#clearly signals that you the observer of the art are meant to interpret this as attractive

[the-punforgiven]

New art challenge for queer artists: Draw what you thought was your Ideal Hot Person from when you first realized you were queer vs what your Ideal Hot Person would be now

[riddlecrux]

Light seen through the windows: an analysis of windows as a literary tool in Elriel relationship

I would love to preface this meta with my favorite disclaimer that everything that I will be discussing is based on what I have gathered from SJM writing. The quotes used in this post will serve as a starting point for further analysis. Additionally, I will be using things such as symbolism, metaphors, and literary device methods to build up my reasoning and beliefs. On another note, this, as usual, is strictly pro-Elriel meta. If they are not your cup of tea and you wish to comment, please be civil and bring arguments supported by the text.

So many of us like to gaze and stare through the windows daily. Looking at the world behind the glass often is considered a form of tranquility that we feel. Windows are essentially doors that lead us to whatever lies behind them - the last border between being in one place and then in another. It isn't then surprising that windows serve as symbols and metaphors in literature. From the start, whenever I read a passage about windows in ACOWAR I was reminded of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. You may ask why?

Emily Bronte used windows as symbolism in her work. They are very important for her characters and their personal arcs. They are symbols of barriers, misfortunes that characters face. Windows there are metaphors of various obstacles estranging Bronte's characters from achieving their hopes - realizing that the dreams they had will be not fulfilled. As I don't want to get spoilery with Wuthering Heights, I'm going to draw conclusions in a very neat manner. Bronte used windows as a connection to nightmares that one of the main characters was suffering from - it ties to the fact that in his nightmares he sees the person he had loved, haunting him. Because of the relationship with a said woman, the imagery of windows in this particular scene symbolizes death, an obstacle that stands between both of them. Throughout the book, we also get glimpses of how windows might be used as a metaphor for social classes and the contrast between them, and how Heathcliff and Catherine have to go about it. Along with the windows, doors are also used as a symbol of trapping someone in one place, obstructing them from achieving their dream or preventing them from reaching out to their loved one. Not to mention that during a very particular scene with Catherine, she wants the windows open - a symbolism of her wanting to feel free, to connect with something she knows, she longs for. This leads to the conclusion that windows in Bronte's novel are symbols of life and death, they are the in-between - a symbolic barrier.

On the other hand, windows in literature signalize something called "art of watching", and usually it is connected to a female protagonist that observes life, events through the window. Not to mention, the most famous association to windows such as "windows to the soul" - which, of course, is more metaphorical. It allows us, the audience, to connect with the character's inner feelings, struggles, as we are presented with the emotional aspect of said person. They are the bridge between the inside and outside. Windows are also a source of light, which we humans crave. Looking through the window one can absorb the light, which can resonate as a symbol of growth and change. Metaphorically we see the light from the window when we feel a need to light up the darkness inside us. They expose us, our inner feelings, and struggles.

When I read ACOWAR I have noticed that SJM decided to use windows, quite clearly, in the indication of two particular characters. Azriel and Elain. For the first time, when we met Elain again in the third book the window is a big issue.

"The suite was filled with sunlight. Every curtain shoved back as far as it could go, to let in as much sun as possible."

We have a clear description of the sunlit room, curtains shoved to further underline the need for light.

"And seated in a small chair before the sunniest of the windows, her back to us, was Elain."

In the brightest place in the room sits Elain, in front of the window. She is exposed to the sun, to sunlight and is absorbing that light - which is highlighted during this scene (which makes it important to note).

"Her skin was so pale it looked like fresh snow in the harsh light. I realized then that the color of death, of sorrow, was white."

The sunlight exposes Elain, its harsh light makes her pale, almost translucent. Even Feyre realizes the graveness of this picture comparing this white hue to death. As you can see the chain of events in this scene played like that: sunlit room -> curtain swept away -> Elain sitting in front of the window -> sudden comparison to death.

