#mind wide open | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

archietransdrews · 1 year

Text

literally talking to the walls of my room like. riverdale's internal logic relies on the explanatory power of one's origins to an absurd degree, framing the actions of the protagonists as prescribed by their generational predecessors to such an extreme that the town's founding years not only provide meaning, context, and motive to current events as is typical in an archetypal place-based narrative but futhermore exert a horrifying control over the characters, compelling them to repeat or rebel against the actions of long-dead townspeople to whom they are only distantly related. these scenes from the past, when included in the show, are filmed using the same actors as the present-day scenes, producing the past as not only reminiscent of but in some aspects identical to the present. blood and bloodlines are used by various characters as explanatory schemas for the behavior of different characters throughout; riverdale is a place overdetermined by its own origins to the point that our protagonists spend years trying and usually failing to escape the combined generational curses of an entire town whose entire history consists in the repetition of its own genesis ad nauseum. does this seeming over-reliance on origins exaggerate the process to the point of effective parody, or does it merely & more straight-forwardly reinforce the [genetic] origin as privileged locus of [fictional] meaning?

a potentially conflictual reading of riverdale's historical "origins" is that they are invented or produced through the act of jughead's narration of riverdale as text; this reading posits that there is no "before" the pilot of riverdale, save what jughead invents to give additional meaning to the events which make up his plots. riverdale is his puppet show; everything in the text has been filtered through his point of view, which is to say that everything acquires the exact same level of (un)reality, whether it's a comic book character come to life or the sins of one's ancestors. in this framing, the true origin, and the key to whatever meaning might be made of this text, is the moment jughead's narration begins in the pilot with "our story is about a town.." in foregrounding jughead's ongoing acts of authorship and creation which function to continually produce the narrative & all it contains, riverdale destabilizes epigenetic origin as a locus of meaning by framing it as in some way artificial, invented, unreal; however, it does this by substituting another, no less authoritative, specifically authorial origin in its place.

and there is still a THIRD possible genealogy through which we can read riverdale as understanding itself, namely the genealogy of the cinematic canon. we well know that riverdale is constantly referring back to earlier moments in the history of film, from 70s noirs to 80s coming of age movies to 90s thrillers to etc. etc., not so much situating itself within this history as aiming to encompass all of the various stages of the medium's development. this argument could be broadened to include the histories of other prominent cultural forms, namely the novel and the comic strip; the meaning in riverdale might be said to be primarily derived from comic conventions, the principles of character creation and economy of image that have governed strips for decades and which now cause riverdale characters to wear outfits that have no in-world meaning except to refer back to their original iconic wardrobes, e.g. archie and jughead's S and R t-shirts.

which of these frames has the most explanatory power? which best helps us to understand or analyze why events in riverdale play out the way they do? i think in most cases one needs some combination of the three to be able to even begin getting at what's going on, which suggests that at least part of riverdale's project is the destabilization of the genealogical narrative via the introduction of several distinct, at times competing, narrative origins. riverdale is a story whose meaning is located simultaneously in the past, the act of narration, and the development of cinema and comics as mediums. while this structure does not necessarily step outside of the dominant symbolic framework that looks to origins in order to generate the meaning of a text, it is in typical riverdale fashion that the show wants to do everything at once, meaning in this case that rather than privileging one frame through which we are meant to make sense of the show's content, we are given to several possible readings which are all compelling in their own ways & when taken together succeed in troubling the final authority of any one interpretation.

#took a break from the liveblog this week to watch some other programs but she is still HEAVILY. on my mind #the jughead paradox is going to blow this whole thing wide open btw #syllabus

184 notes · View notes

denimbex1986 · 8 months

Text

'Irish actors claim they have been treated like the poor relations in the film industry for decades despite big government tax breaks for major studios.

LA-based actor Alan Smyth revealed that Colin Farrell, Ruth Negga and Cillian Murphy have signed a petition for fair and equal pay for native performers and crew.

Over 2,500 people have added their signatures online.

