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heartofstanding · 4 months

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Tell me everything about Joan if Kent, specifically which historians I should hiss at.

Oh man, Joan of Kent is awesome. It's hard to describe her life quickly because she had such a long and varied one. It spans from the end of Edward II's reign and the upheavals of Edward III's minority throughout the glory years of Edward III's reign to the decline in his latter years to the Peasants Revolt and the fragile beginnings of Richard II's reign. She can assume a number of different shapes: romantic heroine, powerful and influential woman, fashion icon, mediator, literary patron, scandal, survivor. She makes a status-defying match, ostensibly for love, and then follows it up by marrying the heir to the throne of England, again ostensibly for love.

Of course, it was the Middle Ages so a lot of medieval chroniclers and commentators saw her as the stereotypical wanton, transgressive woman.

Her story:

Joan was the daughter of Edmund, Earl of Kent (Edward I's youngest son) and Margaret Wake, and was thus Edward I's granddaughter, Edward II's niece and Edward III's first cousin. She was born before or on 29 September 1326-1328 (the exact year is debatable). Her father was executed in 1330 in highly controversial circumstances for attempting to free the deposed and likely dead Edward II.* Joan is generally believed to have become a ward of Philippa of Hainault as a small recompense for Kent's execution (Edward III and Philippa are believed to have played no role in Kent's execution). In the winter of 1340-41, Joan was married to William Montagu, the son and heir of the Earl of Salisbury. This was an entirely conventional match: he was of similar age and status to herself, the marriage ensured she would become Countess of Salisbury upon his father's death. But about seven years later, there was a scandal: a knight, Thomas Holland, claimed that Joan had married him clandestinely and that they had consummated it before she married Montagu. He appealed to the papal authorities to return her to him.

A long, protracted dispute followed. Montagu appears to have kept Joan imprisoned in strict seclusion so she could not respond or appoint an attorney to respond on her behalf to the papal investigation. Eventually, she was able to do so and evidently supported Holland's claim: the investigation found in Holland's favour. Her marriage to Montagu was annulled and she and Holland were have their marriage solemnised publicly.

Because of the scandal and the struggle to have the marriage recognised, as well as the unusualness of the match itself, Joan and Holland's relationship has typically been seen as a romance for the ages. But Joan was, at most, 13 years old (and possibly even as young as eleven) and Holland, born c. 1315, was around 25 years old, i.e. close to, if not actually, double her age, when they married clandestinely. At around 12 years old, she was considered to be "marriageable age" and a medieval 12 year old was likely considered more mature than a modern girl of the same age. But she was, still, you know, a 12 year old girl marrying a 25 year old man. That it has been hailed as a great romance is not really surprising given the stereotypical view of the Middle Ages as a time when dirty old men married preteen girls and raped them and the fact that until very recently Lolita was published with a blurb calling it the "only convincing love story" of the 20th century.

There are a number of legends attached to Joan from around this time. Two stories refer to a Countess of Salisbury and Joan held the title for the last four years of her Montagu marriage, though her then-mother-in-law, Katherine Grandison, also held the title as the dowager. The first story records that Edward III raped the Countess of Salisbury - the details of the story make it clear that Katherine, not Joan, is who was meant, though that has not stopped some with connecting the story to Joan specifically. The story itself is unverifiable - the earliest, i.e. contemporary, recording of the story contains both factually correct and factually incorrect details, and it is French in origin, which might mean it was propaganda designed to smear Edward III (this does not prevent it from being true, however). Some have suggested that the story has been confused. We certainly have no way of proving or disproving it beyond a doubt, but the idea it was meant to refer to Joan are very slim.

A second, much lighter story involves the foundation of the Order of the Garter. In it, the Countess of Salisbury is dancing when a garter slipped from legs, producing amusement. Edward picked up the garter and returned it, admonishing, "Honi soit qui mal y pense!" ('Shame on him who thinks ill of it!'), which then became the order's motto. This tale has also been heavily doubted and whether it was Joan or Katherine who is meant is debated. In both stories, Joan is often the more prominent candidate but that likely reflects how b*etter known she is and how these stories "fit" with her reputation as a beautiful, sexually desirable woman.

From 1350 to 1361, Joan gave birth to five children: Thomas, John, Joan, Maud and Edmund (who died in infancy). In 1352, Joan's only surviving sibling**, John, died childless and she inherited the earldom of Kent. This led to a massive step up in status and wealth for her new family. Holland died on 28 December 1360 from illness.

By spring 1361, Joan had another husband in line: Edward of Woodstock. Edward was the eldest son and heir of Edward III, Prince of Wales, war hero, chivalric icon and known famously, if anachronistically, as "the Black Prince". Joan was not the obvious choice for the Prince's wife - a conventional choice would be a royal or noble woman from the European continent (there had been a number of failed marriage negotiations for this type of marriage for the Prince), and had the Prince outlive his father, Joan would have been the first English-born queen since the Conquest. She was also the first Princess of Wales since Wales was incorporated into the English crown. It's frequently asserted that the Prince had long-loved Joan and he does appear to have referred affectionately to her, but we don't really know what Joan felt about the Prince or her marriage.

As a result of the Treaty of Bretigny, the Prince was to rule Aquitaine on Edward III's behalf. Joan and her Holland children accompanied him when he sailed to Aquitaine the following year. We don't know a lot about Joan in Aquitaine. We know her fashion sense drew fairly predictable criticism and that she gave birth to two sons while there. The first, named Edward, died in Aquitaine in 1370, aged 5 years old and the second would become Richard II. The Prince was much-criticised for his arrogance and ostentatious style in ruling Aquitaine and it's possible Joan was a part of that. A lot of work has gone reassessing his rule, however, and found it was not necessarily as bad as has been assumed.

After 1367, the Prince became seriously ill and the war with France was set to reignite. Incapable of carrying out his duties in Aquitaine effectively, Edward, Joan and their family returned to England in 1371, where his health declined further. Joan often acted in his stead during this period, and when he died in 1376, she was made guardian of their son, Richard, who was now the ailing Edward III's heir and became king himself in 1377, aged only 10.

Joan remained a infinitely influential and powerful woman in the coming years, with some historians describing her as a "quasi-queen". A large portion of pardons and grants were made at her request, and as Countess of Kent and the dowager Princess of Wales, she had large estates of her own to administer. She also enjoyed a great reputation as an mediator: she mended the quarrel between John of Gaunt, Henry Percy and the city of London and mediated between Gaunt and Richard. Interestingly, her entourage included leading members of the Lollard movement, suggesting she may have been interested in reform of the church. This was also time of Geoffrey Chaucer and literary scholars has been suggested Joan served as inspiration for a various number of figures in Chaucer's work.

During the Peasants Revolt of 1381, she was harassed en-route to London and the rebels asked for her to kiss them. Chroniclers also recorded her state of terror when the Tower of London was broken into, though it may have been more of a rhetorical device on behalf of chroniclers to show what they saw were the horrors of the rebels' behaviour.

Joan appears to have taken a step back from court. Possibly, she was increasingly incapacitated by illness (it's been suggested Joan suffered from dropsy/edema; the chronicler Thomas Walsingham claimed she was so fat she could barely move, though no other chronicle made this claim), or possibly she retired once Anne of Bohemia married Richard II so not to overshadow the new queen. Despite illness and retirement, Joan attempted to mediate between Richard and another of her sons, John Holland, when the latter murdered Ralph Stafford and Richard had determined to execute him. One chronicler claimed Richard's refusal to hear her pleas caused her to die of grief. The stress of the situation could hardly have helped if she was suffering an illness. She died 7 August 1385 and was buried in the same church as her first husband, Thomas Holland. This has generally been taken as evidence that she loved him best but the situation may have been more complicated. The plans for the Prince's burial changed dramatically, which may have led Joan choosing to be buried elsewhere or she may have made her choice to as a gesture of affection for her less royal family. Richard did pardon John after Joan's death and they were reconciled, so one might say that even in death she was a successful mediator.

In terms of her descendents, Richard died childless but most of her Holland children had issue. She had descendents on both sides of the Wars of the Roses.

*If you're unfamiliar with the reigns of Edward II and Edward III, the short summary is that Edward II ended up basically alienating everyone through his relationship with and preferential treatment of Hugh Despenser the Younger (quite possibly his lover). The queen, Isabella of France, eventually allied with Roger Mortimer, Earl of March and spearheaded a rebellion that led to Edward's deposition and the execution of Despenser. His son, Edward III, became king but as he was a minor, Isabella and Mortimer effectively ruled in his reign. Edward II was said to have been murdered on 21 September 1327 and most historians accept this. However, there are some references to Edward II surviving well past this, including the plot to free him that Edmund was involved with, and there is a coterie of historians who believe it, namely headed by Ian Mortimer and Kathryn Warner. Given Edmund's royal blood, his execution was deeply unpopular - no one could be found willing to execute him until a criminal was given a pardon in exchange. Edward III is said to have wanted to pardon Edmund but was blocked by Isabella and Mortimer by doing so. When Edward III took control of government and ousted Mortimer, he posthumously pardoned Edmund and executed Roger Mortimer. One of the charges against Mortimer was that he'd duped Edmund into believing Edward II was still alive.

** Joan had two or three siblings. Her brothers were Edmund, the eldest boy who was born had died before 5 October 1331 and John, who was born posthumously on 7 April 1330, inherited the earldom as an infant and died childless on 26 December 1352. A sister, Margaret, is sometimes identified but she seems to be attested only from an authorisation to negotiate a marriage - Penny Lawne has argued that it was more likely that Joan was the intended bride but the clerk writing out the authorisation confused her name with her mother's (Margaret). There does not seem to be any other evidence of her existence - she is not mentioned as attending the baptism of John, though her other siblings are, and she is not mentioned in the Inquisition Post Mortems for John where Joan is named as his only heir. If Margaret had existed, she must have died sometime before John's death. Her death is sometimes given as 1352 but I'm not sure what the source for this is..

Historians To Hiss At.

As you might guess, Joan's life suggests a sexual impropriety and scandal, or in a slightly less misogynist sense, a life dominated by romance. She was a bigamist. She was married for love. She married three times and only one of them to a man appropriate to her status. She's both Lady Chatterley, driven by lust into the arms of a man of lesser status, and the relentless, cold-hard social climber like Philippa Gregory's Anne Boleyn.

