#but wheres the tiny human tragedies and triumphs that make a person

[lackadaisycal-art]

Love the energy of the new doctor who episodes, love Ncuti Gatwa's charisma and the show's willingness to take risks. That being said I'm a bit sad we don't seem to be getting the old character focus of the og RTD seasons. I really like Millie Gibson's performance but on a script level Ruby Sunday doesn't feel like a real person to me. What drives her, what are her flaws, what's her socioeconomic background and how does that inform her behaviour, what are the unlikable parts of her, what does she want most? What's her relationship to her mother like beyond aspirationally and non-specifically positive? How does she dress when she's just sitting around at home? What might she butt heads with the doctor about???

[katzkinder]

The whole seven sins and virtues thing,are the eves like the virtues(like how the servamps have the sins)to ensure that the sin does not take over them maybe?

Yes and no? It's a little more complicated than that fkghdf

This is my own personal interpretation based on what we've seen in canon, but while the role of an Eve is primarily to sort of corral the Servamp, less than being the virtue to their sin, it's more like... They're there to remind the immortal vampire what it means to be human.

To help them keep a hold of their humanity throughout the mindless monotony of repeating millennia. Time is a flat circle and witnessing the same tragedies play out on large scales would be grating on anyone's ability to emotionally connect with others. Freya herself comments on this, about how pain and anger are things she's seen repeat for a long time, with no one ever learning anything, and how a measly 100 years is enough for everyone to forget the lessons their predecessors learned and start the cycle all over again.

Enter the Eve. The Eve, who is an individual. Who shares individual joys, triumphs, defeats, and sorrows with their Servamps. Who give the identity-less Servamp an identity, a home, a family, somewhere to belong. Who aren't yet jaded by the world and its cruelties. Who still find magic in the small things, like a good meal, or singing, or dancing, or the way flowers bloom after spring, the first snowfall of the season.

The reason Eves are important is because, unlike the Servamp who is stalwart and eternal, the nature of being human is to be ephemeral. We grow, change, and become something entirely new in ways Servamps no longer can. We create from ourselves new life that's never been seen before, and can share with these stagnant beings a little bit of that magic.

For some Servamps like Ildio, humanity is something they never possessed and need to be taught from scratch.

The nature of a Servamp and Eve relationship isn't so onesided, though.

Where the Eve is a grounding force who holds the Servamp's hand and guides them back onto the path when they stray, the Servamp, to the Eve, is another kind of guide. They, being as old as they are, remember the things we forgot or never knew. They've seen our lives play out in different masks, and when their Eve might be making a choice that will have dire consequences, they can tug on their hand and say "Please trust me. That's bad for you"

Kuro, of course, does this for Mahiru during their adventure in London, helping him to prioritize himself over the world, and ultimately getting to the bottom of why Mahiru is the way he is, and sharing back a little tiny piece of the hope Mahiru gave him in that moment, too.

I've said it before but I really want to emphasize that the contract between Servamp and Eve is a perfect illustration of the ideal of marriage (minus the dying if you spend 24hrs apart)

Sickness and health, richer or poorer, til death do them part, and with death, the person the Servamp was dies with their Eve.

And they start learning to be human all over again.

[bibliopolisblog]

Glendy Vanderah (‘Where the Forest Meets the Stars’) and Luka Pejić, translator for the Croatian edition — Q&A

Glendy Vanderah is the author of the bestselling novel Where the Forest Meets the Stars—the story of Ursa, a peculiar girl who claims to have come to Earth from the stars to witness five miracles amongst humans so she can “graduate” on her own planet. Where the Forest Meets the Stars is a brilliant, heart-warming, poignant novel in which tragedy collides with triumph, intolerance with love, the mundane with the magical, factual with fantastic. It is a stardust-woven story that lures the reader in, grabs them, and drives them to the last page, where they realise how much they’ve fallen in love with the story and its characters.

Glendy’s debut novel is also my translational debut: Stilus, the publishing house, kindly offered me the job of translating from English to Croatian. It’s been a year since—and even if I never translate anything again, I will remember this magical adventure with starry eyes and nostalgia, with love. Of all possible books, I will not regret being given the honour of translating this masterpiece.

“I’m touched,” I wrote to her when I received the answers. “I didn’t expect this to be so… heart-to-heart, because rarely does an author open up like this. The readers will have to feel the connection with you and your characters once they’ve read the novel and all this, like I do—now even more.”

“Yes, I’m honest about my background in interviews”, she replied. “Where the Forest Meets the Stars was closely tied to the emotions and memories of my childhood. If I hid that I’ve struggled with adversity as a child and depression as an adult, how would that help my readers see a better future?

Croatian edition of ‘Where the Forest Meets the Stars’  by Glendy Vanderah (Stilus, Zagreb, 2019)

Ms Vanderah: firstly, I must say that I’m thrilled to be speaking with you, and I’m immensely grateful to you for agreeing to answer a few questions for your Croatian readers.

Thank you for that great introduction, Luka, and for providing this opportunity to talk to my Croatian readers.

I’ll start with the simplest—probably the first from everyone: What inspired you to write Where the Forest Meets the Stars? How did the idea come to you? Was it cunning, so to speak, approaching you little by little, or was it a surprise, overwhelming you all at once?

The story came to me in parts. I had been writing fantasy for a few years (first for ‘fun,’ then trying to get published) when I decided to try contemporary fiction. I’d have to say the setting came first. I’d always wanted to write a book set in an isolated research house I lived in for a few years while I was working on avian research projects. The real house was similar to its description in the book. It was in the woods, next to a creek, and at the end of a rural road. There was even an old graveyard next to the house. The main idea for the book came to me after I saw director Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth. I felt affinity with the idea of a child using fantasy to escape the violence and evils of war. As a child growing up in an unstable home, I used the nature of my wild-grown backyard to escape the traumatic events that were happening in my family—it was almost like a fantasy world for me. When I felt those deep connections, the book started to burst out of me!