It says the Irish diaspora in the US and worldwide strongly support the efforts of Irish Actors Equity, which is in talks with several government ministers to secure a guarantee “that Irish performers will not be subject to lesser terms and conditions regarding their intellectual property rights than international performers in similar roles”.

“This, unfortunately, has been the case for many years,” it states.

The petition is still open as Irish Equity plans to hold a solidarity rally with the striking SAG-AFTRA union and the Writers Guild of America today.

Smyth, who is from Dundalk, has first-hand experience of the set-up on both sides of the Atlantic. He has reaped the benefits of the American system where actors traditionally got residual cheques whenever their performances are aired.

The threat now, he says, is that the so-called “streamer” networks are imposing drastic cuts to the value of the residuals.

Hence, the strikes.

“It’s a lot worse in Ireland,” said the actor, who has starred in a number of big TV dramas, including CSI: NY and Criminal Minds.

“The system in Ireland is that the Irish cast and crew for the most part, unless it’s Colin or Cillian, are put on buyout contracts so don’t get residual payments.

“The awful thing about it is the Irish Government gives tax breaks to film and TV productions. Within the productions, the Irish cast and crew are paid far less than anyone brought over from England or the US. It’s 100pc discriminatory.

“Colin, Cillian and Ruth Negga have got behind the petition. They know how hard it is until you get to a point where you’re doing really, really well. I can really see how hurtful it is in Ireland.”

Actor Gerry O’Brien lodged a cheque for $800 (€735) yesterday for his role as an Irish man in Pirates of the Caribbean years ago. The payment covers just a quarter of the year.

He got a US contract for the job, rather than the typical Irish buyout one.

In contrast, he has earned just €54 in residuals in the last 20 years here. That was for an RTÉ TV series.

O’Brien said Equity wants a contract for Irish actors like that on offer to their British counterparts. The coveted UK contract sets out minimum pay rates, residual arrangements and other terms and conditions.

Irish production companies offer the buyout contracts on behalf of the major international studios when they are in town, he says.

A Dublin-based actor (27) did not want to be named for fear he would be “blacklisted” when going for jobs.

He has been following the Hollywood strike very closely.

“It shines a light on just how unfair the industry is,” he said.

“Those at the top are earning incredible amounts of money and profit. In a large part, it is due to those at the bottom scraping a living.

“I graduated from drama school in 2017. Last year, I made the most money I ever made working as an actor and that was €14,000. Obviously that is not sustainable.

“If you work on an Irish film, you get paid for the day of work and never see another penny. I routinely sign off my rights for €600 or €700 a day.

“I’m delighted that Cillian Murphy and Colm Meaney are coming out in support of small fry actors like myself.”

Actor Owen Roe has won many theatre awards during his career and his film appearances including Breakfast on Pluto, Intermission, Wide Open Spaces and Michael Collins.

He said actors here are “not prepared to go on strike” but it is an opportunity to inform younger ones of their rights.

“It’s far more competitive as well . There is AI and all those things. The whole buyout situation is not good for us.”

He was glad to see Cillian Murphy and other stars walk out of the Oppenheimer premiere in support of their US union.

“They don’t have to financially, I’d imagine,” he said. “It gives confidence to people who feel they are being exploited.

“I think it will be interesting to see what happens in America. If the whole thing of buyouts and residuals gets sorted. The attitude that we’re cheaper is offensive,” he said.'

#Cillian Murphy #Oppenheimer #Alan Smyth #Colin Farrell #Irish Equity #SAG-AFTRA #Ruth Negga #Owen Roe #Breakfast on Pluto #CSI: NY #Criminal Minds #Gerry O Brien #Pirates of the Caribbean #Colm Meaney #Intermission #Wide Open Spaces

88 notes · View notes

vcgardenia · 1 month

Text

Luke Castellan x Chrysanthis Green (OC) - One Last Time

wc: 2358

cw: angst, p in v, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it unless it's for story purposes), kissing

a/n: writing this made me rly sad so I'm gonna go eat some chocolate now

Chrysanthis wanted to kill him. She wanted to punch him in the face, then kick him, then drown him, then stab him. Then she would watch as he withered away into oblivion. Instead she just walked away.

