darloe

[darloe]

I just read the Queen Miriam fic on ao3, I need to hear y’all thoughts before I form my opinion.

#midge maisel #the marvelous mrs. maisel #tmmm #midge x lenny #midgelenny #ao3 #susie myerson #lenny bruce #alternate universe

[darloe]

You know what really gets me? Is when a character tries so hard and yet it takes one situation for it all to be fucked up. Especially, if it’s in their point of view so you read them going about their day with such a positive mindset that the moment they crumble when this one situation happens, it just hits you so hard.

#writing #ao3 #fanfic things #tropes #fic rant #bookish #bookblr #ao3feed

[darloe]

Midge Maisel’s Degree In Russain Literature

(I’m using titles now)

I just went down a Reddit post on Midge’s Russian literature and I just think we should really talk about that more.

Midge is a bubbly, passionate, pink-loving, fashionable lady with a witty and blue humor but she also appreciates the glum, wisdom, and philosophical stories on the human condition.

Not to mention Bryn Mawr is academically demanding as it was the woman counterpart of Ivy League which woman could not attend to.

Link!:

#midge maisel #the marvelous mrs. maisel #tmmm #susie myerson #lenny bruce

[darloe]

At least I can now admit I never liked Taylor Swift.

hey gang,

lets all agree to not watch the eras tour on disney+. taylor swift (our favorite private plane owner, and favorite progressive icon unless it concerns literal genocide) has plenty of money and plenty of a platform (that she doesnt use to help people suffering from a literal genocide). also, disney doesnt need your money or watch time either, not when theres a bajillion places to pirate it.

so, can we all do things that are helpful such as (at the very least), speaking out about the genocide israel is committing? you wont even be anti-semitic to do so! my source: myself. i'm jewish.

if you have a bit of money, why don't you donate or support palestinian owned businesses (instead of throwing your money at disney or ts)?

i'm not saying you cant be a swiftie or wtv, but maybe consider this before you flood to disney and start paying for her album.

at the very least:

#palestine #free palestine #free gaza #freepalastine🇵🇸

[darloe]

Midge is 26 in the pilot episode. Assuming Susie graduated college in the traditional four years and went straight out of HS, Susie is five years older (Midge is Class of '53, Susie is Class of '48). Joel is about two or three years older than Midge, so 28/29 in the pilot. Abe is around 60 in the pilot (give or take a couple of years), Rose a few years younger. Lenny is 32 in the pilot.

You are a literal lifesaver, thank you so much for taking the time to answer this! ❤️

#midge maisel #the marvelous mrs. maisel #tmmm #lenny bruce #susie myerson #midgelenny

[darloe]

In all seriousness, how old is literally any of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel characters?

#midge maisel #the marvelous mrs. maisel #tmmm #lenny bruce #susie myerson

[darloe]

SAMEEE

thinking about susie/midge/lenny triad today…

[darloe]

Midge knowing of Lenny Bruce and midge knowing Lenny Bruce are two different things.

Midge has Lenny on a pedestal because he’s a famous person. Before their relationship became deeper than just bailing each other out or catching each other at bars, Midge recognizes Lenny Bruce as this rising comedian who speaks about politics and religions even though he’s getting arrested for it.

We also see this when Midge takes Benjamin to one of his shows, her bragging about how he gets arrested for the things he says. And, sure, I don’t blame her. Even Susie Myerson fumbled her words in front of that guy, he’s pretty big in the business, it’s a well-known fact.

However, when that chemistry really started to develop and their interactions started feeling electric, that’s when the pedestal should have lowered. To Midge, Lenny Bruce is untouchable.

I think this should have changed when she picked him up while he was high. The whole fight they had in the morning should have been either the pedestal dropping or at least the start of it. Or maybe in Miami after the date, hell, even the whole scene before they finally have sex.

Anyways, I love rewatching this one episode because it packs so much depth.

#midge maisel #the marvelous mrs. maisel #tmmm #midge x lenny #midgelenny

[darloe]

MidgeLenny with this:

#midge maisel #the marvelous mrs. maisel #midge x lenny #tmmm #midgelenny #art #artists on tumblr

[darloe]

I need more of Midge’s housewife to feminist pipeline please and thank you.

