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red-bat-arse · 3 years

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When I'm writing (fanfic or otherwise), I often find it difficult to incorporate songs in a way that doesn't sound or look jarring. Recently, while going through a few older books I own and my own writing, I figured out partly why this is. Really, it boils down to the type of song paired with the format of how it is presented.

Take this passage here from Howard Pyle's 1946 'The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood';

[At last the feast was done, and Robin Hood turned to Allan, who sat beside him. "Now, Allan," quoth he, "so much has been said of thy singing that we would fain have a taste of thy skill ourselves. Canst thou not give us something?"

"Surely," answered Allan, readily; for he was no third-rate songster that must be asked again and again, but said "yes" or "no" at the first bidding; so, taking up his harp, he ran his fingers lightly over the sweetly-sounding strings, and all was hushed about the cloth. Then, backing his voice with sweet music on his harp, he sang:

MAY ELLEN'S WEDDING

"May Ellen sat beneath a thorn,

And in a shower around

The blossoms fell at every breeze

Like snow upon the ground,

And in a lime-tree near was heard

The sweet song of a strange, wild bird.

...

There is ancient men at wedding's been,

For sixty years and more,

But such a wondrous wedding day,

They never saw before.

But none could check and none could stay,

The swans that bore the Bride away."

Not a sound broke the stillness when Allan a Dale had done, but all sat gazing at the handsome singer, for so sweet was his voice and the music that each man sat with bated breath, lest one drop more should come and he should lose it.

"By my faith and my troth," quoth Robin at last, drawing a deep breath, "lad, thou art –Thou must not leave our company, Allan! Wilt thou not stay with us here in the sweet green forest? Truly, I do feel my heart go out toward thee with great love."]

This format, where the song lyrics are written out on their own, was what I most commonly used when I first started out writing. It never felt quite right to me, and now I think it's because it works much better for older songs or music with a set or rigid structure, ballads if you will. It just looks odd to me when modern music is written in this way.

Now take this passage from some of my more recent writing, using a slow song from the 80s called 'Pharisee' by the late Stan Rogers;

[Ace picked away at a simple melody for a minute, trying to get the hang of it while his buzz was throwing him off centre, and he narrowed his eyes in concentration.

"I used to be a Pharisee. Cynical and wise, telling rich and godly lies of humanity…" his voice was gravelly and deep, and wavered with each change in pitch; it was not a traditionally appealing voice as perhaps Marco or Estelle possessed, but the mere fact that he was singing was enough to catch his audience's full attention. "But in the marketplace was seated a cripple with a lyre… I looked at him and said 'I've been rich but so unhappy, what sets you so on fire?'" he lost his place on the harp and cursed slightly, and then re-oriented himself a moment later. "And he said 'look upon me brother, I'm a man with peace of mind. You know I've never been much good at nothin' but the words I wrought-in-rhyme…'"

...

"Hold on to young friends you make of old… and cleave to the woman that keeps you whole… and keep a warm fire for all your friends who come in from the cold…" he stretched the word until it faded from his throat, and picked the strings without words for a few beats before he finished out the song. "Now I love you all as brothers and I don't have to know your names. I used to be so different, now I know I'll always stay the same…"

Ace stopped once the melody was through and squared his shoulders like he expected to be laughed at, but when all of his brothers began to heartily clap and called out praise for his show he actually cracked a small smile.]

Or, take this other example from a more energetic song, 'They'll Never Keep Us Down' by Hazel Dickens;

["United we stand, divided we fall! For every dime they give us a battle must be fought!" Donna belted out -face a ludicrous shade of red even in the fire's light. "So workin' people use your power to-keep-to-liberty! Don't support that rich man's style of luxury!"

Marco laughed at the look on Ace's face and sang along with their sister and Vista, who dropped down on his other side to join in. "An' there ain't no way they can ever keep us down, oh, no! There ain't no-way they can ever keep us down! We won't be bought, we won't be sold, we'll be treated right –well, that's our goal! An' there ain't no way they can ever keep us down!"

"I need another bloody drink," Ace said.]

The lyrics of the song are still there, but they're more incorporated into the actual dialogue, and the use of italics or bold font simulates the stressing of different words and changes in tone while the character is singing. The descriptions of the singer also add to the visual, especially for scenes where I want you to feel the emotion. It definitely takes a bit more effort to write, which may be why it isn't as popular. But for modern songs, especially ones with atypical changes in pitch or odd word structure, it feels like it flows more naturally. When looking it over again later, it definitely forces me to edit more thoroughly.

I'm certainly not educated when it comes to writing, nor am I trying to tell anyone how to structure their story. But since I've made this change in how I format written songs, I feel more comfortable including them. Maybe try it out and see how it works for you!

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ashes-in-a-jar · 3 years

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The Princess Hold: a Jon, Martin and Also Martin Tale

@dathen asked and I'm attempting to deliver XD

Really wanted to do this anyway as a sort of writing exercise. I hope y'all like it!

The Wind whipped around him angrily as though the air was cross at being forced to move around. The hallways, doors, shifting carpets, tacky plants and all that was that maze of a hotel were folding into themselves, creating a void for the air to rush in. Jon barely managed to find his bearings eventually completely losing his footing as the floor beneath him gave way into nothing. Vaguely he thought he was lucky he was on the bottom floor and immediately realized it didn't matter because now he was midair and falling fast.

He hardly had time to think beyond the bitter notion that while time and space didn't function, gravity seemed to work just fine when impact occurred.

Only it was not what he was expecting.

That is, it wasn't jarring or painful as it should have been. It was soft and gentle and made a muffled 'oomph' noise.

Jon tried to catch his breath as he looked up. His mind immediately calmed at the sight. Martin. His lovely Martin, slightly rattled was looking down at him as his arms were somehow wrapped around him in an almost princess hold.

But not quite.

Because the way he landed, there was no way a mere princess hold could catch him so securely and steadily. And that's when Jon looked up to his other side.

There was Martin. Again. As disheveled and surprised as the first.

"Christ, Jon??"

Jon whipped his head around to the first Martin. Then back to the other one. Then back again.

"Um..."

His mind took a moment to finally let the information seep in as he Knew what he was seeing. Oh. Interesting. It did not make it any less bizarre for him though. While fully comprehending what was going on he suddenly realized his current situation and his face began heating up.

"O-oh Martin. G-good. Um, it’s good to see you... both." He really didn't know which way to look and being held the way he was was not helping.

Martin (and... Also Martin?) must have read the daze and astonishment on his face because despite their evident bewilderment they both chuckled and gently set him down between them in perfect synchronization. They did not step back.

"W-what happened? We just got here, there was a hotel and suddenly..." Martin said, still confused.

"Jon what did you do this time?" The other Martin chided fondly.

"I, um, I killed Helen." They were not backing away and it was very distracting.

"Oh." Said one.

"Why?" Said the other.

Jon couldn't keep up. He just had a whole building implode like a black hole around him and he was still trying to adjust to the sudden change from being immersed in distorted, dizzying patterns to being back in the gray, eye-full, monotone landscape that now surrounded him and his beloved(s). He could hear the rain not too far away.

It was disorientating how nice and warm he suddenly felt. From both his sides. Both Martins had put their arms around his waist and back to steady him and kept their hands there. Two arms more than Jon was used to. It was strange. It was nice. It was... What were they talking about?

"Uhh.. I-It's a long story. Ish. I-I'll explain later." There is no way he could concentrate enough to explain all of the convoluted manipulation games he and Helen played. Not now when there are two very distracting persons standing so near him.

One Martin sighed "And of course you couldn't wait until you were safe outside to make her disappear."

"No. I'm sorry."

"It's okay Jon, we're just glad you're okay." The second Martin was stroking his back in reassuring circular motions.

"Uhh... H-how was your domain?" This is getting ridiculous. He needed a way to differentiate between the two Martin's in his mind otherwise he will just become more confused. He settled on a simple Right-Martin and Left-Martin where they were positioned around him accordingly.

"Uh, as you can probably tell, it was a... An enlightening journey of self discovery." Right-Martin said, eyeing Left-Martin reflectively. "I... didn't realize I’m quite so… argumentative."

Despite himself Jon snorted while Left-Martin rolled his eyes "Well..."

Right-Martin tightened his grip on Jon's back "Oh, be quiet you."

"I was going to say it goes both ways." Left-Martin smirked. "We had some important things to discuss so the split just... happened. Sort of underwhelming compared to what we're assuming you just went through, to be honest."

"Yeah." Right-Martin agreed.

"Hmm" Jon hummed, letting himself lean into Right-Martin's arms. He was quite groggy and being surrounded like this did not help him regain his attentiveness. Left-Martin stepped forward to sandwich Jon even further and buried his face in Jon's tousled hair. Right-Martin sighed and brought his arms down to tighten around Jon's lower back. Jon's breath stuttered slightly.

"So... Helen's gone then." Right-Martin said quietly.

"Yes." Jon breathed.

"Time to mourn?" Left-Martin asked. He lowered one hand to catch Jon's. It was a bit awkward in this position but his hand felt warm and secure so Jon wasn't complaining.

"You can if you want..." He looked up from Right-Martin's chest to his face. "Do you? want to mourn?"

"A bit? I mean, she was our friend, sort of."

"No she wasn't and you know it" Left-Martin quipped, squeezing Jon's hand. "She was just pretending to be our friend. Probably thought she had something to gain from it. You know how the Distortion is."

"Yeah, I guess. But she was one of the only other people we met on our journey that we could actually talk to. That must count for something, hm?"

"Maybe. But Jon killed her and probably had a good reason to, no?"

"Yeah, you're probably right, as usual." Right-Martin conceded begrudgingly.

"Well, when I'm right you're right. I'm you." Left-Martin stated and then unprompted leaned forward and planted a kiss on the Archivist’s left cheek.

Jon, who was half listening to the back and forth banter while blissfully basking in all that was his wonderful boyfriend Martin, started. "Wha-"

"Hey!" Right-Martin exclaimed.

Left-Martin rolled his eyes again. "Come on, you know you want to. Look how lovely and adorable he is." He pecked Jon's cheek again. Jon’s face was at this point so warm he felt like a Desolation domain in the making.

"Fine, yeah I do." Right-Martin tentatively looked at Jon who stared back wide eyed and gently leaned to plant an identical kiss on his right cheek.

Jon was almost gone at this point. This was more overwhelming than the confusion the Distortion tried to enforce on him. He hugged Right-Martin back with one arm and squeezed Left-Martin hand where it held his. They stayed that way for another moment before Jon gently extracted himself from between them, attempting to regain some semblance of control. He coughed and moved to straighten his hopelessly disheveled clothes and hair.

He could feel Martin slowly returning to himself, the effect of his domain wearing off as Left-Martin began fading while drifting closer to Right-Martin with a wispy, floating quality about him.

Jon was a bit disappointed at that. But maybe it was for the best. He's not sure he'd be able to handle having two of his boyfriend, even in the long run. Especially in the long run.

"M-Martin. Um... That was... Interesting. Th-thank you for the kisses."

Left-Martin let out one final snort before he faded into Right-Martin and became just. Martin.

They looked at each other a moment longer, drinking in one another's sight with endless affection. Jon broke the silence.

"If you need a moment to adjust, to... to mourn, take your time. But not too long."

Martin sighed in mixed relief and melancholy as he felt the effects of the merge. He smiled at Jon gently and asked "Why the sudden rush?"

"See that over there?" Jon pointed to the grey horizon, dark shapes sticking out like strange twisted fingers. "That's London"

"Oh." Martin said in a hushed tone. He laced his fingers with Jon's as they stood there, taking in the view.

"This is it then. The final leg of the journey."

"Yes." Jon said. "Let's find out if my efforts to clear our path were actually worthwhile."

"Hmm?" Martin hummed, confused.

"I'll explain on the way. Come on let's go."

He smiled fondly, oh so fondly at Martin, squeezing his hand.

Martin smiled back, lifted the hand to kiss it and stepped forward.

Jon followed suit and hand in hand they walked away from their meeting point, towards the unknown fate ahead.

#Lol i had fun with this i really hope it came out good #tma #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #jonmartin #tma spoilers #Tma fic #Tma 187 #Mag 187 #My tma fic

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bewitching-elizabeth-olsen · 3 years

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Press: “It’s a New Day”: THR Drama Actress Roundtable

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Gillian Anderson had been dreading this. A tripod had arrived at her home in the U.K., along with a mess of lights and, really, just the thought of having to sit through an hour-plus on Zoom had her practically reeling. But then the woman who stuns as Margaret Thatcher in the most recent season of Netflix’s The Crown got talking — about pigeonholing and pay equity, about grieving and giving oneself over — and soon she didn’t want to stop talking. And neither did anyone else — The Queen’s Gambit‘s Anya Taylor-Joy, Pose‘s Mj Rodriguez, Genius: Aretha‘s Cynthia Erivo, WandaVision’s Elizabeth Olsen and Ratched‘s Sarah Paulson — at THR’s annual (virtual) Drama Actress Roundtable.

Let’s start easy. Complete this sentence: On set, I’m the one who is most likely to be …

GILLIAN ANDERSON Hiding in a corner. (Laughter.)

ANYA TAYLOR-JOY Pacing whilst moving my hands like this (waving above) trying to figure out what it is that I’m doing.

SARAH PAULSON Bossing everyone around.

ELIZABETH OLSEN Probably trying to make the crew laugh.

At the same time, you’re also inhabiting characters for long stretches and often they require you to go to dark or heavy places. What happens when a director yells, “Cut”? Do they come home with you?

MJ RODRIGUEZ I try to separate myself from Blanca as much as possible, especially [because we’re] dealing with immense trauma. So, when I go home, it’s Michaela Jaé going home, and I bring Blanca to the set. It’s easier that way because it can weigh on you otherwise and wash off on your family.

