#i say this as someone who has read most of his bibliography | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

inhonoredglory · 8 months

Text

Good Omens Season 3: Heaven and Hell dividing humanity; humanity as Leviathan; and Aziraphale locking the doors of Heaven and throwing away the key [A Meta]

(This meta is long, but I swear there's some good stuff in here. It took me 2 months to get it together for these two longsuffering Anons. Thank you so much for asking me these very important questions.)

In preparation for answering two Asks above (and to aid my own predictions of Good Omens 3), I read and reviewed the Book of Revelation, W.B. Yeat’s iconic poem “The Second Coming,” Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, Neil Gaiman’s deleted scene from American Gods (Shadow meeting Jesus in America), and Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies’ 2003 miniseries The Second Coming (starring Christopher Eccleston!). The first two are definitely going to be referenced in season 3, Davies’ show is one of the few stories dealing head-on with the coming of Christ, and Terry and Neil’s bibliographies are probably the biggest resources for how Season 3 will shake out thematically.

🕊 How Aziraphale Will Change Heaven

I think GO s3 is the season we see Aziraphale really come into his own, when we see him implement the moral vision he’s taken this long to coalesce, when all the pieces he and Crowley have put together are finally put on stage in a terrifying, beautiful display (all that righteous anger and conviction, merged with his kindness and empathy is going to be Something Else).

There’s an angel in the Book of Revelation who stands between the Earth and the Sea. This angel wears a rainbow halo and speaks with the voice of seven thunders, and yet John (the writer of Revelation) is told not to write down what this angel speaks. (Sounds like someone has hit on the Ineffable Plan?) If Neil and Terry were going to pick up an image from Revelation for Aziraphale, I really like this one, because it feels like an intermediary role (between two Sides), one that god dare not make public because it speaks an uncomfortable truth. And it’s about speaking and revealing knowledge, instead of fighting or destroying something.

Because even though we know Azi and Crowley will fight to stop the second End Times, fighting itself is not a theme Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett really champion. Instead of war, Aziraphale will oppose Heaven in all the little ways he and Crowley opposed it before: By enjoying human comforts (Azi will definitely bring food and trinkets to Heaven and send scrivener angels and seraphim alike to tour earth). By asking questions (Heaven’s new suggestion box). By telling stories about humanity and why it’s important to know who these humans are before anyone kills anybody (Azi was, after all, brought on board because of his human expertise).

Aziraphale will become what Crowley wanted to be before the Fall, but Azi’s got the benefit of thousands of years of knowledge, cunning, and intelligence about how both Heaven and humanity work. He knows Heaven’s weaknesses, he knows humanity’s strengths, he knows his own capabilities, and he knows where Heaven will turn a blind eye. He’s going to be such a bastard the likes of which we’ve never seen. And he’s going to drop truth bombs like there’s no tomorrow.

Season 2 brought back the book banter about “the lower you start, the more opportunities you have.”

Season 3 will bring back Aziraphale’s most badass book moment. This scene takes place after Azi possesses an American televangelist talking about the fire and brimstone of the End Times and the Rapture (the mass teleporting of all worthy believers to Heaven). Says Aziraphale,

youtube

Aziraphale is fed up with Heaven’s hypocrisy and he's scathing in his condemnation of both Heaven and Hell. Everyone will die and become collateral damage, no matter which side is doing the killing.

Sound familiar?

That's the arc Aziraphale is heading towards: that blazing conviction of Crowley's, spoken out loud and fearless and in spite of his eons of trauma. And Season 3 will see Aziraphale get to that place, where he gets to tell off Heaven, but not just in the privacy of the bookshop or the bandstand, but to their faces in Heaven's hallowed halls.

The demons and angels in Season 2 were much less icky and ethereal (respectively) from their appearances in Season 1. Because it's working towards a further humanization of both sides in Season 3. Because one of the biggest themes in s3 will be Aziraphale humanizing Heaven in all the little quaint ways he loves humanity. All in preparation for the endgame of Heaven and Hell not existing at all.

(Season 3 deep dive continues under the cut...)

Because angels and demons won’t be fought, but changed. Maybe not by much, but just enough to break the loyalty they have to a Great Plan no one understands. This is how both Neil’s American Gods and Terry’s Small Gods conclude, with the build-up to an incredible battle, and then for the human hero to step in and talk down the gods and armies into seeing sense and reason.

I don’t think Aziraphale himself will be that person. It might be a very human Jesus. Or (more likely) a random human being caught up in this craziness (maybe someone in Tadfield, per the working title of the second GO book: 668: The Neighbor of the Beast). But Aziraphale will be fundamental in changing the atmosphere of Heaven in the little ways Earth changed him.

🗝 Season 3 Themes: Morality and God

In the Job minisode, Aziraphale casually but boldly assumed that god didn’t want the goats and children to be killed. Because Aziraphale has a firm and dogged idea about what god should be. It’s his own personal morality, but he calls it god’s because he doesn’t want to imagine the symbol of ultimate goodness being anything other than what he Aziraphale himself feels to be true.

And I don’t think that’s a theme that Good Omens will deny for Aziraphale. Because it’s not really about how evil or good god is. It doesn’t matter what god thinks or is. god doesn’t answer questions, doesn’t deliver messages we can understand, doesn’t show up when needed. god is inscrutable, shifty, absent, “a Dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.”

What’s important is what humanity has done with god, what humanity has said about god, what they do in god’s name, what they interpret god to be. That’s the real danger.

And Aziraphale, in his profound goodness, will become the person he wants god to be. Because that’s the injunction we all have. To live up to the ideal we have made for ourselves: In many ways, that’s what god is.

Aziraphale is now in a privileged place that allows him to affect basically the entirety of Creation with that driving idealism. He will level the playing field in Heaven. I firmly believe Aziraphale will be the one to close the doors to the pearly gates and throw away the key.

So, like you asked Anon, will Aziraphale try to make Heaven better or stop the Second Coming? I think those are the same goal. Changing Heaven will fundamentally change how the Second Coming happens, because just like the End Times in Season 1, Heaven and Hell’s scheme will be turned on its head because the Chosen One refuses to follow the script.

The Second Coming will end, not with a bang, but a whimper, because everyone decides to turn in their guns and forget the whole thing.

⚔️ Heaven and Hell v. Humanity

But before that ending happens, I think there will be another threat the world has to face: the individuals who are so sure of their own righteousness that no amount of sense could stop them from destroying anyone who thinks differently. This is an important theme in both Neil and Terry’s works (see Vorbis, the Exquisitor in Small Gods, who tortured unbelievers for the Church), and I believe it will show up in the new season.

There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous. –Neil Gaiman, American Gods

Because it’s humanity who takes Faith and shapes it into Religion. We are the ones who created the Heaven we see in GO: cold, unfeeling, strict, judgmental. And I think Season 3 is going to address this fundamental belief of both Neil and Terry: that humans are just so damnably human (fundamentally innocent and stupid and wonderful) and yet there’s a few of us who will take things too far and think that Someone wants them to destroy everything in the Name of God. And in these changing contemporary political times (the passage of an old generation, still clinging to their old ways and growing more extreme by the minute *cough*Trump*cough*), the dangerous people become even more vocal and violent, like the frightening, monstrous creature in WB Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming,” a devastating scourge on the world born in the name of God:

Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. […] A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, […] And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? –WB Yeats, "The Second Coming"

That’s who I think the Metatron will team up with in the end, someone like Vorbis. Because we’ve already seen how petty and small Heaven and Hell is, especially in Season 2. Only the Metatron really carries some heft and foreboding. I believe he’ll team up with some extremist faction of humanity who wants to see the End of Days and divide the world into Yours and Mine, with Heaven taking a portion and Hell taking a third and calling it a day. Not a War, but a divvying out of souls. With no consent or permission on the part of humanity.

That’s what I think the zombie reference is all about. Like Gabriel said in 2x03:

Yes, we’re going to get zombies. And it’s going to be insane and funny and horrifying (and I think we’ll get to know one or two historical figures who pop back up to earth). But the thematic and fundamental metaphor of zombies is how they have no free will. They’re not alive, they have no souls, they have no choices. That’s what Heaven and Hell want humanity to be: To do away with the dance of choice and free will and divide humanity once and for all between both sides. That’s how Heaven and Hell team up against the human race.

🐳 Leviathan (Job 41:19) as Humanity

And that’s how I believe the Leviathan fits in, who is the subject of the quote from Muriel’s matchbox:

The Leviathan is a magnificent creature, and this passage goes on and on about how fearsome this being is:

Who can penetrate its double coat of armor? Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth?… Nothing on earth is its equal—a creature without fear. It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud –Job 41:13b, 33-34

And yet why does god want to explain how amazing the Leviathan is? To show how god has control of it. God says,

Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook… Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?… Can you fill its hide with harpoons… No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me? –Job 41:1, 5, 7, 10

The reasoning is that because god created this dangerous and terrifying being, then god must be even more dangerous and terrifying. And if god can so easily abuse and humiliate this beautiful monster, then god must be worshipped and respected. (Yes, it’s as messed-up as it sounds.)

I can’t help but think of this Leviathan as a metaphor for humanity. A beautiful, ferocious being whose ownership and control is the focus of god’s attention and qualification for worship? Of the Leviathan, Job says: “Will traders barter for it? Will they divide it up among the merchants?” (Job 41:6). That’s how humanity is going to be treated in Season 3.

Because both God and Satan want to control humanity. They want to put their thumb on human souls and claim them for each side. But humanity doesn’t have to be so easily fooled, because we are more powerful than we realize. Our hearts and imaginations can forge a path of purpose and goodness without the entrapment of organized religion and fundamentalism. We, like Leviathan, are ferocious and angry and fed up with being treated like this. We can and will fight back.

🌟 Becoming Gods

Ultimately, we will shuffle off the need for Heaven and Hell (symbolized by the shutting down of both at the end of Season 3). We will lose the need to unquestionably defer to a Being who plays dice with our lives. I’m reminded of the opening passage to Terry’s Small Gods:

The lowly tortoise will learn to be the eagle; humanity will learn to be like god. Because we are as powerful as god, since we created god. Adam Young pointed out that having a god figure to solve all our problems doesn’t make humanity any more responsible for the evil things we’ve done. We need to learn that we are all we’ve got, and we have to answer for the shit we’ve done to each other and to the world.

I like how Russell T Davies put it in his show The Second Coming, where Jesus comes down again in the body of ordinary human Steven Baxter and tells humanity:

You are becoming gods. There's a new master of creation, and it's you! Unraveled DNA, and at the same time you're cultivating bacteria strong enough to kill every living thing! Do you think you are ready for that much power? You lot? You lot? Cheeky bastards. You're running around science like kids with guns, creating a new world, while the world you've got is stinking…. If you want the position of god then take the responsibility. –Russell T Davies, The Second Coming

youtube

I legitimately think that’s how Jesus in Good Omens 3 will come down. In the body of a regular 30-something off-the-streets guy, who thinks the pomp and circumstance made about him is insane. And Aziraphale will be his minder, trying to tell him how the whole scheme is supposed to play out and giving him wise asides on how warped Heaven’s standards are and trying to tell him how to go about changing things for the better. (Jesus will be terribly confused, meanwhile; he just wants to go out for a pint and get on with his human life, none of this god business.)

🐍 Crowley’s Growth

There will be some big things at play in Season 3. I think Aziraphale will change how Heaven operates and close Heaven for good. I think Aziraphale will initially try to get Jesus on board with Azi’s own private mission of Goodness. I actually think Crowley will end up becoming Aziraphale’s “back channels” to Earth, and they’d exchange trite, bantering messages about the state of affairs from secret rendezvous points in America. (There was a whole thing about Jesus getting lost in Times Square, according to Neil Gaiman.)

I think Crowley will learn how to trust Aziraphale and learn that doing the right thing means being brave and selfless. He’ll realize that humanity is worth saving, even if it means dying. In fact, his depression at the start of Season 2 will probably only get worse after the loss of Aziraphale, and his altruism might get colored by the taint of suicidal recklessness, because he might as well go out for what he believes in, if what he wanted most in the world chose being selfless over being with him. (If Crowley’s character takes a suicidal turn like the Tenth Doctor after losing Rose, I’m gonna scream.)

This is how Aziraphale helps Crowley be brave in the finale of the Good Omens book. That’s what I think will happen in Good Omens 3:

Aziraphale here displays a gentleness and kindness that comes from a place of grounded knowledge and responsibility. He knows how much he and Crowley have in their own ways fucked up humanity too, and he knows that no matter what their own personal feelings, they each need to do something to defend the human species they've come to love so much.

Crowley is scared of risking everything to help save humanity, but with Aziraphale's encouragement and wisdom, he realizes that doing the right thing is the only option he can choose, no matter the risk to his own happiness and safety.

So I believe Crowley will learn to understand why Aziraphale chose to return to Heaven and fight in the trenches. Crowley will see it as a choice made to save, not just each other, but the world they love so much.

Ultimately, I think Crowley on earth will take on Aziraphale’s strongest qualities: being selfless and bold to protect humanity at costs, and connecting to humanity on a personal, individual level.

While Aziraphale in Heaven will become like Crowley: asking questions, sabotaging the System, and condemning Heaven with all the uncomfortable truths they need to hear.

