#and to have statements like these in two of her last novels (books that do deal with war head-on) where she wonders if its about gender...

[finelythreadedsky]

Ursula K. Le Guin, Voices (2006) & Lavinia (2008)

[fallow-hollow]

Heyo! I came by to ask if it’s possible that you could write a Chilchuck x non binary! Reader who has a stutter and hasn’t gotten any help for it since childhood? Like not being able to say sentences properly without suddenly pausing by accident and having moments where the reader struggles on just one word? It’s mostly because I have irl and I don’t see a lot of books about readers that have a stutter as I think it’s used mostly to be cute or uwu- so maybe Chilchuck could try to help them?

cold reading

ft… chilchuck tims x nonbinary! reader

tags… pre-relationship, pining, reader has a stutter, fluff

word count… 882

notes… hope i did a good job! i had a friend who stutters be my beta reader to make sure i did alright, but further notes are always welcome! also fun fact, a ‘cold read’ is a read through or performance of a script or text with no prior practice, so i thought it would make a cute title !!

This may have been your idea, but you were already starting to have some second thoughts about this plan.

Chilchuck was well aware that you often had some trouble speaking, but it was never something he wanted to intervene on without your permission. The man had his own fair share of experiences being babied by those around him, so the last thing he wanted to do was belittle you by acting as if he knew more about what would help you than you did. So, naturally, reaching out about wanting assistance was up to you.

If there was anyone you trusted to help you with this vice of yours, it was Chilchuck. It wasn’t even that he himself was particularly well spoken or collected — no, it was your trust in him from a personal perspective that made it so easier to confide in him. The two of you had always been pretty good friends, and plus, it was rather nice how he never judged you for things you couldn’t control.

Truth be told, seeking help from someone like Falin likely would have been equally as helpful, but if you had to be honest with yourself, you also just enjoyed spending time with the man. Something about his presence put you at ease, despite the standoffish demeanor he had most of the time.

That’s how you found yourself here, trying to read from a book while he sat patiently beside you.

However, this may have been far less embarrassing for you if the book you borrowed for this little practice session wasn’t one of Marcille’s romance novels.

“She tr- trekked across th- across the muddy dirt path, her, her boots… boots covered in…..” Even when reading completely inoffensive narration, you still tripped up on certain consonants and found yourself repeating certain words. Sometimes, you’d even lose your place or space out, and end up unconsciously repeating the end of a word when you ‘picked up where you left off’, so to speak.

Chilchuck stayed silent, of course, not wanting to be rude by calling you out or correcting you in the middle of your sentences, but the long periods of yourself speaking and nothing else did make you feel rather awkward at times. After you sighed and shook your head, signifying that you had given up, he allowed himself to speak.

“Maybe try reading some dialogue instead. It could feel more natural if it’s something you could say to an actual person instead of just narration.” At his suggestion, you nodded, letting your eyes scan the page to the closest piece of dialogue you could find.

…Ah.

Well, it wasn’t that embarrassing. Compared to the other things one might find in a novel like this, it was really rather tame. Yes, you could make this work.

When you glanced up, the half-foot was still meeting your gaze, looking as if he had something to say. You murmured a quick “Yes?”, to which he responded promptly.

“You’ve mostly been looking at the text while you’ve been talking.” One hand gestured briefly to the book you were holding. “I dunno if this is the case, but focusing too hard on the written words could trip you up.”

The statement did ring true, at least somewhat. You’d been very fixated on matching the written words to the pronunciations in your head so as to not mess them up, but maybe that was contributing to this unnatural sort of feeling you’d had while you were reading. Talking to Chilchuck certainly did help you calm down most of the time, so maybe you’d feel more relaxed if you tried that instead.

He didn’t directly tell you to, but you chose to look at Chilchuck’s face while you talked. After reading the words and trying to internalize them the best you could, looking at him was almost a way to relax your eyes. Without focusing on a particular point or feature, you let yourself just… take him in. Register that this was the person you were speaking to. Allow the words to be fully and wholly directed at him.

In hindsight, the method may have been a bit too effective, judging from how the sentence came out almost immediately and with great fervor,

“You have no idea the lengths I’d go to just to see you!”

Hey, why did the man across from you look ever so slightly pink…?

Oh.

“Oh no, no I’m so- s-so sorry! Sorry!” Your hands shot up in an apologetic yet defensive behavior, which seemed to ease Chilchuck’s nerves, judging by the small laugh he let out.

With a wave of his own hand, he responded, “You don’t need to be. Just surprised you’d get so bold all of a sudden.” He then shot you a wink and a point, something that threatened to make you melt entirely. So easily could he touch your heart, yet at the same time it was hard to falter when he smiled at you like that.

“Did a good job on that one, though. Sounded great!”

Either way, if you can one day manage to speak your true feelings to him, then maybe you’ll be able to say all the other things you want to as well.

“Tha…thank you, your help, it, um… it really means a lot.”

[chibivesicle]

Quick reading update

I'm still chugging along taking advantage of my local public library. Currently struggling with the low copy numbers for Yona of the Dawn from about volume 25 to 35. But we are getting to a place where there are more copies available now, thank goodness. I definitely was on some hold lists for awhile.

I have to say, I am still absolutely loving Yona. The series has a great depth and breadth of characters and I'm loving how natural it feels for what is a historical fantasy setting series. Most importantly, the Yona and Hak relationship is natural and doesn't seem forced or wrought with excessive amounts of drama. Just more cute obliviousness on the Yona side. By this point you can tell the author knows her characters inside and out and they are dealing with complex situations. And Yun - he's still the precious handsome boy genius!

Nina the Starry Bride - this story is much more hot boy forward but I love the artwork. Still leaning towards Sett despite his broken boy trope. Though I enjoy the liner notes from the author where some of her assistants have clear ship biases. The comment where she asked the colleague if she 'was Sett's mother' gave me a chuckle. I loved the final page here with all Nina's boys protecting her. I'm really starting to like Holt as well with his nerd with glasses/serious badass without glasses dichotomy.

It appears that the paperback versions of these are popping up fairly quickly as the digital version of this is much further along. To savor the pleasure of reading physical media, I will continue to check out each volume as it comes out. No need to be on top of everything. I'm spending enough time offline or not interacting with most fandoms that I'm in a spoiler free zone all alone. I will fully admit that I can only dedicate my brain and limited free time to 1 fandom at a time and it is still Kekkai Sensen.

Last but not least -

What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad. Not manga or a light novel but still read recently. This novel won the Giller Prize in Canada in 2021, which is awarded to an up and coming author. I have friends who for years would read every single Giller Prize winner until life/work caught up to them. The novel is short and sweet coming in under 300 pages. It has a parallel timeline format with alternating chapters as you piece things together how a young Syrian boy ended up on a Greek beach via Egypt. It also is a retelling of Peter Pan to an extent - and highlights the biases and inability of Western societies to see their own blindness about the issues.

The material is a critical look at the impacts of colonialism (my Golden Kamuy meta topics right there), dehumanization of migrants, desperate people trying to escape the Middle East/Africa for a better life in the vague West. I enjoyed the writing, striking a good balance of details while not getting bogged down by overly complex statements. I've been annoyed by some other recent novels (past 10 years of so) which are absolutely painful to read due to their rambling, convoluted, ridiculously detailed and bloated run on sentences. [see what i just did there]

If anything, it is a shame it took me this long to read it - I told other people to read it back when it got the Giller thinking I'd read it but work - life - moving - new job etc etc. The ending of the book will likely make it or break it for you. Since it is so short, it both reads quickly yet there are elements of it which really need to linger in your brain. Marinate a bit if you will. I personally enjoyed the antagonist of the two children the most a former EU military peacekeeper who served in the Balkans in the 90s and now spends his time chasing ghosts.

Omar's writing personally reads kinda like Michael Ondaantje. Neither of them bury you knee deep in text yet are able to convey powerful statements elegantly. I wonder if it has to do with the idea that they are from countries that were under colonial rule by Europeans (Egypt/Sri Lanka) were educated in another country (Quatar/England) ended up in Canada. Both of them have a globalist perspective on things which I think comes from a lived experience that most of us don't have. I'm currently rereading In the Skin of a Lion, and yes, their writing is still unique but i just get this vibe. Anyhoo, if you want a book that will make you feel things that may be unpleasant but beautifully written than give it a read.

I'm following it up with more Yona of the Dawn and the silly 7th Time Loop light novel series by Touko Amekawa.

That's all for now! Support your local library and save money!

[sgiandubh]

Dear 'Hi, darling' Anon

You are so polite and I am so sorry. But I am not going to publish your ask here. The question has been asked before, in many different ways, which tells me a lot about this fandom's - maybe understandable - impatience. The reason I will not answer it in here is simple: as tempted as I might be, I will not write the damn script.

I am an optimist and I believe these two are good people. It is as simple as that.

However, what I can and will do for you, is to tell you a real French story I will try to sum up as best as possible. You take out of it whatever you want. I am just the narrator, here.

I suppose you are not very familiar with this guy, are you?

His name was François Mitterrand, and from 1981 to 1995 he was the President of the French Republic. A cunning, even ruthless politician, he managed the feat of uniting a French Left in shambles and leading it back to power after more than twenty years on the opposition benches. He truly was the master of all combinations, with an almost diabolic sense of human nature and a cult for secrecy and privacy. So much so, that even in a country like France (where people are rather fond of gossip and backstage gaming, provided all of this is masterfully executed) he was nicknamed both 'The Florentine', in an expected parallel to Machiavelli, by politicos & pundits, and 'Tonton' (Uncle), by all the rest of the nation.

His only weakness was to have led a double life for 30 years.

A scion of a deeply Catholic bourgeois family of vinegar distillers from Jarnac, Mitterrand married the atheist and radical Danielle Gouze in 1944. They met in harsh times, while he was one of the chiefs of the French Résistance, after being an underling of Marshal Pétain's Nazi collaborating puppet regime, based in Vichy. They never divorced, even if the couple became increasingly estranged after the birth of three sons, in rapid succession. She found solace in the arms of a Corsican sports instructor and he, by now a rising star of French politics, went his merry way with probably hundreds of affairs. I bet you couldn't tell, by simply looking at his official portrait, but hey - never judge a book by its cover.