TAYLOR-JOY I wish I had as much control over it. For me, there are some characters that you can very easily snap in and out of and then there are other ones like Beth in The Queen’s Gambit. I’d worked back-to-back on two projects with one day off in between, so by the time I got to filming the show, I was exhausted and there was no energy to create a barrier. And that was potentially the toughest thing about the show, because it was a wonderful experience as an actor to be able to not have to reach for any emotion, but then you also have to go through the psychological warfare of figuring out, “Why do I feel so awful in the morning?” Like, “What is happening?” And then you go, “Oh, it’s not my feelings,” but I have to sit in them all day and I have to be aware enough to go, “You are not depressed, the character is depressed, and at some point that will leave you.” But I do think a bath every single night — being able to have the visual representation of washing yourself clean of something — helps.

OLSEN Regardless of what exactly the day requires of you, emotionally, you’re just tired. And so you try to be patient and professional and kind, and then when you go home, that’s when your fuse is just … smaller. (Laughter.)

TAYLOR-JOY You should date us, we’re fabulous.

youtube

CYNTHIA ERIVO I did, it was a real ugly cry. After playing [Harriet Tubman in the 2019 film], I went straight to see my mother in London and I don’t know what happened, but I just broke. You know the visual representation of shattering glass? That was what was happening to me. All the stuff I had to dig through to play her, all that heartbreaking stuff didn’t leave me when I finished, and it took time to just dissipate. And it was the same with Aretha — unfortunately, the pandemic hit when we were in the middle of shooting, so I couldn’t completely get rid of her during the six-month hiatus, and then I had to go right back into playing her. And it’s little things, like mannerisms, that stick with you. The lilt in her voice when she’s speaking to people. Like, that’s not me but I was stuck with that for a bit. And I was recording an album at the same time, so there was no space between one and the other. It took me a while before I could listen to an Aretha song again.

ANDERSON I certainly had that experience doing X-Files for nine seasons. I had a good couple of mini breakdowns during that, and at the end, could not talk about it, could not see it, could not see pictures, could not. I needed to immerse immediately in theater in another country. And then after a while, I was able to embrace it again, but when I started to embrace it, it was almost like I separated myself so much that I was looking at the image as if it was another person. When you immerse yourself so entirely as we can and we do for such long periods of time, there’s not going to be no consequence to that. Of course, there’s going to be consequence to that.

TAYLOR-JOY May I pose a question to the group?

Please do.

TAYLOR-JOY It’s so wonderful hearing you two talk about this, because I’ve always felt really crazy for the depressions that you go into after you leave a character and not being able to necessarily connect with yourself. And I’m really curious to hear what your relationship is with something being seen. Because when I first started working, I convinced myself that filmmaking was a very private practice with a private group of people and that no one was ever going to see it. And I thought I’d grow out of that, and I haven’t. Every project I have to sit myself down about two months after it’s finished and go, “People are going to see this and have access to it whenever they want.” How do you guys work [handle that]? Because for Queen’s Gambit, I had to go through a grieving period. It was grief, genuinely, to think, “Oh goodness, this thing that I loved so much is not mine anymore.”

ANDERSON I had that experience after doing Blanche in Streetcar [Named Desire] here in the U.K. and then in New York.

OLSEN I saw your last performance in New York. You were fabulous.

PAULSON Fucking phenomenal.

ANDERSON I felt like I’d lost my best friend. I was grieving. Some friends of mine in New York had a brunch for me the weekend after [I finished my run], and I arrived like a complete wreck. It was so profound. I also knew it was unlikely I was going to do it again because I knew that I’d probably lose my mind. I got really close. Like, I’d survived by the skin of my teeth and if I did it again out of ego or attachment or not wanting to let her go, there would be consequences. So I knew it was the end, and it was so sad.

ERIVO Do you know what’s so crazy? I listen to you and I’m like, “Oh my God, that’s what was happening to me during The Color Purple.” It was the last show and I started grieving in the show, knowing that it was coming to an end. There’s one last song and I couldn’t get through it. And then the show ends and I buckled under the sadness of it. But there was no way I could have continued playing Celie on that stage. It [had been] 14 months and I had to let her go. The line between me and her had disappeared. But to answer your question, Anya, I’ve never had an issue with people seeing things. I usually have an issue seeing it after it’s done.

PAULSON This happened when I did Marcia Clark [for The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story]. I felt a profound connection to her and I felt protective of her, and the experience had been so tectonic plate-shifting for me, both as a performer and as a human, and I thought, “If I watch it, I’m going to pick apart everything.” She was left-handed, so every time I use my right hand, I’m going to think, “God damn it, why did they use that?” So, the only way to protect myself from that is to detach from what the world will experience with it. And I’ve maintained that for a long time now — I really don’t watch [things I’m in] because I don’t have the strength, first of all, to bear the sight of my face and, also, I find it really confronting. The preciousness of the thing you were creating with these other people is what I want to be the indelible thing for me and not how it was edited.

TAYLOR-JOY Mm-hmm.

PAULSON All that does is make me furious because I don’t have the power to go in and go, “Hi, um, could you choose take six? It’s infinitely better.” (Laughter.) And when you don’t have that ability and you’re at the mercy of someone else’s opinion of what is the finest work that you’ve done, which doesn’t always line up with what you feel, it’s really jarring and you feel so powerless to do anything about it. So, I have to just sage it all out and let my experience be the only thing that governs the way I feel about it.

RODRIGUEZ When the first two seasons of Pose came out, I didn’t watch them at first because I was just so nervous about how the world would receive it. It was a story that a lot of people haven’t gotten to see, and it was a whole bunch of trans women of color finally getting their shot. It’s a lot of responsibility. And on top of that, it’s a story that’s filled with trauma and things that a lot of us trans women have gone through, so it was hard for me to watch all of those things back.

Gillian, in your career you’ve also been a champion for pay equity. But even as you were promoting a book you co-authored on female empowerment a few years ago, you acknowledged that you were nervous speaking up about being paid less than your male co-star. What do you think you were scared of, and how have the conversations for you changed since?

ANDERSON I just need to point out that I first fought for pay equity way back when it was audacious by anybody’s standards, because I was a nobody when we started to do that series. But when I really spoke up about it was when it happened again, four or five years ago, after the career I’d already had post-X-Files. We were going back to do another season and Fox came to me to offer, I don’t know, a 10th of what my co-star [David Duchovny] was being offered. That was the point where I was like, “Fuck this. I’m actually going to talk about this [publicly].” And since then, it hasn’t really come up. I mean, I haven’t worked with a lot of men, so that hasn’t been an issue. (Laughs.) I’m certainly tuned to it, and were it something now, I’d address it. But I have so much admiration for anyone who stands up for their right either to be paid or to be hired, period. And look, they weren’t going to fire me on The X-Files. The stakes weren’t that high. I put my foot down, not because the stakes weren’t high, but if they were going to fire me, some people were going to have some things to say about that. It’s very different for a young woman going into a job situation with a boss who’s overbearing and asking for a pay raise.

Sure, you had leverage.

ANDERSON Yeah.

For the rest of you, when have you spoken up in your careers?

ERIVO I mean, the obvious is I’m a Black woman, and that has a lot to do with how you’re paid, how you’re hired, if you’re hired, the way you’re hired — it affects everything. I’m lucky enough to have a team behind me that is brave enough to ask the questions I’d like asked: What I’m being paid compared to the leading man in the show, or if I’m being paid a lot less, whether or not they are willing to come up so it becomes equal. And about little things in my contract that just make it easier to exist on a set. For me, it’s about having the guts to stick with it and to keep asking and keep fighting. And there are definitely times where you’re like, “I am so exhausted from asking the same thing.” Like, if we could please have this makeup artist with me because usually there are no Black makeup artists on a set and you’re the only one who needs one, and I’ve had to have that fight every single time I’ve gone onto a set: “I need to hire these two people because they are the only people that understand how to do my face or my hair.” It isn’t about vanity, it’s about making sure that whoever I’m playing is represented in the right way because they understand how to work with my skin tone and my hair. But you keep sticking with it because it’s not just me having my way, it’s me being able to employ two other people. And then maybe I’m asking, “Can we have a DP who understands lighting that works on my skin tone?” So it’s constantly being OK with asking the questions. And there is a bit of fear, like, “Am I going to be seen as difficult?” And yes, there are times where I’ve had someone say they’ve heard I was difficult, but usually, it’s because I’ve asked a question that will make for a better surrounding or a better show. And if I keep asking the questions and if other ladies like myself keep asking the questions, and we keep trying to better our spaces, it just becomes the norm — because at some point it has to just become the norm.

Elizabeth, I believe you had a saying in your house growing up, “No is a full sentence.” When do you find you use it?

OLSEN I use it a lot. (Laughs.) I use it when I’m on set. I mean, I want to be a part of every department when I’m on set. I want to understand the schedule. I want to understand everything. I produced a TV show [Sorry for Your Loss] that didn’t get too much light of day because it was on Facebook, which, whatever … but as a producer on it, it was really important for me to be a voice of everything you’re saying, Cynthia, and have heads of departments feel like and look like the freakin’ world. And just from having a taste of that for two seasons, I can’t [go back]. So when I go to do Dr. Strange 2 in England, I guess I use it when I just can’t shake it even though [the production is] so much bigger than me. I don’t know, my opinions are vast and everyone hears them, from the first AD to the EP. I think I’m like a representative of anyone having a hard time on set. … (Laughs.)

PAULSON You’re the Equity rep, I love it.

OLSEN Oh my God. (Laughter.)

When you think about your careers, is there someone else’s that you look at and go, “Ooh, yeah, I’d love that”?

OLSEN Gillian’s, Sarah’s …

ERIVO Yeah, Sarah, you’re that for me. You’re fucking incredible.

PAULSON You saying that to me makes me want to cry because sometimes you feel like you’re doing this in a bubble and you don’t even know if anything you’re doing ever has any meaning or impact to anyone.

ERIVO It does. From my heart, it does. And I hope I get to work with you one day.

PAULSON I’d give my eyeteeth. (Laughs.) For me, it’s Gillian — somebody being on a TV program for a long time that’s wildly successful and then retreats to another country to be onstage, to reconnect yourself to the very things that inspired you and made you want to be a part of this. It all gets very confusing in terms of how to navigate [this business]because you do want to make a living, but you also want to follow your heart. And there does come a time where you can become quite depleted from the constant output without any input. And if you’re a woman of a certain age, which I certainly am, I feel like I’ve got one foot on one window frame and I’ve got the other one over here and I’m just trying to insist that they stay open for as long as possible. And some of that is beyond my control, but when I look at Gillian’s career I just go, “Well, I want that.”

ANDERSON Thank you for saying that. On the one hand, I feel like there is some degree of design, but I’ve also never really gone after things. And when I finished with X-Files, I didn’t know if I wanted to be on a set again ever. So aside from having grown up in the U.K. and wanting to go back, I knew it would take time before I could, if I was going to. And in London, you could move between theater and TV, and that was always my dream. But every actor has the thing that they’d want more than the thing that they have, and I’m a cinephile, and so I [wonder], “Why do I keep doing TV? All I want to do is do film.” And I’m still doing TV. (Laughs.) But I’ve had such amazing opportunities that, coming from Scully, I even questioned people, like, “Why are you offering this to me? What makes you think that I can do this?” I’ll also say that as soon as you have kids, kids are the priority. So, I say to people, “I’m gonna be such a pain in the ass for you to hire. But if you think I’m this person, I’m gonna need to work during this period of time and then have time with my kids. And it’s going to be expensive for you. If you are willing to do that, then I’m your girl, and if you’re not, you need to find somebody else.”

Anya, Queen’s Gambit became a global juggernaut. How have your opportunities and choices changed? Is there pressure to strike while the iron is hot?

TAYLOR-JOY I think I’ve always followed character and only recently did I start following directors as well, but it’s always been about, “Do I feel like I’m the right person to tell this story? Do I think I can tell this story correctly?” And if you look at something like Queen’s Gambit, it was not supposed to be the white-hot show; it’s a show about a girl that plays chess for seven hours, but I felt so compelled to tell that story. So, it sounds cheesy, but I really just keep following my heart. OK, wait, I take that back. Something I’m also learning is that you give yourself to this person for three to six months, and I never used to think about this before, but now I start thinking, “Am I ready to give up my life for this person? Do I need to tell this story so badly that I’m going to do that?” I try not to think about what other people will think, because it’s your life at the end of the day. And as we all know, you’re that [character] every hour of the day, and when you go home it’s difficult to let go of them, so you have to really love them.

Mj, you’ve talked about how significant this show was for you and for the visibility of the trans community. How have the opportunities being presented to you post-Pose changed?

RODRIGUEZ In the middle of the third season, I started figuring out my worth, and it’s scary. I was nervous. I didn’t expect to actually book my next job after Pose.

ERIVO I did.

PAULSON We all did.

RODRIGUEZ And see, that’s my insecurity and that’s something I have to fix. I didn’t think it was possible. To get an opportunity like Pose and have myself centered in the story and to end it with hope, and then to get another opportunity with an iconic actress [an Apple TV+ comedy co-starring Maya Rudolph] was surreal. But if I’m still feeling the need for protection as far as my Blackness, my Latina-ness and my trans-ness go, that means there is more work to be done.

Are there doors still not open to the rest of you? Parts you’d love to play if only Hollywood would see you that way?

PAULSON No one has asked me to do a comedy, and I’m a little frustrated about that.

ERIVO And you’re funny as fuck.

PAULSON I spend a lot of time in these worlds where I’m either running or crying or screaming or playing a real person and trying to get their physicality, and I’d really like to do a nice road picture with me and a couple of chicks.

ANDERSON Ooh, I’ll go with you!

