#alice and david: commentary

[shipcestuous]

Fighting Fish 2010 (b/s) (submission)

Just wanted to drop a line to wholeheartedly recommend “Fighting Fish”, currently still available for free on Tubi.

I was going to send one of verbose submissions / GIFs on it, but I think it has enough on its page for your followers to get the idea.

This film is so well done, so well acted, and the story is so realistic IMHO that’s it’s fast becoming one of my favorites, up there with Close My Eyes and The Color Wheel.

I hope your followers check it out. The ending is left open, so there’s hope for the siblings!

--

Thanks for bringing this movie up again. I’m so glad it’s on Tubi. There was a point when it was very difficult to find. Yes, it’s easy to recommend, and I like that the ending doesn’t close the door on the relationship completely. 

[pagerunner-j]

One of the Doctor Who podcast commentaries I don't think I ever heard when they were first released: the one from The Doctor's Daughter with David Tennant, RTD, and Alice Troughton.

I mean, you can imagine the "so in retrospect..." factor going on here, almost by default. I'm not even 5 minutes in and I'm practically on the floor. For one thing, I'd forgotten that Georgia had initially auditioned for Rose back in the day (can you imagine?). Then that anecdote was followed by this, re: Georgia, of course:

David: "She's terrific in this. She went straight on from this to be one of the leads in--I'm going to forget the name of it--" Alice: "Spooks: Code 9." David: "Spooks: Code 9, which is starting soon. And I got a message from her yesterday saying they'd just done a press day..." RTD: "Oh, God, already?" David: "And all she got asked about was this." RTD: "Welcome to the rest of your life."

...oh, Russell, you have no idea.

(Later: RTD: "Possibly you could argue that's what you'd look like if you were a woman." David: "I should be so lucky." And he fades out on the most wistful sigh, I swear to God. ;) This man was a goner from day one.)

[uwmspeccoll]

It's Fine Press Friday!

Today we’re taking a closer look at our sister set of editions from Trianon Press: William Blake's Illustrations of the book of Job : the engravings and related material and Colour versions of William Blake's Book of Job designs, both of which were published in 1987 in London by the William Blake Trust.  

The former edition includes two volumes of original black and white illustrations and facsimiles, process prints which document the evolution of the final product, and essays. It was edited by David Bindman (b. 1940) and includes plate-by-plate commentary and an introduction by Bo Lindberg (1937-2021), whose Ph.D. thesis on the work was published in 1973.   

The latter includes three sets of color plates- The New Zealand set, The Collins set, and the Fitzwilliam plates- all of which were reproduced in facsimile from the original engravings, which were published in 1826. The New Zealand set are finished watercolor drawings, while the Collins and Fitzwilliams sets are hand-colored collotype reproductions (using the pochoir method) of the published engravings. All told the set includes 22 fascicules containing the title page and accompanying texts and 46 plates of illustrations measuring from 40-41 cm., all housed in marbled portfolios nested in leather-bound slipcases.    

Can’t get enough of these books? Check out Alice’s Marbled Mondays post on their beautiful bindings. And check out UCSC Library’s digital exhibition Songs of Labor and Transcendence: The Trianon Press Archive for more on the history and legacy of the Trianon Press.

--Ana, Special Collections Graduate Intern

View more Fine Press Fridays posts

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[wonder-worker]

was Alice's relationship with Edward III known during Philippa's life or was it secret, do we know? and did Philippa know of it?

Hi! Most historians agree that Edward III’s relationship with Alice was relatively discreet during Philippa’s life, with Alice gaining much more prominence and becoming a “quasi-queen” after her death. Outside court, this is probably true. But within court, I’m not sure if it was discreet in the sense that very few people knew about it, or discreet in the sense that their affair was an open secret which was unofficially known but officially unacknowledged. After all, Alice had a position at court in the queen's household in the 1460s, and gave birth to three of the King's children during that time*. We also know that Edward gave a formal order to support her as early as 1464**, and gave her several sweeping grants even during Philippa's life from 1467 that were clear marks of his favour. For example, she received a grant of two-thirds of the manor of "Monylawes" to hold for life and pass to her heirs, something that no other damsel at court ever received during his reign. Alice also illegally held John de Cobeham's manor without rent and without the king's license, something Edward not only pardoned her for but also allowed her to keep. There were a few other instances like this, and we don't know if they would have been unnoticed or overlooked or if they would have raised eyebrows and suspicions. Also, as W.M Ormrod points out, “one of the few pieces of evidence pointing to open scandal in the 1360s is the commentary written before 1372 by the friar John Erghome […] Erghome alluded to Alice Perrers as Delilah to Edward III’s Samson and Bathsheba to his King David".

