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mxliv-oftheendless · 8 minutes

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For ye ol veterans of Dracula Daily a.k.a my good friend Jonathan's travel blog, shall we start from april 30th (Dracula's guest prologue) or on May 3rd?

#THREE MORE DAYS LETS GOOOO #dracula daily #re: dracula

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mxliv-oftheendless · 24 hours

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"Don't use Libby because it costs libraries too much, pirate instead" is such a weird, anti-patron, anti-author take that somehow manages to also be anti-library, in my professional librarian-ass opinion.

It's well documented that pirating books negatively affects authors directly* in a way that pirating movies or TV shows doesn't affect actors or writers, so I will likely always be anti-book piracy unless there's absolutely, positively no other option (i.e. the book simply doesn't exist outside of online archives at all, or in a particular language).

Also, yeah, Libby and Hoopla licenses are really expensive, but libraries buy them SO THAT PATRONS CAN USE THEM. If you're gonna be pissed at anybody about this shitty state of affairs, be pissed at publishing companies and continue to use Libby or Hoopla at your library so we can continue to justify having it to our funding bodies.

One of the best ways to support your library having services you like is to USE THOSE SERVICES. Yes, even if they are expensive.

*Yes, this is a blog post, but it's a blog post filled with links to news articles. If you can click one link, you can click another.

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mxliv-oftheendless · 2 days

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Yeah, I’d watch Muppets Lord of the Rings

#bruuuh I’d LOVE this #the muppets #lord of the rings

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mxliv-oftheendless · 2 days

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Am I wet? Am I on my period? Did I pee my pants?- next on wtf is going on down there.

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mxliv-oftheendless · 2 days

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Same goes for diapers. I didn't see a thing

#THANK YOU

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mxliv-oftheendless · 2 days

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#DAMN I MEAN #my guy ain’t lying #kyle maclachlan #dune

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mxliv-oftheendless · 2 days

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Incorrect Quote Poll

#love how we all just agree it’s sam XD #lord of the rings #incorrect lotr quotes

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mxliv-oftheendless · 3 days

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Mem., get recipe for Mina: a food guide to Dracula Daily

Inspired by There and Snack Again (in which you eat along with the LOTR movies), this is your guide to eating and drinking along with Dracula Daily.

All under a cut because there's no way I can do this without extensive spoilers. I strongly recommend not reading this unless you already know what happens in Dracula. Also only if you're comfortable reading about alcoholic drinks - there's a lot of booze in this novel.

Let's eat!

2 May We start with the famous paprika hendl. Google "chicken paprikash" and choose whichever recipe most strikes your fancy.

3 May For breakfast, choose from mamaliga (cornmeal porridge, similar to grits), "impletata" (vânătă umplută - stuffed aubergine) or anything with more paprika in it.

4 May For dinner, Jonathan has robber steak: "bits of bacon, onion, and beef, seasoned with red pepper, and strung on sticks and roasted over the fire".

5 May Slivovitz, if you'd like it (Jonathan declines). Then, for dinner, Dracula serves up roast chicken, with some cheese, a salad and a glass or two of Tokaji wine.

6 May "A cold breakfast" for Jonathan. In Romania a cold breakfast might include boiled eggs, telemea (sheep's cheese), franzela (bread) with assorted spreads, sliced cucumber and tomatoes, and sunculita taraneasca (sliced smoked pork). Jonathan also has "an excellent supper", but doesn't tell us what that includes.

16 May Would it be too bleak if I suggested eating a symbolic Jelly Baby?

26 May A glass of wine as Quincey and Jack congratulate Arthur and drown their sorrows.

18 June There's a kind of Scottish fruit slice called "flies' graveyard". That might make a suitable snack given Renfield's meal today.

24 June I guess a gingerbread woman, for the wolves? IDK, it turns out doing this for a horror novel is a bit grim.

8 July Thankfully the internet has hundreds of ideas for spider-themed cakes so you can eat along with Renfield.

18 July The voyage of the Demeter begins! Celebrate by eating like a sailor: have some salt pork, or make ship's biscuit.

20 July Renfield has just eaten several sparrows. Provide redress by feeding birds near you, bird flu guidance permitting.

