i am pulling up to post sad dog art 🙏🏽

Farleigh about oliver to literally anyone that would listen

to this DAY i dont understand how ppl hated farleigh and still continue to hate farleigh. what did u miss? what key detail did u brush off that led u to this conclusion??? selfish greedy lazy-? gotta be racism.

ppl making quickstart edits and writing fanfiction in the year of our lord and savior.

I love love love hearing you talk about saltburn, ESPECIALLY your thoughts and analysis on farleighs character like your mind is so powerful i want to give your brain a big smooch

stop it, im blushing! if anyone wants me to talk about something specific regarding saltburn, please send me an ask :) i’m always down to talk more but i have covered a lot of bases and i’m not sure where to go next hehe

(i don’t do nsfw though)

saltburn and lo real maravilloso

bare with me.

lo real maravilloso, in its direct translation, means "the marvelous real." in english language, this is more commonly said as "magical reality." magical reality is (arguably) a genre of fiction.

lo real maravilloso is a genre which defies definition. it is the inexplicable, the absurd, the ironic, the whimsical, the manifestation of dream and abstraction. lo real maravilloso is also the mundane. if this is confusing, that's entirely understandable. let me quote alberto rios; "first things first. nothing so important and nothing at all unimportant." this is the essence of magical realism. the absurd and unbelievable in a constant dance with the mundane, creating nothing so important and nothing at all unimportant.

to quote un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes (a very old man with enormous wings) by gabriel garcía márquez, "his huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked, were forever entangled in the mud. they looked at him so long and so closely that pelayo and elisenda very soon overcame their surprise and in the end found him familiar." in the story about un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes, the absurd and unbelievable (a winged man crashing to the earth) becomes the mundane (the winged man is flightless, and those that found him are quickly annoyed by his pathetic presence). a winged man becomes nothing so important, and the drag of every-day life is nothing at all unimportant.

now, saltburn. i'm fascinated by emerald fennell's choice of using the aristocratic english as her metaphor for the untouchable. in a lot of ways, i'm grateful this is what she chose. while the ultimate inspiration for saltburn was less the materialistic class commentary that it came to be, the aristocracy becomes so many things throughout the movie. what i wanted to talk about is how the aristocracy, the cattons, are lo real maravilloso. the essay i quoted before by alberto rios is spectacular, because it delves into not just the ironic nature of magical realism, but the rhetoric, as well; what it means to think we understand something, how language deludes us into believing we know something, how our own reality is mistaken for reality itself. saltburn and the cattons live in their own reality, which to the outsider, is absurdity. when watching the film, what we find ourselves thinking throughout it is essential to understanding the rhetoric of the movie.

when we see the grandeur and wealth and think how impractical, how unreal, how hilarious. the humor that saltburn taps into is near-identical to the core of magical realistic irony. "to use classical terminology, tone so often derives from the delivery of the narrative as litotes—understatement—in the middle of hyperbole-- overstatement. If it is not humor, then it comes off as flatness of treatment, non-reactivity, deadpan almost, which is the great comedian’s trick..." (rios). think back to the casualty of the cattons' absurdity. the sincerity in which elspeth delivers the most appalling, unreal anecdotes and additions. magical realism places culture, sincerity, normativity uncomfortably close to what we could hardly fathom. a winged man falling from the sky, kept in the chicken coup because it is quickly understood that he is hideous. finding your winged son dead in the middle of an elaborate maze, sprawled out beneath a minotaur statue, and the knowledge that lunch is about to begin.

the longer we experience the world emerald has created, the more we understand the reality in which the cattons live, the more we find it familiar. the absurdity is forgotten, until it's once again realized, until it's once again forgotten. this is the act of interacting realities; ours, and then another, and then back to ours. what's so fun about exploring wealth is this clashing of reality. believing that it's so absurd to be so rich, then succumbing to the normativity of richness, then once again finding yourself laughing at the idea of it. "what do you mean it's almost lunch? how could you say that? your son is dead. and beyond that, he's dead in the middle of a maze. he's dead in the middle of your estate maze, with your estate statues and your 179 bedrooms, one of them being the king's." and when lunch begins, we're dragged back into foreign reality. we feel the grief that pollutes the air, pulls at each of the cattons. we understand that our reality is not reality, nor is their reality. we're submerged in the tone of the film, the tone of the writing. a well-written character is a character who has their own reality; not that they're right or wrong, but that they are.

