Artist: Charli XCX
Album: How I'm feeling now
Release Date: May 15, 2020
Listen: Apple Music |Spotify | Youtube
popheads [FRESH] Thread | Release [MEGATHREAD]
In 2019, Charli XCX finally released her long-awaited third studio album after spending the second half of the 2010s radically changing her sound and by proxy her audience, dropping an EP, two mixtapes and loose singles that pivoted the mainstream-skirting pop star into a bold new experimental lane that ended up instrumental in paving the way for what would eventually become hyperpop. With the release of her album Charli, she very successfully negotiated her new, abrasive sound with an abundance of massive guest stars and more radio and festival-ready crowd-pleasers, and while outside of some minor success for 1999 it didn't produce any world-conquering smashes as in her Iggy Azalea co-starring heyday, it solidified her position as a cult artist with a following that was only growing with every release, as well as roping in some long-awaited critical acclaim, especially for much-beloved single Gone, which seems to have built its way into the pantheon of universally adored 2010s pop. Between this release, her numerous headlining festival slots, and the continuing growth of the hyperpop sound thanks to similarly acclaimed releases from artists such as Caroline Polachek, Dorian Electra and 100 Gecs, it was looking like the 2020s were going to kick off with a bumper year for Charli XCX.

AND THEN THE WORLD WENT TO FUCK.

Look, this is not the place nor time for a recap of everything that happened in 2020 that led to the bottomless pit the earth fell into. God knows neither you nor I have the energy for that right now. But point being, basically every plan that basically everyone made in 2019 was dead in the water by March 2020, and that was not an exception for Charli. But if having a collection of leaked tracks almost as big as her actual discography proves anything, it's that Charli is nothing if not a workaholic (as she herself admits), and as such, when April rolled around and the room was coated with all the shit that had just hit the fan, she announced in the most 2020 fashion possible, via a Zoom conference, that her new album was titled How I'm Feeling Now, that it would be worked on in collaboration with fans as well as executive producers BJ Burton and AG Cook, and it was scheduled for release on May 15, just over a month out from the announcement.
The Form of Isolation
Moreso than perhaps any other pop release the past year, How I’m Feeling Now really is the album of 2020 in the sense that almost every element of the album was informed by the circumstances of the international lockdown that dominated seemingly every facet of life in the past year. With in-person contact relegated to one’s personal home bubble and next to nothing else, everything and everyone went online in a big way for any morsel of communication, and in Charli’s case, that meant having her album rollout consist of extensive behind-the-scenes coverage, where fans got to experience pieces of the work as it was still being refined and put together, in the form of notepad screenshots with lyrical motifs, instrumental stems, concepts and options for single artwork and even direct video of working through lyrics and melodies in real time. Charli also continued with the use of Zoom throughout the creation process, providing weekly streams where she would update Angels on the progress of the album and also take questions and talk directly with fans and fellow artists about the creative process in lockdown. Further to all of this, the fan input in this album can be seen in the numerous polls that Charli put online to decide on album artwork and elements of tracks that would end up on the final album, up to and including the track names, as well as the contributions made to videos, either officially or solely in meme form.
But it wasn’t just in the openness to the audience of the album’s creation where it reflected the paradoxical interconnectedness of 2020. How I’m Feeling Now reflects the necessity of resourcefulness in these UnPrECeDeNtEd TiMeS through its construction, whether that be finally using a completed track that has been stuck in limbo since 2017, remixing a track from the album that Charli released not even a year earlier, building off of stems that producers had been sitting on for years, or just by virtue of making and releasing an album of hyperpop, perhaps the easiest sound to develop from the bedroom and via email if the genre’s explosion in popularity and mainstream-adjacent awareness in the past 12 months is anything to go by. While the vast majority of this album was indeed written and developed in the space of the month-ish between announcement and release, the craftiness of the album’s design in pulling together old elements to recontextualise them for the lockdown era is a brilliant move that deserves an equal level of commendation as the material made fresh. Through both its form and its content, How I’m Feeling Now really does touch on many of the most personal aspects of the adjustment to the new normal, and it starts off by representing how it felt living through late-March - like driving full speed into a brick wall.
The Physical Toll of Isolation
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I just wanna go real hard
Lip gloss on and I'm lookin' like a star
Got a tiny bag, but I got a big heart
On the video chat, cute skirt and a bra

The nervy, manic energy of the entire Earth being thrown off its axis is conveyed perfectly in opener Pink Diamond. Musically one of the most aggressive songs Charli has ever made, with its punishing wallops of bass and shrill high-pitched synths, it's a roided-up version of some of the most chaotic bangers from Vroom Vroom or Pop 2 in its tone and lyrical content, but by placing it at the start of the album, it conveys the sense of having boundless energy and no outlet to channel it into. As much as you can dress up and slut drop in your bedroom, there's no clubs to take that to, so you're stuck doing it in front of a webcam in a vain attempt to recreate the thrill. It's a jarring opener, but nothing captures the sharp handbrake of life in 2020 better.
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I'm so bored (Woo)
Wake up late, eat some cereal
Try my best to be physical
Lose myself in a TV show
Staring out to oblivion
All my friends are invisible
Twenty-four seven, miss 'em all
I might cry like a waterfall
I feel afraid when I feel alone

Compare that to the other aggressive, chaotic hyperpop banger on the album, Anthems, which comes near the tail end of the album. Tonally, the two are very similar, but Anthems is driven by a faster, more manic synth bounce courtesy of Dylan Brady of 100 Gecs, reflecting a greater sense of desperation as the situation of isolation starts to take its toll after spending too long cooped up in the same four walls. Lyrically, the energy of the track is built up out of anger at the forced routine and the lack of in-person connection as weeks alone turn to months. The emotions of solitude transcend just melancholy and flow back into a form of rage at having everything you love ripped away through no fault of your own. In spite of the anger and frustration, there does exist a glimmer of hope that while the lockdown is an isolating experience, it’s also a shared one, and that small piece of optimism carries the song away from bitterness and into a sort of romantic longing that makes the abrasion much easier to swallow.
The Emotional Overdrive of Love in Isolation
Of course, for as isolating as an experience 2020 has been, some of us were able to at least share our physical spaces with another for the time. I don’t think I need to tell you, however, that being forced into the same space for most hours of the day as opposed to at least having the freedom to leave will change how you feel about these people. You get time to talk, time to ponder, and time to get way, way too deep into your feelings. This is an aspect that Charli does not spare whatsoever.
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You take your time, I'll take mine, we'll be fine
Knew I'd be here, be here, be here with you
When the roof caved in and the water fell through
Hope when we're old, we'll be friends, reminisce
Hope we'll be there, be there, be there, us two
All the memories, all the photos we took

A large core of this album is centred either directly or peripherally on Charli's long-term boyfriend Huck Kwong, who was also the only person in Charli's house with her during the album's creation, and the arc that is created shows in quite significant detail the tribulations of their relationship, starting with Forever, the first song after the energy release of Pink Diamond and also the first single released for the album. The song is ostensibly a love ballad, but right from the start it's clear that something is off. The initial dramatic swell of off-key blaring synth and blasts of fuzz on the beat threaten to swallow Charli and the rest of the track whole, and the lyrics show Charli almost resigned to the inevitable failure of the relationship in spite of her clear devotion. The on-edge presentation of the song is reflective of the nerves that come with now being put into a scenario where you're going to be forced to spend all of your time with someone who you are utterly convinced doesn't feel about you the way you feel about them, and it sets up the remainder of the album as Charli attempts to reconcile her mental and emotional uncertainty with the current reality that she is going to be stuck with this person for the foreseeable future.
​

I like, I like, I like, I like, I like everything about you
I like, I like, I like, I like, I like everything about you
So, don't you hold me back
'Cause I know when I know, I don't wanna be alone

So why not try and hone in on what it is you do love about this person? Claws immediately follows, and it's perhaps the most upbeat song on the album in its infectious hyperpop bounciness and positive, lively descriptions of the emotions abound in sharing the best moments of your life with someone. It is a song focusing on the happiest side of the relationship, but there is still an undercurrent of insecurity in that this person is also all you kind of have in the moment. It's a forced smile that turns itself into a genuine smile purely out of the amount of effort being exerted, and it is infectious, but the glint of sadness beneath the joy does linger nevertheless.
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So hard, things that we've been through, yeah
Could've fallen, but we only grew, yeah (Uh)
So I made my house a home with you (Oh)
I'm right here and it feels brand new
I used to live inside a lie with you (With you)
And now we're honest and it feels so good (Ah, ah)

And once the chaotic pent-up energy finally subsides, we get a genuine moment of reflection on 7 Years. Musically, the distortion, the chaotic basslines and the harsh synth tones all fall away as the song starts with a multi-tracked acapella; Charli’s internal monologue finding clarity and perspective for the first time since the chaos began. As the song kicks into gear properly, the production is finally putting Charli front and centre as she makes sense of all of the sacrifices they’ve made for each other and how now that they finally have the opportunity to slow down and take stock of everything they’ve done together, she can start to assuage some of those concerns that still linger, hoping that by laying down an objective view of their history, it can tame the irrational part of her brain that says something must be wrong here. Realising the positives of this look back, the production is bouncy next to Charli’s vocal timbre, yet still nervy in its sudden stabs of synth to provide the rhythmic backdrop to the verses. It’s not in the clear yet, but it’s taking as much time as it needs to work through it all.
​

Maybe you're my enemy
Now I've finally let you come a little close to me, oh
Maybe you're my enemy
You're the only one who knows the way I really feel, oh
Now it's really clear to me
You could do a little damage, you could cut me deeper

And as soon as a degree of intimacy and awareness of the seriousness of this relationship is established, Charli immediately leads herself down the path of over-analysis on Enemy. The song builds on the old phrase “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” Well, at this moment, there’s nobody closer to her than the partner she shares a room with, so does that make him the enemy? Should she be concerned? Of course, by this point, she’s established that this guy is not going anywhere anytime soon, so does that mean the potential for damage might be prolonged by more time spent together? It’s a song built on doubts that comes after a degree of emotional stabilising. As soon as one angle is covered, the rest of it gets internalised through another lens, and the objective eye through which Charli has been attempting to see her love comes back to bite her. As such, we get a real glimpse at the tricks that Charli’s mind is playing on her as she makes sense of her surroundings.
​
The Mental Anguish of Isolation
As the same four walls bear down and every single piece of your surroundings gets over-analysed to death, it’s not long before every raw feeling gets dragged out into the daylight, either to consider further or to bury deeper. When the one person that you can depend on seeing in that space also takes up so much of your emotional energy, the conflicts of the emotional and the mental collide in dramatic fashion. Charli has never been one to hold back, and as she runs through her emotional difficulties, we get explicit visualisation of the pain she is dealing with.
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I don't trust myself at all
Why should you trust me?
I don't trust myself alone
Why should you love me?

As soon as the relationship finally seems to be solidified following on from 7 Years, Charli’s mental strain and insecurity comes swinging back on Detonate. Every fear that she has about her partner gets pushed aside, and in its place comes a tidal wave of fear over what she could inflict given the opportunity to get too close to someone. As much as her rational recognition attempts to slide in and reassure her that nothing this partner can do to hurt her will happen, it only feeds back into her concern for her own stability and her difficulty with saying for certain that she won’t do the same to him. As all of this is going on in the text, the production is telling its own narrative as it goes along with the theme of detonation, firstly centring Charli, then twisting and warping her words going into the outro as the sentiments bounce around in her head, speeding up and distorting even further as the detonation looms, and then the explosion is finally built up to...
Only it never comes. As soon as it seems everything would collapse in on itself, there’s a soft hiss and the song ends, like someone pouring a bucket of water on the fuse before the gunpowder ignites. A last-minute rescue and reassurance that there exists stabilising forces which will ensure Charli doesn’t come to her wits’ end. It initially reads as an anti-climax, but when considering how the narrator’s mental state never reaches this low of a valley again, it’s a necessary one. (And it’s not like there’s a shortage of climaxes on this album anyway lol)
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That baby, I love you bad
'Cause lately, I finally understand
That maybe this feeling that I've found
Might kill me, put me in the ground
I finally understand, finally understand
My therapist said I hate myself really bad
You tell me it's fine, let me cry and hug it out

It seems weird to say that the arc of the album resolves itself just over halfway in, but I Finally Understand does feel like a personal reckoning and moment of clarity for Charli in regards to the main romantic narrative underpinning the album thus far. It’s a plainly spoken recognition of just how dangerous her devotion may be in the long-term, but that with the support of her partner and her therapist, this can all be managed and controlled so that it does not continue to lead her down dark paths and potentially sabotage the things that she does have, which, in a lockdown situation, may be all she has. This revelatory feeling is punctuated by the production, which is perhaps the furthest this album gets from hyperpop, instead leaning into a UK Garage influenced beat courtesy of the sole credit from Palmistry. It retains the album’s frenetic energy, but does so in a way that feels more controlled and less abrasive, as if Charli is now working to actively reign herself in for her own sake.
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White sheets, you and me used to lay close
Blue summer, sittin' high in the window
Phone calls every night, had a new glow
My clique running through my mind like a rainbow
We were so in love, so we let go
Took it in our lungs, then we all choked
Long drive, so divine when the sun showed
My clique running through my mind like a rainbow

Even though I Finally Understand does have a finality to it, the lessons taken in from it do resonate over the remainder of the album, as shown in the following track, c2.0. This is one of the most brilliantly heartwarming moments on the whole album, repurposing Click from Charli’s 2019 album and turning it on its head. The original track was a hedonistic glossy banger that utilised its guest features to sell an image of glamour and collective unflappability. So what happens when that collective is stripped away and your audience is restricted to what can be broadcast from the bedroom? It comes with a recognition that nothing can replace the in-person memories, so one line from Kim Petras’ verse on Click is flipped in a dozen different ways as the basis for a song about nostalgia and loneliness. But as established, the Charli at the start of the album is not the same as current Charli, just as we all evolved over the course of the lockdown(s). The song is a recognition of the importance of friendship and the necessity of nostalgia in dark times as something to hold on to and aspire to again at some point. There’s nothing that can be done right now, but this time, it’s entirely outside of Charli’s control, so instead of getting hung up on it, it’s best to revel in the happy memories and celebrate the fact that they did happen, as well as hold on to the hope of making some new ones in the near future.
Holding Tight to the Silver Linings
In spite of the anguish and the exhaustion and the pain of attempting to work through it all, there exist glimmers of hope throughout this album - the last-minute fizzle of Detonate, the unifying power of Anthems, the dreamy nostalgia of c2.0. But the most upbeat moments come in the two remaining songs on this album, which aim to create the best possible present all factors considered, as well as spur hope that the ideal present can be represented to some degree in a brighter future.
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I only threw this party for you
Only threw this party for you, for you, for you
I was hopin' you would come through
I was hopin' you would come through, it's true, it's true