373 notes · View notes

santacoppelia · 5 months

Text

Of fandom, age, and David Tennant being our own personal Time Lord

I read the fantastic post that @davidtennantgenderenvy wrote about David Tennant and aging (if you haven’t yet read it, go for it!) and, as a fan who is closer to DT's age range than to what seems to be the rest of the fan base's age (yeah, being well over 40 is A THING), I had an interesting mix of ideas and emotions. I was going to just reblog her post with some of these musings, but when this started getting longer (and I started searching for bibliography, ha), I decided that I was not going to hijack her post, but rather cite it (and reblog it on its own right, really, read it). I should say that this is a long essay, and it comes peppered with references to one of my preferred fields of study (but I make it light and fun, promise).

Becoming an “old geek”

The first time I came into the idea was when I found a thirst TikTok with that very nice audio that goes “I think I need someone older…” and clearly, the thirst was there, but also… David is 8 years older than me, and when you are 45, thirsting over someone who is 53 doesn’t feel as “edgy” (and thinking about “needing someone older” starts verging on thirsting over people well over 65, which is absolutely fine, but a very different category over all for the rest of TikTok). So yeah, it was weird. You see someone who you feel is "in your range" and everyone is calling them "old"… And you start thinking about aging, inevitably.

Of course, I "don't feel old", but most of my friends are younger than me, and I'm the oldest person in many of my "fun activities". Take, for example, my lightsaber combat team, where every sponsorship is pitched to people under 30, and you should be training at least twice a week and following a strict diet to reach the expected “competitive or exhibition” level (enter the “old lady” who is taking this training just for fun, who needs to take care of her joints and who is not going to be invested in becoming Jedi Master General or anything of the sorts in the near future). Or we can talk about the expectation about fandom in general being a “teenage phase”, and thinking about everyone who still is into it actively after certain age as “immature” or “quirky” at best (hi, mom! Hi, work colleagues! Hi, students!).

Society, aging and social constructs

Of course, this has a lot to do with societal expectations. For almost 80 years, popular culture has been built around "youth" and "young people": before rock & roll, most things (music, clothes, movies, art in general) were targeted to “adults”, and you were expected to be “a functional adult” since a younger age. There was a seismic shift in the way popular culture was built when consumer culture decided to see and cater young people: trends became shorter, being “hip” was desirable, staying younger for a longer period was a nice aspiration (a good, light reading to get a deeper view around this is “Hit Makers” by Derek Thompson. It is written for marketers, but that makes it an easy historic overview and I like that). This has a lot to do with the change of our view about old people, too: while being old 100 years ago (yup, 1924 still fits the bill) made you “a respected elder” and you were expected to be wise, to know best, to be the voice of reason and an expert, nowadays not even us older people like being seen as “old” or “older”.

Frequently, culture becomes entrenched in binary oppositions. The binary opposition between “young” and “old” is… well, old! And while the opposition is sustained, the meanings around it change over time (that’s what the past paragraph was about, really). If in the 1940’s being old meant “mature, respectable, wise, responsible” and being young meant “inexperienced, immature, foolish”, after the 1950’s those meanings shifted a lot: being young became “fun, interesting, in the now and in the know, attractive”, while being old was about being “boring, dusty, passé, uninteresting, dull”.

In reality, being young can be a mix of all of these things (inexperienced and fun and foolish and attractive), and being old can be, at the same time, being responsible and wise and a little dusty and dull, because that’s life *shrugs*, and the wonder of lived experience is that, even if we simplify it, it is complex and rich and sometimes contradictory in itself: we can be old and foolish and interesting and boring, or young and dull and inexperienced and attractive. But, as we need to make “social sense” of things, simplifying them is… easier. That’s why we build stereotypes, and why we use them! We need to have a “base” of signifiers to build upon, so we usually take what we have on our environment and run with it. If you find this idea interesting, welcome to the world of cultural semiotics! *takes her Iuri Lotman picture out of her pocket and puts it on the desk*

(Iuri Lotman, people. He is my "patron saint").

Pop culture versus “real culture”

Another cultural opposition that piques my interest in this area is the notion of “pop culture”, of course. It is opposed to “real, serious culture”, the sort of thing that everyone expects "older, mature people" to enjoy. In the sixties and seventies, there were a lot of studies and writing about "high brow" and "low brow" culture, trying to keep this distinction between "things that make you familiar with the now, but have no intrinsic value" and "eternal things that cultivate your mind, soul and spirit".

Evidently, if you ask me, this is a whole load of horse manure: probably useful to fertilize other things, but with little intrinsic value on its own. My main point is not dolphins, but the idea of culture: historically, it has used to mean a lot of things; from the notion of (exactly) fertilizing something and making it grow to make it come to fruition, to the hodgepodge of practices that a social group creates when they are together and are trying to make common sense of things.

I like the latter better (that is the one I’d ascribe to if this was The Academia TM, but this is tumblr!), but another popular definition, which comes from the Illustration and has been quite prevalent, is the notion of culture as the set of cultural practices that make you a better, more intelligent, far more educated person. For example: if you want to have real culture, you have to read Shakespeare and know what a iambic pentameter is, rather than watching “10 Things I Hate About You”. You must read real books, not listen to audiobooks, and “real books” should be written by “serious authors” like (insert old white Western European or American cis men, preferably born before 1960).

Here comes the notion of “cultural canon”, grinning widely. Yup, that set of practices becomes an expectation of what and how you should experience any area of the human experience, and they become a sort of “nucleus” of the whole experience, with people playing “defense” around them and culture shifting all around and sometimes across them. This is not exclusive to “high culture”: Have you ever heard about “gatekeeping”? Yeah, same fenomenomenon (Shadwell, of course). Whenever something gets this “shape”, it becomes a “norm”, the “common” thing, the “rule” if you participate in that set of cultural practices.

As every cultural set of practices tends to generate its own “canon”, they also have a lot of practices surrounding it, which are ever changing, shifting, learning from new and old practices, and redefining what everything means in their common/shared space. For example: Neil Gaiman, my beloved, was part of the “comics” frontier when Sandman first appeared, but as he and Alan Moore (yeah, I know he did it first, but Gaiman is my study focus right now, so let me be) and other very talented and interesting people started creating fascinating stuff that hadn’t been done, and they found people who loved it, they not only redefined the world of comics, but became part of the new canon themselves. And then, Neil’s presence in the world of literature and fantasy became widespread and recognized and then revered… And then he is doing it again by adapting his own work to a streaming platform in a serialized way… I hope this explains why I’m growing an obsession with studying Neil Gaiman as an author who crosses through different media: a transmedial auteur, an anomaly in his own right. But that is not an essay for tumblr, but a thesis, one that I don’t know if I’d ever have the time or mental resources to write (being a runaway ex academic with ADHD who works on their own is hard, people). Besides, this was about aging and David Tennant, so let’s cut this tangent short and start talking about our Time Lord and Savior: David Tennant, the king of frontiers.

David Tennant as a Frontier Lord

David Tennant is another fascinating case in this sense, mostly because he is an actor who has been able to build a whole very impressive career through crossing symbolic frontiers. Through his massive filmography (161 roles just for screens, as registered in IMDb) and his stage career (I love this gifset for this exact reason), he has acted his way through almost everything, from classical Shakespeare to improvisational comedy, from procedural police drama to wacky fantasy sci-fi. This has a lot to do with his personality (he loves acting, he decided to pursue acting as a career thanks to his love for Doctor Who, but he is also smart and inquisitive) but, as it happens with a lot of “frontier figures”, it also has a lot to do with “unpredictable” circumstances: less of a strategy, more of an instinct.

David has talked many times about how his impostor syndrome made him feel, for the longest time, that he had to keep accepting roles, because you never know if there is going to be another one after. He is talented and open and curious (this is quite a good interview about his perspective), but this… anxiety? meant that he had also lower quandaries about saying “yes” to roles and projects that were “less consistent” with a typecast (which has been, for the longest time, one of the main strategies to build an acting career). Yeah, he has some defining characteristics that make a role “tennantish” (I’m not starting that tirade here, but yeah, you know that almost fixed set of quirks and bits), but he has also worked his way through many different genres, budgets, styles and complexities. And he has usually been as committed and as professional in a big budget-high stakes-great script sort of situation, as he has been in a highly chaotic-let’s see what sticks-small scale project.

That can be correlated by the way he talks about “acting advice”. “Be on time, learn your lines, treat everyone the same, never skip the lunch queue”… Acting is a job, and he treats it as such. Yeah, he looks for interesting projects anytime he can, but the “down to earth” attitude about it is, once again, not-usual, not-common: pure frontier. Then, when David talks about his own self (specially at a young age), he is pretty clear about his “outsider” or “uncool” status (this interview is fantastic), and how strangely disruptive it was to become not only recognizable, but cool and sexy and… everything else, thanks to Doctor Who. He went from living in the frontier to being put in the canon, but he is still, at heart, a person who is more comfortable not defining himself by that “expected” set of rules.

Him being a very private person, who insists on having a family life that seems, form this distance, stable, loving and absolutely un-showbiz just makes the deal (and the parasocial love and respect) easier to sustain; as does his openness to talk about social and political issues that interest him (passionately, again; against the norm for “well liked celebrity”, again). His colleagues also talk wonders about him, mostly because he is this sort of down-to-earth but also passionate about his craft and easy to work with. Again: not the “norm”, not the “rule” of being such a celebrity.

Many of his fans (should I say that I’m one? Or is it obvious at this point?) find this not only endearing, but comforting: he is a massive star, who has acted in a lot of terrific roles in huge productions… But he feels, at heart, as “one of us”. But he is, also, a well-respected thespian, a Shakespearian powerhouse, an international talent. He lives in a very authentic, but very unstereotipical frontier. And he seems happy about that and has made a career from it. Extensive kudos and all the parasocial love and the amateur-actress mad respect for that.

I should mention, just in passing, that a “natural” archetype for this characters that traverse frontiers… are tricksters. Think again about the “tennantish” characteristics. Here goes another essay I’m not writing right now.

Aging: The Next Frontier

This takes me to the original post that inspired the essay: living in a culture where the “norm” is “being young and famous is a desirable aspiration”, we have a fantastic actor, at peak of his craft, who is in the heart of middle age (past 50, nearing 55). Not only that, but he is an actor with whom at least a couple of generations have grown older: from the ones who feel him as “our contemporary” to the ones who grew up looking at him (like Ncuti Gatwa!).

David, being the frontier person he is, has been navigating this transition in a very “unconventional” way: he came back to the role that made him iconic (The Doctor, now with more trauma!), is starring in another fantasy series about middle-aged looking ethereal beings that at times is an adventure thriller, at times is a comedy of errors and at times is a romcom (having another beautiful trickster of a man as his co-star… There goes another tangent that is an essay); he is playing one of the quintessential Shakespeare roles for middle-aged men (Macbeth), and is, seemingly, having a lot of fun doing a lot of voice acting for animation roles (if you haven’t watched Duck Tales, you’re missing a whole lot of fun, really).

Traditionally, middle aged actors navigate that period of their career trying to reinforce their “still young, thus a celebrity” status (for example, doing a lot of action-packed movies and keep doing their own stunts while seducing women 20-30 years younger than them), or strengthening their “prestige thespian, so now a real culture person” position (fighting for more serious roles, going from comedy to drama, or working their way into The Classics©). Sometimes, they face the internalized societal expectation by also becoming a shipwreck in their personal life (yeah… the stereotype of “getting divorced, having an affair with someone half their age, getting another red convertible, getting in trouble…”) because we don’t have a good “map for aging responsibly” yet as a society. We have been so focused on youth, that we have forgotten how to age.

Again, switching to the personal experience. I was raised as a female-shaped person (yeah, being queer is fun), so part of the experience of growing (and then growing old) has been closely related with that concept from the female point of view. I decided, pretty early on (but not so much, probably 25 years ago), that I wasn’t going to conform to the norm… And that included aging naturally. When I found my first white hair, it was a shock (I was 21 or 22), but I had already seen my father fighting his own hair being white since forever. I decided it was a loss of time, money and effort… And the judgement from people in my generation and in the one that preceded me (my mother, my aunts) was stern and strict: “it will age you, and it will date us. You shouldn’t do that”. Men could do it, given the right age (being over 50) but women must not. Same with wrinkles and sagging and gaining weight and getting “pudgy”. But when men grew older, they needed to make a “show off” of their ability to seduce, to “still be a man”. Aging, then, was undesirable by any standard.

As me and my peers have grown older, and my hair has gotten increasingly silver, there have been women that come to me saying that “I look great” and “they wish they were as brave as me”. I would like to state in front of this jury of my peers (hi, tumblr!) that the only bravery it took was deciding, somewhere between my twenties and my thirties, that I wanted to be as myself as I possibly could, so no bravery at all, just the same lack of understanding of social rules that took me to become interested in… you guessed it, cultural semiotics. We’ve come full circle with this. Now, let’s finish talking about what it means for an aging fan to have an aging star to look up to, shall we?

David Tennant as a cultural Time Lord

I am pretty sure that he wouldn’t have chosen this role for himself (as he wouldn’t have chosen being a massive star just by playing his favorite character and being so talented and charming), but he is, as Loki would say, burdened by glorious purpose. Being “the actor of his generation”, and him crossing so many frontiers with such ease and grace, without even thinking about it too hard, just because he is a hard worker and likes to try new things and is just so good at what he does put him in the exact cultural crossroad for it.

He is not in a sudden need to “resignify himself” as anything: he has already shown his very flexible acting muscles through his very long career. He is not bounded to “keep his public image relevant”: he likes to have his personal life clearly separated from the spotlight, and being married to the brilliant and funny Georgia, who herself grew up with a famous father, so she is no stranger to staying sane and in control in the eye of media, and who manages their social media presence with a good mix of humor and well-set boundaries.