When you think about the whole show, this could cannonly fit somewhere in there, maybe after her first protest.

#midge maisel #the marvelous mrs. maisel #tmmm #radblr #radical feminism

[darloe]

Midge and Other Artists

Aside from Lenny’s presence in Midge’s life, do you guys remember that actual artist? Declan Howell? And how he had this whole conversation, that only serves a purpose if you watched season 5, and showed Midge his greatest artwork? Because I do!

Midge with Shy, Midge with Declan, and Midge with Lenny. All of those people are artists.

Shy is a singer, he overlaps with Midge in the way they use their voice to relay their message. Declan is a painter, he overlaps with Midge in the way he puts everything into his work despite the sacrifices. Lenny is a comic, he does both of those things I previously mentioned, and also understands her.

Which was the biggest issue with Benjamin. Also because Benjamin, in the context of her life, was just a better upgrade of Joel and a symbol of going back to her old life, which Lenny also points out on their date.

#midge maisel #the marvelous mrs. maisel #midge x lenny #tmmm #midgelenny #ao3 #mini rant #personal rant

[darloe]

I was listening to some of Lenny Bruce’s old sets, as one does, and even got to the Steve Allen part, and let me tell you this. First off, because I know how some people can misunderstand words easily, I love Lenny Bruce.

Both Luke Kirby’s characterization and the actual person.

Second, that real life version was not as cool and slick as you were made to believe through your modern eyes. Especially at Playboy’s Penthouse.

He seems like the average middle school boy to me and with that mindset, everything he said was just 10x times funnier. Like, he’s not funny to us modern day people but he’s definitely made me laugh more times than I thought.

Anyways, don’t even have to tell me, I’m sure Lenny Bruce was considered the coolest cat in those times. But, in this era, he is very much like a middle school boy. He’s also way more sassier than I originally thought.

Also!

Why does man have his butt cheeks out!?

They lookin finda firm and pert though, not gonna lie I’d like to squeeze that juicy thang…

Okay I’m done, you can lock me up too.

#midge maisel #the marvelous mrs. maisel #midge x lenny #tmmm #midgelenny #lenny bruce #jail #prison #indecent exposure #writing #personal rant

[darloe]

AAHH!!!! I love this!!

"two comics walk into a bar..."

i know you. you're complicated. you're lovely. i'm nothing like you. we're the same. i understand you deeply because you're me. we were meant to find each other. we never should have met. (this post by @tootiredmotel)

"what lenny would do"

being funny is central to how midge sees herself, and lenny is a part of her world of comedy. meeting him is one of the defining changes that launch her into a new life on yom kippur in the pilot. he represents the new path that opens up for her. he is, in many ways, her entry into comedy. he is the first professional act we see through her eyes, the first comic she actually meets, the key player in the gaslight show in which she becomes "mrs. maisel". and he is someone she aspires to be like.

she sees him as uncompromising, somehow unadulterated, at least ideologically, which i suppose is all that matters. ("wait a minute, you never compromise!") he sets a standard in her life, and she often tries to emulate him. ("i will only do gigs where i can say what i want. that's what lenny would do"). she sees him as much more than a comic, which is why he's also right in calling her out for making him some sort of a stand up messiah.

you don't even know who lenny bruce is! you blather on and on about free speech? he's out there getting arrested in the name of free speech. he's talking about things no one has the balls to talk about. you put down comedy and what I do? you don't even know what goes on out there. this guy is the real deal, but you just scoff and pretend that he's nothing. that is ignorant. you are ignorant. (3x01)

lenny bruce is someone she admires professionally, but also someone she admires ideologically. and she does cite his multiple arrests several times as a "badge of honor" of sorts, as proof that he's doing something important: in that one fight with her father, or when she introduces comedy to benjamin.

he's brilliant. he gets arrested for the things he says. can you imagine? arresting a comedian!

