#The Letter

[reality-detective]

The Man, the Myth, the legend 🤔

[escapismsworld]

'The Letter'

Auguste Toulmouche

1879

[davisbette]

Davis's control in The Letter is only in part a matter of repression. She plays Leslie Crosbie as a bored, stifled housewife forced to expend her libido in the creation of a crocheted white coverlet. Still, her Leslie is also a sociopath, a calculating killer and remorseless liar, ceaselessly putting on acts for those around her because authentic emotions — other than murderous rage, that is — are not part of her psychological makeup. Even as Leslie fires the gun repeatedly at Hammond's dead body in the opening moments of the film, her face is stonelike, her feelings impossible to penetrate, and it's this ambiguity that makes it possible for audiences to question Leslie's motives from the beginning, even while we give her some benefit of the doubt. (Ed Sikov, Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis)

BETTE DAVIS as LESLIE CROSBY in THE LETTER (1940)

— dir. William Wyler

[agoddamneddelight]

tfw he was very sincerely yours :,(

[lovelyn06]

If something does happen to Lenore I can only imagine Annabel’s reaction and the letter oh god

Imagine if Lenore doesn’t die but like gets separated from the rest bc of the monsters and even if they don’t know if she’s dead or not decide to read the letter and they go to Annabel and explain to her what happened, she will have a full on panic attack I don’t think she will even care that there’s other ppl there

[eirenical]

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episodes 3 & 9 - The Letter

There is so much we don't know about what happened ten years ago between Sigumen and Jinyuanmeng.  A lot of it gets unraveled as the show goes on, but one thing remains true: there is a hell of a lot of unreliable narration to pick through to get to the truth.  And when it comes to the particular truths of what happened between the individual people involved, that becomes even more true.

And one of the little mysteries that always bothered me was this letter that Qiao Wanmian wrote to Li Xiangyi to break up with him.  Because I absolutely could not figure out when he actually got that letter.  Anyway, I finally caught a few details that helped me to tease that apart and my first realization was that he fucking LEFT HER ON 'READ' for about a month (Li XIangyi, PLEASE OTZ) and the second realization was that we get two different versions of these events YET AGAIN, but this time both from Li Xiangyi's POV in flashbacks, and I'm CHEWING GLASS OVER IT, so naturally I have to share.

So the first time we get this particular flashback is in episode 3.  Li Lianhua is remembering the aftermath of the Donghai Battle, how he fell into the ocean and washed up on the shore... a husk of what he had once been.

He wakes up and makes his way into town and to Sigumen's steps, overhearing all this terrible news as he walks.  People injured, homes destroyed, people killed, and so much of the blame being placed on all the sects, and on Sigumen in particular.  And as he walks, you can see it all starting to weigh him down, until he's literally bent over from the weight of it on his back.

And then the final betrayal.  His people, his friends, want to disband the sect.  They want to walk away.  They blame him and his hubris for this disaster.  And the coup-de-grace is Xiao Zijin asking Qiao Wanmian... "You don't like this place either, right?"

And the sad look on Qiao Wanmian's face finally breaks Li XIangyi of his paralysis and he turns away, back to the scene unfolding on those steps and drifts back to the shore, where he ultimately collapses.

And that's all we get.

We know he returned to Sigumen.  We know he overheard them wanting to disband the sect.  We know he left without a word.  And that's the end of the story as far as Episode 3 is concerned.

But this makes sense.  Li LIanhua is mid-Bicha attack and has just left Fang Duobing on the side of the road when this flashback comes on.  He's fighting his own body in a desperate bid for survival to complete the one task he's set himself and Fang Duobing has just dredged up all this stuff and gone off on a tear about how he's Li Xiangyi's disciple.  A road Li Xiangyi never got a chance to walk.  Another person he failed along the way.  And so he's focused on all the ways in which he is a failure in that moment, all the ways he doesn't live up to Fang Duobing's hero, Li XIangyi, all the ways that he is no longer that man.  So he zeroes in on the moment he lost it all: his reputation, his sect, his health, his power.  So that's the part of the flashback that we get.