So of course historians through the centuries have replicated that bias. For some, like Anthony Goodman, she's a giddy romantic who follows her heart who never manages to mature. For some, she's a romantic heroine, her and Thomas Holland are the epic romance of the Middle Ages which, uh, doesn't really take into consideration Joan's youth at their marriage. For others, she's a saucy wench, hooker with a heart of gold - I've seen someone point out how young Joan was when she married Holland on Twitter and gotten the response of "well she was saucy ;)". For others still, she's just a slut and a selfish, slippery, scheming one at that. After all, all those good men wouldn't have been falling themselves over her without her seducing them, would they? Anyway, it's a Russian Roulette whenever you pick something up about Joan. Will it romanticise a guy having sex with a 12 year old? Will it call the 12 year old a giddy romantic? Will it slut-shame the 12 year old? I've only found one thing - Samantha Katz Seal's review of Anthony Goodman's biography of Joan - that actually suggested Joan was a victim of abuse without immediately offering a theory to work around it.

Two examples:

The peach that is renowned Ricardian crank and misogynist John Ashdown-Hill wrote that "the girl's [Joan was in her 30s) reputation left a good deal to be desired … she was deficient in some respects and rather too-well endowed in others".

Ian Mortimer's biography of Henry IV makes overly frequent comparisons between Henry and Richard II, who Henry deposed and had murdered, basically to the tune of "Henry was better than Richard! Henry had the biggest penis!" One repeated comparison is their mothers, where Mortimer describes Joan's legacy as "burdensome" for Richard and cast a shadow over his legitimacy, while "Henry’s mother, in contrast, was popularly regarded as one of the most lovely adornments of the English court". One's a burden, the other's a beautiful object.

But the historian that I really get my hackles up about is Kathryn Warner, probably I once thought really very highly of her. She talked a lot about going back to the original sources instead of repeating what other historians have said, not speculating without supporting evidence, and having progressive values. Notably, she called out the homophobia and misogyny that hung around depictions and discussions of Edward II and Isabella of France. She was originated (I think?) or at least got heavily involved with the Don't Defame The Dead movement with history bloggers and the histfic community on Goodreads.

Warner follows Mortimer's example, talking about how "embarrassing" Joan was for Richard II unlike the Saintly Dead Paragon Of Medieval Feminine Virtue That Was Blanche of Lancaster. She even deepens that comparison when talking about Joan being sexually harassed during the Peasants Revolt:

even the rebels in 1381 demanding kisses from her, though it may indicate that they liked her and found her considerably more approachable than other members of the royal family and the nobility, does not imply deference for a royal person and the king’s mother. It is difficult to imagine anyone demanding a kiss from Joan’s predecessors Philippa of Hainault or Isabella of France, or from Henry of Lancaster’s mother Duchess Blanche.

So... we're victim blaming Joan for being sexually harassed. After all, as Warner loves to point out (repeatedly) Joan did have a "habit of dressing in the style of a freebooter’s mistress" that "did Joan’s reputation no good whatsoever". In her Philippa of Hainault biography, Warner seems to imply that Joan's style of dress was the sole complaint about the Black Prince's conduct in Aquitaine.

Edward and Joan of Kent lived in magnificent, extravagant splendour, and not everyone approved: one observer stated that the princess of Wales and Aquitaine wore great furred gowns and low-cut bodices in the style usually worn by the mistresses of freebooters: ‘I am disgusted by those women who follow such a bad example, particularly the Princess of Wales.’ Even so, not a word of condemnation came from Edward’s parents the king and queen.

There are many, many complaints about the Prince's actual conduct but Warner chooses to single out Joan's fashion sense and implies that it was worthy of condemnation from Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. Given Philippa herself was an assiduous follower of fashion and it seems doubtful that she'd think Joan following the new fashion style was worthy of complaint.

Actually, it would be very reasonable to interrogate this. Richard Barber points out this is the "French view" of English fashion and it may well be that there was underlying xenophobia in the sentiment. Additionally or instead, we could read it as another entry in the age-old misogynistic tradition of men complaining about women's fashion. In short: we should not be replicating the biases of the Middle Ages as an excuse to talk about how embarrassing or condemnatory Joan's behaviour was.

But what was, you may be asking, a freebooter's mistress? A freebooter was a effectively a pirate so Warner is effectively saying that Joan dressed like a pirate's whore.

In discussing Joan's marriage, she gives Joan's age as "only thirteen or fourteen" before correcting herself to "at most thirteen and a half" and then notes Holland was in his mid-20s. Warner then says:

Evidently, though, she found him extremely appealing, and they married clandestinely and consummated the marriage, or so they later claimed.

I feel like if a man writing in the 1970s can recognise that Joan may have been coerced in marrying Holland, as Karl P. Wentersdorf did, saying Joan may have "been placed under pressure by her suitor and had not given her full and free assent", Warner can do much, much better than "clearly 13 year old Joan of Kent found him soooooo hot". We have no idea how they married or how Joan felt about her marriage as it happened. Of course it's possible that Joan found him hot - kids have crushes on adults all the time, though they don't really want to have sex with their crush except in the theoretical sense. But maybe Joan didn't, maybe Joan was pressured, as Wentersdorf suggested in 1979, or maybe she was groomed and believed she did. But I think it is just... a really irresponsible, victim-blaming line to take in relation to a 25 year old marrying a 13 year old (if Joan was as old as 13).

While Warner does recognise the creepiness of the relationship between Holland and Joan, she discusses it like so:

Thomas Holland was twice her age, a gap which makes their supposed love-match seem less romantic and more creepy and abusive to modern sensibilities (though contemporary opinion would have held an earl’s daughter and king’s granddaughter marrying a man so far beneath her in rank as a far worse misdemeanour.

I'm so glad she threw in the reference to how Joan, contemporarily speaking, was the worse offender in the relationship. We have no idea how people who actually knew her understood the relationship, it's possible they were horrified on her behalf. We only know what chroniclers - writing when Joan was an adult - made of it and chroniclers were frequently full of misogyny. As Warner has pointed out herself, they were the gossip magazines of their day.

Warner suggests that rather than using the money Holland had gained for fighting in the Crecy campaign to finance the very expensive process of appealing to the papal authorities, he felt that finally, with all this money, he could keep Joan "in the style to which she was accustomed", making her sound like a spoilt brat who'd been like "eww poor person" at Holland. Montagu, in Warner's telling "supposedly kept her prisoner". That neither Joan nor an attorney on her behalf responded a summons and that Pope Clement VI dispatched a brief to the Archbishop of Canterbury and other prelates enjoining them to ensure Joan could appoint her own attorney suggests that Montagu was preventing Joan from responding in some way.

This is all a prelude to the theory Warner believes in which is that Joan and Holland made up the story of their earlier marriage because they met while Holland was working as Montagu's steward and fell in "love or lust" and wanted to marry. So, in that regard, Joan isn't a victim of what today we would call child sexual abuse but actually an adulteress who lied to the papal authorities because she wanted to be Mrs Thomas Holland.

Only problem is that there is absolutely no evidence of this and quite a lof of reasons why it doesn't make sense. This post is long enough already so I'll write them up in a separate post. We can't even say that Holland was Montagu's steward because the only evidence of this is in John Hardying's chronicle, written during the Wars of the Roses - over a century on from events.

Some of this might sound like nitpicking or disagreements on historical record, and maybe it is. But Warner does have a Facebook post where she complains about Joan's "fans" who depict her as "amazingly special and unique and far more important than anyone else" (where are all these fans, I wonder). In the comments, she indicates her reasoning for the theory Joan and Holland lied which basically boils down to:

it's sickening that the story is treated as a great love story when it's not love and "just disgusting"

Not speaking up about his marriage makes Holland look like a coward, which he wasn't and it makes Holland look like an abusive groomer which she sincerely hopes he wasn't

she "prefers" the version where Joan wasn't groomed and raped and it's empowering to imagine her choosing Holland

Joan's fans are annoying

To which I would say:

It is sickening! But also: how people have interpreted and represented the relationship has nothing do with the reality of it.

It's not "brave" for a grown man to admit to having sex with a 12/13 year old. And he did very much admit to having sex with a 12/13 year old Joan - eventually. Being brave in battle does not make a man more or less likely to be an abuser. Finally, wishing and hoping does not make history.

It is a historian's job to interpret the evidence, not ignore it for a fantasy scenario in which they can feel good about what happened. It is also not really empowering or feminist to erase Joan's abuse.

How do people living almost 650 years on from Joan have any impact on Joan's lived reality? Girlbossed historical women is an annoying phenomena but it has nothing to do with the real Joan or her life.

#joan of kent #asks #poppaeasabina #text posts #maybe we need to add slutshaming and abuse apologism to the list of things #we as modern historians and commentators should do better than the medievals

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dailyanarchistposts · 13 days

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The beginning of a conversation

How can these processes of transformation be nurtured and defended, not just in their most dramatic and exceptional moments, but all the time? Are there common values or sensibilities that nurture transformative relationships, alive and responsive to changing situations, while warding off both Empire and rigid radicalism? What if joy (as the process of becoming more capable) was seen as fundamental to undoing Empire? What would it mean to be militant about joy? What is militancy when it is infused with creativity and love?

It was with these questions—much vaguer and more muddled at the time—that the two of us began having intentional conversations with several others. And who are we, the two of us? Both of us live in so-called British Columbia, Canada—Nick in Victoria and carla in Vancouver. We come from different generations, and we have pretty different life experiences across gender, class, ability, and education. carla has been involved in deschooling, youth liberation organizing, and other radical currents for a couple of decades now, and she became a mentor to Nick several years ago as Nick was realizing that he was a radical in his mid twenties without many mentors from older generations (a common phenomenon in anarchist and other radical worlds). What began as a relationship of mentorship and political collaboration evolved into a deep friendship. In terms of our organizing, we are both oriented towards prefigurative experiments: trying to contribute to projects and forms of life where we are able to live and relate differently with others, here and now, and supporting others doing the same. Both of us are white cis-gendered settlers, and for us this has meant trying to write in conversation with people with very different life experiences and insights, including Indigenous people, kids and youth, Black people and other folks of color, and genderqueer and trans folks, all of whom struggle against forms of violence and oppression that we can never know. We have also sought to talk to people from a wide variety of movements in many different places throughout Turtle Island (North America) and Latin America.