there is also the clashing of culture. the aristocracy is more familiar to the english. the emotional repression visualized throughout the movie is more familiar to the english. the culture of british boarding school is more familiar to the english. the longer we experience, the longer we stare at the unreasonable, the more familiar it becomes. our reality is not reality. we stand amidst billions of others, who have millions of preconceived notions, derived from millions of alternate cultures, experienced through thousands of languages, interacting with another billion people. what this all boils down to is how little we understand.

how does oliver interact with this foreign reality? how does farleigh? how are felix and venetia interacting with each other, as well as this life that so little experience? how do we understand it? how do we react to it? how do we react to the sex throughout the movie, which exist in its own absurdly real world? at what point in watching saltburn did you forget how stupid it was? at what point did you forget that having a maze in your backyard is ridiculous? having gargoyles? having footmen? having 200-person parties in your own house? at what point did you lose yourself in this foreign reality, and when did you remember that it's all ridiculous? have you remembered? have you realized that the sex was absurd? have you realized that felix catton is absurd? have you realized that oliver is blind to the absurdity as well? hm. hmmm.

Karn the Inheritor, aka fishbowl-headed blorbo, drawn in OneNote

one shining example of felix's characterization is the saltburn tour scene. see, felix catton believes he is humble. he whips through saltburn with an air of casualty, flippantly remarking on the most absurd things you can imagine. the music trickles by as the viewers struggle to catch the mindless rush of sheer, raw wealth. something most of us could never dream of obtaining, something oliver dreams of constantly

felix catton mistakes disinterest for humility. he mistakes apathy for modesty. in reality, he's washing himself clean of his wealth, sheltering himself away from the weight that comes with power. he is ignorant to the fact that people want him for his status, so he has no incentive to change. why be anything other than mediocre if mediocracy gets him whatever he wants?

no, felix isn't a golden boy. he's just oliver's northern star. we're just seeing him through the lens of romanticization. for oliver to accept that felix is anything but perfect would first require that oliver accepted the hollowness of power. felix is the minotaur because despite his lack of intention, despite his unawareness, he is still a monster. and oliver hunts him with no desire to kill him, until felix innocently destroys everything he has the privilege of touching. evil is pervasive, but only with the support of ignorance; this is felix.

the fact that this is a constant and necessary reminder for some people because it's not just the fanfiction and the kissing and the sex appeal, it's everything about felix as a character. so many people adore this character and for valid reasons, but one of those reasons should never be "he was the only good person in the movie."

oh, felix is the nicest! he's just trying to be nice, guys. he's so sweet and funny guys he's our pretty princess fairy. HEHEHEH

I want all the people writing fanfiction about Felix to know that he's canonically a bad kisser and bad in bed

source

GAH sorry for making this thread so long but you are ABSOLUTELY so cool and real. thank you for expanding so much, i completely understand and agree with you.

like you expressed, some of those power dynamics would be so so fun to play with. one thing that i'm thinking about now is f!oliver's motivation... like, in canon, i interpreted the underlying motivation for oliver as his need to obtain the privilege he doesn't have. oliver is willing to use any position of privilege that he does have against venetia and farleigh, but felix is an uncontrollable, unobtainable object of jealousy and desire. f!oliver would have such an insane spin. the core of the film is to create the sense that oliver is grossly delusional and ambitious and greedy and on and on and on. he's ungrateful of what he has. in the same sense, f!oliver could play into this in a much more controversial way. f!oliver would be another step below felix, not only financially but now on a patriarchal level. the viewers would have a stronger inclination to root for f!oliver, in a sort of fem fatale way. think, "gone girl."

f!oliver and venetia would be a way to explore this concept of competition between women under the oppressive nature of patriarchy. f!oliver and farleigh would be a way to explore the power that white women have historically held over black men, and vice versa (two historically ambiguous power dynamics... dude). the stakes would be higher with f!oliver. people in this fandom seem sort of unaware of how low the saltburn stakes were, comparatively, to a lot of real-life situations. f!oliver would be so ambiguous, so dirty, so raw, even more-so than m!oliver. hehehahhaf. like, the uncomfortable nature of saltburn would be amplified SO much. it would also strip away the sort of escapist fantasy that many people have towards mlm; a largely hetero-centric film about power, class, privilege? viewers would have a much harder time ignoring their discomfort, i think. for the same reasons that a lot of people prefer queer "enemies to lovers" and such.