PAULSON How about all of us just in a road movie — like, get a Winnebago and let’s go?

ERIVO I’m down.

RODRIGUEZ Yeah, count me in.

ANDERSON I’m 53, Sarah, and I’ve really only been offered comedy in the last three years of my life, and I don’t think that’s because I’m any funnier than I used to be. I think a lot of it is that people just couldn’t fathom it, whether it was that Scully was still in their minds or it was someone else, because I’ve played a lot of dark characters, too. And so they just weren’t coming. And then came [Netflix comedy] Sex Education — and I passed when it first came to me because I didn’t think it was right. It was my partner who proverbially dug it out of the trash.

ERIVO I’ve yet to see a Call Me by Your Name for a Black woman, I have yet to see a piece that allows a woman of color to be sensual and soft and loving and be loved. I’ve just not seen it, and I desperately want to experience that, just because I want to be able to be in that space of vulnerability and lilt. I really want to do that. And that hasn’t come my way. A comedy hasn’t come my way either.

RODRIGUEZ Same. It’s been so hard when it comes to trans women being loved in a sensual way, and I’d love to do something like that.

Elizabeth and Anya, to Sarah’s point, Hollywood likes to keep actors in a lane. How have you avoided that kind of pigeonholing in your careers to date?

TAYLOR-JOY I’ve been saved from a lot of things in my life from pure innocence and naivete, genuinely. My first movie was called The Witch, I got a script immediately afterward that was about, you guessed it, a witch, and I figured, “Wow, why do they want to see me do this again?” So, I was immediately like, “Can I not do anymore witch movies, please?” And my agent was like, “OK. Sure, whatever you say.” I wonder how many people agree with me here because I certainly want to please, but in order to please, I don’t have to give up myself, and actually it’s more important to please myself than it is to please anybody else. I’m giving my heart, my body, my soul, everything to this character, I’m not going to do something because somebody wants me to do it. That doesn’t make any sense and, also, it makes me miserable and then I can’t do my best work. And so if I feel the opportunities that are being given to me aren’t the right ones, then I have to stick my neck out and go, “Hey, I think I could maybe do this, if you’ll give me the opportunity to try.”

How about you, Elizabeth?

OLSEN [In the beginning,] I was just trying so hard to not be put in a box that that’s what was guiding my choices. I knew that I didn’t want to be an actor who was thought of as “youthful and beautiful” and whatever that attachment people like to put onto young women, and so I did everything in my power not [to be seen as] that. But I didn’t have my own pillars of why I wanted to do things beyond just the character. That started to solidify only in the last five years. So I made a lot of odd decisions [after theater school at NYU] because I didn’t know enough about film and the machine of it. Right, Sarah? You were there for that time. We were in Martha Marcy May Marlene, and I remember someone asked me, “You had Sarah Paulson with you, didn’t you know it could be a film people saw?” And I was like …

PAULSON You were like, “Who the fuck is Sarah Paulson?” (Laughter.)

OLSEN No, but independent cinema to me was just, like, going to Quad Cinema in New York and seeing a movie. The theater world is all I understood. So I feel like a moron for going back to theater only once in 10 years. And this conversation with Gillian right now is inspiring.

In light of Elizabeth’s concern about the trap of being perceived as “youthful and beautiful,” how would you all complete this sentence: I wish our male counterparts also had to …

OLSEN Deal with lighting and hair and makeup before doing press. I don’t know what I’m doing.

ERIVO Deal with people believing that you’ve lost your sexuality after the age of 30.

TAYLOR-JOY Had an understanding of what it was like to walk into a room and sometimes have to enforce yourself for people to take you seriously. That ability to just walk into a room and go, “I am valid, I own my space and everybody respects me” — it would be good if they knew what it was like to not have that.

ERIVO And on the flip side, to not have to deal with walking into the room and trying to make sure people aren’t scared of you when you get there.

What do you all know now that you wish you could have told yourself at the beginning of your career?

PAULSON I would like to have told myself that I didn’t need to excise myself from the experience. I was very focused on looking at other actors who had careers that I admired when I was first starting out and wondering what it was about them that made it possible for them to be chosen or employed and I’d often try, in an audition or a social setting, to mimic what I imagined was the desired effect, taking me out of the scenario. And there’s this beautiful Martha Graham-to-Agnes de Mille letter that I used to keep in a dressing room any time I was doing a play, about how there is only one you in all of time and space and that what you see and how you experience things is unique to you. And if you block it, the world will not have it. And as a young person, I thought, “Mute me, mute my opinions, my thoughts, my assessments and try to fill it with other things,” and now I think it’s the exact opposite, so I wish I had known that earlier. But I’ll take knowing it now [over] never knowing it at all.

RODRIGUEZ I would have told my younger self that my existence is worth it. When I was younger, I tried to fit into this mold of what a woman should do — you know, keep your legs crossed, always bow down to a man. But we don’t have to live in that world anymore. It’s a new day.

It is, and that’s a good place to end. Thank you all for sharing your time and your stories.

ERIVO I know we’re supposed to finish, but do you know what’s occurred to me as I’ve listened to every one of you? I remember where I was when I watched every single one of you — and I remember what I was dealing with or going through. I was watching you, Sarah, when I was shooting Aretha. I was watching you, Elizabeth, when I was in London on my own, and you, Anya, when I was in Atlanta. Mj, I remember watching a season of Pose while I was shooting The Outsider. And Gillian, I watched you when I was in a hotel with my partner outside of London. And I remember what happened. And so your performances aren’t just brilliant, your performances get to be Post-its in all of our lives, and so I thank you for that.

PAULSON That’s a very beautiful way to put it …

ANDERSON It also brings us back full circle to what Anya said at the beginning, which is, “Oh my God, I have to keep reminding myself that people are going to watch this.” But actually, thank God that people are watching it, because we’ve touched each other’s lives and numerous other people’s lives just by focusing on the thing that we love most.

TAYLOR-JOY And the importance of these conversations is the honesty, because it’s very easy for us to get locked into our own heads of this as an individual experience — “There’s something wrong with me,” or “Everybody else is doing really great and nobody else grieves their characters,” or whatever your version of that is in whatever industry you’re in. But having honest conversations with people who are willing to be vulnerable just makes me feel so much less alone.

PAULSON The next time you feel that way, text me. I’ll remind you. I’d also like to say that there’s this [perception] of women being pitted against one another and not being there for one another, and this conversation is diametrically opposed, in that what we are actually saying is that each of us has been buoyed by and inspired by the work of everyone here. So, I may not watch anything I do, but I sure as hell am watching all of you.

Press: “It’s a New Day”: THR Drama Actress Roundtable was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen

#Elizabeth Olsen #WandaVision #Avengers #Scarlet Witch #Wanda Maximoff #Sorry For Your Loss #Avengers Infinity War #Avengers Age of Ultron #Captain America Civil War #Ingrid Goes West #Godzilla

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grayseekerswritinglife · 4 years

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Tricks & Treats (1/5)

Chapter One: Smoke-Bombs

Starscream locked his lab door behind him and took a long, hard look around. He was alone. There was no telltale ‘vop’ of teleportation, nor was anyone perched on his work-bench, feet swinging idly as they babbled a string of increasingly nonsensical questions.

Hey, Starscream! What about exploding snakes? That’d be cool, right? No—wait! What about sparklers that turn into snakes and then explode? I mean! One second you’re wavin’ a sparkler around, and next it turns into a snake and explodes! Wouldn’t that be nifty?

“It would not,” Starscream growled, stalking through his now-vacant lab. “It would not be the least bit ‘nifty.’ It would be a puerile, pointless waste of my time and intellect.” He yanked open a supply cupboard, grabbed a sturdy trash bag, and began clearing away the mess. There was glitter. A lot of it, in varying shades of orange, black and purple. Also various accelerants, types of fuses, scraps of hollow, articulated cable meant to resemble snakes, globs of sticky orange resin designed to bond to one’s exo-structure and look… well, gross, and—last but not least—a pumpkin-shaped mold for making inflatable gourds.

Once the last bit of ‘snake’ tubing had disappeared into the bag, Starscream allowed himself a sigh of relief. While he’d accepted long ago that the only sure way to get any uninterrupted lab-time was to appease Skywarp’s need for ever more creative pranking supplies, this event that humans called ‘Halloween’ was testing the limits of his fragile patience. He tossed the bag in the trash receptacle and trudged to his workstation where he paused, one hand on the power-switch.

“Now, where was I?” His gaze settled idly on the holocube that sat beside his workstation. It showed two explorers about to depart Cybertron on a deep space mission. Neither of them had heard of Halloween, which was probably why they both looked so optimistic. “Ah, yes,” he said as he sat down. The screen flickered to life, and the project he’d been working on three days ago, when Skywarp had first invaded his lab, appeared. Within moments he’d re-immersed himself, and was in the throes of some highly sophisticated mental calculations when someone pounded on the door.

“Go away!” Starscream shouted. “I’m busy!”

The knock came again. Louder this time, and more urgent. So much for uninterrupted lab-time. Starscream pushed his chair back with a growl, pausing just long enough to switch off his monitor before he stomped to the door. Whoever his caller was, it couldn’t be Skywarp. Skywarp wouldn’t have knocked; he would have teleported right in and started nattering about his latest prank idea. The only other likely choice was Megatron, who sometimes knocked, but wasn’t always in the mood to respect a locked door. The last thing Starscream wanted was for Megatron to see what he’d been working on. Unlike Skywarp, he might actually figure out what it was.

“I’m coming! Hold on to your trigger-guard, and—” Starscream broke off as the next round of knocks were accompanied by… yes, it was: a faint boom of thunder. A sonic boom, just strong enough to rattle the chemistry glassware on his shelves. He yanked the door open.

“Thundercracker?” Starscream stared at his Trinemate. He wasn’t used to seeing Thundercracker by himself. Normally, Skywarp was at Thundercracker’s side—when he wasn’t haunting Starscream’s lab—and his presence provided a certain buffering influence. Alone, Thundercracker looked… dangerous. Especially with his wings hiked to such an aggressive angle and his fist raised to batter the door again. Or, possibly, Starscream’s face. He looked angry enough to try it, and Starscream took an involuntary step back. “What are you doing here?”

“Is he here?” Thundercracker demanded, peering into the lab. “Please say he is.”

“Is who here?” Starscream asked, irritated at his own reaction. He was the Trineleader, for frag’s sake. He had no reason to feel intimidated by an underling. Thundercracker shoved past him and stalked into the lab, raking his gaze over the shelves, the monitors, the small berth upon which Starscream occasionally slept, and the cabinets filled with supplies and scientific apparatus. “Wow,” he muttered. “Geek Central.”

“What do you want?” Starscream demanded. It occurred to him he couldn’t recall the last time Thundercracker had set foot anywhere near his lab. His presence here seemed ominous. It also occurred to him that he had more to hide than just his secret project. The holocube on his desk was rather incriminating. Normally he shoved it well out of sight before entertaining the few visitors he got down here, but this time he’d forgotten. He edged in front of it, trying to block Thundercracker’s view. “What are you looking for?”

Thundercracker let out a sigh. “I was hopin’ he’d be with you, but…” he reached into his subspace and drew out a plain black metal box. “You know what this is, right?”

Starscream nodded. He’d recognized it instantly. Originally designed to hold specimen-jars, it had recently been repurposed to house smoke-bombs. “What about it?”

“I found it on his berth.” Thundercracker raised the lid. “It was empty. He also cleared out the compartment where he was stashing his other Halloween junk.”

“So?” Starscream adjusted his wings as he spoke, mentally gauging the optimal angle to keep the holocube from Thundercracker’s line of sight. “He’s probably commenced this… Trick-or-Treat nonsense he keeps going on about.”

Thundercracker shook his head. “Nah. He was saving all that for Halloween, which isn’t for a couple days. I checked.”

“Thirty-six hours,” Starscream corrected automatically. “But what about it? Maybe he’s getting an early start.”

“Maybe.” Thundercracker sounded doubtful. He started to pace, forcing Starscream to turn in his direction to keep his wings in the right position. “But I don’t like it.” He stopped and leveled a glare. “You couldn’t just let him have his fun, could you?”

“What?” Starscream flinched at the note of accusation in his Trinemate’s voice. “You think this is my fault?”

“Who else? You got him interested in human traditions in the first place!”

“Me? I beg your pardon?”

“You encouraged him to go looking for Santa Claus at the North Pole!”

“Just to prove there’s no such thing!”

“Well, he didn’t take it that way! He took it as encouragement.”

“But—”

“He’s also decided he’s the Easter Bunny.”

“What?”

“He’s gonna… I dunno, hide a bunch of eggs in the Command Center or… something.” Thundercracker swept a hand over his forehead, as if trying to push the thought aside. “Human traditions are so bizarre. Anyway, when he got interested in Halloween, you encouraged him.”

“I did no such thing! I merely—”

“Helped him build smoke-bombs? Yeah, exactly.” Thundercracker shook the empty box. “And all that other nonsense, the… fake snakes and stuff. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talkin’ about.”

“If you know so much, how can you claim I wasn’t letting him have his fun?”

“Because!” Thundercracker slammed the box on the nearest table. “Halloween isn’t just about playing tricks!”

“It’s not?” Starscream had been rather under the impression that it was, considering how thoroughly Skywarp had latched onto it.

“No. Apparently it’s also an excuse for humans to gorge themselves on whatever disgusting food passes for sweets in their weird, organic diet. Well, guess who else likes treats?”

“I…” Starscream’s mind raced. “Wait. Are you talking about the gold? I couldn’t let him keep that!” Earlier that day, Starscream had discovered a sizable bag of gold ore in Skywarp’s quarters. Primus only knew where he’d gotten it from. Starscream allowed his fliers to consume some of the rich, sweet metal, which could be healthy in small quantities. It could strengthen one’s frame by improving flexibility, for example, but in larger quantities it could soften one’s armor and add excess weight, ruining a flier’s aerodynamic performance. "I am the Air Commander,” Starscream pointed out. “I need my fliers combat-ready, and Skywarp was taking on too much ballast.”

