#that's ALREADY in iambic pentameter | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bohemian-rhapsody-in-blue · 1 year

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Thank you for all the Macbeth content in my dashboard today, started reading it in English and I love it

Apologies for the two-days-late response (this ask is referring to my Macbeth post spam of two days ago), but that's so cool that you've just started studying the play! I'm so glad you like the Macbeth content as well as the play itself! I read it for a Shakespeare class at my college last semester, and by the end of that semester it had rocketed up to the status of my favorite Shakespeare play (sorry, Hamlet, I still love you!). That's why I was so excited to be participating in a production of it!

I like how plot-driven and fast-paced it is, with a very tight plot, events following each other like boom-boom-boom (unlike something like Hamlet, which has a lot of brooding and rumination), and plot twists that leave the reader SHOOKETH. But at the same time, I also like how nuanced the characters are and what potential they have for backstory. And I love the atmosphere of creepiness, horror, and visceral wrong-ness. It's fascinating to study how Shakespeare ratchets up the tension in not just the plot, and the story of Macbeth's and Lady Macbeth's slowly unraveling (in different directions!), but also the language.

A fun fact for you, as you continue to read the play for your English class, is that most people in the play speak in iambic pentameter as is Shakespeare's norm. This means every line is composed of five iambs, with the stress on the second syllable (ex. "So foul / and fair / a day / I have / not seen"). The witches, on the other hand, speak in trochaic tetrameter. Most, if not all, lines of their dialogue are composed of four trochees, with the stress on the FIRST syllable (ex. "Something / wicked / this way / comes"). Basically, they speak backwards compared to everyone else in the play, emphasizing their wrongness and otherworldliness. How cool is that?! There's also this article I reblogged, in which a team of researchers used computer analysis to determine the creepiest word in Macbeth. I won't spoil for you what the word is, but it's a fascinating analysis!

Anyway, I'm so glad you enjoyed all the Macbeth content that I reblogged yesterday! I hope you also enjoyed this mini-ramble and, most of all, that you continue to enjoy the play!

#ask #answered #anon #macbeth #plays #shakespeare #literature #maya’s musings #a random bonus fun fact about shakespeare that doesn't necessarily have to do with macbeth (but which i still like):#i've already mentioned that the witches speak in trochees to emphasize how something about them is creepy and fundamentally wrong #well there's only one line in shakespeare that's in trochaic PENTAMETER—a complete reversal of his normal iambic pentameter #it's also the only line in shakespeare that consists of nothing but the same word repeated 5 times #and it's not spoken by the witches #it's in king lear act V scene 3 #'never never never never never'#lear's reaction to *spoiler alert i guess* his daughter cordelia's death as he sorta-kinda repents and sees how wrong he was—#or is just consumed by his grief #shakespeare's use of trochaic pentameter (reversal of iambic pentameter) hammers home how WRONG the world is or has become #now that cordelia—perhaps the only morally good character in the whole freaking play—is dead #and nothing can ever be the same again #this is another fun fact i learned in the shakespeare class i took last year (where we read king lear as well as macbeth)#(i'd like to play cordelia someday)#i hope you enjoyed this rambling!

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covenofthearticulate · 2 years

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it is 1am on a sunday night. i have work in the morning and so much shit to do. AND YET............i really want to re-read macbeth and analyze the themes from the play within the context of lestat’s character arc

#macbeth is technically one of shakespeare's shortest plays (if not THE shortest?? i can't remember)#there's just. SO MUCH. there are so many themes and symbols and rich language that relates so much to lestat's life #the inescapable notion of fate. the ghost of your victim showing up to haunt you. the themes of madness and the dagger speech.#the juxtaposition of power vs. love #ALSO!!!!!!!! THE FACT THAT THE LANGUAGE IS IN IAMBIC PENTAMETER #THUS MIMICKING THE HUMAN HEARTBEAT #(caro already did a whole post on this like 5 years ago i remember because she included my favorite french translation and #analyzed it beautifully)#FUCK i love shakespeare i love the vampire chronicles god i'm having So Many Thoughts #unfortunately i will have to save them for later bc i have to sleep but........One Day i'll write up a post #one day. i swear.

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bluesidedown · 2 years

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Hnnnngggggghhh

#i am going to dream in iambic pentameter tonight (if i ever go to sleep)#i have already written one sonnet today #and i have to finish another and write another entirely before 8am tomorrow #(dubious decisions have been made)

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homunculus-argument · 2 months

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Why is it always "born in the wrong generation"? What if this is the better option you got? What if you were born to be a 1950s lounge singer or a 1300s weaver and already had a lifetime of that, doing what you love to do and what you do best, and spent the whole time thinking "I wish I could do this in a better time, where I could do it more freely from the bottom of my heart, and not have to worry about the things that hold me back"?

You get to make soap with ingredients the soapmakers a thousand years ago could not have dreamed of combining. You get to work with fabrics an ordinary tailor could never have gotten their hands on. Write the gayest love poetry in iambic pentameter without having to worry of being tried for sodomy. Hell, you could have eight kids and bake bread while barefoot without worrying how many of your runts survive to adulthood.

You can draw designs for stained glass windows that the church would never let you, and instead of thinking how your talents would have been groundbreaking back in the day and how they are wasted now, you can imagine how a thousand years ago you may have been drawing the same designs, thinking "I wish I could just do this without having to worry about viking raids and the plague."

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reicartwright · 11 months

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Day 22

Write about something that terrified you as a child.

The first thing that I think of is the fires. I’ve never lost some one or thing, but still Anxiety keeps me safe against unknowns; Immediate danger never is required.

The first time I remember feeling fear Was when we shopped for a new smoke alarm. I knew, with logic, having the alarm Would not cause any fires to appear.

But in that Target, all my mind could see Was beeping, burning, hallways filled with smoke. We had a plan, but really, when it came I doubted brave was something I could be.

