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author-a-holmes · 2 years

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Ari, hello and happy STS! How has Fey Touched been going? Also if you're feeling it, can you tell me anything about the kavians from the series?

Hello darling! and happy STS to you too! (Although I had an early night last night, so this is now technically Monday, we're just going to ignore that fact...)

Fey Touched is going well! I don't want to jinx it :D I started the month with about 19k, and my target for camp nano was 75k.

As of writing this, I've got 71k for July, so I've got another 4k today to hit my goal. Fingers crossed.

My other challenge was to complete the first draft of Changeling for Camp Nano, and while I won't quite make that, as the story has expanded slightly from them 95k total I had outlined, I should only be about 12-15k words short, so I'm giving myself the first week of August too.

As for the Kavians, I'd be delighted to tell you about my little monstrosities!

[I've done a Read More, because LONG post, but I've had trouble with Tumblr not including a Read More on asks, so if this blocks up the Dashboard, I apologise in advance! <3]

When I began outlining Fey Touched it didn't, originally, have fey at all. I wanted three different types of vampires. Traditional vampires, psychic vampires, and some twisted, nosferatu, type vampire.

But the longer I world built, the less I liked that. The "psychic" vampires were turned into the Fey, although they still retain psychic abilities, such as telekinesis, telepathy, and similar powers.

The traditional-style vampires stayed, with some tweaks. Sunlight doesn't hurt them, so much as they've very light sensitive, but they keep the more traditional speed, and strength, and enhances senses associated with vampires.

That still left me with a blank space where my monstrosities needed to sit. The evil ones. I still didn't know what I really wanted to do with these creatures, until I watched a 2019 film called "Dark Waters", with Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway.

This is a little bit of a tangent, so bear with me. The film is based on true events, which are some of my favourite films to watch. It dramatizes the story of a lawyer called Robert Bilott, when he took on a case against the chemical manufacturing corporation DuPont after it was discovered that they had contaminated a town with unregulated chemicals.

The story is a little terrifying in that is is based on true events, and despite Bilott's win against the company, the chemical that's contaminated the town is still used today in the manufacture of Teflon, the non-stick coating for cooking utensils, such as frying pans etc.

The interesting/horrifying thing about this particular chemical, is that it's known as a "Forever" chemical. It doesn't break down in the environment, and while DuPont argued that the amount shed from Teflon was negligible, scientific tests proved that it was linked to dozens of diseases, and some very nasty cancers.

The film is VERY worth a watch, but the part that caught my attention was "Forever Chemicals", and my little writer brain began spinning.

If humans are ingesting, and being infected my these forever chemicals, that are floating around out bodies, and our blood, from the moment we take them in to the moment of our deaths, deaths somtimes caused by these very same chemicals...

What would those chemicals do to vampires who drank our blood?

We have very strict food regulations on animals for human consumption, and what they are allowed to eat. What would happen to vampires, if human blood became toxic to them?

And very slowly, very quietly, and slightly insidiously, my Kavians were created.

Kavians emerged within the world of Fey Touched somewhere around the early 1700's. The industrial revolution, according to my brief google research, happened around the early 1700's, so I figured that's when humans began inhaling huge amounts of toxic fumes, and then progressed onto ingesting lab made chemicals later.

At the time, Fey and Vampires both lived within the mortal realm.

At first, it was isolated incidents of Vampires going mad, and attacking anyone around them, but then Fey began to go missing, and turned up dead, drained of their blood.

In appearance, Kavians are similar to vampires, but they look sick. Like they've been lost at sea for months, sick. Their skin is waxy-looking, and shrunken, leaving them looking bony. Their eyes are bloodshot, but their movements are fluid and smooth. The tips of their fingers become deformed, boney and clawlike, but because they are gorging on human and fey blood, their abilities are overfuelled.

They're faster, stronger, and their senses are sharper than the average vampire. If you've seen the Fast and Furious films, it's like punching Nitrous Oxide into a racing car's engine, but they're also insane.

There's no logic behind their eyes, and no way to get them to focus. They run on pure, predator, instinct, and lose the capacity for forming speech. They're mindless beasts, of the worst kind, and chaos ensued as more and more vampires began to change.

The council of vampires, what was left of it, didn't have any answers.

All the while, Fey numbers were being decimated. Once a vampire became a Kavian, they would hunt and kill anything, almost mindlessly, earning themselves the nickname "Rabids", but the moment they scented the blood of a Fey, they made a beeline for them, and tore them to pieces. Almost drenching themselves in the silvery blood, like cats rolling in catnip.

