#tsatf

[anothermaraudergirl]

Hello people who might read my fanfic?

I’m thinking of having the story where it is right now finish there (it’s a bit of a cliffhanger which is always fun) and then have this next chapter of Cel’s (and Sirius’) life be in a separate work?

What do we think of this, yes or no?

#fanfiction #fanfic #harry potter #ao3 writer #marauders era #the spider and the fly #my fic updates #sirius black #mstoutt on ao3 #tsatf #sirius x oc #celestia rowle

[barnbridges]

The Secret History, Donna Tartt // The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner // Twentieth Century Interpretations of TSATF: Quentin as Romantic, Robert M. Slabey // Commemorative Plaque on the Anderson Memorial Bridge in Cambridge, MA.

#the secret history #the sound and the fury #william faulkner #you know what the honeysuckle be honeysuckling

[compsonn]

Most Well-Written Fics 2023

personal favorites from the first half of 2023 across multiple fandoms. no particular order.

not based on plot or whatever, simply based on the writing skill and how HARD IT HITS!! most are worryingly heavy angst... none are pwp. these are all great and amazing btw and im just a REALLY really harsh critic and i didnt want this list to be 3 links long lol

for reference i have read 640 fics this year and have bookmarked 7. some of the below r old ones that i didnt put in my last list

Marvel (Stucky)

Tattoo by rinnya / stucky M. self-harm fic. really really good one of my faves.

The Dead Forest - hansbekhart / stucky T. one of my all time favorite fics. cant get over how much i love this one. steve finds himself in the modern era and is depressed as shit. circular ending is disgustingly good and i love this fic so much. makes me miss living in nyc lol

my arms in the sky by lvsr / stucky M. steve and bucky are not good right now and bucky is an ass hole to steve and steve tries to kill himself but.. open ending! also one of my top ten. love love love this one

Supernatural (Destiel)

right hand on his rifle, swore it on the bible by quensty / destiel T. pretty angsty. dean is empty inside rip. this fic is pretty good, definitely in the top 1% of the ones i read. still, why is it so hard to find fics that are well written like this one??

There's Only One Sure Thing That I Know by blinkiesays / destiel E. this ones not even that angsty, but i really really like it for some reason. dean and cas get stuck in ohio and lisa breaks up with dean bc of it. the fic is amazing. i had to sit down after this one no joke. its really good. pretty long compared to what i usually like tho

this is gospel by piesexuality / destiel series. very great, not super memorable but still amazing. if you want a selection of great fics written by this person then here u go. religious imagery

MISC from books/scripts (The Sound and the Fury / Waiting for Godot)

ik these are super unpopular but if you want to check out like. literature then read these

Unvirginity by vigilantempathy / shreve/quentin T (they fuck tho). this is one of my favorite fics as well. it's sooo good. "the mind is weak but the flesh is willing" has inspired me to read the bible 😭😭 really good. one of those fics that has stayed in my head for years. great writing

Syringa Vulgaris by babykid528 (private) / shreve/quentin G. also one of my favorite fics but tsatf has the best fics in general tho. really stays with you.

The Meteor Shower by vonpourrise / estragon/vladimir G. great fic, hits as hard as the original. formatted as a script.

that's all!!! nobody reads these but if you do, feel free to drop recs ! im always looking for new fics

btw- "American Vandal" the TV series has, like, the highest concentration of well written fics that i've seen. "The Sound and the Fury" the book has as well. if u like that kinda stuff check it out! ty for reading

#fanfic #fanfic recs #ao3 recs #stucky #stucky fic #destiel #destiel fics #the sound and the fury #waiting for godot #fic recs #READ THESE I STG TRUST ME

[candle-buds]

The sound and the fury (1959) is such a strange fanfic of a movie. They really said, what if TSATF, but we frame Miss Quentin as the main character and she does this silly walk (?) and Caddy RETURNS from god knows fucking where to say hi and Benjy is just irrelevantly sitting there the whole time, Quentin gets mentioned only one (1) time only to be dismissed as having "killed himself for love," Miss Quentin does her silly walk all over the place and robs her uncle as per usual (only to fucking make out with him at one point? what the fuck?) but then instead of running away like usual she eventually decides to just go back to the house and chill.

#still better than 2014 though #the sound and the fury

[jocrudedispatches]

Is William Faulkner Racist?

