#aaron gwyn

[grandhotelabyss]

riverrun. Yes, probably the writer Aaron Gwyn, who's done two threads now—one, two—and amusingly replied to someone who self-righteously asked how reading Finnegans Wake made one "a better human."

I can't be much help, however. I've certainly read some of FW over the years. In Colin MacCabe's Joyce seminar back in the year 2001 we read the Shem and Shaun part and the conclusion with Anna Livia Plurabelle; in graduate school I was in an FW reading group for a few months where we did the first 100 pages or so. But I've never read the whole thing, whatever "reading" here means.

I didn't enjoy the reading group, through no fault of theirs, because they quite correctly leaned in to the aspect of the book—maybe the only real aspect the book has in the end—that calls for a cross-word puzzler's head full of verbal trivia. This tends not to be the level on which I enjoy literature.

MacCabe, on the other hand, persuaded me of book's weight with his psychoanalytic classroom gloss on lines like

If you spun your yarns to him on the swishbarque waves I was spelling my yearns to her over cottage cake.

A cursory Google turns up MacCabe's interpretation here:

As Anna thinks back over her past life, she remembers how much her husband (the ubiquitous figure who is indicated by the letters HCE) wanted a daughter, hoping for a female in the family who would believe his stories, who would give to him the respect that he feels is his due. But the father is inevitably disappointed for the mother teaches her daughter that beneath the stories and the identities lies the world of letters and desire. While the father tells the son stories, the mother teaches the daughter the alphabet: “If you spun your yarns to him on the swishbarque waves I was spelling my yearns to her over cottage cake” (FW, 620). The father’s yarns (stories) are displaced by the mother’s yearns (desires); telling gives way to spelling. It is this struggle between meaning and sound, between story and language, between male and female that Finnegans Wake enacts, introducing the reader to a world in which his or her own language can suddenly reveal new desires beneath old meanings as the material of language forms and reforms.

Is this enough to make me proceed through the verbal thicket? I can't shake the feeling that Joyce here demands too many public rights for a purely private fixation. Updike, introducing Nabokov's Lectures on Literature:

For Nabokov, the world—art's raw material—is itself an artistic creation, so insubstantial and illusionistic that he seems to imply a masterpiece can be spun from thin air, by pure act of the artist's imperial will. Yet works like Madame Bovary and Ulysses glow with the heat of resistance that the will to manipulate meets in banal, heavily actual subjects. Acquaintance, abhorrence, and the helpless love we give our own bodies and fates join in these transmuted scenes of Dublin and Rouen; away from them, in works like Salammbô and Finnegans Wake, Joyce and Flaubert yield to their dreaming, dandyish selves and are swallowed by their hobbies.

This may also by true of VN's Ada, which I never finished. We each draw the line in a different place. I'm sure I'm only denying myself an advanced form of pleasure. This is, after all, what I'd tell people who with a truculent and phony populism would spurn the incomparable joys of Ulysses.

Re: Flaubert and Joyce—I'm too lazy to hunt for it, but I think I actually said that Ulysses breaks the sentence free. Flaubert immobilized prose by turning it into blocks of precision reportage—granted, this is not quite fair to Flaubert—but Joyce loosened it up again by turning it into poetry, "poetry" implying both euphony and polysemy. Pound, quoting a German to Latin dictionary in ABC of Reading: "Dichten = condensare." Finnegans Wake is, I can't deny it, the logical-teleological next step in the Hegelian process, making every single word a whole world, Blake's "heaven in a grain of sand."

(Some of what's said against FW could be said against Pound's Cantos—of which I've read some—and Blake's Jerusalem—of which I've read all, whatever [again!] "reading" here means.)

Since I am not actually barred from this promised land, why do I still content myself with what Stephen Dedalus calls, with unsurprising reference not only to a book everybody knows but also to a book nobody does, "A Pisgah Sight of Palestine"? Is it time for me to give the Wake another try?

[rhysandsbiggesthater]

To all the book couples who make me believe that love actually exists

Happy Valentine’s Day

[qbdatabase]

are there any recs for books with queer cowboys?

