#the bell jar analysis

[linkspooky]

Hi....if you don't mind me asking, what are your top 10 favorite (fiction) books? And why? Sorry if you've answered this question before...

Hello, I don’t mind answering. Here’s my top ten books. Please don’t expect me to have good taste. A friendly reminder that I am a clown, and I have a clown’s taste in literature. 

#10 A Game of Thrones

Not the whole series, but the first book specifically is one of what I consider the best fantasy books of all time. I know this is an incredibly mainstream thing to say, but sometimes things that are popular, are popular for a reason. The Cersei sections of Feast of Crows are my favorite in the whole series, but as for the book in its entirety I believe the original book is almost a perfect example of a first book in a series which sets up greater characters and plot threads while at the same time writing a perfect three act tragedy in Ned Stark’s arc throughout the entire book. 

Genre fiction is my bread and butter, and I appreciate authors who are able to elevate Genre Fiction into serious art just by taking common characters and tropes of the genre seriously, and using those as tools to build upon the themes. Everyone knows the plotting and the world and politics and backstories are so impressively detailed that George RR Martin’s writing ability, and thoughtfulness towards his own work always shows in its dirty and gritty details. But ebyond that I’m reminded of a quote by Ursula K Le Guinn about genre fiction.

“For example: A writer sets out to write science fiction, but isn’t familiar with the genre, hasn’t read what’s been written. THis is a fairly common situation, because science fiction is knwon to sell weel, but as a subliterary genre, is not supposed to be worth study - what’s to learn? It doesn’t occur to the novice that a genre is a genre because it has a field and focus of it’s own; it’s own appropriate and particular tools, rules, and techniques for handling the material; its traditions; and its experienced, appreciative readers - that it is, in fact, a literature. Ignoring all of this, our novice is just about to reinvent the wheel...” 

What I love about Game of Thrones is that it is a fairy tale story, that knows it is a fairy tale and instead of looking down on fairy tales, it critically examines them while at the same time adding humanity to all of its characters. The grittier elements of the story come not from George RR Martin thinking fantasy stories are stupid, but because he wants to write a legitimate challenge in his story for characters to ovecome, and a world where things are harder than they seem in stories, and yet it’s still worth the struggle to live life outside a story. You know. You know those themes? It’s one of those. 

#9 The Idiot by Dotsoevsky

It’s hard to pick a favorite out of Dostoevsky’s five great novels, but i inthk his most tragic entry is the one that’s also the most tightly written and clear in its themes. 

Prince Myshkin is one of Dostoevsky’s purest heartest characters, a character Dostoevsky wrote he wanted to create with an “entirely postivie... with an absolutely beautiful nature”, and yet despite being so loving and unselfish towards others he’s a rare example of a character who’s good points are matched evenly with his flaws. A fundamentally good person who is as complex as some of Dotsoevsky’s bad boys, like Raskolnivkov. Myshkin is so selfless a person he’s almost an ideal, but the point of the novel itself is that ideals cannot exist in reality. 

According to Joseph Frank, the character of prince Myshkin approaches “ the extremest incarnation of the Christian ideal of love that humanity can reach in its present form, but he is torn apart by the conflict between the contradictory imperatives of his apocalyptic aspirations and his earthly limitations.” 

Prince Myshkin is someone who similiarly can only see the world in ideals, which is what makes his romance with Nastaasya Filippovna so troubled, because she is a troubled person who exists in an area of grey that Myshkin cannot see. Myshkin can truly and unselfishly love her, and yet he cannot comprehend er at the same time which makes their romance one where desipte all good intentions neither of them are ever on the same page. 

Anyway, the best love stories are ones where thy don’t end up together. It’s the story of how they met, they didn’t fall in love, and didn’t end up happy together, and yet the goodness Myshkin saw in Nastasya who is Dostoevsky’s most complicated, and most flawed woman, was there all the same. 

#8 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Here’s the cliche answer for which work by a Bronte sister is your favorite. However, my hot take is one everyone in the world will disagree with  me over. Wuthering Heights is still a love story, even if it’s a story that is primarily about Katherine and Heathcliff’s selfish, destructive love. The Bronte Sisters weren’t out to debunk Regency Era romantic stories like the kind Jane Austen wrote. They aren’t anti-romantics. Wuthering Heights is still very much a story full of romanticism, it’s just like George RR Martin, looking at that genre with a more serious lens. 

In my essay I will go on to prove that Wuthering Heights is a romantic story.... It’s about big emotions and the consequneces about big emotions. Much is made about how destructive Katherine and Heathcliff’s love for one another is, and how selfish, but when reading it you have to pay attention to the circumstances surrounding it. Heathcliff is the victim of abuse and discrimmination, because he is poor, disadvantaged, and dark skinned. His childhood love is also with the only person who sort of treats him like a human being, and in that same light Katherine falls in love with the only person who knows her as she is in a complicated light rather than seeing her as a woman of manners and fine breeding. It’s only after everything goes wrong that the love itself becomes destructive towards both members. 

Wuthering Heights isn’t really saying that the brooding Byronic prtagonist is a bad person, but rather illustrating the cirucmstances that would create such a person. One interpretation I like about the story is that Heathcliff and Katherine are just as selfish in their actions towards each other, it’s just Heathcliff’s are more destructive because that’s the power he has as the head of the household. 

It’s a tragedy of two people coming together, and then coming apart by love, but to argue that love doesn’t exist is to like, say that the two leads of Romeo and Juliet weren’t in love, they were just horny teenagers. The story becomes leser if you ignore the romanticism of the story. If like, the descriptions of roaring green fields, and the weather reflecting the emotions of the characters, and the fainting spells and bouts of hiysteria are not enough to indicate it as a romantic work of fiction. Also, at the end of the story, the damage to two generations of the family that is done by abusive love, is slowly becoming undone by the union of two children who heavily parallel Katherine and Heathcliff  and represent what they could have been under different ircumstances. It’s just such a good story at depicting the extremes that people are capable of while its characters are still human. You could compare Heathcliff to Frankenstein’s monster, except he’s not a monster at all, he’s just a dude, ableit a heavily abused one who goes on to repeat his abuse in a heavily realstic way. 

#7 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I put this on the list just to be pretentious. There’s a lo of similar books of this genre I’ve read and enjoyed, but this is for me pretty much the only book that’s ever depicted  a mental breakdown accruately. The whole first half of the book really is just about a normal person unfamiliar and uncomfortable with her brief stay in New York City, and when she gets home and falls apart that is when the book becomes brilliant. 

A lot of mental illness in fiction is like, heavy hallucination, crazy behavior. Sylvia Plath writes a character just slowly falling apart, not being able to keep up with her normal life in the way she did before. One of the most striking passages to me was when she mentions that all she seemed to do all day was do nothing, and yet she couldn’t sleep either, and she went day, after day, after day without sleeping. When the main character attempts to slit her wrists too, it’s not a big dramatic deal, but something the character mentions almost offhandedly, and she does it because she is so tired of not sleeping. 

It’s just a small and quiet portrayal of suffering that’s just as striking and poetic, because it draws humanity out of the mundanity of this character’s breakdown. She just stops being able to do what she could always do before, and she doesn’t know why, or what’s the cause of this slow decline, and she feels trapped in her head and observing as it’s happening to her. It’s a book I’ve reread several times, at the minimalist language it uses, that is equally effetive as striking and overdramatic prose. It just gets the suffering of the character across, in small ways, it’s so soaked with a quiet misery. 

#6 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 

This is my favorite love story, ever. I actually think war and peace is stronger in its themes, and has more liabkly characters in its cast, but Anna Karenina is the story of one woman’s misery and her desire for escape from her life. There is so much humanity to Anna in this story, that’s not given to other woman in the time period. While theplot of War and Peace is about the comparison of the smalll lives of the Russians in contrast to the Big Stakes of the war happening around them, Anna Karenina is written about one women’s  misery and her trying to find happiness in love and it is treated with all the same importance and grand consequences. 

