#Eliza Jane Wilder

[fictionadventurer]

Which is worse?

1 ) The girl you fought with in grade school writes a series of best-selling books telling everyone about snotty things you did decades ago, so her perspective becomes a beloved children's classic and your legacy in American history is now as a villain that children love to hate.

2 ) The girl you consider responsible for putting you through several months of a nightmare work environment writes a national bestselling book explaining how it was all your fault and you brought it on yourself because you were weak and mean.

[acotars]

books read in 2024

⋆ ⭒˚.⋆ january ⋆.˚⭒ ⋆

one dark window (the shepherd king #1) by rachel gillig

the murder on the links (hercule poirot #2) by agatha christie

pageboy by elliot page

house of sky and breath (crescent city #2) by sarah j. maas

rogue protocol (the murderbot diaries #3) by martha wells

cult classic by sloane crosley

malibu rising by taylor jenkins reid

the beauty of your face by sahar mustafah

exit strategy (the murderbot diaries #4) by martha wells

animal farm by george orwell

everyone in this room will someday be dead by emily austin

carrie soto is back by taylor jenkins reid

a court this cruel & lovely (kingdom of lies #1) by stacia stark

the rules do not apply by ariel levy

poirot investigates (hercule poirot #3) by agatha christie

yellowface by rebecca f kuang

every heart a doorway (wayward children #1) by seanan mcguire

house of flame and shadow (crescent city #3) by sarah j. maas

read: 18

* · ✦ · * february * · ✦ · *

beautyland by marie-helene bertino

bride by ali hazelwood

network effect (the murderbot diaries #5) by martha wells

fugitive telemetry (the murderbot diaries #6) by martha wells

faebound (faebound #1) by saara el-arifi

the raven boys (the raven cycle #1) by maggie stiefvater **

read: 6

.✦.· *. march .*· .✦.

interesting facts about space by emily austin

penance by eliza clark

the book that no one wanted to read by richard ayoade

pride and prejudice by jane austen

unlikeable female characters: the women pop culture wants you to hate by anna bogutskaya

the shame by makenna goodman

greta & valdin by rebecca k. reilly

read: 7

✷ · ✶ · ✧ april ✧ · ✶ · ✷

this spells love by kate robb

out on a limb by hannah bonam-young

gwen & art are not in love by lex croucher

a lady's guide to scandal by sophie irwin

the friendship study by ruby barrett

the boyfriend candidate by ashley winstead

the pumpkin spice cafe by laurie gilmore

business or pleasure by rachel lynn solomon

how to end a love story by yulin kuang

this could be us (skyland #2) by kennedy ryan

the honeymoon crashers (the unhoneymooners #1.5) by christina lauren

we could have been friends, my father and i by raja shehadeh

how to stop time by matt haig

how to fake it in hollywood by ava wilder

with love from cold world by alicia thompson

funny story by emily henry

love radio by ebony ladelle

old flames and new fortunes by sarah hogle

just for the summer by abby jimenez

don't want you like a best friend by emma r. alban

love interest by clare gilmore

the exception to the rule (the improbable meet-cute #1) by christina lauren

worst wingman ever (the improbable meet-cute #2) by abby jimenez

with any luck (the improbable meet-cute #5) by ashley poston

last call at the local by sara grunder ruiz

happily never after by lynn painter

the ex talk by rachel lynn solomon

i kissed shara wheeler by casey mcquiston

the love wager by lynn painter

morning glory milking farm by c.m. nacosta

will they or won't they by ava wilder

read: 31

.　° * ☆ may ☆ * °　.

when the sky fell on splendor by emily henry

on earth we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong

blizzard by marie vingtras

bright young women by jessica knoll

the age of magical overthinking: notes on modern irrationality by amanda montell

the flatshare by beth o'leary **

read: 6

⋆ ˚.⋆ june ⋆.˚ ⋆

not in love by ali hazelwood

the way of kings (the stormlight archive #1) by brandon sanderson

words of radiance (the stormlight archive #2) by brandon sanderson

read: 3

. · ☆ . july . ☆ · .

edgedancer (the stormlight archive #2.5) by brandon sanderson

blue iris: poems and essays by mary oliver

woman, eating by claire kohda

oathbringer (the stormlight archive #3) by brandon sanderson

a novel love story by ashley poston

chlorine by jade song

how to read now by elain castillo

please stop trying to leave me by alana saab

beautifully broken life by catherine cowles

the god of the woods by liz moore

edgedancer (the stormlight archive #3.5) by brandon sanderson

the dead and the dark by courtney gould

a most agreeable murder by julia seales

the murder of roger ackroyd (hercule poirot #4) by agatha christie

read: 14

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁august ݁. ⊹ ₊ ݁.

the bluest eye by toni morrison

more, please: on food, fat, bingeing, longing, and the lust for "enough" by emma specter

the ministry of time by kaliane bradley

system collapse (the murderbot diaries #7) by martha wells

emily wilde's encycolpedia of fairies (emily wilde #1) by heather fawcett

emily wilde's map of the other lands (emily wilde #2) by heather fawcett

catalina by karla cornejo villavicencio

roadside picnic by arkady strugatsky and boris strugatsky

read: 8

reading goal: 93/100

add me on goodreads !

[saint-starflicker]

Overview and Criteria for Gothic Fiction

Gothic as a genre of fiction novel emerged in the late 18th century and early 19th century. Modern scholars frame these works as part of a Romanticist pushback against the Enlightenment era of calculated, scientific rationalism. In English literature, these may also have been artistic expressions of the collective anxieties of British people regarding the French Revolution. The term hearkens back to the destruction of the Roman Empire in the 5th century CE at the effect of Gothic peoples, an event that marks the beginning of the medieval era. As early as the year 1530 CE, Giorgio Vasari criticized medieval architecture as gothic, that is "monstrous", "barbarous", and "disordered" contrasted against the elegant and progressive neoclassical architecture reconstructions. In the late 20th century, a subculture of post-punk horror rockers began to be described as Gothic as well. This subcultural goth variation characterized itself by an aesthetic of counter-cultural macabre and "enjoyable fear".

Notable early works of what would become the gothic literary "canon" are listed as follows: The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1764), The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne by Ann Radcliffe (1789), The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons (1793), and The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (1794). Udolpho is the name of a castle. Early gothic literature was intertwined with an admiration for gothic architecture, sorry to Vasari Giorgio who hated that sort of thing so much but is an outlier and should not be counted.

One example of French gothic literature in this vein is Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, published in 1831 although the story is set in 1482 and it was about a gothic cathedral rather than a gothic castle. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen is an affectionate parody of the gothic literature genre and a staunch defense of the gothic novels' artistic merits. It was completed in 1803 but not published until 1818 after the author's death.

In Northanger Abbey, a character recommends to her friend a list of books in this genre, all the titles of which were publications contemporary to the time the author was writing about them: The Italian by Ann Radcliffe, Clermont by Regina Maria Roche, The Mysterious Warning by Eliza Parsons, Necromancer of the Black Forest by Lawrence Flammenberg, The Midnight Bell by Francis Lathorn, Orphan of the Rhine by Eleanor Sleath, and Horrid Mysteries by Carl Grosse.

