#go read like idk jules verne

[kneecap-homicide]

And that pretty much sums up the plot of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

[the-insouciant-scientist]

5 for everyone??

5. How did you choose their name and why? Was it simply based on vibes or is there any specific meaning behind the name? Are the reasons behind their name different in- and out of universe?

Oh wow, hope you're ready for a very long explanation because I have a Lot to say about this and a lot of characters dhfgdjafdgj. Including some ~secret never before seen middle name lore~ just for fun! Under a cut because this got very, very long.

(Most of these were chosen by scouring lists of Victorian era names, so I probably don't have to mention that every time. Just take it as a given!)

Harper (Middlename/Theory/Marten/Russula/Twillbert/etc.) Faraday

Since Harper was made as a slightly different character before getting Flondon'd, I don't actually remember the details of their first name specifically! I think I was just angling for something reasonably gender neutral and around the right era, and Harper just stuck. Faraday came when I realized I needed a last name for them and just panic googled Victorian-or-earlier-era scientists and realized that Harper Faraday sounds absolutely delightful to the ear. So, named after Michael Faraday! Which is, ironically enough, about what happened in character too. They do not have a defined middle name because they (and I) forgot they needed one for way too long, so now if asked they usually just say the first thing that comes to mind, which is not usually a name that normal humans have. They will never live "Twillbert" down for the rest of their days.

Phileas Emrys Clarke

Phileas was a combination of Jules Verne reference, it being slightly reminiscent of a recurring family name, and just being objectively fun to me. Clarke fit the vibes more than anything else, plus I liked the idea of it being a name picked up from his time working in Irving's shop! It was initially a job related surname, after all. Emrys came way later and definitely reads to me as one he would have chosen himself (as opposed to his first name, picked up as an urchin, and his surname, received as an older teen), and means immortal, which really loops into his whole "I will never die there's too much cool stuff to do and trouble to get into while I'm alive" very nicely.

Irving Basil Merritt

Hers was extremely vibes based/just names that sounded nice with each other I'll admit! I was going for the sense of like, this is the name of a very stereotypically proper Victorian Englishman, except no this is a very gender-nonconforming tailor/dressmaker who is so very gentle and friendly to literally anyone who comes into her shop and not that at all. Basil, however, is a loose reference to the character of the same name in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Not in a way that means you should be concerned for her own safety! Just. That artistic touch and devotion and queerness really resonates I think.

Caoimhe Ann Coledoc

I knew from the get-go that I wanted her to have a Very Irish Name, and I wanted something that could sound nice alongside her twin (who also needed a Very Irish Name), and who I was naming at the same time. Caoimhe was the one that caught my eye the most, and I especially liked the softer sound of it compared to the rough and tumble butch I was sticking it on. Cian suited her brother pretty well, so together it just worked. Fun fact, Coledoc is not their real last name! It's a derivative of their mother's maiden name, Colloc, or rather the word that was derived from. It's an old Breton word that means beloved, at least according to the sources I've seen. Idk, I'm running with it. Either way, it was a bit of a secret password between the twins, so when Caoimhe descended to the Neath alone and needed a new surname, she kept that close as a reminder of why she had gone. Ann was honestly a bit of an afterthought, just needed a one-syllable name to bridge the gap and it was relatively popular in her region of Ireland around when she was born, so!

Agnes Maria Day

Her entire name has so many layers to it. Baseline it's a play off "Agnus Dei", but it's also a reference to St. Agnes of Rome, who has a very sad story even by saints' standards. Maria is technically her confirmation name, not a middle name, the Italian version of Mary. So her entire name is uhhh extremely Catholic, which makes sense based on how she was raised on the surface! But really that pun kinda took on a life of its own.

Geneviève Blackwell

Another vibes-based name! I knew I wanted something incredibly dramatic sounding, and just kind of picked though name lists until I found some that fit! Still haven't decided on a middle name for her yet, hard to get something to fit alongside the others sdlkghfgklhd.

Hyakinthos Athanasiou

I put waaaaay too much effort into this guy's name I'll be honest. Hyakinthos (also known as Hyacinthus) was the name of a Spartan prince, beloved by both Apollo and Zephyrus, and in some stories killed out of godly jealousy and others by accident. Turned into a hyacinth flower after that. I really loved the contrast between the softness of the floral name vs the whole "was murdered" thing, drawing a line of death through his entire character, and then additionally some victorian floriography assigns the meaning of "sincere care" to hyacinths, which! Yeah!! And then Athanasiou is a really fun one, because given the time period he's from it literally means "son of Athanasios" rather than being like. A family name? But the kicker is that Athanasios means immortal. He's the son of immortal and he can't die. Running around in circles and kicking my feet up about this guy I had a Blast figuring out a name for him that was both thematic and actually historically accurate! This literally could have been a name back then!! Sorry I'm just so excited about that.