“Chrys, wait!” Luke ran after Chrysanthis, “I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t need you.” That made Chrys stop. Need her? He had seemed to be able to function just fine without her for the past two years, why on earth did he need her now?

“Why. Are. You. Here? ” Chrysanthis said her sentence slowly, enunciating each word so he perfectly understood her question.

“Percy’s a damn good swordsman.” Luke chuckled as he opened his jacket and lifted his shirt, showing off a wide gash across his abdomen.

“Oh gods.” Chrys instinctively went to touch the wound, seeing the level of damage it had caused to his organs. She caught herself and stepped back; returning to a cold face of indifference,

“Why should I help you?” This took Luke a bit by surprise, which only infuriated Chrysanthis further. Did he think he could just waltz back into her life, did he think she would of her own will help the enemy?

“I-i, I don’t have anywhere else to go. My best healers are gone and, you're the best healer I know.” Chrysanthis rolled her eyes, trying to hold back a smile,

“Flattery will get you nowhere.” She started walking again and Luke followed behind her silently.

They continued walking until they got to her apartment, where Chrysanthis turned around to Luke,

“You aren’t going to make a sound. I’ll step in and make sure the coast is clear, then you’re going to run to my room.”

“Trying to hide me Chrys?” She glared at him.

“You’re lucky I’m helping you at all. Now wait here.” Chrys went into the apartment, leaving the smallest crack in the door. After a few seconds of waiting, Chrysanthis stuck out her hand, and waved him in.

As he stepped in he couldn’t help but have his mouth agape,

“You have an apartment this nice in New York?” Chrys hushed him, trying to get him to her bedroom door. All of a sudden, she heard voices from the other room, shit. Scarlett walked out of the room, and stopped in her tracks when she saw Luke.

“You’re back early…” she went to the kitchen to get some food, “Who might you be?”

“I’m uh, just a friend.” Chrysanthis scoffed. He was not a friend.

“Okay ‘just a friend’, would you like some water?” She handed him a cup and then grabbed Chrysanthis by the arm, dragging her out of Luke’s earshot to yell at her in a hush, “Christi, you have not brought a man home in years. What is going on right now?” Chrysanthis sighed,

“It’s complicated. I just have to help him out right now okay?”

“Okay…” Scarlett eyed Luke up and down, “He’s really hot Chris.”

Luke put his cup in the sink and gave Scarlett his signature Hermes grin. Scarlett had to restrain herself from giggling, not her fault of course, it was one of Luke’s gifts. That and his shit-eating grin.

“Thank you so much for the water, I was very thirsty.” Gods, Chrys wanted to get out of this situation.

“Luke, let’s go.” Luke gave her a sarcastic look, aw man, I was having so much fun! She returned it with another one of her glares. He quickly obeyed.

They went into Chrys’ room and she quickly shut the door behind them. Chrys turned her head when she heard a snickering sound, it was coming from Luke.

“I haven’t done one of those smiles in years,” he paused to chuckle more, “her face was absolutely priceless.” He couldn’t hold it back any longer, he started laughing.

Chrysanthis couldn’t help but laugh too, thinking back it was a pretty funny face. They both were laughing so hard she started to fall down to the ground, and Luke had to hold onto her shoulder to keep her steady. After a few minutes of them just laughing in each other's presence, they died down.

Chrysanthis quickly took Luke’s arm away from her shoulder, standing up straight so as not to make any more movements towards him.

“I’ll get the disinfectant.” She opened her cabinet, pulling it out, along with some ambrosia she kept in case of emergency. “Sit on the bed.”

Chrysanthis gave him the ambrosia to drink while she got some gauze and cotton for his wound.