The opening quote of the book has stayed with me forever. 

All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way

Tolstoy writes about one small person living their life like it’s the most important thing in the world. That there are no great people like Napoleon, just people living their little lives. Anna’s desire for happiness is so strong she leaves her husband, and has an affair with him. Something a man would be allowed to do at the time, and is even easily forgiven for in the start of the book, but Anna is reviled for within her own society. 

It’s important to marriage Anna has a husband that for the time period she should have been satsifed with, he worked and paid for the house, he was a responsible man who didn’t cheat on her, he just didn’t love her. Yet not only is Anna not allowed to leave in the eyes of society, she should also be thankful for it. Anna then is swept away by a man who promises her the kind of love she’s searching for, and even if he does not love her, he is at least exciting. It sounds like every other romance story ever written which is why you really have to just read it, to understand the humanity that is on display in Anna’s character. 

#5 DRACULA 

Did somebody say female characters? One of my favorite things to watch on tumblr was to see Dracula become super popular as soon as someone came up with the idea of emailing people the story, letter by letter. Dracula isa story where the most interesting haracters are the human characters struggling against the monster, and that’s brought out by the epistolatory novel storytelling format. Jonathan’s diary, Mina and Lucy’s letters all go to such great lengths to flesh them out.

Mina and Lucy especially are too well developed female characters. The slow decline of Lucy’s health, and the great efforts everyone around her goes to save her, only to have her die at the end is one of the most harrowing things I’ve ever read in fictions. It’s more horrifying than most modern day horror, and this sequence of events happens when Dracula is mostly offscreen and only appears in what to Lucy are just drreams.

Stephen King once said, and I’m paraphrasing, that what makes horror fiction scary is when the audience is invested in the fate of the characters. Dracula is so lasting and impactful because the main cast is as developed as the monster themselves, even though they are ntohing more than pathetic and scrawny human beings. It’s the rare monster story where you actually want to see the good guys slaughter the monster. 

#4 Frankenstein

Frankenstein, or as I call it, can you tell this was written by a woman? 

Frankenstein is just about so many things. It references stories like Paradise Lost in its themes about the potential of good and evil of humanity. r. It’s about the human adventuring spirit and the desire to do something great, and also when that same desire to be something greater than human can make people forget their basic humanity. It’s about misogyny. It’s about masculine entitlement. 

It’s about childbirth It’s about motherhood. It’s about the cycle of abuse. Frankenstein and his  Monster are such perfect foils for one another, to the point where the Monster is almost a living Jungian shadow who like Peter Pan’s shadow has escaped from him and is running around on his own. The more that Frankenstein denies the monster and dehumanizes him, the more monstrous he becomes.

One of my favaorite passages in all of fiction and one I think about when writing characters to this day, is when the monster points out that he has done bad things and deserves to be punished, but what about the family who beat him and chased him away for looking ugly when he spent months on end gathering firewood and he only wanted to introduce himself. What of the man who shot him, when he tried to save his son driving for a river. Why aren’t they deserving of punishment? If he is guilty, then why are all the people who pushed him into this and were violent towards him without cause innocent? 

#3 Zaregoto Vol. 2: The Kubishime Romanticist. 

This is where I get rocks thrown at me for putting a light novel on here and above all of these classics. The story behind Zaregoto volume two is fascinating . While the first was months of work went into it’s creation, Nisioisin felt something was missing when he had finished it. For the sequel, he sat down, and wrote it in two days. 

Zaregoto is one of my favorite novels of all time, but it does require reading the first to show how it contrasts the second. Basically, what I always say is that if you read the first volume you don’t really understand why everyone is so offput by the main character, or why everyone is constantly hinting that he’s a terrible person. However, by the second novel you understand exactly the kind of person IIchan is. 

While the first volume of the series is a tribute to mystery stories that for the most part, centers around solving the mystery, the second the mystery solving is almost incidental to establishing just what kind of person the first person narrator is. It’s a very vivid image that Nisioiisin paints in detail, and it’s not exactly a flattering portrait.

II-chan is a terrible person. This is the novel about how II-chan is a terrible person. However, Iic-han is one of my favorite characters ever, and this novel is one of my favorite novels just because the prose is so, almost trippy, psychadelic? It’s very stremam of thought narration. It’s poetic. And that’s all in servic to show what the kind of person II-chan is. He’s an unreliable narrator, because he’s such a good storyteller he’s twisting details to make himself look like the victim of the story, and yet if you pay attention and read behind the lines he’s just not a victim nor a particularly good or innocent person. Unreliable narrators are some of the best tropes in fiction to show how not only can stories not be trusted, but people cannot be trusted as well, because they both have a tendency to tell lies.

# 2 +#1 No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, and This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald 

These two are essentially tied for my favorite, because they are very similiar despite being written by authors from two different cultures. They are both semi-autobiographical novel length works that are essentially coming of age stories where the main character refuses to come of age or grow up in any specific way. They are love stories, where the main character doesn’t fall in love. They fact that they are semi-autobiographical novels which follow these characters from childhood to adulthood and paint not so flattering pictures of the main characters is part of what makes them raw and effective. 

I won’t speak about Osamu Dazai but if you know anything about F. SCott FItzgerald, well let’s just say there are a lot of scandals about his treatment of his wife, his writing. There’s a lot of honesty though in his works that makes me not want to completely dismiss his talent as an author. This Side of Paradise and Osamu Dazai are just so honest in their portrayal of the main characters warts and all, that they are still readable despite having what are selfish and unsyampthetic main characters. 

Osamu Dazai once wrote he tried to write novels for miserable people, and yep, that’s pretty much it. No Longer Human at times reads like a suicide note left by the author himself, and that’s even explciitly the framing of the novel, a journal that was left behind after everybody stopped hearing from the main character. They portray the struggles of the characters by giving them such rich internal worlds. 

This Side of Paradise is different in that it at least has a slightly more optimistic ending. Both stories feature characters who are born into relative wealth in privilege, trying to go to school, trying to fall in love, trying to find work and live in the world and failing at all of those things. At the end of hist journey though, Armory ends with this quote. 

“I know myself," he cried, "but that is all.

Armory at least from all of his struggles, gains an understanding of himself by the end of the story. Which is why I think, stories like this need to be told. EAs Dazai said, some stories need to be written for miserable people, because misery is just as much of the human experience as happiness is. There’s still something to be gained from these stories, because loss and failure is something you can learn from. Which is why F. Scott Fitzgerald writes some of the most beautiful prose for the time period, because those people were born, dreamed to be someone important, wanted to be loved, just like everyone else and their stories are just as beautiful despite ending in loss and failure. 

#literature #literature analysis #askspookies #This side of Paradise #Anna Karenina #Dracula #Frankenstein #wuthering heights #the bell jar #The idiot #Game of thrones

[thestateofardadreaming]

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked.    One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out . I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”

 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Platt - Chapter 7, p.81

This quote has been on my mind lately. Maybe because I recently read Elif Shafak’s story from the Fig point of view. Or maybe because this used to be how I feared life would happen. But with the years, I realize that many of those choices are made for us by circumstances and destiny. We think we need to pick a fig but the fig is already in our hand before we even reach for it. We needn’t worry. We needn’t go insane in the vast possibiilties that each human life offers. We just need to be calm enough for that fig to land in our outstretched hand.

#The bell Jar #Sylvia Platt #book quote #literature analysis

[passionate-of-literature]

very recently finished reading my second alevel english lit nea text, 'north and south' by elizabeth gaskell, and i really enjoyed it :)) this recommendation for my pre-1900 text was actually given to me by my favourite teacher, to link to my theme of resistance, and 'the bell jar' by sylvia plath, and i think it was a vv good choice of hers! thoroughly enjoyed it, and though it took ages to read it, it was definitely worth it. :)

#english literature #english teacher #a level english #a levels #a level english literature #academic validation #favourite teacher #north and south #elizabeth gaskell #the bell jar #sylvia plath #academia #dark academia #analysis #resistance #female protagonist #reading #currently reading #books #literature

[theimmortalityofliterature]

My nerdy ass is analysing The Bell Jar, I love Sylvia Plath so much❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

#aesthetic #books #literature #quotes #poetry #history #sylvia plath #the bell jar #analysis #annotating books #annotations #Spotify

[welivetodream]

Just felt like I haven't re-read TSH in a while. So I wondered if I could write a full blown essay (not really, more like a brief analysis) on the characters from TSH.

