We Need You Out Of Retirement For One Last Job. Who? Not Who, But Where. The Olympics, In France. Youve

“We need you out of retirement for one last job.” “Who?” “Not who, but where. The Olympics, in France. You’ve always been our best shooter.”

Okay but:

ARCHER! JASKIER

I do love myself a good headcanon where Jaskier actually can fight, be it with a dagger or a sword, since he is born nobility and must have had lessons as a child

But!!! Jaskier has always been a free-minded spirit, dancing lessons were fun, but fighting and fencing absolutely boring, too much standing still or repeating the same stances over and over again

So Jaskier ditched those lessons and rather ventured through the woods with the family’s hunter (who only had daughters and loved the boyish curiosity of Jaskier) who ended up teaching Jaskier to use a bow, and in later years a crossbow

Now, Jaskier has two left feet when it comes to holding a weapon and Geralt knows that (after trying and failing to teach Jaskier to fend for himself), so Jaskier is offen left behind when Geralt fights the monsters

One of those times a pack of werewolves is attacking a castle and Jaskier, the lord and his guards are watching Geralt fight from the defense walls and it looks like Geralt is losing

So Jaskier goes “why is no one helping him, you have archers, why don’t they shoot?“

But the sun is going down and Geralt and the werewolves apparently turn into “a mess of movement”, so it becomes “impossible to shoot without hurting the witcher“

And Jaskier outright scoffs, grabs a longbow and starts shooting

He doesn’t miss a single time and when he’s done Geralt looks up to the castle and is like “wtf? how?“

Gendered pronouns in Japanese vs English

In Revolutionary Girl Utena, the main character Utena is a girl (it says so in the title), but very conspicuously uses the masculine first person pronoun 僕 (boku) and dresses in (a variation of) the boys school uniform. Utena's gender, and gender in general, is a core theme of the work. And yet, I haven’t seen a single translation or analysis post where anyone considers using anything other than she/her for Utena when speaking of her in English. This made me wonder: how does one’s choice of pronouns in Japanese correspond to what one’s preferred pronouns would be in English?

There are 3 main differences between gendered pronouns in Japanese vs English

Japanese pronouns are used to refer to yourself (first-person), while English pronouns are used to refer to others (third-person)

The Japanese pronoun you use will differ based on context

Japanese pronouns signify more than just gender

Let’s look at each of these differences in turn and how these differences might lead to a seeming incongruity between one’s Japanese pronoun choice and one’s English pronoun choice (such as the 僕 (boku) vs she/her discrepancy with Utena).

Part 1: First-person vs third-person

While Japanese does technically have gendered third person pronouns （彼、彼女） they are used infrequently¹ and have much less cultural importance placed on them than English third person pronouns. Therefore, I would argue that the cultural equivalent of the gender-signifying third-person pronoun in English is the Japanese first-person pronoun. Much like English “pronouns in bio”, Japanese first-person pronoun choice is considered an expression of identity.

Japanese pronouns are used exclusively to refer to yourself, and therefore a speaker can change the pronoun they’re using for themself on a whim, sometimes mid-conversation, without it being much of an incident. Meanwhile in English, Marquis Bey argues that “Pronouns are like tiny vessels of verification that others are picking up what you are putting down” (2021). By having others use them and externally verify the internal truth of one’s gender, English pronouns, I believe, are seen as more truthful, less frivolous, than Japanese pronouns. They are seen as signifying an objective truth of the referent’s gender; if not objective then at least socially agreed-upon, while Japanese pronouns only signify how the subject feels at this particular moment — purely subjective.

Part 2: Context dependent pronoun use

Japanese speakers often don’t use just one pronoun. As you can see in the below chart, a young man using 俺 (ore) among friends might use 私 (watashi) or 自分 (jibun) when speaking to a teacher. This complicates the idea that these pronouns are gendered, because their gendering depends heavily on context. A man using 私 (watashi) to a teacher is gender-conforming, a man using 私 (watashi) while drinking with friends is gender-non-conforming. Again, this reinforces the relative instability of Japanese pronoun choice, and distances it from gender.

Part 3: Signifying more than gender

English pronouns signify little besides the gender of the antecedent. Because of this, pronouns in English have come to be a shorthand for expressing one’s own gender experience - they reflect an internal gendered truth. However, Japanese pronoun choice doesn’t reflect an “internal truth” of gender. It can signify multiple aspects of your self - gender, sexuality, personality.

