also be something like calling yourself a Christian when you believe in the teachings of Christ. Sure, you have other qualities about yourself, but this can be an explanation into something that explains very quickly because it broadens the scope. But the question is HOW do I do this with something like woke, or modernism.
Simple: you look at the definition and go “ah, I see, that’s what it’s doing.”
Pre-modernism and modernism are objective, postmodernism and woke are subjective. Already these two groups are split by a single key factor. I can instantly say woke is a terrible storytelling way of thinking because the goal is to treat merit and superior quality as oppressive, so there is no possible way of making a good story that’s woke. It’s, by design, unable to be good. If we take postmodernism, we can say that it instantly rejects telling the truth, so it must make something up with exploitation and it’s going to be like fast food for the brain. It is, by design, unable to stand the test of time.
But then if we take something like modernism, we can see a truth is there, even if it tries to be individual, because then a guide based on personalities can be seen, and a way might be unlocked. This is why a modernist story is considered classic, and we look up to it as inspiration. Pre-modernism is as primitive and societally significant as you can get, to the point where it’s part of history books as a mythology. We base entire cultures around this type of media and we follow through with our daily life by using this type of media as a guide. In fact, pre-modernism is found IN postmodernism by accident when a postmodernist tries to appropriate, which is why we can find something like alchemy and Gnosticism in a postmodernist movie like The Matrix. There are modernist concepts like The Rabbit Hole in The Matrix, despite The Matrix trying to subvert it and reject it.
So like a genre, the direction of your modernist variant is reliant on both intention and focus, rather than if something is there. I can have a cockroach crawl into my cake when I’m baking it, that doesn’t mean cockroach is part of the recipe. So the goal of the test is to see what kind of recipe people are following and we can determine what kind of cook they are in how they view recipes. There is no danger of reductionism because reductionism is used to prevent dangers. In fact, in the most ironic way possible, to claim reductionism is dangerous here is to use dangerous reductionism to make such a claim, because it reduces the entire process to the idea of dangerous.
Now for the last question: How do you prevent people from rejecting pre-modernism?
Page has determined that if you claim form = function = truth, then you have caused pre-modernism to be the same as woke. As I’ve explained, they aren’t the same thing. Yes both are based on religions, with wokeness being based on Gnosticism, which is to self worship and deem yourself as the true god that is imprisoned in your body by the demiurge, but that isn’t the same thing as “telling an actual truth”.
Gnosticism is sophistry mixed with satanism. I always forget the term and can never find it, but it’s the belief that you’re alone and you’re talking to yourself even when you talk to others. This is how people get trapped in an echo chamber, because all the can do is hear themselves talk and tackle their own ideas of what could be wrong, which requires them accepting they could be wrong, and if they don’t accept that possibility, then everything goes in one ear and out the other. They start to follow a script, become an NPC, and all they can do is become violent once the script runs dry.
Can the pre-modernist become the same thing? Absolutely not. The benefit of a pre-modernist is that we don’t believe we rule the world. We understand that the world is in control, the supernatural controls the world, and we are below all of that as measly humans. We are the cameraman, not the director. Better yet, we are the audience watching a live feed with a cameraman controlling what we get to see, and we’re not involved in any of the production. This acceptance of humility allows the pre-modernist to seek truth, which is how a mythology is born in the first place. The only valid criticism is that the subjects become so grand and universal that they are basic and unable to really tackle the more personal and social issues that modernism tackles.
This basic and broadness is what Page considered “unentertaining”. But during a later exchange, during the making of this response, I found something fascinating. Page’s definition of entertaining is contradictory, because she believes it is objective in the fact that entertainment exists, but WHAT WE SEE as entertaining is subjective. So the complaint that something could be unentertaining isn’t valid, because it doesn’t mean anything if it’s subjective. It’s like saying a traditional dish doesn’t taste good and that’s why that traditional dish is bad to limit people to it.
Well, what if every good dish becomes traditional because people see it as tasty? I am not limited to my own personal tradition, I can enjoy another person’s tradition. I can eat sushi as a German who loves bratwurst and sauerkraut. I can eat pad thai and I can eat sweet and sour pork. I can eat baba ghanoush and shepherd’s pie.
Do you know why I can eat these? Because they are all food that is made of nutrients that people ate since the dawn of time. My human body needs stuff that humans eat for nutrients and there is a select number of nutrients that I need per day because it’s the stuff my body uses. Same goes for storytelling and the specific things my brain will use to gain wisdom and intelligence. The pre-modernist believes that there are these end points that we can address and say “this is the form, this is the end point, can’t go past that.”
The modernist claims “this is scientifically why we can’t go past a certain point, but we might get more information later that will allow us to pass that point.”
Then the postmodernist says “that point is a made up line, the limitation is made up, and the idea you’re in a particular position is also made up, so just mess with things and call them different things.”
Then the woke say “That point doesn’t exist but it’s oppressing me.”
As you can see, the pre-modernist is the most coherent because it’s the most accepting of how things are. I think what Page misunderstood is that some people think a form is what humans determine the form to be, and the form is left as that. Wrong. Form is to reach an endpoint and we cannot physically reach this endpoint, meaning the form will only be in our mental state through symbolism when we’re trying to think of such. Thus, symbolism is the key factor, and all you have to do is make the symbol more clear.
What really struck me as odd is that Page also declared the Bible as entertaining, meaning a pre-modernist work is the prime example of entertaining while her rejection of pre-modernism is because it is not entertaining. I cannot make any sense of that contradiction other than maybe Page believing that media being full of lies is entertainment and that’s not allowed under pre-modernism, which doesn’t mean anything to me.
That’s like going “well, your philosophy doesn’t allow contradictions and uses only logic, so it’s not a good philosophy.”
At that point, we simply have to call such a person postmodernist, because only a postmodernist would demand such a thing.
