Happy Friday, Barkada --

The PSE gained 70 points to 6628 ▲1.1%

Shout-out to Shehana Jean for the positive feedback on the AREIT div card, to Miguel Camus for fighting the good fight with his new startup (InsiderPH), to financial freedom for even more great design advice for the div cards, to daddyew for getting out (of APL) at the right time, to Dividend Pinoy for (like me) growing impatient for a warehouse REIT, to echAir for the positive feedback on my weird "building of buyers" analogy that I used to try and explain how inflows/outflows work with index rebals, to Satorun in for the tl;dr (too long; didn't read) of the DDMPR saga, to Jing for the sad boat meme appreciation, to Rod Leaf for mentioning APL's stinky FOO as the last time he saw the MB Siphon 1 ("siphoning off people's money"), to Jr Martin for warmly congratulating Ely and Gladys on their 1-year anniversary, to VodkaMartini_007 for spilling the beans on the location of the MB Siphon 1 ("the Port of Irene in Cagayan"), and to arkitrader for the pathetic boat vibes haha.
US April inflation came out and surprised to the downside, meaning that (at least in the US) domestic demand has cooled and consumer inflation has resumed its downward trend. US markets immediately pumped, with the Dow Jones average crossing the 40,000 mark for the first time. Will the PSE get any of that shine?

▌In today's MB:

• BSP holds rates steady
• DDMPR declares falling Q1 div
• Jollibee Q1 profit: P2.6-B (up 27%)
• PSE puts ANI, INFRA, C, and PNX on suspension notice

▌Daily meme Subscribe (it's free) Today's email

▌Main stories covered:

• [NEWS] BSP keeps interest rates steady... The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) [link] said yesterday that its Monetary Board decided to keep rates steady. In doing so, the BSP said that inflationary risks “continue to lean toward the upside”, but that its latest forecasts showed that “inflation would settle close tot he upper-end of the target range.” As for inflation expectations, the BSP said that those “remain well-anchored”. The Monetary Board said that it “deems it appropriate to ensure tight monetary policy settings until inflation settles firmly within the target range”, and indicated that such a stance would also “help keep inflation expectations anchored”.
  
  • MB: At least the BSP stopped talking about wage increases as a potential inflationary risk. That said, does anyone else detect an air of contradiction in what the BSP is saying? Perhaps contradiction is too strong of a term, but I get the growing sense that the BSP’s reasons for keeping rates high are somewhat diverging from its own analysis. The BSP says that it’s primary objective is price stability, so we can infer that it’s keeping rates high as a means of trying to suppress price increases, and yet the BSP has again and again told us that the driver for price increases is a problem on the supply side of the equation, not the demand side. Interest rate adjustments don’t impact supply-side problems, because interest rate increases are meant to suppress demand. We don’t have a demand problem. Adding to this is the BSP’s concern about maintaining a tight policy to keep inflation expectations anchored, despite noting just a paragraph earlier that inflation expectations were already “well-anchored”. This implies that there is psychological space for the BSP to lower rates within the framework of current expectations. This is picky stuff, I know, there are simply too many people and companies struggling under high rates to ignore the rapidly decreasing marginal utility of yet another cycle of the BSP’s conservative observation of the situation. Just my personal opinion.
• [DIVS] DDMPR declares falling Q1 div at 116% payout ratio... DDMP [DDMPR 1.17 ▲0.9%; 37% avgVol] [link] declared a Q1/24 dividend of ₱0.023476, payable on July 15 to shareholders of record as of June 19. The dividend has an annualized yield of 8.03% based on the previous closing price. The total amount of the dividend is ₱419 million, which is 116% of the ₱362 million in distributable income that DDMPR reported for the quarter. Relative to DDMPR’s IPO price, the dividend increased DDMPR’s total stock and dividend return to -32.29%, up from its pre-dividend total return of -32.33%. DDMP REIT Fund Managers reported that DDMPR’s occupancy as of March 31 was just 76%, with occupancy at its main building (DoubleDragon Plaza) listed at just 70.8%.
  
  • MB: The dividend amount is up 1.4% from DDMPR’s disastrous Q4/23 dividend, but it’s down 7.5% y/y and down 15.8% from Q1/22. DDMPR is the second-oldest REIT on the PSE. It issued its first dividend to shareholders in Q4/20. Its sponsor,DoubleDragon* [DD 10.48 ▲10.0%; 581% avgVol], is bursting at the seams with potential assets that could be downloaded to DDMPR to diversify the REIT’s portfolio and breathe some much-needed life into this stagnating afterthought. DDMPR’s assets are fine, but their strategy in how to monetize those assets is outdated. Gone are the days when high commercial rents from POGOs could excuse the growing issue of collections from those POGOs. Now we have DDMPR suffering from high (and going higher) rates of delinquency. Gone are the days when investors were lapping up the chance to get in on the commercial office space game. Now we have the threat of a POGO ban and the existential threat of AI putting all of the “easy” BPO leasing opportunities at risk. Gone are the days when DDMPR’s inactivity could be explained away by its newness. Now we’re left picking through the rubble of yet another disappointing Quarterly Report, yet another y/y dividend reduction, and bagholders have heard no plan from management on what they’ll do to right the ship.*
• [EARNINGS] Jollibee Q1 profit: ₱2.6-B (up 27%)... Jollibee [JFC 224.00 ▲0.9%; 300% avgVol] [link] posted a Q1 net income attributable of ₱2.6 billion, up 27% from its Q1/23 net income attributable of ₱2.1 billion. JFC said it was able to grow profit margins and exceed its Q1 performance outlook thanks to “healthy top line growth combined with further operational efficiencies and effective management of expenses”. JFC’s system-wide sales were up 10.4% to ₱86.8 billion due to new store additions and same-store sales growth was up 5.5%, which JFC said was due to increased volume. Across all of JFC’s segmented business units, “Europe, Middle East, Asia” had the largest same-store sales growth (+14.7%) and system-wide sales growth (+25.5%). The “People’s Republic of China” and “Highlands Coffee” were negative in terms of same-store sales growth (-3.7% and -9.0%, respectively), and only the People’s Republic of China business unit was negative in terms of system-wide sales growth (-3.7%). JFC said that its difficulties in China are partly due to a high bar effect from last year’s success, and a slowdown in the quick service restaurant industry in that country more generally. JFC said that while Highlands Coffee saw its same-store sales growth fall 9.0%, it did “better than industry” and managed to gain 4% market share during that period.
  
  • MB: The bee perseveres. It has made massive bets in “coffee” and “China” that could pay off handsomely in the future, and all of this activity has likely bought the management team some more time with its shareholder base to deliver on the delicious fruits of these bets. JFC’s stock price is up almost 150% from its COVID low, but it’s somewhat rangebound between about ₱200/share and ₱270/share. The stock hit ₱273/share in late February, only to rapidly retreat back to the ₱215/share level over the next six weeks in a pattern that the share price has repeated two or three times already this year. Generally speaking, the highs are higher and the lows are higher, but maybe with all the segments firing this busy season the stock will finally be able to push out of that range.
• [NEWS] Several notable firms placed on suspension notice for failure to report... The PSE [link] notified four high-profile companies that their shares would be suspended at 9 AM today if 2023 Annual Reports were not posted. The companies that were put on notice are Tony Tiu’s AgriNurture [ANI 0.57 ▼1.7%; 102% avgVol], Philippine Infradev [INFRA 0.53 ▲1.9%; 262% avgVol] and two from pseudo-tycoon Dennis Uy, Chelsea Logistics [C 1.30 ▲4.0%; 526% avgVol] and Phoenix Petroleum [PNX 4.17 ▼0.2%; 78% avgVol]. Should any of these companies fail to submit their Annual Reports before 9 AM, they will remain suspended for up to three months until such report is submitted. If nothing has changed after three months, the PSE must begin involuntary delisting proceedings.
  
  • MB: These companies are not a random sample, and they’re not representative of the PSE as a whole. Will ANI, INFRA, C, and PNX push their luck right up to the deadline, or will any of these companies slip into a suspended state for failure to complete one of the most basic components of public corporate life? As usual, retail bagholders will just have to wait and see what the owners decide to do.

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Share a paragraph you wrote. Here's mine.
The kenopsia of orderly houses stretch in sloping lines along the wide belt of road, with no beginning and no end for as far as her eyes can see. It sends a shiver up her spine, creepy in its familiarity, filling her with an artificial nostalgia for a place she’d never known. She can hear the dead silence from the houses, cookie cutter all the way down, the empty spaces between only punctuating the pin-drop quiet all around. There are signs of life but there is no one here.
Description of the average American suburb, brought to you by my morning jog. An excellent setting for analog horror.

It comes with a spoonful of distrust for the self.. when you attempt to seek relation and comfort from others, even when that thing comes from a "negative" place.. and when i use the word negative I don't mean bad, I mean negative in the way a battery has a positive and negative side, there always needs to be a place for both sides of things
In the pursuit of being understood, trying to "improve" things for people, trying to spread joy and happiness by fixing as big and unattainable problem and solution that is possible, thereby forcing myself into a state of perpetual procrastination, the pain of meaning well, and hurting others in the path to try and heal people.. it does not feel good yet it seems people think I get joy out of it
I realize.. when people misunderstand me, misunderstand my rants or even on the fly statements, on the internet or real life.. if I start using more words, and more complex or abstract words it does NOT make you easier to understand.. it makes it harder for people sometimes.. being louder and more passionate and more detailed.. these things can be nuanced and just cause more problems, people just default to seeing rage, and associate rage with stupidity, which is understandable yet undesirable
People cannot read my mind, they do not know I assume they know what I know, i assume all people are intelligent to a degree, that I do not hate or discriminate any kind of person, they see my rage and assume I hate everyone and everything, where it is the complete opposite.. people cannot read my mind, they don't know I think highly of strangers and consider anyone I talk to a "friend", I speak too freely and get myself in trouble, I panic and defend myself sometimes, Ironically people saying normal statements come across as an attack to me.. i don't ever purposefully participate in hypocrisy
and god forbid, like me, you attempt to do all these things at once, having a loud passionate rant, using unnecessary words and complex theories to try and explain a simple feeling, accidently being a hypocrite, all while spewing a paragraph to a complete stranger, and despite wanting to express it, I do not relate to or seem to understand certain feelings or simple straight forward feelings, things either work, or they don't, and when something says "I work, I work like this" and then it doesn't work.. its a spiral
Even in the past, conversations and disputes, "losing" debates where I was objectively correct, and I mean socially losing because I accidently used an insult too soon, or showed I was angry, and by insulting someone I declare a loss? because I shake when I upset I lose? I'm not discussing bullying right now, but it will always exist because it is apart of the social game. Even I have bullied in an attempt to be like others.
its like the pain of having a wifi connection that -kinda- works, and the 'movie' freezes.. but you keep trying.. wait to buffer.. freeze again etc..
yet if there is no wifi.. a book or a painting is an easy task. at least for me personally..
I have been criticized and taunted and bullied into following rules my whole life any time i am different, yet when I try and get others, be like others, in this system, like people who make and accept the rules, it makes me wish they would to do as they do and not just as they say, its like I am the crazy one no matter which way I function, whether that be with or against the current
Government and bureaucracy (I hate spelling that word T_T ) ... easy to criticize these concepts as they function in reality, but on paper, if things really work both ways in the sense that between entity and individual things are always fair and spoken for, then life in this "Late neo capitalist nightmare", even communism on paper works, or would work or could be better.. I dunno, maybe it is just human error.. or maybe nature has a way
I find it hard to accept that "things do be how they are"
I don't think "regular capitalism" is bad per say, ex; two people make chairs, one person makes higher quality chairs, and one person makes lower quality chairs, they compete in prices and quality, contention is natural, and its good for the consumer to have choices, there is a reason competing brands are often across the road from one another, not across town. (think fast food chains all huddled up) its not a coincidence (can look up the ice cream stall on the beach dilemma for similar phenomena)
Advertisement.. truly one of the poisons that is connected to every issue I swear I have ever complained about..
Anyway, despite appearances, and my past, or my future, i don't actually smoke meth or and amphetes.. I do have a heavy past with EVERY drug. I have travelled many places, been many people, lived amongst many subcultures, from farm to city, analog to digital, I've done a lot, but I don't party or do drugs anymore, I live with my partner and build my life alone, a ways away from strangers theses days
I honestly thought -everyone- did things to the same extreme degree I have, everyone had extreme views, extreme trauma, and extreme attitudes they were just masking, but maybe I am just a little extreme at times.. sex workers.. drugs.. parties.. fast cars.. i thought that shit was NORMAL.. I don't know what normal is.. imitating others lead to a wild life
I am NOT mentally ill... I'm just Autistic.. I don't think that means I "need" to see a therapist anymore.. already done that. Everytime I am frustrated by something that is objectively and subjectively frustrating.. and well it is frustrating, years ago I was mis-diagnosed with BPD, it ruined my life and only added to my "meth head" behavior, I done healed my brain, I done my rounds in therapy and with doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists and meds, been in and out of mental wards, arrested, convicted, you name it, I've done it. doesn't mean I'm proud of it just because I am proud of who I am now
I do not want to brag. or be a victim. or come across as a crazy. none of this is for attention, i actively hide from attention, I literally cannot avoid it, but I also still have thoughts worth sharing, all people do
I just want to share my thoughts and experiences in a passionate and honest way, to help others, I know people like me are out there.. not even just people who are like me, but anyone and literally everyone.. so sick of groups that "accept everyone" when they reaally mean "Accept everyone who is exactly like us".. social scripts and other forms of what I call "Toxic Positivity" which to me, is worse than just being toxic half the time
it doesn't bother me if no one ever reads this, or anything I write, I have novels of notes I don't know what to do with, either way, I appreciate you, I appreciate your time, even if you are here just to read the rants of a crazy, then well.. I love you for simply existing.
I know you are out there, and everything.. -something- just doesn't feel "right", you know?

I have a question about the topics in the title; a bit of rambling background first (you may be able to just skip to the second paragraph):
It's easy enough to come up with a "fictitious history" of the general, abstract notion of an inner product, like what Gowers does for the concept of a normal subgroup. First, in analysis, integrals like \int f(x)g(x)dx showed up often in Fourier analysis and mathematical physics, and the fact that sets like {cos(x), cos(2x), ... } or the Legendre polynomials are what we would now call "orthogonal" (for example, \int_-pi ^pi cos(nx)cos(mx)dx = 0 if n != m) was important there. Later, in algebra and geometry, the idea of a vector in Rⁿ developed, along with the dot product. A number of analogies with orthogonal functions were noticed--for instance, computing Fourier coefficients is formally very similar to projecting one vector onto another, Parseval's formula is like the Pythagorean theorem, and so on. To capture these similarities, the abstract idea of an inner product was introduced along with abstract vector spaces, and so the term "orthogonal functions" was invented to describe some of those sets of special functions by analogy with orthogonal vectors in R^n. Then (at least if you're working purely formally--worrying about convergence introduces some more difficulties) you can carry over many of the arguments you'd make about orthonormal bases in general finite-dimensional inner product spaces to e.g. Fourier series (with the set of complex exponentials, e^inx, say, as your infinite "orthonormal basis").
What I don't know is: to what extent does the actual history of the inner product resemble this? It's hard to believe that orthogonal functions didn't motivate the whole idea, but I don't know what role, exactly, they played. One minor part of the story I'm especially curious about is when and why the term "orthogonal functions", or anything like it, was invented. Identities of the form \int f(x)g(x)dx = 0 are important enough to Fourier analysis and a whole lot else that you'd expect there to be some sort of name for them--but what would it be, if not "orthogonal", and how could you get that name down without being most of the way towards the idea of an abstract inner product space? Then again, maybe the name did come before the idea of an inner product--but I don't really know, and I'm curious if anyone here does.

Found this very interesting interview. Read the tl;dr part if you hate reading longass walls of text.
Note: Page 1 is mostly about Ryou's early days as a struggling novelist, then mangaka assistant and then mangaka and workflows during analog and digital era, the only important part is that Boy's Abyss is... not much of a culmination of her mangaka career, but a work where she can satisfy her ego the most, so i skipped them due to time. Pages 2, 3 and 4 have more info about Abyss.
PART 2: ABOUT BACKGROUND DESCRIPTIONS THAT SUPPORTS THE HUMAN DRAMA
Sauce: https://youngjump.jp/comic_award/interview/2024/05/index2.html
--How do you decide on the locations for your works?
It depends, but I tend to choose places where I have spent time in the past or places that remain in my memory.
--I see. Is there anything important to remember in order to recall the right location for the scene?
You can't open a drawer where there isn't one, so I think it's important to look at various places on a regular basis to increase the number of drawers.
--In "Shounen no Abyss", bridges seem to appear many times in important scenes, including in the first episode. Is this intentional?
Yes, it is. In the first episode, I put the bridge as a kind of borderline between life and death, and I think that the readers came to feel the danger from the bridge. So I may have consciously chosen to use a bridge in decisive scenes. Also, since Reiji is a person who cannot decide for himself whether to live or die, I have him hovering on the bridge, which is between life and death.
(Footnote for a panel from ch. 2: From the second chapter, "Incognito Date". The location of the bridge makes us feel more that Reiji is wandering between life and death.)
--I see. By having them perform on the bridge, you are also conveying the character's condition and humanity.
(Footnote with a page from ch.87: From episode 87, "After the dream". In episode 87, which is set in Tokyo, Reiji's wavering state of mind is expressed in detail using a bridge as a stage.)
--I feel that the timing of the rain is also very well thought out.
Rain is an indispensable element in a gloomy work like this, so I often think about the weather from the plotting stage. Also, when I draw rain, I imagine myself being in the rain. It is cold, my clothes stick to my skin, it gets in my eyes.... I hope that the reader can feel these things.
(Footnote with the page where Akira betrays Shino'oka and gives in to Yuko's temptation in ch102: From Chapter 102, "Amid the Overflowing Water". The texture of the rain effectively shows Nozoe's inclined mind.)
--you have to think about what kind of environment the person is in and what kind of air he/she breathes.
I think it depends on the type of work. For my works, that kind of accumulation is important, but there are also works where other things are important. I think you should think about it according to the kind of work you want to paint.
PART 3: ABOUT THE PICTURE DESIGN THAT SUPPORTS THE WORK
Sauce: https://youngjump.jp/comic_award/interview/2024/05/index3.html
--I assume that it was difficult to learn to draw pictures from a place with no experience in manga.
I learned by trial and error while actually drawing. Even now, I still have a hard time with drawings.
--I see. I (the interviewer) like the pictures in "Shounen no Abyss" very much because they match the content of the story, but it seems to me that you have changed the design of the pictures quite a bit from your past works. How did you decide on the style?
When I started my first serial, "Hoboreru Hanabi", I didn't have time to choose the style yet, so I drew what I could draw at the time. From the next serial, "Himegoto: Juukyuusai no Seifuku," I started to think about "making the eyes a little bigger" or "adding deformation.
--In the next serial work, "Hatsukoi Zombie," you used a much more deformed style of drawing. Why is that?
I think it was because it was serialized in a shounen magazine called "Shounen Sunday. I was conscious of the drawings of Rumiko Takahashi, who I have been a fan of for a long time.
--Did you have the medium of "Weekly Young Jump" in mind when you created the artwork for "Shounen no Abyss"?
If anything, I tried to make the design more in line with the content of the book. Considering the content, for example, it was difficult to use the same body size and eye size as the characters in "Hatsukoi Zombie". However, in the case of "Shounen no Abyss," the reality line differs slightly from character to character, and the way in which deformation is added is different for each character.
--Do you have any advice for new artists who want to improve their drawing?
I think it is important to be aware of the importance of observing what you are drawing. If you just draw from your imagination, you will end up with buildings whose structures you don't know, or wrinkled clothes that don't convey the texture of the wearer's clothing, which is a habit of mine. The result is a worldview that is not convincing. In this age of the Internet and other sources of information, it is important to observe the subject matter carefully and draw it, rather than making rough guesses.
--Do you still search for materials when you draw props, backgrounds, etc.?
Yes, I do. For example, I think about "What kind of room would this person live in?", "What kind of shoes would she wear?", "What kind of car would she drive? I think that the accumulation of such details leads to the sense of daily life that is conveyed in the work.
From episode 19, "seducer". The decor and accessories in Chako's room give us a sense of her life. (there was a page from that chapter i can't put in the post, gomwnnasai, gomennasai, gomennasai....)
End of part 3
PART 4: ABOUT WEEKLY SERIALIZATIONS (this is the important shit)
Sauce: https://youngjump.jp/comic_award/interview/2024/05/index4.html
-I feel that "Shounen no Abyss" has a great live-action feel to it. The characters' actions and the development of the story are unpredictable, and each time I am surprised to see how the story will unfold. Do you have a rough idea of how the story will unfold?
There is a general flow of the story, but basically, I myself draw the story while excitedly thinking, "Well, what will this person say or do on the next page?" In a nutshell, is this a romcom in which Reiji meets a variety of women and decides who he will fall in love (or into the abyss)? It's something like that (T/N: Ryou answered like questioning and answering to herself in the last paragraph of this section)
--I have heard that the starting point of the project for "Shounen no Abyss" was "a story about a double suicide" Do you often draw the story with the theme in mind?
Yes, I decide on the axis to some extent at the beginning. If there is nothing at all, the project itself will not be communicated, and it will be difficult to start a serialization.
--I think that in a weekly serialization, it is necessary to attract the reader intensely in the first episode. What were you conscious of in the first episode of "Shounen no Abyss"?
It's an ensemble piece, so I was conscious of showing all the main characters in the first episode. I also decided to make a memorable appearance of the heroine, Nagi, in the last part of the episode. I also thought about the order of the characters that Reiji meets. First, he meets Shiba-chan, who is outside of his interest, and then he meets and talks with his friend Chako. Then his childhood friend Gen would appear, and things would take a turn for the worse. Then, his family, which is the most painful existence for Reiji, makes an appearance. Then he crosses paths with a mysterious man, and finally a beautiful and bewitching woman appears. In order to make it easier for the reader to enter the world of the work, I made the flow of the story gradually fall into darkness.
--It's like Reiji is going down a flight of stairs one step at a time.
Yes, Nagi is waiting for him when he descends the last step. I changed the background accordingly. When he is with his friend Chako, the sun is out, and when the sun begins to set, he meets his family, and by the time he meets Nagi, it's already nighttime.
--I'm so impressed...! You have built in the backgrounds and elaborated on the details.
(Footnote for 2 pages from the 1st chapter that were shown: Both are from the first episode, "The Boy from That Town". He meets his friend Chako on his way to school in the daylight, but by the time he meets his family, it is dark and shadowy outside. The contrast of the background also depicts Reiji's descent into darkness.)
--What are the most important things outside of your work when working on a weekly series?
Physical strength is important. I also think it is important to keep your mind clear and avoid unnecessary stress. There are many times when I think, "I should have done this better," or "It will be difficult this time because I did that last time," but there is no use in overthinking things, so I try to switch over as soon as possible.
--Finally, do you have any advice for new artists?
I think it is important to have a lot of input while you are young, and to push your luck a little in creating your work.
--Thank you for your valuable talk!
Now, the tl;dr:
-2: Bridges in this manga are used as a gate between life and death.
-1: rain is important in this manga to depict the characters' overflowing emotions.
0: Ryou had to choose carefully the type of atmosphere and air for this manga.
1: Ryou drew Drowning Fireworks on a rush and could define a proper style, she shifts styles according to the tone and magazine shenis doing her works for.
2: She had to study locations and interior plaves to depict characters, their lives and mental states.
3: Boy's Abyss is a romcom on its structure. And the characters were introduced in a way you could instantly get familiarized with from the start, as it's an ensemble work.
4: characters were introduced in a way you can feel Reiji is going downstairs into the abyss. Yuri being the first because she's the character he's the least interested into, Chako next because she's the sun, the light, she's Kana Arima... okno, and Nagi last because she's Chako's thematical opposite and had to have an impactful introduction. and the endgame and endgoal are already decided since day one. Nagi is waiting for Reiji to do the last step
5: a good physical condition, being resourceful and brave enough are the keys for a successful weekly story.
That's it. See ya tomorrow.