I'm not sure about Philippa, but considering Alice's name was notably absent among the list of ladies who received bequests upon her death, she would have almost certainly been aware of Alice and Edward's relationship by then.

*Whether they were born at court or not is unknown. **This suggests that their relationship had been established and had been going on for a while at this point. Assuming it began after her first husband died, we know she was a widow from 1461-62, and so it could have begun anywhere between that time and 1464.

[soldierandawar]

Anyone who knows me knows how hard I ride for LGBTQ representation, and since today is Bi Visibility Day, why not share some of my favorite bisexual characters?

This is a long ass list, so I'll keep the commentary short. I'll also try to keep it to the main characters, but there will inevitably be a few sides.

Rosa Diaz - Oh, the ways I love Rosa, she's mean, and yet she's kind. She moved because one person knew her address, and I want to live that life. Now, she is a cop, but she does leave the force in B99's attempt to continue the show after 2020.

Patrick Zweig, Art Donaldson, and Tashi Duncan—only one of these isn't confirmed, but it's true in my heart. They're all toxic and a mess, and essentially in a throuple.

Calliope Torres - Later in life realization. Still has sex with men over the series. She's special because she's also annoying.

Carina Deluca, Amelia Sheperd, Maya Bishop - all from the Shondaland ABC universe.

Annalise Keating - Not nearly as celebrated as she should be. Wonder why?

Alice Whitley - she's black, biromantic, and asexual. Get into it.

Bob Belcher - he's "mostly straight," and he's animated, so that's fun.

David Rose - technically, I think he uses pansexual? He likes the wine and not the label.

Random shoutout to Jake from Schitt's Creek as well cause he's bisexual and has the audacity.

Harley Quinn - if you have yet to see her animated series where she gets with Poison Ivy, what are you even doing? That leads me to...

Poison Ivy - She's also mean, cares about the environment, and that's hot.

Jon Kent - bet you didn't know Superman's son was bisexual.

Lindsay - I'm just going to assume that you haven't seen Queer as Folk, and like..you should fix that.

Chuck Bass - I know, I know. He sucks, but that's what representation is all about.

Chuck/God—This is literally from a one-off line in S11, but isn't it cool that God is bisexual?

Leopoldo, Cruz, and Ivan - Elite is honestly kind of a terrible show, but it is fun.

Max - so basically if you haven't seen Black Sails...what are you even doing with your life?

Sarah - Orphan Black is another show that must be seen.

Jaskier - Idk if this is one that people would mind getting into. The Witcher is a very confusing show, but, like, I love it. & Yennefer of Vendenberg is not bisexual, but she is a hot witch, so that's worth it.

Now, I can get into the characters that are extra special to me.

Marie and Jordan from Gen V - okay, these two are particularly special because Jordan has powers that allow them to switch between male and female presenting, and where else do we see the literal physical embodiment of a non-binary person? Also, there's a little slice of commentary about how they switch to their male form whenever they want to make a point, and they are nervous because they don't think Marie likes them in their female form, and that's rectified by the end. & Marie is, of course, besotted by them no matter their form, and she's got cool, blood-bending powers, and she's hot.

Ashley Davies - you will not find her on any of those listicles that publications make of the top bisexual characters, but you must know who she is because she is the character that started it all for me. On a little show called South of Nowhere about her and Spencer (a newly out lesbian) having a whirlwind high school romance. She's edgy and emotionally unavailable, she's kind of mean, but most of the time, she doesn't mean it, and she means a lot to me, so if you don't like her, keep that shit to yourself.

Kat Edison - my main bitch, my main squeeze, and the love of my life. She's a bisexual disaster, but that's okay because I love her. Heavily identify with her, and I hold her close to my heart.