Party 4 U is the oldest track to make it on to How I’m Feeling Now, with evidence of it existing as far back as 2017, and it shows in the fact that thematically, this track has next to no connection to any of the other songs on the album. It is exactly as the title describes, wherein Charli is throwing a party with only one person in mind, simply describing the elements of the party that she wants this one person to get involved with. If this song was released as a standalone single along with her other 2018 tracks, it would likely just be seen as a cute little hyperpop concept ballad, but by placing it at the tail end of this album and in this context, it gains so much power and resonance. The party she’d like to hold could obviously only have one intended guest irrespective of how many people she invites, and that person is her partner she’s sharing the house they made a home with. Instead of just being a cute crush anthem, it’s a symbol of Charli finally finding peace with herself and her living situation, and making the most of the scenario by throwing a party inside the house they share where they can finally have some much-deserved intimacy without interruption from intruding thoughts or insecurities. It shows the quiet confidence that most of Charli’s older bangers declare loudly, but that makes it a return to her old form and self-assuredness, and at last she’s settled into her new normal and is making the best of it.
​

Voices tell me hold on
Somethin' keeps on pullin' me close, so close
Grippin' to you so hard
Somethin' keeps on pullin' me close, so close, but
I got pictures in my mind
I can see it so clearly, see it all so bright
I see you and I

At last, the final track of the album. Charli has gone through her mental battle, declared loudly and proudly all of her pains and desires, and now that all of that is on record, all she has left is Visions of the future. The picture is clear for her, and she can foresee the future that she wants and it looks tangible for the first time in a long while. Even if the mental and emotional damage that she’s had to work through doesn’t stay away forever, at least for this one blissful moment of actualisation, it all looks so real and so close, and there’s nothing left to do but celebrate that. After vocalising her dreams and hopefully manifesting them through that, the production breaks out into a full-on rave that ends up taking over the remainder of the song barely halfway in. The driving thump of the beat and blissful high-energy synth tones are not only a joyous moment acting as an upbeat coda to all of the struggles of the arc, but it also evokes an ideal future for us all where we can hopefully soon be back in packed clubs, sweating along to our anthems. By reaching deep into one of hyperpop’s key influences, 90s trance and hardstyle, specifically invoking (to me at least) the extended outro of club classic Born Slippy. Nuxx by Underworld, Charli extends the hand to a wider audience past and present than those who may typically listen to her music, and asks us to revel in the same sun-soaked nostalgia that she revelled in during c2.0. There’s obviously danger in falling too heavily into that as well, but for now, fuck it, we’ve all been through a lot. Enjoy this.
And If I May Speak Personally
I’ve been a Charli diehard since the second I heard Vroom Vroom. I knew she would always push boundaries, make brilliant, iconic pop melodies, and always sound like she was having shitloads of fun doing it. But I never expected an album of hers to wallop me emotionally from end to end in the way that How I’m Feeling Now did. Again, not to dabble too much in a full-year retrospective that no one wants, but obviously Covid and the subsequent lockdown impacted a lot of people, and for many, they struggled desperately, but for some, they were able to find a way to grow from an experience that was a foreign concept regardless of who you were, and that is what Charli did here. She has never been this nakedly vulnerable both on and off record, and that endeared me and so many others to her this year even more so than what we thought she could.
The album release also timed itself pretty much ideally to allow me to feel it to its core. It came out four days after an obviously difficult birthday for me, but also one where a lot of people showed me a lot of love, more than I would normally expect, so I was already feeling pretty tender about human connection. More pertinently, however, this album also came out two days after my country lowered alert levels significantly for the first time and we could see people again in small groups. I returned to work at this stage (a job I really enjoy for the record), and my first listen to this album was in the car on that second day driving in again. Having an album that so succinctly ran through the emotional gauntlet that the prior two months had felt like was incredibly cathartic, and to know that it came from an artist I was already expecting great things from was just the cherry on top. It may not be as glossy and packed with earwormy bops as Charli, or as genre-shatteringly transformational as Pop 2, but this is Charli XCX’s most artistically accomplished project to date, and even if it is just a one-off, I am so glad she challenged herself in this manner. Once again, it is THE album of 2020 for me, for better or worse.
So, how was your 2020?

1. Did you follow along with the album rollout and creation? If so, how did you feel about having such extensive access to an artist's works in progress?
2. How do you feel this album fits in with the rest of Charli's catalogue, especially compared to last year's album? Do you feel like it's a one-off made out of necessity, or do you see a future for her with this aesthetic?
3. Given how directly linked this album is to the experience of living through 2020, how do you foresee this album aging? Will you want to return to it in five or ten years' time?
4. Charli worked with both old friends (AG Cook, Dylan Brady) and first-time collaborators (BJ Burton, Palmistry) for the production of this album. Did you like the deviations from the hyperpop formula, or would you rather see her burrow deeper into her established sound palette?

Blm's primary purpose is not to help black lives, but to bring about a communism society. One of the cofounders said that she and another cofounder were “trained Marxists.” https://imgur.com/gallery/0vQNK0K Demonstrating just how far left they are, another cofounder wrote an article on a Venezuelan news website in which she called out Bernie Sanders for calling Hugo Chavez a dictator. https://imgur.com/gallery/vK367Kv Even worse, Susan Rosenburg sits on the Board of Directors of blm. Susan has taken part in communist organizations in America and was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to 58 years in prison on weapons and explosives charges. She was also sought as an accomplice to a couple of bombings. She is free now because her sentence was commuted by Bill clinton. http://archive.is/0F5T0 The Black Lives Matter website itself says that one of its goals is to disrupt the nuclear family, one of the stated goals found within the Communist Manifesto. https://imgur.com/gallery/h2pW1J9 This alone shows just how little the group cares for black lives. One of the most devastating things to have hit black America in the latter half of the 20th century has been the destruction of the nuclear family.
Single motherhood makes children much more likely to live in poverty and commit crimes. Not attacking single mothers, but the trend is real. Over 70% of African-Americans are born to single mothers. This is the major problem facing the community. Black fathers have to begin caring for the women they impregnate and the children they bear, who once abandoned by their fathers, are forced into a life of poverty. A nuclear family with a father in the home makes a boatload of difference. Prior to the mid-1960s, nearly all children were born to married couples, including black children. This phenomenon was reversed once the progressive War on Poverty began. The welfare state incentivized single motherhood as it provided mothers with welfare benefits if there was no man in the house. https://www.heritage.org/welfare/report/how-welfare-undermines-marriage-and-what-do-about-it Additionally, the vast majority of African-Americans that are murdered in America are killed by other blacks. This is not to say that we should ignore police brutality, as that should be addressed as well. Police who commit murder against unarmed civilians should be punished and police reform should be enacted. However, the group is spreading the false narrative that police and racism are the most dangerous things facing black America. This is false. As mentioned previously, the vast majority of African-Americans who are killed are killed by other blacks, not whites. We have seen this trend worsen with blm’s calls to defund the police. Democrat-run cities that have surrendered to these proposals have seen skyrocketing crime rates, including black-on-black crime. https://imgur.com/gallery/nrpWWAu https://imgur.com/gallery/r7Wioos There was an 8-year old girl in Atlanta who was shot by an armed blm protestor. https://imgur.com/gallery/8hJhwJV . This is but one of many instances of the black-on-black violence that has plagued America. Despite this, blm has not changed its stance on policing. Thus, Davis Dorn, an African-American who was protecting his friend’s pawn shop, was killed by looters. Patrick Underwood, a black police officer, was killed in Oakland. https://archive.vn/pxWsz http://archive.is/hXiqZ https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-3.xls https://archive.vn/UnQcr https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-6.xls https://archive.vn/LFW18 Compare that to the number of unarmed blacks killed by cops. Most blacks that are killed by the police are actually armed. https://imgur.com/gallery/gdN68hk http://archive.vn/JDNxE#selection-2511.0-2528.0 https://imgur.com/gallery/wAZyQrF More evidence that blm’s main goal is not helping blacks, but overthrowing the US for a communist society is the fact that they have continuously defaced statues important to American history. They have even defaced statues of abolitionists and Union soldiers. One of the main goals found in the Communist Manifesto is the destruction of the nuclear family, religion, and national identity in order to make way for a communist society. This seems to be what blm is attempting. Why else would they deface the statue of anti-slavery poet Greenleef Whittier? https://imgur.com/gallery/LHUpOLa They also toppled the statue of a Norwegian immigrant and abolitionist who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. http://archive.is/ELeRu. They defaced a statue of Abraham Lincoln in London https://imgur.com/gallery/irSbE8j and The Colorado State Capitol Khachkar memorial to the Armenian Genocide http://archive.is/h5yOz. As we see, they are deliberately trying to destroy the memory of Western Civilization, just as the Communist Manifesto calls for. These aren’t isolated events. Rioters in Philly deface a statue of Matthias Baldwin, an early abolitionist who fought against slavery. https://imgur.com/gallery/dqq0zod. They vandalized the Memorial to the Victims of Communism in DC https://imgur.com/gallery/R5JQ8JL as well as the DC statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko, who fought for the rights of minorities. In his will, he donated a portion of his estate to free slaves belonging to Thomas Jefferson. He also bequeathed sums for the education of freed slaves. https://imgur.com/gallery/ynAeuXY . They also defaced the Memorial to Vietnam Veterans, many of whom were African-Americans. A statue defaced with the acronym “BLM” along with the communist hammer and sickle symbol. https://imgur.com/a/h8eeCtd
Furthermore, the majority of interracial crimes in America are not committed by whites, but by blacks. The groups is spreading the narrative the African-Americans are overly policed. However, black men, who make up around 6.5% of the population, commit over 50% of the violent crimes. I recommend you watch videos by Thomas Sowell, Larry Elder, and Brandon Tatum. They are all African-Americans who give an alternative perspective to that given by blm activists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFqVNPwsLNo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhy-NvXt0-U https://imgur.com/gallery/eXK6KeG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv5-mc4U_Zw&t=2s https://imgur.com/a/ABrYTuR https://news.0censor.com/b-l-m-leader-warns-whites/ https://twitter.com/AlwaysActions/status/1269476349384818703 https://imgur.com/a/VUOr4Ea http://archive.vn/LFW18 https://news.yahoo.com/poll-most-black-americans-want-170411177.html https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/fryefiles/empirical_analysis_tables_figures.pdf?mod=article_inline https://youtu.be/-2N2w4d0N0w https://archive.vn/wN3yM http://archive.is/59wbE https://youtu.be/XfsJxkobPXk
Violence and chaos caused by BLM rhetoric. BLM refuses to disavow. No leader or local chapter disavows.
David Dorn, a former black police officer, was murdered for trying to protect his friend’s pawn shop from looters 2 police officers in Oakland, one black, were shot - Patrick Underwood Man kills police officer http://archive.vn/xRkfj Blm activists block road and shoot man trying to drive through. http://archive.vn/aYnYg A woman in NY state runs into a line of officers http://archive.vn/9KA6m A Colorado blm protestor blocking road shoots a disabled veteran in the head http://archive.is/8qCyH Woman tries to run over a cop in Philly http://archive.is/J4zrU Antifa militant arrested for stabbing black Trump supporter in Portland http://archive.vn/kmCJU BLM activist calls for images of white Jesus to be taken down.https://archive.is/PKEnz https://archive.vn/VNJoB
A few days before that, a statue of Jesus was beheaded in FL http://archive.vn/DSJNn A church statue of the Virgin Mary was then set on fire in Boston http://archive.vn/bLbYu Other churches and religious statues have been desecrated following the blm activist’s calls http://archive.is/5GS6i Co-founder of BLM Toronto called whites “subhuman” and “genetically defective.” http://archive.is/Jg2Bc Co-founder of BLM Vancouver says that reliability and loyalty are “white supremacist concepts” http://archive.is/qovFv BLM activist in Chicago encourages looting, calls it reparations https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1293647207497756673 Biker in Wisconsin attacked for being white http://archive.is/Ez0er Armed BLM protestor shoots at car and kills 8-year-old black girl http://archive.is/XmhjN BLM activist arrested for extorting business and threatening shop owner if he doesn’t comply https://nationalfile.com/video-blm-activist-arrested-for-extorting-business-for-free-food-with-bat-threat-of-riot/ The demands that BLM in Louisville, Kentucky attempt to extract from local businesses http://archive.is/pUTdP Armed black militia asks man for reparations https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/07/06/im-your-worst-nightmare-armed-black-militia-detain-white-driver-wheres-our-reparations-943511 Rioters attacked the car of a 58-year old man with cerebral palsy in Columbus, Ohio https://imgur.com/gallery/PeiucK3 https://archive.vn/6wn7j https://archive.vn/Z7Kdl
Children’s hospital attacked https://youtu.be/tWAC8AQoJWQ https://nationalfile.com/exclusive-caught-on-tape-democratic-socialists-of-america-trains-protesters-to-be-pro-looting-and-rioting/ Man in Portland beaten unconscious https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1295235403847368704
http://archive.is/txMpi https://archive.vn/k5hcR
It’s ironic that BLM was founded by so-called anti-racist Marxists who perscribe to the gender philosophy. BLM activists continuously denounce the US for the flaws of its founding generation. Yet they themselves never seem to engage in the self-criticism that they want Americans to accept. Marx was a vehement racist and the gender ideology espoused by the BLM organization was created by pedophiles. https://archive.vn/iwwdB
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-559137/Dangerous-liaisons-sex-teens-The-story-Sartre-Beauvoir-told-before.html
http://archive.vn/C0ugY
http://archive.is/PmwKa
A close look into the history of the Black Lives Matter organization shows that its founders have close ties to communism. Don’t just take it from conservative commentators. Listen to the words of co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who in an interview admitted that she and co-founder Alicia Garza were both “trained Marxists.”https://therealnews.com/pcullors0722blacklives In another interview with Teen Vogue, Cullors admitted to being mentored by Angela Davis. https://archive.is/QGJaA They team up every year to give public speeches. Who is Angela Davis? She is a political activist who ran twice as the Vice President of the Communist Party of America. https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/02/us/hall-at-74-still-seeks-presidency.html
In 1979, Davis went on a trip to the USSR where she was given the Lenin Peace Prize. She expressed her gratitude for the prize “bearing the name of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin here on the very soil where he led the great October Revolution.” http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/45045389d6759defac6845a2f3bdfcea When his party failed to garner substantial traction in its first election, Lenin and his Bolsheviks disbanded the Russian legislature. Lenin then implemented a series of purges. Hundreds of thousands were killed through his Red Terror and dekulakization campaigns. The victims were targeted either because they were convicted of wrongthink or deemed privileged peasants (kulaks). This is the man that Cullor’s mentor praised.
Black Lives Matter’s association with communism does not end there. The US Social forum brands itself as an internationalist movement that seeks to transform America. In one of the group’s Detroit meetings, both Patrice Cullors and Eric Mann were chosen as panelists. http://web.archive.org/web/20120211205206/https:/thestrategycenter.org/transformative-organizing In 1969, Eric Mann became involved with the Weather Underground group, a domestic terrorist group whose goal was “world communism.” https://vault.fbi.gov/Weather%20Underground%20%28Weathermen%29/Weather%20Underground%20%28Weathermen%29%20Part%201%20of%206/view They wanted to create “two, three, many Vietnams” through which the U.S. would be “defeated and destroyed in the process.”
While America fought communism abroad, they sought to destabilize the U.S. from within. The way they would achieve this goal was to create chaos and instability at home. This is what led to Eric Mann’s imprisonment in 1969. He and his fellow Weather Underground comrades rioted at Harvard where Mann was arrested for assault and destroying property. https://archive.vn/DU8je
Susan Rosenburg, a convicted terrorist, served as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors for Black Lives Matter’s fundraising organization, Thousand Currents. https://web.archive.org/web/20200616222408/https:/thousandcurrents.org/board-of-directors/ In the 1980s, Susan Rosenberg took part in the May 19th Communist Organization, whose goal was to “overthrow the U.S. government through armed struggle and use of violence.” https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/120257NCJRS.pdf Carrying out the organization’s stated goals, Susan Rosenberg was arrested in 1984 for “possession of a huge amount of explosives and numerous weapons.” She had already been on the run for a number of years for her role in previous robberies and murders. As serious as her crimes were, she was released after Bill Clinton commuted her sentence in 2001. This same group was responsible for bombings at multiple locations between 1983 and 1985, including military installations, the Capitol, and the New York Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/06/us/3-radicals-agree-to-plead-guilty-in-bombing-case.html
Demonstrating just how far left they are, Opal Tometi, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Network, wrote an article on a Venezuelan news website in which she admonished Bernie Sanders for branding Hugo Chavez a dictator. https://archive.vn/hw84X She also took a picture of herself alongside Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. For being an organization that claims to stand against police brutality, Opal had no qualms about embracing a dictator whose own police forces have murdered and tortured thousands of civilians. The year before the picture was taken, protestors were killed by the regime and the UN documented over 100 cases of torture in less than a year. Praise of communist dictators continues. In 2016, Black Lives Matter released a eulogy for Fidel Castro after his death. https://archive.is/UdW9C Castro’s regime had previously engaged in extrajudicial killings and torture. He also persecuted Christianity, which most African-Americans adhere to. Communists and socialists escape all criticism, no matter how egregious their crimes or how similar those crimes are to the perceived injustices they claim to fight against in the U.S. An organization that embraces Marxism and violent criminal regimes is not a group that America should embrace.
Clues regarding the extent to which BLM supports Marxism are abound. Their own website references the word “comrade” multiple times and the raised fist that they have adopted onto their flag was first used by the Communist Party of Germany. It has been a popular symbol amongst communists ever since. The Black Lives Matter website itself states that one of its goals is to disrupt the nuclear family, one of the objectives found within the Communist Manifesto.
BLM is Marxist not only in theory, but in practice as well. The Communist Manifesto calls for the destruction of religion and national identity in order to make way for a communist society. Trained Marxists around the world have sought to make good on this by destroying all evidence of the past, especially statues and religious icons. They have done so in Mao’s Cultural Revolution as well as in Cambodia under Pol Pot. In this regard, Black Lives Matter is no different. https://imgur.com/gallery/HsrEC1u https://imgur.com/gallery/sZkCkdP
Some supporters claim that BLM has only destroyed Confederate statues. This is untrue as they have continuously defaced statues depicting abolitionist figures in American history. They defaced the statue of anti-slavery poet Greenleef Whittier. They toppled the Wisconsin statue of a Norwegian immigrant and abolitionist who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. They defaced The Colorado State Capitol Khachkar memorial to the Armenian Genocide. Rioters in Philly defaced a statue of Matthias Baldwin, an early abolitionist who fought against slavery. BLM vandalized the Memorial to the Victims of Communism in DC and took pictures of themselves flipping off the statue. They are deliberately trying to destroy the memory of Western Civilization, just as the Communist Manifesto calls for.
https://youtu.be/8qmpkMtPBzI?t=169
https://archive.is/gW6Um
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39708445-heaven-on-earth?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=4lH8xMqap5&rank=1