Therefore, he is in a moment where he can (and probably will) chose to do whatever he likes. And he has the public support to do so: he is prestigious and respected, but likes to make fun of himself and is not self-important; he has a lot of awards, but he is also a very likable person with whom most people in the industry enjoy working. And he is up to do a lot of things: heroes, villains, morally grey characters; romance, drama, thriller, fantasy, sci-fi, procedurals, historical fiction, classic plays, silly parts, voice acting… We are going to see him aging on screen and stage, with no playbook: the playbooks were written for people that certainly are not him. And I have some evidence to prove it.

He is starring in a groundbreaking series (yeah, Good Omens) where the protagonists are two middle-aged looking entities, full of queer relationships, written by another trickster. This series, in an on itself, is a showcase for characters that are rule breaking in many ways: in the narrative, by being hereditary enemies who are inevitably linked to one another by a loving bond that may or may not be romantic, but that has been in the making for 6,000 years; in representation, by having the protagonists being represented by a couple of middle aged actors who are “not serious” and “not action” coded, in a role where they are delivering romance, banter, intrigue, joy and a whole other range of emotions that are “not your stereotypical” middle-aged male-lead coded.

He also delivered the baton on a relay race with Doctor Who: he came back after almost 20 years, to bring back the generation who grew up watching him in the role, and deliver us into the arms of Ncuti Gatwa’s 15th Doctor, with the promise of taking a rest and working on getting better from all the trauma The Doctor has endured in 20 years Earth-time (which, as any Doctor Who fan knows, account for centuries of trauma in Doctor’s time). Not your usual Doctor Who Anniversary cameo, but one built to deliver some zeitgeisty emotional health promises that made the specials feel… healing. At least, for some of us.

Even when it wasn’t the hit series it deserved to be, his Phileas Fogg in “Around the World in 80 Days” is also a great delivery of an unconventional middle-aged protagonist, who goes from meek and scared and too worried about societal norms, to a lovely, tender, slightly awkward and daring person, with friends half his age who look at him but are also his peers (another kind of relationship that is not very frequent in media).

And, with all fearlessness, he has played a lively old duck in Duck Tales! Scrooge McDuck has never been a middle-aged character: he is, quite openly, an old gentleman. An adventurer, quirky, with a lot of spunk… but also quite clearly an elder to Huey, Dewey and Louie, and obviously older than Donald Duck (who is also not a young adult himself!). When you watch that series, and if you have the opportunity to catch any glimpse of him behind the scenes while recording the part, you can feel the joy he got from playing the part (and he has said time and again that he IS Scrooge McDuck, so it will become his “recurring bit” for the future).

Hopefully, David (and some other actors and actresses, for sure) will dare to build that new “aging publicly without making an arse of myself” playbook, and I (and I can imagine, many other fans in our middle age, but also fans that are right now leaving behind the “young adult” stage and becoming “adults” fair and square, and others who will arrive to this place at a future time in their lives, so I hope) will be there to bear witness, support, cheer… and learn from the model. Because that’s what fandom is about, but also because that’s how culture itself gets shaped and changes, continuously. And that is exciting and a little scary, and that’s why it is better if we do this together.

And I'd love to imagine diverse (in the full sense of the word) role models for this process and this playbook, too!!!

If you read all the way through this, I'm very grateful, take a cookie, have a gold star and suggest names for our aging interestingly role models on the "non-white-male" side of things!

Class dismissed!!

#david tennant #aging #aging gracefully (or not)#long essay #long post #cultural studies #cultural semiotics #I need someone to pay me for writing this sort of stuff really #when I said I was writing again I meant it #this was 6 pages long in Word #and it includes references #look at my (written) child #the doctorate in cultural studies would never #neil gaiman

107 notes · View notes

drarrypotterrenaissance · 10 months

Text

Magic from the Start

A weekly brunch, a discussion of the things parents hide under their children's pillows and why, accidental magic, and the discovery that Harry James Potter has been this way since the beginning. For @harryjamespotterweek 2023, Day 6 (Brunch, Non-Magical AU) Rated T, 2.6k words. Read on ao3 here

In the aftermath of everything, Harry’s magic had been a bit… odd. It was inconsistent, sometimes almost fighting him and making it difficult to cast even the most basic of spells, and other times acting on his slightest thoughts without him even realizing it, summoning things he vaguely considered getting and conjuring tissues before he had finished sneezing. He’d gone to a few specialists, done some therapeutic magic rehabilitation sessions, and made decent progress on getting back to normal. The overall consensus was that his magic was stronger now that it had been before, and he wasn’t used to the new power running through him, and so his body was alternating attempting to suppress it and just letting it flow freely. Harry was getting better, but sometimes, especially when his friends dragged him out of bed to go to a brunch so early it should still have been called breakfast, he still slipped up.

Draco had hardly finished saying, “Pass the salt,” before the salt cellar had zoomed into his hand, while sugar added itself to Harry’s tea and butter spread itself on his toast. Pansy and Blaise were laughing uproariously, delighted as always by the chance to tease, and Ron seemed to be fighting back laughter too at the maelstrom of breakfast foods and cutlery surrounding his best friend. Hermione and Draco were disposed to be slightly more sympathetic, although they also betrayed him when a dollop of whipped cream from a stack of waffles overshot Harry’s plate and ended up on his nose.

Scowling at all of them, Harry scrubbed his napkin across his face.

“Oh, cheer up,” Pansy said, her face the very picture of cheerful spite, “I’m sure the Fairy Queen will leave you a nice present under your pillow.”

Immediately, all the breakfast chaos surrounding Harry ceased. Ron, Blaise, and Draco continued to laugh, but Hermione seemed just as confused as Harry was.

“What?”

“You’re a bit old for it, but I’m sure the Fairy Queen will still give you a sickle, especially for a display of magic as impressive as that,” Pansy said, and then cut herself off with another peal of laughter.

Harry glanced over at Hermione, and when she didn’t provide him with a reading list, bibliography, and thorough explanation of who the Fairy Queen was and why she would be coming to visit Harry all of a sudden, he turned to Draco.

“Who’s the Fairy Queen?”

Pulling himself together, Draco turned towards Harry.

“You don’t know who the Fairy Queen is?”

Both Harry and Hermione shook their heads. The others’ laughter was fading.

“I guess we’d all grown out of it, by the time we made it to school,” Ron said, with the tone of someone trying to apologize and soften a blow. “But it’s something all wizarding kids know about, I would have assumed that you would have picked it up from somewhere.”

Again, Harry and Hermione shook their heads.

“It’s something that parents do for their children when they’re coming into their magic, they pretend to be the Fairy Queen,” Draco began, before being cut off by Blaise.

“What?!” he cried in faux-scandalized tones. “What do you mean, pretend? The Fairy Queen is real, Draco Malfoy, and if you don’t believe in her she won’t come!”

Blaise and Pansy burst into renewed giggles, while Draco rolled his eyes and continued.

“As I was saying, the Fairy Queen is a being made up by wizarding parents to reward their children when they first show signs of magic. It’s something to be celebrated, of course, and so the story goes that the Fairy Queen, who sprinkles fairy dust on every child at birth, returns to celebrate the blooming of magic in another young wizard. She comes while the child is sleeping, so that no one will see her and capture her, but she always leaves behind a gift of some sort. For some families it’s coins, for some it’s sweets, and for some it’s toys. The present is usually left beside their pillow, or beside the bed for them to find when they wake up.”

Harry had a few memories of Dudley receiving similar treatment for lost teeth in his childhood, but it was Hermione who voiced the comparison.

“Oh! Like the Tooth Fairy!”

The pure bloods at the table looked horrified.

“The what?” Pansy asked.

“The Tooth Fairy,” Hermione explained. “When a muggle child loses a tooth, they put it under their pillow so that the Tooth Fairy will come and take the tooth, leaving money behind.”

Blaise had gently pushed his plate away. “That’s disgusting.”

“What does the Tooth Fairy want with a bunch of kid’s teeth?” Ron asked.

Hermione paused for a moment, considering. “I’m not sure it’s the same in every family, but my parents always told me that she used them to build her palace.”

Draco and Pansy now had looks of disgust to match the one on Blasie’s face.

“Potter,” Draco said seriously, turning to give Harry his full attention, “I know it’s probably still too soon in the relationship to discuss hypothetical future children and parenting techniques, but please promise me that if we have children together you will not build a palace out of their baby teeth.”

“The parents don’t actually build anything out of them, Draco, that’s just what they tell them.”

“Oh, I feel so reassured about how normal and sane this practice is now,” Draco drawled, rolling his eyes again. “What do they do with them then, if they don’t build the supposed tooth castles?”

Harry looked at Hermione for help; he had never seen what Aunt Petunia did with Dudley’s baby teeth, he just remembered Dudley bragging about the money he got the next morning.

“Some parents save them, and some throw them away,” Hermione said, although clearly the idea of keeping a box of baby teeth still didn’t sit well with most of their friends.

“I would like to ban the further discussion of body part collection from this and all future brunches,” Pansy said, taking a delicate sip of her tea. “Let’s go back to making fun of Potter.”

Harry made a face at her, but he was starting to see her point. He’d never thought much about the Tooth Fairy before, but he was certainly glad he hadn’t ever come across a box of teeth while cleaning the house on Privet Drive.

“Going back to an earlier subject,” Blaise suggested, “What was everyone’s first accidental magic? Do you remember?”

Pansy beamed, and Draco groaned.

“I remember Pansy’s, I was there for it. She was a little terror even then, and a spoiled brat to boot.”

Pansy’s smile grew even more smug. “I was a precocious child, there’s no denying that. Draco here is just jealous because my magic manifested before his.”

“By one week!”

“Nine whole days, Draco.”

Ron quickly interrupted their bickering. “What happened?”

“Imagine, if you will, a beautiful day in late May,” Pansy said, spreading her hands in a dramatic fashion. “The air was fresh with potential, and the flowers had come into bloom not long before, in clear anticipation of my prowess.”

“She thought she saw a diamond and the bottom of the Manor’s koi pond and threw all the water and the fish into the air and onto the lawn, only to discover it was a piece of quartz.”

Pansy glared at Draco, who simply raised his eyebrows in return. There was a beat of silence, and then Ron laughed.

“Really?”

“Oh, believe it, Weasley. The house elves were running around like mad, trying to get the fish back into the pond and fill it with water again. My mother complained all summer that her hydrangeas never flourished properly that year.”

“And Draco cried because one of the fish landed on his head,” Pansy added, smiling nastily.

“I hate you,” Draco said, and Pansy cackled.

“Hermione, you’ll like mine,” Ron said, clearly eager to avoid a repeat of the Brunch Incident from three months ago.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I should have told you ages ago, it’s proof we were meant to be together from the start, I could have saved a lot of time at school if I’d just told you about how my magic manifested. You would have been begging me to go out with you.”

Hermione pursed her lips. “Go on, then.”

“See, mum used to read us stories at naptime, to help us fall to sleep, and dad would read to us before bed. It worked pretty well, since we all had staggered bedtimes, but in the week before Charlie went off to school things got a little chaotic. Mum had helped me clean my teeth and put on my pajamas, but dad never came in to read to me, so I pulled a book off the shelf and my magic charmed it to read out loud to me. When dad finally remembered that he’d forgotten to say goodnight to me, he panicked halfway up the stairs because heard a stranger’s voice coming from my room and thought I was in danger. He burst in with his wand drawn, only to find me curled up in bed, following along as the book read itself to me.”

Hermione stared at him for a moment, then leaned in and kissed him soundly.

“No kissing at the brunch table!” Draco cried. Harry felt a streak of savage joy too, Hermione was usually the one chastening the two of them for getting a little too close, it was nice to see it turned back on her for a change.

She pulled back from Ron, slightly pink cheeked, but looking very pleased.

“What was your first accidental magic?” Ron asked her.

“Oh! Well, it actually does go along with yours quite nicely,” Hermione said, but then Pansy interrupted.

“Wait, how did your parents handle it? I mean, you didn’t find out about magic until you were eleven, right? What do muggles do when their kids start shooting off spells when they’re still too young to know about Hogwarts?”

“They were certainly confused,” Hermione said with a bit of a wry grin. “Someone had given me this little book lamp, the type that clips onto the book you’re reading so you can read in bed, and I would use it to read books under the covers after my parents had put me to bed. I was fairly young, maybe four years old, and so I wasn’t that great at being quiet or hiding what I was doing. My parents were pleased that I liked to read, of course, but they couldn’t have me staying up all night, and so they started taking the batteries out of the lamp each night.”

“What are batteries?” Blaise asked.

“Oh, I know this one!” Draco said. “They’re things that muggles put into ec-lec-trik-al devices that give them energy!”

Harry kissed him on the cheek and whispered, “Good job, love,” in his ear, and Draco preened.

“Yes, exactly,” Hermione said, returning to her story. “So, the light shouldn’t have worked without them, but they kept finding me reading with it each night anyway. Then, they tried taking the lamp itself away from me, but it kept appearing back in my bed by the next morning anyway. They assumed it was faulty wiring and were quite scared that it might be dangerous, so eventually they just put me to bed half an hour earlier each night and let me read with the light on so I’d at least be safe.”