24 July Imitate the "feet-folk" from York and Leeds by drinking some tea or eating some cured herring.

10 August Lucy and Mina enjoy a "severe tea". There are lots of severe teas in Victorian literature, but few writers actually describe what's in it - e.g. the Churchman's shilling magazine, 1868, has a story with a severe tea "which implies coffee, tea, and muffins, with substantials". What are substantials? I have no idea, but that's what you should eat today.

11 August Dracula has a little nibble on Lucy. I don't suggest doing this for every vampire bite in the novel, but given this one is particularly significant, how about marking the occasion with some black pudding?

30 August No food details for a while, but in this entry, Lucy notes that she "has an appetite like a cormorant" and "Arthur says I am getting fat". Celebrate with some cake.

3 September Van Helsing has been! And surely he wouldn't have come all the way from the Netherlands empty-handed? Acknowledge his visit with some gouda or a stroopwafel.

4 September Eat some sugar, which Renfield has requested for his flies.

7 September To stay in line with what the characters actually eat and drink, have a glass of port (though ideally not if you've just given blood). But for the real spirit of the day, consider a corn-on-the-cob.

9 September Free space! Jack has "an excellent meal" but doesn't say what it is. Dig into your favourite dinner.

10 September A sip of brandy, with which Van Helsing wets Lucy's lips.

11 September The garlic flowers arrive. There's lots that you can make with wild garlic - personally, I like it in risotto.

17 September A boxful of garlic flowers arrive for Lucy every day. Time to make chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. Other options for today include more black pudding (in honour of Renfield lapping up Jack's blood) or sherry.

18 September The Zookeeper enjoys a teacake, and so shall we.

20 September No food, but the labourers have "a stiff glass of grog". This is rum diluted with water, but you could also add lemon or lime juice, sugar, and/or cinnamon.

25 September Nibble another Jelly Baby for the Bloofer Lady.

29 September A lot happens in this entry, but there's not a lot of food. There are thirsty labourers, however. Maybe have a beer?

30 September Mina makes everyone a pot of tea. Also, we don't know what they have for dinner, but they eat it at 7pm, if you'd like to time your evening meal accordingly.

1 October More tea! Since this is being gulped down by a working man, make it builder's style - strong, sweet, lots of milk.

2 October Jonathan visits the Aërated Bread Company. He only has a cup of tea, but you could have whatever you like best from their menu:

(source)

3 October Dracula forces Mina to drink his blood like "a child forcing a kitten's nose into a saucer of milk". You could either have some more black pudding, or drink a glass of milk in solidarity with Mina.

15 October The Crew of Light aren't focusing much on meals any more, but they have travelled on the Orient Express. Here's the 1887 dining car menu.

(source - I can't vouch for the accuracy of a random person on Twitter but it looks plausible)

29 October No one is thinking of food in this bit of the novel (though Mina makes yet more tea), but as they're heading to Romania, have some sarmale. These stuffed cabbage rolls are the Romanian national dish.

31 October Mina and Van Helsing have "a huge basket of provisions". Have a picnic in their honour, if it's warm enough where you are.

1 November Mina and Van Helsing have "hot soup" into which the local cooks have put an extra amount of garlic. Consider having a truly extra amount of garlic with this 44-garlic-clove soup.

7 November The Crew of Light return to Transylvania. No details of food, but in honour of their journey, I would suggest a final round of chicken paprikash, to bring us back to where it all began.

#omg awesome!!#I’m gonna do this #dracula daily #dracula #food #recipe

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mxliv-oftheendless · 3 days

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Palestinians are currently facing genocide; 2.2 million Palestinians are starving to death and face relentless aerial bombardment every single day by the hand of Israel, a brutal apartheid genocidal state. Please do whatever you can to support them in this critical time of need.

- Provide internet: gazaesims.com

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- Feed and shelter displaced families: https://www.gofundme.com/f/careforgaza

- Boycott: https://bdsmovement.net/get-involved/what-to-boycott

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mxliv-oftheendless · 4 days

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I know there are a lot of /feelings/ about Eowyn being seen as a prize for Faramir doing well in the war of the ring, and that particular pairing being Tolkien throwing heterosexuality and happy endings at the wall but...

Those are not feelings that I agree with. From a humorous, queer goggles perspective, obviously the two are T4T.