What am I going to do now that the test was tested? Well, I am sure I am going to make 5 sets of 4 questions for sure, with the 2 overarching questions added in the beginning and end. I will also try to use that google forms thing so that it can be a real test. When I get a website up for my company, I will have the test as part of the entrance exam to join the club. Pre-modernists are preferred, modernists are welcomed, postmodernists are tolerated, and woke are excluded. Sorry, we don’t allow such hateful people into the club. We like to work with normal functional people, and the woke do not meet either requirement.
And I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I am working on the test to have writers see what they KNOW about writing. That one is going to be a bit harder to put together, since I was thinking of getting written answers rather than multiple choice. I think the hardest part with that one will be figuring out how to work in creativity, since that one is tricky to sense if it’s intentional or accidental. But, like always, if I need help, I’ll ask.
Till next time.
Prompt Engineering. This prompt book will help you learn essential building blocks and
all the techniques to master Stable Diffusion.
The secret for generating good images
A well-written prompt consisting of modifiers and a good
sentence structure. We will also show you all types of modifiers and some magic words.
Well-adjusted Stable Diffusion weights. You can
always use the default, but sometimes fine-tuned weights can generate better results.
This will strengthen your ability to
bring your creative dream images to life.
Prompt keyword weighting is supported. You can increase the attention of a keyword but not higher than 1.5.
Use the format (example:weight). By default, words have a coefficient of 1 (example: 0.4), they will have a lower priority.
Attention for words Technique:
Adding "()" in the prompt increases attention to enclosed words, while "[]" decreases it. You can combine multiple modifiers:
- a (word) - increase attention to word by a factor of 1.1
- a ((word)) - increase attention to word by a factor of 1.21 (= 1.1 * 1.1)
- a [word] - decrease attention to word by a factor of 1.1
- a (word:1.5) - increase attention to word by a factor of 1.5
- a (word:0.25) - decrease attention to word by a factor of 4 (= 1 / 0.25)
You can also use a few words in "()" and "[]". You can also use a few words in "()" and "[]".
Also you can still use this structure: (example, example :weight), so the weight will increase for several words at once.
Examples: (grayscale, woodcut:1.2); (((blue hair, floating hair, liquid hair, chromatic aberration))); (rutkowski, artstation:0.8); (masterpiece, best quality:1.4); [cute, volumetric fog]
Please note that to increase or decrease the weight of several words, you need to put a comma between them.
Start by asking a list of questions
- Do you want a photo or a painting?
- What’s the subject of the photo? Person? An animal or perhaps a landscape?
- What details do you want to add?
a) Special Lighting. Soft, ambient, ring light, neon
b) Environment. Indoor, outdoor, underwater, in space
c) Color Scheme. Vibrant, dark, pastel
e) Point of view. Front, Overhead, Side
f) Background. Solid color, nebula, forest
- In a specific art style? 3D render, studio ghibli, movie poster
- A specific photo type? Macro, telephoto
This is not an all-inclusive list, but will help you get great results when you start.
your prompt crafting journey.
Answer the following questions:
- Do you want a photo or a painting? => painting
- What’s the subject of the photo? Person. animal, landscape. => a goldendoodle
- In a certain camera position? side view, from bottom, from above, from behind => from behind
- What details do you want to be added? => suit
a. Special Lighting. Soft, ambient, ring light, neon => natural light
b. Environment. Indoor, outdoor, underwater, in space => in the sky
c. Color Scheme. Vibrant, dark, pastel => with bright colors
- In specific art style? 3D render, studio ghibli, movie poster => by Studio Ghibli
The order of words is important
The order and presentation of our desired output is almost as an important aspect as the vocabulary itself. It is recommended to list your concepts explicitly and separately than trying to cramp it into one simple sentence.
The keyword categories are:
- Subject: what you want to see in the image, such as a person, an object, a scene, etc.
- Medium: the material used to make the artwork, such as illustration, oil painting, realistic, anime, 3D rendering, etc.
- Style: the artistic style of the image, such as impressionist, surrealist, pop art, etc.
- Artist: the name of a specific artist or multiple artists whose style you want to emulate or blend.
- Website: the name of a niche graphic website that aggregates images of a certain genre, such as Artstation or Deviant Art.
- Additional details: any other modifiers that can enhance the image, such as sci-fi, stunningly beautiful, dystopian, etc.
- Color: the overall color or tone of the image, such as iridescent gold, pastel pink, etc.
- Lighting: the effect of light and shadow on the image, such as cinematic lighting, soft lighting, dark, dark shot, bright, etc.
You don’t have to include keywords from all categories. You can use them as a checklist to remind you what could be used.
A negative prompt is a way to tell the neural network what should not be in the image. You can use words or phrases that describe what you want to avoid or exclude from the image. You can also use weights in negative prompt to increase or decrease the effect of certain words.
Generally accepted negative prompt is considered: (deformed, distorted, disfigured:1.3), poorly drawn, bad anatomy, wrong anatomy, extra limb, missing limb, floating limbs, (mutated hands and fingers:1.4), disconnected limbs, mutation, mutated, ugly, disgusting, blurry, amputation.
Realistic negative prompt: overexposed, (deformed iris, deformed pupils, semi-realistic, cgi, 3d, render, sketch, cartoon, drawing, anime:1.3), text, close up, cropped, out of frame, worst quality, low quality, jpeg artifacts, ugly, duplicate, morbid, mutilated, extra fingers, mutated hands, poorly drawn hands, poorly drawn face, mutation, deformed, blurry, dehydrated, bad anatomy, bad proportions, extra limbs, cloned face, disfigured, gross proportions, malformed limbs, missing arms, missing legs, extra arms, extra legs, fused fingers, too many fingers, long neck.
For positive prompt and negative prompt, I have thought of universal keywords - styles. You may not find them in the examples because they are new. Almost every style has a Negative prompt. It is advisable to write it together with positive prompt.