William Faulkner is, apart from maybe Dostoevsky, my favourite novelist. He is also a novelist who has been, after his death, harshly criticised and attacked for his perceived racism. Was William Faulkner a racist? Well, a petty-bourgeois, academic type, from the deep south in the early 1900s, of course he was racist! Nah but really, racism,and by extension conservatism, is clearly viewed in Faulkner's novels as a product of a deep evil, ignorance, and injustice embedded into the American South. The only unambiguously good character in "The Sound And The Fury" is Dilsey, a black woman. In "Absalom, Absalom!", TSATF's companion piece, the megalomaniacal slaveowner Thomas Sutpen is portrayed as a demon, something fundamentally evil and furthermore oppostional to good. But Faulkner was against desegregation. He sided against re-integrating schools, not because of an "active" "hateful" racism per se, so much as a belief that the evil and ignorance of racism was so hard-baked into his society that trying to upend it would do more harm than good. His racism was not the torch-bearing, cross-burning, "active" racism of the Klansman but one of cynicism, defeatism, one that I think is much more insidious and deserves a much deeper look, so that we might defeat it. Identifying a problem in society is much easier, even much more comfortable, than solving it. Me personally, I do believe racism, even this "passive" racism can, should, *must* be overcome. I think inactivity, more than even reaction, is the biggest obstacle to action.

Postscript: That last thing, that's a thought that deserves its own post, but I'm drunk rn. If I can remember I will try to type more. But anyways, what the hell do I know? Or maybe that last sentence is the racism of inaction playing on me again.

#racism #william faulkner #cynicism #antiracism #modernist literature #modernism #dark americana

[jims-gaming-obsession]

Got a good start on the Bride and friends today and should be able to finish them off tomorrow (Friday) and then seal and grass ‘em over the weekend! Then I will probably bash out the two packs of bitz ‘n bobz that are still in my Pulp Figs box - the Occult Accoutrements & Significant Clues. Next I will finally get to work on the last batch of Bac Ninh minis (Chanbara/Samurai types) I got in plus some assorted martial artist figs from a couple of different makers. Slowly but surely I’m lowering the height of my lead/pewter mountain but I should still be good for the next 110 years before having to worry about running out of toys to paint.

What I do need to do is buckle down and find a venue to run some games - a common room somewhere that we could have some snacks & libations (BYOB) as well as make noise without driving nearby folks nuts. Gotta see what’s available nearby! But then I’d also have to work up some scenarios that would force me to dust off some of my long-neglected collections like my Darkest Africa figs, the Coastal Boats, ACW Ironclads, Pre-Dreadnaughts, Wing of Glory WW I Aircraft, British/German/FFL Colonials/et cetera - et cetera! Then I would need to brush up on some of our all but forgotten rules like TSATF, G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T, Schnellboot, Ironclads, Age of Iron, plus more that I have forgotten the names of - it’s been way too long!

On the DANECON side I’ve settled on running a Border Reiver game using the modified Pulp Alley rules. It will be a raid scenario/general brouhaha/GITTEM! game for a minimum of 4 and up to 7 players. Should be a fun brawl with folks stealing cattle/sheep/wives/whatever along with some settling of long-held feuds between the riding families. Bloody Border Battles - what fun!

(I was thinking of using the new Border Wars rules, but after a quick overlook, I don’t think that they would work too well for a 6 or 7 player game without really digging into them and seeing what could be modified without losing the feel of the rules. They look like a fun set, but I’d really want to play through a couple of 2 or 3 player games before trying to fiddle with them.)

That’s about it for now but I’ll be back soon - like the proverbial bad penny!

[katkonstant]

If anyone would like - I wrote a new story. Medieval Bees, but with Maiden magic!

#its been in the works for yearsssss but I'm finally done! #no beta we die like we've fallen into an abyss to yggdrasil #fic #bumbleby #rwby #tsatf

[mimbing]

do you think shreve mccanon-mckenzie and quentin compson ever explo

#faulkner posting #that scene where shreve shows up at the jailhouse wearing quentin's pants?? #tsatf #the sound and the fury

[therenaissancedungeonmaster]

Honey Wallace as Midsummer Night Dream’s Cupid! I hope she can pull it off! (Context: @spaghoot-goot and I made a bunch of OCs and have a whole story for them and I’m going to start posting art of them because I Love Them. This is Honey)

#art #myart #my art #oc #original character #illustration #flowers #pansies #cupid #honey #honey wallace #tsatf #arrows #bow and arrows #tw gore? #is this gore????? #tw gore #gore tw #pink #tw eye strain #eye strain tw #lovecore #lovecore aesthetic

[vankoya]

To the silence amidst the fray oc id imagine that yoongi has a large collection of extravagant clothes in his wardrobe, have you ever tried any on? And to yoongi, do you believe there’s life outside your universe?

