#Ronson/Bond

[luminiferocity]

This Life

Drabble, Bond/Ronson, angst

Inspired by this post by @cicerfics

One agent in a relationship is untenable, two impossible. There's too much they can't have. But, what they can, no one else can offer.

Maybe living the same life of duty, danger and death is a welcome shortcut to intimacy when time is tight and the next mission beckons. Maybe domesticity is for other people but the rare authenticity in those moments in between is enough. Maybe that's why the one night of fun becomes two, three, ten, despite what they tell themselves this is.

Bond allows himself to mourn as they lived, maybe almost-loved: whisky, hotel bed; fleetingly, deeply.

[blusandbirds]

the theme of skyfall being set up genuinely right in the first minute with james trying to save ronson from his wound but m insisting on leaving him (to bleed out) for the greater mission.

[patrice-bergerons]

Hi. Do you still write James Bond fanfics? Do you have an AO3 I can stalk? 😁

Hi! Work was insane this week, sorry for the delay. Although I am not immediately working on any Bond fics, I tend to cycle between my fandoms, so it's entirely likely I will find my way back to it again. In the meanwhile, I am blindbatalex on AO3 and have a few posted Bond fics over there!

I would personally recommend:

I could always move in with you: 00Q from a Dench!M perspective, whom - and whose POV - I simply adore

i never left: 00Q - with this one, you will just have to see for yourself

the worth of one life: 00Q - if you have ever wondered what James would do had it been Q in Ronson's place in a similar set up, then this fic is for you

wish upon a star: 00leiter - I LOVE felix and his relationship with James, and this is the rarepair of my very soul

[iwantyoutopulpme]

[x]

A music fashion film we shot for GQ's 25th anniversary (2013) with an original soundtrack to accompany an editorial campaign showcasing Savile Row tailored suit designs. The film features music's biggest names, including Mark Ronson, Johnny Marr, John Taylor, Jarvis Cocker, Dizzee Rascal and many more. Director: John Wright DOP: Sam Bond Agency: British GQ Production: WrightJ Media

[picnokinesis]

OC Ship Song Tag

Tagged by @gabeorelse - ahh thank you!! Okay this will be fun because I don't tend to talk about my ocs much here

Rules: list the ships of your wip (canon or otherwise!) and the song that "describes" your ship, or that would be used for a fan edit of the ship.

This is a bit complicated because actually a lot of my wip projects aren't exactly shippy, especially since I am trying to write predominantly aromantic stories - but Gabe said I could do platonic or single characters if I wanted to 😌 I think what I'm actually gonna do is songs for the characters who , if I had a fandom, people would end up shipping lol. I'm gonna do these for Onkalo because I think that's got the most to going on (and also the longest playlist haha) and actually I think it'll be funny to do this by how common or rare I think the pairing would be hahah

For those who don't know: Onkalo is my original tv series concept set in several hundred years after the collapse of our civilisation. It follows Peregrine, a grief-stricken father who dedicates himself to finding Onkalo, a mythological structure buried under the ground that is said to contain an item of great power. He believes that he can use whatever is inside to protect his son, Ash. On the flip side, Ash, who believes he has been abandoned by his dad, sets off to find him after a disaster destroys their community.

Harper/Reo or Harper & Reo - these two are basically my og spydoc - childhood friends who bonded in adverse circumstances, but then Harper manages to escape the Bad Situation, and Reo is left to suffer the consequences. Reo ends up becoming something of an antagonist, bitter and set on making Harper pay, whilst Harper becomes a semi-parental figure to Ash as he looks for his dad (she is absolutely terrible at it). But, eventually, Reo choses to help Harper, Ash and Connie escape, and sticks with them. It's not completely smooth going, but fundamentally they missed Harper and their friendship too much. If any ship is canon in this show, it's these two.

Songs: Go Down Together by Foxing or La Lune by Madeon for more shippy fandomy stuff, but Sink by Brand New is my song for them, and it's a lot angrier. However, in the show, I'm 100% intending to have the very intense sequence of Reo and the others escaping be set to The Bike Song by Mark Ronson and The Business Intl, because bikes are involved and I'm hilarious - so if anyone set a video to that song, they would absolutely correct.