[batman-dc-imagines]

Hey there :)) can I ask for a ship pls with a male or female character (or one of each) from the Gotham TV series, if you don't mind 😊

Rightio info, idk what really to say here that would be useful but don't worry I shall spare you the nitty gritty lol

Info:

female, early twenties, catholic, infj, introverted and quiet, I love music-all kinds from eminem to the temptations though I particularly love jazz and blues and nightwish, my fav albums that are kind of recent ish are disco by kylie minogue, hackney diamonds by the rolling stones and love for sale by lady gaga & tony bennet. My fav perfume is elizabeth arden blue grass and miss dior rose n roses. I love clothes and collect vintage clothing my ideal fashion aesthetic is the 1930s tho I'm not immune to a 50s circle skirt and pearls, 70s fashion is pretty cool too. I'm a librarian. Fav authors are agatha christie, donna tartt, tolkien, jules verne and h.g wells. My hobbies are pretty much just reading and listening to music. I'm irish and not to be stereotypical but swear a lot which I'm now finding embarrassing so I'm trying to stop as I find when every second sentence isn't filled with curses my mood is generally better. I like doing things alone like going to cafes, long evening walks in the dark and cold, going to the theatre. I really like November don't know why it's just my fav month.

~I've talked a mile there so I'll shush now, apologies that you have to read all that ♡

A/N: Please give feedback if anyone thinks this is ooc for Jerome. Also apologies if I didn’t fit everything you said about yourself down below.

I ship you with...

Jerome Valeska!

Y’all make a pretty good pair.

Even one another out.

Yin and Yang type stuff.

He has a showman complex and ego so expect to be put in the spotlight with him without warning.

He’ll do his best to reassure you in any situation he puts the two of you in.

If you discuss with him privately that you don’t like it, he’ll try persuasion and reassurance on you.

All he wants to do is help you overcome this “introvertness” and feel confident in the presence of others.

In the end though, he’ll drop it if you seriously don’t want to change.

Your happiness is pretty important to him, surprisingly enough.

He might not be perfect at it but I feel like he tries to dance with you to some jazz music.

Any music for that matter.

He might be a bit sloppy when it comes to dancing since he’s never danced with someone before but he tries.

Obsessed with your fashion aesthetic.

Like the old cartoon where his eyes bulge and his mouth drops to the floor.

In a positive way.

Depending on the day and his mood, he’ll go out with you to different stores to find vintage clothes or send a group of his followers to go steal some for you.

Again it all depends.

Reading isn’t his favorite thing in the world but with you it is.

He’ll lay his head on your lap and observe your face while you read aloud.

Inappropriate comments and laughs are made.

Finds it hot when you swear.

Especially when mad.

Unless it’s at him of course.

Not saying he would encourage you to swear but he wouldn’t discourage it either.

If you tell him you’re going for a walk while it’s pitch black outside, expect him to accompany you.

If you try and reassure him that you want to go alone, you’re either going to be followed by his most trusted followers or forced to stay home with him.

He’s made a lot of enemies and he doesn’t want you being a target if he can help it.

[mkmas]

maybe crack theory before the new event (that would hopefully give some new info) but

ellis in the halloween event said jude needs a lot of money and people to fulfill his promise.. is it to build something? if we connect this to the moonlight bond story, could it be that he wants to build a rocket or something that can go into the moon as a promise to someone??? he also said he doesn’t like that moon book he lent kate but it seems that he lied, it’s definitely important to him.

- in the hobbies story where he was reading books about physics and astronomy, he told kate he wanted ellis to look for the authors on the list. maybe he wanted to hire them? gather knowledge from them?

- i know rockets weren’t invented yet back then (maybe why he thinks it’s 99.9% impossible) BUT i think the book he mentioned was from the earth to the moon by jules verne and in that story, they made some kind of bullet to shoot to the moon. I might be extra reaching here but what if he said that part about the pictures in the book being enough to make you feel like you’re not crazy is like the inspiration for him since it’s impossible but at least he has a vision to go with

- i just think it’s odd how he randomly told kate that fact about the speed of going to the moon

- could be someone very important to him loved the moon so much

- or that short scene from his birthday story where he’s in an attic.. I can picture it as him seeing the moon as the only beautiful thing he can see (from his window) with his living condition being very bad so the moon served as a motivation ??

- again a random comment about the moon with him saying he doesn’t think it’s beautiful even if it’s not that night… whatever it is, there’s definitely smth going on with him and the moon

hoping the new event will give more hints or crumbs even the tiniest bits🫶 this was in my drafts from last year idk

[mylittleredgirl]

voyager high school au

i feel like we as a species are really missing an important angle on this much-abused trope.

usually high school aus take our current, fully developed characters and de-age them into teenage equivalents (tuvok is captain of the chess team, harry is in all AP classes but is somehow a freshman forever, seven demolishes at quiz bowl and "steals" the class president's prom date at the last minute because she hasn't realized that lesbianism is an option, etc).

however, if you have to send them to high school, i think it would be much funnier if we imagine them as they canonically were as teens.

--

janeway is an admiral's daughter who stormed off after losing a tennis match and dramatically walked home like 5 miles in the rain. you just know that if she got a 98 out of 100 on a project (still solidly an A+!) she would go up after class to argue the two point deduction. she might actually be the class president, but idk if the other kids are happy about it.

chakotay is a sullen, angsty kid who hates his dad, hates his tribe, and just wants to go to junior college and never set foot on the rez again. so many internalized things to unpack. this boy is a mess

Passion Punk™️ tuvok canonically got kicked out of the house for saying that everything his dad believes in fuckin sucks

b'elanna also thinks her culture of origin fuckin sucks. child of ugly divorce, regularly suspended for brawling. she may have gotten sent to klingon religious school to scare her straight at one point? i gotta look that up but i'm pretty sure it happened

like janeway, tom is also an admiral's kid. everyone says he has sooooo much potential but he spends all his time crying in his room and reading jules verne

seven is in a massively abusive cult. this one's not funny at all ☹️

harry is the best adjusted out of everyone. great relationship with his parents, probably has had the same girlfriend since eighth grade (who is also well-adjusted). youth orchestra. early decision to harvard. i typed out "voted most likely to succeed," but that's definitely wrong, because it would be tom out of nepotism or janeway out of grit (and nepotism). if it were a category though, teenage harry would be voted "most likely to just have a nice life."

kes is the smartest kid in her grade but you would never know it because she just hangs out with the hippie kids in the woods behind the school, eating moss off trees and planning to run away from home

all we really know about neelix's pre-war childhood is that he had a huge loving family. i'm extrapolating here from the skills and attitude he has as an adult, but when i transpose this into a modern high school AU, i imagine his parents running the local diner and letting all of neelix's loser friends (see the rest of this list) eat there for free.

the doctor sprang into being as an adult so i'm not sure what to do here. you could argue that he was kind of a canonical teenager in season one, in which case he's that autistic kid who everyone remembers showing up to kindergarten with a briefcase and a full suit, having already memorized A thru G in the world book. somehow you never really see him anywhere except on school grounds. this year's special interest is opera.

vorik is also there.

[nostalgicyorkshiregirl]

tagged by @druidx for a to-be-read tag game... tagging everyone who follows this blog in return

it asks for 9 books i enjoyed in 2024 and 9 i am looking forward to reading in 2025 so here goes

read in 2024

i have mentioned it already but i cannot recommend the female quixote by charlotte lennox enough. not enough books make me collapse laughing like that

a book i absolutely devoured but don't quite remember why is manon lescaut by prévost... it's just a series of absolute disasters with some of the most naively endearing but terribly destined protagonists

marc bruno by felix thyes... you know about this one, i ended up translating it. i want to slap thyes and then give him a hug. the novel is mediocre but the preface is why i ended up translating it regardless

the northern lights series by philip pullman... god (or should i say "dust") it took a long time to get round to that. i liked the first two, then it went off the wall, worth it nevertheless

i already knew that voltaire's reality was not like his popular image but le philosophe ignorant just seals it. it's heartfelt, it's hopeful, it's honest. he wasn't a philosopher so much as a populariser so it's nothing startlingly new but it makes you think (dream?) nonetheless

le village aérien by jules verne is his answer to darwin and i don't recommend it (and don't blame you) if you don't like questionable racial theory in your books, but it's odd that this one's been lost to time. forget submarines, this is how verne's "science" usually works

i am aware that goethe's souffrances du jeune werther was originally in german, a language i am supposed to be learning. but i caved and read a translation. read this if you want an understanding of the origins of the 19th century and the wish to beat sense into an insufferable young man

i've also already mentioned the house of ulloa by emilia pardo bazan before... but worth bringing up again, it's hilarious and i couldn't put it down despite the english translation being a bit irksome

and idk how well-known diderot is but his lettres de la campagne were a side of him i didn't know existed... i originally associated him (like voltaire's popular image) with the cold and snarky atheist sort but his letters made me reevaluate everything

to be read in 2025

i really need to get round to les mis. i actually do. it's just such a damn doorstop and i have a vendetta against the 19th century realists...

evelina by frances burney is one i've been meaning to read for a while, an allegedly charming and snarky letter-novel that might just be the english answer to all the literature i enjoy in french

moriarty by anthony horowitz is on my list after i absolutely adored his other sherlock holmes novel, he's several steps above all other pastiches

two series i'm going to put together are the arthur trilogy by kevin crossley-holland and the once and future king by TH white... because i started them both as a child but my arthurian phase was too short even to finish them

philippa gregory's wideacre books are on my list simply because of the 18th century setting but i do like her writing... o a recommendation from 2023 is her order of darkness series, that one's medieval and kind of fantasy but i adored it

you may or may not recall that i translated a sherlock holmes pastiche for my masters project. now fortier's original crime series is on my list, starting with le crime de gutenberg, simply because it's set in alsace and i love alsace

and i really need to get to dickens's tale of two cities... a history of the french revolution written by a 19th century englishman what could possibly go wrong

[wanderingmind867]

I'm going to try reading the library books soon, but first, I want to make a post giving my first impressions of the five books just based on summaries/synopses I found online and the book titles and stuff like that.

Serwa Boateng's Guide to Vampire Hunting: Idk how to feel here. For one thing, it's based on Ghanian folklore. I don't know too much about Ghana, besides that it's in West Africa and I've seen people from there on reality tv, and that my dad might work with someone from Ghana (which probably counts for nothing). So learning about a new culture sounds interesting. But also... vampire hunting. Usually not my cup of tea. I hated Blade and other vampire hunters in comics, because vampires are still sentient beings! They live, they feel, they have every right to live! Who are we to play god and decide to kill them!? Peaceful coexistence is the way, if it's possible! So... we'll see if my bias sneaks in.

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears: I do like mexican mythology (probably partially because there was that weird trend in animated films based on the day of the dead like Coco and The Book of Life, shortly before I fell off the animation and film/tv bandwagon). But also: this book is apparently based on the myth of La Llorona. And that's the story of a woman who killed her kids in a fit of rage, and who now cries for all time, bringing misfortune to all (according to wikipedia). So the fear is this will mess me up, and be too spooky.

Winston Chu vs the Whimsies: This one is apparently based on Chinese mythology, which is another area i'm not knowledgeable in. The synopsis made it sound supernatural too, but I don't know if it's supernatural in the mostly funny and charming way, or in the super spooky way. Still, this one is one of the two I have the most faith in.

Daughter of the Deep: Written by Rick Riordan, and apparently based on the writings of Jules Verne. So that's one plus and one minus. I don't like or care for Jules Verne, but I do tend to like rick Riordan. So I have some hope here.

Pahua and the Soul Stealer: This title alone sounds spooky. I pray it's not too spooky, because again, I have nerves so bad that too much fear would traumatize me. But I'm holding out hope, because this is apparently about the folktales of the Hmong. And the Hmong are an Asian ethnic group I never even knew existed, really. So maybe I'll learn some stuff? If I can see past the discomfort.

So I'll start with Winston Chu or the Daughter of the Deep today, probably. That's the two I have the most faith in. Following them is the Serwa Boateng book, probably.

[fitzrove]

Nemo/Aronnax! (Nemonax?)

Tysm for asking!! >:]

As you may know I ship this (unfortunately) (shhdjfjf) so I'm answering that set of questions:

What made you ship it?

Ok so, I've talked about this a lot but in Nautilus das Abenteuermusical there is a song called Vater where the young and naive professor Aronnax has a crisis. Which goes on for almost 7 minutes. Which is mostly about how Nemo, the man he's admired as a genius so far, suddenly turns out to be a violent amoral monster - which unpleasantly reminds Aronnax of his drunkard officer (?) father,,,

I think the relationship is possibly meant to be read as simply fatherly, like a "father he never had" taking under his wing type thing, but it doesn't quite come across as only that, especially because of how violently Aronnax rejects that in the aforementioned song - he's sooo full of bitterness when he goes "do you want to be my father? Yeah, be my father? Do you want that? Never! No!". Like, Aronnax sees the patronizing attitude and emotional manipulation for what it is and strikes back by screaming about it... for seven minutes...

Also idk all of the other times they speak to each other are kinda Charged too... XDD In "Du bist es nicht wert" (Nemo refuses to let Aronnax and co. go free) Nemo screams that Aronnax "is going to die here with [him]" and calls him "beautiful" (derogatory). Idk it's just such a fascinating dynamic

I didn't quite ship it until finding out the context of the rest of the show from the official CD booklet, which points out that Nemo only rescues Aronnax and his friends from drowning once he hears Aronnax's name (??) and all sorts of other juicy details.

Idk, to me it comes down to how these characters symbolise two deeply conflicting worldviews and battle it out over their consciences - who will win, who will bend the other (and perhaps other characters/the world) to their will? It's like krolock x abronsius but abronsius is a twink (so he also doubles as Alfred I guess?) and there's more sexual tens-

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

The fact that they both have so many issues. Like these people are so wrong in the head ajsjdjjfk. They would never develop a loving relationship - they both love their wives, even though one is dead - but they're canonically deeply fascinated by each other to the point of sparing each other's life or killing just to make a point to the other. Motivated by their anger and frustration, I can imagine them [redacted]...

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I don't like/want to read about the original Jules Verne book version of it at all, because those guys aren't that fucked up and they're especially not having constant mental breakdowns set to funky musical tunes xD I consider this unpopular because every ao3 fic for them so far is for the book or other adaptations.

[feeshies]

You read Daughter of the Deep! I only read it recently, because it was one of very few of Rick's books that I hadn't read and I picked him for an author study in my Contemporary Literature class.

Something that made me personally very happy about it was that Ester was blatantly stated to be autistic. I know Rick has done that before, openly stating that characters are, well, something, but I've never seen that happen with an autistic character! And she wasn't treated like a joke or anything! It was very nice to see.

All in all, while I wasn't expecting to understand it too much because I wasn't able to get through 20KLUTS (just realised I've been spelling it 20KUTS, whoopsie!), I actually had a really good time reading it. I'm glad you liked it too!

Yeah! :D I'm not done with it yet (and I'm probably going to go back and do a closer reading), but I really like it! And yeah, I really appreciated how direct he is with that kind of representation. The Percy Jackson books came out around the same time I was diagnosed with ADHD, so that meant a lot to me. It's great more people are getting to experience that.

Idk if I would have checked it out if I wasn't in love with 20k Leagues, but I'm glad I did. In hindsight, I can really tell that Rick was inspired by Jules Verne as a writer because they seem to have similar styles -- especially with dialogue (the "150 sharks" exchange in 20K Leagues is practically a Riordan exchange already lol). But yeah, I'm glad the book found an audience outside of people who read the original!

[marionetteangie]

Hi TKLUTS fandom I’m feeding you my self insert again 🥰

It’s been great getting to know you guys, I’m so glad I found friends here :D

So here’s more Anemone content! She’s basically my self insert if I lived in my two favorite Jules Verne books, 20K Leagues and From the Earth To The Moon

Essentially, her story is that she came from the place Nemo came from (I’m not canonizing Mysterious Island simply because I haven’t read it and I like Nemo being all mysterious) but basically in a last minute decision one of the crewmen, Mr Allard, decided to rescue this small baby amid all the fighting, and boom, Anemone’s on the Nautilus. She lives there for a few years and then gets dropped off at civilization because Nemo is like “it’s probably the right thing to do idk” and ends up with Impey Barbicane. Then, after the events of FTETTM, she goes wandering around and accidentally gets stuck on the Nautilus after falling asleep near some cargo on a dock. Subsequent hijinks ensue, and by the end her entire goal is to reunite Pierre and Nemo, as well as see her other dad again whenever he returns 😁

Character sheet with zoom ins is here! 🥰

If any of you want to ask me questions about her, or want to hear more about my ideas, feel free to send me a message n stuff! I love yapping about my ideas haha 🤣

There’s also the whole movie au situation, in that it’s basically just remove Barbicane from the story and have her live on the nautilus for her whole life. I like to think she’d feed Esme and have a bond with Allard since he’d be alive in that part of the story. She’d also avoid Ned because womanizer but she’d be really fascinated by Aronnax (maybe at the end of the film before she died with Nemo she’d find a way to save the journal, I found it insulting to the book that it didn’t go with them 😅)

If we’re going off the canon of Tokyo DisneySea, which says that instead of destroying Vulcania, Nemo opened it up for scientific discovery, I’d like to think in this version, based off the book, after the maelstrom Nemo and gang survived, met Anemone, and then they discovered Vulcania and made the mini nautilus Neptune ships which she now pilots :) leading into the story of the ride where you make these discoveries of weird sea creatures, and then ending with Anemone tracking down Pierre to reunite him with Nemo 🥹

Oh btw if anyone wants to write anything, draw anything with her etc, feel free! Just keep it safe for work and don’t ship her with anyone haha (one of her traits is she doesn’t conform to society and won’t get married because she hasn’t found anyone to love, which Barbicane supports and Aronnax understands (they’ve got similar traits))

Essentially, yay found family sweetness, ew no romance because lack of canon women and also Anemone shy 😂

Song for her:

Okay baiiii :)))

[alastors-radioshow]

🎔 + Fire on Fire, obviously. Dewstor? Aladrop? idk

Send Me 🎔 + A Ship And I'll Tell You:

Who wins a prize at a carnival/fair/festival: I could see Dew winning something for Alastor. A small gesture, to display some affection towards his mate. And Alastor will absolutely be treasuring that gift.

Who does most of the cooking: Alastor. But he often invites Dew to either help him, or just be around while he cooks.

Who does most of the shopping: Most likely, they would go together. But Alastor wouldn't mind doing the shopping.

Who is hopeless at board games: Alastor. Definitely Alastor. Dew, help him, he's lost.

Who is always trying to make the other laugh: Dew! Making Alastor laugh is a definite win.

Who has a tendency to give out TMI: Dew! Sometimes Alastor can only smile and nod because he doesn't know what to say.

Who does more DIY projects: Dew. Ever the crafty ghoul.

Who is the big spoon: Alastor, most of the time, though he doesn't mind switching. He loves having his mate in his arms.

Who gives more casual affection: They're both rather attentive of each other, good at giving affection in their respective ways.

Who reads to whom: Alastor reads to Dew quite often. Usually a novel by Jules Verne, or maybe Mary Shelley.

Who brings drinks and food without being asked: Dew, especially if Alastor isn't feeling his best, or is more stressed than usual. Although Alastor does bring beignets from time to time.

[alachii]

okay well

north korean science fiction (this was gonna be one of two parts of this post but after writing this all out i’m tired and will come back later to talk about korean political economics)

in reality this paper was more of a comparison on north korean science fiction in relation to chinese science fiction to south korean science fiction to european science fiction. or it was supposed to be but my word count was too long lol

i originally learned about the origins of science fiction in the korean peninsula from a korean translation class, because the translation of jules verne’s ten thousand leagues under the sea was the one of the first translation of a western secular text to korean (if you know anything about korean “modernization” [i have a lot of feelings about the use of that word] then you know the purposefully contagious christians have been in korea trying to spread the ideology since the nineteenth century). obviously, this predates the division of korea a bit. funnily enough, it wasn’t translated from the original french, it was translated from from either a chinese or japanese translation (i can’t remember which and i don’t have my notes with me). so basically french -> chinese or japanese -> korean. korea’s views of science fiction and the western ideology of the superiority of science, evidence, and “objective truth” is filtered through the lens of a different east asian state that “modernized” before korea, bringing along its own cultural and historical baggage with western colonization. honestly idk why i bring this up every time i talk about it i just think it’s cool and gives context to the history of korean science fiction

science fiction isn’t really utilized a ton in east asia before the end of ww2, everyone’s kind of got bigger picture shit going on and isn’t really pushing the boundaries of what east asia considers literature at the time. this is especially true for korea, since they’re dealing with japanese colonization; in the later years of colonial rule koreans aren’t allowed to have their own newspapers (don’t quote me on this i can’t find my source), are being forced to change their names to japanese names, and are facing wide scale political censorship in almost every possible realm, literature being one of them. so they don’t exactly have the toolkit to be like wow look at this cool crazy technology i’m going to write this science fiction story critiquing capitalism and the rise of technology and get it published and survive with my family unscathed.

ww2 ends w the nuclear bombing of korea’s colonizers and then immediately gets split. now the peninsula is ripe feeding ground (is that even the term idfk) for cultural examination of whatever the fuck humanity is doing w science and technology. south korea is under the Guiding Parental Hand of USAmerica (note sarcastic tone), and the resulting science fiction that grows from the standstill of the censorship from colonial rule reflects the liberal democratic capitalistic ideology of the states. north korea is under the Guiding Parental Hand (remind me to make a post talking about the difference between the relationships between the koreas and their benefactor states later) of the soviet union, and their science fiction reflects this.

i can’t access my paper atm and i can’t remember the details of my body paragraph so i can come back later when i can access it w more info and update this. i’ll definitely also update this w my bibliography so you can read more about it :)

Ask Game: List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you! get to know your mutuals and followers (>w<) <3

1. TUMBLR USER JSON-DERULO

2. i shall just group together general fan works and media into this bullet point

3. raspberries (esp in the ungodly hours of the morning)

4. snowstorms

5. getting good grades back on papers i’ve written that im Not Normal About

[witchyfoxelf]

[book review] northern lights by philip pullman (1995)

i first read this in college around when the ill-fated movie adaptation was coming out. i had seen the trailers and was thirsty for more fantasy type stuff, which it turns out was literally the entire cynical motivation for making the movie because they totally lotr-ed it up. the book is actually much more a response to narnia (which itself received the lotr-ification treatment in its film adaptations), but has a much different aesthetic/genre that the movie largely ignores, but we’re not here to talk about the movie rn i’m just setting the context of my first reading.

i was in the middle of reading it when the catholic church & others started calling for boycotts, and that was back during my misguided religious phase so at that point i was like “well, fuck.” but i was already in the middle of the book and i was really enjoying it so i kinda shrugged it off & decided that i enjoyed it but i didn't like that the church was the bad guys, and it was ok to enjoy something i disagreed with.

obviously now the anti-church stuff is a feature for me rather than a bug, so i was interested to see how i would feel about the book now with that in mind. and uh yeah, i do love that aspect of the book, very much so, yes. but it’s also so far in the background that a reader could be forgiven for it not being one of their biggest takeaways if they’re not paying close attention? like, by the end of the book it’s pretty fucking obvious that that was the entire point, but that turn happens in literally a line of dialogue at the end of the book (which i fucking love), but it’s not difficult to see in retrospect why even at my most brainwashed (not the fun/kinky kind, the boring religious kind) i was able to shrug it off and enjoy this as a silly little adventure yarn. which btw makes it pretty fucking hilarious that the church was so fragile about it, but whatevs!

but yeah, even though i don’t think it’s actually going to change anyone’s mind, that last interaction between lyra & pantalaimon that i alluded to earlier was everything to me this time. when pan says, “if they [the church] think dust is bad, it must be good!” and i forgot that that point was made that explicit in this book. it’s possible to miss its import if you’re just caught up in the breezy adventure the rest of the book has been, but it just absolutely turns the world upside down. i fucking love it.

also, another thing that hit me on a completely different level this time was this passage:

his hands, still clasping her head, tensed suddenly and drew her toward him in a passionate kiss. lyra thought it seemed more like cruelty than love, and looked at their dæmons, to see a strange sight: the snow leopard tense, crouching with her claws just pressing in the golden monkey’s flesh, and the monkey relaxed, blissful, swooning on the snow.

“strange sight”? idk man, sounds pretty normal to me.

other things i loved included serafina talking about feeling the starlight & moonlight on her skin. even though it wasn’t particularly foregrounded, all the witchy stuff was wonderful. i also loved iorek byrnison. as if having a magical little animal spirit that was part of yourself & you could talk to & cuddle wasn’t enough, lyra also gets a fucking armored bear king protecting her! what a lucky girl!!

and of course lyra herself was a wonderful protagonist. she’s just so fucking good. strong desire to protecc.

in the category of things i didn’t so much love was all the casual, careless racism. like, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t as bad of an offender as the aforementioned lewis or tolkien books, or a lot of its more direct influences like say the works of jules verne, but it still is rather frustrating all the same.

kinda par for the course for stuffy british adventure stories tbh, but again it’s not like outlandishly racist or anything, just… there’s an undercurrent throughout that i wouldn’t feel right not mentioning.

i also think it’s worth noting that while these books are marketed as y.a., they’re probably, uh, a bit heavy for the average kid? like, some genuinely traumatizing stuff happens!! but also idk kids are a lot more resilient than people give them credit for, i know this wouldn’t have phased me if i had read it when i was 12, just feels worth mentioning that it gets pretty dang dark.

so yeah, if you can shrug off the fairly commonplace racism of someone who seems like he’s trying his best but is too british not to be casually racist, this is a pretty great read. i find it very easy to get sucked in. lyra is such a great protagonist who you genuinely want to be safe, and the writing style hits that really nice sweet spot where it has a lot of inherent personality that leaps off the page, but it’s also still extremely approachable, which is just the perfect recipe to make something compulsively readable.

a-rank

[knickynoo]

Do you think that Doc and Clara would have a third baby when they move back to 1985? I like to imagine that they did, and I'd love to see your headcanons on that.

Hmm...I've never given too much thought to this, but I'd have to say yes. I also like to think that Doc and Clara move back to 1985 and have another child. I'm gonna go with the headcanon of them having a girl, since every fic I've come across in which Doc and Clara have a third child, make that child a daughter. Not sure what they'd name her, but I almost feel compelled to keep with the trend of her being named Emma or Emily. Idk what it is, but there's this tendency to give the Browns a daughter with one of those names--I've read several fics by various authors that include either an Emma or Emily Brown, lol. (some recent and one that was written 22 years ago!) It's to the point that every time I happen upon a fic where Doc and Clara have a third child, I go, "Let me guess, her name is Emma/Emily?"

Anyway, headcanons!

Upon finding out they're going to have another child, Clara and Doc are both overjoyed, but Doc is also noticeably anxious. I suspect he was kind of flustered when they were expecting Jules and Verne, though, too. Clara is always having to remind him that she's fine, everything is going smoothly, etc, but it does little to calm Doc. He's very doting and kind of overprotective and feels the need to constantly have some sort of project going to keep himself busy. Building things for the baby's room, inventing better and safer methods of baby-proofing things, making upgrades to things around the house "just because." Clara is always reminding him to please sit down and RELAX.

Jules handles the news much better than Verne, who is upset and jealous at not being the baby anymore. Jules is hopeful that his new sibling will share his interest in scientific pursuits. Verne is of the mindset of, "Couldn't we have just gotten another dog?"

Marty and Jennifer are thrilled. Jen spends a lot of time helping Clara brainstorm names and decorate the room. She also probably makes comments to Marty like, "Soon, we'll be able to help take care of the baby. It'll be great practice for when we're parents someday!" The statement is met with a nervous chuckle from Marty.

I don't have a whole lot of concrete ideas for Doc and Clara's daughter, but I do think she would be fun-loving and spunky. Smart and curious, too. And she'd love and be close to Marty and Jen, who, yes, would get lots of parenting practice helping to take care of her.

Thanks for the ask!

[coffeeenjoyer]

Tagged by @smolist! Ty I've never done one of these before lol

Nickname: I go by CJ on the 'net

Sign: Aries

Height: 169cm

Last Google search: thesaurus dot com (fanfic reasons)

Song stuck in my head: Cure for me by Aurora. Been on my mind since the last two weeks

Number of followers: 13

Amount of sleep: 10hr on weekends and 5hr during weekdays

Lucky number: 10

Dream job: Soo many in mind. But if I had to choose probably graphic designer. Or anything related to IT. It's an interesting field with many opportunities so I'm v. interested

What are you wearing: Loose t-shirt and pants

Favorite media: Ace attorney. Its been only two years since I first found it but it has such an intense grip on me now.

Favorite song: I have a lot but my current fav is Seven nights by Mysie

Favorite instrument: Flute

Aesthetic: Naturecore probably

Favorite author: ooof i actually don't have a recent one because I haven't been able to read that many books these days. I remember I used to be obsessed with the books by Jules Verne but that was a long time ago. The ones I'm currently reading are related to my studies (and this one YA book I got as a gift which I don't really like rip) so. Idk

Favorite animal noise: crickets are so nice to hear. Its very soothing specially when i go out for a walk during the night

Random: I'm left handed, trilingual and love mangoes a normal amount

tagging (hope its alright <3) @beevean @fracturefox64 or anyone else can join too!

[janiedean]

Hey, I've seen ur Italian Literature recoms. and it's really helpful. Do you, by any chance, read French Literature too? If so, can you suggest some?

hi anon, sorry for the lateness but I'm going to give this a crack - ofc for obvious reasons as in I'm italian and not french I'm entirely less familiar with french lit that you'd study in school than with italian ones and my knowledge of contemporary french lit is subzero so I can only help you with classics but

I'm going to go straight for it and start with the 19th century novelists for reasons sorry if I go like not in chronological order but

as alexandre dumas wrote my second-favorite book in existence (the three musketeers) and is also one of my favorite writers ever I'll recommend you the d'artagnan romances (musketeers, twenty years later and the viscount of bragelonne) which are long but are all very easy to go through - honest the best thing with dumas is that while he's everything but synthetic you don't feel it, do start with musketeers because it's honestly out of this world good

also honest dumas hasn't written a book that's not entertaining but do read the count of montecristo you really really do want to it's amazing and my second-fave of his after the aforementioned d'artagnan books

talking about 19th century novelists... I mean you really wanna read victor hugo, mind that you have to be in the mood for it because most of his stuff is heavy/long but it's also incredibly well-written and you breeze through it if you vibe with it - maybe you can start with his theater and in that case anything is good though I'm partial to le roi s'amuse for obv reasons (as in they got rigoletto from that plot xD), but wrt novels I'd go with notre dame de paris, les miserables and the man who laughs first, starting with notre-dame because it's shorter and you get a better idea, but my friend les mis is just... I mean I honestly think if you don't read that book you miss out on some of the most amazing literature that ever was so there's that

and going back to another of my fave books ever, do try stendhal - my favorite is the red and the black which has honestly the most delicious terrible amoral protagonist ever and I just really love it, but the charterhouse of parma is also p. great

discussing the other heavyweights of 19th century french novels I personally did enjoy what zola I read more than I enjoyed what balzac I read but I also have no idea what's translated in english or not since not all of them didn't get translated in italian anyway but like if you want to give it a go wrt what you can expect from it with zola I'd go with therese raquin and with balzac either eugenie grandet or lost illusions (?? idk the english title)

meanwhile moving wrt flaubert you really wanna read madame bovary

also alexandre dumas's son - who has the same name as the father so you'll find him as alexandre dumas fils - has the dame of the camelias/la dame aux camelias which is where they took la traviata from and T__T I love iittt

and to finish with 19th century people, you want to try out maupassant too - any short story collection will do you good I think but if you want to try novels I'd go for bel ami

that is to say I haven't touched 19th century genre fiction but I mean... jules verne is a classic™, try out around the world in 80 days, journey to the center of the earth and 20000 leagues under the sea first and then if you like them you'll probably enjoy everything else

talking about classics, another one of my favorite books ever™ is laclos's dangerous liasons which is previous century but like... go for it

for more modern novels I do like a lot radiguet's the devil in the flesh and camus's the plague, there's other stuff I've meant to check for a while especially genre but I haven't gotten around to it yet :(

aaand I mean.... if you're very daring and you're into it I mean I feel bad leaving marcel proust out of a post about classic french literature recs because like in search of lost time is a... founding thing in french literature but like it's the kind of thing that you should read a) when you have a lot of time b) when you're in the mood c) when you're already familiar with most of ^^^^ the above stuff because otherwise it would just go over one's head and it's like seven books so I'm mentioning it because I have to and it's a great book but like if you aren't familiar with previous french literature I'd advise starting from something easier XD

now that was what I can give you for the novels but for everything else:

theater wise you're good with anything by moliere - any play of his is good, I can give you tartuffe, don juan, the miser and the misanthrope to have a few titles but most of his stuff is good

voltaire's work is in general a+ from philosophy to anything else and he's also very accessible, I'd start with candide if you want one thing

if you want to try more philosophers montaigne's essays are great, pretty accessible and have influenced also english writers and so on so he's the one I'd go for

(do not for the love of yourself ever read rousseau DON'T DO IT ANON DON'T DO IT THIS IS AN ANTI-REC)

wrt poetry I mean... if you want to go back to medieval times you can have a knock out of the chanson de roland for like EPIC POEM TIMES - I enjoyed studying it in high school admittedly but I guess it's not fundamental™ unless that's what you're interested in but as half of the few poets I actually do like are french...

my favorite of them is paul verlaine - I checked wiki and in english you can find not all of them but like do try fetes galantes, songs without words and poems under saturn, then there's charles baudeleaire for which you can get les fleurs du mal (I SHOULD hope there's a decent english translation around at least), and then arthur rimbaud, personally I just got a book with his full works and it worked great for me but for specific ones, a season in hell is his most famous, and like I have no idea if they translated verlaine's les poets maudits into english but it could be a good start for that whole branch of poetry

aaand I mean... that's what I feel comfortable recommending but if any of my french followers/french speaking followers who know more about this than me would like to chime in do feel free to! :D I might tag someone in the comments when my brain like starts working because I've been copying notes for the entire afternoon while writing this and I'm braindead but if any of you finds it before I tag you really go ahead XD