#i love these books and they have such great rereadability

[sexcromancy]

in this post, I will use complit to explore the bodyswap theme in Nona the ninth. in january i read isle mcelroy's people collide, a pretty good litfic novel with a great premise: a husband and wife experience an unexplained body swap and have to adjust to possibly permanent life in a body that is both wrong and right for them in unexpected ways. mcelroy's very thinky treatment of this idea really crystallized and brought forward some ideas I had about palamedes, camilla, and paul on my most recent ntn reread. mcelroy's novel focuses mainly on the husband now living in the wife's body, who discovers shortly after waking up that way that his wife, in his body, has disappeared. when he finds her again she is preternaturally confident and self-satisfied, while he has struggled with his self-image and self-conception, but also found things to love about being in her body. in their scenes together upon reunion, especially the sex scenes, there is some really delicious focus on whose body is whose. this is partly done through clever wordplay and partly through narrator commentary. this is what really made me start thinking about palamedes and camilla.

nona, expert of the body, is constantly Noticing who is in camilla's body at any one time. if she doesn't know, it is assumed to be camilla until proven otherwise. even in scenes like palamedes' conversation with the angel (in the classroom, day 4), where we can tell its palamedes before nona explicitly says so, nona's narration is very specific about when the switch happens.

Camilla took her dark glasses off and folded them up neatly, to put in her breast pocket. Then she said quietly -- "May I ask a question?" Nona glanced up at Camilla's face, just to confirm it. "Go ahead," said the Angel, smiling without her eyes having anything to say about it. "Back on Lemuria, or anywhere else," said Palamedes...

this switch is notable to me for two reasons. first, as mentioned above, Nona is careful to refer to the person as Camilla, even though it is clear to us in hindsight that the switch must've happened at the very least before the coordinated trip intended to read the Angel's body with necromancy. second, camilla's body is still camilla's body, even with palamedes inside. this is even clearer later in the scene, with the line "Palamedes stepped Camilla's body forward." in the passage above, nona is looking at camilla's face, but not at camilla. to me, this kind of word trick is one of muir's most impressive and subtle talents.

practically every time nona witnesses a palamedes/camilla switch, she notices little details like the above. it underlines the theme of body ownership again and again. it is camilla's body, palamedes can only pilot it temporarily. to nona, it is never his, even for a moment. i think that this is part of what it so absolutely world-shakingly terrifying for nona about paul, and why paul's emergence foretells nona's understanding of the "middle thought." nona doesn't know basically anything about necrocav dynamics, and as an outside observer, she doesn't understand the way palamedes had rights to camilla's body (even if he rarely exercised them) even before inhabiting it. so when she witnesses paul, she is watching what we can understand as a logical endstate of their lifelong relationship, but what she can only understand as a complete and final subsuming of a body that was always only camilla's. nona has been told for the entire book up to this point that the body she's in does not belong to her, and paul forces her to finally face the reality that she might genuinely lose rights to it.

to bring these thoughts together, both muir and mcelroy are building on the idea of bodily autonomy and ownership. they both futz with who lives in a body in order to create strange, heightened, circumstances. and they both highlight those moments with clever wordplay around who is acting in who's body at a given moment. with mcelroy, we are inside the bodyswap, and it is a very intimate experience centered almost entirely on the two characters. with muir, nona's view of camilla and palamedes is our primary focus for this theme. it might be easy to forget that pyrrha, judith, ianthe, kiriona, and nona herself are all also in similar body-ownership plots, because they receive even less focus. its certainly one of the main themes of this book, as well as the series as a whole. it feels obvious, but the complexity and depth of the execution is underdiscussed.

[lizardson]

one of the things that feels so clear on rereads but so many people miss the first time they read the way of kings is shallans PTSD. I think part of it is the way it gets overshadowed by the constant unending tragedy of kaladin's story, its easy to slot shallan in as the young naive rich girl and not look much deeper. Part of it also is the way shallan drastically understates her own trauma. she says that she's timid, she doesn't like confrontation, she talks about her father's temper, but she was the lucky one because it was never directed at her. There are so many things in her first few chapters alone that are textbook PTSD, the way she freezes and shuts down any thought process that gets too close to her father's death, the flashback when jasnah gets angry at her, how she dissociates when she draws. It's so obvious if you know what you're looking for, but just subtle enough, especially when it's compared to kaladin's trauma, that a lot of people miss it at first. anyway I would defend shallan davar with my life.