Harry grinned. “It’s nice to know that you’ve always been yourself, Hermione. And I see how you managed to read the entire course list by the time you got on the train, too!”

Draco turned to Harry then and asked gently, “What about you? Your aunt must have known about magic, growing up with your mother - did she tell your uncle? What sort of accidental magic did you do?”

Everyone was looking at him, and Harry didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t had happy, exciting celebrations of his magic, or his cleverness, or anything else even close to that as a child. He hadn’t even had a visit from the Tooth Fairy. But his friends were there, waiting to hear what he would say, and Ron and Hermione looked so ready to be supportive no matter what he said, and Draco’s thumb was stroking Harry’s knee almost absentmindedly, and so Harry said, “Er, I mostly got into and out of trouble.”

Ron chuckled at that, and Draco gave him a small smile.

“Well, no surprises there, Potter. What havoc did you wreak?”

“I’m not really sure what my first bout of accidental magic was,” Harry began slowly, “but I remember shrinking a sweater that my aunt was trying to make me wear. It was horrible, and I made it so she couldn’t even get it over my head. She was so mad, but said that it must have shrunk in the wash.”

“Are you telling us you actually had fashion sense at one point in your life?” Pansy said, and Harry cracked a smile.

“I have fashion sense now,” Harry responded.

“No, you have me, and I tell you what to wear,” Draco said, which was unfortunately too true to dispute.

“Anyway, I think that was some of the first magic I did, but a year later I grew back all of my hair overnight. My aunt cut off everything except for my bangs, to hide my scar, because she was sick of how unruly it was and didn’t want people at school to see. I was so worried the other kids would make fun of me, but it had all grown back perfectly the next morning.”

Draco gave a theatrical groan and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “So I’ve been wasting my conditioner on you for nothing!”

“After that, a bunch of strange things happened at school. Stuff would spill on Dudley and his friends when they tried to bully people, and one time I was running away from them and suddenly ended up on the roof of the school kitchens. Oh, and I accidentally set a boa constrictor free from the zoo once.”

“I don’t believe it,” Draco said. His tone was exasperatedly fond, and everyone else was nodding in agreement. “You’ve really been like this since birth, haven’t you?”

“Like what?” Harry asked, perplexed.

“‘Like what?’ he says, as if he doesn’t know. Like you! Stubborn, reckless, incredibly powerful, and determined to protect others. You’re ridiculous, it beggars belief.” Draco’s tone was scoffing, but his smile was soft on his face, and Harry leaned into him as he put his arm over the back of his chair.

“He blew up his aunt once, too,” Ron added, to the clear amazement of everyone else present. “Sent her right into the sky like a balloon, they had to send the magic reversal squad and the obliviators to sort it all out.”

“Of course, that was after he had started at Hogwarts,” Hermione pointed out, “so Harry himself didn’t have to be obliviated.”

“Oh my goodness,” said Blaise, shock and awe written clear across his face. “I don’t think I’ve ever given our professors enough credit for how brave they were, facing down your teenage angst every day. Snape was lucky you didn’t do him in on a weekly basis, if you were really that powerful.”

Ron’s face lit up. “He came close though once, do you remember? In sixth year?”

“Yes! The whole school was talking about it! I only wish I could have seen it myself,” Draco said wistfully. “‘There’s no need to call me sir, professor’, honestly, that might have been the highlight of that entire year.”

Even Hermione started laughing at Draco’s impression of Harry’s moody teenager voice, and as Harry squeezed Draco’s hand and laughed along with them, he thought how glad he was to live in a world with magic.

#hjpweek2023 #drarry fic #harry potter fanfiction #brunch #non-magical au (not really but it is the trope that inspired me)#accidental magic #my writing #my fic

44 notes · View notes

phaerlax · 5 months

Note

you as the WolfBoyGuy and me as someone who has just recently seen the puppy light, do you have any tips or what you'd consider Required Reading to get a good grip on writing wolf boys? moreso karu than garu just because i personally have a hard time writing dudes with as much bluster and "doesn't tend to default to conventionally agreed on niceties". i have (admittedly mild) torments I'd like to put him through >_>

Anon is asking me about blorbo... I have been training for this for so long... behold now the ramblings of a man possessed by two wolves. I'll talk a bit about how I approach writing Karu and then include some curated recs.

It took me some time to really get going on wolfboy fics; I also found it challenging to handle Karu's characterization. Two big reasons why:

Tsunderes are just difficult to do if you're grounded in realism. It's a very 'anime' archetype and people don't behave quite like that. This makes it harder to naturally reach for reasonable/appropriate responses when putting the character in situations. The big want/think/say/do splits can also complicate straightforward scenarios (e.g. the character wants something and does what he needs to do in order to get it. This path is often closed to the tsundere).

The game gives little insight into Karu's inner world. NU: Carnival is very dialogue-heavy in its narrative. When we do get introspection, it's often Eiden-focused. This means we basically never get to see the thought process that leads Karu to act this way or that, except in the rare instances in which he talks to himself (like in some H scenes when he goes "ugh it feels so good but-").

The style that I ended up developing for my angry wolf boy writings follows these principles:

Keep him silly. This is because I fundamentally see Karu as a comical character. Yeah, his personality can be traced back to traumas and there's a lot of interesting stuff to explore in that regard, but I am not personally interested in that tbh. The reason I love him is the wacky nonsense and ridiculous behavior that we see in the game. It was at first sight for me. I didn't need depth and I still don't XD Any advice and references I provide are skewed by that. I have a preference for almost never taking him seriously.

Mind his 'narrativization' tendencies. Karu is comically very enamored by the idea/narrative that he's a mighty warrior with many great skills who will conquer humanity and who should be respected and served. On some level, he knows this isn't entirely true, so he will sometimes (try to) avoid situations that would bring attention to his shortcomings. But most often he's trying to prove himself and get others to share his narrative. When something or someone reinforces the narrative, he gets proud, pleased or happy-flustered. When something or someone goes against the narrative, he gets annoyed and angry-flustered. He is very good at ignoring reality, however. Even though he'll seemingly take exception to every little slight, he moves on very quickly and pretends nothing happened. And though he's stubborn, he's also willing to surrender, cut his losses and 'try another day' when he's foiled.

Mix his narrativization with the narration a lot. This kind of free indirect discourse is just my style in general, but with Karu I find myself using it more intensely, to such an extent that the narration can get quite dialogue-like in how it expresses his thoughts. When I want to portray a 'tsundere stumble' moment, I sometimes make the narration interrupt itself as Karu consciously aborts a line of thinking that would lead him to unacceptable conclusions.

Let him just be rude for no reason and with little consequence. Karu's default way of addressing and dealing with people (other than Kuya) is rudeness. At best, he attempts some form of condescension in which the reason he's doing something 'nice' is because you're so weak and he's so awesome or whatever. Most characters seem to simply not mind his behavior and, again, it's usually played for laughs anyway.

Bibliography of Karu Studies

Keep in mind that many Karu fics are kuyaru, and Karu in kuyaru is quite different from the core of the character, since he's uniquely eager to please Kuya. Still, even kuyarus can have some nice insight.

who let the dogs out has a lot of juicy Karu inner conflict, and it even explores the ways in which such hangups make him outwardly grumpier. Due to kuyaru, it ultimately leads him to a place of submission, but his initial thoughts are very in-character.

Baser Instincts is a kuyaru in which Kuya gets to see the pups in a new light, because they help him in a difficult situation. It's another great source of inspiration for Karu struggling to express his feelings.

Bow Down! explores how he might react to Eiden letting him top, in a very true-to-character way.

Lonely at the Top is Karu/Dante, which means you get to see Karu at his prickliest and most insufferable, and how that can be managed.

A Matter of Pride is a good example of the 'concessions' dynamic that can be done in Eiden/Karu.

Goshujin-Ai is an older Karu/Yakumo and a good example of Karu feeling comfortable and doing the 'attempts at condescension' thing I mentioned before.

Slave number one, rub my chest again is me speculating on what it might look like for Karu to ask Eiden to do things to him and try to control sex.

Warden slander wolf Commander is probably a good example of the 'fine I give up but I'll get you next time' potential of Karu, as well as the kind of bleed-heavy narration I talked about.

Master, do you have another wolf besides me?! delves into Karu's potential for jealousy as a way of expressing affection. It's pretty canon-compliant because most of it is adapted from NEON Carnival.

There are many other fics in the Karufic Archive, but I think the ones above are among the best for the purposes of thinking about the writing.

Please feel free to talk to me non-anonymously if you ever want to discuss wolf boy content! As you can see I am cursed with thoughts and need places to put them. I'm also always very happy to do anything that I can to shepherd and sponsor GaruKaru content; if you go ahead with your impulse to write about them (please do) and want a beta reader, don't hesitate to ask~

#nu carnival #nu carnival fanfic #nu carnival karu

14 notes · View notes

thegrapeandthefig · 10 months

Note

hey! i've been reading about the judges of the dead and i've seen triptolemos be mentioned as the judge presiding over the initiates of the mysteries but i'm having trouble finding sources. do you know if he was officially considered a judge or not? thanks!

Hi! As far as I know, the only mention of Triptolemus being a judge comes from Plato, in Apology 41a:

|41a If, when someone arrives in the world of Hādēs, he is freed from those who call themselves jurors [dikastai] here, and finds the true [alētheîs] judges [dikastai] who are said to give judgment [dikazein] over there [ekeî]—Minos and Rhadamanthus and Aiakos and Triptolemos, and other demigods [hēmi-theoi] who were righteous [dikaioi] in their own life—that would not be a bad journey [apo-dēmiā], now would it? To make contact with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer—who of you would not welcome such a great opportunity? Why, if these things are true [alēthē], let me die again and again.

Dr. Patrick Hunt has an article published here on the passage that might be relevant to your research as well.

More generally on the topic, Jan N. Bremmer says this in Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World (go grab it, it's in open access):

The connection of Eleusis with agriculture is also manifest in the equally prominent position in Eleusis of Triptolemos, the inventor of agriculture, who only in the fourth century becomes a judge in the underworld, and by the presence on a fourth-century Apulian vase of personified Eleusis sitting next to Eniautos, ‘(The products of the) Year’, holding a horn of plenty that sprouts ears of wheat.

Which is an interesting comment because it also lines up with a change in his cult in Athens at the same period, as indicated by Isabelle K. Raubitschek and Antony E. Raubitschek in The Mission of Triptolemos:

The transformation of Triptolemos from an instructor of the Athenian farmers in the art of agriculture into a hero, charged by Demeter to spread the knowledge of farming throughout the world, took place, according to the vases illustrating this mission, between 510 and 480 B.C., when renewed activity is attested both in Eleusis and in the Eleusinion in Athens. This propaganda effort with its emphasis on the Mission of Triptolemos beyond the borders of Attica may be connected with the claims of the newly founded Athenian democracy to be the mother city of all the Ionians.

Which leads to comment on the difficulty of officiality in ancient Greek religion. There is no direct mention of Triptolemus as a judge outside of Plato in the sources we know of that I could find, but his story otherwise predates the 5th century by far. Everything here seems to indicate a shift in worship that attributed this new role to him in Athenian context. And from that point on, it's possible that the idea of him as a judge spread across Greece through the cultural impact of Athens.

To add to uncertainty, we do not know enough of the specifics of his cult within the Eleusinian Mysteries to know if there was an evolution in his role during the mysteries themselves.

Before I wrap this up, just a headsup that the most important study (to date) on Triptolemus was written by Gerda Schwarz in 1987. It was never translated from German and I couldn't find a copy online but I noticed that the German Wikipedia page is more detailed as a result of that work being in the bibliography.

#triptolemus #eleusinian mysteries #demeterdeity

14 notes · View notes

diiirge · 1 month

Text

Posting these here...,

Part 1: Introduction to Chapter 12

youtube

Part 2: Chapter 13 to Chapter 25

youtube

I'm sure that there MUST be another Britehead on this website that has posted these, or the existence of this audio is just Common Knowledge that was apparently Uncommon for me, but I wanted to share regardless!! I find audio doesn't suit me as well as a paperback does but I still wanna have this Tangibly Somewhere.

I will say this: if you, reader, are someone who is new to Billy Martin, DO search around for content warnings. Guy was a white horror author in the 90s (DESPERATELY resisting the urge to ramble about his entire bibliography), shit goes unchecked, sensibilities change. My assumption is that there are sufficient warnings Out There, but if prompted, I can gather up a list of them. That being said, his prose is sumptuous and delicious and sometimes purplish like a bruise. Seriously, even down to the BJ scenes. Definitely not something you should consume as a child, or at the very least not in school (god knows I've read the most egregious shit on 7th-8th grade school nights). Anyways, I'll yap no more. Not the biggest audiobooker in the world, but I figure this is worth putting out there..

#kidney.txt #kidney.wav #or something #drawing blood #drawing blood pzb #poppy z brite #billy martin #pzb #audiobooks #the description of Missing Mile really struck a chord with me too #as a southern queer it's so delicious

1 note · View note

thelivingautomaton · 4 months

Text

Kristina reads King, aka: "holy shit, you're actually doing it?"

okay I felt like this uh, "project" of mine probably deserved at least an introductory post before just jumping straight in to it, SO: hello tumblr followers. my name is Kristina, and whether or not you're a long-time listener, you probably are already aware that I fucking love Stephen King books.

which isn't to say I think they're enjoyable for everyone equally, or that they don't have problems. (like...SO many problems.) but like, I got into Stephen King when I was about twelve (with The Dark Tower, which is kind of like teaching someone to swim by throwing them in the deep end of the pool first go. I thought it was awesome) and something about his books just makes them really special to me and close to my heart, which is why I keep defending this old man who probably has more money than God and therefore doesn't need a weirdo on the Internet saying why his books are Good, Actually (Even If They're Not "Good")

anyway, a combination of "seeing recurring posts on tumblr ragging on King's writing" plus "coping with my impending PhD dissertation defense via speculative fiction escapism" (long story) has led me to finally commit to my long-running goal of reading every single Stephen King book, in publication order. despite enjoying his bibliography I actually have a lot of big gaps in my Stephen King experience, especially of his "classic" works, so I'm excited to read them and see his style evolve as I progress!