By the autumn of 1965, Mitterrand started his lifelong affair with Anne Pingeot, an Art History student at the fabulous Ecole du Louvre, hailing from a well-heeled family in Clermont-Ferrand. She met him in 1957, while vacationing with her parents in Hossegor, a posh summer resort on the Atlantic coast. Both families stroke up a polite holiday friendship, so when Anne went to study in Paris, Madame Pingeot naturally asked 'François' to keep an eye on her daughter. It took him two years to seduce her, with flowers, daily letters, books, midnight walks, art exhibitions, concerts, lies, stories, restaurants and drama - Frenchmen really, really are unparalleled at this cat and mouse game. They never broke up and if Mitterrand never was exclusively attached to her, she remained the love of his life until his very last day on Earth.

The only real crisis moment in this stars aligned story came in 1973, when Anne really wanted out of the whole charade. She wanted a younger partner, an easier plot and (of course) a child. He relented. Mazarine was born in December 1974, in the deepest possible secrecy, somewhere in Southern France (this is a well-known plot device in any good French Nineteenth century novel, by the way). Her father legally recognized her only in 1984, via a simple notary statement. From 1981 to 1995, the second family shared an apartment in a building reserved for the Elysée Palace top level public servants, on Quai Branly, in Paris. At the same time, Mitterrand kept his usual home on rue de Bièvre, steps away from Notre Dame cathedral, on the Left Bank and made sure he was regularly seen there by the press, the paparazzi and the odd passerby. Anne and Mazarine were always monitored by the President's security detail, of course.

Did people know? Many did and at least as many didn't have a clue. Mitterrand was a master at separating his social life into concentric zones, but even as such, lots of people in his intimate circle had no idea he was a new father to that little girl whose toys they sometimes saw in the trunk of his official car, or who happened to be around at political gatherings. They simply assumed the toys belonged to his grand-daughters, the fugitive appearance was a relative and in general, they knew better than asking questions. Sometimes, he joked in interviews, as in 1986, when he told, on a very relaxed tone, to French TV star journalist Yves Mourousi "a certain little miss of my acquaintance told me I have to be more chébran (slang for also slang branché - trendy) and as you see, I am doing my best". Nobody batted an eyelid. When Mazarine dutifully wrote on her first day at school, sometime around 1983, "President of the French Republic" under the Father's job entry on the yearly data sheet every pupil must fill in, the headmistress thought she was joking and never brought it up again. Some of her school friends were even invited for pajama parties at Souzy-la-Briche, at the time the week-end residence of the French President, and even met Mitterrand. Nobody ever spoke.

But some people did know and could not exactly remain silent. When Françoise Giroud, a legend of French journalism, published, in 1983, at the Mazarine publishing house (!), her roman à clef (novel with a key), Le bon plaisir (As He Saw Fit), heavily alluding to the Mitterrand situation, she was forced by her editor to write a very clear frontpage disclaimer. She also had to tinker a bit with details: it was a boy, not a girl, etc. But when venomous polemist Jean-Edern Hallier, disgruntled that his support efforts were left unrewarded, wrote a tell-all pamphlet  L'Honneur perdu de François Mitterrand (François Mitterrand's Lost Honor), in 1984, the manuscript mysteriously vanished without a trace (the book appeared, however, after Mitterand's death, in 1996).

All was revealed in 1995, by a paparazzi photograph being published by the reliable people's magazine Paris Match, with no intervention of the French Presidency administration to stop it. On its cover, a by now terminally ill with cancer Mitterrand was seen standing with Mazarine in front of the (wonderful) fish restaurant Le Divellec, in Paris, under the caption (I will never forget it): La fille cachée du Président (The President's Hidden Daughter). Body language was very clear (another caption: The tender gesture of a father):

And the good people of France could finally see Anne and Mazarine mourning him, on January 11, 1996, after he let himself die upon finding out that the disease attacked his brain:

First row, near the official family.

As I said, draw your own conclusions, Anon. I am not implying anything and I do not think, by any means, this is a copycat scenario. Two fifi la plume (= scoundrel, but also naïve) B-listers are not a powerful French politician, with a decisive influence on the country's society, media and secret services. The UK or the US are not France, never will be. The Eighties had no Facebook, no Twitter, no Internet and no cell phones, able and willing to turn just about anybody into a paparazzo. Mitterrand's fandom, if you want, was the Socialist Party and its army of ambitious technocrats, not the considerable mess that is the OL circus.

What I am implying, is that no secret, no matter how deeply buried, stays forever in the shadows. Have a little more patience and, damn it, faith.

I rest my case.

PS: Anne Pingeot is a Taurus. Don't mind me. I am just babbling, as usually. ;)

[carcarcraziiv2]

Hi! Thank you for my last request! It was amazing! I am so filled with emotions that I wanted to do another request where Reader is Kayn's younger sister. And here's my idea. Reader is still a teenager, but she goes to high school. But like her brother, she has an alter ego. Reader herself is calm and quiet, and is also a pacifist. But her alter ego is her exact opposite. She is very cunning, crazy, and also a skilled manipulator. She can also be aggressive. Once, when Reader was offended, her alter ego brought a kitchen knife with her to school the next day, but she didn't kill anyone, she just scared off the abusers. Because of her alter ego, Reader was nicknamed abnormal. They often say that "she's just as crazy as her brother," but they try to say it outside of Reader's presence because they're afraid of provoking her aggressive personality. Thank you very much!

This is amazingly detailed and a super cool idea, I am excited to write this! Here you gooooo! <3 Thank you so much for your praise on the last one, i was a little nervous about it tbh!

I took a bit more time to actually plan out where I was going with this one. I hope you enjoy it as much as the other one!

CONTENT: Student reader x big brother Kayn. Slight mentions of bullying, seclusion, bringing a weapon to school, mental illness?

There was nothing you hated more than meeting new people. The past month you had not only done that, but you had moved and ended up at an entirely new school- one with no friends, new teachers, and new classes.

The first few weeks were a nauseous display of meet and greets, teachers trying to understand where you left off at your last school, and you trying to get used to all the new overall.

And the students... your peers... everyone was so difficult and different to the people you had been used to where you lived previously. The stress of everything had been getting to you, and the day you dreaded finally came.

It was a normal Tuesday at first, sitting alone in the library at lunch while reading a horror novel you had found shoved behind some dumb teenage-proof books. Your day had gone smoothly up until then, even though you had felt a tad irritable since waking up.

A girl, one who you could have sworn belonged on the cover of a teen magazine, walked up to you and plopped down. She was loudly chewing gum, ripping her books out of her backpack and slamming them on the table. Unfortunately for you, she saw your glare.

"You don't own the library, you know," she spat at you, flipping her long straight hair over a shoulder.

It was a simple statement, really. You were always so quiet, so reserved.

When her words penetrated your ears, you felt yourself go numb at first. It hadn't happened for so long, you almost forgot what was happening. It was like someone turned you off, your eyes rolling back in your head and a deep breath cascading into your lungs. When your breath released and your eyes reopened, you weren't you anymore.

You were her.

She slammed her book onto the table, standing so abruptly the chair underneath her flew backward.

"Who told you to sit here, of all places?", her- your- voice was loud. Louder than it should be in such a place. You gestured to the multitude of empty tables surrounding the two of you, eyes wide with a craze you felt permeating through your blood, heating you up. "Look at all of those tables! Why here?"

"Jeez, I just sat down somewhere, I didn't think about it," the girl huffed, scooping up her backpack and books without bothering to put them away as she walked to a different table. Your gaze followed her the entire way, hands still flat on the tabletop.

When she sat down and looked at you briefly before turning her attention to her phone, the flip switched again, and you were yourself once more.

A blush rose in your cheeks as you realized what you, no, what she had done. That disgrace that lived within you, the same one that affected your brother.

Your other half, unfortunately. The ying to your yang. The chaos to your neutrality.

You tried to steady your heartbeat and your breathing as you leant down to shamefully pick up the chair and shove it back under the table. Quickly gathering your belongings you scurried out of the library, calling Kayn to pick you up early for the day.

When he arrived, his face was twisted into an expression of concern, eyeing you closely as you hugged your bookbag to your chest and climbed into his shiny black car.

"What happened?" he asked, eyebrows knitted together. You shook your head no, refusing to respond. Holding back your tears was no easy feat as you kept your focus on the school building slowly passing by while Kayn began driving.

You did your best to maintain composure the next few weeks until in passing period you heard two teachers talking about stories they had heard about Kayn from friends at your previous school.

Great, you had thought, apparently even the teachers gossip.

"Two of the same, him and his sister. Is she in any of your classes?" One voice said.

"Yeah, she's so quiet all of the time. I'm certain she will snap at any moment. Didn't you tell me Kayn got into a fist fight with his gym teacher?"

"That's what Sharon told me. What a little freak. I wouldn't be surprised if he's locked up now," you couldn't take it. Naturally you wanted to defend your brother. You could feel through the tension in your body that she did too.

You had to go.

Certain any little thing may trigger her to come out, you shoved your earbuds in with shaky fingers as you made a b-line for the exit.

On the walk home you couldn't stop your thoughts from racing a mile a minute.

Was Kayn really that bad?

Am I going to fist fight somebody?

Please don't come out... Please.

That night went by fast- too fast. Every little thing was upsetting you. It wasn't until you were laying in bed falling asleep while deep in thought that you felt her coming out.

No! You cried internally. But it was too late. Before she had any chance to do anything, your body was already asleep.

~~

The next morning was a blur. Through blinks of haze you saw your hand reaching for a kitchen knife, putting it in your backpack, and getting on the bus. The knife handle was just a little too long, sticking out of the zipper of your bag.

You reached your school, the whole-time sobbing, begging inside your own head to regain control. You just couldn't.

She had consumed your entire being.

You knew she was plotting something nefarious, since the knife was in your bag. You didn't want anything bad to happen, so you tried to focus and regain any sort of your standard conscience.

Before you knew it, you were sitting in the principal's office, the SRO leaning against the wall beside you with his arms crossed. As soon as the teacher saw the handle of the knife in your bag, she dragged you to the principal.

Through the blur, Kayn came in the room. He took one look at you, into your eyes, and spoke to the SRO for a moment. She didn't dismiss the sideways glances from the few teachers in the surrounding office area as you and your brother exited.

"Fuck off! Who do you think you're looking at like that?" Stop! Please be quiet!