"yup... just like mine"

beyond her admiration for him, she has a sense that she is genuinely just like him. in these exchanges, she always draws a parallel between herself and lenny through comedy. "i'm a comedian [...] i go to clubs at night and tell jokes. [...] like lenny bruce"/ "you put down comedy and what i do?" it's subtle, but it's there. she even reminds him at carnegie hall that she believes that they are the same, that they want the same thing "why is it wrong for me to want to do the very same thing?" (mostly, she is scared that people believe it's wrong because she is a woman.)

and there is a sort of agreement between them that they are the same. two comics, on the same side of the microphone. they each know the other is brilliant, and they love to have that in common. the fact that they are oddly paired twins also creates a sort of allegiance between them, a profound trust that the other is destined for great things. i would even tend to believe that it makes the other's success partly their own. there definitely is a fairy godmother type relationship going on in which lenny does whatever he can to boost midge's career, but she reciprocates whichever way she can (bringing her umbrella, checking in on him, offering money, taking him home). this reciprocity also leads to the heavy consequence that the risk one takes affect them both. her cowardly hiding is so personal to him it almost feels like he is failing too, even as he has just had a triumphant night at carnegie hall. his success is not quite success if it is only his. he uses it as an opportunity to make hers happen faster.

in a way, being comics helps them define themselves (and their relationship) in comparison to others: they are funnier. they belong on the stage. they are not the faceless audience. they are in on a secret that no one else shares, in on a joke others don't understand.

and the secret is about authenticity - the truth in who they are. once the audience leaves, they lose the safety net it provides them, and they risk having to define themselves in relation to one another instead of being able to remain twin comics.

they could become just another man and woman: a terrifying prospect, as their bond goes beyond this binary. she won't have sex with him if it is simply going to flatten what they have to a one-dimensional boy/girl relationship. "you didn't want me to think of you as just a girl"/"i want you to know that i am feeling a little emasculated right now. i don't really mind it actually." also, not to go all linguistics student on you, but he also expresses a form of hesitancy about this type of binary before sleeping together. "i think there are many things about you men would find wildly attractive." he is in that male category, but the language implies that he isn't. i like it.

anyhow, what midge needs is for him to promise he will remember that they are the same. she won't lose his professional respect or his friendship. it's an unfounded fear, because this guy-meets-girl ready-made corporate-approved romantic trope has never existed between them. still, she claims her status as a comic to make extra sure, reasserting equality with him. he gives his word and he keeps it.

"i'm not the stand-up messiah"

lenny also uses the label "comic" as a way to claim equality, alternatively clinging to the term like a buoy or wielding it like a shield. until 4x08, this is something midge mostly misses.

one of his recurring problems is that people forget that he is a comic. he is no gandhi, he is no emma goldman. it bothers him to be seen like this, loved and hated for his clashes with the police, especially coming from midge, who is supposed to know better. midge's humor is "personal tinged by political" where lenny's is probably political tinged by personal, but they're both just entertainers, really. he won't have her imagine herself as being guided by whatever light he might shed. he wants so much for her, but he wants her to be independent. including from him.

i think it pains him that she might picture him as being above everything. "jesus christ, midge, what a fucking pedestal you put me on!" because it hurts her in the long run, and because it isn't true to who he is. although she admires him, the way she sees him before that confrontation reflects the way he is seen by audiences a bit too much in that respect. what he wants is not "to say whatever it is he wants to say," but for people to laugh. for them to show up at carnegie hall. "don't you want that?" again, despite having to set her warped perception of him and of the business upright, he never departs from the implicit truth which underpins everything: they are the same. he tells her she is more important than god and then he puts her on one of the most prestigious stages in new york city to discuss how she idealizes him. he puts her on the same stage he's just performed on. you should dig my point of view here, man.

he says "i'm a comic," and it is a call for her not to look up to him too much, blinded by her romanticized version of him. he says "i'm a comic," and it is a lecture so that she remembers they are equals in this. he says "i'm a comic," and it is an angry call for her not to look down on him.

no! do not make this about me. this is about you. you wanted me to remember you're funny, right? that night? you didn't want me to think of you as just a girl, you wanted me to think of you as a comic. well don't you forget that i'm a comic too. don't you dare look at me as someone to be pitied or helped or fixed, i do not want or need that, especially from you.