“He’s actually quite modest with his clothing choices,” she hums, smoothing her thumbs over the gold-threaded cuff of the black coat he wears. She sighs, clearly a little disappointed by this fact. “I’ve heard of some wizards owning such lavish and colourful garments, though. I’m sure their closets would be absolute dreams to hunt through!”

“She says, even though I always find her wearing my black or white silk shirts. Isn’t that right, my love?” Yoongi light-heartedly accuses, pinching her chin between his thumb and forefinger. She guiltily averts her gaze from his own, and Yoongi cannot help but chuckle, dipping down to kiss her cheek. “Nothing to be ashamed of, you wonderful fool.”

With a sheepish tilt to her lips, she loops her arms around Yoongi’s waist, drawing him close. “And of course he believes there’s life beyond our universe. It’d be silly to think that Earth is the only planet with it when there are such endless stretches of space!”

Yoongi clasps her cheeks between his palms, eyes sparkling with affection. “That’s true. But everything I need and love in all of the planets and stars is right in my hands, so I don’t bother dwelling too much on what the others may hold.”

Ask my muses a question!

#tsatf #muse ask game #blabvory

[chaosanddepression]

The snowbird and the Fallen stars

Even for ordinary travelers, moments of peace are scarce.

You would think travelers could mind their business as they go from nation to nation, wandering around without a destination but that unfortunately wasn’t the case. After having to fight off a rather large hilichurl camp, a certain traveler cursed their poor luck from their seat on a tree branch, leaning against the trunk in exhaustion. 

“Fucking hillis…” They grumbled under their breath as their head bumped against the tree trunk. Thanks to the monsters they couldn’t take a nap on the ground anymore which would’ve been much more preferable to sleeping in a tree. 

With the weather as nice as it currently was and the sun as bright and warm as ever, the traveler could hardly bring themselves to continue down the road leading to a certain city in the distance. Like a pampered house cat, all they wanted to do right now was to lay down on the grass and bask in the warm sun but after fighting off the hillichurls they knew it was no longer an option. 

Now they stood in a small clearing, carefully observing the surrounding trees in order to find the best option. They didn’t want to wake up covered in dirt, leaves and bugs like last time, nor end up with tree bark in their hair. The process to clean everything up in the aftermath still made them shudder at the memory.

And so, it was as they were lost in thought while examining the trees that they failed to notice the sound of small footsteps running through the grass and heavy panting as someone, two of them, rushed forward in their direction. 

Nor would they notice until there was a sudden thud. 

The traveler turned around just as something burst through the bushes and their eyes met a pair of wide, terrified golden irises. Blinking in surprise, the traveler stood still from shock while the young girl who had appeared out of nowhere before them struggled to remain upright. 

Just as the girl was about to fall over, the traveler snapped out of their daze and rushed forward, catching her just in time. But before they could even say anything, the first thing they felt was a violent shaking as they held a far too small and skinny body in their hands. 

“Um…” They began carefully, chest pinching when that was all it took for the child to flinch away in fear. “Are you alright?” 

Even continuing in a gentle and soft tone didn’t help, the girl only began struggling to escape their grasp with her focus entirely on something behind her. Setting her down carefully, they watched as she stumbled forward into the bushes once more with a trail of blood spurring them to follow. 

Soon, they came upon another clearing, this time with a second child laying in the middle of it. As the girl stumbled over to them, who looked identical save for a slightly darker shade of blond hair and tied back into a braid, the traveler jolted in horror as they spotted a pool of blood forming underneath. 

“Shit!” Without any regard for how the girl might react, they jumped forward, carefully flipping her brother (?) onto his back for a better look at the source of the blood. 

Just as they suspected, the boy had a large open wound on his front, which was where the blood was coming from. However, what truly made them pause in absolute disgust was the sheer number of scars littering his dirty skin and only an equally dirty handkerchief tied around his tiny hand to cover just one of many injuries. 