Evan Buckley— I don't make a habit of relating to male characters; that's not my ministry, but Buck is a very special case. I didn't even click with him until 3x16, and then boom. I was rocked to my core by how much I relate to him, and now he's Bi! I don't have enough words yet to explain what that feels like but shout out to him.

[whatifiexploded]

hey guys

just thought i would make a bit of a introduction post cuz why not

my interests include but are not limited to: saltburn, scott pilgrim, top gun, it's always sunny in philadelphia, fight club, the wild west, the sims, arrested development, weird gay movies, commentary youtubers, garfield, pictures of monkeys doing silly things, fanfiction, 2010's pop music, and finding homoerotic subtext in literally everything i watch

my favorite movies are: scott pilgrim vs the world, ferris buellers day off, brokeback mountain, top gun (both of them), back to the future, velvet goldmine, the living end, donnie darko, alien, little shop of horrors, bill and teds excellent adventure, my cousin vinny, scream, 10 things i hate about you, asteroid city, rocketman, and the original alice in wonderland

my favorite musicians are: black country new road, wham, XTC, jeffery lewis, mom jeans, jpegmafia, soft cell, new order, the microphones, lil uzi vert, alex g, beastie boys, bjork, CZARFACE, david bowie, duran duran, ecco2k, fiona apple, marty robbins, nicki minaj, plumtree, sublime, the front bottoms, the smiths, the cure, and ween (if you can't already tell, i love music)

my pinterest is @jakegyllenhaalfanboy42 (don't make fun of my username i think it's very funny), my letterboxd is under the name greebleneeble, and heres the link to my spotify

[go-to-the-mirror]

Does anyone have or know where to access the The Doctor's Daughter commentary released on 10 May 2008 in an MP3 format and featuring David Tennant, Russell T Davies, and Alice Troughton? Because it's cited on wikipedia as saying that Moffat decided to have Jenny come back at the end of the episode, but there's no link.

I've tried going onto the old official website and trying to listen to the episode commentary, but it isn't available there or on the Wayback Machine. I've searched it up on the Internet Archive and it's nowhere to be found.

If anyone could send it to me or let me know where to find it, I would be much obliged.

[brokehorrorfan]

Swamp Thing will be released on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on July 25 via MVD. The Blu-ray is part of MVD’s Rewind Collection, while the 4K UHD leads the company’s new 4K LaserVision Collection.

The 1982 superhero horror film is written and directed by master of horror Wes Craven, based on the DC Comics character created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. Louis Jourdan and Adrienne Barbeau star with Ray Wise, David Hess, and Dick Durock as Swamp Thing.

Both editions include the PG-rated US version and the unrated international version of the film, newly restored in 16-bit 4K from the original camera negative. The 4K UHD is presented with Dolby VIsion/HDR and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono.

Each edition comes with a matching slipcover and mini poster. They’re pictured below, where you can also find a list of special features.

4K LaserVision Collection Disc 1 - 4K UHD special features:

Audio commentary by writer/director Wes Craven moderated by Sean Clark (PG version)

Audio commentary by makeup effects artist William Munn moderated by Michael Felsher (PG version)

4K LaserVision Collection Disc 2 - Blu-ray special features:

Audio commentary by writer/director Wes Craven moderated by Sean Clark (PG version)

Audio commentary by makeup effects artist William Munn moderated by Michael Felsher (PG version)

Interview with actress Adrienne Barbeau

Interview with actor Reggie Batts

Interview with Swamp Thing creator Len Wein

Interview with production designer Robb Wilson King

Interview with film historian Kim Newman

Posters & lobby cards gallery

Still photo gallery

William Munns' behind-the-scenes photo gallery

Geoffrey Rayle’s behind-the-scenes photo gallery

Theatrical trailer

Rewind Collection special features:

Audio commentary by writer/director Wes Craven moderated by Sean Clark (PG version)

Audio commentary by makeup effects artist William Munn moderated by Michael Felsher (PG version)

Interview with actress Adrienne Barbeau

Interview with actor Reggie Batts

Interview with Swamp Thing creator Len Wein

Interview with production designer Robb Wilson King

Interview with film historian Kim Newman

Posters & lobby cards gallery

Still photo gallery

William Munns' behind-the-scenes photo gallery

Geoffrey Rayle’s behind-the-scenes photo gallery

Theatrical trailer

On the verge of a breakthrough in his quest to wipe out world hunger, altruistic botanist Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise) is placed under the protection of special government agent Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau). Mad outlaw scientist Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan) wants to steal Holland's research for his own nefarious ends, but an unforeseen accident during the heist turns Holland into the Swamp Thing, an enormous plant-like creature that fights back against Arcane's henchmen to save Cable.

