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wildelydawn · 2 years

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Porchay is on a Coming of Age Journey (a Character Analysis/Meta).

I kind of love how we joke around about Porchay’s “Wattpad” fantasies and his “university au b/l” timeline happening in conjunction with a whole ass mafia storyline, but I’d like to take a deeper dive into what type of story Porchay is actually experiencing.

To me, Porchay is going through a coming of age story. And yes, you might be thinking, “That’s pretty obvious, Dawn. He’s 17 going on 21,” but I think there’s more to Porchay’s rapid progression into adulthood than just heartbreak and mafia crimes.

Particularly, I’m thinking of the term Bildungsroman, which literally translates to “education novel” from German, and means, a story that follows the (moral, psychological) development of the hero from childhood or adolescence into adulthood, through a troubled quest for identity (x). There are several components that make a story into a Bildungsroman story, particularly the progression of these four stages: 1) Loss, 2) Journey, 3) Conflict, and 4) Maturity, and so far, we can trace Porchay’s journey through at least the first three steps.

1) Loss

Porchay has suffered immense loss right from the start of KinnPorsche. We won’t stay here long, because it’s obvious: his parents are dead, he suffers from a “financial” loss since his family is in debt, and finally, Porchay “loses” his brother to the mafia. Loss and Porchay are like peanut butter and jelly. Loss also forms his sense of morality: Porchay doesn’t like secrets, doesn’t take pathetic excuses as reasons for keeping him in the dark. He’s gone through more than most adults, but he is still quite young; he, like most adolescents, believes people either do right or wrong. So, his sense of morality, at the start of KP, is very black and white.

2) Journey

It is through these losses that Porchay resolves to work hard and get into university, to begin a journey. Usually, for a Bildungsroman, the journey alludes to a physical quest, which I think Porchay is on as well. He’s been displaced to the Main House at least once, and despite returning home, he does venture off to this bar, which seems like a new setting for him, going by his discomfort. Through it all, Porchay has been incredibly resilient, which I talk about more here. Regardless, this journey is hugely emotional for Porchay as he navigates life without his older brother. However, it is important to note that Porchay’s journey inevitably crosses with Kim’s (which I explain in this companion piece.) Kim becomes his mentor, literally helping Porchay on the journey of entering university, but also igniting another journey altogether: one based on love and intimacy. And we all know how that’s going so far: a literal rollercoaster due to both of their actions.

3) Conflict

Upon all these journeys, Porchay makes many mistakes along the way because of his youth and desperation to emerge (or to be taken seriously) as an adult. We see this heavily in episode 12; Porchay’s cutting his journey as a musician short by not attending the interview, even though he shows great promise. This points to conflict with his future, with his own dreams and goals, or the reason why he’s on the journey to begin with. Just as importantly, he’s at conflict with Kim, the guidance he had through a good portion of his journey, and disappointment is part of the Bildungsroman. I think, though, it’s important to note that while he’s conflicted and angry with Kim, this is still a highly personal journey for Porchay, and these scenes are moments of growth for Porchay. What Kim says is pivotal for us understanding this:

And yes, what Kim says is not what we want to hear, but it’s what Porchay needs to hear. Kim knows better than anyone that actions have consequences; to tell this to Porchay in such a harsh manner is a warning that Porchay is on the cusp of adulthood, and that he must brace himself for what it means to mature.

4) Maturity

Perhaps we should write off Porchay’s physical changes as drastic, teenage angst (though, I think we should point out that he looks alarmingly like Porsche now [sleeves, hair part], the one adult he can rely on). But I think these are changes that are ushering him into adulthood. He’s making these decisions himself. No, they’re not “mature” decisions, but he’s no longer sitting, waiting, pinning. He’s moving. He’s moving the plot too, putting Kim on edge and causing Kim to react. However, I don’t think Porchay has reached this last stage of the Bildungsroman. In accordance with the definition, a successful Bildungsroman means that the character has fully developed, has gone through a moral or psychological change that brings their journey to an end. The “end” of the journey doesn’t have to be dramatic or even culminate to the success of the hero (as 20th century literature has changed this expectation greatly.) So what does maturity look like on Porchay? I would hope it would be some sort of change to his moral compass. I hope these next few episodes tell us that because I want Porchay to mature and succeed in more ways than just a musician and a love interest. I want his sense of morality to change, which I think has somewhat begun, but can and should be further explored in the series.

Another aspect of Porchay’s Bildungsroman that we should look for is whether he takes music back up again, and if he rejects or accepts being an everyday citizen. Not all Bildungsroman stories end in the acceptance of everyday life or an ordinary existence, but we know that Porchay’s life is changed due to the Mafia; so the ultimate question we should hope to get an answer for (in relation to his coming of age journey) is if Porchay will accept the Mafia as part of his life, and whether that impacts his growth as a character.

EDIT: This post now has a companion piece on Kim’s Coming of Age Journey.

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gogandmagog · 10 months

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Thanks to some friends at the Lucy Maud Montgomery institute (what up, University of PEI), I was recently put on to the ‘100th Anniversary Scholarly Annotated Anne of Green Gables,’ and you guys… you know how the Grinch’s heart ‘grew three sizes’ that one Christmas in Whoville? Well, similarly, my little brain grew three sizes by the time I was even a quarter of the way through that book.

I cannot recommend it enough, to any dedicated Anne fans. I’s guess I personally still need several months, to fully process everything.

Lucy Maud!!! She was so so so… deep, and thoughtful, and capable of weaving together stories of such intricacies that one scarcely can begin realize what seeds are being planted. The stealth feminism that is so natural and abundant, because feminism is natural and abundant.

In the annotated book (so many contributors to credit, I’ll update this post for sure when it’s somewhere less than midnight), we learn so much. You see things you provably never saw before.

And a major disclaimer right here, before the cut, because I’m doing by best here to summarize a level of absurd genius that is not necessarily easy to grapple, and HEAVY quoting the brilliance of this piece, and other essays others have written on this piece, so pls understand that 0% of what’s coming was borne of my own insight. Just straight up copy/paste behavior here. And also, consider doing yourself a favor at this point by sitting down or holding on to something.

From the jump, the ‘100th ANNEiversay Scholarly ANNEotated Book’ outlines Montgomery's evolution of the first Anne text drafts to make very deliberate and clearly feminist points.

For example, as they say, it is one of the first (perhaps the very first) bildungsromans about a woman who comes of age in mind and spirit as well as in body and community. “In traditional European symbolism, men get associated with sky and spirit, women with earth and body.” In the long, lyrical passages that describe the beauty of Prince Edward Island, Montgomery begins with the trees and the flowers -- which she scoured Canadian and American sources to find feminine vernacular names for -- like "Lady's Slipper." Masculine flower names, such as "Bachelor's Button," are changed out for "aster" or for feminine alternatives. Anne usually gives them feminine personal names too, "Snow Queen" we are looking at you. Sometimes LMM writes the masculine name in her first-pass manuscript and later comes back with a neutral or feminine alternative. She was purposefully locating the feminine in the flowers and then -- in just about every passage describing flowers at length -- she expands the focus to the sky. Sunsets, stars, sunrises, clouds, all of that symbolically extends Anne from the bodily world of the earth into the spiritual and intellectual world symbolized by the sky. A traditionally masculine world. It's deliberately transgressive. She isn't just waxing poetic about the vast beauty of Canada; she's locating Anne within a symbolic structuring of the world where Anne, crucially, has an emotional and intellectual life that is put on an equal plane with traditional masculine coming-of-age stories ... but without denigrating the femininity of the earth. She also applies flower words to the sky itself, describing its colors as "marigold" and "saffron" and so on. The down-to-earth stories of women doing women's work is a feminist point, that Anne can dream and learn and love and go to college and teach, but she can also sew and weave and care for children and become a wife and mother. She uses a symbolic structure of Earth Mother/Sky Father that dates back to Plato and that reaches its full flower in the Romantic poets that Anne loves -- in order to subvert it and locate women and men on an equal footing, and to make the claim for young women reaching for the profoundly-metaphorical stars.

Anne appears in spring, like Persephone, and starts bringing Avonlea to life -- and almost the first thing she does in Avonlea is wear live flowers into the church. HEY SYMBOL OF PATRIARCHY, HAVE SOME FEMININITY IN UR TEMPLES. The actual Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown becomes Queens College -- COLLEGE IS FOR LADIES, YO.

Quotations in Montgomery are never JUST the apt point to the moment, but virtually always point to the larger work the quotation comes from and, if you know the reference, underlines her themes or make deeper points about the characters or situations. (Like referencing the masculine romantic epics that Anne loves, to make the point that Anne is going through the same quest, just like a boy.) Names too -- Biblical Anne is the mother of Mary -- Marilla -- who in the book is a virgin-become-mother, who both mothers Anne and is mothered by her as Anne helps give birth to Marilla's long-repressed true self. Rachel Lynde, as in Judaism, stands for fertility, the mother of Avonlea, a symbol of plenty and fecundity and earthy women -- it's no accident she's fat and poor love-starved Marilla is thin. Diana is a pagan, sensual girl, who is always described as wearing (or eating) something red, and is the only character in the book to get drunk. Her physicality is sometimes set against Anne's spirituality -- but not too much, because this isn't a book about either/or but about both/and when it comes to the physical and spiritual.

It's a book about mutually-supportive relationships between and among women and how that love helps them self-actualize. There's only ever room for one man at a time in these novels -- not until Matthew dies can Gilbert enter Anne's life, because men are so secondary to the narrative in Anne, which is about the webs of support that women weave to support and uplift each other, to hold together communities, to make it possible for women to become fully self-actualized, spiritual, intellectual, bodily people.

I think, in some ways, it would have been a bit of a cheat for Anne to become a famous writer, because a large point the novel makes is not that women can be just like men, but that women are fully-actualized human beings as women and don't have to imitate men; that the world of women is rich and valuable, and that women are not thereby less intelligent or less spiritual than men. Having her become a wife and mother, as most women of that era did, and leading a rich, fulfilling life in that role is probably a more fit ending to Anne's story than if she'd been "exceptional," since Lucy Maud Montgomery's (hereafter to be known as literary Beyoncé) entire point is that it's not just the rare, unusual woman who has a rich interior life -- it's all women.

#lucy maud montgomery #single best authoress in the world #idc what anyone else says #awoop jumpscare #because this goes so deep #deep brilliance #deep insight #deep GROWTH of the mind #wow wow wow #standing ovation for the rest of my life #anne of green gables #is a masterpiece

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tristandelarkadien · 10 months

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On Clive & Maurice, pt. 1

Let me try to write out my thoughts on one of my favourite novels, and explain why the casting changes the implications of the movie.

I watched Maurice a while back. The film, not the novel. I had looked forward to seeing Hugh Grant, as I thought him a good choice for the main character. Needless to say, I was surprised and confused to see him playing Clive. Even more surprised and confused to see a small blond actor playing Maurice, and not Clive.

The blond guy was not a bad choice. I am sure he was a good actor. But he came across as more emotional than expected. The fact that he seemed a bit smaller than Clive's actor gave them a different dynamic than the one I had come to expect from the book.

I will lay out my ideas here. If this has already been touched upon in some prior essay, I apologise, but the sadly now ephemeral nature of Tumblr's search function makes it hard to locate.

(I also do not wish to turn this into an 'X is better than Y' debate. Both the film and movie are lovely stories, and they both deserve attention from their respective/shared devotees.)

I would love to cite or review the books involved, but unfortunately, they are outside of my reach due to reasons of money & location. I have endeavoured to cite what I am able to, in hopes of one day being able to afford scholarly literature written on the subject.

Introduction to Romantic friendships

In the early-to-mid 19th century, muscular christianity crossed over with ideals of manliness to create ideas about intense friendship between same-sex people being a precursor to romantic love with individuals of the opposite sex.

This friendship was meant to be mutually enriching. After the embers of passion had given way to mutual companionship, the two were to have a strong, but ultimately ‘normal’ friendship, less passionate than that of youth, as that emotion was now to be directed towards women.

These friendships were depicted in didactic children’s novels, as well as bildungsromans / Coming-of-age tales. We can see this in Tom Brown’s Schooldays, where a school matron puts the unruly, boisterous Tom together with meek, religious Arthur who looks younger than his years.

"Oh, Master Brown," went on the little matron, when the rest had gone, "you're to have Gray's study, Mrs. Arnold says. And she wants you to take in this young gentleman. He's a new boy, and thirteen years old, though he don't look it. He's very delicate, and has never been from home before. And I told Mrs. Arnold I thought you'd be kind to him, and see that they don't bully him at first. He's put into your form, and I've given him the bed next to yours in Number 4; so East can't sleep there this half."