I might not even end up writing them but I would like to know which characters people are most interested in learning in-depth about.

There's so much to say about this story that no one can ever stop analysing it. If Donna took 10 years to complete it, there must be so much we can discuss about it!!!

I will try to write a detailed analysis when I have the time to re-read TSH (studying for exams, writing a book and reading "The Bell Jar" and "Pet Sematary" for the 1st time lol)

I hope this will inspire people to make more post abt TSH theories/analysis/thoughts (been tired with the regular mood boards and quotes)

(PS: "Looking Through The Male Gaze" for Camilla is about Richard's gaze, not Donna Tartt's)

#dark academia #the secret history #tsh #donna tartt #chaotic academia #henry winter #richard papen #charles macaulay #camilla macaulay #francis abernathy #bunny corcoran #julian morrow #writing #essay #analysis #polls

[dichromaticdyke]

hey another thing since my brain is broken and i have an MA in literature i'm gonna analyze the lyrics of "aortic desecration" and "SOS."

under the cut this time since last time my brain vomited a bunch of aotd analysis it went on for way too long sorry.

but seriously i wrote a fuckton here over the course of two sleep deprived sessions, so you'll either think i'm a madman or a divine genius.

okay for simplicity, "aortic desecration" lyrics are gna be in red and "SOS" lyrics r gna be in green. i hope tumblr made those colors distinct enough for ppl with colorblindness.

[intro] we're all going to die [x3] eventually [verse 1] toxic waste, acidic paste degradation crushed by a plane, driven insane mutilation cranial glitch dumped in a ditch gangrenous stitch

this is already a lot. nathan's coming at this with the idea that he has to write the most brutal and fucked up song of all time, so he just reminds everyone of their mortality and lists a fuck ton of ways that might happen (many of which do happen during the performance of this song). but even his point of adding eventually after saying how everyone wil die is interesting—it's like that was also tacked on during the performance like, "yeah but not today please haha." not a whole lot to go into here, except the way the first verse ends.

failure has entered your soul

now first of all, some sources have this line as "madness has entered your soul," but i've only ever heard "failure." and i think that makes sense—before this song even started, nathan realized that he wrote the wrong song but it was too late. i think once he got through the majority of the first verse, he went off-script, so to speak, and instead of singing about death, he started singing about realizing his own failure and mistake and how that was about to lead to the apocalypse. this continues into the next verse

[verse 2] how could you be so fucking naive? you fled for refuge and fell to your knees you spoke the words and brandished your heart you left yourself open to be torn apart, torn apart

hi brendon small i would like some recompense. he's speaking exactly to himself, how he was so naive to think that a song of salvation would be a song of death, how he was running from everyone and tried to do this all on his own. he sang about death because that was what he believed was the only thing he knew how to do, he refused to actually do some introspection and figure out what salvation was. and now here he is.

[chorus] aortic desecration how could i be so wrong? disemboweled publicly this is the dying song [bridge] look out bleed [x8] [chorus] [outro] aortic desecration atrial annihilation pulmonic devestation

so this chorus and the outro are fun for me because they're doing that thing that brutal death bands do where they just throw in a bunch of big words that sound scary and fucked up. and they are! aortic desecration essentially refers to a violation of the heart, since the aorta is the main part of the circulatory system and it's been desecrated. nathan broke his own goddamn heart by doing exactly what he feared—causing the apocalypse. he says as much in asking how he could be so wrong? as for being disemboweled publicly, well, here's what my literature MA ass immediately thought of. in sylvia plath's The Bell Jar, she writes about being suicidal and depressed, and one of the ways she considers killing herself is by disemboweling herself in her bathtub. this also reminded me of the way the god character killed himself in the film Begotten. so my initial thought, as gruesome as it is, is that nathan has kinda metaphorically killed himself in front of the whole world by singing the song that he knew was wrong. historically speaking, disemboweling people while still alive was also a form of torture and capital punishment, so that checks out. then he says "this is the dying song," fully recognizing what he's done. the final lyrics of the song once again refer to fucked up shit happening to the heart, with the atria being your heart's upper chambers, and "pulmonary" referring to your lungs, though typically in the sense of bloodflow.

then of course we get him chanting for the world to bleed, but also proclaiming, "look out." now at first i thought this was just kind of an ad lib—it's not uncommon in music to have lyrics like that that are added just to help the flow but don't actually add much to the content of the words. i don't think this is the case especially when comparing this to "SOS," but for now i'll start by just pointing out that "look out" very easily could've doubled in meaning as being a warning to the world. like, this isn't just fun and games any more—actually look out, you're actually going to die.

as for "SOS"...

[verse] last breath skyward dark sign closing line no time to mend this life take this hand this last time

alright this is pretty straightforward. this is their last chance to get it right, if it isn't too late already. but there's also that line of "skyward," which is the first instance in this song of recognizing the doomstar itself. there's no mention of the doomstar at all in "aortic desecration," which is kinda strange if you think about it. not even in the dying song is there an acknowledgement of why the apocalypse might be happening, mainly because the dying song—once nathan realizes what it is anyway—is primarily about hopelessness and fucking up. why even acknowledge the greater power at work when this is nathan's fault (in the context of the song)? but instead nathan acknowledges that the focus has to be on the doomstar, but also on everyone coming together and standing against this force that is greater than all of them. this song immediately establishes the haste in what they're doing, immediately countering the deflection in the dying song. nathan tried making the dying song work by saying, "we're all going to die eventually," but nathan here has the perspective to realize, no. people will die now, are dying now, it might already be too late to fix this, but dammit they're not giving up yet. [chorus] we're the shadows of the infinite we stand alive we're nothing but the soil of time beasts in the night reach with my open hand bound for all time in the shadows of the blazing star fused, we're the light

"shadows of the infinite" is an acknowledgement of their godlike powers, which they've either been completely ignorant to during the majority of the series or just didn't want to admit (think back to "how can i be a hero?" when none of them wanted to step up and do what they had to do). yet despite this acknowledgement of their divinity, their power, they are also recognizing that they are still just people. they can't do anything by themselves, they have to work with other forces. being "nothing but the soil of time" is a reference to being a gear in the wheel of the klok—clock, time, etc., yet also being "beasts in the night" refers to this unhinged power and danger they still hold. "reach with my open hand" is the most obvious line, with the animation in this scene directly reminding us of nathan's conversation with the whale prophet. once again, a reference to the doomstar, and the final line foreshadows nathan using the dethlights alongside both dethklok and the army of the doomstar. these are the people that must work together with this divine power to take out something greater.

it's also worth noting that while the official line seems to be "fused, we're the light," i can ALSO hear it is "fused with the light." so it can be interpreted either as, nathan and the band and the army of the doomstar all coming together to becoming the light/dethlights, or nathan and the band and the army of the doomstar being fused with the light/dethlights. it's not that much of a difference i guess, but a slight different implication of whether or not they themselves are the light or if the light is a separate entity. [bridge] now rise (rise) [x8] movin' out, movin' out [chorus]

this is the part that convinced me to make this a comparison. this is a direct parallel and contrast to the bridge in "aortic desecration," with calls to bleed being replaced with calls to rise. they even chant it the same number of times, guys idk what to tell you. PLUS there's an echo repeat of "rise" throughout this bridge, and while it could very well be a literal echo, who else wants to believe it was all the other members of dethklok singing it? kinda like the "die, die" in the duncan hills jingle? and then the "ad lib" of "look out" is instead replaced with "movin' out." instead of nathan telling everyone to run away, be watchful, be fearful, he's calling on them to come with him and fight with him.

