#i think we as a people need to get Hugo possessed more often

[the-reverse-mermaid]

Scrolling through your fics on ao3 because need to remind myself that you exist and I need you to know that You Say Jump was the first vat7k fic I ever read and it confused me so much when I walked into the fandom and they were drawing VARIAN getting possessed. I was like “But it’s Hugo?” I just thought the fandom was really stupid because they didn’t know it was Hugo who got possessed

HEHEHE THAT’S INCREDIBLE!!!

[agent-cupcake]

You know, you've written a lot of your thoughts/hcs/etc on how various characters would behave as yanderes and so on, but I've never seen you talk about yandere readers before and I feel like that's an interesting subject to consider? Especially for 3H - you have a treasure trove of damaged boys to attract obsessiveness from girls who are convinced they are the ONLY one for them and it's their duty to drive away competition/threats/anyone they want.

Okay it's time to be toxic. I’m not going to go for all the guys, just the ones who immediately came to mind.

Dimitri: I joke quite often that I would be yandere for Dimitri. It all started when I brought up killing the girl he danced with at the White Heron Ball and quite frankly it's only spiraled from there because doesn't the Savior King Dimitri deserve to be adored and worshipped? Doesn't he deserve someone who wants the best for him and only him? Doesn’t it only make sense for him to be with someone who understands his mental issues and is willing to offer him unconditional support and patience? Doesn't he need someone with unwavering loyalty who will do anything no matter what the cost for his sake? It'd be so easy too because he's super dependent, desperate for affection, and clueless so if you just nourish those traits and constantly downplay his discomfort/suspicion of you driving away anybody who you feel is a threat by saying that this is how relationships just are, that it's just because you love him so much, that you're just looking out for him, what's he gonna do? It's not like he'd have any solid basis for knowing how relationships are supposed to be. Besides if he gets too upset you can threaten to leave him just like his mother did, I'm sure that would work to get him back in your arms (where he belongs). Yeah, that’s a little fucked up but it would be so much worse for both of you in the long run if you were apart. Being too aggressive or overt about your obsession would definitely make Dimitri wise up so it'd be better to go with love bombing. This would be good because it really lets you prove your devotion to Dimitri and makes it easier for him to just laugh off and excuse your disturbingly possessive behavior. His friends would be potentially problematic, but they're not always around and Dimitri's private enough that he probably wouldn't volunteer information about you to them. If you told him that it made you very upset and uncomfortable when he was friendly with the girls from his class, he’d most likely stop for your sake. Bonus round, have his babies. What is he going to do, abandon the mother of his children? Dimitri?!? No way. Of course he wouldn’t do anything to risk breaking his family, but neither would you! After all, this is all because you know Dimitri better than anyone which means that only you can love him.

Sylvain: Sylvain being manipulative and cheating on you after you try and prove your love to him through conventional means causing you to snap and kill hurt the girls, throw his lies back in his face, and prove that you're the only girl for him by preying on his emotional trauma with women is really something to consider. Why try to resolve toxic situations with love, compassion, and open communication when you can use blood and abuse to keep him with you? Play the part, be snarky, witty, flirty, be super hot and cold to keep him intrigued, give him the best fuck he's ever had, really show him that you don't care about his Crest, you just want to love possess him. Maybe even do the whole "I don't care who you're with, we both know you belong to me" to really engage him in those super fun mind games. Make everyone else acknowledge that you're the perfect girl for him, get them all to vilify him for continuing to be such a womanizer and breaking your heart. But, like, why stop there? Encourage him to retaliate, to be mad at you. Tease him for being so disgusted and angry at you when all you want, all you've ever wanted, was for your hearts to beat as one and then later act confused because of course you wouldn’t make light of his feelings like that, that’s horrible. All you want, all you’ve ever wanted, was for him to acknowledge that your adoration for him is true. Really break him until he gives you the whole “I’ll let you chain me up so I never even look at another girl” schtick. This might seem awful, but so is he! Reform can be difficult and if he’s going to be happy, he has to be made to understand why his behavior was so bad and the consequences of it. Because it’s not like you’d act like this if you had any other choice, it’s not like you’d continue once the two of you were truly together, of course you wouldn’t treat him so cruelly once he vowed himself to you and only you. And, really, I think it’d be a lot easier once he understood that and you got to prove your love to him through raw, unadulterated affection. Spend every day adding onto the list of why you love your Sylvain. 

Claude: Claude being more than aware of the ole' saying "don't stick your dick in crazy" and then doing it anyway because he has a proclivity for the fiery, forbidden, and oh-so temping call of danger would be the perfect set up for a very bad predicament. You’d have to play some mind games to really convince him that he’s the one seeking you out, he’s the one who’s got it bad, he’s the one who wants to have you. In other words, you’d have to give him a challenge. But, you know, if it’s a game, you’d have to play back because you’re doing this for him, because you love him, because you want him to realize that he loves you, too (Uno reverse Claude’s yandere behaviors, basically) so obviously you’d have to eliminate any obstacles and taking out anybody who could be a potential threat. Get him to open up about his dreams, his past, his feelings. As it goes with basically all of these affection-starved men, make him feel loved for who he is. You know, if you were really good, you could probably even get him to give up on everything else for your sake. I mean, I loathe the ending but he does that for Lysithea. Pull a Tangled on Claude and make him believe that you’re his new dream as he mostly certainly is yours.

Felix: Sweet Felix. So oblivious but so difficult. A man who would provide the ultimate and most dangerous yan rival of them all: the thrill of the fight. In a lot of ways, I think he’d be like Dimitri. Mostly just because he’s so dense when it comes to love of any kind. But he’s also not as emotionally desperate or dependent so you wouldn’t really be able to use that against him. The similarities come from Felix’s equal amount of inexperience with romance which opens up a lot of possibilities for you convincing him that certain behaviors are normal. You can even bring up how his cold emotional state (something I believe he’s insecure about) is what forces you to be so overbearing, how badly it hurts you.  You don’t necessarily mean to be so cloying but you’re so afraid of losing someone else you love so much (another insecurity of his). After all, there is nobody in the entire world who is like him, Felix Hugo Fraldarius, (three for three with his insecurities) and how irreplaceable and precious he is to you. These examples are kind of “soft” when it comes to using his insecurities against him, but you could go further with them assuming you were sure that it wouldn’t drive him away. Not knowing and having to work on assumption would always be a pretty big reason to control yourself in how you went about manipulating him because Felix is stubborn and prideful and pushing him too far would only hurt the both of you. It’s actually kind of funny because as opposed to the traditional yan mindset, it would be in your best interest to get Felix to form relationship bonds with others (but definitely not any of the girls he’s so popular with) because that would be a bargaining chip when convincing him to stay with you.