Tom was rather put about by this speech. He had got the double study which he coveted, but here were conditions attached which greatly moderated his joy. He looked across the room, and in the far corner of the sofa was aware of a slight, pale boy, with large, blue eyes and light, fair hair, who seemed ready to shrink through the floor. He saw at a glance that the little stranger was just the boy whose first half-year at a public school would be misery to himself if he were left alone, or constant anxiety to any one who meant to see him through his troubles. (Tom Brown, pt 2, c. 1)

It doesn’t take long for the two to get better acquainted, in a way that enriches both of them, according to the dominating ideology of the age. Tom instructs Arthur in how to ‘fit in’ and not get singled out for bullying, while Arthur makes Tom’s fighting instincts kick in to protect Arthur, rather than roughhouse.

"What a queer chum for Tom Brown," was the comment at the fire; and it must be confessed so thought Tom himself, as he lighted his candle, and surveyed the new green-baize curtains and the carpet and sofa with much satisfaction.

"I say, Arthur, what a brick your mother is to make us so cozy. But look here now, you must answer straight up when the fellows speak to you, and don't be afraid. If you're afraid, you'll get bullied. And don't you say you can sing; and don't you ever talk about home, or your mother and sisters."

Poor little Arthur looked ready to cry.

"But please," said he, "mayn't I talk about—about home to you?"

"Oh yes, I like it. But don't talk to boys you don't know, or they'll call you homesick, or mamma's darling, or some such stuff. What a jolly desk! Is that yours? And what stunning binding! Why, your school-books look like novels!"

And Tom was soon deep in Arthur's goods and chattels, all new and good enough for a fifth-form boy, and hardly thought of his friends outside, till the prayer-bell rang. (Tom Brown, pt 2, c. 1)

Seeing Arthur set a good example by praying leads Tom to remember his own religion, which he has forsaken by refusing to pray before bed.

Tom was sitting at the bottom of his bed unlacing his boots, so that his back was toward Arthur, and he didn't see what had happened, and looked up in wonder at the sudden silence. Then two or three boys laughed and sneered, and a big, brutal fellow, who was standing in the middle of the room, picked up a slipper, and shied it at the kneeling boy, calling him a snivelling young shaver. Then Tom saw the whole, and the next moment the boot he had just pulled off flew straight at the head of the bully, who had just time to throw up his arm and catch it on his elbow.

"Confound you, Brown, what's that for?" roared he, stamping with pain.

"Never mind what I mean," said Tom, stepping onto the floor, every drop of blood in his body tingling; "if any fellow wants the other boot, he knows how to get it."

What would have been the result is doubtful, for at this moment the sixth-form boy came in, and not another word could be said. Tom and the rest rushed into bed and finished their unrobing there, and the old verger, as punctual as the clock, had put out the candle in another minute, and toddled on to the next room, shutting their door with his usual "Good-night, gen'l'm'n."

There were many boys in the room by whom that little scene was taken to heart before they slept. But sleep seemed to have deserted the pillow of poor Tom. For some time his excitement, and the flood of memories which chased one another through his brain, kept him from thinking or resolving. His head throbbed, his heart leapt, and he could hardly keep himself from springing out of bed and rushing about the room. Then the thought of his own mother came across him, and the promise he had made at her knee, years ago, never to forget to kneel by his bedside, and give himself up to his Father, before he laid his head on the pillow, from which it might never rise; and he lay down gently and cried as if his heart would break. He was only fourteen years old. (Tom Brown, pt 2, c. 1)

It is also evident in David Copperfield, where David moons after a boy named ‘Steerforth’ who eventually forsakes him. (Notably, asking if the ‘vulnerable’ boy has a sister is done in Tom Brown as well.)

‘Good night, young Copperfield,’ said Steerforth. ‘I’ll take care of you.’ ‘You’re very kind,’ I gratefully returned. ‘I am very much obliged to you.’

‘You haven’t got a sister, have you?’ said Steerforth, yawning.

‘No,’ I answered.

‘That’s a pity,’ said Steerforth. ‘If you had had one, I should think she would have been a pretty, timid, little, bright-eyed sort of girl. I should have liked to know her. Good night, young Copperfield.’

‘Good night, sir,’ I replied.

I thought of him very much after I went to bed, and raised myself, I recollect, to look at him where he lay in the moonlight, with his handsome face turned up, and his head reclining easily on his arm. He was a person of great power in my eyes; that was, of course, the reason of my mind running on him. No veiled future dimly glanced upon him in the moonbeams. There was no shadowy picture of his footsteps, in the garden that I dreamed of walking in all night. (David Copperfield, Chapter 7)

They reunite as adults, the 90’s miniseries has Steerforth kiss David’s head at that point. David still looks up to Steerforth at this point, which eventually leads to Steerforth forsaking him. The point here is that these friendships were not supposed to go on for too long.

And yes, depending on children to raise children in a milieu without adult supervision can definitely go wrong. Even the writers of the age knew it, both Vachell (The Hill) and Hughes (Tom Brown) mention abuse in their novels. Talbot Baines Reed (The Fifth Form at St: Dominic) mentions a clear cut example of grooming. I mention this, because it will be relevant later on.

From the above passages, we can extract the following framework: An ‘inexperienced’, vulnerable boy, is shielded and educated by an ‘experienced’ boy. I can write multiple essays on the topic (And I just might), but at the end of the day, this is what we need in order to move on to part 2.

#Maurice #Maurice 1987 #Boarding School Canon #Edwardian #e. m. forster #Essay #text #1910's #Great Britian #19th century

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mxcottonsocks · 1 year

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To celebrate the beginning of @dickensdaily, a substack which sends out Dickens Novels in line with their original serialisation schedule, beginning with Great Expectations (serialised December 1860 to August 1861), here's:

Reasons to read Great Expectations

I've done my best to keep this spoiler-free, so you should be able to read without ruining anything for yourself.

The characters

PIP: a Perfectly Imperfect Protagonist

Himbo With A Hammer

Local Woman Knows How To Hold A Grudge

Out Of Your League

Cinnamon Roll with Fruit (slightly squashed)

...and more...

Queer Themes

Obviously this is very much a matter of interpretation, but Great Expectations has room for readings around:

Homosociality / homoromanticism / homoeroticism

Compulsory (hetro-)sexuality

Non-traditional families and domestic arrangements

Other Themes

Social class (especially: "What makes a gentleman?")

Trauma

Child and domestic abuse (physical and emotional)

The law (criminality, punishment, money, property, etc)

...and more...

Genres

Great Expectations fits into several genres. [Descriptions below drawn from wikipedia.]

'Coming of Age' story / Bildungsroman (a genre that focuses on the psychological and/or moral growth of a protagonist from childhood to adulthood)

Sensation novel (a genre which reached peak popularity in the 1860-70s, and which 'has been variously defined as a "novel-with-a-secret" and which combines "romance and realism"')

elements of the social novel (a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel".)

elements of the Gothic (a 'loose literary genre of fear and haunting', often including 'the intrusion of the past upon the present')

One of Dickens' best novels

Great Expectations was Dickens' second-to-last completed novel, so he was at the top of his game at this point.

According to wikipedia, "in the 21st century, the novel retains good ratings among literary critics."

It's also popular with the general public. In 2003, the BBC surveyed 750,000 people in 'The Big Read' to find the UK's "best-loved novel", and Great Expectations ranked 17th.

The first Dickens novel I read, it remains my favourite Dickens, both as a story and as a work of art.

One of his most accessible novels

If you haven't read any Dickens before (or have, but struggled), Great Expectations may be the place to start.

It's one of his shorter novels, so less intimidating and easier to finish than many other Dickens books.

It's also in first person which mitigates some of the things people often struggle with in Dickens' writing:

With some Dickens novels, it can be difficult to tell what the 'main story' is because there are so many intersecting plotlines. In Great Expectations, we're essentially reading Pip's memoirs from his childhood to his young-adulthood, so we can understand all the other stories through Pip's story.

Likewise, we meet all the other characters through Pip, so the feeling of "who are all these people???" I often get from Dickens novels is reduced. We know characters through their relationship to Pip.

Dicken's minor characters are often caricatures, with features of their personality, appearance or manner exaggerated to create a comic or grotesque effect. Dickens likely did this to help readers more easily recall characters over the stretched-out timeframe of serial publication, but it can be jarring to modern readers. Because Great Expectations is from Pip's point of view, his subjectivity frames the caricatures; it feels natural that they lack complexity because Pip doesn't know the inner world of everyone he passes on the street any more than you or I do.

Dickens can often go on tangents/'rants' about society and social injustice at the time he was writing. This was a force for social change at the time, but can be baffling and/or boring to modern readers. Because Great Expectations is in the first person, when these 'rants' appear they feel more like 'my friend Pip grumbles about things that affect his life and the people around him' so are easier to engage with.

Bonus: a Choice of Endings...

Dickens originally wrote one ending for the novel, and then - following conversation with another novelist - changed it ahead of publication. This means that there are two endings of the novel to choose from, which is an interest interactive element.

#i just love this book so much #the other thing i love about it i haven't really mentioned here is that #it just feels very psychologically *real*#if that makes sense #great expectations #dickens daily #charles dickens #tumblr book club #serialisation #reading

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qqueenofhades · 1 year

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Hi!! If I may ask, what are some of your favorite and least favorite literary (and fanfic!) tropes to read and write about?

I am much more of a fanfic writer than a reader, alas. As for writing, I think that anyone who has been following me for a while is familiar with my genres/tropes that often transfer between fandoms, such as enemies to lovers, historical or fantasy AUs (especially steampunk and vampire, ahem), slow burn, mutual pining, The Love Is Requited They're Just Idiots, and other homosexual shenaniganry. (Even when it's a m/f couple, I write both of them as raging bisexuals, so yes.) There are plenty of tropes/fanons that I don't like and wouldn't personally write, but I believe that everyone has the right to enjoy what they enjoy, so I won't go into any detail or call anything out.

As for published books, I am a voracious and eclectic reader. Below is a screenshot of (some of...) my current library holds, which shows approximately what I tend to read, including imaginative historical and/or literary fiction, historical and narrative nonfiction, modern novels, bildungsromans/family sagas/coming of age, sprawling fantasy sagas, etc. I am especially keen on diverse and/or female authors, LGBTQ characters and themes, books informed by their cultural or geographical setting, witty, funny, and well-written prose, and so on:

In my overall reading, I don't go in for "tropes" the same way as understood in fanfic, since we all hate it when a BookTok (shudder) tries to talk up the Tropes of a newly published book without ever explaining what the plot is or why we would like it. Tropes work in fanfic since we are already familiar with the characters and setting, and just like rewriting them/sticking them into a variety of situations/changing up the dynamics of how they meet and interact, but they are less informative for a story that you don’t know at all.

I am, however, always open to the one-liner description or highlight of particular thematic content that might appeal to me. But I don't necessarily insist on these before I read the book, or base my enjoyment of it solely on whether or not they're present, because indeed, the fun of reading is that you can explore lots of different things solely on the grounds of "this looks interesting to me," and that's how I do it. Very scientifically. Ahem.

#orestes-hungry-and-pylades-sober #ask #bookblr

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combeauferre · 1 year

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hallo :D if you dont me asking, whats your dissertation about? im curious haha

great question that honestly right now i do not have much of an answer to (which is concerning when it's due in three weeks). the official title on my proposal is "manipulation and subjugation of the family unit and community in young adult dystopian literature" but honestly it has taken on a mind of its own.

currently im more looking at mental health - so im looking at the effect of eugenics and lack of autonomy in the giver, divergent as a neurodivergent bildungsroman and the ways it only caters to a small minority of neurodivergent readers, and trauma, particularly childhood and generational trauma, in the hunger games.

ill put some more rants under the cut

ive been working a lot on my divergent chapter today and building up the idea that it can be seen as a neurodivergent coming of age story, but tris really only contributes to the idea of neurodivergency as a "superpower" and the idea that people who are seen as "high functioning" are not in fact disabled - whereas the "low functioning" neurodivergent people in the story are the factionless and their status is so undesirable it's worse than death. it's difficult and im worried about going too far and ending up circling back to "autism bad" by accident but we shall see.

my hunger games chapter is talking a lot about the generational trauma of the games and the ways that katniss is already traumatised by the time we meet her. id also love to talk about the collective trauma of the objectification of children across the trilogy but i havent had the time to reread the other two books so that's on the back burner for now.

in terms of the giver im writing about how the application of real life can impact the way that ya readers interact with the issues in their own world - especially since the giver is aimed at a younger readership than the hunger games and divergent, it offers questions that children can start to consider at younger ages and build up to more critical thinking. i found a great (terrible) essay that claims that the giver is written as a commentary on nazism and communism and im very excited to rip that apart - because although it is clear that it takes a lot of its inspiration from 1984 and brave new world, saying that it writes on the same issues as those books takes away from the fact that eugenics and autonomy were still big issues in the 90s (and now), when the book was first written

i can rly go off about it for hours but getting it down into writing is very very difficult

but thank you for asking! i appreciate being able to go off about it

#thank u!#ollie answers #oh-no-my-ear

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kafkaguy · 1 year

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16 + 25 :]

HIIIIIII SIOBHAN ‼️❣️💯

16. do you write any particular genre? how do you feel about genre categories in general? love them? want to combine them? want to do away with them altogether?