Oliver being a woman instead is such an interesting concept because I feel like things could have gone way different in that scenario. Anyways, your Farleigh fic was very enjoyable to read :)

thanks so much for reading i’m so glad u liked it! & yes i love the concept. while we’d def lose some elements of story that barry’s character had like how interesting oliver and farleigh’s relationship was, but it would be super interesting to see that pan out differently. like the relationship between venetia and a woman first of all (i may have just wanted to see her kiss a lady) & felix def wouldn’t have been as mad about it i think, honestly i think he’d be more upset abt her hooking up w farleigh. and bc women are sooooo often socialized to be receptive and accommodating to other’s needs/feelings/wants/etc they learn to fit in faster bc it becomes an intuitive skill, one i personally think oliver doesn’t possess and that’s why he’s forced to be so calculated. i’m not saying these things are exclusive to women and men obvi but it’s a lot more prominent so it would’ve been cool to see a character who had moments like ollie where their etiquette was incorrect but who was still able to smooth things over and could fake the family out a little bit better. like not totally fool them (farleigh would def still be able to see right thru it but he’d have a harder time finding ways to embarrass or insult them) and we could’ve seen how ollie’s plan would’ve panned out had felix not found out about the parent lie.

i have a continuation in the works sooo i’ll get to expand on that warning it will be freaky nasty but that’s kinda what my blog’s here for lol.

nobody is gunna gaf but "body parts" by mgna crrrta is so saltburn/farleigh start coded it's INSANE. the entire vibe of the song and the lyrics. yummy asf.

"Eyes glistening, laying when sunny. Roaming onto the field you left God in, with sorrow, sadness, hope to stay. On the flip side it's kind of funny; strangers eyes bolting, kind of gunning, falling onto their knees for Gods unseen, for men they see but don't camaraderie."

farleigh would totally be a nicki stan like ik that man is famous on barb twitter & would be the most ruthless person you’ve ever come across

I think the farleigh start tag thing is also because people who write smut or x readers just write really fast cause a lot of those popped up even before the movie came out xD so the tag quickly becomes full of more sexy posts than full of gifs or text posts. or also posts/fic that are a little more focused on the movie take longer? at least that's what I'm telling myself since my Farleigh healing-focused character study is taking so long haha--it's like three fics down my writing list D:

oh my GOD that's super understandable. in my case, i kind of lock tf in. i wrote like a 10-page essay's worth of analysis in the span of 2 weeks and it consumed my entire being. most of my fics are short and sweet and completely self-indulgent, so they're also pretty quick. however, whatever you're cooking up sounds WONDERFUL and i think you graciously for your service. please hit me up when it's done <3

here is a compilation of images that accurately depict my reaction to james yelling at farleigh while he was crying and then oliver having the audacity to say shit—

okay i wanna think on this.

"the relationship between venetia and a woman first of all ... & felix def wouldn’t have been as mad about it i think, honestly i think he’d be more upset abt her hooking up w farleigh." it's quickly made clear by venetia that felix's reason for being upset is out of possessiveness. venetia is fetishized and judged for her sexuality. in the same way that felix discusses farleigh's sexcapades with teachers, there is no empathy or understanding in regard to her or farleigh's sexuality. we, as viewers, understand that venetia was sexually driven by her insecurity. we, as viewers, should reasonably understand that any scenario where a teacher is having sexual relations with a student is abusive. neither felix nor his parents seem to understand or acknowledge the tragedy of venetia and farleigh's actions. understanding that leads me to think that venetia having a sexual relationship with another woman, especially one that "belongs" to felix, would genuinely freak felix out. it would be another level of sexual deviancy.

another interesting thing. felix hadn't even implied that he was "mad" at venetia, he was more-so mad at oliver. he was embarrassed by venetia. felix isn't mad at venetia because he, along with their parents, think that venetia lacks any agency or self-control. she just can't help herself. she's easy. perhaps the most interesting aspect of f!oliver, in that regard, would be how felix would see oliver. whether felix would consider oliver as having any agency. which leads me to another point you made, about oliver being able to slip into the catton family even more subtly. (just to add, felix sees farleigh's sexual relations in an entirely opposite way. venetia, as a white woman, is easily seen as having no control or agency over her choices. her sexuality is "masochistic," "incontinent." by contrast, farleigh, as a black man, is considered to have entire agency. his sexual relationships with authority figures are his fault, highlighted by the fact that he was expelled numerous times instead of a teacher being fired.)

women are very often considered a non-threat. this is for many reasons, all of which i'm sure we're aware. and, as much as it pains some viewers to acknowledge, felix is (at least mostly) heterosexual. there is a sense of ambiguity, sure, and the viewer can interpret felix's feelings about oliver in a lot of different ways. but if oliver was a girl... man i have no idea how that would work. it's boys, that felix brings back to saltburn. felix isn't indicated to have any long-lasting, close relationships with women. like, i just don't know how that would go over. would felix have been sexually attracted to oliver? would felix have been drawn to the chase of oliver? i think the way in which emerald wrote the characters sort of makes it sort of impossible to imagine the endless possibilities of f!oliver.