“It was just until Halloween,” Thundercracker argued. “You could have waited a couple extra days instead of takin' away all his goodies. Now he’s…”

“What?” Starscream felt a twinge of unease. “What’s going on, Thundercracker?” He realized that in his rush to defend himself, he’d neglected to ask. He’d also forgotten about the holocube, which was now in plain sight if Thundercracker cared to glance in its direction. He didn’t. His gaze was on the empty box which had contained the smoke-bombs.

“I dunno,” Thundercracker said heavily. “He’s not answering me. He’s run away somewhere—probably to get more treats—but hell if I know where.”

“More treats?” Starscream mused. “If gold is what he’s after, I might have an idea.”

~~~~~~~

This was written for @darkstarofchaos for the @transform-or-treat Halloween gift exchange. There are five chapters of it in all, and I will be posting a chapter a day until Halloween! Many, many thanks to @justawayninja or being my awesome beta. Your suggestions helped me get the story to the next level.

#transform or treat 2020 #transform-or-treat #darkstarofchaos #transformers #maccadam #halloween #starscream #skywarp #thundercracker #skyfire #humor #hijinks #pranks #secret relationship #trine dynamics #team as family

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flying-elliska · 4 years

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Ok I caught up with wtfock s3 because well, it felt weird to leave unfinished (except a few clips i just didn’t want to watch, like the attack one). here’s what worked and didn’t for me (i’m pretty critical so don’t read if that sort of thing upsets you or you’re not in the mood) because i still think having this story remade so often is an unprecendented storytelling experiment worth thinking about even when it doesn’t entirely work (and i think argumented criticism is good, but if you post hate about the actors/fans etc you really suck tbh) :

- to start with positives : like many said, the acting was pretty damn good. overall wtfock has a really solid cast. the willems have succeeded in creating an onscreen queer intimacy that feels very believable, no holds barred and no awkwardness, and they have to be commended for that. there’s a lot of chemistry and tension at first between them, which then turns into something very soft and sweet and puppy-love-like. it was nice seeing Robbe evolve and the sweet bean energy that emanates from how the actor plays him is very very powerful. i also loved the warmth of the flatshare, and as a Dutchie I just adored the Sinterklaas bits, it was so funny and i loved the found family vibes. warmth is just something they do really well, esp with the last clips, perfume shopping, playing board games, the party at the end. They use the Christmassy vibes really well. the cinematography has its moments too, contrasts between warm and cold, the episode at the beach is gorgeous, the sequence in the tunnel, the light on their faces when they are in that classroom surrounded by drawings. wtfock as a whole is also good at creating some very lovable secondary characters, be it Milan, Yasmina, Noor, or especially king Senne. So, I do understand that there are things to love about this remake, which is probably why my disappointment feels so strong. I really wanted to care about these characters in their journey.

- on to the controversial : i don’t necessarily fault them for wanting to show a more prononced aspect of homophobia. i think the debate about this often lacks nuance. on one hand, this is the sixth remake, and homophobia is something that is still often prevalent, and having one remake show that out of six is not in itself a problem. on the other, yes, happy fluffy stories are important, but sometimes people who have gone through stuff like this also need to see their experiences represented. the power of skam is that it shows difficult experiences BUT ALSO a happy ending. that can be very healing, i think, compared to other stories which focus only on the drama. the trouble is, i don’t think they dealt with it very well, or put any effort into processing the consequences of these harrowing things. and if you don’t, it feels cheap.

- on to my main gripe : the writing. previsible, i know. but to me, essential. and this is not about them ‘changing things’ - i like when remakes change stuff, when they do it well. the thing is, i have been burned too many times before. and when i sense that the writing is being wack, it makes it automatically much harder for me to invest emotionally in the characters. and simply put there were signs early on that made me distrust the writers. for starters, the first two episodes gave me a feeling that they didn’t have their priorities in order. the POV-immersion and depth is one of the most powerful aspects of skam, and it was lost. too many early clips felt out of Robbe’s perspective, and when it was him it was about Noor ; a few clips to show his discomfort were on point, but there were too many of them, and there were repetitive, losing time on what isn’t really an essential part of Robbe’s journey. and while they were spending time on clips that felt like misery flavored filler, they decided several times to condense original clips focused on Isak and Even, together ; like their first meeting and then their first hangout, or later in the series OHN and the minute by minute talk. and i think their story suffered from that. i think because they don’t have a real discussion early on, the buildup of their relationship feels mostly based on physical attraction. and while it certainly is a thing that happens, it just isn’t my fave love story thing. i missed the sweet pining from afar and tension that makes later drama believable. it felt like they brought the drama comparatively too fast without enough character work to make it worthwhile. Also there is just too much time spent on Zoenne drama, and their breakup seems like it foreshadows the dreaded s4 love triangle, which, yikes. the focus is all over the place, the rythm felt incoherent.

- what’s more, they decided to introduce pretty grave elements of plot, like Robbe using slurs against Sander, the homophobic attack, the suicidal urges on both their sides, Sander kissing Britt while he was still saying I love you to Robbe in the morning, without either proper build up or resolution. It made it all feel cheap, jarring, and unearned, especially when they didn’t put trigger warnings or made jokes about it on insta or waited forever to give news about the characters being ok. it felt like drama for the sake of drama, and definitely not written with a vulnerable audience of queer teens in mind. and at the same time, when it came to the ‘big scenes’ of their relationship, like the first kiss or the universes talk or sander’s episode, it felt more or less lifted from OG without a lot of effort made to adapt it to them. i actually quit live watching/blogging after the first kiss scene, because of how similar it was, and how uninspired it felt, and lukewarm. it felt like a lack of imagination. when it came to OHN, the scene in itself was lovely, but the weird time gap, random timing and people seemingly doing nothing after a suicidal Sander disappeared, sort of broke it for me. In the OG the combo of buildup, longing, realisation, fear, release works so well in a sequence, and splitting it over time really diluted it, to me. Similarly the quickly thrown out ‘life is now’ at the ending felt sort of out of nowhere, while in OG it was such a lovely bookend, him apologizing to Eva and reflecting on his growth. The symbolism, which ties everything so beautifully together in themes of rebirth, salvation, baptism, union, faith, deciding your own narrative in OG, here feels inconsistent. There is an attempt I see, something about wasteland vs. warmth/family, but it’s often absent of main clips. It’s nowhere near as coherent as it could be.

- all of this builds up to the main problem for me, of the season. which is, i didn’t really get into Robbe and Sander’s relationship. Or their individual arcs for that matter. When it comes to Robbe, I guess he just isn’t my type of character. I feel like he is missing the fire of an Isak. A lot of the time he just felt too passive, like he let other characters make his decisions. I was waiting for him to stand up for himself more than he did. And there are too many scenes of another character doing his coming out for him. And then Sander ; I have to say I don’t understand all the love his character gets. Maybe because that’s because he sort of gives me Dutch fuckboi vibes...but there were several times he just came accross as a flat out asshole. I found him intriguing in his intro clip, chaotic and charming, but that never really went where i expected it to. i didn’t get his passion, what drew him to art. the symbolism around his character - basically Bowie, and drawing Robbe, and Chernobyl (which is a bit tasteless imho, turning a tragedy like that into a cutesy romantic thing), feels ...disjointed, and shallow to me. Like I never really got into it. And maybe some people did and noticed deeper links but to me, I got stuck at the surface. I saw a lot of interesting theories with what was going on with him but in the end they just copied OG. And I’m sad to say, but he ended up feeling like a manic pixie dream boy cliché to me, and i just didn’t understand what drew them to each other so strongly. Yes, Robbe is caring and Sander is in need of care, but that feels like a very reductive reproduction of OG. Beyond that...i don’t know. Certain complexities of the OG i loved just...were sanded away, like Isak being ignorant about MI and learning compassion. This just...didn’t feel like it had the same depth, and often felt like soapy teenage drama, leaning too hard and too lazily on the actors’ chemistry. i like my romances wordy and solidly enmeshed in character development, and this was not it. It never felt like they had a real conversation about things, esp after the drama.

- i think this is the first remake that made me actually angry for reasons not related to problematic cast shit, and so i’m trying to analyze that emotion. for me it comes down to too much drama, too heavy handed. Too much of the boy squad being shitty to Robbe, too much Noor, too much filler clips without any deeper meaning, too much things distracting from getting to know the main characters and going into their issues in depth. They changed stuff, but didn’t have the guts to actually follow through. They broke the mold but only in ways that ended up feeling shallow and unconsequential. Like I would have loved seeing Robbe go to therapy ! see his mom ! Zoe and Robbe go to the police together ! Sander have a complicated home situation ! or doing a Bowie related art installation to express his feelings of alienation ! seeing more of the underground graffiti scene ! or just...something, idk. And them also removing the faith-related themes also felt disappointing. and the ohn clip taking place in the place where sander draws feels very....basic to me, even if it was pretty. very ‘oh he’s an artist, here is his safe place’....hm, okay. I didn’t like that they made Britt into such a villain, I didn’t like how the boy squad showed no care for Robbe whatsoever for weeks until the plot said it was time for them to be redeemed in a way that felt too jarring, and I didn’t like that they made Moyo so horrible but redeemed him so easily. I actually thought they would show that it’s okay to separate yourself from friends who are that bigoted, because it just shows they are not willing to care for people. And him suddenly saying those sweet and mature things felt too out of characters and a ahah ‘gotcha’ rather than depth . I didn’t like that Robbe, too, was made so virulent by his internalized homophobia but got over it so quickly. I think what disappointed me most, in the end, was that I kept picking up potential and the show kept doing absolutely nothing with it, or confirming my fears, and it made me feel stupid and out of tune with whatever they were doing. And it’s, to me, symptomatic in modern storytelling of a trend to privilege shocks and twists over inner coherence and build up. And it makes for...Very underwhelming stuff, in the end.

- all in all, i think this remake illustrates why s3 of OG is not as easy to remake as it sounds. it’s very intricate machinery, with a pitch perfect rhythm (and an extremely passionate nitpicky fanbase lmao). and if you don’t get all the parts of why it’s so great, you’re going to lose a lot of it. (and all the remakes ended losing up stuff in translation ; more or less compensated by inventivity and charm of their own.) so many mainstream press articles praise the real time/social media format and the ‘real talk about teen issues’ which, yeah, is part of the success, but doesn’t explain the devotion on its own. there’s the way the story uses real time to build up a storytelling rythm that feels organic and makes sense as if it was part of the lives of the viewer. There’s foreshadowing and aftershocks. Wtfock often feels like they wrote the clip numbers on darts and randomly threw them at a week planner. If an episode of a regular series ends on a cliffhanger, we can be thrilled and frustrated and put it aside for next week. but if you end an episode with a character shown to be suicidal, or you don’t show them being okay after a beating, for hours or days, that’s the emotion you leave your viewers with, because skam is a continuous experience. and remakes who pile on drama moments without respite (looking at you too skamfr s4) don’t get how tiring and disengaging this can be, in this format. skam worked so well because of how benevolent it was, on the whole. and also, cheeky, with that ‘don’t take it too seriously’ deflating humor. grumpy isak in ‘hate me now’ mode getting bumped into. this lightness and comedy often feels missing here. also my god the social media is absolutely terrible. plus...there is too much filler. honestly, them having more time, on the whole...ended up being a bad thing. Plus Wtfock feels like it has so much more unadressed plot points, like...why did Sander change his mind exactly and kiss Britt again ? How did Robbe’s mom react ? Who did the attack ? What is happening w Senne now ? etc. And it feels like they just missed the fact that OG, however subtly, did adress those things.

- now, don’t get me wrong, i’m happy it’s popular in Belgium. On the whole it’s still a beautiful story of love and acceptance. and that people found something in it that spoke to them. but as a remake, it’s probably one of the most disappointing yet, to me. and i sort of...don’t get the hype. and i don’t want to be too ‘oh cute boys kissing’ cynical about it. but i think this illustrates why in the end, this is also very subjective. there are probably things i missed because i didn’t feel the need to examine it in depth or do the extra emotional work that comes with being a devoted fan of something. and some of their choices made me angry, and i’m not forgiving when it comes to these things. i still wish them success for s4 and whatever else, but i don’t think i will watch live, at least unless it gets really rave reviews about their treatment of Yasmina’s season. i mean they got s2 right, who knows?

#wtfock #also i'm willing to discuss this reasonably but any sort of hate will be deleted on sight lol #i thought a lot about posting this or not but then i was like well this is my blog and i have a lot of emotions about this #so i needed to process

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raspberryparker · 5 years

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Hi!! So can I just say how much in love I am with your blog? My theme was very old so I updated it thanks to your help! That really means a lot to me and your fic recs are always so spot on for me! I also write a Tom Holland x Reader fanfic named "Starstruck on the Red Carpet" and it honestly would be like a dream come true to hear your opinions&thoughts on it. Thank you so much!!

Hello my love! First of all, thank you so much for your lovely and kind words! I’m so glad you find my recs helpful and it’s great that I was able to help you with your theme (which is gorgeous, by the way. Nice job).

I’m so sorry it took me so long to answer this ask but I wanted to read the entire fic and the sequel before I did so you got my full thoughts on it, so here we go! (It’s incredibly long and for that I’m sorry.)