YES YES YES I am SO hype about queer westerns! some of these feature soldiers, rangers, and outlaws versus strictly cowboys, and some are male x nonbinary pairings, with a few bonus lesbian recs

Classic Westerns

(M/NB) River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (alt-history)

(M/NB) Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (former soldiers)

(M/M) Child in the Valley by Gordy Sauer (outlaws)

The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage (closeted gay male, LOTS of period typical homophobia)

All God's Children by Aaron Gwyn

(F/F) Wildflower Words by Sam Ledel (mail order bride mix up)

(F/F) The Boss's Daughter by J. T. Marie (butch lesbian posing as a male cowboy for social acceptance)

(F/F) The Oregon Series by Jae (same as above, but the butch can be read as a transgender man)

Contemporary Romance

(F/F) Prize Money by Celeste Castro (rodeo bullfighters)

(M/M) Forget Me Not by Felice Stevens

(M/M) His Fresh Start Cowboy by A. M. Arthur

(M/M) His Reluctant Cowboy by A. D. Ellis

Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Paranormal

(M/M) Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen (rangers)

(M/M) A Book of Tongues by Gemma Files (outlaws)

Breaker by Amy Campbell (outlaws)

(M/M) The Nightland Express by J. M. Lee (postal couriers)

full notes on representation and publishing info at qbdatabase.com

[beirarowling]

Did J.K. Rowling Fail the Lolita Test?

The functionally illiterate youth are canceling her for praising the classic novel.

By Kat Rosenfield

July 2, 2024

Like so many other digital-age absurdities, this one originates with a millennial who is mad at J.K. Rowling. Here’s what happened: in the year 2000, in an interview with BBC Radio 4, Rowling praised the novel, saying, “[A] plot that could have been the most worthless pornography becomes, in Nabokov’s hands, a great and tragic love story.” Rowling’s sentiments about Lolita are not unique; Stanley Kubrick and Dorothy Parker famously felt the same, and my own copy even has a blurb on it from Vanity Fair, calling it “the only convincing love story of our century.”

Aaron Gwyn, a professor in the English department at UNC Charlotte, was mystified by the surge of moralizing discourse surrounding Lolita: “It’s absurd. Nabokov would be horrified by the idea of his art as any kind of a moral test,” he said to me. “He didn’t need a 400-page novel to tell us that a pedophile is bad. But he saw very clearly America’s worship of youth, and America’s lust after the girl—the nymphet—as an archetype, and he turns that inside out. Humbert is a monster, but he’s also seductive, in the prose, the humor. . . if the reader wasn’t on some level charmed, in the witchcraft sense, it wouldn’t be effective.”

I don’t like to engage in youth-bashing (some of my best friends are youths, and rumor has it I used to be one myself), but this seems to be a particular problem for members of the under-40 set—people who, like Kempner, appear utterly confounded not just by the difference between depiction and endorsement but by the expression of any thought that contains two or more moving parts. At the risk of stating the obvious, Rowling’s praise for the transformative power of Nabokov’s writing does not amount to an assertion that she found the plot of Lolita literally romantic.

[xchronicles]

Okay… real talk now, just between us girlies.

Aaron, if you’re reading this, you’re one of us and you’re always welcome in.

We joke, argue, and moan a lot about the J/C stuff - especially now with Prodigy being the latest new canon story. We all know, at the end of the day, they’re not real. However, what they represent and the impact they have on the audience is very real.

I watched Voyager back in the day when I was in primary school. My emotionally undeveloped self quickly picked up on the J/C stuff, and soon I found myself watching the show more and more, hoping that today’s episode would be about them or at least feature a lot of scenes with them together. I vividly remember the heartbreak after watching "Endgame" and being so confused on what I had just witnessed. I remember expecting the next episode, which never came, and feeling so confused. I felt betrayed by the show and didn’t want anything to do with it anymore. I was just a kid - exactly the target audience that Prodigy aims to reach.

Now, as an adult, that kid in me still feels that betrayal. I’ve always leaned on imaginary characters as a coping mechanism. As a girl who never quite fit into traditional gender roles and was often criticized for not being "girly" enough or not aligning with societal expectations, I found solace in the reversed gender norms between Janeway and Chakotay. At the time, I didn’t realize that this was what appealed to me so much.

What I’m trying to say is that making Janeway and Chakotay canon, no questions hanging, healthy relationship and all, is an incredible narrative tool to show that women can be in the position of power, having a career while also being in a loving, supportive relationship. It would teach younger audiences, especially girls, that they don’t have to choose between career and relationship and, more importantly, that they don’t have to strip down parts of who they really are to fit into a gender role box to be accepted as a proper woman.