The appeal of these stories was less the architecture itself and more the emotions evoked by being haunted by the past, threatened by unknown histories, frightened by misunderstood monsters, and in awe of wilderness and nature. All of this would be set at or relative to a location: a gothic building. Heroines in gothic stories would commonly be abducted from convents that they sought refuge in, or confined to convents or other locations against their will when they try to exercise their freedoms. Other common tropes became the journey of a gothic heroine in an unfamiliar country, and the horrors of being made to rely on guardians who make impositions against her wishes or best interests. In other cases, the gothic horror mixed with gothic infatuation would be shown by an invasion of sorts by a foreigner in the heroine's home country, person of color, or the occupation of a disabled person. These works frequently lend themselves to queer readings.

The common and notable qualities of what works came to be considered gothic literature between the 1819 publication of The Vampyre by John William Polidori and the 1896 publication of The Werewolf by Clemence Housman, naturally expanded and evolved with the inclusion of more works within this genre. Even now in the 21st century the continued recognizability of the gothic applies to new additions to the genre. The criteria for what qualifies a gothic story follows:

Ill-Reputed Work. The story is accused of being degrading to high culture, bad for society, immoral, populist or counter-cultural. At the very least, it's considered bad art and ugly.

Haunted by the Past. This can be found in a work framed accordingly in the cultural context that inspired the authors, such as early 19th century English literature of this genre as a response to the French Revolution. Works emblematic of the Southern Gothic in the United States could be framed in the context of the anxieties surrounding the Civil War. More often, however, it is personal history that haunts a gothic character.

Architecture. This is not necessarily mere mention of a building, or even a lush description of literally gothic architecture. This is more a sense of location. While it stands to reason that confined locations are buildings, the narrative function of architecture can be served by themes of isolation and confinement. Social consensus that is impossible to navigate or escape is a gothic sentiment. This is, of course, more clearly qualified if the architecture is literally a building.

Wilderness. This is not necessarily natural environments, but rather situations that are unpredictable and overwhelming. Storms can be similarly admired, those "dark and stormy night"s. The anxiety invoked by nautical horror emerges from the contrast between a human being made to feel small and out of control when situated on the open ocean and all its depths and mysteries. The gothic simplicity of fairy tales relies on the inhospitable and chaotic woods full of bandits, wolves, and maybe even witches. Logically, a city should be more architecture than wilderness, but if the narrative purpose is chaotic unpredictable vastness horror rather than confinement horror then the city can become a gothic wilderness. This is, of course, more clearly qualified if the wilderness is literally the weather.

Big Mood Energy. This is what I call a collection of emotions evoked by the design of gothic literature. The sense of vulnerability in the face of grandeur, or overwhelming emotion, is known as Sublime. The betrayal of that which is supposed to be familiar is known as the Uncanny. A disruption or disrespect of identity, order, or security is known as the Abject. Gothic literature often evokes disgust and discomfort with ambiguity, or showcases melodramatic sentimentality, or includes heavyhanded symbolism. Gothic literature explores boundaries and deconstructs the rules that keep readers comfortable.

Optionally, Supernatural. As a response to Enlightenment-era science and rationalism, the supernatural found new importance in gothic literature, symbolically and in the evocative emotions it wrought.

The growing edge of genre gothic I think can be found in genre overlap with picaresque stories, detective mysteries, works of libertine sensationalism, science fiction, fairy tales, and dark academia. Quaint tropes are subverted or transformed, and new ones can emerge in the symbolic conversation that works of fiction can strike up with one another. I hope the above criteria remains a useful guide.

Sources:

Peake, Jak. “Representing the Gothic.” 30 April 2013, University of Essex. Lecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B51o-1KTJhw

Nixon, Lauren. “Exploring the Gothic in Contemporary Culture and Criticism.” 4 August 2017, University of Sheffield. Lecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZP4g0eZmo8

"Why Are Goths? History of the Gothic 18th Century to Now". Wright, Carrie. 17 December 2022. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrIK6pBj4f8

"8 Aspects of Gothic Books". Teed, Tristan. 19 June 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NULLOYGiSDI

Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. London, Vernor & Hood, etc., 1798. Originally published in 1756.

Freud, Sigmund. The Uncanny, Penguin Books, New York, 2003. Originally published in 1919.

Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, translated by Leon Roudiez, Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 2010. Originally published in 1984.

Commentary and reading list under Read More.

Commentary

I owe to Tristan Teed the idea of framing emergent gothic literature as countercultural to Enlightenment rationalism and science, and this pushback symbolized by wilderness; Dr. Jak Peake for contextualizing gothic literature as an artistic response to civic unrest in general, and highlighting the fear of seductive immigrants in Bram Stroker's Dracula more specifically; Carrie Wright for the feminist readings of the literary references in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, and Dr. Lauren Nixon framing the term gothic as originally meaning bad art—the lattermost aspect I personally consider integral to the genre as it must remain a constant interrogation of what artistic expression we as a society consider "bad art" and why. Both Wright and Teed inspired the aspects list applied to an otherwise categorization-defiant genre that gothic literature is. Critical Race Theory readings and Queer Theory readings of works considered part of gothic literature canon, I would say are informed by the works themselves being very suggestive of these readings. Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 Carmilla influenced Rachel Klein's 2002 The Moth Diaries that blurred the lines between the homosocial and the homoerotic at a girl's boarding school. Florian Tacorian (not listed in these citations, but go watch his videos) highlighted Romani presence in adaptations of Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris, as well as Emily Brontë's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. The work of another Brontë sister, Charlotte Brontë, is more often mentioned as though closer to the core canon gothic literature, and the eponymous Jane Eyre contends with a Creole woman confined to the attic of her new home (this was written in 1847, the race issue was made explicit in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys published in 1966 that was a retelling of Jane Eyre.)

Notes on the works of gothic literature mentioned: As of this writing, I have read Northanger Abbey, The Vampyre, Carmilla, Dracula, and only half of Notre-Dame de Paris. I have only watched a movie adaptation of The Moth Diaries. (Update as of the 8th of October 2023: I finished reading The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein. This whole essay was posted on the 1st of October 2023.) (Update as of December 2023: I finished reading Jane Eyre.) Despite taking the internet handle Poe, American gothic literature is pretty much completely alien to me. I might have read a handful of other works that might be arguably gothic, but have not mentioned them here so I would not count them in a list of works that are mentioned in this essay and that I have personally read. The initial list was a semi-facetious argument for the presence of gothic architecture in gothic literature based on the titles alone. Note also my focus on gothic literature from the British Isles, with a mention of only two titles from Germany (Der Genius by Carl Grosse, translated into the English The Horrid Mysteries by Peter Will; and Der Geisterbanner: Eine Wundergeschichte aus mündlichen und schriftlichen Traditionen by Karl Friedrich Kahlert under the pen name Lawrence Flammenberg, translated into the English Necromancer of the Black Forest by Peter Teuthold that was first published in 1794) and only one from France (Notre-Dame de Paris 1482 by Victor Hugo). This is not to say that there was little to no Romanticist movement in Germany or France in the 18th and 19th centuries compared to Britain. Friedrich Maximilian Klinger's stageplay Sturm und Drang premiered in 1777 and lent its name to a proto-Romantic artistic era that was supremely Sublime and Big Mood Energy. The earliest French gothic novel I could find via a cursory search engine search was Jacques Cazotte's Le Diable Amoureux, 1772, and I deliberately selected Notre-Dame de Paris for mention instead to demonstrate the continued theme of architecture and variety in architecture: churches as well as castles, and to affirm the representation of disability in gothic literature because Quasimodo (a character in the book) is deaf and according to John Green had contacted spinal tuburculosis that left the character hunchbacked. I have not read any of Le Diable Amoureux, let alone the half that gave me the temerity to list Notre-Dame de Paris among these gothic works.