I'll probably make a post about each book as I read it, but below the cut is a list of the King books I've already read (almost all of which I'll likely reread for this) and my brief recollections/thoughts about them

The Stand -- I've read it at least twice and tell basically everyone I know to read it. unironically love this book to pieces. also reading it when I was 13 is kind of what made me get into virology in the first place

The Dark Tower series -- also read it twice. deeply important books to me, despite (or because of) their many flaws. will be super interesting having the books interspersed among King's other work (see: the big gaps between books 3/4 and 4/5), although hopefully that also means I'll get a lot more of the connected universe references this time around, LMFAO

The Shining -- read this in high school I think? I remember enjoying it a lot, even though I'd seen the Kubrick film first and liked that way more. definitely going to watch the miniseries after rereading it this time

The Talisman -- I actually just finished reading this for the first time so it's probably the only book I'll skip for this project. it's fucking incredible and made me cry like a bitch, highly recommend it if you like when Stephen King gets into fantasy and/or weird Americana road trip stuff

Eyes of the Dragon -- also read this in high school sometime after the Dark Tower, thought it slapped

The Dark Half -- one of King's most criminally underrated books, I am so serious. feel like I read most or all of this one of the times my parents would drop me off at Barnes and Noble for 6 hours to hang out and read

From a Buick 8 -- I feel like I also read this in high school? thought it was a little underwhelming

Lisey's Story -- the other criminally underrated Stephen King book, oh my GOD I just know this one is going to wreck me on rereading. also the miniseries that Apple TV put out with Julianne Moore was really really good

11/22/63 -- kind of drags in parts but most of it is really good

Revival -- definitely remember reading this when it came out, probably one of the few King books that drags in the middle but then fucking nails the ending. also one of the few times King actually genuinely scared me with his writing LOL

Gwendy's Button Box -- I think I also read this one in a bookstore binge-read since it's short and also has Randall Flagg in it. I liked it, I think?

The Institute -- read this in undergrad and thought it was great

Fairy Tale -- I got like halfway through this while in grad school before stalling out and getting distracted, but it really was quite good from what I remember

Night Shift, and various other short stories -- I would flip through Stephen King's short story collections in my high school library when I was bored and needed to kill twenty minutes LOL. I think my two favorite short stories of his are "The Raft" and "Survivor Type", and my hot take is that I thought "The Jaunt" was just alright

so: no Carrie, Cujo, Pet Sematery, IT, etc etc etc...which means I have a hell of a ride ahead of me

#automatonic posts #Kristina reads King #stephen king #also i'll probably watch the assorted adaptations of king books as i read them #though iirc the only one where i've watched the movie and not read the book is carrie #anyway i just got the ebook of carrie let's fucking go bay-bee

0 notes

walkonpooh · 10 months

Text

Okay, so Bryan Smith was pitched to me as someone who is as good as it gets for replacing Richard Laymon. Richard Laymon's early work was very schlocky. Laymon expressed an affinity for movies like "I Spit on Your Grave" for instance and you can see those influences in a lot of his early work. So if Bryan Smith is like Laymon. He's like that Laymon, meets Rob Zombie's films, at least in Depraved.

There was sooooo much going on. Let me see if I can summerize; Hopkins Bend is a Tennessee town filled with backwoods deformed inbreds and a sinister and corrupt local police force that captures unsuspecting travelers and puts them into a city wide conspiracied sex trafficking ring. So there's like a confluence series of events going on; the first is Jessica was sexually assaulted by Hoke. She decides to take justice into her own hands and has kidnapped Hoke and plans to murder him in the woods of Hopkins Bend.

Peter and Megan are traveling to a music festival, Peter decides to take a detour that should save them an hour of their trip. They stop for gas at a local general store in Hopkins Bend. Finally, there is the Kincher clan, the severely inbred clan of locals in Hopkins Bend. There's like rival gangs in Hopkins Bend who vie to get "outsiders" for their depraved purposes. There's an upcoming festival in the town, where the assumption early on is they're going to be eating these outsiders, among other things. One of the Kincher's Abby, is having second thoughts after she witnessed her clan kill a young boy. Abby is talking with Michelle, the Kincher's "dinner" for the upcoming festival about potentially leaving the area.

And that's not even everything happening here. There's like so many plot threads, it reminds me of Laymon's The Woods Are Dark quite a bit. It's pretty much what you expect from a 90s splatterpunk book, I think I found the writing pretty generic for the most part, I think this was early in Smith's bibliography, so I'll excuse that.

I wouldn't say I "liked" the book, but it's readable in spite of the events happening in the book, because it seems so over-the-top. I think I'll try to find something Smith fans consider better and try to evaluate whether I want to read more of Smith based on that, though this is one recommended when you try to figure out what you want to read from Smith, so I don't know how to feel about that, I'll reserve judgement until I read one more book.

#halloween reading 2023 #bryan smith #splatterpunk #horror books #horror fiction #horror

0 notes

journeyofwatchingonepiece · 2 years

Text

The September Dock

The summer is winding down and fall is creeping itself upon us. On my commute to work, I noticed that some leaves had already turned orange, but it was still hot like any other summer day. And midnight will close out August and begin September. With that, we gotta talk about…

The journey thus far…

Since I started this herculean task back in late June I have watched 17 episodes of One Piece. I enjoyed watching every episode of the show, despite how goofy it is, the show’s silliness is charming as an adult. Honestly, I think I am enjoying One Piece more now than when I was a younger anime enthusiast who listened to the opinions of various anime critics. That might be a topic for another time. I have identified two favorite characters so far Roronoa Zoro and Usopp, the former because he is an attractive character and the former because I can see myself a lot in him. Of course, I’m only one-sixth into the East Blue Arc and haven’t even cracked the grand narrative of One Piece. This will now lead to how I feel I performed for this blog and well�� I definitely bit off more than I could chew. I had to come to grips that I am someone that is slow to adapt to new routines along with being terrible at not overworking myself to a quick burn-out. This has been a consistent problem, but I believe I have identified an effective solution I have played around with in August.

The journey going forward…

It is not too late to turn things around, I can continue this blog, but I also have to address, at least to myself, some serious hurdles. The main hurdle is I am increasing my workload where I will begin to work for about 55-60 hours a week. That increase in work will mean I will be able to be financially secure and will hopefully be less stressed about finances. Of course, this means a sacrifice in my hobbies, but we will get to the specifics of that in a bit. The secondary hurdle is that I want to return to my hobbies of writing and drawing again, I already have something big planned for September 6th (despite me botching it ;-;). It has always been a passion for me, but the hurdle comes from juggling those hobbies with working on this blog. Now let’s discuss that.

The goal of the journey…

The goal of this particular blog has always been to finish One Piece and with the latest developments in the story it is safe to say that One Piece will end “soon”. That means we can get a tangible number to complete One Piece which is a lot more reassuring than unknown. Some of my own personal goals are to create and maintain a routine and schedule as well as return to enjoying my hobbies.

Planning out the journey…

Scheduling

As I have mentioned in my August update, for peace of mind I have chosen not to work on the blog or any hobbies when I have two appointments allotted for the day. With my workload increasing soon for the sake of my mental health this will be the case going forward. I can speculate if things go to plan I will be able to update the blog 2-3 times a week.

Reading and Writing

I like to read! I also like to write! Like most people. But seriously I want to get back into reading and writing, as both activities are fun for me. It’s fun to write down ideas and have my partner question my sanity after they read my stories. Also, reading is just good and fun to do and helps me become a better writer. Currently, my goal is to read Grady Hendrix’s entire fiction bibliography, I own all his books, and now is the time to read them. To tackle this, my idea is to write for 15 minutes every day and to read a chapter of a book before writing and after drawing.

Drawing

I want to draw! I just bought these colored pencils and it is so much fun playing with them. The feeling of adding life to line drawings is so satisfying. I have created this weird “learning” list of things to draw or do based on art YouTubers I follow. While it is slow I am in the process of learning anatomy and possibly being able to draw illustrations again. I also want to add art to this blog, but that will be a task for another time.

The journey resumes……………………………………………………

Currently, I have watched episode 17 of One Piece, however, I have to finish writing the blog for 16, but I am just about to leave the Syrup village! Let’s see what September has to offer.

Thank you for your patience.

Written by @exdbonanote

#The Journey of Watching One Piece

1 note · View note

margridarnauds · 4 years

Text

So, You Wanna Study Irish Mythology?

One of the questions I get hit with a lot is “If I’m getting into Irish Mythology, what sources do you recommend?” It’s a sad, sad truth about the field that a lot of really valuable info is kept locked away in books and journals that the lay person wouldn’t know about (and then we wonder why information about the field is so bad.) So, I decided to compile a list of sources that I’ve personally used and found helpful in my time. It’s not a complete bibliography because, frankly, that would take up a TREMENDOUS amount of space and you’d be scrolling forever to find what you wanted, and I don’t AGREE with every single thing they say, and it’s by no means exhaustive (keep in mind: scholars from all over the field use mythological texts to study things as diverse as law, geography, tribal names, material culture, etc. and here I’m mainly focusing on sources that are JUST mythological-focused) but they’re a good starting point to forming your own opinions. The journal articles are, tragically, generally kept confined to academia, but....perhaps....if you were to ask around, someone might be able to provide you with a copy. As a whole, Celticists tend to be quite generous when it comes to sharing articles.

List subject to change, check back as time goes on to see if I’ve added anything. Also, as always, feel free to either drop me an ask or a pm if you’re curious about digging further into a given text/figure. I can’t act as a consultant on a religious question; I’m a very firm atheist with all the spirituality of a dull spoon, except with the existence of ghosts. My interest in the Tuatha Dé is purely scholarly; all that I can say is what I know about these topics from the perspective of the medieval sources, but I can definitely do my best on that one front, and I won’t reject anyone who has a different interest in the Tuatha Dé from contacting me.

This list only deals with the Mythological Cycle, not the other strands of the literary tradition that is generally if not uncontroversially referred to as “Irish Mythology”. For Fenian Cycle traditions, a similar bibliography has been compiled by Dr. Natasha Sumner of Harvard, here.

Editions/Translations of Texts (many of these are available at UCC’s CELT archive or on Irish Sagas Online):

Tochmarc Étaíne, Osborn Bergin and Richard Best

Cath Maige Tuired, Elizabeth Gray (If you can and you’re serious about the field, I highly recommend getting the actual Irish Text Society Edition, which includes a wonderful index of every time a given figure shows up in other sources. An absolute must for a mythographer.)

Lebor Gabála Érenn, J.R.S Macalister, 5 vols. (The entirety of this is available on archive.org. Personally...while the rest of it is obviously important and worthy of study, if you’re interested in just the mythological stuff, I recommend Volume IV, which includes both the Fir Bolg and the Tuatha Dé. Unless you really, really want to read five volumes of medieval Irish pseudohistory, the last volume of which was finished posthumously.) i ii iii iv v

The Metrical Dinshenchas, Edward Gwynn. (5 vols.) (These are difficult, with many scholars outright ignoring them except when absolutely necessary. These are in a later form of Irish, which means that, while some of the contents in them could very well be Pre-Christian in nature, they very much do reflect a later medieval world. Some of them are just as much about contemporary politics as they are about mythology, and many of them also bring in content from the Ulster Cycle and the Fenian Cycle. My personal favorites to look up are Tailtiu, Carn Hui Néit, Duirgen, and Carmun, though there are MANY others.) i ii iii iv v

“The First Battle of Moytura”, John Fraser (Note: It’s a VERY late text, with the question of the Fir Bolg/Tuatha Dé battle and how far the tradition really goes back being one that’s very important to keep in mind. It’s a personal favorite of mine. But it’s very late.)

Baile in Scáil, Kevin Murray (Thurneyson also did an older edition that’s more readily accessible, hence why I linked it here, but Murray is the most recent and up to date.)

“How the Dagda got his magic staff”, Osborn Bergin

Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann, Richard Duffy (This is an Early Modern Irish text, so it was written down comparatively late. That doesn’t mean that there’s NO mythological content here, it’s a personal favorite of mine, but it means that it very much reflects the cultural context of around....the 15th-17th century or thereabouts. It’s very chaotic, very violent, and the heroic figures are....not....heroic.)

Scél Tuáin Meic Chairill, John Carey

Echtra Nerai, it’s available in a fairly recent translation by John Carey in Celtic Heroic Age (pub. 2003) , listed below, though Kuno Meyer also did an edition/translation for it that I’ve linked to here.

Books:

Proinsias Mac Cana, Celtic Mythology (Personally, I’d recommend this one first - It’s designed for someone who isn’t a specialist and, while a lot of what he’s saying has been disputed back and forth, it’s still a handy primer and will get you into the myths.)