Did you know what the novel would be like when the idea was still in the embryonic stage, or did it change as you wrote? What did it look like at its conception? What was at its centre? What came first—themes, and the shadow of the story that would soon be written, or the characters that would inhabit it?

I never know precisely what my story will be like at the end. I don’t use detailed outlines. When I get a story idea, I first create characters and their motivations, then I imagine what event would stimulate my plot. At first, I only rough out the storyline, though I generally know the ending. As I write, the plot usually changes—sometimes dramatically. And as the characters become real in my mind, they develop personality traits and backstories that are often a surprise even to me! For example, some of Gabe’s background surprised me as I wrote. For me, this story started out very much about how children deal with adversity, but it became so much more as the story progressed. The duality in Ursa’s alien/human self-perception mirrors Jo’s before/after cancer identities, as well as Gabe’s pre/post discoveries about his father. Those themes evolved as the story progressed.

What can you tell your Croatian readers about Ursa's genesis? Is our genius little alien girl based on or inspired by a real person? Someone you know? Or did she just pop in your head the way she is written?

Ursa is certainly an outgrowth of how I remember my own difficult childhood. I decided her self-perception as an alien in a human body was an interesting way to show how children often feel when they experience trauma or abuse: the isolation, the sensation that they are standing apart from a ‘normal’ human world they can’t join. Some of my readers see Ursa as an actual alien, some see her alienation as a metaphor.

Many ideas for Ursa’s traits came from my three children. For example, one of my sons read words backward from a young age as a way of dealing with an excess of mental energy. Children are a lot more aware of what’s going on than many adults realize. I know this will sound biased, but I never ceased to be amazed by the brilliance I saw in my kids at young ages! Ursa is an amalgamation of all children I’ve ever known, including myself.

Which authors have influenced you as a writer? Which works have impacted Where the Forest Meets the Stars? Also, I can’t help but ask… William Shakespeare is Ursa’s favourite writer. Is there any special reason it's him? Which Shakespearean play is your favourite and why?

Since a child, I’ve read eclectically—fantasy and sci-fi, contemporary fiction, scientific nonfiction—and I can’t really say one or a few authors strongly influence my writing. In fact, I don’t want them to!

As for Shakespeare, I think his writing is brilliant, especially for his time. I like to put references to his plays in my stories because his plots often hinge on strange or unlikely quirks of fate, and I’m intrigued by that: how one decision, or a few seconds of good or bad luck (an accident, a crime, a meeting) can change a person’s whole life. Putting Shakespeare’s plays in the story resonated with me because Forest pivots on this theme of fate, on how much control we have over it, and whether we have the strength to overcome tough fates once they’ve been dealt to us.

Shakespeare’s verse is gorgeous, but I think reading the plays doesn’t bring out the magic like seeing them performed. Two favourite performances: a magical production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream I saw many years ago, and a recent showing of Twelfth Night at a tiny playhouse where the audience essentially became part of the play.

In your novel, mental illness plays as important a role as physical. Do you have advice for people—especially youths—who are struggling with depression and anxiety, or mental illness in general? Furthermore, regarding Jo—who beat breast cancer—do you have advice for women, young and old?

Depression occurs on a spectrum from mild to severe. I certainly know what severe depression looks like—my alcoholic mother had it. Mine was less severe, probably more ‘situational’ than ‘clinical.’ Though I wrote Gabe’s depression to be like my own experiences, I received criticism from some readers who felt his illness wasn’t written ‘realistically.’ I think it’s sad some people think all depression is severe and unbeatable. I wanted the story to show another side. Depression, especially milder forms, can improve. Finding joy in biology, nature, and writing, and stability in a loving relationship with my husband, helped me overcome more than I ever dreamed possible when I was child. Perhaps there is no ‘perfect’ happy ending, but there is plenty of hope and potential for healing. That’s the message I want to give readers.

Like most of us, I’ve seen too many family members, friends, and acquaintances succumb to breast cancer. I’ve seen many beat it, too. I don’t have specific advice, other than preventive measures, because every case is different, as are the very personal decisions women make after diagnosis.

Your novel also addresses other serious issues, such as domestic- and child abuse. Do you have a message for the people struggling with such difficulties?

Every circumstance will be different. I believe the troubles of my childhood made me a stronger person, but I know that can’t be the case for everyone. One loving, stable person—a relative, a friend, a teacher, a neighbour—can make a huge difference in a troubled child’s life. Find those good people and trust them. Feeling less isolated is important. If you don’t have anyone you can trust, you must trust yourself. Love yourself. Don’t take on guilt that isn’t yours. Don’t turn to destructive behaviours that will only make your life more miserable (I did that for a few years). You can get through the bad days, and recover, and have a fulfilling life. Don’t ever give up hope. Ursa embodied this idea, that even an eight-year-old, through sheer force of will, can change her future for the better.

(spoiler alert) Now, for those who have read the novel only! Can you tell us what happens with Ursa, Jo and Gabe after the ending? We are desperate for more!

I don’t see the continuation as immediate happiness and sunshine. I think Ursa, Gabe, and Jo still have challenges ahead. But the strength they’ve found in their love for each other will be important for conquering those problems. I’ve been asked if I imagine Jo and Gabe’s wedding in the future. My answer is, yes—and who doesn’t?  

How long did it take to write this seemingly simple yet rather complex novel?

