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downwithpeople · 4 months

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manuscript found in saragossa

bad book. there's a reason some literature stays obscure and doesn't get much weight in the cultural unconscious. the thing about 1001 arabian nights is that (at least in the translation i was reading) it's full of crazy shit happening all the fucking time. there's magic. there's pornography. it really has it all. potocki gestures towards the gothic but he keeps circling the drain of spanish nobility engaging in courtly romance. i basically skimmed the last twenty days of stories because i couldn't fucking take it anymore and i just wanted to get to the end.

the most compelling chapters and the really interesting mysteries are set up in the first third of the book, where alphonse keeps coming back to the gallows and finding people who seem to have been bewitched by twin succubi not dissimilar to the mysterious moorish princesses that fucked him on the first night. then they join up with the gypsy band (jan's words, not mine) and the shit really starts to drag. it's like a polish how i met your mother where the gypsy chief (jan's words, not mine) is determined to tell the life story of every single person he's ever met - almost all of whom were spanish nobles who dealt with trials of passion and noblesse oblige.

the driving mystery of the story is the sheikh of gomelez, a mysterious muslim noble who seems to have a kingdom inside the spanish empire. the twist of the story is that the sheikh is real, the gomelez dynasty truly exists in a massive cave system in the mountains of spain, they really are fabulously wealthy, and they want to give it all to alphonse. the moorish princesses are real and as beautiful and fecund as you can imagine. all of the supernatural shit was a secret test of character for alphonse, who ultimately doesn't even need to convert to islam. he becomes rich and influential and writes his manuscript.

it's not a book completely without merit but i strongly doubt i'm ever gonna come back to see what i missed in those last ten days of shitty stories.

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ocd-kenobi · 2 years

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oh! I know The Name of the Rose is one of your favourite books (a great read, love it as well!), and that it inspired your AU drabble collection...which aspects of the book were your favourite and how you would like to see them reflected through the obikin dynamic in general, and/or in your future fics? thank you <3

omg pls and thank you for this, ilu. Also so happy you sent this on Saint Francis's feast day!

I think my favorite aspects of the book have not made it and probably will not make it into my obikin! I'm not really going to say anything about storytelling, librarianship, translation, gothic literature, or translations into anachronistic genres, which are the things that really get my heart clenching about that book.

I think mostly the things I was inspired by in it are the freedom to just write gay sex happening in monasteries (without having to make a whole thing about it) and the passionate discussion amongst medieval monks and friars (and the clergy) about how best to serve god. I was fascinated by the chapter-long debates about different monastic leaders all hinging on the subject of whether they should remain cloistered and hoard knowledge (monks) or whether they should be out in the community working in service of people and sharing their knowledge (friars.) Meanwhile, the clergy is just tied up in politics and power grabs. In my fic I'm looking forward to drawing some more silly parallels in having the community-serving friars (like Jedi) in tension with the money-hoarding church they are sort of a part of (the republic/the chancellor.) And just having more conversations between characters about that.

On a more specific note, I've been thinking of having a library-at-night sex scene in the forbidden sections of the library Just Because.

Gah, I love that book so much. I also totally ship William and Adso and maybe a little bit of their sexy mentor/mentee relationship has seeped into my Obikin, but not intentionally so.

On another note, I was also recently struck by this insane idea to write a Powerwolf/Monumental Mass AU where Obi-Wan is an innocent monk novitiate and the clergy of his church are werewolf vampires and in trying to investigate the strange things he's been seeing he ends up getting converted to their werewolf vampire ways because the bishop (Darth Vader) is just so sexy LMAO but that's another story.

#asks #medieval monks au #friars au #the name of the rose #powerwolf au

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kotokos-cafe · 3 years

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@urweirduncle You requested this! ;D

Slight Su1c1d3 trigger warning for Junko's part!

~ Mod Kotoko

Celeste, Junko, And Mukuro With An Ultimate Poet S/O

Celeste loves your talent a whole bunch!

She loves that it's such a refined and gothic talent to have.

It reminds her of the famous Victorian poets, like Mary Elizabeth Coleridge and the Brönte Sisters.