An example of how to use styles if you want to create a cat image in a Professional photo style:
- Positive prompt: (dark shot:1.4), 80mm, cat, soft light, sharp, exposure blend, medium shot, bokeh, (hdr:1.4), high contrast, (cinematic, teal and orange:0.85), (muted colors, dim colors, soothing tones:1.3), low saturation, (hyperdetailed:1.2), (noir:0.4)
- Negative prompt: neon, (deformed, distorted, disfigured:1.3), poorly drawn, bad anatomy, wrong anatomy, extra limb, missing limb, floating limbs, (mutated hands and fingers:1.4), disconnected limbs, mutation, mutated, ugly, disgusting, blurry, amputation, over saturated
For example, if you want to generate an image of a girl with Natural skin:
- Positive prompt: girl, (natural skin texture, hyperrealism, soft light, sharp)
- Negative prompt: (cgi:0.9), (deformed, distorted, disfigured:1.3), poorly drawn, bad anatomy, wrong anatomy, extra limb, missing limb, floating limbs, (mutated hands and fingers:1.4), disconnected limbs, mutation, mutated, ugly, disgusting, blurry, amputation, 3d, illustration, cartoon, (doll:0.9)
Here are completely universal styles that you can combine and use in your prompt(I highly recommend using them!):
Professional photo:
- Positive prompt for Professional photo: (dark shot:1.4), 80mm, {POprompt}, soft light, sharp, exposure blend, medium shot, bokeh, (hdr:1.4), high contrast, (cinematic, teal and orange:0.85), (muted colors, dim colors, soothing tones:1.3), low saturation, (hyperdetailed:1.2), (noir:0.4)
- Negative prompt for Professional photo: neon, {NEprompt}, over saturated
Natural skin:
- Positive prompt for natural skin: (natural skin texture, hyperrealism, soft light, sharp)
- Negative prompt for natural skin: (cgi:0.9), 3d, illustration, cartoon, (doll:0.9)
Details:
- Positive prompt Details: (intricate details:0.9), (hdr, hyperdetailed:1.2)
Gloomy style:
- Positive prompt for gloomy style: complex background, stuff in the background, highly detailed, (gloomy:1.3), dark, dimmed, hdr, vignette, grimy, (slate atmosphere:0.8)
- Negative prompt for gloomy style: (depth of field:1.3), (bokeh:1.2), (blur), blurred, pink
Cinematic style:
- Positive prompt for Cinematic style: (cinematic look:1.4), soothing tones, insane details, intricate details, hyperdetailed, low contrast, soft cinematic light, dim colors, exposure blend, hdr, faded, slate gray atmosphere
- Negative prompt for Cinematic style: grayscale, black and white, bw, monochrome
Horror cinematic style:
- Positive prompt for horror cinematic style: slate atmosphere, cinematic, dimmed colors, dark shot, muted colors, film grainy, lut, spooky
Cinematic art style:
- Positive prompt for Cinematic art style: art by greg rutkowski and artgerm, soft cinematic light, adobe lightroom, photolab, hdr, intricate, highly detailed, (depth of field:1.4)
Engraving style:
- Positive prompt for Engraving style: (grayscale, woodcut:1.2), (etching:1.1), (engraving:0.2), {prompt}, detailed
- Negative prompt for Engraving style: colored
Epic painting:
- Positive prompt for Painting: rutkowski, intricate digital art, soothing tones, (cartoon:0.3), (art:1.4), epic realistic, faded, neutral colors, (hdr:1.4), (muted colors:1.4), (intricate), (artstation:1.5), dramatic, intricate details, (technicolor:0.9), detailed, intricate, cinematic, detailed
examples of works:
good prompt: (dark shot:1.1), epic realistic, portrait of halo, sunglasses, blue eyes, tartan scarf, white hair by atey ghailan, by greg rutkowski, by greg tocchini, by james gilleard, by joe fenton, by kaethe butcher, gradient yellow, black, brown and magenta color scheme, grunge aesthetic!!! graffiti tag wall background, art by greg rutkowski and artgerm, soft cinematic light, adobe lightroom, photolab, hdr, intricate, highly detailed, (depth of field:1.4), faded, (neutral colors:1.2), (hdr:1.4), (muted colors:1.2), hyperdetailed, (artstation:1.4), cinematic, warm lights, dramatic light, (intricate details:1.1), complex background, (rutkowski:0.66), (teal and orange:0.4)
good prompt: (dark theme:0.9), medieval portrait of a man sharp features, grim, cold stare, dark colors, Volumetric lighting, baroque oil painting by Greg Rutkowski, Artgerm, WLOP, Alphonse Mucha dynamic lighting hyperdetailed intricately detailed, (hdr:1.22), muted colors, complex background, hyperrealism, hyperdetailed, amandine van ray
good prompt: a demon made with black stone, Giovanni Strazza sculpt style , bokesharp focus depth, shadows, mist, fog, very High detailed, cinematic lighting, Cinematic, high detailed, ultra detailed, Accent Lighting, very god colors, realistic, 8k, HDR
good prompt: woman, samurai armor, helmet oni evil mask intricate, ornaments detailed, cold colors, metal, egypician detail, highly intricate details, realistic light, trending on cgsociety, glowing eyes, facing camera, neon details, ultra realistic details, portrait full body, japanese atmosphere, global illumination, shadows, octane render, 8 k, ultra sharp
good prompt: (dark shot:1.1), epic realistic, RAW, analog, A full portrait of stunning woman wearing swimsuit, alluring expression, swimming pool, clear water, wet hair, natural look, no make up, pureerosface_v1, masterpiece that captures the essence and beauty of the woman and water, ((highly detailed skin, skin details, water details)), sharp focus, volumetric fog, 8k UHD, DSLR, high quality, film grain, Fujifilm XT3, art by greg rutkowski and artgerm, soft cinematic light, adobe lightroom, photolab, hdr, intricate, highly detailed, (depth of field:1.4), faded, (neutral colors:1.2), (hdr:1.4), (muted colors:1.2), hyperdetailed, (artstation:1.4), cinematic, warm lights, dramatic light, (intricate details:1.1), complex background, (rutkowski:0.66), (teal and orange:0.4), (natural skin texture, hyperrealism, soft light, sharp)
