alaskanna

[alaskanna]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

and a merry boop to all <3

[alaskanna]

Who else has noticed the similarities of Tyler Gaulpin to Tam Lin?

(I wrote this post last year, and decided to repost it because it’s Halloween week, and I’ve been thinking about it again. I also added more to it :)

Honestly, it does appear that the character of Tyler and some of Season 1 was inspired by Tam Lin. Even their names begin and end the same way, just the middle is different. I know at least one other Tumblr poster has, because I saw their comment on another post, and then I was like ‘oh yeah, how did miss this’.* 😆Because if we have a Tam Lin, then we need a Queen of Fairies to be controlling him, and then who is getting sacrificed as the fairy tithe to Hell on Halloween night?

For those of you who are not familiar, Tam Lin is a ballad from the Scottish Borders that predates the 18th century. In most versions, he is a young mortal man who was kidnapped by the Queen of Fairies and guards the Carterhaugh Woods at her command, and any young woman who is caught going that way must pay a toll of either a ring, a green mantle, or her maidenhead. (Good thing that one of the first things we learn about Tyler in Ep 1 is that he can’t be bought!) Tam Lin does get rescued by a woman, but you will have to read the ballad to find out what happens!

Here is Child’s 39A communicated by poet Robert Burns in 1792, one of the most famous versions from a really awesome website:

It is in Scots dialect, so here is the ‘meta’ version from the same site:

And here is my very favorite music version by English folk rock band Steeleye Span:

Here is a list of other coincidences that I noticed:

Tyler’s ex friend’s name is Carter, and while it’s a common name, the woods that Tam Lin guards is named Carterhaugh (this is a real wood in the Scottish Borders).

Cobham Woods sounds suspiciously similar Carterhaugh Woods (this doesn’t appear to be a real place in Vermont).

Rowan Laslow; Rowan is also a common name, and the rowan tree (or mountain ash) was widely considered to have magical properties. The last part of the ballad is the faerie queens lament, from the modern English meta version on the site:

“If I had know, Tam Lin," she says
"that you were up to no good
I'd have taken out your green eyes
and put in eyes of wood."

“If I had known, Tam Lin," she says
"you would have always been alone!
For I'd have taken out your mortal heart
And put in a heart of stone."

But in one of the most famous modern versions from Steeleye Span, the official lyric reads ‘put to a rowan tree’. I haven’t seen any traditional versions that use it, so this coincidence is definitely a reach.

[alaskanna]

I told my students they're allowed to be creative and don't have to be factual when writing about themselves in German because I keep getting questions like "what if I don't have roommates or what if I don't have hobbies" and I'm like guys just make something up! Have fun! I won't fact check you!

So now I am grading homework where a student is claiming to be from North Korea and his hobby is tax fraud

[alaskanna]

im laughing so hard because no matter what song you listen to 

spiderman dances to the beat

no matter what song ive been testing it and lauing my ass off for an hour

[alaskanna]

And now, let’s stop what we’re doing and watch this Red Fox/räv eat an apple. Värmland, Sweden (May 17, 2024).

[alaskanna]

As I've read different people's views on Little Women, I've realized that for different readers, it's a fundamentally different book.

When I see someone describe the "universal" experiences of identifying with Jo, wanting her to marry Laurie, and disliking Amy, I remember all the proof I've seen that these are far from universal. The latter two weren't even my experiences: identifying with Jo, yes, but shipping her with Laurie and disliking Amy, no!

Even people with equal amounts of knowledge of the historical context and of Louisa May Alcott's life seem to come away with vastly different feelings about the story and characters.

I suppose there are a wide variety of reasons for this. First and foremost, which of the four March sisters you personally admire or relate to the most. Then there are other factors like your gender, your age when you first read the book, your relationship (good or bad) with traditional femininity, whether you read Parts I and II as a single novel or as Little Women and Good Wives, your relationships with your own family members, your religion and ethical values...

The list goes on.

That post from @theevilanonblog that I reblogged recently about the different interpretations of Frankenstein makes me want to write out a similar list of ten different views I've read of Little Women. Here it is:

Little Women is about the March sisters learning to be proper virtuous women of their time and place. With Marmee as their role model (a role later shared by Beth as she becomes increasingly angelic in her illness), they learn to conquer their flaws, give up their wild ambitions, and settle down as good wives and mothers. This is especially true for Jo, whose character arc is a slow taming from a rough tomboy to a gentle nurturer. It's a conformist and anti-feminist message, which Alcott probably disliked, but she wrote it to cater to public tastes. (This reading seems mainly to come from critics who dislike the book.)

Little Women is about Jo's struggle to stay true to herself in a world that wants to change her. She struggles with whether to stay a tomboy or become a proper lady, whether or not to marry Laurie despite not loving him romantically, and as an author, whether to write what she wants, write what earns the most money, or give up her writing altogether. In the end, she changes only in ways that make her happy, e.g. by learning to control her temper, and later by embracing romantic love. But in more important ways, she stays true to herself: always remaining slightly rugged, clumsy and "masculine," finding success as a writer, and marrying Friedrich, a man just as plain and "unromantic" as herself, but whom she loves and who respects her as an equal.

Little Women is about learning to "live for others." That phrase is used often and could well be the arc words. Beth is the only March sister to whom a selfless life comes naturally, but the other three master it by the end of the story (as does Laurie). They learn to conquer their moments of pettiness and selfishness, to live in better harmony with each other and with their friends and love interests, and to give up their self-centered dreams of fame and wealth, building lives that focus on service instead.