Kayn just grabbed your wrist roughly, dragging you along as your other half fought and yanked to go lay your hands upon those giving dirty looks and whispering amongst themselves.

He basically had to throw you in the car to get you to shut up, shoving you in and slamming the door. Your body plopped onto the rough seats and you crossed your arms with a huff, staring out the window as he climbed in and drove away.

"Y/N, you need to come back to me. Can you do that for me, sis?" Kayn's voice was soft, contrary to the stern and somewhat annoyed look on his face. She rolled her eyes in response.

"Why should I let her come back? She is a pushover who would let anyone and everyone talk bad about you as well as herself. Doesn't seem like she can handle the world the way it is," your- her- voice comes out snarky, all the while gazing at the blur of buildings and trees as Kayn drives.

The drive was long, you had to assume he was taking you back to the city you lived before, Kayn pulled onto a remote road right after the city limit sign that led towards a place you were all too familiar with.

The beach.

It was the beach he always retreated too when he couldn't get his other half, Rhaast as he called him, under control. You felt pride in your heart even as your counterpart huffed in annoyance.

Kayn didn't say anything as he put the car in park and walked down the sandy beach toward the oceans waves. For a moment, you felt calm, and you knew she was bound to leave soon.

"I don't want to go," she sighed, fiddling with the hem of the sleeves on your jacket.

Okay... you thought. Maybe we can try and make a deal. We each get our time with boundaries or something... Since we are kind of one in the same.

"Fine," she said, gazing out towards the water where your brother was sitting, his hair flowing in the wind. You felt your heartrate quicken for a moment as your eyes fluttered closed, and you returned to yourself.

You couldn't help it, hyperventilating for a moment before rushing out of the car towards Kayn. You plopped down on your knees in the sand beside him, burying your face into his shoulder as you cried.

He sat in the same position as he was, your head boney on his arm as you sobbed. After a moment he lifted his arms and pulled you into a hug, rubbing your hair with his hand.

"Hey, hey. It's okay," he tried to soothe you. "If you want, I can teach you some tricks to keep her under control."

"I- I- I think I need to do it on my own," you stuttered in response, and he pursed his lips and nodded once.

"If you ever need to breathe, or let loose, let me know. I'll help you, okay? I always come here when I need to think or cool off or just reset in general. Think you can do that, sis? Let me know?"

"Yes, yes," you replied, wiping your nose with the back of your hand as you began calming down. "I don't want anything bad to happen to people. How am I supposed to face everyone at school tomorrow?"

"Oh, yeah. About that, you were kind of... expelled?" Kayn said, a grimace on his face as he weighed out your reaction.

"Fuck," was all you could reply. Kayn rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Don't worry, I'll tell mom and dad I offered to homeschool you," he laughed and you snorted.

The two of you joked around the rest of the time on the beach, taking breaks here and there to just stare off into the crashing waves.

You silently thanked the Gods for your brother. If he wasn't there, what else could have happened?

[archonofdivinity]

Alright time for a guide I call:

So you want to get into House of Cards.

My stupid little help guide for people who find it interesting and might want to watch it for themselves - from someone who has this franchise as a special interest.

JUST DON’T GET INTO IT.

Okay no seriously if you like drama shows this is definitely going to absorb you. I’m sorry about that.

Alright on a genuine note, this list will be separated into different categories - the British version, the American version, and things universal to both.

The British Version

For the love of all that is holy, you need to read the books. This isn’t some weird superiority “oh I’ve read the book and you haven’t so I’m a better fan” thing. The problem is that the British TV adaptation of House of Cards made heavy changes to characterisation. For the most part, this doesn’t matter, but in the case of HoC IT DOES. Andrew Davies, the TV adaptor, made heavy changes to the original intentions of the author Michael Dobbs. Most notably, he was the one who created the affair between Francis Urquhart and Mattie Storin. However, if you read the original unrevised novels, you will quickly learn that this affair was created for the adaptation simply because Davies thought that sex should be a staple of drama. When Dobbs rewrote the books to be more aligned with the show, he included the affair… but he crucially made it so there was a focus on the psychological aspect of it, and he also made it so Urquhart just didn’t care about her post the events of the first book. He also specified in To Play The King that he was sexually insecure, in stark contrast to the show. There are other examples, such as Tim Stamper’s sexuality and the handling of Geoffrey Booza-Pitt’s entire personality, but I hope this just demonstrates how Davies isn’t a reliable adaptor, and how he ruins characters.

Most characters only stick around for one season, so don’t get attached to side characters unless you’re a fan of exploring characters! If you do get attached to a side character, you’re most likely to get more information on them from the books, and some characters do appear in more than one book while they only appear in one series. E.G. Benjamin Landless appears in HOC and TPTK in the books but in the show he only appears in HOC. Bryan Brynford-Jones appears in TPTK and TFC but in the show he only appears in TPTK.

Unlike its American counterpart, UK HOC is much more plot driven, meaning there is no filler and at times it’s harder to feel for characters. But it’s also a quick watch, only lasting a total of twelve hours.

A lot of House of Cards comes from anti-Thatcher statement, and even though the story comes from a Conservative it is at times critical of the hard right. Good for being left wing. The character of Francis Urquhart was literally based on Dobbs being berated by Thatcher. I’m going to put something similar in the American section, but a bit different.

Unlike the US version, there are no specials.

The American Version

This is the controversial version. For obvious reasons - namely the fact the lead actor for five out of six actors is one Mr Kevin Spacey. If you can separate actor from the art and also accept that Netflix cut ties with him, you’re fine, go ahead. If you have problems with that, you’re better off watching the British version.

Unlike the UK version, this is a lot more character driven. You will learn things about the main characters and the recurring cast, and you will probably get attached to them. Also unlike the UK version, the show does not hide its queer characters. While US HoC is not inherently queerbaiting, the Bury Your Gays trope occurs a lot.

This show was plagued by bad writing choices, especially in its latter half. Most people tend to only watch two seasons, though you choose when to stop. I’d recommend you leave Season 6 alone though.

Like the UK version, there is anti-conservative statement in here. Later seasons are critical of Trump and Frank’s nature as a conservative Democrat are called out on several times. He is not painted as entirely reasonable, and later seasons make him a dictator-aligned politician.

Unlike the UK version and its weird writing of abuse especially in the TV adaptation as opposed to the implications in the books, the US version is a bit more open. Rape is a huge subplot in Season 2, handled very well if I may say so. However there are times where abuse is treated as nonexistent, especially one certain scene in the early episodes of Season 3. At times it’s stellar writing of abuse for its time period, at times it’s downright harmful. Some characters also have abuse as part of their backstories, especially for our protagonists Frank and Claire.

Unlike the UK version, there are specials! Namely the promo videos Netflix put out for the show, but there was also a special created for the 2013 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. It’s called Welcome to Nerd Prom and it’s pretty neat, including cameos from politicians and media personnel of the time. It’s basically the vibe of the US version just made silly. Here you go.

There are other specials but… we don’t talk about them.

Universal

A lot of House of Cards has the undertone of classism - though for the British version this is more persistent in the novels. Both tackle this theme from opposite lenses - the British version is about the son of an Earl reclaiming “his rightful place”, the American version is about a man from poverty wanting recognition by taking power.

[scullymurphy]

I’ve just finished BL/FD and they have moved to the top of my all time favorite fanfics. I am going to immediately reread them because the stories and characters were so rich and so moving. I have felt all the feels while reading these stories.

I never knew how much I needed a Hermione/Lavender BFF love story until you gave it to me! She has now become one of my favorite characters. I adore the friendship they built through these two stories. What a beautiful balance and compliment they were to each other!

The dual POV kept me on the edge of my seat and rooting for Draco and Hermione throughout. The tension and attraction and passion you were able to convey was palpable. The pain and angst of the love triangle felt so very real. I think it triggered my own memories of that time in life.

And Theo…my god, Theo! 😍🥹

I didn’t think anyone could replace Draco or Rhysand as my absolute favorite book boyfriend and then you gave me this version of Theo. This funny, beautiful, vulnerable, supportive gem of a human and now I have an obsession with Theo. I can’t get enough of him!

While I ultimately knew he would end up with Daphne and Draco would end with Hermione, and that was as it should be, I was absolutely devastated when things ended between him and Hermione. It brought me to literal tears when he left her to go and comfort Daph bc I knew it was the beginning of the end. They were just so good together. 🥹

With Lavender’s divination background and her cryptic statements about choosing a different path I kept wondering if there would be an epilogue or extra Lavender POV chapter where she has a vision of H and T choosing each other and what that path would have looked like. Does that exist somewhere and I just haven’t found it yet?

This is how consumed I’ve been with this story…I had a dream last night that there was an epilogue that flashed forward like 30 something yrs. After long and beautiful marriages, T & H have both become widowed and they find comfort and healing with one another again. Their paths finally reunite and their love story has its turn. But alas I woke up, finished the book and it was not to be.

All this to say, I would love for you to revisit this world again some day. These characters are beautifully written! I love them all! Thank you

Thank you SO MUCH for this beautiful comment. I can't tell you how much it means to me that the stories touched you in this way. You even DREAMED about them! And to class my Theo with Rhysand!!?? I die! I die! I love Rhys so much too -- it's kind of a problem because I compulsively re-read his scenes. In fact, I read the ACOTAR series right around the time I was writing BL and FD, so there may be a little of Rhys's charm in Theo! I like this theory...

And as for your questions and intuitions about the continuation of this story, I can tell you that I do have a pretty strong headcanon for what happens down the road. I even have a rough outline/zero draft of what could be a third installment someday. I'm still waiting for the time to be ripe to start writing it, although I can't definitively promise it will ever happen. Part of me thinks I should just leave it as-is and let everyone have their own ideas about how it turns out. Also, I'm currently shopping an OC novel around for representation, drafting another OC romance, and preparing to launch a detective noir Dramione multi-chap WIP tomorrow (you heard it here first!!). So my plate is pretty full, lol. But someday, maybe someday. I do miss that world so much and would love to hang out with those characters again.

Anyway, thanks again for coming all the way to Tumblr to tell me that you loved the stories. Your words really touched me. 🥰🥹 xoxo ~ Scully

[roisnoir]

Get to know your moots

Tagged by @genginger

Last song: the Anemone song. It's been in my head for three days!