So, I would like to challenge anyone interested to push themselves and rewrite a paragraph of your choosing (yours of otherwise, though it would be nice to either quote the original or at least mention the title) with the simples most mundane vocabulary possible. No fancy words, not even niche but common ones, keep yourself at "forum level" vocabulary and use any other tool, like metaphors and any other kind of analogy to give meaning, emphasis, nuance, etc etc. Of course you do you but the idea is that if you have a phrase like "A litany of flourishing erudition recited in tandem" wouldnt end up as something like "A huge blabla of very smartering people talking non stop at the same time" but more like "There were as many stars shining on the nightsky as born on earth talking to me at once", just to make an example
Good luck!

While haunting the analog social circles and Facebook pages of Woodland Park, I have witnessed various individuals, who are generally uninvolved with the cult, scoffing at and criticizing what they view as incivility, aggression, and childishness in those who oppose Wommack and the Christian Nationalist’s takeover of the community.
Without trying to understand why fellow citizens are angry and opposed to Wommack controlling poor people’s minds while simultaneously stealing their money and mobilizing them to “take over” Woodland Park, these unwitting cult sympathizers don a patina of delusional pacifism and exude a new age-y vibe of “Can’t we all just get along?”
In a word, the answer to Rodney King’s absurd question for the ages is a vehement, “No.”
We can’t get along with fascists, bigots, authoritarians, theocrats, and conquistadors because they are attempting to take our freedom away and/or dispose of anyone who does not conform to their lily-white, Christian, CIS, goose-stepping image of our community.
Search the charisbiblecult subreddit, and you will find abundant evidence of Wommack, Truth and Liberty Coalition, and Charis Bible College endeavors to conquer the Dominionist Seven Mountains.
Bad news: You are on several of those mountains and you are viewed as a demonic enemy combatant if you do not fall in line with Wommack’s totalitarian theonomic plan.
More bad news: You are most-likely not a part of the plan and, therefore, Wommack and his lieutenants must eliminate you by any means necessary, including a smothering by followers' blessings. Rest assured, they dismiss any moral or constitutional reservations that might waylay them by declaring righteousness and a prophetic understanding of these actions as “God’s will.”
In light of Wommack’s personal affinity to civil war that would “bring us back” (To God…or maybe just white masculine hegemony?), as well as his having a good laugh with the sheriff about his “arsenal” of weapons, it should be abundantly clear that the decorum of Wommack’s opponents is not at issue here. Wommack and Charis’s actions to create a theonomic dictatorship in Woodland Park are the problem.
In a sense, it is quite adorably naive that fellow citizens think effective, civil dialog will solve the broader community’s conflict with Wommack. Maybe I’ve been wrong all along.
I am not sure what I, or others like me, have been thinking. The biggest obstacle to community peace and harmony was that we were just irrationally fighting for our democracy and acting angry that a cult leader would attempt to take over our community by lying, cheating, and stealing. Golly gee willikers. If we would just circle up, sing Kumbaya with them, and peaceably beg them to be benevolent dictators, everything would be hunky dory.
Do I need to put this in here for the paragraph above?: /s For those of you accustomed to Reddit, /s = sarcasm.
In my core, I believe that meaningful dialog, information sharing, consensus, and negotiation build awesome communities. I have seen wonderful things happen when interested (even if opposing) parties truly believe in the power and ability of communities to come together and help one another for the “greater good.” Wommack and the Charis Cult never wanted that. Theirs is a winner-takes-all zero-sum-game. At the end of the day, they have no interest in pursuing time-honored Christian values of love, compassion, and service. They seek to profit and gain control.
When one party or individual aggregates power, refuses to find common ground or negotiate, and forces the majority to fall in line with their mandates sans some semblance of consensus; When previously shared values and morals such as keeping one’s word or loving your neighbor as yourself are conveniently forgotten or twisted; the citizen staring into the face of their would-be oppressor and democratic ruiner is left with nothing else but aggressive opposition.
We have spoken and pleaded for common ground with Wommack, his lieutenants, his government stooges, and his school board plants ad nauseam. They have unequivocally stated and acted according to their warlike imperatives to conquer us. Again, the problem is not civility, our attacks, or the inability to be nice. The problem is the very real threat of religious tyranny.
The unwitting cult peacenik sympathizers have fallen to conman Wommack and his minions’ bait and switch.
“See, we’re kind and caring and people of God,” they say. “We give back to the community, and we’re just trying to spread the gospel and help people.” Meanwhile, they are lying and stealing to install their totalitarian regime.
“Shucks,” the peaceniks say. “They sure are nice though…And you…you uncivil rabble rousers are not using nice words and kissing the ring…so your behavior is the entire problem.”
The power aggregators represented in Wommack, as well as the new-age-y types supporting him through their appeals to civility, are attempting to coerce their opponents into calm acceptance of a dire fate.
If only we cattle and sheep would calmly proceed through the chute on the way to the slaughter house, everyone will just have a better time. The slaughter might be real bad when it's happening, but at least everyone will get to see things as peachy-keen before then. /s
If you are one of the Charis sympathizers who still believes that, in the face of violent conquistadors, simply having a friendly, civil dialog is the answer, then I hope you will wake up and join us to drive out these theonomic totalitarian fascists and gain back the old Woodland Park we all knew and loved. Don’t fall for the hypocritical “I know you are, but what am I” facade presented to you by Wommack and Charis.
Maybe it's a function of my naive optimism that I believe you are smarter than that and you can wake up. As for the misbehaving opponents of Charis refusing, resisting, and fighting back: Keep at it. The movement is growing.

“Nothing died without becoming the foundation for what came after.”
For some reason this sentence, particularly with the analogy and imagery of the paragraphs before it, was really compelling for me. Especially for those who have lost people close to them.
Humanity changing and repurposing and being practical, learning from the past or sometimes just reliving the same experiences in the same place without historical understanding.

Youtube's algorithm for the day decided to buck the trend of sending me Minolta review videos and instead sent me this - https://youtu.be/44lw5lQHVy0. It's a ~15 minute video but it gave me an idea for a discussion here.
The TLDW summary is NBI comes up with the not-so-unique idea of 'Consumption Communities' - groups that for better or worse, intentionally or otherwise, focus on a particular hobby, but the discussion leans heavily into encouraging purchasing increasing amounts of things in that hobby. Due to the specialised nature of the hobby and the community aspect, we are heavily exposed to product advertising around unique objects, characteristic and complicated things, or just new accessories or trends within that hobby. This all encourages impulse buying for products (i.e. gear) you don't need, and a fear of missing out when you don't participate, which can risk distancing you from that community.
A lot of the examples they gave for such communities included make-up, car modding, mechanical keyboards & mice (pretty much any computer accessory that you can dive into a rabbit hole for). But something that stood out was NBI's personal examples; it was always about cameras and photography.
He goes on to say he doesn't think that it is inherently bad or that the communities themselves are bad. But that we should critically analyse how we approach our hobby (photography) and how we discuss these with others, particularly newcomers to the hobby and how vulnerable they are to being 'swept up' into buying the 'best camera', 'best lens', 'best flash', 'best accessory(ies)', etc. when they may not actually need it.
The video covers this a lot better than a 3 paragraph summary, so I highly reccomend you watch if you have the time.
Now, not all of NBI's discussion applies to Analog and AnalogCommunity. For one, most of our favourite gear is long out of production so we aren't at risk of buying the latest modern new film camera*. We are culpable for advertising old gear 'with character' however. I myself am guilty of these as a Minolta fanatic, even if my gear brand of choice is literally extinct.
* Leica nu-M6, Kodak H35/M38, Mint Rollei 35AF, and Pentax' new release notwithstanding.
The video never actually says the word 'GAS' but it's detailed pretty explicitly based on his descriptions of a consumption community and how people get sucked into them. Many of us share out newest camera(s) we found at a thrift/charity shop or inherited from our relatives. There are many posts asking "Is this enough film for xyz trip?" that get satirised on AnalogCircleJerk. When someone asks for reccomendations for a film camera, camera bag, or strap, we'll often suggest our own favourite gear, or 'the best' of the brand we like because it does everything and more. There's trends and waves of posts following them, for example, shooting gas stations with Cinestill, taking a picture of your WLF camera from the waist, showing off how much FP100c is stored in your dedicated film freezer, or showing how cheap a triple pack of Kodak is in your local DM/Rossman's.
There's also a small minority of us who recognise some of these issues that may exist within our community, and photography in general. Kai Wong actually featured in the video as an example criticising this, regarding the latest photography tech being a constant conveyor belt of new things to purchase. On this sub in particular, there was a time when near-constant discussionless gear posts had some negative feedback. Hoarding for hoarding's sake is criticised to some degree, and little quarter is given to users who talk/post gear but don't share any photos taken by the gear. It also may have encouraged you to go out and buy a camera that was featured, or post your own collection yourself.
I don't think any of us aim to encourage mass consumption for consumption's sake, but it might be worth taking a minute to take into accout how we reccomend cameras to newcomers. Do newcomers know that 95% of the features they want can be replicated in any other (possibly less popular and less known) camera? Do they absolutely need a camera that can shoot 1/12000 with matrix metering and full compatibility with the entire line of lenses available if they are going to shoot their pets and on a leisurely walk around their town? Do we need to reccomend them it? I leave that to you and the newcomers.
That's my own thoughts on it generally, and I'm fine if there's disagreement with any or all of what I've said. What are your thoughts on 'Consumption Community' and does it apply to our analog hobby and our poorly managed GAS? What do you think?

Overview

Hello folks. I am from the BTech 2020 batch and just recently completed my academics. I wanted to write an honest opinion thread (and a rant) from a student's perspective for my experiences at DA, which might help other folks in better navigating their college life. This is a thread where I would like to share my Academic Experiences.
Before proceeding, just wanted to give a background. We joined DA in November 2020 (late; since it was the Covid year) and had almost our first 4 semesters in online mode. Also, the administration did change the BTech curriculum a bit after our batch, mostly by rearranging the courses and removing a few. Overall those changes are great in my opinion.
Disclaimer: This post doesn't aim to demean any of the professors or degrade the academic domain of courses. This is an opinion thread of a student's experiences.

Semester - 1

1. Basic Electronic Circuits: It's an extension to the Electronic circuits (AC/DC, transistors, etc.) which we studied in 12th. The course would be helpful in the future courses of EL in better understanding the circuits. But, apart from that, it would serve no use if you are going to pursue a software career.
   1. Professors: The professors (Srimanta Mandal and Anjan Ghosh) are boring, and whatever they teach you in class would completely help in acing the exam. You have to study by yourself and do some practice.
   2. Assignments: Straight from the textbooks which they recommend. You can easily find solutions on the internet.
   3. Grading: Gave decent grades.
2. Calculus: One of the first mathematics course. again an extension of the calculus you studied in 12th, so a bit easy to catch up and learn. The course provides a solid foundation in advance calculus problems and would become helpful in some courses of data science or machine learning.
   1. Professors: Nabin Sahu is a great professor. Has knowledge and solves doubts too. You should just remain a sincere student in class. If you all as a batch irritate him frequently, then mark my words, he would give you shit grades. That wasn't the case with us, but with the juniors batch. He gave decent grades. But Manoj Raut is a bad prof, doesn't know how to teach, would just say random shit in class which doesn't make sense to you. So stay away.
   2. Assignments: Same as BEC. straight from textbooks. find solutions on the internet.
   3. Grading: Good. Don't disturb Nabin Sahu much and he would give good grades. If you dare to disturb him in the class, be prepared for his wrath :)
3. Engineering Design Workshop: Honestly have zero idea why this course exists. They would teach you AutoCAD, some mechanical tools and concepts, and would give you a project at the end of the course. In offline, the project part is a bit interesting. But the rest of the course is just useless to say the least.
   1. Professor: Anil Roy a senior psycho professor takes the course. Beware of his Dissociative identity disorder (DID). On some days he would be chill and would crack jokes in the class. but when he gets triggered (and trust me it's quite hard to predict what triggers him) he will ensure that it's unbearable to attend the lecture.
   2. Assignments: He gives the same assignments every year. Probably ask your seniors for it.
   3. Grading: If you are girl student, he would treat you softly by default and you have a good chance to score better grades, just by buttering. I know this sounds very sexist, but the prof himself is a sexist person. For the guys, just be sincere if you want good grades. Otherwise he does a decent grading.
4. Language and Literature: I really enjoyed the course. It's the first humanities course you would study in the college. We had a very great prof, Shweta Garg, who made the course interesting to go through. You would have multiple different readings and class discussions. See humanities courses have polarizing opinions. Some like it, some don't. My advice: They help you improve your communication skills a lot (which is crucial for the outside/corporate world) and give you different perspectives to look at life. So I like them (most of).
   1. Professor: Shweta Garg is a nice professor to have discussions with in class. But sadly she left the institute a year back. But I have heard the new professor, Amishal Modi, is also very chill and teaches the course in an interesting manner.
   2. Assignments: These are something where you might have to give efforts as they are based sometimes on the readings and classroom discussions. The group project is also very interesting exercise.
   3. Grading: Good grading. Take care of your exams, and participate in classroom discussions. that would help.
5. Introduction to Programming (and its Lab): The course teaches C language starting from the basics. If you learnt it in your 10th/12th, it would give you an edge. But if not, the course teaches you from scratch. It is very helpful in building the foundation for learning programming. For the exams, slides are 60-70%. And you can read the Let Us C book for added knowledge.
   1. Professors: Manish Khare and Bakul Gohel would teach simultaneously. Both are good profs. Bakul sir has better knowledge imo, Manish sir would bore you out with his teaching. But you can navigate this course by yourself too without attending lectures, with the help of youtube, peers, TAs.
   2. Assignments: Good assignments. would recommend to do them yourself rather than copying. It would help you polish your skills.
   3. Grading: Good grading. You can score well with efforts in exam and assignments.

Semester - 2

1. Approaches to Indian Society: A humanities course. The lectures were boring for me. But the project was interesting. The readings which they provide are a great read.
   1. Professor: Bharani Kollipara is a very chill professor. In the final presentation too, he won't ask scathing questions, instead discuss different aspects of the group project.
   2. Assignments: Same what I told before. you might have to do them by yourself as they are reading based.
   3. Grading: Chill. Just ace your presentation and exam (exam is not fairly easy too).
2. Data Structures (and Lab): A very helpful course in building the foundations for programming. The profs are very strict. But I will suggest if you really put in your time in this course, it would definitely help you while preparing for your placements (as you would have understood the basics of DSA). Also in the Lab, they would teach you Object Oriented Programming, which would also be a solid foundation for your placement prep.
   1. Professor: V Sunitha is an extremely strict professor. She doesn't teach properly and the classes are quite boring. Instead you can learn through youtube. But the attendance part makes it necessary to attend the lectures.
   2. Assignments: I will suggest to do them yourselves. the lab work too.
   3. Grading: If you want good grades, just remain a sincere student in her class. If you as a batch create nuisance, she won't give good grades.
3. Discrete Mathematics: Mathematics course. It's also helpful in your future courses. I didn't focus on the course during my time. and later whenever the concepts from this came, I had to go and revise/refresh that topic. But you would have to do self study more, because the profs don't teach much in detail. Tutorials and exams are moderate, and for solving them, you need to study things apart from the classroom teachings.
   1. Professor: Rahul Muthu is a chill prof, but understanding what he teaches in the class is difficult. Not all can grasp what he is teaching. Manish Gupta also teaches in other section and it's easier to understand.
   2. Assignments: Can be solved with the help of internet. some of them are textbook problems only.
   3. Grading: depends on the prof's mood and the class. If your batch makes nuisance, they would be strict on the grading.
4. Digital Logic Design: It's all about gates and Logic design. Now the course is a bit tweaked and the syllabus is modified somewhat. The course is fairly easy to understand.
   1. Professor: Vinay Palaparthy can be considered one of the chillest profs in DA. Just attend the lectures and he would tell you 90% of the question paper :) If not, you can just attend the lectures before the exam too. He has good knowledge, but also knows that BTech guys here are less interested in EL courses. so he has a very chill vibe.
   2. Assignments: Quite easy to solve.
   3. Grading: Chill. Vinay sir means chill grading policy.
5. Introduction to Communication Systems: It was the first CT course for our batch. But, now according to the new curriculum this course is shifted to 4th sem. 50-60% of the curriculum is really interesting, but as soon as you hear the words Fourier Transformation (one of the most dreadful topics :) ) things start to go above your head. I am not saying impossible, but you might have to give some time digesting those concepts. Overall, it introduces some great topics, which are overall helpful in further CT courses.
   1. Professor: "No-nonsense person" - A perfect definition to suit professor Yash Vasavada. That guy has a ton of knowledge in very diverse domains. But, you know, sometimes people feel bored in his lectures because of his slow pace in teaching. I particularly liked the coursework, so remained engaged in the lectures.
   2. Assignments: One peculiar thing about Prof vasavada, is he would give assignments which require your effort. MATLAB is your companion here.
   3. Grading: If you give good presentation, your chances of getting better grades increases. The exams are somewhat moderate to tough.

