#and to whoever put the suggestion for a au where they all coexist together

[lilacevans]

okay, so it’s looking like y’all would prefer ari to be a werewolf instead of vampire, it even beats out hybrid. so out of the vamps: lloyd & ransom, who was the one who turned reader?🤔

[queerchoicesblog]

Embarassangly Long Post About The Haunting of Bly Manor

So, since @ladiesofchoices14​ suggested it...here are my thoughts on The Haunting of Bly Manor. Beware: it’s a long post as it became somehow more personal than I first intended so I will put it under the cut so that you can proceed reading at your own peril: you have been warned, darlings!

I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor because even a scaredy cat like me can watch it. I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor because I watched it thinking it was inspired just by the Turn of the Screw but I discovered that actually the authors created a patchwork of many ghost stories by Henry James (basically each episode bears the title of a story: The Pupil, The Altar of the Dead, The Romance of Certain Old Clothes, The Beast In The Jungle...). They clearly adapted them, made changes and blended them together to craft a coherent universe, a setting for this haunting. It is quite remarkable, to be honest, and it makes my bookworm self oddly excited. I went to the local library and got myself a copy of a ghost story anthology by Henry James to read the original ones. The librarian joked that it's quite the reading for the Day of the Dead.

[Yes, here in Italy today is a day dedicated to the remembrance of those who passed away: usually around this time of the year we visit our dear ones at the cemetery and bring fresh flowers to them. Sometimes, we bring flowers to old forgotten tombs, no longer visited by relatives. I used to do so: you see, I might be a scaredy cat but I actually like visiting graveyards (NEVER after dark though), the quiet, reading the lines on old tombs. Weirdo stuff, I know. In the graveyard where my grandparents rest, I had picked a 'favourite forgotten' to bring flowers to: it belongs to a professor passed away at the beginning of the century, an affable smile in the cracked black and white picture. I have no idea of who he was and if he still has relatives in this world; I still stop by his tombstone engraved in a wall when I go there. There is a gorgeous line on it, I have never checked if it is a famous quotation I am not aware of because I like to think it came straight from the mourning heart of someone who loved him. It recites: "to be parted is our destiny, to be reunited again our hope". Every time I stand there, I hope they met again in whatever comes next, whoever they were. ...I read back and yeah, it sounds straight out of a doleful Gothic story. I reassure you: his spirit never visited me nor haunted me as far as I know. If he ever did, I like to think he's a gentle spirit, maybe guarding over the stranger bringing him flowers.] Anyway, this loooong personal digression brings me back to Bly Manor. I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor because it's not just a ghost story but a love story as stated in the last episode. The reason why I prefer ghost stories in the realm of the horror literature universe (yes, I do read spooky classics from time to time) is that the whole ghost archetype is so intertwined with psychology and themes like denial, stages of grief, love and loss or they can go darker but I find them a metaphor of the maze the human mind can be when dealing with pain and trauma. Ghosts have unfinished business, most spirits are tormented, their rage although supernatural is inherently human. They are in here human. Ghosts are projections of the mind and tells us a lot about the haunted living, see poor Dani devoured by her sense of guilt for something she has nothing to blame her for but provoked her such suffering to cause her panic attacks. Ghosts deal a lot with memory and memory is a weird little thing. A b*tch at times. I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor because the way the story revolves around the concept of memory and more specifically the loss of memory. We are told that memories make us who we are, they are the foundation of our ego, our truest self but Bly Manor shows that "we cannot count on the past". The past slips away so easily like Owen('s mother) and pretty much everyone at Bly soon discover. Past can haunt you and torment you - Dani and Henry could say a sing or two about it - and memory might not be a reassuring place to be. They might be a trap you keep slipping into, in a never ending journey that brings no join, only grief as you become aware of it. I had tears in my eyes when Flora tells to her mom "I'm not five now, this is a memory" and Hannah finally agrees to go to Paris with Owen but he cannot hear her, the memory goes on and he keeps walking away. Memories vanish and characters feel themselves slipping away. I have always thought that spirits would never forget anything, I imagined them as the epitome of remembrance for good or worse and I found interesting, almost endearing, heartbreaking to see the ghosts inexorably losing their memory and fading away, spiralling down into oblivion, forced into a grim repetition of actions without little meaning, all memories of their loved ones gone. Speaking of loved ones, I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor even if the romantic plot tore my heart apart. But ghost stories hardly ever have happy love stories: generally even romance is tainted with sorrow and grieving. The ones in Bly are no exception. I speak in plural terms because as much as I am so incredibly soft for Dani & Jamie, there are plenty of love stories and many kind of love in Bly: nefarious toxic live between Peter Quint and Miss Jennell, adulterous romance, motherly love of Viola blinded by rage and betrayal, the love of two sisters for their manor...and the most heartbreaking of all, the Gardner and the Au-Pair & the Housekeeper and the Cook. Yes, I cried for the latter one too. And lastly, I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor because it shows mental illness: Dani's possession and decline remind depressive suicidal disorder. An exhausting excruciating forced coexistence with an inner invisible demon dragging life, memory and joy out of you. And there is so much even a tragic ordinary heroine like the au-pair in pastel colours can take. The vicious circle of harming the loved ones stubborn vengeful Viola started must come to an end. I cannot help but wonder if Dani ever visit Jamie or Jamie is right and the new Lady of the Lake lost all memories of them year after year at the bottom of her watery grave. Thoughts on the ending or literally anything about this series?