Pre-order Swamp Thing.

[cleoenfaserum]

THE DEAD RINGERS

Dead Ringers Season 1 Review – A deliciously macabre and thoroughly enjoyable series.

25/04/2023 by Rati Pednekar (Dead Ringers Season 1 Review - A deliciously macabre and thoroughly enjoyable series (thereviewgeek.com)

LISTEN or READ or LISTEN&READ

Dead Ringers is one of those rare recent shows that, in its focus on writing, doesn’t forget that it’s also a visual spectacle. And a spectacle it is indeed, with its solid cinematography, vivid use of red, snappy editing and, of course, Rachel Weisz taking full command of any scene, twice over.

She plays both Beverly and Elliot Mantle, twin gynaecologists who use their identical looks to often swap places with each other — in the workplace and in romance. But in reality, they are as different as can be. When Beverly gets serious with a woman, Genevieve Cotar, the twins’ already twisted relationship gets even more warped.

The miniseries is primarily character driven by Beverly and Elliot, who stand out as two endlessly fascinating characters. Weisz has done an exemplary job underlying Beverly’s niceness with something strange and uneasy, infusing Elliot with a wild need to support (control) her sister. After a point, you need to remind yourself that it’s one person playing two people. Jennifer Ehle also does a fantastic job as Rebecca Parker, an apathetic millionaire with some choice opinions about protests and altruism.

The interesting thing is that the series is a gender-swapped reinterpretation of David Cronenberg’s 1988 film of the same name. The original film displays the power dynamic of men over women — the two male gynaecologists focus on ‘mutant’ women, the same women who later bear the repercussions of the twins’ downward spiral. This makes the gender swap even more significant as Alice Birch, writer and showrunner, turns the focus on pregnancy, birth and motherhood.

Birch uses complex family dynamics, provocative dialogue, and well-rounded characters to explore the subjects and dive into the nuances. The series brings up questions of body autonomy, surrogacy, class divides, and more. Conversations between people, often between the sisters themselves, are used to show two sides of an argument. Although, its worth pointing out that its portrayal of racial dynamics falls short.

While the creators have added as many people of colour as possible, it sticks out as filling up a needed quota and Genevieve is the only fully fleshed-out character. There’s a segment about the horrifying use of black women in the development of gynaecology but, again, the scene doesn’t tie into the larger story. Even though it’s beautifully made, it falls short of impact. Still, Dead Ringers does make some compelling statements and avoids being preachy. Instead, it is witty and darkly humorous, making the social commentary a delight to watch.

Another clever feature is how Birch employs childbirth to pay homage to Cronenberg’s element of body horror. From the pain of childbirth to the doctors wrestling babies out of c-sections, Birch has no hesitation in baring it all on screen — blood, gore and all. She keeps the graphic visuals to a limit though, employing them once in a while so they truly pack a punch.

The story itself is a crisply written one, divided into neat sections for each episode and supported by some brilliant directors. One specific storyline does branch off into another direction and doesn’t have the same appeal as the main story but can be forgiven in lieu of it. Sections of long, hypnotizing monologues are used now and again and they completely hook the viewer.

On the other hand, one particular dinner scene uses constant overlapping dialogues to depict a fractured family at its worse. Skillful editing contributes to the show’s style, sometimes lingering to intensify emotions and sometimes choppy to underline chaos. As a result, a few jump cuts do leave you reeling and rushing to join the dots, but this is a show about disturbed twins obsessed with each other — it’s meant to jar you a little.

[p4xman]

Hey, do you think there’s one reality?