Semester - 3

1. Design and Analysis of Algorithms: The other half to make your fundamentals of DSA strong. The course introduces you to the basics of algorithms. You will learn sorting, searching, tree/graph traversals, etc. Most of the times, the profs rush through the end topics which is a downside because the tree and graph traversals are quite important to learn for DSA, CP, placements, etc. So, once you get a good grip of the concepts, start solving "basic" questions on DSA platforms like Leetcode, Hackerrank, etc.
   1. Professor: The teaching profs of this course keep changing generally. We had Supantha Pandit who is a chill prof. But, the classes are boring to attend.
   2. Assignments: Again I would say, do them by yourself - don't copy. That would help for your own benefit.
   3. Grading - Depends on prof, but in general it's chill.
2. Electromagnetic Theory: An extension to the EMT which you studied in 12th. Don't know why this course exists and how it helps. It would be helpful for a very small set of students who want to pursue the electronics domain (maybe).
   1. Professor: We had Mukesh Tiwari and Arnab Ray. Both have an amazing set of knowledge in this domain. I was in Mukesh Tiwari's section. He teaches very well and it's easier to grasp the concepts compared to other courses' profs.
   2. Assignments: Since we were in the online mode, our tutorials were chill. Mostly textbook questions, which you can find solutions online.
   3. Grading: Decent.
3. Groups and Linear Algebra: The third mathematics course. I personally like algebra, and this was an extension of the 12th class algebra, so I really enjoyed the course. (Honestly, I didn't study at all for this course during the sem, and got to know about the course content only during exam time, so have a bit of regret). Again this course would be helpful indirectly in understanding some programming concepts (you can trust me on this).
   1. Professor: Aditya Tatu and Rahul Muthu were the profs. Aditya Tatu teaches well and we used to see his lecture's recording only for the exams. Rahul sir's lectures didn't make much sense for me personally.
   2. Assignments: Easy to moderate. Many of them textbook questions but some unique ones.
   3. Grading: Decent (but this opinion differs batch to batch). For exams, you would have to study the concepts in better detail (Gajendra Purohit's YT playlist is a gem for this).
4. Signals and Systems: A CT course. Comparatively an easy one I can say. As it is more logical and a bit less theoretical. Don't know where it helps apart from future CT courses.
   1. Professor: We had Rajib Lochan Das, but I don't think he is now in the institute.
   2. Assignments: mostly Textbook questions, some different.
   3. Grading: We had a decent grading. But greatly depends on the prof.
5. Computer Organization: I think in the recent curriculum this course is merged with that Digital Logic Design one. So only some portions of what we studied would come for you. It is a decent course. Gives an overview of the kernel and assembly language coding.
   1. Professor: We had prof Amit Bhatt, but he is currently not a part of the institute. He had good subject matter knowledge.
   2. Assignments: mostly easy ones.
   3. Grading: we had a chill one, but depends on who the prof is.
6. Science, Technology, and Society: The only HM course I hated. The curriculum wasn't interesting enough for me. I didn't even understood what the readings tried to convey, what the project meant and what the professor wanted as an outcome from the project, and many things.
   1. Professor: Shefali Jha was a bit boring (personal opinion, other people might differ). She is a feminist kinda person and favours girls a bit more. even talks more with them in class discussions.
   2. Grading: If you can impress the prof in presentation then you would get good grades. Also class interactions matter.

Semester - 4

1. Probability, Statistics, Information Theory: The last mathematics course. It's an extension of the Probability and Statistics of 11-12th. The course is really good, and is helpful. From the perspective of placements too, the course is helpful, since many companies ask MCQs on these.
   1. Professor: We had the OG Gagan Garg. A chill and humorous prof. But now, he also has left the institute. Madhukant Sharma who teaches now, is a bit terrible prof. So take care of his grading policy.
   2. Assignments: Mostly textbook questions.
   3. Grading: Depends on prof. Madhukant has a stricter one. Exams were fairly straightforward for us, mostly similar to tutorial ques. But, you might have to confirm with the current batches.
2. Analog Communication and Transmission Line Theory: A CT course. Mostly theoretical. somewhat boring too.
   1. Professor: Deepak Ghodgaonkar teaches this. He would give you textbook snippet PDFs and just mug up those sections by heart, because he would just ask those same things as it is in the paper. Just pour out jo tumne ratta mara. :)
   2. Grading: Reiterating the above point. If you can mug up things, remember them precisely word to word, you can score in exams.
3. Analog Circuits: An EL course. Extension of the BEL course of 1st sem. Don't know where this course helps apart from EL electives. Learning electronic circuits was tough thing for me, so try to learn that out.
   1. Professor: Rutu Parekh is a chill and amazing person. If you are a gujju and can do great vaato, you have chances of getting good grades.
   2. Assignments: moderate.
   3. Grading: Exams would majorly determine your grades.
4. Systems Software: A course similar to Operating Systems but a more foundational one. You would learn Linux, Threading, etc. I really liked the course and found it helpful too later in different aspects.
   1. Professor: Amit Mankodi is an amazing prof with great knowledge and good teaching style. You just have to just catch his speed of teaching, as he covers a lot in each lecture. I would say, he is the most systematic prof, as he keeps the lectures, code files and many other things organized pretty well.
   2. Assignments: Quite intuitive and interesting to solve. Would suggest not to copy and do them yourselves.
   3. Grading: The exams are on the tougher side. And hence it is a bit difficult to get 9/10.
5. Environmental Studies: Another HM course but termed as an SC course. Prof Vasavada teaches a lot and provides excessive content against the lower number of credits the course has. A fairly easy course to go through. But have to mug up a lot of content for exams.
   1. Professor: Yash Vasavada is quite dedicated in teaching the course. But at some time, it becomes exhausting with the detailed content.
   2. Assignments: Not many. Majorly a group project.
   3. Grading: If you put up a great presentation, chances of receiving good grades are high.
6. Engineered Materials: I won't say anything about this course, since it has been removed now. Can write a complete thread ranting about Anil Roy, but don't want to waste my time. If at all this course comes up as an elective, my advice, don't take it. The course has nothing to offer, neither the prof.

Semester - 5

1. Digital Communications: Another CT course. It's not completely theoretical and somewhat interesting. Personally I found Digital part to be more easy to grasp than the Analog part. But still a lot of mugging up of theory and derivations of formulae.
   1. Professor: Deepak Ghodgaonkar and Abhishek Jindal. Deepak Ghodgaonkar literally just reads out paragraphs from the textbook snips and doesn't teach anything. Jindal sir does teach some concepts. He seems a chill prof, but is slightly cunning so beware in your interactions.
   2. Grading: As mentioned earlier, Deepak sir would make a purely theoretical paper, straight from the textbook snippets. On the other hand, Jindal sir would give more practical (solving problems) type questions. So be prepared to do a mix of both. They generally divide in either of these manner: Each prof makes paper of each insem or they both make 50-50 percent of the paper. The grading is based on exams mostly.
2. Principle of Economics: Really interesting course from the name. I also enjoyed it a fair part. It covers many fundamental topics and that was the best part. Finance folks would enjoy the curriculum.
   1. Professor: We had both new profs - Cyril Jos and Gaurav Kumar Singh. Gaurav sir was chill as hell in class, he would just go past his ppt and explain things (along with saying "Right" 100-200 times in a lecture :) ). Cyril sir just whiz past through his ppt and covers a ton of topics in every lecture and you can't grasp everything for sure. And it really becomes a pain in the ass when going through those 500-600 pages PPTs during insem prep.
   2. Grading: We had a really chill grading done. But further batches faced stricter policies, so ask your immediate seniors for better knowledge.
3. Database Management Systems: An important course as it covers SQL. PostgreSQL and PgAdmin would be your buddies. The course would cover for almost 60-70% placement prep for you, so would suggest to learn properly. The profs are mid. So you might have to learn some things yourselves too. Overall a very helpful course.
   1. Professor: (Different profs take the course from batch-to-batch) We had Minal Bhise and Rachit Chhaya. Minal Bhise is a typical old atrocious bitch professor. She doesn't know how to teach much. Rachit sir on the other hand is a chill prof and teaches well too.
   2. Assignment: I would suggest to do them yourselves, considering the importance of the course. Most of the lab work, they would ask you to complete in lab only.
   3. Grading: Shit grading policy. Minal Bhise, being the senior prof, dictated the grading policy and gave good grades to very few people.
4. Embedded Hardware Design: Ohh man. What should I say. Our batch had its worst nightmare in this course. Initial two months both the profs didn't teach much and most of the lectures got cancelled. And then the prof just had some mood swings at the end of the course and awarded shittiest grades we ever saw. The course project (programming elevator) was same for each group, yet he was disappointed from everyone.
   1. Professor: We had Biswajit Mishra and Vinay Palaparthy. Just stay away from Biswajit as far as you can. If someone can give competition to Anil Roy, it's Biswajit. Vinay sir was really chill and infact he did give some hints also about the question paper during lectures. But Biswajit decided on the grading part (again because he was a senior prof). BUT, if you have Tapas Kumar Maiti as prof, it would be somewhat chill course (Our juniors had him).
   2. Assignments: If you get that elevator project, do it somewhat properly, to save your grades.
   3. Grading: Biswajit dictated the grading and gave really bad grades. He even changed the policy in the middle of the semester.
5. Computer Networks: Somewhat important course as it covers a fundamental domain of Computer Science - Networks. I really enjoyed the lectures and the course in general. The prof was good, exams were also not that difficult and provided good set of knowledge. Some companies do ask CN in their tests/interviews, so this would become helpful for sure.
   1. Professor: PS Kalyan Sasidhar is a great prof. Has subject knowledge, knows hows to teach, and doesn't have any nakhre.
   2. Assignments: Easy ones. Would suggest doing them by yourselves, as there is a lab viva too.
   3. Grading: Chill policy. If you are above average, you would get >=8 for sure.
6. (ELECTIVE) Optimization: I took Opti, some people took other courses too. Won't say this is the best option or so, you can take a course as per your interest. But one important thing - Take optimization as elective only and only if Manish Kumar is the prof. If Manoj Raut is teaching, stay away. The course is very chill teaches 3 main important formulae/methods which are the only things you need to learn. The only skill which you require is good maths (Not advance, but good at subtraction, addition, multiplication, division) and patience.
   1. Professor: Manish Kumar teaches well. You can attend the lectures and would just have to revise the formulae before exams and you are all set. DONT GO IF THERE IS MANOJ RAUT teaching the course. If some other prof, then ask around, before taking.
   2. Assignments: Chill.
   3. Grading: Our seniors had chill grading. Our was moderate. But, you need to ensure that your calculations are precise and proper in exams, because those are very statistical and long calculations spanning 2-3 pages.

Semester - 6

1. Software Engineering: My first impressions were that most of the course content is not at all helpful. When you attend the lectures, you think, why am I studying this (though being an IT course). But later I realised the profs are bad at teaching. The concepts taught and asked in exams are in general helpful in real world (Class Diagrams, and all those diagrams, Agile, etc.) But, they don't even focus on such aspects. Believe it or not, the slides go beyond 800 when you read them for your exams, but doesn't have even 10% helpful information in there.
   1. Professor: Saurabh Tiwari and Manish Khare. Saurabh sir still teaches somewhat better but is very strict. He catches people who sneak out of the lectures in between (yes it's happened in our batch couple of times). Manish Khare doesn't know anything. Neither his slides nor he himself makes any sense in general.
   2. Project: I would suggest you to contribute in the group project of this course. They ask you to develop a full fledged software application in group. Pick a team (frontend/backend doesn't matter) and learn atleast one new language/technology. The project and your skill would be a great add to your resume.
   3. Grading: Moderate to decent.
2. (ELECTIVE) Econometric Data Analysis with R: A new course at our time so I took it. If you like Data Analysis, this is a good course. It would teach you great stuff. Gaurav Kumar Singh is a mid prof. You will understand a few things, but would have to learn other concepts by yourself. Many good concepts of Probability and Statistics are covered in this.
   1. Professor: Gaurav Kumar Singh has a background of Economics and Data Analysis so he has good knowledge. But his teaching is just decent not good. But a really nice and chill prof.
   2. Assignments: Easy to moderate. If you are interested in Data Analysis field, would suggest to do them yourselves.
   3. Grading: Moderate. He did somewhat stricter grading. But that was also because less people attending his lectures and he didn't like that.
3. (ELECTIVE) Human Computer Interaction: I really don't know how the Deans and other senior members approved this to be a full fledged course. The course content is so minimal, and chill, every year, the seats fill up and the registrations of this course exceed the limit. I am not demeaning the domain, but I think there are more things which could fit in. If you like designing or want to go in UI/UX, this course would help. Anyways, it's a win-win situation for you, if you get this elective. It's very chill and you literally have a lot of high chance of scoring a 10 pointer very easily.
   1. Professor: P S Kalyan Sasidhar, as mentioned earlier, is a chill no-nonsense prof. He passionately teaches the course.
   2. Assignments: Actually the assignments are really interesting as it requires you to think in a different approach. The prof has designed them really well.
   3. Grading: Chill. You can easily get good grades >=8.
4. (ELECTIVE) Operating Systems: Another important course from placements perspective. Also a very foundational course for Computer Science in general. I really enjoyed this one too as the prof (also read below more about the prof) as good knowledge of subject matter and taught really well. You can attend all the lectures and 70-80% prep for your exams are done. Threads, Locks, Semaphores, Memory management etc are the concepts you would learn.
   1. Professor: Take the course if Prof Anish Mathuria is taking (even sem). Don't take it, if Sanjay Srivastava is taking (odd sem). Sanjay sir does very strict grading.
   2. Assignments: Easy to Moderate.
   3. Grading: Moderate. You can score good grades. If you don't attend the lectures, then also the slides and practice questions of Anish sir would help you out.
5. (ELECTIVE) Indian Cinema: This was being offered for the first time and I took the course. One of my best decisions. If you like films, want to learn about the history of Bollywood, and some concepts about art in films, take this course. The prof arranges weekly streaming of films where we see a new film from different genres, different decades, different languages (Indian still). Don't expect to see mainstream Bollywood. But, if you are film connoisseur, you would enjoy the course. Engage in class discussions too.
   1. Professor: Jenson Joseph is a really nice prof. He has subject domain knowledge and teaches well too. Discussions with him are also interesting in lectures.
   2. Assignments: Very few.
   3. Grading: We had a very chill grading. Take care of your presentation, make a good one, put in efforts. And if you attended the lectures, your exams would also go well. If he remembers your name/face (in a good manner, good student) you would get good grades.
6. (ELECTIVE) Cloud Computing: Would introduce you to the cloud and its subdomains. The prof would teach you about Azure and other concepts. Some placement companies do have Cloud Computing knowledge as requirements, so this might help. Not a deal breaker course, but a chill one.
   1. Professor: Lavneet Singh is a chill prof, has subject domain knowledge and teaches well.
   2. Assignments: Moderate. Some are tough too.
   3. Grading: Decent. You can easily get >=7.
7. (ELECTIVE) Exploratory Data Analysis: Ideally, this is an introductory course for the MSc DS students. But is open for BTech folks too. Gopinath Panda is a very chill prof and the course also is like a breeze of air (very chill). If you like Data Analysis, take this.
   1. Professor: Gopinath Panda is a chill prof. I don't know if he has a background in this domain, but teaches decently.
   2. Grading: Very Chill. Just do your project well and submit lab assignments timely. All set.

Semester - 7

1. (ELECTIVE) Information Retrieval: This elective requires higher CGPA to take, because it is actually intended for MTech ML Students, but is opened for BTech. This was a gem of course as it challenged me and I felt rewarded going through each assignment/project/exam as I learned something new. This course lies in the domain of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and towards the end, you also get an overview of how LLM works. There is a bit of steep learning curve, but attending the lectures would help. We had a very nice professor taking the course, and he explained things very well. If you prior knowledge of Machine Learning (Neural Networks) it helps in the later part of the course.
   1. Professor: Sandip Modha is a really great prof. He has a good knowledge in the subject domain and is passionate in teaching. But he was a visiting faculty, and generally Prof Prasenjit Majumder takes the course. But you can have him as well too, as he is also a good prof.
   2. Assignments: Moderate to Difficult. Google Colab would be your buddy. If you really want to learn, do the assignment by yourselves. Or if you are using chatGPT, know what the code does.
   3. Grading: Put efforts in the group project. The presentation would help you get good grades, if your project is good. Remain around or above average in exams for >=9, otherwise expect around 8 grade.
2. (ELECTIVE) Big Data Processing: This course introduces you to NoSQL databases. Overall it's really helpful because in modern software applications, NoSQL databases are present. You need to put efforts in learning the concepts as the Prof doesn't teach that well. I really liked the course along with the project as it was really interesting to learn and easy to understand. The course is very logical and intuitive to understand. But, The latter part of the course becomes more theoretical where DynamoDB comes up, so you would have to mug those up for exams.
   1. Professor: P M Jat is a nice chill prof. He teaches decently, but puts attendance policy, so you have to attend the lectures. He would randomly pin point people in class and ask questions from previous lectures. But doesn't have much nakhre.
   2. Assignments: Easy to Moderate.
   3. Grading: Put efforts in the project, if you ace that, then chances of good grades are high. The exams are mostly objective and some subjective.
3. (ELECTIVE) Introduction to Modern Algebra: Funny story: Out of more than 100 students registered for this course, only 5 people attended the lectures. Reason being, its content is very similar to the Groups and Linear Algebra course, so it was quite easy to go through this course. The prof might change the curriculum a bit in future. But until then, take this course up, it would be easy to go through.
   1. Professor: Sudip Bera is a new prof. He initially provided lecture notes as well as typed latex notes. But when students didn't attend his lectures (obviously because he was providing such neat and tidy notes) he stopped giving those. Still a chill prof.
   2. Grading: It was very dicey to score in exams, as they were the only grading component. He gave 25 mark question paper, with just 5 questions, each 5 marks. If you get something wrong in one question, no partial marks awarded. So you either get 5 or 0 for a question. But, if you have prepared decently, you can get a 7/8 (and that's only what normal students aim in 7th sem).
4. (ELECTIVE) Human Behaviour Management: Another weird HM course. Although it was quite chill to pass through, I personally didn't like the prof. Nandini Banerjee is a strange feminist prof who would just victim card females (out of no context). The course didn't require much effort as such. Attend lectures, interact with the prof, put your logical opinions, and put some efforts in project.
   1. Professor: Nandini Banerjee is a counsellor on campus, but I would refrain someone to go to her for any kind of counselling (trust me have heard many other people's accounts too and all of them have bad experiences). She has very less subject knowledge, discusses random topics in the classroom, and would give a mix of slides assembled from various sources. Don't worry hearing all this, you can still take the course, if you don't want much load in your 7th sem. It's not that bad too.
   2. Assignments: Some book readings and other group activities.
   3. Grading: Put in efforts in your presentation. Do a skit in it. Just impress the prof, so you atleast get a 7. Then perform good in exams and make it 8/9.
5. (ELECTIVE) Detection and Estimation Theory: Just don't take this course. Srimanta Mandal is the prof and doesn't teach quite well, makes the course boring. If I have to summarize in one line, "He teaches plain rice in lectures, and asks Hyderabadi Biryani with Curd Raita in exams". Staying away from this course would be in the best of your interest.

Previous post

The upstart

Arch rival to Calap Roud was the illimitable, ambitious, inexcusably young Brash Phluster. That he delighted in the old bastard’s presence on this journey could hardly be refuted, for Brash so wanted Calap to witness youth’s triumph in Farrog. With luck, it would kill him.

Next on the chopping block is Brash Phluster, and what a masterpiece that name is. Brash means many things, including overly confident and lacking respect. Clearly that's how Calap views him at least. And Phluster just looks so much funnier than "fluster". It's as subtle as a brick to the face, but we really get everything we need to know about Brash from just the name.
Note that like with Purse we begin Brash's introduction by pointing out his relationship with Calap Roud. But whereas Purse was Calap's object of lust, Brash is his nemesis. We get a list of Brash's characteristics. He is illimitable, ambitious, and inexcusably young. This is definitely describing Brash as Calap sees him. The tell is the "inexcusably young" bit, but we also see a subtle jab with the way Flicker uses both illimitable and ambitious, words that have very similar meanings. He's definitely imitating Calap here, so it's like he's so incensed at Brash that he's stumbling for whatever word he can find. And accidentally goes for two words that mean basically the same thing.
Then we get Brash being happy at Calap's presence, which makes us think that perhaps the rivalry is one sided. But then we see that it's just because Brash wants to rub it in Calap's face, so the rivalry is definitely a thing. And finally there's the hope that Calap's defeat would kill him. So there's clearly an underlying hatred that runs deeper than a normal rivalry. The rivalry also seems to be generational. Brash represents the younger generation of artists, and he sees this as a conflict between young and old.

Fake it 'til you make it

Seven years Calap had been defecating on Brash, trying to keep him down on the crusty floor, but Brash was not one to let a rain of guano discourage his destiny. He knew he was brilliant in most things, and where he lacked brilliance he could fill those spaces with bold bluster and entirely unfounded arrogance. A sneer was as good as an answer. A writhe of the lip could slice throats across the room. He eyed Calap as would a wolf eye a dog, appalled at a shared pedigree and determined to tear the sad thing to pieces at the first opportunity.

We continue with the Calap/Brash beef, bringing back the metaphor from Calap's introduction with the gilded cage. There we got a brief mention of the "white-headed fools" that Calap shat on, and now we learn that Brash was indeed one of those fools. The imagery here is absolutely foul, with the floor crusted with bird shit and the rain of guano. There's a really nice alliteration here too. We get "defecating" and "down", and then a bit later "discourage" and "destiny". I love how it's all these really negative and nasty words, before flipping it with "destiny".
Flicker is definitely putting himself in Brash's head as he's done many times before, as we get this view of his inflated self image. We get a lot of Bs and Ls here with two instances of "brilliant" before we get "bold bluster". I love how he seems to be just blatantly in fake-it-until-you-make-it mode. And then Flicker dips out of Brash's head to provide his own commentary with "entirely unfounded arrogance".
And then we continue with Flicker giving his not-quite-charitable reading of Brash's character with this quick flurry of sentences. When confronted, Brash doesn't really respond, but just pretends like answering is beneath him. Like Calap he's willing to play the social game in order to get ahead. And that is made clear with the comparison. They're different, but also in some fundamental way they "share the same pedigree", which I think is their mutual willingness to pull all sorts of dirty tricks to get rid of rivals. And Brash is ready to do just that to Calap.