I get frustrated watching interviews with Kate because whenever she asks why fans want the J/C relationship to become romantic, she never gets a good answer. I understand her pushback to some extent because I don’t think a man could ever give her an answer that truly resonated with her. Men don’t think about the constant criticism that women face about not being "womanly" enough. Kate gets told that fans want the relationship because she deserves it and that is the problem. It’s not about what she deserves - it's about the women who have been constantly told from a young age what is “appropriate” for them and that if they don't change they'll end up alone cause no man will want them. They’re the ones who truly deserve to see that they can have both, represented in a strong character like Janeway, whom they’ve admired be it for a year or over 20 years

Men do face their own set of pressures though, like being told they aren’t “man enough,” which can contribute to toxic masculinity. However, Prodigy has addressed this issue beautifully through Chakotay. He’s a wonderful example of strong, non-toxic masculinity, embodying the true essence of what it means to be a man. Season 2 did a fantastic job showcasing this with both Dal and Chakotay. I just wish we could see that same level of depth and growth for Janeway, particularly for young girls who look up to her. Right now, the message feels as if you have to choose between pursuing a career or pursuing a relationship.

Truth be told, I think a big part of the issue is that Kate views Janeway as Prodigy’s lead character, which might make her feel that maintaining the “will they or won’t they” tension is necessary to keep the audience engaged. That perspective might be true if the show were solely focused on Janeway like Voyager was, but Prodigy is so much more than that. The core of Prodigy is really about the young crew and their journey. In fact, younger viewers are likely more interested in the relationship between Gwyn and Dal. I truly believe that making J/C canon wouldn’t hurt the show - instead, it could provide a positive example for the young crew and their audience to look up to. Find solace in them just as I have when I was their age, minus the horrible heartbreak thanks to Endgame lol

[queer-ragnelle]

Hi! I was wondering if you have any recommendations for some pre-Chrétien Kay appearances? From what I understand the versions differ a lot, and the guy intrigues me even more

Thank you in advance!

Hi anon!

There aren't a ton of pre-Chrétien Kay appearances, mostly Welsh stuff, plus Geoffrey of Monmouth. But I recommend them, they're fun!

The Black Book of Carmarthen

The Mabinogion translated by Lady Charlotte Guest

The Welsh Triads translated by Rachel Bromwich

The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth translated by Aaron Thompson

The Quest for Olwen by Gwyn Thomas & Kevin Crossley-Holland

The last one is a picture book I scanned myself. It's beautifully illustrated by Margaret Jones. Cai and Bedwyr are even on the cover! Lastly, I'll give you a handful of "academic" or informational resources which will undoubtedly give you some more to chew on.

Warriors of Arthur by John Matthews, Bob Stewart, & illustrated by Richard Hook

Cei & The Arthurian Legend by Linda Gowens

Sir Kay, Seneschal of King Arthur's Court by Harold J. Herman

The Arthurian Handbook by Norris J. Lacy & Geoffrey Ashe

The Arthurian Companion by Phyllis Ann Karr

The New Arthurian Encyclopedia by Norris J. Lacy

You'll see several of these author names popping up repeatedly (just look at all the people Harold J. Herman cites!). These fellow Arthurian enthusiasts reference each other and collaborate frequently. All to provide us with this Kay content! Enjoy!

[winecovered]

HAII ^_^ can you make short names for nb people with masc pronouns plss?? :3

Short nonbinary names && masc prns . . .

Berry, Aeon, Gwyn, Soda, Clay, Koda, Bliss, Aaron, Dior, Eden, Moon, Arlo, Dion, Sky, Gale, Dixie, Quin, Ezra, Paris, Salem, Eve, Jay, Val, Lennon, Jace, Mars, Juno, Noa, Lyric, River, Sage, Ash, Riley, Sammy, Casey, Rain, Pearl, Rune, Blair, Nash, Cass, Pidge, Sunny, Sketch

He / him, Hy / hym, Ey / em, H!! / h!!m, Xe / xim, h☆ / h☆m, Ki / kier, Ma / masc, Boy / boys, Sir / sirs, Mr / mr, He / hem, Ve / vem, hymn / hymns, hy / hymn

[queerliblib]

Any recommendations of westerns with queer themes? I want gay cowhands!