“What the hell…?!” They growled under their breath, a familiar rage building up in their chest at the sight and threatening to spill out despite their best efforts. Their grip on a roll of bandages tightened, squishing the white fabric as their knuckles turned white from the strain. 

Who- no, how on earth could anyone do such a thing to a child?!

Whoever it was, they were in for it now once they managed to get their hands on-

“No!”

Startled cries from birds shooting into the air echoed along with the sudden shout, originating from the young girl they had all but forgotten about. 

Startling enough to pull back, the traveler blinked as the girl threw herself over the boy, still trembling furiously but showing no sign of pulling away as she stared up at them with terror. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to,” She began rambling, so quietly they almost couldn’t hear as tears began to spill out and her voice shook just as violently as her body. “I’m sorry, we were wrong, we shouldn’t have done it, please don’t hurt my brother, he needs help, I’ll do anything please, please!”

“Hey, hey, it’s ok,” The traveler tried to soothe her in between sobs, their heart hurting horribly at the sight. They didn’t dare reach out at first, only watched as the child sobbed quietly, gasping and hiccuping while covering the boy as much as she could and her back becoming tight with tension. 

“Sweetie, it’s ok, I’m not here to hurt you, I promise,” They continued quietly, wanting nothing more than to scoop her into a hug but all the clear signs of abuse meant they couldn’t do something so casually. “I just want to help your brother, he’s badly injured and needs help. It’s ok, I promise, I’m not going to hurt him.”

“Please…” Came on last whimper, once again almost non-existent before the girl buried her head in her arms and her shoulders tensed up as if she were expecting them to hit her.

“Shh…it’s ok, you’re safe now…” They continued to whisper, only now daring to reach out and gently place their hand on her head, wincing at the violent flinch they received in response. “I’ll help your brother, don’t worry, ok?” 

By some miracle, they were able to slip her off of her brother, though the girl didn’t move and instead grasped the boy’s hand tightly. It would make things harder to work with but the traveler couldn’t bring themselves to say anything, not when the child was in such a state. 

Fortunately, the wound wasn’t as bad as it seemed despite the wound and was only a bit deeper than normal. The process of applying first aid was done a lot faster than expected too and a half hour later the boy was starting to regain some color to his cheeks. 

The girl had calmed down by then as well, with only the occasional sniffle heard throughout the silence. Her panic had worn her out significantly, they could tell with just one look, but she still forced herself to remain awake and vigilant over her brother. 

As they finished cleaning up their scattered tools and supplies, the traveler found themselves wondering what to do next. 

Their first instinct was, of course, to take the kids to the teapot with them so they could have shelter and safety for the time being. But they also knew convincing the kids to agree with such an offer wouldn’t be easy. Just because they agreed to help treat one of them didn’t make them completely trustworthy and after all the kids had likely been through, only Celestia knows how careful they had to be with who to trust. 

Still, it didn’t sit right with them to simply give the kids supplies then send them on their way. True they had done something similar in the past with others, but those kids were all much older than the current pair and already quite experienced with surviving on their own. 

Right now, the traveler’s best guess to the twins age was definitely below 10. Even if they were severely malnourished and likely shorter than normal, they still didn’t think they could be pre-teens at this point. 

But they’d have to cross those bridges when the right time came. First things first, they needed to establish trust with the kids, or at least the girl, before anything else. 

“So…” They began slowly as the girl flinched violently and her head snapped up straight to attention, staring at them with wide eyes once more. “If you don’t mind, could you tell me your name?” 

The seemingly safe question made the girl tense, as something flickered in her eyes for a brief moment and her fingers twitched nervously. 

“Ah…um…” She opened her mouth to speak but only a hoarse croak came out as it seemed she hadn’t spoken in a long time. Although her cheeks turned red from embarrassment, the girl quickly lowered her head as if in shame and continued trying until; “...Lumine. I’m…My name is Lumine.” 

Her voice came as a quiet whisper, to the point of near silence had they not already anticipated this and strained their ears ahead of time. 

“Lumine.” They repeated, humming thoughtfully and paying no mind as she flinched once more. “That’s a pretty name.” 

“I don’t have any name to give you really…I mean I’m a traveler so I normally get called that but if I had to choose one, it’d be Roam. Because it’s short for Roamer, which I am.” 

Silence. 

“So if you don’t mind me asking, who or what exactly hurt you guys so badly?” They began after a moment of silence passed. Once again, they watched as Lumine turned white and she shakily avoided eye contact, hands folding nervously. 