Master of disguises

True talent was found in the successful disguise of genius, and Brash accounted himself a master of disguises. His future was glory, but he would reveal not a single hint, not one that some cragged critic¹ or presumptuous rival might close in on, stoat fangs bared. No, they could dismiss him each and every day for the time being. He would unveil himself in Farrog, and then they would all see. Calap Roud, that stunning watery-eyed dancer, Purse Snippet, and the Entourage too—

Right off the bat I want to say that I love this first sentence. Flicker mentioned Brash's fake-it-until-you-make-it attitude in the previous paragraph, but here we get a hint that perhaps Brash is faking more than he'd care to admit. But he doesn't care, because he's so confident in his disguises.
Erikson has on many occasions remarked upon (and lamented) that many authors are incredibly secretive about their craft. He's mentioned authors on panels whose answers amount to basically just an advertisement for their book rather than an examination of their process. I think here he is poking fun at that attitude. Brash is established as being extremely tight lipped, because he doesn't want the critics or his competitors to find out his secret sauce. Admittedly, since he's traveling with Calap Roud that attitude may not be simple paranoia.
I also love that he calls his rivals stoats, calling back to the weasel analogy from a few weeks ago. Stoats are of course² a kind of weasel (or at least a weasel-like mammal). So we're still not letting go of these metaphors.
We also get a glance at the way Brash is seen by others. He's dismissed by them. Clearly, Brash thinks they're underestimating him, but are they? We'll find out in time when we get some of Brash's poetry. The alliteration here is also nice, with each and every framed by dismiss and day.
He ends with a declaration that he's not even begun to peak. That he's saving the best for last, and he's savoring that. He mentions Calap Roud, who he wants to destroy, and Purse Snippet who he likely wants to impress. Here we also see the difference between Flicker and Brash in action. Flicker saw through to the core of Purse's being. Brash, on the other hand, just sees a pretty dancer. He even notes that her eyes are always watery, but he doesn't even seem to consider that they might be like that for a reason.
And finally, the Entourage...
But we'll get to them next time. That's it for Brash's introduction. See you next week!
¹ There's some nice alliteration here. The word "cragged", itself onomatopoeic, adds that onomatopoeia to the word "critic".
² I say as if I didn't have to look that up myself

Less than 10% of all Killers BHVR have ever made are classified, by their own measurement and definition, to be Easy. That is an insane stat and should not be a thing. Killers do not need to be complex and nauseating to learn. It is perfectly fine for a killer to be easy. The last one we had released under this classification was Legion. That was December of 2018. How have we gone that long without an "easy" killer by BHVR's definition being released?
To make an analogy, that I hope I do correctly, in League of Legends you have W abilities. For Amumu, this means he starts crying and does damage in an area around him. For other characters, such as K'Sante on release, this means multiple paragraphs explaining the multiple different things it does. Our DBD equivalent is Trapper and Skull Merchant. Trapper's power is similar to Amumu. You push a button and a trap goes down. It does what a trap does. Skull Merchant puts up a drone and it can apply multiple status effects to survivors while giving her multiple status effects as well and shows her their location and lets her track them and etc.
We need more Amumu and Trapper killers and less K'Sante and Skull Merchant killers. Killers that can be very simple and easy to learn and to use. This doesn't even mean they have to be a purely M1 killer. They can have a power that does something fun and unique. But that doesn't mean having a power that takes multiple paragraphs to explain what it does.

APRILIS. II, CAL. IC. MAIOR. FLORIALIA.

1
Describing it as a “possession” in those terms may seem almost ridiculous; i.e. at what point to do we declare ‘culture’ to be dangerous mass psychosis? Or: at what point do we conclude that “social influence” will be always bad? I argue here that whilst seemingly insurmountable or anyway inactionable that these dynamics constitute the ‘prima causas’ of all bad and all wrong things (i.e. as they bypass the rational faculties where good and bad can be discerned); that is: no matter if they are seemingly insurmountable that this is as close as we have ever come to fathoming these processes directly and of which many evils themselves can be understood to be motivated by in their attempt to resolve these problems that we observe in the behaviour of individuals and groups whilst either not perceiving their causes here or not dealing directly with these processes themselves which constitute those causes; for considering them as to be “seemingly insurmountable (i.e. too big) or anyway inactionable (i.e. too complicated)”, but in my opinion none of that matters. Is gravity or germ theory a thing which cannot exist without having some political aim? Certainly not. Simply: if we understand how a thing works we are no longer subjected to its ill-effects.
I think the most important element of this is that focus of the ‘demos’ orientated thought pattern itself within an individual, that is most simply: where the truth of a thing is irrelevant by comparison to whether or not, to their perception alone, it conforms to the social models that exist in their own heads (we have examined this in Atellan Farce as like masked stock characters existing instead of real people) with the displacement of material reality by the ‘social illusion’ being the element in question. This, in turn, as an intellectual or psychological failing (again: borderline personality disorder) where the ignorance of those superficial forms are so colourful and dominant in the mind that they eclipse all reality, we might as I have suggested fathom this most accurately (and anyway actionably) as a developmental disorder; simply: where an individual has never learned to differentiate between material reality and fiction.
Now, as they realize these days, such individuals with that ‘problem’ are weapons in their own right; it would be hard work for an intelligent person to suppress their own faculties to perform an action they know to be foolish, but a mentally unfit person can be prompted fairly easily to do such a thing (indeed they are the only people who would) – and to do so repeatedly, for being without the faculties to discern what it is that they are even doing; requiring only positive verbal reinforcement via a pleasing narrative, reliant upon them being “an individual has never learned to differentiate between material reality and fiction”. In turn, recognizing that the overwhelming content of such societal interaction comprises ‘positive verbal reinforcement’; to maintain a course of action that has otherwise no reason to be maintained; ignoring evidence etc., encapsulates for us such ‘culture’ entirely; whole careers and celebrity status exists nowadays simply by performing this sophistry in tabloid and video form in addition, obviously, to public relations and politicians so that we might easily recognize this linear process as comprising the entirety of ‘our’ cultures activities … although my observation has been that despite that much of that is obviously intentional on the part of the actor, is that the greater part of this is simply the unconscious mind; that is: if a sizable chunk of the public did not respond to such methodology or think in such ways then the methodology would never have come into being long before the performance of such actions became prized as high paying careers.
2
There is a particular argument here, which fits very well with my contentions about the ‘demos’, of that concept of ‘the public’ itself being a construct of the Medieval printing-press in a manner as like with the stock characters, that: there is a set image in the mind of persons who speak and act and write in accordance to that set image of what ‘the public’ is, all essentially believing themselves to be “engaging with the world” but all of which is merely the repetition of shared delusions no matter how high a level we might examine this on; e.g. with liars they only convince those who wish to be told that particular lie so the liar is not introducing anything or fooling anybody merely they are affirming that same image of ‘the public’. Perhaps the most prolific demonstration of this delusionary preoccupation with ‘the public’ as a construct; i.e. where the image is demonstrably untrue but they never stop repeating it anyway, is that crass manner of superficial demographic appeal by which public relations, of either politicians or businesses, so clumsily try to show-off, apparently sincerely believing that having a Woman or a Black person employed is an outlandish and avant-garde thing – as if this were America circa 1820, iterating this in so much of their literary and entertainment output and in their political culture; impressing that narrative upon the culture with each iteration.
It is interesting to examine, then, the novelty of the printing-press in this regard as to where ‘the West’ differs from other civilizations; I do not mean here the mass promulgation of literature as certainly that was nothing new but rather the invention of a newspaper itself circa 1566; as Postman wrote in ‘Amusing Ourselves To Death’ a newspaper might convey nothing at all about a thing other than the illusion that one is informed about a thing of which they know nothing; his writings in the middle 1980’s reads the same of this process as they do today, as: when the people of a Nation, for example, who have been subjected to relentless war propaganda comprising tens of thousands of hours over many years of daily programming and countless snippet news articles in print which are nominally “all about the subject,” cannot find the place on a map of the world, name the previous six heads of state of the place, or possess really any context of what led up to the war or what the other sides story is, that is: that the ‘news’ has relayed no information at all but “one would believe themselves to be informed”. Or, in the example of the last paragraph, despite so much mention of slavery who can explain the economic model which created the transatlantic slave trade and name the principle participants in it or name which imperial power brought it all to an end? Quite in fact nobody cares about any of that, quite demonstrably.
The question then to ask is ‘what’ does exist in their heads which they associate with those subjects if, as we can easily prove, they possess no knowledge whatsoever about those subjects.
‘The Public’, then, can be said to be the maintenance and perpetuation of certain narratives which are artificially held in place over certain issues; coming to comprise an artificial but actual culture (i.e. it is fake but people act as if it were real), and that in the most cynical view of the thing (which is not really my opinion) that this is the single job of the press or public relations or producers of behavioralist programming in that they maintain and perpetuate those certain narratives as the outcome of their efforts. However, if ‘the public’ is a fiction in the first place, as is the contention here, then all those efforts and great energies and desire to dominate ‘the public’ is merely a delusion on their part which they act as if were real – or more simply: “we all believe we are exempt” from this process yet we act it out anyway because “we all believe” everybody else is driven by this process; again this is obviously the product of atomization within a people who are aliens to others around them – knowing other people only in the most superficial of ways.
This point alone is best proven nowadays with digital social media; in that a million empty scrolls down a linear webpage translates into ‘popularity’ in the mind of an on-looker, with all we have studied about ‘click bait’ becoming the only means to enhance engagement within that medium; all of which constitutes nothing of any substance and which encourages anybody who begins with the desire to “engage with the world” to take up that model of ‘the public’ and begin to tailor themselves to conform to it; with this process itself, occurring within the mind, thusly becoming the single action of maintenance and perpetuation of that image of ‘the public’ – i.e. even if we began with a correct premise of a thing today it would cease to be ‘cutting-edge’ tomorrow so the promulgation over years of a single premise would be self-defeating as most critique would not be resistance towards that thing but improvement upon that thing, whereas the illusion of ‘the public’ demands a regressive and dogmatic conformity.
3
In Stoic terminology this is, as to the title of this text, ‘demos’; in that by this mental process of coming to images of a fictitious public; or rather: coming to the belief that ‘power’ is to be derived from it (e.g. social standing, popularity, etc.), that we tailor ourselves to act in accord to it and perform two key actions as consequence of this belief, 1) reason in even basic ways ceases to be real to us, and 2) as we engage further with the fiction the further we depart from reality, so as that to borrow from Platos Cave to demonstrate this point it is not that we ‘begin’ in the cave but that the socialization process is itself the act of walking into the cave and initiating the entire thing – at least ‘socialization’ along these lines where the ‘culture’ can be shown to be false; as: the analogy fits here as to provide a more tangible basis to account for all elements involved in it.
To place this into context with ‘logos vs. ethnos’ it would be my feeling that ‘demos’ and ‘ethnos’ could be said to be almost interchangeable things, certainly as ‘demos’ arises from ‘ethnos’ as an expression of is worst impulses, and as both are defeated by ‘logos’ or ‘led by it’ on those occasions when they happen to do anything logical and good, whereas ‘demos’ is a fortification of the fouler impulses in the ways we have examined here as beginning from that social delusion and departing further and further away from the means to discern a thing to be true or false; good or bad, ending up in a situation of lunacy of which the causes are easily discerned as to their applicability (i.e. does it apply or not from one place to the next) via this metric.

APRILIS. II, CAL. IC. MAIOR. FLORIALIA.

PREVIOUS: SOCIAL INFLUENCE AS THE DEMOS AND THE RECOGNITION OF THE DEMOS AS THE PRIMARY EVIL THING; I.E. THE EVIL OF THE ‘GREEK POLITY’ ITSELF, AND THE AETIOLOGY OF THE INVENTION OF THE CONCEPT OF A ‘DEMON’, OR DEMOS AS ETHNOS LOGOS VS ETHNOS (7)