https://i.imgur.com/UCNvDsT.jpg

Examples

For anyone wary of delving into a large primer on a metal adjacent genre, below are a two examples of both classic and modern dungeon synth. While albums are a more complete example, I have narrowed it down to two songs.

• Depressive Silence - "Forest of Etenity" (1996)
• Hedge Wizard - "More True Than Time Thought" (2014)

Dungeon synth is fascinating if not a little cryptic in its history and existence. If any of the above two examples are interesting or the concept of grim musicians making fantasy synth, then I urge you to travel further.

Introduction

Dungeon Synth is a style of at-home made fantasy synth. Despite it being a modern incarnation, its history is rooted in the 1990’s black metal scene, when its members created ambient synth projects and circulated those releases through tapes. These black metal side projects laid the groundwork for dungeon synth’s atmosphere and ethos regarding aesthetics, production, and distribution. Dungeon synth is primarily a solo endeavor with one person writing, playing, producing, and distributing the music. Today, it has become a diverse genre and cottage industry with tape labels, forums, festivals, and an international fanbase devoted to its history and development. Branching out from its beginnings to include a spectrum of sound, dungeon synth has transitioned beyond its dark ambient beginnings to a sound that includes neoclassical, new age, medieval, and even chiptune music. The space between fans and creators, since its beginning, has been small, leading to an intimate scene that exists today almost entirely on the internet.
This aspect of a virtual community and scene has shown itself unintentionally resilient within current events. The process of creating music in isolation and sharing it with an international fanbase through virtual albums and mailed media is something that has been unaffected since the wake of a global pandemic. Livelihoods of the creators and parcel service interruptions aside, dungeon synth, along with other virtual genres, has the potential to be a blueprint for future musical scenes that exist without in person contact. This divorce from the physical aligns with dungeon synth’s escapist aesthetics, as its thematic storytelling offers an at home journey that is safe and socially distant. Dungeon synth offers a window into a potential future where music exists between people through small portals separated by distance and realities.
I have been writing, reviewing, and cataloging the history of dungeon synth since stumbling upon its existence in 2014. Initially perplexed by its discovery, I began sharing the strange records I found with everyone I knew, marveling at this small scene of people making fantasy synth. What may have started as fanciful irony, has since evolved into a deep love for a genre of music I found almost by accident. Since that time, I have become an advocate of the genre, writing primers for its history, retrospectives for its albums, and organizing compilations for its creators. It is my hope to codify a roadmap for people who may not know of its existence but would love it if they did. Dungeon synth has a unique history among its creators, fans, and the space in which it exists, as it defies conventional classification -- continuing to make music in far away places, for far away people.

Part I: Forest of Eternity (1990-2000)

The use of the words "modern" and "classic" is easier to refer to with dungeon synth’s history two largest waves of interest with "modern" in referring to dungeon synth’s revival since the 2010’s and "classic" to refer to dungeon synth as it existed in the 1990’s. It is at this point, I am supposed to tell you the easy and linear history of dungeon synth forming from black metal side projects. Artists like Mortiis and Burzum would combine synth with fantasy aesthetics and sell it to black metal fans. That can be the answer and you can move on to the music, but I would be untrue to myself if I made it that simple. Genres and subgenres have a strange way of forming and even stranger ways of being written about. With enough time and hindsight, writing about music becomes easier since enough distance is created to make connections. Not only is dungeon synth still being created and its modern history has yet to get to a place where reflection can occur, its creation and foundations are still being connected. While bands like Old Tower are revered for their worship of classic dungeon synth and the term “Old School Dungeon Synth” signifies a proximity to black metal and perhaps a relevance to a core philosophy, dungeon synth’s roots are tenuous.
Classic dungeon synth never had a connected scene of influence outside of cassette trading circles. It has no documented motivation nor easy narratives to tell a tale of creation. Classic dungeon synth just existed collectively and independently in the mind of its musicians with their releases, which were then resurrected by fans and archivists decades after their original releases. Before 2011, dungeon synth as a concept and even name did not exist; rather it was a nebula of likeminded music under the name “dark dungeon music,” “neoclassical,” and/or “medieval” that was sorted with other dark ambient, darkwave, and experimental electronics. Dungeon synth did not begin as a named genre until one of its fans, Andrew Werdna, started "The Dungeon Synth Blog" in 2011 to promote the type of music made by Mortiis, Wongraven, and related artists. The creator of that blog coined the name and collected the material he found interesting and fit his view on what the genre should be. This arcane way of genre creation lays at the foundation of dungeon synth and its existence would not be if not for fans like Werdna archiving and connecting the dots.
Dungeon synth, in its classic sense, exists due to the will of its fans who are uncovering more and more releases, which in turn, reshapes its history over and over. One of the releases that will be discussed, The Sleeping Green by Lunar Womb, is a construction of a late 90’s release that was shelved and lay dormant on a harddrive for almost 20 years. This release, which is popular today, would not exist if not for the then current interest in modern dungeon synth. On a personal note, I even have a working theory that classic dungeon synth was a DIY adoption of the fantasy ambient that was created in the 1970’s with Kosmische Musik, and continued in the 1980’s with new age electronic music. As more releases are discovered, Dungeon synth’s history is becoming dotted with records that fit more into the history of electronic music than the birth of black metal.
One of the more popular early dungeon synth releases (one that is even tagged as dungeon synth) is 1991’s Master of Dragons by electronic composer Jim Kirkwood. Kirkwood was a UK musician who made a series of fantasy ambient records in the early 90’s. Master of Dragons would be an interesting starting point for dungeon synth as it has the aesthetics and sound for an origin story. As far as I know, Jim Kirkwood had no connection to the 90's black metal scene, rather his self released fantasy ambient records were just an extension of Berlin School electronics. It is my belief that dungeon synth in 10 or 20 years will have a more formalized history and for now exists as a genre that is being written as we speak. Its history is being constructed almost simultaneously, which makes writing about it strange if not incredibly exciting.
As of now, we have a roadmap of black metal musicians who made synth albums that were a long form version of the interludes that would prelude or act as an epilogue to many black metal demos. Additionally, we have dark ambient musicians who would release synth based records in the same trading circles as black, death, and thrash metal records. These are all well known parts of classic dungeon synth and is the sound tagged as “Old School Dungeon Synth.” It is a world of gloom where there are instances of wonder and magic but it is all cast in a haze of morose shades.

Classic Dungeon Synth Recommendations

Compared to the scope of modern dungeon synth, the boundaries for classic dungeon synth are smaller and more homogenized. There is a spectrum of dark and light and produced and raw, as we will see with modern dungeon synth, but the variety between these early releases is going to be more similar than different. This is due to the prevalence of home recordings and the proximity to black metal and dark ambient. Additionally, even in the most light releases there exists a sense of loneliness and solemnity. There is never (at least to my knowledge) levity within these releases, as the journey into synthscapes from black metal and metal minded musicians was a serious affair akin to meditation rather than something for a gaff. This is the bleak world of dungeon synth before it even had a name and its creators were the grey lords of escapism. For brevity, I included the highlights, If this type of sound is the thing you have been looking for, enjoy your journey through the lower worlds.
Mortiis - Født til å herske (1994)

Håvard Ellefsen, better known as Mortiis, is a project which is almost synonymous with classic dungeon synth, or at least the history of dark medieval synth. Mortiis to few was the bassist for the black metal band Emperor from 1993 to 1994. Mortiis to many more was a milestone in the development of what was then called dark dungeon music and a waypoint for future composers to model their sound. While Mortiis would make a variety of music, it is his “Era I” records or the releases that span from 1993 to 1999 that would become the center of reverence. Født til å herske (Born To Rule) is a 53 minute song split into two parts ,which brings the listener into a world of cold and uncaring passages that snake around the undercroft of a long abandoned castle. Between shadows and sunlight, Født til å herske is dramatic in its approach to cast emotion and atmosphere in a macabre play. The interplay with the keyboards and mixing is something that is both commanding and immersive. Mortiis' instance on the repetitive melodies that make up this song is a cornerstone of classic dungeon synth, as the music becomes a meditative chant used to transpose oneself to distant places. Mortiis would go on to explore different styles in the 2000’s before returning to his legacy as an alumni in the wake of the dungeon synth revival. The 2020 record Spirit of Rebellion is a reworking and recording of the 1994 record Ånden som Gjorde Opprør, which was inspired by his 2017 performance at the Cold Meat Industry 25th anniversary event (explain this a bit). This music means a lot to its creator and, though a lot of Mortiis' image is the punchline to internet jokes, Født til å herske and the majority of Era I is a testament to the power of this sound.

Depressive Silence - Depressive Silence II (1996)

Depressive Silence is perhaps one of the most popular if not most celebrated early dungeon synth projects. This is perhaps due to the fact the band started as a parallel project to the melodic black metal band Mightiest. Members Andreas Kreiler (Ral) and B. Schmidt (B.S) were both guitarists / keyboardists who created a synth entity for the 1995 split with Mightiest. While Depressive Silence’s second release Depressive Silence II is perhaps the more iconic release, with its cover almost being symbolic of dungeon synth. In the haze of mist and fallen ruins exists the whispers of entities that offer no guidance or reassurance. Depressive Silence II is a solitary adventure with an opening that could be one of the banners for classic dungeon synth. Both Ral and B.S. would go on to make one-off projects with a final release in 1997. These releases all happen to be some of the best music made in this time period. Solanum ‎– Spheres Of Time (B.S) and Gothmog - Medival Journeys (Ral) are essential and worth exploring for anyone interested in this time period.

Wongraven - Fjelltronen (1995)

Wongraven is the work of a Satyr well known as Sigurd Wongraven from the Nowegian black metal band Satyricon. Fjelltronen stands as the only release from the project outside of a 6 band split with Darkthrone, Neptune Towers, Storm, Isengard, and Satyricon: Fjelltronen’s history is rooted in Norweigan black and folk metal and its sound reflects this atmosphere with a 32 minute escape into fog ridden lands stalked by choral chants, soft acoustic guitar, and piano melodies. The success of Fjelltronen, and Wongraven in general, is the nebulous nature of the sound as it does not rest on a sole genre but rather gather a cadre of similar styles under a banner of grim atmosphere. The cover for Fjelltronen is a cropped image of "Til den grønne ridder'' by 19th century Norwegian fantasy painter Theodor Kittelsen. Not only was the same image used by black metal act Carpathian Forest for their EP Through Chasm, Caves and Titan Woods but Kittelsen’s works were also used by Burzum, Satyricon, and a host of modern dungeon synth artists. Fjelltronen remains a staple in classic dungeon synth as its bridge to black metal both in style and spirit.