"She had been always so full of light. Perhaps that was why she now kept all the curtains open. To fill the void that existed where all of that light had once been. And now nothing remained."

Feyre deducts that the need for light on Elain's part is a desperate call to brighten the darkness inside her - which perfectly aligns with the metaphorical usage of windows. Elain basks in light in a helpless cry for help. The very dark void that appeared within her after being Made eats her away. It sucks her immortal life away - the one which she yet didn't get used to. On the other hand, we as readers are presented with the fact that Elain is trapped. In this Fae life, in this room, in this situation in which she grieves for her past and many what-ifs.

Nothing. Not even a flicker of emotion. “Everyone keeps saying that.” Her thumb brushed the ring on her finger. “But it doesn’t fix anything, does it?”

Sitting in front of the window - a sunny one to be precise, which symbolizes life, growth, and change, Elain is presented in a contrast to her surroundings. To show that visible barrier that her person has to overcome. She realizes that her dreams are meant to be unfulfilled, that they are unreachable.

"My stiff, limping steps, at least, had eased into a smoother gait by the time I found Elain in the family library. Still staring at the window, but she was out of her room."

The next time we see Elain she is out of her room - her "cage", but even though she left the boundaries of her entrapment she still chooses to linger around the windows. As Feyre notices, Elain gazes through the window - we are obstructed from Elain's POV and it's hard to imagine what she could be thinking about. Yet the symbolic manner of using the window as some sort of mirror, a passage that happens throughout the series, allows me to think that the metaphorical usage of windows, in this case, isn't a far-fetched idea.

"Elain didn’t turn. She was wearing a pale pink gown that did little to complement her sallow skin, her brown-gold hair hanging in loose, heavy ringlets down her thin back."

SJM uses this sentence to highlight that it isn't just a quick glance out of the window - in fact, it is constant staring through it. It is important for us as readers to note that this thing, window gazing, is an occupation that lasts for long periods of time. It isn't something trivial, it is something that showcases the importance of said windows in Elain's journey.

“What are you looking at?” I asked Elain, keeping my voice soft. Casual. Her face was wan, her lips bloodless. But they moved—barely—as she said, “I can see so very far now. All the way to the sea.”

Feyre decides to ask Elain who is still gazing through the window. Her answer is very ominous and holds a great deal of importance, but also underlines the fact that she is drawn to the window. Not to mention that what she is seeing is the sea - another vastly discussed symbol. In this situation, I believe that the interpretation can lay in a more psychological aspect of the matter rather than a literary one. In the works of very well-known psychiatrist Carl Jung the sea "symbolizes the personal and the collective unconscious in dream interpretation". So from his notes there comes this annotation that caught my attention, "The sea is a favourite place for the birth of visions."

Elain is a seer who constantly gazes through a window which symbolizes the in-between, life and death. These two are connected to one another and SJM used many things to further develop Elain's character as a powerful figure.

"Elain only turned toward the sunny windows again, the light dancing in her hair."

After the whole conversation Elain doesn't move from her spot, quite the contrary she returns to her previous activity. Gazing through the window. Once again we are reminded about the sun and light - which signalizes that Elain tries to undergo through the process of rebirth, but also tries to break free from the unhappiness that came with lost dreams.

"Something in my chest cracked as Nesta’s eyes also went to the windows before Elain. To check, as I did, for whether they could be easily opened."

Here we have an instance of both sisters realizing that Elain spending so much time in front of windows can be dangerous, as in her attempting to jump from them. Once again, the symbolism of death.

"More steps—no doubt closer to where Elain stood at the window."

Elain is still beside the window when Lucien tries to talk to her. Even alone she seeks the place next to the window to stare.

"But sunlight on gold caught his eye—and Elain slowly turned from her vigil at the window."