It’s good I worried, though fate did fire postpone: For ten years later, wildfires swept near home. I knew what I should do — my story’s shown Anxiety keeps me safe against unknowns.

#oh dang three weeks in already #100 days of poetry #original post #iambic pentameter

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hamletthedane · 4 months

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When Shakespeare describes the eventual end of human history as “the last SYLLABLE of recorded time” suggesting that the end of humanity will not be with a bang, a whimper, a gunshot, a sword, or even a breath, but with a syllable - a word….

And the fact that the line ends on the word “time”, which is one stressed syllable past its welcome in the iambic pentameter, suggesting that time itself continues long after human speech (iambic pentameter) has already ended AAAAAAHHHHHHH-

#macbeth #honestly Macbeth’s soliloquy is such a particularly brilliant piece of poetry #the breaking up of the iambic pentameter into increasingly irregular lines #the fact that half of the lines have feminine endings and he’s trying to cram three syllables into one #and also how both ‘tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’ and ‘creeps in this petty pace’ FEELS creeping and cyclical #love it

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notwhatiam · 1 year

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With this amazing gift from @missroserose, plus the Shakespeare magnet poetry set I already had, I can finally achieve my goal of writing conspiracy theories in iambic pentameter.

#conspiracy theory #conspiracies #Shakespeare #word art #word magnets #magnetic poetry #poetry magnets #iambic pentameter #conspiracy theorists #conspiracy magnets #Shakespeare magnets #fridge #gift #poetry #writing

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kiwisa · 1 year

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serenade ✩ cl16

Charles Leclerc x Fem! Famous! Singer! Reader

fluff • 1,500 words • sequel to sweet melody

IN WHICH... a song is better than a thousand words.

The metronome that had been counting the rhythm in your earpiece ⏤ disturbing you, if anything else ⏤ finally ceased as the last notes of your song faded away in a transition which you did not notice, too busy catching your breath. The spotlight faded for a few moments, giving you just enough time to take three big gulps of water, which dripped down your lips to your throat and cleavage, already wet with perspiration.

It was hot on stage. Too hot, you thought, wiping your forehead with a brush of your forearm. The spotlights would turn an autumn evening into a summer afternoon by the sheer force of their light, almost as if the sun itself were trapped in those damned bulbs. The heat did nothing to ease the heaviness of your limbs, exhausted by two intense hours of dancing, singing, sometimes both at the same time. Your legs, arms, and back were aching terribly, but you showed nothing. Why complain about a career you had chosen? As they said, the show must go on.

The cheerful shouts of the crowd gradually brought you out of your trance, though your chest continued to heave rapidly as the spotlights dazzled you. You squinted for a moment, getting used to the artificial daylight again, punctuated by a pixelated starry sky woven by the phones’ flashes.

“Usually, this is the point in the show where I announce that this was the last song…”

You laughed at the reaction of the fans, who were quick to boo you when they realized the enchanted interlude that was this concert was coming to an end. The worries of everyday life, left at the entrance of the stadium, were only waiting for the last note to come back and slump on everyone's shoulders, yours included.

“… But today, because we are in Nice, and because this city is special to me, I have decided to sing a song for you that is just as special. This may be the only time you hear it, so enjoy.”

An assistant brought an acoustic guitar and a stool. No one could see your fingers shaking as you adjusted the microphone stand, anxious at the mere thought of making a false note, of ruining what was supposed to be perfect. Hours and hours of secret rehearsals had brought you to this moment. You would not fuck up something so important to you, to him, was going to fall flat.

“Hm. So… Yeah, this is dedicated to a special someone in the crowd.”

It was hard, but you managed not to turn your head towards the VIP section of the pit, isolated at the front, and far more visible than anything else in the Stade Allianz Riviera. The phones were focused on you, on your every move, reminding you that every second of the concert would be analysed and posted on Twitter within the hour, before being relayed hundreds of thousands of times. That was precisely why, tonight, the music would speak for you, and the notes would replace the words you were not allowed to chant out loud.

Unveiling without saying too much.

Private but not secret.

In your earpiece, the metronome resumed its rhythm, but this time you welcomed it. Like Odysseus and the sirens, the first notes of the song blurred your senses and plunged you into a melodic trance in which only a silhouette stood out. The first words were shakily sung, and you immediately cursed your stress, or perhaps your stupid heart, which was beating furiously in your chest, catching up with the heady metronome. A new rhythm that had begun tuning with another.

Young love was beautiful, so beautiful it inspired poetry.

You were no Hugo, nor Lamartine, nor even a Shakespeare. In your verses, no iambic pentameters, no embracing rhymes; simply the raw evidence of blossoming love, even as the leaves of the trees gradually turned orange.

As the first words rang out, you thought back to that damn crossed-out page, its words never suitable enough to explain the unexplainable. How to describe love? Some had succeeded, with rough metaphors, comparisons to nature, to art. You, faced with the white sheet of paper, with the image of two large green eyes in your mind, found yourself speechless, wordless, unable to put into phrases the love you felt for Charles.

“Love,” a word you had not yet uttered. Too soon to do so, some said. You simply thought that “I love you” was not strong enough.

Your head swayed gently to the rhythm of the strings strummed by your ⏤ still shaky ⏤ fingers, eyebrows furrowed. The low, slow, melodious sound echoed through the speakers and into the hearts of the entire crowd. You just hoped it would touch his.

In the middle of this shapeless mass of people, you could only see him, dazzling in his white shirt. The spotlight didn't allow you to see the expression painted on his face, but nights spent admiring him allowed you to imagine it without any problem: his ears flushed, his mouth folded inwards to avoid seeing them tremble, his fingers playing with his ring…

He'd been to all concerts since the beginning of your relationship ⏤ a few weeks before ⏤ following you to Los Angeles for a festival, to Italy for a concert, without ever hesitating once. Here in Nice ⏤ so close to Monaco ⏤ everything was special. His presence tasted of home.

