beeps & Olive

@batbeeps

it/its & they/she
beeps.website/

💚 beeps: 30+ agender, asexual, plural, furry, otherkin. Amphimorpho on the internet. (Also sometimes other zhings I guess.)
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💜 Olive: non-binary femme, ace, nonhuman, nonverbal squirrel shaped plushsuit.
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💖 We smooch tha puppo: @flipflopdogdog.

🖼️ Avatar & banner art

cohost.org/tuxedodragon

beeps & Olive @batbeeps10/2/2023, 9:47 PM

Finch @FinchTale

Atlas the Explorer @explorermoo10/2/2023, 7:49 PM

Why Kafka Was Wrong And Turning Into a Bug Is The Coolest Thing Ever

In which I use this funny title to talk about transformation and its themes in art

^{Full Disclaimer: I’m not an art historian nor a psychiatrist. All I say is my own conjecture and opinion based on what I know and have experienced. If you are any of those, please drop a comment! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter!}

I first read Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” back when I was 18. At the time I had just started to live on my own and had begun to feel more comfortable with a lot of things surrounding myself. Being a furry, being “gay” (oh you poor summer child), and in general a weirdo.

So I sit down and start browsing the web for “Books About Transformation”. It had always been a subject I enjoyed tremendously, ever since a kid the idea of a person turning into something else had lived rent-free in my brain. (I blame the Aladdin TV Show. There’s an episode where Jasmine gets turned into a snake and… listen that changed my brain chemistry when I was a little grub)

So I go and start looking for REAL literature written by REAL writers. It was a sort of way to try and validate my obsession with the thematic. No shade to all the furry artists whose work I’d enjoyed reading and looking… But to a silly young adult (moth) it didn’t feel like “real art”. Just, you know, kink material.

And so, oh boy oh boy, I find “The Metamorphosis” as presented with the blurb “Story about a man who finds himself turned into a large insect.”. Yeah THIS IS WHAT I WANT, LET’S GOOO

#transformation #moth squeaks #TF #ramble #text post #i probably have too much to say about this for my own good

Finch @FinchTale10/2/2023, 8:41 PM

My favourite aspect of transformation stories is when the TF "victim" is at first horrified about it but slowly comes to term with it and comes to love their new form and everything that comes with it, to the point where they can't really see themselves going back to the way they were before, even if given the choice.

I hadn't really thought about transformation as a disability metaphor before and honestly, I don't know how I didn't see it earlier. And even going with disability as a whole: Yes it sucks. Yes I wish it could go away. But at the same time, it is part of me and it has given me a sense of community with others. Rage against failing systems and ableism. Compassion for others in a way I couldn't have before. I've mourned my life as an abled person many times over, and I probably will do it again, and that's okay.
Because, at the end of the day, it is part of who I am.

#transformation #TF #good essay op #Disability #finch rambles

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in reply to @explorermoo's post:

Jojão do Tarô @Jojuticaba10/2/2023, 8:15 PM

OH YES! I'd freaking love to hear you rambling more about that stuff actually~ as another transformation appreciator, this subject makes my brain go "OOOOOO"~

(and as you've seen on my page before, transhumanism is something that also picked my interest uwu).

(“Beauty and the Beast” situation. Look, he was turned into a huge monster! What a tragedy!
My man… You’re a huge fucking monster? Make use of that shit!" - yeah exactly, me hating this movie when I was a teen because I was disappointed he turns back into a human >.>)

Atlas the Explorer @explorermoo10/2/2023, 8:35 PM

JOJO TF STAN? 🥺💜💜💜

I love rambling about this, to me the more inhuman and wild the better the catharsis.

AND I AGREE AND HE DIDNT EVEN TURN INTO A HANDSOME PRINCE HE WAS KINDA UGLY

Jojão do Tarô @Jojuticaba10/2/2023, 10:51 PM

EXACTLY, PUT A GO BACK BUTTON PLS

Luisf @Loosf10/2/2023, 8:19 PM

"Oh no but you lose YOUR HUMANITY" is always seen as something terrible

A sacrifice.
A wrong

JOJO I REJECT MY HUMANITY but portrayed as something JOYOUS, good, why someone would want to shed it

Ugh.
Happy, desired, affirming, empowering.
That is something to be thought of.

Atlas the Explorer @explorermoo10/2/2023, 8:37 PM

precisely
I think we need to shed the notions that abandoning human form is a loss, if anything the ability to transform ourselves IS what makes us human in the first place.

It's how we regain agency, comfort and the will to live in this reality

virtueisdead @virtueisdead10/2/2023, 10:03 PM

based post, not only are huge insects cool they are also hot and swag and great in most other ways, i would be a huge insect's best friend if i found one and they were nice to me

virtueisdead @virtueisdead10/2/2023, 10:06 PM

btw greatly respect and agree with the actual point of this post how transformation as catharsis is greatly underrepresented as an idea in literature but huge insects are like one of the things i am most known to love specifically so i cant help but focus on that

mariken @mutanthunt10/3/2023, 5:16 AM

Transformation as a means to become non-human; in the sense of the largely anthropocentric literatures to be non-human is to be undesirable— an opposing force or a scorned figure. Take for instance the end of The Incredible Melting Man in which the melted man, a monster, is deposited into the garbage in place of a proper burial.

