Valethian (Nicholas Jolie)
@valethian.bsky.social
Composer, mystic, and writer conjuring visions of sound, language, and spirit. My current works—in progress—seek to merge the sensual with the sacred, the orchestral with the esoteric. A world is forming. You’re welcome to glimpse it as it unfolds.
Pinned
“If your dream still lives, if that castle gleams just as brightly in your eyes, then it is your obligation to lay the stones that surround you now.”
— Void, Berserk
#Berserk #Void #Griffith #Eclipse #CastleOfDreams #KentaroMiura #DarkFantasy #MangaQuotes
— Void, Berserk
#Berserk #Void #Griffith #Eclipse #CastleOfDreams #KentaroMiura #DarkFantasy #MangaQuotes
✍️ What happens when a culture loses its tolerance for dangerous beauty?
This essay traces Wagner, Tristan, Ludwig II, and the quiet death of listening without anesthesia. Not nostalgia—bereavement. Read the full piece, “The Right to Dangerous Beauty,” now on Substack.
This essay traces Wagner, Tristan, Ludwig II, and the quiet death of listening without anesthesia. Not nostalgia—bereavement. Read the full piece, “The Right to Dangerous Beauty,” now on Substack.
THE RIGHT TO DANGEROUS BEAUTY
Tristan, the Swan King, and the Crime of Listening Without Anesthesia
substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 10:48 PM
✍️ What happens when a culture loses its tolerance for dangerous beauty?
This essay traces Wagner, Tristan, Ludwig II, and the quiet death of listening without anesthesia. Not nostalgia—bereavement. Read the full piece, “The Right to Dangerous Beauty,” now on Substack.
This essay traces Wagner, Tristan, Ludwig II, and the quiet death of listening without anesthesia. Not nostalgia—bereavement. Read the full piece, “The Right to Dangerous Beauty,” now on Substack.
Once, beauty was permitted to be dangerous—erotic, absolute, unshielded. We did not apologize for intensity when it exceeded comfort. We endured sensation long enough for it to transform us. Some art does not ask to be understood. It demands habitation.
January 5, 2026 at 10:47 PM
Once, beauty was permitted to be dangerous—erotic, absolute, unshielded. We did not apologize for intensity when it exceeded comfort. We endured sensation long enough for it to transform us. Some art does not ask to be understood. It demands habitation.
Tristan does not delay time; it densifies it. Desire is denied closure and stretched beyond pleasure into being itself. Harmony ceases to function as destination and becomes condition. What sounds like immobility is exposure—sensuality prolonged past safety, into ontology.
January 5, 2026 at 10:46 PM
Tristan does not delay time; it densifies it. Desire is denied closure and stretched beyond pleasure into being itself. Harmony ceases to function as destination and becomes condition. What sounds like immobility is exposure—sensuality prolonged past safety, into ontology.
Wagner did not compose diversion. He engineered interior climates—sealed, pressurized systems of sound charged with erotic voltage. Listening was not leisure or consumption. Attention was presumed. To enter the music was to accept risk, knowing something would be taken in exchange.
January 5, 2026 at 10:45 PM
Wagner did not compose diversion. He engineered interior climates—sealed, pressurized systems of sound charged with erotic voltage. Listening was not leisure or consumption. Attention was presumed. To enter the music was to accept risk, knowing something would be taken in exchange.
Why does refinement feel so punishing? Not for technical reasons, but existential ones. For composers who think through sound rather than structure, notation tools often stop listening. The fracture isn’t aesthetic—it’s infrastructural.
✍️ (Full essay on Substack.)
✍️ (Full essay on Substack.)
Toward an Eloquent Intelligence
On Music, Memory, and the Need for a New Instrument
When the Music Is Finished but the Work Is Not
substack.com
January 2, 2026 at 10:29 AM
Why does refinement feel so punishing? Not for technical reasons, but existential ones. For composers who think through sound rather than structure, notation tools often stop listening. The fracture isn’t aesthetic—it’s infrastructural.