Even if you don't right those sorts of poems, that won't stop her from noticing the resemblance.

She won't approach you first to see your poems, but will absolutely listen if you decide to show her.

Celeste appreciates that a lot. She knows it takes a lot to show someone your poetry like that, and she's very grateful to have that sort of trust from you.

"The way you're able to string words together so beautifully and weave them into a work of art all your own is truly magnificent, S/O. It's beautiful, Darling. Thank you for sharing."

She's going to give honest but gentle feedback, not biased on her own preferences. For example, if she notices you overuse a word, she'll point it out and suggest synonyms.

She always makes sure to praise your writing, and refuses to allow you to think insecure thoughts about it. Her wonderful S/O isn't going to be feeling inadequate on her watch!

Celestia will also spoil you with lots of poetry merch! Doki Doki Literature Club! merch, stationary sets, and anything else that makes you happy.

It's best if you don't ask where the money is coming from. She is the Ultimate Gambler, after all. Her luck with gambling outweighs even that of Makoto Naegi's.

Point is, Celeste loves to spoil her partners, and since you're the Ultimate Poet, her best course of action is through writing utensils and supplies that assist you with your talent!

She'll stop if you ask her to, but she'll be kinda disappointed about it!

She says it's like fate that she won you! The gothic, royal-looking princess and her adorable little poet, singing sonatas at her.

She reads Shakespeare, if you can't tell, with Romeo and Juliet being her favorite, since it reminds her of you.

Poor Mukuro basically has no sense of self, so expect her to ask you if she should like it first.

"S/O, I-I know I'm stupid, so how do I feel about this? Do I like it?"

You ended up crying and telling her that she can feel however she wants about your poetry, and that you wouldn't hurt her for not sharing your opinions like Junko did to her.

From that moment on, she tried to be more open about her opinions about your writing, usually very good, but still quite afraid to express constructive criticism.

Poor Mukuro. :(

You wrapped her in your arms and reminded her that she's safe with you and she's allowed to have negative opinions, too.

Mukuro did her best to start giving you constructive criticism, but it's always coupled with an apology for having those feelings or asking you not to hurt her.

It'll take awhile to get her out of that habit, but she will, eventually, and she loves you so much.

She also is one to help you write poems! She'll do those fun games with you.

For example, she gives you a word, and you write a poem based off of it. With enough pushing, she may even join you and write a poem with you!

She absolutely learns to master whatever style you write, whether that be haikus, rhyming couplets, stanzas, or whatever it is you write in your spare time!

She's always the type to ask for tips to improve her writing, stating that she wants to learn from the best of the best, and be like the person she loves.

Mukuro has always been conditioned to believe that she needs to be someone else (Junko), so oftentimes, she'll either try to write like Junko would or write in your style to impress you.

If you tell her that she's perfect as just Mukuro Ikusaba, she will be in tears, mark my words.

But she loves you nonetheless, regardless of your talent, and strives to be like you.

Junko, at first, only liked you because she found you interesting because your poems brought her despair. It doesn't matter if you write about sunshine and unicorns or death and destruction of the world, your poems gave her despair, for whatever reason.

She was curious if you'd be willing to help her and use your poems to brainwash the class a year under hers into her loyal servants of despair.

Of course, you agreed. Your girlfriend had done nothing but loved and supported you, and if all she asked in return was that you use your talent to aid in her goals, you were willing to do so.

Junko tasks you with writing the most despair-inducing poems you possibly can, doing the same thing as Mukuro, and giving you words to base your poems off of. She'd ask that your poems praise despair and diminish hope, promising that she'd convert you to be just like her soon.

You were in love with her, truly, so you agreed. You did want to be with Junko forever, and if a life of despair was what it took for that to happen, you were completely willing. You knew you'd enjoy it soon, anyway.

So you helped her to brainwash Mikan, and Sonia, and Kazuichi, and Teruteru, and Gundham, and Peko, and Fuyuhiko, and everyone else that would soon become the Remnants Of Despair, and even her own sister, Mukuro.