“If you don’t want to tell me or can’t then that’s fine. I just don’t want to leave you guys vulnerable if whoever you were running from finds you again.” They explained quickly, but to no effect. 

Still, Lumine said nothing, only shrank into herself and shook horribly, the absolute terror in her eyes heartbreaking to see. With her current state of mind and brother still unconscious, they didn’t know how likely asking her to join them would be to succeed, especially if they tried to ask now. What’s more, they also wanted to talk things out with Dainsleif before deciding on anything like this but leaving the kids alone couldn’t even be considered. 

Though there was someone they could call to keep an eye out while they hopped inside to explain everything but in case of emergency there wouldn’t be anything she could do. 

But at the same time, would introducing someone new all of sudden have a positive effect on Lumine? She could already barely tolerate being around them, her brother being the only reason, but if someone else were to join…

“Roam!” 

Both the traveler and Lumine were startled by the sudden shout coming from a small white-haired child who floated in the air with a trail of stars and dust following her from behind after popping into existence from literally nowhere. 

“Paimon, what the heck?!” The traveler scolded in a hushed voice, eyeing Lumine to check on her state and wincing when they saw she had held her brother closer and tensed up again, trembling picking up as she stared in a mix of shock and fear at Paimon. “We talked about you doing that, remember?!”

“Yeah, Paimon remembers,” The pixie nodded nonchalantly then quickly shook her head frantically. “But that doesn’t matter! Paimon came to warn you of the people coming here from up ahead, there’s a ton of them and they look like they’re Fatui agents!” 

“What? Are you sure?” The traveler asked, immediately alert as they jumped to their feet. “What’re they doing in the woods? I thought they were stationed in the city!” 

Just as they asked those questions out loud, a sound caught their attention and they turned around to face someone with possible answers. If Lumine were pale before, now she was even paler, something they didn’t think was possible until now. Tears were beginning to form and threaten to spill out of her eyes again as she held onto her brother, stock still and frozen in place. 

Even when the traveler took a step forward she didn’t react and her breathing began to pick up in speed as who knows what kind of horrible memories kept her rooted in place. 

“Sweetie? Hey, hey it’s ok, you’re safe, remember?” The traveler called out, crouching in front of her and their hands fluttering around nervously as they tried to find something to do. “I’m sorry if Paimon scared you, she didn’t mean to do that.” 

“N…” They blinked in surprise when a tiny sound came from Lumine and would’ve pulled back if she weren’t reaching out to hold the fabric of their shirt in her tiny hands, clutching onto them like a lifeline. “No…it’s not…n-not tha-at…” 

While she struggled to speak and even make the slightest bit of sound, the traveler slowly removed their cloak and wrapped it tightly around the pair, checking the hood to make sure the spells were still in place.

“In that case…is it…the Fatui?” Their chest clenched painfully as the tiny horrified squeak Lumine made just at the name and wished they could do something to comfort her. With their free hand, the traveler made a few signs before ending with a nod which Paimon returned before picking up their bag and disappearing along with it. 

“I…um…” Lumine tried to continue even as her breathing picked up and her voice shook far too much to even make a sound. 

“It’s ok, you don’t have to force yourself,” The traveler murmured soothingly into her ear. “Take your time, I promise, I’m going to keep you-” 

“Over here!”

Lumine made some semblance of a muffled scream when a fatui agent appeared in front of them and quickly yelled for the other members to join, the footsteps finally allowing her tears to burst through. 

“Ah, too late.” The traveler muttered just as Paimon appeared above them once more. “Change of plans,” They called to Paimon in a whisper. “Make sure you tell Dain everything, alright?” 

As more and more agents approached, Paimon couldn’t reply out loud but she made a quick salute before floating down to the twins. With both her hands on either one of the bundles, the pixie took a deep breath and disappeared into thin air with the blink of an eye, taking the twins with her. 

As the last of her star trail disappeared, the traveler turned to face their opponents who all wore the unfortunately familiar masks of the Fatui. 

Well, at least now they had a good reason to fight.

___________________________________________________________

Just like how all his days had been lately, Dainsleif woke up to peace. 

Resting on a comfortable bed in a simple room, a young man opened his dark blue eyes to stare up at the ceiling in a daze, his mind still trying to comprehend something. 