I’m not sure how long because the writing was often interrupted. I have written books in less than 7 weeks, but this one took much longer because I had many issues going on. My dad was dying of advanced Parkinson’s disease and needed lots of care. His partner had dementia. Also, I shattered my arm in an accident and couldn’t write for a long while.

Which, say, five books would you recommend to fans of your work? Some compare Where the Forest Meets the Stars with The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey—would that be among your recommendations? As a guess, did it perhaps influence your writing?

As I’ve said, del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth—a screenplay, not a book—had a big influence. I read The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey after I wrote Forest—because of the blurb by author Christopher Meades on the front cover of my book. I see the connections between the two stories, but I think they are quite different, too. I read The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh shortly after my book was published, and I feel that book has more similarities than Ivey’s. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is possibly a book people would enjoy if they liked this story. Many readers compare my book to Delia Owen’s Where the Crawdads Sing, so that would be another story I can recommend. I’ll also mention All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, a story about two youths who battle adversity during World War II.

You are a bird biologist, like Jo. When did you know you wanted to become a writer?

I loved writing poems and stories as a child. My fifth grade teacher once told the class, “Someday you will all read a novel written by Glendy.” That was an inspiring moment for me. Yet my love for nature and animals had a stronger pull, and I chose to study ecology instead of English in college. After I received an undergraduate degree, while I worked as a biologist, I took some writing and literature classes. But I went on to get my Master’s degree in biology. Then I met my husband, also an ornithologist, and we had three kids. I was too busy to do much science during that time. Once the kids were in school, rather than go back to science (I felt I’d been away from research for too long), I began writing. I was honestly surprised that I could write fiction when I first started!

Another big question: Can we expect a film adaptation in the near future? Please say “yes”! Ursa’s fans, including me, would be overjoyed!

The book has had some attention from a Hollywood representative, but so far no word of a movie. We’ll all have to send out some good quarks to make it happen!

What can you tell us about your next novel? Is it in a similar vein to your debut, or should we expect something entirely different? Are you still writing it, or have you finished?

It’s finished, and it has similar themes. It’s coming out in the spring of 2021.

I believe most readers of Where the Forest Meets the Stars thought it to be science fiction throughout; is that something we can expect in the next book? Does it have a title? If so, can you share it with us? (We promise not to tell. 😉)

Where the Forest Meets the Stars has been variously described by readers as contemporary fiction, literary fiction, domestic fiction, science fiction, and magical realism. I think it’s fascinating that the story ‘shape-shifts’ to different genres! My publisher lists the book’s genre as contemporary fiction, and my next book, The Light Through the Leaves is the same genre.

Phew, so many questions… but that's on you for writing such a beautiful novel!

Finally, would you like to say something to your Croatian fans?

A message for my Croatian readers: I hope you enjoy Where the Forest Meets the Stars. I’m certain it must have been expertly translated from the original English, because the translator, Luka Pejić, has written these thought-provoking questions and a beautiful, perceptive review of the book. Thank you, Luka, for all the hard work you have put into bringing this story to Croatian readers.

It’s been a dream come true to see my first published novel translated into twenty-one languages. I’m thrilled that the people of Croatia will have the opportunity to read Where the Forest Meets the Stars. What more could an author want than to know her stories might touch the hearts of many people around the world? I hope to bring a translation of my next novel to you soon! Happy reading!

Source: www.bibliopolis.home.blog/2020/09/14/glendy-vanderah-interview/

[theresabookforthat]

Feel-Good Fiction for the Holidays...

As we approach Thanksgiving and grapple with gratitude amid much news of suffering and tragedy in the world, it seemed the right time for bolstering our collective spirit with just the right stories. Thus, we offer feel-good fiction, and the best kind… novels that take on complexities of the human condition, but where love, connection and kindness triumph. Taking the lead is WONDER, the book that started the “Choose Kind” movement and whose movie adaptation just opened in theatres nationwide - a box office hit!

  WONDER MOVIE TIE-IN EDITION by R. J. Palacio

Now a major motion picture starring Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and Jacob Tremblay. Over 6 million people have fallen in love with Wonder and Auggie Pullman, the ordinary boy with the extraordinary face, who inspired a movement to “Choose Kind”. This special movie tie-in edition features an eight-page full-color insert with photos from the film, a foreword by the director Stephen Chbosky, an afterword by R.J. Palacio, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie with anecdotes from the cast and crew, and a family discussion guide.

 THE STORY OF ARTHUR TRULUV by Elizabeth Berg

Every day at lunchtime, Arthur visits and talks to his beloved late wife, in his imagination. Then a surprising encounter changes his life. Arthur meets Maddy, a troubled teenager who is avoiding school and wrestling with loneliness and feelings of abandonment. Moved by Arthur’s kindness and his unwillingness to take her teenage bait, Maddy gives him the nickname “Truluv”—and a surprising friendship develops between the two. When Arthur’s nosey neighbor, Lucille, moves into their orbit, the three begin to help one another through heartache and hardships to rediscover a sense of family, and to find again their potential to start anew.

 KITCHENS OF THE GREAT MIDWEST by J. Ryan Stradal

Who is Eva Thorvald? To her chef father, Lars, Eva’s a miniature recipe tester and the love of his life. To the chili chow-down contestants of Chicago, she’s a pint-sized hustler. One day, Eva will surprise everyone…Abandoned by her mother, Eva finds solace and salvation in the flavors of her native Minnesota, and a passion bordering on obsession. J. Ryan Stradal delves into the American heartland, sweeping the vast landscapes of Lutheran church bake-offs, chili-pepper eating contests, and the opening of deer season to capture the zeitgeist of the Midwest and the rise of foodie culture.