Not every vampire who drank human blood was affected immediately. For some, it took weeks or months before their minds snapped, for some it was the first drink of human blood. It was only a small population of vampires who eventually figured out that they were still sane because they'd chosen to drink exclusively animal blood, and took this revelation to what tattered shreds remained of the vampire council.

The vampires, by this point, were desperate. The Fey had fled the mortal realm, for a bubble realm they had created out of sheer desperation, and the vampires were facing the growing number of kavians alone, so they issues a decree that the drinking of human blood was forbidden.

Almost as soon as the law went into effect, they stopped losing huge swathes of their numbers to turning, but they also discovered that human blood had, unnoticed by them, become addictive.

As the weeks turned into months, the vampire population lost a few more vampires who couldn't resist the addictive qualities of human blood, but their biggest fight was now the huge numbers of Kavians wandering the world and killing humans indiscriminently.

The vampires took refuge inside official buildings and structures that had been warded by the Fey, before they left for their own realm of Arbaon, and once the remaining vampires felt they had recouped and slightly recovered, they began training Kavians Hunters, whose sole purpose was to hunt and kill the kavians now infecting the world.

In part, to defend themselves and protect themselves from discovery by humans, but also in the hopes that, one day, the Fey would return to the mortal realm.

Negotiations with the Fey for reintegration into the Mortal Realm have only been ongoing for around twenty-five years at the time of Fey Touched, and it is Fey Court Law that all Fey who chose to leave Arbaon and travel to the mortal realm accept the risk that they may not return.

Hence my novel's tagline;

Fey go missing in the mortal realm. Everyone knows that.

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roc-thoughtblog · 3 years

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Sense and Sensibility Readthrough Part 9

Chapter 12, Pages 49-54

Previously, Sir Middleton has started the Party Timez and Marianne is flirting it up with mysterious Mr. Charming. Meanwhile, Elinor has a sweet moment with Colonel Brandon where he alludes to a past love-related something, because they are both two lonely people watching a party.

I enjoyed this chapter, because Margaret finally opened her mouth and only gold came out. :D You little scamp, you have vindicated my small obsession with seeing you relevant in any form!

Readthrough below.

Chapter 12

AS ELINOR and Marianne were were walking together the next morning the latter communicated a piece of news to her sister which in spite of all that she knew before of Marianne's imprudence and want of thought, surprised her

Oh? OH? Marianne going to have many thoughts, head full of prudence?

by its extravagant testimony to both.

NOPE! Also, Austenism on first sentence of chapter, nice opening. I most creatively coined that for personal use and now I finally get to use it! Setup into unceremonious, and yet very extra, subversion that turns potential positives upside down. Anyway, Willoughby has given Marianne a horse, which she has accepted with zero thought into the Dashwoods' ability to keep it.

Elinor, has, of course, thought of all the things the family is lacking with regards to horse-keeping, including most prominently, a complete lack of a stable in which to house it. Was boutta ask, good Elinor answered my enquiry most quickly.

I have a friend who is a self-professed horse-girl, and many mutual friends who attest to not desiring to ride with her on account of it being quite dangerous. This isn't directly related to anything, Marianne just invited Elinor to ride her horse and I was suddenly struck by a memory of warring opinions on the risks of horseriding. Horse-girl's testimony to its relative safety was not aided by her own anecdote of having fallen off a horse onto her back once, and not being able to feel her neck for a while, or something similar to that effect (don't worry, she is fine). I imagine Elinor would be horrified.

Marianne brushes off all of Elinor's concerns in... most short-sighted fashion. No Marianne, do not keep a horse in any old shed. This reminds me of when my aunt kept her kittens in the bathroom. Bad. Awful. Don't consider keeping animals if you can't be bothered to house them properly. :(

Of course, Marianne draws the line when Elinor claims she doesn't know Willoughby well enough to receive a horse from the man;

"You are mistaken, Elinor," said she warmly, "in supposing I know very little of Willoughby. I have not known him long indeed, but I am much better acquainted with him, than I am with any other creature in the world, except yourself and mamma. [...] I should hold myself guilty of greater impropriety in accepting a horse from my brother, than from Willoughby. Of John I know very little, though we have lived together for years; but of Willoughby my judgement has long been formed."

Marianne has a great talent for speaking warmly. :'D

Ouch girl you have been hit hard. The infatuation, it speaks through you with a megaphone.