Peregrine/Caleb or Peregrine & Caleb - the canonical-ness of this one is very muddy, because I'm fighting with my fascination over their dynamic and how they do or don't feel about each other, and my overwhelming desire for this show to be as aromantic as possible. As it stands, Peregrine is entirely driven by his grief and guilt surrounding the death of his wife, Heather, but if he wasn't, then he'd be open to it. I reckon Caleb has a hell of a crush but will take it to his grave. As it happens, they're super doomed by the narrative and almost certainly not going to survive anyhow. However, I reckon if there was a fandom, this would be one of the Big Ships because I know what fandom is like.

Song: Wild Country by Wake Owl

Peregrine & Ash - the relationship between these two is so mired with desperate, familial love and aching anger. Ash wants to hate his dad, but fundamentally he still travels across the country to find him. Peregrine is so driven by the need to protect his son like he couldn't protect his wife that he completely abandons his son to hunt down a folktale that ends up killing him.

Songs: Above the Clouds of Pompeii by Bear's Den, and Welly Boots by The Amazing Devil

Harper & Connie or Harper/Connie- I think anyone who ships this would be so galaxy brained, tbh, but Harper and Connie both travel with Ash and lowkey become his stand-in parental figures, but not in any standard sort of way. Harper is like, reluctant dad figure, and Connie is the only person with the braincell. I reckon the appeal of this one is that this is that they're both people who have been defined by their own communities and families, but in very different ways. I think Harper would learn a lot about what family can be from Connie, and Connie would learn to blame herself less from Harper. People who ship Harper/Connie/Reo would be even MORE galaxy-brained, but adding Reo into the mix would make the whole thing a bit more rancid, bless. I think Connie and Reo would actually be super interesting.

Songs: if it's just Harper/Connie, it's Hello My Old Heart by The Oh Hellos (this one also works really well for Peregrine and Caleb too). If it's Harper/Connie/Reo....ooh, it would probably be Soldier, Poet, King by The Oh Hellos, with Reo being the soldier, Harper being the poet and Connie being the king. Okay damn I lowkey love how that works, like non-romantically.

Connie & Peregrine or Connie/Peregrine- Peregrine actually meets both Harper and Connie on separate occasions earlier in the plot. The dynamic between Harper and Peregrine is lowkey hilarious to me, because I'm pretty sure they look at each other and go 'oh, yikes' and leave it at that. Connie and Peregrine actually get on really well, though, and hang out together for a long while. Peregrine is allergic to nice things though, and actively avoids making new emotional ties. With Caleb, he fails drastically - but he also fails regarding Connie too. Con actually wanted him to stick around, but he tricks her into getting left behind (because he's an ASS, but actually it's mainly because he didn't want her to die/get hurt. And it's a good thing tbh because by the next episode he's captured by an amnesia cult who try to lobotomise him, so....). Anyway, I think both Caleb and Connie are people that Peregrine could have learnt to overcome his grief with, in a different world. I think Connie and Peregrine in particular find common ground in how much their communities mean to them. They are both driven on journeys, spurned by grief and guilt - but for Connie, she still remains in orbit of her family, whereas Peregrine has isolated himself entirely. I feel like not so many people would ship this, but I'm soft about it

Ship Song: I Will Remain by Matthew and the Atlas

Peregrine/Heather - the only CANON ROMANCE, but I killed it lol because Heather is dead from the start. She haunts this entire series, but her relationship with Peregrine is SO IMPORTANT because it drives the entire plot. I love them both a lot augh

Ship song: You Are a Memory by Message to Bears

That ended up SUPER LONG and also won't make sense to anyone probably rip, but!! Here it is!

Tagging - this is obviously optional, and feel free to make this about fandom characters instead if you like! But! @taardisblue, @novantinuum, @chaoticacecryptid, @subducting, @agendergorgon (I think you have ocs? For worm?)

THANKS GABE!

[stinastar]

that some type of love doesn’t creep along the edges of the thing like a stubborn weed

They were both married to England, and she demanded so much of them that they didn't have anything worth mentioning left for anyone else.