Ferdinand von Aegir: Ferdinand is, honestly, so easy for this. Like, I feel as if I don’t even need to talk about the details. You show him some affection and he’s yours. Bury him in love and praise. Tell him that it makes you unhappy when he talks to other girls or prioritizes his work over you and then reward him with boundless warmth and devotion because of course he would bend over backwards to make you happy. He just wants to be needed and treasured, to love and be loved. He’s already got the poetry and the ring and of course he wouldn’t mind getting married right away it’s true love, why would you wait?

Yuri: Yuribird is the forbidden darling. You’d need to be running on 100% love because he’d sniff out and ditch you at even the smallest whiff of deliberate obsession. But you know what he wants? More-so than the other guys, in some ways. He wants to be known and loved for who he is. In the face of genuine affection, he doesn’t stand a chance. Still, you’d have to be measured about this stuff. If you were jealous and got rid of your rivals yourself, Yuri would be disgusted and leave you. And you can’t hide that sort of thing from him, either. You’d have to go all in on the manipulation but only in the most honest way possible, that’s the only way past his defenses. Get him to prioritize your feelings first so he feels guilty talking to people or acting in ways that upset you. Reward him for putting you above everyone else. Constantly remind him that you’re the only one who knows and understands him, who loves him for who he is. Get him so emotionally fucked that even if his big brain logic is telling him that you’re toxic and horrible, he can’t stand the thought of being without you. He’d give up crime, it’s not like he even particularly likes it. Set up the perfect life for him, something domestic and sweet and warm, something he’s never had worries he doesn’t deserve, something that keeps him away from others. The goddess only knows how much he deserves a happy dream for once, and you’re the only one who can understand and provide that for him.

[pilferingapples]

Thinking about your meta about Valjean’s distrust of adult men and how that perspective must have been reinforced by his time in the convent, where there were a total of two males allowed to interact with the women. The reason he leaves is not so Cosette can socialize with the opposite gender (or anyone really,) but just so she can see the world outside the convent walls. (And then they barely leave the house.)

Oh this goes under a cut bc I have SO many feelings about the convent and how it affects JVJ and Cosette

Like, we’re told that Valjean is specifically comparing the suffering of the convicts, including himself, and their attitude, to the suffering of the nuns, and their  attitude:

Before his eyes he had the sublime summit of abnegation, the highest possible pitch of virtue; the innocence which pardons men their faults, and which expiates in their stead; servitude submitted to, torture accepted, punishment claimed by souls which have not sinned, for the sake of sparing it to souls which have fallen; the love of humanity swallowed up in the love of God, but even there preserving its distinct and mediatorial character; sweet and feeble beings possessing the misery of those who are punished and the smile of those who are recompensed.

And he remembered that he had dared to murmur! (Hapgood translation)

Hugo frames this all as more or less “good” for Valjean, something that keeps him from falling to pride-- but given that Valjean rockets around in this same chapter to this: 

Sometimes at eventide, in the twilight, at an hour when the garden was deserted, he could be seen on his knees in the middle of the walk which skirted the chapel, in front of the window through which he had gazed on the night of his arrival, and turned towards the spot where, as he knew, the sister was making reparation, prostrated in prayer. Thus he prayed as he knelt before the sister.

It seemed as though he dared not kneel directly before God.

I feel like it’s pretty obvious that he way overshot “not becoming Too Proud” (and then of course his whole Endgame Self-Immolation like... maybe a Little Pride would actually Not Be Bad here, guy!!) .

The convent is really interesting to me because it’s a necessary safe place, and a calm home for Valjean and Cosette, and in many ways it gives them a place to heal... but at the same time, it is a very rigid society in its own right, and it reinforces some of their most unhelpful trauma-sparked attitudes and behaviors.  In this same chapter (again!), Hugo shows us that Cosette is in fact traumatized by her time with the Thenardiers: 

As we have just observed, nothing trains children to silence like unhappiness. Cosette had suffered so much, that she feared everything, even to speak or to breathe. A single word had so often brought down an avalanche upon her. She had hardly begun to regain her confidence since she had been with Jean Valjean. She speedily became accustomed to the convent. Only she regretted Catherine, but she dared not say so. Once, however, she did say to Jean Valjean: "Father, if I had known, I would have brought her away with me."

She speedily became accustomed to the convent --in the context of her already being afraid to speak, to ask for what she wants or needs, or express her own feelings.  She’s still too scared even to let Valjean  see her upset. 

The convent is safe, the convent is quiet, the convent is probably the only place where Valjean and Cosette could have lived as closely as they do while she gets the level of education she does.  But it’s a safe haven that depends on Valjean’s further isolation and encourages Valjean’s shame over his past. It’s a quiet, calm place that encourages Cosette’s abuse-trained silence and passivity.  These things are not caused  by the convent; they are not the convent’s Fault, exactly.   But the convent years do not help , and these are problems that lead directly to the fatal situation at the end of the novel.

And it’s interesting to me because this really is an incredibly  lucky break for the two of them finding the convent and getting in without too much scrutiny. It’s one of Hugo’s most blatant moments of Providence Arranging Things! 

But he’s also being very realistic about this not Fixing Everything?  The trauma caused by JVJ’s imprisonment is still there, the trauma caused by Cosette’s childhood abuse is still there-- and the very fact that the only safety they can have is in isolation and in secret does them further harm. I don’t know, this really gets me about Valjean and Cosette’s life together! Because it’s good! They’re good for each other! But like most people, they are trying to improvise the best they can , and what they can’t have--societal liberty and acceptance, safety and protection-- does hurt them, even in the safest place they ever live. 

--augh it’s Late and I’m too tired to say some of the rest of the things I want to say here, but: Yeah, nonny!  

[chronotopes]

41 for all three of your OCs!

HIIIII i wrote a fucking DISSERTATION about this one this morning but tumblr ate it so i'm answering it now

41. What’s their sexuality? What do they find attractive? Physically and mentally? What do they like/need in a relationship?

so right off the bat i should say that the sexuality question is complicated because sexuality doesn't really have the same history or universal identity-centricity on al2rnia as it is on 2010s era earth. sexualities exist and people self-define as such just fine, but the fact that there's no societally-sanctioned gender binary and no historical pattern for the privileging of heterosexual relationships means it's... different! so right off the bat i will say that nora is straightforwardly a lesbian, donnah is bi but with a very strong preference away from men, govy is about the same as that but with no particular label attached, and aivide is "definitionally a lesbian" but also doesn't by default think of herself in sexuality word-defining terms. now let's carry on.

-

aivide is attracted to perceived talent, power, or importance on the part of other people. consequential status is the guide here, in victor hugo "we are drawn to what we lack" terms. less generally she's attracted to smart, self-possessed people, dialogue and conversation, the exchange of ideas. the existence of one's own voice, writing-voice and speaking-voice, is often a factor, all the moreso if she takes issue with the voice of some kind. on a physical level – tall women with good posture, often women who put a great deal of attention into their appearance (much moreso than aivide), and have at least some capacity for murder as a bonus.

she doesn't have a good sense of what she likes in a relationship, besides dialogue and understanding and getting away with some degree of bullshit – she'll leave most of her comfort zones willingly if asked, every single one except for the comfort zone of "pretending she doesn't have comfort zones." she needs people who refuse to take "i am just sooo low maintenance. i don't have desires :)" at face value, people to whom she willingly offers authentic feeling instead of generic niceness, people she respects, people she feels she can learn something from, and crucially people she's okay with needing because she needs them, not as a reciprocal favor for them needing her.