In terms of storytelling and plot, I loved it! I think you did great with the conflict, the main plot and the sub plot/sub conflict(s), and the progression of the story as a whole. I really enjoyed the whole Cinderella thing and the way you spun it. I don’t think I’ve read a Cinderella story like that before so you’re definitely original, but I also enjoyed how that wasn’t the main point of the story and how it grew from there. Also, you’re really good at staying in character for the actors that you were writing for. It’s always important to be able to picture them saying what you’ve written if you’re writing someone who actually exists, and during the after-party scenes, I definitely could.I also really loved your OC’s. Blake made a really good point of conflict that enhanced the story in a great way, and Elijah just made me really happy, as did Nathalie. All good stories need an equally good cast of supporting characters and you executed it really well, so good job!That last part of the final chapter of the sequel was both funny and loving, and it’s hands down my favourite chapter. I always love when things come together, and the whole dating thing made me laugh out loud.The only criticism I have is that of structure, which every writer has struggled with at some point or continues to struggle with. I know I sure as Hell have. I’ve been writing fanfic since I was 12 and I’m 18 now. I’ve written a lot and I’ve read a lot and now that I’m an English major in university, I know what works and what doesn’t to keep people reading.Firstly, it would be so much easier on the reader and keep them engaged in the story regardless of what the story even is if you adjusted the way you structure paragraphs first and foremost. I noticed this especially in the first few chapters of your fic but less and less as I read on (Meaning you’ve improved on your own! Which is amazing!) but it was still quite choppy and hard to grasp what was happening, especially with dialogue. I don’t want to say there are “rules” for paragraph structure for fics, because fanfic is technically fanart and art is subjective, but there are guidelines to follow when you’re writing for school, for work, or professionally. These are in place because it makes your work flow better and makes it easier to read and take in. Some of these include making a new paragraph every time someone new speaks, every time the “camera angle” changes, when you’re starting a new idea, etc. It’s incredibly daunting to see a huge block of text instead of the same text broken down into smaller paragraphs. Seeing one big page of words makes people not want to read it. It’s harsh, like judging books by their covers rather than content, but it’s the truth and everyone is guilty of this whether they know it or not.Something you tend to do a lot is have multiple people (up to three or four at some points) talking during the same paragraph. When this happens, it’s easy for the reader to lose track of who is talking and what’s happening and often leads to them being confused and having to reread the paragraph just to know what’s going on. Fixing this would take your already wonderful plot and give it an extra something to appeal to readers even more.Here are some helpful posts for you if you want to read more in depth on paragraph structure !!

1 2 3 4My other point is about how you broke up the chapters. I am a writer myself and I know how hard it is to write lots at a time (especially considering I’m a uni student too so I have, like, no time) but I try to make my chapters anywhere between 4k and 7k words. However, a lot of people don’t do this and make their chapters way shorter. But ultimately it all comes down to scene breakdown and length, which I will explain. Especially in the first 5 or 6 parts of your fic, I felt like that could have been condensed into about 3. This is because you spread the same scene out over multiple chapters. This is fine; again fanworks are artistic works and you can write however you want, but another thing I do is try to keep the consumer of my fanworks in mind as I create them. It’s a little bit jarring to jump from chapter to chapter (or wait a week between chapters, if someone is keeping up with the fic as it’s updated) even though it’s still the same setting, the same characters, and essentially the same thing happening. My chapters are longer because they’re usually one or two scenes depending on the length of the scene, but they’re entire scenes regardless. And I’m not saying you should cut stuff out, that’s not what I mean by “condense”. I mean you could have copy and pasted a chapter into the chapter before it and just made it longer. Sometimes, a higher word count is fine if the story flows.For example, and this is just off the top of my head, let’s say a character is going to hang out with a friend. The scene begins with them meeting up, and ends with them parting ways. even if you don’t want to write the ENTIRE scene or think some of it is pointless filler that doesn’t contribute to the plot and you want to cut some parts out, you can put time cuts within the chapter as long as that one scene remains within that one chapter. Again, these aren’t rules. But as both a fanfic reader and writer, it’s easy to notice these things. You actually did this very well once, when you made a time cut where you didn’t write the interviews themselves in chapter five, I believe. You were right in your endnote on that chapter; it would have made it far too long. That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. But I still thought you could have put that time cut in the middle of a chapter rather than between chapters. And when I say time cut, I don’t mean something in bold like ****Time Skip**** placed between paragraphs, because that’s just jolting. It takes the reader out of their immersed state. To make an adequate time cut, just make the space between paragraphs larger, or put a horizontal line that you can copy and paste from google or something (like I did) to separate the pieces without making it look messy.A helpful tip I read a while back while writing my first fic on tumblr was to use the “A and B therefore C” method, or the Incentive, Action and Result method. I forget where I read this tip and I’ve been trying to find it for you but I haven’t been able to, I’m sorry. Here’s an example using a scene from the first chapter of my fic:A or Incentive: Peter is failing EnglishandB or Action: Ned doesn’t want him to fail English; Ned wants him to do well so he doesn’t get kicked out of schoolthereforeC or Result: Ned gets the reader to tutor Peter, which kicks off the plotThat’s the scene! Altogether, the scene written out was about 3,000 words but I made it into half of a chapter because I had more to add to it (if you’ve read my fic you’ll know what I mean, but you don’t have to).Here’s the other half of the chapter broken down like this:A: Peter is struggling with English and it’s distracting him during his hero workandB: He has a nasty run-in with Hammerhead that leaves him injured beyond beliefthereforeC: The reader witnesses him coming back to their dorm building bloody and bruised, and she becomes suspicious I would say the only time that people can get away with ending a chapter in the middle of a scene is when there is a huge cliffhanger they want to incorporate and leave their readers hanging in suspense for a week before the next chapter release. Other than that, it’s better if one scene is confined to one chapter. And my last point is tenses! Oh boy tenses, those horrible, awful tenses. They suck but they’re so so so important. I often found that you randomly switch between present tense and past tense in the middle of your chapter when there isn’t any actual time difference in the scene. Going from “says” to “said” is a little bit confusing, but everyone does it. EVERYONE. Hell, I still do. The important thing is catching yourself when you do. I know I have a few times where it’s slipped through the cracks and I’ve published a chapter where there are a few slip-ups, but again, everyone does it. That’s why I’m not making a huge deal out of it.These are a few reasons why having someone to beta read or edit your fic before you publish it is super important! I’m lucky I have my close friends to do it for me, but a lot of fic writers hide the fact that they write fics from their friends because, let’s be honest, it can be kind of embarrassing. If you ever need someone to beta read or edit for you, don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any other fic writer that you know! I’m more than willing to help you improve your writing (as you can probably tell by this long winded response to your ask) and finally put all this studying for my English degree to good use. I plan to become an English teacher, so the more experience I get the better! I’m always here for you!I really hope you don’t think I’m being rude or pretentious because that is not at all what was meant by this review of your fic. I think you’re incredibly talented and creative, and the idea of your story is a great one that I enjoyed following as I read it. Basically, my main point of this is to say that even if you have an amazing story, if the structure isn’t appealing, chances are people won’t read it. Again, it’s a sad truth but we’re all guilty of it. All in all, it was a wonderful story that was well written and well planned, and I really enjoyed it! I hope you continue writing because you have so much potential, and maybe even take some of my advice. I’m so happy you’re open to opinions, thoughts and constructive criticism on your writing. But remember that you don’t have to do what I say. You art is is just that: YOUR art. And my advice is just advice. At the end of the day, just keep doing you, love.- Gabi ps. YOUR ART IS LOVELY!! I really love that you added illustrations for the last two parts of the sequel, really helps envision what is happening better. I might start drawing for my fics too ;)

#answered #unfoldingdaydreams #writing help #???#maybe???#also if anyone wants to hmu and get me to review ur fic or ur writing please by all means do so #ur local english major is here to help

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acescreations · 5 years

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Moody Manipulations - Patton

[Part 2 to the Connected Youtuber Ego Universe(CYEU) stories I'm doing on Amino.]

Characters: Logan Sanders, Patton Sanders, Virgil Sanders, Roman Sanders, Thomas Sanders, Elliott (Cartoon Therapy), Kai (Cartoon Therapy), Lauren (Cartoon Therapy), Missy Sanders [background character], Pranks Sanders [refrenced], Mitchell (Cartoon Therapy) [mentioned]

Warnings: Patton has a really bad day, cries, and hides his emotions, Patton also has a retail job I feel like I should mention that, Mitchell is implied to be a little b*tch, Patton gets verbally abused

Word Count: 1798

It really didn't take me long to figure out what my emotions do. Whenever I was happy, things went right in the world, and when I was sad things went wrong. At first I thought it was a coincidence, but the correlation was too obvious to be chance. After that, I always did my best to stay in a good mood. I'd do things I enjoy, and avoid people and things that upset me.

I have to admit, staying happy became a lot harder. It almost seemed like a job at this point, since it was my responsibility to be happy. I still tried my hardest despite this, and when I was happy, hearing about all the good things happening in the world put me in an even better mood. Though that did go both ways, and hearing about bad things happening made me more upset, so I eventually decided to not look at the news when I was already uspet.

This was all a pretty good strategy for keeping my mood up, but one day everything went wrong, and I had no idea how to stay happy then.

I was heading down to my job at the local retail store and I bumped into someone on the street. "Whoops! Sorry about that." They said nothing, and just kept walking. I was surprised I didn't see them sooner. They had a head full of messy green hair along with bright blue eyes. I didn't really think much of it, after all, it was a busy street, people run into each other all the time. Once I got to my job, I saw my best friend getting his stuff. It looked like he was leaving, but we were supposed to be on the same shift today. I walked up to him as he was putting his hat on. "What's going on Chase? Are you leaving?" He turned to me with a sigh. "Yeah, I just got fired. I have no idea how I'm gonna pay for my date with Stacy now."

"Oh, geez." I was pretty disappointed myself. I always looked forward to the days when we worked together. "Well, good luck on finding a new job, I guess." Chase nodded as he walked past me. "Yeah, I guess."

I sighed as he left. This job was going to get a lot harder without him here. But, I still had my job to do, so I put on my name tag and I clocked in.

After a while of uneventful work, a woman came in and slammed a box of party supplies onto the counter. "I need to return these," she demanded.

"Okay ma'am," I said, a little nervous, "do you have the receipt?"

"No, but I don't need this anymore. I never needed it, so give me a refund on it!"

"I'm sorry, but can't return anything without proof of purchase." I had never had one of these conversations before, and this lady was really intimidating.

"I'm not keeping stuff my husband bought as a prank! Of course you teenagers don't care about how much money all this costs, you probably get handed money just so you can spend it all on stupid parties, don't you?"

Of course, I didn't actually do any of that, but she didn't know that, and I wasn't allowed to tell her that. "I want to help you, but I can't give you a refund on anything without a receipt."

The woman let out a frustrated growl. "I don't have time for this." She stormed out of the store, leaving the box on the counter. I allowed myself a sad sigh as I picked up the box and moved it off the counter, putting on a brand new smile as the next person in the line brought up their stuff. "Good afternoon, did you find everything you were looking for?"

~ ~ ~

By the end of my shift, I was exhausted. I wanted to call someone for a ride home, but my phone had died, so I had to walk. To make matters worse, I saw a cat that had been hit by a car on the side of the road. By that point, I was barely holding back tears, although I kept telling myself to stay cheerful, which only made it harder. I decided that I'd have a few cookies to cheer myself up when I got home.

I walked through the door, and saw Logan and Thomas sitting on the couch, watching the news. Obviously, it was all bad news. Logan turned off the TV as they both turned to me. "Bad day?" I must have looked pretty upset, because I never told Thomas about what my emotions do, but something must have prompted him to ask that. I just shrugged. I didn't want to talk about it, because I felt like I'd break down in tears if I did. I walked past them wordlessly and went into my room to change out of my work clothes. When I walked back out, I was determined to improve my mood, so I put on a smile and went to get that cookie, but I opened the cookie jar to find that it was empty. "When did we finish the cookies?" I asked to anyone who was listening. Thomas spoke up from the living room. "I'm pretty sure Lauren finished them with Roman and Virgil." I wanted to be upset about this, but I was determined to stay positive.

It's okay Patton, you can just make some more. That should be fun, that should make you happy.

I began taking out ingredients, but it turned out we were out of a flour, sugar, and eggs. That was definitely a disappointment. I told myself I'd be able to get through it anyway.

After that, though, was when I completely lost composure. Elliott walked out of their room, their shoulders hanging as they sat down next to Thomas on the couch. Logan looked up from where he was reading on the other end of the couch. "Mitchell left another message today." I overheard them saying. My heart broke in sympathy for my parent, and I quickly walked out of the kitchen and into my room, barely even trying to hold back tears anymore.

As soon as I was alone in my room, I collapsed to the floor, letting out all the sobbing my day had been leading up to. I don't know how loud I was being, but after wiping tears from my eyes, I looked up and I was surrounded by my family, all with faces of varying levels of concern and sympathy. Once my crying slowed, Virgil, eho was sitting in front of me, said "Hey, what's wrong?" I lowered my head onto my knees. "Bad day," I muttered, overcome with guilt for how many people I must have gotten hurt today. "Patton," I heard Logan say at my right, "you can't keep getting upset at yourself for being upset." I shook my head. "No, you don't understand," I said.

"I'm pretty sure I do, and Patton," Logan continued, "you're going to have your ups and downs, and it'll be less... disastrous if you just let the bad days be just a little bad. The world can take a little bit of misfortune, believe me."

I looked up at him, confused. "Are you saying you-"

"Yes Patton, and for your information I regularly keep up on the news so I can tell how your feeling. And yes," Logan continued, "everyone else knows too."

"Oh." I looked around at everyone, unsure of how I never found out.

"So why don't you just tell us what's going on today?" Virgil asked, scooting over to sit next to me. I shrugged, not really sure when exactly my day started going terribly. "Well on the way to work I bumped into this guy, which I really didn't mind that much, but after that I found out my friend got fired," I then just started stating everything that happened that day. I didn't mean to, really, I just started talking and then I couldn't stop myself. Once I was finished, Roman gave me a thoughtful look. "What did the guy on the street look like?" I blinked at him, confused as to why he was questioning that. "Well, he had blue eyes, and really messy green hair."

"What was he wearing?"

"I dunno, this big wavy coat?"

