Satan from Paradise Lost is kind of like a wolverine (hear me out)

 

 

Yer girl is back with another informal post on a serious topic, kinda like that post I made about Utopia by Thomas More or about All About Love by bell hooks and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (yes I talked about bell hooks and Kimmerer in the same post even tho most people would tell you that they talk about very different things. I actually think the points they make about greed are quite similar). 

Anyway, today's topic is on "Wolverine thinking" (a term I coined) and Paradise Lost. 

Let me begin by explaining what "Wolverine thinking" is, since it is a term I coined after reading a retelling of an Ojibwe legend by Basil Johnston 

When I read Ojibway Heritage (1976) by Basil Johnston, I was fascinated by the story of the wolverine in the chapter called "The Nature of Animals." Johnston explains how the Great Spirit (or Great Mystery, as he translates it) named Kitche Manitou gave gifts to every creature. For example, the eagle received strong wings and keen sight. The deer received grace. The hummingbird was given the power of hovering, and so on. However, the wolverine was unsatisfied with these gifts. 

The wolverine was basically an incel who thinks the reason why he is an incel is because he's short. You see, an incel believes he has been somehow cursed to be genetically inferior and that there is nothing he can do about it even though he can just touch grass and work on his personality. He doesn't know how to be grateful for what he has and make the most of his natural gifts the way everyone else does. Here is a quote from page 52-53. I wanted to directly quote this. Because Johnston writes so beautifully, I didn't want to ruin y'alls's experience of this story by paraphrasing it:

Only the wolverine was discontented. When he saw the extent of the gifts of the other animals, he grew envious. Soon he wanted the strength and the size of a bear, the elegance of deer, and the swiftness of the fox. In his increasing disappointment, the wolverine began to despise himself and his gifts and feel bitter at Kitche Manitou. At length, he resolved to return to the mountain top and ask the Master of Life for greater and better gifts. When the wolverine attained the crest, he boldly called out, “Kitche Manitou! Hear me! You have not been just to me. You have not been just to all the animals. To some you have given greater scope and a greater measure of gifts. By this uneven distribution you have made some great and some less.” More audacious, the wolverine continued, “I demand that you redress this great wrong. For myself, I wish more strength, more comeliness, more speed.” But Kitche Manitou’s thunderous voice broke through the selfish list of wolverine. “To each animal being I have given sufficient power for the fulfilment of his being and form. The power I have conferred on each is a form of my power, and is a reflection of my gifts. “No injustice has been done. If you have not developed and fostered the gifts I have presented to you, it is you who have perpetrated an injustice upon yourself. You have betrayed yourself. “For your presumption, you shall wander alone and despised. And for your refusal to develop your attributes you will, henceforth, feed upon what has been left over by your fellow creatures who have nurtured their talents. Go!” Wolverine left the mountain top more bitter and envious than before. He had not been daunted by Kitche Manitou himself! As Kitche Manitou ordained, so the wolverine became solitary, vicious, and avoided. Hungry ever, he must feed upon the portions left by other animals.

Johnston, Basil. Ojibway Heritage, UNP - Bison Books, 1990. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/oxford/detail.action?docID=1682898.

Created from oxford on 2025-09-10 20:33:36.

So for his ingratitude, the wolverine is cast into isolation by Kitche Manitou. And honestly, the wolverine deserved this. 

What is "wolverine thinking"? I would say it is constant emptiness like the insatiable hunger of a wolverine that one tries to fill with a greed for material wealth or possessions (Milton certainly condemns greed in Paradise Lost), and constant ingratitude or grumbling at one's circumstances in life, believing that one got the short end of the stick. I think it causes one to suffer when it comes to interpersonal relationships, and also causes one not to take advantage of certain opportunities when they come their way. 