Ronson was not surprised when the pressure on his wound eased off (like a mattress shifting as an occupant eeled off of it)

Y’ALLLLLLL, i am emotionally compromised 😭😭😭😭

*lies down*

*gently touches the surface of swimming pool*

Who wants to talk to me about how Bond and Ronson were definitely lovers.

Because they were definitely lovers, okay. I know I rambled about that at some length a month ago, but it’s very important to me that we all agree they were lovers.

IDK, IDK, I really need to write a fic about this at some point. Because I’m so fascinated by what this relationship would’ve looked like…a relationship that can’t be any kind of relationship, because it’s happening between field agents who are constantly jetting all over the world and barely ever get to see each other.

Fidelity is not an option. Emotional intimacy is not an option. Keeping in contact with phone calls and video chats isn’t an option. Domesticity is not an option. This isn’t even a ‘long distance relationship’, because it cannot be a relationship of any kind. On a superficial level, at least, it can only ever be ‘going out for a pint and then toppling into bed together before we go our separate ways in the morning’.

You’ll get maybe a dozen nights a year with this person if you’re lucky, and either of you might be killed at any time. So you can’t even plan ahead for any of it. You can’t even arrange to spend birthdays and Christmases together. You can’t book a cabin for a shared holiday. You can’t do anything but savor the time together whenever it spontaneously appears (when your paths cross unexpectedly in the middle of Prague, when you get assigned to the same mission in Seoul, when one of you is on medical leave in London and the other is off on a new mission but has a delayed flight, and you can spent the night together before they fly out at dawn).

And you can’t actually build anything on that sort of foundation…nothing that’ll last. Nothing that’ll allow any type of soul-deep, I-know-this-person-like-the-back-of-my-hand love to take root. But that doesn’t mean that feelings don’t happen anyway…that some type of love doesn’t creep along the edges of the thing like a stubborn weed. It doesn’t mean that there isn’t something there.

It doesn’t make it hurt any less, when you finally have to say goodbye.

I’m reminded of this post:

Just. That kind of energy. That’s the energy I’d like to bring to this poor doomed ship, if I ever get around to writing it. Some type of love was there, and it didn’t change anything, and it couldn’t save anyone. But it was there.

[burlveneer-music]

Molly Lewis - On the Lips - don't know if I'm ready for a full-on lounge/exotica (re)revival, but it's the perfect milieu for a whistler

Consider this your invitation to Café Molly, a lounge bar like they don’t make them anymore. The lights are low, the martinis are ice cold, the banquettes are velvet, and the stage is set for the electrifying talent of whistler Molly Lewis. Molly’s soft-focus cocktail music conjures up visions of classic Hollywood jazz clubs, Italian cinema soundtracks and lingering embraces between lovers. After the exotica stylings of The Forgotten Edge EP and the tropicalia-indebted Mirage EP, Molly wanted to encapsulate the sound of Café Molly for her debut album On The Lips, a dreamy tribute to classic mood music. That spellbinding sound, which usually comes to life in Los Angeles, has also popped up in Mexico City dancehalls, graced the runways of Paris and London Fashion Weeks, and made a magical appearance at a children's fairyland. Molly Lewis’s love for this smoky corner of the world doesn’t end with her songwriting. She is a devotee and an archivist, capturing and enlivening the pieces that endure. She was a regular at the legendary shows by Marty and Elayne, the lounge duo who spent almost 40 years playing LA’s Dresden bar. The duo came to global fame after an appearance in 1996’s Swingers and kept going long after that spotlight faded, finally finishing their nightly residency after the death of Marty at the ripe age of 89 last year. “That felt like the end of an era,” says Molly. But there are still flashes of that world to be found, and she finds them. “I’ve been spending a lot of time in New York lately, where there are a lot more of those moody, classic jazz bars,” she explains. Over the past few years Molly has flexed her one-of-a-kind musical skill alongside Mark Ronson on the Barbie soundtrack, as well as with Dr Dre, Karen O, actor John C Reilly, Mac De Marco, fashion houses Chanel, Gucci and Hermes, and folk rock royalty Jackson Browne. After a performance with longtime friend Weyes Blood on Burt Bacharach’s The Look of Love during a Café Molly evening at LA’s Zebulon, Molly supported the singer on a US tour, introducing her sound to a brand new audience. “I forget sometimes that what I do has that factor of surprise and uniqueness – it is something that most people have never seen before,” says Molly. She too might never have entered the idiosyncratic world of whistling had she not as a teenager seen the 2005 documentary Pucker Up, which details the International Whistling Competition. Equally amused and bemused by the eccentric event, in 2012 she competed herself. Spending her early twenties in Berlin she then moved to LA to work in film – and returned to the contest in 2015 to take home first prize. One evening Molly did a turn at an open mic at the Kibitz Room, a tiny late-night bar inside historic LA deli Canter’s. Her display led to appearances at performance art happenings across the city, and she soon caught the ear of independent record label Jagjaguwar. On The Lips was recorded with producer Thomas Brenneck of the Menahan Street Band, Budos Band, Dap-Kings and El Michels Affair, at his newly-built Diamond West Studios in Pasadena. The pair bonded over the work of 1960s soundtrack composers Alessandro Alessandroni and Piero Piccioni, and, with something of an open door policy during the sessions, a stream of acclaimed musicians ended up across the album’s 10 tracks. With her intoxicating compositions, and wry brand of stagecraft (she might not be singing up there, but she can sure tell a joke) Molly Lewis looks set to join her heroes in the storied lore of the Los Angeles lounge scene and beyond. So pull up a chair, order your favorite drink, and prepare to fall for On The Lips.  PERFORMER LINE-UP: On The Lips Molly Lewis - Whistle, guitar, vocals Joe Harrison - Flute, bass Eric Hagstrom - Drums, clave Thomas Brenneck - Organ Written by: Molly Lewis