Things had been like this for quite some time now. He’d wake up as morning came and go about his time making a simple meal and finding something to do. No fighting, no training, not even the throbs of pain he’d felt for the past centuries existed any longer. 

And today…

It was just like any other-

“DAIN!” 

And down the drain it went. 

The blond was sorely tempted to bury his head into a pillow and scream at the top of his lungs, the whole point being to muffle the sound in the first place. A good majority of him was tempted to remain in bed and ignore the frantic cries of the pixie who had just shattered his peace and quiet into pieces but the other part won out. 

Rushing out of his room faster than intended, Dainsleif leaned over the railing to see Paimon fluttering around anxiously, a kind of panic he hadn’t seen her express before. 

“What is it, sprite?” He asked from the railing, scaring Paimon into a small shriek. 

“Ah! Don’t scare Paimon like that!” She scolded at first then quickly snapped back to attention. “Wait, no, nevermind that, you need to come outside, quickly! Roam found something and Paimon can’t handle it on her own!”

What? Dainsleif frowned as he followed the pixie out the doors and into the brightly-colored outdoors of the teapot.

Scattered all over the grass were a variety of furniture and what the traveler called ‘Furniture sets’ of a particular theme, with an adventurer’s tent located further away from the building. As Dainsleif ran after Paimon and drew closer, it wasn’t long before he spotted two heads of blond hair belonging to a pair of kids laying down underneath the shelter. 

Now what Paimon said made sense. Of course, ordinary children were already strange and hard enough to understand, muchless get along with, but one look at the current pair and he could see why the traveler had Paimon bring them to the teapot. 

Both were in horrible shape, severely malnourished and covered in dried blood. Fresh bandages he knew was the traveler’s doing covered a majority of their small bodies with scars littering the exposed skin. 

He didn’t need to hear it from the traveler to know already what they wanted him to do. Stoic as he was, Dainsleif was in no way heartless but the problem was how long this would last. 

How long did the Traveler intend to keep these kids around? They knew better than to consider bringing the kids on their shared journey, not when the path to their goal was so dangerous. But if the kids' parents couldn’t be found, would they attempt to bring them along anyways? 

Boy was he looking forward to that conversation. 

#genshin impact #gender neutral reader #Lumine #Aether #Dainsleif #Implied abuse #Reader is known as Traveler #De-aged characters #TSATFS #Genshin impact x reader

[anothermaraudergirl]

TSATF is back with a bang (literal, this time)

Here's a little teaser:

“Oh my God!” Sirius exclaimed suddenly as though he had just witnessed something frightening. Perhaps he was hurt in some way or also feeling sick, it must have been the pub in that case. 

I was expecting to hear him banging on the door to come in, but I didn’t. I slowly got to my feet once I was sure that I wouldn’t do it again, and opened the door, finding him standing there staring at me.   

He was holding Magical Motherhood.

Shit. 

“What’s this?” He asked, his tone immediately accusatory. “I just noticed it there amongst all the brochures, why would you have something like this?”

“Please,” I held up a hand, my face felt all sweaty and clammy from being sick and being caught. “I can explain this.”

“You’ve been sick, then I see this book that you’ve been hiding from me, obviously. That’s why you wanted two bedrooms, isn’t it?” His eyes were like saucers. “You- you’re… I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this!”

“No! It really isn’t what it looks like,” I yelped. “I promise there’s a reasonable explanation for everything. I think it was just dinner made me sick and-”

“Don’t lie to me, I know exactly what’s going on,” he had paled and his hands were shaking. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”

#fanfiction #fanfic #my fic updates #marauders era #ao3 writer #harry potter #the spider and the fly #mstoutt on ao3 #TSATF #sirius my beloved #sirius x oc #sirius orion black #sirius and regulus #sirius being sirius #sirius black

[lovehoundd]

character aesthetics: Quentin & Caddy Compson

“If it could just be a hell beyond that: the clean flame the two of us more than dead. Then you will have only me then only me then the two of us amid the pointing and the horror beyond the clean flame… Only you and me amid the pointing and the horror walled by the clean flame.”    