But in Episode 9, we have an entirely different set of circumstances.  He's just saved his A-mian.  He's focused on helping her let go of the man he thinks she still loves.  He's putting himself aside to focus solely on her (or so he thinks—that's honestly a question for later, but bear with me, we'll get there ;D) and what she needs.  And we get dumped into this flashback again.

Only this time it doesn't start on the beach.  It starts here:

It starts with Li Xiangyi seeing his sect disbanded again.  Only this time, he remembers the words that come from Xiao Zijin differently:

There's no speaking out load of "you hate it here too, don't you?" or any similar sentiment.  Because at this point, Li Lianhua knows this isn't true.  She can't hate it there.  She lives there.  She didn't leave.  And she doesn't hate him because she very obviously misses him and mourns him.  So in his mind, he gives this moment a little less abrasiveness.  A little less fierceness.  But because he's so focused on A-Mian in this memory, we finally find out that there is an entire piece to this incident that we haven't gotten until now.

A-Mian's grief.

A-Mian's recognition that he was there.

And the letter.

The letter she wrote a month ago.

A letter Li Xiangyi NEVER READ.

We get to see A-Mian's regret.  We get to see her grief: both for her own sense of shame at being unable to keep up with the man she loved, and her sense of loss over her own innocence and the opportunities that they'll never have now to make amends.  And we get to see her break from her grief for just a moment to rush down those stairs because some instinct in her just won't quit.

Li Xiangyi had returned.

And she knew.

But it was too late.  She no longer trusted herself.  And Li Xiangyi, having heard her outpouring of grief, had already decided that he owed it to her and to everyone else to just… walk out of their lives for good. 

And he did. 

But he owed her one last thing first.

He owed it to her to read the letter that she'd written him a month ago and he'd never opened.

So before he goes back to that beach, he returns to his rooms in Sigumen to retrieve that unopened letter and read it.

On first watch, I had assumed this was after his healing with Monk Wuliao.  That he was RE-reading that letter, not reading it for the first time.  But these are clearly his rooms in Sigumen.  The desk he conducts business from is at the bottom right and the table he confronts Shand Gudao from is on the left. But unlike when we usually see these rooms, brightly lit during the day, they're now mostly in darkness, the sun clearly setting given the angle of the light coming into the room. This is the sunset of Li Xiangyi. The last moments of his life, in a way.

And the letter is very VERY obviously unopened when he first takes it out:

And reading that letter is the final nail in Li Xiangyi's coffin, I think.  Final proof that he'd failed in every aspect of his life: being a brother, being a lover, being a sect leader, being a friend, being a student.  After this, he leaves Sigumen and goes back to that beach to lay down where he washed back up initially, ready to let the death he temporarily escaped take him away.  And when the monk saves his life anyway, he still manages to kill off the part of him that was Li Xiangyi.  Li Xiangyi is dead, he insists over and over and over again, until he believes it himself.

Because in that letter—a letter he left unread FOR A MONTH—Qiao Wanmian manages to show him that he never really saw her at all.  That he never saw one of his dearest loved ones in pain right in front of him—pain that he finally witnessed on the steps of Sigumen as she poured out her grief and regret in sending this letter to begin with.  How ironic then, that a letter she'd sent intending to set him free of her to fly up to the heights on his own, was the final arrow that brought him down.  I don't think that's what she would have wanted at all.

But I really feel for her.  I do.

Just imagine sending this letter and knowing that it's sitting in Li Xiangyi's mail pile somewhere… and assuming that he read it and that's what spurred him on to this last desperate fight.  Because in that outpouring on the steps that clearly what she thought she did.  She thought this letter sent him to his death.  And in that moment she's wrong, because HE NEVER READ IT.  Not until long after that.  Not until after this moment.  And fucking HELL, but that just hurts me.

Maybe it wouldn't have changed anything if he hadn't witnessed that moment.  Maybe it wouldn't have changed anything if he hadn't read that letter.  Maybe he still would have felt that he'd failed enough to warrant death of some kind.

But maybe not.

I guess we'll never know.

[firawren]

The Letter in Persuasion gets a ton of (well-deserved) admiration for its exquisitely romantic language, but one thing that I think gives it an extra emotional punch is the rhythm that Jane Austen created in its structure. I'm not sure if that is the right term, but let me try to explain.