Favourite colour:

YES.

see: my current art fixation

if you made me choose (whyfor must choose?? all colors good!) i'd go with deep cool jewel tones. dark turquoise and underwater greens and rich purples. but also bright fuchsia and tangy orange and berry reds.

I don't really go in for artist's statements, but in this case? i am actually thinking about writing one. Because it's about rejecting dull beige conformity and embracing color and joy and pretty things that exist just because i wanted to make a pretty thing for no reason other than to create pretty things. It's a tiny resistance to the toxic dumpster fire that seems to want to burn outside my windows.

Last book: I'm between books at the moment. I've jettisoned five romance novels within 50 pages of starting for a variety of reasons in the past two days:

wasn't feeling the main pairing (just… no chemistry. i know that can be hard to write, but c'mon. this is ROMANCE! if they're not into each other, why i am bothering to read it?)

one was the second book in a series and didn't bother with any setup

one was a first in a series and opened with a four page glossary of characters involved (at least the names weren't fantasy keysmash with decorative punctuation but i saw that and immediately glazed over.) this was a contemporary romance, not a historical, fantasy, or sci-fi epic.

grammatical mistakes that any semiconscious editor would have caught on the first pass ("Her and Jane followed [the butler] down the corridor" and male protag "was donned in his best evening wear" (which is a little trickier, because 'donned' is a weird archaic word, but it is used incorrectly here. 'He had donned his best..' would have fixed it. ish.) and yes, i am being persnickety. If this is writing that i would expect to pay or be paid for? Get It Right. (unless you're doing it deliberately, but that does not appear to be the case here)

wildly, lazily anachronistic. you can't just file off the serial numbers on a contemporary 'girl runs dad's company bc he's got dementia and she is trying to hide it from the board' and slap it into regency London without a LOT of reworking everything.

Last movie: I threw in Lilo and Stitch the other day because I needed something light and amusing. Last thing I saw in a theater was Deadpool vs Wolverine.

Last show: …no idea. Nothing current. I watch old stuff on DVD when i need background noise, so Cosmos was most recent. But regular TV kinda shows? uhhhhhhh

Sweet/spicy/savoury: no sour? Sour wins over all because it can encompass all other flavors! sweet sours! spicy sours! savory sours! yum yum yum!

Relationship: 20+ years with my partner. I donno - i think he likes me! hehe

Tagging: YOU! Unless you don't want to, which is very ok.

[banabiohazard]

(Not four hearts, Monika & Natsuki, coming out, fluff, fantasies,)

(Although this is not four hearts au and I will be characterizing the dokis differently, mainly Monika, I will still be using elements I made up for four hearts such as Monika being raised by her Aunt Willow, Yuri being trans or Natsuki's father being locked away.)

Natsuki had struggled with her sexuality for a very long time, the thoughts she dealt with regarding girls had always confused her deeply for as long as she could remember. But somewhere around the beginning of high school she had come to terms with the fact that she was at least bi. That was a while ago at this point, she would be graduating next year and was fully aware that she was a lesbian, she hadn't come out to anyone of course for fear of judgment or word making it's way to her father. But now that he had been incarcerated for his abuse and she knew of her mom's feelings towards queer people being far more relaxed from conversations about politics and news she overheard, that fear was far lesser.

Today would be the day that she would release this constantly building pressure that she was lying about herself. She was going to come out, only to her closest friends, those she trusted most to test the waters, the literature club. Her thoughts were interrupted by a single clap of hands.

"Okay everyone! I'd like to start us off with a book recommendation, something I've been enjoying personally-"

Monika began her opening statement to the literature club, it was no longer held at school due to them never finding their fifth member to make it an official club. That didn't stop Monika's determination, she simply moved the club meetings to her back porch. Natsuki listened intently as the others shared their poems, running what she would say through her mind. And when her turn came Monika turned to her, "Natsuki?" She prompted, She took a long breath to still her nerves before she responded. "I actually don't have a poem to share, but I do have something to say from the heart if it's all the same to you guys." Monika cocked an eyebrow but nodded and moved aside so Natsuki could take her place.

"Ooooo!"

Sayori cooed with interest as Natsuki got up. She looked nervously at the small crowd, Monika, who had taken her seat, smiled wide as she stared forward with full attention. Sayori fidgeted impatiently with her hands and Yuri watched with a similar intensity as Monika while she twirled a strand of her hair through two fingers. "I want to start by saying how much I care about you all." She could already feel her face growing hot, she was far from used to showing her feelings openly, she was still more comfortable channeling it all into bugging her friends or getting on people's nerves to express her affection. "The uh, the last year or so has been the best of my life, knowing you all has made me very happy and I am very grateful. I hope this doesn't ruin everything or change how you look at me."

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes tight, "I like girls. I'm a lesbian." The following moments felt like hours before she flinched at the feeling of arms wrapping around her, when she opened her eyes she was looking out at Yuri and Monika over Sayori's shoulder. "That doesn't change a thing Nat. We love you no matter what." Sayori said as she squeezed her friend tight. Natsuki raised her arms and returned the hug, she let her eyes close again, the words rang in her ears and made tears try to well up. "Are you sure..?" She asked, and Yuri's voice responded,

"You are always safe with us, if you ever, uh, need someone to talk to who understands queerness I'm always here."

Her voice was far stronger than usual, determined to be reassuring. "The literature club is a safe place." Monika added, "You've been my best friend since we were little. I'd never drop you over something like that." Sayori dripped the final drop into the river that broke the dam. Natsuki squeezed her friend tight as the tears flowed, repeating "Thank you" between gasps.

When she had calmed down and Sayori released her she spoke again, "I appreciate you all." She said as she wiped her eyes on her sleeve, Monika placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, "I'm proud of you. That took a lot of courage." Natsuki smiled as she took her seat next to Sayori. "Okay everyone," Monika started again. "I'd say that meeting went well! Since emotions are running high I'm sure, I think we should end it a little early, feel free to stick around to do any homework for tomorrow, my home is your home!" And with a smile and a wave she retreated through the screen door and inside. Sayori turned to Natsuki and cleared her throat, "So, you don't gotta tell if you don't wanna, but can I ask how long you've known?"

"No it's okay, I've known the labels since I was like twelve but I've known women activate my monkey brain pretty much forever." She responded, Sayori laughed despite trying not to, "Monkey brain." She mumbled between laughs, Natsuki smirked at the reaction. After about an hour Natsuki had finished her homework and helped Sayori with some of hers, Monika had come back out a few times to offer lemonade or snacks or just talk. As Natsuki left with a wave to her friends she was happy, her friends accepting her made her think that maybe things would be okay. The walk from Monika's house to hers was long but she made it just before sundown. As she unlocked the door she let her backpack fall slack off her shoulders, she set it down inside and took her shoes off, "Mama! Are you up?" She called out to no answer, she sighed through her nose and unbuttoned her school blazer as she walked to her room.

After she had gotten changed into her night clothes and brushed her teeth she flopped down on her bed, cringing at the loud creaking. This had been a good day, she closed her eyes and ran through it in her mind, 'I'm proud of you, that took a lot of courage.' Monika's words hung repeating in her mind, they made her stomach drop, why was it doing that? Her thoughts wandered to her friend's face in that moment, she was pretty, Natsuki already knew that, she'd always thought Monika had a pleasant lip shape and her freckles, light and hardly noticeable as they were, complimented her eyes. But in this moment she wasn't seeing the Monika in her mind as pretty, she wasn't beautiful. Stop. Why was she thinking this, she'd never thought about Monika this way, she'd thought about the club president's body once or twice, she was conventionally attractive. But never like this.

This was not okay, she tossed and turned as her mind ran wild. Monika was the top of the food chain, she was one of the smartest and most popular girls in school, far out of Natsuki's league, she couldn't think about her like this. But she always put so much effort to connect with her, she played her piano when she was not confident in her skills yet, she read a few mangas every month so they could have common ground to talk about at the club. Natsuki felt her face getting hot. "Oh god.." She whispered to herself.

THIS IS A TEASER FOR THE FIRST CHAPTER OF FIREWORKS, TO CONTINUE PLEASE FOLLOW THE AO3 LINK BELOW!

[sapphsorrows]

“Closeted” bookish radfem-adjacent waayyy too into the YA booktwitters side and at one side I do respect Xiran Jay Zhao as like she does call some shit out that needs to be. Like the review bullshit she should be angry about.

But she is setting herself up for failure this way and it will bitr back. Like I have seen this mental superiority call out persona before. There was another “nonbinary” author Rin Chupeco who made a reputation of not being scared and calling out and being Woke, who than got “cancelled” for a take about use of slurs in historical books. Like the thing is everyone has one controversial opinion or did one shitty thing and when that comes out the payback will be bigger than when you… ironically what they say JK Rowing should do… shut up. Especially if you are so loud i wonder what you are overcompensating for and what you have in your own closet like all these peoples are probably the behind your back bullies they call other people out for. I think she did get close to being “cancelled” once as people got weirded out how she talked about her main poly ship. Like her book is YA, older-YA i think the main character are like 19 so technically adult but the border of it and she kept making if I don’t confuse her for someone else sexual jokes/comments about her main character and their poly relationship while they are barely adult and in the YA space which freaked people out. But i might confuse her for someone else and it led to nothing but i have it vaguely into my mind.

Also she is WAY TOO DEEP into gender brainrot like she is nonbinary with a statement “look everyone can be nonbinary if i could be a wizard with a beard i would but i am Not don’t invalidate” as she is like… 100% a woman to everyone who hasn’t heard her say she is nonbinary. I haven’t read her book yet but i’ve seen a passages going around from one of her books in which she is like “oh gender feelings” and it’s a excerpt of if i remember the mc wanting to rip of her breast as that’s the reason she is discriminated in the society she lives in and i’m just like “girlie that’s just sexism… you are describing an opressed persons reaction to oppression not magic gender feelings”.

And her book too is about sexism. I got an arc of it and I remember that she used the word SEX based opression in there to describe the foodbinding she refers to in the novel… not sure that made it to the final edition. But the fact that’s featured already. Also i need to still read it but i’ve heard her first book for being feminist, has barely any woman nevermind positive woman other than the mc. Like they just aren’t there or otherwise “submissive”. She has tweeted that book two has side characters lesbian and is going to go deeper into class solidarity and that it was on purpose the MC thought about woman that way as a deliberate character flaw but that we will see.

