Thread by @SquidFromSpace

Okay then, everybody. It's hayfever season, and social distancing didn't stop being important just because our government are money-grubbing moral vacuums.

Still, though. Fuck it! Let's go for a walk around a public gardener.

It's #MagnusArchives Episode 5.11 - "The Gardener".

First of all, though, a content warning. I'm going to touch on the topics of body-image issues, eating disorders and self-harm. I'm not in a position to speak on these as an expert, so I won't be lingering on them, but still; bear that in mind. #MagnusArchives

So, this one is fun. It's kind of impressive how the garden idea is simultaneously a nicely ludicrous situation to put Jared Hopworth in, and also a completely fitting metaphor for the domain of the god he worships. #MagnusArchives

Long-term readers will know I've made a lot of the ways in which The Flesh works as a metaphor for the way capitalism renders the working class down to repositories of muscle and bone, which can then be used up in exchange for money. #MagnusArchives

And this isn't an idea that's entirely absent here. I talked in my "Body Builder" thread how body-building as an activity is inseparable from capitalism. #MagnusArchives

Nor are the arbitrary but brutally enforced standards of beauty and virility that fertilise the bone rose and the cutaway tulip pressures that operate independently of capitalism. #MagnusArchives

There's an awful lot to say on the subject of how the patriarchy and the (closely related) Cult of Youth both grow from, and nourish in turn, the central twisted trunk of capitalism... #MagnusArchives

...But for now I'll restrict myself to simply pointing out that beauty products and cosmetic surgery are essentially extortion rackets, money paid to gain brief relief from the people deliberately making us miserable. #MagnusArchives

Note that this is not a criticism of anyone who chooses to make use of either, any more than I'd criticise a shopkeeper for paying the local mafia boss to not burn down their shop. #MagnusArchives

The fact it's narrowly true that cooperating with those who use harm and the threat of harm to make money is what makes their tactics work doesn't make holding the extorted as culpable a sensible idea. #MagnusArchives

Rhys, Patricia and Leopold are the victims here. Without them, the gardener would have no way to grow their blooms, but that doesn't make them morally responsible for the garden. #MagnusArchives

That said, while the above means my pet project of viewing The Flesh through a Marxist lens isn't derailed here, it makes more sense to think about Hopworth's flowers in terms of their direct causes, rather than the underlying reasons for why those causes exist. #MagnusArchives

To make use of the plant metaphor the episode embraces so enthusiastically, we're better off talking about growing conditions than say, exploring the specifics of photosynthesis. #MagnusArchives

Which, of course, is the conclusion the episode itself comes to, with its horticultural notes on four different forms of flower in the mortal garden. #MagnusArchives

In each of the first three descriptions, what matters is the ways in which the subject has been made to feel that their body isn't acceptable to them. #MagnusArchives

Whether it's toxic masculinity demanding ludicrous buffness, the pressures of beauty standards inducing anoxeria, or society's multi-faceted and endlessly demonstrated loathing of age... #MagnusArchives

...This is a tale of how we can be made to believe our own bodies are treacherous. How we can become alienated from our own flesh - it becomes not just a stranger, but the enemy. #MagnusArchives

The power here comes in part from the fact we can all recognise examples of these extremes by reference to the celebrities held up to us as role models. #MagnusArchives

Though even there, the standards are impossible - remember how Jason Momoa was slammed for his "dad bod" for not *quite* looking a ripped as he did in Aquaman?#MagnusArchives

Notice how often photos like this (in this case of Holly Madison) somehow end up as the *before* picture in weight loss "success stories"? #MagnusArchives

The greater reason for why this resonates, though, is because of what we recognise in ourselves. I'm sure there are people out there who never so much feel a twinge of regret at not being fitter, slimmer, or younger... #MagnusArchives

...But I'm sure there are people out there who aren't at all afraid of fire, either. That doesn't stop the fear from being essentially universal. #MagnusArchives

Linking all this to a guide for how flowers are *supposed* to look, how they're *meant* to be shaped by external forces that prioritise being visually pleasing over being left to "grow wild" - which is to say, grow like you were fucking supposed to - is v.clever. #MagnusArchives

It's also worth noting, insofar as what we're discussing here is essentially mental health issues which then result in physical issues as well, that thinking of mental illness as being something that grows in your mind like a plant isn't an uncommon metaphor. #MagnusArchives

It's also is a nice way to sidestep links with The Corruption, and allow the mortal garden to remain firmly in the domain of The Flesh alone. #MagnusArchives

After all, while it would be absurdly and unhelpfully reductionist to say mental health issues are qualitatively different from physical ailments - "The Gardener" makes it very clear that this isn't the case... #MagnusArchives

...The idea of separating health problems brought about by intrusive biomatter with those brought about by intrusive demands about How We Must Look makes a lot of sense. #MagnusArchives

Of these three strange blossoms, it's the Cutaway Tulip that resonates most with me personally. This is probably at least partially because I'm overweight and lazy, which means I don't recognise myself so much in Rhys or Patricia. #MagnusArchives

In addition, though, Leopold's awareness that what he's doing is a terrible idea, but that he continually commits to because he fears the alternative even worse, feels the most... *Flesh-like* of the trio. #MagnusArchives