Jääportit - Kauan Koskematon (1999)

Kauan Koskematon is the debut full-length from Tuomas M. Mäkel also known as Jääportit. While Jääportit lacks a black metal connection, it makes up for it with a strong foundation in the substyle of winter synth as well as a consistent output during the dark period of the 2000’s. On the project's website, Mäkel writes the inspiration for the project centered around the work of Mortiis as well as darkwave and neoclassical works from Arcana and Dead Can Dance. This nebulous origin produces itself in one of the most modern sounding records. Jääportit could exist in 2020 and be lauded for the approach to frozen landscapes, which are iridescent in the moonlight. Kauan Koskematon’s embrace of drone and regal melodies exist in icy embankments and would only be underscored by the artwork from Aslak Tolonen (From the Finnish neofolk band Nest). Winter synth would go on to become one of dungeon synth’s most popular substyles which, even though it borders on the edge of existence, is still a style that draws in listeners with an invitation to a glacial court.

Burzum - Hliðskjálf (1999)

For better or worse, Burzum is entwined in the history of dungeon synth. Burzum, also known as Varg Vikerness, was a Norwegian black metal project that not only produced milestone records for the scene but also found his way into some of the more horrific acts that would cast a veil of murder, racism, and antisocial behavior over this entire black metal genre period. While in prison for the murder of Øystein Aarseth, Varg Vikerness, with limited synthesizer and recording privileges, composed two dark ambient and medieval records based around Norse mythology. Dauði Baldrs, along with the follow up Hliðskjálf, would become some of the most famous records not only in the dungeon synth scene but also the greater black metal world as a lament from an infamous and imprisoned villain. Hliðskjálf would be the more complete record with melodic passages as well as retaining its icy sense of being. Hliðskjálf also saw some prototypes for modern dungeon synth, with songs like “Die Liebe Nerþus.” Hliðskjálf, and its predecessor, makes for easy talking points within the history of dungeon synth, yet the actions of its creator both before incarceration and during asks a lot from the listener when listening to the music. For some it is too much and to be honest, the history of dungeon synth can be experienced with or without the two records of Burzum.

Secret Stairways - Enchantment of the Ring (1997)

Secret Stairways was the solo project of US black metal musician Matthew Davis. Davis would lend his talents to the 90’s black metal project Blackened Chapel as well as the gothic darkwave project Twelfth of Never. Secret Stairways was his somber synth project that saw releases in 1997 and 1999. Both album's music was backed by the same sense of melancholy that would haunt most of Davis’ music, but a sense of twilight wonder with 1999’s Turning Point reached the zenith of production for these self released projects. Enchantment of the Ring has become iconic for its production and sense of wonder which creeps across the ground like fog. For most, Secret Stairways would reach a wider audience decades after its initial release and years after the suicide of Davis in 2011. Both Secret Stairway releases now stand as a shrine to its creator, who seemed to be a mage capable of marrying melody with a lingering sense of loss and grief.

Corvus Neblus - Chapter I - Strahd's Possession (1999)

Fans of the Greek black metal band Macabre Omen might recognize the name Alexandros Antoniou. In fact, on this subreddit we had an AMA with the artist who casually mentioned the Corvus Neblus project in conversation. Though Alexandros Antoniou sort of dismisses the project as a fanciful side project, Corvus Neblus and its two demos are high quality in terms of melodic dungeon synth. With heavy ties to the RPG universe, specifically the Dungeons and Dragons Ravenloft campaign, Chapter I - Strahd's Possession not only showcases the musician's immersion in the synthscapes but also the embrace of high fantasy for a vehicle of escapism. Though this record is, perhaps, most popular due to its connection with the artist and wouldnt have been found otherwise, Corvus Neblus is a high watermark despite the casual attitude of its creator.

Lunar Womb - The Sleeping Green (1999/2015)

Lunar Womb was a project started by Henri "Trollhorn" Sorvali known in other circles as the guitarist and keyboardist of the pagan metal band Moonsorrow and keyboardist for Blackened folk metal project Finntroll. The Sleeping Green was intended to be the third demo for the composer, following two other dark ambient releases (released on Meat Hook Productions who also released Moonsorrow records as well as Sorvali’s other project Woods of Belial). For various reasons, the third demo was shelved until 2015 when Sorvali found the tracks and intended artwork for the record. Additionally, 2015 was also the time when dungeon synth was experiencing it’s modern revival, which led Sorvali to remaster the tracks and release the long awaited demo. The Sleeping Green is caught between two worlds, as it was originally intended to be from the late 90’s but has now had the benefit of cleaner, more modern production. It is now we can hear Sorvali's vision, which combines the folk melodies heard on Finntroll and Moonsorrow releases with the atmosphere of what would later be called dungeon synth. The result is a sound that is both enchanting and immersive, and is the best soundscape Lunar Womb produced, as it saved an unintentional blueprint for modern dungeon synth.

Neptune Towers - Caravans to Empire Algol (1994)

I initially did not have Neptune Towers on this list but later added it for reasons I will mention. Neptune Towers has the obvious connection to black metal with it being the solo side project of Fenriz of black metal act Darkthrone. While Neptune Towers, much like Wongraven, was featured on splits with other black metal bands and was released on labels with other black metal acts, its sound is perhaps the least dungeon synth of this list. Owing more to drone, kosmische Musik, and berlin school electronics, Caravans to Empire Algol worships the work of Klaus Schulze and perhaps makes the tenuous connection from the dungeon synth of the 1990s with the far out Berlin school electronic of the 1970s. Whatever the case, it is a good place to begin allowing the transmission of other worlds to wash over you with a sound that is unnerving yet hypnotic and showcasing a sound that is just sci-fi that just wanted to wear black.

Part II: The Age of Wonder (2011-Present)

Dungeon Synth, in the modern sense, began with the advent of a stable internet. Not only were blogs, social media, and a reliable streaming service and marketplace the tools composers needed to reach a global audience, but they were also the same tools used to unearth, digitize, and disseminate the obscure and forgotten releases from the 1990s. While the nascent idea and aesthetic of dark keyboard music carried on in various dark ambient, neoclassical, and medieval records in the 2000’s, dungeon synth as a focused style did not exist until the appearance of internet blogs that not only collected older releases but codified the aesthetics and proper name for the genre. The work of blogs like Asmodian Coven and eventually the Dungeon Synth Blog allowed a new generation to not only discover older releases but also be inspired to make new records.
The mid 2010’s saw a boom in dungeon synth as interest grew across social media and online forums. This boom was a revival of the classic sounds of the 1990’s as well as an inclusion of melodic ambience. While high fantasy and nature were always a part of dungeon synth’s aesthetics, the modern era is when artists embraced the escapist themes for their records, taking on theatrical personas and dedicating full releases to fictional narratives. This shift in style would provide an avenue for new creators and fans to travel and deviate from its classic roots.
Dungeon synth composers differ from other musicians in that the barrier for making the music in the style was low and its reach was only anchored by an internet connection. Composers had no need for touring or even working with other people. These composers only needed a computer, internet, and imagination to be a musician. If one wanted to take a release from the writing, composing, recording, and even manufacturing of the marketing media, they could do it all without leaving their room. This cottage industry spread among creators, who all varied in their levels of professionalism, but were connected by social hubs such as Facebook, Bandcamp, and online forums. All in all, Dungeon synth is similar to other internet centric microgenres whose scene and community exist entirely in a digital space. Dungeon synth, much like other microgenres, has a pitch to newcomers based on sound and aesthetics. It is alluring but also poses a unique question: 'Do you want to listen to Dungeon and Dragons music made by people in cloaks playing synth in their bedroom?' The answer was a resounding 'Yes' by many and the dedication to the tabletop hobbies by fans embraced the style into their folds. Dungeon synth had an aesthetic and the boom of home releases would only strengthen its legacy.
Dungeon synth is a style of music that has grown quickly throughout its modern era, showcasing the evolution of a music genre in an expedited timeline. Its precursors, foundation, watersheds, and experiments, which usually take years and decades to be established by a genre, have been collapsed into only a few years. This rapid progression can be attributed to the ease of virtual engagement of the community, as well as at home production of its albums. Albums could be made within months, causing a flourishing of new ideas, which would cause reactions to the evolution at an exacerbated pace. Criticisms, tensions between stylistic tastes, and feuds between the scene could be waged easier, leading to an accelerated collapse or synthesis of ideas. This drama of a small scene that went through a surge of popularity and cracked under the influx of new fans is not unique among genres, yet dungeon synth went through it in a matter of a few years as opposed to the decades it normally takes. This exceleration has matured dungeon synth to leap forward in its evolution, and has led to one of the best periods in perhaps its entire existence.
Dungeon synth continues to be fascinating for many reasons. One is boring while the other is fanciful. The boring reason is that the musicians live in an age of reliable internet and with a low entry for making music, this leads to a consistent output of new material. Combine this with a continual fanbase that is just discovering the sound and you have a continual wave of consumers. The more fanciful reason is that dungeon synth offers a sense of magic to its listeners. Dungeon synth offers a style of music and scene whose intimacy between artist and listener feels like a relationship, and the subsequent journey is more like an adventure both of you are undertaking. This relationship between art and artist is something I find particularly powerful, as each release is like a chapter in an ongoing story that both us as the listeners and them as the creators are unaware where it will take us. We are all players in this story and we will go to far away places.

Modern Dungeon Synth Recommendations

For this primer, and for the purposes of introductions, I revised a nine point alignment chart that was created on a Dungeon synth forum. Musician RævJäger made an alignment chart modeled after the Dungeons and Dragons character alignment, which is set between two spectrums of dark/light and produced/raw. Since the sounds of modern dungeon synth are much more varied than the 1990's, directing people towards a type of sound is more viable and potentially useful. Modern dungeon synth, while almost entirely removed from its black metal roots, has a sound for almost anyone ranging from fanciful tavern music to nihilistic noise.
These nine albums are what I feel were important at the time of modern dungeon synth's boom, as well as ones that fit neatly into an alignment chart. This chart is not perfect, and there may be better choices or questionable placement depending on interpretation, however it is not meant to be definitive rather a playful introduction to a style and might help people find the right sound that would interest them. Those who are versed in these nine albums might find Part III of this primer more helpful.
Lord Lovidicus - Book of Lore Volume I (2015) [Produced/Light]

Book of Lore follows a line of better known releases from Lord Lovidicus. 2010’s Trolldom and Quenta Silmarillion are perhaps this artist's most well known releases due to their placement in the early history of modern dungeon synth. Book of Lore sees the same focus on medieval fantasy but begins the artist's ascent to the production the music deserves. Lord Lovidicus always wanted to sail in the cloud of production and, combined with the artist's love for Tolkien lore, Book of Lore is fantasy ambient minus the rough edges. While the bedroom aspect is present, the music blurs between worlds with a sound that is approaching bliss. I could think of few other releases that quest for the same level of production that tries to transcend the bedroom setup.

Fief - - I (2016) [Neutral Light]

Fief is a wonderful artist to start with in dungeon synth as it is a very popular sound among fans. In fact, Fief may be one of the most popular dungeon synth artists, which is no surprise given the string of amazing releases. Rather than a direct narrative, Feif's five albums are vignettes into a medieval world that might or might not have any sort of fantasy elements. This is a long campaign in a low magic world that is filled with just as much danger and excitement as other more dragon-filled narratives. I feel Fief is popular due to both accessibility with the production as well as a charm in its minimalism. This is tavern music for the weary traveler and while there are few patrons, the hearth is warm and roaring.

Chaucerian Myth - The Canterbury Tales (2016) [Raw/ Light]

I have written a lot about Chaucerian Myth and the artist's debut The Canterbury Tales. I wrote an introduction to the album for the CD reissue, which is on the inside flap. To put it simply, The Canterbury Tales was a watershed moment for dungeon synth as it took the growing modern scene and its bedroom recording, married it with English literature, and cast a drama into a 3.5 hour epic. An unofficial soundtrack to Chaucer’s collection of stories published in 1483, each of the tales is scored by the sounds of fantasy synth. The Canterbury Tales was a fantastic release from an active member of the Dungeon synth community, which set a new benchmark for intensity and devotion to the craft. In terms of atmosphere, there is little space between Fief and Chaucerian Myth. The difference lies in the length and scope of The Canterbury Tales, as these songs are cast in near 20 minute epics that wander sometimes lost in the tomes of history books. This is passion amid piles of books and its charm is undeniable.

Sequestered Keep - Wandering Far (2017) [Produced Neutral]

There is a joke among dungeon synth fans about the prolific, bordering on oppressive, release schedules some artists use. The years between 2015 and 2016 saw 14 releases from US based Sequestered Keep, which would have fit into this trope if not for the fact that all of it was outstanding. Wandering Far was the only release of 2017 and, for me at least, it was a grand declaration of magic and somber distance. Sequestered Keep aims in the same direction as Lord Lovidicus but collects the shadows as much as the highlights. Much like the album covers, Sequestered Keep offers rolling landscapes that are filled with as much joy as they are with sorrow. Sadly, 2018 would see the last release from this artist, so Wandering Far as well as the finale, The Vale of Ruined Towers are now monuments to the legacy of this artist.

Erang - Another World Another Time (2013) [Neutral]

For many, Erang was their first exposure to dungeon synth. This came through a compilation video put out by this French artist simply titled “2 hours 30 minutes of Dungeon Synth, Medieval Fantasy Music by Erang.” It was a simple video that provided 2 hours and 30 minutes of background music for reading, playing games, or whatever the user wanted. I feel there is something omnipresent about Erang as the music seems to touch every aspect of the sound. Another World Another Time catches the artist as they climb out of the classic dark ambient sounds of Tome I-IV to to craft a world of imagination and wonder. If I could offer any one record which I feel captures the variety in dungeon synth, it would be this. Additionally, 2013-2015 would see some truly fantastic works from Erang and this release is indispensable in one's journey into dungeon synth.

Til Det Bergens Skyggene - Til Det Bergens Skyggene (2011) [Raw Neutral]

Til Det Bergens Skyggene is a German artist who is also the operator of Voldsom Musikk -- a label specializing in black metal and dark ambient. Til Det Bergens Skyggene is a project that was responsible for 5 releases in a few short years before ceasing. The third and self titled release has grown in legacy in the dungeon synth scene for its reverence to the classic sound of the 1990s. With a focus on texture and ambience, Til Det Bergens Skyggene, the album, moves at a glacial pace across a landscape of fog with only shadowy outlines of trees and ruined structures. If limbo or the desolate landscapes of the afterlife had a soundtrack it would most likely sound like the track “Skog, Natt Og Stjerner.” This is a record that does not approach pleasantly and, in fact, it does not approach at all. Rather, Til Det Bergens Skyggene walks ever forward through the growing opaque wall of fog uninterested in anything but the crawl of time. It is aloof, magical, and completely uninterested in being accessible.