Because people think there’s one reality, But there’s loads of them all snaking off like roots. And what we do on one path effects what happens on other paths. Time is a construct. People think you can’t go back and change things but you can. That’s what flashbacks are. They’re invitations to go back and make different choices. When you make a decision you think it’s you doing it but it’s not. It’s the spirit out there that’s connected to our world that decides what we do. And we just have to go along for the ride. Mirrors let you move through time. The government monitors people. They pay people to pretend to be your relatives and they put drugs in your food and they film you. There’s messages in every game. Like Pacman. Do you know what pac stands for? PAC. Program and control. He’s program and control man. The whole thing’s a metaphor. He think’s he’s got free will but really, he’s trapped in a maze. In a system. All he can do is consume. He’s pursued by demons… that are probably just in his own head. And even if he does manage to escape by slipping out one side of the maze, what happens? He comes right back in the other side. People think it’s a happy game. It’s not a happy game it’s a fucking nightmare world and the worst thing is it’s real and we’re living in it.

hey are you bandersnatch because Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is a 2018 interactive film in the science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. It was written by series creator Charlie Brooker and directed by David Slade. The film premiered on Netflix on 28 December 2018, its release date only officially announced the day before. Netflix did not confirm the interactive nature of Bandersnatch until its release, though there was much media speculation. In Bandersnatch, viewers make decisions for the main character, the young programmer Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead), who is adapting a fantasy gamebook into a video game in 1984. Other characters include Mohan Thakur (Asim Chaudhry) and Colin Ritman (Will Poulter), who work at a video game company; Stefan's father, Peter (Craig Parkinson); and Stefan's therapist, Dr. Haynes (Alice Lowe). A postmodernist work with free will as a central theme, the film was named after a real video game planned for release by Imagine Software in 1984, the game in turn named after the bandersnatch, a creature of Lewis Carroll's creation. Brooker and executive producer Annabel Jones were approached by Netflix about making an interactive film in May 2017, during which time Netflix had several such projects for children underway. Difficulty in writing the highly non-linear script led to Netflix's creation of a bespoke program called Branch Manager; the unique nature of the content required adaptations in the platform's use of cache memory. Bandersnatch was originally to be part of Black Mirror's fifth series, but its lengthy production led to its release as a standalone film, delaying the fifth series to June 2019. Critical reception was mixed, with a positive response to the technical design of the film but criticism of the story's characterisation. There was mixed commentary about the narrative and the extent to which viewer choices affected the story. The film received average rankings in critics' lists of Black Mirror instalments by quality, but garnered numerous awards and nominations, winning two Primetime Emmy Awards. A lawsuit filed by Chooseco over the film's use of the term "choose-your-own-adventure" was filed in January 2019 and settled in November 2020.

[outlikethat]

sure thing. with occasional commentary

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - all the major Austens, though I still haven’t read Lady Susan

2 Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte - barely remember it, didn’t like it much

4 Harry Potter series

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible - or at least a fair chunk of it. I decided at one point that I should to get context for classic western lit, which indeed is valid

7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens - after reading Two Cities in high school, taught by a teacher who clearly hated it, I’d decided Dickens was boring. Then in my twenties I saw, at a used bookstore, a full matched yard or two of Dickens all attractively bound in soft red leather and quite reasonably priced. Dickens, it turns out, is a snackable, bingeable kind of read and very funny, when not weighed down by indifferent teens and one adult who wants to go home.

11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks - I REALLY liked this when I read it, and proceeded to read everything else of Faulks I could get my hands on.

18 Catcher in the Rye

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffeneger

20 Middlemarch – George Eliot - I have the fat Everyman’s Library edition sitting in a stack but have not yet read it

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald - Fitzie was THE SHIT for me and my friends in high school. (We were also passing around The Surrealist Manifesto and Anaïs Nin.)

23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams - so many times. At one point I could quote pretty nearly the whole series.

26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck - for school. Yech.

29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis - never really liked it as much as Tolkien — or indeed any of the other fantasy I was reading at the time (childhood and early teens). There was something… overly precious about Lewis that I didn’t care for.

34 Emma – Jane Austen

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden - oh yeah, this orientalising thing.

40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne - the book that taught me to read. My father read it aloud to me, in voices — somewhere, in the family home, where nothing ever gets thrown out, there’s probably still the cassette my mother recorded of him.