Over the course of a year and a half we spoke with friends, and friends of friends. This was a unique research process, in part, because we were inviting people into an ongoing conversation, asking them to reflect on and respond to our continually evolving ideas about joyful militancy and rigid radicalism. We formally interviewed fifteen people in all: Silvia Federici, adrienne maree brown, Marina Sitrin, Gustavo Esteva, Kelsey Cham C., Zainab Amadahy, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Melanie Matining, Tasnim Nathoo, Sebastian Touza, Walidah Imarisha, Mik Turje, Margaret Killjoy, Glen Coulthard, and Richard Day. We also had many more informal conversations with folks from a lot of different backgrounds, of all ages, who impacted our thinking immensely.

These people are not representatives of any particular group or movement. Nor are we holding them up as the ultimate embodiment of joy, militancy, or radicalism. They are people with whom we share values and who inspire and challenge us. All of them are committed, in various ways, to forcing Empire out of their lives and reviving and nurturing other worlds. They are involved in a diversity of movements, struggles, and forms of life: the uprisings in Oaxaca and Argentina; small-scale farming and urban food justice; Black liberation and prison abolition; Indigenous resurgence and land defense; transformative and healing justice movements; radical ecology and permaculture; scavenging and squatting; youth liberation and deschooling; feminist and anti-violence work; the creation of autonomous, queer, BIPOC{1} spaces; direct action and anticapitalist organizing, and much more, including the beautiful and fierce ways of being that are difficult to capture in words. Experiences among the people we interviewed ranged widely, from long-term commitments to places and communities to more itinerant and scattered spaces of belonging; from being steeped in radical theory to forms of knowledge arising through lived experience; from being well known in radical circles to being known primarily among friends, loved ones, and close collaborators.

Some we interviewed in person, some over conference calls, and others through written correspondence. We have tried to show this conversation—and to keep it going—by including extended excerpts from some of the interviews, putting them in dialogue with our own ideas and with each other. Some people we interviewed were unequivocally enthusiastic about this notion of joyful militancy, offering encouragement and affirmation. Others were more critical, alerting us to dangers, shortcomings, and confusions, and challenging some of our ideas. We have tried to show some of the ways our interlocutors challenged and disagreed with us—and diverged from each other—without pitting anyone against each other in a simplistic way.

We learned a lot from the apprehensiveness of some of the Indigenous people and people of color we interviewed, whose emotions are constantly policed and regulated, and whose struggles are constantly appropriated or erased. We heard from them that centering things like kindness, love, trust, and flourishing—especially when it comes from white people like us—can erase power relations. It can end up pathologizing so-called “negative” emotions like fear, mistrust, resentment, and anger. It can legitimize tone policing and a reactionary defense of comfort. It can fall into simplistic commandments to “be nice” or “get over” oppression and violence. Similarly, pointing to the importance of trust and openness can be dangerous and irresponsible in a world of so much betrayal and violence. These misgivings have taught us to be clear that trust and vulnerability are powerful and irreducibly risky; they require boundaries. They can never be obligations or duties.

We have also found that Spinoza’s concept of sadness can be very misleading. In contrast to joy, it means the reduction of one’s capacities to affect and be affected. Initially, we had been calling rigid radicalism “sad militancy,” drawing on others in the Spinozan current.[7] But while the concept of sad militancy was immediately intuitive for some, for others it was frustrating because of its resonance with grief and sorrow, which are an irreducible part of life and struggle. Interpreted in this light, it could be seen as belittling grief and pain. For that reason, we have decentered the concept of sadness in this book, while trying to hang onto what Spinoza was getting at. In its place, we often use words like stagnation, rigidity, and depletion, connoting a loss of collective power and the way Empire and rigid radicalism keep us stuck there. With joyful militancy we are trying to get at a multiplicity of transformations and worlds in motion, but there is a danger of implying that we are all in the same situation, and erasing difference and antagonisms. BIPOC women, trans, queer, and Two-Spirit people, in particular, have worked hard to show the specificities of the oppression they face and the specificity of their resistance and the worlds they are making.

In the face of this, we have mostly questions and tentative ideas: can joyful militancy affirm and explore a multiplicity of struggles and forms of life without homogenizing them? By attuning us to open-endedness of situations, can joy help us undo some of the universalizing and colonizing tendencies of radical Western theory and practice? Can movements be explored in ways that enable mutual learning and transformation, rather than erasing difference?

Here, we want to return to the dynamic space beyond fixed norms on the one hand, and “anything goes” relativism on the other. Outside this false dichotomy is the domain of relationships that are alive, responsive, and make people capable of new things together, without imposing this on everyone else. It is in this space where values like openness, curiosity, trust, and responsibility can really flourish, not as fixed ways of being to be applied everywhere, but as ways of relating that can only be kept alive by cultivating careful, selective, and fierce boundaries. For joy to flourish, it needs sharp edges.

How do we know when to be open and vulnerable, and when to draw lines in the sand and fight? Who to trust, and how? When are relationships worth fighting for, and when do they need to be abandoned? These are not questions with pre-given answers; they can only be answered over and over again in a multiplicity of ways. A crucial outgrowth of joy and fidelity to it, we suggest, is that people will take different paths and have different priorities. Movements and forms of life will diverge and sometimes come into conflict. There is no trump card that can be used to dictate a path to others: not the state, not morality, and not strategic imperatives of unity or movement-building. Encountering difference might lead to new capacities, strong bonds, and new forms of struggle. Or it might be more ambivalent and difficult, mixing distance and closeness. Or it might mean being told to fuck off. For all these reasons, we try to share some of our own values, and some of the struggles and movements that deeply inspire us, without saying that they are right for everyone or that others should share our priorities.

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une-sanz-pluis · 4 months

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The Marriage of Henry of Lancaster and Mary de Bohun (1380/1)

From: Chronicles of England, France and Spain and the Surrounding Countries, by Sir John Froissart, Translated from the French Editions with Variations and Additions from Many Celebrated MSS, by Thomas Johnes, Esq; London: William Smith, 1848. *

Humphry, earl of Hereford and Northampton, and constable of England, was one of the greatest lords and landholders in that country; for it was said, and I, the author of this book, heard it when I resided in England, that his revenue was valued at fifty thousand nobles a-year. From this earl of Hereford there remained only two daughters as his heiresses; Blanche the eldest, and Isabella** her sister. The eldest was married to Thomas of Woodstock, earl of Buckingham. The youngest was unmarried, and the earl of Buckingham would willing have had her remain so, for then he would have enjoyed the whole of the earl of Hereford’s fortune. Upon his marriage with Eleanor, he went to reside at his handsome castle of Pleshy, in the county of Essex, thirty miles from London, which he possessed in right of his wife. He took on himself the tutelage of his sister-in-law, and had her instructed in doctrine; for it was his intention she should be professed a nun of the order of St. Clare***, which had a very rich and large convent in England. In this manner was she educated during the time the earl remained in England, before his expedition into France. She was also constantly attended by nuns from this convent, who tutored her in matters of religion, continually blaming the married state. The young lady seemed to incline to their doctrine, and thought not of marriage.

Duke John of Lancaster, being a prudent and wise man, foresaw the advantage of marrying his only son Henry, by his first wife Blanche, to the lady Mary: he was heir to all the possessions of the house of Lancaster in England, which were very considerable. The duke had for some time considered he could not choose a more desirable wife for his son than the lady who was intended for a nun, as her estates were very large, and her birth suitable to any rank; but he did not take any steps in the matter until his brother of Buckingham had set out on his expedition to France. When he had crossed the sea, the duke of Lancaster had the young lady conducted to Arundel castle; for the aunt of the two ladies was the sister of Richard, earl of Arundel, one of the most powerful barons of England.**** This lady Arundel, out of complaisance to the duke of Lancaster, and for the advancement of the young lady, went to Pleshy, where she remained with the countess of Buckingham and her sister for fifteen days. On her departure from Pleshy, she managed so well that she carried with her the lady Mary to Arundel, when the marriage was instantly consummated between her and Henry of Lancaster. During their union of twelve years, he had by her four handsome sons, Henry, Thomas, John and Humphrey, and two daughters, Blanche and Philippa. The earl of Buckingham, as I said, had not any inclination to laugh when he heard these tidings; for it would not be necessary to divide an inheritance which the considered wholly as his own, excepting the constableship which was continued to him. When he learnt that his brothers had all been concerned in this matter, he became melancholy, and never after loved the duke of Lancaster as he had hitherto done.^

Notes:

* Johnes notes that this is from "only one of [his] mss. [manuscripts] and not in any printed copy". Chris Given-Wilson (Henry IV, Yale University Press, 2016): "This story comes from a variant manuscript of Froissart's chronicles used by Johnes, but subsequently destroyed by fire."

** Johnes: "Froissart mistakes: their names were Eleanor and Mary." Presumably, Johnes then corrects their names for the rest of the narrative?

*** Jennifer C. Ward (translator and editor), Women of the English Nobility and Gentry: 1066-1500 (Manchester Medieval Sources, Manchester University Press, 1995): "This is probably a reference to the convent of the Minoresses outside Aldgate in London where Isabella, daughter of Thomas and Eleanor, later became a nun."

**** Ward: "Joan de Bohun, Mary’s mother, was the sister of Richard FitzAlan, earl of Arundel." Given-Wilson argues the role Froissart assigns to Mary's aunt was actually played by Joan.

^ The veracity of Froissart's account has tended to be questioned, with some historians generally concluding there was probably some truth, mostly revolving around the falling out between John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock over the marriage. The secretive nature of it is almost certainly untrue, given Gaunt had received a royal grant for Mary's marriage. Given-Wilson:

Froissart claimed that ‘the marriage was instantly consummated’, but this was precipitate. He also got several other details of the story wrong, such as calling the two sisters Blanche and Isabel and saying that it was their ‘aunt’ who carried Mary away from Pleshey, but the essentials of his story are corroborated by other sources and undoubtedly correct. Countess Joan was complicit in the plot, presumably hoping to give her daughter a life outside the convent. She probably commissioned a pair of illuminated psalters for the marriage.

The psalters were probably made by the de Bohun-sponsored workshop at Pleshey, one of Woodstock's principle residences. It's possible, presumably, that Joan commissioned them after the wedding but if they were commissioned before/finished by the time of the wedding, it's hard to imagine that Woodstock's household were entirely unaware that a move was being made to marry Mary to Henry.