-

nora doesn't have a good sense of her own "type"; she's only dated two people in all her life, govy and aivide. the commonalities between those two are "dry sense of humor, emotionally withdrawn." much more importantly, aivide and govy are two of the only people on the planet who nora thinks of as seeing her as a thinking agent with opinions and intentions rather than just a beautiful vehicle for the inheritance of her dad's company, and as being honest with her when nobody else will. nora cares about honesty and authenticity a lot, even when she's not always perfectly correct regarding picking up on it – she misses a lot of pretty important things about her two most important relationships.

she loves giving gifts, likes spontaneity and surprises, likes to dress up and introduce people to each other – a partner of nora's has to have a high threshold for being introduced to people with a "look at them aren't they amazing!" subtext. she's looking for a partner for life who knows they're for life, someone who's willing to be her ally – and subscribe to being her ally, not her dad's ally or his company's ally or their parent company's ally, for a very long and significant time. she needs, too, some sense of stability, a person to rely on in an unreliable world.

crucially, she needs someone to be honest with her, sometimes about difficult things that don't make her look good. for something that she thinks she wants, too, this hits badly when it does arrive.

-

govy's type is anyone who doesn't bore her. anyone fascinating, engaging, unusual, or anyone pathologically adherent enough to violet social standards that this is in itself interesting. the list of things that might bother or attract govy is pretty long and often intersects. in terms of physical attraction, she's certainly flexible – she's on record as having a long-term interest in glossier model disney princess nora, hooking up multiple times with boyishly charming superstrong girlprince vinbre, thinking 5'4 cardigan-wearing office ball aivide is pretty cute, and thinking her butch mxlf multi-thousand-year-old boss can get it.

she likes uncommitted flings, pitchflings especially, she likes being late to galas with dates she knows people will talk about, she likes pissing off nora, traveling to weird places, meeting weird people, shocking partners and friends, talking shit, being the object of talked shit, walking the boundaries of "what would get her permanently blacklisted in violet society" very, very finely. (she gets away with a lot of what nora could not ever get away with, as govy's inheritance position is very stable and very important, and nora's is not. she is also, despite all her evidence to the contrary, very good at her job.)

govy probably "needs" someone to look past the surface and take her seriously, even as a friend. but if you told her that the response would be "thanks i'd rather die"

-

donnah is least complicated here, being a joke about a particular kind of tumblr user who turned into an important character. she's a tumblr sapiosexual! she likes banter, interplay, exchange – all the things aivide likes but wouldn't admit to liking, donnah wears on her sleeve. she wants troll much ado about nothing, a troll lizzie bennet for troll lizzie bennet kind of relationship, someone to be the troll ethan hawke to her troll robert sean leonard. troll ethan hawke in dead poets society also describes her type to a point - she's drawn to people who witness her aesthetic sensibilities from an outsider's point of view rather than sharing them, and criticizing her is a great way to get her to like you (though she does have feelings, and isn't shy about letting you know you've hurt them).

a lot of what she likes is covered but what she wants above, and a lot of what she needs intersects with what she likes. for all that donnah is goofy as fuck – she's a committed joke about dark academia bloggers, it's in the name – she is probably in many ways the healthiest character of these four, checking the bare minimum box for "communicative" and "in relationships if not in art, self-aware" and "has a sense of her own worth." aivide would disparagingly say <[ what she needs is an editor; ], then remember her own profession and add <[ jesus, not in that way. ] in her own way, she would be right.

[thelawsofdaylight]

enjoltr replied to your post “the hardest part of being in the les mis fandom is the fact that...”

honest to god im a bit in love with this concept.. could u please elaborate a bit on why hes a hufflepuff to you im genuinely interested

Oh my god thank you so much for asking I’ve been waiting my entire life for this moment. I’m so sorry this turned into an absolute monster of a post but here you have it: Collected Arguments for Why Enjolras is Definitely a Hufflepuff.

First of all, if we run with the idea that your house is more of a reflection of your ideals and aspirations than anything else there’s no question. Justice, fairness, equality... isn’t that everything that sums up who Enjolras is/what he fights for? He’s the marble lover of liberty, he’s single-mindedly devoted to justice and equality in all its forms it just doesn’t make sense for him NOT to be in Hufflepuff.

Also like, going beyond what the houses represent if you go back to the founders and rationale of the system, Helga Hufflepuff was the only founder who questioned the idea of dividing people based on what they all thought were ‘superior’ qualities... there’s a reason Hufflepuff is often made fun of for being ‘the house for everyone else’ and that’s because it’s partly true. She took a look at her colleagues and said what the fuck is this shit I’ll take anyone who wants to learn and they can all have a home in Hufflepuff (this is why Feuilly is also 100% a Hufflepuff and no I will not be considering other options) which is also SUCH an Enjolras thing like... the family of it all! It’s the same kind of concept that underlies key Enjolrasian moments like calling everyone citizen and using mostly ‘tu’, the ‘my mother is the republic’ moment, praising Feuilly for being ‘man of all peoples’, and the ‘Love, the future is thine’ part like... all the evidence is right here!

Even if we’re considering Hufflepuff just in terms of personality... it’s still an amazing fit. 

Hardworking? I think you’ll be hard-pressed to argue he isn’t hardworking, this guy commits 100% to The Cause. Loyal? He’s loyal to his country, to his ideals, to republicanism... again ‘my mother is the republic’, answering ‘Patria’ when Bossuet teases him about not having a mistress, the loyalty he possesses for his friends (willing to hand over Javert at the barricades in exchange for Jehan), the list goes on! Unafraid of toil? Oh my God okay so the whole Symbolic point of Enjolras as a character and at the barricades especially is to present him as the priest of the ideal who can do what needs to be done; in other words, he’s not afraid of toil and here I think it translates perfectly to both in a very real context (the barricades, fighting, death, prison, etc- he’s willing to risk it all) but also in a very Symbolic way like when he shoots Le Cabuc or when he has to kill the artillery soldier knowing damn well that he’s condemning himself, the ‘Death, I use thee but I hate thee’ speech- it’s Hugo’s whole way of exploring the concepts of change and progress and revolution and necessity. It practically defines him; he is willing to do what has to be done (and whilst this is arguably a Slytherin or Gryffindor trait also, I’d argue that the specific combination of why he does it, his ideals and motivations- not for himself or for glory but for something bigger, for progress, for the future, for justice and equality and all those other key ideals- switches it right back to Hufflepuff)

Also (and I get that fanon makes this one complicated but bear with me) he is patient! He listens more than he speaks, he waits for others to finish before talking, he considers everything so carefully- he lets Marius rant about Napoleon for two pages and is the only one to stay behind after everyone leaves following Combeferre’s devastating ‘to be free’ comment- even with Grantaire, he displays an awful lot of patience (trusting him with the Barriere du Maine incident, trying to reason with him to sleep somewhere else, his acceptance in OFPD, etc) like yes some interactions can read as harsh but that’s because he has to be firm to establish what is/isn’t acceptable.