But even from a textual analysis, their relationship is one with far more care in it than that assertion claims. [I am not including reference to the legendarium at this time, and while I am aware of Coutras, Fredrick, and McBride's work, I have not had the opportunity to read it.]

Faramir and Eowyn's relationship is one of healing-- for both of them, emotionally and physically. Both were the siblings left behind. Faramir as the younger and Denethor's least favorite and Eowyn as a woman in what is presented to the reader as an incredibly binary society.

Neither of them were less capable than their brothers. Just treated that way. What brought them together was being left behind again. But this time, instead of being alone, they were with someone else who understood that pain.

A moment that has stuck with me since I first read it was Faramir gifting Eowyn his mother's mantel in the houses of healing.

They were clad in warm raiment and heavy cloaks, and over all the Lady Éowyn wore a great blue mantle of the colour of deep summer-night, and it was set with silver stars about hem and throat. Faramir had sent for this robe and had wrapped it about her; and he thought that she looked fair and queenly indeed as she stood there at his side. The mantle was wrought for his mother, Finduilas of Amroth, who died untimely, and was to him but a memory of loveliness in far days and of his first grief; and her robe seemed to him raiment fitting for the beauty and sadness of Éowyn.

That is how she is described, again, and again, and again. "Beautiful and sad" "cold and fair, but hard, wrought from steel", "frozen".

She was not happy in Edoras, and in her unhappiness froze any dreams besides that of battles that make blood run hot.

Faramir was never that. A poet, softspoken. He did not crave battle for its glory. He fought because he had to. And he is not bereft of sadness.

“Here was one with an air of high nobility such as Aragorn at times revealed, less high perhaps, yet also less incalculable and remote: one of the Kings of Men born into a later time, but touched with the wisdom and sadness of the Eldar Race. He knew now why Beregond spoke his name with love. He was a captain that men would follow, that he would follow, even under the shadow of the black wings.”

Melancholy is something he feels bone deep-- another thing that he can understand in Eowyn. The pair is as comfortable in silence as they are in conversation, in stillness as in motion.

As much as their companionship helped them heal emotionally, helped them have someone to listen to and be listened to by...they were also healing physically.

Frankly, the injuries they both had should have and would have killed them were it not for Aragorn's intervention. And even with that, there were damages that not even time could heal. Eowyn's shield arm would falter under heavy strikes, Faramir assuredly had spots that hurt him forever. Just because Frodo is one of the few with these disabilities explicitly mentioned doesn't mean that he was the only one who had them.

Eowyn "melting" and joining Faramir in Ithilien has just as much to do with the acceptance of her disabilities as it does with the changing of her priorities. A garden was no longer a cage, but a respite.

Then the heart of Éowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her. 'I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun,' she said; 'and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.' And again she looked at Faramir. 'No longer do I desire to be a queen,' she said. Then Faramir laughed merrily. 'That is well,' he said; 'for I am not a king. Yet I will wed with the White Lady of Rohan, if it be her will. And if she will, then let us cross the River and in happier days let us dwell in fair Ithilien and there make a garden. All things will grow with joy there, if the White Lady comes.' 'Then must I leave my own people, man of Gondor?' she said. 'And would you have your proud folk say of you: "There goes a lord who tamed a wild shieldmaiden of the North! Was there no woman of the race of Númenor to choose?"' 'I would,' said Faramir. And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.

I have more thoughts on the pair of them, I will leave it here for now.

W

#brooooo I LOVE THIS #I love them #lord of the rings #eowyn #faramir #eowyn x faramir #analysis

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mxliv-oftheendless · 4 days

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Frodo: Every time I see a post about updog I'm torn between not wanting to fall for it and wanting to help the poster complete the joke.

Boromir: Okay, but what's updog?

Frodo: Updog is a long sausage in a bun often served with ketchup, mustard, onion, and/or relish.

Pippin: No, that's a hot dog. An updog is when a new version or patch of an application is released.

Merry: You're thinking of an update. Updog is when you end a sentence with a rising intonation.

Gimli: No, that's uptalk. You're thinking of the fourth-largest city in Sweden.

Aragorn: Surely that's Uppsala. Updog is a symbol conventionally used for an arbitrarily small number in analysis proofs.

Legolas: You're thinking of epsilon. Updog is an upward-moving air current.