have i talked enough about how brendon small is a fucking genius?

plus based on a few shots from this performance during aotd, i think toki might have been playing lead. which would be super cool, because this would make this the second song that is confirmed to have toki in the lead, the other being "blazing star."

anyway i've fooled you all because now i wanna talk about "blazing star." i know this song has been out for a decade now and has been analyzed a bunch, but i wanna look at it specifically now with the context of the movie.

first off, before i get into the analysis, i'm pretty sure the performance of "blazing star" at the end of the doomstar requiem never happened. i think it was purely non-diegetic, just like half the songs in this whole opera, but it was presented as a proper dethklok song to symbolize the band being reunited and looking towards their next big hurdle of the actual metalocalypse. my main reason for thinking this is that the idea that dethklok saved toki, wrote this song, performed it for the world while announcing, "hey toki's back and he's okay," is DIRECTLY in contrast with the opening scene of aotd where the band makes their first public appearance since saving toki and a standard dethklok performance trigger's nathan's ptsd. i know metalocalypse isn't known for continuity, but they would've mentioned dethklok having a performance post-rescue. and nathan in aotd is so ready to not face his destiny, there's no way he would write and perform a song about exactly that. he's also adamant that he doesn't sing about hope or life, but that's exactly what "blazing star" is about.

enough preamble let's look at that song.

[verse 1, nathan] the glowing clouds, the diamond's birth the spiral cluster descends to earth the nebulas conspire to bring the signifier and the death of a king

already with more context from aotd, i'm obsessed with this. it's setting up the doomstar and the destiny of the doomstar being either the death of salacia or of nathan. i haven't spoken yet about the parallels between nathan and salacia, that's something that's going to take a WHILE to work out, but the long and short of it is, they're powerful beings who can only achieve their full power when being reunited with four other souls/people. GUYS. they are very clearly meant to parallel each other. knowing now that the doomstar is a portal meant to reunite salacia with the "four souls," it's unlikely that this "death of a king" is inherently meant to refer to salacia, because the doomstar would have to be inherently anti-salacia, which it's not. at that, it seems like this "king" is probably meant to be nathan, or all of dethklok, since it's through their deaths that salacia would be reunited and the metalocalypse would happen. it's hard to tell tbh, the doomstar is a neutral figure—all we know is that it can bring death, and it holds power that other figures can harness.

i'm a man with a tortured sight i fear this dream will end tonight the water beasts continue singing we try to wake but we're not dreaming

THIS i find incredibly fascinating. it's no secret at this point that nathan had been dreaming about the whale prophet for who knows how long, and this is very clearly referring to that. the first line of this section even foreshadows nathan being the only one to remember the night they rescued toki. what i find interesting is the contrast between nathan "fear[ing] this dream will end" but also "try[ing] to wake but [isn't] dreaming." these are directly contradictory at first glance—he's scared of this dream ending, but he also wants to wake up? unless these are two completely different dreams.

the first half of aotd, nathan, pickles, skwisgaar, and murderface aren't rescuing toki, aren't even letting themselves think about him. they're only focusing on partying around the world, and they sing a whole song about how they love being useless billionaires and don't want to be heroes OR regular jackoffs. i think that's the first dream—being DETHKLOK, having no problems, doing whatever they want, that's the dream nathan is scared is ending. because after that night of rescuing toki, of harnessing the dethlights, everything has gotten so real. they can't ignore it anymore.

at the same time, realizing that there are greater forces out there trying to destroy the world, trying to use them to destroy the world, everything with the church of the black klok—that must feel like a dream. that's the dream he wants to wake up from.

he wants to stay in his dream of being rich and powerful, but he doesn't want to be stuck in the dream—the nightmare—of the literal apocalypse.

i'm gonna find you i'm running out of time i gotta play this part this is my lot in life with this power i am endowed the end is coming so bring it on now

again, another reason i don't believe this song was diegetic. this is the first moment of clarity he had about the metalocalypse, about how he had to do something about it, whether he wanted it or not. again, in the beginning of aotd, he had no interest in this. i guess it's possible he went back and forth on that (i wouldn't be too surprised), but again, this is a pretty hopeful message, all things considered. he even says "bring it on" to the fucking apocalypse. tell me again about how you don't write songs about hope, nate. i only buy that if he never wrote and performed this song.

[verse 2, pickles] oh the keeper wields his scythe oh you gotta kiss this life goodbye there is another place beyond we'll meet in time and i will greet you all in the next life, yeah

having pickles sing in general is based, but i've never fully understood why he was in this song. like if anything, this song feels like the kind of ballad that would have EACH member of dethklok sing a little bit, so it's strange to have just pickles and nate. it gets less strange with the hindsight of aotd, where their relationship was the primary emotional focus. but let's actually look at what pickles is saying here. it's pretty standard stuff: death is looming, but if worst comes to worst we'll be together in the afterlife.

i wanna fucking throw up (positive). what was that offdensen said to pickles in aotd? "be a true friend, even if it gets messy." pickles's verse is NOTHING but, "hey nate things are getting bad but i'll always be with you." I'M NOT REACHING THAT'S ALL THIS IS.

[chorus, nathan] the blazing star, it burns so bright the darkened power, the dethly light bring it on now, this is our time we're the new regime, together we'll fight

again, standard stuff. doomstar, dethlights, fighting together. all things considered, this could have been the song of salvation. there's not much i can really say other than the fact that since it wasn't, it must not exist in the metalocalypse world, right?

toki had the solo on this song. i don't have to speculate for that, it's made abundantly clear with the animation in the ending sequence of the doomstar requiem. he had the solo because this whole song is about the band coming together to face something greater than them, and they wouldn't have had the power to do that if they didn't have toki with them. it's also them recognizing the worth toki has in the band—at first, it seemed like his worth was just making skwisgaar play better (that was certainly the implication at the end of "the duel"), but it's greater than that.

let's say i'm right—let's say i'm right and toki also had the lead/solo during "SOS." what does that tell you that toki is granted the opportunity ot have the lead SPECIFICALLY DURING SONGS OF HOPE AND CAMARADERIE?? he, much like murderface, is foundational to the band. murderface is the voice of dissent, toki is the voice of hope.

and let's say i'm wrong, and toki only had a solo during the song that doesn't actually exist. that's fine too, because if "blazing star" is meant to be a symbolic, non-diegetic song, then that still proves my point of toki being foundational to the band ("even if you don'ts do nothings") and, more importantly, their divine power.

wow that was a lot if you got to the end pls like comment and subscribe.

#Metalocalypse #Army of the Doomstar #Dethklok #Nathan Explosion #Pickles the Drummer #Toki Wartooth #dichromaticdyke.exe #written in a fit of divine madness

[myaoiboy]

Can you try explain what you mean about Ocelot looking like a drag king in mgsv? I feel like your boyfriend in that I just. Don't see it? I'm trying to understand why Ocelot would even have that applied when he's always been just A Guy™

Okay so I'm going to try to do this without getting into Grad-Level 5D Queer Theory Media Criticism, but I also fully realize that in doing that, a lot of this is going to sound very much like I'm saying "Source: Just Trust Me Bro".

(anon i am SO sorry that you happen to be the first person to directly adress me about gender in MGS)

I also wanna be straight up front here and say that I'm not trying to imply that Ocelot is anything other than a guy, he's just also a guy who's playing a million roles (this is important) and lying to damn near everyone, including himself. He has some of the worst identity issues I've ever seen in a character, and that comes to a head in 4 where he literally isn't even *Ocelot* until the final moments of his life. So yes, for the sake of not writing War and Peace, I'm going to assume Ocelot is "just a guy" and come at this from a pure queer theory/media analysis standpoint, not a headcanon one.