It's really fascinating how big an effect love and infatuation seems to have on apparent closeness. Like at some point it really does cross over the line to being genuinely close, but I feel like I observe a lot of the time, before that point, that people tend to... trick themselves into thinking they are close? Infatuation has a remarkable ability to warp the sense of emotional proximity between people, maybe even just through the firing of emotions on all cylinders.

One memorable conversation I will always return to was when a friend of mine referred to their boyfriend of a few months as their "best friend" in the most casual, natural way. A few months didn't seem like a long enough time, and when I asked them, they did suddenly realise they weren't quite there yet... I find it very interesting how love can so easily dominate social lives.

Anyway, Marianne has jumped to Big Conclusion about how well she knows Willoughby. It's a good thing he's probably a nice guy really, but this is also likely one of the ways predatory relationships can take root so uh, look after your friends I guess. Sometimes when this kinda emotion takes hold they need a second opinion to keep them grounded.

Elinor thought it wisest to touch that point no more. She knew her sister's temper. Opposition on so tender a subject would only attach her the more to her own opinion.

Yeah, Elinor has the right idea. Backfire effect is real, and it's not something you want to mess with when you really need to convince somebody of something. You definitely need to go around with a different approach... which Elinor does, nice! By appealing to Marianne's concern of potentially greatly burdening her mother, who would of course consent enthusiastically to a horse, but also be the most inconvenienced by its maintenance.

Marianne relents most sadly. :(

She tells Willoughby next she sees him that she can't take the horse, because of reasons. Willoughby is disappointed, but tells her that the horse is still hers, once the time arrives that she can keep- he named the horse Queen Mab? Horses. Always with funky names. Is that a historical figure? FAIRY FROM ROMEO AND JULIET! Please Mr. Willoughby! You are every bit the drama queen as Marianne. You are not so star crossed!

O-oh. Elinor overhears everything, and also realises now that they are in fact a couple? By the way Willoughby pronounces Marianne's first name, and the fact that he uses it at all. Oh, that she is now absolutely certain of it, and in no way surprised. Yeah that makes sense.

GASP! MARGARET SPEAKS!

Alright this whole sequence is gold, I dunno how to relate it here but it's a quick and fun read. Reading being generally fun, but quick doesn't usually come naturally to me. Also means I don't take notes.

Margaret thinks the two lovebirds will be married soon and Elinor is hilariously shutting her down for crying wolf about pictures that turned out to be of great-uncles. But this time Margaret has witnessed Willoughby beg for, and acquire, a lock of Marianne's hair, for romantically sentimental reasons I personally do not understand but have witnessed enough to accept without question. Because, y'know, children don't count as witnesses to secret emotional dalliances you don't the adults to see. And the account is specific and detailed enough that it doesn't seem like something a kid would just make up.

And then we go on a hilarious tangent about how Margaret accidentally spilled all the beans on Elinor's love life to Mrs. Jennings for not knowing any better how to respond to questions. :'D The poor girl asks Elinor for permission to say, so now Mrs. Jennings knows somebody exists. And then Marianne drags herself into it to defend Elinor's feelings, but Margaret innocently reminds her that all the speculation was her’s to begin with.

"Margaret," said Marianne with great warmth,

GREAT WARMTH! This is greatest warmth of Marianne yet, I have never seen her so upset, I'm rolling. Poor Margaret is a little out of her depth with all the adults bugging her for gossip, and the more the sisters try to contain her the more slips out. You can't expect so much from a kid. :'D

Thankfully Lady Middleton saves all the Dashwood sisters by abruptly and deliberately changing the topic to the weather, followed by sensitive Colonel Brandon. Nice save, guys! Willoughby, good man, invites Marianne to start playing piano too. Elinor is saved, but still thoroughly shook haha. Poor girl is not of a heart that can deal with this assault.

Chapter concludes with a quick two paragraphs which I guess will set up the next chapter; they organise a party to go party at an estate belonging to Colonel Brandon's brother-in-law, because, Sir Middleton has partied in that place all too much and yet never enough. Party. Sir Middleton: Party man, does whatever a party can. What exactly do landed lords actually do again?

All this arranged with open carriages and sailing, and I assume cold provisions to imply a picnic; "rather a bold undertaking, considering the time of year, and that it had rained every day for the last fortnight -" HA. Well, despite his extensive partying experience, we are given to understand that Sir M. is still a slow learner. Oh well.