In Book 4 lines 46-48 of Paradise Lost, Satan admits he did not show gratitude to the one who had created him:

What could be less then to afford him praise,

The easiest recompence, and pay him thanks,

How due! yet all his good prov'd ill in me,

The wolverine is bitter, envious, and feels painfully lonely. Note Satan's similar feelings when he is jealous of the closeness of Adam and Eve. This is from Book 4, lines 505-511:

Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus these two 

Imparadis't in one anothers arms

The happier Eden, shall enjoy thir fill

Of bliss on bliss, while I to Hell am thrust,

Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,

Among our other torments not the least, 

Still unfulfill'd with pain of longing pines;

At other times, Satan feels so empty that he is described almost as the anthropomorphized form of Hell. Line 20 in Book 4 is "the Hell within him, for within him Hell."

Anyway, I thought this was bonkers. So I wanted to share this stuff with you. Let me know if you have a different take either on the wolverine story or on Paradise Lost. 

If you would like to read another post I wrote on wolverines, here it is: https://freyathefrypan.blogspot.com/2024/12/wolverines-are-most-relatable-animal.html 

These creatures are one of my autistic hyperfixations. 

Bye, frens!

why I study the ojibwe language

Aaniin kina wiya! Today I'm going to talk a bit about Anishinaabemowin, or the Ojibwe language. I am a non-Indigenous student of Anishinaabemowin. Sometimes, people are interested in knowing why I like learning this language so much. It is very challenging to learn, so part of it is for the thrill of the intellectual challenge. But there are also some things about Anishinaabemowin that I consider to be very beautiful and that reminds me of Ojibwe culture and their worldview. 

Anishinaabemowin has a very interesting grammatical structure. You see, most Indigenous languages of North America are considered polysynthetic. This means that they have a high number of morphemes per word. A morpheme is the smallest unit in a language that holds meaning. The English word "cats" has two morphemes, the noun "cat" and the "s" which is a plural ending. 

In Anishinaabemowin, there are a lot of very long words that are dense with morphemes. It feels like every syllable holds so much meaning. 

There's an example I can give of this that comes from "The Seven Generations and Seven Grandfather Teachings" by James Vukelich. Vukelich talks about the Anishinaabemowin word "indaanikoobijigan." This usually means "my ancestor" but it can also mean my grandparent, my great grandparent, my grandchild, my great grandchild or my descendant. To understand "indaanikoobjigan" better, Vukelich mentions the "aanik" morpheme, which also appears in words like:

aanikoobidoon (string it together, tie it)

aanikegamaa (chain of lakes)

aanikanootamaw (translate it for her)

aanik-ogimaa (someone who fulfills the role of a chief if the current one can no longer do so. "ogimaa" is chief)

Vukelich concludes that aanik indicates something linked in a process or working in a chain, and so "indaanikoobijigan" is like "one to whom I am inextricably linked"

His book has other examples of Anishinaabemowin morphemes as well. Being aware of the structure of Anishinaabemowin words just makes it seem like a poetic language, extremely rich in meaning with tons of potential for metaphors. 

I'll do some more Ojibweposting later. Giga-waabamin miinawaa!!

I wish bell hooks and Robin Wall Kimmerer did a crossover episode to discuss the Windigo and greed

 What's up y'all? Recently, I had the pleasure of reading "All About Love: New Visions" by bell hooks and "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants" by Robin Wall Kimmerer. At first glance, the only thing that these books may seem to have in common is that grad students like reading them. But I actually see a lot of similarities in how bell hooks talks about consumerism and how Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about the Windigo. 

The Windigo is a creature that the Anishinaabe speak of that consumes human flesh. In pop culture, you may have seen Windigos appear in horror movies or games. But people who reduce the Windigo to "a sp00ky creature from Native American mythology!!!1!!" are missing the point of Windigo stories. They are cautionary tales. You see, the Windigo was once a human. It was consumed by insatiable greed. No matter what it consumed, it wasn't enough. Humans like this are at risk of "going Windigo." After that, they begin consuming human flesh. If you want to make an artistic rendition of a Windigo but give it contemporary significance, just draw a greedy CEO with a suit and a tie!