In the middle of thousands of people, he was the only soul that mattered.

Tears ⏤ an overflow of love at his sight ⏤ rose and rolled down your cheeks one by one. He was your most beautiful verse, your most beautiful arpeggio, the last sound added to the harmony that made up your life.

On this stage, the melody of love resounded, until the last chorus:

Qu’est-ce que j’irais faire au paradis Quand tu t’endors près de moi? Qu’ils le donnent à d’autres, le paradis Je n’en voudrais pas*

Déjà vu: the metronome stopped, the lights went out, the water was thirstily gulped. This time, however, nothing was turned back on. Applause and shouts rang out, making the floor tremble, or perhaps it was your legs, both tired and relieved.

An assistant guided you backstage. The microphone was taken away, the earpiece as well. A towel was passed around to dry your forehead, back, and thighs. Your heart was beating hard, so hard that you thought it was trying to escape from your rib cage and lodge itself in your temples.

It was finally over. You had done it. You had sung his song.

Five people tried to talk to you, debrief the concert, make changes, but you didn't care, your attention no longer on them since he had entered the room.

A hazel spot in the middle of the black-dressed staff. His eyes were red, as was the tip of his nose. Furrows of tears marked his cheeks but contrasted with the blinding smile he gave you. Your heart skipped a beat, the mere sight of his figure triggering a wave of affection.

You immediately threw yourself into his arms, breathing in his Dior perfume, his musky scent, the aroma of tobacco: a smell that was so unapologetically him.

“Did you like the song?” you asked with a small voice, your head buried in his chest.

He pressed his hand against your head, pulling you even closer to him, as if he wanted your two bodies to become one. His lips pressed against your forehead, and did not let go, even when he spoke: “I adored it, mon ange.”

The tremolo of his voice spoke for him, his wet tone doing nothing to hide his emotion. Charles spoke little, chose his words carefully, did not waste them on wordy periphrases. Thus, he did not exclaim, did not dwell on explanations that would spoil the intimate atmosphere. He merely whispered these simple words with all the tenderness in the world, filling your heart, which was already on the verge of giving out from all the attention you were getting from him.

“Je t'aime.”

Your breath caught in your throat at his three little words, whispered as if they were second-nature to him. His chest vibrated with his laughter, purely in adoration of your reaction, before he took your face in his hands to kiss you tenderly. More tears joined the first you had shed on stage, but you ignored them, content, in love.

“Je t'aime aussi.”

He swayed both your bodies gently, never loosening his embrace, never taking his lips off your skin. Around you, the staff was already packing up to make room for the next day's performer, but you did not care. In the frenzied tempo of life, your sweet melody played off-beat.

FOOTNOTES !

*Chorus from Paradis, Orelsan.

#charles leclerc fanfic #charles leclerc x reader #charles leclerc x you #charles leclerc imagine #charles leclerc drabble #charles leclerc #f1 fic #f1 x reader #f1 fanfic #f1 imagine #f1 x you #formula 1 fic #formula one fanfiction #formula 1 x reader #formula 1 x you #formula one imagine #formula one fic #formula 1 rpf #formula 1 imagine

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jbaileyfansite · 3 months

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Interview with Interview Magazine (2024)

Before he was known as the dashing Lord Anthony Bridgerton or Tim Laughlin, the character in Fellow Travelers for which he won a Critics Choice Award earlier this month, Jonathan Bailey caught the attention of Phoebe Waller-Bridge with his confident, self-possessed audition for her show Crashing nearly a decade ago. “You came in like a fireball,” said the Fleabag star on Zoom with Bailey, recounting how, while reading for the role of the sex-obsessed Sam, Bailey asked permission to lay his script out on the floor in front of him like a rainbow. “You had no embarrassment. You didn’t actually refer to it again, but you took those few seconds to just completely set up what you exactly needed for that audition, and then you were so free.” In the years since, with roles in Bridgerton, the Showtime drama Fellow Travelers, and the upcoming Wicked movie adaptation, Bailey has become one of the most sought-after actors in the business, capable of generating sparks with whoever’s on screen with him. Waller-Bridge attributes this to the 35-year-old’s distinct understanding of tension. “You’re like a chemistry machine,” she gushed. “There’s this incredible erotic energy that people are so excited about.” Last week, from a hotel room at Claridge’s in London, Bailey talked to Waller-Bridge about longing, orgasms, frosted tips, nostalgia, Shakespeare, and his very first role: playing a raindrop in a stage production of Noah’s Ark.

PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE: Hi.

JONATHAN BAILEY: Hi.

WALLER-BRIDGE: I’m taking my glasses off. Now I can be real.

BAILEY: I’ve just had a gin and tonic, actually. I had a meeting and he really wanted a glass of Whispering Angel, so I was like, “Well, I’ve got to dive in.”

WALLER-BRIDGE: What’s the time there?

BAILEY: Oh, I’m literally around the corner from you. Literally, I’ve come into Claridge’s Hotel and checked in for an hour just to have a Zoom.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Oh, god. That’s so chic. Jonny, I want all of your secrets.

BAILEY: I feel like you’ve got quite a few of them already.

WALLER-BRIDGE: I do, actually. And we’re not going to talk about any of those. But I did also get to do a little bit of research on you.

BAILEY: Oh, god. What have you got?

WALLER-BRIDGE: Jonathan Stewart Bailey, I’d like to jump straight in with the fact that the first professional job you had was playing a teardrop, or a raindrop?

BAILEY: There were teardrops, but yeah, I was playing a raindrop.

WALLER-BRIDGE: You were a crying raindrop.

BAILEY: A crying raindrop in Noah’s Ark.

WALLER-BRIDGE: And how old were you then?