#mary de bohun #henry iv #jean froissart #joan de bohun countess of hereford #eleanor de bohun duchess of gloucester #thomas of woodstock duke of gloucester #john of gaunt #primary source #froissart's chronicles

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ozu-teapot · 1 year

Text

Films Watched in April 2023

Fargo | Joel Coen / Ethan Coen | 1996

Le plein de super (Fill 'er Up with Super) | Alain Cavalier | 1976

Angel's Egg | Mamoru Oshii | 1985

The Anniversary | Roy Ward Baker / Alvin Rakoff | 1968

Punk Samurai Slash Down | Gakuryû Ishii | 2018

Abel (AKA Voyeur) | Alex van Warmerdam | 1986

Suicide Club | Sion Sono | 2001

Blank Generation | Ulli Lommel | 1980

Behind Her Eyes | TV | Erik Richter Strand | 2021

The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It | Joseph McGrath | 1977

The Sunday Woman | Luigi Comencini | 1975

Enys Men | Mark Jenkin | 2022

Electric Dragon 80.000 V | Gakuryû Ishii | 2001

La cicatrice intérieure (The Inner Scar) | Philippe Garrel | 1972

Ava | Léa Mysius | 2017

The Fall | TV | Allan Cubitt / Jakob Verbruggen | 2013 - 2016

Films Watched in May 2023

The Devil's Trap | Frantisek Vlácil | 1962

The Week Starts on Friday (Short) | Elmar Klos | 1962

Beauty and the Beast | Juraj Herz | 1978

Frantisek Hrubín (Short) | Tomás Skrdlant | 1964

The People Next Door | David Greene | 1970

Celia | Ann Turner | 1989

Renfield | Chris McKay | 2023

Luminous Procuress | Steven Arnold | 1971

Dragon's Return | Eduard Grecner | 1968

The Man on the Roof | Bo Widerberg | 1976

Coach to Vienna | Karel Kachyna | 1966

She Dies Tomorrow | Amy Seimetz | 2020

Justine | Stewart Mackinnon | 1976

Yakuza Graveyard | Kinji Fukasaku | 1976

The Bride Wore Black | François Truffaut | 1968

The Haunting of Julia | Richard Loncraine | 1977

The End of the F***ing World | TV | Various | 2017-2019

Yellowjackets | Season 2 | TV | Various | 2023

The Cat Creeps | Erle C. Kenton | 1946

Me, Natalie | Fred Coe | 1969

Bold = Top Ten

Some notes: I’ve been going through one of those periods where I just wasn’t feeling it maaaan with regards to films and tumblr. Other things consumed my attention (Auriel's Bow isn't going to fetch itself from the Forgotten Vale) and at times it felt a struggle to watch and post. Still...

Anyway here’s one of those fancy two month Film Logs last seen in August/September 2022 only this time there’s a Top Ten compiled from both months. A few TV things make it into the list. I’m sometimes unsure about putting TV in the *Film* Log but The End of the F***ing World is great and I was very taken with Behind Her Eyes because it actually surprised me in the direction it took, such an unusual experience nowadays, plus the two female leads were very attractive. Hey, I’m only human, like Phil Oakey.

#Film Log #Skyrim

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starlitangels · 1 year

Text

You’re Mine (I Don’t Share)

The title is essentially the dialogue prompt that inspired this. @zozo-01 as promised! 3.1k words

CW: depictions of alcohol, nonconsensual grabbing (wrist, shoulder), minor fantasy violence, threats of harm (to a secondary character)

—

Knock-knock-knock.

“C-come in?”

I pushed the door open.

Lasko pulled his glasses off. “O-oh! P-professor. Hi. What… what are you doing here?”

“Hope I’m not interrupting,” I remarked, leaning against the doorframe of his office.

“No. No. Not at all.” He blinked hard and sucked in a breath. “How—how can I help you?”

“You plannin’ on coming down to the Smiling Wolf with us?”

“Wh… what?”

“The Smiling Wolf. That pub in the academy’s ward boundaries. A bunch of us professors are going out to celebrate the end of the semester. I know you’re admin now, but you still teach. You’re always welcome to join us.”

“Oh. Uh… no. I don’t think so. I-I-I have a… a lot of work to finish here.”

I gave him a sympathetic smile. “Lasko, if you don’t want to come with us you don’t have to. It’s no pressure. I just figured I’d offer. You don’t have to give up your Friday night finishing some work as an excuse to get out of being at a bar with a bunch of coworkers you don’t talk to. Don’t come with us if you don’t want—but text those friends I see you with sometimes. Make them let you kick their butts at Smash.”

Lasko blinked. “Wh… how… how did you know I play Smash?”

I chuckled. “C’mon. Like I never saw you in the student wellness building taking down three people at once on the systems they have there.”

“I… I didn’t realize you noticed.”

I shrugged. “I’m only a part-time professor. The other half of my job is a researcher. Observing is kinda what I do.” I smiled. “Text your friends, Lasko. Have fun with your Friday night, okay?”

A bit of relief touched the still-shocked look on his face. “O-okay,” he said. “You… you have a good evening, professor.”

I laughed. “Lasko. I know I used to be your professor but we’re equals now. You can call me by my first name.”

His blue-grey eyes widened. “I… I… I’m sorry. I don’t know if I can. I-I mean—you’re—you’re younger than me but… but I can’t—you were my teacher and I don’t know if I could ever get over that out of old-old habits of being polite and respectful to teachers, you know?”

“It’s okay. Just figured I’d put that offer out there too. Now have a good night, okay? I’m heading out.”

“Y-y-yeah. You too. Goodnight, professor.”

I pushed off the doorframe of his office, waved, and headed down the hall.

—

Brandy slammed her shot glass down on the table. “To the end of the semester!” she crowed, raising another shot glass. The other professors raised theirs and knocked them back. I barely lifted my glass bottle of club soda to join the toast and took a sip.

“Not drinkin’ tonight?” Omar asked.

I shook my head. “Nah. I’d rather take my own car home than leave it here and have to take an Uber.”

Richard hiccuped. “Fair enough,” he added. He turned to Omar. “Bet I can down more shots than you.”

“You’re on.”

I chuckled and shook my head before taking another sip of my soda. I’d known some of these professors since they taught me at the academy. But I’d integrated into the ranks as a coworker better than poor Lasko had, apparently.

Vzzt! Vzzt! My phone vibrated in my pocket. I set my bottle on the table and dug it out.

New Message: Avior

How’s the semester’s end party?

I smiled. Avior never texted if he could talk. He was usually more likely to call me—if he wasn’t just showing up in front of me to check in.

I unlocked my phone to reply to him.

Not bad. Couple of my coworkers are already absolutely smashed. I got myself a soda. Not drinking tonight.

Avior: Sounds safe. When do you think you’ll be home? Midnight?

I glanced around the table. Brandy was swaying dangerously, looking like she might pass out on the table.

I’ll probably come home when everyone else starts dropping like flies. I honestly have no idea why they do this. Or why they keep inviting me. I never get drunk with them. You know me. It’s not like I’m the life of the party or anything.

Avior: You don’t have to be the life of the party. You’re the light of my life.

I bit my lip to try and suppress a smile. I love you.

I love you too, my starlight.

Lisa leaned on my shoulder. “Who you texting?” Her voice was already a little slurred.

“My partner,” I replied. Boyfriend never felt right for Avior. Our relationship was forged in the literal fires of Hell—boyfriend was too shallow of a word for what he was to me. Partner was closer, but still felt inadequate.

“You’re dating someone?” Lisa asked. “I didn’t know that!”

I put my phone back in my pocket and ran my pinky along the rim of my drink bottle. “It, uh, never came up.” And literally happened over the course of a real-world forty-five minutes or so while it felt like six months for me and two-and-a-half years for Avior. Which was a little hard to explain when I was single one day and apparently overnight hopelessly devoted to a demon like we’d been together for months the next.

I let a little magic trail down from my finger on the rim of my bottle and down into the drink itself. A little spell I’d been taught a long time ago for detecting drugs in drinks.

A bit of relief eased down my spine when the drink stayed the same. Had it changed colors or started to glow, my bottle would have been drugged in the moments I’d set the drink on the table surrounded by coworkers.

Had that been the case, I would have gone straight home to Avior. I’d been doing these parties with my coworkers for a few years. But I always checked—just to be cautious.

I took the bottle back into my hand and took another swig. Club soda wasn’t necessarily my favorite but it wasn’t terrible.

A swell of “Whoa!” and gasping built from over at the actual bar. I turned to look.

The bartender—a gifted Psychokinetic I’d actually had Intermediate Psychokinetic Disciplinary Studies with—was making three drinks at once with dramatic flourishes using magic. A couple bar patrons were filming the tricks.

The bartender caught my eye and grinned with an enthusiastic wave. I raised my bottle in acknowledgment.

He beckoned me over. I chuckled and got to my feet, going over to the bar and leaned against it on my elbows, keeping my bottle loosely in my hand, but with the opening tilted toward me.

“How ya been?” he asked. “I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“Yeah it’s been a while. Been well. How about you?”

“Not too bad! Having fun on the job. Looks like you academics are too.”

I laughed. “Semester just got over so the professors are all celebrating.”

“Ohhh. Gotcha.”

“So. Talking to me part of your party trick? Make three drinks at once while holding a conversation?”

He chuckled and put a finger to his lips. “Don’t blow my cover,” he said. I snorted and rolled my eyes.

“It’s good to see you, Lucas,” I said.

“You too.”

Despite the conversation being short and coming to a quick close, I remained standing at the bar. I’d been sitting for most of the day and the stretch felt good. I’d go back to the cramped table in a little bit.

I finished off my bottle of soda. Lucas noticed me set it down, empty, and flipped it into a glass waste trash can with a snap of his fingers, not letting go of his three other drinks.

“Want another one?” Lucas asked, gesturing toward the small fridge with sodas in it.

“Well, if they do, it’s on me,” a voice said as a weight leaned against the bar next to me.

I glanced over. “Oh. Hey Bradley. I didn’t see you come in. Thought you couldn’t make it tonight.”

“Plans changed,” Bradley replied.

I glanced at Lucas. “I’ll take another. Make it strawberry-flavored this time. But my soda’s on me,” I said. I shot a smile at Bradley. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m good.”

He pouted a little. “Awww c’mon. I don’t see you for like a year and you’re turning me down?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m still down to catch up—but I can buy my own soda.”

He made puppy-dog eyes at me.

A clear bottle full of pinkish-red soda floated daintily out of the fridge behind the bar and landed in front of me. “Thanks Lucas,” I said, snatching it off the counter and spinning around.