As last one beef i do have with her that she once tweeted about a “girls in the turning competitive world are using puberty blockers THAT IS THE ISSUE RADFEMS SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON AND A CRIME NOT POOR TRANS KID USING THEM” (turning like with trampolines if i have translated it wrong) while I’m just like… that’s such gender brainrot for me. As according to your logic teenagers can decide if they want puberty. While it’s a scandal and probably pressured by the coaches… according to Gender Logic this falls under body autonomy right? Maybe these teens ALSO have very intense feelings that they want to not age who are you to judge that their feelings are from pressure but no that is the wrong way to do it and dangerous compared to the pure totally-not-affected-by society trans kid feelings. Like it felt like such a double standard the fact that they could feel it was wrong in one situation but not the other was baffling.

.

[wardenred]

Angstober 1: Honorbound

Well, I've had my short break—let's start catching up on another month-long journey! I may or may not use the Angstober prompt to explore this new-ish plot bunny in multiple directions. We shall see.

Coming back home from the rain, I expect a tranquil evening with my nieces: dinner by the crackling fire, an hour or two playing chess with Alita afterward while Norra entertains us with run-on commentary on whatever book has captured her attention last. Instead, I am greeted by half of the manor’s stuff huddled in the entrance hall, pale-faced and wide-eyed.

The sight transports me right back to the big fire from a decade ago. Yet this time, no flames dance on the walls. Nobody’s dying.

Gods, I hope nobody is dying.

“What happened?” I ask, tugging off my gloves. Hopefully, whatever the problem is, magic can solve it. My skills are undeniably rusty, but stress has always been my best motivator. Especially if it affects the people under my care.

The servants look helplessly at me, at each other, at the floor that, now that I think of it, has been polished a little too well. I never thought it should be a necessity to see my reflection in the parquetry.

Finally, the butler steps forward. “My lord, there’s— Um, that is— Well—” I will my eyebrows to stay down. Khosh has always been the most eloquent person in this house. My father used to despise him for it. “You have a—a visitor.”

“In the library,” one of the maids blurts, and immediately covers her mouth with both hands.

I want to frown, to tell them they’re all acting ridiculous, to demand explanations. That’s what my father would do.

I am not my father.

I shrug off my wet cloak and hand it to Khosh when I pass him. “I shall see to it.” Whatever it is.

My footsteps echo on the slippery floor, and I grimace when I realize I’m trudging dirt over the impeccable surface. Outside, the rain intensifies, pounding against the windows like it wants to break in. Thunder rumbles in the distance. The last hour of sunlight we were supposed to get is clearly lost to the storm.

This is turning into a scene from one of those novels Norra especially loves to mock. The ones about destitute young ladies finding shelter in crumbling manors and experiencing the promptly falling in love with the cursed lord who harbors too many dark secrets.

But this is my manor. I am not cursed, nothing here is crumbling, and I certainly have no dark secrets that might threaten me.

Or so I believe, until I swing open the doors of the library and a man with the warmest brown eyes rises from my chair by the fireplace.

I stop in my tracks. My heart follows suit before it bursts into a frenzied gallop. I fear that he can hear it, that throbbing, painful beat in my ribcage.

For a long moment, we stare at each other. He’s smiling; I should, too, but the best I can hope for is keeping half my astonishment off my face. He shouldn’t be here. There is no logical reason for his presence. No ruler comes chasing the recluse that got away, not after ten long years. Moreover, in his own words, he never held that much regard for me.

A crack of lightning cuts open the gloomy sky outside. They say the sky's electricity has the power to reanimate the dead. Something about it certainly jolts my mind back into action.

“Your Majesty.” My back protests against the courtly bow—likely out of sheer spite. It’s been months since my injuries last bothered me, even in rainy weather. “I must confess the shock of your presence is nothing short of staggering.”

“It surprises me you’re surprised.” He takes a step closer. “You haven’t been responding to my letters. I had to come.”

The statement makes no sense. No matter my personal feelings, I always respond to any correspondence received from the capital and crown. I’m bitter, not suicidal.

“I’m afraid I genuinely don’t know what letters you speak of, Your Majesty.”

I search his face for signs of mistrust or anger, but he merely nods, pursing his lips tight. I notice that his golden hair is damp; he must have been caught in the rain, too. This should put us on equal footing, but I only grow more conscious of all the water dripping down from my soaked clothes.

“You haven’t received them, then. Things are worse than I thought.” The King’s eyes light up again. “Oh, well. We’ve always been good at tackling impossible challenges together, haven’t we, Rythan?” The distance between us shrinks when he takes another step; I fight the urge to flinch back. “I hope there are no pressing matters in your province, for I expect you to accompany me back to the court. We can take your girls with us if you wish, provided you’ve been passing your talents onto them.”

His order—for that’s what it is, regardless of his amiable tone—sinks in slowly. I want to refuse, of course. His very presence steers up the kind of emotions I viscerally detest. This province here needs me more than he ever did. His court is a vicious viper nest I should never like to set foot in again.

But he’s not just a shard of my past; he’s my king, and I am a lord of his kingdom, honorbound to serve in whatever capacity he determines.

I can’t fully swallow my pride, though. I’m entirely too out of practice.

“Of course, Your Majesty. I hope you’re going to give me a little more information than that, though.”

His smile is brighter than the next lightning flash. “Most certainly. Come. Let’s sit.” He gestures toward the fireplace, as if he were the master of this place and I a mere guest; the worst thing is, in so many ways that’s precisely the truth. “And stop acting like you’ve forgotten my given name.”

As if I could ever.

[mendimore]

The Danmei Series 01: Tf is Danmei?

Note: This is an effort to convert more unsuspecting fandom children into danmei because I need more people to talk to about this. Enjoy!

Danmei.

If you haven't heard of it before, HAHAHA, you are in for a ride.

Basically, Danmei is a Chinese fiction genre (the name directly translates to indulging in beauty)that features m/m relationships.

Mendi, isn't that just bl? Yes, but specifically Chinese.

Well, Mendi, what difference does that even make? It's all the same thing.

No. It is not.

...Okay, it is a little bit.

BUT, danmei is its own genre for a reason. China, just like any other country is rich in culture. I acknowledge this may be a bit biased, but I am overjoyed that Danmei is flourishing. But, anyway, let's talk about it.

If you have heard about Danmei media in the West, even just a little, It's pretty likely that you came across one of MXTX's works. MXTX or Mo Xiang Tong Xiu is the pseudonym for a popular Danmei author on Jin Jian Wen Xue Cheng (jjwxc) a popular web novel site(a whole lot of Danmei authors publish their work on this site).

MXTX has three novels, and if you hear about the MXTX fandom, it refers to the enjoyers of all three of her novels. These three works consist of Scum Villain's Self Saving System(svsss), The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation(aka Mo Dao Zu Shi, or mdzs), Heaven Official's Blessing(aka Tian Guan Ci Fu, or tgcf). The first of their works to become very popular was mdzs, which has several adaptations(basically any adaptation you can think of). If you were into cdramas at all around 2019, you might have heard of The Untamed. The majorly successful live-action adaptation of mdzs. Or maybe if you are in the anime/donghua community, you heard about the mdzs donghua adaptation. And if you were a fandom child who found Ao3 at the right time, you might know of "Sexy Times with WangXian" which broke Ao3 with the number of tags it had and forced Ao3 to have a tag limit, or a fanfic of the lead actors of The Untamed making Ao3 illegal in China.

Have I scared you? Sorry. Truly, the mdzs fandom is not as problematic as it sounds. I started my own Danmei journey with mdzs, and it holds a soft spot in my heart. I also have way too many opinions on the adaptations and how new viewers of mdzs should approach it to get the maximum emotional value, but that is a discussion for another time.

Anyway, Heaven Official's Blessing, also skyrocketed in popularity when it came out. It has its own donghua that you can find on Netflix with a fully English dub. As well as an extremely beautiful manhua and audiodrama. But of course, I encourage you to read the novels first, especialy because these adaptations are not finished, unlike mdzs.

Scum Villain is the heavily underrated middle child as far as adaptations go. It absolutely does not mean that it is bad. It isn't. I don't wanna get into the debate about how someone isn't a true mxtx fan if they haven't read it, and how it's so much better than the other books. I personally disagree with the last statement. I do also hold a lot of love for Scum Villain, Shen Qingqiu is one of my favorite MCs of all time, the premise is a lot more relatable than the other two, but it's pretty clear that svsss is Mxtx's oldest work. She has definitely been improving. Obviously. go read it, especially if you enjoy her other two works.

But, before you come at me for only talking about one author out of ALL the Danmei out there, I would like to point out that MXTX works are probably the most accessible in the West in regards to Danmeis. They were the first to get a full English translation and along with 2ha (The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun, another very popular danmei written my an author under the name Meatbun), I was able to see them perching on their own little stand in Barnes and Noble.

So, you may have noticed something. I talk a lot about the web novels. maybe if you're into bl or yaoi, you will notice that a lot of those adaptations are in the form of graphic novels. Why is it that there is more emphasis on the actual novel? I know I know, why do these people want to make us actually just READ words instead of look at pretty pictures of pretty people. Disgusting. I understand your pain. I actually do not have anything largely conclusive to tell you why this is, but based on my observations here are two contributing factors: 1. it's easier to hide subtext, specific cue words, and satire in text media(I mean it's pretty clear when a character is desperately holding on to another character, yelling "My, love, when will you return," when you skim through a manhua, then if there are just a bunch of words), this also means its easier to hide from censorship; 2. the Chinese language itself is very poetic and if you have interacted with Chinese people, the number of references and idioms will drive you nuts as a language learner, in manhua form it can lose some of its humor and imagery, particularly with Danmei because a lot of the subject matter and the nature of the romances is kind of idealized and poetic; 3. Danmei is actually very plot-centric, the romance is often like a little cherry on top of the mounds of story, drama, and character, and so when you see even manhua or donghua adaptations of the stories, I would say that often quite a bit of the depth gets lost for the characters and the story, it's the same as what happens with a lot of blockbuster films. I'm sorry but book >>> movie almost every time.

Of course, there are options for you if you are stuck on graphic novel-style stories. Chinese manhua generally has a distinctly pretty and clean style. It does depend on the artist, obviously, but if you are a huge fan of pretty art, I tell you Manhua knows what's up, just give it a shot.