 ―    William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

#i am such a nerd #i should be learning for my finals #but i simply had to make post about them #their relationship i so beautiful #not to mention that i think about quentin 24/7 #the sound and the fury #tsatf #this book got so into my bones #i adore it #william faulkner #literature #caddy compson #quentin compson #literature meme

[andessence]

                     ( multimuse ft. CADDY COMPSON of ‘the sound & the fury’)                     

❝ there was something terrible in me. sometimes at night i could see it grinning at me. i could see it grinning through them — grinning at me through their faces. ❞

#support your local rebellious teen disaster #indie rp #literature rp #the sound and the fury rp #tsatf rp #as if anyone uses those tags but lmao! #as if promos are effective anymore when all the normal tags are clogged up by advertisements for group promos! #;; THERE WAS SOMETHING TERRIBLE IN ME [ caddy ] #||x MY WAY IS TO CONJURE YOU [ promotion ]

[strawberrylagoon]

whenever I start having a new phase I feel like a bad person for cheating on my old one

#it really be like that every time?? #thoughts #fandoms #my drivel and rambles #sorry tsatf for cheating on you :(

[fillorian-pocketwatch]

The Makings and Fate of Quentin Coldwater: What Were the Writers Thinking?

Trigger warnings: Quentin Coldwater, seasons 4 and (briefly) 5, mentions of suicide/suicidal ideation, outdated ideas about the purity of women.

General warnings: Spoilers for the show and the books.

Buckle up, darlings, and my apologies in advance: this is a rough ride, and I don’t recommend reading it if you aren’t in the right headspace for it right now.

I hope that those who do read it might drop some LGBTQIA+ positive book/tv recommendations in the comments as a pick-me-up for others. I will add some myself if I can think of some good ones.

So as it turns out, I ran into something entirely by accident: the inspiration behind the character of Quentin Coldwater.

I knew that Eliot and his "will-they-or-won't-they" dynamic with Quentin in the Magicians books were both borrowed from Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (Grossman has said so himself)--

but I didn't realize there was an actual preexisting character Grossman borrowed from for Q:

Quentin Compson, from The Sound and the Fury.

This explains so much for me. So much.

I ran across information about the character the other day while doing something completely unrelated (looking up some other book if I recall correctly), and when I saw the similarity of the two names and then learned about the first Quentin’s fate, I thought, could this be LG’s inspiration?

Further research revealed that yes, Lev has said as much in articles. And even if he hadn’t, the fact that he has written extensively *about* TSatF online makes it a relatively easy conclusion to draw.

While the two Quentins aren't actually much alike (at least on the surface; I haven't read TSatF yet, just in-depth summaries/analyses of it)--other than the fact that they are both mentally ill over-achiever college students, are preoccupied with the idea of another world (the world as they each wish it was), and constantly associated with symbolic clocks and watches--Quentin Compson's fate explains everything for me in terms of how to understand Quentin Coldwater's series-four fate.

Quentin Compson ultimately kills himself in the famous classic novel; he does so by drowning after jumping off the Anderson Memorial Bridge in Boston, Massachusetts. Today there is a plaque there to commemorate the character:

In the Faulkner novel, Quentin associates the smell of honeysuckle with his obsessions over his sister’s purity--an ideal he comes to feel let down by after she loses her virginity and then seems to lose herself further in the company of men he feels are unsuitable.

I can’t help but make a parallel with the “drowned garden” of season 4, episode 12.

Quentin makes the following speech in the drowned garden, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s the closest thing we get to a suicide note:

You know the worst part of getting exactly what you want? When it's not good enough. Then what do you do? If this can't make me happy, then what would? Fillory was supposed to mean something. I was supposed to mean something here. But it's all... it's just... it's random. It's so random that the only way to save my friends is to yell at a fucking plant! Honestly, fuck Fillory for being so disappointing. You know what, maybe I was better off just believing that it was fiction. The idea of Fillory is what saved my life! [laughs.] This promise... that... people like me... [weeping] People like me... Can somehow... Find an escape. There has gotta be some power in that. Shouldn't loving the idea of Fillory be enough?

But the idea of Fillory is not enough, in the end, because the idea of happiness is also not enough. And by the end of his time on the show, that’s all Quentin has: the trappings of happiness (or at least the ones available to him, the ones he thinks might get him there), without the actual emotion.

Maybe he realizes, in the drowned garden, that he is at the end of his rope. Maybe that is where he decides to give up.

That, in my opinion, is why he begins to seem so shut down: it isn’t uncommon for people to distance themselves emotionally as a precursor to suicide (hence Jason being accused of “refusing to act” toward the end of S4).