Bradley’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Where are you going? Don’t you wanna talk?”

“We don’t have to talk at the crowded bar. We can go back to the table.”

“Why don’t we, uh… find our own table?” He gave me a smile. “Get away from the slammed coworkers for a bit before going back to play babysitter.” He glanced over at the table with the other professors. I followed his line of sight to see Brandy and Lisa were apparently improvising some karaoke.

“This is why I don’t drink,” I muttered, using the heavy metal ring around my middle finger I’d worn especially for this to pry the bottle-cap off.

“Don’t drink and yet you know how to do that with a ring not a bottle opener?” Bradley suggested, raising an eyebrow.

“Look, I may be magic-born, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how physics works. Force and angles and leverage. Why waste magic taking a bottle cap off or pocket space bringing a bottle opener?”

Bradley gave me a look I couldn’t quite recognize. “Y’know, you’ve developed quite the attitude in the time since we last talked.”

I huffed a snort out of my nose. “If you have a problem, you can go talk with somebody else,” I said.

His hand on my shoulder slowly trailed down my arm, fingertip just barely brushing skin the closer he got to my wrist. “I didn’t say I minded the attitude,” he said softly.

I snatched my arm away and flicked the bottle-cap toward Lucas off my thumb like a coin. His magic caught it mid-air and slingshotted it into the metal recycling bin. “No thanks,” I said. “Not interested.” I ducked my shoulder away from him and moved to go back to the table. Or maybe the door. They were close to one another anyway.

I got halfway to both before Bradley caught my wrist. “Hey, where are you running?”

“Stop touching me,” I snapped, yanking back.

“Whoa, now. I’m just trying to be friendly—”

“Too friendly.”

“Stop making a scene.”

“I’m not afraid to defend myself, Bradley. You should know that about me by now. You should also know that I’m strong enough to win if this escalates.” Tension coiled in my Threads, my Core warming in my chest.

Bradley took two heavy steps closer to me, almost closing the distance between the two of us—

When a familiar sound cut right over the noise of the bar.

“That’s enough,” a familiar, acidic, livid voice spat.

Bradley halted in his tracks.

Avior stood between him and me.

“Who the hell are you?” Bradley demanded.

Avior ignored him in favor of turning toward me. “Are you alright, starlight?” The corrosive burn of his ire softening as he gave me a concerned look.

I shrugged. “I’ve been worse.” I rubbed at my wrist where it was aching from pulling it out of Bradley’s grip.

“Did he hurt you?” Of course Avior didn’t miss the movement.

“Grabbed me,” I said quietly.

In the yellowy half-light of the pub, Avior’s eyes flared.

“Look, demon, I don’t care what you are, and I don’t care who you think you are. I was trying to catch up with an old friend—” His hand landed aggressively on Avior’s shoulder.

Faster than a whip, Avior had Bradley’s wrist in his fist and was facing him. I didn’t need to see his face to know the expression on it. Angry—but with a hint of that acerbic, condescending amusement he wore as armor. “Well. I suppose I should admire your audacity, if nothing else.” He tightened his grip on Bradley’s wrist and pulled him in close. “I… am their partner. And if you ever put your hands on what’s mine again, ‘cremation’ will be listed as your ‘cause of death’.”

A shining gold light bathed Bradley’s face. I leaned just enough to realize Avior’s eyes were glowing. Each one the color and and building brightness of a small sun.

“Demons are eternal—and we really know how to hold grudges.”

Bradley grimaced, trying to break Avior’s grip on his arm—to no avail. “Dude—my arm—let go—!”

Avior didn’t appear to be listening. His fingers tightened. I could swear I heard bones groaning under the pressure.

“I take it you don’t know what it means to earn the love and loyalty of a demon,” he added.

The whole bar was watching this by now.

“Keep. Your hands. To. Yourself,” Avior growled. His voice had some sort of echo that I’d only heard once before. In the Meridian—the first time it had tried to absorb me. You can’t have them. Before every ounce of his magic hit me and threw me out back into the real world.

Magic flickered at his head. A slight, reddish glimmer in two very specific spots. Two very specific shapes moments away from fading into being.

His horns.

Deep Burgundy and bending back away from his face before curving skyward.

He didn’t display them often. Spent too much time on Elegy in the eye of unempowered people. Cloaking and phasing them was just a habit he sometimes forgot he was even doing.

I stepped right up behind him. “Avior,” I said softly. “Let go of his wrist.”

“He hurt you.”

“He’s just an entitled bastard who’s not worth the trouble you would get in. Avior, please.” I reached out and set a hand against his back.

The glow vanished immediately and the quivering magic barely keeping his horns from fully materializing snapped back into place.

Avior let go of Bradley’s wrist. Bradley cradled it to his abdomen with a groan of pain, breathing hard, taking several steps back.

I offered Avior my hand.

He took it and pulled me close to him. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and led me outside. From there, I took him to my car. Without so much as a word, he ducked into the passenger side. I climbed into the driver’s seat. He was still fuming. His aura burned hot and felt like mine—chaotic whips of unspecialized magic lashing at the air around him.

“Would you rather talk or calm down quietly?” I asked as I put the car in Reverse to get out of the parking space.

He shook his head.

Quiet it was.

We drove for a long while, but before we got home, I took an impulsive right-hand turn.

“Where are we going?” Avior asked. The first words he’d said calmly since he appeared at the bar.

“You’ll see.”

After another minute, I pulled into the lot of a park and stopped the car, turning off the engine.

“C’mon,” I said.

I hopped out of the car. Avior followed me. He was still angry—I didn’t need to be empathic like him to know that. I could tell by the way he held tension in his shoulders. The strength he used to hold my hand when I offered it to him again.

I led him through the shadows to a hill. We climbed to the top of the slope until we had a clearer view of what few stars we could see in a city as light-polluted as Dahlia. I drew him close to me and wrapped my arms around him. He held on tight, his eyes closed. “Can I kiss you?” His voice was barely a whisper.

“Of course.”

The kiss was firm—but I expected it to be. The way he held me didn’t convey relief. His arm running up my spine, crushing me to his torso as he kissed me was protective and possessive.

He kissed me heavy enough to make my head spin and my breath shudder.

“You are mine—and I don’t share,” he whispered.

“I’m not going anywhere, Avior,” I breathed against his lips. He was shaking. “I promise. I love you and you’re mine too.”

“I didn’t spend two years alone in Hell to lose you to someone like him.”

“And you never will.”

He kissed me again. Hard and desperate. Reminding himself I was there. “I love you so much, my starlight.”

“I love you too.”

He took a moment to look up at the stars. “Can we go home?”

“Yeah. Let’s go home, Avior.” I kissed him gently on the jaw and started to lead him back down the hill. His hold on me didn’t loosen, but he didn’t seem quite so tense everywhere else. The fury was tapering off, leaving the relief behind.

We got back in the car and I turned over the engine.

The drive home was quiet, but nowhere near as tense as before. Now it felt more relaxed. Content. Comfortable.

“So… when we get home… what do you want to do?” I asked, sneaking a sly glance at him out of the corner of my eye.

“I haven’t thought that far ahead. Why?”

I shrugged. “Mm. I’ll deny it if you tell anyone else but it was kinda hot seeing you get all jealous and possessive and protective. I liked hearing you say I’m yours.”

Avior looked like he was trying not to smile in the corner of my eye. “I see. And what do you want to do when we get home, then?”

I bit my tongue between my teeth in a little grin. “Shut the door to our bedroom and show you who belongs to you.”

#Redacted ASMR #fic #Redacted Avior #Redacted Starlight #Redacted Audio #Starlit Fic #Avior X Starlight #Avior #Starlight #featuring #Lasko #(briefly)

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shiveringfrogspawn · 6 months

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What book are you currently reading? How are you liking it? What book are you going to read next?

I’m currently reading ten (10!!!) books at once! Most recently picked up is The Third Daughter by Adrienne Tooley. I’m about a quarter of the way through, and it’s pretty good - I’d give it a solid 7/10. I like the worldbuilding and the plot so far. Started reading it based off a three-word review I saw an internet stranger give it - ‘magical furious lesbians’ and it really lives up to it ❤️

The other nine books I’m reading are:

Crimson Rivers by bizarrestars (a Hunger Games Jegulus AU fic but it’s so long I’m counting it as a book)

The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis (not really liking it tbh, the writing style just isn't engaging)

Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (I’m only at the start but I have to say, an all-female utopia is a pretty good story as far as I’m concerned)

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (not as good as people build it up to be but still pretty decent)

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher (Parisian lesbians with bookshops and a lot of wine? Yes please)

The Witches of Vardø by Anya Bergman (it seems good? I'm only at the start, but I'm loving the worldbuilding)

The Clockill and the Thief by Gareth Ward (a YA novel I picked up a few years ago and loved. It's the second book in a steampunk duology set in Victorian England (AU) and I'm rereading it to heal my inner child)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (needs no introduction - swoon)

Sorry for the disgusting amount of time it took for me to respond to this ask - I started typing this response ages ago, chucked it into my drafts folder, and forgot all about it.

What are you reading right now @nerdy-girl3791? How do you feel about it? What are you going to read next?

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mygreatadventurehasbegun · 11 months

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Lady Marian (2, 12, 23) Harry Roat Jr. (1, 16, 27) Belle (the animated one - 7, 9, 29) Emma Watson Belle (b/c I'm evil mwahahaha - 2, 8, 23)

Lady Marian

2. When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like)

Immediately! When I was six, she was just the pretty lady in the pretty dresses, so what's not to like? But as I got older, I recognized what an amazing character she is!!

12. Sexuality hc!

Straight and madly in love with Robin! She even considered eloping with him...which I imagine was a huge no-no in the 12th century.

23. Future headcanon

Beyond "they lived happily ever after"? lol

I think they got married and had a family, of course...they live in a nice castle (she's the King's ward and he's an Earl, so...nice real estate). And I imagine she's a very good mom (and oh my god, how adorable would Robin be as a dad to a little girl??) and is well-loved by everyone. I remember watching Robin and Marian for the first time and thinking that I could see Olivia's Marian maturing into Audrey's Marian...

Harry Roat, Jr.

My first impression of them

He's a massive creep!

16. A childhood headcanon

Oh no....I shudder to think...I have a feeling it probably wasn't the most pleasant...I think he was probably fairly isolated, only allowing a select few into his inner circle...No real stable parental figures, and when they were around, he learned how to manipulate them into getting what he wanted.

