Okay, so I’ve been getting a few questions about my sources, so I’m just going to paste some direct content from the article I read, but the TLDLR summary is that Tolkien supported and was friends with this lady who wrote gay stuff all the time, and supported her books. These excerpts summarize the whole debate over whether or not there was homosexuality in LOTR and why: “Tolkien’s devout Catholic beliefs didn’t prevent him from enjoying Mary Renault’s story The Last of the Wine, which dealt with an Ancient Greek man and his male lover. He may have also read, and served as an unofficial editor and critic of, Renault’s The Friendly Young Ladies, which was about a lesbian couple (Renault was a former student of Tolkien’s). He even wrote in a letter that he had been reading two other books by Renault (both of which focus on homosexual characters), and had shortly afterwards, and purely coincidentally, received a postcard from Renault herself, which became his favorite piece of fan mail.
[…]
Similarly, Tolkien enjoyed the novels of Iris Murdoch, who also frequently included gay characters in her works, and was apparently bisexual herself; he was excited when he received a bit of “fan mail” from her. Clearly, if his religious beliefs predisposed him to hold negative views towards homosexuality, he didn’t let that interfere with his pleasure in reading a good book.
[…]
Now, let’s move on to social and legal considerations:
Tolkien did most of the work for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s. He was a conservative British man, a fairly well to do author and professor at a world renowned University.
At that time, homosexuality was seen as a mental illness, not a sexual orientation. Homosexual activity, then referred to as “Sodomy”, was illegal in Britain until the mid-60’s, as far as I know […] Simply put, homosexuality wasn’t on the average person’s radar, so to speak. It was considered a disease, not a legitimate sexual orientation. It was also not something to be discussed in polite company, and certainly not in popular literature which might be read by children.
The following comparison seems appalling to our modern day, equality-minded sensibilities, but it would be fair to say that Tolkien didn’t mention homosexuality for the same reason he didn’t mention people going to the bathroom – it was considered crude and disgusting, not fit for publication. […]
It simply would not have occurred to Tolkien to write about such things in his books. It wasn’t something that “respectable” people discussed, or even thought about.
[…]
I would imagine that, had Tolkien mentioned the topic in his books, he would have had a very hard time trying to find a publisher. It was illegal to publish material that might be interpreted as “promoting sodomy” – such a book would likely be deemed pornographic in nature, according to the Hicklin Test, which was formal law in Britain until 1959.
*Note: Renault and Murdoch published most of their works a good deal later than Tolkien was writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which allowed them to circumvent the earlier laws regarding indecent and obscene literature. Renault’s tendency to set her stories in Ancient Greece probably helped her avoid legal complications as well.
From a summary of Mary Renault’s comments on Tolkien and his attitude towards her work, which was pioneering in its bold (for the time) references to male and female homosexuality:
Ms. Renault and Tolkien did have a dispute over the publication of her first novel, Purposes of Love. It was very racy for its time, and had hints of male and female homosexuality. Anyway, Ms. Renault wanted to use a male pseudonym, but Tolkien strongly objected, urging her to publish under her own name, or at least a female pseudonym. Indeed, she says that Tolkien strongly encouraged all the young aspiring female writers he came into contact with to reject the trend of the time for females to write under male pseudonyms and instead use their own names.
(It bears repeating that the dispute between Tolkien and Renault had nothing to do with the content or subject matter of the book, which included homosexual themes, but rather, the dispute consisted of Tolkien urging Renault to publish the book under her own name, rather than a pseudonym.)
As for Tolkien, from Letter 294:
“There are exceptions. I have read all that E. R. Eddison wrote, in spite of his peculiarly bad nomenclature and personal philosophy. I was greatly taken by the book that was (I believe) the runner-up when The L. R. was given the Fantasy Award, ‘Death of Grass’. I enjoy the S.F. of Isaac Azimov. Above these, I was recently deeply engaged in the books of Mary Renault; especially the two about Theseus, The King Must Die, and The Bull from the Sea. A few days ago I actually received a card of appreciation from her; perhaps the piece of ‘Fan-mail’ that gives me most pleasure.”
Note that like most of Renault’s novels, The King Must Die and The Bull From the Sea dealt sympathetically with male and female homosexual characters.
[…]
From an article on Tolkien, mentioning his correspondence with Iris Murdoch:
Iris Murdoch, interestingly, was a tremendous fan, and loved talking to the old professor about the more abstruse points of elvish lore. When her husband John Bayley exclaimed that The Lord of the Rings was “fantastically badly written” she would look astounded, and say that she did not know what he meant.“
University of Toronto paleontologist Cary Woodruff calls the fossil “Andrew.” The skull and first vertebra of the little giant were found among the roughly 150 million-year-old strata in a particular spot called the Mother’s Day Quarry where multiple young Diplodocus were entombed. The skull is special for two reasons. “While over one hundred Diplodocus specimens are known,” Woodruff says, “fewer than a dozen skulls exist, and of those, only a few are from immature animals.” Andrew adds to that list, and, on top of that, is the smallest Diplodocus skull yet known. The fossil is described today in Scientific Reports.
Andrew wasn’t just a pint-sized version of an adult Diplodocus, though. In addition to being much cuter—the large eyes and short snout adding to that puppy-dog look—the muzzle and teeth of this dinosaur may indicate that it was living very differently than the grown-up sauropods.