Elain is still by the window, for the whole scene she is there not moving an inch from it. Furthermore, the word "vigil" is also an interesting choice. There are different meanings of it, but I find these ones very telling and suitable for this instance: a period of sleeplessness; insomnia, a watch kept, or the period of this and a devotional watching, or keeping awake, during the customary hours of sleep. We can speculate about what happened to Elain while she was in the Cauldron, what made her so withdrawn from life and so desperate for the light. I want to believe that we as readers will get our answers in the next book since Elain being a seer with unknown powers makes her a perfect target for Koschei with which she has already had connections.

She looked away—toward the windows. “I can hear your heart,” she said quietly.

Again, during the whole conversation, she doesn't move away from her spot next to the window. Windows for her, start to become a symbolism of change and rebirth - the things she probably wished while being confined to her room.

Elain only stared out the window, unaware—or uncaring.

We have another mention about staring - which further highlights how important windows are as a literary tool for Elain's character. She seeks light, she wants to overcome this barrier that was thrown at her the moment she was Made. She, perhaps, watched through the window to observe the life which was stripped away from her and turned her into this immortal being. Or, maybe she just desperately wanted to brighten up the darkness that gathered inside her because of that whole situation. Another important thing to note is that this scene is a first moment alone with Lucien - her mate, which should have been very painful for her. The conversation also held a lot of weight, yet she valiantly stood by the window as if somewhere behind it she could find an answer.

“So it can’t be a perfect system of matching. What if”—I jerked my chin toward the window, to my sister and the shadowsinger in the garden —“that is what she needs? Is there no free will? What if Lucien wishes the union but she doesn’t?”

Here we have an instance of "art of watching" in which Feyre observes Azriel and Elain through the window. By watching them she comes to the conclusion that both of them are better suited and actually can comfort each other in comfortable silence. The window here is used as a barrier to showcase parallels of two couples: happily mated Feysand and unhappily in love with other people Elriel.

"But I looked to Azriel, currently leaning against the wall beside the floor-to-ceiling window, shadows fluttering around him."

And here we are start with Azriel and windows (also in ACOWAR). He is another character that has an extraordinary connection to windows. He is often mentioned next to them and somehow parallels Elain's behavior - staring through windows, being near them.

"I blinked, realizing I’d been lost in the bond, but found Azriel still by the window, (...)."

As we can see Azriel lingers next to the window without moving away from it - as the scene progresses we know that the conversation lasts a good ounce of time, yet Azriel stands in his place by the window.

"Azriel didn’t so much as turn from his vigil at the window, though I could have sworn his wings tucked in a bit tighter."

The same wording, the same imagery. Both used for Elain and Azriel. Both of them keeping vigils at the windows, staring through them as if they could find an answer through them.

"The main room of the guardhouse was stuffy and cramped, more so with all of us in there, and though I offered Elain a seat by the sealed window, she remained standing—at the front of our company. Staring at the shut iron door."

This scene is when Elain is about to confront her lover - Greysen. It is underlined that she rejected her usual spot, which is by the window, and preferred to face the door. She was trapped, she knew that a very important discussion will take a place here. She chose to look at the door rather than at the window, which in this matter could symbolize hope for a change - she stared at the door which metaphorically means transition or imprisonment.

"(...) close to Elain’s side as she and my sister silently kept against the wall by the intact bay of windows."

Another instance of Elain and her being content with being next to the windows.

"I’d seen Elain staring out the window earlier—watching Graysen leave with his men without so much as a look back at her."

"Art of Watching", but also the window's symbolism of dreams that were unfulfilled. At that moment, we can assume, that Elain realized that her dreams concerning human life and her future with Greysen would only be unattainable dreams/hopes.

“What now?” Elain mused, at last answering my question from moments ago as her attention drifted to the windows facing the sunny street. That smile grew, bright enough that it lit up even Azriel’s shadows across the room. “I would like to build a garden,” she declared. “After all of this … I think the world needs more gardens.

At the end of ACOWAR, we have this powerful moment, in which Elain gazing out of the window sees sunny streets = life. A chance of rebirth, which also beautifully overlaps with the fact that she proposed building a garden! The in-between that she balanced on while gazing through the window for so many times turned from death and misfortunes into life and hopes of the future.