pity is so close to contempt. he didn't make her promise anything before they slept together and irrevocably acknowledged the complexity of their feelings for each other, but he is as serious as she is about what it means to be funny in this relationship. "next time you see me and you think i might need help just please keep walking." she is not "just a girl" and he is not "just a guy." there will be no pygmalion stories. she is not a star to be born from his regal nebula. he is not a broken addict she can fix. as comics, they must promise to keep looking at each other the way they always have, the way that has drawn them together: as two funny people who admire and respect each other's work. two people who understand each other. they're allowed to look, but they shouldn't touch, at least not to the point of steering. this is another attempt at trying to put boundaries and definitions on a relationship clearly very complicated to define, where neither can truly pinpoint what they are - or should be - to each other, and what roles they are allowed to assume in each other's lives.

"we're not supposed to. that's not how it works. we're comics!"

this is where lenny waking up at midge's and freaking out is significant. a lot of midge's act is just talking about her personal life. this post develops on midge and authenticity which definitely plays a huge part in most of her professional relationships. miriam completely misses that being "true" is not synonymous with putting no distance whatsoever between her real life and her stage persona. in season 1, she seems much more concerned with that distance (keeping her privacy locked behind ridiculous stage names like amanda gleeson) but she finally builds her stage self as a professional comic in a determined opposition to sophie lennon, who tells her:

"darling, look at you. i mean really... men don't want to laugh at you. they want to fuck you. you've got to be a thing. you want to get ahead in comedy? cover up that hole" (1x07)

so mrs. maisel is a woman on stage, and she talks about being a woman. being a daughter, being a mother, being married, being divorced, feeling estranged from certain expectations of womanhood. she does not want to become a thing for the entertainment of the public, she wants her public to know her and laugh with her about what truly is funny - life itself.

"lenny bruce doesn't have a character," but his act isn't about his own life either. this didn't use to be an issue between them. "you know, it's weird, i never picture you living anywhere. you just exist." at first, lenny is a sort of superior entity that lives in the background of her life, popping up from time to time, his frame emerging from the blurry decor in a puff of smoke. as midge progresses in her field, and as she sees more and more of him, she gets to see him more truly, and the feeling that they understand each other on a deeper level probably makes her think that she has access to most of his life the way she would make most of her life okay for him to see. because to her, comedy is so personal before it is professional, because she becomes independent through it. it's her "place to go" (1x03). comedy is hers. lenny's family life is personal, while comedy is more professional. they meet in the in-between. backstage. as two tired comics at the bar, as nervous performers encouraging each other.

but he doesn't talk to her about his daughter, and he does not want to discuss hers either. she can talk about it on stage, but it is weird for him to have her kids exist between them - because it takes their relationship away from their twin comedians thing. she doesn't see the boundary where she crosses it. "i don't understand what's going on here"/"you don't?" she's breaching an unspoken agreement that they are two comics first. creatures of the night. a family gathering around breakfast is a far stretch from the night scene they "just exist" in.

"i can't think of anything funny to say"

but they break these unspoken boundaries time and again, especially as the series progress. for the first time in season three, they truly look at each other outside of a professional setting. they're no longer predominantly filmed side by side, but face to face.

so. seeing each other as comics is essential to their mutual admiration, to their friendship, and to their proximity. therefore, it is essential to the safety in their relationship. but this becomes difficult to maintain as they seem to naturally shed their respective comic envelopes when they are together. this happens precisely because they are the same, in a way. they remember themselves in each other. she watches him on steve allen and it's funny for a moment before it becomes all too true.

they see beyond the performance and the wit and all the humorous tendencies that pull them together through somewhat inevitable revelations of vulnerability. i can't think of anything funny to say. it takes them aback for a moment, and then it just exists between them. they don't need the microphone anymore, they don't need to be each other's audience, they don't need to make each other laugh. they can just be. and it is a frightening thing, to just be. after season 2 though, there is no escaping it, everything comes clearer with the other and through the other. again, not to go music nerd on you guys but till there was you is a master choice of a song for their dance in 3x05 for two reasons. one, it's all about seeing. suddenly you can perceive everything you were blind to because the other person is here. it's a moment of absolute clarity, where the filter of comedy just vanishes. i never heard them at all till there was you [...] i never saw them at all till there was you. the second one is that the defining notes that open the melody are the same progression in the song lenny sings on the steve allen show and in till there was you. put that on your plate.