John Koch and John Carey, The Celtic Heroic Age (Once you have an idea of what you’re looking at, I recommend this one, since it’s a sourcebook. A TON of material from across the Celtic world, featuring classical sources, medieval Irish sources, and Welsh, all of it in one place.)

Mark Williams, Ireland’s Immortals (I personally recommend you read this one after you read CHA, giving you a bit of context for what Williams is saying here.)

O’Rahilly, Early Irish History and Mythology (note: A lot of what he says here is no longer considered recent in the field, but his knowledge of his own sources is, frankly, without any other peer. Use with a grain of salt)

John Carey, The Mythological Cycle of Medieval Irish Literature

Kim McCone, Pagan Past, Christian Present

Koch, Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia

Articles:

John Carey, “Myth and Mythography in ‘Cath Magh Tuired’”

John Carey, “Donn, Amairgen, Ith and the Prehistory of Irish Pseudohistory”

Proinsias Mac Cana, “Aspects of the theme of King and Goddess in Irish Literature”

Máire Herbert, “Goddess and king: the sacred marriage in early Ireland.”

Gregory Toner, “Macha and the invention of myth”

Elizabeth A. Gray, “Cath Maige Tuired: myth and structure“

Thomas Charles-Edwards, “Tochmarc Étaíne: a literal interpretation”

Tómas O’Cathasaigh, “Cath Maige Tuired as Exemplary Myth”

Joseph Nagy, “Close encounters of the traditional kind in medieval Irish literature”

Mark Scowcroft, “Leabhar Gabhála. Part I: the growth of the text”

Mark Scowcroft, “Leabhar Gabhála. Part II: the growth of the tradition”

Joseph Nagy, “‘Talking myth’ in medieval Irish literature.”

John Carey, “The Location of the Otherworld in Irish Tradition”

Máire Bhreathnach, “The sovereignty goddess as goddess of death?“

John Carey, “Notes on the Irish war-goddess.”

Veronica Philipps, “Exile and authority in Lebor gabála Érenn”

Kevin Murray, “Sources of Irish mythology. The significance of the dinnṡenchas”

#gaelpol #celtic studies #irish mythology #celtic mythology #the mythological cycle #gaelic polytheism #celtic reconstructionism #long post

3K notes · View notes

pub-lius · 3 years

Note

Yo I haven't read Chernow's bios for a while and they were really my first introduction into the AmRev and shit but anygay- Could you give me a quick list of some of the reasons he's shitty at this? I know he is but it's been years and yeah

I am so. glad. you. asked. I have been compiling a mental list of his bs for the past year. (I'm only going to speak on Alexander Hamilton because it's the only one I've read so far).

Now, let me say a few nice things about the bastard before I talk about why I hate him. He goes really in depth, and I appreciate at least someone making the effort. He's clearly put a lot into his writing, and as a writer, I can appreciate that. He's also done a lot of research, and you can't not respect that. He's also very eloquent and clearly a very intelligent person. I don't think he shouldn't have written history books, since they are very influential books that have a lot of information, but they're still shit <3 (just my educated opinion)

Despite all the research he clearly does, he really wants you to believe whatever story he decides is the most entertaining. A lot of the time he will over exaggerate certain aspects, burying the facts of the matter in his ideal version of the events. Most authors prioritize the facts, and then give what they think might be the most accurate. Chernow still proposes alternative explanations, but in such small degrees that you've forgotten them by the end of the paragraph.

Speaking of paragraphs, he has too many. So many of them are repeating the same information, and not adding anything substantial. I know I'm not the best with brevity myself, but holy shit bro, shut up. His book could be easily cut in half if he just. stopped. talking. about. THE SAME THINGS

Also, for a man with such definite claims, he certainly cites a lot of other secondary sources. He does cite a lot of primary sources too, but there are. so many secondary sources in his notes and bibliography. I don't have as much of a problem with this, it just makes it hard to find definite evidence of the stories he tells.

We also need to talk about his glorification, of Hamilton and Washington specifically, more so Washington. He acknowledges some things Hamilton did wrong (at least at the point where I am in the book, which at the beginning of the 1790s, before a lot of Hamilton's controversy), but he largely glosses over them. He also exaggerates Hamilton's abolitionist beliefs. With Washington, he glorifies him a lot more. Now, Washington is very easy to glorify, since you can justify most things with "he was trying his best", but he still wasn't perfect, or even close. He was kind of a dickbag sometimes.

Also he has a weird obsession with giving Hamilton and Burr a lovers to enemies storyline, it's really annoying. Every five seconds he's like "here's what's CRAZY guys... while hamilton was having explosive diarrhea... burr was.... TAKING A PISS!!!!! ISNT THAT CRAZY THAT THEY WOULD BOTH USE A CHAMBERPOT AT THE SAME TIME AND THEN DUEL EACH OTHER??????" Which kind of makes it seem like Burr and Hamilton were more connected throughout their entire lives, when uh, they weren't. Like at all. And it makes it seem like Burr betrayed Hamilton, which explains why the musical makes him look like some kind of Judas.

Also I hate the way he talks about the women in Hamilton's life. Especially Eliza and Angelica. He makes it seem like they only existed to further Hamilton's empathetic, but horny character that he's trying to portray. The way he talks about them makes it seem like they weren't their own people. (i feel like i don't even need to mention how he dedicated half a chapter to Hamilton and Angelica's alleged emotional affair, but only a page to his relationship with John Laurens, who maintained, at the very least, a homoerotic "friendship" for like six years. whoops i did it anyway).

Now, part of me wants to go chapter-by-chapter calling out his bullshit, but these pretty much sum up the entire book (or at least the half I've managed to struggle through) because it is. SO. REPETITIVE. It's just the same things, but slowly moving through the timeline at a snails pace. I highly dislike Chernow's writing, and I don't recommend it if you already have a good understanding of whatever his book is about, but if you want to learn a lot of information from one source, go for it!! You'll learn a lot of really interesting things, just keep in mind that his writing isn't the most accurate, and to always fact check historical facts even if they're not Chernow. It's very important to try to be as accurate as possible when dealing with real people (unless ofc you're not portraying it as truth). Question everything, it's how you learn!!

I hope this helps, and thanks for the ask, bestie!!!

#alexander hamilton #george washington #ron chernow #books #american history #history #literature #sorry this is long #but you triggered my primal instincts

62 notes · View notes

writingabouteverything · 3 years

Text

The Perfect White Flower--and Other Nonexistent Things

a/n YALL THIS IS PROBABLY DUMB BUT I HAD THIS IDEA ABOUT A HARRY STYLES X READER FIC THATS BASED ON THE PLOT OF JANE THE VIRGIN AND I WANTED TO WRITE IT SO BADLY I MADE THIS ACCOUNT

disclaimer--wont follow the show exactly

Pairing: Harry Styles x latina! reader (a key factor of the show revolves around the lead being latina, and im latina and honestly love writing for us but anyone can still read and understand/hopefully enjoy and the fic doesn’t involve any physical descriptions:))

Series Summary: Y/n l/n has had the world figured out since she was a child. She won’t be a writer because it’s risky, she’ll just focus on school and becoming a teacher. She’s never been a child, because her mother had her at sixteen and hasn’t aged a single year since. That’s part of the reason the promise she made to her grandmother means so much to her--if she doesn’t have sex before marriage, her child will never have to grow up as quickly as she did. And Harry Styles is at the top of the world--his music has never been more successful, he has a lovely girlfriend, and he’s never been more in demand. He has everything in the world...except a child, and through a series of unbelievable events--y/n might be his only chance to have one. Ever.

Chapter One Summary: Who knew getting a pap smear on two hours of sleep and three cups of coffee was as bad as having unprotected sex?

There’s something dangerous about taking public transportation in LA. And no, I don’t mean it in the ‘there are bad people in the world’ type of way. I mean it in the ‘I live in one of the casual influencer, celebrity, tourist hubs of the world and each time I step onto the bus I find myself mesmerized by all the stories I see in them’ way. Kind of pathetic, I know, but sometimes a child with blonde pig tails or a woman streaming on instagram live will catch my eye and the urge to pull out my lap top and start something I’ll never finish.

I know that writing isn’t some kind of disease. But I can’t let myself fall in love with it the way I want to. There’s nothing wrong with writing a short story or two, but trying to write a novel? That’s impractical. It will distract me from school, from the four year plan I’m almost done with.

Sighing, I brave taking at my surroundings. I deserve this today, after the anonymous, rude costumer at the hotel today, I need positivity. No one is particularly inspiring. The bus stops and I watch out the window. At first the crowd is ordinary, and then i see them...paparazzi. Flashing cameras from all angles, grown men violating all rules of personal space. It never sits right with me, but I guess it’s just part of living in LA. The bus starts moving again. When it stops again, I see even more paparazzis, but their cameras aren’t flashing. Good for whoever escaped that.

The bus door opens and I snap my attention back to my computer screen. I rub my eyes as I stare at my word document. How is there more that needs to be edited? This professor is the harshest grader I’ve ever had, and my friend, Gisa, is kind for giving me even more notes. But I’m exhausted. Two tests and an essay due before 12:00. And it’s...11:38. Great--I have to upload it the second I’m at my doctor’s office and have WiFi again.

I spend some time highlighting and rewording sentences, and once I’m done I reward myself with more people watching because I deserve it and I can’t fall asleep here. I’m kind of invested in the girl live streaming her bus ride...maybe she’ll say her instagram handle.

But when I look up, she’s not on the bus anymore. Almost no one is. An elderly couple is sitting towards the back. A woman with a toddler sit two rows in front of me...and there’s now a man directly across from me. I blink for a moment, imagining a story for someone who’s face I can’t quite see beneath such dark sun glasses. His dark waves and strong jaw do most of the imagining for me--he deserves a mystery, a dramatic one with a happy ending and just enough romance to keep the people interested. A good romance, too--not too sappy. Enemies to lovers, maybe. A mysterious stranger that’s not really a stranger because something about him is just...familiar.

He turns his head and I drop my gaze immediately. There’s no doubt he caught that, but I still pretend to edit the title of my essay. “You’ve been typing stubbornly since I first got on the bus.” There’s an accent--of course he’s english. But it’s more than that, I’ve heard that voice before. I’ve been...soothed by it. And--oh my god, I’m sitting across from Harry Styles.

Okay, don’t freak out. Don’t freak him out. He’s probably on here to escape the the whole ‘oh my god, you’re Harry Styles!’ thing.

“What are you writing?” Harry Styles just spoke to me. I greeted my one direction poster every single day in middle school, and Harry Styles just spoke to me. Okay--relax, breathe--it’s only weird if you make it weird.

There’s a kind of curt curiosity to his question. He could have been ruder, considering how blatantly I was staring at him. “I um...an essay.” I’m temped to turn the screen so that he can see I’m telling the truth. Though he wasn’t hostile, a part of me is paranoid that he thinks I am writing about him. It’s a fair assumption, for all he knows I’m drafting a tweet about who I saw on the bus this morning or preparing to send something in to some gossip girl-esque blog. “It’s due today at noon and normally I’m way more on top of things, but I had this last minute doctor’s appointment rescheduling because my usual doctor is out of town and--” I cut myself off before I can tell Harry Styles that I’m ovulating and that if I don’t go to my OBGYN now, I have to wait an entire month and I’ve already been off birth control longer than I’d like. I might not have actual sex in my near future, but my cramps have been extra terrible. “An essay, I just finished an essay.”

He nods once. Maybe he feels bad for so thoroughly startling me into such a rambling, because the corner of his mouth tilts upwards. A soft smile adds even more grace to his features, I focus on the dimple that appears in his cheek. “An aggravating essay, I take it, considering the death glares you’ve been giving your laptop screen.”

I smile at his polite humor. “It’s for the harshest grader on campus. She took three points off of my first essay freshman year because I spaced my bibliography wrong.”

He cringes in sympathy. “Good luck.”

“Thanks,” I hum, proud of myself for not letting him know that I know who he is. The bus stops, I can see my doctor’s office behind a few paparazzi. “This is my stop.”

Harry nods once, ducking his head slightly. A tiny part of me feels sympathy for him; from what I’ve gathered, he genuinely loves his fans and the relationship they have, but it must be draining to never have a moment of privacy. Especially when it’s people who care more about selling your picture than your mental health.

I linger on the bus’s step, watching the men with large cameras look around. “Excuse me, are you guys looking for Harry Styles?” Most of the men disregard me, but one looks at me. “I know he’s near here because I’m a really big fan and my friend just texted that she saw him.” This gets me the attention I wanted. “He’s at Northfield--a cafe like three blocks down. I just know that if she got a picture with Harry in like a magazine or something she’d totally lose it--in a good way, and she’s been having a bad time so if you see her can you try to make it happen? Knowing her she’ll be at his side, she’s blonde, shortish hair.”

The men seem skeptical, but I guess they realize that this is the best lead they have. I think the fact that I gave a reason to justify selling Harry out for no reason helped. They disperse together, heading at least three blocks away from Harry. I don’t know if I’ve actually helped him, but I hope I have.

“Essay girl.” I freeze, half cringing. Did he hear that? That’s embarrassing. I consider darting away, but decide that would just make me cringe more. So I turn on my heels. “You...you forgot your phone.”

He just saved my life. “Thank you.” I take my phone from his outstretched hand, ignoring the slight thrill that runs through me when our fingers brush. “You’re my hero--the last thing I needed today was to run all over the city searching for my phone.” I finish the awkward admission with a partial laugh.