This sparseness is due to my own interest in the emergence of English-language gothic literature focused on Britain between the years 1789 and 1830, in keeping with Ian Mortimer's definition of the Regency era in Britain. That, and the information from the sources I have cited, are what I based the criteria that I offer for what makes a novel genre-compliant to gothic. The narrative psychology and historicist analyses of The Castle of Otranto as an outlier published earlier than the timeframe I confine myself to, is for another essay perhaps written by somebody else. Similarly, my argument for the lineage of picaresque heroes from Paul Clifford to The Scarlet Pimpernel, Don Diego "Zorro" de la Vega, and ultimately the angst-filled cinematic version of Bruce Wayne as overlapping the picaresque with the gothic is a blog post for another time. I have read some works by the Maquis Donatien Alphonse François de Sade and I utterly and unutterably abhor all of it, will the spectre of his abysmal depravity ever cease to haunt me—but I think I can make an argument for his works being gothic even as he argued for himself that they were not; I have no plans of doing so.

My main intention in writing this overview and criteria is to lay the groundwork for examining the overlap between Gothic as a genre and Dark Academia as a genre, which I aim to evaluate in future essays by using this criteria.

List of Works Mentioned Above

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1764)

Le Diable Amoureux by Jacques Cazotte (1772)

The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne by Ann Radcliffe (1789)

The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons (1793)

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (1794)

Necromancer of the Black Forest by Lawrence Flammenberg (translated by Peter Teuthold, 1794)

The Horrid Mysteries by Carl Grosse (translated by Peter Will, 1796)

The Italian by Ann Radcliffe (1796)

The Mysterious Warning by Eliza Parsons (1796)

Clermont by Regina Maria Roche (1798)

The Midnight Bell by Francis Lathorn (1798)

Orphan of the Rhine by Eleanor Sleath (1798)

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1818)

The Vampyre by John William Polidori (1819)

Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1830)

Notre-Dame de Paris 1482 by Victor Hugo (1831)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)

Dracula by Bram Stroker (1897)

The Werewolf by Clemence Housman (1896)

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emma Orczy (1905)

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (1966)

The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein (2002)

[thoumpingground]

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Thoughts: Chapters 10-15

Rose: You shouldn't visit Mrs. Graham, it's really hurting both your reputations. Gilbert: Fine, I won't go then Rev. Millward: You shouldn't visit Mrs. Graham, she's disreputable. Gilbert: (slams door)

Where was Mr. Lawrence hiding? Was he listening to the whole love confession?

Things I didn't expect to find in this book: the struggles of having a good ugly cry breakdown while living with your parents.

Fergus the quintessential shithead little brother strikes again.

Did Gilbert just whip a man in the face??! I want to like him, I really do, but between the mean-spiritedness and the violent outbursts, it's kinda hard to.

To be fair, mean-spiritedness runs rampant in this town. I get that they had different standards, but by God are Jane Wilson and Eliza Millward difficult to read.

"[...] you have blighted the freshness and promise of youth, and made my life a wilderness!" The drama. This is so first heartbreak. Can't hate it, I felt like that over my first breakup, but wow is it funny to read.

"So she gave me her diary and asked me not to tell a living soul about what was inside. Anyway, I'm gonna post it to you." Good job, Gilbert. It's giving Tumblr reading comprehension. It also has to be way more than his BIL was asking for when he asked to tell him about himself.

[whitepolaris]

As Seen on TV

Eliza Jane Wilder Thayer Gordon was the sister-in-law of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Little House on the Prairie and other books about life in the wide-open Great Plains. Known in real life as a bossy, hardheaded women, Eliza Jane appears in the books as the domineering older sister in Farmer Boy and the mean schoolteacher in Little Town on the Prairie, but why she would want to have this memorialized on her tombstone is anybody's guess. Although she and her relatives spent much of their childhoods in places like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, and the Dakota Territory, many of them wound up in Louisiana-living in Crowley, Kinder, and Lafayette (where Eliza Jane is buried in the Protestant Cemetery)-as unsuccessful rice farmers. But somehow, Little House on the Rice Plantation never quite made it to syndicated television.

[jxrm]

book log - 2023 (continued)