[toffeelemon]

I don’t feel like our love is brand new. There must have been lovers, soulmates, before us, experiencing what we get to have. And it’s giving me comfort to imagine there will be many more like us to come. Our kind of love is the kind of love that makes this rotten world worth living in.

prince simon in madrid

a pilgrimage along the world that @prince-simon created 🥹

Simon’s neighbourhood, Chueca

“It’s actually the Queer Neighbourhood of Madrid, and coincidentally also where I live.” He lowered his voice as if to tell a secret, “It’s actually not a coincidence at all.” (chapter 2)

Casa de Campo (view from the Royal Palace lol oop)

Wilhelm didn’t even recognise himself. He didn’t think he’d ever looked that happy. And Simon… his eyes were closed and his curls were a mess and Wilhelm had never seen anyone more beautiful. (chapter 3)

El Retiro

Simon looked at Wilhelm much too adoringly for a statement this goofy. “The ducks are gay!” He yelled at Santiago and Paula, “Just so you know!” (chapter 9)

Palacio de Cristal

“Here’s a funny thought - bear with me, okay? But just imagine. Flowers. Everywhere, like on the ceiling, up the walls. Fairy lights scattered all through it. It would be so gorgeous as a- uh, like. For a wedding…” Realising where his train of thought had gotten him, Wilhelm fell quiet, looking at Simon with wide eyes. (chapter 9)

El Palacio Real de Madrid (more specifically the Throne Room lmfao)

Simon traced his fingers over the bruises on Wilhelm’s neck and in the opening of his dress shirt, humming contentedly. Wilhelm followed the movement in the mirror, and marvelled at how good they looked together, how well they fit together and how much Simon belonged right here – on the throne, with Wilhelm. He deserved the world and so much more. (chapter 12)

Museo Nacional del Prado

Around them, the other visitors kept moving, admiring the art on the walls, and for the moment Wilhelm felt infinite, imagining himself a painting, looked at and analysed hundreds of years from now. El Abrazo de los Príncipes.

Lo Spasimo, Raphael, 1515-1517

“Are we allowed to kiss in front of Jesus on his way to crucifixion or is that tasteless? Because I really want to kiss you right now, Simon.”

Las Meninas, Diego Velázquez, 1656

“He made me look at Velázquez in the painting and how he was looking back at the viewer, at me. I still remember the exact tone of his voice, how he was so certain when he told me that I had every right to be where I am. That I am the subject of this painting, the king being painted. All those tyrants, King Felipe and Emmanuel and all those that came in between, they are trapped in that mirror forever while I am here, alive, we’re here. Velázquez is looking at two queer princes, ready to paint us.” (chapter 13)

Casa Alberto

“So, tell me more about this special part of Madrileñan history.” He was slightly teasing but mostly actually curious. 

Simon seemed all too eager to answer that question, and it hit Wilhelm how genuine Simon’s care for his city — his country — and its people was. It made him a little sad to know that a lot of people didn’t get to see that because they only focused on Simon being too gay or too Latino, or even just too carefree and enjoying life because he was young, to be their future king.

bonus content:

Iglesia de San Antonio de los Alemanes (where Simon goes to church)

“I think I need to go somewhere.”

“Oh?” Wilhelm said softly, “Right now?”

Simon hesitated before he nodded. “I need to- get some clarity? Or - I hope that I’ll get it there?” He whispered, voice shaky.

“Do you want to tell me where you’re going?”

“To- uh, to pray? I mean- to church? I don’t know if I’ll pray…” Simon’s voice was shaky, uncertainty shining in his eyes when he dared to look up at Wilhelm. (chapter 11)

[eerna]

the MLJ kick drove me to dig even deeper into teenage nostalgia and I decided to go rewatch Still Star-Crossed, and the FIRST THING I SEE when I google it is that it's a SHONDALAND PRODUCTION. WHO KNEW

[slagclaren]

good evening kajsssssss! please tell me an underrated moment you want the brawn doc to show/mention

OH GOD ! it's in these moments i really really wish i had a tag system like yours and not a tag system just. based on vibes..... i have such a poor memory i never remember what happened which year...... BUT FEAR NOT ! i broke out the Holy Grail(s) to aid me, aka my 3 jenson books.

moments that i'll be genuinely surprised if they're not included:

monaco pit lane run

brazil we are the champions

these r fundamental lore... FUNDAMENTAL... and i'll entirely lose my faith in keanu reeves if they're not incuded.

BUT! you asked for underrated not fundamental so i give you....