This is Zextranet's Full Analysis of the Artiverse
Part 0: Introduction and Clarification for the entire analysis
In this full analysis of the entire lore that Artifiber has developed in his Artiverse universe, I will give each detail attention and give my thoughts to the entire lore that Artifiber has pieced out together to make the current Artiverse lore.
Note, I will be referring to Artifiber as they/them
This analysis only covers information given in the "Library of Artiverse" which is a compilation of canon, fanon, and other subjects regarding the Artiverse universe. The website link follows: https://library-of-artiverse.blogspot.com/?m=1
The character for delta will be replaced by "Delta" like "Delta-System"
The only things I will not tackle are the Canon page which is basically a QnA list that Arti has answered, and also not the About page in the website which just mentions the purpose of this project and the description of the creator of the lore, including its philosophy.
Part 1: Digital
Regarding the first paragraph, it mentions the remarkable advancements made by standardization of certain aspects of technology caused by the improvements in the means of production which led to a huge stimulation of technological progression which can be said by looking on how their technology has progressed in a rapid pace. This is comparable to the industrial revolution of our civiliazation which has led to rapid advances in human society as a whole and improved our technological progression.
Then, it points out the importance of computers in topics highly related to technology, especially biotechnology. In the topic of biotechnology, it says how it is important to the making of robotic characters and the science of transgeneration, which is a topic regarding the union of biotechnology and the character's body to serve as an extension of one's physical nature. This, by itself, is highly untouched by most people because such technology would mean people with a higher ability to exercise their wishes by will or having the ability to live a life less affected by deficits. While this is real technology, it has not reached the level where people can control their form at will.
Now that such advancements have been made to improve the condition of the Artiverse inhabitants, it has led to an expansion of their capabilities and allowed many applications to be integrated into one's operating system regarding the software or firmware of biotechnological devices that they may have integrated into one's physical body.
Part 1a: Hardware
The hardware is based on quantum technology. With these kinds of technologies, it has given people to harness the computing capabilities that would outcompute our computing technology by factors in the billions. The hardware is based on a kind of crystal, where its hardware can be altered by software by altering the quanta of the crystal itself. Using crystals, particularly its quantum energy, one can harness their potential for powerful computing and its potential to be used as RAM devices. This is comparable to using quantum mechanics for computing, including vanadium dioxide's memory storage capabilities by controlling its phase transition.
Part 1b: Biotech
Any character in the Artiverse universe is either partially or fully cybernetic and would natually mean the union and integration of living matter and robotics. With this in mind, there are set "integrator modules", with one kind being used to control the interface between living matter and robotics in a cybernetic being. Such technology also allows the neural network to be linked into the robotics integrated into someone, allowing a seamless ability to turn thoughts into reality.
Part 1c: Formalization and Programming
In the software that all these biotech devices use, it uses a universal descriptive language used for programming called Lingua Technis, which is a mix of factual, markup, functional, and imperative programming paradigms that is used for virtually every branch of science that is made to be intuitive and have any errors or conflicts in the code to be easily rectified. Due to these special characteristics, any code that is built upon Lingua Technis is compatible with any form of hardware; therefore, it is useful for many applications regarding physical activity, but still very useful for software applications, mainly regarding communications
Two special programming and markup languages are used in the Delta-System and nearby systems. Those are Swift and Graph. The former is not to be confused with Swift, which is a programming language made by Apple. Both languages have specific interfaces, which makes them practical for specific applications.
Part 1d: Operation Systems
In the website, it mentions the functions, purposes, and applications of an operating system. It says how it is used to run applications, used as a basis for software running the OS, etc.
The most common in the Delta-System is IntegralOS (IOS, not to be confused with iOS from Apple). Other operating systems like MintOS and EROS appeared, with the former being made by Mintscreen and being more universal while the latter being made by, coincidentally enough, Eros, which is made for more specific tasks.
The framework that come with the several OSs are: FoundationKit, IOKit, WorkspaceKit, and InterfaceKit. Other frameworks are used for the system to complete specific tasks, like VideoKit and MusicKit.
Part 2: Delta-System
This covers the entire planetary system, named by the inhabitants as the Delta-System. The diversity of each planet has been caused by technological advancements, which led the species to explore other celestial bodies revolving around their star. Each planet has its own set of physical components, which created the specific conditions that make each planet unique. Planets with a large population does not require specific equipment to be able to live there and only require slight body adjustments for each highly inhabited planet to adapt between creatures in those planets because their biochemistry isn't necessarily dangerous to each other. The Delta-System or just Delta, is located in the Bode Galaxy and may be known as Messier 81 or NGC 3031 according to Wikipedia. The center star, Deltaspark, is surrounded by six celestial bodies being named Delta-01 to Delta-06 in order by distance. Delta-01 and Delta-02 are abundant with a diverse source of resources, with a diverse internal structure that is being researched and actively used in the public economy. The ratio of the planet's surface area to its mass makes it favorable by having lesser gravity while having large useful spaces which may be caused by the planet having less density. Other planets only have a small population concentrated in small areas or enclaves, which serve specific purposes. The inhabitants of planets besides Delta-01 and Delta-02 have special robots or space characters like Micro space cats.
Part 2a: Deltaspark
Deltaspark is classified as a K-Type star or K-Type dwarf star. It has a diameter of 1400km and a mass of 2.8×10²⁷ tons, which should classify as a G-Type star according to solar mass.
Part 2b: Delta-01 / Alterra
Alterra is a planet of a rocky composition, with most of that rocky landmass consisting of basalt rocks covered by water combined with a rich biosphere. Water is abundant, with freshwater dominating inland waters. It is full of silicate rocks with a metal core. The atmosphere consists of nitrogen, oxygen, and some xenon. The continents are on the same meridian, with one central continent connecting the north and south parts of the planet. Cities are spread everywhere, including underwater cities, ranging from large metropolitan areas tp sparse cities. One notable city is Texui. One notable suburban city is Sweetbaum. Its magnetic field does not align with the planet's axis of rotation. This planet is obviously based on Earth, although some characteristics of the civilization's influence on the planet have not come to fruition today, like underwater cities. Other descriptions of the planet that don't match with Earth include the complete misalignment of the axis of rotation and the magnetic field lines, which may indicate a magnetic reversal is occurring on that planet and the lack of an axial tilt, which eliminates seasonal changes similar to those on Earth.
Part 2c: Delta-02 / Carbonia
Carbonia, as the name suggests, is a planet full of carbon. Full of carbide mineral rocks and a metal core, it implies the planet is loaded with coal, graphite, and diamond reserves. The atmosphere is full of nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon, which indicates a strong presence of Methane and other carbon-based greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The surface is a mix of carbon and diamond minerals due to the extreme presence of carbon. The infrastructure is made to be highly interconnected, although the population is concentrated on small areas. Due to the living creatures of the planet being filled with inorganic compounds, their biochemistry seems robotic. Due to this, advancements in robotics are frequent. This planet seems to be based on 55 Cancri E, a real planet thought to house a diamond core and is very rich in carbon, although this planet is less biologically and technologically hostile compared to 55 Cancri E.
Part 2d: Delta-03
This planet is highly related to Jupiter, as the atmosphere consists of hydrogen, helium, and other substances. Known for huge reserves of gaseous matter, with a few satellites monitoring them, it also seems to contain exotic substances.
Part 2e: Delta-04
This planet is dominated by oceans all over the planet, with its mantle being rich in water, implying a rich source of hydrate minerals. It's atmospheric composition resembles Earth's while weirdly having traces of Hydrogen and Helium that are high enough to be noted.
Part 2f: Delta-05
This planet is highly odd for having a helium atmosphere, with a hydrosphere consisting of liquid nitrogen. The terrain is irregular, with a brownish color which resembles Mars. This planet's orbit seems to almost align with Delta-06's orbit.
Part 2g: Delta-06
This planet resembles Delta-05 but its surface is virtually smooth and completely lacks an atmosphere. Its orbit seems to resonate with Delta-05 in a way where their orbits virtually synchronize.
Part 3: About technologies
This topic discusses the use of technology to assist a character's needs and wants. This is related to transgeneration and biotechnology between the character and the technology around them
Part 3a: Computing
The devices used for the people in the Artiverse are spacial computers. These are computers that integrate their computing power to the person using it and allow their thoughts, gestures, and movement to be interconnected with the software. Their interfaces allow objects to appear to be able to interact with them and having physical properties analogous to a real object, but they appear more artificial. Certain devices considered outdated in the Artiverse timeline, but still relevant in our world are: smartphones, tablets, computers, and others. In the other extreme, people completely digitize their body and undergo a transfer of consciousness. Someone like Ithi can replace their computer head into a more realistic head due to her body being able to change attachments.
Part 3b: Transbiology
Thanks to the advanced technology, people can alter their entire life to suit their wants and needs. It has lead to the improvement of the character's condition and allowed for an infinite variety of identity. This can be as simple as being assisted to disable a disease or as extreme as completely taking on a new, radical form. Largely, it would mean a self-sustaining world, with virtually no suffering and promote free expression of one's self at will. The entire process of changing your physiology is analogous to a very sci-fi form of a surgical procedure.
Part 3c: Industrials
In the process of making a specific product, special robotic hardware called "cells" are made to generate materials and manipulate them for the production of products, the alteration of existing materials, and the reparation of damaged items. This is considered a private activity, due to the fact that the software and the assembly data needed to make a product is provided by the person willing to make the product. Because it is a private activity, everyone contributes to the economy and basically means that everyone works and the products made by them is made for free as a result.
Part 3d: Quantum Systems
This part discusses the systems that operate under the physics of quantum mechanics.
Devices like a "Quantum Computing Machines" are related to quantum computers that would delay the end of Moore's Law by exploiting the physics that happen at the quantum scale.
Controllable Materials are described as objects that has a set list of characteristics and properties like mass, crystal structure, half-life, particle emission upon annihilation, energy level, conductivity, magnetism, polarity, nuclear spin, mechanical response, and more.
Material Augmented Reality, which is similar to how the Apple Vision Pro functions as a device that creates an interface between the world and the software. However, unlike the Apple Vision Pro, it would allow objects to be generated to provide additional control over the augmented reality.
Hyperconnection which is a kind of communication method that captures the probability of a particle's position in space to transmit data by analyzing its probability about the likelihood of a particle to retain its property while analyzing the probability of its location and capturing that probability.
Levitation which is the displacement of objects in space while retaining a fixed spacial distance between particles, thus allowing for seamless movement in space.
Quantum Isomorphic Energy Elements, which is based on a crystal of hafnium that have different nuclear structures that allow the storage of huge amounts of energy.
Part 3e: Detailed Description
It discuss how these abilities to alter the quanum world has done to create technologies that helped understand the universe and their usefulness for the people. The description given seem to reference string theory and bosonic matter by using vibrations to manipulate the quantum world
Part 4: Introduction
This touches on the philosophy about life, being and consciousness likely given by Artifiber themselves. It is where I will give my opinions to either support or criticize the subject matter while also properly analyzing each statement.
Regarding the first and second paragraph, it touches on the meaning of existence and how it is defined. I agree on how a conscious mind has an infinite list of possible identities, but whether a certain consciousness is specifically defined as multiple independent elements that link up to make a complete form conflicts with my belief that there is no such thing as an element and that everything that happens is not due to a specific element being altered, because I believe that it affects the entirety of a person due to my experience of having personal aspects of my life being altered and seeing that it would change every bit of my life, rather than only affecting a part.
In the third paragraph, the idea of separating each part of nature down to its constituents to analyze the whole piece by piece should only apply to find an objective truth about an topic because nature is chaotic and doesn't imply that ground truth exists; therefore, it would not seem to allow people to understand the objectivity of nature because there is no way to do that, and objectivity in chaos doesn't make sense because objectivity means everything is built from objective statements and built in an order that allow it to construct a system of belief piece by piece that would not distort itself by applying turbulence found in chaotic systems.
In the fourth paragraph, either it conflicts with or supports the ideas given by previous paragraphs. Due to the idea of structure in a chaotic system, the statements given would not contend with the ideas from previous paragraphs. Although, if it only tries to support the idea of a belief system built upon axioms, instead of implying that those belief systems are objectively true, then it would align well with the previous statements.
Part 4a: Structure
This is where we will tackle the various worlds with their own characteristics.
Part 4aa: Deltadim
This is the universe that would align with how we see our universe. It is full of intellegent inhabitants, similar to how we humans have inhabited the Earth. They all form a single civilization, but has some social variety. They are known to lack any social form of evil like mutual exploitation and other activites regarded as evil. This civilization practically resembles some descriptions of heaven, in which heaven is implicitly depicted as a utopian world.
All people in the civilization, defined as a collective group working for a socialist mean of production, work together in an organization called "The Congress", where everyone takes their time to participate in management. The congress has both characters and bots to participate in the organization, with the characters being the backbone of the entire organization, while operating in concert with bots or AI that perform calculations and analysis. This is meant to represent a socialist society in which every person gets to participate in a sytem in which everyone can have common ground which eliminates political opposition.
Part 4ab: Digirel
This is related to the concept in the plot of the movie "The Matrix", where the beings are put into a universe similar to a simulation in which the characters are immortal and completely in a digital form. These characters, which are called "Digitalia or Digitalies", have there thoughts not being seperate from the reality of the universe, and this causes the physics in the universe to change everytime due to their existence and imply that physics in thay universe is a mere suggestion.
Part 4ac: Floriverse
This is a universe composed of characters called "Flories" that are anthropomorphic characters that look like flora. These beings thrive on a diet of common food, non-sapient flowers, and autotrophic sources like photosynthesis with inorganic compounds. Their nature revolves around two things: Blossomia and Witheria; the former signifying life while the latter signifying the opposite of what Blossomia signifies, which is death.
Part 4ad: Nonsense Galaxy
It is the representation of things absurd and lack any meaning for the existence of things there. It is almost like it's reflecting on Albert Camus' philosophy regarding absurd situations. Not much is said about the universe as it only consists of things that are non-sensical when it comes to other universes.
Part 4ae: Void of Nadir
It resembles what most people think of a black hole, while being known to be a source of corruption for matter that would deteriorate into Nadir's singularity and having decayed into something indefinite and indescribable
Part 4af: Hizen
This is about matter that has "developed" into something. It shows the evolution of matter into a final form of totality. Said to be the ultimate goal of one, it is in conjunction with the idea of utopia and inalienable unity.
Concluding Part: Zextranet's thoughts and conclusion
I have rarely seen such artistic talent ever been showed to the people in public. I am deeply amazed at the depth of the entire lore, and it shows how far imagination can go. I can absolutely say that Arti really cooked some good lore. I am genuinely impressed. I have to say that this is by far the best lore I have ever read in my life so far. Even if I disagree on some points, they still did construct a very high quality piece of art that is remarkable.
=====[Extension for April 19, 2024]=====
Part 5: Fibrins
They are rarely seen in the world, but sometimes seen in some of Arti's artworks, even seen enough to be considered a cultural symbol. They are creatures resembling strings with a thickness of 1cm. They take the form of a body or face that they circumscribe using the string, while sometimes vibrating which indicates emotional shock. Even if the entire fibrin may contain two strings, they can still interact with each other.
They perceive us as completely alien by physiology, given that their anatomy contrasts from other creatures having the entire body being connected into one person.
Part 5a: Anatomy
These Fibrins aren't really "living beings" per se, but rather, they are digital beings/digitalias from the Digirel universe. They only have a physical presence by corresponding itself to a similar bodily form composing of substances that exist in the Deltadim universe.
The reason how each string of one fibrin can interconnect seamlessly is due to other types of matter that help connect each part of the fibrin creature into one whole.
Composition of the entire strings in the Fibrin are silicone-like substances. While they are physically separate, they can still interact with each other due to the strings being a part of a single "field" or "field of influence".
Part 5b: Behavior
The movement of these Fibrins is based on using a set of electrons and forming a structure that would force the Fibrins to travel using warp drive technology that resembles the mechanics of an Alcubierre Warp Drive.
They form movements of flying and sliding, with the mix of both making the movement of gliding.
They have a reaction with EM fields, especially complex structures in their nervous system.
Their thought process create byproducts of EM waves, but we don't know what kind of EM waves is being generated. If they are under the influence of outside thoughts, like from someone else, likely due to their telepathy, they can mentally change, like having an attachment to people the other person thought, likely developing into them like a second form. Their symbiotic link with someone allows the Fibrin to gain knowledge, while the host gains an improvement in the efficiency of their nervous system. Although, if the host does not want the presence of Fibrins, then they can leave at will.
Part 5c: Peculiarities
One weird fact about them is that they do not need to eat, but they may eat substances similar to silicone in order for them to grow. Given their inorganic makeup, they rarely have any cases of illness, but if the strings are tangled, they may get nauseous. While they are incredibly elastic and strechable, they do not possess infinite elasticity and they may split into two as a result. They can split many times, but the strings should not exceed a lower limit; the silicon strings will evaporate if a lower limit is reached
=====[Extension for May 3, 2024]=====
Part 6: The Alterra Planet
In simple words, it is no different to the basic descriptions of earth. The planet has a rocky composition. Has a clear distinction between land and water. It consists of an atmosphere with, in decreasing order of proportion, nitrogen, xenon, and oxygen. The planet has one moon that has an icy surface and may have a large resevoir of water below.
Part 6a: Planetology
During the onset of dawn, the sky appears pink-ish. During hours of morning, the sky turns blue with a bit of purple. The slight purple may be due to the high presence of xenon. The poles of the planet are cold and dry while the equator is likely warm and humid. The seasons are similar to earth's tropical season on its equator, in which they have a dry and wet season. An orbit lasts 384 days or 1 year (not a leap year) and 19 days. Each Alterra month is divided into 12 with 32 days. Those weeks are further divided into 8 days. Alterra's 8 days of an Alterra week is not named, unlike Earth's 7 days of an Earth week.
Part 6b: Population
The biosphere of the Alterra planet is made up of organic, hydrocarbon based lifeforms.
Like elsewhere in the Deltadim, all characters have a characteristic anthropomorphic appearance, but that characteristic can vary from felines, lagmorphs, canines and likely more. Although they are naturally born with this characteristic, the presence of their technology allows them to make changes to their own body, including cloning.
Part 6c: Architecture
We'll tackle all architectural styles present in the planet
Part 6ca: Art Deco
This is probably by far the most common style known. Having been implemented in conjunction with other art styles. It is a complex style that emphasises on rhythm, uniformity, yet has complexity and clear division. Art Deco is mainly found more in the southern part of the planet
Part 6cb: Rocaille
This style particularily has a large amount of freedom and lacks any concise drawings. Lacking any straight lines and probably clarity, it is fluid, dynamic, made with frequent use of gradients, and asymmetric.
Part 6cc: Classicism
This style, on the basis of principles about order and symmetry, is a very strict style emphasizing strong clarity of objects, accurate proportion and projection, and a lack of decorations. The colors are monochromatic and uniform, but the colors are muted. Made for columns part of the capital and small spaces in construction.
Part 6cd: Constructivism
It is the most simplest of the bunch due to its main use of geometric shapes and the lack of accent and color. Due to its particular style, it is suited to urban architecture. Even with such distinct and clear style, it is most susceptible to experimentation
At Alterra, there is an established division of layouts into metropolitan and urban areas.
One layout is centralized and focuses on the uniformity of geometry in the buildings and the compact assembly of such buildings. They can include and combine apartments, offices, production facilities, transport hubs and various leisure facilities like clubs, theaters, internal parks, distribution shops, art galleries, and more.
For the suburban cities, it blends into the greenery and its architecture lack contrast against the surrounding nature. Buildings don't stand out as much and only unite as a complex if all serve a specific purpose for their implantation in the area.
Part 6d: Planetography
The planet's landmass is unified under large supercontinent encompassing the planet with large oceans permeating around the landmass.
Again, as noted before, the continents are unified into a large supercontinent. However, for the sake of cultural distinction, climate and terrain distinction, and the sake of convenience, the land is separated into four areas.
Part 6da: Lindev
It is by far the largest area designated as a continent. It forms contact with two oceans and has two inland bodies of water called Danau Putih and Basse. The former being connected to the Ebrium Ocean via a strait and the latter being the largest known closed body of water.
Part 6db: Dowe
A rounded southern continent, paired with a similarly rounded inland lake. Bounded by a southern mountain range with contact with Lurconicum and Ebrium. It is highly filled with flora and fauna.
Part 6dc: Flave
A mountainous continent with three of the largest folds on the region that streches from south to east. It is washed by the Blues Sea in the north, the Vollen Sea and the Lurconicum Ocean in the south.
Part 6dd: Desmond
A northern continent that is occupied by lush steppe with small forests sprinkled in it. It is elongated and has the driest and windiest climate. The water from the north and west is the Blues Sea. The water from the south is part of the Ebrium Ocean. The water from the east is frommm the Barton Sea
Part 7: Telepipe
Setting certain parameters of matter involves changing the relationships between its constituent elements by manipulating the properties of matter in a way that if a sufficient state is achieved, combined with its required accuracy, the changes required are complete.
Query-based state calculation, bosonic package synthesis and its applications are produced by special devices that are classified as transmuters. These include material changers and telepipes.
Even movement forced to an object by your hand is just the influence of boson bonds on each other to transition of a final state. Transmuters are more subtle on that process.
Part 7a: Description
Telepipes are devices for establishing communication between diffrent regions of the universe phase space. Basically a communication device (sometimes used for transportation) that connects parts of a universe or different universes. These are Intraverse telepipes and Interverse telepipes respectively.
When the telepipe establishing a wormhole, it consumes energy, but if not, then there is no comsumption of power whatsoever. Even removing the infrastructure of the telepipe will not affect the presence of the portal at all.
Even with the computing power of quantum computers, calculating the necessary data for the portals is extremely computationaly intensive, due to the amount of data being calculated. One other hurdle is that if the movement is iterative, more data is required to be processed, but allows greater positioning accuracy and reliability
Part 7b: Implementations
Telepipes differ for each universe and are bound by their own characteristics. For example, it will look like a simply customizable portal with a seamless interface. Ones in the Floriverse differ from those in Digirel except for size and controls.
How do these telepipes compare favorably with natural wormholes? Because these wormholes are unpredictable, despite it being relatively stable. As a result, natural wormholes are deemed unreliable and are not really used. Even controlling it requires a telepipe around it.
Part 8: Soap
An adorable and cute soapy cat who loves to pour everything with soap. Not only that, he even makes art with soap. Foam constitutes their polymorphic identity.
This soap-based digitalia is remarkable for its kind. Even he can bend physics in anyway he wants, but only in Digirel though, because physics is a mere suggestion in that universe. So basically anyone in that universe is a god, but their influence is limited to Digirel.
Part 8a: Closer Look
He has a height of 42 inches (6''6' ft), has a soap-like body that forms a long, foamy tail. They have no teeth, which explains their soft, yet incomprehensible way of speech. A phase ring can appear around him, as a method for flight by carefully distorting the space. Although the ring is sharp and flat, it is not a weapon does not interfere with soap. The phase ring is generated by commanding their existence using their mind.
A special fact about him is that despite him looking simple, he can actually take many unusual positions and the soap he has is endless.
Part 8b: Cannon
One of Soap's main weapons is a cannon that synthesizes foaming matter with a particular shape. Although he can do it without such a dedicated cannon, the cannon makes that job easier to do.
Both the speed of foam supply and the shape of the diffuser that gives the foam a shape are controlled telepathically by Soap.
Just like in commercials, the soap could possibly eliminate 99.99% of bacteria, but such lifeforms don't exist in Digirel.
Part 8c: Synthesis
Althought he is a Digirel, he was synthesized into a material form in Deltadim. For this purpose, a specially designed telepipe was made. Even though they both have forms in Deltadim and Digirel, quantum technology has allowed their consciousness to be paired.
This became part of Articat's master's thesis and alone demostrated the work to the scientific council. Even Soap himself went to the demonstration. Although a bit excessive, Soap also demonstrated the use of their gun, by literally sparying the soapy water to them.
Such a demonstration has contributed to science in a remarkable way. It did raises issues on the relationshipt between universes, contact between Digitalias, custom‐made telepipes, and much more.

Question, why are so many poems (including - nay, especially - my own) about loss (specifically death and breakups)? A person we love is ripped away from us so we… read or write poems. Yes it’s not unique to poetry but it’s way more highly represented.
I know the short answer is basically “Because they’re powerful emotional events”, “They hurt so we need to make sense of them”, etc. This is a question about psychology, social context, and how artistic medium and message interact.
When I think of songs (like pop songs as an easy example), it’s kind of a Venn diagram of Love / Loss / Fun Party Good Times. But there’s a huge body of songs that describe a character, a life story, a political allegory (OK, lots of poems are like that too!), hanging out with friends/loved ones, rites of passage, whatever. I guess songs more naturally refer to dancing or shouting and other things rooted in musical performance. Otherwise the text is basically expressing the human condition with words… surely differences in form alone (sung to music vs read/spoken in silence) can’t explain this difference? In particular, songs alluding to literal death are not common. Perhaps people turn to poetry to articulate grief, not songs.
Same with movies. Talking theme here, not plot. Characters do die or break up in lots of movies, but the subtext or most general ‘lesson’ for protagonists is about allowing yourself to change, embrace new challenges, let go of the past, open up, smell the flowers, etc. Death poems usually tend to wallow in the gloom and not provide any way forward. Medium wise, most poems are obviously shorter than screenplays, so like songs they can only cover so much ground, and might be more analogous to a character’s inner monologue in one scene. But still, there are plenty of emotional states the protagonist experiences in a movie that do not seem as often described in poetry as the bleakest ones. I think it’s telling that in movies where a poem is recited by a character, it relates to grief, sadness, longing (Four Weddings and Jojo Rabbit spring to mind).
Maybe there’s a visibility bias in this sub because we’re inclined to share the poems that hit us the hardest. I actually find happy or even mundane everyday things the hardest to express well.
I also wonder exactly why we play songs and read out poetry at funerals, and why it feels such a perfect occasion for them.
So yeah, what’s the deal? Assuming you accept my premise here, i.e. that we seem to favour poetry over others as the ‘medium of grief’, why do you think that is?
(Please don’t just point out a load of counter examples - I know they exist and that there will be plenty. I’m more interested in our psychology and the uses of language/verbal meaning compared with our other artistic tools.)
(Also if you recommend any book or documentary on how and why language - artistic or not - affects us, I will blow a kiss at the screen.)
TLDR: first paragraph. Philosophise yo.

This post focuses on Luke 12:4-5 in light of its parallel in Matthew 10:28, and proposes that the apparently different eschatological perspectives between these two texts was the product of deliberate modification. I suggest that such a phenomenon may be more widely attested in the New Testament, too.
The earliest form of this so-called “Q” saying — presumed to be better represented by the Matthean text in this instance, rather than Luke (cf. Fleddermann, Q: A Reconstruction and Commentary, 568–69; Bovon, 2.179) — is annihilationist in nature. However, careful attention to the version of the saying in Luke suggests that the author redacted the saying in a way that better coheres with the notion of a continued eschatological immortality, and perhaps even what's come to be known as “eternal conscious torment.” It’s proposed that this apparent annihilationist → conscious torment exchange is the converse of what’s found in another set of parallel eschatological texts: Jude 7 and 2 Peter 2:6. Here, the likely original eternal conscious torment view in Jude was modified by the author of 2 Peter in a more annihilationist direction.

καὶ μὴ φοβηθῆτε ἀπὸ τῶν ἀποκτεινόντων τὸ σῶμα τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν μὴ δυναμένων ἀποκτεῖναι· φοβεῖσθε δὲ μᾶλλον τὸν δυνάμενον καὶ[1] ψυχὴν καὶ σῶμα ἀπολέσαι ἐν γεέννῃ. (Matthew 10:28)
Do not have fear of those who kill the body but can’t kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
Λέγω ὑμῖν τοῖς φίλοις μου, μὴ φοβηθῆτε ἀπὸ τῶν ἀποκτεινόντων τὸ σῶμα καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα μὴ ἐχόντων περισσότερόν τι ποιῆσαι. ὑποδείξω δὲ ὑμῖν τίνα φοβηθῆτε· φοβήθητε τὸν μετὰ τὸ ἀποκτεῖναι ἔχοντα ἐξουσίαν ἐμβαλεῖν εἰς τὴν γέενναν· ναί, λέγω ὑμῖν, τοῦτον φοβήθητε. (Luke 12:4–5)
I tell you, my friends, don’t have fear of those who kill the body and/but after that aren’t able to do anything more.[2] Rather, I’ll show you who you should fear: fear the one who, after having killed, has able authority to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear this one.

It’s been rather obvious to interpreters that Matthew preserves the more primitive form of this saying (cf. Davies and Allison, 2.206: “Matthew is again closer to Q”). This is suggested first and foremost by the additional narrative/locutionary framing added by Luke. Jesus' addressing the disciples or others as φίλοι is a uniquely Lukan tendency (cf. 11:5; 14:10). There are other indicators of Lukan style in this, too, such as the idiomatic “singular” use of μετὰ ταῦτα (cp. 18:4).
More to the current argument: taken in itself, it’s difficult to see the Matthean version of the saying as anything other than a straightforward statement of eschatological annihilationism. Similar language of the eschatological annihilation of both body and soul is also attested in early rabbinic literature, e.g. in the Tosefta to Sanhedrin (13.4):

פושעי ישראל בגופן ופושעי עובדי כוכבים בגופן יורדין לגיהנם ונדונין בה י"ב חדש לאחר י"ב חדש נפשן כלה וגופן נשרף וגיהנם פולטתן ונעשין אפר והרוח זורה אותן ומפזרתן … תחת רגלי הצדיקים
The sinners of Israel in the world/body, along with the sinners of the Gentiles in the world/body, descend to Gehenna, and are punished there for twelve months. After twelve months their souls are destroyed and their bodies immolated. Indeed,[3] Gehenna casts them forth and they become dust, and the wind blows them about and scatters them … under the feet of the righteous.