I think about genre in the same way I think of gender; go crazy go stupid. mix and match. throw it away all together or stick to a very specific very niche genre. make up ur own genre. and yeah i don't tend to stick to one "genre", although I do love writing a lot of horror, especially ghosts and zombies and stuff. i guess most of what ive written is kind of genreless, but i have an affinity for bildungsroman + a secret other thing, eg. bildungsroman but with zombies, or coming of age gets interrupted by murder mystery...

25. hey - what are you working on right now?

im not working on something continuous at the moment, I have a lot of old projects kind of locked away at the moment that I could continue but don't know how to yet... I've just been writing a lot of short stories lately :) I have a pool of 17 characters and I'll choose a handful of them and throw them into a situation and see what happens. one i wrote most recently is about one of my ocs getting prophetic visions, but not understanding they're prophecies, and using them as inspiration for paintings and accidentally selling the paintings to the people the prophecies were about. problems ensue. :) so yeah

thank u for the ask hi ily ^-^

#📬#siobhan ⛈️

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sugarcoatedwords · 2 years

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Assignment

1. Bildungsroman (German pronunciation: [ˈbɪldʊŋs.ʁoˌmaːn], plural Bildungsromane, German pronunciation: [ˈbɪldʊŋs.ʁoˌmaːnə]) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age),[1] in which character change is important. The term comes from the German words Bildung ("education", alternatively "forming") and Roman ("novel").

Example: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure—popularly known as Fanny Hill—is an erotic novel by English novelist John Cleland first published in London in 1748. Written while the author was in debtors' prison in London, it is considered "the first original English prose pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel”. It is one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history.

2. A Künstlerroman- "artist's novel" in English, is a narrative about an artist's growth to maturity. It could be classified as a sub-category of Bildungsroman: a coming-of-age novel.

Example: The Prelude or, Growth of a Poet's Mind; An Autobiographical Poem is an autobiographical poem in blank verse by the English poet William Wordsworth.[1] Intended as the introduction to the more philosophical poem The Recluse, which Wordsworth never finished, The Prelude is an extremely personal work and reveals many details of Wordsworth's life.

Wordsworth began The Prelude in 1798, at the age of 28, and continued to work on it throughout his life. He never gave it a title, but called it the "Poem (title not yet fixed upon) to Coleridge" in his letters to his sister Dorothy Wordsworth. The poem was unknown to the general public until the final version was published three months after Wordsworth's death in 1850. Its present title was given to it by his widow Mary.

3. Psychological novel- work of fiction in which the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of the characters are of equal or greater interest than is the external action of the narrative.

Example: The Silent Patient is a 2019 psychological thriller novel written by British–Cypriot author Alex Michaelides. The debut novel was published by Celadon Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers, on 5 February 2019. The audiobook version, released on the same date, is read by Louise Brealey and Jack Hawkins.

4. Prose is verbal or written language that follows the natural flow of speech. It is the most common form of writing, used in both fiction and non-fiction. Prose comes from the Latin “prosa oratio,” meaning “straightforward.”

Tale- a fictitious or true narrative or story, especially one that is imaginatively recounted

Example: “Cinderella” is a prose fairy tale.

5. Minisaga, mini saga or mini-saga is a short story based on a long story. It should contain exactly 50 words, plus a title of up to 15 characters. However, the title requirement is not always enforced and sometimes eliminated altogether.

Below is an example by author Daniel H. Pink:

When I was shot, fear seized me at first. No surprise that. But once I realized I wasn't going to die – despite the thermonuclear pain and widening puddle of weirdly warm blood – my mind recalibrated. And one thought, comforting yet disturbing, leapt into my head: I need to Tweet this.

6. Dystopian - relating to, or being an imagined world or society in which people lead dehumanized, fearful lives : relating to or characteristic of a dystopia

A twisted romantic haunted by dystopian visions, Gibson borrows the language of science fiction and crafts doomed love stories with high-tech trappings.

— Maitland McDonagh

Dystopian visions are in a sense mythopoeic: depicting a creation myth in a future world of darkness and silence.

7. Local color or regional literature is fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region. Influenced by Southwestern and Down East humor, between the Civil War and the end of the nineteenth century this mode of writing became dominant in American literature. According to the Oxford Companion to American Literature, "In local-color literature one finds the dual influence of romanticism and realism, since the author frequently looks away from ordinary life to distant lands, strange customs, or exotic scenes, but retains through minute detail a sense of fidelity and accuracy of description" (439). Its weaknesses may include nostalgia or sentimentality. Its customary form is the sketch or short story, although Hamlin Garland argued for the novel of local color.

Regional literature incorporates the broader concept of sectional differences, although in Writing Out of Place, Judith Fetterley and Marjorie Pryse have argued convincingly that the distinguishing characteristic that separates "local color" writers from "regional" writers is instead the exploitation of and condescension toward their subjects that the local color writers demonstrate.

Example: Mary N. Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock) In the Tennessee Mountains (1885)

8. Roman à clef : a novel in which real persons or actual events figure under disguise.

Example: The Sun Also Rises is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights.

9. Fable (pronounced fey-buh l) is a short fictional story that has a moral or teaches a lesson. Fables use humanized animals, objects, or parts of nature as main characters, and are therefore considered to be a sub-genre of fantasy.

The word fable comes from the Latin fābula meaning discourse or story.

Example: An ugly, warty frog sat on his lily pad enjoying the sunshine. Another frog hopped along and said, “wow, you are hideous! There is no way you will ever find a mate!” Just then, a beautiful princess came to the pond, scooped up the ugly frog, and planted a big kiss on his warty nose. He instantly turned into a tall, handsome prince, and walked off hand in hand with the princess as the other frog watched with his mouth wide in astonishment. Never judge a book by its cover.

10. Flash fiction- is a style of writing which involves producing very short pieces of fictional literature. This is quite different to the concept of a short story, which is usually several pages long and can notch up thousands of words.

Example: “Everyone Cried” Famous for her very short stories, Lydia Davis is the modern master of packing a lot of emotion and meaning into a few words. Her 423-word work, “Everyone Cried,” is an example of an effective flash fiction story. Often, people cry when they are unhappy.

11. Epistolary Novel- is one that tells a story through documents and written correspondence between characters. Epistolary novels can use letters, emails, diary entries, news clippings, or any other kind of document.

Example: The Color Purple (By Alice Walker)

Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purpl, is a good example of an epistolary novel in which an impoverished black teenage girl, Celie, tells her story through writing letters to both her sister and God. Here, readers can learn about the difficult life of Celie through her words and the direct experiences she has faced. Alice Walker has chosen to let the readers encounter this story by using Celie’s voice, providing Celie a power that she could not have in everyday life. However, in the film adaptation of this novel, these letters echoed through the monologues of characters.

12. Picaresque Novel- early form of novel, usually a first-person narrative, relating the adventures of a rogue or lowborn adventurer (Spanish pícaro) as he drifts from place to place and from one social milieu to another in his effort to survive.

Example: The autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, written in Florence beginning in 1558, also has much in common with the picaresque.

13. Novel of Social Protest- also known as the social problem (or social protest) novel, is a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel".

Books In This Genre: Shirley (novel); Felix Holt, the Radical

14. Allegory - Allegory is a narration or description in which events, actions, characters, settings or objects represent specific abstractions or ideas. Allegory generally operates on two levels as a literary device. The overt or surface narrative/description is meant to have enough literary elements to be a standalone work that is interesting and/or entertaining by itself. However, the emphasis of allegory is typically placed on the abstract ideals represented or symbolized by the work’s literary elements. In other words, the meaning behind the surface narrative has even greater value as a literary work. Though many allegories are intended to be didactic in providing a moral, ethical, or religious lesson, not all allegories set out to achieve this goal.

Example: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is considered a classic allegory and a fundamental text in classical literature. In the story, Plato sets forth a narrative of people living in a cave who are only able to see objects as shadows. These shadows are reflected on the wall of the cave from the firelight, and therefore the inhabitants of the cave cannot see the objects directly. However, the shadows are their reality. This allegory is a philosophical representation that symbolizes how humans understand their surroundings and the world at large. The surface narrative consists of events and people in the cave. The allegorical narrative, on a symbolic level, is meant to indicate a contrast between human perception and reason, or belief and knowledge.

15. Novella- In literature, a novella is a type of prose fiction, which is shorter than full length novels and longer than short stories. It originates from an Italian word “novella“, which means “new.” It is a well-structured yet short narrative; often satiric or realistic in tone. It usually focuses on one incident, or issue with one or two main characters and takes place at a single location.

Example: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness is a strictly controlled novella, with a classic status, describing a story of late nineteenth century about imperialistic and colonialist process. This novella focuses on the search of the central character, Kurtz, who goes too far for exploitation of the natives for the sake of an ivory trade. Conrad’s readers plunge deeper into the horror of darkness to see what happened after the invasion of the Europeans.

16. Gothic Fiction- refers to a style of writing that is characterized by elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality, and very high emotion. These emotions can include fear and suspense.

Example: Contemporary American writers in the tradition include Joyce Carol Oates in such novels as Bellefleur and A Bloodsmoor Romance and short story collections such as Night-Side (Skarda 1986b), and Raymond Kennedy in his novel Lulu Incognito

17. Philosophical Novel- can be minimally defined as a genre in which characteristic elements of the novel are used as a vehicle for the exploration of philosophical questions and concepts. In its “purest” form, it perhaps most properly designates those relatively singular texts which may be said to belong to both the history of philosophy and of literature, and to occupy some indeterminate space between them. Today the term is often used interchangeably with the more recent concept of the “novel of ideas,” though some theorists have sought to establish a clear division between the two (Bewes).

Example: The Stranger by Albert Camus, also published in English as The Outsider, is a 1942 novella by French author Albert Camus. Its theme and outlook are often cited as examples of Camus' philosophy, absurdism, coupled with existentialism; though Camus personally rejected the latter label.

18. Thesis Novel- is a kind of novel that treats a social, political, or religious problem with a didactic and, perhaps, radical purpose. It certainly sets out to call people’s attention to the shortcomings of society.

Example: Charles Kingsley’s Alton Locke (1850)

-is an 1850 novel, by Charles Kingsley, written in sympathy with the Chartist movement, in which Carlyle is introduced as one of the personages.

19. Prose Satire- is a type of social commentary. Writers use exaggeration, irony, and other devices to poke fun of a particular leader, a social custom or tradition, or any other prevalent social figure or practice that they want to comment on and call into question.

Example: A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick, commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729.

20. Graphic Novel- in American and British usage, a type of text combining words and images—essentially a comic, although the term most commonly refers to a complete story presented as a book rather than a periodical.

Example: Batman comes out of retirement and gets help from a teenage sidekick. He faces off against the Joker and Two-Face before a battle to the death begins against Superman.

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thatscarletflycatcher · 2 years

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I was talking to some friends the other day about Sandy Welch's screenplays (North and South 2004, Jane Eyre 2006, Emma 2009) and the ways in which she transforms the source material in such a way that her screenplay is reminiscent of the impressions of some readers rather than the story itself. If adaptators were like art copists, while others would sit in front of the painting to reproduce it, Welch would study it for a long time and then sit outside to reproduce by memory; she produces a painting that is recognizable as referencing the other painting, but that cannot be really called a copy.