good prompt: A flower by Casey Weldon, Olga Kvasha, Miho Hirano, hyperdetailed intricately detailed gothic art trending on Artstation triadic colors Unreal Engine 5 detailed matte painting, deep color, fantastical, intricate detail, splash screen, complementary colors, fantasy concept art, 8k resolution, gothic deviantart masterpiece, (dark shot:1.4), art by greg rutkowski and artgerm, soft cinematic light, adobe lightroom, photolab, hdr, intricate, highly detailed, (depth of field:1.4)
good prompt: almaty girl, kazakh, Portrait of haute couture beautiful kazakh fashion model , ethereal dreamy foggy, photoshoot by alessio albi, editorial fashion magazine photoshoot, fashion poses, in front of mountain. kinfolk magazine. film grain, (dark shot:1.3), (natural skin texture, hyperrealism, soft light, sharp)
good prompt: Delicious glowing galaxy cake on a dining table in the kitchen, comfortable light, romantic light, ultra details, photorealistic, realistic, gel lighting, Cinematic, Filmic, medium shot, 4k, Front-light, Cinematic Lighting, volumetric Light, Ray Tracing Reflections, Chromatic Aberration, photography, hyper realistic, 4k, 8k,closeup
just an example: drunk, creepy santa, muddy, crowded bottles bar, intricate details, hdr, intricate details, hyperdetailed, cinematic, dark shot, muted colors, film grainy, soothing tones, muted colors, technicolor
just an example: (masterpiece, best quality), (best illumination, an extremely delicate and beautiful), (best illumination, an extremely delicate and beautiful), (beautiful detailed face), (finely detailed eyes and detailed face:1.4), dark fantasy, (young girl, small beasts, 1girl, solo, crazy smile, pale skin, white hair, red glowing eyes, dynamic angle, vampire), (gaint vampire castle in background), (red moon, red sky), pointy ears, fangs, demon wings, demon horns, blood on face, blood rain, blood fog, (depth of field), high contrast, (blood splatter:1.4), full body
just an example: masterpiece, chinese dragon, long dragon, Loong,fangs,fantasy, mythical, art by( greg rutkowski:0.8), epic lighting, (photo realism:1.2), high quality, highly detailed, masterpiece, epic
just an example: epic video game key visual, giant armored creature, horde, skeletal army, many approaching in an ancient desert windy dust debris storm landscape midnight moonlight foreground debris (zrpgstyle) (masterpiece:1.2) (illustration:1.1) (best quality:1.2) (detailed) (intricate) (8k) (HDR) (wallpaper) (cinematic lighting) (sharp focus)
just an example: 1girl, beautiful vintage color, instagram (photorealistic, high resolution:1.4), ((puffy eyes)), looking at viewer, full body (8k, RAW photo, best quality, masterpiece:1.2), (realistic, photo-realistic:1.37),(sharp focus:1.2), professional lighting, photon mapping, radiosity, physically-based rendering, (pale skin:1.2),nsfw, small breasts,nipples, looking at viewer, middle hair, portrait, purple eyes, wet clothes(sliver hair:1.1),bangs, (simple background:1.4), solo, upper body, white background,realistic, (masterpiece:1.4), (best quality:1.4),(shiny skin), makeup, red lips, smile, (skinny,closed mouth,shy:1.3), blackshirt short sleeve, black pencil short skirt,black tight skirt, school unifrom
just an example: complex 3d render, ultra detailed, beautiful death angel, biomechanical cyborg, analog 150 mm lens, beautiful natural soft rim light, crystal feathers, roots, fine foliage lace, colorful details, Boris Bidjan Saberi outfit, pearl earrings, piercing, art nouveau fashion embroidered, intricate details, mesh wire, mandelbrot fractal, facial muscles, cable wires, microchip, badass, hyper realistic, ultra detailed, octane render, volumetric lighting, 8k post-production, red and white with a bit of black, detailled metalic bones, semi human, iridescent colors, Glenn Brown style, futuristic room, power of the god, high-angle shot, complex body poses
just an example: the anatomy of a head of lettuce, an ultrafine detailed painting by james jean, behance contest winner, vanitas, angular, altermodern
just an example: (RAW photo, best quality), (realistic, photo-realistic:1.3), masterpiece, an extremely delicate and beautiful, extremely detailed, CG, unity , 2k wallpaper, Amazing, finely detail, light smile, extremely detailed CG unity 8k wallpaper, huge filesize, ultra-detailed, highres, absurdres, soft light, (((medium hair:1.3), short bang, pink hair, floating hair novafrogstyle)), beautiful detailed girl, detailed fingers, extremely detailed eyes and face, beautiful detailed nose, beautiful detailed eyes, long eyelashes, light on face, looking at viewer, (closed mouth:1.2), 1girl, cute, young, mature face, (full body:1.3), ((small breasts)), realistic face, realistic body, beautiful detailed thigh, business suit, cross-laced clothes, collared shirt, open clothes, in office, detailed office, open cardigan, black thighhighs, miniskirt, black underwear, unbuttoned shirt
just an example: end of the world, epic realistic, (hdr:1.4), (muted colors:1.4), apocalypse, freezing, abandoned, neutral colors, night, screen space refractions, (intricate details), (intricate details, hyperdetailed:1.2), artstation, cinematic shot, vignette, complex background, buildings, snowy
anime prompt: (flat color:1.1),(colorful:1.3),(masterpiece:1.2), best quality, masterpiece, original, extremely detailed wallpaper, looking at viewer,1girl,solo,floating colorful water
anime prompt: (masterpiece, best quality, ultra-detailed, best shadow), (detailed background,dark fantasy), (beautiful detailed face), high contrast, (best illumination, an extremely delicate and beautiful), ((cinematic light)), colorful, hyper detail, dramatic light, intricate details, (1girl, solo,black hair, sharp face,low twintails, red eyes, hair between eyes,dynamic angle), blood splatter, swirling black light around the character, depth of field, black light particles, (broken glass), magic circle