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell - I liked 1984 better though. I started reading Down and Out last summer, after finding it in a little free library, and then put it down and lost track of it.

42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown - Ah yes. That magnificent classic.

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy - half bold because, well, I tried.

48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding - The trauma of my schooldays.

50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52 Dune – Frank Herbert - I read them ALL, and boy do the subsequent ones ever decline in quality, as I recall.

53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley - I got very into Huxley in my early twenties, but I can’t remember why, now.

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon - didn’t particularly like it

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck - let me tell you, your average grade nine class is not really prepared to deal with this book. No idea why it was on the curriculum at that point.

62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov - At twelve, on the one visit we made to my grandparents in Dublin - found it in their shelves. I remember being both fascinated and disturbed. I recently acquired a copy to read again, wondering what I might make of it at this remove, but haven’t yet addressed it.

63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt - I have a copy of this as well, but the more I read about it, the more I suspect it’ll just irritate me.

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac - Just really cannot think of any reason I’d WANT to read this…

67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding - oh, ugh, yes, when everyone else was.

69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville - Again, half bold — I have TRIED, in this case multiple times, every time I see a particularly passionate paean to it on the socials in fact (tumblr is rife with Moby Dick fans) but it seems we are not for each other.

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

72 Dracula – Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson - maybe? I was once at someone’s place for a week and they had a whole shelf-ful that I went through, but they all run together in my memory.

75 Ulysses – James Joyce - I have, you guessed it, tried. Multiple times. It’s great. It’s so dense, so thick, so absolutely clotted with Language. I need breaks. And then I don’t go back.

76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath - I was so into Plath at sixteen. Don’t ask about my poetry at the time.

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal – Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray - dragged myself through it, yeah.

80 Possession – AS Byatt - loved it.

81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell - rarely have I loathed a book with such passion. What an irritating read.

83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro - watched the film, wept. Read the book, wept some more.

85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - read it? Read it? Ha! Original-flavour Holmes was one of my first fandoms.

90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton - probably? I read a ton of Enid Blyton in early childhood, but they have not stamped themselves into my memory at all.

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad. Yech. Yes. Three fucking times, for three fucking classes. I despise this fucking book.

92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94 Watership Down – Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute - My mother had a little paperback copy, with a kind of windblown-looking mid-century-mod illustration of a woman on it. (I mean, it’s still there, in the back row about halfway up the right-hand bookcase in the study back home. My mother isn’t, though.)

97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare - excuse you, did you not ask about the Complete Works way back in the top 20? Hamlet’s extra credit, is he?

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo - not yet, but I DID just acquire Wilbour’s translation. Only to discover I already had a (nicer) copy of Wilbour’s translation, in the shelf under the reading table. Sigh.

How many have you read?

The BBC estimates that most people will only read 6 books out of the 100 listed below. Reblog this and bold the titles you’ve read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkein 3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible 7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell 9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman 10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens 11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy 13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier 16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien 17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks 18 Catcher in the Rye 19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffeneger 20 Middlemarch – George Eliot 21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell 22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald 23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens 24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams 26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh 27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck 29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll 30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame 31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy 32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens 33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis 34 Emma – Jane Austen 35 Persuasion – Jane Austen 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden 40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne 41 Animal Farm – George Orwell 42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving 45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins 46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery 47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy 48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood 49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding 50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel 52 Dune – Frank Herbert 53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons 54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen 55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth 56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens 58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck 62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov 63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas 66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac 67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding 69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie 70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville 71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens 72 Dracula – Bram Stoker 73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett 74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson 75 Ulysses – James Joyce 76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 78 Germinal – Emile Zola 79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray 80 Possession – AS Byatt 81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens 82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchel 83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker 84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro 85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert 86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry 87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton 91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad 92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery 93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks 94 Watership Down – Richard Adams 95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole 96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute 97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas 98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl 100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

[wee-english-fella]

intro post n useful links!

revamped my tumblr recently so here's some updated info!

i'm jem, 21, genderqueer transmasc with audhd. i'm from the uk but have lived in germany and tend to blog mostly in english and german. i love linguistics and learning new languages, and i love sitcoms and romcoms!

my linguistics tumblr: @franzgenderkafka

my AO3: otherpeopleareallthereis

fundraisers for Palestine i've been sent recently

pfp by Makowka, Tboy Snoopy sticker by @sweatermuppet

see below for a tag list

non-exhaustive tag list:

usually i just tag with the name of the media but here is some more info about how i tag.