“Least I could do,” he mumbles, “especially considering what you just did.”

...He did see that. “Oh um--it was nothing, I just kind of made a connection and assumed the only reason you’d be on a public bus is because you were trying to avoid some things, and you make really great music and a lot of people happy, so you deserve that break.” Why does it feel like I’ve been talking forever? “Anyways, thanks for the whole phone thing, and I hope I got them off your tail.”

My joke seems to somewhat land. His lips part, like he’s planning on saying something else. A timer on my phone interrupts him. I instinctually look down--great, the alarm on my phone warning me that I’m only ten minutes away from being late. “I’m late.” I turn towards the bus’s exit. “I gotta go, but thanks again, and I hope you have a good day.”

I disappear after that, still not sure that that whole thing wasn’t some kind of hallucination. Did I just meet Harry Styles? He...he gave me my phone. Harry Styles has touched my phone. I can’t wait to tell Gisa, she’ll lose it.

I’m still thinking about Harry Styles when I finally reach my OBGYN’s office. When I get there, things are a lot more hectic than I thought they’d be. Many people crowd the waiting area and the receptionist’s desk is clearly understaffed. Two young girls are trying to address multiple upset pregnant women and take phone calls at the same time, all while practically buried in a sea pf paperwork. Wow, I didn’t realize that transferring was such chaos. One of the girls waves me over and barely checks my name before shoving a form towards me. I fill out as quickly as possible.

I upload my essay quickly after checking in. Who knows, maybe Harry Styles’s blessing will get me an A? A third person in scrubs emerges from the back after a moment and ushers me into a room. I tell myself to focus on going over the facts I need for the test I have to take in a little over an hour. Or to focus on the fact that I just met Harry Styles. But instead, I feel my heavy eyelids fall shut.

I don’t know how long I sleep, but I know that I wake up during the middle of a doctor’s sentence, “...I know I’m not your usual, so I just want to make sure you’re comfortable.”

“Hm...Yeah, yeah I’m comfortable.” She nods once, her wide eyes slightly red. “But I do have a class today in like an hour, so I was wondering if this was going to take longer because of the office’s move?”

“Oh, no,” she shakes her head. “Just because Dr. Rodriguez gave us no notice before deciding that she no longer wanted to work here...or in the country. Or even live in the US, despite the fact that we just signed a lease on a place together...” Tears well in the stranger’s eyes, pity settles in my stomach.

“That sounds incredibly complicated, I didn’t mean to rush you.”

She blinks twice, her expression blanking as she fights against the pain of what’s clearly a terrible break up. “No, no--you have every right. Today is your day and if..honestly, if you’re strong enough to go to a class after this, and do what you’re about to do by yourself, then I’m strong enough to get through today.”

Um...didn’t realize a pap smear counted as something that needs moral support, but I’ll chalk it up to her heightened emotions. “Thanks.”

She snaps on her medical gloves. “No, thank you for your patience. Now lay down.”

I do as told, preparing for a sensation I haven’t often experienced. A moment passes and I know she’s started. She’s moving away from me much faster than expected. Oh--I guess pap smears are a lot shorter than I expected.

“That’s it?”

“Yep,” she hums, pulling her gloves off. “Now just take it easy, and hydrate.”

Weird...but that’s like general doctor advice. “Thanks!”

I’ve never wanted to keep a secret from Gisa, but sometimes I really regret telling her I met Harry Styles. It’s been almost a month and I find my mind wandering back to the moment in which our fingers brushed more than I should. Sometimes I let myself wonder what he might have said if my phone hadn’t rang. I was probably just imagining the way his lips parted, but my ind refuses to let it go.

“...You know it’s kind of sad, I read an interview in which he spoke about the fact that he has some genetic condition that makes it hard to have kids. He has so many godchildren, and I feel like he’d make such a great father.”

I try to keep up with Gisa’s words, but the dull ache in my head makes it feel so far away. “Yeah...he seemed really patient.”

Gisa nods, turning to face me. “You alright, you’re looking kinda green?”

“Yeah...” I reach for my canvas bag. “I think I just...I probably just need some water.”

My hand grazes the metal of my water bottle and then the corners of my vision blur into blackness. I sway, Gisa’s hand is on my shoulder...and then it all goes black.

I sit uncomfortably on the hospital’s cot. Gisa is a traitor for telling my mom that I fainted. I knew she’d just drag me here--hispanic mothers, they either believe they can cure you with vic’s vapor rub or they want you in the ER. No in between.

“I know you didn’t want another test, but you’ve been throwing up in the morning for days and now you’re fainting.”

“Fainted,” I correct, “it happened once.”

“C’mon, mija, it’s just one doctor’s appointment.”

Speaking of, an ER nurse returns. “Fainting and nausea spells explained,” he says, glancing at his clipboard, “you’re pregnant.”

My mom and I can’t help but exchange a look before bursting into laughter. Pregnant. If I’m pregnant then the second coming is here. “That’s impossible, I’m a virgin.”

He glances at my mom, “maybe we should have this conversation in private.”

“No, what you say in front of me you can say in front of my mom.”

My mom raises an eyebrow. “Y/n, did you and that guy from your english class--”

“No! No, we did not. I am a virgin and there’s no way I’m pregnant.” I glare at the nurse.

He then ushers me to a bathroom so that I can provide a urine sample. After I’m finished, he shows me a pregnancy test strip. “Pink means pregnant.” I bite my tongue as he tests the strip in my sample. He pulls it out and it’s...it’s bright pink.

“I’m calling my doctor, because this has to be a mistake. It has to be like a hormonal thing.”

“Exactly, pregnancy hormones.”

I glare even harder, calling the doctor that I saw last week. “Hello, Dr. Ash? I was wondering if I could get a consultation because I’m in the ER and some crazy doctor is trying to tell me I’m pregnant.”

Silence on the line for a long second. “...I actually cleared my calendar for you.”

#harry styles #harry styles x reader #harry styles x y/n #jane the virgin #jane the virgin AU #lot #hslot st louis

78 notes · View notes

maggiec70 · 2 years

Text

Another Review, This One about Marie-Antoinette and the Revolution I promise that this is the last one for some time. Thanks for being kind and not slamming me for my indulgence.

Trianon: A Novel of Royal France

Elena Maria Vidal [aka Mary Russell, and self-published by her Mayapple Press]

Prelude: I originally posted this review two years ago, in May 2013, where it received a 50/50 split between helpful and not helpful votes. Normally I wouldn’t care what sort of votes or comments any of my reviews attracted, since my reviews are simply my opinion of the books I buy—or borrow—and read. However, two of the many vehement and outspoken fans of this writer were so livid that I disliked this book that they expressed their outrage by posting one-star reviews on a book I wrote, which neither of them read, and boasted about their little exploit on comments to someone else who shared them with me. So to prevent further damage, I removed this review. But I’m not happy with the path of least resistance. If I wanted that I’d never give any review less than five stars, right? So I am reposting this review, and I expect some of the folks who adore Trianon because of its overarching theme of Christian/Catholic piety and forgiveness will return here with their most un-Christian brickbats. Let’s see how long it takes…

My Review originally posted on Amazon and Goodreads in 2013, and removed in 2019:

No author can deliver either “The True Story” or “The Real Personality” of anyone. No author whose work is liberally larded with endnotes and a dense, lengthy bibliography can do it. No author who admits she or he is writing historical fiction can do it, either, despite “years of research.” A writer is only as credible as his or her research, and if the writer approaches the arduous task of research with preconceived ideas, or conducts research as if it were some sort of divine mission, the resulting work will have problems.

This story of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette has problems--a great many of them. In her preface, the author states that all characters were real people, which is perfectly true. She states that the “incidents, situations and conversations are based on reality.” That claim is not so true. Whose version of reality, for example, are we to believe?

From the preface we know immediately that the author’s work is an “attempt to correct many of the popular misconceptions” about Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. She claims that these misconceptions have been promoted by “secular and modernist historians,” and asserts Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette can “only be truly understood in view of the Catholic teachings to which they adhered and within the context of the sacrament of matrimony.” Surely no one takes this allegation seriously? If you do, then it is like saying these two people were defined then--and are being defined now--by nothing other than their religion and their marriage. Even someone with minimal knowledge of this period of history knows better that that. But there is more in this vein: “The apocalyptic events through which [Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette] lived dealt a serious blow to Christendom from which we have not yet recovered.” Certainly no reasonable person with any knowledge of history can believe the entire French Revolution was either apocalyptic or a lingering canker on the body of civilization. To be perfectly fair, the author warned me of her mindset, but I really couldn’t wait to see how Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette would be rehabilitated, cleansed of all the failings and wickedness unjustly assigned to them by all the secular historians who believe the vile, revolutionary propaganda, and then magically transformed into two of the most saintly people ever to rule anywhere at any time.

This story is hagiography, not history, and not even good historical fiction. The author uses hyperbole, hysteria, cloying 19th century-style purple prose, clichés, and some sophomoric punctuation and dialogue. I can understand wanting to show one’s readers another side of a person, or in this case, an entire family, and show this aspect based on solid research if one is a historian, or less strenuous research if one is not. However, I can’t understand inundating a reader on every page with glowing, breathless, adjective-laden descriptions of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, a few of their family members, and even fewer lesser folk. In order to further emphasize the too-good-to-be-true nature of the king and queen, their children, the king’s sisters, and the queen’s intimate friends, everyone else in Paris or Versailles or Le Petit Trianon is simply bad, or immoral. These morally bankrupt folks include intellectuals or freethinkers, atheists, Freemasons, philosophes, Protestants, Jews, and every single revolutionary of every single political stamp.

I find it hard to accept, for example, that Marie-Antoinette had the most radiant skin in all of Europe, perhaps the world, or that Louis XVI was so much like Saint Louis, the crusader king. Especially amusing was the second chapter supposedly seen from the nine-year-old Madame Royale’s point of view, which provided a wealth of details of the largesse, magnanimity, and saintly nature of her parents. This chapter also provided a wealth of details about the sweet, kind, delicate, and utterly beautiful intimate friends of the queen, de Polignac and de Lamballe. Of course, most of these details are well outside the purview of a child, and expressed in a style foreign to a nine-year-old.

There are some entertaining inaccuracies throughout the book, which makes me wonder about all those alleged years of research, and some hilarious bits that I do hope never appeared in any historical document. Ever. For example, Marie-Antoinette’s lengthy conversation with Madame Elisabeth about her opposition to French aid to the American “rebels”--those dreadful people rising up against their lawful king, inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s Masonic cabal--had me on the floor. For all I know, Antoinette may have said this, as well as the absolute drivel that followed about how admired Louis XVI was, even to the extent that her brother, Joseph, allegedly came to France to see “for himself why [her] husband was so loved by his people.” Despite the author’s magnificent--and completely specious--spin on the nature of Louis XVI’s and Marie-Antoinette’s utter lack of intimacy in the first six to seven years of their marriage, Joseph came to talk to his brother-in-law about the facts of life. There is not, I think, any evidence for the claim that Louis XVI was universally beloved by his people, even the “simple people” or the peasants, as the author loves to go on and on about, though she does so in a noticeably patronizing manner. There is definitely no evidence for the claim that the much-maligned philosophes and freethinkers feared Louis XVI “despite their derisive and nasty comments [about the king].” I was also intrigued by Louis XVI’s comment about how the birth of his son and heir “nearly coincided with his [??] victory over the British at Yorktown.” Such hubris from a would-be saint, and completely inaccurate, of course.

When the Estates-General met on May 5, 1789, Louis XVI’s speech to the assembled delegates was “magnificent...echoing with all the ardor and majesty of the Bourbons.” Not according to quite a number of delegates among all three estates, including some underwhelmed clerics in the First Estate; they said Louis mumbled, was nervous, and mostly inarticulate. The good, kind, benevolent governor of the Bastille, the marquis de Launay, was indeed attacked by the sans-culottes, but “the dreadful Marquis de Sade” was most definitely not in residence in the Bastille, having been released from the Bastille ten days earlier. It is also difficult to claim there was nothing but “flimsy evidence” against Louis XVI at his trial, and the only charge brought was that he gave money to the poor “to enslave the nation.” There were thirty-three specific charges, most of which were substantiated by copies of the king’s correspondence found in the infamous iron box in the Tuileries Palace. I was amazed at the statement that on September 2, 1792, “there began five days of carnage unlike anything Paris had experienced since the days of the barbarian invasions.” Apparently the author hadn’t heard about Catherine de Medici, regent for her son, Charles IX, who ordered the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre on the occasion of her daughter’s marriage to Henry of Navarre. In that case, a Catholic queen ordered the deaths of more than 3,000 French Huguenots in Paris alone, twice that of the casualties of the September massacres. Sometimes history can be inconvenient for the story one is trying so desperately to tell. Madame Royal’s husband did not go to Italy to fight Napoleon, thus proving himself to be a brave and able soldier. He commanded a cavalry regiment in the Bavarian army and fought not Napoleon but General Jean Moreau at Hohenlinden. It was a decisive French victory, and the duke was certainly on the wrong side of it. Napoleon was not a friend to Maximilien Robespierre; he knew his brother Augustin, and was actually imprisoned briefly after Robespierre was executed on 9 Thermidor because of his alleged Jacobin sympathies. Napoleon did not “fire grapeshot upon a crowd of poor peasants rebelling against the revolution.” He fired on a faction of the Royalist army led by émigrés and outnumbering Bonaparte’s forces roughly six to one. But grapeshot is indeed a great crowd leveler.