the good lie by a.r. torre

something wilder by christina lauren

pineapple street by jenny jackson

drinking games by sarah levy

the housemaid by frieda mcfadden

full disclosure by camryn garrett

the dream job by kiersten modglin

never lie by frieda mcfadden

the silent woman by minka kent

hidden pictures by jason rekulak

girl in trouble by stacy claftin

the waitress by nina manning

xoxo by axie oh

yellowface by r.f. kuang

unmissing by minka kent

the rise by shari king

take me home tonight by morgan matson

the best lies by sarah lyu

arsenic and adobo by mia p. manansala

our missing hearts by celeste ng

the locked door by frieda mcfadden

where the crawdads sing by delia owens

the couple at table six by daniel hurst

survive the night by riley sager

the wife upstairs by freida mcfadden

one of us is dead by jeneva rose

five little indians by michelle good

the push by ashley audrain

i’ll stop the world by lauren thoman

silver nitrate by silvia moreno-garcia

romantic comedy by curtis sittenfield

the maidens by alex michaelides

every last secret by a.r. torre

the headmaster’s list by melissa de la cruz

last summer at the golden hotel by elyssa friedland

the collective by alison gaylin

one true loves by taylor jenkins reid

the trade off by sandie jones

my summer darlings by may cobb

the last housewife by ashley winstead

good rich people by eliza jane brazier

the club by ellery lloyd

phantom limb by lucinda berry

the night shift by alex finlay

layoverland by gabby noone

the writing retreat by julia bartz

never never by colleen hoover

reckless by cecily von ziegesar

the family game by catherine steadman

just say yes by maxine morrey

a pho love story by loan le

the birthday girl by melissa de la cruz

local woman missing by mary kubica

the last to vanish by megan miranda

yolk’s on me by d.t. henderson

the housemaid’s secret by frieda mcfadden

happy people are annoying by josh peck

the fraud squad by kyla zhao

wrong place wrong time by gillian mcallister

the grayson legacy by boris bacic

remarkably bright creatures by shelby van pelt

the couple in the cabin by daniel hurst

yerba buena by nina lacour

the ex by frieda mcfadden

notorious by cecilyn von ziegesar

layla by colleen hoover

the inmate by frieda mcfadden

last night at the telegraph club by malinda lo

the friend zone by abby jimenez

how to american by jimmy o. yang

lunar love by lauren kung jessen

the it girl by crackly von ziegesar

what lies in the woods by kate alice marshall

queen of thieves by beezy march

weather girl by rachel lynn solomon

the perfect marriage by jeneva rose

my sister, the serial killer by tonkin braithwaithe

things we never got over by lucy score

like me by hayley phelan

do not disturb by frieda mcfadden

for the love of friends by sara goodman confino

reckless girls by rachel hawkins

ghost 19 by simone st. james

the winter people by jennifer mcmahon

please join us by catherine mckenzie

under the whispering door by t.j. klune

the bookstore sisters by alice hoffman

lessons in chemistry by bonnie garmus

the new year’s party by daniel hurst

the house in the cerulean sea by t.j. klune

trixie and katya’s guide to womanhood by trixie mattel

i kissed shara wheeler by casey mcquiston

horrorstor by grady hendrix

yours truly by abby jimenez

happy place by emily henry

the soulmate by sally hepworth

i have some questions for you by rebecca makkai

what happened the ruthy ramirez by claire jimenez

mad honey by jodi picoult

really good, actually by monica heisey

the ballad of songbirds and snakes by suzanne collins

the lightning thief by rick riordan

harry potter and the philosophers stone by j.k. rowling

the sea of monsters by rick riordan

the titan’s curse by rick riordan

harry potter and the chamber of secrets by j.k. rowling

the battle of the labyrinth by rick riordan

harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban by j.k. rowling

the last olympian by rick riordan

the lost hero by rick riordan

harry potter and the goblet of fire by j.k. rowling

the son of neptune by rick riordan

the mark of athena by rick riordan

harry potter and the order of the phoenix by j.k. rowling

harry potter and the half blood prince by j.k. rowling

harry potter and the deathly hallows by j.k. rowling

harry potter and the cursed child by john tiffany

[queencamden]

Laura Ingalls Wilder writing her sister: This is Mary. She’s a bit of a goody-two-shoes and sometimes makes me mad and jealous, but I love her and we do everything together.

Laura Ingalls Wilder writing her sister-in-law: This is Eliza Jane. She is bossy, and rude, and Almanzo can’t stand her. She does one (1) nice thing in the course of the entire book.

[classicgirlinamodernworld]

Why’d they have to do Eliza Jane dirty like that? Making her write in her diary and get all excited about Harv only to be disappointed. Would it be too much to ask for her to end up happy? uGh

[forgotten-or-unknown-truestories]

I’m sorry but can we talk about how perfect the casting of Eliza Jane Wilder on Little House on the Prairie was? 

Like even if you have never seen one episode, just by looking at the photo you can tell she is a teacher. 

Not because of the board behind her, but literally everything about her appearance screams “I’m a teacher.” 

That is not me making fun of the actress or saying she is unattractive. No not at all, I’m just saying she fits the mold of what people normally picture when they think of a teacher! 

I’m wonderful!

[ishipit03]

FIRST OTP.

top 5 little house on the prairie ships (as voted by my followers)

2. Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder

[fictionadventurer]

I didn't realize just how much Little Town on the Prairie meant to me as a book. I've barely started and every bit feels iconic. This one and Little House on the Prairie feel more like home than most of the other books do.

[memorieesofthetime]

little house on the prairie reunion ❤❤

[ladyday93]

An excellent entry about “Lazy Lousy Liza Jane” from Little Town on The Prairie.

[weedhorse69]

Match for Partner#1Match for Partner#2From universe

Satine (64.183%)Christian (76.357%)Moulin Rouge!

Chandler Bing (63.700%)Monica Geller (75.457%)Friends

Elliot Reid (68.766%)John Michael Dorian (70.341%)Scrubs

Mia Dolan (71.171%)Sebastian Wilder (67.426%)La La Land

Nino Quincampoix (72.580%)Amélie Poulain (65.526%)Amélie

Emily Gardner (69.479%)Kumail Nanjiani (67.926%)The Big Sick

Amy Sosa (68.973%)Jonah Simms (67.102%)Superstore

Bella Swan (65.321%)Edward Cullen (70.540%)Twilight

Sam Button (72.200%)Charlie Kelmeckis (62.138%)The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Narrator (75.204%)Marla Singer (58.882%)Fight Club

Calvin Weir-Fields (72.295%)Ruby Tiffany Sparks (61.542%)Ruby Sparks

Drew Baylor (72.457%)Claire Colburn (61.278%)Elizabethtown

Connell (63.749%)Marianne (69.314%)Normal People

Prince Hamlet (62.704%)Ophelia (69.075%)Hamlet

Nick Miller (70.981%)Jess Day (60.196%)New Girl

Tiffany Maxwell (63.448%)Pat Solitano (67.561%)Silver Linings Playbook

Annie Hall (72.474%)Alvy Singer (58.464%)Annie Hall

Daisy Buchanan (71.003%)Jay Gatsby (59.701%)The Great Gatsby

Joel Barish (69.830%)Clementine Kruczynski (60.338%)Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Debora (73.736%)Baby (56.124%)Baby Driver

Hughie Campbell (66.380%)Annie January (63.427%)The Boys

Simon Tam (64.330%)Kaylee Frye (65.429%)Firefly + Serenity

Jack Maine (56.280%)Ally Maine (73.296%)A Star Is Born

Jesse Pinkman (67.339%)Jane Margolis (61.983%)Breaking Bad

Hazel Grace Lancaster (61.532%)Augustus 'Gus' Waters (66.909%)The Fault in Our Stars

Rita (71.379%)Betty Elms (56.564%)Mulholland Drive

Marianne (60.047%)Heloise (67.601%)Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Summer Finn (75.252%)Tom Hansen (52.344%)(500) Days of Summer

Abbi Abrams (72.208%)Lincoln Rice (54.842%)Broad City

Sam Baldwin (59.007%)Annie Reed (67.879%)Sleepless in Seattle

Monica Gaztambide (67.874%)Denver (58.495%)Money Heist

Tokio (57.940%)Rio (68.423%)Money Heist

Bianca Stratford (72.295%)Cameron James (53.641%)10 Things I Hate About You

Philip J. Fry (60.567%)Turanga Leela (65.197%)Futurama

Josh Lyman (61.539%)Donna Moss (64.127%)The West Wing

Sara Tancredi (61.004%)Michael Scofield (64.638%)Prison Break

Ann Perkins (62.662%)Chris Traeger (62.793%)Parks and Recreation

Romeo Montague (57.727%)Juliet Capulet (67.510%)Romeo and Juliet

Evan (71.647%)Becca (53.496%)Superbad

Anastasia Steele (66.061%)Christian Grey (59.021%)Fifty Shades of Grey

Eric Forman (70.276%)Donna Pinciotti (54.143%)That 70's Show

Dean Forester (66.355%)Rory Gilmore (57.887%)Gilmore Girls

Alexander Hamilton (58.124%)Eliza Hamilton (66.095%)Hamilton

Holly Golightly (61.276%)Paul Varjak (62.561%)Breakfast at Tiffany's

Ben Wyatt (59.623%)Leslie Knope (64.150%)Parks and Recreation

Céline (65.698%)Jesse (57.979%)Before Sunrise

Jennifer Parker (67.222%)Marty McFly (56.377%)Back to the Future

Johnny Castle (67.037%)Frances 'Baby' Houseman (56.264%)Dirty Dancing

Dom Cobb (64.355%)Mal Cobb (58.902%)Inception

Jenny Curran (56.425%)Forrest Gump (66.441%)Forrest Gump

Howard Wolowitz (67.300%)Bernadette Rostenkowski (55.558%)The Big Bang Theory

Wichita (66.286%)Columbus (56.321%)Zombieland

Harry Burns (68.931%)Sally Albright (53.549%)When Harry Met Sally...

