#CONTEXT i sent the og image to me friend

[ilovepuppydogs]

sorry for this one tftgs tumblr fandom

[treatutoameal]

i have the personality of a 2 year old learning how to play match the shape which is why i'm reading up on the og material that inspired youth of may's storyline (aside from the real-life events) and i'm surprised to find out that 80% of the show characters are born out of writers' creative freedom! in the grand scheme of things, the four main characters actually represent the youth as a whole at that time (duh, the drama title says it all but let me dig more into the book, there might be spoilers)

the book that the drama writers based the story on is titled 오월의 달리기 / running in may / may's race (?) - it's a fairy tale by writer kim hae-won that won the changwon children's literature award, and was first published on may 18 2013.

the difference is that the book deals with the story of 13-year-old myungsoo (myunghee's brother in the drama) who was selected as a rep runner of the south jeolla province at the national youth sports festival and lived in gwangju in 1980 when protests demanding democratization continued every day.

while researching gwangju's history during that time, writer kim hae-won contacted a track and field athlete after seeing an article that the national youth festival was postponed due to the 5.18 pro-democracy movement back then (it will most likely be cancelled in the drama too, poor kiddos omg). the athlete turned out to be a national student at the time and lived in a dormitory in gwangju so the book is the product of her research and meticulous coverage.

and rather than emphasizing the painful wounds of the may 18 pro-democracy movement, the book focuses on showing the life of children who lived during that period. it depicts the life of myungsoo, an ordinary child who dreamed of becoming a national representative athlete, who wanted to be recognized by his father, and tried hard to beat his rival friend jungtae (heetae's brother). the book delves into painful history and the despair suffered during that time through children's lens and is even used as learning curriculum in schools to make children wonder why the may 18 pro-democracy movement that destroyed this child's life took place at all

writer's notes: "it’s good to be careful when talking about the may 18 pro-democracy movement in class. it is not possible to mention only objective dates and numbers with no context, so various materials and media need to be used, because students' reactions vary widely depending on which part is emphasized.

even now, the may 18 pro-democracy movement is at the center of controversy. although it was listed in elementary school textbooks as an important example of a pro-democracy movement and even listed as a UNESCO world record heritage, the claims that it was a riot are quite noticeable if you type 5/18 in the portal site search box. how should we explain the may 18 pro-democracy movement to children who are easily exposed to such confusing information?

this book depicts the scene of the may 18 pro-democracy movement from the perspective of a child who lived at the time, and shows realistically how many people were lost due to national violence.

children who boldly attempt to escape from the training camp to avoid their coach, witness the sight of an airborne unit brutally hitting people in downtown gwangju. at the time, the soldiers only looked good in the eyes of the children so most of them said, “these soldiers are not the soldiers of our country. they must be the people's army sent by kim il-sung of north korea.”

however, the children end up learning that our country's soldiers can trample and kill their people. in 1980, gwangju had to make a huge sacrifice under the control of a real villain. most of them were hard-working people. why these people were killed for no reason, this book tells the truth and tragedy of the may 18 pro-democracy movement.

오월의 달리기 depicts ordinary people's desire for democracy, their tearful efforts to protect each other, and their heartbreaking sacrifices. in particular, through the images of myungsoo who lost his family and those who support him, the story shows hopeful gestures to heal the painful history and wounds of his heart, leaving a long lasting impression."

possible similarities with the drama

in the book, myungsoo's dad runs a repair shop in the market and has a weak leg just like in the drama. he also disapproves of myungsoo's dream to become a running athlete and myungsoo shows embarrassment towards his father. one day, an unexpected event occurs in the training camp, in which one of the kids came up with a plan to escape from the dormitory. however, downtown gwangju, which was thought to be full of interesting sights for the kids, turned out to be full of college student protesters, soldiers, and the nasty smell of tear gas

the children follow the protesters with curiosity and witness unbelievable scenes. soldiers beat college students with clubs (곤봉) and even kick the elderly who were watching. the children who see this are terrified and run away. they enter a billiard room in a building to escape and face an even more terrible scene. seeing the soldiers smashing the head of a student protester who had sneaked in there, and seeing the blood dripping out, even kicking the old uncles who told them to stop, and hitting them with a club...

soon, news comes out that the national youth sports festival has been postponed and the coach comes to the dormitory with tears in his eyes to deliver shocking news.

“myungsoo... your father is dead.”

in parallel with the book, the drama places a focus on radio and broadcast as these mediums suffered from censorship during that time... it's not a coincidence that jinah's character dreams to become a radio pd and that heetae who happens to be her tutor knows his way around radio and supports her dream the way he does. although the preview for ep 9 shows jinah being unconscious and heetae struggling to save her (a reenactment of his traumatic past in a sense), it is most likely that she will live, and through the support system heetae has around him (myunghee) this time, he will be able to save her and free himelf of his trauma. i think jinah will grow to become a radio pd, perhaps on the same frenquency bette midler was playing and to which heetae shared that intimate moment with myunghee at the end of ep 8... this is just my personal wish tbh but i find these details interesting to dig into

another item that figures in the story is the watch belonging to myungsoo and myunghee's dad... one of the questions asked in the school textbook based on the story is that the watch contains memories (as in pictures) of myungsoo... in the drama, the watch is the first thing we see in the first episode as recovered belonging to someone during the uprising. going by the book, it was the dad who ended up dying in the book... i don't know if the drama will follow the same narrative but if it does, the man seen in the beginning is most likely myungsoo

[iwannawritepls]

Writing Update 02

Hi again

So, so, so. did I do it?