 I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson

The Printz Medal winner and Stonewall Honor book comes to Speak! At thirteen, Jude and her twin brother are NoahandJude; inseparable. Noah draws constantly and harbors has a crush on the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does all the talking for both of them. At sixteen, they are barely speaking. In between, something has happened to wreck the twins in different yet equally devastating ways. The early years are Noah’s story to tell. The later years are Jude’s. Each has only half the story, and they’ll have to find their way back to one another in order to move on.

 ME BEFORE YOU by Jojo Moyes

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose…Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is. Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected.

                                                                                                                       THE STARS BENEATH OUR FEET by David Barclay Moore

A boy tries to steer a safe path through the projects in Harlem in the wake of his brother’s death in this outstanding debut novel that celebrates community and creativity. It’s Christmas Eve in Harlem, but twelve-year-old Lolly Rachpaul and his mom aren’t celebrating. They’re still reeling from his older brother’s death in a gang-related shooting just a few months earlier. Then Lolly’s mother’s girlfriend brings him a gift that will change everything: two enormous bags filled with Legos. MICHAEL B. JORDAN TO DIRECT MOVIE ADAPTATION! A PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR! SIX STARRED REVIEWS!

 THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY by Rachel Joyce

The national bestseller about the silent regrets that erode a marriage and the simple acts of faith and forgiveness that build it anew. Recently retired, sweet, emotionally numb Harold Fry is jolted out of his passivity by a letter from Queenie Hennessy, an old friend, whom he hasn’t heard from in 20 years. She has written to say she is in hospice and wanted to say goodbye. Leaving his tense, bitter wife Maureen to her chores, Harold intends a quick walk to the corner mailbox to post his reply but instead, inspired by a chance encounter, he becomes convinced he must deliver his message in person to Queenie—who is 600 miles away—because as long as he keeps walking, Harold believes that she will not die.

                                                                               ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE by Gail Honeyman

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon.                                                                                                      

                                                                                                           THE BOOK OF POLLY by Kathy Hepinstall

Willow Havens is ten years old and obsessed with the fear that her mother will die. Her mother, Polly, is a cantankerous, take-no-prisoners Southern woman who lives to chase varmints, drink margaritas, and antagonize the neighbors—and she sticks out like a sore thumb among the young modern mothers of their small conventional Texas town. She was in her late fifties when Willow was born, so Willow knows she’s here by accident, a late-life afterthought. Willow’s father died before she was born, her much older brother and sister are long grown and gone and failing elsewhere. It’s just her and bigger-than-life Polly.

                          For more on these and other uplifting books visit the collection here

[change-the-rules]

5, 6, 14 and 19 for director sanvers

 5. Who usually has nightmares?

Ughh this one hurts because they all do.  The PTSD is strong in this ship.

 And after they got together the nightmares eased some because they’re working through their issues together and encouraging each other to get the helped they’d always scoffed at.

They sleep better all together than they ever have before but there are still days after a particularly tough mission or a call that came too close. Where Alex closes her eyes and dreams in neon green and rusted red. On those nights Alex dreams in worst scenarios, every high stakes situation ended in tragedy. Triumph turned to disaster.

 She’s saved Kara countless times but her subconscious conjures a timeline where she fails. She isn’t able to save Kara, has to watch Lucy die, gets to Maggie too late, is too far from the DEO to help J’onn, Winn, Vasquez, doesn’t hesitate to take the shot that kills her father, can’t stop CADMUS before they get her mother, Clark, M’gann, her city, Earth and it’s just her alone amongst nothing and the bodies of everyone she loves at once because she failed their disembodied voices taunting her telling her they’d still be alive if she’d only been better. 

And Maggie, Maggie hates the cold. National City is pretty warm all year round but the nights can still get downright chilly. It’s nothing compared to Nebraska or even Gotham but sometimes after a case where nothing goes right or another kid she loses to the system, sometimes for no discernable reason at all the chill bites a little a harder. Sixty and sunny suddenly feels like below zero and never being warm again. 

And when she dreams she’s permeated by a body and mind numbing cold defrosted only by the burning sensation of pain. And Maggie relives in vivid detail the night she was tossed from the only ‘home’ she’d ever known into Nebraska’s unforgiving winter without even a coat, the snow that soaked through her clothes and her mother’s tear streaked face, every beating from her father, every brush with death from the time she was a kid out running bullies to the time she lay bleeding out on Gotham’s streets because it was the wrong place to be a good cop let alone a great one. 

Her dreams are grey, monochrome it reminds her of when she first stepped foot in Gotham and she had to shake her head a few times because while everything looked normal enough she couldn’t shake the feeling she was seeing things through a film noir filter. The washed out color does nothing to detract from the details, every case she couldn’t solve, every person she lost, every horrific act humans could inflict on one another, the horrific acts that weren’t human at all, every slur and every insult and every indignity she’s ever suffered, the ones she bore so others wouldn’t have to and the ones that wear hers alone to bear, all the pain she’s endured and the pain she’s inflicted. 

She relives it all decades worth in real-time except not, in the way only dreams can achieve.

And Lucy. Most people who don’t know assume when meeting Lucy that she’s never seen military action. She’s a lawyer and her father’s a General and they figure she got a cushy D.C. job stateside. These people are idiots. 

Lucy has the scars to prove it. 

Unlike Alex and Maggie who can usually tell when a Bad Night is coming Lucy’s nightmares are the most unpredictable. And Lucy resents the hell out of her nightmares. She complains they play out too much like a PTSD advert but their effect is anything but fabricated. Fire and dust and pain and yelling and that god awful ringing. It’s nothing at all like her experiences. And exactly like them.    

She dreams of her father too, yelling at her like a drill sergeant from a bad army flick, Lois smirking from a hovering throne watching smugly before disappearing like she had from Lucy’s life. 