Murgrind - Inheritor Of The Forest Throne (2015) [Produced / Dark]

Inheritor Of The Forest Throne was the second record for Murgrind and a step forward in terms of production from the dark and classic sounds of 2013’s Journey Through The Mountain. Clear and grand sounds dominate the production, combined with a constant reminder of scorn and sadness. This marriage between the dark and production clarity was mirrored on the cover as it depicted a vast forest devoid of foliage and oppressive in its presence. Murgrind would set a new standard for production, and send a reminder to people that, despite the DIY nature of the music, professionalism and craft could still be revered.

Thangorodrim - Taur-nu-Fuin (2016) [Neutral Dark]

Taur-nu-Fuin was a monumental record on its release. I remember when it came out there was something that changed about the scene as its release pointed to a new benchmark for direction. With it’s cover, which worships the aesthetics of second wave black metal, to the sweeping labyrinthian sounds, to the obscure Tolkine lore, Taur-nu-Fuin was a champion of the classic sound that lay in the graves of Mortiis and Wongraven. With four songs and a running time of 50 minutes, Thangorodrim is intense in its need for commitment. This is not background music rather a passage into corridors that lay far out of the reach of sunlight. I would urge people to listen to this release for nothing else than to experience classic dungeon synth in a modern incarnation.

Old Tower - The Rise Of The Specter (2017) [Raw / Dark]

In terms of optics, The Rise of the Specter was perhaps one of the most famous modern dungeon synth records in the 2010’s. The Rise of the Specter’s cover was briefly used as the header for the 2017 Bandcamp article “A Guide Through the Darkened Passages of Dungeon Synth.” This was eventually changed to a more generic stone arch but, for a while, the hooded figure was a guide for newcomers into the world of dungeon synth. The Rise of the Specter and its ruminating sounds made sense for people as it worshipped the classic style of dungeon synth. This was Mortiis in 2017. This made sense as dungeon synth, for many, was the sound of dark passages and people in cloaks. It was mysterious and arcane and, above all else, dark. Old Tower was one of dungeon synth’s largest success stories as The Rise of the Specter led the artist to a deal with Profound Lore and a 2018 concert at the Roadburn Festival. Old Tower, for all intents and purposes, is the largest spokesperson for dungeon synth outside of its small community and to many, including myself, is the perfect spokesperson to the world beyond the small scene.

Conclusion

The above primer represents the start of material I am putting together for a dungeon synth book / series of articles regarding the collected history of the genre. These profiles are being collected on my blog as "The Book of DS." My blog will also be the continuation of some subjects related to dungeon synth including its connection with the Berlin School electronic scene as well as the dark period of 2000-2011 where this sound existed in the shadows.
Part of my fascination with dungeon synth is its emerging history combined with the proximity of its creators to community. Most if not all of these creators are people passionate about music who are more than ecstatic they found a community that shares their love for fantasy ambient. If you have read this far and know everything in the above primer then you can move onto a continuing primer that you will hopefully find more recommendations. If not, then we will discover them together.

This place is killing him.
Welcome to Rereading the Frame, a timely reread where bots remind you to not swear.
Narrative-wise, the last chapters of NOTW are the textbook example about how to close a good book. Actually,I suspect that NOTW 92 and WMF 151 are one of the reason why Rothfuss is struggling with book 3, because with Doors of Stone’s ending he won’t be able to use the tricks he’s used insofar. But since this is outside of the purposes of this reread, I’ll keep this thoughts aside (feel free to discuss it in the comments, tho).
 
Back on track. What about these chapters, rereading-wise? Well, there’s some good stuff as well: for example, you can see that Rothfuss really liked NOTW 92 because here he starts a tradition (the “oath system”, for lack of better words) that will be carried through all WMF.
At the same time, I’ve also noticed that these two chapters feature a series of curious mistakes. The interesting thing is that some of them come from the characters, while others from Rothfuss himself.
Have you noticed them?
If not, fasten your seatbelts: this post is here for you.
Ready?

Summary

Chapter 92 and NOTW epilogue

Kvothe gets whipped once again, buys a new cool lute, explores some tunnels and discovers that students have sex in the archives. The feud with Ambrose seems to have faded out a bit, but as Kote will say, ‘that is a story for another day.’

Kote stops his narration and calls it a day. Everyone goes to sleep, except not really: Kote seems tormented by the ghosts of his past, Chronicler is tormented by a psychopathic Faen, and Bast is busy tormenting poor scribes.
Bast and Chronicler sign the most one-sided partnership of all times, and then the princeling batmans out of the window.
Day One of KKC concludes with Kote, alone in his room, waiting to die.

Let’s start with the journey to Alveron’s court

More often than not, KKC likes to throw some spoilers to the readers. That’s why we know that Ambrose will bring more trouble in the future, that Kvothe knows the truth of a certain princess Ariel, that tragedy looms in the background, et similia.
In NOTW 92, however, there’s a mistake… and it’s either on Kvothe or Rothfuss. I tend to think the latter.
Notice that in this chapter Kvothe basically spoils most of WMF: thanks to NOTW 91 we already knew that Ambrose will manage to get Kvothe to leave the University, and here we get mentions of Felurian and learning to fight from the Adem.
On a meta consideration we could also say that NOTW 92 spoils Kvothe being at the Maer’s court (I mean, if he takes a journey towards that…), and on a deeper meta consideration, we could also add the whole Fake Ruh business, given that the Road to Levinshir chapter had been published already, although in different form (no Adem but some sword sage, for example).
Think about it: that’s the entirety of WMF minus the hunt in the Eld!
…except that the journey to Alveron’s court will just be briefly dismissed in WMF 52, never to be mentioned again. And without Chronicler probing for additional details, which seems a bit strange (and on regard, have a little spoiler from myself as well: there’s some anomaly in WMF around the subject!).
 
This either means that Kvothe was wrong… which doesn’t make sense, given that here he’s talking about his favorite stories.
Or it means that Chronicler and Bast will make a mistake in WMF by not asking him about his journey… which makes not much sense given Bast’s emphasis about making his Reshi recall his good times, and the same goes for Chronicler, given he cares about the full story.
…or it means, way more interestingly, that this is a mistake from Rothfuss.
If that’s the case, it opens up for some pretty cool meta speculation, because while we’re here mutually drying our tears because Book Three isn’t out yet, we risk forgetting that WMF took its time as well. And more importantly, that WMF took some heavy revisions from its initial outline.
So, while my initial feeling was that WMF 52 exists just to prove that not every story is worth retelling, or as a sort of little chapter to spice things up (I mean, that chapter is a nice literary device after all), now I’m inclined to think that the events concerning the journey to Alveron’s court were indeed written by Rothfuss.
Only, they were cut away for some reason.
Here’s why I think this:
 
1 WMF does actually portray all the things a Wise Man should Fear! And they make up the narrative arcs of WMF! Alveron’s court is all about the anger of a gentle man. Felurian warns about the dangers of a moonless night. And since we know that the Adem adventures were quite amplified only in later revisions of the book, we can speculate they didn’t take that much space in the book initially.
The only thing’s missing? A sea in storm. Which is part of exactly what the journey to Alveron’s court was about, by Kvothe’s admission.
Edit: u/BioLogIn also notes that Devi's alar during her confrontation with Kvothe is like the ocean in storm.
 
2 WMF 52 plays a trick: Kvothe will try to retroactively justify the lack of inclusion of these adventures with a nice…

”I must pass them over in favor of more important things”

…because “there events have little to do with the heart of the story”.
But if that’s the case, why keeping Count Trepe and the mysterious man that took a ship passage exactly like Kvothe, and the fact that during the voyage some treachery was involved?
Simple: because those events mattered. Only, either Rothfuss or She Who Must Not Be Named ^Betsy decided that their entirety weren’t worth telling.
But some elements remained, and for good reasons. After all, you don’t keep a character like Threpe around for two books, especially not in WMF 150, if you don’t need some Chekov device of sort. WMF 52 plays a bit of “goody-two-shoes” role and does it smoothly, but I suspect that the events Kvothe barely glanced did actually see Rothfuss’ pen indeed, even if just partially.
 
Remember: KKC can plays the awesome business of throwing minor (or major!) spoilers left and right exactly because Rothfuss has always had the general blueprint of the entire trilogy in his head.
Chances are, when writing NOTW 92, a draft of WMF with Kvothe’s shipwreck was on Rothfuss’ desk.
Important edit: u/BioLogIn offers a heavy counterpoint in Rothfuss' own admission here.

Details worth pointing out

• Bast’s footsteps
When Bast ‘goes to sleep’, his footsteps sound hard on the wooden steps of the stairs. Regardless of what happens in this very same chapter, we already know that Bast’s steps are actually silent. We’ve seen it at the beginning of the book, and the same will happen at the very beginning of WMF.
I’m pretty sure Bast is exaggerating his footsteps, be it to voice his displeasure towards Kvothe (like a child throwing a tantrum) or he’s always keeping up with his act for when he needs to be silent for real.
 
Btw, think about it: Bast has hooves instead of feet, and he can be silent on hard wood. Wow. Is this a testament to his skills, or does Glamourie involves also the sense of hearing?
• The nightly ritual and some possible mistakes
Kvothe ends the narration and starts with his usual errands. However, think about it:
1 Kvothe brings in new wood for the fireplace… but in the previous Frame chapter (NOTW 88) Bast had kept aside the wrecked furniture near the kitchen door to be used as firewood.
2 Kvothe once again starts sweeping the floor… but the floor had just been washed not once, not twice, but seven times straight.
3 Kvothe had forgot the light up the lamps outside the inn.
4 Rothfuss doesn’t mention that the lock of the inn is made of brass. Rather than a mistake, I wonder if the inclusion of brass came when writing WMF, given some brass barrels will appear as well.
 
Do we really consider these mistakes? Yes and no: yes, because it’s interesting to point out some inconsistencies (I mean, given how many times that fucking floor is swept/washed, I suspect it to be concave rather than flat), but at the same time not really.
Personally, I think it’s more of an escamotage from Rothfuss to emphasize the cyclical nature of Clockwork Kote, creature of habit and monotony personified: Kote (and not Kvothe) is intentionally predictable, repetitive, cyclical.
 
Crackpot theory speculation: Kvothe forgets to light up the outside lamps because Clockwork Kote is a condition that works only inside of the Waystone Inn. That’s why outside the Inn he has no troubles doing physical work and fighting the scrael, while inside the inn he struggles.
More likely explanation: Kvothe simply forgot to light the lamps because who the fuck would come late at night. Plus he had better stuff to do, like watching Shep die and hosting half of the town right after.
• The bottles, once again
Always mentioned and always mysterious. The text says that “through the motions, his eyes were far away, remembering”. I wonder if the eventual trip to memory lane is due to the bottles themselves.
• The foul smelling thing
No, it’s not my nickname during intimacy, it’s the salve Bast put on Chronicler’s shoulder in NOTW 88!
It’s worth pointing out that Chronicler trashes away Bast’s medication. Is it because he doesn’t trust Bast, or because as an Arcanum student, his beliefs concerning medicine spurn countryside remedies?
That wouldn’t be a first: we know that sometimes University students are wrong, think of WMF and the supposed properties of arrowroot.
• No lights in Newarre
It’s very late at night. This doesn’t surprise us the slightest.
• Cheeky sneaky Rothfuss
Once more, an evidence of his sneaky business: remember NOTW 2, when Chronicler’s amulet was just called “a ring of metal”? Ninety chapters later and it’s explicitly called “wheel”!
Notice however that in NOTW 2 it was already hinted that the ring/wheel was a religious symbol as well, although by then we didn’t know anything about the Tehlin Church.
• The Wise Chronicler’s Fear
Chronicler struggling to sleep is one of the things I love the most: it’s clear that he does not trust those two other guys!
I don’t think his worries have anything to do with the possibility of “Skinchanger 2: the Revenge”. The trio’s behavior after the Waystone Crowd leaves seems good evidence enough for that.
 
Worth pointing out that the trigger for Chronicler barricading into his room is his surprise at the bed sheets having being changed. Why? Simple: because if the sheets have being changed, it means the innkeeper knows the room where Chronicler is actually sleeping!
• Chronicler’s curious mistake
Chronicler decides to barricade himself in and that’s cool… but had he really paid attention to Kvothe’s story, he would have known what happens when you forget to lock the windows as well! NOTW 38, 51, 62, 72 and 90 are all good evidences for that.
Especially NOTW 90, given Kvothe told him that story just few minutes before calling it a day!
• He has ears like a hawk
We will have more evidences in WMF, but we already know that Kvothe has good hearing whenever he notices that someone is about to enter the Inn. We also know that in NOTW 13 he noticed Bast eavesdropping.
Bast always tries to sneak by, but are we sure he manages to go unnoticed most of the times?
 
By the way, Chronicler not knowing that hawks have ears seems in line with a medieval setting… except not really. I suspect this is more a mistake on Rothfuss’ behalf than Chronicler’s.
I don’t think irl medieval nobles would have used an animal who cannot hear commands for hunting. One thing is the animal refusing to obey, another is deciding to train an animal that…cannot hear your orders because it doesn’t have ears? Come on.
Fwiw Bast is absolutely right, because hawks have an excellent sense of hearing.
• Bast’s way of putting down the sulfur match’s light
Bast licks his fingers and pinches the match. Nice little detail from Rothfuss, not only it makes it a bit peculiar, but also tells us a bit about Bast: he doesn’t mind getting close to the fire, metaphorically speaking.
It’s also part of the setup for Bast’s ominous “transformation”, although talking about transformation isn’t right, given that this is what Bast has always been.
Speaking of which…
• …I had forgot how well done is Bast’s transition
This is textbook mob behavior.
It starts friendly, joking. Then it slowly turns more vulgar, up until the classic “I came to talk to you. Because I know best”. And once the refusal comes, here we have Bast getting angry.
First we have his angry eyes, then his smile changes from child-like to wide (and then, nearby the end of the chapter, to terrible), then he initiates physical contact by tapping Chronicler’s shoulder. Classic intimidation tactic. And after Chronicler refuses once again, here it comes the direct threat, and then a practical display of power.
 