In her effort to sanctify Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, the author has criminalized virtually everyone else. This trend begins with the Assembly of Notables in 1787, and continues unabated until the last page. The king, the queen, the various mesdames of France, the friends, the children--all are saintly, heroic, courageous, full of fortitude, true to their faith, and so forth and so on. The revolutionaries are all several rungs below beasts, and made up of unrelentingly bloodthirsty, vicious, crude, nasty, and godless mobs who tear innocent folk apart. This is black and white, and it does not work. It is dishonest, it is inaccurate, and it is, at the end of the day, just plain ridiculous. Even Georges Lefebvre, the respected French Marxist historian of the Revolution, was far more subtle in his description of the entirety of this great event in terms of economic determinism that this author is here with her maudlin, hagiographic portrayal of two people who were, after all, not much in the way of royalty. Their deaths define them far more than their lives ever did, I think.

The most dishonest aspect of this book is, of course, the shrill insistence that Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were somehow Super Catholics, that their faith was deeper and more worthy than anyone else’s, except for a select few family members, and that they were defined by their Catholic faith. I think that is the author’s view, not how the king and queen would see it. Either way, to view anyone through the single prism of religion--or gender, or political affiliation, or economic status--or any other lone defining characteristic is to fail to understand anything at all about the person, or persons, or the age in which they lived.

There are legions of folks who gush endlessly and fatuously about Marie-Antoinette, if one considers the amount of historical fiction churned out about her. There are probably enough folks who think Louis XVI was worthy of sainthood, as was Marie-Antoinette. The Church did not—and has not—come to that conclusion. There was nothing remotely special about these two royals, other than the fact that they were wrong for the times in which they lived, rather like Nicholas II and Alexandra. Oh, well, some Russians are also trying to turn them into saints.

Postscript: The enraged, saintly author of this saintly garbage attacked me personally for my review, as well as a review of a friend of mine. Then she tried to contact our employers to complain about what dreadful people we were. She indulged in several inflammatory screeds on her blog, Tea at Trianon, that were clearly beyond the pale, and it was here that she doxed both me and my friend.

I got her banned from Goodreads and all her reviewing privileges removed from both Amazon and Goodreads.

I also find it eminently fitting that she launched another blog in 2016, this one in support of all things Trump.

#marie antoinette #french revolution #horrible history

14 notes · View notes

astermacguffin · 3 years

Text

Sorry for churning out another self-indulgent AU that will take me forever to work on, but I'm obsessed with the concept of a destiel enemies-to-lovers logician AU. (Yes I already have a joenicky/kaysanova version of this and frankly I don't care lol)

LISTEN. I know it's more popular to put Dean in professions that get his hands involved (mechanic, baker, etc.) rather than very conceptual/academic professions BUT. Dean would absolutely love the elegant simplicity of formal logic.

Easy, guaranteed, and clear-cut answers that you get out of following simple rules? Dean would LOVE that after having such a difficult and complicated life.

I think Dean would specialize in the large family of modal logics, specifically deontic logic—the logic of obligations. Dean "miserable pile of familial obligations" would unfortunately enjoy this field. (No, he won't be an ethicist because he has fucked up ethics; moral philosophy won't fix him. Maybe some therapy and gay sex will.)

Castiel, on the other hand, is a logician/theologian/metaphysicist. He went to college for a religious studies degree but it turns out he likes the application of logic in God-talk more than the God-talk itself, so he switched specializations. He's one of the leading scholars in process theology, liberation theology, and the controversies surrounding S5 modal logics and the modal ontological argument.

So. Dean and Cas are both modal logicians with different specializations. Here's what happens:

They both have presentations for a logic conference the next day, so they go to a bar to unwind and maybe get laid.

They meet, have a one-night stand, and part ways.

Turns out they're both attending the same conference. They're not fully convinced with each other's ideas. Their playful bickering in the snacks table eventually devolves into a full-on fight. Someone has to physically restrain them.

Their rivalry eventually gets notorious in academic circles. They perform "academic fistfights" by constantly writing critical response papers to each other's works. There's wikipedia articles documenting their extensive history of flirt-fighting and the surprising amount of new literature written because of their public feud.

To be clear, they're not writing garbage work just to dunk on each other. They're genuinely contributing to the academic discourse. But if you look at their bibliography of works, the staggering amount of stuff they've written about or in response to the other is...alarming.

Absolutely no one discourages their fights because (1) it's entertaining and (2) it's producing a godawful amount of insightful literature. There's bets about when they're going to fuck it out (because no one knows about their one-night stand except maybe Sam, who finds this entire thing stupid but amusing).

One time, they get drunk in an afterparty. Cue some aggressive and very homoerotic banter. This eventually devolves into an elaborate game of gay chicken. Whoever gives up first must write an article where they support the thesis of the other.

They're both "you wanna fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid" at each other. They constantly flirt and seduce one another, waiting for the other one to finally give in. They do this in conferences as well.

Fellow logicians almost prefer the shouting and near fist-fights over their very inappropriate flirty banter in public. No one dares ban them in events because (1) again, they're entertaining, and (2) they're big-name academics.

Since they're both fucking competitive, they constantly try to one-up each other. They ask each other to go out in dates and stuff. Eventually, they start to genuinely learn things about each other and go "huh. You're not so bad after all."

When they first collaborate and publish their joint work, everyone loses their mind. Are they friends now? Did they finally fuck? Both of them find the reactions very amusing.

Eventually, they start hanging out outside of their competitive dates and simply as friends. They still haven't kissed or fucked ever since. When they first both realize that they're falling in love, they're like: "Shit."

Unfortunately, they're in too deep. These bastards are too prideful to be the one to admit their feelings. Both Dean and Cas talk to their brothers about this. They're both told how stupid they are.

This all comes to a head when Cas finally gives in and fucks Dean. Cas is about to confess his feelings when Dean starts chuckling.

"What's so funny?" Cas asks. "Well, I mean. Guess I should expect that article soon, right?" Dean says in an attempt to hide his fears with playful banter. Cas squints at him. "What article?"

Dean stammers in response. "I–you know? The bet we made? The bet that started it all? That's... that's what this is all about, right?"

Cas' face shuts off, devoid of emotion. "Right. Yes. Why don't you leave now so I can start writing that, hmm?" The smile on his face is big, but Dean knows it's fake and wrong.

"Cas, wait—" "DEAN. Please. Leave my apartment." Reluctantly, Dean dresses up for his walk of shame, leaving the apartment.

The next morning, the article comes out. It's short and not written very well. Everyone is confused about the sudden drop in quality.

They stop writing response works to each other, which alerts the entire academic community. They also visibly avoid each other in conferences now. Their fellow academics take it back: they would prefer the insufferably horny flirting over this cold, silent treatment. Everyone feels the tension and it's not as lively anymore.

Cas is miserable because he thinks his feelings are unrequited. Dean feels miserable because Cas has since stopped replying to his texts and calls.

In his last-ditch attempt to get through Cas, Dean writes a celebratory primer, summarizing Cas' entire bibliography and important contributions to the field throughout his entire career. Interspersed in the writing are personal reflections on Cas' character as a thinker and a person, as well as little in-jokes meant only for Cas' eyes. It's the most sappy and gayass bibliographic summary ever written.

Cas, of course, reads this and understands the intent behind it. He finally calls Dean, they meet, they hash things out, admit their feelings, and finally kiss. Yada yada happy ending

Later on, when they finally publish their first joint work as a married couple, everyone loses their minds. Again.

#spn #destiel #destiel logican au #this was so much fun to write #destiel fic #aster writes

65 notes · View notes

meichenxi · 2 years

Note

3 and 25 for the book asks!

Heyyy :D

3 - What were your top five books of the year?

I'm going to talk about these one by one, because what I am if not verbose :D These are NOT in any order!! To be honest I have probably forgotten some incredible ones, but I didn’t keep a list. So.

1) The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

EMPIRE. WLW. HARD FANTASY. GENDERRR (so much gender). I cannot describe how much like a breath of fresh air this book felt in adult fantasy in every way: the world is immersive, but saying 'immersive' doesn't do justice to how well built it is. I learnt more about colonialism and trade dynamics than school has ever taught me. The battlefields are meticulous; the supply lines well-drawn. Women, sapphic women, but with a gaze that feels startlingly not male, so much so that when my friend pointed out it was written by a man I didn't believe her at first. Comparisons to the anthropological sci-fi of Ursula le Guin are well-merited, especially (or so I've heard) later books. Baru is an engaging protagonist who reminds me STRONGLY of Mei Changsu who has all the strengths of your average Schemey Politicky prodigy, but this is one of the first times (another exception below) where I actually believe it: her strengths become her weaknesses, and she fails time and time again because, as she phrases it, she forgets about 'the other players' - that is, that other people have autonomy and the autonomy to make stupid, noble choices. What I love most is how her distance and slight bewilderment at the emotion-driven goings-on of other people when she herself has relatively low empathy and is fairly callous both enable her to succeed and also, inevitably, create her downfall. It creates a three dimensional character out of the Cold Plotting Schemer that is so often a caricature. I am very excited to see where this story goes.

2) Nirvana in Fire by Hai Yan

Need I say more? Anyone who follows anyone in the cdrama or cnovel fandoms knows about this. There's an excellent series (and the second is also good), and there's a translation of the book available online - very much a good translation. I've read it before, but reading it whilst self-isolating and having limited social contact and having close relationships with chronically ill people and contemplating mortality constantly as we have had to do during the pandemic - it felt different this time. If I had to give one cnovel to someone to read, it would be this one. Brotherhood, identity, betrayal, lying as an act of love and withholding the truth as an act of kindness - there are not many books I have read well into adulthood that can compete with books like LOTR in their formative power, but this is one of them. I've had more thoughts about who I want to be, what kind of life I want to live, what it means to care for someone and what it is to be known about this than any book since Tolkien. I have written posts about this, I'm sure, but here's an entreaty again: if you don't learn Chinese, if you have never read a cnovel, if you think you have no interest in politics or the machinations behind the throne or ancient court drama - just read it. Please.

3) City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer

Heard of Annihilation? Jeff Vandermeer is the guy who wrote that, and it's by far his most normal work lmaaaao. City of Saints and Madmen is a very typical romp through the New Weird - which doesn't mean it's any worse or predictable, but that expected themes of place and history and depth and environment and contagion and religion and madness come up again and again. It's one of the most cleverly put together books I've ever read, made up of a series of stories, fake in-universe academic articles and other paraphernalia (one section is a bibliography that lasts over 50 pages) about the city Ambergris. If you like House of Leaves or similar books, you'll enjoy this. Favourite parts of it include the two contradictory in-universe academic articles about the founding of the city and the legend of the giant squid, as well as one short story in which Jeff Vandermeer himself features as a character. I love the New Weird because it's exactly as batshit as quote-unquote 'regular' surreal / literary fiction....except there is often actually a plot and these things are really happening. I also read Dead Astronauts, which I adored, but despite the insanity of City of Saints and Madmen it's a much more accessible book for an introduction to Vandermeer's writing, which is why I have given it here. I'm also. Not entirely sure I understand more than 10% of Dead Astronauts so.

4) Tibet is my Country by Thubten Norbu, as told to Heinrich Harrer

Now for something a bit different. THIS BOOK you guys. This book is one of those that you find randomly in a charity shop and it changes everything. To give you some context on how unexpected this book is: my copy is the 1961 English translation of the book originally written in German by an Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer who spent much of his adult life in Tibet and took years crossing the Himalayas - but the German book is a translation of a story told to him in Tibetan by Thubten Norbu, the BROTHER of the then Dalai Lama, which was then recorded on tapes and meticulously transcribed, then translated (Harrer conducted the interviews in Tibetan and translated it to German later). It's the story of Thubten Norbu's upbringing in Tibet in the 20s and 30s, his travels in India and China, the Chinese communist forces invading the Amdo region of Tibet (which is now in modern Qinghai and Sichuan province, and not much is officially in the autonomous region - I somewhat coincidentally actually went there five or so years ago), his flight to the US, his eventual return and various pilgrimages thereafter. The book took years to record, write, and translate, and the effort can be seen throughout the whole thing. Thubten is an extraordinarily clear and vivid narrator, and I very much appreciated the time he spends on the day-to-day details of his childhood and early adulthood as well as the larger events of the latter half of the book. I don't know if you can get ahold of a copy - if I look online briefly it looks a little difficult - but it's been the most unexpected and wonderful bonus of my charity shop plundering this year.

5) In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent

I read this for my undergraduate dissertation on constructed languages, and think it's just...yeah, it's just a great introduction to the topic for anyone who wants to know the history of constructed languages. I don't just mean Esperanto and Elvish, but setting the whole idea of making your own language in its historical context, tracing the earliest conlangers and different types of languages throughout the Enlightenment, birth and development of formal logic, the search for a 'perfect' language, its eventual abandonment, and the endeavour was picked up again by those looking to create a 'common' language instead a few centuries later. It also traces the development of 'artlangs', conlangs that are created solely for the purposes of art. It's not particularly heavy, pretty short, and a great overview for anyone who is interested in linguistics, the history of linguistics, why Esperanto 'succeeded' when other languages like Volapük arguably have not, what Tolkien was doing, and so on. Yeah. Generally recommend!!

Thanks! I'll do the rest tomorrow :D

#meichenxi manages #askies #lyb #nif #conlangs #linguistics #lingblr #conlanging #bookblr

14 notes · View notes