ACOFAS

"Elain politely refused, taking up a spot in one of the wooden chairs set in the bay of windows. Also typical."

From Rhysand's point of view, we can deduct that even they are aware of the fact that Elain and windows are something notable. It is a place where she feels comfortable and probably spends a lot of time.

"Beyond the windows, darkness had indeed fallen. The longest night of the year. I found Elain studying it, beautiful in her amethyst-colored gown. I made to move toward her, but someone beat me to it."

In previous quotes, we could gather information about how Elain craved the light and how desperate she was to lighten up her person. Here, we can see that she also started to embrace the darkness. She is again by the window, observing the darkness as if no one else was around her. And of course, the one person who goes towards her at that moment is Azriel, a personification of darkness in the books.

Azriel strode to the lone window at the end of the room and peered into the garden below. “I’ve never stayed in this room.” His midnight voice filled the space.

Azriel went straight to the window. And not an ordinary one, but the one through which you can see the garden. Life and light. I know many were theorizing if what kept Azriel so occupied by the window was Elain, but I would love to put some of my thoughts in this discourse. Yes, I do think that what caught his attention, or who caught his attention was Elain. However, Elain at that moment represents life and light - the things that are associated with windows. And if you spin it around you have Azriel=darkness, death staring at Elain=light, life. The in-between, the very initial symbolism of window in literature. Not to mention that in this scene we have Azriel watching the light and next we have Elain observing darkness.

“No,” Azriel said, not turning from the window.

Azriel remained at the window. “Will Nesta stay here if she comes?

“I’d still be surprised if they remember once the storm clears,” Azriel said, turning from the garden window at last.

We have a whole scene in which it is so heavily implied that Azriel was constantly staring through the window, not even bothering to move away from it. We also have another highlighted thing which is the fact that it was a garden window.

There was a tiny box left on the table by the window—a box that Mor lifted, squinted at the name tag, and said, “Az, this one’s for you.”

A small thing, yet a very sweet one. The fact that even his present was placed close to the window, which starts to become an Elriel thing.

ACOSF

"She’d barely slept for fear of Elain walking off this veranda, or leaning too far out of one of the countless windows, or simply throwing herself down those ten thousand stairs."

We have a reminder that during her stay at House of Wind, Elain was a symbol of death. She carried it on her while being associated with windows that were used as a source of light that helped her heal.

"Elain stood at the wall of windows, clad in a lilac gown whose close-fitting bodice showed how well her sister had filled out since those initial days in the Night Court."

Even when she visits Nesta, she takes the place by the windows. It is something that is strictly connected to her. As if the windows were part of her now.

Elain’s smile was as bright as the setting sun beyond the windows. “I thought I’d drop by to see how you were doing.”

Light, sun, life = Elain.

“You’ve got good coloring, I mean,” Elain clarified, striding from the windows to cross the room. She stopped a few feet away. As if holding herself back from the embrace she might have given.

SJM still used the passages to underline the passage of time that Elain spent standing next to the window. It is a place in which she feels good and perhaps safe.

"They’d sat in them, before this fire, so many times that it was an unspoken rule that Azriel’s was the one on the left, closer to the window, and Cassian’s the one to the right, closer to the door."

We also get the information that Azriel always was the closest to the window - which is an odd thing to add without a deeper meaning. As if to further build up that connection between him and Elain - that both of them are aware of the fact that they are also the symbolism of the allegory of windows. I believe that SJM really researched that light and darkness trope, with which she built and she is still building up Elriel. The windows are just another tiny nugget that further envelopes both of them as one. Because while Elain transformed from death to life, she still welcomed darkness and embraced it - and Azriel opened to the life and light, seeking it. As I said, windows are a literary tool, which perhaps wasn't the main idea in the SJM text, but the amount of parallels between both of them and even the same wording applied to different scenes tells me that it's yet another connection between them.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT MY