... I just realised I found Margaret to be so entertaining I didn't realise the story had like... used her as a connecting factor to completely transition the theme, setting and topic of the chapter halfway through. I feel like this is important to note, as for the most part chapters in this story seem to stick to exploring one specific topic or person. This particular chapter was somewhat all-over-the-place topic-wise (Marillouby confirmed, Elinor's beau’s existence revealed) and the only unifying factor was Margaret shenanigans, which I love, but she isn't relevant to the central plot in the same way the two other pieces are. On top of that, the chapter ends on an otherwise random note that they're going to another party at a place related to Brandon; this isn't something that necessarily needed to cap off this chapter as far as I can tell.

I guess what I'm wondering is, this slightly frankenstinian chapter; is it the result of combining two smaller segments too short to be chapters in their own right, or is it more like... a deliberately transitional chapter? That the chapter lacks a unifyingly plot relevant topic to explore, because it's only concern is for setting up pieces for coming chapters at the new estate party? I guess I'll find out soon.

#1700 words but no tangent in particular #so it must all be the work of the Great and Powerful Margaret Dashwood!#She's great! :D #Jane Austen #Sense and Sensibility #readthrough #novels

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beepbeepbobop · 3 years

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Back again.

I was telling my friend (who isn’t a Baccano! fan, but listens to me ramble) about my take on immortals and Czeslaw, and I don’t know where to put it, so! It goes here. As a warning, this is mostly me rambling and probably treads ground that has been talked about a lot in the past, but I hope it’s interesting anyway.

(This and the Infinity Train post is not a sign that I’m going to be more active in the future. Social media and the prospect of interacting with other people’s posts still make me anxious. Maybe one day.)

So! The first thing to keep in mind is that change is a major theme in Baccano!. No one is incapable of changing, but people have different relationships with it depending on who they are. Czes can't believe that he has changed seventy years after Isaac & Miria stealing him despite clear evidence that he has. Meanwhile, Nile actively resists change: His greatest fear after becoming immortal was that he would become desensitized to the loss of human life and begin to devalue it, so he spent decades fighting in active war zones so that he'd never forget the reality of death. This backfired, and instead left him inured to loss of life...but it's clear that he doesn't want to be this way? Realizing that he's gotten to the point where his expression doesn't even change if someone dies is devastating for him. Chane is the opposite: While it's absolutely for the best that she stops being a hitwoman and killing machine for her father, softening up is terrifying to her because then she can't serve her father the way she wants to. Czes is on the opposite end of the spectrum, because he wants to be better because he thinks he's a bad person (later on, he decides that he's the only bad person left in the world. Sir.), but can't recognize it because he doesn't feel different.

And...this is pertinent to the older immortals in particular - I'd argue even moreso than with the younger ones. Aside from the fact that the Elixir literally stops you from changing in the sense of age or injury...it also has to place inhibitors on your brain. Your brain is, after all, a physical part of your body! There are some....weird aspects about immortality that no one is able to figure out (for example, immortals can give birth; someone also pointed out that there are no examples of crying in reverse even though that's also a part of your body), but it's still safe to say that the brain doesn't age either because then...then a lot of the cast would be catatonic from Alzheimer's. Even without that, the human body can only retain so many memories. If an immortal's brain had the ability to deteriorate over time or overload based off of the amount of memories it contains....well, I don't think any of the older immortals would be able to function. Szilard definitely wouldn't be able to function (and neither would Firo after he devours Szilard) because Szilard has the memories of over a dozen people running around in his brain. Which brings me to my next point: If an immortal's brain functioned like a human's, devouring would not work as a concept. One of the hallmarks of being immortal is gaining other people's memories. Imagine the strain that would cause. And yet, it doesn't seem to be a problem! The chief worry of those who have devoured other immortals is worrying that having the memories of the other person might change you consciously or subconsciously. This is Firo's concern over devouring Szilard.

So...the fact that the brain doesn't physically grow older or change (with some leniency given because real world science sure is iffy here)...feels relevant because, mn...