BAILEY: I think I was about 5 going on 29. I was really upset because it didn’t rain. The bitch that played Noah, she forgot the cue for the rain to come. So my dance didn’t make it, but at the end of the show they allowed me to do it once everyone had applauded.

WALLER-BRIDGE: I asked you that specifically because you’ve also said that your grandmother took you to see a production of Oliver in London and that’s what changed everything.

BAILEY: Yes.

WALLER-BRIDGE: So was the raindrop before or after that? I am getting to something, I promise.

BAILEY: I think it was probably afterwards. I was really young when I went to see Oliver.

WALLER-BRIDGE: I’m interested because I read that seeing it made you decide you wanted to perform. Can you tell me the specific thing that made it click?

BAILEY: I’ll tell you, the most bizarre thing is that I had three seasons at the RSC under my belt by the age of nine. There was a moment where I played Prince Arthur, the kid in Shakespeare who gets his eyes gouged out and has to escape a turret. I remember doing that production and thinking I was aware of the power of words, if that makes sense. You’re so porous at that age, I think. It is such a gift, isn’t it, to be shown what iambic pentameter is.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Do you still feel passionate about Shakespeare now?

BAILEY: I do, actually. It’s my dirty, filthy habit.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Your dirty little habit. I know what you mean, though, how if you come to it quite raw, and it’s not something that you’ve had shoved down your throat at school, there is nothing more epic and spectacular.

BAILEY: And being around people who are just so committed to their vocation, whether they’re writing or creating. The smell backstage at the RSC at the Barbican was like cigarettes, stage makeup, Joe Fiennes, and hope.

WALLER-BRIDGE: That’s a lot of beautiful smells you’ve got going on there.

BAILEY: I know. Talk about top notes and bottom notes. I was like, “These men, these titans of theater!”

WALLER-BRIDGE: That’s extraordinary that you were exposed to that kind of level of professionalism. Because you are consummately professional, and I remember that. You have this incredible ability to be completely live and spontaneous and wild at the same time as being so incredibly professional, and that’s why working with you felt totally safe. I know that I’ve got a professional actor coming today, but I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen because you still managed to keep that spontaneity and danger.

BAILEY: I suppose it’s sometimes dangerous. Today I had to do an interview. Crashing came up and I described working with you as being on the constant edge of an orgasm and also hysteria.

WALLER-BRIDGE: It did have a kind of wild, beautiful energy.

BAILEY: There’s a chemical alchemy when you get the right group of people led by the right people.

WALLER-BRIDGE: I haven’t had that in quite the same way since, where everyone has equal importance in the story. That’s the thing that feels quite rare, actually, there’s like six of you and they’re all as fucked up as each other. I remember your audition. You came in like a fireball and you already felt like you had a Sam energy. You sat in your chair, took out your script from your bag, and then you were like, “Give me a second,” and you laid out your script around you on the floor. You had no embarrassment about what you needed or in front of you. You didn’t actually refer to it again, but you took those few seconds to just completely set up what you exactly needed for that audition, and then you were so free. And I just wonder if you’ve felt that particular type of confidence your whole life?

BAILEY: That’s a really good question. I’ve got three older sisters and I wonder if they are a structure. I’ve definitely been in environments where I don’t feel free, and then you give the worst performance of your life. What I’ve found in the last few years is that, of course, you have to adapt so quickly to work out what you need in order to be able to be free. I think if I don’t have the equivalent of that on the floor, I panic or get really scared.

WALLER-BRIDGE: There’s something about that, which is being able to play dangerously in a safe environment. I feel like that’s got so much to do with an understanding of tension, which I think you have. You’re like a chemistry machine. Obviously, with Bridgerton and then in Fellow Travelers, there’s this incredible erotic energy that people are so excited about.

BAILEY: I really think it comes from Crashing.

WALLER-BRIDGE: It doesn’t come from Crashing, it comes from you. I think you’re the king of tension. I think you understand what that is.

BAILEY: I think you can give yourself butterflies, can’t you?

WALLER-BRIDGE: Is that what you’re looking for, the butterfly all the time?

BAILEY: Yeah, I’m always looking for my butterfly farm. The misty, slightly smelly greenhouse full of butterflies.

WALLER-BRIDGE: That’s your tummy?

BAILEY: Yeah, that’s my tummy.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Did you always dream of playing leading man roles growing up?

BAILEY: Not at all, no. I never thought I would be able to.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Why?

BAILEY: I’ve realized that I’m completely in awe of other people and performances and creative endeavors. I go to the theater and I love a performance and I’m like, “How do they do that? I can’t see the seams.” So therefore, I feel like I must be driven by that. And when something comes my way, there’s a fear that it won’t work.

WALLER-BRIDGE: What’s really exciting to me is when I see palpable dynamics between characters, which you have done multiple times, like the relationship between Tim and Hawk. There’s so much opportunity for intimacy and that kind of danger. And when you get to play those sorts of roles, when you know that you can stand in front of each other and you don’t really need to do anything because it’s giving you something, it must’ve just been a joy walking into this world because it’s like a banquet of stuff to play with, right?

BAILEY: Totally, and it feels sort of vital and sexy. I do remember this one memory, which I guess I’ll share with you now. I did play and there was a tiled wall,at eye level with a mirrored border around. And there was a guy, we were into each other, and I remember just looking up in the middle of a conversation and he was looking at me in a reflection. And I was like, “This is what life is about.” Anyway, I think that it must have something to do with feeling the most alive in that.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Do you know Esther Perel?

BAILEY: Yeah, I love Esther Perel.

WALLER-BRIDGE: So she’s written about how she believes that your next orgasm begins at the very end of your last one, which is basically our whole life just building up to our next orgasm.

BAILEY: That’s just fantastic. It’s just so positive and hopeful—

WALLER-BRIDGE: And so beautiful, isn’t it?