anime prompt: (masterpiece, top quality, best quality, official art, beautiful and aesthetic:1.2), (1girl), extreme detailed, (fractal art:1.5),(cherry flowers in fractal art:1.3), colorful, highest detailed, upper body, purple hair, purple eyes, large breasts, kimono, bangs, sash, mole, obi, tassel, blush, hair ornament
anime prompt: (Girlish Painting:1.3), (Ultra detailed:1.3), (Cosy:1.3), best quality, masterpiece, highly detailed, ultra-detailed, 1girl, Emma Watson, unreal engin 5, octane render, (2D:1.2), limited palette flat color, digital painting, artstation, concept art, smooth, sharp focus, art by ross tran, art by greg rutkowski, art by alphonse Mucha, art by Bak Karol, (oil painting:1.16), (acrylic paint:1.16), (colorful:1.5), (watercolor:1.16), by nvinkpunk, kuvshinov, dreamlikeart, samdoesart, modelshoot style, (by Artist Koho Shoda:1.3), (by Artist Mike Mignola:1.3), (by Artist Joop Polder:1.3), (Classicism Art:1.3), (Industrial Art:1.3), (Solarpunk Art:1.3)
anime prompt: ((masterpiece, best quality)), 1girl, solo, flat chest, chain, cuffs, shackles, broken chain, collar, chained, handcuffs, barefoot, black and white hair, long hair, metal collar, solo, ankle cuffs, broken, purple eyes, very long hair, ball and chain restraint, bound, bdsm
anime prompt: (Highest picture quality), (Master's work), (ultra-detailed), (Detailed eye description:1.2), masterpiece, best quality, absurdres, original, extremely delicate and beautiful, beautiful detailed eyes and face, 1girl, black hair, cherry blossom, white clothes, looking at viewer, mole, pink flower, solo, (masterpiece:1.4), (best quality:1.4)
anime prompt: masterpiece, best quality, best detail, 5girls, swimsuit, focus on character detail, character on the front camera, high detail background, bloom, blue sky, high lighting detail, widescreen, 16:9, sea, beach, sunny day, medium hair, red face, megane, smile, sexy pose, realistic finger detail, close-up, portrait, getting wet, random hair colors, standing, erotic, yuri, hentai, nipple, leg strap, sexy hip, see-through, Draw realistic hand, random eye color, erotic face, sexy eye contact, half-naked, random hairstyle, random face, hold breast pussy, megane, pussy cum, small breast, yuri sex, kissing, open mouth, tongue, breasts grab
anime prompt: masterpiece, high quality, highres, absurdres, ultra-detailed, detailed eyes, 8k, 1girl, colorful eyes, fangs, open mouth, blue eyes, bangs, colorful background, (graffiti mural walls background), looking at viewer, vibrant, contrast, blue hair, white hair, gradient hair, happy, high five, heart symbols
anime prompt: (extremely delicate and beautiful:1.2),1girl,fashi-girl, bangs, blue eyes, blurry, blurry background, bow, brown hair, closed mouth, from side, hair between eyes, hair bow, lantern, light particles, long sleeves, looking at viewer, medium hair, night, red bow, solo, star symbol, upper body,smile,red lips
anime prompt: masterpiece, best quality, ultra-detailed, illustration, 1girl, solo, outdoors, camping, night, mountains, nature, stars, moon, tent, twin ponytails, green eyes, cheerful, happy, backpack, sleeping bag, camping stove, water bottle, mountain boots, gloves, sweater, hat, flashlight, forest, rocks, river, wood, smoke, shadows, contrast, clear sky, constellations, Milky Way, peaceful, serene, quiet, tranquil, remote, secluded, adventurous, exploration, escape, independence, survival, resourcefulness, challenge, perseverance, stamina, endurance, observation, intuition, adaptability, creativity, imagination, artistry, inspiration, beauty, awe, wonder, gratitude, appreciation, relaxation, enjoyment, rejuvenation, mindfulness, awareness, connection, harmony, balance, texture, detail, realism, depth, perspective, composition, color, light, shadow, reflection, refraction, tone, contrast, foreground, middle ground, background, naturalistic, figurative, representational, impressionistic, expressionistic, abstract, innovative, experimental, unique
anime prompt: best quality, masterpiece, high definition, high quality, high resolution, sharp focus, trending on Artstation, 4k, beautiful fantasy spring sunny scenery landscape, celestial japanese temple alone at the peak of a mountain overlooking the landscape below, high point of view
anime prompt: (flat color:1.1), (colorful:1.3), (masterpiece:1.2), best quality, masterpiece, original, extremely detailed wallpaper, looking at viewer,1girl,solo,floating colorful water
anime prompt: (masterpiece:1.2), (best quality:1.1), 1girl, transparent, perfect face, black silk stockings, high quality, cute, black hair, highest quality, ultra-detailed, extremely detailed, hyper detail, (intricate detail:1.2), (panties over black pantyhose:1.2), (Japanese sailor suit:1.2), (cameltoe:1.2), (lift feet:1.4), soles, lie down, park, looking at viewer, sun shine
anime prompt: (masterpiece, best quality:1.1), bird's eye view, asymmetrical, blue ocean, low tide, sea waves, coastal road, sandy beach, piers, sailboats, yachts, ship wake, contrail, cars, tourists, lighthouse, seagulls, horizon, breeze, summer, morning, sunny, cloud, calm, fresh air, depth of field
anime prompt: masterpiece, best quality, ultra-detailed, illustration, 1girl, solo, fantasy, flying, broom, night sky, outdoors, magic, spells, moon, stars, clouds, wind, hair, cape, hat, boots, broomstick, glowing, mysterious, enchanting, whimsical, playful, adventurous, freedom, wonder, imagination, determination, skill, speed, movement, energy, realism, naturalistic, figurative, representational, beauty, fantasy culture, mythology, fairy tales, folklore, legends, witches, wizards, magical creatures, fantasy worlds, composition, scale, foreground, middle ground, background, perspective, light, color, texture, detail, beauty, wonder
anime prompt: masterpiece, best quality, 1girl, (colorful),(finely detailed beautiful eyes and detailed face),cinematic lighting,bust shot,extremely detailed CG unity 8k wallpaper, white hair, solo, smile, intricate skirt, ((flying petal)), (Flowery meadow) sky, cloudy sky, building, moonlight, moon, night, (dark theme:1.3), light, fantasy