"Roman," Logan sighed, "what does this have to do with anything?" Roman didn't answer, despite everyone beong equally confused. He just stood up, muttered something about "Marvin" and walked out. "I have a hunch about something, I'll be back, hopefully with good news." Thomas sighed and shook his head after Roman left the house. "That boy, honestly. Anyway, how about me and Elliott go get those ingredients you were needing? You can just stay here and relax."

"No!" I said, a little too frantically. "I-it's just," I mumbled, "you could get hurt."

"It's fine," Logan said. "Camden's got an eye on the TV, and things are improving. They should be able to get there and back safely." Camden was the name Logan gave his familiar. I slowly nodded, and Virgil stood up and grabbed my hand. "All right, now you come here and watch some TV." I stood up and followed him as he led me to the couch, Logan, Kai, and Lauren following behind while Thomas and Elliott got ready to go to the store. Me and Virgil sat next to each other on the couch, Logan sitting a small distance away while Kai and Lauren sat near us.

After a while of watching Steven Universe, Roman burst back through the door. "Patton, you will have to worry about this misfortune no longer!"

"O-okay. Um, what did you do?" I asked.

"Well that person you bumped into, I'm actually acquainted to him. He calls himself Marvin the Magnificent. He claims to be a magician, but for as long as I knew him he couldn't do any actual magic. Turns out he got magic powers through a deal with a demon or something, and he had to agree to curse you with misfortune." He sat down on my other side, so now I had one sibling at both of my sides. "I talked him into releasing the curse," he said, probably more casually than what the situation would call for.

"Okay, thanks then," I said, despite Roman already being immersed in the show. We continued watching until Thomas and Elliott returned with the baking supplies, then Virgil, Thomas, and Lauren joined me in baking cookies. Once I tasted one of the cookies from out of the oven, I figured that the day wouldn't be as bad as it had been.

#patton sanders #sanders sides #roman sanders #logan sanders #thomas sanders #virgil sanders #cartoon therapy #marvin the magnificent #elliott #kai #lauren #chase brody #stacy brody #missy #pranks #missy and pranks #mitchell #bad writing #writing tag

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angeltriestoblog · 4 years

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The One With All The Books: My favorites + tips on how to get out of your reading slump!

Ever since I was a kid, I've been obsessed with books: while most children I knew then were preoccupied with Barbie dolls and battleships, I immersed myself in fictional worlds and found trusty companions in protagonists who embarked on adventures that transcended the limits of the physical universe. Back then, I would sleep with them under my pillow, read them in the backseat of our family car even on rather turbulent road trips, and turn to them during boring class discussions.

Over time, they ended up shaping my opinions and world views, fueling my hunger for knowledge, and inspiring me to put my own thoughts down on paper. It's safe to say I wouldn't be the person I am now, had it not been for my love for the written word. Which is why I find it odd that I haven't made any of the standard recommendation posts that would normally be found on the personal blog of someone like me. In an attempt to fix that, I'm sharing with you my eight favorites of all time, not only to give them a fitting tribute (that will still not be able to do their profound impact any justice), but also encourage you to pick up a good read! Who knows, maybe it'll change your life as much as it did to mine!

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

As a kid, I loved both science and fiction, but always saw them as two concepts completely opposite from each other. When I found out that they could marry and live in perfect harmony in a genre of their own, I was over the moon. It was exciting enough, getting to teleport across universes by folding the fabric of space and time, encounter terrifying creatures who somehow parallel actual people on Earth, and learn about obscure scientific concepts. But, the fact that it manages to tie in the triumph of good over evil, and the power of familial love was just the cherry on top for me. I brought this with me everywhere I went for a solid two months, obviously with good reason.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

My mom had recommended this to me in high school, and I put off buying it for so long because I originally thought I was "too old to be reading stuff like that". Much to my surprise, what was practically disguised as a children's book, with its simple prose and watercolor illustrations, served as both as a moral allegory and criticism of the way adults operate in today's world. Though its length can trick you into thinking it's a fast read, most passages demand to be looked at a second time, reflected on, and shared to the nearest person—if you're the type to protest against annotating, you might have to rethink your stance.

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

When I was in grade school, my parents had this rule where I was only allowed to buy a new book during special occasions, to control the growing number we had piling up in our house. I remember seeing this in the NBS branch in Glorietta, and having to wait until the end of the quarter to ask my parents to get it for me. Oh, well: as the cheesy saying goes, "True love waits." Although if there is anyone who loves books more than I do, it's Meggie Folchart, as she has inherited her father's gift of bringing fictional characters to life. But, when disaster strikes, as it always does, she must learn how to harness this special power and save her family. The world-building and imagery is unbelievably rich, Funke doesn't just paint a picture in your head: she creates a whole ass movie. No wonder eight year-old me put her up on a pedestal.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (the entire series, but maybe the third was my favorite) (ok it was, don't tell the two others) by Jenny Han

The blurb at the back of the book certainly doesn't do it justice: I remember finding this at a nearby Fully Booked and putting it down instantly, dismissing it as another cliche YA novel. Sure, Lara Jean Covey has to deal with all five of her unsent love letters to her crushes being mysteriously sent out, but she also grapples with important issues such as identity, family, and—in the third book—the future. I read Always and Forever, Lara Jean during the summer before I entered university, and every single line resonated with me so much I paused at the end of every chapter to take a crying selfie. Plus, Peter Kavinsky is my literary dream boy: if I ever expect my future significant other to take me on a cross-country road trip to go antique shopping, they'll only have him to blame.

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

We're taught that we shouldn't judge books by their covers, but I'm glad my twelve year old self decided to brush that aside when she bought this. Although I didn't end up reading it until five years after, I devoured the thick hardbound in a day and a half, and was reduced to a ball on my couch shortly afterwards. I know the book has the most self-explanatory title, but it's just that it takes on the universal experience of first love and heartbreak so authentically. The stream of consciousness writing style and slow pacing may be an issue for some, but I reckon it adds to its charm, as it allows Min to take readers through all the motions of a relationship in a way so relatable, entering her headspace feels like slipping into a second skin.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey

A friend of mine in high school had complained to me that her mother had made this required reading for her, and I suggested I'd take it off her hands for a bit. I ended up going through her copy thrice in a month. (Ah, what I would give to go back to the days when I could still afford to read on school days.) An issue a lot of books that claim to "change your life" have is that they elaborate on these supposedly groundbreaking ideas, yet fail to break them down into doable action steps. Fortunately, Covey shares his practical advice in a structured manner, complete with examples, illustrations, and the occasional dad joke, freeing it from any preachy or condescending undertones. I don't know how to say that this is the only self-help book you'll ever need without sounding like someone from the Home Shopping Network.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

This paperback intimidated me from the moment I first saw it on a shelf, because of the metaphorical title and steep price. But, good thing I got around to buying it eventually: this harrowing story is told by a promising doctor with his whole life ahead of him, who turns into a patient as soon as he is diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Reading this was difficult, because I knew that no matter how hard I tried to dissect and reflect on the questions of life and death being posed by the author, I could never come close to understanding how he felt. But, that didn't make the experience any less necessary.

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Creativity is a rather difficult concept to talk about in depth, because it seems so abstract. This is why the author advises readers to treat it as a living entity: one that bestows the best of ideas to those who nurture it, complements the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, and demands our full participation despite the looming presence of fear. I finished this on a school bus ride home from school, and the minute I got home, I marathoned Gilbert's TED talks and keynote speeches on YouTube: there is a distinctly tender, somewhat spiritual quality in the way she speaks about her craft, that easily makes you hang on to and follow every word she says.

Now I know books aren't everyone's go-to when looking for a way to pass the time: I've heard people say that they can't find time for it, that there's nothing out there that piques their interest, or they simply don't have the patience, given that social media posts and Netflix shows practically hold our attention spans captive in this day and age. While all are valid points, they can clearly be worked around! I was in a funk during the start of my Christmas break, because I hadn't touched a non-academic book since the new school year had started. But, I managed to finish four in the span of a month, and am currently on my fifth, as of this writing. Here are some tips I have, just in case you want to kick your reading slump in the ass as well.

Start small. Like with any habit you want to build, introduce the behavior in small increments: five push-ups, five minutes of meditation, fifty pages of a novella. Then, once you're starting to get the hang of it again and you don't feel your two brain cells shrieking for help because they can't figure out if "lived" is an actual word in the English language, you can increase it depending on your progress. This happened to me when, thanks to a notably bad case of tsundoku, I had amassed 14 (!!!) unread books in a year. I decided to tackle as soon as my vacation started, so I kicked it off with a rather easy read: Matilda by Roald Dahl, 232 pages thin, with numerous drawings.

Read something you'd actually enjoy! It's gonna be hard to stay engaged in something that doesn't excite or entice you: reading is supposed to be a hobby, not a household chore. Find something written on an interest of yours, a field of study that you've always been curious about, a person that you've looked up to for forever: I truly believe that there is no topic that hasn't been written about at this point in time.

On a somewhat related note, don't be afraid to DNF books that don't satisfy you. A lot of us pick books up because everyone else loves it, and are afraid to put it down for the fear of being othered. But, if we've all come to believe that we should sever ties with people who no longer serve us, what makes it any different for books that just don't touch our lives? I remember reading The Bell Jar when I was 13 because it came highly recommended by someone on Instagram who I found really cool. It was far too heavy for me, but I couldn't find the heart to shelf it especially after how much it cost me.

Remember that physical copies are not the only way to go. Thanks to the presence of audio and e-books, one can now enjoy stories anywhere and any time, without the daunting feel of several pages, or the burden of lugging around heavy hardbounds. (Although you are missing out on one of the best parts of reading: new book smell. Your loss.) One might find it easier to process the information this way, or even appreciate whatever the author has to say.

Talk about it with a friend! They could help keep you accountable in following through your reading goals, give you solid (and sometimes even personalized) recommendations, or accompany you in mourning over the death of a major character. It's always been a dream of mine to start or join a book club for these exact reasons, but I'm afraid this post is possibly the closest I could get to that right now. Nevertheless, I'd love to hear your suggestions and give you more of my own! Drop me a message here (or here, here, and here!) if ever you're interested.

Love and light,

Angel

#recs #angeltriestoblog #life dump #book recommendations #my favorite books #reading slump #this is why i have poor eyesight

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jaeminlore · 7 years

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Healing // Lee Jeno

spinoff to this

the prompt: could you imagine healer!jeno treating you after you tripped and scraped your knee bc he wasn’t looking where he was walking (he was too immersed in a medical textbook) and bumped into you etc etc

words: 1981

category: fluff

warning: heart attack mention, blood mention

author note: war flashbacks to when my anons all attacked me with fluffy thoughts abt healer jeno. this is for you guys.

- destinee

All his life, Jeno had been obsessed with the art of healing. The thought that a few rare plants mashed together and boiled could literally stop a person from dying was so amazing to him. When he was old enough to go to a trading school, he didn’t choose knight training like every other twelve-year-old. He chose healing.

He wanted to become someone others could look up to. Someone who could take care of others and make them feel happy and safe. So, as the only student who chose healing, he worked directly under the castle’s healer, Mr. Kim.

Mr. Kim was Jeno’s biggest inspiration. He had taken care of the king and queen, and had even delivered the crown prince. He had stopped a plague from starting by simply reversing it and having the entire kingdom drink a special blend of tea for weeks. He was amazing. Filled with knowledge of all kinds, he knew which plant you were talking about even if all you could do was give him the shape. All the information was formatted into his brain like a second instinct. Jeno wanted the knowledge of Mr. Kim.

To get this, Mr. Kim told Jeno that all he had to do was read. Read, study, and memorize until it felt like he was going to explode from all the information he was learning. Also, repetition was key. He was to be quizzed weekly on the things he had studied, all while retaining the practical information Mr. Kim had given him. For three years, Jeno had worked his hardest without giving up once. This is what he set out to do, and he was going to do it no matter how hard it got. People were depending on him.

Especially when Jeno turned sixteen, for Mr. Kim suffered a heart attack and died instantly. There was nothing to do, and no way to save him. Jeno, as the only healer left in the kingdom, was put in charge and given the title of the new castle healer.

He had no time to grieve, really. That was okay, since Jeno really didn’t want time to catch up with him and find him sobbing in a corner. Instead, he threw himself into studying even more. Any time he wasn’t helping someone, he was studying. One of his current obsessions was finding a common way to prevent sudden heart attacks. If there was a way he could make a tea blend to give to hardworking adults that would heal their hearts, he was going to find it. He was going to use every piece of information Mr. Kim had left with him. He was going to make his old mentor proud.

Jeno was lonely sometimes. His parents lived far away in the village, and he didn’t see them as often as he would’ve liked to. He had friends, a group of boys ranging in the highest rank of a prince to the lowest rank of a servant. There were seven of them, all loyal to each other as friends. Prince Jaemin was perhaps Jeno’s closest friend. The prince himself was lonely, as many people heard the rumors of him leaving a mysterious lover behind in the village.

Jeno and Jaemin leaned on each other a lot during their eighteenth year. Jaemin came to the Jeno’s clinic to escape the realities of royalty, and Jeno was able to study for a while as the prince labeled vials and stocked shelves.