So first it's really important to point out the order in which we see Ocelot through the series. In the timeline, the last time we see Ocelot before V is 3 (or PO which I haven't played due to its placement in canon-limbo, but Ocelot looks basically the same). So we see him go from A to B here.

I am going to say something potentially controversial: even before saw V ocelot, I thought 3 Ocelot looked like he was wearing drag *queen* makeup. I don't know whether it's intentional, or an attempt to circumvent the lower poly models and lower definition textures of the PS2, but the first image looks like someone who is going for a highly exaggerated, feminine cheek contour. Here's a few drag queens who, imo, do a very similar contour look:

Whether the color filter or the texturing of the PS2 or something else, the MGS3 version of Ocelot also has a look of mascara and frosted lipgloss (frosted lips being much more popular at the time of MGS3's original release than today, but alas).

So from that I was already very much primed to look for femininity in Ocelot's whole vibe. It was actually kind of jarring how much more rugged he is in V than in any of the previous games, to the extent that it sent up alarm bells in my head that something was going on.

I don't remember the moment that I went "hey, wait a minute," but it was certainly pretty early on. As someone who's been on tumblr a hella long time and remembers when we used to swap passing tips, the specific combination of facial features remind me of a very specific genre of "ftm makeup tutorials" that were also pretty contemporarily popular on tumblr. A very quick summary being mascara on the eyelashes and specific peach fuzz to give the impression of a squarer jaw and having more facial hair, as well as specific contouring to give a "masculine cheekbone." Most of these tips basically came directly from drag king makeup.

Gonna include some drag kings as well, some things to notice include the tendency towards using stubble as contouring and vice versa, the shaping of cheek contouring, and the tendency to accentuate mustache and sideburns.

I'm pretty bad at wording descriptions of hair and makeup so you'll have to forgive me for not going ham on explaining the similarities bc now we actually get to the interesting part which is: so fucking what? If this is true, if you take my word for it, what does it say about the text? If I want to make this argument to someone else, what can I say that will convince them that, even if it's not *intentional,* it's a valid and meaningful view of his character?

Like, you can make a character based on anything you want, but why does it matter whether Ocelot is based on drag either direction?

Ocelot's "drag"iness is multipurpose. One: he's queer. Like, I grant that he never comes out and says "I love 'Big "Naked 'John' Snake" Boss'" but we get a hell of a lot more confirmation that he's gay than we get straight confirmation for a lot of presumed-straight characters. I feel comfortable saying he's canon queer.

Two: it's a visual metaphor for being a double/triple agent. While he's literally performing several roles (KGB/GRU/CIA, or MSF/Real BB/US, or US/Patriots/BB, or anything in between), he's also visually playing two (or more) gender roles, a feminine man, a mannish woman, something neither or in-between. The implication of drag specifically is pretending to be something that he isn't (which he literally always is, holy shit, again, does he even know who he realiy is?).

And before anyone says "Well, if it's so important to his character, why did they wait until 3 to start doing it?" They didn't!!

This is THE most classically masculine that Ocelot ever looks. But there's still precious polygons invested into giving him long hair and a flowing coat. Working with sprites and low-poly models means having to very carefully select traits that you want to display on your character, and Ocelot's go into making him a cringefail cowboy.

The fact that he's a cowboy in itself is also pretty important to the whole gender/sexuality situation. I mean, Brokeback Mountain might not have been out yet, but the male-to-female ratio in the west meant a lot of men cozied up together on the frontier. Hell, hankey code comes from cowboy culture, with men wearing certain colors to announce who would take the "man" or "woman" role while square dancing.

I could go a lot into gender and how it works on a social/societal level in general and why that matters, but OOPS I have been writing this for a WHILE.

I was actually going to go a lot more into queer theory and gender in MGS in general but ngl, I could write a whole doctoral thesis on gender and how different characters perform or subvert gender. Because holy shit when you start peeling back the very thin macho facade of Kojima's work to do a feminist reading of it, boy howdy do you get. A whole lot to talk about. (ask me about death stranding sometime i dare you)

Basically what I'm trying to get across is that Ocelot has a lot of roles that he's playing and NOT playing, and more than a few of those are gender roles, which is very much visually symbolic of his character.

I am so sorry anon I have been thinking about him nonstop for a full year </3 I hope at least the first part of this answered your question about what features I see that scream drag to me.

#also i want to be SUPER clear that transvestigating real people would be fucked up #its always morally correct to transvestigate revolver ocelot #mgs #mgsv #mgs3 #mgs1 #ocelotposting #revolver ocelot #my analyses #analysis or something

[thesunsethour]

Little Les Mis Things - 11/01/24

My ramblings (aka an in-depth analysis) on how amazing the current West End cast of Les Misérables are having seen the show yesterday (a particularly special version because of how many amazing covers and swings performed!) This is also the first time I’ve seen Les Mis in London with the new production changes (so much to talk about!)

Yesterday was my 6th time seeing Les Mis, and 4th time in London - let’s get into it!!

Jean Valjean - Played by the absolutely wonderful Killian Donnelly who is MY Valjean. This was the third time I’ve seen him play this role and no one has come close to him for me. The tenderness he brings to the role without losing any of Valjean’s rougher edges is sublime. His voice is as divine as ever yet at the same time has matured so much over the years since I first saw him as Valjean in 2017. The result is the most beautiful blend of roughness at the beginning that over the course of the show mellows as Valjean ages - but at the same time is always distinctly *Killian*. His rendition of Bring Him Home is the best version of all time. I would like to apologise to my aunt for this sacrilegious statement against the wonderful Colm Wilkinson but after yesterday I cannot deny it anymore. I always cried at the end of Les Mis, but yesterday was the first time I was sobbing from Bring Him Home onwards, and that is thanks to Killian Donnelly.

Javert - Played by Jordan Simon Pollard, who usually plays Claquesous but is first cover Javert. He was sensational! His voice filled every crevice of the theatre and his rendition of Javert’s Soliloquy was out of this world.

Fantine - Played by Ellie Ann Lowe, who usually plays a Factory Girl but was on as Fantine yesterday and smashed it right out of the park! Beautiful voice (especially at the end of I Dreamed a Dream) and an incredible actress to boot.

Cosette - Played by the lovely Lulu-Mae Pears. Her Cosette was a treat to see and her voice was stunning. Side note I LOVE Cosette’s new costumes for the London production.

Marius - Played by Ben Oatley, who usually plays Joly, and was making his debut as Marius yesterday! He is second cover Marius and this is his first ever West End show having graduated last year and it’s almost hard to believe when you see how talented he is - like he’d been doing the role for years! If you want to imagine this Marius just picture Mr Bingley from Pride and Prejudice 1995 now give him bucketloads of trauma. And then BOOM! A Ben Oatley Marius.

Éponine - Played by Rosy Church, an ensemble actress who is also making her West End debut with this current cast of Les Mis! She was simply outstanding, with a voice as clear as a bell and a higher register that really surprised me for a bit but I loved. Her ‘On My Own’ sent goosebumps down my arms - simply brilliant.

Enjolras - Played by Djavan van de Fliert who made the entire audience fall in love. The most charismatic Enjorlas I have ever had the pleasure of seeing, he filled the stage when energy whenever he was on it. During his entrance for One Day More he fell down on stage but didn’t miss a single beat and got an absolutely rapturous round of applause at the end.