[marielantzmusicforever]

Final project: Methodology to analyze my primary sources and presentation of my secondary sources

In other blogs I told you what were my key question, time frame and primary sources for my final project. Today, I will firstly show you how I will analyze my primary sources, and then present you one of my secondary sources.

Analyze primary sources:

All of my primary sources belong to the movie “A Star is Born”. The first primary source is the song “Shallow”. For this source I’ll see how the lyrics of the song are connected to the story of the movie and why it is so important to have a song that matches with the scene of the movie. Indeed, I’ll focus my research on the relation between the song “Shallow” and the visual effects of the scene in the movie. Besides, “Shallow” is a very important primary source since the song is played three times in the movie. I’ll also analyze this source by looking at the awards the song received and the success of this song, which was composed for the movie, but it was also composed to be played on the radio since the song came out a few days before the movie.

My second primary source is the song “I’ll never love again”. This song is very important since it is the song of the last scene of the movie. For this source, I’ll focus my research on the importance of having a song that matches with the plot of the movie, especially since it is played in the last scene. I’ll also analyze how this song is different from traditional songs that are sung in movies since the whole song is sung by Lady Gaga, and not only a part of it. I’ll try to see what effect does it produce in this scene since this song is sung in the same format as in the radio.

My third primary source is the remake “La vie en Rose” by Lady Gaga. I’ll try to see what changes were operated to this song which was a success when the song first came out with Edith Piaf singing it. I’ll see how this success was adapted to fit in a movie.

For all of these songs (that are my primary sources), I’ll see the effect the visual elements of the scene have on the songs, compared to songs only played in the radio. I’ll try to see how the lyrics fit with the visual effects (images) of the scenes in which they are sung and the plot of the movie.

I’ll also use the trailer of “A Star Is Born” as a primary source and focus on my analysis on the presence of the song “Shallow”, in the trailer which shows that this song was chosen to be the leading song of the movie used to promote the movie.

I’ll also look at the interview made by Mark Ronson (the man who produced “Shallow”) and see the characteristics of the song “Shallow” that was a success on the streaming platforms and radio while it was created for a movie.

My 2 academic sources are:

« Theory of Film Music » volume 2, written by Juraj Lexmann, 2006

“Beyond the Soundtrack, Representing Music in Cinema”, edited by Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence Kramer and Richard Leppert, 2007.