Jeno never stopped studying. He never stopped finding new ways to invent news potions and pastes in an attempt to make his own medicine for heart attacks. So far, he had only succeeded in accidentally turning his tongue purple. How that happened, he had no idea. Still, he kept working towards his ultimate goal. This usually meant he could be found walking around the castle, his nose in a book filled with medical terminologies not even the king could understand.

You were a lady-in-waiting with a restless heart. Your mother wanted you to be the future queen, so you were never allowed outside of the castle. You were barely allowed in the courtyards, to be honest. With all of your lessons and fittings, you had no time to go off and do your own thing like the people you always read about.

Adventure novels were your favorites. Stories of men and women who refused to let anyone boss them around. Instead, they broke away from the norm and went off to fight battles much bigger than themselves. You wished to become one of those people. As soon as you were eighteen, you were going to move to the village without a word to your mother. You were going to live life without expectations and duties. Perhaps you would become a fishermen, or a shop owner. Perhaps you would go back to school and become a knight.

It was the weekend, and your mother had slept in. That was how you found yourself prancing around the court barefoot, your hair unbrushed and looking anything but ladylike. You greeted all of the officials and servants with happy greetings as you danced by, feeling the freedom that the wind offered you. You weren’t paying attention to anyone, which was perhaps the reason you were bumped into from behind. You were pushed to the floor, a stinging pain creeping up your legs as your knees hit the stone ground.

“Oh my goodness, I am so sorry. I was reading and I didn’t see you. Are you okay?”

You pushed yourself into a sitting position and looked at the person who had pushed you. Suddenly, it was as if the wind had been knocked from your lungs. He was handsome. Not quite in the way the prince was, with playful glances and bouncy steps. No, this was a softer type of beautiful, and you found yourself liking it so much more.

He offered you a hand, which you took, stumbling a bit. You then pulled up your skirts and looked at down to see blood running down your legs slowly. “Well that can’t be good…” you said casually.

The boy let out a laugh at your unbothered voice. He simply gestured for you to put your skirts down. “Follow me. I’ll get you cleaned up.”

You followed, not quite sure who this strange boy was. Nevertheless, when he smiled at you, you felt he could be trusted. “Who are you anyways?”

“Oh, I’m Jeno.” He offered his arm to you, since you were struggling to walk. “I’m the castle’s healer.”

“Really? I thought it was a man named Mr. Kim.”

“It was.” Jeno scratched the back of his neck nervously as the two of you walked towards his clinic. “He passed away a few years ago.”

“I’m sorry,” you said, patting his arm in consolation. “That must’ve been hard on you.”

“It was, but over the years it’s gotten better.” Jeno pulled you into his clinic, toward the small bed nestled behind a heavy curtain. It was the bed Jeno had slept in for years, but it also served as the only bed in the clinic. If there was a patient, Jeno slept on the floor. He helped you sit on the bed, since it hurt to use your legs. “I’m still so sorry about this.”

“It’s okay,” you smiled at him. “It was an accident.” You lifted your skirts above your knees, and Jeno looked away, his cheeks slightly pink.

“Then, I’ll go get some paste that’ll close it up in no time. How does that sound?” Jeno offered you a shy glance.

“Sounds great,” you said. “However, you should hurry. Once my mother finds out that I snuck out, she’ll kill me.”

“Are you a lady-in-waiting?” Jeno looked surprised. “I’ve never seen you around before.”

“I’m usually busy with lessons, and my mother doesn’t like it when I go around the courtyards. She says it’ll give me ideas.”

“What ideas?” Jeno asked as he searched through the many shelves lining his walls. He finally extracted a jar of light green paste. “Here it is!”

“You know, she wants me to marry the prince. I don’t want to marry him. The usual lady-in -waiting drama.”

“You shouldn’t have to marry someone you don’t want to. Besides, Jaemin doesn’t want a lady-in-waiting.”

“Tell my mom that,” you said.

He bent down in front of you and extracted some paste using a wooden tongue depressor. “By the way, this might hurt so I’m sorry if it stings. It’s the skin pulling itself together.”

You nodded and braced your hands on his shoulders as he spread the paste across your wounded knees. The pain hurt just as bad as the actual scrape, and you felt tears sting the corner of your eyes. “Why does it hurt so bad?” you hissed.

Jeno grimaced. “I need to work in the formula, don’t I? It works, though. Also, when is the last time your trimmed your nails? Because the depth they are reaching in my skin is amazing.”

You released your grip. “Sorry. Although, it’s your fault for making such a painful remedy.”

“You can hold my other hand,” Jeno offered, reaching his hand toward you.

You took it without complaint, squeezing it as he applied the paste to the other knee. He apologized again, feeling his hand lose circulation from how tightly you were squeezing it.

“It’s okay,” you squeaked. “I’m not good with pain in the first place so maybe your paste isn’t so bad.”

“Oh, your pain tolerance is low.” Jeno frowned, “I should make a pill for that. Maybe a little taffy that will give you a better pain tolerance.”

“Maybe you should,” you agreed as he brought out a roll bandages and began to wrap it around your knees.

“By tomorrow morning, there won’t even be a scar,” he said, proudly pinning the bandages in place.

“Thanks,” you said. “I should be able to hide it from my mom until then. So, I don’t need to return for a checkup?”

Jeno looked down, a soft smile on his lips. “No. But you’re always free to come back and see me if you want. You know, the prince comes here to get away from his responsibilities. I wouldn’t mind it if you did as well.”

Your blush matched his as you climbed off the table. “I might just have to take you up on that offer, Jeno. Now, what do I pay you?”

“Hmm?” Jeno was too absorbed in the excitement of you returning, that he almost hadn’t heard your question. “Oh! No need to pay me!”

You frowned. “Well, I shouldn’t get healing for free. How about this?”

“How about wha—” Jeno stopped mid-sentence as you leaned forward and planted a kiss on his left cheek. “—Oh, yeah, that type of payment is okay, I suppose.”

You giggled. “I thought it would be. I’ll try to come by tomorrow and you can tell me about all those weird terms in your book.”

“Oh, you don’t want to hear about those,” he said.

“I do,” you insisted. “Trust me. I want to learn more about you and what goes on in your head.”

“Really?”

“Why do you sound so surprised?”

Jeno shrugged, “No one really cares about my studies. They all ignore me and say I should’ve been a knight.”

“If you had become a knight, who would’ve taken care of me?” you asked innocently.

Jeno smiled. “You’re right.”

“Keep working hard, Jeno. I believe in you. I’ll bring lunch tomorrow so don’t eat too much beforehand, okay?” You began to leave, satisfied with his short nod.

“Wait!” he stopped you.

When you turned to face him, he smiled brightly, his eyes turning into crescents. “Is it like a date?”

You looked down bashfully, “Yeah. It’s a date.”

~the end~

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lifeofkj · 7 years

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Creativity and capitalism: a few thoughts from a fanfic writer

It's E3 time, and although I haven't been paying super-close attention, a few things have broken through. One of the harder stories to miss is the controversy over The Last Night, a side-scrolling platformer in a cyberpunk setting. Among other issues, the game seems to be set in a dystopia designed to be a critique of socialism (in contrast to most cyberpunk, which tends to be anti-capitalist). I'd seen a number of takes on the issue, but the one that broke through and inspired me to write my own thoughts was a Twitter thread by petercoffin (the thread and replies are recommended reading, both up and down).

I retweeted it a couple of days ago, with a promise to come back and say more, and here we are. My thoughts are going to be less about capitalism vs. socialism and the many issues with this specific game (Peter and the rest of the Internet have that aspect amply covered) and more about the economics of creativity, specifically the economics of fandom, which is where my creativity has lived for the past decade and more. I said in my tweet that I have "literally never" been paid in money for creative work; there are some hairs to split (I've written freelance a little bit, mostly advertising copy, and ladybusiness launched a Patreon about six months ago), but I think it's fair to say for the creative work that's personally meaningful to me -- fiction, fannish meta, book reviews, essays like this one, etc. -- I have never received renumeration. I consider this to be choice, because I have immersed myself in fandom, writing fiction of a type that I legally cannot sell. I've chosen not to write original fiction, or file the serial numbers off my fic; I've chosen not to pitch essays or reviews to paying venues; and I've chosen not to set up a personal Patreon or any kind of tip jar. Within my corner of fandom culture, we mostly accept that we're creating for the love of it, and for the personal satisfaction of sharing our creations with others.

So I look at a sentiment like the one that Peter describes, and it's alien to me. Many years ago, at my first FogCon, I got into a brief debate with a professional author during a panel about fanfiction, and why anyone would put time into writing something you couldn't sell. (Perhaps ironically, it was a panel about cyberpunk and other "-punk" genres.) Although my comments were well-received in the moment, the pro who raised the issue admitted that he still didn't really get it; he offered to continue the discussion over email, but I was too shy to take him up on it, so it ended there. I still think about it sometimes, though. There are plenty of people who undertake creative pursuits with no expectation of making them into a career: crafters, home cooks, musicians. I've never made money off music, either -- I actually pay for the privilege of singing in my chorus. Amateurs often create for love, in all kinds of fields. Why should writing be any different?

Fandom has an economy, of course. Most often it's described as a "gift economy", meaning that you publish your work as a gift to the community, with no expectation of receiving anything in return. Another, in my experience more accurate description, is the "attention economy". Instead of money, creators get "paid" in attention: likes, kudos, clicks, reviews. Both of these models are somewhat limited, and the "attention economy" frame in particular is still rooted in the paradigm of capitalism, but I think there's something worthwhile in both descriptions. One of my favorite articles on the subject is The Economics of Fandom: Value, Investment, and Invisible Price Tags by saathi1013, which goes into detail about the "work" it takes to be in fandom, and the different ways in which we value and/or are compensated for that work.

On the other hand, there are signs that this may be changing. In this respect, there's always been a disconnect in fandom between fanfic and fanart -- unlike fanfic, there's a long tradition of selling fanart: at comics conventions, for example, or via commissions. In professional comics circles, there's an expectation of sorts that artists will cut their teeth on fanart and perhaps even include it in their portfolio. And increasingly, fanfic authors have been questioning why they can't benefit from selling their work, too. I've known fanfic authors to take commissions, or set up Patreons. And the practice of "filing off the serial numbers" has gotten more transparent with the success of authors like E. L. James and Cassandra Clare. Everyone knows that 50 Shades of Grey was originally a Twilight AU, and that Clare was offered a book contract on the strength of her following in the Harry Potter and LoTR fandoms. As IP holders have grown less likely to bring down the hammer on fanfic authors, fanfic is coming out of the shadows. Can a growing commercial acceptance be far behind?

To me, maybe it doesn't matter. Although I certainly appreciate no longer living in fear that I'll receive a cease and desist letter someday, I don't know that I would try to sell my fic even if I were given the opportunity. Essays and reviews might be a different story, further down the road, but for now I'm happier where I am, in (what feels to me) like the lower-pressure environment of fandom, where I can write for the love of it, and in the hopes of finding fellow travelers who will love what I love with me.

x-posted from My Dreamwidth Journal | Feel free to reply here or comment there

#dw crosspost #creativity meta #fandom meta

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allonsysilvertongue · 7 years

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Chasing Hope

Summary: “If I ask you to name all the things you love, how long will it take for you to name yourself?” A story on finding hope, forgiveness and love in a world they never imagined they would survive. Post-MJ. Previously

6. Making Conversations

"How do you go back to being strangers with someone who has seen your soul?" — Nikita Gill.

With Peeta home, breakfast actually became a practice instead of a meal that Katniss and Haymitch frequently skipped. For the first time since Haymitch brought Katniss home, her kitchen island was laden with breads, muffins and homemade jams.

"Can you pass the marmalade, please?" Effie requested.

At the sound of her voice, Haymitch glanced up and realised that the question was directed at him. His hand was full holding a cup of coffee and a teaspoon in the other so he popped the teaspoon in his mouth, leaned over to grab the jar and handed it to her.

As he pulled the spoon out of his mouth to continue stirring his coffee, Katniss shot him a disgusted look, not that he noticed because he was still staring at Effie.

She had been here nearly a week and throughout the time, she treated him with polite civility which was expected from any well-mannered, civilised person. He missed her warmth, their banter which more often than not turned flirty in seconds and their vicious arguments, granted an argument was the last thing he wanted right now. He thought it might be even better if she was outright cold with him. At least then, he would know where he stood.

"So, Haymitch, you'll be at the Town Square today?" Peeta asked.

He forced his gaze away from Effie to look at the Peeta. "Yeah, guess so. You?"

"Yes," he answered.

Peeta had found it helpful to immerse himself with the rebuilding as well, claiming it was a community effort and he would very much liked to play his part. The first two days after his return, he had gone straight to working on Katniss' garden, planting primroses and other flowers. Then he began to notice that there were days in which Haymitch was not around so he started following his mentor. Peeta often dropped by with a basket filled with muffins and pastries for the volunteers and workers, and then he would help where he was needed.

"We are laying bricks today," Peeta informed both Katniss and Effie. "Some of the houses in the old part of the Seam are up with very basic amenities but at least there is a roof over their heads. It is not going fast enough from what I heard but the district also need shops if we are going to go on living so we need the Town to be sorted within the week. That's the focus for today and the following days, isn't it, Haymitch?"

"Yeah," Haymitch answered simply.

"I heard there will be a vote to elect a mayor here..." Effie chimed in.

"Oh, yeah," Haymitch nodded. "Not sure when that'll be but should be soon."

"What about the rumour that instead of coal, our focused trade might now be medicine?" Peeta queried.

Haymitch shrugged.

"One thing at a time. First get the houses up then a place we can buy and sell and then we can focus on whatever else we need to boost the district's economy."

"Maybe you should be mayor," Katniss remarked. "You seem to have a good idea of what we need."

Haymitch chuckled and waved it off.

"Never crossed my mind. I'll leave that to someone younger and with more ambition. Besides, I have something else to occupy my time," Haymitch said.

“Really?” Katniss asked sceptically.

"Speaking of which, I might head off to see if I can salvage any old books at the library ground. Beetee and Plutarch are sending some over my way as well so I'll swing by the train station – be back in the evening."

“Old books?” Katniss frowned. “What for?”

“Something,” Haymitch said simply. “Got a plan – nothing concrete yet.”

Since Paylor had told him that his suggestion had merit and since no one had volunteered to take up the task with the avoxes, she was willing to let Haymitch helm the rehabilitation programme. This meant that he needed to put something together. He already had an idea of the direction he intended to take and among the first thing he realise he needed to tackle was to give the avoxes back their ability to communicate. That was where the books came in. Pollux and his brother must have learnt to sign from somewhere and by that logic, there must be books on it. While waiting for word from Pollux, he figured he should get a head start on that on his own.