Little bits and bobs I loved from this production:

* They’ve changed the tops that the chain gang wear from brown to red - it initially appeared quite jarring to me but then really grew as the show went on. It makes Valjean stand out more (especially important for people like me, who were watching from the Grand Circle all the way up in the Gods)

* Killian went for the higher note for “took my FLIGHT” which I always simply adore when he does that

* The way Killian said “the whirlpool of my SIN”… I cannot explain in words how many emotions he can pack into one word

* An addition from the last time I saw the show in London was that Valjean goes to help a little girl when going from town to town at the beginning and gets shunned and attacked for it, and this adds an extra weight to when he takes the coin off the little boy later on

* Valjean gets beaten up a LOT more than he used to… it works so well on stage but also leave my father alone…

* The actor playing the bishop in this production (Adam Pearce) was so brilliant - he played the role with an underlying tinge of anger which was a unique choice I’d not seen much of before. He seemed to be angry not AT Valjean but at his circumstances, which really worked well

* One of the factory workers called Fantine a bitch with such vitriol that the dozens of teenagers sitting in front of me on a school tour gasped out loud

* I loved Killian’s acting during the scene when Fantine was fired, she was begging him to look at her letter and Valjean just waved her away - it was made more obvious than in other versions and really helped to heighten his guilt later on when he finds her in the street. Also some excellent background acting with Valjean instructing the workers in the back

* When the man attacked Fantine after Lovely Ladies it was the most violent choreography of it I’ve seen so far. Then Fantine punched AND spat at him

* When Valjean finds Fantine it takes him a good couple minutes to admit his own guilt but when he did it was overwhelming to him

* Killian also kept putting his hand on Fantine’s cheek and then over his own heart…. killed me actually

* Ellie’s “you let your foreman SEND ME AWAY” was breathtaking

* I LOOOOOVED Valjean and Javert’s interactions when Valjean is Mayor because like for example after lifting the cart obviously Valjean had to take off his coat and Javert was holding it and it was after some very tense seconds where Javert was suspicious Valjean just motioned for Javert to return his coat bahahaha. So subtle but so brilliant

* Javert was getting worked up and said “but MONSIEUR LE MAYOR-“ and Valjean just held up a single hand to silence him and it was so perfectly done - I love their shifting power dynamics so much

* And during the Confrontation Valjean stole Javert’s chain and kept slowly wrapping it around his hand before delivering the most satisfying punch

* The little actress who played young Éponine was so fantastic, she kept mirroring Madam T’s behaviour

* I love how the new production emphasises Valjean’s nose boops to Cosette. They are actually so important

* But then… a huge travesty… they changed the line from “Yes Cosette, yes it’s true. I’ll be father and mother to you” to something along the lines of “Yes Cosette, yes it’s true, there’ll be a castle just for you”…. really don’t like this change. I always adored the “father and mother” lyric :(

* And I can’t even keep track of the amount of lyrics changed in Master of the House…

* Once again one of my favourite sections in the musical is The Thénardier Waltz because I adore Valjean’s exasperation and passive aggressive reaction to their antics

* Also when they were talking about his Cosette was often ill, Madam T said to Cosette “play dead!” Excellent new addition

* When Valjean went to pick Cosette up to spin her around Killian said ‘h-UP’ which is such an Irish thing and made me so happy like I really think Killian’s acting with young Cosette and even later with Marius in the sewers has so much more depth since Killian himself has had children 🥺

* Now we’re in Paris (side note they’ve got rid of the location and years projections which I miss…)

* They still have the “everyone’s equal when they’re dead” line for Gavroche which I never liked as much :(

* Although they did let Gavroche carry around a little baton the whole time to mock Javert which I loved

* They made Éponines “I know a lot of things I do” quite overtly sexual which is a change from other versions I’ve seen and I wasn’t mad on it

* I love how the Grantaire and Gavroche has been developed over the years it’s so endearing

* I really loved all the Marius and Grantaire interactions - and really Grantaire with the whole ensemble, such wonderful friendships

* When Enjolras took Grantaire’s bottle off him he immediately took out another one

* Marius sang the first few lines of ‘A Heart Full of Love’ from the top of the fence which I’d never seen before and loved

* Also I am CONVINCED Éponine said “shit!” when she noticed Valjean come out the door

* And later when Éponine delivered the note from Cosette to Marius via Valjean he was so soft towards Éponine and even softer when he realised she was a girl. He clasped her hands and told her to stay away from the barricade

* Death’s kiss!!!!!!! Éponine kissed Marius!!! And I sobbed

* When Éponine was dying one of the Barricade Boys brought Javert out and made him look at her body but Javert kept looking away… oh god quick where is that Éponine and Javert parallel post

* Éponine’s anger at the end of ‘On My Own’ was so palpable and especially her “a world that’s full of happiness that I will never KNOW” was so painful

* Drink with Me while very sad was also very funny because everyone was having a good time and then it’s like “oh good Grantaire is joining in- OH NO HE IS NOT OKAY”

* Enjolras really seemed have a lot of respect for Grantaire in this production which made it all the more painful when Grantaire shook his arm off when Enjolras tried to comfort him

* Grantaire’s “IS YOUR LIFE JUST ONE MORE LIE” really played into his NEED to believe in something

* BRING HIM HOME WAS THE MOST SPECTACULAR PERFORMANCE I HAVE EVER SEEN. I sobbed throughout. Killian is so talented. Because his voice is so soft naturally and the beginning of the song is extra soft it means the gut punch of “the summers DIEEEE ONE BY ONE” all the more powerful

* Grantaire and Enjolras hugged over what they thought was Marius’ dead body… god…

* Valjean looked so devastated that he couldn’t save all the other boys at the barricade oh god it killed me

* Once again Grantaire was the last to die and shouted “YOU BASTARDS”

* One of my FAVOURITE additions to the new Les Mis staging (which Killian does particularly well) is Valjean saying “good boy good boy… good boy” to Marius as he heaved him up. I burst into tears again

* Turning was soooo good because they have a little girl sing the lyric “who will wake them?” and then she stares at Marius as he comes out for Empty Chairs

* I hated the lyric change in Beggars at the Feast from “that one’s a queer but what can you do” to something like “that one’s a queer but guess he’ll do”… like why. why.

* When Valjean was telling Marius about his life he kept rubbing and clutching his wrist which made me think of Fantine’s line about chains binding him… oh god

* As always Valjean’s death was so beautiful and painful… the part of the show that always gets to me the most

* THE BISHOP HUGGED VALJEAN WHEN HE DIED TO WELCOME HIM TO HEAVEN

* and then I died too. I love this musical so much

#sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes i typed this on the plane #les mis #les miserables #theatre stuff #killian donnelly #… my valjean forever and always

[johaerys-writes]

Get to know me

I was tagged by @baejax-the-great, thank you so much pal! 

Share your wallpaper: My phone background for the past six months or so has been the same Patrochilles art that I'm actually not sure if I should post here without permission from the artist lol. But I can confirm that it's the cutest, most loveliest drawing of them, and Achilles looks so baby in it and I love staring at it every time I open up my phone :')

The last song you listened to: Unbound by Asgeir

Currently Reading:  Ten Days That Shook The World by John Reed (don't ask why or how, but my autistic Special Interest of choice for the past 2-3 weeks has been the political intrigue surrounding WWI and how it fuelled the October Revolution so I've been reading any book/watching any documentary I can get my hands on about it), and I've also been listening to The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath while doing chores and stuff

Last Movie: Everything Everywhere All at Once with @baejax-the-great

Craving: Travel :|

What are you wearing right now: My fluffiest house robe and my fluffy slippers and super comfy and soft socks, and yes I'm still in pyjamas 

How tall are you: 167 cm, no idea how that translates in feet and inches lol don't make me google it

Piercings: I have one piercing in each ear, I've often thought about getting more but needles be scary 

Tattoos: 6, and planning to finish my half sleeve by the end of the year

Glasses? Contacts?: Glasses, and I do sometimes wear contacts as well

Last drink: I am currently drinking some lukewarm coffee with oat milk :3

Last show: In the past couple years I've become so bad with starting shows and actually sticking with them lol, but I did do a rewatch of Neon Genesis Evangelion fairly recently..... OH and I watched Interview with the Vampire with @baejax-the-great a little while back which was super fun!! (because apparently I can't watch something unless I can shit talk or go feral over it with Bae LOL)

Last thing you ate: Toast with peanut butter and an apple

Favourite colour: Oooh that's such a hard question to answer!! The first colour that comes to mind is blue -- I always gravitate towards some version of blue, and currently it's deep navy blue, but I also own a lot of powder blue stuff. It's either that or baby pink or cream tbh, but I also own a good amount of gold/mustard things as well. Yellow makes me happy. I find jewel green incredibly pretty though I weirdly don't own anything of that colour (which reminds me I should perhaps make that a priority)

Current obsession: I'm guessing this is a fandom related question, so I'm going to be predictable and say that I'm, as usual, obsessed with Patrochilles and most of the other pairings I am currently writing, even though anxiety over real life stuff hasn't let me engage with them as much as I want lately. I do think about them a lot and have lots of ideas for new stories, and I'm also working my way back into catching up with fics I love, which I haven't been able to do in a while despite the joy it normally gives me. Brains can be very uncooperative at times, but what can you do about it lol. 