The first seven sentences are very...flowy. When you read them, your inflection naturally goes up and down throughout. Even the two most famous sentences, while short, are still very poetic and metaphorical: "You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope."

And then she drops this as the eighth sentence:

"I have loved none but you."

It's like a boulder being dropped on you. It's solid and straightforward and strong. It takes your breath away for a second because it's such a contrast from the rhythm of what came right before it. There is nothing metaphorical about it; it is a blunt statement of fact whose meaning cannot be debated. And that's what makes it so beautifully powerful.

The entire Letter is gorgeous, but I think this very simple line and its relation to the rest of the structure of the Letter doesn't get as much attention as it deserves.

[svu-bracket]

semi finals (round 10)

descriptions under the cut (make sure to check out all 3 polls this week!)

paternity hug -> elliot hugs olivia after she saves his wife and newborn child's life. mariska reacts + chris has opinions

the letter -> that what we were to each other was never real and that we got in the way of each other being who and what we needed to be and if there was a man in my life you hope he was the kind, faithful, and devoted man that i deserved but in a parallel universe it will always be you and i, babey!

[crow0king]

I totally forgot to post this on here....Anyways!

This is a short comic I made on a fanfic I've been reading....it's a really good fic I heavily recommend it!

My comic is from around the end of chapter 7 btw :}

the background because I'm very proud of it

[citizenscreen]

Lee Remick publicity portraits for John Erman‘s 1982 TV remake of THE LETTER

[recycledmoviecostumes]

This lace shawl, which appeared in the 1940 film The Letter, is far more than just a beautiful piece of clothing. Its appearance serves to symbolize Davis’ character, Leslie Crosbie’s habit of weaving a web of lies while feigning innocence. The piece was reused in the 1946 film The Beast with Five Fingers, where Andrea King wore it as Julie Holden.

Costume Credit: veryfancydoilies

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[mametupa]

[astarionsilverbough]

A Letter Unsent

My dearest Halsin,

It must be such a shock to read these words. My words, such as they are.

I hardly know where to begin, so I suppose I will start with the truth - I did die. I am dead. Some part of me lingers in this body still but I do not know where the heart of me is.

I hope it is with you. It was always safe there, and I see that now. Much as I ran from you, darling… and I did, didn’t I? Just when I had you! At least, I like to think I had you. The night we spent together is my most sacred memory. Not even my master can gouge it from me. I refuse to let go of the way you touched me - as if we had forever ahead of us.

If there are other versions of us somewhere in this vast, fucked up universe, I pray they have that forever. I pray that Astarion never ran that morning. I pray he never turned from the warmth of you and plummeted into a devouring dark.

It is so dark here, Halsin, and I am so alone. I have ever been so alone and so cold, except for when I was with you. My sunlight. My Halsin.

Do you know why I left, Halsin?

Because I was afraid. I have been afraid all my life, but never of you. Never. It was unnatural, abhorrent - and it was not because of you. Never because of you.

It was my father’s voice I heard when I awoke in your arms. My father’s wretched, horrible voice telling me I was nothing but a mistake. A temporary, fleeting distraction, some amusement you played with and left behind.

But you wouldn’t, would you? I think of the way you touched me and I - I was your forever, wasn’t I? You would’ve taken me away from this horrible, wretched city. I would’ve let you. I would let you take me anywhere. We could’ve found new worlds.

We could have made one.

I am so afraid, Halsin, and I do not think I was meant to be anything else.

It’s so dark here. I will ever keep searching for the glimmer of you in every shadow. I will ever keep dreaming of you, even as my master seeks to destroy what pieces of you I have left.

He will never take you from me. Never. Let the memory of you be my freedom.

I love you.

Signed,

Astarion Ancunín

[raurquiz]

#happybirthday #winonaryder #actress #AmandaGrayson #startrek #littlewomen #girlinterrupted #alien #resurrection #edwardscissorhands #BeetlejuiceBeetlejuice #strangerthings #GoneintheNight #DestinationWedding #Homefront #TheLetter #Frankenweenie #blackswan #autumninnewyork

[peaceinthestorm]

William Orpen (1878-1931, Irish) ~ The Letter, n/d (pencil, watercolour and coloured chalk)

[Source: Christie's]