« Theory of Film Music » is a book that shows the characteristics of the musics in movies, what emotion they create on the viewer and how the songs are linked to the visual effects of the movie. I’ll study 1 chapter of the book that focuses on the aesthetic bond between visual image and music in movies. I’ll try to see why musics are so important in a movie. This secondary source will help me to understand the relation between music and movies, and see what effect produces music on the listener/ viewer when they are in movies.

[fanficwritingcentral]

Chap 6 of nothing more, nothing less (ao3 link)

This is James after casino Royale, and a little bit inspired with one of @cicerfics posts on tragic love with Bond and Ronson, but instead I wrote it for Bond and Vesper

Enjoy it tho ☺️

He sits at the freshly turned grave. The hot Italian sun burning at his back. 

Would it have helped if I loved you more? He wonders, looking at her name on the plaque. Or even if I loved you better? 

He stands and lightly touches her name, thinking but if I did, would it have actually changed a thing?

He drops his hand and turns away. Nothing gained in dead dreams after all. 

[yestolerancepro]

Tolerance Project extra Thank you for the music Part one From John Williams to John Barry

Introduction

Hello there Ben Brown here welcome to a new version of a blog called Thank you for the music which looks at the soundtrack we created for the Tolerance film 25 years ago.  

45 seconds We begin with our first film spoof, Star Wars, when the film starts with the standard Star Wars opening crawl.

 Instead of the Crawl telling you about the on going battles with the Rebel Alliance and the Evil Empire it tells you about what you can expect to see over the next 25 mins. Tolerance in most cases uses original music from a number of film and TV shows, raided from my music collection.  

You can find a complete playlist of all the music used in Tolerance here The soundtrack totals 32 mins of music. If you don’t like the film soundtrack its all my fault and I am sorry ha ha https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye8KvYKn9-0&list=PLPMadem14HDA4VfaekTC3gszEtwWfyGLQ

1 minute 22 seconds with the Star Wars music still playing, we get a nice opening shot of our leading man, David Smith,who plays our hero Robert who is fast asleep, clutching a book about the latest Star Wars film, The Phantom Menace (episode I), with his wheelchair close by.

1 minute 47 seconds After the introduction of our leading man, we get the introduction of our leading lady, Claire Abbot, playing Julie. Like David Smith, Claire gives a great performance and I would love to meet her again. If you can help me find Claire, I would be most grateful, as I have not been able to find out any information about what she is doing now. Sadly, this is a recurring theme in Tolerance.

The use of Perfect Day is a romantic theme in the film. I wanted to use the all star Children in Need version, from 1997 but Richard Hellawell went with the original Lou Read version. I have to admit in hindsight that I think this was the better choice. released on the 8 September 1972 as part of his classic second album titled Transformer produced by David Bowie and Mark Ronson.

Although the song was first used as a B side to his single walk on the wildside which charted at number 10 in the UK and Number 16 in the US billboard charts

 Its first heard in the beginning of the film as Claire Abbot is introduced as A DJ on the radio wishes her a happy birthday its heard again in the films closing credits.

Now for some background on the song itself.

Many people in the years since the song's release believe that 'Perfect Day' is not about his partner, but instead about his own love affair with heroin.

Asked by the NME in 1973 about the song's true meaning, Reed replied: "That's a lovely song. A description of a very straightforward affair."

Once the earnest ballad was included on the soundtrack to 1996 film Trainspotting, these questions arose once again as the song's popularity was rejuvenated.

The song's historic misinterpretation meant that Danny Boyle chose 'Perfect Day' to play whilst the film's central character Renton - played by Ewan MacGregor - overdoses on heroin.

In 2000, Reed again suggested that interpretation was "laughable", stating: "No. You're talking to the writer, the person who wrote it. No that's not true. I don't object to that, particularly...whatever you think is perfect."

"But this guy's vision of a perfect day was the girl, sangria in the park, and then you go home; a perfect day, real simple. I meant just what I said."

2mins 25 We hear the strains of the James Bond theme as Robert speeds round the Kitchen to make his breakfast Finishing with a cup of tea to highlight his independence. He Lives in a house by himself where as Claire his girlfriend lives with her family where she feels somewhat over protected and longs to get away.

We went with the original done by Monty Norman for Dr No in 1962.

