#austen speaks

[mrshenrybolet]

I sent @laniminella a save the date to my wedding (with a note attached) and I can’t believe she responded! Cried real tears when I saw this in the mailbox 🤍

[sibylsleaves]

This is genuinely apropos of nothing but I am thinking about how annoying I find it when people insinuate that shipping is like, somehow diametrically at odds with being invested in a narrative for its own sake because like……I have rarely ever been interested in a ship that was not itself an expression of the narrative themes and character arcs. Investment in the narrative IS the very reason I care about a ship.

I feel like it makes no sense to pretend like these are entirely separate activities (although I understand for some people they are/can be) when to me MOST of the time, for most of the things I seriously ship, they are inextricable.

[delehosies]

i think we need to launch an investigation into slutty men and their slutty white shirts

[elinordash]

I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half eighty-two years ago.

♥︎♡♥︎ Happy birthday to the best online friend, Julia @crowleyanthonys! ♡♥︎♡

[besotted-with-austen]

Funny little story about my mom’s copy of Pride and Prejudice from her high school years:

Back in the 80s, their English professor made every student in her class buy this edition of Pride and Prejudice and made them translate paragraphs of it from English to Italian for homework.

Problem, it was the 80s and English was not as prominent as it is nowadays-especially not as French was, what with the European Union and all-and students arrived to high school with a very basic understanding of the language.

It was their first experience tackling a text and it was Austen, who is not exactly easy for beginners.

So, what did this particolar bunch of fourteen-year-olds do? Simple, they got the same time edition in Italian. And they copied the passages. Everyone in the class did, so the translations were basically all the same. By conclusion, everyone should have been given the same grade or, alternatively, been punished equally by a competent professor that understood what was going on.

But no-for some reason, some students got a better grade than others when they had the same translations. My mom is still pissed over it after forty years.

(“But hey, did the professor not ask them something else that would have determined a better or a worse grade?” Apparently not because she was a horrible and uncaring woman, but how much this is my mom’s biased memory of the events or the actual reality I wouldn’t know. It is still funny.)

That said, I like the painting that has been chosen for the cover, historical inaccuracy and all-and it is because of the big, soulful dark eyes.

I can absolutely believe that Darcy would fall for such eyes. I can also believe that he would not consider Elizabeth disliking him if she roasted him with such eyes.

[hikarry]

Jumping in real quick cause I just realized the creepiest thing that any 2 year old would realize in a matter of 8 seconds

I almost kicked the metaphorical demonic bucket last night and, if I hadn't managed to call 911 by myself, Satan knows some poor dear that lives with me would eventually find my corpse in my bed wearing the worst old shirt i own - which is a very demeaning way to go, if you ask me

The shit is

I'm fine now. And I just opened tumblr and I still have 32 posts on queue

I literally knocked on Hell's doors last night and yall were left thinking I was over here simping for David Tennant and writing angsty Aziraphale posts

Eventually my queue would run out and Spencer boy would just disappear and what?

Jesus Christ reading Jane Austen in a summer afternoon, Queue features can be hella creepy if you actually think about it

[needycatboy]

step into this deeply self-indulgent fantasy w me. sensory experience intricately detailed and emphasized for my pleasure :>.

you're blindfolded. all you see is void. your hearing elevated, you notice the sound of them walking softly around where you're kneeled on the floor. there is a pillow under your knees, and a rope holding your hands clasped behind your back. you're breathing heavily, and the event has not even begun.

the footsteps stop in front of you, and a hand softly touches your head at the crown, running fingers through your hair. the gentle touch is followed by a harsh grip to the back of your head, pulling you forward until your lips meet flesh. you please them for as long as they like, gently sucking and licking away with no thoughts or complaints to be had.

you're eventually pulled off, and you succeed at not complaining about this despite yourself. a thumb nudges its way into your mouth, and you suck for another moment before it's removed. wet fingers suddenly touch you gently over your patiently throbbing tcock, but only for a moment. only for long enough to make you need more.