Many of the older immortals feel stagnant, or stuck in time. Firstly, if the immortals changed at the same pace as a human being, I don't think most of them would be recognizable from one era to the other. And yet, they are! The Victor Talbot of the 1700s is clearly the same person as the Victor Talbot of the 1930s, albeit with alterations (because what kind of person would stay exactly the same after centuries?). The answer to that question is Elmer, by the way. Everyone comments on how he acts just like the Elmer they remember back in the day. But Elmer is a special case, seeing as he's our local empty shell and probable sociopath (not that he has ASPD! ASPD, sociopathy and psychopathy all present and function entirely differently from each other, which makes it....strange that they're lumped under the same umbrella - but that's another matter). Secondly, immortals...Uhm, they all handle grief horribly, and seem to feel stuck in the past? Maiza, for instance, acts starkly different from his past as a rebellious noble-boy gang member, but he's never forgiven himself for giving Gretto the information that led to his death. (Gretto being his brother.) Huey's overarching goal is to bring his dead girlfriend back to life, and he's been working towards this goal for centuries. Sylvie, who admittedly was not an immortal when Gretto died, held off on drinking the Elixir until she was all grown up, then set out to finding Szilard to take revenge on him for killing the boy she had run away with. This lasted for, you guessed it, centuries.

This isn't to say that immortals don't change, or even that they don't change drastically. I mentioned Nile, who became inured to death after fighting in war for decades. Czes went from a trusting, innocent child to someone paranoid and self-centered enough to try and get an entire train car's worth of people killed for his own safety to someone who wants to be a good person, but thinks he never will be and that there's something fundamentally wrong with him. But changing appears to be very, very difficult, and happens over an extended period of time in response to extreme situations.

And...this is particularly relevant to Czes (who keeps coming up as an example because he's the main person I'm thinking about with this tangent) because....it arguably hits him harder than any of the others due to being a child. Only the best decisions were made aboard the Advenna Avis, which includes letting the eight year old drink the immortality elixir. But...mn. It's one thing to be perpetually in your thirties, or twenties, or sixties, and another altogether to perpetually be eight years old. Czes can't truly 'grow up' even though he has more life experience than most adults combined, and it shows in his extreme emotional reactions, his self-centeredness, ect. There's a certain misconception about anime-only fans that he's an adult in a child's body, but I think it's easier to tell in the light novels that that's not the case, especially since you see what he's like back before the Advenna Avis. (He is shy. Very shy. Did nothing wrong ever.) Also, the fact that SAMPLE goes, "Yes! The perfect sacrifice!" when they specifically take a child to target emphasizes this. It's not proof - I'm pretty sure that SAMPLE would focus on his physical age as an 'eternal child', and may or may not have the resources to analyze him and go, "This boy is still eight years old in his head," - , but it hammers the point home.

Then...mn. One thing that's stuck out to me ever since the start is how long Czes was with Fermet. There's such a thing as learned helplessness, and it's not like Czes had anywhere to go, so that's not what is odd to me...especially when Fermet is known for manipulating people, and could definitely seed the idea that Czes can't go anywhere. More than physical proximity, I think about how long Czes believed in Fermet. It's explicitly stated that Czes absorbing Fermet's memories is what made him realize that - oh, Fermet was just sadistic and everything he said was an excuse. And...I think this is both an example of being controlled in many respects, and....another example of an immortal being stuck in the past - but in a very, very different way.

First off, learning that the people you look up to want to harm you is...difficult at best, especially when you're younger? But being mentally 'stuck' at a certain age would make things worse, because Czes is perpetually an age where it's natural to depend on a parental figure, and at an age where the brain isn't equipped to make those kinds of calls or realizations. There's also the matter of cognitive dissonance! Cognitive dissonance means a lot of things, but essentially, it's the idea that you have two conflicting beliefs, but the actions you take can retroactively alter your beliefs/place emphasis on one more than the other, as the mind is predisposed to reduce dissonance. I...take issue with how cognitive dissonance is interpreted because many examples don't account for the beliefs or opinions not being equal in the first place, but that's not the point. The point is that, as a child, the impulse to reduce dissonance is present while also being played against difficulty reading intentions, perceiving the world outside of yourself, and thinking critically. (For what it's worth, abusers also tend to discourage critical thinking because it damages their narrative, which would also play a part.) So, for example...

Say that, theoretically, Czes was yelled at every time he questions the idea that Fermet's intentions are right, or that maybe Fermet doesn't have his best interests in mind. (Czes is insightful, and they lived with each other for a long time, so this probably happened at least once unless the text directly contradicts me.) This is tame compared to the things we know about his time with Fermet, but ignore that. The desire to not be yelled at would lead him to hurriedly agree later on, and cognitive dissonance means that you're inclined to try to make your beliefs agree with your actions. In other words, the more he plays along, the more his brain tells him that he definitely believes this, and it makes perfect sense to! Fermet has shown that he cares about him, and took him in after his grandfather died, so of course. It only makes sense. And it's even harder for him to bridge the gap to a different conclusion because of how difficult it seems to be for immortals to change. It's only when Czes devours Fermet (or...or at least gets his memories) that everything snaps into place, because he can't reconcile that no matter how hard he tries (coincidentally, this also happens when he gets memories of being an adult, and while I seriously doubt that Czes went through Fermet's memories willingly, it kind of hammers my point about how difficult being eternally young would make things). So of course he snaps as hard as he does. It'd be kind of amazing if he didn't, honestly.