BAILEY: It is.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Everything that you encounter in your life, every conversation that you have, is in some way building up to the next euphoric physical experience. Every single character has to have that inside them one way or another, because every human does. And I think with Fellow Travelers, because you long for them so much as an audience and you want them to have everything that they want from each other, but they’re also brutal to themselves and to each other, there is something so extraordinary seeing characters in that time portrayed in the way that you guys have portrayed them.

BAILEY: One thing that we’re all born with is the sense of longing. Longing comes before anything else, doesn’t it? Whoever you put on the wall, laminate the poster or whatever, it’s there. And actually, if you long for someone, more often than not you don’t think you are worthy of it. And that, to me, is a way into characters.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Do you remember your laminated poster longing person?

BAILEY: I think I had the Simpsons, which was obviously me trying to disguise myself as much as possible. Lucy Liu was a big one for me, too.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Well, I can see that.

BAILEY: I suppose there’s the laminated wall in my literal bedroom and then there’s the laminated wall in my gay—

WALLER-BRIDGE: Mind.

BAILEY: Who was yours?

WALLER-BRIDGE: You know what? It’s really interesting, because I was the eagle in the Rescuers Down Under. That wasn’t necessarily a sexual longing, but it was a romantic idea, that overwhelming sense of watching the Rescuers Down Under and being able to run out of the back of my house on my own, age 10, and jump onto the back of a giant eagle and he’ll fly me around. But in terms of just a hottie that I really fancied, I think it was probably Leo [DiCaprio].

BAILEY: Oh, yeah.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Are you a nostalgic person?

BAILEY: Yes, I think so. I think a lot about my younger self. I’m always like, “Guys, remember this?” It’s slightly annoying, but I’m always drawing a line between the past and now for sure.

WALLER-BRIDGE: That’s how you measure your life, by remembering the time that’s gone by or what 11-year-old you would think of what you were doing?

BAILEY: I think I’m probably more romantic than nostalgic, if that makes sense.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Go on.

BAILEY: Well, I just think I’ve fully committed to the idea of everything being brilliant and then I work backwards from there.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Well, having starred in two hit period dramas and also being a huge part of the fact that they are a hit, that’s why I wondered about what your relationship is with the past and history, and how much you actually knew about McCarthy America?

BAILEY: Oh, no. Have you got a quiz?

WALLER-BRIDGE: I actually don’t. Do you want one?

BAILEY: No, that would be the worst.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Do you enjoy historical novels? Do you live in the past in any way in your mind? Or you are kind of like, “We’re here and we’re moving forward?”

BAILEY: I do think I’m here and moving forward. I really struggled with history at school, I could not take in information about the past. When it came to exams, I would remember the page where things were written but I couldn’t stitch together epochs and eras and kings.

WALLER-BRIDGE: It crashes my brain, too. I have a friend, and you can say to her, “June 24th, 1999,” and she can tell you pretty much what she was up to.

BAILEY: That’s amazing.

WALLER-BRIDGE: You can see her go into the diary in her mind. She has a very different wiring of her brain. But speaking of longing, are there any fictional or real life couples, gay or straight, that captured your heart over the years?

BAILEY: Oh my god, what a question. What about Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine?

WALLER-BRIDGE: I think Morticia and Gomez Addams were the most romantic couple.

BAILEY: Yeah, I see that.

WALLER-BRIDGE: They understood it. They got it all.

BAILEY: Also maybe Ryan and Marissa in The OC.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Any gay male couples that you ever looked up to or were romanced by?

BAILEY: Well unfortunately, there just weren’t that many were there growing up.

WALLER-BRIDGE: So wild.

BAILEY: But I met Matthew Rhys recently, who I just love. And I was thinking about that relationship in Brothers and Sisters. And then there was Queer as Folk. Russell, T. Davies changed the game. So many people owe so much to him just purely for visibility. There is no Tim and Hawk to a 2023 audience without Queer as Folk.

WALLER-BRIDGE: But did you feel frustrated?

BAILEY: Well, speaking of history, I was doing media studies with an amazing teacher and I decided that I was going to do my dissertation about the representations of Hutus and Tutsis and the Rwanda genocide, looking at Hotel Rwanda and Shooting Dogs. And then Brokeback Mountain came out and I was like, “Hang on, how can I possibly create a world where I can go and have a free pass to go to the cinema to watch it 10 times?” I’m really proud of my 17-year-old self, I wasn’t necessarily out, but I changed the topic to representation of homosexuality in Brokeback Mountain and I watched that film 10 times. And this amazing teacher, Dr. Brunton, who probably had an idea of what was going on, was just like, “This is brilliant, keep going, keep going.” And I think it was the best mark I ever got.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Do you still have it?

BAILEY: It must be on a hard drive upstairs in the attic. And obviously, that completely changed me, something chemical happened there. But it’s funny, I’m not clear on memories. And I do think it’s a common thing for a lot of people, growing up and having to survive and be basically in fight or flight, there’s a murkiness to how I recall.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Of course, because you couldn’t be truly present because you weren’t being completely yourself.

BAILEY: Totally, yeah.

WALLER-BRIDGE: When you look back and start unpacking it, do you feel overwhelmed with sympathy for how hard you were having to work as a 16-year-old, coming up with excuses to see the movie that you wanted to see?

BAILEY: Yeah. But I spent more time trying to be sympathetic towards the people that were around me who didn’t support or couldn’t help. I look back and I go, “Hell.”

WALLER-BRIDGE: Yes. But you are representing that and living that for so many people now. Your speech at the Critics Choice Awards the other day was so sublime and beautiful and straight from the heart. You are so electric as a human being and that is the most important thing. There aren’t many people in the world that can do that, that can stand there in front of people and speak from their heart about what it means to them to be given this opportunity. And I know that your career is just going to be the most extraordinary journey. When I first met you, I remember sitting with Josh [Cole], who was the producer on Crashing, and we were like, “If we get this guy, it’s going to be the game changer for the show.” And I know that every single person now wanting you on their project is feeling the same thing.