She dreams of being to late too rescue Alex, of her love strapped to a table cut open, experimented on like all the other ‘test subjects’ while Maggie looks on hands cuffed and screaming for Alex and when she looks up to meet Lucy’s eyes her own loathing, betrayal and despair is reflected back at her. 

Nightmares end though and when any one of them wakes sobbing, screaming, gasping for breath, drenched in sweat the others are there to talk them down, to comfort or listen. When waking proves difficult they’re there to coax out of fitful rest. To make tea, or turn on the lights or sing back to sleep.

So they all have nightmares yes but they also wake to a love they never dreamed would be their own reality and that makes everything okay. 

   6. Who would have really deep emotional thoughts at the middle of the night/ Who would have them in the middle of the day?

Alex has the really deep emotional thoughts in the middle of the night, she blames it on Kara’s penchant for crawling into her bed in the middle of the night when she first got here to ask her questions about humanity but in reality Alex has been like that since she was little crawling into Eliza and Jeremiah’s bed because her mind is whirring with scientific questions turned philosophical by the sheer nature of her age.

Maggie is the one who has really deep emotional thoughts in the middle of the day because let’s be real Maggie is a stupidly deep and emotional person underneath that badass there aren’t many people I care about tough cop veneer. 

Lucy can go either way. If Alex wakes her up or starts talking in the middle of the night she’s all wtf Danvers it’s 3am and if Maggie does she’s like wtf why are you having these thoughts while eating ice cream in broad daylight but she has her moments too and they usually come out of left field because so much of her serious thinking she does in her own head. 

  14. Who kills the spiders?

No one usually. 

Badass Major Lucy Lane is terrified of spiders and she will climb Alex like a tree to get away from one whilst screaming at Maggie to kill it. If made fun of for this she brings up a kid who was bitten by a spider on one of the bases she lived on as kid and was never seen again (the kid was fine his father got deployed elsewhere but timing is a funny thing for tiny humans). 

Maggie won’t kill the spider but she will nonchalantly scoop it up and put it outside. 

Alex will try to info dump Lucy’s fear away with spider facts and their important and helpful place in the ecosystem. And will examine the specific spider and identify it the hopes of convincing Lucy that it isn’t dangerous this sometimes backfires on the occasion it IS dangerous bc scientist Alex still finds them fascinating and beautifully built creatures and forgets herself until Lucy is halfway out the door refusing to return until the entire apartment has been fumigated or they burn it down and find a new one she doesn’t care which. If Maggie’s not around and Lucy’s in a particular mood Alex will sometimes kill the spiders for Lucy though she prefers not to.

   19. Who loves to call the other one cute names?

None of them really unless they’re being assholes see this magic but Alex is definitely the one who gets the most into it early on bc like a lot of other things she never got it before.

 It made her uncomfortable when a guy called her honey or sweetie the verbal equivalent of wrapping an arm around her shoulder declaring to the world this girl’s mine. She figured she was just too independent and mature for such triviality until the first time Maggie calls her babe, the first time she distractedly says ‘hun can you pass the coffee to Lucy.’ 

So Alex probably goes a little overboard with it especially at first because it’s just so warm and amazing and just !!!!! and Maggie and Lucy deal with it bc Alex is just too cute. 

[recentanimenews]

Celebrating the Quiet Beauty of Kyoto Animation

When I woke up on the morning after the Kyoto Animation fire, the news was already too terrible to fully comprehend. I think I might have been lucky in that regard - I think it might have been worse to be reading the news as it was released, at first hoping for the best, and then slowly learning of the overwhelming scale of this tragedy. The studio behind such anime treasures as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, K-On!, Hyouka, Sound! Euphonium, Nichijou, A Silent Voice… a studio known for so many good things, from the incredible beauty and emotional richness of their works, to their uniquely collaborative and admirably supportive studio culture. A studio full of young, brilliant creators and dedicated to training more, where artists enjoy full salaries and women’s voices are celebrated, and whose work embodies the unique sensitivity and reverence for small miracles that makes anime such a distinctive and moving medium.

  On the morning after the Kyoto Animation fire, the scale of that loss was too great for me to hold or examine. In so many ways, Kyoto Animation is essentially synonymous with my hope and optimism regarding anime as an art form, and it was hard to hope for much of anything upon learning of that terrible crime. I can’t begin to fully articulate or properly capture all the myriad things that make Kyoto Animation so special; their work is too rich for that, too rewarding for any one person to appreciate it in full. All I can hope to tell you is what Kyoto Animation means to me.

The first time I saw a Kyoto Animation production was as a teenager, at an all-day animation festival hosted by a local theater. In spite of that day also serving as my introduction to such impressive productions as Nausicaa and Mind Game, it was an animated version of a bizarre, inexplicable student film production that most stuck in my mind. The first aired episode of Haruhi Suzumiya is an exercise in absolute creator confidence, and also a hilarious love letter to the quirks of cinema, as we're introduced to the show's main cast through the ramshackle student film they create for their school's class festival.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Kyoto Animation works so often feature in-universe amateur filmmaking; the studio seems genuinely, deeply awed by the power of cinema, and forever sympathetic to the struggles of ordinary people to create great, lasting art. Haruhi Suzumiya’s student film production feels effortless in a way that embodies Kyoto Animation’s strength - only artists with a brilliant understanding of effective filmmaking could make something so charmingly, believably amateur.

The next time I encountered Kyoto Animation was just after college, when I found my interest in anime rejuvenated by the magnificent Hyouka. Chatting about Hyouka on a weekly basis actually helped me keep in touch with absent friends, as the show itself once again expanded my conception of what anime could achieve.