One of the essays in Braiding Sweetgrass is called "Windigo footprints." This is where Kimmerer gives the following description of Windigos:

"It is said that the Windigo will never enter the spirit world but will suffer the eternal pain of need, its essence a hunger that will never be sated. The more a Windigo eats, the more ravenous it becomes. It shrieks with its craving, its mind a torture of unmet want. Consumed by consumption, it lays waste to humankind."

This is why I love Robin Wall Kimmerer's writing style. So as you can see, the Windigo is at its core empty. He feels hollow, and there's nothing he can do about it. 

Now lets see what bell hooks writes about consumerism. I am going to share a quote that is in chapter 7 of "all about love," which is called "greed." Keep in mind that Kimmerer's book at its core is about respecting plants as if they are our elders and teachers, which requires a lot of humility to do so. bell hooks speaks of the importance of not giving up on love and using love to not only guide our relationships but political movements as well. She addresses rampant lovelessness in society while Kimmerer confronts the blatant disrespect of nature. And maybe these things are intertwined. 

Many children are brought up in loveless households and continue to be deprived of love as adults. When this happens, they are consumed by greed.

bell hooks writes:

"Intense spiritual and emotional lack in our lives is the perfect breeding ground for material greed and overconsumption. In a world without love the passion to connect can be replaced by the passion to possess. While emotional needs are difficult, and often impossible to satisfy, material desires are easier to fulfill."

This passage really makes me imagine the lovelessness a Windigo must feel. It almost makes you feel compassion or sympathy for the Windigo (while still wanting to stay away from it). 

Now, there are plenty of counterpoints to what bell hooks is saying. Are wealth fantasies always caused by feelings of emptiness or lovelessness? Perhaps not, but they certainly can be. bell hooks also talks about American consumerism in particular, and the same may not apply to other cultures. 

If someone from a Dalit community in India dreamed of owning a fancy car and eventually bought one after becoming wealthier (which is actually possible because caste discrimination and class discrimination are two separate issues in India), any criticism of this action would probably come from a very privileged person. Who are they to judge what a person from a disadvantaged background does to make themselves happier?

That being said, I do think lovelessness and perhaps a lack of passion, hobbies and interests can exacerbate material greed. And I still do think bell hooks is describing how Windigos are made, even if it may not be the only way. 

If you've read either bell hooks or Kimmerer or both or you're simply familiar with Windigo lore, what do you think? What is the contemporary significance of the Windigo in the face of the loneliness epidemic and environmental destruction?

I'm literally a casual fan of Nahuatl not an avid learner but inshallah I'll learn it once I improve my Ojibwe, Hindi, and French

 i am a casual fan rather than an avid learner of Nahuatl, however I find some of the random words i know very beautiful like "xochimiqui" or flowery death (xochitl=flower and miquiztli=death) for a human sacrifice. also when i am sad, or stressed, or angry, or generally doompilled i like to calm myself down by reading this verse by Nezahualcoyotl.

Annochipa tlalticpac. Zan achica ye nican. Ohuaye ohuaye. Tel ca chalchihuitl no xamani, no teocuitlatl in tlapani, no quetzalli poztequi. Yahui ohuaye. Anochipa tlalticpac zan achica ye nican. Ohuaya ohuaya.

Not forever on earth, only a brief time here! Even jades fracture; even gold ruptures, even quetzal plumes tear: Not forever on earth: only a brief time here! Ohuaya, ohuaya.

(the word for gold is "teocuitlatl" which means "excrement of the gods." teotl means "sacred" or "deity" and cuitlatl means "excrement.") I'll be able to understand these beautiful Nahuatl compound words one day and appreciate this kind of stuff without English translations.

When you want to acquire more knowledge

This is really random but I find it interesting how attitudes toward knowledge acquisition vary across cultures. You have scientists from Renaissance Europe saying things like "poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master" (Leonardo da Vinci) and "science had to torture nature's secrets out of her" (Francis Bacon). The first one sounds pretty based and epic and motivated me throughout my masters degree if I'm going to be honest. The second one sounds very extractive, like it is making the earth submit to your will and curiosity. 

"Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master" is very different from something that my mom would always quote to me in Hindi. This was गुरु गोविन्द दोऊ खड़े काको लागूं पायं। बलिहारी गुरु आपने जिन गोविन्द दियो बताय | The speaker of this line is wondering if he should touch the feet of Govind first (a name of the god Krishna) or his guru's (his teacher). Touching someone's feet is a sign of respect in Indian culture. He touches his teacher's feet because he was the one who told him about the god. The teacher is above the god here.

Also I have been reading about Anishinaabe culture and they believe learning can not happen without humility. There is no such thing as an "expert" on anything because we all have so much to learn, and this rejects the European concept that we can have mastery over something. We also can not learn without experiencing the world, interacting with nature and maintaining our holistic well-being. This is different from the European idea of a scholar who stays inside and reads all day and never touches grass. Native people touch more grass than Europeans do. There is also a retelling of a traditional story by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson where she says that the Anishinaabe learned about maple syrup (ninaatigo-ziiwaamigide in Anishinaabemowin I think, idk I am still learning it and I will never master it) from a child and that child learned it from observing a chipmunk. It really shows humility if you believe you can learn something from a child and from nature!! 

Anyway I think someone smarter than me should write about pedagogical approaches in different cultures. Also, the British patterned education is probably terrible for learning outcomes and the well-being of students. 

Sedna

Hello frens! Today we are going to talk about Sedna. That's how this blog works basically I log on to talk about something random that I'm obsessed with and then you don't hear from me for months. Anyway, Sedna is a goddess in Inuit mythology. She rules over the sea and is usually depicted as a mermaid or selkie.

Sedna sculpture by Bart Kappianaq at the Canadian parliament complex. This shows Sedna with a walrus, narwhal and whale.

There are many different versions of the story about how Sedna came to be a goddess and rule over the sea. But what each version has in common is that Sedna was thrown overboard by someone from a boat (in most versions, her father). When she tried to hold on to the side of the boat, her father cut her fingers off and she drowned. Her fingers became the creatures of the sea, and when she sank to the bottom she grew a fish tail and became the ruler of the sea. The rationale for why Sedna's father decided to drown her is different in various retellings of the myth. He could have been angered by her bad behavior or her refusal to marry someone.

Sedna has had a lot of influence on my art. As you may know if you're familiar with my art, my preferred subject matter is usually girls in traditional clothing accompanied by an animal. The titles of my masterpieces include "Maya woman with jaguar cub" and "Tlingit girl with raven." But I also love drawing nagin (half-snake half-woman goddesses from Hindu mythology) and mermaids. A reoccurring character in my drawings is the Candy Corn Mermaid (basically a mermaid whose hair and scales are white, orange and yellow). Given this interest in mermaids, it is only natural that I decided to draw Sedna.

This was my very first attempt to draw Sedna, with the traditional face-marking of Inuit women. I gave her fins instead of hands. She is accompanied by a narwhal.

Recently, I tried to draw Sedna again. This time, she's just by herself with no creatures.

By the way, Sedna is a character in the Quebecois movie "La Legend de Sarila," which I watched recently to practice my French. She is very beautiful in the movie. Here is a picture of her:

The music in the movie is by an Inuk singer called Elisapie. Since Instagram now lets you put songs over pictures that you post, I added the song "Far Away" from the movie over my Sedna drawing when I posted it.

Well fam, that's all for today. I'll be back next time I get obsessed with something.

Does anyone know of any historical fiction set during the distant past written by Indigenous authors?

Hello frens. I just got out of a reading slump and finished The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative by Cherokee author Thomas King, which is about the incorrect stories people tell about Native people in order to stereotype them. It's a very original book and honestly my short synopsis of it isn't really doing it justice. If you're familiar with Thomas King's other work, you probably know about how well he manages to integrate historical sources, personal anecdotes and stories from his culture along with his amazing sense of humour in order to make his points. 

