#classicism criticism

[mmemirrorball]

remember if you can’t participate in this holiday merch drop or any other merch drops bc you have to save to buy Christmas gifts or pay your bills or literally any other reason— you are not less of a swiftie!! you are so valid and still as much of a swiftie!! don’t let anyone shame you!!

[rabentanz]

𝕮𝖆𝖑𝖊𝖇 𝖂𝖎𝖉𝖔𝖌𝖆𝖘𝖙

kinda lost the interest in this one but posting it anyways because why not

[thewildwoodpigeon]

i think the funniest difference between new who and classic who is the companions. Like nearly all new who companions have some grand prophecy about them or some special connection to the doctor (Bad wolf, DoctorDonna, Clara being the impossible girl, etc) while every classic Who companion is just like. Some bloke.

[floweroflaurelin]

I didn’t want Father to be right. I wanted to save them. Why must it always be like this?

—

Ayden shedding his mortal form—one of my favourite moments from the whole miniseries! ☀️Brennan as Asmodeus just hits every single time without fail what can I say

[loserwithanartacc]

Based on Judith Slaying Holofernes, I love this painting and it’s on my midterm study list so I’ve been thinking about it a lot (made this instead of studying for said midterm)

Anyway jourrael is kinda a girlboss ngl im sad she didn’t show up more (ik she’s supposed to be evil and very bad and all that but slay lowkey)

Gonna leave the og painting under the cut for those who aren’t familiar

[lucythornwalter]

I’m actually not done talking about this -

I have such a frustration with the urge (not even contemporary! Ancient!) to strip Odysseus of his chosen loyalty to his wife. It’s one of the few issues I had with the subtext of The Return, which allowed Odysseus to be hinted to have committed sexual violence (though personally I chose to interpret his silence as shame that he did not do more to stop the rampant rape than shame that he partook) and removed his desire for monogamy with Penelope from his motivations.

This is something that makes him unique among the figures in Homer - Menelaus is not loyal to Helen, Agamemnon is not loyal to Clytemnestra, even Achilles and Patroclus do have sex with women as an extension of their social roles. Odysseus actively prioritizing his marriage and his wife makes him an interesting figure, because he would not face any serious consequences for infidelity, or even indeed be seen as an adulterer for taking additional lovers. And where I think the text is fairly clear that he’s a victim of assault twice over, post-Homeric conceptions of men as incapable of being assaulted or raped (and men always desiring sex, and this desire being something that is itself a mark of their masculinity and a point of pride) have turned his sexual encounters into things he actively sought and desired. His sexual dalliances, as they’re presented in many modern translations and certainly in much of pop culture, become signs of his manhood, and not things that harmed him and robbed him of the chance to only share himself with his wife.

There’s this idea that no man would want monogamy, and that therefore no man would care all that much about having beautiful women force themselves upon him; that contributes to some really gross ideas about rape and men and male victims of rape. “All men want sex” is something we can and should move on from

[geryone]

Begging y’all to be normal about people reading & engaging with the work of authors with controversial backgrounds

[sleazyjanet]

the doctor and his boy toy, jamie

[theindefinitearticle]

Still not over the part in the Todd in the shadows video where James Somerton claims that the success of rocky horror saved the film studio. Girl she flopped. Famously she flopped.

[too-many-rooks]

High quality fatherly advice.

[mayapapaya33]

Eventually people have to come to terms with the insane fact that narratively Percy and Jester shared the same role in the party...

Ok now that everyone is screaming at the screen in outrage and confusion, I shall explain myself. It's common knowledge that at least half the party had a crush on/fell in love with Jester right? Well guess what!? At least half the party ALSO had a crush on/ fell in love with Percy! That's right! Percy and Jester are the Party love interests. At some point in time, most of the members at least thought about both of them! (Exceptions being Caduceus and Grog, romance isn't their thing).

For Jester it was Fjord, Caleb, and Beau. Off the top of my head, they were the main three. I don't remember if anyone else had a crush on her, but you can cite sources later lol. Maybe Yasha a little but I don't remember. She charmed everyone, half romantically, half platonically.

For Percy it was Vex, Pike, and Tary as the main three, and apparently Keyleth briefly if I'm remembering the C1 wrap up (rip) correctly. And Scanlan that time under the effects of a potion lol. Also, some dubiously platonic kisses and face touching from Vax thrown into the mix lets be real. I do remember Liam point blank telling us to ship it and who am I to argue with the man? C1 E13 (1:38:36) lmfao. Basically, everyone other than Grog at one point looked at Percy and was like, hmm, maybe I'm in the mood for tall, pale and human.

[ariadne-mouse]

Tremors (1990)

[rabentanz]

𝕮𝖆𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖊𝖚𝖘 𝕮𝖑𝖆𝖞

definitely not regretting picking up critical role again because i freaking LOVE caduceus 😭 seems like shit has to happen for me to start getting emotionally invested like that 💀

close up to see the funky texture better ✨

print now available here c:

[undead-knick-knack]

Every time Ludinus opens his mouth, this is all I hear

[gallifreyanhotfive]

He couldn't have stayed on as a companion because their homoerotic tendencies would have made the Master explode with jealousy.