27. If they could meet a character from another show/movie/etc, who would be the most fun for them to meet?

Oh my god!! I'm trying to think of what was released before this movie takes place...Maybe Tommy Udo from Kiss of Death...why? It's literally the first character that popped into my head...and I haven't even seen the movie...but he's a murderer who's tracking down the man who betrayed him. The only other thing I know about him is that he's played by Richard Widmark. I feel like they'd swap stories.

Belle (animated)

7. A quote of them that you remember

"It's my favorite! Far off places, daring swordfights, magic spells, a prince in disguise!"

9. Your least favorite outfit of them

I mean they're all great, but I think I'd have to pick the green one she wears when she sees the library. (and I still love that one!)

29. How do you think they would be as a parent? (and if they are a parent, how do you think they would be if they weren't?)

Belle is probably an amazing mom! Encouraging her children to use their imagination and being an amazing listener.

Belle (2017...UGH)

2. When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like)

Probably the second time I watched to film. The first time, I was sort of middle of the road with this Belle (mostly due to the fact that I watched this movie in the theater on about three hours of sleep, due to food poisoning the night before...but I had already bought my ticket, so I was going). I thought she was...fine. But then I watched the movie again, and I realized what had actually happened to this character and I was...displeased, to say the least.

8. Your favorite outfit of them

*First of all, very wise not to ask about my least favorite, because I would write a dissertation.

I think I'd have to say her town dress. As long as her skirt is not tucked into her belt! But I thought it was a nice update on the original's simple blue and white dress.

But let's be real here...the best outfit in the movie is Audra's dress from the finale.

23. Future headcanon

I don't really care...but I do remember seeing the concept art for this movie and there was one that showed Belle and the Prince (in human form) with a bunch of kids in the library, but it looked like it was set up to be a school. So that might be interesting, if the Prince opened up his castle to the village children to let them use the library.

Thanks for asking!!

#beauty and the beast #wait until dark #the adventures of robin hood

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ifreakingloveroyals · 2 days

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27 February 2018 | Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge arrives on the children's "snow Leopard" ward with director of nursing Janet Powel at St Thomas' hospital in London, England. The Duchess of Cambridge officially launched a campaign to promote nursing worldwide. (c) Richard Pohle - Pool/Getty Images

#Catherine #Duchess of Cambridge #Princess of Wales #Britain #2018 #Richard Pohle #Pool #Getty Images

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with-a-martyr-complex · 5 months

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With A Martyr Complex: Reading List 2023

Adapted from the annual list from @balioc, a list of books (primarily audiobooks) consumed this year. This list excludes several podcasts, but includes dramatizations and college lecture series from The Great Courses, which I consume like a parrot emotionally dependent on access to lecturers.

The Birth of Tragedy Out Of The Spirit of Music byFriedrich Nietzsche (Translated by Ian Johnston)

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (Translated by Michael Henry Heim, Introduction by Michael Cunningham)

Financial Literacy: Finding Your Way in the Financial Markets by Connel Fullenkamp, from The Great Courses

The Dispossessed: A Novel by Ursula K. Le Guin

License to Travel: A Cultural History of the Passport by Patrick Bixby

Making History: How Great Historians Interpret the Past by Allen C. Guelzo, from The Great Courses

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (Translated by Donald Keene)

Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass

Understanding Japan: A Cultural History by Mark J. Ravina, from The Great Courses

The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold

What Has Passed Shall In Kinder Light Appear by Baoshu (Translated by Ken Liu)

The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World by Robert Garland from The Great Courses

The Just City by Jo Walton

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Understanding Imperial China: Dynasties, Life, and Culture by Andrew R. Wilson, from The Great Courses

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (Contains: Tower of Babylon, Understand, Division By Zero, Story of Your Life, Seventy-Two Letters, The Evolution of Human Science, Hell is the Absence of God, and Liking What You See.)

Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition by Grant Hardy, from The Great Courses

By The Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions by Richard Cohen

War in Japan: 1467-1615 by Stephen Turnbull

Yūrei: The Japanese Ghost by Zack Davisson

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (Translated by Dennis Washburn)

Buddhism by Malcolm David Eckel, from The Great Courses

The Rise of Modern Japan by Mark Ravina, from The Great Courses

The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps: The Bloody Battles and Intrigues of the Shinsengumi by Romulus Hillsborough

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, (Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori)

Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima (Translated by Michael Gallagher)

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

The Rise of Communism: From Marx to Lenin by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, from The Great Courses

Communism in Power: From Stalin to Mao by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, from The Great Courses

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (Translated by Isabel F. Hapgood)

Cycles of American Political Thought by Joseph F. Kobylka, from The Great Courses

Docile by K. M. Szpara

Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques by James Hynes, from The Great Courses

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card

Real Service by Raven Kaldera and Joshua Tenpenny

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alhigieri (Translated by Clive James)

Dante's Divine Comedy by William R. Cook and Ronald B. Herzman from The Great Courses

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Secrets of The Occult by Richard B. Spence (From the Great Courses, possibly?)

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

American Monsters by Adam Jortner from The Great Courses

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

Praetorian: The Rise and Fall of Rome's Imperial Bodyguard byGuy de la Bédoyère

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

Great World Religions: Hinduism by Mark W. Muesse, from The Great Courses

At The Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft

The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft

The Shadow Out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft

The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft

The Whisperer in Darkness by H. P. Lovecraft

The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft by H. P. Lovecraft (Collected by The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, contains: The Alchemist, At the Mountains of Madness, Azathoth, The Best in the Cave, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, The Book, The Call of Cthulhu, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Cats of Ulthar, Celephais, The Colour out of Space, Cool Air, Dagon, The Descendent, Discarded Draft of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," The Doom that Came to Sarnath, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Dunwich Horror, The Evil Clergyman, Ex Oblivione, Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family, The Festival, From Beyond, The Haunter of the Dark, He, Herbert West-Reanimator, History of the Necronomicon, The Horror at Red Hook, TheHound, Hypnos, Ibid, In the Vault, The Little Glass Bottle, The Lurking Fear, Memory, The Moon-Bog, The Music of Erich Zann, The Mysterious Ship (Long and Short Versions), The Mystery of the Grave-Yard, The Nameless City, Nyarlathotep, Old Bugs, The Other Gods, The Outsider, Pickman's Model, The Picture in the House, Polaris, The Quest of Iranon, The Rats in the Walls, A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson, The Secret Cave, The Shadow out of Time, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Shunned House, The Silver Key, The Statement of Randolph Carter, The Strange High House in the Mist, The Street, Sweet Ermengarde, The Temple, The Terrible Old Man, The Thing on the Doorstep, Through the Gates of the Silver KeyThe Tomb, The Transition of Juan Romero, The Tree, Under the Pyramids, The Unnamable, The Very Old Folk, What the Moon Brings, The Whisperer in Darkness, The White Ship)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Patton: The Man Behind The Legend, 1885-1945 by Martin Blumenson

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger by Matt Yglesias

Red: A History of the Redhead by Jacky Colliss Harvey

The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo (Translated by Isabel Florence Hapgood)

The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing by Joost A. M. Meerloo

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Legacies of Great Economists by Timothy Taylor from The Great Courses

Incomplete books: Trouble on Triton, Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds, Dark Archives, The History of the World: Map by Maps, The Iliad (Emily Wilson Translation), Christina Queen of Sweden: The Restless Life of a European Eccentric, The Three Musketeers, The Only Plane in the Sky, Myth in Human History, The Dragon: Fear and Power

---

Great Courses consumed: 17?

Non-Great Courses Nonfiction consumed: 13

---

Works consumed by women: 13

Works consumed by men: 53

Works consumed by men and women: 0

Works that can plausibly be considered of real relevance to foreign policy (including appropriate histories): 7

---

With A Martyr Complex’s Choice Award, fiction division: Convenience Store Woman

>>>> Honorable mention: Hart's Hope, Ancillary Justice, Child of God, No Longer Human, Piranesi, the first 1/3 of Cyteen, What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear

With A Martyr Complex’s Choice Award, nonfiction division: By The Sword

>>>> Honorable mention: The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps, Praetorian, The Birth of Tragedy most of the Great Courses stuff I got to this year

>>>> Great Courses Division: Buddhism

The Annual “An Essential Work of Surpassing Beauty that Isn’t Fair to Compare To Everything Else” Award: The Divine Comedy

>>>> Honorable mention: Julius Caesar, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Shadow Out of Time, Pride and Prejudice, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Man Who Laughs, The Dispossessed

The “Reading This Book Will Give You Great Insight Into The Way I See The World” Award: What Has Passed Shall In Kinder Light Appear

>>>> Honorable mention: Hell is the Absence of God (from Stories of Your Life and Others)

The "My Mind is Thoroughly Exhausted By Reading Through All This But It Was Worth It In The End" Award: The Tale of Genji

Book Most in Need of A Single Extra Chapter: The Man Who Laughs

Best Dude: Darcy from Pride and Prejudice

---

This is the first year where I didn't struggle to reach my 52 book goal at all, only some of which is thanks to the Lovecraft marathon. I also read a ton of short sci-fi stories early in the year for an online class I took (which is also why there are so many sci-fi novels in the beginning of the year) and feel much more knowledgeable in the genre even though I'm still not very well read in it. I will be taking a fantasy course next year to what I assume will be similar effect.

It's still hard to read non-audiobooks, made worse this year by a promotion at work that means I have much less free time overall but still a fair deal of time for audiobooks while working with my hands. My (I don't post it) movie list suffered similarly, with this being the first year in a while I didn't hit my movie target. Not discussed: I read various comics this year! Standouts: Chainsaw Man Part 1, the first volume of Pluto, Fun Home, the fifth volume of Phoenix, Look Back

Goals for next year: more foreign policy reading, more literary fiction, write something of my own, ohgodthesearethesamegoalsaslastyearpleasetellmeI'mnotstagnating

#oc #yearly reading list

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realcatalina · 10 months

Text

Most Pleasant song of Lady Bess doesn't make any sense.

At least not when it comes to description of Henry VII.

So in this poem/somg Humphrey(the guy who is said to have wrote it) is send to deliver message to exiled Henry in Bretagne...And he doesn't know him...but he knows the porter, who shows him king from distance and says which one of the men it is...

By first describing Henry's clothes...and then him. And that 2nd paragraph is the illogical part. WTF is going on with the wart?!