given the circumstances - with blurrier boundaries than ever and with an acquired conscience of just how clearly the other sees through them and their act - it makes a lot of sense that midge would start getting nervous about lenny seeing her act. her nervousness is mostly due to her self-consciousness because he knows her and sees her and they both know it. in that hotel room, they look at each other first, because they know. because most of what they have is looking. and then, they finally cross that last uncrossed threshold. jump in because they want it and have wanted it a while, because life is short and why the hell not. spontaneity and desire and such things. but that threshold is another easy boundary that they have now crossed. promises of maintaining them are almost impossible to keep (i lied. i'm only going to laugh at the end). in the blue hotel room, they re-establish the loco amor look - the till there was you moment of clarity - and then they move to a fresh embrace of someone to watch over me tenderness and belonging. after this, the friction that they've had throughout the season remains, and it all feels much rawer. she feels exposed on stage after miami and the apollo. he feels his day life and his drug problem are off limits. but he's seen her house and her show corset and she's taken off his tie and seen the case in his bathroom. their sensitivity to the other's gaze is only enhanced by their feelings for each other. "at the end," they have still let each other see so much. mortifying ordeal. arguably, their most intimate scene happens under the bright lights on the open stage, charged as it is from their night together (the watch over me tender belonging). it is the culmination of everything they are: behind the same microphone, but without an audience. two comics, unable to define themselves solely in relation to a faceless other. at night, but under lights bright as day. between entente and dispute. their night in the blue room doesn't flatten anything between them: it blows out and sharpens everything. their comic common denominator lives on, but their hearts are dangerously involved in the equation. they've paid too much attention.

[darloe]

I’m not particularly picky with the Mrs. Maisel fandom since it’s small. All I need is for it to be in English and be complete(this varies on my mood and desperation).

However, I have one big fic turn-on and one big fic turn-offs.

(Major turn-off): Lenny using the nickname ‘Honey’ with Midge(obviously, this is because of his ex-wife). There are other nicknames: Sweetheart, sweetie, baby, babe, peanut, pumpkin, pookie, I don’t care. Anything other than ‘Honey’.

(Major turn-on): When Midge uses ‘Bellmore’, which is Lenny’s old school, as a nickname.

#midge maisel #the marvelous mrs. maisel #midge x lenny #ao3 #tmmm #midgelenny #fanfic things

[darloe]

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel fandom has collectively chosen to rewrite season 5 and ignore the canon version and so will I. One of the problems that I have with season 5 is how Midge bombs her Carnegie Hall set by getting arrested.

Listen, I know it led to greater things or whatever but that place has too much meaning for her to do so. She, before Lenny confronts her, confesses that she’s seen concerts and such here before. And then she saw Lenny Bruce there, was even mentioned in his set, and stood on that stage(while it was empty) when he yelled at her about her career.

That place has too much meaning for her to just mindlessly throw it away and get arrested because of what she said. I can’t, and will not ever, acknowledge that her Carnegie Hall set ended like that.

#midge maisel #the marvelous mrs. maisel #midge x lenny #tmmm #midgelenny #alternate universe #fanfic ideas

[darloe]

Tough times for a fandom so small 😔

read every midge x lenny fanfic on ao3 and now im hella upset

[darloe]

Can we not collectively forget the fact that Midge brought Susie to a lesbian bar? Let’s talk more about that.

Like, first of all, how did she even know where the bar is? Because, from what I remember, when she asks around, she doesn’t get that any results. How many people did she ask to get results?

I wonder how many strange looks Midge gets when she walks downtown, because she had to have asked multiple people. Especially since gay/lesbian bars were secret at that time, it wasn’t the coolest thing because of obvious homophobic reasons.

I think I read a fic where Lenny is drunk and when Midge helps him he says he saw her enter that bar and now it’s all I can think about. Just Lenny Bruce passing by and seeing Midge drag Susie into a lesbian bar.

#midge maisel #the marvelous mrs. maisel #ao3 #tmmm fic #tmmm #susie x midge #susie myerson #midge x lenny