phoenixflames12

[phoenixflames12]

Me, reading my scraps of fics in my notes app: oh, that’s good, I really like that. Someone should finish that.

#by others #about me #writing things #fanfiction writing things

[phoenixflames12]

Morse and drinking in the 70s...

Long....because I can't write short. And obviously, a lot of you will already know this stuff...

Just want to take a moment to talk about alcohol and alcoholism in the context of the early 1970s and remind folks of how totally and completely different it is from how we see it today.

Drunk driving had not been outlawed in most countries. Not only that, it was widely regarding as funny—funny enough to be used as a regular “gag” in movies. Problem drinking was also seen as funny. There were regular cartoon strips about it. The “drunk” was a funny stock character in all sorts of plays and movies.

Alcohol was ubiquitous. We’re not just talking liquid lunches. We’re talking drinking at work, while you work—just as you see in Endeavour. Think about that for a second.

And politely saying no wasn’t something you did without social consequences. It wasn’t just seen as a personal preference. Unless you had a specific, acceptable reason, turning down a drink was often seen as stand-offish and judgmental or as a social snub. Teetotalism was regarded as rather naive and ridiculous—not something any man or woman of the world would embrace.

In the early 1970s, there was no widespread understanding of alcoholism as a disease. It was still seen very much as the consequence of personal weakness—still a matter of “If you cared enough or tried hard enough, you wouldn’t do this so it must be a character flaw.”

Plus, most people, “normal” people don’t have problems with alcohol, so if you do then there’s something abnormal and defective about you—most likely something you brought upon yourself.

And as a “personal weakness” and a “defect,” the shame around it was profound and the secrecy matched. If someone went away for treatment, it was very much akin to an unwed mother going off to have her baby and then returning without the child. You never spoke of it. You pretended that it had never happened.

If you were a kind person, you also didn’t go out of your way to parade babies in front of her or talk constantly about children when she was with you. But refer to it directly? Never. Ask for help? Never. It was always something to be hidden. Everyone did their best to forget that it had ever happened and saw this as the "kindest" thing to do.

When Morse returns from his “cure,” it would simply be assumed that everyone would pretend that nothing unusual has happened. Why he’s  just been off on a tour of the West Country and nothing else! Hope you had a lovely time! That sort of polite fiction was exactly what he would have expected upon his return. Anything more direct—at least in a public setting—would have been shocking to him and everyone else.

Where things break down, however, is in the more personal interactions. His relationship with Thursday is such that they can at least broach the topic of drinking. When they do, my impression is that Thursday is well-aware that Morse not “cured.” However, in the context of the time, saying this would be akin to saying, "You failed," because there was no disease model of alcholism in widespread use. You went to be cured and it worked or it didn't.

However, I'd also add that Thursday is almost to the breaking point with the cumulative strain he is under. He can’t cope with the “burden” of Morse being in a precarious state and he knows it. He feels desperately guilty about that—as well as about other things like Strange and Joan or about life having moved on so much while Morse was gone—and so he just shuts down. 

Shutting down is Thursday’s go-to strategy when he’s overwhelmed. We’ve seen him do it many times before. And part of that for him, is that he pretends that the people around him are ok—even if they are anything but ok. Not surprisingly, he does it the most with the people he has the closest emotional ties with—Win, Joan, Sam, and Morse.

So the only way that Thursday can cope is by having Morse be perfectly fine. Conveniently, his preferred coping strategy fits exactly with his society's expectations about how alcoholism works. If Morse is "cured," you don’t need to worry about sparing him the constant offers of alcohol in the same way that the young unwed mother might hope to be spared babies. You certainly wouldn’t embarrass him (especially after he’s been through the humiliation of rehab) by drawing attention in any way to a possible to the idea that he still has a problem. 

And finally, a last note on time context. The scene in the pub where Morse has that first drink after finding out that Joan is marrying Jim is utterly heartbreaking for so many reasons. One of those reasons, however, is that we know it’s the first drink—and that the first drink leads to the second, and so on and so forth. Then Morse says to Thursday, “They said the, the odd beer, the odd shot, does no harm…"Everything in moderation," they said,”  and we automatically assume he’s lying.