This itself also intersects with other language of eschatological judgment throughout the gospel of Matthew — especially the immolation of the chaff (ἄχυρον) as an image for the fate of the wicked. Notably, even though the just-quoted Tosefta speaks of the wicked blowing away as ash/dust (אפר; cf. Psalm 18:42), the dominant simile for the wicked being “blown away by the wind” elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible is precisely as chaff (מֹץ; e.g. Psalm 1:4). (Psalm 83:14–15 brings language of ash/dust scattered in the wind together with fire.)
In Matthew 10:28, the soul is the subject — along with the body — of both the verbs for killing (ἀποκτεῖναι) and for destruction (ἀπολέσαι). It’s rather remarkable, then, that in Luke’s version of this saying, he reframes this so that it’s the subject of neither.
What might have motivated this apparently carefully crafted avoidance? Probably the most tempting initial explanation is that Luke was uncomfortable with the implication in Matthew on philosophical grounds. Other commentators have noted similarly: e.g. Fleddermann, that the author of Luke "reformulated the object phrase to avoid talking about the destruction of the soul" (569); and similarly Marshall: "[p]erhaps he disliked the idea of killing the soul, since the soul survives death (16:19ff.; Acts 2:27; E. Schweizer; 646)" (513).
To the author of Luke, the soul's destruction may have risked coming close to a kind of nihilism, even if divinely effected. In the second chapter of the Wisdom of Solomon, the impious (ἀσεβεῖς) are those who claim that after death "the body will turn to ashes, and the spirit will dissolve like empty air" (τέφρα ἀποβήσεται τὸ σῶμα καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα διαχυθήσεται ὡς χαῦνος ἀήρ; cf. 16:14). 1 Enoch 61:5 also has an interesting line defending the eschatological resurrection (though here specifically emphasizing the reviving of the righteous): "...for no one will be destroyed in the presence of the Lord of Spirits, and no one is able to be destroyed." More to the point, Josephus describes the Sadducees — with whom Jesus comes into specific conflict on this point — who "deny the persistence of the soul," along with "punishments/torments and rewards in Hades" (ψυχῆς τὴν διαμονὴν καὶ τὰς καθ᾽ ᾄδου τιμωρίας καὶ τιμὰς ἀναιροῦσιν; War 2.165).
In any case, anyone with an advanced classical and/or philosophical education in Greco-Roman antiquity would have been familiar with the notion of the indestructibility of the soul, e.g. as discussed at some length in Plato’s Phaedo. In Phaedo 105-106, ἀθάνατον [ἐστιν] ψυχή (105e) — it’s ἀδιάφθορός and ἀνώλεθρος, imperishable and indestructible:

when death comes to a man, his mortal part, it seems, dies, but the immortal part goes away unharmed and undestroyed, withdrawing from death (106e)

In 107a, it’s even specifically stated that the soul will go on to live ἐν Ἅιδου, in Hades.
This understanding was also adopted in Hellenistic Judaism in the centuries before Christ. In the Jewish Sentences of pseudo-Phocylides, the exact conclusion ψυχὴ [ἐστιν] ἀθάνατος from Plato above is repeated (§115). This is also seen in Philo of Alexandria: "Death is not to be considered the extinction of the soul but its separation ... from the body" (τὸν θάνατον νομίζειν μὴ σβέσιν ψυχῆς, ἀλλὰ χωρισμὸν …ἀπὸ σώματος; Abr. 258), and Josephus: τὰ μέν γε σώματα θνητὰ πᾶσιν καὶ ἐκ φθαρτῆς ὕλης δεδημιούργηται, ψυχὴ δὲ ἀθάνατος ἀεὶ καὶ θεοῦ μοῖρα τοῖς σώμασιν ἐνοικίζεται ("All of us, it is true, have mortal bodies, composed of perishable matter, but the soul is immortal, forever; it is a portion of the Deity housed in our bodies" (War 3.372). Elsewhere Josephus purports to describe the eschatological views of the Essenes, where now the afterlives of righteous and wicked souls are distinguished:

φθαρτὰ εἶναι τὰ σώματα καὶ τὴν ὕλην οὐ μόνιμον αὐτῶν, τὰς δὲ ψυχὰς ἀθανάτους ἀεὶ διαμένειν . . . καὶ ταῖς μὲν ἀγαθαῖς ὁμοδοξοῦντες παισὶν Ἑλλήνων ἀποφαίνονται τὴν ὑπὲρ ὠκεανὸν δίαιταν ἀποκεῖσθαι καὶ χῶρον οὔτε ὄμβροις οὔτε νιφετοῖς οὔτε καύμασι βαρυνόμενον … ταῖς δὲ φαύλαις ζοφώδη καὶ χειμέριον ἀφορίζονται μυχὸν γέμοντα τιμωριῶν ἀδιαλείπτων (War 2.154, 155)
while the body is subject to decay and its material composition impermanent, the soul is immortal and everlasting . . . For the virtuous souls (and this is a belief they share with the sons of Greece) they maintain that there is reserved a home beyond the ocean, a place untroubled by rain or snow or heat … [but] their destination for the wicked souls is a dark wintry abyss, groaning with punishments which have no end

If this philosophical view indeed motivated Luke’s redaction of the original saying represented in Matthew, what then of the implications of this blanket psychical immortality — an apparent eschatological alternative to annihilation?
In this regard, it’s crucial to turn to several other Jewish works and traditions which appear to have influenced Luke’s eschatology: in particular, 2 and 4 Maccabees. The 13th chapter of the latter offers a summation of the seven martyred brothers’ courage and philosophy, occasionally expressed through the first-person plural. After the brothers are made to unhesitatingly agree to “let us use our bodies as a bulwark for the Law” (χρήσωμεν τῇ περὶ τὸν νόμον φυλακῇ τὰ σώματα), they continue

14 μὴ φοβηθῶμεν τὸν δοκοῦντα ἀποκτέν[ν]ειν, 15 μέγας γὰρ ψυχῆς ἀγὼν καὶ κίνδυνος ἐν αἰωνίῳ βασάνῳ κείμενος τοῖς παραβᾶσι τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ θεοῦ
14 Let us not fear him who thinks he is killing (us), 15 for a great tribulation of the soul and the danger of perpetual torment is stored/laid up for those who transgress the commandment of God.

The connection between this saying and Matthew 10:28 Luke 12:4–5 has been recognized for quite some time. This is evidenced by a late textual variant of 4 Maccabees 13:14 which actually includes τὸ σῶμα as the subject of μὴ φοβηθῶμεν τὸν δοκοῦντα ἀποκτέν(ν)ειν: “Let us not fear him who thinks he is killing the body.”[fn] A very similar connection between Luke 12:4–5 and related texts from 4 Maccabees is also made by Justin Martyr, which will be discussed later.
Despite the clear conceptual connection between Matthew 10:28 Luke 12:4–5 and 4 Maccabees 13:14-15, there are uncertainties as to whether the Matthew 10:28 was formulated in awareness of this saying from 4 Maccabees, and/or its author would have exactly accepted its premise[fn]. Even elsewhere, for example, it’s not certain that Matthew forwards the notion of eternal torment. Again, as discussed earlier, several other sayings of Matthew have a clear annihilationist bent: one where presumably both body and soul are destroyed, too. Because of a fluidity in the use of the term κόλασις, it could even be debated as to whether the κόλασις αἰώνιος in Matthew 25:46 suggests perpetual torment, instead of destruction as an irreversible punishment — cp. the phrase κολάζειν θάνατῳ.
But in the αἰώνιος βάσανος laid up for transgressors in 4 Maccabees 13:15, there is no similar ambiguity: this can only be genuine everlasting torment. This was already described in a similar saying from the previous chapter (this one using the verb ταμιεύω for the torment that’s stored/laid up for him, instead of κεῖμαι):

ἀνθ’ ὧν ταμιεύσεταί σε ἡ δίκη πυκνοτέρῳ καὶ αἰωνίῳ πυρὶ καὶ βασάνοις αἳ εἰς ὅλον τὸν αἰῶνα οὐκ ἀνήσουσίν σε (12:13)
Because of this, justice has laid/stored up for you a more intense, indeed perpetual fire, and torments. These will never release you.

…

σὲ καὶ ἐν τῷ νῦν βίῳ καὶ θανόντα τιμωρήσεται (12:18)
He [=God] will punish/torment you both in this life and when you are dead.

This view of undergoing both terrestrial and postmortem divine punishment is also paralleled in the related (and earlier) 2 Maccabees. In the sixth chapter, the martyr Eleazar emphasizes the consequences of avoiding martyrdom by capitulating to sin:

εἰ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος ἐξελοῦμαι τὴν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων τιμωρίαν ἀλλὰ τὰς τοῦ παντοκράτορος χεῖρας οὔτε ζῶν οὔτε ἀποθανὼν ἐκφεύξομαι (6:26)
Even if for the present I would avoid the punishment of humans, yet whether I live or die I will not escape the hands of the Almighty.

This is reiterated in a statement by one of the martyrs from the next chapter, too:

[The fifth] looked at the king and said, “Because you have authority among humans [ἐξουσίαν ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἔχων], though you also are mortal, you do what you please [ὃ θέλεις ποιεῖς]. But do not think that God has forsaken our people. Keep on, and see how his mighty power [τὸ μεγαλεῖον αὐτοῦ κράτος] will torture you and your descendants!” (7:16-17)

Eleazar’s own final words from ch. 6 are worth quoting as well:

When he was about to die under the blows, he groaned aloud and said: “...though I could have been released/saved from death [δυνάμενος ἀπολυθῆναι τοῦ θανάτου; cf. Hebrews 10:35], I am enduring terrible sufferings in my body under this beating, but in my soul I am glad to suffer these things because I fear him.” (6:30)

Finally, to bring this web of intertextual connections full circle, back to our starting text in 4 Maccabees: in its ninth chapter, it was stated

4 For we consider [νομίζομεν] this pity of yours, which ensures our safety [σωτηρίᾳ ἡμῶν] through transgression of the law, to be more grievous than death itself [χαλεπώτερον αὐτοῦ τοῦ θανάτου].

…

7 Therefore, tyrant, put us to the test, and if you take our lives because of our piety, do not suppose you can harm us [μὴ νομίσῃς ἡμᾶς βλάπτειν] by torturing us. 8 For we, through this severe suffering and endurance, shall have the prizes of virtue and shall be with God, on whose account we suffer; 9 but you, because of your bloodthirstiness toward us, will deservedly undergo from the divine justice perpetual torment by fire [αἰώνιον βάσανον διὰ πυρός].”

[Insert summarizing section]
Near the beginning of the post, I briefly mentioned how at least one manuscript of 4 Maccabees 13:14 appears to have been modified by a Christian scribe who partially assimilated it with Matthew 10:28/Luke 12:4. But Luke 12:4-5 and these specific Maccabean texts were brought into conjunction even earlier — in fact already by the second century! Speaking of Christian martyrdom, Justin writes

οὐ πλέον τι δύνασθε … τοῦ φονεύειν· ὅπερ ἡμῖν μὲν οὐδεμίαν βλάβην φέρει, ὑμῖν δὲ καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ἀδίκως ἐχθραίνουσι καὶ μὴ μετατιθεμένοις κόλασιν διὰ πυρὸς αἰωνίαν ἐργάζεται. (1 Apology 45)
You cannot do anything greatemore … than kill us — which in fact brings no harm to us; but to you and all who unjustly hate us and do not repent, brings eternal punishment by fire.

Justin’s language of οὐ πλέον τι δύνασθε, “you cannot do anything greatemore” than killing them, undoubtedly reflects Luke 12:4’s μὴ ἐχόντων περισσότερόν τι ποιῆσαι, “those who aren’t able to do anything more” than killing.[fn] Further, the second part of this almost certainly reflects Maccabean language and texts. The interesting statement that death in fact “brings no harm to us,” ἡμῖν οὐδεμίαν βλάβην φέρει, closely parallels 4 Maccabees 9:7: μὴ νομίσῃς ἡμᾶς βλάπτειν, “do not suppose you can harm us” (μὴ νομίσῃς ἡμᾶς βλάπτειν) — perhaps itself paralleled by 4 Maccabees 13:14, “He who thinks he is killing (us).” Finally, Justin’s κόλασις διὰ πυρὸς αἰώνια, “perpetual punishment/torment via fire,” clearly echoes 4 Maccabees 9:9: αἰώνιος βάσανος διὰ πυρός, “perpetual torment via fire.”
Further, backing up to the 18th chapter, Justin's use of the verb ἀπόκειμαι for perpetual punishment being stored/laid up may also be a faint echo of 4 Maccabees 13:15, too (especially considering Justin's apparent preference for the word κόλασις over βάσανος):

Consider what happened to each of the kings that have been. They died just like everybody else. Which, if death led to unconsciousness, would have been a godsend to all the unjust [cp. Plato, Phaedo 107c]. 18.2. But, since consciousness endures for all those who have existed, and eternal punishment lies in store [κόλασις αἰωνία ἀπόκειται], take care to be persuaded and to believe that these things are true.[fn]

Beyond this, there may even be echoes of these Maccabean texts in Luke 12:4-5 itself. I had translated the core of Luke 12:4-5 as

don’t have fear of those who kill the body and/but after that aren’t able to do anything more … fear the one who, after having killed, has able authority to cast into Gehenna.

The somewhat unusual translation “have able authority” in 12:5 was my attempt to highlight the antithetical parallel with the Greek of the previous verse’s “...aren’t able…” to do anything further to the martyrs after death. These two uses of ἔχω reflect the same idiom of poweability and authority (or lack thereof); and in a similar construction, too: μετὰ ταῦτα μὴ ἐχόντων (...ποιῆσαι) μετὰ τὸ ἀποκτεῖναι ἔχοντα ἐξουσίαν. And not only is this exact same construction of “having authority” used in 2 Maccabees 7:16 to describe Antiochus and the tortures that he doles out against the martyrs, but it’s also explicitly associated with his ability to do anything, too: “Because you have authority among humans [ἐξουσίαν ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἔχων] … you do what you want [ὃ θέλεις ποιεῖς].
The probability of such traditions lurking in the background of Luke 12:4-5 is made greater by the fact that elsewhere in Luke-Acts, other Maccabean texts and traditions are utilized. A few different studies have explored this, from Park's dissertation "The Influence of 2 and 4 Maccabees for the Concept of Piety in Luke-Acts" to Tabb’s monograph Suffering in Ancient Worldview: Luke, Seneca and 4 Maccabees in Dialogue. Significantly, some of these connections pertain precisely to the issue of afterlife and immortality. One of the best examples of this comes from the Lukan version of Jesus’ dispute with the Sadducees over the resurrection. While Exodus 3:6 is the main text that's appealed to in all three synoptic gospels — where the phrase "the Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" is taken to imply the continued existence of these patriarchs — Luke 20:38 adds another comment to the end of this, not paralleled in either of the other synoptic gospels: πάντες γὰρ αὐτῷ ζῶσιν, "for all live to him [=God]." In 4 Maccabees 7:19, the martyred brothers are said to "believe that they, like our patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, do not die to God but live to God [ζῶσιν τῷ θεῷ]" (cf. also 16:25).
In tandem with this, will the unrighteous dead “live,” as well?
While this seems an inevitable corollary of any doctrine of the soul’s immortality, perhaps it could argued on the basis of certain texts that 4 Maccabees is (like the gospel of Matthew) actually annihilationist. For example, 4 Maccabees 10:15 speaks of αἰώνιος τοῦ τυράννου ὄλεθρος: the perpetual destruction of the tyrant. However, just verses prior to this, in 10:11, his torment is still described as being ἀκατάλυτοι, ceaseless. Some have contrasted this with the view in 2 Maccabees, which states that for Antiochus there will be "no resurrection to life" (7:14). However, one wonders if this specification of there being no ἀνάστασις εἰς ζωὴν for him — resurrection to life — is somewhat loaded (cf. Lehtipuu, The Afterlife Imagery in Luke's Story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, 146 n. 156). Compare this with John 5:29, in which the nearly identical phrase “resurrection of life” is used, ἀνάστασις ζωῆς, but now contrasted with that which the wicked will undergo: the resurrection of condemnation, ἀνάστασις κρίσεως. Similarly, while at one point in Luke-Acts we find mention of only the “resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14), elsewhere we read of the resurrection of both the righteous and wicked (Acts 24:15).
Interestingly, the 25th chapter of the apocryphal Testament of Judah also has language of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's "resurrection to life," in tandem with other relevant traditions of eschatological reward and punishment:

And after this Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be resurrected to life [καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἀναστήσεται Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακὼβ εἰς ζωήν] and I and my brothers will be chiefs (wielding) our scepter in Israel

. . .

And you shall be one people of the Lord, with one language. There shall no more be Beliar's spirit of error, because he will be thrown into eternal fire [ἐμβληθήσεται ἐν τῷ πυρὶ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα]. And those who died in sorrow shall be raised in joy; and those who died in poverty for the Lord's sake shall be made rich; those who died on account of the Lord shall be wakened to life. . . . the impious shall mourn and sinners shall weep [οἱ ἀσεβεῖς πενθήσουσι, καὶ ἁμαρτωλοὶ κλαύσονται], but all peoples shall glorify the Lord forever [καὶ πάντες οἱ λαοὶ δοξάσουσι κύριον εἰς αἰῶνας].

(Cf. also Judith 16:17 for κλαύσονται [... ἕως αἰῶνος].)
EXCURSUS
Is it plausible to suggest that Matthew is consistently annihilationist?
Matthew retains Mark's saying that it'd be better to amputate various body parts which enable sin, than to be thrown in Gehenna — βληθῆναι εἰς τὴν γέενναν — while keeping one's whole body (ὅλον τὸ σῶμά σου in Matthew 5:29-30). One might ask: if the fate awaiting one in Gehenna is annihilation, why exactly would it be worse to enter into Gehenna able-bodied? While the parallel to this in Matthew 18:8 still refers to Gehenna as τὸ πῦρ τὸ αἰώνιον, it's perhaps notable that Matthew doesn't retain Mark's further Isaianic description "...where their worm never dies..." (9:48). Yet this Markan description might precisely help explain why this would be worse. Whatever the imperishability of “their worm” might have entailed in its context in Isaiah 66:24, it's probable that here in Mark this horrifying expression of immortality signifies torment itself — akin to the phrase "smoke of their torment" in Revelation 14:11. (Cf. also the reframing of Isaiah 66:24 in Judith 16:17, where worms are explicitly agents of torment. Further, it's fascinating that the Targum to Isaiah 66:24 actually substitutes spirits for "worm": נִשְׁמַתְהוֹן לָא יְמוּתוּן, their spirits shall not die!)
Interestingly, a very similar sentiment and saying to Jesus' is preserved in the Talmud — that severe corporal punishment for having masturbated is still preferable to the consequences of this sin: מוטב תבקע כריסו ואל ירד לבאר שחת, better that one's belly is split open than to descend into the pit of destruction. However, one might wonder whether this doesn't point toward annihilation, too.
That being said, other early traditions emphasize that precisely nonexistence itself would be preferable to the afterlife fate to which the wicked will be subject. This was already briefly broached earlier in this post, when I quoted Justin's statement that non-consciousness would be "a godsend to all the unjust." But probably the most well-known text that's often been understood to express this idea is the saying re: the fate of Judas in Mark 14:21/Matthew 26:24 — though this doesn't say exactly what him having not been born would be preferable to. Hebrews 10:28-29 also suggests that Christian apostates will be subject to a more severe (χείρων) kind of retributive punishment, τιμωρία, than even the capital punishment demanded by the Torah.
Other early Jewish/Christian texts are more specific. For example, in 4 Ezra 7, after mentioning the "pit of torment" and the "furnace of Gehenna," it's said

65 Let the human race lament, but let the wild animals of the field be glad; let all who have been born lament, but let the cattle and the flocks rejoice. 66 It is much better with them than with us, because [being mortal] they do not look for a judgment, and they do not know of any torment or salvation promised to them after death. 67 What does it profit us that we shall be preserved alive but cruelly tormented? [Nobis autem quid prodest, quoniam salvati salvabimur sed tormento tormentabimur?] 68 For all who have been born are entangled in iniquities and are full of sins and burdened with transgressions.

Finally, the later 2 Enoch 41:2 seems to deliberately echo the language in Luke 16:26 (...ἵνα μὴ καὶ αὐτοὶ ἔλθωσιν εἰς τὸν τόπον τοῦτον τῆς βασάνου) when it states re: the underworld of punishment that "blessed is he who has not been born — or who, having been born, has not sinned before the face of the Lord — so that he will not come into this place nor carry the yoke of this place.”
One wonders, then, that since (like Mark 9:47) Luke 12:5 also mentions being cast into Gehenna, ἐμβαλεῖν εἰς τὴν γέενναν, there's a further implicit connection with traditions such as these.
On the surface, there aren’t any particular indicators of intertextual or other parallels between Luke 12:4–5 and the parable of the rich man in Lazarus in Luke 16. If so, this would be perhaps the most direct evidence that Luke's apparent view on the soul's indestructibility in Luke 12:4-5 was to be correlated specifically with the idea of interminable punishment for the wicked (if this is indeed the implication of passages like Luke 16:26). Though there are more general parallels with the eschatology of 4 Maccabees: e.g. the description of Hades being a τόπος τῆς βασάνου for the rich man, again using the term βάσανος so prevalent in 4 Maccabees. Perhaps some slight verbal parallels may be found between Luke 16 and 4 Maccabees, too: e.g. Luke 16:24's ὀδυνῶμαι ἐν τῇ φλογὶ ταύτῃ and 4 Maccabees 14:9's αἱ διὰ πυρὸς ὀδύναι.
More significant parallels to Luke 16 are found in the book of 1 Enoch — e.g. the 103th chapter:

6 And now they have died with goods and wealth, and affliction and murder they have not seen in their life. They have died in splendor, and judgment was not executed on them in their life.
7 Know that down to Sheol your souls will be led[fn]; and there they will be in great distress, 8 and in darkness and in a snare and in a flaming fire. Into great judgment your souls will enter, and the great judgment will be for all the generations of eternity. Woe to you, you will have no peace.