footsteps once again tread around the room. you hear a small metallic flicking noise and feel your heartbeat quicken. his low and gentle voice instructs you to stay still, and to try not to be too loud about this.

sharp, hot, stinging wax drops beat softly, one by one, onto your shoulder blade. the feeling makes your entire upper body flush. drip by drip, they patter down your chest, then your stomach, and each pat of wax forces the air out of your lungs.

a sharp gasp fills the room when the first drop thuds softly onto your right thigh. another when the next drop follows only an inch higher up. a quiet cry fills the room when five drops are unloaded at once, dancing towards your inner thigh. their stern voice reminds you to be quiet, so a stifled moan follows the first drop truly close to your eager and hot cock. you don't know how much of the candle is burned when the drops finally cease, your thighs both canvases to your lover's hard work. you only notice how loud you'd been when the whimpers actually stop.

finally, you are told to stand slowly, and you are lead to the bed. your blindfold stays on, but your hands are free to grasp and scratch as you're stretched out. you come with fingers rubbing deft circles on your begging cock and biting into your lover's shoulder, their voice lovingly reminding you how good you've been tonight.

[mercisnm]

'How like a winter hath my absence been from thee...'

A warm spring sunrise over English countryside landscape, featuring two lovely ladies out for an early morning stroll.

While @clydethistles Regency-period-Jane-Austen-inspired AU (Austen AU for short) Affections And Adorations did not feature any scene at sunrise, the moment I saw this photo of English countryside my mind was immediately overcome with the need to see Tissaia and Yennefer from Clyde's story over that backdrop. I can use buzzwords like mutual pining and it's about the yearning to describe the story but then it would be undermining for such a lovely work, and undoubtedly one of my favourite fics of all time. I am forever in awe at the research and thoughtfulness Clyde put into crafting it, be it either in form of the details about everyday life from the time period or of the language of the narration and conversation, be it either manifested as the graceful incorporation of Austen-esque storytelling elements and archetypes or as our author's very own endeavour to write a heart-wrenching queer love story realistic for and true to its historical period setting.

The point is: the fic was completed quite recently and you should read it, or catch up with it if you haven't, you definitely should, thank me later.

Bonus: the lines, before I throw colours all over it like an excitable raccoon on crack:

[wellgoslowly]

old quotes about love that i think lockwood associates with lucy because im obsessed with these fuckers

“and she tortures me, tortures me with her love. the past was nothing! in the past it was only those infernal curves of hers that tortured me, but now i’ve taken all her soul and through her i’ve become a man myself.” - fyodor dostoevsky

“i can’t think of any greater happiness than to be with you all the time, without interruption, endlessly, even though i feel that here in this world there’s no undisturbed place for our love, neither in the village nor anywhere else; and i dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and i would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more.” - kafka

“i love thee, i love thee with a love that shall not die. till the sun grows cold and the stars grow old.” - william shakespeare

“how do i love thee? let me count the ways.” - elizabeth barrett browning

“i love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. i love you simply, without problems or pride: i love you in this way because i do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no i or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when i fall asleep your eyes close.” - pablo neruda

“if i had a flower for every time i thought of you… i could walk through my garden forever.” - alfred tennyson

“when we love, we always strive to become better than we are. when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” - paulo coelho

“in vain i have struggled. it will not do. my feelings will not be repressed. you must allow me to tell you how ardently i admire and love you.” -jane austen

“he’s more myself than i am. whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” - emily brontë

“every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. those who wish to sing always find a song. at the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.” - plato

“doubt thou the stars are fire; doubt that the sun doth move; doubt truth to be a liar; but never doubt i love.” -william shakespeare

“i cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which had laid the foundation. it is too long ago. i was in the middle before i knew that i had begun.” -jane austen

“i loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” -charles dickens

“you are always new. the last of your kisses was ever the sweetest; the last smile the brightest; the last movement the gracefullest. when you pass’d my window home yesterday, i was fill’d with as much admiration as if i had then seen you for the first time… even if you did not love me i could not help an entire devotion to you.” -john keats

[wheelie-butch]

when critics talk about like of course the reader hates Fanny Price for being so weak, of course we all want to slap her out of being so pathetic and fatigued... BRO THE ABLEISM IS SHOWING. YOU ARE TELLING ON YOURSELF RIGHT NOW.