anime prompt: masterpiece, best quality, ultra-detailed, illustration,2girls,fantasy, RPG, heroine, devil, final battle, outdoors, epic, dramatic, intense, powerful, dynamic, magic, spells, sword, shield, armor, wings, horns, tail, fire, smoke, light, shadow, impact, movement, energy, determination, bravery, courage, heroism, villainy, evil, darkness, destruction, victory, defeat, redemption, justice, sacrifice, friendship, companionship, teamwork, perseverance, challenge, obstacle, success, achievement, goal-oriented, progress, improvement, realism, naturalistic, figurative, representational, video game culture, anime, manga, Japanese, RPG tropes, character design, animation, special effects, composition, scale, foreground, middle ground, background, perspective, light, color, texture, detail, beauty, wonder
anime prompt: masterpiece, best quality, ultra-detailed, city, street, gothic, steampunk, illustration, 1girl, (solo), platinum long hair, boots, from behind, vintage, antique, brass, metal, gears, machinery, ornate, elegant, classic, sophisticated, refined, poised, contemplative, thoughtful, curious, mysterious, enigmatic, magical, watchful, intelligent, bookish, contrast, perspective, depth, texture, detail, realism, impressionistic, expressionistic, abstract, surrealistic, innovative, experimental, unique, atmosphere, ambiance, mood, nostalgia, historical, cultural, technological, industrial, fantasy, imagination, creativity, artistry, craftsmanship, skill, precision, detail, composition, balance, harmony, rhythm, colorful, darker, reflection, refraction, foreground, middle ground, background, vanishing point, horizon line, focal point, naturalistic, figurative, representational
anime prompt: (masterpiece, best quality:1.2), cinematic anime, anime clip of a 3 girls floating in space, universe, milky way, cosmos, planet, stars, astronaut, full body, ultra detailed, beautiful face, finely detailed eyes, extremely detailed, correct anatomy, incredibly_absurdres
anime prompt: ((masterpiece)), (((gray eyes))), (((blue hair, floating hair, liquid hair, chromatic aberration))), (focus on eyes, shaded, photo, insanely detailed, bloom:1.5), short hair, photorealistic, masterpiece, dynamic angle, highest quality, photorealistic, masterpiece, dynamic angle, highest quality, intricate, Alessandro Casagrande, Greg Rutkowski, Sally Mann, athletic wet punk body, (blue panties), nipples, concept art, 4k, far-off, (medium breasts, portrait, choker, soft), (sadness), (((blue flowers))), (((Night))), high sharpness, extreme saturation and contrast
anime prompt: ((4k,masterpiece, best quality)), shuimobysim, traditional chinese ink painting, lotus, hanfu, maxiskit, 1girl, solo, white hair, long hair, fox ears, white, bikini, fish, many fish near girl, look at viewer, tease
anime prompt: 1girl, ((cinematic light)), colorful, hyper detail, dramatic light, intricate details, best quality, (extremely detailed CG unity 8k wallpaper, masterpiece, best quality, ultra-detailed, best shadow), (detailed background:1.4), (beautiful detailed face, beautiful detailed eyes), High contrast, (best illumination, an extremely delicate and beautiful), (girl:1.5), solo, black skirt, blue eyes, electric guitar, guitar, headphones, holding, holding plectrum, instrument, long hair, music, one side up, pink hair, playing guiter, pleated skirt, black shirt, indoors ((caustic)), dynamic angle, beautiful detailed glow, full body, cowboy shot
Here is a list in my opinion of the most important artists:
- Agnes Martin - an artist who paints geometric abstract paintings. In stable diffusion, she helps to get the texture of canvas or an object with this texture.
- Jacob Hashimoto - an artist who creates complex worlds from paper, bamboo and other materials. In stable diffusion, he helps to get an interesting background with modular components or bright colors.
- Stanley Donwood - a designer who invents covers for albums, posters and other things. In stable diffusion, he helps to get arts with stable stripes and lines, which is useful for fingerprints or other graphic effects.
- Julie Mehretu - an artist who works with markers, pencils, acrylic and ink. In stable diffusion, she helps to get intersecting lines and layers, if you add the word "eclectic" to the prompt.
- Quentin Blake - an artist and illustrator of children's books. In stable diffusion, he helps to get a cartoon style with simple shapes and expressive emotions. If you add the word "punk" to the prompt, you can get a more daring and unusual style.
- David Palumbo - an artist who creates illustrations in the genres of fantasy and science fiction. In stable diffusion, he helps to get visible strokes and smudges from paint, which gives the art more realism and dynamics.
- Phil Jimenez - a comic book artist, known for his work on Wonder Woman. In stable diffusion, he helps to get increased detail and realism of characters and scenes.
- Geof Darrow - a comic book artist, known for his extremely detailed work. In stable diffusion, he helps to get highly detailed backgrounds with lots of small elements and textures.
- Nicola Samori - an artist who creates dark and gloomy baroque. In stable diffusion, he helps to get splashes, blotches, stains and dirt on the art, which gives it more expressiveness and contrast.
- Ben Templesmith - an artist whose work was adapted into the film "30 Days of Night". He creates covers for books, cards and concepts for films. In stable diffusion, he helps to get a dark and dirty style with bloody accents and fuzzy contours.
- Brandon Woelfel - a photographer with neon photos. In stable diffusion, he helps to get a photographic neon light with bright colors and contour effect at low-res.
