#Extension English

[saphosticated]

A casual analysis of Pan’s Labyrinth makes the use of Captain Vidal as a representation of Del Toro’s Daddy issues incredibly clear.

However, the HSC markers probably don’t care for a thesis about Daddy issues in their selected texts, so we’ll focus our analysis on fascism instead.

Stay tuned for opinions on T.S Eliot and his clear need for therapy and for Ezra Pound to hold his hand.

[etherwraith]

This looks really cool. I used an image prompt with a similar vibe to practise my creative writing for the HSC.

Sci-fi Landscapes by Andrew Porter

[qrichas]

btw! from twitter, some context from qforever and qcellbits convo

[mxescargot]

Chinastuck: the alpha kids

Jane Crocker: 王艳芳 (Wang Yanfang). Goes by Fangfang. Lives in Beijing. Han Chinese, with some Korean ancestry.

for the name i sort of went off of pure vibes. wang is ubercommon and means "king", yan means beautiful and i honestly just added it so all the prospit kids could have Y names, fang means "sweet-smelling" or "virtuous".

transmasc jane crocker real to me and he chooses the name 敏敏 (Minmin) meaning "clever" bc detective vibe??

still figuring out how to incorporate crockercorp.

Roxy Lalonde: 刘天秀 (Liu Tianxiu). Lives in flooded, postapocalyptic Shanghai among carapacians. Kazakh and Jewish Han ancestry.

roxy to my understanding means something like "bright dawn". tianxiu means beautiful sky. they share the character xiu with rose's name, xiulan.

Dirk Strider: 赵强剑 (Zhao Qiangjian). Lives alone in postapocalyptic, flooded Chongqing. Jewish Han and Hmong ancestry.

qiang means "strong" or "surpassing" and jian means "sword/dagger", tying into his character and one of the meanings of dirk, a type of dagger. he may be from the mainland, but since He's Dirk he uses traditional and even archaic characters for the ✨vibe✨, much to the annoyance of the other alpha kids. he spells his own name as 趙彊劍 lmao

i feel like doll strider would choose the name 雪莲 (Xuelian), which both means "snow-white lotus", suggesting purity, and is the name of a rare and precious herb. lotuses also have religious significance which she is aware of although dirk is a lil bit of a snooty reddit atheist to me. again she'd spell lian as 蓮 for Dirk Reasons

dirk is as much of a weeb and brony as in canon. he likes yapping abt chinese/japanese/western cultural comparisions and tries to teach himself japanese.

Jake English: Angli, sinicized as 洋格李 (Yang Geli). Lives in rural Inner Mongolia. Mongolian.

mongolian names typically are only the given name. jake's name is literally "english"; post scratch jade named him this to spite the condesce, similar to her taking on the last name english in canon. this also reflects a somewhat old fashioned mongolian naming practice of giving a child a strange/inauspicious name to drive away misfortune. (i am not mongolian myself apologies if this explanation did not make much sense) the sinicization of his name starts with a Y to match all the other prospit kids, with the character 洋 meaning the ocean with a connotation of vastness. this references him growing up in the middle of the ocean.

i like transfem jake english choosing the name lara. in china its spelled 勞拉 👍

idk what other details to change abt jakes life... the general arc of it is similar obviously

[arc-hus]

Herne Hill House, London - Type Studio

[ratsniffer77]

Me on my English extension study grind ( I hate my life (why did I choose this god awful subject ) )

hsc has me going a bit silly

[valtsv]

Which language are you learning?

polish. my parents were always working when i was a kid so they never had time to teach me whilst also ensuring my and their english developed well enough to fit in (and i didn't want to learn back then) and these past few years i've regretted that more and more, so i've decided to finally do something about it.