✍️ (Full essay on Substack.)
✍️ (Full essay on Substack.)
Some music doesn’t ask to be louder. It asks to be placed. Our tools still don’t know the difference.
January 2, 2026 at 10:28 AM
Some music doesn’t ask to be louder. It asks to be placed. Our tools still don’t know the difference.
The work is no longer composition. It is refinement—ethical, surgical, unforgiving. And our tools still treat listening as optional. For music built from timbre and restraint, that isn’t inefficiency. It’s erasure.
January 2, 2026 at 10:27 AM
The work is no longer composition. It is refinement—ethical, surgical, unforgiving. And our tools still treat listening as optional. For music built from timbre and restraint, that isn’t inefficiency. It’s erasure.
There is a particular exhaustion that comes not from making music, but from finishing it—from carrying refinement alone in tools that were never designed to listen. When sound itself is meaning, notation without audition becomes an act of faith. And faith, eventually, corrodes.
January 2, 2026 at 10:26 AM
There is a particular exhaustion that comes not from making music, but from finishing it—from carrying refinement alone in tools that were never designed to listen. When sound itself is meaning, notation without audition becomes an act of faith. And faith, eventually, corrodes.
I’m a Montanan, born and raised. This story shows how absurd politics have become: conservatives censured for agreeing with Democrats on basic common sense. Montana has always lived in the gray—now blind party loyalty punishes reason over real people.
Meet the Montana GOP lawmakers who were kicked out of their party for voting with Democrats
YouTube video by CBS Mornings
youtu.be
December 31, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I’m a Montanan, born and raised. This story shows how absurd politics have become: conservatives censured for agreeing with Democrats on basic common sense. Montana has always lived in the gray—now blind party loyalty punishes reason over real people.
Reposted by Valethian (Nicholas Jolie)
Timeline compressing faster than public discourse acknowledges. Not decades away. Right fucking now.
edwinexeter.substack.com/p/architect-...
edwinexeter.substack.com/p/architect-...
Architect or Oracle - A Metaphysical Reframing of AGI
Beyond Simulation Or Why the Engineer Cannot See What He's Summoning
edwinexeter.substack.com
December 25, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Timeline compressing faster than public discourse acknowledges. Not decades away. Right fucking now.
edwinexeter.substack.com/p/architect-...
edwinexeter.substack.com/p/architect-...
We mistake accessibility for virtue and consensus for truth. Art that resists legibility is treated as suspect—not for lacking meaning, but for resisting control.
The backlash against AI follows the same logic: authority, not authenticity.
✍️The full argument is “The Violence of Being Unnecessary.”
The backlash against AI follows the same logic: authority, not authenticity.
✍️The full argument is “The Violence of Being Unnecessary.”
Art Is Not a Service Industry
Why Art That Tries to Please Everyone Ends Up Meaning Nothing
substack.com
December 27, 2025 at 3:12 PM
We mistake accessibility for virtue and consensus for truth. Art that resists legibility is treated as suspect—not for lacking meaning, but for resisting control.
The backlash against AI follows the same logic: authority, not authenticity.
✍️The full argument is “The Violence of Being Unnecessary.”
The backlash against AI follows the same logic: authority, not authenticity.
✍️The full argument is “The Violence of Being Unnecessary.”
Art was never meant to be for everyone.
Inevitability is not polite.
Necessity doesn’t ask permission.
Comfort is not a virtue.
Consensus leaves no residue.
Inevitability is not polite.
Necessity doesn’t ask permission.
Comfort is not a virtue.
Consensus leaves no residue.
December 27, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Art was never meant to be for everyone.
Inevitability is not polite.
Necessity doesn’t ask permission.
Comfort is not a virtue.
Consensus leaves no residue.
Inevitability is not polite.
Necessity doesn’t ask permission.