I'm not saying this is bad; in fact, I think she has an extraordinary talent to replace book dialogue with more modern sounding language while still not making it feel completely out of place (as adaptations like Jane Eyre 1997 show, this is not an easy skill to master). She also takes adaptational risks meant to A) give context and texture with things of the period that were familiar to the reader of the time but may be lost on us or B) introduce elements of other stories/tropes the audience may be more familiar with.

I used to say a lot that Welch's screenplays take risks that sometimes succeed greatly and sometimes crash horribly, no in between, but was never able to put my finger in the mechanics of it, but I think the distinction above is one that I think is illuminating, specially when it comes to looking at her North and South and Jane Eyre.

Emma (2009) is the one, I think, where less of A) and B) appear. If anything, somewhat anachronistic elements are added, like the preface montage that has a more Dickensian bent. Most of the adaptational elements on this script are there to highly themes and internal connections (Emma and Miss Bates are linked for the audience in the scene where the Bates are the last to leave the Weston's wedding breakfast; Emma's loneliness is showcased in the scene afterwards where she remembers a childhood scene with her sister and miss Taylor, and Mr. Knightley's arrival pulls her back into society).

In Jane Eyre (2006) we can see a good chunk of A at play, but not so much of B. Rochester is given enthomology interests (pointing to the boom of natural sciences in the 19th century), we are shown the fascination with the exotic and "oriental" in Jane's daydreams, we are exposed to the theories about genetics, inheritance, and phrenology that will later on end up in the boom of eugenics... when it comes to B, though, there's little more than a closing of the age gap between Jane and Rochester (he's characterized as a younger man, while Jane is played in a more world-wise fashion, with the presence of a woman in her mid 20s), and an attempt to link A and B through the twins argument (which, IMO, backfires, badly). So, all in all, the story stands on its own, with a few changes to neutralize some of the less likable bits to a contemporary audience (Jane's naivety, Rochester's wickedness at some points, the religious and moralizing tone of much of the story and in particular of Jane and Helen's relationship, the reduction of the impression of age gap between Jane and Rochester, etc).

And now we come to North and South (2004). Now, as those who follow me most likely know already, I'm ambivalent about this series. There's much to love in it and much that I just... no. And I think this is due to the following reasons: the source material in this case has a very different quality than the other two; A sometimes gets in the way of things that are important to the building of the overall story; B is used a lot and obscures much of what makes the original story great. Let me explain:

North and South, like most of Gaskell's best writing, is very little about plot and a lot about the inner lives of the characters and the ways in which they go through life and deal with tragedy. This is, understandably, something quite difficult to portray. Emma and Jane Eyre are, even if the bildungsroman part in them is important, far more plot heavy stories. If you want an Austen comparison, adapting North and South is a lot like adapting Mansfield Park (in fact, this post was inspired by a conversation about what a Sandy Welch script for Mansfield Park would look like). One bit of trivia that further supports this is that the title North and South came out as a request/demand from Dickens, while Gaskell's chosen title for the story was Margaret Hale.

North and South 2004, like Jane Eyre 2006, presents contextual elements, the most impressive of them, the use of actual 19th century cotton mill machinery in a mill environment. I don't really know if it is something that is kept operational in a museum context, but even so, when you stop and think all that was needed in order to get footage of working 19th century machinery AND of people operating it... wow. And it makes sense that they would show this off. But then we have Margaret get into the mill to see it, which breaks one important element of the narrative: all the knowledge Margaret has of the mill situation and the hands/masters conflict is second hand. She listens to Thornton and to Higgins and to Bessy, and like the reader, she needs to make up her mind without having any first hand access to the facts. That narrative tension of the book is lost.

The second big A element of this series is the London exposition. Here we are given a sense not only of the enterprenurial spirit of the 19th Century and the wonders of its inventions, but also of the extent of the power of the British empire at its peak. Which is great except for the fact that it cuts the tension of Margaret not being able to leave Milton. And this is very important because it helps us feel empathy for Margaret, focus on her sense of being trapped, stuck, and then be surprised when, in leaving, we realize the friends she gained, the growth she underwent, and the subtler freedom she had there, once we are brought back to the mental constriction of aunt Shaw's London.

Because N&S sits in this crossroads of psychological novel and social novel, where the marriage plot is structural but not necessarily central, it is here where Welch appeals the heaviest to B: North and South is then filtered and rearranged through evocation of Pride and Prejudice, Beauty and the Beast, and Hades and Persephone. This in turn predisposes the audience to seek for these things in the novel itself, obscuring the things that make it great. If N&S is just a Pride and Prejudice redux with some B&tB and H/P thrown in, then it is, indeed, a pretty mediocre version of it. But it is not!

Helstone is not paradise or eternal spring: there people live very hard lives, with little comforts, stagnation, and lack of education. Yes, it still has the beauties of rural life, but it shares in its drawbacks as well. The same way, Milton is not hell. There's the risk and the desperation and the smoke and the rattle of machines, but there's also change and comforts and opportunities to cultivate the mind (while in the series the ateneum is just an excuse to say how boring Mr. Hale is and that it is all an excuse to have union meetings, in the novel people do actually go there to learn things). Gaskell is not a manichean writer, in the vein of Dickens.

Thornton is not the lonely lord of a world of grief and oblivion: he's a bulldog like no nonsense businessman with a family to take care of, a practical man with an iron will and very fixed ideas about how the world works and should work. It is only at this point in his life that he finally has leisure to cultivate his mind and "have feelings" and that's why he falls so hard for Margaret. And what he likes about Margaret isn't really some sense of freshness or vitality and whatnot, but that she has a regal, commanding air (yes, Thornton is a "please, step on me, madam" man) to her. Likewise, Margaret is not the sunny princess of a sunny realm: she's an observing, serious girl with a fiery temper, very pale and dark haired.

Compare the meeting of these two characters between novel and book. In the novel they meet at a pretty neutral point. Margaret is kind of cold because she's tired and wants to take a nap and WHEN IS THIS MAN LEAVING SO I CAN REST IN PEACE. Whereas Thornton reads this as haugtiness and yet cannot help but be fascinated by her and cannot really leave because of it. It's human, it's silly, and simple and endearing and frustrating all at the same time. In the series they meet at the factory, where Margaret dramatically shows up just in time to see him beat a man into a pulp. Very beauty and the beast, but very little in the end about what makes these two characters suited to each other and what kind of growth needs to happen for them to end up together.

The biggest sign of this problem is Margaret's characterization in the series; she's not a very developed character, and her intentions and motivations seem capricious or at least very hard to grasp... which is something that shouldn't happen in a story about her. Important milestones of her character, like her visit to Helstone where she needs to finally let go of the idilic and naive perspective of her childhood, and the contrast with Mr. Bell's grief for the loss of the world of his active adulthood, are obscured by dramatic points: in this case, the out-of-nowhere coy marriage proposal of Mr. Bell (seriously, series, what tha).

So... is the series bad? no, of course not. It's a beautifully shot, gorgeously scored, well acted, well paced, carefully set in period piece and it deserves the love and praise it gets. What I'm trying to say is that judgements about the novel based on the tropes of the series, in which the final ruling is "the series is better" precisely because these tropes are tangible in it completely misses the point of what the novel is about and the fact that it was never intended to be those tropes to begin with, so it cannot fail at portraying them. You may be more or less interested in what the novel is trying to do, and that's okay, but it has a merit and a value of its own that deserves highlighting and explanation.

Thank you so much if you made it this far XD

#Elizabeth Gaskell #North and South #North and South 2004 #Emma 2009 #Jane Eyre 2006 #Sandy Welch #Jane Austen

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celiabowens · 4 years

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Adult SFF edition

High/Epic Fantasy

The Lies of Locke Lamora: heist fantasy following a band of misfits! It has morally gray characters, fun banter but heartwrenching moments and a pretty complex plot. It’s a classic to say “if you liked Six of Crows and want to try adult SFF try this” and it’s probably true.

Kushiel’s Dart: a political fantasy tome loosely inspired by Europe in the Renaissance. Pretty heavy on romance and erotica (with BDSM elements) as it follows a courtesan navigating the political scene. It has an amazing female villain.

A Darker Shade of Magic: probably the easiest way to approach adult fantasy. It has multiple Londons and a pretty unique magic system and concept, plus a crossdressing thief, knives and great banter.

The Poppy War: grimdark fantasy (TW: abuse, self harm, rape, drug abuse), inspired by Chinese history. It’s adult, but follows younger MCs and the unique blend of different historical periods/inspirations makes it extremely interesting. The characters are extremely fucked up in the best possible way, plus the use of shamanism is awesome.

The Sword of Kaigen: if you liked The Poppy War you could like this one. The Sword of Kaigen is an Asian-inspired militaristic fantasy, with elemental magic, a badass housewife dealing with her past and hiding a sword in her kitchen’s floor. It has interesting and nuanced family dynamics and a great reflection on propaganda and the use of narratives.

The Priory of the Orange Tree: high fantasy, featuring dragons, a F/F romance and pretty complex world building. The author reuses typical fantasy tropes and roles in a fresh way. Very readable in spite of its length.

Empire of Sand: inspired by Mughal India, this one focuses on culture and religion and has great slow burn romance (TW: abuse, slavery). It’s pretty slow paced, but the payoff is great. Also a good "YA crossover”.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms: first book in a companion novel trilogy, following a young woman who finds herself at the center of a vicious political struggle, as she’s suddenly become the heir to the throne.

Black Sun: first book in a new series by Rebecca Roanhorse, inspired by pre-Columbian societies and cultures. It mainly focuses on religious and political conflicts. TW for abuse, mild body horror and suicide (not very graphic). Nice inclusion of lgbt rep across the whole cast + one of the main characters is blind. Great world building!

Historical Fantasy

The Night Circus: perfect transition from YA to Adult for a reader, The Night Circus is a gorgeous historical fantasy romance. The author’s writing is amazing, the descriptions and the subtlety of the main characters’ relationship are to die for.

The City of Brass: political/historical fantasy tome featuring Middle Eastern mythology. It follows younger MCs (honestly another series that could be a good way to approach adult SFF) and has great character growth throughout the series. The first book has some more trope-y elements, but the payoff is worth it.

The Golem and The Djinni: historical fantasy (if you loved The Night Circus you could like this one), following two mythical creatures as they navigate New York in 1899. Slow burn romance, rich descriptions, fascinating combination of Jewish and Syrian folklore.

Gods of Jade and Shadow: a fantasy bildungsroman set in Mexico during the Jazz age. Another great way to approach adult SFF as it follows a young girl on a life changing adventure. It features Mayan mythology and a god slowly becoming human.

The Ghost Bride: set in Malaya in 1893, it follows the daughter of a ruined man as she receives the proposal to become a ghost bride. Lovely setting, rich in culture and extremely atmospheric.

The Bear and The Nightingale: a coming of age story inspired by Russian folklore. Another great way to start reading adult SFF: it’s very atmospheric and fairy tale-like. Also frost demons are better than men.

Queen of the Conquered: first book in a fantasy duology(?) set in an alternate version of the Caribbean at the time of Scandinavian colonisation. It follows Sigourney, a biracial woman (her mother was a slave, freed by her father) and the only islander who is allowed to own and use kraft and therefore has a position of privilege, which she constantly abuses, while telling herself she’s doing it for the islanders’ benefit. The book is hard to read, because the MC is no hero and her POV can be quite challenging to get through, but if you’re up for it I’d totally recommend this. (TW: slavery, abuse, death).

The Lions of Al-Rassan: this one has minimal fantasy elements, much like other Kay books, as it reads more like an alternate history. Using Moorish Spain as a template, it deals with the conflict between Jews, Muslims and Christians. Much like Under Heaven and most of his historical fantasy it shows common people being swept up in dramatic events.

Urban Fantasy

The Divine Cities trilogy: starting with City of Stairs, it follows a female diplomat and spymaster(!!). The whole trilogy features an interesting discussion about godhood, religion, fanatism, politics, without ever being boring or preachy. It has complex and rich world building and a pretty compelling mystery.

Foundryside: heist fantasy following a thief as she’s hired to steal a powerful artifact that may change magical technology as she knows it. Also, slow burn F/F romance.

Jade City: a wuxia inspired, gangster urban fantasy. Great family dynamics, very interesting political and economical subplots.

One for My Enemy: sort of a modern Romeo and Juliet, but set in New York, starring two magical gangster families. The female characters are to die for.

Trail of Lightning: inspired by Native mythology and the idea of subsequent worlds. It has a kickass MC and a good mix of original elements and typical UF tropes. You could like this if you liked the Kate Daniels series.

American Gods: a classic of the genre, pretty much brilliant in how it reuses old mythology in a modern setting.