Little Women is about growing up. The first half is mainly about the March girls' maturing by surviving hard times and learning to be better people, while the second half is about reaching adulthood and bittersweetly parting ways to start new lives. At the beginning, Jo is a girl who doesn't want to grow up: she wants to always be a wild young tomboy with her family (and Laurie) by her side forever. But of course, she can't stop time or womanhood, and is eventually forced to accept the loss of Meg, Amy, and Laurie to marriage and Beth to death. After grieving for a while, she lets go of her old life and willingly builds a new one with Friedrich.

Little Women is about family bonds and the fear of losing them. We meet and become attached to the wonderfully close, cozy March family, which gradually expands through friendships, marriage, and new babies. But throughout the story, the family is in danger of breaking apart, whether due to conflict (Jo and Amy's sibling rivalry, Meg and John's marital problems), or separation by distance (Father going away to war, Amy going to Europe, Jo to New York), or death (the danger of losing Father and Beth in Part I, and the ultimate loss of Beth in Part II). But in the end – unlike in reading #4 above – the family doesn't break apart and never will. Conflicts are resolved, travelers eventually come home, the surviving family members always live near each other and stay as close as ever, and even Beth isn't really gone, because her memory and influence live on.

Little Women is about femininity and each March sister's relationship with it. Meg and Amy happily conform in different ways: Meg to "domestic femininity" as a housewife, Amy to "ornamental femininity" as a society lady. Beth pressures herself to conform to self-effacing domestic femininity, until sadly, it kills her – either because she's too selfless and nurturing when she cares for the fever-infected Hummels, or because she has anorexia, as Lizzie Alcott might have had. But Jo strikes a successful balance in the end, conforming just enough to fit into society, but only on her own terms, and otherwise living a happily unconventional life as a writer and schoolmistress.

Little Women is about Jo's unlearning of internalized misogyny. At the beginning, she's a "Not Like Other Girls" tomboy, who wishes she were male, disdains feminine girls (especially her sister Amy), doesn't care enough when "her boy" Laurie behaves badly toward women, and is afraid to be vulnerable. But gradually, and without losing her strength of character, she learns to embrace the sweeter and more tender aspects of herself, sees that Amy's ladylike manners have practical benefits, and learns to say "no" to Laurie when he turns his childish, unhealthy romantic attentions to her. Then after Beth dies, she realizes how precious Beth's utterly domestic, feminine life was, and embraces a more domestic life herself. Yet by doing so, she becomes a true feminist, as she enters an egalitarian marriage and devotes her life to teaching boys to be good, respectful men.

Little Women is only what US Americans know as the first half. It's just about the March sisters getting by and learning moral lessons over the course of the year their father is away at war. Nobody gets married and nobody dies. Everything else is in Good Wives, which is a sequel with different character arcs and different themes, and which should be published separately, as it originally was and still is outside the US. Trying to tie them together into one narrative never feels quite right.

Little Women is Alcott's idealized version of her own life and family, where no one suffers quite as much as they did in real life, everyone is slightly less flawed, and Jo ends up happily married to a man very much like Alcott's lost love Henry David Thoreau. She wrote the life she wished she had.

Little Women is just a semi-autobiographical slice-of-life that Alcott wrote quickly for money.

Which is the truest to Alcott's intent? I don't know. But while some of these readings I like better than others – and some of them I despise – I'd say they're all understandable and reasonably valid. Some aren't even mutually exclusive, but can be used together... although of course, other readings are mutually exclusive, like whether the story is feminist or anti-feminist, or whether the March family ultimately breaks apart or holds together. And they're all worth using as springboards for discussion.

Alcott wrote more books than she ever realized she did, because Little Women can be many different books to different people.

@littlewomenpodcast, @joandfriedrich, @thatscarletflycatcher, @fictionadventurer, @fandomsarefamily1966

[alaskanna]

Yesterday my little brother told me something very sweet and touching, that when he was a kid and had nightmares about monsters chasing him or whatever he would be able to end the nightmare by finding me in the dream and I would protect him by fighting off the zombies, or carrying him away. This is adorable, and makes me feel like the greatest older sibling in the world, but the hilarious thing is that when I was a kid I had nightmares of needing to save him from zombies and such. so many dreams where he was in trouble and I needed to save him. Like my nightmares began where his ended. Low key I think he mastered the ability to psychically transfer his nightmare to me as a child and I'm kind of annoyed with him.

[alaskanna]

Much has been made of Enid being Wednesday’s foil, and she is in many ways. But it must be pointed out that Laurel is too a foil. Both are obsessed with vengeance for their respective brothers, lack compassion, and are self righteous.

Laurel is also a successful serial killer, is Tyler’s master, and is able to fool Wednesday and even manages to kill her. (Oh yeah, and they both torture Tyler.)

[alaskanna]

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by Kyle Bonallo (ig: @kylebonallo)

[alaskanna]

IDGAF if the women in my fiction are empowering or aspirational, I'm an adult, I don't need role models, I want the women in my fiction to be interesting, and if that involves being pathetic, hypocritical, amoral, or trapped in a delightfully dysfunctional relationship so be it

[alaskanna]

Sleeping Beauty by Nadezhda Illarionova

[alaskanna]

Everyone keeps talking about the Wednesday/Tyler/Xavier (not) love triangle, but it occurred to me quite belatedly that the love triangle of S1 was actually Wednesday, Tyler and:

[alaskanna]

Roasted chicken, ginger, daikon, shiitake mushroom soup with lime, cilantro, broccoli sprouts, and rice noodles

[alaskanna]

Up on melancholy hill sits a crow just looking out on the day...

Aaskrähe (carrion crow) im Unteren Schlossgarten, Stuttgart-Ost.