I’m fairly sure that those scenes were meant to be interpreted through our modern viewpoint. However, it’s worth noting that again, the model of alcoholism in the 1970s was nothing like what we have today. The idea that someone with a drinking problems/addictions needs to abstain entirely was not even close to universal at that point. It’s perfectly possible that the advice Morse is quoting is the advice he received!

#by others #meta #itv endeavour #endeavour morse #fred thursday

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Max and Morse in Series 5

#by others #People's awesome edits #itv endeavour #endeavour morse #max debryn #epic theatre #epic acting #emotional overload #stunning

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writers and artists will go "this isn't good enough." my brother in christ, you're creating something new out of nothing and expressing yourself creatively. your productivity and unrealistic standards of perfection do not define you or the worth of your art. you're doing great.

#by others #writing things #fanfiction writing things #words of wisdom #things to remember

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#by others #fandom things

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Lieutenant James Fairholme

Eighteen miles, that’s all they made

#by others #People's awesome fan art #the terror #james fairholme #emotional overload #stunning

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~Vahan Tekeyan, poet and survivor of the Armenian Genocide

#by others #poetry quotes #vahan tekeyan #armenia

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Sense and Sensibility (1995) dir. Ang Lee

#by others #People’s awesome edits #sense and sensibility #1995 #elinor dashwood #marianne dashwood #english literature #epic theatre #epic acting #emotional overload #GIF set #stunning

[phoenixflames12]

thinking about how when you experience a lot of shame in your formative years (indirectly, directly, as abuse or just as an extant part of your environment) it becomes really difficult to be perceived by other people in general. the mere concept of someone watching me do anything, whether it's a totally normal activity or something unfamiliar of embarrassing, whether I'm working in an excel spreadsheet or being horny on main, it just makes my skin crawl and my brain turn to static because I cannot convince myself that it's okay to be seen and experienced. because to exist is to be ashamed and embarrassed of myself, whether I'm failing at something or not, because my instinctive reaction to anyone commenting on ANYTHING I'm doing is to crawl into a hole and die. it's such a bizarre and dehumanizing feeling to just not be able to exist without constantly thinking about how you are being Perceived. ceaseless watcher give me a god damn break.

#by others #about me #tired phoenix

[phoenixflames12]

:)

#by others #poetry quotes #Richard legalienne #stunning

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Rowland Hilder (British, 1905–1993) - A February Day

#by others #art history #british art #rowland hilder #stunning

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Max and Morse in Endeavour S00E01

#by others #video post #itv endeavour #endeavour morse #max debryn #epic theatre #epic acting #emotional overload #stunning

[phoenixflames12]

PSA for lovely immigrants to the UK on here

My partner just got a scam call with an automated robot voice claiming there was a problem with their visa.

(Specific wording: "hello, immigration bureau. There is a problem with your visa.")

The number called from was 07359830478.

Fortunately for us, neither of us is an immigrant to the UK so we didn't even need to think about taking it seriously. Partner just hung up. But we're both hating the idea of actual immigrants getting that call, especially a refugee, anyone else in a vulnerable position, and/or anyone whose English and/or tech knowledge isn't that confident. :-( But even someone who can work out it's a scam pretty fast might get an unneeded anxiety jolt, and immigrants to here get a rough enough fucking time as it is. :(

We reported the number as spam; looks like we can't report it as a scam as we didn't lose money, it was just very obviously the opening gambit of an attempt to defraud.

I'd be tremendously grateful if some of you could reblog. The more people forewarned that this kind of nonsense is happening the better.

#by others #uk politics #important stuff

[phoenixflames12]

Maggie Smith, from "Lacrimae"

#by others #poetry quotes #maggie smith #lacrimae #stunning

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#by others #state of the world #important stuff #sudan

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Sense and Sensibility 1995 ‧ Dir. Ang Lee

#by others #People’s awesome edits #sense and sensibility #1995 #edward ferrars #margaret dashwood #epic theatre #epic acting #GIF set #stunning

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#by others #bible verse #bible verse 365 #Philippians 4:7 #words of wisdom #things to remember #christianity #faith