Version 1:

„Thereby the prince know may you A privy warte withouten lett And had littil above chyn, His face is white, the wart is red. Therebye full well yee may hym ken.“

(Tbh i don't understand half of this one.)

Version 2:

„There-ye the Prince know may ye. A wart he hath, the porter said, a litle alsoe above chinn, his face is white, his wart is redd, no more than head of small pinn: You may know the Prince certain. As soon as you look upon him truelly.“

Now either the porter was an idiot! ...because tiny wart is not a major identifying feature...you'd use for somebody to better identify somebody!

It makes zero sense for porter to go on and on about the wart! And not give Humphrey the better identifying features"

Or it's transcribing error. The poem/song is from 15th century...but oldest two surviving versiosn are from c.1600 and from reign of Charles II. And it was edited in past...

So...then i thought about it, again, and decided to read more of the text, and it is interesting...(i'll leave link at end of post),

On first glance this seems as closer to original because you can't understadn it that well, but idk truly:

„Thereby the prince know may you A privy warte withouten lett And had littil above chyn, His face is white, the wart is red. Therebye full well yee may hym ken.“

I was looking for similiarities in the text, and i found several things which go against the alleged meaning.

the phrase withouten/without lett is used several times.

Since in english a phrase 'without let or hindrance'

means without obstruction or impediment.

...It makes zero sense for Wart to be without obstruction.

Also, word chyn in text appears only once again, when decribing Richard's death.

They carryed hym naked into Layceter, and bouckled his haeire under his chyn, Bessie mett hym with a merye cheare.

It doesn't make sense either...that they buckled his hair under his chin? But 2nd version said Richard head was pulled under his feet...no mention of his chin. Unless it used to be shin. Part of leg.

I cannot be of course sure it actually means shin...but it's one of possible variants.

So maybe...this is still describing Henry's clothes.

„See where he shooteth at the buttes, and with hym are lordes three, he weareth a gown of velvette blacke, and yt is coted above knee, with longe visage and pale, therebye the prynce know may yee, a privye warte withouten lett, and hathe a litill above the chyn(shin), His face is white, the warte is red. Therebye full well yee may hym ken.“

See, where he shoots at the buttes*, *it's a game and with him are lords three, he wears a gown of velvet black, and it is cut? above knee, with long visage and pale, thereby the prince know may you, a privy?/private? ward/word without hindrence*YES! and had a littil? above the shin/chin His face is white, the warte is red. Thereby full well you may him ken/ know?

*Yeah, private word without hindrence...that would make absolute sense!

...I am not sure if littel is supposed to mean little. if it is above shin...could it be part of dress? I am sewing anti-tallent so I truly don't know.

But I think the verses are mixed a bit, and probably part is missing because even if it is part of garment, it cannot be both above shin and above knee. ...You'd not describe it like that.

The author used a rhymes a lot...but modern pronounciation vs old can be different and so some words might not rhyme these days, but used to in past. I'll try to fix it. But I think i also need to look at 2nd longer version of the text.

„Low where he siteth at the butts certaine, With other lords two or three, he weareth a gown of velvet black, and it is cutted above the knee with a long visgae and pale and black Thereby know that prince may ye, a warth he hath, teh porter said. A little alsoe above the chinn, His face is white, his wart is redd No more than head of small pinn.“

Low/look? where he (is) seated at the butts certain* *like is he good at the game?*

With other lords two or three, he wears a gown of velvet black and it is cut above the knee with a long visage and pale and black* *still describing clothes, probably Thereby know that prince may you A wart he had, the porter said, A little also* above the chin/shin *Why also? His face is white, his wart? is red No more than the head of a small pinn.

So Henry probably wore some gown like this-cut above knees, but black, with different coloured sleeves, possibly with some pale and black pattern?

So far so good.

What if the word also was added? A little above chin/shin

...hair comes to mind. or boots? From those above ankles I keep only find those which are above knees...no reason to describe these as being above shin...

I think logically if I tried to describe somebody I'd describe their clothes, their figure, their colouring.

This is best I could come up with:

I shall thee tell, said the porter then, the prince of England, know shall yee(you). See where he shoots at the butts, and with him lords three. He wears a gown of velvet black, and it is cut above the knee. With a long visage, pale and black. ...And verse is misisng here. His face is white, the warte hair is red, and a little above the chin. A wart he had, the porter said, no more than head of small pinn. You may know the prince certaine, as soon as you look upon him truely. ...

A private word without let* *hindrance ...(then the porter said?)

Now that the porter is he gone, with him he tooke the mules three. To earl Richmonde he went alone, Where the other lords did be* *were

...

Not really sure about the 4th paragraph...I think it could easily be from 2 separate paragraphs, with several verses missing.

When you read it...it's quite melodic and rhytmical.

Still this is only version I found logical, after reading both version and comparing the texts. Neither seems to make sense on its own.

First clothes, then Henry's skin, his HAIR, and then little mention of wart...used more to keep the rhyme going...

Anyway here is link, for those of you who would wish to study it in full, both versions are in the book:

Please tell me in comments what you think, and any suggestions about 2nd and the 4th paragraph.

#tudor history #henry vii

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bookgeekgrrl · 1 year

Text

My media this week (5-11 Feb 2023)

ˢᵒ ᵗʰᵉ ʰᵃʳˡᵉʸ ᵠᵘᶦⁿⁿ ᵛᵃˡᵉⁿᵗᶦⁿᵉˢ ˢᵖᵉᶜᶦᵃˡ ᶠᵉᵃᵗᵘʳᵉᵈ ᵇʳᵉᵗᵗ ᵍᵒˡᵈˢᵗᵉᶦⁿ ˢʰᶦʳᵗˡᵉˢˢ ʳᵉᵃᵈᶦⁿᵍ ᵇʸʳᵒⁿ'ˢ ˡᵒᵛᵉ ᵖᵒᵉᵐˢ ʷʰᶦˡᵉ ᵖᵒˡᶦˢʰᶦⁿᵍ ʰᶦˢ ᵉᵐᵐʸ ᵃⁿᵈ ᶦ ᶜᵒᵘˡᵈ ⁿᵒᵗ ˢᵗᵒᵖ ˡᵃᵘᵍʰᶦⁿᵍ

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😊👂‍Murder at the Charity Ball (Miss Underhay Mystery #11) (Helena Dixon, author; Karen Cass, narrator) - another episode in this cotton candy cozy series

🥰Plastered (Zenaidamacrouras1) - 59K, stucky no powers AU; single dad bucky + architect Steve - charming; solid versions of the characters, very enjoyable

😊Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales #1) (Olivia Atwater, author; Rafe Beckley, narrator) - quite enjoyed this, liked the neurodivergent rep, very relieved at the lack of 'cure' ending - it did make me want to read/finish the Sorcery & Cecelia series by Patricia C. Wrede

😍Knife Skills (Hark_bananas) - 72K, post-WS recovery fic; reread, forever fave, absolute perfection

💖💖 +180K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

save a horse, ride an ex-jock (alligator_writes) - Stranger Things: Steddie, 9.8K - hilarious, almost-crackfic of a meet-cute at a country bar where electric bull riding shenanigans ensue. If you've seen that video, you get it

eat me alive (emryses) - Stranger Things: Steddie, 7.2K - baby's first rimming - eddie gets the full 'steve harrington treatment' - just delightfully filthy and also tender af

Auld Lang Syne (Annakovsky, drunktuesdays) - AEW: OC/Chuck Taylor, 36K - Family Man AU - do I watch wresting? I do not. Did I still get emotional while reading this? I very much did. shoutout to the great writing here!

shipling rivalries (ScarlettSwordMoon) - Batman: , 5.2K - HILARIOUS crackfic where all the batkids debate & present their cases for who Dick should be in a relationship with. Bruce regrets his entire life. Damian gets to say "That’s what Richard deserves: a strong warrior who can care and provide for him. I believe the correct terminology for it is a ‘daddy’."

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Scooby Doo, Where Are You! - s2, e5-6

Night Court - s1, e1-3

Harley Quinn - "A Very Problematic Valentine's Day Special" [s3, e11]

Hot Ones - Kate Hudson Stays Positive While Eating Spicy Wings

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

It's Been a Minute - The love and longing of Luther Vandross; Plus Grammy nominee Samara Joy

ICYMI Plus - The Anal Bead Cheating Scandal That Rocked the Online Chess World

The Sporkful - A French Chef And Cincinnati: A Love Story

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Marchand Dessalines

Shedunnit - A Detective's Farewell

⭐Off Menu - Ep 139: Nadiya Hussain

You Must Remember This - 1983: MTV Aesthetics, Flashdance and Risky Business (Erotic 80s Part 6)

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Rainmaker

Strange Customs - Andrew Seidel | The Lines

⭐Vibe Check - Happy Black History Month, Gahdamnit!

ICYMI Plus - How a 9-Year-Old Took Over TikTok

Into It - Rihanna Should Take Notes from These Super Bowl Halftime Shows

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Creston Dinosaur

Song Exploder - MUNA "What I Want"

Off Menu - Ep 178: Fern Brady

Endless Thread - My Canadian Girlfriend

Ologies with Alie Ward - Scotohylology (DARK MATTER) with Flip Tanedo

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The San Juan Island Pig War

It's Been a Minute - Hot and kinda bothered by 'Magic Mike'; plus Penn Badgley on bad boys

Our Opinions Are Correct - Encore Episode: Gender Essentialism

Digital Folklore - The Internet is The New Woods (Monsters, Ostension, & Moral Panics)

You're Dead To Me - Valentine’s Special: Georgian Courtship

⭐Hit Parade Plus - A Little Love and Some Tenderness Edition

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

The Essential Luther Vandross

Lizzo

Presenting Bad Bunny

Reggaeton Essentials

Folk Metal Forever

Old-School Reggaeton

Alestorm

CREDITS: Burt Bacharach

MUNA

Pop Tropical Bailable

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byneddiedingo · 11 months

Text

Anne Baxter and Dana Andrews in Swamp Water (Jean Renoir, 1941)

Cast: Walter Brennan, Walter Huston, Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Virginia Gilmore, John Carradine, Mary Howard, Eugene Pallette, Ward Bond, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams. Screenplay: Dudley Nichols, based on a novel by Vereen Bell. Cinematography: J. Peverell Marley. Art direction: Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright. Film editing: Walter Thompson. Music: David Buttolph.