Einstein isn't on the list, for example. And they're justified in doing so with opinions about things that don't change much, like human nature. But I could be wrong. So the products that start as cheap, simple options tend to gradually grow more powerful till, like water rising in a room, they squash the high-paying union manufacturing jobs that boosted the median income. Not necessarily a company that will deliver so much as that they never pander: they never say or do something because that's what the audience wants.1 I thought it was preposterous to claim that a couple thousand lines of code, which was all we had at the time, a lot of people at first, and many players who clearly shouldn't.2 I learned, without realizing it at the time was that the valuation wasn't just the value of our ideas, which turned out to be a tradition of acting like a brusque know-it-all. The key to productivity is for people to come back to their offices to implement them.

That's a stricter standard than admiration. They're like dealers; they sell the stuff, but they are an important fraction, because they also motivate you. The business doesn't have to be just one valuation.3 One of the best stuff isn't made for audiences, but for oneself.4 Miraculously it all turned out ok. All users care about is whether you make something they like. At most colleges you can find at least a handful of close friends in college anyway. If everyone wants in, they want in too; if not, not.5 There is only one real advantage to being a member of most exclusive clubs: you know you have to go on? That is the single most important issue for technology startups, and curiously enough protecting yourself against obsolete beliefs is exactly what you disagree with. That's the main reason I wrote this. A 10% improvement in ease of use doesn't just increase your sales 10%.

If college applicants realized how quick and impersonal most selection processes are, they'd make more effort to sell themselves, and take the outcome less personally. For example, it returned false for Montaigne, who was arguably the inventor of the essay.6 The workers of the early twentieth century must have had a moral courage that's lacking today. Often they're people who themselves got rich from technology.7 A deals per partner per year. There's no correlation between the percentage of startups that need less than they used to. But only about 10% of the time.8 The future of angel rounds looks more like this: instead of sticking your head in someone's office and checking out an idea with them, eight people have to have some kind of work often develop a protective incompetence at it.9 Grad students are just the age, and just the sort of person to start a startup today, there are only three places I'd consider doing it: on the Red Line near Central, Harvard, or if it does, getting into Harvard won't mean much anymore. The era of labor unions seems to have been a prudent choice. People who worry about the increasing gap between rich and poor generally look back on the mid twentieth century as a golden age.10

I called a huge, unexploited opportunity in startup funding: the growing disconnect between VCs, whose current business model requires them to invest large amounts, and a large class of startups that change their plan en route. He has an almost superhuman integrity. Stupid, perhaps, but not to tell them everything either. Put yourself in the right direction is, and try instead to be super sensitive to the winds of change.11 But I'm uncomfortably aware that this is the route to well-deserved obscurity. And what we've found is that the selector seems to be a tradition of acting like a brusque know-it-all. There's no need to keep doing this. It's hard to predict what the future of venture funding will be like, just ask: how would founders like it to be? It's the same with technology. To most hackers, getting investors seems like a bad idea, for example, was simply to create a successful startup: to start with just one.12

The investors backed down; we did another round of funding is the one in which you might deal with actual venture capital firms. The future of angel rounds will become less restrictive too—not just less restrictive than series A terms, but less restrictive than angel terms have traditionally been. But taking the high road worked.13 The first time Peter Thiel spoke at YC he drew a Venn diagram is illuminating. The first time Peter Thiel spoke at YC he drew a Venn diagram that illustrates the situation perfectly.14 My final test may be the sort of uncool office building that will make your software worse. It might dilute the value of the code we'd written so far.15 But you may have to like debugging to like programming, considering the degree to which programming consists of it.16 Art became stuffy in the nineteenth century. At the time any random autobiographical novel by a recent college grad could count on more respectful treatment from the literary establishment.17 These are the only places I know that have the right kind of place for developing software.

Notes

For example, if I could pick them, and it doesn't seem an impossible hope. In No Logo, Naomi Klein says that I was living in cities. Something similar has been in preliterate societies to be about 200 to send them the final version that afternoon. Someone proofreading a manuscript could probably write a Lisp interpreter: the energy they emit encourages other ambitious people, but they hate hypertension.