I knew anime could elevate the Big stories - I’d first fallen in love with the medium through the apocalyptic theater of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and had since then enjoyed plenty of bombastic fantasy shows. But I hadn’t realized just how much gravity and nuance animation could bring to the smallest stories, the intricate human dramas that actually compose the substance of everyday life. Hyouka was a gorgeous, sensitive, and deeply personal production, each new episode offering moments in time so perfectly captured that it almost seemed impossible that humans actually made this. As a viewer, it made me feel noticed and accepted; as an artist, it left me determined to keep fighting, and perhaps one day make beautiful works like this.

The third time I ran into Kyoto Animation, I was doing my best to follow through on that pledge, and working unsatisfying days as a proofreader at a local publishing company. Taking lonely train rides home from a job where I never really fit in, one of my greatest sources of weekly comfort was thinking about the next episode of the goofy, heartfelt Chunibyo. Wanting to express my appreciation of that show was the motivation that pushed me towards writing about anime in forums online, a hobby that would eventually flower into my current work in professional criticism. That goofy romantic comedy about the Tyrant’s Eye and the Dark Flame Master literally changed the course of my life.

Since then, Kyoto Animation’s productions have been a constant source of comfort for me. Stories like Sound! Euphonium and A Silent Voice are beautiful in their own right, and also a reminder that some people in the world care about the same quiet feelings and beautiful, ephemeral moments that I do. In fact, some people have such reverence for those tiny fragments of beauty that they’ve dedicated their lives to celebrating them - to acknowledging how our most personal feelings are valid and laudable, and how the dignity and small pleasures of everyday living can contain just as much human drama, triumph, and sorrow as any epic quest. Stories like Liz and the Blue Bird speak volumes in the most thoughtful and gentle of tones, observing their confused and complex heroes with great sympathy, and celebrating the tiny moments of joy and solace that give our lives meaning.

All of Kyoto Animation’s works are buoyed by such magical and poignantly observed moments, the hushed sighs and missed glances and languid sunsets of a thousand carelessly spent days and irretrievable evenings. Their artists consistently find warmth and majesty in the mundane, their works fervently insisting that all our lives are worthy of celebration. The empathy and closeness of their perspective has been an incredible comfort to me, both as a person who greatly relates to their introspective protagonists, and also as a lover of quiet, delicate cinema. No matter the overt genre of their works, that keen perspective carries through, and that great empathy for everyday lives and the people who live them.

I cannot fully express my gratitude towards Kyoto Animation for all they’ve done for me, or my sorrow at this attack, committed against people whose own business practices echo the empathy and thoughtfulness of their productions. I’ve loved their works, and I love these people for having cared so much, and worked so hard, and been so generous in their moving, inspiring art. For rising to the heights of artistic expression, and using that vantage to insist that all of our lives are suffused with beauty and worthy of song. From that girl Haruhi who was so disappointed by the absence of magic in this world, Kyoto Animation has built a catalog that celebrates all the hidden magic of everyday living. The redemptive solace of lazy days with friends, the quiet dignity of practicing for a competition, the harrowing vulnerability of expressing how much you care; Kyoto Animation has celebrated all these and more, embodying all the greatest qualities of this marvelous art form.

I wish Kyoto Animation’s staff and families all the best in overcoming this terrible tragedy, and can only say once more how important their stories have been to me, and how much they have brightened my own life. Thank you for everything, Kyoto Animation.

If you would like to support Kyoto Animation in the wake of this tragedy, please consider contributing to Rightstuf’s direct donation initiative, which makes it easy to contribute on whatever scale you’d like. Please take care of yourselves, and I hope you continue to celebrate Kyoto Animation’s stunning creations for many years to come.

-----

Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now, and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[jam2289]

Ideas from the Last Few Months - Part 1 of ?

Ideas for narratives are always coming to me. Stories are the underlying structure of our psychologies and our societies. Sometimes I write these ideas down. Here are a few. (Get ready, it will seem fast and chaotic.)

I like the idea of human clay. I like the Creed songs about human clay, I like the myth of the golem formed from clay as presented in Terry Pratchett's book series "Discworld", I like the story of Prometheus forming man from clay. I think it could be tied into the Adam, Eve, and Lilith story too. I like when they used the idea in the tv show "Warehouse 13". It just seems like more could be done with it.

I like the idea of the sands of time. What if there was an epic quest or battle for the sands of time, but then the sands of time did nothing? That happens with goals and attainments a lot, they are hard to achieve and then they're a let down once achieved. I had that experience with mountain climbing years ago. Now, I always have some value that I'm pursuing in the future so that the feeling of an existential vacuum never encroaches on my psyche, but it's still an important human experience.

What if you have a failed hero that is resurrected? He seeks to redeem himself, but he fails again. That could be a great tragedy. Then, the failed hero is redeemed and possibly resurrected by a successful hero that his failed struggle inspired. Then it's a powerful story about repeated failure, the value of fighting the good fight even if you lose, and a story of redemption and triumph. It sounds epic.

The ancient Egyptian god Isis as a heroine that saves her husband.

What if dragon flames didn't burn heroes, what if the dragon flames shrunk people? A hero is shrunken and eaten by the dragon. Inside of the dragon's belly he finds a group of other heroes playing a game of cards on a shield. He rallies these failed heroes and leads them to a victory in which they are redeemed and resurrected. That seems like an epic children's story.

What about the heroes encounter with the hero?

The Humpty Dumpty problem. That's a tiny story that can be so powerful. I think I could expand on that in interesting ways.

Many authors like to start a story by drawing the map first. "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson famously started that way. What about taking the "Atlas of World History" and using the maps as jumping off points for stories? You can make them set in our world, or completely change things for a fantasy setting.