#alice oseman: anything relating to the work of Alice Oseman including Heartstopper, the comic and TV show, and their other books. i've written a few Alice Oseman fics which you can find linked above.

#asks: what i tag my asks as. please send me asks i love to see them! they make my day!

#bundesTag: tag for posts in german/about germany. i speak fluent german so if you ever want to send me messages in german i'd love to see them!

#en es ef double u: tag i use for NSFW mentions - nothing really about my own sexuality just occasional jokes

#lingblr: linguistics posting goes under here! i am so very autistic about linguistics omg.

#jem saying things: tag for me having a little yap (affectionate) about something

#schitt's creek: as you will see i am very obsessed with David and Patrick as a ship and you will often see me writing long commentaries in the tags of unrelated posts about loneliness and perfectionism about how this relates to each character. you're welcome! on my AO3 you can find a couple of SC fics i wrote

#taskmaster: i post A Lot about the British comedy panel show Taskmaster and occasionally its international versions when i can get access to them. if you aren't caught up with s18 and don't want any spoilers i recommend you block this tag.

#tboy stuff: any type of meme or commentary about being trans - not necessarily just transmasc stuff, but tboy is one way i refer to my gender.

i tend to tag with #cw [content] for triggering content - usually just the more typical triggers but send me a message if there's one you need me to tag

[sonyechka]

beautiful world, where are you - sally rooney

5/5

it feels bold to start my book reviewing blog with a perfect score, but i think i should be brave, and i also dont think i had much of a choice in happening upon such a good book in the thrift store. sally rooney is well mentioned enough, so when i saw i could get her book for like, 2 bucks, i did.

i digress.

do you ever read a book so good it rattles you a little bit? like you can feel its hands reaching into you and shaking you around? thats what this book feels like. i was initially a little dumbfounded by the stylistic choices rooney makes, but once i understood i felt it helped me pay attention to the book lots more (im a hopeless skim reader, straying from grammatical norms helps force me to pay attention [when done well]).

i would say i found these characters likeable, but i dont think i did. sometimes its just nice to follow people around. i love books that meander about the story, and gets there when it gets there. do you understand what i mean? its the same reason i enjoyed david copperfield. sometimes i dont think whats important to a story is the themes and symbolism and motifs. i love stories that just follows a group of people. or one person. like a biography. like david copperfield.

that being said i think there was a narrative throughout beautiful world. i enjoyed all of the commentary that the women exchanged through their emails. it was philosophical and interesting, and really felt like peeking into two peoples intimate arguments. im using the word argument on purpose. i love arguments and discourse. im probably particularly soft on this book because i think discourse is one of the only ways to build a loving relationship, and its especially heartwarming when its done with love, too, like how eileen and alice do.

the progression of the story itself was also done really well. and i guess this is more of the narrative. or maybe actually the most important part. is the idea that all of us are only ever experiencing the moment of our life that we are stuck in. and we have no choice but to believe in every moment that we will be stuck there, in that millisecond of our life, that we cant always see the rest of the world coming at us when it does. its only once were weeks or months or years removed that we realize that were somewhere new and that this is what our life is, at least for now. and the book takes you, as the reader through that process. sometimes you feel just as stuck with the character, and sometimes you can see past what they cannot, and youre just waiting for them to take another step.

i think i should probably find a better way to write book reviews. anyways. i enjoyed it, i think it was well written aswell as thought provoking and interesting. i want to read more sally rooney

[meowmageddon]

September 2023 Reading Update!

Wild that it's already September! Feels like my reading is finally returning to normal after the busy end to last year and buying our house this year.