Hello! definite western themes in the following - in our collection;

Frontier by Grace Curtis

Upright Women Wanted or River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens

a few others we don’t have yet but hope to purchase soon;

Riding the Storm by Franci McMahon

Bittersweet by Nevada Barr

His Fresh Start Cowboy by A.M. Arthur (& many more by this author!)

Cowboys of Cade Ranch series by Greta Rose West

All God’s Children by Aaron Gwyn

[nocturnalstarlet]

— 𝑾𝑯𝑶 𝑰 𝑾𝑹𝑰𝑻𝑬 𝑭𝑶𝑹 🪐

— 𝑨 𝑪𝑶𝑼𝑹𝑻 𝑶𝑭 𝑻𝑯𝑹𝑶𝑵𝑬𝑺 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑹𝑶𝑺𝑬𝑺

🪐 ››       cassian, azriel, nesta archeron, elain archeron, feyre archeron, lucien vanserra, eris vanserra.

ships i'd write for: cassian x nesta , elain x azriel , gwyn x azriel , and elain x lucien.

— 𝑩𝑩𝑪 𝑴𝑼𝑺𝑲𝑬𝑻𝑬𝑬𝑹𝑺

🪐 ››       aramis, porthos.

— 𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑫𝑮𝑬𝑹𝑻𝑶𝑵

🪐 ››       anthony bridgerton, daphne bridgerton, benedict bridgerton, colin bridgerton, king george iii.

— 𝑪𝑨𝑹𝑨𝑽𝑨𝑳 / 𝑶𝑵𝑪𝑬 𝑼𝑷𝑶𝑵 𝑨 𝑩𝑹𝑶𝑲𝑬𝑵 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻

🪐 ››       legend, julien santos, scarlett dragna, donatella dragna, jacks/prince of hearts.

— 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑴𝑬𝑫

🪐 ››       phoebe halliwell, paige matthews, wyatt halliwell, chris halliwell.

— 𝑫𝑨𝑰𝑺𝒀 𝑱𝑶𝑵𝑬𝑺 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑰𝑿

🪐 ››       warren rojas, eddie roundtree, graham dunne, camila alvarez, karen sirko, daisy jones, simone jackson.

— 𝑭𝑨𝑺𝑻 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑭𝑼𝑹𝑰𝑶𝑼𝑺

🪐 ››       dominic toretto, brian o'conner, letty ortiz, mia toretto, roman pearce, deckard shaw, tej parker, han lue.

ships i'd write for: dom x letty.

— 𝑮𝑨𝑴𝑬 𝑶𝑭 𝑻𝑯𝑹𝑶𝑵𝑬𝑺 / 𝑯𝑶𝑼𝑺𝑬 𝑶𝑭 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑫𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑶𝑵

🪐 ››       tormund giantsbane, podrick payne, sansa stark, robb stark, jorah mormont, theon greyjoy, sandor clegane, samwell tarly, rhaegar targaryen, daenerys targaryen.

🪐 ››       aemond targaryen, jacaerys velaryon, alicent hightower, daemon targaryen.

— 𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑹𝒀 𝑷𝑶𝑻𝑻𝑬𝑹

🪐 ››       ron weasley, hermione granger, dean thomas, blaise zabini, luna lovegood, neville longbottom, cedric diggory, viktor krum.

🪐 ››       james potter, lily evans, narcissa black, regulus black, andromeda black, sirius black, remus lupin, frank longbottom, peter pettigrew, lucius malfoy, pandora lovegood, alice fortescue, marlene mckinnon, mary macdonald, emmeline vance, dorcas meadows.

🪐 ››       theseus scammander

🪐 ››       teddy lupin

🪐 ››       godrick gryffindor, rowena ravenclaw, helga hufflepuff, salazar slytherin

**a very big fuck you to jkr. this account is HEAVILY anti jkr and always will be. **while some of the fics for these characters may occur during their time at hogwarts, the characters will be assumed to be 18+ regardless of fic type.

— 𝑰𝑻

🪐 ››       richie tozier, stanley uris, ben hascom, mike hanlon.

**none of my writing for these characters will take place in the first film. i may instead do college!fics for this. everything else will come from when they're adults.

— 𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑽𝑬𝑳 / 𝑿-𝑴𝑬𝑵

🪐 ››       steve rogers, james buchanan "bucky" barnes, natasha romanoff, yelena belova, wanda maximoff, pietro maximoff, thor odinson, loki laufeyson, bruce banner, druig.