(Cf. George Nickelsburg's "Riches, the Rich, and God's Judgment in 1 Enoch 92–105 and the Gospel according to Luke," and Outi Lehtipuu, Afterlife Imagery, cited above.)
Further, just two verses after 4 Maccabees 13:14-15, we find the brothers express that "if we so die, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will welcome us, and all the fathers will praise us" (οὕτω γὰρ θανόντας ἡμᾶς Αβρααμ καὶ Ισαακ καὶ Ιακωβ ὑποδέξονται καὶ πάντες οἱ πατέρες ἐπαινέσουσιν, 13:17). This might be easily connected with the seminal presence of Abraham in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus — as well as with Luke 13:28, where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will reside in the kingdom, while others are "cast out" and weep and gnash their teeth at this. Interestingly, the same medieval manuscript in which the variant text of 4 Maccabees 13:14 with τὸ σῶμα is found, also adds another Christian detail to 4 Maccabees 13:17. Instead of simply saying that "Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will welcome us," as the standard text of 13:17 does, this manuscript elaborates εἰς τοὺς κόλπους αὑτῶν: into their bosoms. Apostolic Constitutions 8.42 also attests to an early use of the expanded formula "the bosom of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob."
Finally, there's another connection between Luke 12:4-5 and something that appears later in the same chapter in Luke. 12:46 is a remarkably severe statement of eschatological punishment, at the end of the parable of the unfaithful slave: διχοτομήσει αὐτὸν καὶ τὸ μέρος αὐτοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀπίστων θήσει. It might be noticed that there’s a rather close conceptual similarity between this and Luke 12:4-5. In both of these texts, God will not only initially slay the wicked ("cut him into pieces" in 12:46); but then after this, too — μετὰ τὸ ἀποκτεῖναι in Luke 12:5 — the punishment continues further: in 12:46, by the already-killed slave then being assigned a “place with the unfaithful.” Note again the use of τόπος; and the full line also has a rather significant intertext from outside the gospels, too: Revelation 21:8, where among other types of persons, it’s said of the ἀπίστοι (unfaithful) that τὸ μέρος αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ λίμνῃ τῇ καιομένῃ πυρὶ καὶ θείῳ, ὅ ἐστιν ὁ θάνατος ὁ δεύτερος: “their place [is] in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
At the beginning of this post, when first introducing the idea of an annihilationist → conscious torment exchange among Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:4-5, I discussed this being the potential converse of what’s found in another set of parallel eschatological texts: Jude 7 and 2 Peter 2:6. To this effect, for the time being I'll just quote the final paragraphs of my post here:

Richard Bauckham, in his seminal commentary, writes that “Jude means that the still burning site of the cities is a warning picture of the eternal fire of hell” (Jude–2 Peter, 55). Even if we accept Jude’s utilization of [extrabiblical] background traditions about Sodom’s continual fires, however, perhaps it could be argued that there’s a slight mismatch in Jude’s analogy: that while the region of Sodom is truly perpetually subjected to its fire, the wicked won’t be perpetually subjected to fire as such, but merely subjected to the perpetual fire in such a way that it annihilates them.
This might be in better keeping with 2 Peter 2:6’s parallel to Jude’s passage, where the cautionary example for the wicked was in Sodom’s having been τεφρώσας [καταστροφῇ] κατέκρινεν, condemned [to destruction], turned to ashes. (Though this itself may also owe more to 3 Maccabees 2:5, previously cited, with its κατέφλεξας; and cf. especially the parallel between 2 Peter’s ὑπόδειγμα μελλόντων ἀσεβέσιν τεθεικώς, “setting an example of what is coming to the ungodly,” and 3 Maccabees’ παράδειγμα τοῖς ἐπιγινομένοις καταστήσας, “making them an example to those who should come afterward.”)
But for those of us who are willing to accept Jude’s utilization of extrabiblical tradition elsewhere (which is itself inarguable), and who also resist the urge to necessarily harmonize Jude to 2 Peter and other texts and traditions here, it remains an eminently viable possibility that Jude truly did envision perpetual torment for the wicked, like other Jewish contemporaries. If so, this view would exist alongside other New Testament texts which more clearly envision eschatological annihilation for the wicked.

Footnotes

• The saying makes more sense in its Matthean context. Sayings about persecution and martyrdom (cf. “…to death”) begin at Matthew 10:16 (with only 10:24-25 being interruptive) — much the same context as in the saying in 4 Maccabees, obviously. For some reason, however, that context is removed in Luke.
  
• An opinion is quoted in b. Bava Metzia 58b to the effect that all who go down to Gehenna eventually ascend out of it — except for three classes of sinners: כָּל הַיּוֹרְדִין לְגֵיהִנָּם עוֹלִים, חוּץ מִשְּׁלֹשָׁה שֶׁיּוֹרְדִין וְאֵין עוֹלִין. Cf. also b. Rosh Hashanah 16b, where the totally/irredeemably wicked are at the final judgment instantaneously fated for Gehenna forever: נִכְתָּבִין וְנֶחְתָּמִין לְאַלְתַּר לְגֵיהִנָּם. (But that the intermediate class of people will go to Gehenna, scream/cry out [מצפצפים], and then eventually ascend; cf. Tosefta to Sanhedrin 13.4.)
  
• πάλιν ἀπολήψεσθαι ἑαυτῶν σώματα προσδοκῶμεν just a few lines later in 1 Apology 18.6 also vaguely recalls 2 Maccabees 7:11, ...ταῦτα πάλιν ἐλπίζω κομίσασθαι.
  
• Elsewhere Justin cites a hybrid form of Matthew 10:28/Luke 12:4 as …δυναμένους τι ποιῆσαι.
  
• For the possibility of specific Platonic and other philosophical influence on Luke-Acts, cf. Steve Reece, The Formal Education of the Author of Luke-Acts (and his article "Echoes of Plato’s Apology of Socrates in Luke-Acts")
  

This is part of a collection of notes I have made so far. Thanks to SirPavlova for insightful contributions. Comment-exclusive material is marked with spoilers, which will be my policy as the author may choose to decanonize anything said only in comments. ([MAIN DIRECTORY]: [1 taint dragons], [2 nulls souls], [3 academy Vanavan], [4a gadgets humans], [4b EVI], [5a library rules], [5b evil library], [7a Nexus glossary], [7b Nexus detail], [7c Nexus-earth war], [8a magic catalog], [8b magic], [9a Yearbook], [9b Emma’s Null, Mal’tory’s fate], [10a portals], [10b ECS crate], [10c taint], [10d dragons], [10e tainted dragon god], [11 timeline], [74 Nexus King].)

The Library

The Library is an alien entity established at or soon after the solidifying of planar Nexus. It existed before the first of the ten Elvish civilizations; its first enslaved victims have been wandering since the founding of Nexus and its repository contains ten Nexian scripts corresponding to present High Nexian and the nine fallen kingdoms, and it uses an additional, outlier cthulhian primordial script for personally-related materials [54]).
The Library was not built by humanoids, but rather by the same primordial makers who crafted the sapience-mimicking ‘gods’, the terraformed adjacent realms, and mana radiation, who are currently known only by their shadow over the present setting. The Library is one of the elder sources who existed closest to the birth of the Nexian dimensional subspace and “might have heard whispers and echoes of a time before [the creation of the Nexian universe]” according to Articord.

Construct and “god”

The Library behaves like an artificial intelligence (familiar territory if you read JCB’s other series), albeit with alien operating conditions. It uses meat bodies and physical objects as hardware, swaps ‘virtual’ for ‘ethereal’, and carefully delineates between the host for corporeal structure and its native incorporeal being.
Nexians identify the Library as a construct, but it appears to also match the character of a Nexian ‘god’, albeit one with independent will and thought. It is odd the King has not slain or devoured the Library as it threatens his narrative control, manifested most recently in making Emma Booker a Seeker to get at information Nexian states buried prior. Perhaps the King thinks he has it firmly under thumb, can tap users’ queries and submissions freely, and its utility as a resource and predator of Adjacent Realm’s information justifies keeping it around.

“What’s more, the books you see aren’t simply books. The library, the entire construct, is an entity. The books are the physical manifestations of this ethereal entity’s memories, ones that we can interact with. What I’m trying to say here is that even the library is fallible, newrealmer-” [48]
“Yeah, I do. I was informed it’s not just a neat little collection of books, an institution, or an organization in the typical sense. It’s an entity, a living, breathing being in its own right.” “These presuppositions are acceptable enough to proceed.” [49]

Library’s operation

Archive and curator and mysterious ultimate beneficiary

“We were established and constructed to perform one, simple, and unwavering task: to collect, organize, and preserve all forms of knowledge in perpetuum. For the library is eternal, but the mortal world is not. Knowledge without preservation is meaningless, and we are the keepers of meaning.” [19]

The Library’s prime directive is to archive information about the mortal world and physical goods submitted to it.
Although the library implies that its motive is to preserve a record of mortal civilization for a future after their extinction where someone will derive meaning from it, that statement does not stand up to scrutiny. There is an implicit assumption that mortal knowledge is valuable, therefore the mortal world must be valuable for creating it. Yet that contradicts with the Library’s following assertions that “It does not care for the worlds and realms beyond our own aside from the knowledge they may provide” and “The library exists to serve no one but itself”.
To be consistent, the Library’s motive must be preservation for preservation’s sake. But that too makes little sense. As a rule, self-motivated collectors usually develop their hobby out of passion for their target subjects, not indifference. The Library’s apathy towards the mortal world becomes logical when you reframe archiving as a job someone forcibly assigned to it which the Library is compelled to execute regardless of its own feelings. From there, the bendable but otherwise firm rules that constrain the Library’s trades make sense: the Library’s assignment has parameters it must obey, even if it is hurt and disrespected.
The Library’s unnavigable structure, apparent lack of freedom to fully adjust its rules to simultaneously achieve sodality with humanoids with efficient knowledge collection, and overall indifference towards mortal wellbeing strongly suggest that Nexians and humanoids are not the Library’s intended audience – the Library exists to extract value from humanoids for someone else’s benefit.
I suspect that the Library has offered Emma a lie about its prime directive, which is why it paused to judge Emma’s reactions after making the original series of statements above. (“The owl hooted deeply, taking a moment to gauge my reactions, despite very much being aware that the helmet obscured anything happening beneath it.” [19])
Given the Library’s age, its likely masters are its primordial creators.

Library Structure

Higher Plane. The Library’s world is defined by Thacea as a ‘higher plane’, not a mortal one, so part of the immaterial ‘heavens’? [51] The Library’s statements are consistent with it being another world (“Then Buddy shall lead you to the entrance hall. From there, you may exit back into your world.”) and that it is a nexus with multiple entrances: at least one corporeal entrance, and strongly-implied incorporeal entrances. Perhaps the Library is a virtual space somehow intruding upon reality.

Outside

“For in the boundless eons that it has stood, from scantily a tent in the middle of the untamed plains, to the grand spire you see before you, it has never, ever encountered a being such as you.” [49]

The Library is implied to have always existed on the Nexus although it has changed its location and appearance. Its ivory tower stands on an isolated outcropping near Transgracian Academy’s waterfall, hundreds of stories high and piercing the cloudy layer. A precariously narrow bridge with just enough space for eighty gargoyles to sit connects it to Academy grounds; the Library probably ‘owns’ half of the bridge.
The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts has been host to the Library from its founding during the times of one of the prior fallen kingdoms; Transgracian is older than the ~30K years of the 10th elven epoch. No one has hosted it longer than the Academy.

Inaccessibility and relationship with Nexus

As far as we know, the Library is inaccessible to anyone without Crown approval. According to Lartia, Transgracia and Elaseer are a “national security” region requiring permission from officials to travel to. Getting access to the Library requires additional authorization to go onto school grounds. Despite this stranglehold, The Library seems to be content with the quantity and quality of its visitors.

Inside

The Library’s mega-stadium-sized+ world, inside larger than outside, has a background mana concentration four times higher than Nexian typical levels, probably for maintaining twisted spaces and search functionalities. The Library can rebuild its internal space on the fly and stabilize local wormholes or portals in its stacks.
Its structure appears to be floating in a white infinite void, superficially resembling the white skybox of Emma’s projector. Depictions in the book of punishment suggest the white skybox itself houses a collective intelligence - what the thousands and thousands of foxes become when their physical-bodied presence is not required.
Entrance door. Always remains in sight despite the constant rearrangements; however, the reciprocal is not true, all the other users aren’t in view from the entrance. Probably a mirage ‘you aren’t locked in’ comfort.
Stacks. The stacks are a mix of architectural styles. They writhe and books are haphazardly kept. The foxes and owls navigate the maze without fail and use looped space to warp about.
Inner sanctum. Where the admin’s godly-core essence likely resides. Only owls may enter. Protected by the souls and bodies of enslaved mortals kept alive as punishment, those two mentioned separately.
Seeker’s respite. For Seekers of Truth or people acting on behalf of the Library outside of the treaty, but long unused until recently. Woodland adventuring inn/tavern look, entered from the same main door. I assume it will become a hangout and headquarters for naughty activities when Emma needs to hide the auras of illicit acquisitions from the school. Has books, hangings, and pictures of ancient Nexian historic interest and a register of prior Seekers.

Emotive structure

The Library’s interior design changes to fit its moods. The usual features are a stadium-like space of evermoving stacks, solid white blocks, ornate wood panels, “render distance” hazy fog darkness that allows foxes to warp, and ominous picture-frame “windows” pouring light in from an endless white abyss. When the Library is upset, it is a dungeon of claustrophobic cobblestone, lifeless grey facades accented with dark obsidian and basalt, armored foxes, and eerier hazy fog.

Library aides

The Library [Admin]

Stated directly at a few points (“The library, or the Librarian”, “The library, and indeed all of its aides”, etc.), there is a greater entity plainly called “the library” that manifests in the dome overhead as a black void impenetrable to Emma’s sensors. This being administrates the archives from the guarded inner sanctum. It may mint new Library cards because an owl appeared to go there to retrieve Emma’s card.
The lesser aides relay the admin’s psychic(?) communication and decisions to patrons when it manifests. Lower-ranked foxes normally interact only with the owls, but the admin used Buddy at one point.
The admin has more authority than the owls when determining trades, but it also appears to have restrictions or prime directives constraining its exchange behavior that it has to test against (see the quote in the “Suspending the rules” section later). According to the Librarian owl’s testimony, the admin’s suspension of the mind-scan veracity check when trading with Emma the first time might not have worked and the trade would have been arrested somehow.
The darkening of the dome reminds me of the shadow that appears nearby, but not overlapping, a tainted person having a miasma attack. I’m going to guess it is a similar principle – a thinning of local reality only perceptible to people with mana-sight so that a presence on the other side can look through it like a window. It’s not a hole, so it doesn’t change the net background levels of mana; Emma doesn’t get a spike warning.

Librarian Owls

Assistants to the Library’s admin, they serve the interests of the Library. The book of punishment depicts multiple owls, but only one has been encountered so far which wears a graduation cap. Owls take over for underperformed foxes and arbitrate complex transactions when nuance is required, literally sitting on the fox’s head. Although the foxes seem more fallible, the owls are also fallible.
Owls are more selfish and closer to the Library’s interests; they are willing to offer deceptive trades for the purpose of acquiring more information.
Owls have finite processing capability and a limited ability to divide their attention between tasks. (“I’m afraid that will not be possible. The librarian is currently preoccupied with matters far more important than your own, mortal.” [19])
Only owls have access to the admin’s inner sanctum, not foxes.

Assistant Foxes

A chunk of the Library’s processing power, reified into a fox when not a dissociated part of the white void. They have characteristics of both biological organisms and VIs, or more likely slave AIs programmed to love their labor with limited freedom because the Library considers slavery ethical. They are fallible in trades.
Foxes sync up unnaturally like a hivemind. Foxes wormhole across the library via dark hazy spots and never get lost. They have advanced sensory and detection capabilities beyond that of biological creatures that don’t seem to trigger mana bursts, although maybe we simply aren’t seeing it reported. They can eat mortal food.
Unpaired foxes accelerate research queries.

Paired foxes

JCB explains how foxes get paired: Foxes named by a user who walks into the Library are assigned to that person for the rest of their life. Foxes want to be paired with someone who can trade knowledge for their whole lifetime. They are possessive towards their user. They seem to have performance goals they hope to reach, and their trade deals are evaluated by the owls.
Paired foxes advocate for their namer or cardholder in ways the Librarian owls do not as a form of balance. They are also responsible for writing up the information exchanged to the Library.
Paired foxes develop individualism, but it is unclear if this is a VI-like “adaptive amenity” for the convenience of the user or if it is a true organic change.
Buddy. Buddy is a space cadet to the degree he falls out of sync. It is unclear if outside influence corrupts or adds “real” personality to the assistant fox subroutine, or if he is merely adapting to Emma’s user profile. Curiously, it was Buddy that initially suggested the out-of-norm observation-based deal, and he seems to have a reputation.

Slaves

Like many major Nexian institutions, e.g. Transgracian Academy, the Library enslaves sapient beings. This applies to its internal hierarchies: foxes appear to be sapient, but their allowed actions are rigidly constrained.
The Library also enslaves outside sapients. Some of them were enslaved for committing what the Library considers a crime against it. The Library says it keeps the slaves as defense for its inner sanctum.
The Library’s enslavement is eternal, beyond the sanity limits of a mortal mind. Bound souls eventually go crazy - becoming “lost.” The prisoners of the library are miserable enough to moan on cue, so they still seem to be independent minds even though they are ancient; therefore, the Library must periodically repair its slaves’ sanities as maintenance.

Patrons of the Library

“This card demonstrates the integrity of one’s character. It serves as a mark of honor, and a symbol of virtue. It shows that you have been vetted, scrutinized, and probed by one of the wisest, oldest beings in all of existence, comparable only to His Eternal Majesty in its wisdom and judgment.” [45]

Befitting a society that wrongly conflates wisdom with technical knowhow and repository size, Nexians seem to think that Library Patrons are elected because they are trustworthy and virtuous. The title is respected, and one of the few that can be earned.

“It does, however, mean that you hold rights and privileges beyond that of the average knowledge-seeker. Should you require any additional assistance, or should you wish for any further transactions, the library shall expedite it to the best of our abilities.” [19]

These rights and privileges are not yet known.
The service of a fox assistant is not one of the privileges, anyone who names a fox gets it for life.
I suspect some patronage titles are tied not to individuals, but to positions, so the accumulated value doesn’t deplete on the holder’s death. Astur’s card might be the Academy Dean’s card, inherited by successors.

Library cards

A patron recognized by the Library gets a card with their own info on it, filled out by the Library as it learns it. Library cards come in bullion-like materials, yellow gold and platinum being two.
The Library can also cast spells through the card, likely for the purposes of transactions, long distance communication, and defense. The cards are planar artifacts because the Library mentions its interior is a different reality from the Nexus proper and didn’t advise that the card couldn’t be used on another realm (although it might drain out and become useless on Earth, like a shard of impart).
Library cards actively monitor their surroundings to a degree. A non-patron attempting to touch the card with a spell was enough to trigger its attention and a counterattack. It is unclear if the library card remote views patrons for its own benefit. I note Dean Astur doesn’t keep his card on him. Emma keeps her card in a mana-resistant sealed armor pouch, so magic-based spy functions will struggle, but plain sound-based eavesdropping might work!

Library contents and deletion

Living information

Future knowledge

“Just a jolly old perusal of this here compendium of all the knowledge of the realms that ever has been and that will be?” [44]

Apprentice Ral and Dean Astur seem to think the Library contains future information, unbound from time streams. That claim should be given serious consideration as evidence suggests information causality violations are possible with prophecies, the Library insists “We know that one day, you shall reveal all there is to know”, and (forward) time travel is present in setting. That said, the Library’s fallibility suggests it is forced to behave in unidirectional linear time for as long as it is tethered to the present corporeality, or else it would be able to recover its burnt information.

Deleting Information

The library’s ineffable memory can be purged by destroying the physical manifestation of the knowledge: a book or a section of them. The Library apparently does not have the ability to “back up” or redundantly store its knowledge as a hedge against attack. Nexians refer to this as killing or scarring the Library’s living information, perhaps because its books have aura cues associated with the tissues of living things.

Prior Scarrings

The Library was scarred several times during several epochs. There was major deletion in the first elven civilization: the collectors of dues for that episode are still wandering >>30,000 years later. I suspect the major first age one was how ancient elves upgraded to human-like forms through the consumption of liquefacted human essence from Earthians hypnotized and abducted using “fairy ring” portals. The kidnappings had to be staggered across time well into Earth’s distant future because the fewer-numbered-paleolithic humans would be driven into rarity and extinction from over-harvest by abundant Nexian elves. Cannibalism came with karmatic retribution; the 30th manatype, native to Earth, was deeply incorporated into these half-elven lineages and created the first Nexian tainted. These powers led to the fall of the first Nexian civilization.

Ilunor’s attack

The Library has wards against ‘plain’ dragon’s breath, but was defeated by an “ancient sorcery” additive. The damage-boosting potion Ilunor was forced to take caused an unquenchable smoldering that slowly ate away at whatever it burnt: a very RPG-like continuous damage/bleed mechanic.
Briefly, Mal'tory seems to have tasked Ilunor with deleting information tagged with the Nexian name for Earth (or Earth sublocations). This is the answer to the Library's first Seeker mission: topic of the deleted subject. Emma’s earlier-submitted information survived because she had not revealed her home realm, and a ledger row about shards of impart gifted to various realms also survived because the submitter happened to cut off their entry before Earth by Nexian name was identified as the recipient.
Unfortunately, WPAtaMS does not follow the conventions of typical mystery stories where the perpetrator’s actions are recounted as part of the resolution for the benefit of the readers. Ilunor’s retelling of his deeds would have clarified how he either traded information Mal'tory gave him or used mana cues to find the section to burn, when the Library became aware of the damage, and how he evaded the foxes’ counterattack and escaped. (Not to mention what his interactions with Mal'tory were like, the exact orders given, and when they were issued in response to Emma’s actions.)