Anyway, all this yammering and I haven't talked about the actual content.

Many things set a lot of Danmei apart, content-wise. Chinese fiction has its own fantasy genres of wuxia and Xianxia. Wuxia, translating directly to martial hero, is a low fantasy genre that centers around martial arts in a historical au including sects, master-apprentice relationships, cool fights, etc. It has a lot less supernatural or magical elements, and instead often focuses on what is feasible with the human body alone. Xianxia on the other hand(translating directly to immortal Hero), can vary with very cool magic systems and worldbuilding based on Daoist and/or Buddhist influences. Xianxia is high fantasy and often includes supernatural themes, immortality, spiritual cultivation, etc. It may include mentions of the three realms. where you can ascend to godhood, haunt the mortal realms being unable to find the land of the dead, or go through the cycle of reincarnation.

Danmei can be based in some Chinese historical settings as well, separate from wuxia and can be from ancient times or during the more recent period of militant china, often with some emphasis on Peking opera.

Of course, Danmei has plenty of works set in contemporary or futuristic timelines as well that are similarly unique in their own way.(right now I just started Little Mushroom, and I really enjoy the futuristic worldbuilding so far)

Additionally, I mentioned before that Danmei is in fact very plot and character-centric.

Ha, yeah right, Mendi. Plot. The plot is romance, that is the genre, what plot could there possibly be.

Well. A whole lot.

I gave you a little taste with the mentions of some cool worldbuilding, but you will get a taste of insurmountable joy and boundless despair, reading some of this stuff. Many of your favorite tropes appear often, from enemies to lovers to pretty guys with long hair falling down cliffs(ok that is just an MXTX thing, I don't care if you think my taste is basic because i love MXTX, the stories are good). Also, you get a dose of east asian ideals and culture. For Asian Americans like me, it was very refreshing to feel somewhat understood in a way that I didn't see in Western media. The emphasis on family relationships, age hierarchies, reputation, and the way your asian aunties will gossip about you both right in front of you and behind you and have no sense of boundaries, and dramatic-ass idioms(iykyk). The way that these relationships are built is through the plot, and that is something I miss sometimes with a lot of the romances I've read. There are plenty of points of interest, from being do-gooders trying to be a good person and then getting roped into and wrongfully blamed for some elaborate scheme, or a hefty, intricate revenge plot based on some deep hatred and a not so healthy does of body horror. You will have a blast.

So, now that I have sold you on danmei content. Let's talk about another factor why you may not already be a Danmei enjoyer.

Danmei is enjoyed by many women in China and internationally, which also means there is a lot of controversy regarding the fetishization of m/m relationships. While I agree that this is a problem, I disagree that enjoying a gay romance is fetishization. it can be, but it more than often is not. Just like how I can enjoy a poetic, well-set-up, straight romance, I enjoy a lot of really beautiful Danmei stories in much the same way. For a lot of Chinese women, Danmei allows them to remove the societal constraints put on women in a relationship. it's a way of escapism, this might also be a reason as to why a lot of these romances are so poetic, even if tragic at times. Having the stigmatism of fetishization might push more heteronormativity into media. As long as you can enjoy the romance healthily, appreciating the characters as characters, and the plot as plot, and not specifically enjoy the fact that the relationship is between two gay men, you should be in the clear. The fact that some people are driven away from these stories because of the stigmas around boy's love saddens me. You don't have to be a connoisseur or anything, but if the sole reason you reject a piece of media is because it has a gay pairing in it, that is pretty homophobic. Although I will say, there is a difference between not wanting to read it because it's gay and not wanting to read it because you don't want to read smut. I understand some Danmei has smut, and some people aren't comfortable reading that, ok. But if you are intrigued by the premise, I would say just do your best to skip the smut scenes, if you really don't wanna, ok, but I think for things like smut, you can really get away with not reading it usually. Also if you think all danmei has smut, you are sorely mistaken. There are plenty of Danmei fics with no smut, and a lot of the adaptations sometimes don't even have real romance, which is sad, but if that is your concern, seriously don't. Also, in regards to censorship, if that is your issue. Unfortunately yes, it is an issue, but, there are plenty of options in the Danmei world, I'm certain you will find something.

Anyway, some of this is just my opinion, I am still actually relatively new to Danmei, I have read my fair share, but if this encouraged you to get into some Danmei, I have fulfilled my mission.

I will be back, probably talking about mdzs adaptations next time or some recs or working on some reviews, but I hope you enjoyed!

NOTE: About MXTX official translations, I have heard some mixed reviews. I, personally, read all three of the works as popular fan translations online, so I have not reread the full official translation. I have heard there are some distinct changes, including smushing some of the chapters together, which is something I am not sure about. it's unfortunate, but its only something to keep in mind. The novels should still be faithful to the original story.

[trans-snick-the-porcupine]

i guess i'll sort of reveal some thoughts i had about my writing as of late. don't worry i'm planning on getting back to it tomorrow and etc. but i started suddenly thinking i need to be more honest about my mental health.

(Adding a Read More so ppl can avoid potentially triggering subject matter)

We'll finally reveal that not long ago we tried to submit more poems and etc. to literary magazines but decided I might honestly not pursue doing this much longer because I was never a writer who liked to conform to these things and I just don't have the money to keep doing it. Rejections happen; it's a fact of life, but it hurt because I constantly felt like I only had a few years to live. I started feeling bad about myself because all of my work is mainly fanfiction and I want to actually make a difference in the art or literary world before I die. Comparing our fanfics to others on Ao3 hurts us a lot because we end feeling like our work ultimately is worthless after about 10+ years so it got to where we felt ashamed to read others' works. And adding to just feeling like you won't survive the country I was stressing myself out to finish what I could to make my voice heard, and it's not a good way to enjoy your writing, especially when it's an important tool against fascism. Managing our DID to try to focus on our many projects is hard too, because sometimes we are indecisive on what to write to where 5 hours will suddenly pass and we haven't done a damned thing.

Well, I had to take a break last week because our therapist didn't feel safe with us being alone on the holiday because I told her I wanted to buy a rope; I was so terrified of RFK's statements that I genuinely believed the world didn't want us to be here anymore.

If I didn’t agree for my therapist to do this btw, they would've got a judge to actually institutionalize us again. My statements were that bad.

Over at the hospital though I was treated with kindness and felt loved like a genuine human being, and...it reminded me that people give a shit about us and it made us cry. I felt so numb to people's compliments and concern over us that my self-hate overshadowed everything.

I almost just feel determined to just write myself to a grave and not care cause I always felt like God hated me and I was always meant to be punished in anything I did. It doesn't make sense, but I have a lot of religious guilt still in me. I have multiple extremely vivid DID memories I wrote as fics that show that and it always felt pulling out my bloodied healing stitches all over again to some god in a glass throne and I HATED IT.

I know it's just fanfiction and I shouldn't think too hard on it, as usual.

But I can't help but laugh all of my major output that rivals most published books were written mainly about two faggot hedgehogs and that's prob what we’re going to be remembered for in our family similar to Tezuka's kinky drawings being discovered in his desk but our biological sister is sitting on a sonic the hedgehog novel equivalent to multiple war and peace's on our computer.

[lunaamatista]

There seems to be a fair amount of confusion over what this means in the notes, so I wanted to give my two cents. Most of this comes from the answers linked in the helpful FAQ linked over in Mr. Gaiman’s Tumblr, but I’ll still quote relevant parts of posts or external sources whether they are included in there or not. I’m only including the questions, in bold, when the quoted parts would not be understood without them.

To the statements saying that Aziraphale and Crowley were “intended to be canon back in the 90s” and “planned as in love since the ‘90s,” we’ve received quite the clear answer on this before:

I don’t think of Good Omens the novel as a love story – we were making it up as we went along. [x]

However, the TV show is. 

I definitely planned Good Omens the series as a love story. [x]

We do also know why this is the case:

I think that the TV series leans in more to Aziraphale and Crowley and away from Adam and the Them, but that has more to do with the nature of TV and Adam and the Them not turning up for eleven years after the story begins. [x]

I needed to make Crowley and Aziraphale the stars, which meant they needed more of a plot than they had in the book. [x]

Mostly because the show needed focus, and because it solved the narrative problems of neither of them being in episode 3. [x]

It gave me a shape to Crowley and Aziraphale and let them be the stars of the show. But it also made it all much easier to get to the plot that Terry and I had talked about for the second book. [x]

It should go without saying that they are in love in the TV series, but what about the book? We do have an answer for that, as well:

I have, for the last thirty years, believed firmly that anything anybody wants to bring to their Aziraphale and Crowley [...] headcanon is good with me. [...] As far as I’m concerned, what’s on the page or on the screen is the Only Truth, and anything imagined beyond that is headcanon, so at best I’d just be telling you what I (half a book author, whole TV series author) happen to think. [x]

I understand that could feel non-conclusive, but I’ll give some of my personal input here. 

Sometimes, stories and characters have a life of their own, outside of what the authors intented. This is rather known a phenomenon: 

Many fiction writers say that their characters seem to have minds of their own. [...]  This feeling, the “illusion of independent agency,” is quite common. [...]  Marjorie Taylor surveyed 50 fiction authors and found that a full 92 percent of them experienced this phenomenon of their characters having their own agency. [...]  Mary Watkins has documented evidence of many famous authors who insist that their characters are autonomous and out of their control. [x]

(This, I might add, rings true for my experience while I was sole editor in a literary circle for three years of my time as a Literature student, and for my experience having worked as an editor for half a decade after that).

While I cannot say for certain whether Neil Gaiman (or Terry Pratchett) believes that this is the case for these particular characters, I don’t particularly feel it’s too far-fetched to think so—do note the discussion of the characters as if they were “old friends” with some autonomy, rather than characters who only exist as the words they put to the page:

Terry Pratchett and I were talking about Crowley and Aziraphale over dinner the other night and wondering what they'd been up to ("...on the South Downs? You really think so?"). It was very pleasant, honestly, like catching up with news of old friends. [x] 

It’s not that they didn’t know what their relationship could have looked like to other people in the book itself, and when the only point of reference was the book...