Following my new monthly update format plans, I'll cover what I finished reading last month, what I'm currently working through, what I plan to get to this month, and some new and upcoming releases that sound cool! So as it's a Long Post ahead, I'll give you a break here.

August Reads Mini-Reviews

Trans-Galactic Bike Ride ed. by Lydia Rogue - 3.5 stars

The stories in this anthology varied in quality a bit, and some felt a bit young for me, despite not being YA per se. Still a good time, with a few especially memorable romps. Full review here.

Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection Vol. 1 ed. by Hope Nicholson - 4.5 stars

Great all around collection! My personal favorites were "Ochek" by David Robertson & Haiwei Hou, "Coyote and the Pebbles” by Dayton Edmonds & Micah Farritor, and “Home” by Ian Ross & Lovern Kindzierski & Adam Gorham & Peter Dawes.

Babel by R.F. Kuang - 4 stars

This was very much My Shit, but also could have benefited from being a duology or even trilogy instead of one book. I loved how stuffed it was with etymology and history, though some might find that more dense a read than they'd like. The shift from the relatively slow, observational pace of the beginning to the tense action after about 300 pages can be a little jarring. And I wish we'd had more fleshing out of the other characters and their relationships, as well as time spent to take the commentary on empire and colonization back further. As my first R.F. Kuang read, it was very enjoyable, though.

More detailed review on Goodreads or The StoryGraph.

Moonshot Vol. 2 ed. by Hope Nicholson - 5 stars

It felt like the project really hit its stride here. Lots of great stories and art. My favorites of the bunch were “Worst Bargain In Town” by Darcie Little Badger & Rossi Gifford, “Water Spirits” by Richard Van Camp & Haiwei Hou, and “Journeys” by Jeffrey Veregge.

Current September Reads

Back down to the appropriate number of reads: The Library Book, The Physical TBR Book, and The Project Book.

Moonshot Vol. 3 ed. by Elizabeth LaPensée, Ph.D. & Michael Sheyahshe

As with the previous volumes, more comics, illustrated stories, and artworks by Indigenous creators. This time edited by past contributors! Over halfway through, so it won't take long to finish.

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

Things have gotten intense in ways I didn't expect it to go (not a negative!). About a third of the way through, should be easy to finish this month.

Speaking Bones by Ken Liu

Had some neat revelations and some frustrating mistakes on the part of characters who should've known better so far. Only at p. 142 out of 1047. 💀

Additional September Plans

White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link

This is on its way to my local library branch, so I'll be picking it up soon! It's Kelly Link's new story collection, just released this March. I look forward to more of her strange and wonderful works.

Loot by Tania James

Mentioned in my previous update, when I received it from the publisher's Goodreads giveaway. Going to start it once I finish Lone Women.

Upcoming Releases

A Crown So Cursed by L.L. McKinney (September 19th)

Third book in the Nightmare-Verse series, inspired by Alice in Wonderland stuff. I'm not always into YA fantasy, but I've been having a great time with this series!

The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan (September 26th)

Adult historical fantasy set during the Inquisition, featuring Sephardic Jewish folklore. As Toba's people flee rather than forcibly convert, she's separated and ends up in a realm of powerful beings. Naftaly seeks to rescue her, encountering even more dangerous secrets along the way. Warning that it is the first in a series, and word on the street is that there's a cliffhanger ending.

So that's what's going on this month for my reading. If you read this far, know that I love you! 💕

[shipcestuous]

Fighting Fish

I have a very long list of canon incest movies and TV shows to watch (and books to read, too), and unfortunately I have not been moving through them very quickly. However, I did watch one this past weekend: Fishing Fish (2010).

I decided to create another Wordpress site for the sole purpose of introductions/reviews of canon incest works. Basic facts and descriptions to serve as a reference for other incest shippers who are wondering if it is something they want to watch.

So far the entry for Fighting Fish is the only thing on there - you can find it here - but I hope to be adding to it, both with new stuff I am just watching for the first time and older stuff I am already familiar with but that might not be known to everyone.

As for Fighting Fish, it is a family drama, an independent film, about a man named David who has been taking care of his mother and younger siblings in a small town. His older sister returns after moving away and their incestuous relationship from the past flares up again.

Everything else you might want to know is in the linked page.