TLDR: Being immortal made it even harder for him to recognize or comprehend his trauma. Sorry for that.

#baccano #baccano!#czeslaw meyer #nile (baccano)#I don't know who else I discussed enough to tag #but the segment about szilard made me wonder whether you would have more memories from devouring a dozen people or from living #for a couple centuries #I think it depends on how old the immortals were #discord ramblings

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courtingdeath · 5 years

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The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice and Virtue

I never really intended to like this book that much. I bought it a while ago and it was honestly towards the bottom of my To-Read List. The only reason I picked it up was because I was trying to pass the time with a “mellow” book...

BUT Boy was I mistaken!

Before I got into the actual book I really need to just fangirl over Mackenzi Lee. She’s freaking awesome. She has a bachelor’s degree in history. She’s an advocate for racial equality, women’s rights, and queer representation. And wrote a roadtrip guide set in the 1700′s with LGBTQ+ representation filled with love and sarcasm. I mean come on!

ANyway

I want to first talk about the characters. Monty has become my new favorite character ever. I love him. One of the things that I truly admired was how he was written.

One moment in particular that I loved was when Lee walked us through one of his mental tangents of remorse. He had just gotten in a fight with Percy and was going to apologize cause he realized what he did was wrong. But when he finally did, Percy gave a retort back, which in turn caused Monty to completely retreat from the idea of ever apologizing and to instead get angry. This made him feel like a real character.

Real people aren’t perfect in their logic and though intentions may be good we don’t always make the right decisions. Monty is a sympathetic character cause he constantly has that remorse and feels he needs to be punished for it, which is why in turn Percy is the perfect love interest for Monty. Percy is more calm and reasonable, though he isn’t afraid to put Monty in his place. Percy draws Monty out of his selfishness and makes him want to be a better person. Their love never feels forced because their both flawed people, who recognize both their own and each other’s flaws and work at making each other better (not without fights though).

Also big note Felicity Montague is a badass who doesn’t take any bullshit from any dumbass within a hundred mile radius. Also she’s aro-ace?!?!? Yes, please!

On that note, one of my favorite parts of the book is the way LGBTQ+ is represented because what a lot of people forget is queer people existed at this time. There wasn’t any word that a queer person could identify themselves with beyond sodomite. The way Lee allows these characters to explore and understand their sexualities is beautiful. Monty has a moment where he tries to make sense of his sexuality to himself and to his sister. He’s lived a life where he was taught to be ashamed of himself and who he loves. At the same time he realizes that it’s not something he can change which I think is something that resonates with a lot of people in the LGBTQ+ community.

Felicity had the firm belief that men and women are the only pairing that should be allowed, but she’s respectful to her brother nonetheless something that’s still lacking to this day. Felicity is not alone in feeling out of place in society at the time. She figures she’ll marry a man someday but after an encounter with a fellow she realizes she’s just not into kissing.

In the society that the trio: Monty, Percy, and Felicity are in, it was easy to marginalize and push to the side black minorities. At the time in Europe slavery was ambiguous. It was outlawed but many people still had slaves. Percy, though free and of the upper-middle class, was often looked down upon. Monty often came to his defense, usually making a scene. This highlights the flaws in Monty, how although he loves Percy and is against racism, he’s not risking anything in standing up to the upperclass gentleman because he’s like them, rich and white. If it was Percy that stood up to them he would face serious persecution.

In the novel it becomes evident that Percy would would be discriminated against for the color of his skin. Inn-keepers refused to house him, many times along the trip he’s mistaken for a slave. Lee is able to make a very impactful message about racism. Because often we like to think that in the twenty-first century we have evolved and become more progressive people, but the racist issues that Lee writes about in the 1700′s still happens today. And they will continue to happen unless we make a change.

Overall, the writing is eloquent and never leaves you bored. The novel is wonderfully paced allowing the novel to pick up with action scenes, yet still delve into quiet moments of introspection. The love story include many great tropes but never yields to cliches. I 100% recommend that you read this book.

#the gentlemans guide to vice and virtue #mackenzi lee #please read this #my writing doesn't do it justice #books #book recommendations

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