Whilst I see the arguments for other houses (Gryffindor particularly) I don’t think any go as particularly deep into his character as Hufflepuff does. Like yes he’s brave and daring and courageous and all that but that’s not the whole story. I have no idea how to articulate this other than Les Mis will always be about the symbolism for me, and Enjolras especially is a symbolic character whose function within the narrative is largely to personify a specific set of ideals/principles- which just so happen to correlate somewhat to Hufflepuff values.

Anyway, this got way too deep and way too out-of-hand for a simple Hogwarts house analysis and I’m deeply sorry for the essay I just wrote. I just have a lot of Thoughts about Hufflepuff!Enjolras.

[roadtohell]

ok here are my final bbc les mis thoughts... i know i’m v late to the party but if anyone also has thoughts i’d like to hear them!

it’s probably not gonna sound like it, but i DID actually quite enjoy it as general entertainment. most of my complaints come from my interpretation of the source material as well as the 2012 film (which is impossible not to compare to)- if it was an original story i wouldn’t have nearly as many reservations.

things i really liked include:

absurdly cute baby marius, who i would die for

happy fantine :) for a bit

the handling of gillenormand and his relationship with marius, which i felt was v book-accurately sad and screwed up but also sweet when the time came

the thenardiers- the fact that they still retain a bit of the comedic edge only adds to the repulsiveness of their deeds imo.

things i really disliked include:

most of valjean’s character- he was generally angry and unlikeable. i think davies intended to highlight his struggle to do good, which isn’t an inherently bad goal, as book valjean totally has questionable moments followed by rackings of guilt (see: his attitude towards marius). the problem with the series portrayal is that what should be mostly internal conflict instead manifests itself in actively poor treatment of others throughout the whole story. sure, bbc valjean gives out money like it grows on trees. he also angrily fires fantine for lying while he himself lives a lie, stiffs gavroche on delivery money and tells him to buzz off, and makes cosette watch a chain gang to prove a point. it’s... an interesting angle, no doubt, but it misses the whole point of valjean’s story- the transformative power of kindness- by a mile.

a lot of adult cosette’s portrayal and especially her relationship with valjean. i get it, people often consider her tricky to write, boring, more of a symbol etc. etc. and feel the need to jazz her appearances up a bit. davies does not do a good job of this. her curiosity and idealism is framed as being frustratingly naive, as if to justify valjean’s overt possessiveness and control over her. he ends up physically restraining her over their “i want to see the world-” “well, the world sucks and i’m just protecting you” fight they spend most of their time having, which isn’t even resolved one way or another. the last episode does treat her better, thank god, but the cosette=love thing is less impactful when she’s literally pulled out the “i hate you” line. 😬

javert’s absurd level of valjean obsession- he honestly becomes a bit of a joke, eventually assuming valjean is the leader of the rebellion for no reason other than it involves crime. besides diminishing his competency, it’s actually easy to forget that he’s guided by his rigid sense of justice, not just his VPS (valjean positioning system). one day an adaptation will really take the time to explore how javert’s worldview applies beyond valjean, including to himself (i’ve always loved the brick scene where he asks mr madeleine to fire him), but it’s definitely not this one.

the sexualisation, jfc. frankly i think davies should be guillotined just for his interview statements on this topic. of all people, he decided to sexualise eponine and cosette. no i will not elaborate. there are also countless unnecessary implications, including between valjean and fantine, valjean and MARIUS, and a random convent girl onscreen for 0.2 seconds just to say she was looking forward to sex. but at least there was no santa sex scene, i guess?

thenardier straight up says he’s going into the slave trade and marius still gives him money... tf

the two boys gavroche looked after, starving in the street, is the final shot. because we all needed another dose of misery.

while i adore the musical, i can imagine why davies doesn’t enjoy it- it has no subtlety whatsoever with its messages about god, love, the LAW, revolution, death and everything else. add that to tom hooper’s dutch angles and extreme closeups and you have something that could easily be considered way over the top. davies presumably wanted to create a story that, as well as containing more plot than the musical, felt less preachy~ and more grounded in reality. in this, i think he succeeds- events are fairly book accurate, and a lot of the changes he does make, regardless of whether i like them, would certainly check out in the real world.

but hugo was one opinionated writer, and so treating les mis like a historical event comes at a cost. davies might despise the musical’s “doggerel lyrics”, but they are true to the novel’s message of compassion and love. in this series, the hope that shines through now and again is always quashed with little reflection; discussion on social justice, so clearly outlined in hugo’s introduction as the book’s purpose, is kept at arm’s length. therefore davies’ more cynical storytelling and characterisation, which also minimises hugo’s religious and political ideas, ultimately loses touch with the heart of les mis.

nobody who benefits this much from the musical’s success has the right to be such a dick about it, especially when the end product isn’t even better. to be clear, i think it’s a good series, and as an adaptation it could be a lot worse. but it’s hard to ignore questionable characterisation, sexualisation, and general steering away from the central ideas of its source material. i’d prefer to sit through russell crowe’s stars any day.

[divagonzo]

Quarantine (Romione, One-shot)

Ao3 // FF.net (will post them there tomorrow but Tumblr gets the first crack tonight)

A/N: I’d intended to have this posted last week but RL got in the way and so much fell onto my plate as “back-up daughter” to friends who are out of state for their elderly parents. What little time I had was claimed by so many other things too. I know there is a Princess somewhere mad that RL interfered in my life once again. One of these years my life will be only dramatic in the stories I write. Alas.

Rated M (so much smutty goodness in this one!) for Lemons, Limes, Citrus galore. Not Ace Safe in the least (This means you @headcanonsandmore​)

TW: Mentions of current British events involving a towheaded cockwomble and his deputy. Tagging @hillnerd​ and @abradystrix​ just ‘cause.

Give me my demarcation line darn it!

“I swear to Merlin that I am going to strangle that sod,” Hermione growled before putting the two-way mirror down in her office. “That cockwomble!”

“Love?” Ron poked his head in, wondering what got Hermione into a bit of lather this morning from her noon call with the Muggle PM.

Hermione took off her reading glasses and rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes, wondering how much more cocked up the world was going to be in the interim.

“What’s happened, dear?” Ron stood at the doorway, wondering too what was going on. “I heard you cursing. Did you speak with that tosser of a PM?”

“I did,” She hissed. “Do you remember that boring ministry dinner we attended last weekend? The one where I was seated across from the PM and his partner, talking boring politics while you tried to keep from complaining about the rubbish chicken they served for the main course?”