Chip Dove (63.919%)Anita 'Needy' Lesnicki (58.326%)Jennifer's Body

Jin-Soo Kwon (61.573%)Sun-Hwa Kwon (60.638%)LOST

Elisa Esposito (61.268%)The Amphibian Man (60.933%)The Shape of Water

Aladdin (57.750%)Jasmine (64.341%)Aladdin

Benjamin Button (55.845%)Daisy Fuller (66.000%)The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Becca Butcher (54.440%)Billy Butcher (67.378%)The Boys

Will Hunting (60.981%)Skylar (60.544%)Good Will Hunting

Angel (60.979%)Buffy Summers (60.510%)Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Penny (67.686%)Leonard Hofstadter (53.735%)The Big Bang Theory

Jo March (55.433%)Theodore Laurence (65.882%)Little Women

Ilsa Lund (55.982%)Rick Blaine (65.248%)Casablanca

Mike Ross (59.331%)Rachel Zane (61.757%)Suits

Marshall Eriksen (56.379%)Lily Aldrin (64.586%)How I Met Your Mother

Daisy Mason (56.693%)William Mason (64.177%)Downton Abbey

Sailor Moon (60.472%)Tuxedo Mask (59.999%)Sailor Moon

Edward Fairfax Rochester (60.009%)Jane Eyre (60.260%)Jane Eyre

Ennis Del Mar (57.371%)Jack Twist (62.592%)Brokeback Mountain

Eleanor Shellstrop (54.978%)Chidi Anagonye (64.803%)The Good Place

Lindsay Bluth Funke (51.798%)Tobias Funke (67.953%)Arrested Development

Colonel Brandon (65.991%)Marianne Dashwood (53.190%)Sense and Sensibility

Elizabeth Swann (64.042%)Will Turner (55.021%)Pirates of the Caribbean

Charles Bingley (54.771%)Jane Bennet (64.183%)Pride and Prejudice

Elinor Dashwood (54.951%)Edward Ferrars (63.998%)Sense and Sensibility

Claire Dunphy (56.520%)Phil Dunphy (61.978%)Modern Family

Cece Parekh (63.696%)Schmidt (54.750%)New Girl

Tess Ocean (59.761%)Danny Ocean (58.684%)Ocean's 11

Beast (58.877%)Belle (59.347%)Beauty and the Beast

Piper Chapman (70.597%)Alex Vause (47.387%)Orange is the New Black

Sutter Keely (53.197%)Aimee Finecky (64.717%)The Spectacular Now

Trinity (62.007%)Neo (55.737%)The Matrix

Rya

[fortunatelylori]

Sandtion: The Sense and sensibility connection - a meta collab with @and-holly-goes-lightly

As some of you may have gathered, @and-holly-goes-lightly​ and I are salt mates (this is a tumblr term I have learned only recently and am planning to run into the ground. You have been forwarned. I don’t want any complaints down the line!)

It all started about a year ago, with this:

And progressed steadily until we ended up here:

Occasionally, between ogling pictures of naked men, we discuss serious issues as well. Those end up as metas for your consumption, most of the time.

It’s a colaboration that works well. I write long metas, she writes really good ones. We enjoy. We have fun.

Given that we both obssesively analyze tv content and that we tend to reach about the same conclusions, we have been planning on doing some project together for a while now.

I think if 2 months ago someone had told us that Sanditon would be the tv show that would see us join writing forces, we would have been more than a little shocked.

But here we are … hoplessly obssessed with Austen’s unfinished novel and ITV’s unfinished tv show (get the hint, ITV?!?! I hope you do. Chop, chop! You can’t live on Downton Abbey reruns for the rest of time, you know)

So on this most special of days, @and-holly-goes-lightly​ and I bring you the motherload of Sandtion metas. Two crazy writers, one tv show, one simple title:

Sandtion: The Sense and Sensibility connection

It’s no surprise to anyone, at this point, that Andrew Davies wears his Austen influences on his sleeve in Sanditon. You can find easter eggs for most of Austen’s work, from the famous Pride and Prejudice to the obscure Lady Susan.

However, Sense and Sensibility seems to be one work that hasn’t insipired much comparison from the fandom. And it’s perhaps for that reason that Sandion’s last two episodes were so hard to digest and why so many question marks were raised in regards to Charlotte’s characterization.

In this project we aim to dispel some of that confusion and attempt to put into prespective the character arcs of both Sidney and Charlotte in:

Sidlotte: A parallel journey between Sense and Sensibility by @fortunatelylori​

As well as delve deeper into Charlotte’s POV through out the season finale in:

Charlotte Heywood - From Sensibility to Sense by @and-holly-goes-lightly​

We hope you enjoy our take. Please don’t forget to leave us your comments in the reply section. This is a new format for us and we’d love to hear from you on how you like this kind of collaborative work.

        Sidlotte: A parallel journey between Sense and Sensibility

As I was reading the now infamous Theo James interview, I was reminded of the “unusual” visual representation of Sanditon. It really does look quite different to most Austen adaptations which are defined by the sunny, sanitized domesticity of the English garden.

Sanditon doesn’t look like that. It’s rough and a little wild. It presents a world in the throes of change, with gales, nudity and darkness lurking around the corners. I think it’s those visual cues that made Theo link it to Wuthering Heights with its Yorkshire gloomy moors and harsh winds.

But that just goes to show you Mr. James has not done his proper Andrew Davies research (Tsk, tsk, me thinks he will need to do a few more nude scenes to atone for it) because the wind swept beaches, the wilderness of the English countryside, the cowboy motif? They all go back to this:

I imagine the visual style of Sense and Sensibility 2008 was in part generated by an attempt to separate it from the very famous 1995 version (the quintessential sunny English countryside film) and in part as a response to the earthier approach Joe Wright took for his now very influential version of Pride and Prejudice (2005).

But I do think Sanditon owes more to S&S 2008 than just its visuals. I’ve talked about this in the past but Sanditon, to me, is really Davies’ homage to Austen’s entire body of work so the more you dig and analyze, the more similarities and parallels you are going to find between Sanditon, its characters and the rest of the Austenverse (I really hope this is just a thing I say in a sarcastic way on tumblr. Not everything needs to be a –verse, people!).

Episode 8 really brought this theory into focus for me. In my review I said that the finale marked the tonal shift of the story from the naïve, hopeful and mostly comedic territory of Northanger Abbey and Pride and Prejudice towards the darker, more reflective tone of Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility.

Of course, comedy and witticisms are a core trait of all of Austen’s work. Her voice is so powerful that she is always an extra character in her own stories. However, Persuasion and S&S are also permeated with a sense of loss and angst that her other works don’t really have.

They’re more mature I suppose one could say. And it’s that maturity that plays a role in the shift that occurred in the season finale of Sanditon. Because Sanditon is really all about Charlotte Heywood. We enter this world with her and we follow her coming of age story throughout the season. And that story is marked by a pretty steep transition from the romantic, hopeful heroine represented by Marianne Dashwood to her restrained, sensible sister, Eleanor.

One of the things I liked the most about S&S 2008 was how much more balanced its view on Marianne and Eleanor was. In the 1995 film, it always felt as if Marianne was presented as a cautionary tale while Eleanor was the heroic nurturing woman who endures everything stoically and is rewarded for her restraint in the end.

But that’s not really, to my mind, the message Jane Austen would like us to get out of S&S. Just like with Pride and Prejudice, Austen is shining a light on the folly of both extreme sense and as well as extreme sensibility. It is not wise to jump head first into situations having only Lord Byron’s poems as your guide but it’s also equally unwise to constrain yourself to the point where you are unable to confide in anyone, to the point where you deny your feelings and end up a passive participant to your own life.