Unrelated Obsession: As I mentioned earlier I have been obsessed with Russian and generally European politics of the early 20th century for some weird ass reason lmao, but I've also been reading an in-depth analysis of Aeschylus' life and work I found in some corner of my library, which led me to looking up some academic papers about it, which led me to signing up for an online course about Athenian tragedy, so um?? I don't know what it is with me and going down those endless rabbit holes lately ahah. 

Any pets: I have a cat, aka a baby and a bastard and a devil spawn all wrapped in one (he is currently sleeping like an angel after attempting to tear down the curtains)

Do you have a crush on anyone: Um. Like, on a real life person? A fictional person? I do have crushes on several of my mutuals so if y'all are reading it I'm kissing you on the forehead MWAH

Favourite fictional character: I can't choose, don't make me choose!!!!!!! I can't choose between my children. But if I had to choose then maybe.... Patroclus? But also, Achilles? But also, my OC Tristan Trevelyan and Dorian Pavus from DA? But also Shiro and Keith from VLD? But also -- SEE, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO CHOOSE

The last place you traveled: It feels like it's been SO long since I've traveled anywhere. I went to Aegina island last summer but since then I haven't been outside the city for even a DAY and it's been driving me crazy. I just need to see some green and blue and listen to nothing but birds or waves or the wind (at this point I'll even take the rooster that woke me up EVERY DAMN MORNING when I was in Aegina lmao). I'm planning on going on a day trip to Mycenae soon though so I'm very excited about that 😄

Tagging forth to @in-arlathan, @mogwaei, @tessa1972, @aymayzing, @inquisitoracorn, @tevivinter, @elveny, @pikapeppa, @petrowriting @peggy-sue-reads-a-book @juliafied, @vimlos, @gloriesunsung, @figsandphiltatos, @gwensparlour, @glimmerofgold, @sabino-sea, and so many more of my mutuals that I'm actually too shy to tag here. But seriously if you're reading this and it looks fun please do it and tag me, I'm nosy and I want to know everything about you LOL  

#get to know me #tag meme #jo rambles

[scorchieart]

Hi Scorchie! I hope your good. I really like the ikeprince character analysis you do. Can you answer thisquestion?

Does Chevalier love his brothers? Thank you and have a nice day!

Hello there! Hope you're having a nice day, too! 💛

Short answer: Yes, in his Chevalier way.

Evidence: Chevalier is a man of action; he doesn't express himself in words if he can help it. And he is very picky about who he allots his time to.

He believes in Nokto's ability and potential as a diplomat, so he leaves matters of international cooperation and negotiation to him. He also trusts his opinion enough to be the defacto faction leader when he and Clavis are unavailable.

He recognizes Leon's leadership and militaristic skills enough to call him his rival. Even though he doesn't always agree with Leon's views, Chevalier will always stop and make time to listen to what he has to say.

In regards to Clavis... *enthusiastically points to Clavis route*

So on and so forth with the rest. The only prince I have reservations about is Luke because (spoilers for Luke and Clavis's routes below)

...Chevalier probably sees Luke as Gilbert's puppet before a brother.

And it's understandable why the two clash when we look at their goals: Luke searching for his sister's killer while carrying out Gilbert's laden agenda vs. Chevalier's incessant snuffing out of all things Gilbert-related from the palace.

One could make the argument that Chevalier knows about Clavis being Gilbert's puppet as well, but the difference here is Chevalier has known Clavis long before that relationship began, so he can predict Clavis's motivations and actions 100% of the time, and in turn he is able to predict Gilbert's movements to a degree (4D-chess yeeting Clavis across the board). Luke is a completely new playing field, so he needs to keep his guard up and study his actions.

But I don't think it's entirely impossible for Chevalier to make room for Luke in his heart, and here's my proof. When Luke first arrived at the palace, he was looking for a way to learn about the princes while still keeping tabs on Obsidian's (Gilbert's) developments throughout the Belle Selection. Basically, I think him joining Chevalier's faction was guaranteed, and probably even encouraged by Gilbert. But Chevalier still had Clavis send Luke a jar of rare honey because he knew he would like it, so make of that fact what you will~

#ask scorchie #ikemen prince #chevalier michel #luke randolph #contemplations and speculations #character analysis

[knifekirby]

Just thinking about the "sad white girl" aesthetic and while everything about it is demeaning, racist, harmful to recovery, etc., I'm personally sick to death of the idolization of sylvia plath. Like. Guys. She literally compared her struggles to the Shoah. Do I even need to explain why that's ridiculously inappropriate and antisemitic and anti-rromani. And she also used anti-indigenous, antiblack, and sinophobic sentiments in the bell jar

And if you try to bring it up they'll go "oh but she's dead anyway" That! doesn't! matter! A bigot dying doesn't magically erase their bigotry. There are hundreds of other female authors who write about depression and aren't bigots! "Oh but I consume it critically" Yeah uh-huh sure. Where's your critical analysis when you share it in your ~aesthetic~ posts and moodboards? Like if you're gonna be that stupid at least don't lie about it lmao

#korby.txt

[thatbitchsimone]

Do u have any book recommendations about femininity? I just finished ‘women who run with the wolves’ and I’m craving similar books about the ways in which women, spirituality and nature are connected. Or just books in general that have a strong female character and that go into the hardships of being a woman.

i havent read that book yet but its been on my list forever so i dont think i can recommend anything similar since i dont rly know much about it and i mostly read fiction so idk

but the first book i think of when u say strong female leads is maestra by ls hilton (one of my faves) bc the female lead is very intelligent and strong and ambitious and shes very much in touch with her sexuality and has no guilt or shame in pursuing her sexual desires and needs (basically no different from men in that sense like her approach and attitude towards it is pretty much what society expects of males) and she will also use it to her advantage to manipulate and backstab the men she encounters lol. its basically an erotic thriller. its very basic instinct and gone girl. shit ton of art and fashion and architecture and just beautiful places but mostly art bc the main character is in the art world so u learn quite a bit about art and different paintings and artists, mostly about artemisia gentileschi since thats the main characters fave (this book is how i found artemisia and fell in love with her judith painting. the authors description and analysis of it is spot on).

i could ofc also start listing off all the classic ones like the bell jar and girl interrupted etc etc but im pretty sure u already know all about the obvious ones and maestra is kind of a hidden gem imo. theres also a sequel to it which is called domina where the story continues but i havent gotten around to finishing that one yet. might even be a third one now too but i dont remember. doubt they are as good as the first one tho

#ls hilton is a woman btw #which does matter imo bc a man could never have pulled off writing maestra and its female lead successfully

[lampmanliveblogs]

”Geez, I knew you were passionate about books Luz, but I didn’t think your literary analysis would get this intense.” -Blonde kid who I think was a cheerleader that appeared in episode one

I gotta love though how the thing that got a reaction out of the other kids was not the fact that Luz climbed up on the desk, no, it was that she got so heated during her little speech. tHey really do be like ”Oh, she climbed up on the desk? She hasn't done that in a while, has she?  Oh well, as long as she doesn't fall and hit someone.”

Speaking of which, it’s got to be super jarring for all her classmates, seeing her go through her second massive personality shift in the last few months.