[wonder-worker]

"[Matilda of Boulogne's office as Queen of England], initiated and broadly defined by the coronation ordo, gave her royal power and authority to share in governance. Her obligations and activities were shaped by custom established by previous queens and the ad hoc needs of king and realm. [...] [Matilda's] thorough integration into the governance of the realm was not repeated in [Eleanor of Aquitaine’s] years as queen of England. Eleanor's coronation followed a new model that emphasized the queen as progenitor of royal heirs and subordinate to the king rather than as sharer of royal power. Though Eleanor acted as regent in England between 1156 and 1158 and in Poitou on several occasions from 1165 on, her writs suggest delegated rather than shared royal authority. In England, her power was limited by the lack of lands assigned to her use and by the elaboration of financial and judicial administration. Whereas [Matilda of Boulogne's] inheritance allowed her to play an integral role in politics by securing the Londoners' loyalty and a steady supply of mercenaries, Eleanor's inheritance provided her with more extensive power in Poitou and Aquitaine than in England. Until 1163, Eleanor withdrew funds from the Exchequer by her own writ, but unlike her Anglo-Norman predecessors, she was not a member of its council nor did she issue judgments from the royal court. Eleanor's counsel and diplomatic activities, in contrast to Matilda's, are rarely mentioned. She did, however, encourage the 1159 Toulouse campaign and supported Henry in the Becket affair and the coronation of young Henry. Eleanor was not a prominent curialis; she rarely witnessed Henry's charters or interceded to secure the king's mercy. She did follow in Matilda's footsteps in her promotion of her sons, cultivation of dynastic goals through the Fontevraudian tombs, and patronage that reflected her family's traditions. For Matilda, to be queen encompassed a variety of functions-curialis, diplomat, judge, intercessor, and "regent." Through a combination of factors, Eleanor's role as queen was much more restricted."

-Heather J. Tanner, "Queenship: Office, Custom or Ad Hoc", Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady (Edited by Bonnie Wheeler and John Carmi Parsons)

[rotzaprachim]

one interesting Spanish-language based issue around identity is the fact that a lot of the anti colonial and great decolonial writers and early novelists of the Philippines (perhaps using the words anticolonial and decolonial is too simplistic as well - often those who wrote and imagined and tried to shape a Filipino identity or define what it was to be Filipino beyond “lesser” or “not peninsular”) wrote in castellano, José Rizal most significantly. Yet after decolonization from Spain the Philippines chose to discontinue the use of the Spanish language in favour of Tagalog (one of the 100+ languages of the Philippines, now styled as “Filipino”) and then English. This creates some interesting academic gaps: rizal and Filipino Spanish language writers are almost never taught in mainstream “Spanish literature” classes which tend to be divided into “Latin America” and “Spain” but they ARE taught in Filipino studies - almost always translated into English or Tagalog.

[ruushes]

last line challenge

@s1ithers thanks for tagging, i love a good tag 😌🩷

He’d only brought it up once or twice on the way there, and only to watch Nox’s ears flatten in annoyance, their tail curve upward like an exclamation point.

tagging @wastrelwoods i’d love to see what you're working on if you feel like it! and if any other writers want to share something and haven't been tagged feel free to @ me as having tagged you, it’s fun seeing what everyone’s up to ☺️

[thegreatyin]

26 27 30 36... Scoundrel and Scientist. Also gimme the cufflink saga already.

IM STILL PIECING THE SNIPPETS TOGETHER IM SORRY I KNOW IVE TAUNTED YALL WITH ALLUSIONS TO IT FOR AGES JDFHDHDJDK

26 - What would be their ideal romance? Did they find a perfect match already, is it still a work in progress, or have they experienced something out of their expectations?

The Scoundrel's ideal partner would probably be someone willing to put up with her... everything. Either because they don't care, or because they indulge her to her heart's content. Someone able to back up her wildest dreams (or even fulfill them) while still being there at the end of the day to kiss her head and tell her it's all going to turn out okay.

She thinks this someone is Wines. It is not Wines.

The Scientist's ideal partner... is a lot more broad, and also simultaneously a bit more narrow.

See, he's fine with just about anyone, theoretically. All he wants is someone he can live for, and work to protect. He doesn't even care if he gets the same in return. Ideally someone patient, and clever, and maybe a little bit terrifying- someone he can trust completely and utterly-

But he doesn't really care about any of that. He just wants someone he can get along with. Someone he can almost feel safe around. He doesn't care about anything else.

-

27 - What is their romance’s theme song?

The Hatsune Miku cover of Poison. And Butcher Vanity.

...oh, you meant general romance, not together. That's, admittedly trickier.