Q. I had read it as Anathema thinking that she had, in fact, just been run over by a very campy gay couple, and a campy gay couple wouldn't harm her. But my mum read this as Anathema, who she thought could feel that Crowley was a demon, realizing that she was also in the presence of an angel, and an angel wouldn't harm her. A. The version that Terry and I had in mind when we wrote it was the former. [...]  She thinks they’re gay. And she was safe. [x]

(In regards to Fandom making a Good Omens primer post back in 2019, when the first season aired). This is so lovely. And inspiring. And an honour. Thank you, Tumblr folk. I think my only correction of any kind would be that people have been shipping Crowley and Aziraphale since the Book was published in 1990. [x]

...but if I had to guess, going back to that very first quote that “we were making it up as we went along,” Gaiman could possibly not want to attribute intentionality to an element of a book whose creation is recounted as being fairly unplanned (I’d expect a lot of people involved in fandoms would be aware of how tiring it is to fans for authors to retroactively make these claims), and especially not a book co-written by someone who is no longer around to weigh on this himself, a sentiment we do arguably have at least a notion of: 

I'm not going to change what's in the book [...] without consulation with my co-author. [x] 

Lastly, a story can have characters in love without being a love story, as the latter is generally understood to be a narrative about a love affair or a tale of characters’ love. Like with many other parts of literature, there is no strict guideline on the beats a love story needs to include, but there are infinite resources on structuring one and, other than directly calling it a love story, Gaiman has explicitly said it is written with the beats of one: 

I wrote the TV series with the beats of a love story. [x]

I'm sad you didn't perceive Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship as a love story that begins on a wall in Eden and which we leave in the Ritz to "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square". It may make you feel better if I assure you that lots of people did see the love story there. [x]

PS — I feel I’d be remiss not to mention that some people go as far to make a distinction between a “love story” and a “romance,” with the former not necessarily requiring the happy ending that the latter does. This was a bit of a hot topic of debate in the publishing world in the mid 2010s as, per the Romance Writers of America association, romance had the following elements: 

Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. A writer can include as many subplots as he/she wants as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel. An Emotionally Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love. [x]

I cannot claim which definition Gaiman subscribes to, but if it is any consolation, we do have the following:

Season 3 is all planned and plotted and, if I get to make it, will take the story and the people in it we care about to a satisfying end. [x]

Q. Please, we need to know everything will be ok. A. Everything will be okay. [x]

Q. You did say everything would be okay, and thankfully we all know a writer would never lie! A. I wouldn’t lie about that, anyway. [x]

Hello!! I have a question about the ending of s2 ep6 (loved the season by the way!!)

What lead you to making Crowley kiss aziraphale? In the past i recall you mentioning that you felt unsure to stray too far from the original material or say anything new about their relationship without Terry Pratchett being here so i wonder what caused you to change your mind? Not complaining, just curious :)

I said I wasn't going to change anything about the nature of their relationship in the first book, and I didn't. I know what Terry and I had planned for the sequel, though.

[bookmuseum]

[REVIEW] The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder

4/5 stars (★★★★)

I wrote most of this review as I finished up the last half of this book then revised it after I got to the last page. I binge-read The Devil of Nanking in less than 24 hours, which I guess speaks to its allure as a novel, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re coming in wanting a culturally relevant treatment of the Nanjing massacre. (You would think that’d be a given, but nope!) While I acknowledge and even commend Hayder’s obvious attention to detail, historical testimony, and humane sensitivity, I can’t find it in myself to say this book handles the subject matter appropriately. I did end up appreciating it as a novel — it’s one of those books you have to wait until the very end to form a real opinion of — but as an Asian person I can’t approve of how Hayder went about this exactly. I also don't really like that the top reviews for this book seem to be written by white Western people.

I wasn’t exactly horrified or felt ill reading this (I was promised that, by the way; this book showed up a lot under people’s horror “fucked up” recommendations, yet I am disappointed yet again. But that’s definitely my fault for being so disillusioned with horror). Despite never being scared — although there were times I was at the edge of my seat, definitely — I did have strong feelings of confusion and undiluted disbelief throughout the story. And not exactly in a good or profound way. There were just so many authorial choices Hayder made that I can’t wrap my head around or get behind, even from a narrative perspective. I liked this book, hence the four star rating, but I also disliked it for a number of valid reasons.

As a thriller, TDoN was very good. The writing was professional and, if I looked the other way from certain scenes, I could buy that the book was set in 1990s underworld Japan. (Not exactly all-immersive, but better than how Ryu Murakami in In The Miso Soup managed). Hayder knew how to keep the pacing suspenseful yet not overdo it with cliffhangers and vague cutoff scenes. While I love gore myself, I actually appreciate that she let off on the graphic descriptions and left most of it to the imagination, giving me only the bare facts of what I was supposed to envision. I think the two main murder scenes in the novel were well executed (pardon the pun). That being said, some of the writing was kind of awkward in terms of structure — the editors were not doing their job during the middle … — but altogether it’s a solid book.

However, and this is a big however, I can’t say TDoN was written in totally good or sound taste. Hayder certainly didn't write it for Nanjing/Chinese victims, survivors, and their descendants oppressed by the Japanese. I made the mistake of assuming that, given the subject material and historical context, an Asian person — probably Chinese or Japanese, maybe even Korean — wrote this book, so imagine my surprise when I found out the author was a British white woman who studied and did host work in Tokyo. The book kind of developed a pretty sour vibe after I discovered that, but not enough to not want to read to the end.

It did become cringe levels of apparent that a white woman, albeit one who did do the research (the bare minimum), was writing this when it got to the part that showed the elderly Chinese Nanjing massacre survivor saying he forgives Japan (LOL). Even though his “reasoning” for that statement is revealed to be more complex near the end, I didn’t like how Hayder implied that he’s wiser for taking the “high road” and seeing the humanity in the JIA. I knew where Chongming and Hayder were coming from, obviously, but the gesture was so disrespectful, offensive, and problematic because of Hayder’s pervading whiteness across the book. Even through fiction, it’s not at all her place to make suggestions like that. I don’t care if she consulted a billion Chinese people for this book, it still wasn’t okay for a white woman to choose to make a Chinese Nanjing survivor so forgiving. I’m not saying only Asian people can discuss Nanjing, but you’ve got to be smoking fried chicken testicles to think it’s fine as a white British woman to go the, “Oh let’s all just forgive each other for the atrocities because we’re all human and are all capable of monstrous things” route, even just subtly. Like girl no. I understand that Hayder never excuses Junzo Fuyuki or the “truly evil ones” in the JIA, but she leaves the distinction so up in the air to the point where it’s kind of useless.

The caucasity nonsense continued with the choice of the main character Grey being British, horny, and damaged in an “edgy sexy” way. Her sexuality was well written and brutally realistic, yes, but it wasn’t fleshed out beyond a kind of fetishism. It was interesting how to the very end Grey insists she wasn’t raped by those boys in the van, and how she still blames herself for what happened to her and her baby despite the fact she was a literal child taken advantage of by her parents, medical practitioners, and, of course, the men in her life. I truly felt sorry for her when she was talking about how deeply ashamed she was of being so innocent and sheltered. I know what that's like. The novelty of her complex personal background is kind of toned down (at least just a little) when she started having the hots for Jason the weirdo creep though. I guess they had chemistry, but I don’t like how Hayder tried to convince me Jason at any point was attractive and some sort of sex god. Very ew man from start to finish. (Although his end was more appealing to me than his introduction, if I do say so myself). Don’t even get me started on how objectively awful it was to make Grey and Jason fuck as a sort of "commercial break" from young Chongming's Nanjing massacre diary entries. That was definitely the most Not Okay part of the book. Grey's “perfect” night of marathon sex with Jason happens immediately before AND after we are shown a mountain of violated human corpses in Nanjing. Jesus. White women will write porn out of anything and call it “bold.” No it’s just racist, inconsiderate, and plain tacky.

If you separated Grey’s parts from Chongming’s diary entries, you’d end up with Orientalist pornography thriller versus speculative trauma memoir, which clash outrageously until about the last 100 pages of the novel when the pieces start making sense. (There was foreshadowing, yes, but not well fleshed out enough to warrant the insane contrast between the two narrators). I have zero idea who gave Hayder the okay to go through with this format. Who assured her it was a good idea to write a “steamy” sex scene between “two fucked up but still hot” white people right before AND after you show the rape of Nanjing? Literally who told her that was okay.

It was also painfully tone-deaf that Grey’s “big reveal” trauma was that she had an unborn baby that she supposedly killed herself by accident. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to belittle Grey’s trauma, I’m just saying it’s in extremely bad taste that Hayder so obviously cared more about this white woman’s experiences with the horrors of motherhood than what the women of Nanjing went through, which was a million times worse. (Not to sound like a dick, but at least Grey lived and got to a hospital. The women of Nanjing weren’t so fortunate). Hayder even constantly mentioned how babies would be ripped from their mothers’ wombs and get thrown in the air as target practice for the Japanese army’s swords and bayonets, which is factually true, that did happen, but it felt like shock factor confetti to emphasize what Grey went through. It bordered on torture porn. Hayden didn’t treat it as respectfully as she should have. Which is so fucked up and peak white feminist bullshit.

Another thing that didn’t sit right with me where the moments when Grey was straight-up picturing herself as some kind of WWII Japanese(ish) heroine, like when she imagines she’s in a “house” that “was a little raft in the dark, juggled on the waves, that outside my room the city was gone, blasted away in an atomic attack.” (An atomic WHAT now, Hayder? Do you know what words you’re using to describe Japan right now???) There were a handful of subtle references to the two atomic bombs and nuclear radiation throughout the book. I don’t know if they were intentional or examples of when Hayder was trying to be clever, but it was kind of in bad taste. Grey wanted to be a Japanese war victim so badly it was painful. I did feel for her pain, of course, but when it was revealed her entire character’s motivation was based on the fact that she, a British white woman, identified with the Nanjing massacre victims after reading about what the Japanese soldiers did to pregnant women … Yeah, that was Not It. Classic example of white women obsessing over grisly world history and appropriating others’ pain (usually women of color’s pain) for themselves. That’s what this entire book felt like, even down to the last line that literally focused more on a white woman’s personal tragedy with her own white baby than anything about Nanjing. Like yes lady your story is sad and I’m sorry, but this literally is not about you and it never will be.