Atlas the Explorer @explorermoo10/9/2023, 10:04 AM

Hmmm yeah, it’s definitely a trope that comes up again and again. Though, like I suggest in my essay… it really doesn’t have to be like this ;3;

Atlas the Explorer @explorermoo10/9/2023, 10:02 AM

You’re so valid! Bugs are too good not to be the focus uwu

virtueisdead @virtueisdead10/9/2023, 3:42 PM

squad 🦋🐛🐜🐝🪲🐞🦗🪳🕷️🦟🪰

Cedi @Cedi10/3/2023, 11:50 AM

HELL YES GIVE US THAT THEMATIC THEORY JUICE

I'm reminded of a video I saw recently covering the classic Pinnochio Plotline and how that trope has evolved from its original source material of "You should always want to be the most human you can be even if society disagrees that you being yourself is a human uwu" to "Hey that original take is actually really fucked up, how about we instead learn to accept that Pinnochio IS a real boy as he already is and help him learn how to be himself more comfortably?"

I think that both of these ideas have a lot to do with the idea that, in much older literature, being physically human is a metaphor for conforming with social ideals, whereas modern storytelling is much more open to both (A) the concept of transhumanism and (B) confronting the traditions and systems that we as humans have taken for granted in our upbringing.

Atlas the Explorer @explorermoo10/9/2023, 10:17 AM

Mhmh, the Pinnochio comparison is quite interesting owo It could even be read as a gender-affirming story if you think about it ~

Yeah for sure, in older stories taking a form of another creature always serves a moral purpose or a plot device. It rarely is to represent any other concepts.

Nenekiri Bookwyrm @NenekiriBookwyrm10/3/2023, 12:38 PM

"To me, transformation was always so much more about self-realization, about attaining that ideal form or finally living the life you want to live."

This is it, right here! This is why I keep coming back to transformation stories and keep seeking them out. The joyous euphoria of becoming. Of finding yourself as more than you were after the transformation rather than less. It is empowering too, in a specifically queer way, to find value in the forms and shapes that society has told us over and over again are repulsive and monstrous. To strut in unabashed confidence with our fangs, scales, antenna, and fur!

I've also encountered the various versions of the "transformation is punishment" even from sections of the TF community. And while I can understand the appeal, it has never been the burning white core of what has drawn me to the exploration of transformation. Wonderful essay, thanks for writing!

Atlas the Explorer @explorermoo10/9/2023, 10:26 AM

It’s certainly clear how TF stories can attract queer folk, not only with the possibility of gender-affirming TFs and whatnot but the whole thing about being turned into something undesirable and still finding love, joy and community is such a great potential these stories have.

Agreed, I respect folk who wanna indulge in that specific take, but it really isn’t for me x3 I’d much rather get my wish fulfillment TF fantasy rather than Aesop’s Fables 2.0 xP

Thank you for reading and I’m happy you enjoyed it ^^ 💜

Lily!@BigSoftDawg10/21/2023, 3:15 PM

This is extremely funny to me while also being a very good piece of writing
Thumbs up from a gal who loves TF both for personal reasons and as a literary device (and wishes she saw more positive incarnations)

Atlas the Explorer @explorermoo10/25/2023, 4:37 PM

Thanks! Also big same ^^

Horny Ace Kobold @AstralikaCastle10/24/2023, 4:46 AM

Not to read one sentence and not process the rest but the "I felt betrayed" bit reminded me of how badly I felt betrayed by H.G. Wells Time Machine.

Atlas the Explorer @explorermoo10/25/2023, 4:37 PM

Oh, how so? I've read it before so I'm wondering why specifically :P

Horny Ace Kobold @AstralikaCastle10/25/2023, 7:41 PM

I was in high school, so this was... 2008-2010? I was, VERY interested in this book about time travel!
H.G. Wells' Time Machine is not Back to the Future.
It is a deeply depressing idea of what the far future will look like. (It also might just be difficult to read and I don't know how much of that is just me.)

Atlas the Explorer @explorermoo10/26/2023, 12:36 PM

It's been a while since I read it so I can't really comment on the "difficult to read" bit.
The rest tho? Yeah, it's interesting speculative fiction? But it's also post-apocalyptic and loaded with his time's prejudices and preconceptions.
And yeah, pretty depressing in general! So I can understand if you went into it expecting fun how that would feel as a betrayal x3

Holly @HollysHollow6/30/2024, 5:31 AM

...Kafka's Metamorphosis actually came up once when I was discussing something else with my family and I actually tried to make a similar point.
It wasn't even that long ago now.

I won't say "smart minds think alike" because I don't actually like myself very much, but I will say "small world" and "you're pretty cool."

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