🪐 ››       john allerdyce (pyro), bobby drake (iceman), peter rasputin (colossus), scott summers (cyclops), alex summers (havoc), anna marie lebeau (rogue), logan howlett (wolverine), ororo munroe (storm), peter maximoff (quicksilver), charles xavier, erik lehnsherr.

— 𝑶𝑼𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑩𝑨𝑵𝑲𝑺

🪐 ››       pope heyward, sarah cameron, kiara carrera, jj maybank, john b routledge, rafe cameron, topper thornton.

— 𝑷𝑬𝑨𝑲𝒀 𝑩𝑳𝑰𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹𝑺

🪐 ››       thomas shelby, arthur shelby, john shelby, michael gray, finn shelby.

— 𝑺𝑨𝑳𝑻𝑩𝑼𝑹𝑵

🪐 ››       felix catton, venetia catton, farleigh start.

— 𝑺𝑪𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴

🪐 ››       tara carpenter, sam carpenter, chad meeks-martin, mindy meeks-martin, ethan landry.

— 𝑺𝑯𝑨𝑻𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑴𝑬

🪐 ››       aaron warner, kenji kishimoto, juliette ferrars.

— 𝑻𝑬𝑬𝑵 𝑾𝑶𝑳𝑭

🪐 ››       derek hale, peter hale, stiles stilinski, isaac lahey, lydia martin, scott mccall.

— 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑯𝑼𝑵𝑮𝑬𝑹 𝑮𝑨𝑴𝑬𝑺

🪐 ››       finnick odair, haymitch abernathy.

ships i'd write for: finnick x annie

— 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑽𝑨𝑴𝑷𝑰𝑹𝑬 𝑫𝑰𝑨𝑹𝑰𝑬𝑺 𝑼𝑵𝑰𝑽𝑬𝑹𝑺𝑬

🪐 ››       elijah mikaelson, marcel gerard, klaus mikaelson, kol mikaelson, rebekah mikaelson, bonnie bennett, enzo st. john, stefan salvatore, damon salvatore, jeremy gilbert, caroline forbes, elena gilbert.

— 𝑻𝑹𝑼𝑬 𝑩𝑳𝑶𝑶𝑫

🪐 ››       eric northman, jason stackhouse, alcide herveaux , jessica hamby.

— 𝑻𝑾𝑰𝑳𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻

🪐 ››       charlie swan, carlisle cullen, emmett cullen, rosalie hale, alice cullen, sam uley, paul lahote, jared cameron.

— 𝑾𝑬𝑫𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑫𝑨𝒀 / 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑨𝑫𝑫𝑨𝑴𝑺 𝑭𝑨𝑴𝑰𝑳𝒀

🪐 ››       morticia frump, gomez addams, wednesday addams, enid sinclair, bianca barclay.

ships i'd write for: morticia x gomez.

— 𝑴𝑰𝑺𝑪𝑬𝑳𝑳𝑨𝑵𝑬𝑶𝑼𝑺

🪐 ››       ransom drysdale (knives out), andy barber (defending jacob), killian jones (ounce upon a time).

don't see what you're looking for? feel free to ask if i know a fandom/ship/character and if am willing to write what you're looking for!!

[fate-motif]

the way age is such a complicated theme for the prodigy cast. sure you can look up the characters’ ages in a promotional bio but that really does not encompass the whole story. there’s the energy being that does not physically age and even though aaron waltke confirmed that zero is the medusan equivalent of a juvenile, their experience of maturity is probably extremely different from that of an organic species. then we have jankom pog who we can age chronologically as somewhere around 400 due to having been displaced in time from being on a pre-warp sleeper ship and is voiced by an adult who really contrasts with the other actors’ voices and performances but biologically? teenager! and of course we can’t forget how rok spent probably at least one year in suspension if not more all alone teaching herself complicated university topics for the chance to save herself and her friends from dying horribly in space so like, is she still eight? does she still feel eight? that’s not even going into how in the flashback moment where we see the diviner clone himself into gwyn, she’s created from the start into a young woman. that may have been an artistic representation of the process but it’s still entirely possible that the process of her maturity was very different from a naturally born vau n’akat

and really, exact age of all these characters is the least important thing, even if they weren’t subject to all these question marks over their life because they’ve never been children in their lives. they were all exploited from such a young age, except maybe zero, and they’ve prematurely learned what it’s like to only be able to trust yourself in your own future and that makes them so, so old and yet so, so young.