Monty Norman died on the 11th July 2022 you can read the BBC obituary here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-62122982

Did u you know that John Barry re-recorded the theme for the single release of the same year this re-recorded version is slightly longer the original used in Dr No this version reached the top 20 peaking at number 11 in 1962. It runs close to 2 mins to quote the liner notes on the best of Bond 1992 CD  

Unlike the film version which used the Monty Norman Orchestra this re-recorded version used John Barry’s own Orchestra. Barry’s own version was released in England at a time when Cinema-goers first met James Bond in 1962s Dr No, though lacking the fullness and worldwide familiarity of the Norman Orchestra version Barry’s version holds it own drive and intensity.

  John Barry has also revisited the Bond theme quite a few times over the years.

John Barry re-recorded the James Bond Theme in 1966 for his CBS album The Great Movie Sounds of John Barry, which features driving percussion ostinati (with a prominent role for bongos), as well as a piano and brass improvisation superimposed over the last few bars. For his 1972 Polydor album The Concert John Barry, re-scored the theme again as part of a James Bond suite for full symphony orchestra, in this case the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This more lush arrangement was to feature in his later Bond film scores, notably Octopussy

 

To learn more about James Bond Dr No click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFws8IdQHKA

 

Remember if you have liked this blog please consider giving a donation by clicking on the link below Thank you

https://gofund.me/5cf25de4

Pictures

Screengrabs from the Tolerance film with thanks to Ian Medley

The Tolerance / Star Wars Dialogue crawl

Clare Abbot as Julie

The Transformer album cover

Walk on the wildside single artwork which had perfect day as the B side

The first best of Bond album from 1992

The artwork for the 1966 John Barry album the great movie sounds of

The artwork for John Barry the concert

Notes

This blog has been compiled from various sources including deep breath Ability not Ability a Producers Commentary Part 1 in the Beginning Ability not Ability a Producers Commentary Part 2 Transport  Ability not Ability a Producers Commentary Part 3 Employment Ability not Ability a Producers Commentary Part 4 Accessability Tolerance Project goes into Lockdown and Happy Valentines day from the Tolerance project

Thanks to wikipedia for some of the musical background notes thanks to Google images for all of the pictures also to Minty’s Comedic arts for the video documentary on Doctor No There is also new material about Lou Reeds song perfect day taken from the gold music website

Next week Chapter 2 Classic Cowboys to Classical music

[luminiferocity]

...if you have the ambition to become a villain, the first thing you should do is learn to be impenetrable. Don’t act like Blofeld—monocled and ostentatious. We journalists love writing about eccentrics. We hate writing about impenetrable, boring people. It makes us look bad: the duller the interviewee, the duller the prose.

If you want to get away with wielding true, malevolent power, be boring.

Jon Ronson, The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

Unexpected Bond in today's audiobook.

Blofeld does not approve of this message.

[mediaevalmusereads]

Conflict is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Reaponsibility, and the Duty of Repair. By Sarah Schulman. Arsenal Press, 2016.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Genre: nonfiction, social psychology

Series: N/A

Summary: From intimate relationships to global politics, Sarah Schulman observes that inflated accusations of harm are used to avoid accountability. Illuminating the difference between Conflict and Abuse, Schulman directly addresses our contemporary culture of scapegoating. This deep, brave, and bold work reveals how punishment replaces personal and collective self-criticism, and shows why difference is so often used to justify cruelty and shunning. Rooting the problem of escalation in negative group relationships, Schulman illuminates the ways cliques, communities, families, and religious, racial, and national groups bond through the refusal to change their self-concept. She illustrates how Supremacy behavior and Traumatized behavior resemble each other, through a shared inability to tolerate difference. This important and sure to be controversial book illuminates such contemporary and historical issues of personal, racial, and geo-political difference as tools of escalation towards injustice, exclusion, and punishment, whether the objects of dehumanization are other individuals in our families or communities, people with HIV, African Americans, or Palestinians. Conflict Is Not Abuse is a searing rejection of the cultural phenomenon of blame, cruelty, and scapegoating, and how those in positions of power exacerbate and manipulate fear of the "other" to achieve their goals.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: discussion of police brutality against black people, domestic violence, Israel-Palestine war, HIV/AIDS, suicide, etc.