“So…” Haymitch said, taking a bite off his muffin, “what are you up to today, sweetheart?”

Her gaze cut sharply to him. She seemed startled that his question was directed at her, as if the very idea that he would take interest in her plans was unheard of.

“I … I have nothing planned.”

“Yeah?” he raised an eyebrow. “You always have a plan or something.”

“I was thinking that if Sae wants my help with her… She is planning on opening a small restaurant and I thought I could help. Otherwise, I’ll think of something else.”

“Ah, alright,” Haymitch leaned back in his chair. “Don’t stay cooped up in that house all day long. It ain’t good.”

It was something he noticed. She spent more hours in than out, and when she actually ventured out, it was usually to take walks with Peeta in the evening or for meals at Katniss’ house. Apart from them, Sae and her granddaughter’s coming and going was the only other social contact she had.

Haymitch wasn’t sure how long her visit in Twelve was going to last or what her arrangement with Peeta was. He wasn’t sure if she was going to be here tomorrow or the week after. He wasn’t sure if he was going to wake up the next morning and find that she had left for District Four to visit Annie and Johanna. He wasn’t even sure if ‘visiting’ meant that she had left the Capitol for good, and if she did, then where would she stay?

The only thing Peeta had told him when he asked was that Effie was looking for a fresh start.

He supposed the only thing he could do was the take one day at time where Effie was concerned. Right now, she was here and that was all that mattered. He liked that Katniss, Peeta and Effie were all in the same place where he could keep an eye out for them. It would be perfect if Annie and Johanna were here too but that would be asking for too much.

He just wished… He just wished that she would talk to him, not this thing where he ask a question and she answer, and nothing else. If she was still angry, he would rather she screamed at him because right now, sitting here and sharing breakfast with her felt too much like having a meal with a stranger.

“Paylor’s swearing is in today,” Peeta reminded them. “We should all try to be back for dinner for that.”

“Dawn of a new era,” Haymitch remarked.

“Does this mean that the situation in the Capitol has stabilised enough for them to finally hold the inauguration? It’s been – what? – almost two months since she was elected…” Katniss mused.

“Even if the Capitol’s still in a mess, they need to hold it soon. There is a need to make it official to keep the stability in the country. Paylor’s head of the government now and the people need to see that.”

“Effie had a hand in choosing Paylor’s outfit,” Peeta broke the news, looking at Effie encouragingly as if to give her an opening for which she could talk.

“Oh, really?” Haymitch turned towards her.

“It is nothing too extravagant,” she said. “Plutarch merely summoned me to the Presidential Mansion to get my opinion on which outfit would be suitable. It took less than a day.”

“That’s good – it means your opinion matters,” Haymitch pointed out.

“Yes, I supposed.”

Haymitch let out a breath and exchanged a glance with Peeta who shook his head imperceptibly.

When did conversations with Effie become so difficult? It was easy before. They always knew what to say to each other. They also always knew which buttons to push to anger the other. She knew him like no one else did.

He knew he needed to stop grumbling. He needed to give her time. From where she was standing, he had all but betrayed her and if someone had betrayed him, he sure as hell wouldn’t be sitting on the same table as the said person to have breakfast together.

She needs time, he told himself.

What was important was that she was here. He would take this win.

Do you think Haymitch has a right to feel frustrated that Effie's not as friendly and warm with him as she used to? Effie's civil and making an effort by being present for meals so that's a point for her :) Tell me your thoughts!

#hayffie #effie trinket #haymitch abernathy #everlark #katniss everdeen #Peeta Mellark #post mockingjay #chasing hope

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nozomijoestar · 7 years

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Review of Your Name (君の名は)

This review will contain spoilers so please do not read if you plan on going to see this movie and do not want any part of the experience ruined.

I have three major gripes with this film that is otherwise excellently sound and worthy of all its praise (as are many Makoto Shinkai works). I’ll address these first then go on to the rest of the movie from sound design, to animation, to voice acting (please note I have only seen the English dub in theaters so this is the only performance I can draw from). I’d like to add that this is one of those films I highly recommend watching in a movie theater. The sense of atmosphere and scale is improved upon by the size of a theater’s capabilities.

1. The Opening Sequence at the beginning should have been omitted entirely.

Not only was it rather jarring to see an OP in the style of an animated TV show in something like a feature film, it was also a giant guarantee that Mitsuha will survive the events of the comet that originally did kill her. Looking back on that sequence the longer one progresses through the movie, all the excellently mounting and central tension around whether or not Itomori and in turn Mitsuha can be saved is ruined by her adulthood appearance already being shown to the viewer within the first two to three minutes of the first shots. This drags down some of the enjoyability of trying to resolve the main conflict and makes Taki’s actions and the lengths he went to save her and everyone fall rather flat knowing from the get go that he will succeed. See, if this were a clearly not as ambitious title as one of my other favorite series Girls und Panzer- I would be willing to forgive this and enjoy the ride rather than most of the set up. However here in a film that both sells itself and thrives in setting serious, believable tone and atmosphere that is clearly trying to achieve more than placing some great set pieces and decently entertaining characters, I’m going to expect it to try harder to keep us on the edge of our seats and guessing. While this wasn’t a factor that killed the entire movie for me outright, it was definitely a damper and something I’m going to have to detract points from.

2. Many of the insert songs (not the original composed pieces) were overused as to be annoying and forgettable with the exception of the final credits song

One of the other few things that bugged me constantly throughout the movie and which at times broke my immersion to focus more on that problem than a scene was the music placement. Instead of mostly using appropriate pieces to strengthen a scene (something Shinkai did better in his 2007 film 5 Centimeters Per Second), full length pop like music with matching lyrics was used; its vocals not only detracting from the built emotion scene by scene that was sufficient to stand on its own, but ruining some of that built tone by clashing it’s own different musical tone to instead work against a scene rather than help its impact. Thankfully, all four of these songs themselves at least are not repeated throughout the entirety of the film, but the moments where they are definitely make themselves noticeable.

3. The explanation for why Mitsuha and Taki switch bodies while nicely implied on several occasions is never believably explained and can feel rather contrived

This was definitely one of the aspects of the film where the writing team’s frustrations at making one of their key elements feel fleshed out was palpable. The way I understood it, you can take the explanation for why these two are able to take each others place three ways. Three ways that very heavily tie into each other as to feel like each one is supposed to cover the other ones ass if it falls short simply due to how similar in theme they are. Mitsuha and Taki can switch bodies because of the following:

Mitsuha’s family having the closest tie to the god who’s shrine they upkeep, therefore when she wished for a different life the deity indulged her especially accounting for how difficult her life had been and how victimized she was by her classmates

The event of the comet was also tied to the god and divine forces in general, perhaps the work of a god who opposed the shrine god Mitsuha’s family served as the name of the comet Tiamat is the name of a god of primordial destruction in Mesopotamian lore. This god could have sent the meteor to Itomori to destroy it as an act against it’s own god- who then uses the switching of Mitsuha’s body with Taki three years in the future as a way to get someone to prevent Itomori’s destruction through the body of one of its shrine caretakers and also in turn bring fated lovers together (if this was all the case though the god could have simply counterattacked and prevented the meteor from falling outright thus canceling the whole movie though this can be argued against on reasonable grounds that the Itomori god is not strong enough to fight a greater god such as Tiamat as it only controls a town)

Because Mitsuha’s family is directly responsible for taking care of the town god and have been doing so for countless generations, they have simply been granted the ability to randomly switch bodies with someone they desire to for a limited period of time (likely until either they or the other person die as the link between Taki and Mitsuha is initially severed upon her death in the original timeline) and can pass this ability best if the mother of a child in their family is a Miyamizu (since both Mitsuha’s mother and grandmother have done this at earlier points in their lives), thus Mitsuha is just awakening her ability after wishing desperately to be someone else however it all happened to coincide with the Tiamat Comet though the two aren’t necessarily related

That all being said, again, these three things are only implied at best, and neither lead to a single compelling explanation and instead serve to pull the reasoning in more offshooting and conflicting directions than it helps to create a unifying believable cause (ironic given that one of the central themes of the story is the idea of unity which otherwise is wonderfully done)

This concludes my main gripes

From here on out I’ll cover the film from a technical perspective

The sound design is excellent, accurate, and properly implemented and does wonders to increase immersion and bring the setting to life. The world feels familiar, vibrant and alive. Every train grinding on the tracks, every text bloop and bleep, every rustle of leaves and doors opening or shutting is as intense as it can be subtle. These audible cues combined with stunning, gorgeous, and masterful visuals combine to form a presentation that absolutely grabs hold of the viewers attention and refuses to let go in a delightful way. You’re in the countryside or in the heart of Tokyo and you stay there, something that also brilliantly highlights the differences and similarities to Taki and Mitsuha’s contrasting environments; while greatly strengthening how they react when thrown into these opposing types of setting. Expert use of various camera angles in addition to these factors further heightens the impact on the senses; doing an amazing job of displaying shifting senses of scale, character emotion, and aiding in location transitioning (such as the ever present shots of doors being opened from a floor level view that not only bring a sense of mystery to each transition in this manner but are aesthetically pleasing and contribute to setting a location’s tone for the following scene taking place in it by adding various degrees of urgency that is applied to how the door is opened).

Setting is in fact a great segway into characters, as the almost otherworldly portrayal of the world with how crisp it is in addition to the fantastical/supernatural element of the plot serve to make the realistic and grounded characters stand out. The characters themselves, from our two protagonists to the minor players are all believable, carrying familiar human struggles, wants, and needs despite and in response to the impossible things that happen to them. I would actually wholly enjoy a spinoff feature with characters like Teshi and Saya or even Mitsuha’s dad or grandmother in her youth taking center stage after seeing how well they were put together in this film. Taki and Mitsuha’s curiosity and panic upon first switching immediately felt both relatable and entertaining (I’d touch my own dong to make sure it was actually real after suddenly waking up in a stranger’s body the same way I’d touch the titties if I were a man switching suddenly into a girl’s body too- my mom and I had many laughs over this one) They struggled not only with being thrust suddenly into alien environments but also in everything from how to use pronouns, to communicating with their opposite’s friends and family members, to adapting with what was given to them on such short notice (or even taking advantage of it in the way Mitsuha first abuses Taki’s paycheck to eat the sweets she never had at the first real cafe she’d ever seen). Their method of communicating with each other too progresses in a realistic way, going from rushed and sloppy scribbling on each others bodies as memos- to leaving thought out reports on their phones the longer they grow familiar with their situation. It’s this careful and lifelike handling of their back and forth conversations over the slightest action before they’ve even met that makes the bond they eventually form viable and tangible. It expertly builds and mounts the suspense the viewer holds in wanting them to finally meet face to face. And when they finally do, especially after the revelation of being two people at different points in time (something that also eliminates the solution of simply being able to call each other and something they both try to no avail because you can’t call someone three years apart from you) it’s a massive relief and honest joy. The rat race and desperate struggle Taki went through while using his memories as Mitsuha in order to save her; and her eager hope to find and impress the guy who in a way gave her the life she always wanted met head on and bleed through the full weight of their emotions not only for the people and experiences they’d had while switching and for themselves, but also each other. Their gradual friendship then love solidifies itself in the sacrifices and risks they are willing take for each other- having come as a result of making small talk via their reports, doing each other favors via interactions with the other characters who are unique to either of them, and resonating with the resulting thrill being someone else gave them. In switching places, they grew to have each others backs in daily life, which realistically built the trust between them that opens up and evolves into a truly believable and lasting connection between two people who understand each other and genuinely should be together (which is more and beyond what I can say for 99% of any romance or even friendship I’ve ever seen).

As I have only seen the English dub, this is one of the extremely rare dubs I’ve listened to where I feel the dubbed acting was solid, pleasant, and helped convey the character’s personalities and shifting emotions as much as I imagine its native language did. Of note, I believe Stephanie Sheh’s performance as Mitsuha was the best portrayal of her entire career to date that I’ve heard. None of the characters felt wildly off thanks to the charming and professional performances of their respective VAs, again even with the minor characters.

In conclusion, I overall loved every possible aspect of Makoto Shinkai’s “Your Name”; even with things I found to be flaws. I was absolutely captivated and spellbound the entire time I watched. I didn’t even touch my candy or much of my water after the first seven minutes and onward. The one time I desperately had to pee I felt horrible for having to break away for even a moment out of the theater and away from watching the movie. I literally ran to and from the bathroom to miss as little as possible; and as the movie progressed I would even tap my mom in excitement and cheered for the protagonists in hushed whispers. My mom and I initially went in thinking we were going to get something akin to an anime version of Freaky Friday based on the plot premise. We were not only thoroughly shocked and impressed, but my mom considers it to be one of her favorite all time movies now- and for damn good reason.

“Your Name” gets a must watch recommendation from me. You’d be doing yourself a disservice not to see it just once even if you walk away not liking or falling in love with it. Especially given how accessible it currently is in US theaters, go see it before it completes its Stateside run!

#your name #what a wonderful experience from beginning to end

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