[sadiegirl2021]

DAY SIX - AU

CHAPTER FOUR on Ao3 for @gwynweekofficial

TEASER UNDER THE CUT

Flashback to the Great Rite

15 YEARS AGO

“Oh gods, look at that one! How is it possible to have that many muscles?” Catrin’s eyes widened with delight as she ogled a particularly well-built, topless male across the clearing.

“Catrin!” Gwyn hissed. She glanced around, hoping no one had overheard. Although, she was glad her sister was having fun—it was a welcome change from her usual stormy self.

They had only arrived a few hours ago, but the priestesses were already giddy with excitement as the sun began to set and the festivities kicked off. The air buzzed with anticipation, filled with the scent of blooming flowers from the Spring Court. Males from all courts were milling around—some topless, some more modestly dressed—all here for the same reason as the priestesses: to find a partner for the night and create magic to ensure a bountiful harvest for the following year.

“We’re here to have sex with them. May as well guide the Mother in the right direction,” Catrin said with a mischievous grin.

Gwyn rolled her eyes. “You know that’s not how the magic works. She’ll pick someone compatible, someone to produce offspring with,” she replied matter-of-factly, though she couldn’t quite keep her voice steady. The prospect of the night ahead made her heart race, a mix of anticipation and nervousness fluttering in her chest.

Her gaze flickered over the males gathered around them, each one a potential partner for the Rite. It was rare for the priestesses to be surrounded by males, especially in such numbers. Their temple in Sangravah, nestled high in the mountains, severely restricted their interactions beyond the sisterhood. Gwyn had once shared a kiss with a travelling merchant... and perhaps a little more. Yet, she had saved herself for this night, yearning to experience it with a chosen male favoured by the Mother.

“I think I would be very compatible with him!” Catrin’s playful tone pulled Gwyn from her thoughts. She couldn’t help but smile at her sister’s cheeky remark.

“You’re so bad.”

“One of us has to be! You need to loosen up a bit,” Catrin said, nudging her sister gently. The familiar touch was comforting, grounding Gwyn amidst the swirling emotions.

“Are you not nervous at all, about your first time?” Gwyn asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Her cheeks flushed at the admission of her own nerves.

“Erm… so, I may have kept a little secret from you,” Catrin said, her bright green eyes twinkling with mischief, the wine they had been drinking loosening her tongue.

“What? When… Who!?” Gwyn exclaimed.

“Remember Aaron?”

“The stable boy? You didn’t!”

“Just a few times…” Catrin admitted, looking slightly sheepish.

“A few times! How could you not tell me?” Gwyn gawked, her jaw almost hitting the floor at her sister’s confession.

“Because… you wanted us both to wait until tonight,” Catrin said, her tone apologetic.

Gwyn pursed her lips, a mix of irritation and curiosity warring inside her. "I hate you. Was it good?"

Catrin shrugged. “I don't know. Guess I can compare tonight,” she replied with a wink, making Gwyn laugh.

[joju-but-trek]

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episode 17

It's just a site-to-site transport to the left.

I love the scale we're working on now. There's still a multiverse-spanning creature coming, but we also still have the personal story and the Starfleet political story going on, and it all ties together so beautifully. I'm on board for the finale. 9/10

The Wesley mystery set up last episode is closed out pretty quiickly. It's fine for what it is - I do think they could have stretched out Ascensia having him for longer, but with everything else they put into this season it's a good way to cover more ground. Also, Wil Wheaton was having fun this episode and I'm happy for him.

I like that Janeway's war council is split evenly between the Voyager transplants and the new Prodigy crew. It's nice seeing them all bounce off each other like that, and how they work with each other as a new unit. They also set Gwyn up for her mission in a good, measured way, and it works for her.

Putting Gwyn in charge was also a good call for the arc. It worked for recentering the story on her as the crew went back to Solum, which was definitely necessary considering that we're reintroduced to the planet here. It's a bit weird that we're getting introduced to three very different Solums in the same season, but the show does make it work well. Saying it like that does make me realize just how much ground this 20-episode season has covered, and I am so impressed that they did all that and still made it an amazing, character-focused story. I'm taking notes.