I initially became interested in this book after seeing it quoted on Tumblr. The user was using it to analyze some questionable fandom behavior, and the book looked interesting enough that I went out and bought a copy.

Overall, I found Schulman's text to be incredibly thought-provoking, grounded, and honest. The premise (if I can sum it up in a sentence) is that overstating harm can lead to a refusal to resolve conflicts, which in turn does nothing but destroy communities and enhanced the power of the State (which only has dominant group interests in mind). This thesis is genrally very well-supported; Schulman selected effective examples as case studies and was convincing in her arguments, moving from interpersonal relationships to wider geopolitics in a way that was clear and sensible. In fact, I found Schulman's arguments to be so convincing that for chapters where I had some skepticism going in, I found myself understanding and coming around to Schulman's point of view by the end.

I think I also benefitted from reading this book at the time I did. I not only read it around the time I read Jon Ronson's "So You've Been Publicly Shamed," but also during renewed aggression by Israel against Palestine. As a result, Schulman's points about shunning and shame made me think about group behavior and conflict on social media, while the chapter on Israel-Palestine in 2015 remained sadly relevant to Israel-Palestine in 2023-2024. If either of these topics are of interest to you, I think you would benefit from this book.

That being said, I don't think I'd recommend this text to just about everybody. Despite Schulman's constant insistence that she is primarily a novelist, she does write with an academic tenor that may be difficult for some readers. I also think this book might be difficult for people who are unwilling or unable to reflect on the harmful behavior perpetuated by specific groups: supremacists certainly, but also progressives and various victimized groups. Schulman asks queer people, women, people with trauma, etc to take a good look at their own behaviors, and some people might not be so open to that. Still, the work is important and necessary for social cohesion, so even if the subject is difficult, I think it's worth engaging with.

TL;DR: Conflict is Not Abuse is a deeply insightful book about the way humans defend themselves from discomfort, offloading conflict resolution onto the state in a way that empowers dominant (and often oppressive) groups. While some readers might struggle with the writing, the study within is as relevant to today as to its original 2016 audience.

[azure7539arts]

Indirect

Pairing: Ronson/Bond (yes, i’m back at it again)

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Fluff-ish, Hurt/Comfort

Warning: None

In the spilling daylight of the morning after, Ronson was still as soft as he had been the day before, all lazy smiles and sleep-leaden limbs, and Bond was watching him with a subtle curiosity and a mingling sense of resignation. Mostly because Ronson had always been like this, ever since the day they had first met—Ronson fresh-faced and Bond mentoring as a side job that’d help him work his way up the ranks.

There was something about the general air of mostly contentedness about Ronson whenever the man was off duty that had drawn Bond in and hadn’t really let him go. 

Bond, the hungry and ferocious creature that he was, hadn’t really been able to understand it. The world was not enough was Bond’s motto to live by, whereas Ronson, even though he also knew very clearly about what he wanted and had never been slow on gaining all of them as quickly as possible, was okay with a long-term status quo.

That was one of the reasons that made Bond a double-oh and Ronson a senior field agent, Bond supposed. The fundamental difference that lay in the basis of their core characters.

Bond blinked at the lit cigarette that Ronson was suddenly offering him, the warm breezes of the Turkish wind rustling through the wooden panels of the barely cracked open windows, and took it anyway after a second.

Dragging in a deep breath for the nicotine, Bond thought, in an amused and distant sort of moment, that this was as close as they were going to get to sharing an indirect kiss.

They didn’t kiss much, Ronson and him. 

Which was okay really—they had sex enough to make up for it at any rate.

And Ronson smiled when Bond passed the cigarette back to him.

(They didn’t kiss much. The brush of supple lips, of breathing in the same air and pressing their bodies against one another, of slipping fingertips into the rough roots of their more-often-than-not short hair, too intimate to describe.

Too intimate to risk.

MI6 truly trained their operatives so well, it was remarkable.)

Ronson sat down in the seat opposite from Bond, basking in the glittering, golden paths of sunlight and stretching his feet outward, the tips just short of touching up Bond’s own.