And by "trickier" I mean "I'm stumped". I have absolutely no idea. I've never thought about it before. Consider this an open invitation for y'all to come in and suggest romance songs, because I'm kind of at a loss rn

-

30 - What is their love language?

The Scoundrel gives gifts. A lot of gifts. If you've actually, sincerely, unironically, somehow, against every odd in the universe, thoroughly captivated them, you'd get absolutely smothered in more gifts than anyone could hope to count. Extravagant ones, too.

Like.

They're the kind of person who thinks a comically expensive romantic dinner at the most exclusive restaurant in the country is "modest". They're the kind of person who'd send you hourly updates on how their day is going because they think you genuinely unironically need to know this pressing information because you love them and they love you back. They're the kind of person who spends hours trying and failing to win a giant stuffed animal at a carnival because you said it looked cute and they want to impress and pamper you.

They're the kind of person who spends half of their fortune supplying Mr Wines' revels because they think they're getting such an insanely good grade in flirting and serving and being such a good sexy appealing lover for their stupid horrible drunken crush that won't even give them a second glance-

I mean. Uh. Ahem. Clears throat.

Gift-giving. They like gift-giving.

The Scientist on the other hand- he's pretty squarely split between acts of service and quality time. I don't compare him to a cat for nothing. He's either actively being "useful" to people, or he's sitting with them in silence for 2 hours straight while they do an unrelated task in the same general vicinity.

He considers the latter to be fantastic socializing.

-

36 - What would they gift to their partner or their best friends to show their affection?

See the Scoundrel's aforementioned answer about giant stuffed animals and supplying revels. But also flower bundles. And honey. And bundled flowers dipped in honey. They feel like the type to gift what they like because they're under the impression that their favorite things are universal favorite things.

As for the Scientist... he's admittedly not the best at sending gifts, but he certainly tries? His gifts are way more humble. Way more small. Like the results of an interesting experiment, or a cool puzzle he thought up, or a handmade scrapbook that's not exactly good insomuch as it is unbelievably sincere. Tiny nerdy trinkets that won't mean much to an onlooker, but end up being super soft and sentimental to those in the know.

Also, I could see him knitting a bunch of stuff. Little winter hats, scarves, gloves, the works. It's sweet. He's sweet.

[fredoesque]

the way franklin has silna's father's body disposed of in ep 3 is a really fascinating indication of how the english see the inuit to me.

because yeah, obviously it's incredibly disrespectful in ignoring the man's own burial traditions and even from an entirely english pov as a way to "bury" someone. but on top of that i find it very telling that they felt it was their place to bury him at all--if they truly didn't think he was worth the trouble, why not just give his body to silna?

they must have felt on some level they had a claim to his body and, perhaps in their seeing themselves as a last outpost of civilization, a duty to make sure it was taken care of. even though they clearly didn't care one bit about the man they were actually burying.

this moment is one of a few in the show where the english seem to assume, entirely without question, that they have authority over the arctic and the people in it. that just by virtue of being english they are naturally and immediately the highest (worldly) power present. which obviously betrays a deeply imperialistic worldview.

and in showing that insidious assumption of authority in interaction with more baldly racist disrespect and disregard towards a netsilik person, i feel this moments highlights the twofold superiority the english feel over the inuit: both as having an exclusive claim to power and as having an exclusive claim to personhood

[supercantaloupe]

ive never gone to see an opera live in europe let alone one outside of a major theater that regularly records and broadcasts their productions so grain of salt etc but i think there's some kind of distinct cultural difference between how european companies do "reimagined" productions of operas vs how american companies do it

[oakgreenoak]

THIS IS NOT ABT ANYONE OR ANYTHING IN PARTICULAR but lowkey i find it kinda annoying how often pkmn fic just wholesale americanises the japanese regions. esp when EVEN IN THE SAME WORKS ppl will put at least a minimum amt of effort into portraying, say, Kalos as France or Galar as the UK, but the Japanese regions just get completely burgerwashed. Why doesn't Japanese culture get the same kind of care as European ones do?

[vocaloid-song-of-the-day]

QUEEN by Kanaria feat. GUMI

[sysig]

Last man standing (Patreon)