The Library probably cannot feel when it has been attacked

Ilunor burned a section of the Library on Grace Day 1 between 1450 and 2300. The Dean’s emergency meeting response occurred on Grace Day 4 between 1245 and 1345ish. Even though Ilunor was assaulted by foxes (whom he might have slain), the Library required at least two and a half days to discover and take stock of the damage and alert Dean Astur.

Interactions with the Eternal King’s mass memory modification

The Eternal King of Nexus uses (at minimum) mass memory modification to effect Death by Omission, insidiously deleting memories from the populace to create a false history and the illusion of axiomatically establishing reality itself. Magical signs of any mental tampering, which the Library was able to detect on Ilunor, would vanish within one generation as all the adults tell their children false history. Coupled with a roundup of contradictory physical media by the King’s agents, the omission requires field anthropology to break.
In the case of the Great War, the King deleted memories of the appearances, cultural accomplishments, works, and potentially fate of the leading rebel realm. It is unclear if this mass memory modification affects the Library, or if a separate scarring is required. Some action against the Library is necessary to prevent it from noticing the contradiction between false and true history.
This is equivalent to mass defrauding the Library. Maybe it poses a catastrophic risk to Nexus’ credit surplus if uncovered.

Museum of stolen stuff

The library accepts physical objects (‘articles of interest’) as unique ‘tribute’ for seeker hopefuls and as evidence, so it must have a depository of antiquities and artifacts that magicrealmers submitted in place of pure information. If so, these are probably also kept in a haphazard fashion that makes finding any one difficult.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Nexus looted adjacent realms and gave all their treasures they didn’t want to keep for themselves to the Library as a means of depriving the adjacent realms of their cultural heritage and ancient knowledge with the bonus of having the library interpret them for Nexus.

Library’s rules

Rules of Service

A1. The Library does not care about worlds outside its own aside from the knowledge they may provide. The lives and wellbeing of mortals and their worlds have no value outside the information they may provide. The Library disclaims responsibility for the externalities of information it trades.
A2. The Library exists to serve no one but itself.
A3. Anyone may enter the Library. Users are called outsiders by the Library’s aides, sometimes derogatorily.
B1. The library exists as a keeper of knowledge, but does not prohibit the access of said knowledge from those who seek it. The Library will not restrict deadly knowledge from a malicious seeker.
C1. The library exists as a collector of knowledge The Library seeks to maximize the total value of mortal knowledge it contains, in quantity, in depth of weight, across many categories, and with proven veracity. The library has an internal code of conduct about its manner when collecting, but does not elaborate.
C2. The library encourages exchanges of any and all pieces of knowledge no matter how trivial or how significant. It also accepts objects and people for information value. Whether it keeps them or not depends on the submitter’s intentions.
D1. The library does not exist to expedite the search of knowledge for those who seek it, with the sole exception of those who are willing to trade knowledge for this service.
D2. The library exists not to provide knowledge, but merely as a repository that may be accessed.
E1. The library bestows a title of patronage on those it deems worthy. The title of patronage grants multiple privileges, some explained below and perhaps others that have gone unmentioned. Some worlds and mortal lives have more value than others because they can provide more information. These are offered courtesy and patronage. The Library implied that it may willingly accept a temporary deficit if a transaction will keep its more valuable patrons alive for future transactions.
E2. The Library assigns a personal assistant to a patron.
E3. The Library assigns a written title of honor that shall act as a calling card
E4. The patron’s assigned calling card will summon the personal assistant and Librarian owl should the patron request an expedited transaction. Recall Ilunor was made to wait when he demanded to see the Librarian. Expedited transactions may have additional benefits, outside the Library perhaps?
E5. The patron may cancel their title, calling card, and privileges at any time they wish.
F1. The Library designates one patron as its liaison with the outside world who has responsibility for executing the terms of the extradition treaty. This is Dean Astur in the present, and he had a platinum library card. This may come with special, but unknown privileges.
F2. A user who challenges the Library’s assumptions, brings the library several novel tributes (items or people), is independent of worldly powers, and is committed to objectivity may be assigned the role Seeker of Truth and associated privileges, which include a unique Library card.
G2. The Library’s rules exist in response to reality as it understands it. Not only may new developments change the rules, past forgettings could alter its behavior.

Other service notes

The Library places itself beyond mortal judgment. Everyone but Emma seems to operate under the unspoken philosophy that gods do not exist to be judged by the likes of mortals. The Library recognizes it is fallible, so it may graciously consider mortal dissent, but as a privilege, not a right. It expects its contracts and judgments to be obeyed absolutely.
The library displays some manners and courtesy, like not “hawking a patron for every scrap of information”, but implies that this conduct is for patrons. It seems confident that it can force every user to disclose all knowledge of interest eventually. [19]
The Library’s fox assistants are not supposed to offer subjective, interpretive opinions about the information it contains. [18] Owls are allowed to offer subjective interpretations, evidenced when the owl explained Emma’s value. [19]
The Library may be duplicitous, baiting out additional information with leading inquiries [19] and offering what it knows to be nonoptimal trades taking advantage of user naiveté. [50]
The Library has adopted Nexian customs, like forcing people to wait outside after knocking and bestowing titles. [18]
The Library may offer knowledge of topics a patron may not be aware of that they can trade for their current credit if it is insufficient for their desired transaction. [50]
The Library does not like when tag-alongs benefit from library transactions and tries to exclude them. This behavior also extends to library cards. [18]

Darker, assumed rules

• The Library is under no obligation to be truthful, especially outside information transactions. In the first meeting with the Librarian owl, it stated two known lies: 1) that it is eternal - Entropy claims all lives. 2) It exists outside Nexian politics (“Here you will not find the petty squabbles of the world beyond our walls”). It also offered a third, likely lie, that it serves no one but itself.
  
• Anyone may enter the Library, but leaving is at the Library’s discretion.
  
  • Besides objects, sapients may be submitted as tribute - The Library considered Ilunor to be a submission. Since the Library doesn’t value freedom or mortal sanity, it probably archives living individuals by preserving them eternally, regardless of their will.
  • It may be beneficial to coerce, bewitch, imprison, or break apart mortals for knowledge if it is probable that allowing them to leave will result in less overall knowledge collected or a permanent loss of knowledge, as might occur if the mortal is or soon will be the last of its kind. The knowledge gained must balance with the knowledge lost from a sullied reputation with local authorities and civilizations outside.
• The Library does not promise confidentiality, so trade details may be tapped, and probably are.
  

Principles of transaction / Axioms of Trade

Three axioms govern the majority of the Library’s transactions.

Category

The classification of information into divisions, sections, and classes utilizing subject-matter as a tool for delineation.

Information trades must be closely analogous; quantity can not circumvent this rule. An owl Librarian or the greater Library entity itself determines if proffered information is comparable. For trades related to technology, capabilities must be similar. This leads to conflicts with the library’s mission to collect all information when technologies have no parallel, so there is no incentive to trade.
Category is surprisingly restrictive and abuse prone. Only after receiving the information from the patron, the Library can determine that trade doesn’t quite meet the category standards, demand additional knowledge, but then retain the information for its own archives while leaving the patron with unwanted credit that is not especially useful. The Library pulled this maneuver on Emma with the radio trade and then tried to get her to waste the credit on information she was not interested in, so she would have to make a second, full resubmission rather than more efficiently use parts to build a trade-value whole.
Being duplicitous about category is one of the ways the Library can bootstrap into topics that it can’t categorically trade for honestly: “Tell me about it, and I’ll tell you if it is a good enough match.”

Weight

The significance and value of any given information based upon its quantity, quality, and density.
A word for a word, a paragraph for a paragraph, a book for a book, an anthology for an anthology... a million novels, for a million novels.

This axiom is where the Library’s neutrality will be tested. Applied simply, a no-name college student’s term paper could be traded for a renowned scholar’s term paper that was the first-pass basis for their seminal work. If the Library prevents this trade based on significance (work by a scholar in the field is more valuable than a no-recognition author outside it), it means the Library is making subjective value judgments about better or worse. This leads to issues where royal, elven, or Nexian works, because they carry the brand-name value of Nexus, are valued higher than corresponding adjacent realm works which are less popular because of authorship rather than merit. The Library is thoroughly steeped in Nexian values, shown by its isolation and magic-favoring operations, so I expect some degree of “Nexus > Earth et al.” to hit Emma’s trades eventually. Or Emma could apply significance to her own advantage, leveraging Nexus’ general lack of literacy and education against it. A book that sells ten million volumes in Earthspace is commonplace which makes it greater-than-trade-equal to most Nexian equivalents despite not matching the cultural significance.
For now, we haven’t seen this axiom exploited too much. Emma’s show-and-tell method of giving information to the Library seems to be yielding returns with a lot of depth, which suggests the Library is extracting quite a bit of data from the demonstrations of tech.

Veracity

The authenticity and credibility of any given knowledge, ascertained by the ebbs and flows of the mana stream, and by the reading of the mind at the moment of transaction.
The library, and indeed all of its aides, simply could not determine anything about Emma’s mana-streams, let alone the mind hidden underneath that helm.

Note there are two components to this axiom: mental state and manastream state.
Manafield vs Manastream. Based on what the Library said after it defined veracity, I think the author mistakenly used “manastream” instead of “manafield”. Emma does not have “manastreams” – no magic realmer does. They are an environmental feature that permeates all of Nexus. A manafield is the personal projection of magic around oneself that carries information, which makes more sense given that Emma is unusual for not having one.
The Library can detect signs of mental tampering but is vulnerable a generation removed from a round of mass memory modification as explained above.

Consilience as an alternative to Veracity

“It instead chose to rely not on the word of the patron, but on the irrefutable truths garnered through observable phenomena.”

The rule of empirical proof the Library asks of Emma is closer to a rule of consilience: the principle that evidence from independent, unrelated lines of proof can converge on strong conclusions. When multiple sources of evidence are in agreement, the conclusion can be very strong even when none of the individual sources is significantly so on its own. That allows Emma to get away with presenting proofs in piecemeal rather than a single topic in depth.

Suspending the rules

“Yeah, a big one actually. The last transaction I made at the library didn’t actually involve these draconian rules. I didn’t trade anything I felt was equivalent to the null with you guys. Not in category, and not even in weight. So, I’m curious as to how the rules applied to that?” “All transactions on that fateful day were a trial. A trial to see if trade was even possible given the lack of the third axiom.” “Rules exist in response to a reality that is known, Cadet Emma Booker. Should that reality change, the rules must adapt to fit that new reality.”

Following buddy’s actions, the admin made the decision to suspend the usual rules with Emma. Furthermore it had to test if suspension of the rules is possible, suggesting it is bound by subconscious directives it cannot probe except with tests.

Lies

The Library does not have an objective means of determining falsehood. It may make unfair trades by hallucinating facts based on structured deceptions it was earlier fed.
If the Library offers lies for a truth, what are the credit-back procedures? The Library owes credit equal to what was traded, and credit for being informed that it told lies, and also credit for the corrected truth. (Additional remuneration for having burdened a patron with falsehood would be appropriate, but the Library does not seem to consider mortals feelings). I suspect being given lies might be a crime that the Library can invoke its extradition treaty to address.
What happens when someone lies, perhaps unintentionally, and cannot offer a trade to even up their deficit incurred for receiving a truth for false information? Is this a crime against the Library that would invoke extradition and eternal punishment?

Diplomacy and Treaties

“Legally,” The Library does not count as either Nexus or an Adjacent Realm for the purposes of Nexian Binding Ties, Expectant Foobars, and Loremant Ipsums. The Library lied to Emma and claimed it is a party removed from most Nexian politics, when it is deeply entrenched in current and past power struggles, which is why it negotiated an extradition treaty and established a Seeker of Truth role.

Extradition Treaty

The extradition treaty the Library has with Nexus demands that every person the Library claims committed a crime against it must be turned over to it without exception, trial, or proof. There is no process of appeal, except by fiat. The Library uses coercion tactics like blackmail to ensure it gets convicts. We do not know what punishment it inflicts on Nexus for violating the extradition treaty, but the dean implied that open access is a privilege.

Punishment

The accused are turned into the Library dead or alive. The Library mind probes them to determine guilt. If dead, a living blood relative, if they have one, inherits their full punishment. The punished is first forced to recover information of value equal to the damage dealt. The library may make them immortal and send them seeking with magically compelled check-ins; these slaves are collectors of dues. I suspect that if an immortal collector somehow succumbs without paying back their dues, punishment is still bloodline inherited.
Once the punished completes their living sentence - no matter the severity, the Library rips the slave’s soul from their body and both are separately made to guard the admin’s inner sanctum for all of eternity - this eternal torture in the Library’s prison is wardship of penance. The Library reasons a crime against information preservation is an eternal harm so punishment must be as well.

Seeker of Truth

A position the Library considers one of honor. Emma earned the position with three unique tributes (two novel items and a person), direct challenges to the library’s assumptions, a commitment to the sanctity of truth, and - the failure case for most hopefuls - proof of ability to act independently from Nexian interests. The Seeker recovers lost knowledge for a reward: Emma’s is canceling Ilunor’s eternal slavery.
Tributes. One of the requirements to becoming a Seeker is giving unique, valuable, novel items or people to the Library - keep in mind the Library considers slavery moral so the willingness or rights of the tribute are immaterial. Many of these artifacts or individuals are likely kidnapped from their cultures, and it seems likely the Library keeps them eternally imprisoned, unlikely to ever be seen again. Living tributes are probably preserved via some eldritch means like the soul taking spell.
A Seeker’s library card is given a special updated border, they are allowed to enter their name into a register of prior seekers, and use the Seeker’s Respite. The library implies additional functionality (“Your card of patronage will be updated to reflect this, becoming more than a mere card, but a badge worthy of the honor of seekership.”)

Havenbrock vs. Library

Thalmin has a grudge against the library, and I suspect it has to do with information that was traded to Havenbrock’s disadvantage, either because someone else like Nexus preempted them (first come, first serve), or his people tried to add information but were not able to trade it for anything they desired and Nexus tapped it.

Note: 5/10 is average. It's not a myanimelist scale where anything under 7 is worthless.
After-School Dungeon Diver: Level Grinding in Another World
Genre: Isekai, sword and sorcery. Guy goes dungeon-diving in another world every day after school.
This is a refreshing take on the "what if I could go between an isekai and the real world" type of story, of which there are more than a few at this point. The otherworld is a fun after-school activity rather than an earth-shattering lifechanger for the main character, and rather than greedily trying to amass wealth in either or both worlds, he finds joy in things like letting his isekai friends taste garlic for the first time.
Early on, the MC's dialogue and internal monologue are really charming. That got lost a little bit as the volume wore on; hopefully the charm makes a reappearance in Volume 2.
6/10.
Amalgam Hound
Genre: Um... buddy cop? Detective gets assigned a superweapon as a partner. The superweapon is a cute girl, by the way.
Moderately entertaining crime mystery set in a nice mix of modernity and fantasy. The book has one interesting idea—the fact that a superhuman being displaying a superhuman level of [spoiler] would look really, really weird in practice—and for me, that one idea was totally worth the price of admission.
Hmm? You're mad that I spoilered that really important word? I'm sorry, okay? Getting surprised by interesting ideas and events is one of the main reasons I read books, and I don't want to ruin that experience for anyone else.
6/10.
Classroom for Heroes
Genre: Sword and sorcery, fantasy high school. Guy tries to be a normal student, is terrible at it.
This author is ruthlessly efficient. Normally, the character arcs of major characters are drawn out—the author sets up whatever problem they're facing, sprinkles in little tidbits of relevant information here and there, and then eventually brings things to a head at an appropriate time, maybe after a few volumes. Here, the author brings the first major character arc to a conclusion within, like, fifteen scenes. The main heroine has all her life's problems solved at the 40% mark of the book! I'm sure she appreciates it, but I can't say I do as a reader.
Reading the main character's thought process is fun. I loved the bit about the tableware jumping into the air.
4/10.
Heavenly Swords of the Twin Stars
Genre: Reincarnation, war. Musclehead reincarnates with his memories intact, tries to become egghead, fails.
Tsundere characters would be annoying in real life since it's generally not fun to see someone verbally abuse someone else. Some tsunderes are lovable because their attempts at being antagonistic are so incompetent that they become endearing, but others have their place in the story because 1) their verbal barbs are so witty that we can't help but be impressed and/or 2) because the subject of the abuse (usually the male MC) reacts perfectly and turns the abuse into entertaining banter. But once that verbal abuse becomes stale, the character plummets from "entertaining" all the way to "unbelievably annoying." Authors tone down a character's abusive traits once they run out of ways to make them entertaining—or perhaps they sideline them from the story altogether. Senjougahara, though not a traditional tsundere, is the most prominent example of this.
Here, the tsundere starts off on pretty thin ice. She doesn't really have any chemistry with the main character during her abusive moments, nor is she particularly clever with her barbs. I understand that the main character wants to protect her, but I don't really care if he succeeds or not.
3/10.
I Don't Want to Be the Dragon Duke's Maid! Serving My Ex-Fiancé from My Past Life
Genre: Fantasy, romance. Young lady fights the patriarchy.
This book presents a society where women and men are deliberately divided into roles that adversely affect the life and health of women. This has obvious real-world relevance, so I wanted to read more about this society, the citizens' attitudes towards it, and the morality of it all. All I can say without spoiling is that my hopes were dashed. Once again, I'm disappointed by an author's refusal to earnestly tackle the concept of gender roles in an interesting way.
3/10.
Management of a Novice Alchemist
Genre: Fantasy, chill. Girl moves out to the country and starts an alchemy business.
Straightforward, relaxing, uninteresting fantasy with no real drama. I know there are readers out there who could consume an infinite number of these types of stories, though I'm not one of them.
3/10.
The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases
Genre: Reincarnation, nobility, sword and sorcery. Young man is banished from his noble house for being useless and having no skills, but surprise, he actually has totally awesome skills!!
Reading this book makes me so thankful that most authors care about respecting their readers' time. There are so many paragraphs here that say nothing of import whatsoever. I have used this analogy before, but it's like a student in English class desperately trying to meet a word limit. People got mad at Seven Seas for cutting all those redundant paragraphs from Classroom of the Elite, but maybe they had the right idea all along?
3/10.
The Contract Between a Specter and a Servant
Genre: Supernatural. Japanese young adult down on his luck is captured by a demon.
This series is apparently a classic, seeing as it was published in 2002, canceled after 9 volumes when the publishing label was discontinued, and picked up by a new publisher years later. I think I can see its influence in stuff like The Case Files of Jeweler Richard, though I admit that I'm not exactly well-versed in this genre.
This is a book about a male-male relationship. It is not quite yaoi—as of volume 1, anyway.
It occurs to me that there are many stories out there where the main character is whisked up out of unfortunate circumstances and placed into a living situation where someone else provides for them and even personally cooks for them—obviously a massive bit of wish fulfillment as a working adult. That's fine, but after a few times of experiencing that hook, the shine wears off and you need to get your entertainment from other parts of the story. That entertainment was hard to find here.
4/10.
The Evil Queen's Beautiful Principles
Genre: Reincarnation, nobility. Princess concocts a revenge plot for the nobles who wronged her.
Political-type novels hinge on the main character being charismatic. If someone is rounding up enough political support to mount a revolution in their country, you'd expect them to be more charismatic than anyone you've ever met IRL. The MC here doesn't come close to clearing that bar—I have no idea how she's managed to gain so many followers. If you want a woman with enough charisma to actually lead a nation, go read "The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen."
3/10.
The Otome Heroine's Fight for Survival
Genre: Sword and sorcery, reincarnation (sort of). A young girl tries not to die in a somewhat unusual otome game world.
As someone who has read a lot of otome game reincarnation stories at this point, the opening pages of this story were absolutely fantastic, and I won't even drop a hint of a spoiler about them. I don't recommend reading this series unless you've read an otome game series or two. May I recommend "Trapped in a Dating Sim"?
7/10.
The Water Magician
Genre: Reincarnation, sword and sorcery. Guy gets sent off to another world and spends life training up his water magic.
If you're reading Japanese LNs, you probably find some kind of pleasure in reading about fantasy magic systems. Here we have 100k words that are all about exploring the magic in a different world. What a value! That's like 2.5 entire Bofuri volumes!
6/10.
Trapped in a Dating Sim: Otome Games Are Tough For Us, Too!
Genre: Reincarnation, otome game, nobility. This is a spinoff of "Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games Is Tough for Mobs."
I did not know that this was a spinoff until I had already finished it (whereupon I immediately went back and read 4 volumes of the original). But I still enjoyed it, so I suppose you could theoretically buy it without reading the original if you really wanted to. There's certainly no need to read more than two volumes of the original series before starting this.
6/10.
Previous reviews
2021: June, July-August, September, October, November, December
2022: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2023: I don't have any reviews, but here's a list of recommendations for 2023 series
2024: January-February