I painted the cast for this guy 🙂 will post pics once it’s revealed
Why do people have to be such sarcastic arseholes? Yeah, they should just instantly go the vet, or could just google how to treat their dog. But how hard is it to just, you know, be a human being and offer advice and comfort to a person who is clearly in distress and freaking about their dog and asking advice? Have you thought that maybe that person can’t afford to go to the vets or can’t get to one easily, or don’t know their local vets? Why are people such jerks? What does is cost to just be nice?
They have to be such sarcastic assholes because these asks keep getting sent to them even after Dr Ferox keeps telling people time and time again that she legally and physically cannot diagnose any animal over a 250-character message, let alone without a physical exam.
Are they worth the time and money to potentially save your pet’s life though? Because that’s basically what we’re looking at here. I get that you have to pay up the ass for emergency services and not everybody can afford it, and that sucks, but in what universe is demanding a diagnosis in fifty-eight characters, zero details, from a vet running a blog in their own spare time any less of a dick move from the asker? Are you willing to work for free in your own spare time when you’ve got like .01% of the things you need for it? No? Then why should she, or any of the other vets?
First I will hop of a plane and fly to Mexico! Because I do not know where in the world you are but at least Mexico must have Mexican chocolate, right? I will start there.
I will disembark the plane after a 20 hour flight, smelling of sweat and cheap airline food, and grab the nearest person on the ground, grasping their shirt front and insisting they tell me how to find the dog of an anonymous person on tumblr that ate some chocolate. And then when they shove me away, declaring me crazy or asking meekly “what’s a tumblr” I will move onto the next unhelpful local.
Questions like “what sort of dog is it” or “How big” or “how old” will go unanswered because I simply do not know. I am just trying to find this dog and anon to help!
Some will ask if I even know they are in Mexico! But I know no other place to start this quest, anon. I have only one clue. Some will wonder where in the world measures chocolate by the circle instead of by weight and we may ponder this together as I await the buss to take me to my next lead.
I am coming Anon. I will help your dog, because you asked.
Or, instead, you could call your local vet clinic and/or their after hours number.
I mean, “don’t be a dick” didn’t stop these messages from being asked over and over and over and over and over and over, so maybe being a dick will work this time.
Watch me be even more of a jerk.
It is in the FAQ not to ask me these time sensitive questions OR specific veterinary advice.
It is frankly a dumb thing to do.
I have been nice for 5 years. These highly inappropriate questions keep coming.
This question is I don’t know how many days old? If they are waiting for my response they are very stupid. And depending on how much this mysterious ‘circle’ is, I don’t know, the dog might even be dead? I should have to bare that, why?
As I have said a hundred times before, calling the vet clinic, phone calls, are pretty much free.
I am a feeling human being and I am tired
of people ignoring being told not to ask these questions, not reading
the FAQ, not using their own brain, throwing responsibility for whatever
happens onto me, thinking they deserve or will get an exception because
I must be willing to work for free in my precious little spare time and
meanwhile because they have ‘asked a vet’ on the internet they think
they’ve done enough? How unfair that they type off one sentence and
expect an answer which to be thorough enough to address all their
variables is going to be about a thousand words long.
Yeah, no.
Being
polite has not worked. So instead of boring readers with yet another
“call your vet” response, I spiced it up a little. I at least value my
time, even if you think I should be working 24/7 at the beck and call of
the entire internet.
I like making races as varied as humans come in. Though I understand that creating unique models for NPCs is a ridiculous time consuming undertaking, that shouldn’t stop our imagination and creativity to have fun with variations!
Cobras are cool, so why not other types of snakes! Vipers with their keen vision, giant constrictor sethraks that brute their way to victory with crushing holds, tree pythons that can scout on canopies of trees beyond the borders of Voldun, cunning lithe vine snakes that offer wisdom and guidance, quirky hognose that are expert rogues and ambushers in tight corners…! Humans come in all shapes and sizes and so should our scalie Azeroth friends!
OKAY SO PEOPLE WANTED TO KNOW SO I DID MY BEST TO REWRITE IT!
(I HOPE IT MAKES SENSE I AM VERY TIRED AND THIS IS A LOT OF TEXT.)
My HC for Dwarf Beards and Gender Presentation
So the first thing you need to know is the average dwarf will have a primary braid and a secondary pair of braids to either side of it. These two sets of braids denote different things so
Primary Braid
The Primary Braid is the large braid down the center of the beard. Traditionally there are three recognized genders in Dwarven Society, though they do acknowledge an individual’s desire to express themselves in new ways. A traditional 3-strand braid denotes male preferred pronouns, a 4-strand braid denotes female preferred pronouns, and a 2-strand twist denotes a non-binary dwarf with gender-neutral pronouns. These are entirely based on gender expression and not related to sex or genitalia of the dwarf, which is considered a private matter that matters to no one but the dwarf and their mate.
It is possible for a dwarf not to have a primary braid, but this style is considered a time of transition or change in a dwarf’s life, and gender-neutral pronouns should be used until otherwise stated. Some dwarves cut off their primary braid when moving away from their home so as to reevaluate and reinvent themselves in their new residence, but it is not something all dwarves do.
The majority of dwarves use he/him pronouns outside of all-dwarven societies due to gender stigma against female presenting dwarves by other species, but in an all-dwarven society the mix of genders will be fairly even.
To save timelines I put the rest under the cut, but I talk about more below!
thisacelovesheadcanons 