You were in a world of pure despair as Junko manipulated everyone to do her bidding, which you ruled alongside your queen as the Remnants wreaked havoc in the streets.

Eventually, the time came for your reward, as Junko brainwashed you into despair, as well.

You two spread despair with your poetry, with Junko trying her hand at it, as well. That was often a date or some quality time between the two of you.

Except now, your poems all revolved around your genuine love for despair, as well as your love for Junko, which always makes her very happy.

She always insisted you would be happier in despair, and you were! You were grateful to her for converting you, and making the Ultimate Poet fall to despair.

You were her second-in-command, the one behind all her schemes and made them possible, usually with your creativity with words, which made you an excellent speech-maker. You were often the motivational speaker.

But alas, all good things must come to an end, and Junko eventually perished in the line of duty of gifting despair to others.

So what did you do? You followed your beloved queen to the grave, of course.

You would be together forever.

#fluff 🌸#angst 🥀#🎀 Mod Kotoko 🎀#Junko Enoshima #Mukuro Ikusaba #Celestia Ludenberg #tw: suicide implications #tw: death #🍬 order accepted! 🍬#🎂 here you are! 🎂

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tthael · 3 years

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Hello, I have a note taking app on my computer and I converted indelicate to a pdf with ao3 and put it in the note app and I've been rereading it and using it as a tool to become a better writer bc your writing is absolutely stunning dude. And having read it before and rereading it with the additional knowledge I'm blown away by how well you communicate your thoughts about the characters onto the page. It's so beautiful. I hope you dont mind me doing that btw.

Several years ago I was working on a writing project that involved a teenager very frustrated with figures in positions of authority abusing their authority and discounting hers and her family’s needs, and I distinctly remember looking at the page of long-written stuff and going, “Oh. I have explained every possible interpretation of this scenario, assessed to what degree the character feels it, and then discarded the ones that are no longer useful.” And I realized that I didn’t trust my readers very much--something one of my favorite readers told me years later.

And then I was in a Gothic literature course studying Henry James, and the instructor was talking about diagramming the sentences in The Turn of the Screw, and how when you read them it seems like all of those disparate clauses shouldn’t add up coherently, but eventually everything gels together.

“Yes,” I thought to myself. “I want to transgress on the lines between human and animal, between upper and lower class, between male and female, between the familiar and the foreign, between comfortable and frightening. I want to write like Henry James.”

And then I concluded that I was not Henry James, and I talked with that favorite reader of mine about the fear of being misunderstood and misinterpreted, and I thought a lot about Mark Twain’s quote about the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. I thought about how when you’re really fluent in a language, every word has individual connotations, and how when you understand those connotations and implications it’s very hard to say that any word has a synonym, because “arbitrary” and “insignificant” and “random” all have very different vibes, and I decided that as long as I conveyed what I wanted to in its most precise aspects, with all of the implications and messy raw edges of natural thought, I was happy with what I wrote. I didn’t care if I used 2 descriptive clauses to describe something when other readers with a red pen might prefer me to choose one (can one concept really be that similar to 2 things? Yes), and I decided to have more confidence in the things I wrote.

And I got a lot of positive feedback (like this) and I began to feel much better about my writing capabilities, and deciding that even if there are these “rules” about adverbs and descriptive language and limits on numbers of comparisons--a lot of people seemed to like what I was writing.

So I’m very flattered by this message. I know that my style is probably not super compliant with the basic lessons of writing workshops and writing 101 or even the doctrines laid out in On Writing by Stephen King himself, but I think it sounds like me. And I used to do that when I was learning how to write, too--I would identify a passage as “good writing” and copy it out in its entirety. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl was one of the ones I took excerpts from, just to start understanding what it felt like when good words came out of my pen. So was the section about the gang shootout in IT.

I’m very lucky to be able to write fanfiction and get the audience and approval that I have over the last year-plus, and I really feel like I’ve grown a lot as a writer since I started cranking out Things That Happen After Eddie Lives. So thank you so much for giving meaning to these last hard years of my life.

#my fic #indelicate #now what i'm gonna say may sound indelicate #nwigsmsi

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