come over to the just side; we have sparkles

[asakiyume]

Here is one of my next-door neighbors, obliging me by recreating the pose I saw her in while she was playing with her dolls. I thought she looked like an Easter egg, waiting to be found.



That was Saturday. Then yesterday she and her sister were sporting these shirts that said JUSTICE in sparkles! (Hiding the face for privacy; that way I don't feel weird sharing the photo publicly)



I was amused/bemused. I think it's great that capitalist forces now think justice is marketable enough to mass produce on kids' clothes! But I feel like maybe one of those semiotics guys would have something to say about the representation of the word justice versus the actual thing. Like, where and how was that shirt produced...

Which ties in a bit to the next tale of the Polity. (In my case, You Know You're Writing Something When ... someone can say anything about anything, and you say, "Mmmmm, yes, that reminds me of my story because--")

Speaking of stories, I really enjoyed Nicole Kornher-Stace's time-loop-heist-gone-wrong story:

"Getaway," in Uncanny.

You’ve seen enough movies to know this is supposed to go one of two ways.

Either:

The loop breaks when you realize you’re an asshole, you get your shit together, you find your best self. To do this, you almost definitely need to find the other person on this timeline who’s looping too, and then you help each other, cut each other loose, go home together best friends forever. Roll credits. Piece of cake.

Or:

You have to find the anomaly that’s causing the loop and fix it. But you’re about two hundred percent sure you’ve got the anomaly pretty well pegged, and nothing you can do does fix it. Dilemma.

Which brings you back to option 1.

Only thing is, you’re pretty sure you’re not any more of an asshole than everyone else, and you reckon that if every asshole got pulled out of the main timeline and slingshot into their own personal self-realization pocket universe or whatever, it might be something of a topic of conversation when they rejoined the collective reality.

--really loved that paragraph about the pocket universe of self-improvement

Comments

[sartorias]

lol! she DOES look like an easter egg waiting to be found!

[asakiyume]

She's such a sweetie pie.

[minoanmiss]

"I think it's great that capitalist forces now think justice is marketable enough to mass produce on kids' clothes! But I feel like maybe one of those semiotics guys would have something to say about the representation of the word justice versus the actual thing. Like, where and how was that shirt produced...
"

Yeah, there is that. And yet, aadorabilities.

[asakiyume]

Exactly! When I saw her in it I was like, "Aww, so cute" and then moments later, "--and yet..."

[wayfaringwordhack]

I know. I get exactly where you are coming from with this!

[noachoc]

For the record, I'm not sure if you're aware but there's a fairly popular tween clothing store called Justice, so it's possible the shirt is declaring its brand rather than its allegiance.

[asakiyume]

I'm not aware! Hahaha, that's even better (by which I mean worse)--justice as a brand.

[amaebi]

So much for The Twilight Zone! But then, people usually get trapped there forever.

[asakiyume]

Is that part of the doctrine of the Twilight Zone, that it Roach Motels you?

[amaebi]

I don't know what the formal doctrine of any of the Twilight Zones is, but as I got to the end of the first sentence and remembered all sorts of endings in the original series that just left the protagonist stewing in their moral/ethical comeuppance, and....

[asakiyume]

*nodding* entiendo

[wayfaringwordhack]

*their own personal self-realization pocket universe*

Hilariously, not to mention that if they really existed the universe of all universes would be just POCKETS!

[asakiyume]

It's like turtles all the way down, only with pockets ;-)