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

Y'all wanna know about a gender-non-conforming knight from 13th century France? No? That's okay- I'm fine with talking to myself.

I'm obsessed with gender performativity in early medieval texts- so obviously I had to know everything about Le Roman De Silence.

To preface-

So, long before there was the Marvel Cinematic Universe- there was the interconnected works of the Arthurian Legends. The original superheroes- King Arthur, Merlin, Morganna le Fey, and the rest of the cast. However, one of the lesser known (only arguably canonical) interconnected texts of the Arthurian legend hails from France. People argue over whether or not to include these texts as part of the cannon of King Arthur because it's technically french- and the french-english divide between characterization of all the main players of Arthur's court is remarkably different. Much research on this suggests the discrepancy of characterization is largely due to distance between where the stories originate, and sociopolitical tensions between the French and the English. Either people were too far apart to share stories- thus too far apart to keep characterization uniform, or they fucking hated each other enough to mess up the characterization on purpose. For example, many of the French portrayals of King Arthur paint him to be a rather terrible person, where English portrayals are generally more kind to him.

All that aside- many people will disagree that Le Roman de Silence should even be part of the Arthurian legend canon anyway- because it only mentions Merlin at the end of the poem and because it's a super french poem.

The main storyline is about this character named Silence. From the Old French Poem- Le Roman de Silence.

Gender? No- Never heard of it.

The latter half of the story in this poem is predicated on a complex mediation of Nature vs Nurture. What happens is that a baby is born into a wealthy family, and for sociopolitical reasons, the family decides to raise the girl baby as a boy. They name this child "silence." Silence grows up with full access to an education, as was typical for the boy children of aristocratic medieval families- this education becomes important later as Silence wrestle with where they fit into the larger social structure after maturing into adulthood. Essentially, they find the idea of marriage too boring and would like to be a Knight or Explorer instead. (I love them.) Anyway, it's fascinating to me that the conceptual ideas of nature and nurture are personified into being something like "deities" which are overseeing the growth of Silence through the ages- and so we get these deities commentary.

Silence wants to be a knight- so Nurture brags about being right that gender is more performative than it is biological. Then, later Silence grows up to be remarkably "pretty" and according to the deity of Nature- they brag about being right that biology and gender are intrinsically tied. It's such a thought-provoking mediation on gender as either performance or pure biology that I forget it was written in the 13th century- long before Freud or Lacan or any of the others who became hyper fixated on human presumption of gender as either a social category or a biological necessity.

I argued in a paper, once, that the narrative itself does actually finally end on the note that Gender is a performance, and it is tied into social roles only so the ruling class can have control of the population. That is why the stories ending shifts into horror-genre-esque of Silence marrying into the upper-ruling class.

I also have a strong urge to write a Fanfiction of Silence as a knight- who does not meet a sad fate but rather lives happily as a knight and eventually marries a princess. Okay- Okay? fine I said it. I said it-

Social pressure to marry?

The story takes a dark turn, however- when the King demands Silence to reveal themselves in front of the court. Obviously, even the author of the story was aware that misogynistic social standards would not allow for people to ever really be free of gender stereotypes and roles. So, Silence is then forced out of the adventurous lifestyle of a knight and into a marriage. Also, this is the place in the story where Merlin makes an appearance (I have a theory that Merlin is representative of the devil, and the author really hated that all AFAB people were forced into marriage back in 1200's. So that's why the devil shows up when all the bad shit is happening to Silence).

Inevitability and dismay-

What I find particularly interesting about this poem is the fact that the end, as Silence is forced into marriage and back into "proper" social roles for their assumed biological characteristics, is the fact that it is written like an early attempt at gothic horror!

So, one of the stipulations for something being a "gothic horror" is 1.) old, archaic, twisted buildings. (this blog is indeed named after my fixation with gothic horror elements, it's interplay relation to social reform, as its emphasis on decay as the tonal necessity for social indemnification). Anyway, the other most important aspect of gothic horror- is an overwhelming sense of desolation, isolation, and loneliness.

Sure, Silence is forced into marriage- but even with the forthright writing style of the author, we, as readers, are struck by Silence's loneliness. Thus, the "happily ever after" part of the storyline wherein the characters get married, as it traditional to chivalric romance, is recriminated against in subtext. Now, we have a moment in which the "happily ever after" is a creation of horror rather than peace.

Ending the narrative with marriage as equivalent to a loss of freedom and a sense of evermore-present loneliness, cumulating in the edifice of horror-struck fear in Silence at their own new future, is a remarkably bold social statement coming from a 13th century author.

I just think it's a really interesting text on the thematic points of negotiating Gender identity, in broader terms of performance and social roles, as much as it is a critique on the total social control that the monarchy held over the people of 13th century France.

Edit: I need to add that Silence themselves consistently rejects the idea that they are AFAB and instead only ever refers to themselves as "Silence" or "the knight"