Anyways, there was something King mentioned in the book that is the reason why I am writing this. My blog is integrated with Goodreads, so many bookpeople from many different cultures will see this and I would like to start a discussion in the comments if possible. He mentioned that contemporary Native authors do not write in the historical fiction genre much. They prefer writing about contemporary Native life. I thought this was a very interesting observation. Historical fiction on Native people is a genre that is very dominated by white authors with stereotypical, romanticized and/or racist portrayals. It could be that contemporary Native writers do not want to be associated with this genre for this reason but I would like to hear if y'all know any other reasons why they might not want to write in the historical fiction genre. 

Also, if anyone does know of exceptions (and I am sure there are many because Thomas King was just commenting on a general trend he observed) please recommend them to me because I would be very curious to read historical fiction by Native authors and see how it may be different from white authors. I have read The Orenda by Joseph Boyden but I know many people doubt if Boyden is even Native so I won't count that one.  

I pretty much grew up on historical fiction novels because I loved the genre so much. Pauline Gedge's "The Hippopotamus Marsh" about ancient Egypt, Alex Rutherford's "Empire of the Moghul" series, Bernard Cornwell's "The Last Kingdom," about the Norse and Saxons, Gary Jennings Aztec series and Zoe Saadia's Rise of the Aztecs series were some of my favourites. But I am aware that this is what I would call "commercial fiction" or whatever you call stuff that isn't literary, more for consoomers if you understand what I mean. It's sort of cheap entertainment. Of these, Zoe Saadia and Gary Jennings were the only ones who wrote about cultures from the Americas. And the Israeli author Zoe Saadia was the only one whose stories are set entirely pre-contact (which I really really like). The first book in the Aztec series by Gary Jennings takes place during/right after the Spanish conquest and each novel following that is about New Spain. We really do not get to read much about the European-free era in his book, which is a shame. But I loved that Saadia's books do not contain any European characters.  

So again if anyone has book recommendations on historical fiction by Native authors, I would be thrilled. The further back in the past the setting is, the better. Thanks frens. 

Folk Art Styles I Admire

A lot of folk artists don't really have a lot of professional training, which results in their art looking childish and funky with wild proportions and bright, chaotic colours. Of course this is a generalization because folk art styles vary a lot depending on what you're talking about.

In this post I'll list some of my favourite art styles. Stuck in quarantine? Maybe you want to take some inspiration from these for your own art. 

Madhubani art from Bihar, India 

Australian Pointillism 

Huichol/Wixaritari art from Mexico 

Woodland school (Canada) 

How to help the Wet'suwet'en fight the Coastal GasLink Pipeline

This is a good article to start reading about the conflict: https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/wet-suwet-en-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-1.5448363 to get updates as soon as things happen, like the Unist'ot'en page on Facebook.

The best suggestions for how you can help out are on the Unist'ot'en website: http://unistoten.camp/supportertoolkit/ donate money, go to a local protest, and spread the word on social media about how Canada is breaking international law. There are protests all over Canada to show solidarity.

Also here is an article that explains RCMP surveillance of Indigenous activists. Canadian taxpayer dollars are being wasted on social media surveillance and raids on the Wet'suwet'en. This will help you figure out if you are being watched. https://apihtawikosisan.com/2020/02/taking-surveillance-seriously/ 

The Canadian Language Museum is having a Cree Language Exhibit

Check out the exhibit here. It's on until December 19th. http://www.languagemuseum.ca/exhibit/cree-peoples-language 

Also, I wrote a review about it for my first year linguistics class at the University of Toronto. I got a 100% on this assignment so I'm really happy. You can read it here.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iUKeEKoxyzZkJYn1KhSM2Q2JcPjkBNOruzeq2sT5W7M/edit?usp=sharing 

THIS PERSON IS SO COOL OMG

Here's a video called "The Purpose of Indigenous Warrior Societies." It has an interview with a member of the Cree Warriors Society.

i lowkey have crush on him 

Spirits of the Homeland: My First Flash Fiction

Flash Fiction is supposed to be extremely short fiction stories. Most Flash Fiction is 100 words or less. This one's a bit longer, but it's still pretty short. Hope you guys like it! It's my very first attempt at Flash Fiction and I certainly want to write more. 