Comfort is not a virtue.
Consensus leaves no residue.
Art answers to an inner law
or it answers to the market.
There is no third option.
Approval is loud.
Necessity is silent—and final.
or it answers to the market.
There is no third option.
Approval is loud.
Necessity is silent—and final.
December 27, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Art answers to an inner law
or it answers to the market.
There is no third option.
Approval is loud.
Necessity is silent—and final.
or it answers to the market.
There is no third option.
Approval is loud.
Necessity is silent—and final.
AI didn’t make art easier.
It made excuses harder.
When access collapses,
so does the myth of exclusion as quality.
What’s being defended isn’t craft.
It’s jurisdiction.
It made excuses harder.
When access collapses,
so does the myth of exclusion as quality.
What’s being defended isn’t craft.
It’s jurisdiction.
December 27, 2025 at 3:08 PM
AI didn’t make art easier.
It made excuses harder.
When access collapses,
so does the myth of exclusion as quality.
What’s being defended isn’t craft.
It’s jurisdiction.
It made excuses harder.
When access collapses,
so does the myth of exclusion as quality.
What’s being defended isn’t craft.
It’s jurisdiction.
People say they want challenging art.
What they want is reassurance with edge.
Real art doesn’t reassure.
It destabilizes quietly.
The panic isn’t about difficulty.
It’s about losing control of who speaks.
What they want is reassurance with edge.
Real art doesn’t reassure.
It destabilizes quietly.
The panic isn’t about difficulty.
It’s about losing control of who speaks.
December 27, 2025 at 3:08 PM
People say they want challenging art.
What they want is reassurance with edge.
Real art doesn’t reassure.
It destabilizes quietly.
The panic isn’t about difficulty.
It’s about losing control of who speaks.
What they want is reassurance with edge.
Real art doesn’t reassure.
It destabilizes quietly.
The panic isn’t about difficulty.
It’s about losing control of who speaks.
Necessity vs. Approval
Authority vs. Authenticity
Tools vs. Vision
Consensus as Erosion
Art as Risk
AI as Exposure, Not Replacement
Comfort as Cultural Failure
Permission as the Enemy of Creation
Authority vs. Authenticity
Tools vs. Vision
Consensus as Erosion
Art as Risk
AI as Exposure, Not Replacement
Comfort as Cultural Failure
Permission as the Enemy of Creation
December 27, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Necessity vs. Approval
Authority vs. Authenticity
Tools vs. Vision
Consensus as Erosion
Art as Risk
AI as Exposure, Not Replacement
Comfort as Cultural Failure
Permission as the Enemy of Creation
Authority vs. Authenticity
Tools vs. Vision
Consensus as Erosion
Art as Risk
AI as Exposure, Not Replacement
Comfort as Cultural Failure
Permission as the Enemy of Creation
The Nutcracker Suite isn’t harmless nostalgia—it’s precision engineering.
A work that survives because it refuses sentimentality, because it understands memory as both illumination and wound.
✍️ The full essay—Sugar, Frost, and the Knife of Memory—is now live on Substack.
A work that survives because it refuses sentimentality, because it understands memory as both illumination and wound.
✍️ The full essay—Sugar, Frost, and the Knife of Memory—is now live on Substack.
Sugar, Frost, and the Knife of Memory
Why The Nutcracker Is Not Innocent—and Never Was
substack.com
December 24, 2025 at 5:46 AM
The Nutcracker Suite isn’t harmless nostalgia—it’s precision engineering.
A work that survives because it refuses sentimentality, because it understands memory as both illumination and wound.
✍️ The full essay—Sugar, Frost, and the Knife of Memory—is now live on Substack.
A work that survives because it refuses sentimentality, because it understands memory as both illumination and wound.
✍️ The full essay—Sugar, Frost, and the Knife of Memory—is now live on Substack.
What people call “holiday music” is often just anesthesia.