“Of course. Who could forget that Merlin awful chicken that even you could cook a better one than what was presented to us? Who did they get to cater it, Malfoy?”

“You’d think, right? Anyway, it seems the PM has gone and contracted some virus, one that appears to be worse than the flu for some people. Unfortunately, now, since we were within close contact with the bastard,” 

“Please don’t tell me.”

“We’re quarantined for a fortnight because that sod insisted on shaking everyone’s hand when they arrived, including yours.”

“Shite.”

“Yeah. That’s what I thought too. At least the kids were off at school.”

“That – “ Hermione tuned out for Ron’s caustic rant about the current PM who seemed to have less brains than Flint seems to possess. “I can’t believe he did that.”

“So we have to be home, inside, for 2 weeks. We can’t even go out shopping for groceries, you to work, anything.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“I know. Fortunately, we’ve not been to see your parents since we met with the PM.”

“And your parents?”

“I’ve only talked with them on the phone. I’ve not been by there in 2 weeks.”

“Harry & Ginny. I mean she is at home with a toddler and Harry’s been working on a case for weeks now with his group. I had a meeting with him last week to discuss training for the new class coming in.”

“Then we need to tell him and others and let them decide.”

“Bugger. How bad is this virus?”

“From what he said, most people get a little sick but it’s not a big deal. The problem is that for one in five, it’s serious enough for a visit to the A&E. From what he said also, there’s about 1 in 20 that need critical care.” Hermione sat back in her leather office chair, sighing. “I need to contact St. Mungo’s and let them know to prepare for this. I think I also need to share this with the Wizarding population, too, so they can take care of themselves too.”

“That bad?”

“You know how I talk about history entirely too much?”

Ron grinned, thinking about how often Hermione would pick up a tome for a bit of light reading. “Of course I do. Last year you were reading something on the Dark Ages. Seemed quite bad.”

“Oh, it was. It was how a plague back in the 14th century and how it decimated the European population.”

“Sounds grim.”

“It was. There are articles by historians that the plague killed between 25 and 50 per cent of the population of Europe. Only a few places were reasonably immune to it.”

Ron frowned. “Please tell me it won’t be that bad for us.”

“It won’t. We have better medicines and potions to take now unlike back then. We have a level of hygiene now that makes the transmission less likely.”

Ron said, “You mean how we take a bath or a shower daily?”

“That and always washing hands when coming out of the loo.”

“Who wouldn’t? That’s gross.”

Hermione grimaced. “You know there are plenty of men who don’t wash their hands.”

“True and they’re disgusting.”

“Anyway, we’re going to be home awhile.”

“We’ll need some groceries to tide us over.”

“I’ll firecall Neville and let him know to keep the kids at Hogwarts until this passes for us.”

“Good idea. Looks like we’re going to break out that industrial-sized Mirror you got for me when I was laid up on bed rest with the kids.”

“I’ll go get it and put it up in here for you.” Ron stopped. “So if you’re infected, then I am too, right?”

Hermione smiled, thinking of a delightful Sunday lie-in they had last weekend. “Yes, you would be.”

“Well since I’m on the same broom you are, it’s not like you have to sleep on the couch or anything.”

“No, neither of us has to sleep on the couch.” Hermione stood up from her leather office chair and went to the doorway, pushing her husband gently into the doorframe. With a glance, she ran her fingers through the fringe and his hair, appreciating the softness of the hair on his head. “And no illness will keep me from doing this,” She stood on her tiptoes to gently kiss him. 

Ron reached for her hips and pulled her body flush to his own. “Keep that up and we won’t get any work done this afternoon.” 

Hermione kissed him on the nose before pulling his head forward, resting her forehead on his. “And once again, you’re right. I did say I needed to do a couple of things before this evening.” She sighed. “But I would enjoy dessert tonight.” Her smile turned wicked. “I think we would both appreciate some quality stress relief.”

Ron pulled her close again, snogging her breathless. “I’ll hold you to it.” He hugged her tight, pressing his nose into her hair. “I’ll go get the mirror out of storage and set it up. Then I’ll firecall everyone to warn them off, including Harry and Ginny.”

“I admit this is going to be, well, interesting.”

Ron erupted in a cheeky grin. “Remember the last time we had a fortnight to ourselves?”

“You mean that little cottage in the French Alps at Mont Fort? That was quite nice of Fleur’s parents to rent it out for us for that holiday.” Hermione smiled thinking of that particular Holiday. “The Muggles only saw one hut out there in the middle of nowhere but didn’t see the Wizarding village down the side of the mountain. I don’t know of any Holiday we’ve ever taken that was better than the one there.”

“You certainly weren’t complaining that we were snowed in that week and slept in front of the fireplace every night to stay warm.” Ron ran his hands along her face. “And to think, nine months later Rose came along.”

Hermione snuggled into his chest. “So you’re hoping for that again, aren’t you?”

“That’s up to you, love. While I would never turn down another child, it’s not my decision, is it?”

“Maybe I wouldn’t be on bed rest for months if I was again?”

“You weren’t with Hugo.”

“We’ll see what happens,” Hermione stood on her toes and kissed Ron again. “But first, we have to take care of the business stuff.”

Ron kissed Hermione on the nose. “I’ll get your mirror up in a moment, right after I talk with Mum and Dad.”

Ron left Hermione in her office while she considered how she was going to do her job to her standards while stuck at home for a fortnight.

Demarcation line for the win!

Ron finished with the last dish in the sink after their dinner of cottage pie and salad. The grocery budget shrunk back down to a reasonable amount once the kids went back to Hogwarts after Winter Hols. He didn’t mind since the kids had everything he lacked growing up, with enough food to feed a small army every meal for them and provided them treats from time to time as well. But the household budget would strain slightly with two teenagers eating their weight daily. How his parents managed all the kids on his Dad’s meagre salary he’d never understand except to respect his Mum and her skills.

Two small yet strong arms wrapped around his midsection, hugging her front to his back. “I’m so glad you’re home with me. I’d go completely mental if I had to spend two weeks away from you during this barmy time.”

Ron pulled Hermione to him, lifting her onto the ledge of the counter. The kids never noticed that the counters were the perfect height for him and a little tall for Hermione. She didn’t mind, not when they were still young and working too hard and grabbed a shag whenever they could manage it those early days of owning their cottage. Tonight, though, they had plenty of time on their hands. His hands went to her thighs, rubbing his calloused hands up and down her smooth skin. “I’d have walked into our quarantine to keep you company during this time. Might I remind you that our vows said In Sickness and in Health? I think this qualifies as in sickness.”

“It’s not like I even feel off. Maybe it’s that cockwomble of a PM who is an idiot.”