1. flavio briatore (known jenson button tormentor) being sooo pissed that he couldn't get the double diffuser banned that he told the media that 1. he can't understand why (or i guess how) jenson was leading the championship. and 2. that jenson was a paracarro (acc to jenson's translation: a concrete bollard). flavio is such a cartoon villian it'd be soooo funny to have him included in some way

2. jb, jessica (then girlfriend), prince albert and princess charlene going clubbing after the monaco gp and prince albert apparently busting it down not so sensitive style on the dance floor

3. a grinning kid giving jb the finger after qualifying in brazil (most likely not caught on camera which is a great tragedy) (in general i just want as much as possible abt the rubens/jenson firction - there was minimal but i want DRAMA - and the brazilian gp)

4. while i know this is not The Jenson Button Show to the general public, it is to me and therefore i'd be greatly, GREATLY, disappointed if jenson's dad isn't in it in some capacity. jenson's dad is a very very fundamental part of who jb is. jenson hugging his dad for as long as he could after winning the wdc not for his sake but to conceal his dad's tears from the cameras (knowing that his dad wouldn't want it broadcasted) says a lot abt jenson and it's one of my fave jenson tidbits of all time

5. obviously seb has to be in it. red bull was the main competitor and i want to see his stupid buzz cut. i want to see the pics from the australian gp where it looks like him and jenson just announced their engagement.. and speaking of.. i'd like to remember it was that year the entire "are you proposing?" presser took place (but again, my memory sucks!)

[coolxatu]

last night i had a dream that i dont remember very well that had a book series in it that i realized after waking up was actually the plot of another dream i had that i entirely forgot about, so im starting to think that i might have some sort of dream world memory that only functions while im sleeping

[cam-the-orange-cat]

@lord-westley I'm re-reading @reality-warp 's Rávamë's Bane series and oKaY

The singular perk to having a TBI is forgetting why you love something. Like, I remember loving this fic but I don't remember any details. So I get to experience it again now. And you can all suck it because this fic is, indeed, amazing.

[michameinmicha]

Rereading a book ive read several years ago is always so weird. Like i had like the vaguest memory of a plot and maybe a few vibes? and rereading doesnt bring back everything but i have a few things that make a !! Go up in my brain?

[byanyan]

the amount I've been hoarding away some of the memes I've seen on the dash over the last week or so is so not okay for someone with as many drafts as me ashfjdh

[altblock-tm]

god fuck I forgot how much I love Cernunnos in the secrets of the immortal nicholas flamel <3333

[astriiformes]

You know what else? 2022 was also a really great year for fiction for me

My special interest in The Owl House continued through the whole year because Season 2B/the start of S3 were both phenomenal; I had a resurgence of feelings about the first Critical Role campaign because The Legend of Vox Machina really exceeded my expectations as an adaptation; The Locked Tomb series got me reading again in a BIG way; and now here at the end of the year I am a puddle of emotions about Pentiment and telling everyone I know to play it

All incredibly good stories, that also make me have emotions ABOUT stories, and all sort of interesting/weird/unique in their own way. There's some extremely tasty thematic intersections between them all too which I think is doing a lot for me as a storyteller and writer myself.

(Also they all have actual queer characters and I love that for them.)

[whiskingskin]

Yo guess who just finished A Court Of Thorns and Roses

[xserpx]

‘I pretend to care for the men, but in truth I don’t give a damn whether they live or die. You always did care, but you pretend not to give a damn. I never saw you waste one man’s life. And yet they like me better. Hah. There’s justice.’

— Nicomo Cosca to Monza Murcatto, Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

Forever yelling from the rooftops that Monza is a sympathetic character who 100% deserves her happy ending; a victim of abuse who walks through the hell that is gaining self-understanding and agency over her own life, coming to terms with just how futile is her struggle to be respected in a world that refuses to care. This quote reminds me a lot of that speech in the Barbie movie, the way Monza is constantly trying to play so many roles, tying herself in knots, never strong enough, never nice enough, never ruthless enough, and at the end of the day, after all that effort, it turns out that in the eyes of the men who ruined her life she was only ever supposed to be collateral damage. God, I love her.

[depresseddepot]

It's been so long since I've read anything kingkiller chronicles related but the narrow road between desires was so unexpectedly emotional and sweet

[jeanmoreaux]

i love that you are rereading aftg rn bc i just started rereading it and all the content u are putting on my dash is making me feel like i'm in hs reading it for the first time again it's so fun <3

anon we are holding hands 🫶 glad to provide!!! i feel like i am back in high school as well. it’s So Much Fun to come on here to post about these silly books again and see that i am Not alone in the brainrot <3

[philcoulsonismyhero]

I found a new book series a while ago, btw, and I'm planning to be obnoxious about it now that I'm caught up, or at least I will be when I have some actual spare time. Feel free to blacklist 'rivers of london' if you don't care, I'll be tagging all posting after this with that.