(Though there are echoes of this with Patricia as well. She knows the state she's brought herself too leaves her barely able to stand, but she doesn't consider that to be of primary importance. #MagnusArchives)

By linking Leopold's addiction to surgery with his self-harm, the episode suggests that this need to repeatedly undergo cosmetic surgery is a form of gaining control through causing damage on one's own terms. #MagnusArchives

The deterioration is coming either way, at least this way Leopold makes the calls about what takes a hit when. #MagnusArchives

This is perhaps a closer metaphor for what Jon is attempting with his royal progress than he's happy to admit, actually. #MagnusArchives

We know from "Fire Escape" that he's doing damage in his quest. Not necessarily directly to himself, but certainly to Martin, who as both Jon's lover and his last link to humanity is in some sense a literal part of him. #MagnusArchives

(Plus, he's fully aware that he's gradually pushing Martin away, day by day, as he comes to realise how little there is recognisably human in Jon's reactions or motivations any more. Admitting he finds Jared's garden beautiful is the least of it. #MagnusArchives)

We know that the result of Jon's actions isn't to actually make anything better, so much as to change the circumstances under which things continue to be terrible. #MagnusArchives

This makes it a savvy choice to have held back our encounter with The Flesh until now. It's not just that Jon is forced to admit here that his revenge quest isn't actually helping anybody at all... #MagnusArchives

...It's that it throws into stark relief how little it makes sense to think of Jon as a creature of the flesh anymore anyway. #MagnusArchives

He's far too far along the road to a form of godhood for that to apply. Which I guess makes it ironic that the final flower discussed here is fertilised by the fear that nothing beyond the flesh exists. #MagnusArchives

The Lily of the Damned is interesting in that I don't quite see it fitting with the more general theme of people being forced into unnatural shapes by external forces. #MagnusArchives

Mainly, it reads as a swipe at the hollowness of New Atheism, and its attempts to tear down anything that approximates spirituality, intending to replace it with nothing but its own smug satisfaction at the destruction thereby caused. #MagnusArchives

And to be clear, I'm entirely in favour of such a line of attack. It's a very different approach to season 4's framing of The Flesh and having links with Gnosticism, but its probably a more useful approach in terms of what it allows the show to say. #MagnusArchives

And while my own primary problem with the New Atheist movement is that it's absolutely riddled with sexism and racism, the idea they want to create a world in which we all howl desperately and endlessly within our own flesh-cages feels like entirely fair comment. #MagnusArchives

Anything else to say? Well, Newall once again does brilliant as Hopworth - he still sounds like he's playing Sims playing Hopworth, which continues to delight me. #MagnusArchives

I'll also dole out points for Jon so completely shutting down Hopworth's casual homophobia by just admitting the truth and daring him to have a problem with it. #MagnusArchives

It's interesting that it's Hopworth who gets what I think might be the first line in the show's history that's more or less explicitly bigoted. #MagnusArchives

I mean, he's coded as working class in a way pretty much no other character in the entire show is, but this is a single data point and I don't want to extrapolate too much from it. #MagnusArchives

(I hope we don't get any more data points, either. I've spoken to several other listeners of the show who highly prize how #MagnusArchives avoids making its villains bigots - being reminded that bad people hold bad opinions is still a reminder that those bad opinions exist.)

Still, I do like the idea though that Hopworth doesn't pursue this partially out of embarrassment, partially out of fear... #MagnusArchives

...And partially out of the realisation that he's gone from body-building to gardening, and perhaps he doesn't really hold the high ground as far as toxic masculinity is concerned anymore. #MagnusArchives

Anyway, he's dead now. Smote by Jon. Which is interesting in itself, actually. Not!Sasha went down because she revelled in the pain she caused the woman she replaced. Jude Perry likewise was killed for enjoying pain, in this case having burned Jon's hand. #MagnusArchives

Jared, though, took Jon's ribs as part of a deal they both entered into willingly. There's no suggestion he knew what the end result of this would be, and indeed Jonah's own testimony makes it very unlikely he'd entrusted Jared with that knowledge. #MagnusArchives

It *is* true that Jared tried to kill Martin, Melanie and Basira, but even then, that attempt not only failed, it presented the necessary circumstances for Jon to be able to rescue Daisy. #MagnusArchives

In terms of both his general actions as an avatar, and his role in bringing about Jonah's kingdom, it's certainly far from obvious he deserves death any more than Arthur Nolan, or Oliver Banks. #MagnusArchives

I suspect Jon has given more away to Martin than he realises when he explains why he didn't want to go after Arthur Nolan, just after having killed Jared. Martin is on a quest to save the world. Jon simply wants revenge on those who have caused him pain. #MagnusArchives

All of which is to say, sometimes you can be travelling alongside someone for a surprisingly long time before you realise you were never heading in the same direction. #MagnusArchives

Right. I think that's enough waffling for one week. Let's orderify.

1. The Sick Village
2. Dwelling
3. Fire Escape
4. Revolutions
5. Curiosity
6. The Worms
7. The Gardener
8. Roots
9. A Cosy Cabin
10. Recollection
11. In The Trenches

#MagnusArchives

See you next Wednesday for a thread on #MagnusArchives Episode 5.12 - "Strung Out".