BAILEY: I definitely feel overwhelmed by that, but it’s lovely to hear.

WALLER-BRIDGE: Can I just ask you one question which I couldn’t remember about Crashing?

BAILEY: Yeah.

WALLER-BRIDGE: The frosted tips were your idea, wasn’t it?

BAILEY: I had this conversation today. I think it’s in the script. But my reference picture was Justin Timberlake in double denim.

WALLER-BRIDGE: No, I don’t think it was [in the script], because Sam’s a character that I hold closest to my heart because, in so many ways, he represents how I feel about maybe my inner life. I just love him so much, and your ability to play every single little corner of him that I dreamed of.

BAILEY: Maybe that’s the answer I was looking for when you asked if I was drawn to any romantic couples? No, it was just about wanting bleach blonde hair.

Source

#jonathan bailey #phoebe waller bridge #jonny bailey #interviews #interviews:2024 #interview magazine #interview magazine interview #fellow travelers #crashing #NEW!

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katherinecrighton · 6 months

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Nuts and Bolts: Some Writing Advice

(Reposting a 2013 post from the Anna Katherine co-tumblr)

A friend of mine awhile back asked the aether for some practical, straightforward writing advice, which I assumed meant nuts and bolts stuff.

This is what I ended up writing to her.

(Caveat emptor: 1. The reason advice looks contradictory is because it literally is different for everyone — shit that works for one person won’t work for someone else. Just stick it in your toolbox and move along. 2. I will say obvious shit that you already know. Because it’s possible somebody else doesn’t. 3. You may totally disagree with anything/everything I say, oh my god, that’s fine.)

1. Use the word “said.” Throw in a “she declaimed” every once in a while if you like, but don’t do it all the time. Feel free to put in no dialogue tags at all, if it’s clear who’s speaking. But “said” is free and generally invisible to the reader (and the goal is to not remind the reader that they’re reading).

2. Writing advice for short fiction and writing advice for novels are and writing advice for one genre versus another are all going to tell you slightly (or wildly) different things. So, you know, watch out for that. I suggest switching mediums entirely, and try reading up on screenplays or three-panel comics.

3. Stick your finished draft into a Kindle or some other robot reader, and have a mechanical voice read the story to you. It’s a step removed, and you’ll hear where it clunks. Make notes as it goes.

4. If you don’t have a robot reader, read it out loud to yourself. Actually out loud. Put check marks wherever you cringe. It’s where the reader will likely cringe too.

5. Start your story at the point of change. It’s more interesting. Backfill with exposition a couple of paragraphs later.

6. Sometimes, if I’m writing a one-off, I pick a motif and stick with it as a lodestone for all my descriptions. It’s a way of creating a sort of subliminal mood and atmosphere for the reader, while at the same time maintaining a nice sense of continuity.

7. The English language likes to hear things in threes. Three bears, three nights, three wishes, and what with one thing and another, three years passed. English also likes iambic pentameter and any other rhyme or rhythm scheme it can get its hands on. Readers want language to both have a pretty meaning (three brothers seek their fortune) and a pretty sound (now is the winter of our discontent). The fastest way to do this, and not have it be totally obvious, is to combine the two. Have three lines of description, three examples of something, three jokes — and do it semi-regularly. It creates a rhythm in your work, like a heartbeat. Study other people’s stories and see if you can find where they’re doing the same or similar things. Count stuff.

8. Then, later, fuck with your readers by breaking the rhythm. Stop the heartbeat. Miss the step. The reader will get nervous and uncomfortable and have no idea why. Makes for good tension.

9. Other things that make readers uncomfortable: Set dressing. We’re used to visual mediums. If you want to set up a really uncomfortable scene, describe key things around it going in, and make it clear that it’s Not Okay. A pair of scissors that have been left half open. A door that is not entirely shut. A radio caught between two stations, the garden hose still left running. Nothing overt, nothing obvious – just stuff that feels uncomfortable to read. Do enough of those in a row, as you head toward a confrontation, and the reader will be a ball of avidly reading tension by the end of it.

10. Graphic sex scenes are equal to action scenes. In both instances, know where everybody is, and what everybody’s doing. Describe with more physical action than you think is necessary. If the reader doesn’t know where everybody’s limbs are and what tools are being used, then they’ll get confused and bored. You can always edit later.

#katherine crighton #writing #nuts and bolts

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diana-fortyseven · 5 months

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Now that the days (in the Northern Hemisphere at least) are getting shorter and darker, why not enhance your fanfic reading experience with a fun challenge?

Generate your own Fanfic Reading Bingo Card and try to finish it over a timespan of your choice (e.g. during your next family gathering).

Details & instructions under the cut

Generate a new bingo card until you're (mostly) happy with the results. You can re-roll every single bingo field separately by clicking/tapping on it. When you have a card that fits your reading habits (or takes you out of your comfort zone, if you want to challenge yourself), take a screenshot of the card to keep it. Closing the page and reloading it will reset the card.

There are no fanfic-negative or bashing items in the lists. This bingo card is meant to be a positive experience and celebrate fanfiction and fanworks in general.

It's just a little practice piece I made for funsies mostly over the weekend, with some finishing touches earlier today. I will add more content over the next few days and weeks (and let's be realistic, probably months), but everything that's currently in there should already work as intended.

The bingo generator is responsive, which means it should work on desktop and mobile. The mobile layout isn't ideal yet, I'm trying my best to make it better (but I'd also still consider myself a newbie and I'm learning by doing).

The platform I'm using, Perchance, recently added AI options for their generators. This is a regrettable decision that I don't condone, and I'd like to emphasise that this generator is 100% handcrafted chaos.

Leaving the NSFW checkbox unchecked should remove all NSFW tags and tropes, but you could still come across content you find objectionable. Leaving the AO3 Tags checkbox unchecked removes all tags, but you could still come across tropes you find objectionable.

If you run into any issues or come across any bugs, please let me know. If you find something that should be in the NSFW category, but isn't, please also let me know. It's possible that I missed a few tags when I worked through the list. (But don't ask me to remove content you find objectionable.)

What do the checkboxes mean?

NSFW is basically what it says on the tin. If you tick this box, the NSFW tropes will be added to the mix. If you also ticked the AO3 Tags box, NSFW AO3 tags will be added.

AO3 Tags is also what it says on the tin. It's a list with roughly 1,000 AO3 tags. Around 250 of them are currently marked NSFW and can only be generated if you ticked both the NSFW box and the AO3 Tags box.

Stats & Meta currently only includes the lists "length" (contains wordcounts ranging from drabble to >500k) and "meta", which currently contains items like "a work with a song lyrics title" or "a work in a series". I will probably add other lists to that category at some point.

The already populated lists are:

challenge (various challenges and events like Yuletide, Whumptober)

creator (items like favourite author, anon creator)

discovery (various ways you could've found a fic)

fandom (ranging from tiny fandom to megafandom, also options like old fandom, inactive fandom, etc)

length (wordcounts from drabble to over 500k)

medium (items like podfic, fandom meta, fic with fanart)

meta (a fic's front-end and stats, also "citrus scale for rating" xD)

platform (where you read the fic)

reader (your relationship with the fic; is it your comfort fic, or your first fic in a fandom?)

style (chatfic, iambic pentameter, custom workskin, stuff like that)

trope (roughly 100 tropes)

tag (roughly 1,000 AO3 tags)

Lists that are currently planned, but empty:

canon (probably stuff like anime fandom, video game fandom, etc)

category (planned to add the AO3 categories and maybe Archive Warnings to this list)

content (might be scrapped, might be populated with some items moved over from other lists)

genre (what it says on the tin)

setting (where or when does the fic take place)

It's possible that I come up with more ideas for more lists at one point.

I had lots of fun making it, and I hope that you'll have fun with it. If you're using it, let me know when you got a bingo! :D

If you have fannish accounts on there (or don't mind inflicting fandom on your regular followers), you can also share the Fanfic Reading Bingo on Twitter, Mastodon, and Bluesky! :D

#Fandom #Fanfiction #Fic Reading Bingo #D47 Codes #this was born out of a caffeine induced frenzy #I basically stayed awake for three days until I was happy with the code haha #(I'm still so in love with my custom button... <3)

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mumblesplash · 3 months

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since you have a kofi i am assuming you are over 18 but if you arent please ignore this ask

anyway there very much is hermitcraft smut in rhyming metre already i think its tagged with iambic pentameter or soemthing like that

#splashasks #anonymous #that's INCREDIBLE #just the dedication alone #i may not be into smut myself but i have to respect the grind

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helenvader · 6 months

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I have already done Favourite Dialogue for RoPWeek2023, but I remembered this piece that I did in the past, and it fits, so...

It is not an exact wording of a dialogue, but a retelling of the raft scene from Episode 8 in iambic pentameter, because it seemed like the perfect material for a shakespearean tragedy. I tried to keep the wording as close to the script as possible, and not go overboard with the poetry.

GALADRIEL

I know now who you are.

HALBRAND

I am your friend.

GALADRIEL

A friend of Morgoth's… not a friend of mine.

HALBRAND

The day when Morgoth's rule was overthrown,

I felt as if a cruel strangling fist

released my neck, and I could breathe again.

And in the stillness of that dawn at last

I basked again in Eru's blessed light.

I knew it, then: if ever I should find

forgiveness that I craved with all my heart,

I had to heal what I had helped to scourge.

GALADRIEL

No penance could erase your evil deeds.

HALBRAND

Galadriel, that is not what you believe.

GALADRIEL

You dare to claim to know what I believe?

HALBRAND

You told me so after our victory.

No matter what you did, be free of it.

Do you deny those were your very words?

GALADRIEL

You had deceived me; thus, those words are dust.

HALBRAND

I told the truth. I never tried to hide

that I’d committed evil in the past.

And yet you did not care, because you knew

that, weighed against our future, all that was

is meaningless, and we must look ahead.

GALADRIEL

There’s no such future.

HALBRAND

Isn’t there indeed?

All others ever look on you with doubt.

It is but I who truly sees your light,

your greatness, and your admirable strength.

GALADRIEL

You would but make a tyrant out of me.

HALBRAND

No, not a tyrant… You would be a Queen;

fair as the sea and brighter than the sun;

as strong as the foundations of the earth.

GALADRIEL

And you, my King, the Dark Lord, at my side.

HALBRAND

No, never dark with you as my ally!

You told me once our meeting was not chance;

and had a deeper purpose; can’t you see

that this is it? You bind me to the light,

and you, in turn, to power shall be bound.

Together, we can save this Middle-earth.

GALADRIEL

To save, or rule?

HALBRAND

I see no difference.

GALADRIEL

And that is why I’ll never side with you.

#the rings of power #ropweek2023 #the raft scene #halbrand #galadriel rop

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shakesqueers13 · 7 months

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Awesome choice, @kaylinelizabeth4004 ! If you played the character, I'm sure you have a lot of great insight on this speech already, but let's break it down!

Sorry if you already know some of the stuff I'm going to talk about, I just want to make sure all my explanations are accessible for all levels!

Also this started out as being trying to be objective and ended with me just breaking down my own interpretation so I apologize haha. But enough disclaimers:

For background, The Tempest is generally thought to be Shakespeare's last play, or at least the last one he wrote by himself. For this reason, some scholars interpret Prospero's final speech as Shakespeare's farewell to the stage.