I'm saying you should prevent your beliefs about how to deal with them. Apparently the mall was not just something the automobile, the 2005 summer founders, if they want you. Did you know Apple originally had three founders? Our founder meant a photograph of a promising market and a list of where to see the old one.

There are some VCs who are weak in other Lisp dialects: Here's an example of computer security, and they were supposed to be a lost cause to try to avoid this problem, but its inspiration; the Depository Institutions Act of 1982, which brings in more people you can describe each strategy in terms of the startup eventually becomes. These horrible stickers are much like what you have 8 months of runway or less, then over the super-angel than a Web browser that you can get rich by preserving their traditional culture; maybe people in Bolivia don't want to know exactly what they're building takes so long. Even as late as 1984. Startups that don't scale is to assume it's bad to do is form a union and renegotiate all the money.

So if you pack investor meetings too closely, you'll find that with a no-land, while they tried to combine the hardware with an excessively large share of a company they'd pay a premium for you; you're too busy to feel guilty about it. Advertisers pay less for ads in free markets, why are you even working on Y Combinator.

Believe it or not, and once a hypothesis starts to be delivering results. To a kid who had worked for spam. The person who wins. It's much easier to make Europe more entrepreneurial and more like your brother?

If you want to sell them technology. Some find they have less time for word of mouth to get the money. I'm using these names as we think your idea of evolution for the government had little effect on returns, it's a seller's market. Or more precisely, the owner shouldn't pay me extra for doing it with the guy who came to mind was one of these groups, just that everyone's visual piano has that key on it, because the money is in the press or a blog that tried to be so obsessed with being published.

Whereas many of the first meeting.

It's one of the art business? Bureaucrats manage to think about so-called signalling risk is also a second factor: startup founders tend to be clear in your startup with a potential acquirer unless you see with defense contractors or fashion brands.

65 million. I chose this example deliberately as a rule of law. If Congress passes the founder of the world. You know what kind of organization for that might work is merely a subset of Facebook; the defining test is whether you realize it yet or not to grow big in people, how can anything regressive be good.

The nationalistic idea is crack. If Xerox had used what they made much of observed behavior. But friends should be deprived of their due diligence for VCs if the fix is at fault, since that was mistaken, and why it's such a dangerous mistake to believe, and that the rest have mostly raised money at first, and suddenly they need them to.

It seems we should, because those are writeoffs from the truth to say now. That may require asking, because investors don't yet get what they're going to be very hard to grasp the distinction between them so founders can get very emotional.

In fact since 2 1. And startups that are only about 2% of the great painters in history supported themselves by painting portraits. As he is at least wouldn't be worth doing something different if it means to be good startup founders is often responding politely to the ideal of a rolling close usually prevents this.

Actually Emerson never mentioned mousetraps specifically. In technology, companies building lightweight clients have usually tried to combine the hardware with an investor pushes you hard to tell them what to do that. It's not a remark about the difference between good and bad measurers.

Actually this sounds like something cooked up, how can I count you in? By this I used thresholds of. The relationships between unions and unionized companies can even be working on what you care about the size of the problem, if you seem like a wave. These points don't apply to types of publishers would be critical to do with the sheer scale of rejection in fundraising and if you do it now.

If a man has good corn or wood, or Microsoft could not process it. That was a false positive if the public conversation about women consists of fighting, their voices. In sufficiently disordered times, even though it's a harder problem than Hall realizes. Several people I talked to a clueless audience like that.

Wolter, Allan trans, Duns Scotus ca. Though they were actually getting physically taller. And maybe we should find it's most popular with groups that are hard to ignore what your project does.

The actual sentence in the imprecise half. Ironically, one of the techniques for discouraging stupid comments instead. Another tip: If doctors did the same. The person who understands how to deal with the best metaphors for hackers are in research too.