- Viviane Sassen - a photographer from the world of fashion. In stable diffusion, she helps to get stylish and aesthetic photos with models in different poses and moods. As we know, almost identical faces are generated in many neural networks. Viviane Sassen also helps to mask the neural network and get unique faces by adding the word "detailed" to the prompt.
- Brian Oldham - a photographer who creates creatively or creatively. In stable diffusion, he helps to get professional, cinematic, creative photos or arts without additional tokens. Just write his name after the prompt.
- Lisa Frank - an artist who makes mega colorful school supplies. In stable diffusion, she helps to get a bright and rainbow style with different animals, stars, hearts and other elements.
- Simon Stalenhag - an artist who specializes in retro-futurism. In stable diffusion, he helps to get a cozy and major style with elements of old technologies, robots, rockets and other things from the past future.
- Iryna Yermolova - an artist from Russia who creates magnificent works in oil. In stable diffusion, she helps to get a classic style of painting with realistic characters and landscapes. If you write her name with I (Irina), you can get a 3D effect on the art.
- Todd Schorr - an American artist who works in the style of pop-surrealism. In stable diffusion, he helps to get Slavic motifs with khokhloma, ear-zagogulinki, molding and other elements of national color.
- Alayna Lemmer - a star of art-station who creates magnificent landscapes, castles and magical creatures. In stable diffusion, she helps to get a fantasy style with detailed and colorful images. She is mandatory for any prompt in the genre of fantasy.
- Andre Charles Boulle - a French artist who makes wood carvings and draws ornaments. In stable diffusion, he helps to get intrigue gold or golden effect on the art by adding low-res.
- Conor Harrington - an Irish street graffiti artist. In stable diffusion, he helps to get an epic staging of a scene or a hero with realistic details and contrasting colors.
- Wangechi Mutu - an artist from Kenya who makes anthropological art with African motifs. In stable diffusion, she helps to get coffee-chocolate arts with different patterns and symbols.
- Patrick Dougherty - an eco-artist who makes sculptures and installations from sticks and seedlings. In stable diffusion, he helps to get a hay-like or wooden effect on the art, if you need to make something out of shit and sticks. It creates anything from branches
About Modifiers
Modifiers are words that can change the style, format, or perspective of the image. There are certain magic words or phrases that are proven to boost the quality of the image. In this section, we will talk different types of modifiers you can use in your prompt.
Photography
Photography Prompt - Mix and Match!
Shot type- Close-up; Extreme Close-up; POV; Medium shot; Long shot; At a distance;
Style- polaroid; Tilt-shift; Color splash; Monochrome; white and black;
Subject- Woman; Old man; Grey cat; Bunny; Ferrari;
Lighting- Cinematic light; Sun light; Ambient light; Soft light; moonlight; dramatic light;
Context- Indoor; Outdoor; At night; In the park; Studio;
Lens- Wide-angle; Telephoto; 24mm; EF 70mm; Bokeh; F/1.4; 50mm;
Device-iPhone X; CCTV; Nikon Z FX; Canon; Gopro; Fujifilm XT3 ;
3D illustrations
Stable diffusion can be used to create any 3D scene or object you can imagine!
Isometric assets- isometric kitchen in a cutaway box, isometric, tiny, cute, soft smooth lighting, soft colors, 100mm lens, 3d blender render;
Low Poly- kawaii, low poly, squirrel character, 3d isometric render, white background, ambient occlusion, unity engine;
Pixar Renders- 3d fluffy Lion, close-up, cute, adorable, cute big circular reflective eyes, long fuzzy fur, Pixar render, unreal engine, cinematic, intricate detail, cinematic;
3D Item Render- isometric Alarm Clock, isometric, tiny, soft smooth lighting, soft colors, 3d blender render, trending on polycount, modular constructivism, physically based rendering;
More illustrations
Vector- living room, vector illustration, Flat Style, pastel color palette;
Comic- Retro comic style artwork, benedict cumberbatch, highly detailed, comic book cover, symmetrical, vibrant;
Caricature- Caricature art, spiderman, sitting , chair, drinking beer, on Charlie Hebdo;
Propaganda- Poster, USSR propaganda poster, Eat Oreo!;
Psychedelic Art- dear face, Hypnotic illustration, hypnotic psychedelic art, by Dan Mumford, pop surrealism, dark glow neon mystical, Behance;
Splash Art- mage, channeling arcane magicks, armored, Splash art, mana shooting from his hands, mystical energy in the air, action shot, heroic fantasy art, special effects, hd octane render;
Stickers- Die-cut sticker, Cute, kawaii, Goldendoodle character, sticker, white background, illustration minimalism, vector, pastel colors;
Simple feelings modifiers can set the atmosphere of the scene!
Positive emotions
Cosy- Cosy vintage bedroom, octane render, by weta digital, exotic colorful pastel, ray traced lighting, reflections;
Romantic- couple shopping, romantic lighting;
Joyful- Joyful, husky puppy, splashing water, canon eos r3;
Energetic- Energetic painting, pool with flamingos;
Hope- Woman, filled with hope, beautiful dress, running, beach;
Lust- couple, Painting, filled with lust, by mike mignola;
Peaceful- Japanese city street, peaceful, dreamy, soft colors, studio ghibli style;
Satisfaction- Old man, looking at viewer, filled with satisfaction, Canon EOS 5D Mark IV;
Negative emotions
Depressing- Depressing photo, futuristic park;
Loneliness- Girl, sitting in window, reading a book, loneliness;
Grim- lake with ducks, grim painting;
Regret- man, looking at viewer, painting, filled with regret;
Suffering- woman, suffering, sitting on a bench, forest, Digital painting, by goro fujita;
Hopelessness- Man, hopelessness, black and white, looking at viewer, sketch, intricate details;
Fear- Child running towards the camera, in fear, by atey ghailan, by mike mignola;
Vibrant keywords: Weirdcore, Acidwave, Dreamcore, Vaporwave;
Gloomy:
Liminal Space- Flooded, liminal space,underground city carpark, lighting with lensflares, photorealistic 8k, eerie;
After Hours- After hours, stairs to the park, complex background, stuff in the background, highly detailed, (gloomy:1.3), dark, dimmed, hdr, vignette, grimy, (slate atmosphere:0.8);
Brutalism- Building, architecture, brutalism;
Post-Apocalyptic- Post-Apocalyptic town, houses, cars;
Magic words:
HDR, UHD, 64K- Quality words like HDR, UHD, 4K, 8k, and 64K can make a dramatic difference.