Chongming also had almost no depth as a character until the very, very end. I guess that’s because for most of the book the version I interact with the most is his younger self, hence naïve and underdeveloped, but I found Hayder’s portrayal of him pretty superficial and inaccurate. For example, young Chongming’s dismissal of traditional Chinese superstitions in his youth, even for a liberal scholar who supported Chiang Kai-shek, was unrealistic and weakly conveyed. This is best shown with how easily Hayder makes him cave once the JIA come to Nanjing and he suddenly realizes the “Japanese are not civilized” and “[h]istory has shown me that, in spite of what I have long suspected, I am neither brave nor wise.” Yeah no shit. By default, he as a Chinese person would've known that. I simply can’t believe he was that stupid and ignorant, even though the major theme of the book is supposed to be about understanding the pitiful nature of human ignorance.

(Hayder claiming ignorance isn’t the same as evil is outrageously shallow by the way, considering her example is the fucking rape of Nanjing and how “not all” the Japanese soldiers were pure evil. Dear Lord, listen to yourself. It was infuriating how Hayder used “ignorance” as a conduit of so-called gray morality in her book. Because it wasn’t. It really, really wasn’t that complex ethically-wise).

Back to Chongming, yes, you simply couldn’t be a Chinese intellectual in 1937 Nanjing and not know or at least want to avoid the Japanese. Up until they invaded the city, he trusted them completely and made excuses for them, but never in my life have I ever heard a Chinese person say anything of the kind about Japan. Even before the 20th century, the Pacific War, Manchuria, and Nanjing, China and Japan absolutely hated each other. Hayder seems to just gloss over hundreds of years of history so she can make Chongming look surface-level progressive and idealistic. It was a silly pill to swallow, to say the least.

My final words: Grey was bone-dead stupid. She was really interesting, yes, but during the halfway point my fascination with her quickly turned to irritation because she was being such an everyday dumb white girl in Japan. When she got upset that Chongming “made” her do dangerous work “for his research,” I rolled my eyes. “i cOuLd’Ve dIeD!!!” No shit! Chongming literally warned her over and over again that dealing with the yakuza was a matter of life and death. Girl I get that you’re freaking out but how dense can you get. I’m supposed to believe this supposedly smart English college girl who’d been studying Nanjing for almost a decade didn’t know how fucked up the Japanese yakuza got? That didn’t pop up during your research? Into East Asia? Really?

Hayder had some other interesting characters, I’ll give her that. I don’t really like that Nurse Ogawa, who was portrayed as a sociopathic rapist, was trans-coded (the only one in the book who had queer undertones, which I find unbelievable considering most of the plot was set in red-light district Japan). Even so, I found myself growing more interested in the Nurse as the story went on. (That final chase scene between Grey and Ogawa at the house was really well written. I gorged down that entire section in so little time, it really was thrilling). I also really liked Strawberry. The Russian twins kind of felt unnecessary and never amounted to much in the end; I didn’t like them enough to genuinely wonder what happened to them after they left the narrative.

And, this is horrible to say, but Jason’s character only got interesting after he got raped and assaulted, and then promptly murdered. Until then I didn’t find his “perverted freak” persona all that compelling because guys like that aren’t as uncommon as Hayder wants me to think. He was super unpleasant, don’t get me wrong, but not exactly the freaky Big Bad that the book was trying to convince me he was. I think the best scene with him was when he was yelling at Grey to call his “mother” instead of a doctor to help him with his injuries. You really knew he was done for then. I liked that he was stubborn up until his last moments. Hayder portrayed his desperation and complete denial of what happened to him — because if he admitted the truth he’d also be confirming his own emasculation, which he clung to until the very end — in such a raw, believable way. Kudos to that part. And his screaming. That was the best and most haunting screaming scene in the book, in my opinion.

[unmooring-britain]

Danielstown and the Gothic:  

In today’s session we dedicated a lot of time to talking about both the Gothic elements that can be found throughout “The Last September”, as well as the phenomenon of the Anglo-Irish country house. In the following I would like to comment on both of these topics, referencing two very interesting pieces of research. The first one of these is a text by the literary scholar Stephen Ross titled “Elizabeth Bowen’s Uncertain Gothic”. In this he comments on an introduction Bowen had written for a collection called “The second Ghost Book”, which features short stories from a wide range of British writers, including Cynthia Asquith, Lord Dunsany, Walter de la Mare and Bowen herself. Here Bowen states:

In former days, Christian burial of ill-used remains, the evening-up of an ancient score or putting right of a wrong used to settle the matter; now it is not so simple. Ghosts seem harder to please than we are; it is as though they haunted for haunting’s sake—much as we re-live, brood and smoulder over our pasts.[1]

Ross comments on this line of thought, arguing that “there’s a sense of history and tradition already at work here, a version of continuity in which the original reasons for doing something are lost but the force of convention alone urges its further repetition”.[2] This statement seems to hold much truth for the “Last September”, as Lord and Lady Naylor and by extension also their guests seem to be stuck in a never-ending performance of a mode of life that clearly belongs to the past, as the world around them is changing at an increasing rate. This is however ignored at all times, as stolen glances,[3] averted eyes,[4] and in some cases even conversations between the characters show.[5] The novel, as Ross in acknowledgement of literary scholar Sinead Mooney writes, thus becomes one of constant paralysis and continuing impasse,[6] in which an “automized repetition allows for an ordering of existence without the necessity of ever taking action”.[7] This never taking action seems to be what is weighing on Lois as well, as she often finds herself reminiscing of getting out of Danielstown in some way or another, but can never really bring herself to do so, except for in the end, when the reader is informed that she has left for Tours to improve her French.[8] Interestingly, she is not the only one, that is discontent with her stay, as Laurence wishes he could escape to Spain[9] and Marda begins to regrets his visit in a matter of hours.[10] Taking all these sentiments into account, it seems as if the house is indeed weighing down on his inhabitants, rendering them restless, while turning them stuporous at the same time.

But how? If we follow Teresa Trout’s argumentation in her dissertation “The modernist country novel” it becomes clear, that the country house is not only an architectural landmark, but also a social stage, as it functions as both a home, as well as a public medium, by displaying wealth and power and in the context of the Anglo-Irish specifically the wealth and power of a colonial power ruling over the country.[11] Trout thus dubs the country-house a “show-house”, their residents an ever-changing set of actors.[12]

Throughout the novel we can see an acknowledgement of this double naturedness to the extensive use of theatre-based vocabulary in relation to the country, the house and its inhabitants: “Here the few beeches stood, unrelated, lovely, desultory; between their trunks – the tall mountains, vivid in a suffusion of distant light. The scene glittered”[13], “Recollection of Laura were now wiped for him from the startingly green valley, leaving the scene dull”[14], “Hugo was pleased with the place; here he seemed to have stepped through into some kind of non-existence. And here, divorced equally from fact and from probability, he set up a stage for himself: the hall’s half-light”.[15] or “She could not hope to explain that her youth seemed to her also rather theatrical and that she was only young in that way because people expected it. She had never refused a role.[16] Pairing this with the history-infused interior of the house which among other things encompasses a “crowd of portraits”[17] under whose constant surveillance the family is placed, as well as a “troop of ebony elephants brought back from India by someone she did not remember”[18] that has been placed on “two locked bookcases of which the key had been lost”,[19] and the lack of any personal stories that the family members could accord to any of these objects, it becomes clear, that the house is a greater agent of the family’s history than the family itself.[20] Rather than them leaving their mark upon Danielstown, their relation to Danielstown has forced them to do the exact same things as their predecessors have, namely, to wear lavish costumes and throw great parties and uphold an image, that has become more and more outdated.[21]  

As we discussed in class, the Gothic generally speaking presents readers with an uncanny present whose origins lie in a traumatic past which have to be expiated if a viable future is supposed to come about.[22] It however simultaneously caters to a prurient interest in the perversion or diversion of political, economic, familial or sexual acts that are purged through a commitment to a conservative future.[23] But whereas in Dracula for instance the vampire is killed, and the patriarchal and heterosexual order of the late Victorian society is restored, “The last September” does not end with the successful defence of the house. Instead Danielstown goes up in flames, and even if we are not told the ensuing events, one can assume, that Lord and Lady Naylor are now being displaced and the land that their English ancestors claimed is being returned to the Irish. The usual Gothic convention is thus confounded, at least if we do not take into consideration, that the erection and existence of Danielstown itself might be seen as the real perversion of the novel.[24]

[1] View Elizabeth Bowen: Introduction to the Second Ghost Book. In: The Green Book. Writings on Irish Gothic, Supernatural and Fantastic Literature 9 (2017), p. 7-10. Here p. 8.

[2] View Stephen Ross: Spectrality in Modernist Fiction. London 2023, p. 134.

[3] She glanced closely at Mrs Carey’s profile, to see that her exact shade of meaning had been taken. View Elizabeth Bowen: The Last September. London 1998, p. 218.

[4] Sir Richard and Lady Naylor, not saying anything, did not look at each other, for in the light from the sky they saw too distinctly. View Ibid, p. 387.

[5] How far do you think this war is going to go? Will there ever be anything we can do except not notice? View Ibid, p. 159.

[6] View Ross: Spectrality in Modernist Fiction, p. 134.

[7] View Ibid, 134.

[8] “Oh no”, said Lady Naylor surprised. “Tours. For her French you know.” Bowen: The Last September, p. 383.

[9] “I have no money; where do you expect me to get any money from? I was to have gone to Spain this month with a man and last year I should have gone to Italy with another man, but what do you expect me to go on? I have to eat somewhere, don’t I, and here it is simply a matter of family feeling.”, View Ibid, p. S. 90.

[10] “But I really should not have come back here”, she said. “There is something in Lady Naylor’s eye: a despairing optimism.”, View Ibid, p. 159.

[11] View Teresa Trout: Open to the Public: The modernist Country House novel. Online: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42029702 (last accessed 01.12.2024), p. 154.

[12] View Ibid, p. 93.

[13] View Bowen: The Last September, p. 162-163.

[14] View Ibid, p. 230.

[15] View Ibid, p. 332.

[16] View Ibid, p. 68.

[17] View Ibid, p. 53.

[18] View Ibid, p. 27.

[19] View Ibid, p. 27.

[20] View Trout: The modernist country house novel, p. 166.

[21] View Ibid, 154.

[22] View Ross: Spectrality in Modernist Fiction, p. 134.

[23] View Ibid, p. 134.

[24] View Ibid, p. 151.