Post Scriptum from
Obscure Lovecraft Stories?I understand that those of us who post here (or even lurk here) may consider ourselves anti-heroes, but I have the feeling that those who identify themselves as
Diaosi (Chinese youth) or otaku (Japanese aging not so young adults) - as well as the global underclass armed to the hilt with high-tech skills may have a repressed superhero running through their veins and sinews.
I am my own liberator
Say it to yourself
When you aint got nothing left
That's your POWER and your WEALTH
Superman was the po-po
and Batman was a snitch
Wonder Woman fought to keep the rich people rich
The second coming of Brother Man
Straight out the gutter man
(
https://youtu.be/ZcfLSMupzus?t=198)
When people say, "Don't be a hater," I think they mean that you don't have to be jealous of those you find strong and beautiful. In the above, the artists seem to be wishing to inspire others to live their own hero's journey.
_____________________________________________________________
Take courage Holden, Senor Raul, Ibra, Silenus, and any others out there who may pass through here looking for a little truth, even if that truth isn't "positive" ----
I have been doing some research to see where the concepts of Diaosi, Otaku, and Loser/Geek overlap:
1)
Underdogs Find Success in ‘Diaosi’ Identity from China Digital Times
_____________________________________________________________________
2)
The Politics of Online Wordplay: on the Ambivalences of Chinese Internet Discourse by Yanning Huang
A thesis submitted to the Department of Media and Communications of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Abstract:
Chinese cyberspace is vibrant with new expressions created and disseminated by Internet users. Generally light in tone, terms such as ‘Grass Mud Horse’ and diaosi(literally meaning ‘dick strings’) have been argued to constitute a playful and satirical form of speech exemplifying grassroots netizens’ carnivalesque resistance against the authoritarian party-state. Grounded in and informed by a historical review of the transformations of class and gender relations in China, my doctoral research goes beyond such a dichotomisingframework by adopting a critical socio-linguistic perspective.Through extensive original discourse analysis, focus groups and in-depth interviews with a cross-section of the Chinese urban and rural youth population, I sketch out two major ambivalences of online wordplay in Chinese cyberspace, finding that, on the one hand, it simultaneously recognises and disavows the living conditions of the truly underprivileged—migrant manual workers; and, on the other hand, that it both derides the lifestyles of the economically dominant and also displays a desire for middle-class lifestyles. Interviews further reveal that Chinese Internet discourse articulates tensions between the stance of urban young men in the lower-middle class and that of urban young women in the middle class. The former revealsmen’s anxieties and self-victimisationat what could be called the changing gender order.The latter emphasises women’s autonomy and aspirations with regard to ideal masculinities.I conclude that this latter stance is underpinned by an emerging ideology of ‘consumerist feminism’, which celebrates women’s empowerment but limits this to the private realm and to personal consumption. Finally, the thesis also takes into account the co-option of Internet discourse by corporations and party media and the ways in which this shapes the changing connotations of online wordplay andits bearing on the wider social order and power struggles in contemporary China.________________________________________________________________________
3)
Why didn't Japan counterattack with diaosi?Japan's low desire society is well known, and it has gradually spread to my country in the past two years. Many people start to have no desires, do not want to work, do not want to socialize, do not want to fall in love and marry, and do not want to have children. Young people are becoming more and more self-conscious, don't want to please anyone, just want to live a safe and comfortable life._______________________________________________________________________
4) What is
https://4chan.org/ ?
_______________________________________________________________________
5) Finally, I asked search engine (STARTPAGE) the following: Does India have similar to China's Diaosi and Japan's otaku?
5A:
What are the similarities between the Chinese, Indian, and Japanese cultures?5B:
China and India have the largest similarities than any other country in the world:The Power of TwoI hear all this war propaganda about how China and India are being set up to wipe each other out with nuclear weapons, and yet ... “Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai” (Indians and Chinese are brothers)
What would the Holden of India be called? In China, the diaosi identity is strongest in the 30 to 39 year-olds, with more than 80 percent identifying as such. Why is Holden of Northern India such an isolated case? There have to be countless Holdens who simply do not bother to articulate their "predicaments" ...
______________________________________________________________