They spent the remainder of the smoke in companionable silence.

-

“Thanks,” Ronson said, freshly out of the shower with the occasional water droplets still glistening on the planes of his taut skin and muscles. He leant forward and ran a hand down along the clean, pressed suit that Bond had left out for him at the edge of the bed.

The smile on Ronson’s lips was crooked, and Bond shrugged, doing the last loop for his tie and securing it into a perfect knot. “Thought you might need one,” he replied, a rumble in his throat and a returning small smirk that also held little to no sharp edges at its corners.

He hadn’t actually stopped to think about it, picking out a suit for Ronson from the limited selection that the man had tucked away inside his closet, until the full body of the folds of fabric had weighed on his arm a surprisingly significant amount, shocking him into realizing just exactly what it was that he had been doing.

“Dark grey?” Ronson prompted, shooting him a curious look.

Bond arched his eyebrows. “You don’t like it?” he asked, despite highly doubting that this was the case.

“No, not at all.” Ronson’s smile widened. “I rather like it, actually.”

“Good.” Bond hummed in satisfaction and nodded. “I’ve never picked a wrong suit.”

-

-

-

The thing about dark grey is that it’s not a bad color to hide blood, first and foremost. Nor is it a bad funeral color.

It’s just that Bond, an indirect kiss still tingling between his lips in that one single moment, wasn’t thinking of these things when he had been picking out a suit for Ronson on a quiet morning mid July.

No.

———————————————————————————————————

(Angst and fluff prompt tables: [Free Space] (Loss) + Breezes)

[patrice-bergerons]

Do you ever find yourself midway thru writing a hurt/comfort piece and a very evil voice in the back of your head says oh but wouldn't it be devastating if I cut off here with all the hurt and none of the comfort? 👀

[alexturne]

Johanna - Geoff Zanelli, Mark Ronson & Miles Kane (2015)

i've literally been listening to this all day.

[hungry-hobbits]

sorry two of the points i want to maul this guy over

"if silva was such a prolific hacker why did he not use his skills to get his comrades out sooner and avoid his fate?"

okay so one hate the assumption that he hadnt tried doing that and was either unsuccessful or it wasnt possible without setting off a nightmare chain of geopolitical events towards the hand off of HK to china

not to mention that when silva's cover was blown in '97, whatever he was doing for M was enough to justify the exchange of FIVE agents for ONE, so there's no way they couldve gotten what they wanted without handing silva over

"instead of becoming a villain, silva shouldve gone to mi6 and demanded m's job and compensation for his trauma"

aside from the fact that you drank lead paint out of a bottle as an infant to try and justify what a stupid amount of victim blaming this is - M says directly to silva's face that he will be erased from all rcord in response to realizing silva is tiago, and this is 15yrs after his hand over (this is relevant to a later point)

lets take into consideration that the poison that was put in his molar melted part of his fucking facial bones and gave him organ damage, ON TOP of having to recover from 5 months of physical and psychological torture - it's not like silva would've been strolling into east london anytime soon after figuring out how to get out of china while severely inured and traumatized

we need to also address that m genuinely never had any intention of recovering silva (much like she had no intention of recovering ronson OR bond) because she got the best deal: 5 for 1 and an incident free handover

if silva had walked into the mi6 building claiming to be tiago rodriguez, that he had been a victim of political torture and that he wanted m to be forced from her position and wanted financial compensation - they would've written him off as insane, buried him and his idenity, and within a month of the allegations hitting the news he would've been found dead from "suicide"

to blame silva for his fate is to completely erase that m has done this to numerous agents and across numerous decades - she purposely put her agents in harms way and did the last resort first which in the best case scenario resulted in a jaded but still loyal agent like bond or in the worst case a severely damaged and revenge fueled agent like silva

obviously silva is the author of his own narrative and becoming a terrorist isnt the best way to deal w your trauma BUT he spent a long time waiting for the right opportunity to expose m without being murked by the government before he could do what he needed to do (which could only be done w quantum/spectre's backing) so idk what u really want from him

i got so aggressively passionate talking about silva to @traumanatrix that i ended up exhausting myself