With Charlotte Heywood, we get to explore both those behavioral patterns.

The change from Marianne to Eleanor doesn’t occur in episode 8, by the way. It occurs at the end of episode 6 and carries through to the finale. That’s why people, including myself, were taken aback by Charlotte’s apparent change in demeanor in episode 7, from the girl who always spoke her mind (even when she shouldn’t) and wore her heart on her sleeve to the outwardly detached, apprehensive young woman who was waiting for the other shoe to drop even as the man she loved was about to propose to her.  

It would be easy to blame this transition on poor execution and I do believe the shift was too sudden and it was a mistake to have it start off screen (in between episode 6 and episode 7). However, the arc itself is not a mistake and it’s actually very clever.

For one because it allows us to explore this story both from the naïve, romantic perspective as well as the angst filled one.

Secondly, and most importantly, because it works in tandem with Sidney’s arc, who is going through the exact opposite journey from the emotionally repressed outlier to the open hearted tormented hero, representative of the Byronic romantic ideal.

What was supposed to happen is that by the end of episode 8, Sidney and Charlotte would meet in the middle, she as a more controlled romantic, he as a warmhearted stoic. What Davies gave us instead is two ships that passed each other in the night and have, by their last scene in episode 8, completely exchanged places.

So I think it’s important to go back to the beginning and analyze how the meeting between the naïve romantic Charlotte and the world weary Sidney ended up altering them forever and how, while deeply painful for both of them at the moment, their separation and behavior shift will end up benefiting them when their eventual reunion occurs (whether or not ITV decides to renew this series, Charlotte and Sidney WILL get married and have 2 to 3 adorable children because this is an Austen story and I will accept nothing less, damn it!)

One of the most important scenes in the whole season for me was the carriage scene in episode 6. I wrote a whole meta on it that you can find here and I have to go back to it in order to reference this extremely important exchange that sits as the lynchpin of this meta:

Sidney: And what do you know of love? Apart from what you’ve read?

Charlotte: I would sooner be naïve than insensible of feeling.

We’ve spent a great deal of time analyzing this scene and how pivotal it is in the story of Sidney as the motivator behind his lowering of his emotional guard. But I don’t think we’ve spent nearly enough time asking ourselves what this exchange tells us about Charlotte.

Because this doesn’t just announce a change in Sidney, it also foreshadows one for her. Sidney is correct in implying she doesn’t really understand love because she’s never experienced it. She is, however, about to realize that she’s in love with him and thus her assertion that she’d rather be naïve than insensible of feeling is just about to be tested.

And the surprising result is … Charlotte fails at her own paradigm. For the rest of the season, she will never be as emotionally open as she is in episode 6.

Charlotte is unable to remain the open book, expansive girl in the face of first supposed unrequited love and then as she experiences loss. She, instead, withdraws inward and begins building up her walls just as Sidney did after Eliza left him.

I think Davies understands Austen’s ultimate message that you fall into the extreme of sense or sensibility at your own peril, which is why he chooses to have his main two characters traverse opposite journeys so they can be brought closer by the end of the story (in season 2 of course).

That’s because at the core of all of the fights and misunderstandings between Charlotte and Sidney sit two problems:

Sidney Parker does not believe in the good intentions of other people. He is operating from a place of hurt and feeling under attack. He is essentially under the impression that the people he comes into contact with have ulterior motives, and none of them are good. And you can’t really blame him for that distorted image of reality when you consider what the two most meaningful relationships in his life have been up until this point.

On the one hand you have Tom who weaponizes even the most benign of compliments:

Tom: At least I have your prowess on the cricket field to be thankful for.

Sidney: Well in truth you have Lord Babington to thank for that. I am here at his behest to give him support in his time of romantic need. God knows he shall need it.

Tom: You’re a good friend, Sidney …  I don’t suppose you could try just one last time… [to go ask for money]

On the other hand, you have Eliza Campion who says stuff like this with a straight face:

Sidney: You didn’t have to wait for me, you know.

Eliza: I’ve waited for 10 years. What’s another quarter of an hour?

While researching this meta and also trying to figure out my Christmas fic, I’ve come to realize that both Tom and Eliza are using a victim narrative to get what they want from the people around them. What Sidney has learned from these relationships is that nothing in life comes for free. Any compliment, any sign of affection comes with a price tag or an eventual let down.

For her part, Charlotte Heywood is suspicious of Sidney because he doesn’t make himself easy to understand.

Charlotte thrives on communication and she tends to empathize and like people who share, or overshare, information with her. Her opinion on Tom shifts the moment he starts including her in his Sanditon projects. She is apprehensive of Otis for quite a bit of episode 4 but ends up completely on his side the moment he talks about his past as a slave and making innuendos about Sidney, despite neither one of those things really resolving her initial reasons for being apprehensive.

This behavior is really down to Charlotte’s upbringing in a very large but very happy family. Or as Eleanor Tilney in Northanger Abbey would put it:

Eleanor: I think you have had a quite dangerous upbringing. You’ve been brought up to believe that everyone is as pure in heart as you are.

Incidentally another Andrew Davies adaptation …

In Charlotte’s mind, people who are open emotionally and speak their mind must be good people. After all, she is this way and she certainly always has the best of intentions. When someone doesn’t do that, or worse they evade and try to manipulate, she distances herself from them, as is the case with Edward and Clara.

And since Charlotte views meaningful communication as the ultimate sign of trust, it’s this withholding of information, this emotional barrier she can sense in Sidney, that makes her mistrustful of him. She can’t understand his emotional withdrawal for what it is – a response to trauma - because she’s never experienced it. And as such she will always fundamentally misunderstand him.

We see these two character hang ups rearing their ugly heads again and again in their conflicts:

Episode 1

Sidney: And what have you observed about me upon our small acquaintance?

Charlotte: I think you must be the sensible brother of the three. I may be mistaken but it seems to me that your younger brother, Arthur, is a very … contrary nature. Alternately over lethargic and over energetic. While your elder brother, Tom, could be called over enthusiastic. I’m afraid that despite his good nature, he neglects his own happiness and his family’s in his passionate devotion to Sanditon. Don’t you agree?

Sidney: Upon my word, Miss Heywood, you are very free with your opinions. And upon what experience of the world do you form your judgments? Where have you been? Nowhere. What have you learnt? Nothing it would seem. And yet you take it upon yourself to criticize. Let me put it to you, Miss Heywood: which is the better way to live? To sit in your father’s home, with your piano and your embroidery, waiting for someone to come and take you off your parents’ hands? Or to expend your energy in trying to make a difference? To leave your mark. To leave the world in a better place than you found it. That is what my brother, Tom, is trying to do. At the expense of a great deal of effort and anxiety, in a good cause in which I do my best to help and support him. And you see fit to … to criticize him … to amuse yourself at his expense.

Fortunatelylori: … I have a theory that the reason why Sidney’s been forced into prostitution by the end of season 1 is because he used the argument of the fucking patriarchy to defend Tom The Worst Parker. Gee, Sidney, us women would love to go out there and change the world but your male friends are forcing us to stay home with our pianos and embroideries to make sure they take full advantage of our ovaries. Please take several seats!