one of the most fascinating aspects of saltburn is its representation of different modes of privilege. i've talked about it extensively cuz i just eat that shit up. f!oliver would throw the entire intricate power dynamic off. no longer would oliver have the same power over venetia and farleigh. no longer would oliver be obsessed with felix for the exact same reasons. it would twist most of oliver's motivations, actually. my question is, if oliver had been a woman... would venetia have even wanted oliver? would oliver have been able to manipulate venetia, who cared so much about male validation? farleigh... that would be interesting. white woman tears scenario, there. bold commentary and a vastly more complicated dynamic than a white man and a black man. lorddd, this is truly an interesting thing to think about. i'm just rambling, though.

Oliver being a woman instead is such an interesting concept because I feel like things could have gone way different in that scenario. Anyways, your Farleigh fic was very enjoyable to read :)

thanks so much for reading i’m so glad u liked it! & yes i love the concept. while we’d def lose some elements of story that barry’s character had like how interesting oliver and farleigh’s relationship was, but it would be super interesting to see that pan out differently. like the relationship between venetia and a woman first of all (i may have just wanted to see her kiss a lady) & felix def wouldn’t have been as mad about it i think, honestly i think he’d be more upset abt her hooking up w farleigh. and bc women are sooooo often socialized to be receptive and accommodating to other’s needs/feelings/wants/etc they learn to fit in faster bc it becomes an intuitive skill, one i personally think oliver doesn’t possess and that’s why he’s forced to be so calculated. i’m not saying these things are exclusive to women and men obvi but it’s a lot more prominent so it would’ve been cool to see a character who had moments like ollie where their etiquette was incorrect but who was still able to smooth things over and could fake the family out a little bit better. like not totally fool them (farleigh would def still be able to see right thru it but he’d have a harder time finding ways to embarrass or insult them) and we could’ve seen how ollie’s plan would’ve panned out had felix not found out about the parent lie.

i have a continuation in the works sooo i’ll get to expand on that warning it will be freaky nasty but that’s kinda what my blog’s here for lol.

i saw the slow shift of the farleigh start tag and yk i acknowledged that it was a reality. but i have been fairly inactive for like a week and after returning to the tag, it's all. porn. guys it's all porn. the entire farleigh start tag is porn. maybe like a few casual posts here and there but. wow.

Congrats on meeting Charlie Cox!

Regarding Farleigh being so easily dismissed as a liar and thief and ejected from Saltburn I think there is a small part of it about his jerkass hedonist persona+perception the Cattons have of him as a troublemaker (Felix readily accepts he would lie solely out of pettiness/jealousy).

Some of it is arrogance, loving to think they're perceptive and their judgment superior rather than people constantly giving in to them.

(It's not that Oliver is especially good at playing games, they're done in precisely because of how much they underestimate him til it's too late. They also greatly underestimate Farleigh's forethought (As Felix himself says, why go about things in such a traceable way?))

Some of it is the same as with every other of their "charity cases". Farleigh is their longest-lasting outsider but he's been overstaying his welcome or at the very least taken it for granted (in their opinion).

So why look for an alternative explanation when this gives them an excuse to:

1.Boot him with a "clean" conscience 2.Remind him who holds the reins, what his place is, and what happens if he forgets 3.Feel good they're being so generous and gracious by accepting him back.

so SO accurate, thank you so much!

i fully agree. as seen in the oliver and elspeth lawn scene, elspeth would rather see the worst in her friend because if she acknowledged someone's innocence, then she would also have to acknowledge her guilt. the same goes for sir james, paying for farleigh's education and spreading the rhetoric that frederica and mr. start are horrible people. they want to believe they're saving/helping people that don't deserve to be saved; in actuality, they're being generous completely within reason. they have enough money to host multiple guests. hell, they have enough money to throw oliver a 200-attendee party. with farleigh's family specifically, i find it so comedic when felix says "maybe we've done what you can." like no. you haven't.

it seems to be a healthy blend of greed, superiority, and discomfort with what they don't really understand. they are allergic to genuineness. if they were to actually help people rather than temporarily toying with them, they would have to acknowledge what human connection actually is. within that, they would have to acknowledge the lack of human connection they experience in real life. it's all very interesting to me.

and of course, people just like being better than other people. felix, for one. elspeth, for another. i could actually talk about how similar felix and elspeth are, but i'm not gunna get into that right now HEHE.

thanks for the ask!! gave me something delicious to gnaw on.