Retellings

Spinning Silver: a very loose retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, with a gorgeous atmosphere. It mainly follows female characters from different social and economical backgrounds and reuses the original tale to challenge the antisemitic ideas around the role of the moneylander.

The Queens of Innis Lear: fantasy retelling of King Lear, very atmospheric and gorgeously written. Slow paced, but very satisfying build up, lots of backstabbing and miscommunication. (heads up though, one of the MCs is coded as aroace and I found the rep pretty bad on that. The book does feature casual bisexual rep though, which was great)

Lady Hotspur: genderbent retelling of Henry IV, set in the same world as The Queens of Innis Lear. Lesbian and bisexual rep. Heavy on political subplots, features ambitious women growing into their roles.

Deathless: sort of a retelling of Koschei the Deathless set in the first half of the 20th century. Brilliant reuse of Russian folklore to weave together politics and history. It does have pretty brutal descriptions of war, morally gray characters, unhealthy relationships and overall a lot of mindfuckery.

Space Opera

A Memory Called Empire: space opera inspired by the Mexica and middle period Byzantium. It focuses on topics like colonialism and the power of narratives and language. It has one of the best descriptions of what it’s like to live in between spaces I’ve ever read. Also very interesting political intrigue and has a slow burn F/F romance (and a poly relationship recalled through flashbacks).

Ninefox Gambit: a Korean-inspired space opera with a magic system based on math. It’s honestly quite convoluted and difficult to follow, but it also features some of the best political intrigue I’ve ever read. Plenty of lying, backstabbing and mind games. It also features lesbian and bisexual rep and an aroace side character (TW: mass shooting, sexual assault).

The Light Brigade: militaristic space opera set in a not-so-defined future in which corporations rule Earth and space in general. The book follows a newly enlisted soldier as they go through gruelling training and experience the side effects of being broken down into atoms to travel at the speed of light. It’s a heavy book, featuring raw descriptions of war, and quite difficult to follow (non-linear timelines...) but it’s also an amazing critique of capitalism and political propaganda (TW: death, mass shooting).

Gideon the Ninth: pretty much lesbian necromancers in space. Very loose world building, but a fun mystery full of banter. Can be quite confusing in the beginning, but a relatively easy and fun way to approach science fiction.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet: character driven space opera featuring a found family journeying through space. A fun read, that also deals with topics such as sexuality and race. Quite easy to go through, as the world building and plot aren’t particularly complex themselves. Also features a F/F romance.

Science Fiction-Fantasy that I can’t fit anywhere else

Vicious: college roommates put themselves through near-death experiences to obtain super powers, only everything goes wrong. Follows a great band of misfits (and pretty much everyone is morally gray).

Middlegame: a brilliant and complex tapestry of alternate timelines, following telepathically connected twins trying to escape the alchemist that wants to use them to obtain godhood (TW: attempted suicide).

Piranesi: the long awaited return of Susanna Clarke, Piranesi is an odd, mysterious book set in a house with infinite rooms and endless corridors, apparently inhabited by only two people.

Bonus Novella recs: novellas are amazing and don’t sleep on them!

The Empress of Salt and Fortune: an Asian-inspired fantasy novella, it gives a voice to people usually silenced by history. It follows a cleric (non binary rep) as they chronicle the story of the late empress, retold through objects that she used in her life. It focuses on bonds between women and the power that lies in being unnoticed.

The Black God’s Drums: an urban fantasy novella, based on Orisha mythology and set in an alternate, sort of steampunk, New Orleans.

The Haunting of Tram Car 015: alternate steampunk Cairo populated by supernatural entities. It has a compelling mystery, starring a great lead.

This Is How You Lose the Time War: epistolary set during a time-travel war, F/F romance and gorgeous prose.

The Citadel of Weeping Pearls: a novella set in the Xuya universe (a series of novellas/short stories set in a timeline where Asia became dominant, and where the space age has empires of Vietnamese and Chinese inspiration), but can be read as a standalone. It’s a space opera featuring a disappeared citadel and the complex relationship between the empress and her daughter as war threatens her empire.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate: an incredibly heartwarming and yet meaningful novella about research and the meaning of it. It’s the tale of 4 astronauts on a crowdfunded mission to explore space, to observe and report without conquering. It’s written in lovely prose and is very casual in its lgbt rep.

The Deep: very good novella set in an underwater society built by the descendants of African slave women that were tossed overboard. It’s not an easy read at all, as it deals with trauma, both personal and generational ones.

Bonus short story collections recs

A Cathedral of Myth and Bone: 16 short stories featuring myth, legend and faith, that mainly focus on women reclaiming their agency.

The Paper Menageries and Other Stories: features plenty of different fantasy and science fiction subgenres. The Paper Menagerie in particular is an extremely moving tale.

Conservation of Shadows: science fiction-fantasy short stories that focus on topics like colonisation and the role of art and language.

Graphic Novel

Monstress: series set in an alt 1900s matriarchal Asia, following a teenage girl who survived a war and shares a connection with a monster that’s slowly transforming her. (TW: slavery, death).

#book rec #book recommendations #adult sff #book list #book recs #science fiction #fantasy #may add more later on rip #also i hope there's no typos lol #also this one will flop skjnkf

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abybweisse · 2 years

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hello ✨! , hope you fine <3 , According to Yana Sebastian is the protagonist , i am A Fan of kuro since 2016 , and i just knew that 6 months ago!! lol , i thought that Ciel is the protagonist Because the Story is about him and his job as the watchdog and his family , so it is very interesting that Sebastian is the protagonist !! , i am so excited to see what will happen to him and what is the role he will play , i mean he is the protagonist so he must be the most character who will be affected , what do you think he will do or what will happened to him ? ….. thank you ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Sebastian as the main character

Yeah, he’s officially the main character, according to Yana-san. I don’t recall any tweets specifically about that, but she did say so in one of the art books… was it Artworks 2? We also have to consider the fact she went to Editor K with “I want to write about a demon butler”, not “I want to write about an aristocratic boy”. In fact, it looks to me like she recycled an older character concept she’d originally meant for another story to become our “Ciel” Phantomhive; his name was Ao (which means “blue”), and he was some sort of young, aristocratic detective. I used to have an image of him, from her old blog, but I haven’t been able to find that image again these past few years.

Anyway, yes, this means Sebastian should go through some sort of character development. And, even though he’s centuries (or even millennia) old, among demons he might be considered “young”. So, I do often call this series the demon’s Bildungsroman — his coming-of-age story.

I’ve got some old posts about this, so you might check the tags of this post for more information. Probably find the most under #series end, #end of the series, #series ending, #end of the manga, and maybe something like #predictions, #emotions, #epilogue, #character development, #soul devouring, and #soul effect. Maybe even #devoured soul effect? Also please see the Tagging Masterpost for a link that’s about this topic. How and when the series might end.

But mostly, I expect for Sebastian to get the meal he’s been promised. Then, when he eats our earl’s soul, something will happen that he wasn’t expecting. Like a blossoming of emotions that he didn’t know he could feel — love, loss, shame, regret, a heavy burden — stuff like that. The sorts of emotions that make humans cry. He previously told Beast that he didn’t “yet” have a “jot” of understanding about such things as love or loss. Then there’s the scene in the witch arc, where Sebastian is crying, but it’s just from mustard gas, which he had never encountered before. He even says to himself he doesn’t have the ability to cry from emotions. I think he’s gained a little taste of these, but our earl’s soul is full of such emotions.

Demons might be the epitope of “you are what you eat”. Othello says that most demon contracts are over so quickly because the humans who make contracts usually have simple wishes that are easily granted. This suggests those humans themselves are somewhat simple. But he also says there have been notable exceptions, and I think our earl is one of them. Plus, Sebastian has accepted a contract he knows might take a while to fulfill, due to the terms placed upon it. He’s ok with that, since a human lifespan isn’t very long to him, and he thinks the wait will make the finished meal all the tastier. Yana-san calls him a “perverted gourmet” because he likes to “prepare” his meals in a way that alters the taste; he wants to put his Young Master through a lot of ordeals in order to “season his soul”. And his goal is to make this soul taste different than others he’s had before. I think he will succeed in that!

I expect the demon to be very satisfied with the meal, but then it changes him. He becomes more like our earl. He’s still a demon, but he has a better understanding of human emotions. From personal experience, not just as some outsider or observer. And I expect him to gain the ability to cry due to emotions. And he should act accordingly…. That’s also probably under #mother3 predictions. Oddly, due to Mother3 theory, I ultimately expect something “good” or constructive to come out of it all, even though it might require an extremely destructive event to get there….

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sacrificethemtothesquid · 2 years

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It’s been awhile since I’ve done a novel update, which honestly...it’s been awhile since I’ve done anything on the novel. Dad’s still in the hospital (going on month THREE just seriously fucking YIKES we are all exhausted note please keep your organs INSIDE YOUR BODY it’s so much more efficient that way) so my brain is mostly quivering mush, but I managed to meet my word count for THREE DAYS IN A ROW this week, the biggest streak since, like, November. Break out the champagne!

In lieu of actual forward progress, I’ve been combing through the nits and making notes on continuity and things to expand. Apparently, I’ve gotten through two and a half books for a total of almost 300k without actually designing a government, despite the fact that all four protagonists are deeply embedded in government structures. Whoops. Also I have swear words but no religion. None of the protagonists are particularly religious so this hasn’t mattered, but if I flesh out a belief system, I could have better swear words. God, I am a heathen.

Also struggling with one of my protagonists in general. When this was a standard bildungsroman, young-adult-coming-of-age story, she was the main narrator, but then I fell in love with the much older necromancer and now she’s the main narrator and this poor kid is feeling very superfluous. It would be more efficient to cut her entirely, but if nothing else, that’s 50k of relevant worldbuilding I kind of don’t want to lose.

I’m obsessing over word count more than I should be. From what I’ve read, publishers generally like sci fi/fantasy submissions to be 80k-120k, and I’m really chewing on that. The first book is sitting at 75k but could use another 20k of worldbuilding and also an ending. The second book is at 96k and feels very solid. (It’s my favorite so far.) The third is at 87k and is easily only half-done, and feels like a sack of very angry spiders. The third is a mess.

I keep thinking of all the series I’ve read where the first couple of books are manageable but later ones become doorstops. There’s a reason that’s common, right? Right.

Also, I want to share things with y’all but I’m not sure if I should. I want to tell you the titles and plot. I know I can’t share bits of the actual writing, but these characters are terrible, terrible people and I can’t wait for the rest of the world to meet them. I’m just afraid if I do that, there will be copyright repercussions? I’m so new to this. I have no idea.

(Mostly I want this to be done and published so people can write fanfic about them. They deserve a sweet coffeeshop AU, but I was never any good at sweet anything, so until that point, they will continue to suffer horribly.)

#random blather #I need a tag for the novel

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seeingteacupsindragons · 3 years

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I’m in the mood to talk character arcs. So let’s, shall we?

Most of my long-form fiction these days in YA, which I once summed up writing as taking a teenager, figuring out who they’d be as an adult, and then shoving them toward that. That’s what I think a good coming-of-age, a bildungsroman, is at its core. And I think YA is at its best when exploring that.

But other characters in all age categories and genres can be thought of similarly: find a character, figure out who they will become, figure out why they become that person and how. Not all characters are dynamic, but I find that if you go into a story and intend for you major characters, especially your protagonist on whose shoulders the core of the story should rest, not to change in the slightest, there should be a reason that reflects in other areas of the narrative. Static characters as protagonists can work extremely well, but just as a character’s growth and change is the core of a story, their lack of the same would also be the core, and the story should be well-supported by the choice.

This effect is clearest in character-driven stories, but plot- and world-driven stories, so long as they have a protagonist, had that character and person chosen for a reason, and that should be a good choice that helps the story.

(Stories without protagonists: things like “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”)

If you’re writing a golden child who falls from grace and becomes a criminal kingpin…that can be a great plot, but the plot is in how and why this would happen to such a character? What traits bring them to it, what remains the same? And which bits need to be carved off to get there, and what carves them off?

If you’re writing a staid coward with a love of routine who becomes an adventuring hero…why? What pushed them into becoming that, and what about them latched onto their new path? That’s your plot.