“Okay, let me see it.” Luke took off his shirt, wincing at the contact between fabric and wound. Chrys carefully inspected it, placing her hand on the open wound.

She sealed it shut by using the ambrosia within his system and directing it towards his wound. Then she got out the stitches. As she was stitching his abdomen back into one piece, Luke piped up.

“How have you been?” Chrysanthis tilted her head, her eyes still focused on the stitching,

“Well after you up and left, I thought a change of setting would be good for me.”

“I-i never meant to up and leave you. I was going to tell you I swear it’s just-”

“If you had asked me I would have gone, Luke.” Chrysanthis blurted out. “If you had talked to me about it, if you had-, if you had just told me what was going on in that head of yours, I would have.” Luke was silent, tears threatening to leave his eyes and spill. But he couldn’t let them. If they did they would be spilling out of him for ages.

“Chrysanthis I-” he choked out.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s no use now is it? I have my life and you have yours.”

She went back to her stitching, already halfway done. Luke marveled at how efficiently her hands worked. The speed, the precision… the softness. Her hands were still just as soft as they were years ago when they belonged only to him.

Chrysanthis on the other hand, marveled at how much Luke had changed. His entire figure was more rugged and built from the battles. She grieved the loss of his once soft and beautiful skin. What had the world done to him? To her love? No. It was no use thinking about the past, Chrysanthis knew that. So she focused back on work.

“What’s your job? We used to talk about it all the time, what job we would have if we made it past the age of 18.” He chuckled, reflecting back to when they were so young, so naive.

“I’m a biochemical engineer. I work in a research lab at a university and make enough to afford this place.” She gestured to the apartment around her, the smallest smile cracking on her face. “Oh my gods.” Chrysanthis stopped her stitchwork.

“What is it what’s wrong?” Luke stiffened his body, more attentive of everything around him.

“Remember when you said you wanted to be a firefighter.” Chrysanthis broke down laughing, “And then you- for Halloween you dressed up as one, and it was the most dollar store looking outfit ever made but you were so happy so no one said anything-”

Chrys took a few more seconds to compose herself, as Luke relaxed his body and put his hands over his face, trying to get the image out of his head. “Why would you remind me of that?”

“I still have pictures from that stupid polaroid camera I bought at the dollar store.” She giggled guiltily.

“Well hey one of us is like, helping find the cure to cancer and the other is holding onto big aspirations of being a firefighter so I think we both know who won.” Luke chuckled.

“Hey, that is a very noble aspiration, don't be so hard on yourself.” Chrysanthis joked. Luke looked into her eyes with sincerity,

“Seriously Chrys, I’m really proud of you.” Chrys smiled up at him before continuing with her stitching. “Hey, random question, why did your friend call you Christi?” Chrysanthis half smiled as she moved her head down to focus on Luke's stitching.

“Well Chrysanthis doesn’t really roll right off the tongue and it kinda puts a big ol’ target on my back, so I changed it.” Luke furrowed his brow, bringing up her head with his hand,

“Well, I like Chrysanthis a lot better than any other stupid name people call you.”

She gave an unfeigned smile, forgetting the last time someone had called her that. Chrysanthis leaned in, allowing their lips to be mear atoms apart. They just stared at each other, neither one looking away from the other's gaze. Chrys sighed, blowing air into his face.

“We can’t do this Luke…” She tilted her head, not changing their distance.

“I know.” Luke cupped her face in his hand, shutting his eyes and sighing deeply. His eyes glistening once more with tears he refused to shed.

“Gods. I miss you so much Luke.” Chrys’ eyes were now also filling up with water, tears that had been stored inside of her for 2 years, 5 months, and 16 days.

Luke lifted up Chrysanthis from her kneeling position, placing her on top of him on the bed. She laid down on his chest, earning a short groan with a mix of pain and lust from Luke. She could feel his heartbeat flutter at her touch. Chrys looked up at Luke’s face, slowly making her way to it so that they were once again only atoms apart.

“You-” Luke whispered into her mouth, “You would have left your entire life behind for me?”