Blood dripped onto the virgin snow. Sedna looked at the gaping wounds where her fingers had once been. The numbing cold prevented her from registering any sensation of pain. So I have lost my fingers. Anything is better than becoming Panuk’s bride, even drowning. She was ashamed of having been too afraid to face death when her father had taken her out on the icy waters. When he tried to throw her overboard, she clawed at the sides of his fishing boat desperately. That was when he had unsheathed his glistening flint knife. 

Sedna knew she should have been dead, yet somehow she had managed to struggle to shore even without fingers. Now she was making her way into the perilous unknown, stumbling through knee-high snow. Her torn, caribou-hide parka was scant protection against the hostile elements, yet she would never be able to mend the holes. When she had her fingers, she was wonderful at sewing with antler-bone needles. The frosty wind tore at her flesh and howled in her ears. It blew her hood back so her long, black hair was unveiled. Under the dancing lights, every strand of it was illuminated a dark blue. She threw her head up to look at the sky. The faces of her ancestors smiled down at her.

Haudenosaunee Clan Mother

A/N: I decided to do a really small collaboration project with my internet friend, who is a great artist and does commissions! Please follow her on Instagram @artprincess235 and check out her DeviantArt account as well: https://www.deviantart.com/mariajosecreations Remember you should always support indigenous artists like her ;) . Basically, we wanted to do some informative posts about the role of women in traditional indigenous societies before Europeans arrived. We're going to start with Iroquois Clan Mothers and might continue this in the future. The art is done by her. The informative descriptions are written by me.

The Iroquois Confederacy was one of the most powerful alliances in North America prior to European contact. The Haudenosaunee, as they call themselves, have an origin story in their oral tradition about the Great Peacemaker and the formation of the league. Historians believe this to have happened around 1142. Soon after, The league came to dominate the Great Lakes area. In 1722, the Tuscarora joined and the league became known as the Six Nations.

Haudenosaunee society followed a matriarchal family structure. Each family traced its lineage back to a female ancestor. After a woman got married, her husband would move to her family’s longhouse and their children would be considered a part of the mother’s clan.

One of the most important roles of women among the Haudenosaunee was that of Clan Mother. The Clan Mothers were the leaders of the clans and were passed down the title by their female relatives. They had to oversee village affairs such as food distribution and land usage, and had to make the critical decision of deciding who would be the chief.

But even though Clan Mothers played an essential role in the government, the main reason why they were venerated was because they ensured that children were taught the traditions of the people and that the culture survived. Clan Mothers arranged marriages and named children at birth. No ceremony could begin without a Clan Mother, because they knew about all the procedures that should be followed. They ensured that the customs and ways of the Longhouse did not die out. Just as fires in the hearths of longhouses were guarded so they wouldn’t burn out, the Clan Mothers guarded the culture of the people.

My thoughts on the Brazil museum fire

For those of you who haven't heard the outrageous news, the National Museum of Brazil suffered a tragic loss of thousands of artifacts recently in a devastating fire. This was because the museum hadn't been renovated for many years, as Brazil's government would rather spend money on building museums. It was the largest collection of historical artifacts in South America, and even housed the bones of Luzia (a skeleton that is suspected to to be Pre-Clovis, although they haven't been able to carbon date her properly). Indigenous people especially lamented the loss, as it was a huge destruction of their history, almost as if they were witnessing the European invasion happening all over again. The entire linguistic section of the museum was also lost, meaning that many of Brazil's threatened indigenous languages which had been preserved in recordings may never be heard again. I wish more people would care. It's a shame that Brazil doesn't have enough wealth and technology to at least back up everything on the museum in a digital archive. I've been to the British Museum, the most glorious museum in the world thanks to the fact that the British looted art from all over their colonies. Even though it was really sad for me to see artifacts that had been stolen from India put on display there, I still think it's better to not return them to India just yet, because as sad as it is, developed countries in the first world are just better equipped to preserve the artifacts and take care of them than third world countries are. I hope what happened in Brazil never happens again anywhere.