Sam: No, that's an updraft. Updog isn't a noun at all, it's a verb; it basically means to chew someone out or lecture them.

Frodo: No, that's an upbraid. An updog is a small dog that likes cuddling on people's laps.

Pippin: No, that's a puppy dog. An updog is when the orcs win.

Gimli: No, that's an upset. An updog is a modern version of a henway.

Boromir: What's a henway?

Gandalf: Oh, about five pounds.

The hobbits: GOTTEM!

#BYE I’m wheezing XDD #perfect I love it #incorrect lotr quotes #lord of the rings #frodo baggins #pippin took #boromir #samwise gamgee #merry brandybuck #aragorn #legolas #gimli #gandalf

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mxliv-oftheendless · 4 days

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i think we talk a lot about how frodo’s long-term reaction to the ring is a discussion of trauma, but i think there’s a really interesting conversation to be had about the intergenerational effects of the palantir on the house of stewards

so right out of the gate as a caveat, the palantir has a much less obvious impact on denethor than saruman. yes, it ages him, shows him the most hopeless version of the truth, etc (very alike to what we see with Hurin), but in some of tolkien’s non-lotr writing, it’s implied denethor had more of a handle on it than saruman because as acting ruler of minas tirith, he had a claim to use its palantir, whereas saruman didn’t have that magical right and his own stone rejects him. my point here is that until denethor essentially used the palantir to stare straight into the sun, its effects didn’t rob him of anything but hope and strength. i wanted that on the table because it’s a book detail that tends to get glossed over in adaptation/analysis

that being said, the palantir sits in the background of all the familial trauma going on in the house of stewards in a way that i think is fascinating

so the most obvious root of a lot of the familial trauma going on there is denethor, but it wouldn’t be wholly correct to suggest that the palantir “made” him miserable. we know from the appendices that he spent years jealous and suspicious of those who received his father’s approval (ironically including aragorn), used the palantir for a large amount of his stewardship out of a similar paranoia, and is generally characterized as unhappy throughout his life. it’s also implied a lot of his insecurities, jealousness, etc stems from his issues with his own father, Ecthelion II (tolkien leaves it up to the reader whether he was mistreated or just inherently jealous and insecure). denethor is also characterized as unkind to his family members long before he becomes a father. given the generally feudal social standards expressed for kings in the books, his choice not to remarry after the death of finduilas suggests she meant a great deal to him, but at the same time, some of tolkien’s non-lotr writings suggest his use of the palantir exacerbated (and may have even directly caused) her death,* so even if she made him happy, he wasn’t exactly the world’s most caring or attentive partner

another important implication there is that while yes, denethor’s misery and paranoia already existed (and, importantly, had roots in his family), the palantir fed on it and made it worse to the point of actively harming those around him: his wife and children. the roots of denethor’s own issues don’t have much to do with the palantir, but it explicitly exacerbates the side-effects of these issues to a deadly extent. his problems are already present, but his use of the palantir forcibly pays them forward

one of the things that really ties this all back to intergenerational trauma for me though is that so often, the issues in the house of stewards that tie back to the palantir are SPECIFICALLY familial. it’s not really shown in any of the movies, but until the very end, denethor isn’t an entirely shitty ruler. his one inarguably terrible strategic move is trying to kill faramir, which would rob gondor of any kind of leadership. even when the palantir screws up his brain to the point of actually hurting his people, the primary objective still has to do with family

the final thing that really nails this down as a stand in for intergenerational trauma is the way we see these cycles break. in the pyre of denethor scene, denethor renders the palantir unusable, and only then do we see faramir get a chance to get the hell out of dodge and do better than his dad. immediately after getting engaged, he promises to build eowyn a garden, whereas finduilas’s fatal despair was worsened by the lack of natural beauty in minas tirith. while i do recognize that gardens are symbolic of growth/rebirth/healing at large, they’re not the only symbol in the book with that meaning, and its use seems to be a purposeful juxtaposition against what denethor did wrong for their family

at the end of the day, the palantir of minas tirith symbolizes despair, and some of the horrible ways hopelessness can snowball into genuine harm. i think there are a lot of metaphors you could draw from this. on my first read through the books, i remember texting a friend something along the lines of “the house of stewards are living proof that depression is genetic,” which. i mean. yeah, palantir or no. but the point is, i think the palantir serves as a fantasy vessel for exploring trauma much like the ring does with frodo, and it’s a bit of an under-looked at side of the text that im glad i got to share with you guys. so hope that was interesting