Can you tell that I’m stalling? Because I am stalling. Seeing my poor girl being sad is making me sad. And I already knew she wasn't in the best headspace right now, but saying she thinks her friends’ life would be better without her? Jeez Luise.

(say, that’s an interesting shirt she’s wearing)

Old Gravesfield Haunted Hayride, I’m sure that won’t be important later.

”Old Gravesfield is the most haunted place in the state.” That reminds me, I need to do some edits on a fanfic I wrote about a year ago.

So here we have these two enthusiastic people. They’re new to this school, but they’ve heard of Luz. But what’s interesting here is that despite the fact that what they’ve heard was more than likely told to them in a negative light (”Oh, that Luz is such a weirdo! She brought living snakes and fireworks to school once!”) they don’t see it as a bad thing.  The opposite in fact, they’re excited to meet her. They’re drawn to her weirdness, likely because they’re the same way.

What was it Eda said in the very first episode of the show? ”Us weirdos have to stick together.”

Oh, what do we have here? Something that looked like a deer but wasn’t a deer, but a monster? I wonder if there’s anyone we know who might fit a description like th-

GAH! Bloody hell’s bells!

I think I compared Philip’s current form to the symbiotes from Marvel once.Yeah, no, he’s not a symbiote, he’s a parasite alright. He just ate that poor deer, huh? 

Hm… I get the feeling that maybe he didn’t just eat it… but maybe there is some possession involved here too. And in that case, maybe he didn't intend to kill the deer at all, and this is the result of some degeneration due to the possession. Again, I’m just throwing out ideas in the hopes that something will stick, but Philip being able to possess people would make him a very dangerous threat. 

Hngh-nooooooo…

Not gonna lie, Hunter hurting himself on the sewing machine, which is played for laughs, is way more disturbing to me than the decayed deer carcass mere moments ago. See, this is why when I was in school, we had to earn sewing machine licenses. Which, I gotta say, in the long run it was much less useful than my driver’s license, my other driver’s license, and my forklift license.

#the owl house #liveblog #the owl house liveblog #toh s3e1 #thanks to them

[passionate-of-literature]

i finished reading 'the bell jar' this afternoon, and i loved it so so so much. i'm pretty sure that i'm going to use either it, or 'the picture of dorian gray' as a part of my english literature alevel coursework, and i honestly can't wait !!!!

#a level english #english literature #english teacher #english #dark academia #carpe deim #dark academia aesthetic #chaotic academia #romantic academia #romanticism #poetry #analysis #reading #books and literature #books #literature #a level english literature #the bell jar #sylvia plath #the picture of dorian gray #oscar wilde #a levels #english student #studying #dead poets society

[anis-book-club]

the screaming staircase: chapter 1

i finally started the lockwood & co. books, so here are my annotations so far!

annotations (mostly snarky comments)

"of the first few hauntings i investigated with lockwood & co. i intend to say very little...but mainly because, in a variety of ingenious ways, we succeeded in messing them all up." (page 3)

very on brand for you.

"so it was not exactly an unblemished record that we took with us, lockwood and i, when we walked up the path to 62 sheen road on that misty autumn afternoon and briskly rang the bell." (page 4)

how do y'all even get jobs??? (genuinely this will never not baffle me)

"'ok,' i said. 'remember our new rules. don't just blab out anything you see. don't speculate openly about who killed who, how, or when. and above all don't impersonate the client...'" (page 4)

i am looking 👀 through the autistic!lockwood lens.

"'fine, copy them quietly after the event. not loudly, not in front of them, and particularly not when they're a six-foot-six irish dockworker with a speech impediment, and we're a good half-mile from the public road.'" (page 4)

i like the air of personal experience that she says this with.

"'so...possibly not part of our case, then, if it was a mouse?'" (page 5)

me 🤝 lockwood i, too, say irrelevant things at inopportune moments.

"'so sorry!' she repeated. 'i was delayed. i didn't think you'd be so prompt.'" (page 6)

to be fair, i wouldn't have either.

"the air had that musty, slightly sour smell you get in every unloved place." (page 10)

oh, i love this.

"halls, landings, and staircases are the arteries and airways of any building." (page 11)

i feel like stroud has a very good idea of what makes a good, loving house/home.

"two sharp crashes sounded on the stairs. air moved violently against my face. before i could react, something large, soft and horribly heavy landed precisely where i stood. the impact of it jarred my teeth. "i jumped back, ripping my rapier from my belt." (page 12–13)

see! i never knew from the show that she felt it! i love that it's explained here in the book.

"'plenty of time for a cup of tea. then we find ourselves a ghost.'" (page 13)

literally, i love their relationship with tea. (i'm american, living in london. tea isn't a big thing back home in the states, but i'm really starting to feel like there's something sacred about it, and i love how it's such a staple at lockwood & co. it's so comforting.)

notes

—regarding: lucy and lockwood's interaction with mrs. hope/suzie martin

the dialogue lines themselves are almost identical between the book and the show, but instead of show!lucy reading book!lucy's lines and show!lockwood reading book!lockwood's lines, they exchange them. show!lucy instead reads book!lockwood's lines, and show!lockwood reads book!lucy's lines. i think this is so interesting? this initial interaction is used in the show to demonstrate that lucy is new to interacting with clients (i'm assuming jacobs handled most of that when she was working under him), and helps to cement lockwood as the charismatic, (mostly) professional leader. but in the book, it's stated from the start that she's already worked at least a few cases with lockwood & co., so she's experienced enough that she knows lockwood's habits and can take the lead.

i really like that in the books, lucy is allowed to be the leader more often. throughout watching the show, i've always felt like she usually can formulate strategic and sensible plans (her suggestion for her team under jacobs to leave the mill together and get help before facing the ghosts was the best plan in my opinion, but that's a topic for another analysis). i like that the book starts out with her taking that leadership position because i think that really demonstrates her cleverness.

—listen, reading the books answers so many questions i have from watching the show.

—i already love stroud's writing style so much.

tabs

lockwood

"'you know i've got an excellent ear for accents. i copy people without thinking.'" (page 4)

world building

"'you're very young.'/'that's the idea, mrs. hope. you know that's the way it has to be.'" (page 7)

"there was plenty of time till curfew, but night was falling and people were growing antsy...or nothing, at least, any adult there could clearly see." (page 8–9)

"when entering a house occupied by a visitor, it's best to get in quick..." (page 9)

"you see, a second rule you learn is: electricity interferes. it dulls the senses and makes you weak and stupid..." (page 10) additional annotation: inch resting

"having a watch with a luminous dial is my third recommended rule. it's best if it can also withstand sudden drops in temperature and strong ectoplasmic shock." (page 13) additional annotation: not sure why, but "luminous dial" is making me think of the radium girls

highlighted lines (usually extracts that i think are really pretty or well written)

"twisting moonbeams" (page 9)

"vanished among the mists and laurels" (page 9)

"the last light from the door panes stretching out like skewed coffins on the floor in front of us" (page 11)

bonus

r.i.p. to my mostly straight lines. gone too soon when i highlight while traveling on the tube.

#lockwood & co. #lockwood & co. [books] #the screaming staircase #currently reading #middle grade fantasy #bookworm #readblr #bookblr

[erielake]

kc // 23. she/her / ny / white / queer

main interests: writing, video games, (faves: dragon age, fallout, far cry 5) reading (faves: jane eyre, sharp objects, fun home, yolk) interactive fiction, comics, film, critical media analysis, baking/cooking, horror

currently playing: baldurs gate 3 / red dead redemption 2

currently reading: the bell jar by sylvia plath

spotify | media/inspo masterlist

mutuals feel free to ask for discord + steam (i follow back/reply from @larkin-if)

wannabe writer/gamedeveloper/person who makes stuff you can find all of my stuff here:

main game development project (larkin) | itch.io | patreon

youtube channel with videos on writing and game development

#masterlist #housekeeping