For example, 僕 (boku) is used by gay men to communicate that they are bottoms, contrasted with the use of 俺 (ore) by tops. 僕 (boku) may also be used by softer, academic men and boys (in casual contexts - note that many men use 僕 (boku) in more formal contexts) as a personality signifier - maybe to communicate something as simplistic as “I’m not the kind of guy who’s into sports.” 俺 (ore) could be used by a butch lesbian who still strongly identifies as a woman, in order to signify sexuality and an assertive personality. 私 (watashi) may be used by people of all genders to convey professionalism. The list goes on.

I believe this is what’s happening with Utena - she is signifying her rebellion against traditional feminine gender roles with her use of 僕 (boku), but as part of this rebellion, she necessarily must still be a girl. Rather than saying “girls don’t use boku, so I’m not a girl”, her pronoun choice is saying “your conception of femininity is bullshit, girls can use boku too”.

Through translation, gendered assumptions need to be made, sometimes about real people. Remember that he/they, she/her, they/them are purely English linguistic constructs, and don’t correspond directly to one’s gender, just as they don’t correspond directly to the Japanese pronouns one might use. Imagine a scenario where you are translating a news story about a Japanese genderqueer person. The most ethical way to determine what pronouns they would prefer would be to get in contact with them and ask them, right? But what if they don’t speak English? Are you going to have to teach them English, and the nuances of English pronoun choice, before you can translate the piece? That would be ridiculous! It’s simply not a viable option². So you must make a gendered assumption based on all the factors - their Japanese pronoun use (context dependent!), their clothing, the way they present their body, their speech patterns, etc.

If translation is about rewriting the text as if it were originally in the target language, you must also rewrite the gender of those people and characters in the translation. The question you must ask yourself is: How does their gender presentation, which has been tailored to a Japanese-language understanding of gender, correspond to an equivalent English-language understanding of gender? This is an incredibly fraught decision, but nonetheless a necessary one. It’s an unsatisfying dilemma, and one that poignantly exposes the fickle, unstable, culture-dependent nature of gender.

Notes and References

¹ Usually in Japanese, speakers use the person’s name directly to address someone in second or third person

² And has colonialist undertones as a solution if you ask me - “You need to pick English pronouns! You ought to understand your gender through our language!”

Bey, Marquis— 2021 Re: [No Subject]—On Nonbinary Gender

Rose divider taken from this post

Chicken of the Woods

Chicken of the Woods, also known as Laetiporus sulphureus, is a species of bracket fungus commonly found in North America and Europe. This mushroom is characteristically polypore, having tubelike pores rather than gills on the underside. Identification for Chicken of the Woods is infamously easy, therefore they’re considered one of the safe mushrooms for beginners. Its fruit bodies grow as golden-yellow shelf-like structures on dead or mature hardwoods. Chicken of the Woods is a saprophyte and a feeble parasite, causing brown cubical rot in the heartwood of the trees it grows on. In contrast to many bracket fungi, it is edible when young, in spite of inauspicious reactions that have been reported.

Laetiporus sulphureus has a lemony, meaty taste. Some people think it tastes like chicken, hence the name; others describe the flavor as being more like lobster or crab. Most people recommend harvesting Chicken of the woods when it is young, since when it reaches its adulthood, the tatse of the mushroom becomes woody, chalky, and tough.

Chicken of the woods is frequently confused with Hen of the Woods, also known as Maitake (Grifola frondosa), simply because they share a similar name. They are not similar at all, except they are both excellent consumable mushrooms.

Most Chicken of the woods species grow from August through November. This isn’t always the case since you may find some as early as June.

Chicken of the woods is an excellent source of antioxidants. The antioxidant properties are due to the α-glucan found in the mushroom. This mushroom also has anti-inflammatory properties that can alleviate the risk of chronic diseases and disorders, anti carcinogenic properties, can help increase the levels of estrogen in the body and it increases sensitivity to insulin!

The current name, Laetiporus sulphureus, was given by an American mycologist William Murrill in 1920. However, its original name was Boletus sulphureus. French mycologist Pierre Bulliard named it this in 1789.

I kinda rushed this since I was in class, so srry if there's spelling mistakes. I'll fix it eventually...probably

Bibliography: wikipedia mushroom-appreciation theforestfarmacy

mutuals do this!!!!