I think it’s also why he doesn’t stop to wait and see how Eliot is after Margo strikes the Monster with the axes: he has given up on the idea that the things he thinks will make him happy actually will, or that happiness is actually attainable for him in the first place.

Quentin Coldwater drowns not in the fading of honeysuckle; for him it’s peaches and plums. In any case, he is definitely in over his head, and the water that spills out of the mirrors after his death feels like an homage to that literal drowning of his predecessor.

The TM writers found ways, as the show progressed, to tie the books back in to the show; the way they did it, however, was often roundabout to say the least. Their takes on how different plot points should occur, or be interpreted from book to screen, were usually close to abstract. They did do it, in many ways, but theirs was far from a faithful adaptation.

It fits, therefore, that they would tie The Sound and the Fury into S4 the way that it appears they did.

It also tells me something about how blame for their decision can be distributed, because either the showrunners:

a.) really did their research re: Compson and put together that this was the character that inspired Lev

or, as is much more likely, they:

b.) discussed it all with Lev himself--or LG was the one to broach the subject to see what sort of take they could spin.

Whatever the lead-in to the decision, I think three things combined to give them the idea for Q’s fate:

1. Quentin Compson;

2. Alice’s description, in the third book, of watching an old god kill herself to make way for a new world (which was when Umber and Ember emerged);

3. The following lines from The Magician’s Land: “The truly sad thing was that Ember actually wanted to do it. Quentin saw that too: He had come here intending to drown Himself, the way the god before Him had, but He couldn’t quite manage it. He was brave enough to want to, but not brave enough to do it. He was trying to find the courage, longing for the courage to come to Him, but it wouldn’t, and while He waited for it, ashamed and alone and terrified, the whole cosmos was coming crashing down around Him.

Quentin wondered if he would have been brave enough. He would never know. But if Ember couldn’t sacrifice himself, Quentin would have to do it for Him.”

So, it appears, the group of writers (LG included, however actively) apparently decided to take Quentin’s thought from book three and put him in exactly that position: make the choice, or fail to make the choice.

But the need for him to make that choice was never horribly convincing. They were very mistaken if they thought it was. And no matter what, it was ultimately a horrible, damaging idea. It hurt the audience, and it killed the show. The only sacrifice that was made was made in the name of ego and “clever writing” that the writers thought was edgy and risky in some desirable way.

[Quote from vulture.com]

It's not so deep.

What they did, ultimately, was borrow from more than one outdated work, and use those as excuses to do the wrong things re: mental illness and LGBTQIA+ representation:

Evelyn Waugh’s characters fail, once again, to live their lives and desires freely and openly (What a waste to rehash the long-denied dynamic from Brideshead Revisited only to deny it again);

Quentin Compson’s legacy of suicide and hopelessness lives on (and this is made all the more offensive when you learn that Compson’s suicide was based largely on ideas of spoiled purity which were solely the burden of women to uphold).

They took what could have been made right and beautiful and instead used their story to perpetuate the same sad old traditions of queerbaiting and Burying the Gays.

Tragedy is not more profound than happiness (just ask Quentin Coldwater). I'd argue that to make something really beautiful, you need to mend what's broken.

The world is a broken place. It's easy to break things here.

The worst thing they did to Q, by far, was to use the beautiful concept of minor mending against him like it was the fuse on a stick of dynamite: the thing he’d spent his whole life seeking--his specific field, his special skill in the actual real world of magic--was what he used to kill himself. He killed himself by *fixing something.* We need no further evidence that Q had given up hope.

What a terrible message, and what a slap in the face to viewers who put their trust in this atrocious writing.

And they did nothing to redeem themselves after the fact, either. If anything, they made it even worse, somehow:

Eliot, by the end of the show, has even less than he started with.

Eliot, apparently, is us: left without Q, stripped of the comfort of a world we thought we knew. Utterly let down by the writers who had the power to make things different.

I hate to end this on such a terrible note. So let me just say that if you were let down by the show, and you miss Q, you’re far from alone! I see you, and I hear you, and I share your pain.

TM got it all wrong. But I have faith that others will get it right.

And no matter what, in the last book, Quentin lives, and has nothing but a whole world of possibility open up before him.

#The Magicians #Meta #Quentin Coldwater #The Sound and the Fury #the magicians season five #the magicians season four #the magicians books #Eliot Waugh #Brideshead Revisited #Evelyn Waugh #William Faulkner #Queliot #mental illness #lgbt representation #queerbaiting