Another little literary trick worth pointing out: when Bast enters Chronicler’s room the scribe is almost naked. Look at his description, used to make him look even more vulnerable:

Bare-chested, he gathered the blankets self-consciously around his waist and glanced towards the door

• Don’t scratch the floor!
Bast says that Kvothe gets angry if the floor gets scratched. Given he’s looking at the chest of drawers, I wonder if something happened when Bast and Kvothe moved the thrice-locked chest upstairs… especially since we’ll know in WMF that it was quite difficult.
• Anhaut-fehn
Derogative term, quite heavy given the context. I suspect the “an” of “anhaut” to be a privative particle of sort. Something like “witless fool”, for example. But for the sake of completion, the “an” in “anpauen” is nothing like that, so I’m likely wrong.
  Speaking of “anpauen”, here you can find its pronunciation and meaning, straight from the mouth of The Bearded and Terrible Man. Don’t you love it when he goes “I don’t know if I ever told what anpauen means” and then doesn’t tell it at all? Fucking Rothfuss, every single time. FWIW he told that anpauen means Iron Shoe/ Shoe Iron here, except the video is not available anymore, so here’s another “fuck you aowshadow”, I guess.
I wonder if it has anything to do with Bast having hooves instead of feet. In that case an iron shoe may have a heavy meaning.
Or if it is a nod with something that happened during the Berentaltha, a sort of dance mentioned in WMF 99, given that iron shoes are heavy and not suited for dancing?
 
Btw this is the kind of shit that makes me lose a lot of time between one episode and another: searching for iron melting temperatures, hawk ears, rereading two entire books because I had this vague notion of a faen dance and listening Rothfuss on youtube for 21 minutes straight, which for me is pure torture. I swear, I can reread his books ten times without blinking, but listening to him for more than 20 seconds straight, I just can't. I guess Mother Nature didn't intend for me and Rothfuss to live together. But I knew it already: after all, I shit you not, I used to be a pizza guy (“the fucking pizza guy” – cit.) when I was younger.
Sigh.
• Memoir
As any biographer worth his name, Chronicler basically gets an erection when Bast mentions Kvothe’s memoir. Will he manage to gets his hand on it?
On a serious note, I wonder why the memoir pages keep staying not only in Kvothe’s room, but right on his desk, if he’s supposed to have been furious about them. Something’s going on, possibly. I mean, it has been two months…
Notice Rothfuss’ choice of words in the epilogue: the memoir is “pointedly ignored”… but also “unforgotten”.
FWIW Kvothe managed to write his memoir for a night. He changed his mind the next day. Wonder why, given that at the beginning he looked “three feet taller, with lightning on his shoulders”, according to Bast.
• Martin Maskmaker
As noted in Rereading 5, Bast isn’t used to human fairytales.
Here we find something similar with Chronicler: chances are the story of Martin Maskmaker is told only between Faen creatures, because I find extremely unlikely that a man who makes his living from stories isn’t able to recognize a (possibly) famous tale. Chances are, this tale isn’t human.
 
Speaking of manling stories: I don’t know if The Ghost and the Goosegirl has an irl equivalent, but The Ha’penny King’s one could be KKC’s equivalent of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper.
• Possible huge detail

You see, there’s a fundamental connection between seeming and being. Every Fae child knows this (…)

That’s because Glamourie and Grammarie seem Faen prerogatives! I’m pretty sure Bast’s sentence is linked with them.
 
While we’re at it, know that I’m not neglecting to consider Glamourie and Grammarie… I’m just waiting for a certain WMF chapter to show up, because there’s some cool stuff to discuss (and it may even involve TSROST)!
• Basic psychology
According to Chronicler, if “you dress a beggar in fine clothes, people will treat him as a noble”. This is exactly what happens to Kvothe in both books. Think of Tarbean and Severen.
• Internal consistency
When Bast says to Chronicler…

There’s no reason we can’t be friends

…he is picking back the same words Kvothe said to both when they fought in NOTW 13.
This is classic Rothfuss: think of all the times the author throws back to some character specific words from the past! KKC internal consistency stays as sharp as steel.
Oh, and while we’re at it, notice that “what do I want? I just want my Reshi back” is exactly 10 words to break Bast's will.
^{But so is “Can I bring you anything before you go to sleep”, LOL}
• Another possible mistake
With his sulfur match, Bast lights up a lamplight. But at the end of the chapter, the room is lit by a candle.
• Flower smell
Bast’s breath smells like flowers. This is something that shows up from time to time. I thought it was a faen prerogative, but it doesn’t seem like that.
• Bast’s eyes
When Bast goes super sayan we can notice a cool progression concerning his eyes:

Color	Nature comparison
Solid blue	darkening sky
Paler	clear blue of a noontime sky
Pale blue-white	lightning
White as opal	full-bellied moon

That “moon” term is telling indeed. Especially given the nature of Fae.
• Bast’s choice of words
First consideration: in KKC initial drafts, probably oaths weren’t so formulaic. Notice that generally in NOTW people say “I swear” and that’s it.
But from this chapter onwards, many oaths in the series will follow Bast’s formula! I guess this chapter was a source of inspiration for Rothfuss…
Based chart incoming:

Who	When	First part	Second part	Third part
Bast	NOTW 92	I swear by all the salt in me	by stone and oak and elm	by the night sky and the ever-moving moon
Elodin	WMF 11	I swear it on my mother’s milk	on my name and my power	by the ever-moving moon
Kvothe	WMF 73	I swear it on my name and my power	by my good left hand	by the ever-moving moon
Felurian	WMF 99	I swear this by my flower and the ever-moving moon	by salt and stone and sky	I swear this singing and laughing, by the sound of my own name
Bast	WMF 105	I swear it by my tongue and teeth	on the doors of stone	I am telling you three thousand times (assuming it counts)
Dedan	WMF 107	I swear it by my good right hand	(ง︡'-'︠)ง?come at me	◟(•̀д•́◟ )ain't scared brah

 
Additional considerations:
-Dedan’s not particularly educated, so I guess his oath was simpler. I put it in only because unlike the NOTW oaths, he adds “by…”. I wouldn’t consider it particularly meaningful, although like all the others, it respect one criteria.
 
-Every oath involves the defining part of the person speaking. And before someone goes “LOL, Felurian swore on her cunt” let me add that in her case her flower IS a defining part of herself. Because Felurian IS a personification of lust and desire. Look how offended she gets when Kvothe sings “her skills in love / they do suffice”!
 
-Kvothe may or may not have unconsciously copied Elodin, as often happens when people adjust to their models.
 
-Faen like to talk in triplets. This isn’t restricted to oaths alone. Think of the classic “I am telling you three times…”
 
-Don’t underestimate swearing on salt: salt is precious and necessary to the body, as Kvothe notes when giving food to Auri, after all. Modern societies underestimate salt, but it has always been a precious substance.
 
-Bast swearing on the doors of stone is HUGE. I’m pretty sure this is a book 3 spoiler that will hit us hard when it comes. Insofar, it seems like it could be a geographical, definite place. Felurian talks about those as well.
 
-Of all the oaths, the only one who could still be broken is Kvothe’s oath to Denna. Which means that if oaths apply, the problem in Kvothe’s hands may be his left hand.
Speaking of Kvothe’s hands, read this if you haven’t already.
 
-Look how many times the moon shows up!
• What is sarcasm?

“I suppose you know best,” said Chronicler dubiously. Bast gave an emphatic nod. “Exactly. That’s why I came to talk to you. Because I know best. You need to (…)”

This is a good example, but it’s not the only one (both in this chapter and the whole Frame) where Bast simply ignores eventual zings from Chronicler. I don't think he even gets then, given how he’s incredibly dismissive of the scribe.
Funnily enough, this is something both Bast and Chronicler have in common.
There’s more to these exchanges, but for that we’ll need to wait the ending of WMF where we’ll have a chart for comparison.
• Dark sides
Bast says that Faen stories have their dark sides, without elaborating much on the subject. But we can speculate on something.
-First of all, Martin Maskmaker has a dark side for sure, because Bast was going to use it as a cautionary tale of sort.
-Then we have some of Felurian’s stories from WMF 99, and while we have just titles we can speculate something tragic concerning “The boy who ran between”.
At first I thought it could have been a retelling of Jax story, but then I changed idea given Felurian’s reticence about talking of some figures. I mean, she refuses to name Iax and threatens to beat Kvothe if he brings the Chandrian up again… why would she tell him this tale, if it was about Iax?
Therefore, I suspect “The boy who ran between” is about someone else.
 
Why do I think this story has a dark side? Simple: doesn’t the title remind you of the old tale of Rip Van Winkle?
• Don’t ask about music or magic
This suggests that Bast knows what happened to Kvothe, at least partially.
• Foundation
Many years ago, around the start of the Punic wars, Rereading the Frame 2 came out. In the comments of that fateful episode of this punctual reread, the mysterious Danceofthesugardicks said:

It bothers me that (…) you call the story Kvothe is telling a painting. (…) I would propose to title Kvothe's narrative as the foundation.

Back then I knew he was right, but only today I realized how much. Look at how NOTW 92 starts:

We all have the groundwork now. A foundation of story to build upon.

Wow. Since Kvothe himself proves the users right, we know we’re on the right path!
And now, a little moment of silence.
It is a silence of three parts, actually: the first silence is the hollowing, echoing quiet of the things that are lacking, like your pen on your paper drawing your version of the Waystone Inn map. But no, of course you aren’t drawing that, and so the silence remains. The second silence belongs to these heavy hands of mine, and pray they don’t catch you map-less. No, not you who have drawn you map already: you are a friend, and in your case these gentle, weak hands of mine would only caress your noble cheeks, and tuck you between soft blankets when you go to sleep. I mean, what else could you expect: you drew the map. But those who didn’t… rrrrrrrrrrgh… no, wait: luckily there’s still time to draw your version of the Waystone Inn map! Let’s be friends! A world of friendship and hugs! Draw your map. Now. End of the story.

B-but… you didn’t tell me what’s the third silence is…

Oh, right. The third silence is not an easy thing to notice: If you listen for an hour, you may begin to feel it in the thick walls of your room. And in the flat case that surrounds your internet device. And like the previous two silences it still fucking says: draw your Waystone Inn map. End of the story.

X

For the purposes of Rereading 7, X is Bast and whatever Bast wants to do to “help” his Reshi.
When Bast says to Chronicler…

He was my message in a bottle. One of many. You just happened to be the first person to find one and come looking.

…I can’t help but notice that the second person to come looking, as NOTW 88 title wants, was a skindancer. A more careful Bast would have considered that. Things aren’t necessarily linked, but dismissing everything would be naïve.
Bast’s careless way of thinking continues with this telling line:

Even old enemies come to settle scores would be better than him wasting away like this.

Like… really? What kind of psychopath would be fine with enemies explicitly coming to settle down scores in the Waystone Inn? Hasn’t Bast really been listening to Kvothe during the Frame?!?
I mean… did you see what kind of enemies Kvothe does have?!
To top it all, Bast has already noticed what happens when Kvothe fights. Look back at NOTW 5: Kvothe comes back to the Inn bleeding like a butchered pig. That’s what you want, Bast? Of course not, but you have to take into account that that’s what may happen. Because it has already happened once.
Bast is the textbook definition of the expression “eyes wide shut”.
 
But we shouldn’t be surprised that much: like Kvothe says, Faen and humans are as different as alcohol from water. Their similarities are always (and only) in appearance.
Insofar, it looks like the prime mover of Faen creatures is always their ego. And it’s not surprising that Faen creatures generally refer to Kvothe are a property rather than an individual. For Felurian, Kvothe was “my kvothe”. For the Cthaeh, Kvothe is either “boy” or “Felurian’s manling”.
One may imagine that Bast’s case is different given his feelings… but not so much. It’s just the other side of the spectrum. Because for Bast, Kvothe is his Reshi. His Reshi. And the get back his Reshi, Bast would do absolutely anything.
 
And that’s why, despite having already put dozen of stitches all over his Reshi’s body, Bast’s shock therapy continues: luring Chronicler to the inn is a move (and we know that Kvothe will suffer quite a bit when recalling some memories, like his parents’ fate), the deserters in WMF is another one.
None of them help Kvothe get back, all of them earn him more scars, or simply open back some old ones.
Worth pointing out that in WMF Bast doesn’t mind paying the price by himself… but at the same time he’s perfectly fine when other people pay it as well.
Faen are not human, and are ultimately creepy as fuck. But I guess we should have considered myself warned: after all, as Bast himself says, “there’s no demons.
Only my kind.”
 
It’s both bittersweet and unnerving how much little Bast does actually take Kvothe’s feelings into the equation: it’s like he’s chasing an image that exists only in his mind: ‘of course sending some troubles to Kvothe won’t be much, after all he’s able to take it,’ seems to be his reason… but at the same time he doesn’t bother considering that maybe, just maybe, Kvothe doesn’t want to fight.
Bast wants his Reshi to remember who he is, and to many extent we can wonder whether he can… but the real question Bast should ask himself is whether Kvothe wants to.
To top it all, the longer the story will go on, the more it’ll be evident that there are so many things that Bast does NOT know about his Reshi! His parents? The Cthaeh? These are no trivial things!
 
I truly wonder what happened before Bast and Kvothe went to Newarre. For now, I can only speculate few things:
-1 Bast knows Kvothe has been to Fae at least another time beside Felurian (more about that in future episodes),
-2 Bast has seen Kvothe fight (same as before),
-3 Bast has seen Kvothe really angry, and
-4 Bast has seen Denna in the past.
-Technically we should add that 5 Bast knows that something is Kvothe’s fault, given that he doesn’t object to all of his Reshi’s mood swings.
 
Btw, this chapter puts a big nail in the coffin to the theory that Bast and Kvothe are in cahoots concerning some bigger plan. I never subscribed to that theory.
Or rather, let me elaborate: does Kvothe trust Bast? Yes. Do Bast and Kvothe have something going on? Of course. Otherwise Bast wouldn’t be in Newarre, and he wouldn’t be in the whole “hey I’m an innkeeper” heist.
But that’s it.
Why? First of all, because It’s already proven that Kvothe lies to Bast (keeping a piece of the scrael for himself and then going to hunt them, for example), that Bast suspects that Kvothe tells lies from time to time (WMF 105, which will be covered in future episodes) and so on.
Second, because it’s pretty clear that Bast doesn’t know Kvothe that well, despite what he thinks, as already mentioned.
Third, because there’s not a single character in the entire story whom Kvothe doesn’t hide something from. Not a single one. The one who comes closer is Auri, who still doesn’t know anything about Kvothe and the Chandrian, for example. Bast thinks he’s special to Kvothe, because Kvothe is special to him. Maybe things are mutual, but definitely not to the same extent.
But most importantly, fourth: because of the prologues and episodes of both books. Because they let us know that Kvothe is a man waiting to die. Reread NOTW 92 and tell me that Bast would allow it, or that he’d be fine with that.

This place is killing him

…says Bast, and he does NOT want any of that. This runs counter to Kvothe’s desires.
There’s no way Kvothe told him everything.
 