Fortunatelylori: Also … fyi … Tom isn’t protecting England from the French or helping Warren de La Rue develop the freaking light bulb. He is trying to run a dime a dozen seaside resort and failing miserably at it so spare us the change the world one naked ass at a time speeches.

Charlotte is baited by Sidney, the emotional recluse, into oversharing which she can’t help herself from doing because even at this early stage she has a crush on him and wants to impress him with her insight. He takes that rather kind take on his brother Tom and spins it into a narrative of inexperienced superficiality and mockery because that’s what he’s conditioned himself to think about people.

Episode 2  

Charlotte: Our conversation at the party … I expressed myself badly and I fear you misunderstood me. I didn’t mean to disparage your brother or to offend you. Indeed I have the greatest admiration for what you and he are doing here in Sanditon. You were right to rebuke me and indeed I am sorry. I hope you won’t think too badly of me.

Sidney: Think too badly of you? I don’t think of you at all, Miss Heywood. I have no interest in your approval or disapproval. Quite simply, I don’t care what you think or how you feel. I’m sorry if that disappoints you but there it is. Have I made myself clear?

Fortunatelylori: Badly done, Sidney! Badly done indeed!

Not much to say about Charlotte in this one as this argument is ALL on Sidney and his trust issues. In his world, this kind of earnest apology and brave taking of responsibility is always a precursor to a guilt trip or a victimization episode. So he has become very adept at shooting down any such attempt forcefully.

It’s only in episode 3, when he sees Charlotte helping Mr. Stringer without any expectations of reward and her accepting his apology without any hint of emotional blackmail that Sidney is able to lower his guard and begin to see Charlotte for the honest, kind and generous human being that she is:

Fortunatelylori: Awwww! This is Sidney essentially seeing his unborn children in Charlotte’s eyes. (that is the most romantic lyric in the English language and no one will convince me otherwise)

However, what ends up happening? Sidney lowers his guard just in time for Charlotte to reactivate her suspicions which leads to their most explosive fight to date:

Episode 4

Sidney: Did we not agree that you would look out for Georgiana? Keep her out of trouble? I should have known you weren’t to be trusted.

Charlotte: And I should have known, despite your professed concern, you care nothing for her happiness.

Sidney: I would ask you to refrain from making judgments about a situation you don’t understand.

Charlotte: I understand perfectly well!

Sidney: Of course you do! Even though you’ve known Georgiana but a handful of weeks and him but a matter of hours.

Charlotte: That was time enough to learn that Mr. Molyneux is as respectable a gentleman as I have ever had cause to meet.

Sidney: You seem to find it impossible to distinguish between the truth and your own opinion!

Charlotte: The truth? You wish to speak of the truth, Mr. Parker? The truth is you are so blinded by prejudice that you would judge a man by the color of his skin alone.

Sidney: You speak out of turn.

Charlotte: Why should I expect any better from a man whose fortune is so tainted with the stain of slavery!

Sidney: That is enough! … I do not need to justify myself to you.

They essentially spiral out of control in this scene. Sidney’s trust issues come back and his lack of feed-back to Charlotte’s accusations make her provide increasingly horrible explanations to fill in the blanks.

Because their fights tend to be very intense (they are both people with very strong personalities), it’s easy to think of the two of them as simply not being compatible.

But their issues aren’t a matter of compatibility but rather an inability to find the right channels on which to communicate with each other, despite both wanting to.

Which brings us to episode 5

I love these little acting choices Theo James makes. This sigh is so evocative because it’s pretty clear it’s not frustration or boredom, but rather Sidney still reeling from her accusations in episode 4.

On the other side, Charlotte looks at him and thinks he is distant and non-affected and because, despite being angry, she still wants to connect with him, she tries so hard to use Sidney’s acerbic wit against him and keeps attempting to poke the big grizzly bear:

Charlotte: I assume you are here for the cricket.

Sidney: Never short of assumptions, Miss Heywood.

Unable to find a chink in his cold shoulder, Charlotte tries again at the cricket match:

Charlotte: Good luck to you too, Mr. Parker. Although I imagine you don’t think you’ll need it.

Sidney: Yes more assumptions, Miss Heywood?

Sidney is so pissed at her in this episode, not even her low key flirting with James Stringer galvanizes him.

But then something quite unexpected happens … Without actually realizing it, Charlotte manages to find the right channel to communicate on:

Stringer: You haven’t got another player to replace him. We win.

Charlotte: I’ll play.

With the wide eyed enthusiasm of a true romantic, Charlotte taps into the core of what Sidney desperately needs in his life. She doesn’t just help and support him when he needs her to but crucially she doesn’t put a price tag on it.

Charlotte: Is that a smile I detected?

Sidney: Oh, I doubt it …

Charlotte doesn’t enter the cricket match because she wants to use that gesture to ask Sidney for money for her pyramid scheme or gaslight him into thinking her betrayal was actually her “waiting” for him. Charlotte does it because she wants to see him smile. And just look at him …

Unfortunately that momentary progress is derailed again when Georgiana is kidnapped which will eventually lead to the carriage scene in episode 6 where Charlotte’s need for feed-back clashes with Sidney’s trust issues in their most revealing conversation.

It’s tempting to look at this argument and think Sidney is the only one who is in the wrong and who needs to change. But that would be missing a few important aspects of the story.

Charlotte: Otis never meant to place Georgiana in harm’s way. Any more than I did.  

Sidney: And yet you both did.

I think a lot of people, Charlotte included, fall into the trap of believing that if someone didn’t intend to harm someone else that means they haven’t actually done something wrong. Which is why there are still people in the Sanditon tag that are resisting the idea that Tom Parker is a villain. Surely he never meant to hurt his brother and he didn’t force him to propose to Eliza, so why is everyone so hard on him?

But like Charlotte had to learn with Otis, just because Tom didn’t intend to cause Sidney harm doesn’t change the fact that he very much did.

In this case, Charlotte’s major mistake was not that she helped Georgiana stay in touch with Otis. Charlotte’s mistake was in assuming she had the whole 1000 piece puzzle completed when she only had about 200 pieces in place.

Charlotte: All I ever cared about was Georgiana’s happiness.

Sidney: What did you think I cared about?

Charlotte: That is anyone’s guess!

Sidney: I’ve done the best I can by Georgiana.

Charlotte: No! At every turn you have abdicated responsibility. If you truly cared for her welfare, you would have watched over her yourself.

Sidney: It is a role I neither sought or asked for.

Charlotte: Of course not! Because you are determined to remain an outlier. God forbid you give something of yourself!

Sidney: Please do not presume to know my mind, Miss Heywood.

Charlotte: How could anyone know your mind? You take pains to be unknowable. All I know is that you cannot bear the idea of two people being in love.

Despite admitting she doesn’t know his mind, Charlotte can’t help herself from filling in the blanks with what she assumes is a conscious desire to be uncaring. Because she doesn’t have the life experience to come up with another answer.

For his part, Sidney is hurt by her lack of trust in him but unwilling to trust her enough in return to tell her the whole story. Still her words do affect him enough to make him begin to lower his barrier and give Theo James one of his best acting moments:

Sidney: And what do you know of love? Apart from what you’ve read?

Charlotte: I would sooner be naïve than insensible of feeling.