And this can be reverse-engineered, too, if you’re not the type to know where the story is going when you first start. Readers, certainly, often won’t know where the story is going to end up. But they can make a guess based on what you’ve done with the character. You’ve just introduced suicidal tendencies? Why? What is your plan for that trait? Why is it in the story, and how will it come to fruition later? What effect is that going to have on the actions the character makes later, and what will they do? Who will they become because of this reveal? Who will they become because their brother was taken from them? What will they do now, and what does that say about them, and what does it mean for the story?

This is what I mean about a character’s arc being the core of a story: all the action of the story will be reflected onto it and effect it. If the protagonist doesn’t change, then the story is sending a strong message and theme about why a character, despite everything they’ve been through, hasn’t changed. Why are things still the same? What is the author saying with that choice?

Your character is your story, in micro. Everything will radiate out from there. So what are you doing with them?

#writing

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5lazarus · 3 years

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Masterlist of My Stories

My Writing

Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, I post a snippet of what I'm currently working on.

On Mondays, I post the last lines of the stories I'm finishing up, as well as lessons learned from the previous week. I post this under the tag #last line monday and #lessons from the week.

On Wednesdays, I throw up a snippet of fanfiction. I post this under the tag #wip wednesday.

On Fridays, I write at least seven lines of my own stories, either poetry, essays, or fiction. I post this under the tag #seven line friday.

On Sundays, I post at least six lines of fanfic. I post this under the tag #six sentence sunday.

For more information about me, check out my About Me page. I don't answer personal questions unless I share an asklist, I don't take prompts unless I share a promptlist, and I don't keep anonymous asks on. I've also made two promptlists--one a writing challenge, the other a list of poetry prompts! Find my work archived and updated under hes5thlazarus on Archive of Our Own.

Below is a catalogue of my stories, broken down by fandom (Dragon Age, Harry Potter, Star Trek):

My Dragon Age Stories

There Is No Ithaca Three moments where Solas loses his home: Solas wrecks his revolution on the altar of Mythal. Solas returns from war to find Ghilan’nain incubating the Blight within their own home. Fen'Harel negotiates the end of the world with the Thaig of the Bastion of the Pure. Answers to various asks from brightoncemore's wonderful promptlist.

Ultramarine Sylaise attempts to trademark the color blue, initiating a civil war. Fen'Harel disapproves. Felassan, at this point, is just along for the ride. Highlights include: Andruil attempts to create biological weapons out of the conquered children of the stone and sell them to absolutely everyone, Mythal may or may not involve, Solas greatly disapproves, and everyone wants to kill Fen'Harel for disapproving. Also an explanation as to why Solas has to think before answering Sera on whether he has ever pissed magic by accident. Sorta a love story, sorta a comedy, sorta a story about political intrigue--but hey, Solas said Arlathan was even worse than Orlais! A big thank you to potatowitch and isomede for talking me through this and getting me to finish it--and for giving me the best ideas for it.

Overheard at the Hanged Man Thirty-one stories written in Nightmare-mode for Beyond the Veil's 2020 Artober Challenge, ranging through the entire series, from Arlathan before the Blight to the Chargers in Serault.

Alistair the Accidental Heretic Alistair gets bored during morning prayer and starts changing the words of the Chant as he sings. Mother Prudence and Knight-Commander Greagoir are less than pleased, and soon he finds himself tripping up over accidental heresy even within the kitchens of Kinloch Hold. It's not easy, being a half-elf templar with a conscience, because even having a sense of humor is heresy.

The Starkhaven Crier A portrait of two future apostates at ten-year-olds: Jowan and Surana are bored, get dragged to the Chantry for the good of their souls, and accidentally make the new girl from Starkhaven cry. Featuring Surana determined to be the one Dalish against letting the Maker come back, the self-hating mage in the Surana/Amell origin as the Starkhaven Crier, and the same Mother Prudence who sent Alistair to bed without supper. From the six Florence & the Machine prompts that ellie-effie sent me.

Morrigan at the Crossroads Morrigan reaches her breaking point, confronted with the one person she cannot flee: her six-week-old son, who cannot be soothed back to sleep, struggling in the Crossroads. From a prompt musettta3 sent me.

Shartan's Riddle Surana talks Mahariel through writing Leliana, after Leliana leaves to work for the Divine. Shartan promised them a home, and Mahariel worries Leliana, devout as she is, cannot give it to her. From the six Florence & the Machine prompts that ellie-effie sent me.

Winter in Amaranthine The Wardens' companions decide to leave, and Warden-Commander Arana Mahariel cannot find a reason good enough to tell them no. Meanwhile, letters between the Warden and Leliana get lost in translation, and Arana makes it worse. From the six Florence & the Machine prompts that ellie-effie sent me.

Palimpsest Velanna and Sigrun fight some darkspawn, talk around the past, and write some letters. Written as a gift for hellbell, for the Sapphic Solstice 2021 Gift Exchange.

Phosphorescence A Despair demon in the Foundry district is clogging up the whole city with a miasma of misery. Justice runs into an old friend of his, during Anders' first few weeks in Kirkwall, and the three set to work. Heavy-handed allegory abounds, but, Justine opines, that’s the Dreamers’ fault. From the six Florence & the Machine prompts that ellie-effie sent me.

Labyrinth "Anders made no attempt at escape during the years they were together." This story is meant to explore everything absolutely horrible about that statement. If the core part of Anders' identity is his refusal to submit to imprisonment, then perhaps listening to Karl was a violation of his sense of self. Things get better, and then things get worse.

Kirkwall Thunderstorm Family squabbling as the storm sets in, Hawke flees to face the thunderstorm head on, and laughs, because what's more to life than this, chasing a storm all the way down to the harbor? From the six Florence & the Machine prompts that ellie-effie sent me. One of my favorite things I've written in 2020.

Debutante Leandra manages Hawke's debut ball, and surprises herself by having a lot of fun. From an OC ask I decided to turn into a prompt.

Dregs Anders baits Varric, or Varric baits Anders, both drunk at the Hanged Man. There's no resolution to an argument when they're both just angry, thinking about dead mages. From the six Florence & the Machine prompts that ellie-effie sent me. One of my favorite things I've written in 2020.

The Scent of Pomegranates Merrill brings a pomegranate to the Hanged Man, to try and capture some of the way her clan celebrated the new year. Fenris is oddly moved. Written for the DA Den's 2020 Holiday Gift Exchange.

Anders in Autumn Anders and Fenris, over the course of one gorgeous autumn in Kirkwall, find common ground, a common goal, and even tenderness, as the city grows cool and vibrant in the changing of the year. Justice returns to the streets of Kirkwall, one way or another, and it is as transformative and loving as justice truly is. An answer to an Artober challenge from cozy-autumn-prompts

Warp & Weft Anders wakes Fenris up in the middle of the night talking, and then not wanting to talk, about weaving. What they remember and what they have forgot climb into the bed with them. A gift for potatowitch.

Landlocked Merrill goes looking for Isabela after a night of drinking at the Hanged Man, and finds her considering the sun rising over the horizon at the docks. They're landlocked and the salt's drained them both dry, but maybe it's not all been a waste. They're shipless, not shipwrecked. Part of a personal challenge to write more femslash, after realizing how little there is in Dragon Age fandom.

Love and Red Ink Varric tries his hand at a more literary Bildungsroman about his youth as a Kirkwall bohemian. Bianca tears it apart, editing for his own good. Sometimes love is in the margins, your almost ex-girlfriend telling you--I wasn't that pretty, when I was that young.

The Most Boring Sex Party in All Orlais Josephine and Leliana both admit the night they met ended with someone's smallclothes pinned to the Chanter's Board--but what happened right before? Josephine says, “I have played the Game before, and understand its cutthroat stakes. But I must admit, I never thought I would witness the opening salvo of a coup at the most boring sex party of all Orlais.”

Catabasis Kirkwall's in ashes and Hawke and their friends are on the run. Varric might have ended the story at the docks, but the conflict continues. The question persists: should they separate? And what brought them together in the first place? From a series of prompts ellie-effie and musetta3 sent me.

The Domestics Alistair runs into an older elven woman on the battlements, watching the children play in the Skyhold courtyard below. They get to talking: isn't it nice that the mages get to keep their children now? Then, in the course of the conversation, Alistair figures it out. Alistair says, “I always wondered. What my life would’ve been like, if she could’ve kept me. I always kinda knew she didn’t have a choice. King’s bastards are the king’s, not whoever carried them. If she were a servant and if I’d end up in the kitchens or, better yet, the dairy. I really like cheese. But if she were a mage, I guess we never had any of that. Unless she ran away.”

The Bane of Red Crossing In the astrarium cave in the Storm Coast with Inquisitor Lavellan, Cole, and Solas, Sera opens a chest and finds a beautiful bow, named the Bane of Red Crossing. But what is the Bane of Red Crossing? According to the codex: "Ser Yves de Chevac used this bow in the Exalted March against the Dales – specifically, in the liberation of Val Royeaux, where the chevalier famously struck down the elven forces' commander with a shot to the throat at two hundred feet." Lavellan is not pleased, but does not know how to communicate effectively with Sera. Cole and Solas make it worse. Sometimes there is no adequate resolution, when you are faced with the instrument of your great-grandparents' destruction. Sometimes there is nothing that disinterested compassion can say.

To the Victor the Spoils In the Skyhold gardens, in Adamant's wake, Solas meets Loghain. A character study of two trickster-kings, speaking a little too honestly. As Loghain himself says, "The past is always with us. It’s in our bones and our blood and we wear it on our skin. You can think otherwise, but you’ll never get far without it."

Dead Man Hiking Solas broods over what has been lost. Dorian interrupts, and Solas dangles hidden knowledge in front of him like a carrot. They both take the bait, because, as irritable and sad Solas can get, "he wants to give wisdom, not orders," and Dorian loves to learn. Written for Beyond the Veil's 2020 Satinalia Gift Exchange.

So Much Lore! So Much Information! Dorian has a wonderful conversation with the Skyhold Librarian about improvements to the library's filing system and the innovations coming out of Minrathous when Vivienne comes by and points out he's just talking to himself. He's been waxing rhapsodic about the Tevinter equivalent of the Dewey decimal system to a spirit--or maybe a demon. So clearly they must investigate.

Dirthara Ma! May You Learn After the Exalted Council, Solas stops for a drink and a sulk in a quiet tavern in Ostwick. He is convinced no one will ever recognize him with a full head of hair and a beard. Then the Inquisitor walks in. The first in a canon-compliant post-Trespasser Solavellan series.

White Nights A year after Trespasser, Lavellan takes a new lover to a quiet inn in Val Royeaux. She steps out to the balcony for a quick smoke under the stars, looks over to the balcony adjacent to hers--and who is there but the Dread Wolf himself, slightly disguised, with a glass of wine? Despite themselves they talk, and do not stop talking. “Entertain me,” Solas says. “What ending will Master Tethras write for us? Because I do not know how to leave this gracefully. Though I suppose any ending is better than the last one, when I left with your arm.” The second and most comprehensive in a canon-compliant post-Trespasser Solavellan series. From the six Florence & the Machine prompts that ellie-effie sent me. One of my favorite things I've written in 2020.

Ligaments Briala has loaded her dice when playing the Game. Gaspard throws her in prison, but her message goes out to both the Dread Wolf, keen to better his reputation for catastrophe amongst the elves of Orlais, and the Dalish Inquisitor, who is still reeling from the loss of her arm. “We do not necessarily know he is the enemy,” Leliana says. “And it is exciting, no? To have that rush of danger and destruction between every kiss.” The third in a canon-compliant post-Trespasser Solavellan series. From the six Florence & the Machine prompts that ellie-effie sent me. One of my favorite things I've written in 2020.

Out From Under the Dread Wolf's Eye Briala and Merrill try and steal an eluvian out from under the Dread Wolf's eye. It doesn't quite work, but that doesn't mean the day's a failure, not when there's dinner to be had and a connection to explore. Written as a gift for hellbell, for a prompt they gave for the Sapphic Solstice 2021 Gift Exchange, but not submitted to the collection.

The Domesticities Solas adjust to a new, gentle love that has gripped his heart and will not let him go: a Lavellan who heralds a world he did dream of, and learns how to survive grief and his own betrayal, learns how to surrender the high moral ground and focus on the domesticities. A series of Solas-POV ficlets from my story, Fen'Harel's Teeth, where Lavellan is a mother and leader in her own right, and barely keeping her head above the water of her own deep grief. Not in chronological order!