Greg rutkowski- Adds epicness to the photo, often suitable for fantasy art
Highly detailed- Quality words like highly detailed can make a dramatic difference.
Studio lighting- Studio lighting could really add some nice texture to the image
Professional- Adding professional, can greatly improve the color contrast and details in the image
Trending on artstation- without description
Unreal engine- a magic word that adds very realistic 3D renderings
Vivid Colors- Adding Vivid Colors, adds life to your images
Bokeh- Bokeh blurs the background and highlights the subject. It’s like iPhone portrait mode.
High resolution scan- Want a historic looking photo? Add "High resolution scan"
I'm not sure what's wrong. In the past I've had reasonable success getting sweet potatoes to start, even in what is pretty much pure shade for like 70% of the day. I have six or seven that I'm sprouting, that came from the grocery store (where I got my previous ones), and most of these are organic. IDK if that matters or not. Several have sprouted but even in the sunlight the sprouts are taking forever to advance any leaves or grow - even after several weeks. I've read about anti sprouting hormones but since they were organic I had thought that maybe they didn't have the stuff on them - and since they sprouted, I had thought that they would take off quickly in the sunlight. I even periodically water them and am thinking that this might speed them up a bit.
They are whole sweet potatoes right now because the ones I've cut up have gotten ripped apart by ants.
Meanwhile, I have one sweet potato vine near some potatoes that comes up year after year, despite my having pulled out before and in spite of our pretty snowy winters in recent years.
Am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance
For some background: i was diagnosed with agoraphobia a few years ago now, its had its moments where it was extremely severe and i couldnt go to the shop 2 mins walk from my house to get groceries. panic attacks every day, sick from stress 24/7, couldnt go to school etc. about a year in i was able to work towards exposure as i had got a job really close to my house, it was really hard but i was able to push through all the physical sensations. and then during that year i was able to travel abroad 3 times in one year! then i started university and as i was able to travel very far on my own (over an hour) with two trains, i thought i was healed!
But in january i relapsed back into it because i got sick, and since then i have only been able to go out for 'fun' a couple times (with someone and lots of safety items), but for the past 3 months ive practically been house bound. i couldnt travel with public transport, panic attacks and anxiety through the roof. my biggest fear isnt just that ill have a panic attack in public, its that ill have symptoms of being sick from acid reflux/stomach issues, stomach pain/chest pain/neasua/headaches in public are terrifying to me, and they WILL send me in to a panic attack.
but a couple of days ago, 2 of my closest friends picked me up from my house and we got on a bus to an open shopping center, i had a bag with me, bottle of water, propanlol(never used it in my life just brought it for relief), painkillers, and a banana incase i get hungry. these are all safety behaviours which i know are NOT advised. but i did it anyway and im glad i did, all though i only used the water. me and my friends were talking SO much that i didnt have time to panic, ofcourse i had the thoughts in my mind but it felt like i was on autopilot, i had alot of errands to run so i went to a few stores for returns and shopping. I was COMPLETELY fine! after a couple hours one of my friends had to leave and so me and my other friend got on 2 underground trains to get to a place an hour away from my home. before this i hadnt ventured further then 10 mins from my house, and thats including the hospital. (i had visitited the ER 7 times in 1 month prior to this) we got food at a restaurant (which i cant believe i was able to do!) and then we shared a frozen yoghurt (not a good idea for my acid reflux). we then sat on a bench in the park for like 2 hours and it was the best time, i couldnt believe i didnt have a panic attack, especially because the morning of i had one, and my stomach was in alot of pain so i set back the meet time. i had chest pains a couple times but i just ignored it, plus i was super tired and my body was aching because i wasnt used to walking around so much (have blisters now lol). i know that exposure therapy you have to do it alone, but i struggled with even going places with people i know, it didnt matter if i was with people id get panic attacks regardless. so im very proud of myself that i was able to get on public transport (one of my biggest issues).
now this is the problem, my cousin is coming from another country to visit for nearly a week. when i had 'healed' from my agoraphobia and i was in her country, i asked her when she was going to visit my city and that id show her around all the best places. and shes coming with her husband, TODAY!! i am aboslutely TERRIFIED because im still struggling with my stomach issues and chest pains (which have ongoing investigations). nobody knows about my panic attacks.
What do i do? do i tell her about my panic attacks? should i just show them around (mind you we'd have to get on many trains and buses) and just risk having a panic attack infront of my cousin and her husband who i havent seen since 2018? i have this new stomach pain above my belly button (when i press on it) and my health anxiety is skyrocketing. i made a huge step a couple days ago, but i feel like im about to regress.
Our store did 400k in sales last year, we hired a professional to help with taxes. She has my cofounder and I both down for 100k in income each. This seems wrong to me, we’ve been broke all year (this is just our first year in business) every penny we made has been reinvested in the store. Now I owe 32k+ in taxes what should I do?
More info: Our margins are pretty tight, most sales have less than 30% profit and we have two part time employees that cost us about 1500 every two weeks. We logged every receipt from gas to staff meeting pizza, but my co-founder said that she kinda brushed him off on a lot of it.
We’re a trading card store, so we mostly sell Pokémon and magic cards. A lot of our inventory is purchased from customers and is quite substantial, probably 100k different cards all ranging from a few Pennie’s to hundreds of dollars in value.
I’m really worried right now that this tax is going to put us out of business. We had 2k in the bank this week, and now between the two of us we owe nearly 60k in taxes. Any help or advice would be appreciated.