Ron opened her pyjama top, exposing her chest to him. It was almost 25 years after the fact and even with all of the changes to her body from having kids, the curse scar along with the gold galleon burns along her chest never faded. They’d healed up well enough but those early days, when he was still learning every square inch of her body, he’d kiss each scar, each burn spot, each memento of a moment when her bravery cost something, some bit of pain in their lives. “Fucking gorgeous,” he growled. “Damn gorgeous.”

“You’re barking,” she smiled as she worked at lifting the tee shirt up his torso, leaving small kisses on various freckles on his body. He finished the job, tossing the shirt behind him so she could appreciate his body. While he wasn’t out running with the kids daily now since his ankle ached a bit from time to time, he wasn’t a gangly teenager like he was at 14. He’d filled out some and put on some muscle on his shoulders and back which Hermione never failed to appreciate. “Deep in thought?” she asked.

Ron looked back at his wife and saw her smirk. “Yeah, just wish I’d been able to tell 14-year-old me to quit being such a tosser and that he’d eventually get the girl of his dreams.”

“You’d already had me but I had to learn to appreciate you,” She worked her hands down his lean torso, settling them on the tops of his hips. “How could I have been so stupid to not realize that you express love to people by giving your time and affection in doing things for people. Once I figured you out, I realized you’d been telling me for years how much you loved me. Once I realized that I was being selfish in thinking you had to express affection the way that I understood you so much more.” She pulled his hips close, feeling his sleep trousers straining the front. “I’m glad I pulled my thumb out.” She grinned at him before shrugging out of her top, leaving her in her skin. “And I’m glad that you put something special in.”

Ron laughed but dropped his sleep trousers, leaving him in his skin. “You mean like you want right now?” he stepped between her knee and then pulled her hips forward to the edge of the countertop.  

She pulled on the back of his head down for a tempestuous kiss, feeling his excitement poking her thighs. Releasing his lips for a moment, she breathed, “here or somewhere else?”

Ron lifted his hands from the sides of her hips to her breasts, feeling the tips harden under his fingertips. “Oh we’re staying here,” He cheeked before kneeling before her. “I want dessert first.”

Hermione leaned back on the counter, holding onto the edge while Ron feasted on her tender flesh, giving her so much pleasure and joy that if she could cry, she would. Instead, she let go, embracing the vulnerability she could express with her husband. Ron was the only one on the planet who could quiet the racing raging thoughts in her head, slow down the near-constant anxiety that she had to always be the best at everything, and temper her sharp edges that so many others presumed about her.

A shudder rippled through her body followed by the frisson that she gladly welcomed, all given freely by her wonderful husband. She reached out and found the soft ginger hairs on his head and ran her fingers through them, appreciating the solid feeling under her fingertips while he used his to make her groan in ecstasy. 

Another rush of pleasure coursed through each nerve in her body, leaving her quivering in the abundance of sensory overload. She would never tell anyone besides Ron but what he did for her before they had sex was her favourite part. Everything he brought to their intimate moments only magnified how much she adored him.

Two hands reached up her body to tease her breasts, pinching the tips under his well-practised fingers. 

“Oh God,” She moaned and felt the jolt of pleasure erupt from her core, spreading out to her fingertips and toes. 

When she could open her eyes, Ron was standing in front of her, patiently waiting for her approval. She nodded once, having lost the capability to speak anything coherent some time ago, and felt the pleasure of having his cock inside her.

“Shit, this is fucking amazing,” he kept still for a moment to make sure she was ready. Twenty plus years of making love to this wonderful man – and the shagging and, as crudely as it was factual, the fucking – she never grew tired of it. Like the loaves of bread he made for Sunday lunch for the family, he never let it grow stale or trite.

Hermione reached up to hold onto his shoulders, to have any kind of leverage while he continued to make love to her. While he might have popped off in a minute when they were much, much younger, he had stamina now to last long enough to make her satiated. Who knew that she could feel that much from a shared intimacy with this amazing man she called her husband?

“Yes, right there, feels amazing,” she praised him for every second she could articulate. Her husband thrived on being praised and told how well he was treating her. It took too many rows after they finally pulled their collective thumbs out - and some tears on her part - to realize what he needed to flourish. 

“Gonna fuck you hard, Hermione, going to make you walk like a bloody bowtruckle for a week when I’m done with you,” he’d cheek back.

“Yes, please do, yes” each moment he spent driving her spare, with his hands, his manhood, his mouth, anything he could use to afford her pleasure and joy. “It’s not like anyone is going to notice us, right?”

“No one’s going to interrupt. I’ve locked the door, the Floo, and put us under a Fidelius Charm. 

Ron kept going, eventually pulling her hips forward and resting her legs on her chest and her feet on his shoulders. Hermione pressed her heels into his collarbone, changing the angle he fucked her. “Yes, right there, keep going,” her praise for him only grew more incoherent, more broken as he nattered on, offering filthy comments in response to her. He understood her best of all. He was the only one who got to see her vulnerable, this candid for him. 

A sheen of sweat covered both of them, rattling the cabinets and drawers underneath them. Noises echoed in the kitchen into the parlour along with the occasional groan of wood underneath Hermione’s arse. The slap of wet skin against wet skin echoed along with the growing cacophony into the cottage.

“Hermione,” Ron’s voice rumbled.

“Whenever you are,” she replied. 

Ron continued for another dozen strokes, fighting like mad to hold on. He looked down at his wife and saw her tits jiggling on her breasts while one hand had slid down her slick body to where they were joined, pressing her fingertips into the crevice where her bundle of nerves was, rubbing in tight little circles.

“Oh fuck,” he growled before exploding. He pulled her hips flush to his, feeling her clenching around his length. 

She groaned like the long-departed ghoul in his childhood attic, imitating a banshee with a bad cold. She shivered, not stopping even after he’d quit thrusting into her welcoming body. He pulled back, gasping for breath and stretching his back. She continued to quiver from all of the sensory overload while he hid the smug grin on his face from making her behave in such a wanton fashion. 

Seconds which felt like minutes later, Ron pulled Hermione from the edge of the countertop, lifting her onto his shoulders and carried her to their couch. She scrambled off with him plopping down first followed by her cuddling into his side. She scratched the soft ginger hairs on his chest while he caught his breath.

“We get two weeks like this,” said to the top of his wife’s head. “I never expected to have daily shags ever again, not after that first summer.”

Hermione looked up and smiled before resting her head back on his chest and crossing her knee over his thighs. “I guess we should take advantage of it before everything goes pear-shaped again.”

“Would you say it’s fortunate that we got this earlier than later than everyone else?”

“Honestly? I’d rather get it and get it over with and get back to work helping the rest of our country survive this disaster.”

“Disaster?” Ron rubbed her back, feeling the hairs standing up under his fingertips. “You mean that walking fuckstrumpet of a Prime Minister for the Muggles?”

“If I thought that the populace was manipulated into voting for that sod, I’d open an inquiry. But I don’t trust the Muggles and their discernment of the propaganda that passes for the media now.”