He Who Hunts Alone Solas will restore the Elvhen People as he knew them, even if this world must die. It is his only purpose as he understands it. But a magical accident leaves him in another world, where a version of himself has made a very different choice. Solas is forced to reckon with a desire he has never let himself explore. Inquisitor Tara Trevelyan, both his friend and adversary, is dragged with him, as they move from their world, to a world where Solas seems to have won it all, to another that seems both their worst nightmare. Inquisitor Tara Trevelyan: the rebel apostate mage, romanced Josephine Inquisitor Imladris Lavellan: the Dalish First, romanced Solas, featured in Fen'Harel's Teeth Inquisitor Brigid Trevelyan: the faithful Andrastian prophet, rogue and noble, Tara's sister, romanced Blackwall and then Cullen Written in tandem with my partner, batsy22-me, and likewise abandoned when we got bored of it.

Fen'Harel's Teeth First Lavellan, Imladris Ashallin, thought that her audience with the Divine against templars' harassment of Dalish mages would be a token protest, and that her people would use it to draw the city elves closer to the Vir Tanadahl. She didn't think her Keeper's calculations would catapult her to the top of the Chantry's leadership, manipulating the powers of Thedas to leave her people be. Meanwhile, Briala foments revolution in Halamshiral, using the eluvian network to sabotage the armies of Orlais. A new movement erupts in the Dales, and elves across Thedas look at this so-called "Herald of Andraste" and see Mythal's vallaslin. Fiona breaks the chains of mages across Thedas, and Fenris starts whispers of a new age in Tevinter--one where the slaves throw down their masters. A new age is coming, and all of Thedas look to Lavellan to usher it in. My baby, my never-ending story, my current work-in-progress.

My Harry Potter Stories

Harry Potter Daydreams Archiving my old Harry Potter headcanons from Tumblr onto AO3. These are not necessarily nice to the characters from canon, and focus what I find interesting--their flaws, and how that could create conflict in their lives.

General Snape Headcanons Archiving my old Harry Potter headcanons from Tumblr onto AO3.

Augury Gang Eileen's mother curses her, and she dies not too long after giving birth to Severus. Tobias, a millworker and a proud union man, does his best.

Snape in the City Instead of dying, Snape moves to New York. A Severus Snape/Narcissa Malfoy and Severus Snape/Regulus Black story.

An Incident at the Mill the millrat AU A series of vignettes on what could’ve happened if Tobias Snape had been badly injured in an accident at the mill, forcing Severus to drop out of Hogwarts before the Prank. Predominantly Lilycentric. Snily shippers, rejoice: most of the vignettes are from Lily’s point of view, featuring her as flawed, passionate, bullheaded, comfortable in her sexuality, quick to curse and quicker to laugh at herself–and with a complicated relationship to alcohol and the Wizarding World. A big thank you to eleniaz and deathdaydungeon for sparking the initial headcanons that became this series.

Saplings 1980 Albus asks Minerva to tend to the "tender new sapling" of a Potions Master. Minerva looks at the manic-triggered recovered Death Eater and thinks they're doomed for failure. Snape thinks she's right. A couple of friendship & mentorship & not-quite hurt/comfort ficlets, where Severus oozes despair and McGonagall fails, completely, utterly, to be of service. There are two pieces of fanart floating around Snapedom, one of Snape oozing, the other a comic eleniaz did years ago. Unfortunately I've lost the links.

Harry Potter and the Summer of the Stepfather In an alternate world where Neville Longbottom is the Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter's parents divorce relatively amicably. Eventually, Lily starts dating again, and Harry finds himself actually enjoying the summer Snape stays over.

Last Round at the Hog's Head Thirty-one ficlets written for the 2020 Snapetober challenge.

Your Body's a Revolution Eight stories written for the 2020 Trans Snape Week challenge.

July 1977 Snape stews in teenage melodrama, eating lunch at a cheap fish-and-chips shop in Upper Cokeworth, beset by memories of a wasted ex-girlfriend, who couldn't be Lily Evans--what Bertha Jorkins saw behind the greenhouses, and what came after. Revised from an earlier account, cross-posted from fanfiction.net.

Maleficari's Mutinous Munitions Sprout grew the wrong kind of mandrakes--mandragora, rather than English mandrakes, and no one knew that there actually was an infinitesimal difference--so Severus needs to save the day before Lockhart can. A little of Slytherin cunning, a willingness to embezzle, and a sense of spite wins the day. Prompted by masaotheheckindog.

Honeydukes Horror Remus Lupin genially humiliates Severus Snape as he attempts to order chocolates. Some schoolboy grudges never get better, and nothing Severus can say will let him seem the better man. Prompted by snapescapades.

Weavers Bored before the start of sixth year, Harry goes through Petunia's old family photo albums. He demands some answers, and Dumbledore sends Snape. "He finds a photo of her laughing with a boy who is not his father, who’s got his long black hair and a hand thrown up, too, covering his face. She’s about his age in this photo, or a bit older. Carefully he slides it out of the plastic. There’s writing on the back: 'Weavers, Sev & Lily, 1976. to Baba O’Riley and the rest of our lives!!' The writing is familiar, spidery, almost indecipherable, and he squints because it reminds him of someone, it’s strangely familiar, and then he drops the photo in shock. Because he knows: that’s Severus Snape."

They Call This Closure? Severus comes to consciousness into a dream of Potter reenacting his worst memory-and then Lily Evans comes tearing in at age sixteen, rather than as the more mature adult his subconscious normally designs her. They call this closure? Officially dead, officially incomplete: and I call this closure?

Harry Potter and the Cursed Mark Triple-cross! Mitarashi Anko of the Village Hidden in the Leaves joins Severus Snape as one of Dumbledore's agents, seeking to train the Boy-Who-Lived to understand his mental connection to Lord Voldemort. Snape thinks that they really didn't need to hire a goddamn technicolor ninja to fill the DADA position, but at least it's not one of Fudge's underlings taking charge--wait, he has to put up with her anyway? More seriously, Anko and Severus discover a connection between their cursed marks and the Potter boy's scar, Dumbledore expedites the plot, and Voldemort weaves an insidious plot, inspired by Lord Orochimaru, to take over the Resistance--from the inside. Incomplete and officially dead.

My Star Trek Stories

Raktajino Kira Nerys stews over the history of Terok Nor and the Occupation over a cup of raktajino, soon after she meets Marritza, and Garak just does not know when to leave a bleeding wound alone. Written as a gift for batsy22-me.

Open Mic at Quark's Thirty-one stories written for Trektober 2020, ranging from TOS, the movies, to Lower Decks and Discovery. Includes Keiko joining the Maquis, Spock introducing Amanda to Saavik, Mariner and crew getting lost on a road trip, and more!

Splash Quark takes a dip in a hot spring. Odo follows. It is not, Odo insists, sexy. Regardless, Quark is going to enjoy tormenting him with mutual nudity, since he was the one who interrupted his bath, after all. Prompted by saathiray.

Lore and the Prophets Lore thinks he can sneak off Deep Space Nine and get through the wormhole without anyone noticing. The Prophets have other ideas. Written for the Star Trek 2020 Gift Exchange, for electricsunrise.

Jambalaya Before Worf's wedding plans take over the station, Benjamin Sisko tries to find out what happened during the Founders' occupation of Deep Space Nine, and why Odo won't look him in the eye. Of course he investigates in the guise of inviting everyone to dinner.

Tear of the Prophets Was prompted by saathiray to write about Kira Nerys repatriating an artifact sacred to Bajor from Cardassia, and this is what we got! The Shakaar cell leads a procession after Cardassia returns the Orb of Contemplation to Bajor, to collective joy. Kai Opaka says, "So I say to you my people, the survivors of atrocity and keepers of the wormhole—the Prophets cried for you millennia before you were made. They sent their Tears from their temple as a safeguard as to what was to come. And now that it is safe, now that we have won—their Tears are for all." Featuring Latha having an Orb experience, explaining why he became a vedek.

Jane Austen Book Club Dukat reads Pride and Prejudice to help him understand human relations (and fuck the Sisko). He thinks he’s being Darcy but really, he’s just Mr. Collins…and evil. Garak lends him a copy of Jane Austen and a horrific cravat, and really, it's all downhill from there.

Miscellaneous Stories

Fireworks, a feminist deconstruction of Naruto Sarada takes one look at the Uchiha legacy and decides she wants no part of it. Sakura, who has built herself a life independent of the husband who abandoned them, tries to reckon with how her daughter cannot actually decide the path her life takes. And Hanabi is happy to offer advice and consolation, as Sakura tries to talk her best friends into letting Sarada be a civilian. A feminist deconstruction of Naruto, where everyone is taken seriously and treated with the same love Sakura offers to all her friends. No character-bashing, just contemplating what could have happened if, when Sasuke left Sakura and their baby the second time, Sakura decided to file for divorce rather than wait for him to come back. Of course they still love each other. Of course it's not simple.

Same Time Next Week?, a Babylon 5 fanfic Vir and Lennier meet for their usual drink. A pre-relationship, lightest of touches, beginning of it all story.

Sunrise, Parabellum, a Disco Elysium fanfic Early Wednesday morning, before Harry's woken up and before they've closed the water lock and headed to the fishing village, Kim Kitsuragi gets up and wants a cigarette. He has a cup of coffee instead and contemplates his partner's newfound sobriety. Sunrise, parabellum: he gets up and prepares for war.

Dragon Eyes, an Avatar: the Last Airbender fanfic On a diplomatic mission to the Fire Nation, Katara leaves the children with Aang to have tea with Zuko and Mai. But the two of them have something they want to talk about. They've lived enough of fathers neglecting one child for the other, and they have seen enough. Katara wishes they had propositioned her, rather than bring this up.

Cages, an Avatar: the Last Airbender fanfic Mai visits Azula. It is not easy.

#5lazarus #writing #masterlist #dragon age fanfiction #harry potter fanfiction #star trek fanfiction

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posthumus · 3 years

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hullo boys, today i’m writing about my thoughts on the Dickie incident in Maurice. (potential content warning for sexual assault and pedophilia — if you’ve read the book, though, it won’t get more graphic than that)

i’ve actually always appreciated the Dickie scene, controversial though it is. i first read the book when i was fifteen — the same age as Dickie himself, iirc (EDIT: I did not, in fact, recall correctly; see here) — and i feel like i got it instantly: to me, it serves to highlight the extremely fucked-up attitudes towards sex society helps to internalize. that said, your mileage may vary on how much discomfort you’re able to withstand, and i think it’s completely fair to feel that the incident makes Maurice — the character and/or the book — irredeemable. i’m able to forgive a lot of the more problematic elements of Maurice because i think they’re adequately criticized in the text (at one point Forster literally calls Clive and Maurice misogynists). however, i don’t blame anyone for feeling uncomfortable with them. mostly, i’m trying to explain why i personally like the function of Dickie within the story, and why i think the whole episode requires a nuanced approach.

first up: i’ve seen the whole Dickie thing’s presentation interpreted as completely uncritical, which i think is pretty misinformed. i’ll certainly admit that at the start of the chapter, it’s quite ambiguous as to which way the novel will frame Maurice’s feelings. it’s extremely uncomfortable to read, especially in a modern context: there’s an element of suspense as you try to guess whether or not an author of this time period would have endorsed sexual assault. but the catharsis comes at the end of the next chapter, when the horror of the whole situation snaps into sharp focus: “was it conceivable that on sunday last he had nearly assaulted a boy?” for the previous chapter, Maurice had been kidding himself about the whole thing, and it doesn’t seem quite as rapey as it actually is; but then we’re thrown the word assault, and it becomes clear that we are, in fact, meant to understand that this was a horrible thing to even think of doing.

in my opinion, the book in no way endorses Maurice's thoughts — i actually think that, for his time, Forster was taking a pretty noble stance. the introduction to my copy of Maurice, by David Leavitt, includes a quote from Lytton Strachey, who wrote to Forster, “you apparently regard the Dickie incident with grave disapproval. why?” like, pederasty was still celebrated amongst a lot of gay men at the time. the fact that the Dickie thing reads so uncomfortably at all is a testament to Forster's (correct) stance on the issue; i think you're meant to be grossed the fuck out by Maurice's thoughts. (also, not that this exempts him from criticism, but Forster himself was assaulted as a child; i think he very much understood the gravity of what he was suggesting.)

secondly, Maurice is an EXTREMELY flawed character, and it seems ludicrous to suggest that we're expected to sympathize with all of his thoughts and actions. he's an asshole for most of the book. much emphasis is placed on the fact that Maurice is an entirely average man within his time, location, and class; his opinions and actions fall in line with that, which is why i’m personally okay with his misogyny (even though i’d throw hands with him in real life).