“Oh Luke,” she sadly chuckled out the words, “I would have done anything for you.” Chrysanthis finally planted a bittersweet kiss on his cheek, refusing to feel his mouth on her own.

Luke carefully unzipped the dress that Chrysanthis was still wearing from the night's festivities. Being sure not to damage it in its beauty. He quickly took off his pants and boxers, allowing himself to be completely vulnerable and naked in her presence.

She took off her panties, caressing his face as she entered him. They both whimpered at first contact, it had been so long since they had taken each other. There was no doubt they had taken others in between, but this was special, this was different.

Chrysanthis could feel the veins in his member as they perfectly brushed her clit, allowing a feeling of absolute pleasure to move through her body. Now that they had settled in, Chrysanthis set a pace. She rode on his dick, remembering every sensation, every part of the interaction, knowing it could very well be their last.

Luke kept hold of her hips, ensuring that she was stable and steady. His eyes were already rolling to the back of his head, trying to keep control of himself for her. Chrysanthis took hold of Luke's curls, feeling out the texture she had so long been deprived of.

The feeling of their bodies moving together was addictive. She never wanted to stop feeling him inside of her, he was a piece of her that had been missing for over two years, and she wasn’t quite ready to take it out yet.

The feeling of taking him raw was heavenly, and as Luke reached his peak inside Chrysanthis' vulva, an all too familiar warm liquid filled her hole with joyous contentment. Chrys reached her peak soon after, however she did not allow it to stop the rhythm.

And so they continued for as long as their bodies would allow them too. Until they were passed out in each other's arms from pure exhaustion. Until the hearts inside of their bodies halted in resignation.

♥♥♥

It was late, late night when they had finally finished being inside one another. They collapsed, side by side, just as they had all those years before.

“I love you.” Luke whispered out. Chrysanthis just laid there refusing to acknowledge that he had actually said that to her, “I love you” he repeated. As if saying it again would create less of a pit in her stomach.

“No, you-”

“I know. Just let me say it.”

“No. You can’t just say you love me and then up and leave again!”

“For fucks sake Chrysanthis I had no choice! That was two years ago!” Chrysanthis was now sat up, the tears rolling down her cheeks coming straight from her arsenal.

“Let’s make sure we make one thing very clear. You… are a selfish, self-serving piece of shit.” She took a deep breath, “You abandoned me 2 years ago. Because you couldn’t even be enough of a man to ask me if I would go with you. Tell me why that is Luke.”

“Chrysanthis I-”

“Leave my room, and my apartment. I never want to see your fucking face ever again.”

Luke thought of saying something, but he went against it. He rushed putting back on his clothes, forcefully opened the door to Chrysanthis’ room, and walked out. Chrys sauntered over to the front door, only doing so out of courtesy.

As Luke put on his coat to leave, he turned around to face Chrysanthis once more,

“You’re going to end up sad and alone, you know that right? All the defensive shit is just one of your fucked up coping mechanisms.”

“Yeah and why do you think I have coping mechanisms in the first place? Whose fault is that daddy's broken toy?” Luke shook his head.

“You know for the record, I didn’t not ask you to come with me because I was scared, or because I thought you would side with that shithead Percy.” He opened the door out of the apartment, “I didn't ask because I didn’t want you seeing what I would turn into.”

“Well then, I guess we both dodged a bullet then huh?”

“Yeah, guess we did.” Luke slammed the door behind him, leaving both of them in buckets of tears that would never be able to fully empty the loaded tanks of tears they had inside of them.

That was the last time Chrysanthis Green ever saw Luke Castellan.

#luke castellan #luke castellan smut #charlie bushnell #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #fem reader #female reader #smut #x reader #luke castellan x reader #ao3 writer #ao3 #ao3 fanfic #writers on tumblr #writing #writerscommunity #'im sitting eyes wide open and i got one thing stuck in my mind #wondering if i just dodged a bullet or just lost the love of my life

53 notes · View notes