Swamp Water has a few things working against it in addition to its title. For one, having a cast of familiar Hollywood stars pretending to be farmers, hunters, and trappers living on the edge of the Okefenokee swamp, and saying things like "I brung her" and "He got losted," makes for a certain lack of authenticity. And at 32, its leading man, Dana Andrews, is about a decade too old to be playing the callow youth he's supposed to be in the movie. Add to that the director, Jean Renoir, is a wartime exile from France, making his first film in Hollywood, and you might expect the worst. Fortunately, it has a screenplay by a master, Dudley Nichols, and an eminently watchable cast that includes Walter Brennan, Walter Huston, Anne Baxter, John Carradine, Ward Bond, and Eugene Pallette, who while they may never quite convince us that they're Georgia swamp-folk, do their professional best. It turns out to be a thoroughly entertaining movie that, while it doesn't add any luster to Renoir's career, doesn't detract from it either. This was Andrews's second year in movies, and he gives the kind of energetic performance that mostly overcomes miscasting. Born in Mississippi and raised in Texas, he also seems to know the character he's called on to play, perhaps a little better than the city-bred Baxter, whose efforts at being the village outcast are a bit forced. Brennan as usual plays an old coot, but without overdoing the mannerisms -- it's a slyly engaging performance. Much of the footage was shot by cinematographer J. Peverell Marley and the uncredited Lucien Ballard in the actual swamp and environs near Waycross, Georgia. There is some obvious failure to match the location footage with that shot back in the 20th Century-Fox studio, but it's not terribly distracting.

#Swamp Water #Jean Renoir #Anne Baxter #Dana Andrews

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heartofstanding · 2 years

Quote

Joan was rewarded with grants and privileges from the Crown, mostly under Henry IV and Henry V although she received licences to hunt in the king’s forests and parks in 1392 and 1395 from Richard II. She may well have enjoyed hunting; Henry V in 1414 granted her the right to hunt in Hatfield Forest. More valuable were grants involving property, such as John Holland’s London house and, temporarily, Hadleigh castle in 1400; the right to live in Rochester castle and to be responsible for its custody in the absence of Sir William Darundell, in 1399; and Leeds castle in Kent in 1414. Not all grants were permanent; in 1401 Joan was to hold the patronage of the hospital of St. Katherine by the Tower of London for as long as there was no queen.

Jennifer C. Ward, "Joan de Bohun, Countess of Hereford, Essex and Northampton, c. 1370-1419: family, land and social networks", Essex Archaeology and History, vol. 32, 2001

#joan fitzalan countess of hereford #henry iv #henry v #richard ii #she does seem to have taken on the roles of a quasi queen #in the court of henry iv (at least until he married joan of navarre)#rebecca holdorph notes she was referred to as the king's mother #though holdorph argues that joan took on roles henry's still-living stepmother - katherine swynford - was uninterested in #whereas it's more likely imo that katherine might have been in poor health (she died in 1403 vs joan who died in 1419)#or considered an inappropriiate or awkward figure for that role because of her scandalous past #and of course joan was the biological grandmother of henry's children and heirs when katherine swynford wasn't

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alexlacquemanne · 1 year

Text

Mai MMXXIII

Films

Quand la Panthère rose s'emmêle (The Pink Panther Strikes Again) (1976) de Blake Edwards avec Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Leonard Rossiter, Colin Blakely, Lesley-Anne Down, André Maranne, Michael Robbins et Burt Kwouk

Le Dimanche de la vie (1967) de Jean Herman avec Danielle Darrieux, Jean-Pierre Moulin, Olivier Hussenot, Françoise Arnoul, Berthe Bovy, Anne Doat, Hubert Deschamps et Jean Rochefort

Romance inachevée (The Glenn Miller Story) (1954) de Anthony Mann avec James Stewart, June Allyson, Henry Morgan, Charles Drake, George Tobias et Barton MacLane

La Canonnière du Yang-Tsé (The Sand Pebbles) (1966) de Robert Wise avec Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna, Candice Bergen, Marayat Andriane et Makoto Iwamatsu

Deux Heures moins le quart avant Jésus-Christ (1982) de Jean Yanne avec Coluche, Michel Serrault, Jean Yanne, Michel Auclair, Françoise Fabian, Mimi Coutelier et Darry Cowl

Le Dernier Voyage (2020) de Romain Quirot avec Hugo Becker, Paul Hamy, Lya Oussadit-Lessert, Jean Reno, Bruno Lochet et Émilie Gavois-Kahn

Le Dernier Métro (1980) de François Truffaut avec Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Heinz Bennent, Jean Poiret, Andréa Ferréol, Paulette Dubost, Jean-Louis Richard et Maurice Risch

Les cadavres ne portent pas de costard (Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid) (1982) de Carl Reiner avec Steve Martin, Rachel Ward, Carl Reiner, Reni Santoni, George Gaynes, Barbara Stanwyck, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant et Ingrid Bergman

Docteur Folamour ou : comment j'ai appris à ne plus m'en faire et à aimer la bombe (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) (1964) de Stanley Kubrick avec Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, Peter Bull et Tracy Reed

Un homme est passé (Bad Day at Black Rock) (1955) de John Sturges avec Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine et Lee Marvin

Le Monde, la Chair et le Diable (The World, The Flesh and the Devil) (1959) de MacDougall avec Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens et Mel Ferrer

La Belle Saison (2015) de Catherine Corsini avec Izïa Higelin, Cécile de France, Noémie Lvovsky, Kévin Azaïs, Lætitia Dosch et Benjamin Bellecour

Le Grand Embouteillage (L'ingorgo) (1979) de Luigi Comencini avec Annie Girardot, Fernando Rey, Miou-Miou, Gérard Depardieu, Ugo Tognazzi, Marcello Mastroianni, Stefania Sandrelli, Alberto Sordi, Orazio Orlando, Gianni Cavina, Harry Baer et Ángela Molina

Ariane (Love in the Afternoon) (1957) de Billy Wilder avec Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier, Van Doude, John McGiver et Lise Bourdin

Voici le temps des assassins (1956) de Julien Duvivier avec Jean Gabin, Danièle Delorme, Gérard Blain, Lucienne Bogaert, Germaine Kerjean, Gabrielle Fontan et Jean-Paul Roussillon

Séries

Castle Saison 1, 2

Des fleurs pour ta tombe - Jeunes Filles au père - Amis à la vie, à la mort - Sexe, Scandale et Politique - Calcul glacial - La Piste du vaudou - Crimes dans la haute - Mémoires d’outre-tombe - Où est Angela ? - Double face - La Mort à crédit - Quitte ou Double - L'Enfer de la mode - L'Escroc au cœur tendre - L'auteur qui m'aimait - Pour l'amour du sang - Dernières paroles

Coffre à Catch

#113 : Unforgiven 2008 : Matt Hardy will not die ! - #114 : Matt Hardy champion, les débuts de Jack Swagger ! - #115 : La ECW, c'est bien, mais avec Vianney c'est mieux ! - #116 : Maryse : Pourquoi es-tu si belle? - # 117 : All Star Main Event + Gérard Lenorman !

James May : Notre Homme au Japon

Allez ! - Chou farci - Déodorant - Salut Bim ! - Le garçon de la pêche - Prune salée

Friends Saison 8

Celui qui venait de dire oui - Celui qui avait un sweat rouge - Celui qui découvrait sa paternité - Celui qui avait une vidéo - Celui qui draguait Rachel - Celui qui perturbait Halloween - Celui qui voulait garder Rachel - Celui qui engageait une strip-teaseuse - Celui qui avait fait courir la rumeur - Celui qui défendait sa sœur - Celui qui ne voulait pas aller plus loin - Celui qui passait une soirée avec Rachel - Celui qui découvrait les joies du bain - Celui qui découvrait le placard secret - Celui qui visionnait la vidéo de l'accouchement - Celui qui avouait tout à Rachel - Celui qui voyait dans les feuilles de thé - Celui qui était trop positif

Inspecteur Barnaby Saison 8

Un cri dans la nuit - Les Régates de la vengeance - Requiem pour une orchidée - Pari mortel - Double vue - Le Saut de la délivrance - L'assassin est un fin gourmet - Rhapsodie macabre

L'agence tous risques Saison 4, 5

Qui est qui ? - Cowboy George - La roue de la fortune - Services en tous genres - Club privé - Harry a des ennuis - Un monde de fou - La mission de la paix - Les orages du souvenir - Un témoin capital : 1re partie - Condamnation : 2e partie - Exécution : 3e partie - Match au sommet - Théorie de la révolution - Mort sur ordonnance - Une vieille amitié

Columbo Saison 2

Rançon pour un homme mort - Requiem pour une star

Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie Saison 3

Jusqu'à ce que la mort nous sépare - Meurtres du troisième type

Affaires Sensibles

Algues vertes : le danger qui empoisonne la Bretagne - James Jesus Angleton : paranoïa à la CIA - THE GRIM SLEEPER : Le faucheur en embuscade 1985-2007 - La création du festival de Cannes - 2000, les Jeux paralympiques de Sydney : la fraude des basketteurs espagnols

Bardot

Une enfant sage - B.B - La Madrague - Le papillon - Bébé - La vérité

Les Enquêtes de Morse saison 9

Mascarade - Prélude - Sorties de scène

James May's Cars of the People Saison 1, 2

Transports et totalitarisme - Rien n'arrête les nouilles - Les voitures qui nous ont toujours fait rêver - La puissance de la vapeur - 4x4 - Boom (et effondrement) d'après-guerre

The Grand Tour Saison 4, 3, 1, 2

The Grand Tour présente… Seamen - The Grand Tour présente… La Chasse au trésor - Eaux salées et eaux douces - The Grand Tour: A Scandi Flick - Virée à l’Italienne - Spéciale Colombie : Première partie - Spéciale Colombie ; Deuxième partie - Oh, Canada - Coup de vieux

Livres

Orage de chaleur de Richard Castle

Cinq Gars pour Singapour de Jean Bruce

Lucky Luke, tome 27 : Le 20ème de cavalerie de Morris et René Goscinny

Garôden de Jirô Taniguchi et Baku Yumemakura

Une enquête du commissaire Dupin : Etrange printemps aux Glénan de Jean-Luc Bannalec

Détective Conan, tome 9 de Gôshô Aoyama

Il était une fois… Le cinéma, Tome 1 : Des frères Lumière à Charlie Chaplin de Jean-Pierre Georges et Dentiblu

#mediatheque #mai23

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