[mrshenrybolet]

PSA PSA THIS APP IS THE SAME AS THE PERSEPHONE SEED PUZZLE IN LABYRINTH OF LIES

The years long search for this puzzle is finally over 🥹🥹🥹 thank you, Charity!!!!! @theytalkofglasshouses

[anghraine]

@venndaai tagged me in the five favorite characters/five fandoms poll! I think some others did as well, so thank you, all of you! It was a lot more fun to think about than everything else going on right now, and I figured it'd be fun to see the results :D

Tagging @ladytharen, @brynnmclean, @child-of-hurin, @kareenvorbarra, @sqbr, @squirrelwrangler, @him-e, @steinbecks, @scholarlyhobbit, and anyone else who wants to do it!

[syl-stormblessed]

Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her btw. if you even care.

[buttertheflame]

Persuasion, "We Could Live Together" and Romanticism

"Although things can go wrong, time will not change how I feel about you."

After quite a few years of fic writing under my belt, I sometimes get stuck, feeling like I've changed a lot. But on reflection, I always liked to keep it simple. I use my ASOIAF fics to persuasively argue theories that I have and share what I think the overall main series is about. (It's my humble interpretation, that is.) Another way I approach my fics is to bring in those conflicts and challenges — and have the characters forge intimacy to overcome them together. They get angsty, melancholic depending, as well as lighthearted and warm in other places. 

What does this have to do with Jane Austen? I picked up her last novel, Persuasion, a few years ago because "second chance at romance" is right up my alley. Little did I know that on the third or so read, I'd see a lot of parallels between this touching novel and my Jonerys fic A Long Way Home, which starts like this: After a post-Bolton botched assassination attempt, Dany fished Jon out of the Narrow Sea and gave him shelter on Dragonstone to recoup and heal...he went home to Winterfell but delayed returning to her with devastating consequences. Since readers have long wanted me to continue the story, I wanted to give Austen some homage, define a few Romantic characteristics she uses, and where they have and will fit over the span of the "We Could Live Together" fic series.

*spoilers below*

After some research earlier this year, I learned that for many reasons there's long been contention that she was not a Romantic author, more of a Sensibility author, but some people have put forth good arguments that she was both. Literature buffs have eventually conceded that Persuasion may well be Austen’s most melancholic and romantic story, exploring themes of lost love, missed opportunity, heartbreak, and becoming one’s own person. In Persuasion in particular, like Charlotte Bronte, she tackled these paramount Romantic characteristics: marginalized characters, close relation between the mind and body through emotions and reason vs. feeling (ultimately arguing for feeling over reason).

The additional Romantic characteristics in ASOIAF of religion/the supernatural (the two go hand-in-hand), self-knowledge and 'social energy' jumped out to me.

That said, in Persuasion, here are the main Romantic characteristics:

Marginalized character – Anne “just Anne” Elliot who lived under the “partialities and injustices of her [vain] father’s house knew love with her godmother, simply because she had no one else to love,” has already passed the bloom of her youth, yet finds that despite her social isolation, she draws and is drawn to the reappearance of her ex-fiance.

2. Close relation b/w mind and body via emotions – (Shout out to Mrs. Croft who boasts that even when she travels with her loving husband by sea, she never gets seriously ill)

3. Presentation of Reason vs. Feeling - Mr. Elliot, her cousin/father’s heir, she feels, does not speak from the heart and is therefore untrustworthy. When naval Captain Wentworth is restored to her, what emerges is a return, as close as they can be, in the countryside estates and private solars of Bath’s polite society. They fall in love again due to sheer proximity.

As for A Long Way Home, the main Romantic characteristics:

Marginalized characters in their feudal system – at first, neither Jon nor Dany were able to seize opportunities based on merit or achieve accomplishments due to competency; through sheer will, faith and dreams they were eventually made to be the hope of others, then found hope in one another.