Which brings us to the million dollar question: how much of Bast’s secret attempts did actually Kvothe miss… if he missed any?
Bast, another version of young Kvothe
Ever entertained the idea of Bast covering the role of Foundation Kvothe?
Check the similarities: clearly talented, noble lineage (cough-cough Notallya Lotless cough-cough), success with girls, quite vain, thinks he knows best over everything, animated by good intentions but also unsupported by careful thinking, prone to anger, likes music (in Bast’s case it’s dance, rather than singing – tho in WMF he’ll sing as well), doesn’t like to stay long in the same place, usually doesn’t wear shoes (lol), has rings and so on.
I wonder how much intentionality there is on Rothfuss’ behalf, and if there are conclusions to be drawn. If you want to, do it in the comments.

Kote’s lies

“I need time to think about the story”

This could be a lie since it’s quite clear Kvothe has been thinking about retelling his story since months (two, at very least), as the memoir pages in his room prove. Most likely, this is just a white lie to spend some time alone.

Narrator shenanigans

NOTW 92 is divided in three parts, and the POV shifts for a little bit.
It starts with Chronicler (because the “knowing a polite dismissal” means the POV is in Chronicler’s head) and then immediately switches to Kvothe when the scribe goes upstairs. Not a single line concerning the innkeeper’s thoughts.
But Rothfuss/the narrator feels the need to tell us about Kvothe’s usual activities, meaning this is important.
From then on, it’s all on Chronicler.
 
Epilogues and prologues feature an omniscient narrator and there’s not much to say, besides:
1 the omniscient narrator says that the memoir has a mad pattern, for all that it’s worth, and
2 that the silence is in Kvothe’s hands. Thing is, I’m not sure Kvothe isn’t doing anything. The narrator focuses on still objects, but the shadows are dancing. It could mean that Kvothe is actively doing something that the narrator isn’t telling us (not 100% sure on this one, but whenever in doubt, I always note down possibilities).

The nature of Frame interruptions

This time KKC isn’t playing dirty. Unless Kvothe is doing something that the narrator isn’t telling, NOTW 92 and Epilogue are pretty much straightforward. There are three time skips dictated by the simple passing of time, and they seem pretty much normal.

Geography and time notions

Chronicler’s room isn’t on the side of the Waystone Inn’s kitchen, because on that side there’s a forest!
In NOTW 92, instead, Chronicler opens the window and looks at the little town of Newarre. Logic tells me that his room faces East, but I confess I could have paid more attention to cardinal references during the reread. But it’s not too late for that, by the end of the reread it’ll be done.
 
Worth pointing out that, as we saw in previous episodes, the Waystone Inn a wooden landing at the entrance. This implies the existence of some projecting roof for obvious reasons, and if the projecting roof is only on the entrance side, this alone would have been evidence of Chronicler’s room being on the opposite side of the kitchen. Because the projecting roof is what Bast uses to get inside Chronicler’s room, and likewise!
 
Fun fact: during my first read I was convinced that Bast had jumped up to Chronicler’s window. The easiest way to prove how wrong that is… is considering that during WMF Chronicler visits Bast room as well: without some projecting roof to act as passage, how would have Chronicler been able to reach Bast’s window?
 
Additional consideration: we know the Waystone Inn features a wooden landing before the entrance. Generally speaking, irl buildings who feature something like that have a roof as well. There’s no point in building a wooden landing if you let rain ruin it in some months, after all…

Maps from the readers: the evaluation

Not this time, RIP.
But still, I dare to dream.

The Waystone Inn catalogue

The inn features:
-The stairs are made of wood.
-The inn has a sign outside.
-There’s lamps beside it.
-There are chamber pots (one for each room?).
-To I really need to mention that chamber pots have a lid (thankfully)? Of course I do.
-The windows of the guest rooms have curtains.
-Chronicler’s room has a chair, bed, nightstand, chest of drawers, lamp (candle?) and sulfur matches to light it up.
-Barn, therefore there’s a stable.
-Kvothe’s room features desk, memoir and candle.
 
The inn lacks:
-Horses and crowds of people.
-Music, of course.

Personal comment

NOTW ends with a monster chapter. I didn’t expect it to have many details, but research proved otherwise and I’m glad for that. A bit of a shame because I expected to use the maps today, but there was not enough space unless I had broken the OP in two parts, and I’d rather avoid that.
 
While we’re at it, let me add a personal appreciation: this chapters feature my favorite threat in the entire series: “I’ll make a game of you.”
I love this expression to no end.
English natives may consider it obvious, but for non-English like me this one is tricky, because “game” is an ambivalent term: it’s both an activity for fun, but also a hunted animal. And both meanings apply, making it double the threat! I love it, it’s simply brutal.
Next episode, exactly like my girlfriend, will definitely come later than expected. Hey, no, wait a minut-
 
Thanks for reading and for your insights, past episodes can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Blm is a Marxist organization whose primary purpose is not to help black lives, but to bring about a communism society in America. One of the cofounders said that she and another cofounder were “trained Marxists.” https://imgur.com/gallery/0vQNK0K Demonstrating just how far left they are, another cofounder wrote an article on a Venezuelan news website in which she called out Bernie Sanders for calling Hugo Chavez a dictator. https://imgur.com/gallery/vK367Kv Even worse, Susan Rosenburg sits on the Board of Directors of blm. Susan has taken part in communist organizations in America and was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to 58 years in prison on weapons and explosives charges. She was also sought as an accomplice to a couple of bombings. She is free now because her sentence was commuted by Bill clinton. http://archive.is/0F5T0 The Black Lives Matter website itself says that one of its goals is to disrupt the nuclear family, one of the stated goals found within the Communist Manifesto. https://imgur.com/gallery/h2pW1J9 This alone shows just how little the group cares for black lives. One of the most devastating things to have hit black America in the latter half of the 20th century has been the destruction of the nuclear family.
Single motherhood makes children much more likely to live in poverty and commit crimes. Not attacking single mothers, but the trend is real. Over 70% of African-Americans are born to single mothers. This is the major problem facing the community. Black fathers have to begin caring for the women they impregnate and the children they bear, who once abandoned by their fathers, are forced into a life of poverty. A nuclear family with a father in the home makes a boatload of difference. Prior to the mid-1960s, nearly all children were born to married couples, including black children. This phenomenon was reversed once the progressive War on Poverty began. The welfare state incentivized single motherhood as it provided mothers with welfare benefits if there was no man in the house. https://www.heritage.org/welfare/report/how-welfare-undermines-marriage-and-what-do-about-it Additionally, the vast majority of African-Americans that are murdered in America are killed by other blacks. This is not to say that we should ignore police brutality, as that should be addressed as well. Police who commit murder against unarmed civilians should be punished and police reform should be enacted. However, the group is spreading the false narrative that police and racism are the most dangerous things facing black America. This is false. As mentioned previously, the vast majority of African-Americans who are killed are killed by other blacks, not whites. We have seen this trend worsen with blm’s calls to defund the police. Democrat-run cities that have surrendered to these proposals have seen skyrocketing crime rates, including black-on-black crime. https://imgur.com/gallery/nrpWWAu https://imgur.com/gallery/r7Wioos There was an 8-year old girl in Atlanta who was shot by an armed blm protestor. https://imgur.com/gallery/8hJhwJV . This is but one of many instances of the black-on-black violence that has plagued America. Despite this, blm has not changed its stance on policing. Thus, Davis Dorn, an African-American who was protecting his friend’s pawn shop, was killed by looters. Patrick Underwood, a black police officer, was killed in Oakland. https://archive.vn/pxWsz http://archive.is/hXiqZ https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-3.xls https://archive.vn/UnQcr https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-6.xls https://archive.vn/LFW18 Compare that to the number of unarmed blacks killed by cops. Most blacks that are killed by the police are actually armed. https://imgur.com/gallery/gdN68hk http://archive.vn/JDNxE#selection-2511.0-2528.0 https://imgur.com/gallery/wAZyQrF More evidence that blm’s main goal is not helping blacks, but overthrowing the US for a communist society is the fact that they have continuously defaced statues important to American history. They have even defaced statues of abolitionists and Union soldiers. One of the main goals found in the Communist Manifesto is the destruction of the nuclear family, religion, and national identity in order to make way for a communist society. This seems to be what blm is attempting. Why else would they deface the statue of anti-slavery poet Greenleef Whittier? https://imgur.com/gallery/LHUpOLa They also toppled the statue of a Norwegian immigrant and abolitionist who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. http://archive.is/ELeRu. They defaced a statue of Abraham Lincoln in London https://imgur.com/gallery/irSbE8j and The Colorado State Capitol Khachkar memorial to the Armenian Genocide http://archive.is/h5yOz. As we see, they are deliberately trying to destroy the memory of Western Civilization, just as the Communist Manifesto calls for. These aren’t isolated events. Rioters in Philly deface a statue of Matthias Baldwin, an early abolitionist who fought against slavery. https://imgur.com/gallery/dqq0zod. They vandalized the Memorial to the Victims of Communism in DC https://imgur.com/gallery/R5JQ8JL as well as the DC statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko, who fought for the rights of minorities. In his will, he donated a portion of his estate to free slaves belonging to Thomas Jefferson. He also bequeathed sums for the education of freed slaves. https://imgur.com/gallery/ynAeuXY . They also defaced the Memorial to Vietnam Veterans, many of whom were African-Americans. A statue defaced with the acronym “BLM” along with the communist hammer and sickle symbol. https://imgur.com/a/h8eeCtd
Furthermore, the majority of interracial crimes in America are not committed by whites, but by blacks. The groups is spreading the narrative the African-Americans are overly policed. However, black men, who make up around 6.5% of the population, commit over 50% of the violent crimes. I recommend you watch videos by Thomas Sowell, Larry Elder, and Brandon Tatum. They are all African-Americans who give an alternative perspective to that given by blm activists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFqVNPwsLNo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhy-NvXt0-U https://imgur.com/gallery/eXK6KeG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv5-mc4U_Zw&t=2s https://imgur.com/a/ABrYTuR https://news.0censor.com/b-l-m-leader-warns-whites/ https://twitter.com/AlwaysActions/status/1269476349384818703 https://imgur.com/a/VUOr4Ea http://archive.vn/LFW18 https://news.yahoo.com/poll-most-black-americans-want-170411177.html https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/fryefiles/empirical_analysis_tables_figures.pdf?mod=article_inline https://youtu.be/-2N2w4d0N0w https://archive.vn/wN3yM http://archive.is/59wbE https://youtu.be/XfsJxkobPXk
Violence and chaos caused by BLM rhetoric. BLM refuses to disavow. No leader or local chapter disavows.
David Dorn, a former black police officer, was murdered for trying to protect his friend’s pawn shop from looters 2 police officers in Oakland, one black, were shot - Patrick Underwood Man kills police officer http://archive.vn/xRkfj Blm activists block road and shoot man trying to drive through. http://archive.vn/aYnYg A woman in NY state runs into a line of officers http://archive.vn/9KA6m A Colorado blm protestor blocking road shoots a disabled veteran in the head http://archive.is/8qCyH Woman tries to run over a cop in Philly http://archive.is/J4zrU Antifa militant arrested for stabbing black Trump supporter in Portland http://archive.vn/kmCJU BLM activist calls for images of white Jesus to be taken down.https://archive.is/PKEnz https://archive.vn/VNJoB
A few days before that, a statue of Jesus was beheaded in FL http://archive.vn/DSJNn A church statue of the Virgin Mary was then set on fire in Boston http://archive.vn/bLbYu Other churches and religious statues have been desecrated following the blm activist’s calls http://archive.is/5GS6i Co-founder of BLM Toronto called whites “subhuman” and “genetically defective.” http://archive.is/Jg2Bc Co-founder of BLM Vancouver says that reliability and loyalty are “white supremacist concepts” http://archive.is/qovFv BLM activist in Chicago encourages looting, calls it reparations https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1293647207497756673 Biker in Wisconsin attacked for being white http://archive.is/Ez0er Armed BLM protestor shoots at car and kills 8-year-old black girl http://archive.is/XmhjN BLM activist arrested for extorting business and threatening shop owner if he doesn’t comply https://nationalfile.com/video-blm-activist-arrested-for-extorting-business-for-free-food-with-bat-threat-of-riot/ The demands that BLM in Louisville, Kentucky attempt to extract from local businesses http://archive.is/pUTdP Armed black militia asks man for reparations https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/07/06/im-your-worst-nightmare-armed-black-militia-detain-white-driver-wheres-our-reparations-943511 Rioters attacked the car of a 58-year old man with cerebral palsy in Columbus, Ohio https://imgur.com/gallery/PeiucK3 https://archive.vn/6wn7j https://archive.vn/Z7Kdl
Children’s hospital attacked https://youtu.be/tWAC8AQoJWQ https://nationalfile.com/exclusive-caught-on-tape-democratic-socialists-of-america-trains-protesters-to-be-pro-looting-and-rioting/ Man in Portland beaten unconscious https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1295235403847368704
http://archive.is/txMpi https://archive.vn/k5hcR
It’s ironic that BLM was founded by so-called anti-racist Marxists who perscribe to the gender philosophy. BLM activists continuously denounce the US for the flaws of its founding generation. Yet they themselves never seem to engage in the self-criticism that they want Americans to accept. Marx was a vehement racist and the gender ideology espoused by the BLM organization was created by pedophiles. https://archive.vn/iwwdB
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-559137/Dangerous-liaisons-sex-teens-The-story-Sartre-Beauvoir-told-before.html
http://archive.vn/C0ugY
http://archive.is/PmwKa
A close look into the history of the Black Lives Matter organization shows that its founders have close ties to communism. Don’t just take it from conservative commentators. Listen to the words of co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who in an interview admitted that she and co-founder Alicia Garza were both “trained Marxists.”https://therealnews.com/pcullors0722blacklives In another interview with Teen Vogue, Cullors admitted to being mentored by Angela Davis. https://archive.is/QGJaA They team up every year to give public speeches. Who is Angela Davis? She is a political activist who ran twice as the Vice President of the Communist Party of America. https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/02/us/hall-at-74-still-seeks-presidency.html
In 1979, Davis went on a trip to the USSR where she was given the Lenin Peace Prize. She expressed her gratitude for the prize “bearing the name of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin here on the very soil where he led the great October Revolution.” http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/45045389d6759defac6845a2f3bdfcea When his party failed to garner substantial traction in its first election, Lenin and his Bolsheviks disbanded the Russian legislature. Lenin then implemented a series of purges. Hundreds of thousands were killed through his Red Terror and dekulakization campaigns. The victims were targeted either because they were convicted of wrongthink or deemed privileged peasants (kulaks). This is the man that Cullor’s mentor praised.
Black Lives Matter’s association with communism does not end there. The US Social forum brands itself as an internationalist movement that seeks to transform America. In one of the group’s Detroit meetings, both Patrice Cullors and Eric Mann were chosen as panelists. http://web.archive.org/web/20120211205206/https:/thestrategycenter.org/transformative-organizing In 1969, Eric Mann became involved with the Weather Underground group, a domestic terrorist group whose goal was “world communism.” https://vault.fbi.gov/Weather%20Underground%20%28Weathermen%29/Weather%20Underground%20%28Weathermen%29%20Part%201%20of%206/view They wanted to create “two, three, many Vietnams” through which the U.S. would be “defeated and destroyed in the process.”
While America fought communism abroad, they sought to destabilize the U.S. from within. The way they would achieve this goal was to create chaos and instability at home. This is what led to Eric Mann’s imprisonment in 1969. He and his fellow Weather Underground comrades rioted at Harvard where Mann was arrested for assault and destroying property. https://archive.vn/DU8je
Susan Rosenburg, a convicted terrorist, served as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors for Black Lives Matter’s fundraising organization, Thousand Currents. https://web.archive.org/web/20200616222408/https:/thousandcurrents.org/board-of-directors/ In the 1980s, Susan Rosenberg took part in the May 19th Communist Organization, whose goal was to “overthrow the U.S. government through armed struggle and use of violence.” https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/120257NCJRS.pdf Carrying out the organization’s stated goals, Susan Rosenberg was arrested in 1984 for “possession of a huge amount of explosives and numerous weapons.” She had already been on the run for a number of years for her role in previous robberies and murders. As serious as her crimes were, she was released after Bill Clinton commuted her sentence in 2001. This same group was responsible for bombings at multiple locations between 1983 and 1985, including military installations, the Capitol, and the New York Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/06/us/3-radicals-agree-to-plead-guilty-in-bombing-case.html
Demonstrating just how far left they are, Opal Tometi, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Network, wrote an article on a Venezuelan news website in which she admonished Bernie Sanders for branding Hugo Chavez a dictator. https://archive.vn/hw84X She also took a picture of herself alongside Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. For being an organization that claims to stand against police brutality, Opal had no qualms about embracing a dictator whose own police forces have murdered and tortured thousands of civilians. The year before the picture was taken, protestors were killed by the regime and the UN documented over 100 cases of torture in less than a year. Praise of communist dictators continues. In 2016, Black Lives Matter released a eulogy for Fidel Castro after his death. https://archive.is/UdW9C Castro’s regime had previously engaged in extrajudicial killings and torture. He also persecuted Christianity, which most African-Americans adhere to. Communists and socialists escape all criticism, no matter how egregious their crimes or how similar those crimes are to the perceived injustices they claim to fight against in the U.S. An organization that embraces Marxism and violent criminal regimes is not a group that America should embrace.
Clues regarding the extent to which BLM supports Marxism are abound. Their own website references the word “comrade” multiple times and the raised fist that they have adopted onto their flag was first used by the Communist Party of Germany. It has been a popular symbol amongst communists ever since. The Black Lives Matter website itself states that one of its goals is to disrupt the nuclear family, one of the objectives found within the Communist Manifesto.
BLM is Marxist not only in theory, but in practice as well. The Communist Manifesto calls for the destruction of religion and national identity in order to make way for a communist society. Trained Marxists around the world have sought to make good on this by destroying all evidence of the past, especially statues and religious icons. They have done so in Mao’s Cultural Revolution as well as in Cambodia under Pol Pot. In this regard, Black Lives Matter is no different. https://imgur.com/gallery/HsrEC1u https://imgur.com/gallery/sZkCkdP
Some supporters claim that BLM has only destroyed Confederate statues. This is untrue as they have continuously defaced statues depicting abolitionist figures in American history. They defaced the statue of anti-slavery poet Greenleef Whittier. They toppled the Wisconsin statue of a Norwegian immigrant and abolitionist who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. They defaced The Colorado State Capitol Khachkar memorial to the Armenian Genocide. Rioters in Philly defaced a statue of Matthias Baldwin, an early abolitionist who fought against slavery. BLM vandalized the Memorial to the Victims of Communism in DC and took pictures of themselves flipping off the statue. They are deliberately trying to destroy the memory of Western Civilization, just as the Communist Manifesto calls for.
https://youtu.be/8qmpkMtPBzI?t=169
https://archive.is/gW6Um
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39708445-heaven-on-earth?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=4lH8xMqap5&rank=1

