#boywithskullposts

[boywithskull]

Francis Abernathy is such a fantastic character to me, because he’s not outwardly violent like Charles, nor increasingly cold and self-serving like Henry, yet he is just as shallow. I often see the sentiment that his ending is so tragic and how he was forced into that unhappy, het marriage. As he expresses in his suicide letter, Francis ultimately succumbs to his own lack of moral strength and failure to act (“Forgive me for the things I did but mostly the ones I did not.”) Obviously I will acknowledge that the marriage situation was unfair — no one deserves to be ousted from their family for their sexuality. However, it really was not his only choice. Just as Richard comes to realise (and is quite disgusted by), Francis would rather remain trapped than have to get a job, provide for himself, and make his own life. It reminds me a lot of Julian’s ending, and how Richard says he could at least respect it if Julian had turned them in, since it would show some strength of character, but his running away only exposed how weak-willed he was all along. Perhaps Francis has a better moral compass than Henry, but his failure to use it renders him just as at fault for everything that happened. As always, Francis values his comfort over his happiness. That’s his fatal flaw.

[boywithskull]

People need to talk more about how great Donna Tartt’s sense of humour is. I’m rereading The Little Friend and losing my mind at the parts where Harriet carves “I hate Edie” onto Edie’s wall, and calls Mrs Fountain an “old bitch,” and sits at the window watching the neighbours through the barrel of a gun… she’s iconic. Also the line where it’s said that Harriet never annoyed anyone until she learned how to talk 💀 It’s so dry. I love her (Donna and Harriet).

[boywithskull]

salty water

[boywithskull]

I haven't seen many people talking about this book, so I wanted to recommend this wonderful horror/commentary book I recently read called The Eyes Are The Best Part by Monika Kim. Review/synopsis under the cut!

It centres on an eighteen year-old college student named Ji-won, who is a second generation Korean-American and whose father recently left, leaving her mother in shambles and younger sister in need of support. Her mother meets a new man named George, who flaunts his flawed knowledge of Korean culture while refusing to be corrected, and is extremely creepy toward Ji-won and her sister. Struggling at college and now emotionally responsible for her family, Ji-won develops a craving for George's blue eyes, and finds a way to save her family and herself by... taking care of both George and a stalker-ish "nice guy" classmate.

I absolutely adored this book because Kim's writing is concise yet biting, and Ji-won's relationship with her sister in particular felt so realistic. I loved how Ji-won was allowed to be a flawed person, and reading about her take control of her life and step up for her family when no one else will was very satisfying. It explores topics such as misogyny, cultural clash, Asian fetishisation, and fortune, and is coupled with some fantastic body horror concerning the eyes. I would very much recommend.

[boywithskull]

sunrise and silhouettes

[boywithskull]

a nice day. there's nothing some salt, sand, and sun can't fix

[boywithskull]

greenery and old boats

[boywithskull]

[boywithskull]

A Brief Boris Pavlikovsky Analysis

It’s simultaneously hilarious and infuriating to me how at-odds with each other the interpretation of Boris by book fans is, versus the interpretations of people who have only seen the movie (admittedly, I’m talking specifically about Finn super-fans). I’ve seen an abundance of people who represent him as some sort of “bad boy,” who’s into the occasional drug-use, drinking and rule-breaking - an notion which, to be fair, is perpetuated by the movie. In reality, Boris’ character is so much more complex, and I’d be willing to bet that people who love the idea of him as a “bad boy” would actually hate him in the book. 

As I mentioned, Boris’s character is highly sanitised in the movie; he does drugs, but we don’t see countless sequences of him and Theo frequently using hard drugs. He drinks, but not in the same way as his book counterpart, who drinks beer like it’s water, and spends every other afternoon getting wasted with Theo. He’s both physically and verbally violent, such as his use of the n-word and certain scenes in which he hits his Kotku or is violent toward Theo in the pool. He’s incredibly intelligent, but he’s brash, his moods swing, and he can be aggressive. Unlike in the movie, book Boris is not always likeable, but he still comes off as sympathetic, and this is the core of his character. 

Boris is primarily characterised by love and optimism. In the closing moments of the novel, Theo reaches the revelation that “Nature (meaning death) always wins but that doesn’t mean we have to bow and grovel to it.” Boris shares many of the same traumas as Theo, and has lived an even more unstable life, dealing with a physically abusive and neglectful father and frequent moves across the globe. Unlike Theo, however, who is enslaved by such traumas until adulthood, Boris understands this sentiment even as a youth. Him and Theo represent antithetical ways in which to deal with trauma: Theo, who refuses to move on and lets it consume him, and Boris, who lives in the moment, moment-to-moment, never surrendering love and optimism. He embodies the very philosophy that takes Theo years to understand. 

Of course, that doesn’t mean all of his actions are inherently good, but this only contributes to the complexity of his character. His excessive drug use is bad for obvious reasons, he’s not always a good judge of character (i.e. his fondness for Larry), and he’s made to live with the consequences of his impulsive actions (stealing the painting and losing Theo, for instance). But as Boris himself states, “as long as I am acting out of love, I feel I am doing the best I know how.” And this is true: he risks everything to get the painting back, he comforts Theo in Vegas in the only way he knows how, he admits that he’ll never quit drugs until it kills him, he’s impulsive, he loving, he’s optimistic, and he’s human. This is what movie stans who only view him as bad boy Finn Wolfhard are missing out on. This is why I always recommend the book to people. This is why Boris Pavlikovsky remains one of my favourite literary characters to date.

2024 edit: obviously there’s nothing wrong with having discovered TGF through Finn, but the book is absolutely amazing and should be read and appreciated on its own terms too 🙏 You will not regret it