I also like that Wesley's "stay together" was entirely literal. That was a funny twist and a good dread moment for the episode. Speaking of dread moments, I noticed that young Ascensia wasn't there at the end. I'm on to you, Aaron.

I'm excited to get into the finale. It's a little weird that there's an episode between now and then, but they did it in season 1 too, and that was good character material too.

[beautifulhigh]

20 Questions aka. Oversharing on the Internet version 92840938. Plus one?

Thank you for for tagging me @welcometololaland. Even though I suck at tag games and answering asks...

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

77.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

952,168. Pretty sure the next fic is going to top the million mark when (if) it finally goes up.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

At the moment? 911: Lone Star & Red White and Royal Blue

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Every nation ought to have a right to provide for its own happiness (RWRB). My newest fic and clearly posted at the right time to ride the wave!

Tell all the truth but tell it slant, Success in circuit lies (Lone Star) My post-Sadie fic. I really liked getting to play about with the narrative structure in this one

The tender things are those we fold away (Lone Star) Only Fans fic, my beloved.

But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep (Lone Star) My first Tarlos fic. Written before Gwyn's sudden death and she had a starring role at the start of it. And then I did something similar with Gabriel for my last one. I swear I will never heavily feature any recurring character again.

Want (Emmerdale) Come back to the Dales, Hawley you coward.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I respond to 99% of them - hard to come up with a response to a comment that you know someone just cuts and pastes onto all fics they read. (I am grateful for all comments but still...) You took the time to read and leave me a comment, I'm going to acknowledge that.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I'm going to go with Rumours (Emmerdale) for this. Because while they both die at the end (no reference intended to the book!) there is a whole life for Aaron and Robert before that moment comes.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I think most of them? It's all varying degrees of happiness because it depends what has happened to them in the meantime. But it all comes out in the wash.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I once wrote a fic in which I had characters explain why they couldn't take a particular course of action, and I had comments like "this is stupid, why don't they just do x?" which says more about their lack of reading skills. Other than that, not really.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do, but it's more about the feels than the actions.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I've never written one, simply because it feels a little too much like crossing the streams. Unless they are canonically in the same 'verse my muse refuses to even consider it. She's a sucker for rules like that.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Someone translated a Glee fic of mine into Russian (I think? It was a cyrillic language, I remember that) but I am always open to it!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I did a dual narrative fic once and that was great fun.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Don't make me choose between my babies. I can't.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have a Tarlos WiP and a Firstprince WiP and I want to finish them both.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I plan. I have pages and pages of planning and research and scribbled lines of dialogue and prose. I know exactly where I'm going with my stories and so the ending always pulls together the strands in the story. There are always hints and clues as to where I'm going, you just gotta pay attention.

(It's OK if you don't. It's rare someone comments on what is supposed to be a throwaway line and wonder why it's in there. Hint: it's because it's not throwaway.)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

More of a weakness for me I think - but consistency. I am a feast or famine writer. I knock out a fic in a week (Only Fans) or I have to drag it kicking and screaming from its coccoon of bedsheets (bank fic)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

If I need to do it then I am putting out pleas on Tumblr for a native speaker to translate the line for me

19. First fandom you wrote for?

"...I plead the 5th."

^ what she said

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Don't make me choose between my babies.

I am super later to this so open tag!

[aniketsanimationblog]

There are some few things to be noted when 4 minutes Sneak Peek of S2E1 of Star Trek: Prodigy was released on Star Trek's Official Website and on the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention event!!

We see Star Trek: Voyager's Doctor (Robert Picardo) EMH appeared to escort our Protostar Crew (minus Gwyn, in case if you watched the whole S1)!!

We get a Glimpse of USS Voyager-A, which is classified as Lamarr-Class Starship!! And notably, Lamarr stands for Hollywood Actress and Inventor Hedy Lamarr (1914 - 2000)

Vice Admiral Janeway will be captaining the Voyager-A where our Protostar Crew will get a big mission to save Chakotay, who's been stuck at Gwyn's Home Planet, Solum, 52 years from the current events, because of Time Anomaly, or should I say, the Time Distortion, created after the Destruction of USS Protostar in S1 Finale!!

Some theories I have made for upcoming S2, which might be true or not, depending of the nature of S2, call them as my initial predictions, maybe, if suppose Star Trek: Prodigy picked up by Any Streaming Platform to host the Series' Entirety and premiere the Second Season!!