Sidney: Is that really what you think of me? I’m sorry that you think that. How much easier my life would have been if I were …

Fortunatelylori: I just … he’s very good … that is all

It would be very tempting to assume that since Charlotte admits to being naïve once the whole Otis and Georgiana’s situation is revealed:

Charlotte: It’s all so overwhelming! I hardly know what to think anymore. (beat) About anything! I’ve always felt so certain of my judgment. But now I see that I have been blinded by sentiment and naivety. How could I have gotten it all so wrong? No wonder your brother has such a poor opinion of me …

and Sidney begins to show more outward concern for the people around him and validate Charlotte in ever increasingly romantic ways:

Charlotte: I know … I’m too headstrong. I’m too opinionated. I’m too …

Sidney: No. You are not too anything. Don’t doubt yourself. You’re more than equal to any woman here.

That their clashing world views are now aligned. But the truth is, Sidney isn’t the one to explain to Charlotte how it was that he became “insensible of feeling”. It’s Tom that tells her that story (and then promptly bungles whatever help he might have provided his brother). Sidney’s trust issues remain which is evident even as late as episode 8:

Babbington: I believe she’s tamed me.

Sidney: Yes … I just imagine how that might feel.

And

Sidney: I have never wanted to put myself in someone else’s power before.

Don’t get me wrong, I melt every time I hear that second line but it is indicative of the fact that love still feels like an inherently risky and dangerous thing for Sidney where he is obliged to hand over his power to someone else and pray that person doesn’t abuse it the way Eliza did.

For Charlotte’s part, Sidney beginning to reveal more of himself and show her the true man underneath the armor, makes her fall more and more in love with him. And the more she loves him, the more afraid she is of outwardly showing it. His confusion over his feelings for her and Eliza’s reappearance in his life, cause her to attempt to fill in the blanks again in episode 7. First by proxy, while talking to James Stringer:

Charlotte: You are far too sensible to form such a misguided and futile attachment.

Stringer: Why should it be futile, Miss Heywood? For all you know your feelings are repaid 5 times over.

Charlotte: I allowed myself to believe so for the briefest of moments. But I cannot deny the evidence of my own eyes.

And then directly:

Sidney: I hope you weren’t too offended by Mrs. Campion. It was only meant in jest.

Charlotte: Is that all I am to you? A source of amusement?

Sidney: No. Of course not! You’re … Forgive me.

Charlotte: On the contrary, you’ve done me a great service. I am no longer in any doubt as to how you regard me.

So what happens in episode 8? Well, they essentially trade places, going from this:

Charlotte: I hope you won’t think too badly of me.

Sidney: Think too badly of you? I don’t think of you at all, Miss Heywood.

To this:

Sidney: Tell me you don’t think too badly of me.

Charlotte: I don’t think badly of you.

In one of my metas I made the point that Sidney Parker IS Charlotte Heywood’s coming of age story: he is her first love, the first man she is sexually attracted to, her first kiss and well … unfortunately also her first (and hopefully only) heartbreak.

By being forced to deal with her own sense of loss and the pain of being separated from the person she loves, Charlotte will finally be able to understand the true nature of Sidney’s insensitivity of feeling. Instead of causing her suspicion or apprehension, she will be able to connect with it because she’s lived through it herself.

As for Sidney … I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in the end he is forced to do to Charlotte what Eliza did to him all those years ago. He chooses to marry a wealthy woman he does not love and disappoint a poor woman whom he does love.

I think given that his motives are obviously altruistic while Eliza’s were not (both per Tom’s story as well as her general character as revealed in the show so far), the point of the similarity is not to bring him closer to Eliza. Certainly not when he’s looking at Charlotte like this:

Which means that him being forced to contend with what happened 10 years ago by reliving the incident, this time in the role of the aggressor, is there to increase his level of vulnerability and put him in the place of the earnest person trying to reach out for emotional connection and having to fight to pull down the walls he himself helped put up in Charlotte.

You know what they say … If you really want to know someone, walk a mile in their shoes. No one ever said those shoes would be comfortable.

[miloscat]

Doctor Who: Classic era spin-offs, low-res pixel style!

Continuing my big series of pixel arts of the Doctor Who universe, here’s a selection of the spin-offs that evolved from Classic characters and situations. A lot of characters are lacking in visual reference material so I had to scour book/audio covers, promotional art, and occasionally fanart (especially from Paul Hanley, again). It was fun! Of course there’re many more spin-offs I didn’t cover, so sorry to Graceless, Big Finish’s Charlotte Pollard and other companion works, various Dalek and Cybermen audios and comics, other BBV and Reeltime video and audio productions, Kaldor City, other UNIT stories, Alan Moore’s Special Executive characters, Olive Hawthorne, The Forge, etc, etc. (And don’t worry, modern spin-offs will be coming later!)

See below for breakdowns of each image!

1: Reeltime Pictures and BBV Productions home videos of the 90s. Some of the defenders of Earth during Doctor Who’s wilderness years, several of them companions of the Second, Third, and Fourth Doctors: Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, Victoria Waterfield, and Sarah Jane Smith from Downtime, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart from Downtime and Daemos Rising, John Benton from Wartime, Liz Shaw from P.R.O.B.E., Lockwood from the Auton trilogy, Lauren Anderson from Cyberon and Zygon.

2: The Lethbridge-Stewart and Lucy Wilson Mysteries novels. Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, Anne Travers, William Bishop, Samson Ware, Lucy Wilson, Hobo Kostinen.

3: K9 and Company (the TV pilot and accompanying material) and Big Finish’s Sarah Jane Smith audio series. Sarah Jane Smith, K9, Aunt Lavinia, Brendan Richards, Josh Townsend, Natalie Redfern.

4: Big Finish’s Gallifrey audio series. Romana II (I and III also show up), Leela, K9, Narvin, Irving Braxiatel, Darkel.

5: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (and the unfinished Salmon of Doubt), Douglas Adams’ novel series that reused ideas from the cancelled Fourth Doctor serial Shada. Richard MacDuff, Urban Chronotis/Reg/Salyavin, Dirk Gently, Kate Schechter.

6: Counter-Measures, the Big Finish audio series based on a team seen in Seventh Doctor serial Remembrance of the Daleks. Rachel Jensen, Allison Williams, Ian Gilmore, Toby Kinsella.

7: Bernice Summerfield, the Seventh Doctor’s companion in the Virgin New Adventures, got her own follow-up novel series and Big Finish audio series. Bernice Summerfield, Jason Kane, Peter Summerfield, Irving Braxiatel, Joseph, Bev Tarrant, Adrian Wall, Ruth Leonidas.

8: The Minister of Chance co-starred in the Seventh Doctor wilderness years webcast Death Comes to Time, then had his own self-titled audio spin-off. The Minister, Sala, Tannis, Kitty, Professor Cantha, the Horseman, Durian.

9: Faction Paradox spun off from the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels into its own franchise of prose and audios. Cousin Justine, Cousin Eliza, and Lolita from the two audio series, Compassion/Laura Tobin (who got her own prose series), Sabbath, Chris Cwej after regeneration/Cwej-Plus, Isobel/Scarlette (as seen in the comics), Miranda Dawkins (a tangentially related EDA character who got her own comic series).

10: Iris Wildthyme popped up in the EDAs and got her own series of prose and audios. Iris Wildthyme, the Celestial Omnibus (not to scale), Panda, Jenny Winterleaf, Tom, Edwin Turner, Señor 105.