There are old maps of the earth from the ancient world that are quite different than our modern ones. Those could be great settings for stories. I like the one where there are four rivers that emanate from one point in the south.

Moon cycles are interesting. What about a moon cycle curse connected to a bracelet or something?

I wrote a four word story once. There is an article on my blog about it. I could hold a photo, drawing, or painting contest and include the images in a book along with an essay about how closure works in narratives.

I created what I termed a Killer Pacman a couple of decades ago as a doodle on schoolwork. That creature has now morphed into the Butterfly Monster over the last two years of teaching English online to kids in China. I also created a Butterfly Fairy and an enchanted Butterfly Forest. I was even thinking about doing the pictures myself for some children's books. It would be cool to get a real artist to do the same pictures and juxtapose them with mine in a book.

What if there was a Time Capsule Society that was seeking to send a person into the future, a human time capsule? If you travel the speed of light you don't age, meaning you can essentially travel forward in time. Interesting.

What if we combine the Philip K. Dick story of Autofac with the DARPA Eatr bots? Autofac is an automated factory that doesn't need any humans to run, it does the entire process from finding natural resources to producing things and repairing itself. Eatr bots are military walking drones that are designed to eat biological energy sources to fuel themselves. Essentially, they could shoot and then eat people to keep going. A system like that could actually conquer the world. Classic science fiction dystopia, but better, because we actually have the technology.

A kid in middle school notices that socks are disappearing. It's becoming harder and harder to find a pair that match. Is there a monster behind this Sockpocalypse?

A funny of satire where there is a world of peace and prosperity and our minor problems are their major problems. Utopia World Problems.

Restorative justice is promising. It's about the injuring and injured parties agreeing to restitution through any reasonable means. These are stories of the fall, transformation, and redemption.

Would it be fun to tell the mythical story of dragons creating man from clay and fire? I think it would. Prometheus the dragon? Maybe. What if all of the Greek gods were dragons? And all of the Titans too? What if angels were dragons? Angles as dragons with ancient Titan names and myths? Interesting. I am intrigued by all of that.

Sometimes our motivations are just surface motivations. Sometimes our underlying motivations are hidden even from ourselves. Then, when you achieve what you were aiming at you realize that it wasn't what you really wanted. That theme is explored a bit in the show "Wayne".

Using a third person point of view to introduce another character through some specific incident, and then switching to the close third person point of view for the protagonist from there on is interesting. Ursula K. Le Guin did this in one of the "Earthsea Cycle" books.

Can I integrate the novel and the graphic novel? I saw this partially done by a girl named Lily that is about 10 years old and it was thought provoking.

What if a comet hit earth and created hell? Pushed up Antarctica as the mountain of purgatory with the four rivers of the world flowing from it. This is Dante's version of the world.

I like the idea of blood as ink. Maybe there is magical ink blood that when harvested can be used to make magical books.

In the ancient Greek afterlife the heroes went to Elysium, most people went to the grey fields of Asphodel, some people went to the fields of Punishment, and the worst beings went to the black depths of Tartarus. What if the heroes in Elysium were bored, recruited the wandering masses in Asphodel, freed the prisoners from the fields of Punishment, and attacked Tartarus. Could be epic.

Beowulf is an old and odd story about a Viking fighting a monster. A weird modern take on it is "The 13th Warrior" movie with Antonio Banderas, based on a book by Michael Crichton, "Eaters of the Dead". What if the monsters were actual Eatrs, the robot made by DARPA that can consume bodies to fuel itself on the battlefield?

What would have to happen to you for you to become a bad person? What about the reverse process? These are interesting thought experiments. Psychologist Jordan Peterson talks about how useful these can be. It's also an intriguing idea to explore in literary form.

Many stories have been told about self-fulfilling prophecies, where a prediction makes people act in a way that brings about the prediction. It's still a great idea.

Here's a note I left for myself that I don't fully understand: "once and future king, arthur, Community, my IQ, billionaires rise and fall and rise again". I understand it a bit. It's about the fact that so many stories are about being in a good state, losing that good state, and then the struggle to restore the previous good state. Because I have bones pressing on my brainstem I have experienced that struggle with my IQ, that's why that's in there. The tv show "Community" also follows that structure in a sitcom format. King Arthur is that story. A number of billionaires have lost everything, and then made it back again.

Resentment is the murderer's muse. What if we personify it as something like a muse sitting on the shoulder? Creepy!

What if Obscurity was a demon that followed people around and made sure that they weren't noticed?

In a general sense, everyone is seeking the promised land in life. That can take many forms. Sin is missing the mark. I don't know where I'm going with that, but it might be something.

The philosopher and professor Susan Wolf wrote a book titled "Meaning in Life and Why It Matters". I think she comes to some bad and dangerous conclusions in that book. I would like to write a commentary taking apart each piece of it.

One of my most liked articles and speeches ever is about great first lines in fiction. I thought it was an interesting topic, but people were more interested than I thought they would be. It might be fun to write a book going through a bunch of first lines from books that I like, and don't like, and analyzing them.

Since I write and speak about grief, I could probably explore grief in a narrative structure. That might not be fun to write though, so I might not do that.

What if the mark of Cain was like the lives in a video game, and Cain then was able to have seven lives and die seven times? This is for all of his descendants. There could be some odd adventures and psychologies there.

That's less than half of my most recent ideas. I'll cover more next time.

________________________________________________

You can find more of what I'm doing at http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com

[recentanimenews]

Celebrating the Quiet Beauty of Kyoto Animation

  This article by Nick Creamer was originally published on August 5, 2019

  This article is part of Crunchyroll News' KyoAni Month celebration. Check out the rest of our KyoAni features HERE.