“You’ve never trusted the media, Hermione, not after that bint Skeeter defamed you repeatedly when we were younger.”

“I recall you being shirty too after she went after our kids that one time at the Quidditch World Cup back in 2014. Good thing Ginny gave her what for on Harry’s behalf.”

Ron wrapped his arms around Hermione’s shoulders, pulling her more onto his still heaving chest. 

A soft continuous thumping on the window made them turn their heads. Sure enough, it was raining but also an oversized Barn Owl was on the railing, tapping with his beak in the utter darkness.

“Merlin, can’t even enjoy the moment,” Hermione growled before getting up from Ron’s comforting embrace to stroll to the window and open it, bringing in the very wet owl inside. “I must answer this immediately, isn’t it?” she asked the owl who hooted softly. “Bugger, OK. There are rashers on the countertop for you. I’ll send this back straightaway.”

Hermione saw the MoM seal on the outside of the parchment and cracked it with a fingernail, watching the three feet unroll. She scanned the document before her eyes grew as large as tea saucers then read it again.

Ron sat up on the couch, watching his wife standing only in her skin by the window, the fireplace behind her lush arse highlighting it and silently making him drool, yet she had not a care in the world who might see her form, already engrossed in what had been sent to her.  “That bad, love?”

Hermione turned her face back to Ron and saw the thunderheads rolling across her face. “That bloody PM didn’t bother to listen to the Muggle doctors and is being admitted to the hospital tonight. The sod has left that other tosser - “

“He’s the bloke that looks like he was used for quaffle target practice, right?”

“That’s the one.” She took a deep breath. “That means I’m now the Shadow Minister, temporarily. The real Shadow Minister is also under quarantine.”

“But so are we, right?”

Hermione’s smile erupted. “Nothing like a bubblehead charm to go into work, which I, unfortunately, must do for an hour early tomorrow morning. That Ruddy idiot wants to talk about the state of the Ministry before going forward at 7 am.”

Ron stood up from the couch, looking fanciable and fit in his skin. Four strides and he was next to her, swallowing her up in an enormous hug. “I guess that means we need to get to bed so you can sleep, right?”

Hermione looked up at Ron, his beard shining like gold in the amber lights of the fire in the locked fireplace. “Eventually, love. I would prefer round two.”

Ron turned, pulling her with him as he walked back to their bedroom. “Round two, huh?”

“I need to work this stress off and you’re the medicine I need tonight.”

[liam-93-productions]

Liam Payne on tracksuits and his first Hugo Boss collection

Liam Payne found fame as one fifth of One Direction but can he cut it in fashion? He talks to Emma McCarthy about tracksuits and talking shop with Vogue’s editor-in-chief. - Evening Standard UK

It’s approximately 24 hours until Liam Payne’s design debut is revealed but already he’s in possession of a little black book to rival that of a fashion industry stalwart.

“I’ve made a lot of friends in the industry,” says the 25-year-old Wolverhampton-born pop megastar, who found fame as one-fifth of boy band behemoth One Direction, when we meet on a grey, grizzly day in London a fortnight ago.

We’re here to discuss the imminent arrival of his capsule clothing line for Hugo — the young, cool, image-conscious arm of German style juggernaut Hugo Boss — which is due to be celebrated with a star-studded party in Berlin tomorrow night, before launching on Instagram on Thursday and in stores on Friday.

Among his closest confidants is British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, who he first met “at the same time as Anna Wintour”. Casual. “I was like ‘woah, what’s going on?’,” he says, eyes wide in mock panic. “But I don’t like to hover so I went over and said hello and left as quickly as possible to avoid saying anything stupid.” Since then he has come to regard Enninful as a firm friend and mentor, from hobnobbing with fashion’s inner circle at Chiltern Firehouse’s legendary after-parties — “the best fried chicken is there” — to ringing in the New Year on holiday together in Africa. He also recalls bonding with Idris Elba on the front row of a Versace fashion show in Milan and swapping design tips with Dior menswear superforce Kim Jones. “He said to me, ‘it’s kind of the same as music — once you have a hit and you know what you’re doing, everything becomes a little bit easier’.”

So is he ready for fashion’s frontline? “I’ve got a long way to go before I could be considered a style icon,” he concedes. Though the collection — a polished 10-piece range of T-shirts, trainers and tailored trackpants which expertly cater to the modern man’s smart-casual sensibility — suggests he’s come a long way from the X-Factor fashion cupboard. “When we were in the band, everybody had their thing. I was the guy in the patterned shirt. Louis had the trousers with the Tom’s, and no-one could wear stripes because he did. I haven’t worn a stripe since I was 15. It’s funny now looking at how everyone’s style has changed. Growing up as famous as we were, you can’t get away with all the fashion mistakes you’ve made over the years.”

I ask for specifics. “There’s a shot of me wearing this furry thing with no T-shirt and sunglasses on — inside — and red jogging bottoms. I don’t know what was going on that day,” he laughs, also remembering a fondness for wearing huge gold chains around his neck. “I think there was a part of me that enjoyed that the way I was dressing was annoying people — I was like, I’m going to get abused whatever I wear. Before, I used to hide behind my clothes, rather than putting them on and being myself. But you soon figure out what works. Now I’m more confident.”

There’s a self-assured quality to the collection too. A chevron design, which is laced into the logo and trimmed onto shirt pockets, is lifted from an early tattoo on his right forearm — “it was a mistake at the time but I didn’t want to tell this big, muscular biker guy that it was too big” — while the double zipper pocket which features on the joggers is inspired by Payne’s perpetual habit of breaking his phones.

Just as Hugo Boss straddles the worlds of streetwear and tailoring, so too does Payne. Today he’s dressed in a slim-fitting polo top which does justice to his jiu-jitsu-honed physique — he’d been training before we meet — with suit trousers and boots. He’s a big fan of a suit — an affection harboured through binge-watching Peaky Blinders — and describes his style now as laidback yet considered, adding “I don’t find myself leaving the house in joggers and trainers any more unless I’m going to the gym”.

(...) 

He speaks openly and with refreshing honesty about how an adolescence spent in the company of one of the biggest boybands on the planet has led to a life where even the simple act of shopping can prove a source of anxiety. “Sometimes I get high-pressured in shops now, like I’ll pick something up and stand in the queue, then I’m sweating but I don’t know why, so I put it back and walk out. Sometimes it just gets the best of me. I’ve had such a weird life in that sense.” At its worst, Payne’s anxiety led to him avoiding social situations altogether, something which he says his friendship with Enninful has helped to overcome. “At first I struggled going out. I developed this agoraphobia thing where I would stay at home and not meet anyone. Before, I was in my little comfort zone, buffering people away, but Edward was a massive help for me. He’s just so confident.”

When he needs to relax, you can often find him in the gym. “Going to the gym is grounding for me because it’s the one thing I have control over that’s totally up to me. When everything else in your world is so micromanaged it’s nice that that’s my thing,” he says, pointing out a gash on his chin from today’s training. “There’s going to be more music coming very soon,” he teases, before dashing off the studio. Jiu-jitsu disciple, megastar and style icon in the making — it sounds like he’s bossing it.