Close relation between mind and body through emotions - the sensing of the other’s countenance celebrates the link between their bodies (heh) and hearts; in addition, Dany’s dreams and scrutiny of Jon’s Stark bloodline open up and fill in more magic lore, initiated by the tragedy that is Viserion’s death.

Reason vs. Feeling manifesting in the choices characters make:

Jon is in crisis - Reason (treated the incest discovery by Bran with reason, “I will not tell her yet, I will delay it if possible”) vs Feeling (there are worse things to do, worse things to be) (this won) Dany is the Rock -  Reason (considered, “maybe it is time to take steps away from him”)  vs Feeling (wishing not to be a ball and chain; carry the burden; not blame him) (this won)

As for similar themes in A Long Way Home, I'll drop a couple of lines in no particular order:

Lost Love: "We used to say 'if one of us should leave the other, I bet you'll always love me.'" He wanted a life with her. ... I will tell her when the time is right. Or else I'll lose her and this will have been for nothing. Missed Opportunity: "I know that my delay has cost us so much, but it's not the end is it?" "You've known for months! How could you? It's my right to know I'm not alone in this world!" Heartbreak: Yet not hearing him, now, only served to irk her in a way that felt much like a broken heart. "This hurts me, too." Becoming One's Own Person: "Your sister tried to apologize for you. I do not accept it. You are the master of your own life, Jon." “I am Jon Snow, son of Rhaegar of House Targaryen and Lyanna of House Stark. Nephew to Lord Eddard of House Stark. And nephew to you, Queen Daenerys of House Targaryen.”

Throughout the fic, I had fun touching base on the love vs. duty conflict George weaves so well with Jon. He had used his father Ned Stark's values to parse out difficult but straightforward decisions. Stay or Go? YOU SAID YOUR NIGHT'S WATCH VOWS, SO STAY! Although, like Jaime Lannister, he's realized it's sometimes more important to sacrifice name, reputation, even honor, for a greater cause--many months later in Winterfell, when the discovery of his parentage was made known to him by Bran, King Jon assumed his duty to his House and the North was in direct conflict with his love and sexual desire for Queen Daenerys. It caused him to choke like nothing else had. They entered a period of estrangement and division until he returned to her and eventually let her join in him in his crisis.

In the end... Rather than sticking to his father’s values--Jon takes up the risk of loving Dany as a man loves as woman, for a greater cause. To be a husband, a father, a king. Those are no small things to be. Those are the things that give his life meaning! He does not care about the right or wrong of it, so long as they are together. Dany, of course, happily concurs and wishes to only keep his heart.

And so I definitely credit this line from Persuasion as having pretty much inspired the direction in the continuance of the fic series:

“There they returned again into the past, more exquisitely happy, perhaps, in their reunion than when it had been first projected; more tender, more tried, more fixed in a knowledge of each other’s character, truth, and attachment; more equal to act, more justified in acting.” (Chapter 23, Persuasion)

In the end, the time away from each other has caused them to become even more mature leaders, managing realm-wide risks wisely, not risking those responsibilities for the love of one person. However, Jon has still got an inferiority complex and Dany still runs from trauma.

The next fic installment, In Full Bloom, will bring more tests to come, too heavy to carry alone, so they'll get through them together. And though my headcanon endgame is in sight, before then, they will have the chance to live together.

[callonpeevesie]

Lizzie and Darcy are the type of couple to develop several different flavours of Eye Contacts To Make In Public. such as the "can you believe this bitch" eye contact and the "we need to leave now" eye contact

[besotted-with-austen]

Henry Crawford: why would you think that I am not serious about my feelings for you, Miss Price?

Fanny Price: your flippant and borderline cruel treatment of my cousins has given me plenty of reasons to think so, Mr Crawford.

Henry Crawford: *condescendingly* but that was ages ago!

Fanny Price: *flatly* it was four months ago.

Henry Crawford: plenty of time to forgive and forget! Who knows what is going to happen to us four months from now!