*this detail isn’t mentioned in every retelling of the story, which is one of the unfortunate drawbacks on writing metas on an incredibly vast and incredibly incomplete universe like this one. however, the accounts that include the palantir detail don’t necessarily contradict the ones that don’t. they merely suggest that, while her despair was caused by the shadow over mordor, the palantir brought it to her front door in a particularly traumatizing way. i personally think it makes more sense than the alternative, otherwise citizens of minas tirith would be dropping like flies every time they tried to watch a sunrise

#oooo interesting analysis op!#I really like this!#lord of the rings #analysis #denethor

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mxliv-oftheendless · 5 days

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#it’s the dayyyy

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mxliv-oftheendless · 5 days

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone bring this up but did anyone else notice how in Princess Mononoke, Ashitaka’s curse is such a good metaphor for hatred???

Like yes, hatred may seem good at first. It drives you to chase what you want and take it for yourself. It gives you incredible strength. It lets you stand up for yourself and for others. But at the same time, that hatred is consuming you from inside. It’s slowly killing you the longer it’s inside you. The only way to stop it is to heal it and let it go, because the longer you have it, the stronger it gets, hurting you just as much as it hurts others.

#princess mononoke #studio ghibli #ashitaka #analysis #sorry this is probably common knowledge or like. very obvious #but I just think it’s fascinating!#I love metaphors like this #hayao miyazaki

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mxliv-oftheendless · 7 days

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They wouldn’t even be here if not for you.

#hold on a second man hold on #😭😭😭😭#Frodo noooooo #that’s so SAD #OP THIS IS BEAUTIFUL AND SAD AND AAAAH #lord of the rings #merry brandybuck #frodo baggins #samwise gamgee #pippin took #fanart

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mxliv-oftheendless · 7 days

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r/AmItheAsshole: AITA for not releasing a Being my father had in a cage in our basement?

Throwaway account for obvious reasons.

I know how the title makes me sound but just hear me out. So back in the day my father tried to summon Death to bring back my older brother who died in the War. Yeah I know it's a bad idea but try telling him that. I was ten at the time. His summoning worked but he didnt get Death he got this other... being... I'm kinda afraid I'll get murdered if I write his name down so. Anyway. The Being looks like a human man but he is NOT HUMAN OKAY. this is important to remember.

My father put him in a glass cage so he wouldn't escape. Not sure where he got this idea exactly but I always thought it was kind of sadistic. But my father was an asshole so. Yeah. The Being didn't resurrect my brother but I guess just having him in our house brings luck? Because my father stopped aging as quickly and we got really rich and stuff. Sometimes I kinda wanted to free the Being but my father would have definitely killed me.

So 10 years later and this Being still hasn't spoken A WORD like he just sits there like a statue it's so creepy I swear. Doesn't talk to us idk if he can? But it makes my father super angry. One day the Being's crow was trying to help him escape (yeah idk either) so I shot it (still feel kinda bad tbh) but my father was furious because it could have broken the cage. He started hitting me with his cane but then he fell and hit his head and died. I SWEAR I didn't kill him or anything this was an accident 100%. This put me in charge of the house after his death.

So here's where I think I might be TA. Once I kind of told the Being that I would free him if I could (he didn't respond obvs). Now that my father is dead I could free him if I wanted but what if he wanted revenge like I did shoot his bird? Like this is clearly a dangerous being I don't know what his powers are exactly but he could definitely kill me if he wanted. My boyfriend says we should let him go and like obviously I don't want to have a Being in my basement? It's super fucked up. But I told the Being we'd let him out if he promised not to hurt us and he didn't say anything. So I kind of don't want to let him out.

AITA?

#oh my god XD #this is perfect #the sandman #alex burgess #dream of the endless

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mxliv-oftheendless · 7 days

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Tumblr Tuesday: Women Loving Women in Art

It's Lesbian Visibility Week, an excellent time to be celebrating women who love women. Give it up for the sapphics, their muses, and the gorgeous art that honors them.

@greenfinchg: