#i hate to doom post but. canaries in coal mines

[theriverbeyond]

started making a pinned post for all my socials (in light of the "tumblr running on a skeleton crew" thing) but i realized i basically only have here and ao3. my twitter is essentially a private diary ft. nsf/w art and the idea of giving out my discord publically feels a little too much like posting my phone number online. I could theoretically start a discord *server* but frankly I'm in too many already and do not have the skillset of a moderator. i have a fandom only email address but that's already linked in my ao3 profile. i have a reddit but i only use that to ask anonymous and deeply personal medical questions and like, tips on how to increase my credit score. mastodon/bluesky is confusing and both are too much like twitter in UI for me to want to do a public thing there. facebook and instagram are right out.

i just.... there really isn't another space that has the same level of anonymity AND broad reach AND fandom focus for me. i am just not online in a way where i can be like, "Follow me [here]!". i honestly really adore the little fandom community here on tumblr and like, while "mutuals can DM for discord!" is true, and "anyone can email me on my fandom email!" is true, I love interacting with people here on tumblr even if we haven't talked in a way that is entirely different from wanting to freely give out what is basically my phone number. idk.

[assim-eu-sou]

Have you read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? 🎼🕊️🪱

If you have not read it, what do you think about the title? What characters represent birds and snakes?

*spoiler alert*

If you have read it, how birds and snakes play a part in the narrative? Also what do you think about Mockingjay role in the original trilogy and this prequel?

Thank you.

@curiousnonny

Finally, I'm answering this! As a Hadestown fan, the title definitely intrigued me before I got to read the book. I think it's an excellent title overall, and I can't really imagine anything else, even though it is a bit longer that the trilogy titles.

I see Lucy Gray as a bird, of course. Songbird, caged bird, you name it. In another post, I said this:

lucky flickerman’s bird made to repeat flattering things about dean highbottom and being caged up after showing too much agency = lucy gray baird saying what she needed to say to gain support and coriolanus snow’s desire to keep her to himself

I also see Sejanus as a bird, caged in a different way, and somewhat of a canary in a coal mine. Since moving to the Capitol, he's like a parrot plucked from the forest that lives in a very fancy cage. And he's the first one to raise the alarm about things that should NOT be happening.

Of course Snow would be a snake. He's allergic to doing anything that isn't for his own self interest in some way. And everyone he touches suffers somehow. Lucy Gray, Sejanus, Clemensia, and then the people he goes on to poison. Dr. Gaul is also a snake. Aside from her whole tank of snakes thing, she's always sowing some sort of poison into the lives of both the students and the public.

On to the next question. It's interesting how we see birds and snakes cropping up. Snow hates the mockingjays, and wishes he could just shoot them all instead of collecting them when he's in 12. He uses a jabberjay to record and ultimately doom Sejanus, and in a way, that bird takes on a snake role. Then, of course, he's shooting at all the birds in the woods as he lets all of his insecurities with Lucy Gray come to a head.

On the other hand, Lucy Gray has a snake at the reaping, the reasoning for which later comes to light: there was never a fair chance of escaping the reaping for her, and she wanted a last laugh somehow. The snakes poison Clemensia due to Snow's lies, a and Snow uses that knowledge to give Lucy Gray an advantage.

Back to Mockingjays. They're such a good symbol already: the creation whose very existence made a mockery of the Capitol, but at its essence was just a songbird. Katniss' entire existence and course of action seemed enough of a reason for Snow to hate and fear her beforehand, but exacerbates the way it must haunt him. Good! The songbirds prevailed. They always will.

Anyway, I hope that answered these questions well enough :)