  When I woke up on the morning after the Kyoto Animation fire, the news was already too terrible to fully comprehend. I think I might have been lucky in that regard—I think it might have been worse to be reading the news as it was released, at first hoping for the best, and then slowly learning of the overwhelming scale of this tragedy. The studio behind such anime treasures as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, K-On!, Hyouka, Sound! Euphonium, Nichijou, A Silent Voice … a studio known for so many good things, from the incredible beauty and emotional richness of their works to their uniquely collaborative and admirably supportive studio culture. A studio full of young, brilliant creators and dedicated to training more, where artists enjoy full salaries and women’s voices are celebrated, and whose work embodies the unique sensitivity and reverence for small miracles that make anime such a distinctive and moving medium.

  On the morning after the Kyoto Animation fire, the scale of that loss was too great for me to hold or examine. In so many ways, Kyoto Animation is essentially synonymous with my hope and optimism regarding anime as an art form, and it was hard to hope for much of anything upon learning of that terrible crime. I can’t begin to fully articulate or properly capture all the myriad things that make Kyoto Animation so special; their work is too rich for that, too rewarding for any one person to appreciate it in full. All I can hope to tell you is what Kyoto Animation means to me.

The first time I saw a Kyoto Animation production was as a teenager, at an all-day animation festival hosted by a local theater. In spite of that day also serving as my introduction to such impressive productions as Nausicaa and Mind Game, it was an animated version of a bizarre, inexplicable student film production that most stuck in my mind. The first aired episode of Haruhi Suzumiya is an exercise in absolute creator confidence, and also a hilarious love letter to the quirks of cinema, as we're introduced to the show's main cast through the ramshackle student film they create for their school's class festival.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Kyoto Animation works so often feature in-universe amateur filmmaking; the studio seems genuinely, deeply awed by the power of cinema, and forever sympathetic to the struggles of ordinary people to create great, lasting art. Haruhi Suzumiya’s student film production feels effortless in a way that embodies Kyoto Animation’s strength—only artists with a brilliant understanding of effective filmmaking could make something so charmingly, believably amateur.

The next time I encountered Kyoto Animation was just after college when I found my interest in anime rejuvenated by the magnificent Hyouka. Chatting about Hyouka on a weekly basis actually helped me keep in touch with absent friends, as the show itself once again expanded my conception of what anime could achieve.

I knew anime could elevate the Big stories — I’d first fallen in love with the medium through the apocalyptic theater of Neon Genesis Evangelion and had since then enjoyed plenty of bombastic fantasy shows. But I hadn’t realized just how much gravity and nuance animation could bring to the smallest stories, the intricate human dramas that actually compose the substance of everyday life. Hyouka was a gorgeous, sensitive, and deeply personal production, each new episode offering moments in time so perfectly captured that it almost seemed impossible that humans actually made this. As a viewer, it made me feel noticed and accepted; as an artist, it left me determined to keep fighting, and perhaps one day make beautiful works like this.

The third time I ran into Kyoto Animation, I was doing my best to follow through on that pledge, and working unsatisfying days as a proofreader at a local publishing company. Taking lonely train rides home from a job where I never really fit in, one of my greatest sources of weekly comfort was thinking about the next episode of the goofy, heartfelt Chunibyo. Wanting to express my appreciation of that show was the motivation that pushed me towards writing about anime in forums online, a hobby that would eventually flower into my current work in professional criticism. That goofy romantic comedy about the Tyrant’s Eye and the Dark Flame Master literally changed the course of my life.

Since then, Kyoto Animation’s productions have been a constant source of comfort for me. Stories like Sound! Euphonium and A Silent Voice are beautiful in their own right, and also a reminder that some people in the world care about the same quiet feelings and beautiful, ephemeral moments that I do. In fact, some people have such reverence for those tiny fragments of beauty that they’ve dedicated their lives to celebrating them — to acknowledging how our most personal feelings are valid and laudable, and how the dignity and small pleasures of everyday living can contain just as much human drama, triumph, and sorrow as any epic quest. Stories like Liz and the Blue Bird speak volumes in the most thoughtful and gentle of tones, observing their confused and complex heroes with great sympathy, and celebrating the tiny moments of joy and solace that give our lives meaning.

All of Kyoto Animation’s works are buoyed by such magical and poignantly observed moments, the hushed sighs and missed glances and languid sunsets of a thousand carelessly spent days and irretrievable evenings. Their artists consistently find warmth and majesty in the mundane, their works fervently insisting that all our lives are worthy of celebration. The empathy and closeness of their perspective have been an incredible comfort to me, both as a person who greatly relates to their introspective protagonists and also as a lover of quiet, delicate cinema. No matter the overt genre of their works, that keen perspective carries through, and that great empathy for everyday lives and the people who live them.

I cannot fully express my gratitude towards Kyoto Animation for all they’ve done for me, or my sorrow at this attack committed against people whose own business practices echo the empathy and thoughtfulness of their productions. I’ve loved their works, and I love these people for having cared so much, and worked so hard, and been so generous in their moving, inspiring art. For rising to the heights of artistic expression, and using that vantage to insist that all of our lives are suffused with beauty and worthy of song. From that girl Haruhi who was so disappointed by the absence of magic in this world, Kyoto Animation has built a catalog that celebrates all the hidden magic of everyday living. The redemptive solace of lazy days with friends, the quiet dignity of practicing for a competition, the harrowing vulnerability of expressing how much you care; Kyoto Animation has celebrated all these and more, embodying all the greatest qualities of this marvelous art form.

I wish Kyoto Animation’s staff and families all the best in overcoming this terrible tragedy, and can only say once more how important their stories have been to me, and how much they have brightened my own life. Thank you for everything, Kyoto Animation.

  Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now, and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com