We get to see more and more legacy Star Trek Characters from the time being!!

As Dal stated in the 4 minutes clip, that Gwyn has become the Queen of Solum, so there should be a plot twist, maybe in the future, when Dal and His Friends arrive at future Solum to save Chakotay and the situation of Future Gwyn, like interesting to see like 70-years-old version of her??

As Hageman Brothers and Aaron Waltke hinted everything about the emotional moment of Janeway meeting Chakotay, as the J/C Shippers are eagerly waiting to see them together for ever since Star Trek: Voyager ended, I think some development we can see!! But will we see them together, whether it will be a romantic one or emotional one, when they meet up?? Only Time will tell!!

I think, in future, we may get to see a big plot twist!! I think, Gwyn will be nearly stopped from unifying Solum, because if you watched S1 of ST: Prodigy, you know, that Asencia aka the Vindicator, is still roaming free!! Is there any lead up for S2 we will might see??

There are so many things and all are perfect reasons, why we are Desperate to Save this Series!!

And as of I'm writing this, Co-EP Aaron Waltke is just posting Holo-Janeway/Vice Admiral Janeway related GIFs for last 3 Days starting from Sept. 1st. Is he hinting something related to Star Trek: Prodigy's Current Development Condition, as we all know, Star Trek Day 2023 (on Friday, Sept. 8th), is right around the Corners!! Is there any development or Good News to Come Around?? Expect a Big Thing on this Friday, if things do go on Prodigy's Favor!! Let's Cross Our Fingers Now, that on Friday, we can get a big Announcement!! 🤞🏼🤞🏼

[xchronicles]

I wrote another fanfic lmao

As usual, canon compliant, but this time the main protagonists are Chakotay, Dal and Gwyn :)

I want to thank Aaron Waltke for answering my technical question and, in doing so, helping me figure out how to continue my story. You're too kind, sir.

[grandhotelabyss]

I didn't weigh in on the recent literary Twitter meltdowns because they involved friends or or acquaintances or acquaintances-of-acquaintances (by the latter I'm talking about Aaron Gwyn's not having read Borges until last week; I wasn't sure what to say about that, personally, and the Twitter fight quickly decayed into who's-more-oppressed?, never a useful conversation; we all have gaps in our reading—Gwyn has his because he's a specialist; I have mine because I'm a generalist—and I bring it up only to recommend Gwyn's recent appearance discussing his specialty, Blood Meridian, on the Art of Darkness podcast; for me, his bravura interpretation on the pod of the "of this is the judge judge" passage finally knocked everything into place and "completed," as it were, my own reading of the novel, a reading in this case remarkably and "gnostically" congruent, as I'm sure Gwyn has just learned, both to his and to Twitter's satisfaction, with "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius").

Anyway, I will discuss this week's controversy if only for the sake of self-promotion. Above we have a man who seems, I have to say, like a blowhard; he claims essentially that Nella Larsen is overrated and owes her eminence to a bit of canonical affirmative action. JCO swats this down, first in the kind of unpersuasive ad hominem style that flourishes on Twitter, but then she rallies to place Larsen where she belongs, in the context of international modernism.

One way to go wrong reading Larsen is to neglect how conscious she was of the other side of her heritage—not generically "white" but specifically Scandinavian, at a time when Scandinavian arts and letters were a peripheral cultural vanguard of a type whose resemblance to (for example) the Harlem Renaissance a too-racialist analysis will miss. She loved Ibsen, she loved Jens Peter Jacobsen; her despairing naturalism and obsessive inwardness belong in this context as much as her edgy analysis of race, gender, nation, and class belongs in the context of Du Bois, Toomer, Cullen, and Hughes, and of James and Wharton, too.

Now I will say I only read Passing once, and it didn't knock me over the way Quicksand did—so much so that I used to teach Quicksand regularly and have read it five or six times now. Which brings me to my pitch: if you'd like to see if I possess the temperamental and intellectual qualifications required to teach such texts, you can watch my lectures on Quicksand on YouTube. Despite the novel's brevity, I cover it in two and a half lectures, each over an hour long; it's a work, paradoxically, of both great clarity and great subtlety:

"A Lecture on Modernism and Poetry, Part Two" (start at min 20)

"A Lecture on Nella Larsen's Quicksand, Part One"

"A Lecture on Nella Larsen's Quicksand, Part Two"