the big misunderstanding with a lot of Maurice’s flaws, i think, is that he isn’t a self-insert character, either for the reader or the author (consider the terminal note: “in Maurice i wanted to create a character who was completely unlike myself”). none of Forster’s characters are blank slates, to my mind — they all have extremely specific personalities; we’re not meant to be following them wholeheartedly the way we would with, say, Harry Potter. i worry some people read the book expecting to be able to back him 100%, but i think we're supposed to be observing Maurice, not putting ourselves in his shoes. (the omniscient narration helps with that, as we're told about elements of his psyche that Maurice himself isn't aware of. also, i’m no expert, so don't quote me here, but i think the concept of a self-insert protagonist is a sort of newer one? i feel like most books pre-mid-twentieth century have characters you're supposed to observe and criticize, and not wholly empathize with — Nick Carraway comes to mind.)

lastly on his flaws, i think the genre you place the book in influences how angry you are at Maurice. if you see it as a romance novel, which is certainly a fair reading, his sudden moments of insane fucked-up-ness make it much harder to root for him. i’ve come to see it as more of a bildungsroman, so i think the point is Maurice's mistakes; he has to reckon with a lot of his actions, including the Dickie incident.

the part of the whole Dickie debacle that’s the most fascinating to me is its context within Maurice’s discussion of sexuality. i think the Dickie incident showcases how sexual repression and internalized homophobia can pervert your perspective on all sexual relationships. within the novel, sex in general feels like something criminal (certainly in Maurice’s case this is true for sex between men; however, there are also the diagrams on the beach at the start of the book, and Anne’s complete lack of knowledge about sex when she marries Clive). if you view all sexual relationships as immoral, though, pedophilia and sexual assault become no more unethical than consensual sex. it’s interesting in that light, then, to compare the Dickie incident to the moment with the man on the train two chapters later: one absolutely should be illegal, but they are both interpreted by Maurice as obscene, and both (if acted upon) would have been criminal offenses. i also think it’s interesting that the man on the train is perhaps the closest comparison to Forster himself within the novel, as Forster, in middle age, cruised London’s public spaces in the hopes of finding someone to hook up with. while Maurice loathes the man on the train (David Leavitt’s introduction, again, discusses how Forster wrote a love story that deliberately excludes himself), i don’t think the reader is meant to.

personally, the Dickie scene resonates with me as someone attracted to women. being told that your own desires are inherently predatory doesn’t dispel those desires, but only makes you ashamed of them, and warps your perception of healthy sexuality. i tend to interpret Maurice’s feelings about Dickie more as intrusive thoughts than actual, tangible want — this kind of obscenity, to his mind, is inevitable for him. i don’t think Maurice would have actually assaulted Dickie. i think he was cracking under the pressures of an openly hostile society, while grappling with his own repression and unmet needs.

TL;DR — Maurice is a flawed character and Forster is critical of his actions. further, the Dickie incident gives us a striking picture of Edwardian society’s attitude towards all sexual relationships, which still has applications today; the episode also gives us insight into Maurice’s mental state. it’s uncomfortable, but in my opinion necessary to the core message of the book.

#swinging the bat at the hornet's nest huh #honestly though this was kinda fun to write #it's the first complete essay i've done in a while #idk. like comment subscribe maybe?? again this is just my opinion #i don't wanna go around acting like only my interpretation of the book is correct #just also like. stop trying to cancel classical literature for being classical literature #idk... the question is do i want this showing up in tags #maurice #em forster #my posts

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whetstonefires · 3 years

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Hi Whetstonefire. I have a question about the comic where Nightwing cheats on Starfire with Barbara: What happens directly after that? Does Starfire find out that Nightwing cheated on her? And, if so, how does she react? I've read online that (according to Marv Wolfman) Starfire is the opposite of everything Batman taught Nightwing to be and that Batman taught Nightwing to be repressed and cold. What did Nightwing contribute (emotionally) to the relationship between him and Starfire? (Cont.)

(Cont.) From what I can tell, from online, Nightwing was adamant about standards of mercy and monogamy - how do you think, if Starfire were to be written as her own character and not written around Nightwing and his emotional needs, she would handle and react to that? (This bit is an FYI for other readers: this is just speculation, not hate. Sorry about that.) Sorry about the questions! Have a nice day!

Okay there are so many separate questions packed in here! I may miss some of them lol and I do not want to put in the hours it would take to produce an orderly response to all this, so this post is going to be a mess.

Initial query and important point: the cheating story was out of continuity. Like, literally, not just by ‘being rejected by the fanbase,’ it was just this weird retcon oneshot that seems to have been some sort of fuck-you to Nightwing or his fans or something. So no, it had no in-setting fallout lol. It, in more ways than most comics, didn't exactly happen.

It was just this weird thing where Dick hooks up with Babs before giving her a wedding invitation, which is both out of character for him in general and out of step with where he was leading up to the wedding--he was desperate to get married so they could have some Normal Stable Adulthood Happiness; the choice to recharacterize him as a fuckboy who regards it as a loss of freedom isn’t congruent, on much more than the level of principle.

As far as how Kori would feel about it, if she had learned...that is very hard to say. Apart from how it would require her to reinterpret everything about where their relationship stood at that point, the data is very unclear, and I don’t even have all of it. Gonna back up to cover some of the rest of the ask, get some context here.

So this actually brings up two of my biggest gripes with Wolfman’s NTT--weird Kori characterization and the weirdly negative interpretation of Batman as parent that backwashed heavily into other titles and influenced the character for the worse, in ways we're very much still dealing with today. 😩

The latter is pretty self-explanatory, though Wolfman’s take that the main thing Bruce taught Dick was repression does shed light on some writing choices and make others funnier. But Kori. Oh my lands.

So, item one, I wouldn't say that Kori is overall opposite Bruce, or even of his philosophy? There are just some very major points of opposition. She isn’t emotionally buttoned-down like at all, especially about positive feelings, although considered realistically with all the bullshit they’ve piled into her backstory she absolutely leans on repression to cope and stay positive, which makes her a lot like Dick actually.

To an extent, she was clearly written around foiling Dick’s Batman-derived traits in the same way that Robin was written to foil Batman, bright and glad and aerial. A Flamebird to his Nightwing in theme if not in name.

You could do some interesting stuff with that, and the bildungsroman aspects of this period of Dick’s life, like he has two roads forward in terms of how he’s going to define ‘adulthood’--does it necessarily require becoming more like his mentor-father, for good and ill, or can he make Kori in part a destination, as it were, and create an adult self that is derived from who he has always been as well as the man he’s modeled himself after?

To an extent I think this even was one of the things going on in ntt but like. Only a little bit.

(Given how much like Bruce Babs is in most of the ways Kori isn’t, especially once she’s Oracle, you could make a case for her as love interest being like. Symbolic of his not being in a rebellious phase? That gets weird and oedipal really fast tho lol.)

Okay stepping down one meta level lol, the thing about answering the 'what would kori' question here is that her character is deeply bound up in her culture, about which we are told and shown a great many contradictory things. Any attempt to read her as an independent character has to tackle not only the gender stuff you allude to and these inconsistencies, but how much of the sheer mess of her is rooted in racism.

'Fantastic' racism, technically, because Tamaraneans aren't real, but the 'taming the savage' narrative that kept surfacing between them and the language used in reference to it is just. The existing racism of presumably the writers, placed in Dick's mouth, and it's super gross. I hate it so much.

(I had a faint hope when they cast her for live action it was with a deliberate intent to directly tackle and better that history, but lollllllll nah. At least they didn’t double down in it tho! Can you imagine, with a black actress, in this day and age....)

So to predict and comprehend Kori, you have to make a lot of calls about Tamaran as a civilization. I like to slightly privilege stuff established earlier if there's no good reason not to, so while much is made over time of her inappropriate rage and the violence she was raised to normalize, I think what she says in her first appearance is good to keep in mind: in her culture, kindness is for friends and cruelty is for enemies. She doesn't understand why the Titans seem to have this backwards.

Kori is not a merciless person. She’s very empathetic, as a rule. With people she loves, she is self-destructively forgiving. That's not a trait only Dick benefits from--her family keeps betraying her in new exciting ways, and she keeps letting them.

Her arc of growing away from that habit is however greatly crippled by centering Dick in the narrative and by the awful 'civilizing' overtones that keep coming into it. When she comes back after the 1986 breakup, still married to Karras, she brings with her a commitment to doing things the Earth way--to eschew lethal force as more than a compromise with her friends’ values, but as a deliberate choice.

This deserved a lot more space and time than it got, and the fact that it didn’t get it is only somewhat due to her being subordinated to Dick and to general writing fail; a lot of it’s just the team book problems of everything happening to everybody all at once.

I mean, Dick’s journey later on to deciding he loves her enough to date her even though she’s married and it’s technically against his principles was packed into this absolutely heinous issue where he was inspired by a woman refusing to separate from her husband who’d just threatened to kill her and their kid with a knife, until being stopped by Nightwing. Because he’s apologizing for what he did.

This is his inspiration for accepting Kori’s marital status! It’s supposed to be heartwarming, as far as I can tell! Not heavyhanded messaging that this is a self-destructive terrible choice in which Kori will inevitably harm him somehow! This issue is pro ‘consensual open relationships under certain circumstances’ and also ‘giving abusers another chance’ as expressions of love. Welcome to the 80s ig.

(Notable is that the wife in this issue was black and the husband and son both looked very white, so it’s probably her stepkid and she probably wouldn’t get to keep him if they separated; this is not even vaguely treated as a factor.)

Point is, everyone was getting too little space to actually go through the amount of development they were getting, and it was clumsily handled; it’s not just her.

In an overlapping period Gar processed his issues with his adoptive father with whom he constantly fought and their shared trauma over the rest of their family (the Doom Patrol) having died violently not long ago via a batshit several-issue storyline where Mento went crazy, created supermutants, and abusively mind-controlled them to attack the Titans. It is literally all like this.

Back to the infidelity thing, now. So much to unpack. So like I mentioned above, their first big breakup, while partially driven by Dick’s existing conflicted feelings about their different ideas about things like ‘killing in battle’ and ‘her identity and loyalties being tied up with her home planet,’ is explicitly over different takes on monogamy.

When Dick is breaking up with her, Kori makes it clear she thinks it’s totally reasonable to have both a husband and a love, since Karras also has someone he loves and they’re both fine with it, but the story doesn't really explain how nonmonogamy works on Tamaran, or even if it's practiced outside the context of political marriage. They do do a sort of...soulbond fusion dance...thing, as part of the ceremony, so marriage is definitely serious business. There are so many levels of cultural difference that get poor to no development.

But to return to the weird ooc retcon cheating story: because of this context, no matter what her personal norms are, Dick specifically casually sleeping with someone else would be something for Kori to be mad about, because of the hypocrisy.

Then there’s the Mirage Incident, which I haven’t read through properly and which was very poorly handled by the writers. Kori is upset about Dick having slept with someone impersonating her and there’s a general vibe of this being treated by Dick’s social circle as unfaithfulness even though he was in fact sexually violated by deceit; it famously sucks.

We still don’t learn a lot here about Kori’s ideas about monogamy, from what I have seen, because her focus is mostly on feeling like Dick doesn’t care about her enough or in the right way since he couldn’t tell the difference. Which is an understandable feeling, even if it’s not an appropriate reaction to have at him at this time.

What Nightwing contributed emotionally........hm. This is a mess, honestly; he was all over the map, and not just because of having Brother Blood in his head. I cannot speak definitively on this, it’s too inconsistent.

For most of their relationship, Kori was the more intensely invested one, the one to initiate and the one who was shown at length to be excited to come home at the end of the day to their shared apartment because her boyfriend was there to see and talk to. If we set aside his more egregious white male bullshit, Dick was pretty emotionally available most of the time, though? They were cute.

Since they split up a lot of ink has been spilled making him less into her in retrospect, but he was pretty invested--leaving her coincided with mental breakdowns both times, and it wasn’t even mostly because she was doing his emotional processing for him, because she wasn’t, although it’s fair to say he often fell into using the relationship as an emotional crutch. Kori was definitely doing the same thing though so...it wasn’t the most balanced relationship in fiction history, but apart from slight codependency and the racism, it was decent enough.

She gets more evenhanded development than most superhero love interests, honestly, because she was costarring in a team book. She had her own storylines. She had other friends.

Mostly both of them just needed some space to finish growing up and stop being retraumatized long enough to process some of the existing trauma better, and I think they could have gone on being good for each other for a long time.

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