Fatherhood shows up in many of Shakespeare's plays, partly because it was impractical to write many mother characters due to there being no female actors, but also potentially because Shakespeare himself was a dad. We think he probably had at least four children; the oldest daughter, Susanna; two twins, Judith and Hamnet; and probably at one illegitimate son, William. As you may know, Shakespeare's son Hamnet died when he was eleven. His two remaining daughters both married.

So Shakespeare expresses feelings of fatherhood in many of his plays, possibly due to his love for his own children. Hamlet is obviously the most common example of this, but The Tempest is also very relevant to this topic due to Prospero's love for his daughter.

Additionally, Prospero is a creator; in loose terms, an artist. Much like Shakespeare, he commands the stage and invents scenarios, controlling characters and events like a writer would. Prospero references "The great globe" in act four (I believe), and "Prospero's Books" have been widely speculated on, and some interpretations I've seen have gone so far as to suggest that Prospero is making all the magic up, or writing the whole story to entertain himself or Miranda.

All to say, I favor the interpretation that Shakespeare wrote Prospero's last speech as a farewell to the stage and to the audience.

So, if we get into the line by line breakdown, let's start by looking at the meter.

Notably, Prospero's final speech is not written in iambic pentameter. It's closer to trochaic tetrameter — trochaic is the opposite stress pattern of iambic, meaning that the first syllable is stressed rather than the second. Now for a tetrameter, lines should be eight syllables, but for the most part Prospero falls short of this, coming in at seven syllables in almost every line. So it's a weird meter, to say the least. Usually when Shakespeare writes in this reverse-heartbeat pattern, he's trying to creep the audience out. The witches in Macbeth sometimes speak like this.

All this said, there's different verse-types wound all through the speech. Some iambic, some just prose... It's weird!

So what was Shakespeare's purpose in writing it this way? Well, it was certainly intentional. As I've mentioned in past posts, when studying Shakespeare, one of the first things I learned was that we never blame things on sloppy writing, or on the meter. Shakespeare just didn't write like that; his choices were very intentional. When he breaks out of verse, he wants us to notice. Like here:

"Now my charms are all o’erthrown, And what strength I have ’s mine own,"

From the first couplet here, the syllable count and the trochaic pattern is unusual. Only the rhyme scheme is familiar.

In my opinion, the answer to why Shakespeare choses to write in this style here is evident from the first line of the speech. He is casting off his charms; his poetry, his familiar meter, and all his tricks. In the context of the play, of course, these lines make sense, but they also make sense in the overarching context of Shakespeare's life. If we view it as Prospero sort of transforming into Shakespeare in this moment, it works. Of course, this is only one possible interpretation, but I favor it, as I said above. In writing 'What strength I have 's mine own,' it's not too much of a stretch to imagine Shakespeare casting off a character, and also casting off his poetry in a way, and writing from the heart.

The lines from 'which is most faint' to ' in this bare island' are pretty plot-relevant, so I'll skip over them.

But when we get to this part: "But release me from my bands With the help of your good hands."

Again, I feel like I can see right through this speech to the man who wrote it.

If you've read Midsummer Night's Dream, these lines are reminiscent of Puck's final address to the audience. Puck's line, "Give me your hands if we be friends" refers to his asking the audience to clap for him and the other players.

I like to think that Shakespeare wrote plays because he loved them, but we also know that he wrote to make money. When the plagues closed the theaters, he printed and sold his writing. He wrote for the people and hoped to draw them in. So it's totally possible that writing plays could've felt like 'bands,' or an obligation of sorts. And with the support of audiences, and their applause, or 'good hands,' he was able to amass a small fortune, and make a name for himself. He owed so much to his audience!! And he totally knew it.

So, he continues on:

"Gentle breath of yours my sails Must fill, or else my project fails, Which was to please. Now I want Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,"

Continuing to express gratitude to his audience for their support of him through the story of Prospero's journey home. Now, the use of 'project' is interesting to me, because it implies that Shakespeare had an overarching idea of what he wanted to do with his writing.

This is a tangent which I won't elaborate on here, but I am a major hater of the widely accepted theory that Shakespeare had no desire for a legacy or for his plays to live on after him. I could go on and on about that, but I won't. I just bring it up because his mention of a desire to please, presumably to please the audience, and his 'project,' again presumably to entertain the audience and even maybe to create a legacy for himself and his family.

There is a parallel to be drawn between Prospero's use of spirits in the play and Shakespeare's use of characters or actors. As we know, Shakespeare often manipulates stories with the use of the supernatural, including The Tempest itself. The relation between "spirits to enforce" and "art to enchant" is also interesting, because we can see that Shakespeare directly associates this kind of supernatural occurrences with his own art.

And in the final few lines:

"And my ending is despair, Unless I be relieved by prayer, Which pierces so that it assaults Mercy itself, and frees all faults. As you from crimes would pardoned be, Let your indulgence set me free."

Something about Shakespeare ending his career with rhyming couplets makes me so crazy. The same format as the ending of a sonnet, and he uses it to end what was probably his last play.

This is part of why it annoys me so much to hear people say that Shakespeare never wanted a legacy. These words, to me, do not read as the thoughts of a man who had no desire to be remembered. In this final section, he directly references his own ending, (or Prospero's, but I'm going off of the Shakespeare's-goodbye theory), and once again calls upon the audience to free him with their good will and their favor. His tacit apology for any faults or "crimes" seems to speak to the entirety of his career, and his desire to be freed by indulgence speaks to his choice to end with a comedy rather than a tragedy. This is an optimistic choice that makes me happy to think about, especially considering how many tragedies were likely inspired by his own life.

So yeah! I love this speech, and a goal of mine is to one day direct a production of The Tempest. I have a lot of ideas for it, haha.

I hope you find this interesting. Thanks for sending in an ask!! Also, sorry for any typos haha, I didn't proofread very thoroughly.

#shakespeare #william shakespeare #dark academia #academia #ask #the tempest #literature

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