growingstronglikeahighgardenrose

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

D. H. Lawrence, from a letter featured in The Selected Letters of D. H. Lawrence

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

there's something so weird abt the way the conversation about characters like amarantha and ianthe are facilitated. there's just this like taboo that exists around talking about their character doesn't quite exist for male characters in the story at hand even when those characters do similar or parallel things in the story.

it kind of reminds me of the way rhys's experience with sexual assault is talked about in contrasts to character's like nesta or even feyre. its just weird that we have prythian - this ultra-patriarchal society where men are literally chosen by blood to rule - and then this weird abundance of women villains who specifically commit crimes that violently sexual in nature. its just weird to also like...create this dynamic where the most powerful man in the entirety of the planet is 'tamed' by this 'deviant' sexual woman villain. it creates...the taboo. the taboo that exists between talking about ianthe and amarantha, because its very clear that they are symbols and not characters that we can actually ration logic with. like here we have two characters: ianthe and rhys. we see them both leverage this unwanted sexual behavior toward's unwanted parties, but like rhys's sexual assault of feyre is brooding and tragic, while ianthe's is playful and deceitful. there's an utter lack of motivation that exists in ianthe (and amarantha) that doesn't quite exist for other men in the story that commit similar acts.

there's also this built in moral story about 'women in power' that hangs unwritten in the air. i remember seeing a post that compared rhys kneeling to nesta as a kind of parallel to amarantha...and i remember seeing someone send me the post and being like huh???

its like with amarantha - there's also that general lack of motivation and nuance that does not exist with other male characters (see: beron, tamlin, hybern). but the dangerous part of the story is that it subsumes this 'race to innocence' model that uses these sexually deviant women as a way to deflect from the super impossible ultra-patriarchal world that exists in this world. having the 'strongest' man in the world both as victim and ultra-powerful being deflects from the actual power these men actually hold over the women. and we get pockets of this: hybern, illyria, court of nightmares, autumn court. but the story doesn't hold these men accountable. they are this collective 'other' that exists in opposition to this vague idea of progression.

i can't put words into the mouth of people who dislike nesta, so there's that, but i bet my ass, a lot of hatred for nesta stems from this unwritten idea that she's somehow breaking the rules of how women should attain power or behave. and im not saying that in a 'girl power' way for people who really hate her, but in a way that is like panic that she can do whatever she wants without any consequences. its not so much hatred of her actions, but fear she won't get punished. that she could operare without logic or care and not get punished the way we see rhys. or that her actions aren't validated by the man like we see feyre.

so yeah rhys sexually assaulted feyre buuuut it exists forever in opposition to amarantha and ianthe who lack purpose, remorse, or motivation. it doesn't matter the victim, it matters the intention of the perp.

men can be victims of sexual violence, and they can be just as vulnerable and broken as women. the argument is that acotar creates this power-fantasy where women exists as equal oppressors to men, while also operating as forever lesser. it justifies the sins of the oppressive men, but also allows these men to assume innocence in the face of their power.

its like those stories of 'reverse-racism' where there's a fantasy of white people at the bottom and poc being their opressors. or the handsmaid tale effect of white feminism that takes the fear and experiences that woc and bottles them into a fantasy (and i could say more how handmaid's tale is sometimes received, moreso maybe than the writing of the book) that becomes fearsome because of its proximity to white women. its easier to ignore these problems and the realities of them when it doesn't effect their communities.

and that's how we end up with the weird stigmatizing conversations around ianthe and amarantha. these women are pawns that propagate the weird values of the series than actual characters. you can't talk about them in the same we do rhys or tam, or even beron. interesting stuff.

#Acotar #Worth a thought

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

The real tragedy of Dune (which the movies did an excellent job of portraying) is that almost none of the characters we see have any real choice in what they do. The only choices they have are in how they do them.

Duke Leto must take House Atreides to Arrakis, or be declared a traitor to the Imperium and hunted down. He knows it's a trap and that the Emperor is, in the very best case scenario, setting him and his family up for a serious reversal of their fortunes (far more likely, he's outright scheming to get them killed). But he doesn't have a choice. He must go to Arrakis. He does go to Arrakis. He dies.

Paul and Jessica must flee into the desert or the Harkonnen soldiers will kill them both brutally. They must go to the Fremen for refuge or the desert will kill them. They go. They find that the Fremen have already begun to mythologise Paul. He's the Mahdi, the Lisan al-Gaib. There is no option for Paul to be a normal person here. He is either the messiah or he is a false prophet, and false prophets in a nation of true believers don't live for long.

So Paul fits himself into the mold of the myth. He becomes Muad'dib and leads the Fremen in war because they believe too much in him to let him be anything less. Is it manipulation? Yes. But because the Bene Gesserit have been manipulating the Fremen for centuries, Paul has no choice but to continue it if he wants to live.

He sees the holy war at the end of every timeline by glimpses and he fights to avoid it. To avoid it, he becomes the Kwizatz Haderach and gains the ability to fully see timelines, and thereby he makes himself that much more of the Fremen messiah and brings himself one step closer to the holy war. Every choice he makes is a choice for survival and an attempt to avoid that war, the war he cannot escape because every step he makes along the path to survival is one more step towards the war. He has no more choice in what he becomes than his father had in whether or not he went to Arrakis.

The only people who ever had a choice were the Emperor and Gaius Helen Mohiam. They made their choice, to exterminate House Atreides, and thereby they took everyone's choices away, including their own. Once they sent House Atreides to Arrakis, the entire plot was inevitable.

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

thinking about fleetwood mac and how they actually sang songs about each other. and performed them. about how much they loved or hated each other like what the fuck how

I mean can you imagine. singing about how somebody broke your heart and they're literally harmonizing. they're right fucking there. they're in touching distance. insanity! complete insanity! I would either break down crying or fully snap and break their neck

fucking. silver springs!!! 'you'll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you!' no fucking kidding he won't stevie he's literally behind you playing the drums! absolute madlads

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

not now kitten, daddy's about to have a mental breakdown from seeing the prices at the grocery store

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

Censorship Georg

#usa #frightening

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

Anyone else imagine men written by Ava Reid kneeling in front of the heroin just melting from reverence while " Marry on a Cross - Ghost " is playing in the background ??

Because Gáspár, Sevas and Preston all give that vibe

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

Art history meme (x) - ¾ colours - green

Roses by Vincent van Gogh | La Jeune Martyre by Paul Delaroche | Mars & Venus, Allegory of Peace by Louis Jean François Lagrenée | The Woman in the Green Dress by Claude Monet | The King’s Daughter by Eduard Veith

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

I'm sorry. You were trying to help me understand. No, I actually wanted to hurt you. Couldn't bear to see such dumb, beautiful happiness in someone.

POOR THINGS (2023) dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

Poor Things (2023)

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

POOR THINGS 2023 — dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

people who only use conventional social media are so funny bc they’ll casually be like “can I see your tumblr??” are you Insane. this is no instagram or twitter. this is my vault of secrets

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

another thought about "gen z and gen alpha don't know how to use computers, just phone apps" is that this is intentionally the direction tech companies have pushed things in, they don't want users to understand anything about the underlying system, they want you to just buy a subscription to a thing and if it doesn't do what you need it to, you just upgrade to the more expensive one. users who look at configuration files are their worst nightmare

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

Momo footage from the Nerdist interview

(nine hours until premiere!)

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]