Yes! Kinda....

I finished editing up to half of chapter nine which I'm thinking of renaming to Mirror Image, but it feels kinda off, so I don’t know yet.

Al’s hallucinating, Enoch and Bas aren’t talking to – or even looking at – each other, William is so done with everyone and is probably just living in the games room at that point and Valentine is more of a mother than any of them. We stan Valentine being a supportive friend!

This one features more Val and Al friendship and closure! At long last, closure! Kind…

At least Al is opening up to someone at long last and not being the big baby that he is. Even if the only reason that he’s opening up is because he just had a good cry sesh – be like Albert and have a good cry session after catching pneumonia which meant you needed to be bled out a little because Victorian doctor.

(The dog got hold of Nugget the octopus and I just had to climb on a chair to put him back on top of my bookshelf – how he got it idk but this is a great transition to the chapter I did after)

I also wrote Chapter Ten which I lovingly called Boiled Blood, Boiled Sorrows  

This chapter is edgy. Enoch had a good cry now and basil held an intervention and finally apologised for shit he did half the book ago. Like dude. It’s not that difficult.

This was quiet an emotional chapter for me and it took all of yesterday to write it out because there were parts that hit too close to home. We love that for me.

Basically, Basil and Enoch got bored of ignoring each other and argued again and so we follow Enoch to a cemetery, he talks to his dead lover at an unnamed gravestone because they weren’t buried and so he’s projecting and then he cries, listens to nightingales and robins and then looks at the stars like an edgy boy.

Basil comes along, apologises, offers Enoch alcohol and he’s forgiven. They talk a little and they’re friends again. yay!

Now we just need William to stop being a recluse, Valentine to develop healthy coping mechanisms and Albert to stop nearly dying. It would also help if Enoch stopped repressing his emotions and if Basil stopped acting like an ass all the time.

Oh, my friends made memes so I’ll put them here and we can move onto the excerpts…if I can find any

He felt the breath next to his own as if they were next to each other. face to face, breath to breath. Mingling and dissipating into two and one and then a million.

This is from the og chapter as well and I love it so have it.

It was whispered that time sending a convulsion down his spine, wrapping around his stomach, and devouring his tongue.

Which when quickly followed by

With a tongue made of bile he stumbled over his words

Makes these two lines some of the best I’ve ever written (in my opinion) because wowzer.

He wanted to return to it, to finish the artwork so that he could be embraced by the feeling of religion again. he missed that feeling as soon as it was ripped from him, leaving him with nothing but a chill. Frozen throat, tears freezing on his face.

This line isn’t that good without the context of Valentine’s past so uhhh, basically his parents died when he was quite young, and he was sent to his uncle. Because of this he treated God as a kind of way to connect to his parents? I'm not sure how I should phrase it but basically God was the telephone line between him and his parents even if it was only a one-way telephone line.

How strange it was that you can see the same one star for hundreds of miles, and it wouldn’t disappear or move more than inch from its place in the tapestry of black and silver. The sky moved with them at least. Even once they had lost everything, they got to keep the sky. The sky that Shakespeare and Wellington and King Arthur all got to stare at as they brought their masterpieces, bloodshed, and legacy to the world. How beautiful that even the damned as they were got to share such a sky with persist and cardinals and bishops and legends.

I told you Enoch is E D G Y and dramatic and not very smart aha. He prefers theatre to trigonometry and Hesiod to history…he probably thinks that King Arthur existed with all that magical stuff included and honestly while that’s an L its also a W because I said so.

That’s all I got but I’ll update when I've gotten the next load of edits and chapter’s eleven and twelve written. Or whenever I feel like it. until then

Bye!

[glitteringenerality]

text sent from friend- turn into drawing/painting some day?

horses as inherently mournful

use horses as self portraits

vessel for pain

maybe just do painting/drawing of crop of the horse- is og context still relevant when u hide it from public eye (can put in artwork description

as an image this screencap is at once distant (digital, screencap of a digital photo of a tv screen) and funny (juxtaposition of horse and sopranoes) and full of pathos for me- something tender in the font choice/ low res copy of the image. blurs it out, softens it

tony soprano and horses= both classically tragic masculine figures. explore them

other classically tragic masculine figures to explore- ian curtis. maybe bulls. cows. david berman. bill callahan.

bring together the beautiful and the masculine- they arent seperate in the first place anyway

use them as vessels for self portraiture/vessels to store negative feelings about the time i find myself growing up in