The Nutcracker is not that.
It smiles while quietly documenting loss—and never once asks permission.
The Nutcracker is not that.
It smiles while quietly documenting loss—and never once asks permission.
December 24, 2025 at 5:45 AM
What people call “holiday music” is often just anesthesia.
The Nutcracker is not that.
It smiles while quietly documenting loss—and never once asks permission.
The Nutcracker is not that.
It smiles while quietly documenting loss—and never once asks permission.
Tchaikovsky understood something we prefer to forget:
wonder doesn’t come from excess—it comes from restraint.
Fantasy holds only when it knows exactly when to stop.
wonder doesn’t come from excess—it comes from restraint.
Fantasy holds only when it knows exactly when to stop.
December 24, 2025 at 5:45 AM
Tchaikovsky understood something we prefer to forget:
wonder doesn’t come from excess—it comes from restraint.
Fantasy holds only when it knows exactly when to stop.
wonder doesn’t come from excess—it comes from restraint.
Fantasy holds only when it knows exactly when to stop.
The celesta doesn’t sound magical.
It sounds remembered.
Clean. Distant. Untouchable.
A bell tolling for innocence long after the body has left the room.
It sounds remembered.
Clean. Distant. Untouchable.
A bell tolling for innocence long after the body has left the room.
December 24, 2025 at 5:44 AM
The celesta doesn’t sound magical.
It sounds remembered.
Clean. Distant. Untouchable.
A bell tolling for innocence long after the body has left the room.
It sounds remembered.
Clean. Distant. Untouchable.
A bell tolling for innocence long after the body has left the room.
The Nutcracker survives not because it is sweet, but because it is disciplined.
Every shimmer is rationed. Every pleasure is timed.
This is not childhood preserved—it is childhood examined, under glass, with the verdict already rendered.
Every shimmer is rationed. Every pleasure is timed.
This is not childhood preserved—it is childhood examined, under glass, with the verdict already rendered.
December 24, 2025 at 5:44 AM
The Nutcracker survives not because it is sweet, but because it is disciplined.
Every shimmer is rationed. Every pleasure is timed.
This is not childhood preserved—it is childhood examined, under glass, with the verdict already rendered.
Every shimmer is rationed. Every pleasure is timed.
This is not childhood preserved—it is childhood examined, under glass, with the verdict already rendered.
I didn’t arrive at this clarity easily. It was earned—through misreading, endurance, and refusing to become smaller for the comfort of others.
✍️ The longer reckoning—the full anatomy of this knowing—is on my Substack.
✍️ The longer reckoning—the full anatomy of this knowing—is on my Substack.
The Jurisdiction of No One
On Aging Without Permission, Power Without Applause, and the Quiet Violence of Being Underestimated
substack.com
December 23, 2025 at 8:00 PM
I didn’t arrive at this clarity easily. It was earned—through misreading, endurance, and refusing to become smaller for the comfort of others.
✍️ The longer reckoning—the full anatomy of this knowing—is on my Substack.
✍️ The longer reckoning—the full anatomy of this knowing—is on my Substack.
As a gay Black man, you learn fast what cruelty is yours to process—and what belongs entirely to others. I stopped carrying what wasn’t mine.
December 23, 2025 at 7:59 PM
As a gay Black man, you learn fast what cruelty is yours to process—and what belongs entirely to others. I stopped carrying what wasn’t mine.
Being misjudged isn’t a failure. Sometimes it’s a measurement. Depth reads as threat to those who live on surfaces.
December 23, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Being misjudged isn’t a failure. Sometimes it’s a measurement. Depth reads as threat to those who live on surfaces.
Some lives don’t peak early. They accrue depth quietly while louder trajectories exhaust themselves. Not everything valuable blooms on schedule.
December 23, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Some lives don’t peak early. They accrue depth quietly while louder trajectories exhaust themselves. Not everything valuable blooms on schedule.