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The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson is one of those symbols that has followed me in life, meaning different things to me in different times. I've been through a lot this year, but I think my vision at least is finally clear, and I think I have my final interpretation: that a full embrace of the feminine archetype and its virtues of submission, fragility, and beauty to the exclusion of a basic self preservation will only ever destroy the host, and never provide the love and belonging that it was adopted to attain.
I first found the poem while studying in my lunch hour in senior year of high school. I would often go to the library during lunch so I wouldn't be tempted to eat, and because I felt strongly out of place among my friends. I was immediately attracted to the imagery, the magic, and the tragic romance of it. It was the ending though, that hooked me most.
For those who don't know, The Lady of Shalott lives in a tower by a river that runs to Camelot. she is cursed never to look upon the world, but only to weave its image from a mirror. When she sees Lancelot in the mirror she declares she is "half sick of shadows" and- she looks. The curse upon her, her time approaching, she leaves her tower and takes a boat- which she carves her name into- down the river to Camelot. She dies before she arrives.
The ending that so captivated me comes when Lancelot, arriving with the others to look upon her dead body, delivers the final lines:
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott."
The line chilled me, though I couldn't articulate exactly why. I kept returning to it. I was enthralled by her beauty in death.
I'd had a malignant tumor removed that fall, and the entirety of my senior year was spent in suspense, waiting for various biopsies and scans to come back and tell me whether I was fine and free to live a full and healthy life- or if this insidious, greedy growth had wormed its way into my blood, into my bones. Every drop in energy, every moment of nausea was like the Lady's whisper: "a curse is on her".
It had surprised me how much I cared about my corpse being pretty- or rather being ugly. I had made an off-colour joke to a friend one day that I had better start dieting if I wanted to look pretty in my casket. The second I'd said it I realized with shock how deeply I meant it. When I thought of dying and being autopsied, mourned, and observed with the body I had, ten pounds overweight- as bloated and swollen in my eyes as a drowned thing- I was deeply embarrassed.
The beautiful dead woman is a familiar romantic image that I was not unaware of. When a beautiful women dies, it is tragic. How many times have you heard a condolence that included the words "she was so beautiful." Of course, many would say that beautiful in this case refers to inner qualities, and I"ve used it in the same way. But it is impossible to deny without willful ignorance the historical conflation of inner and outer beauty in women, and harder still to deny its lingering presence in our culture. Any heroine of a myth or folktale, protagonist of an English novel, is both virtuous and beautiful. If a middle aged parent is conveying a liking of your new girlfriend, the standard compliment in many houses holds: she's so beautiful! We convince women of their worth in the body positive movement by telling them "you aren't ugly fat and worthless, you're beautiful!." Today we linger longest on the deaths of beautiful women- those are the news articles, the prurient true crime documentaries that receive the most traffic. "She was so beautiful" we say, as though the loss of symmetrical features played any part at all in making the tragedy that is the loss of all the complexities of a person.
I've read a few interpretations of the poem, and it is not uncommon to present the line that chilled me as a bittersweet end. She has lost her life, but arrived at Camelot, and come to be known and admired by the object of her desire. Except that she hasn't come to be known at all. I can think of nothing more fully objectifying than to have one's corpse called pretty. One wonders what the difference might have been had she met him alive. She likely would have received a similar compliment. To inhabit what is seen as only a body may be more painful than to leave it.
Her death, to me, represents the natural fulfillment of the Victorian architype of delicate feminine submission. It is frequently discussed whether it was worth it or not for her to enter into the world: is to be the victim of the world the beautiful destiny of the artist, or is the poem telling us of the dangers of desire for the worldly? These interpretations take her curse for granted, of course she will fray when she meets reality, but it is not something to be taken for granted. It exists as part of her archetype that her desire should be a deadly thing, that her constitution should be so weak. The world, I firmly believe, is not an inherently draining thing. It is beauty, it is meaning, it is life giving. And it is not a draining thing for the others mentioned in the poem. Neither the knights nor the peasants share her affliction.
It is no accident that it is the Lady, capital L, the exemplar of her sex, who takes up the curse of forbidden knowledge and experience like Eve and Pandora before her. The feminine archetype of submissive passivity that we know today was not, as many think, a true part of medieval culture, where women were seen as especially passionate and feeling (still a problematic stereotype, but a different one!). Rather it reached fruition in the romance of the Victorians. It seems to me that death of all the elements that make the self is the natural end of a constitution fully self-effacing, the extreme end of submission and passivity.
I am terrified of death, still, even though I was found to be cancer-free shortly after high school graduation. The death of a woman is not a beautiful thing. I think, often, of Ophelia: the epitome of sensuous, romanticized deaths. Readers will be familiar with the slew of paintings of her fragile, undone state. It is remarkable how often women in art undergoing horror maintain their beauty. If I could paint, I would paint Ophelia purple and bloated. I would paint the Lady stiff and crawling with worms, Lancelot shielding his eyes in disgust as he likely would only a day or two after the boat arrives. I would paint the Lady's ghost screaming out in contorted, ugly agony by the riverside. I would, too, repaint every painting that has ever depicted a literary, mythical, or historical assault wherein a woman turns away from her attackers with nothing but a furrowed brow, or a limp move to cover herself while still arching sexily and paint expressions of deep, guttural, writhing pain and fear. The emotion, fear, and suffering of women is never a beautiful or delicate thing outside of the fantasy of art.
I hated that year. I hated the attention, love, and consideration I received. I knew I wasn't worthy of it, and so ashamed of myself, I boiled in discomfort at being the object of anyone's thoughts. Any time they would think of me they must also bring to mind my face: pockmarked and over-long. they must also bring to mind my body: my biggest failing, the evidence of years of failure and weakness. I felt, too, like a burden and a drain on my loved ones. There was no getting around that it was me causing them sadness and worry. Even if it wasn't my fault, I felt that my existence was a net negative in the world.
I did practically nothing to address my feelings or my fear. I refused to talk to anyone for fear of being more of a burden, and devoted a large portion of my energy to comforting and reassuring my family. the first thing on my mind when I found out was "how will I tell my family." I had long been in the habit of reaching for food at the first sign of emotional discomfort, and this continued to be my coping mechanism. With the all clear on the cancer, I was relieved that I would now not have to deal with these feelings any longer.
I won't dwell on the personal details overlong (though I may have already) in saying that after high school I, surprising no one reading this I'm sure, developed disordered eating habits. Pick a behavior and I've engaged in it.
There is no one factor that causes eating disorders, and no one end of disordered eating. Mine served many functions: a sense of control and validation of my willpower and capabilities through restriction, comfort and numbness and pure annihilating pleasure through binge eating, the absolution of purgation in compensatory behaviors. I imagine my experience was not unlike that of a medieval penitent. My sin from which I needed cleansing?: white bread and muffin top.
One undeniable factor of my disordered eating, though, was definitely the desire to fit an image of what a good, admirable woman is. It was a desire to feel not offensive, not embarrassing or pathetic, but easy to love, fragile, delicate, temperate. This is deeply embarrassing to write, but I wanted to be someone who someone would want to protect and care for, and who could be worthy of that care. There were few things I had a deeper fear of being called than willful or difficult (translated in my mind: hard to love).
But, like the Lady in her boat, the true tests of life, the decisions of true import are made on one's own. Expectations of a Lancelot intervening in the place of one's own agency for self preservation are almost certain to be disappointed. Perhaps the knight may arrive in time to call our corpse lovely, but not sooner. To submit entirely is not the way to be loved. Being admired is not being loved. Being loved as something other than yourself, something other than a person is not being loved. what is espoused by modern misogynists' as the traditional and proper gender dynamic: submissive women earning their protection by chivalric men through their delicacy, is not only a twisting of relatively recent norms into a state of nature, but a deeply harmful doctrine when taken to heart.
I have recently turned a corner in my eating. It was a bit of a shock when, returning to the poem, I realized how much of my own vulnerability is performative. I am not fully feminine, I am not fully pleasing. I am not fully altruistic. There is some selfishness in me, and there should be. There is some anger in me, and there should be when anger is merited. In past attempts at recovery, I have never managed to muster genuine self interest. I have tried to recover for my one-day future daughter so that I can be a positive influence. I have adopting a policy of benign detachment, concluding that active harm, at last, did not stand to reason. I have tried to recover in the hope that a future version of myself would be worthy of a good life. But the only thing that will really work, I think, is a genuine care for myself. It's not a magical cure (I'm writing this to consolidate my thoughts in the wake of a relapse) but it has been what's enabled me to go the longest time in months without problematic behaviors. And I think, I really know, that it is what will let me leave this behind forever. It is only pure unadulterated self interest that will stop me from ever engaging in compensatory behavior. It is no wonder that the Lady, described as a fairy, should struggle to live in a world of reality. I, uncursed, am corporeal. I am flesh and bone and blood and sinew, and I belong here.
When I speak of toxic femininity, I am not arguing that the feminine is inherently harmful, nor that it is always performative. Among the virtues that I strive to embody, many of the traditionally feminine ones resonate deeply with me. I strongly identify with my gender, and a large part of my plan for healing is to strive to more fully live out a nurturing, truly kind life. Presumably, if I truly and deeply want to live out compassion, then my behavior and thoughts towards myself should follow the same rule. I think nurturing is a wonderful thing to cultivate, and that is is both the best way to relate to others and the world as well as the most effective way to treat oneself for flourishing. It is specifically the pursuit of self effacement as a path to worthiness that can take on a harmful and toxic character, and I believe that people of all genders can be vulnerable to this belief, archetypes being malleable things.
The poem, too, stands up to multiple interpretations. one of my secondary favorites would be the existentialist interpretation: the price of existence in the world, of life, is an inevitable boat ride towards death, but we can at least, like the lady, carve our names on our ships.
for my part though, The Lady of Shalott is a testament to the importance of self preservation, and the futility of a passive ideal. my favourite painting of her is in sight of my writing desk. In it, she reclines thoughtfully. She is making a decision. "I am half-sick of shadows" is the title. And I really, truly am.
..............
If anyone has read this whole thing I owe you a coke. As a philosophy student who will likely never get the chance to write an analysis of a poem, I thought I would dump this here. It's better to get something out, once all conclusions have been drawn, than to continue to ruminate I think. I know that the thesis: "you should care about yourself at least a little tiny bit" is pretty unrevolutionary to most people with sound brain chemistry, but I hoped that if there's anyone who has similar instincts to me that this might be a bit helpful. Most people strive to make themselves pleasing to others to the detriment of their integrity to at least some extent. I know this was maybe too personal. Frankly when writing it that's what came out, and my own experiences are too tangled with the poem for me to disentangle them in an analysis.