[kim-seungmine]

likewise

title: likewise (part of i am you small project) characters: reader x kim seungmin of stray kids genres: fluff with sprinkles of angst, aspiring actor!seungmin, college au word count: 3301 words warnings: language synopsis: you hate your job as a part-time librarian, until you meet a certain puppy-like boy with smoldering eyes--which is a weird combination, but you like him anyways a/n: watch Day6’s Shoot Me MV for references. Also, I suck at giving titles I’m sorry!

You believed that fate affected 40% of your life. No more, no less. The other 60% would be decisions, but sadly you had a knack for making yourself suffer. Your decisions ranged from bad decisions to don’t-even-talk-about-it decisions: taking morning classes so you had time for part-time work (bad decision), choosing the wrong apartment building to live in (very bad decision), and working as a part-time librarian (don’t-even-talk-about-it decision) in your campus.

Choosing the wrong apartment should have been the worst decision you had ever made, but now anything would be better than stacking thick, dusty books back to the top of the shelf. First of all, you weren’t on the tall side. Secondly, the old stool you were using was about to collapse. Thirdly, you had accidentally dropped three books and the three people studying on the table across you kept giving you death glares.

“We still need one more point, guys. What should it be?” A guy with a sharp jawline and raspy voice asked. You hopped off your stool, deciding to arrange the books in the bottom shelf first until these guys went home. The Sharp Jawline (very gorgeous, if you might add), stopped to look at his friends, waiting for their feedback.

One of his friends, the one who reminded you of a puppy, rolled his eyes. “It’s very simple, Changbin. The topic is whether money is everything, and our stance is no. Why do people do all the ‘useless’ shit like drawing, dancing—”

“What the fuck!”

“Fuck, sorry Felix. Didn’t mean to make it sound that way.”

The guy named Felix was furious now. His hands were curled into fists and if he had laser eyes, he would’ve made a huge hole on Puppy Guy’s face. This is interesting, you noted. You never liked eavesdropping, it was plain creepy and rude, but this was clearly more fun than your job.

“So you were saying?” Sharp Jawline interjected. Felix was no longer furious, he just looked hurt. Puppy Guy let out an (almost) apologetic sigh before rephrasing his statement, “Some of us choose to do things that we love instead of other things that have more definite future. There are a lot of living proofs of that, so I think that will be a strong point.”

A smile slowly crept onto Felix’s face. He nodded excitedly, jotting it down on his notebook. “Can I take this one? I’m sure I’ll nail it. I’m the living proof, after all.”

“Felix, you’re a Finance major.”

“Hey I’m transferring next semester!”

“Alright, but don’t use yourself as an example. Don’t choose celebrities either,” Puppy Guy said. “Changbin can take the second point and I’ll take the first one. Now we just need—”

He didn’t get to finish what he wanted to say since you dropped the fourth book for the night. All three of them gave you another death glare, but this time Puppy Guy got up from his seat and walked towards you.

“Do you need help?” he asked. In a normal situation, you would count this as a meet-cute, but Puppy Guy’s glare turned out to be scarier than Felix’s. You didn’t know how he still managed to look so adorable—so puppy like—although he was basically trying to stop himself from murdering you.

“Sorry,” you muttered. “I just started working here and I’m still not used to holding big books… it’s okay. I’ll just go to the other sections first.”

Puppy Guy stole a glance at his friends before looking at the book you were holding, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. “Does anyone even read that book anymore,” he said; his tone told you that it wasn’t exactly a question. “Why bother taking it out when you have zero intention to read it.”

He took the book from you, darting his eyes to the other books scattered on the floor. “I’ll help you,” he sighed. You nodded, sliding the stool towards him. Puppy Guy stepped onto the wobbly stool, extending his hand out to you.

“Seungmin-ah, what are you doing?” Sharp Jawline whispered-yelled, a playful smile plastered on his face. Felix (you would’ve nicknamed him Cute Bunny Teeth if they didn’t reveal his name sooner) propped his face on his palm, wiggling his eyebrows at you.

Puppy Guy—Seungmin!—ignored his friends, fully concentrating on putting the books back to the top shelf. You couldn’t help but stare at him; he really looked like an adorable puppy, but his eyes looked fiery, like he was angry at the world. “Wow this is the worst job ever,” he grumbled, losing his balance as he put down the last book.

“Please ask them to give you a new stool. This is dangerous,” he said, dusting off his denim jacket (which looked amazing on him).

“I read Les Miserables,” you blurted out as he was about to walk away.

Seungmin raised his eyebrows, thinking for a few seconds before finally nodding his head. “Yeah, I did too,” he answered, and then something magical happened.

He smiled.

-

The rest of the week passed just like that. It was nearly midterm period, so you were drowning in assignments and part-time jobs. You never met Seungmin, Changbin, and Felix in the library again, although you were sure you saw Felix dancing at the university festival two days ago. There were a lot of attractive boys in the library (surprisingly), but none of them caught your attention like Seungmin and his soft smile.

You closed your laptop as your professor left the classroom. “Y/N, you’re still helping me to film Day6’s new music video today right?” Bang Chan, your senior who possessed the deepest dimples ever, tapped your desk.

Shit.

You completely forgot about it. Both of you were in the same Advanced Cinematography class, and your professor recommended him to one of the most popular video production companies in Korea. He was asked to choose one more person, so he chose you.

This project would boost your resume although you probably wouldn’t do much. “Oh yeah, of course! How could I forget?” You faked a smile, packing up your things in a rush. Chan glanced at his watch, his face turned pale in an instant.

“Oh shoot, we have to leave now, Y/N. I promised the director that we’d arrive earlier. Is that okay?” he asked, helping you to put your laptop into your bag. “Do you know that the male lead also studies here? He’s from the International Studies department.”

You only nodded nonchalantly as Chan dialled a number. “Yo Seungmin! Where are you?”

Seungmin? How many Seungmins were there in your campus? Was it your Seungmin?

Chan quickened his pace, waving his hand at a brown-haired guy when as you two were nearing the front entrance. You tried not to scream when you realized that it really was your Seungmin standing there, waving back to Chan.

“Y/N, this is our actor, Kim Seungmin.”

When your eyes met his, you felt somehow… relieved. He was looking at you with those smoldering eyes of his, and you were supposed to feel intimidated, but you weren’t. If anything, you felt almost giddy. “Hi, I’m Y/N. Thanks for helping me the other day.”

Seungmin shrugged. “I only did it because you were noisy as hell,” he said. Chan clapped in excitement, squeezing himself between both of you to wrap his arms around your shoulders. “Wait, you guys already know each other? That’s great!” He turned to you, “You should’ve seen Seungmin auditioned! He was born to act.”

Seungmin punched Chan’s shoulder, avoiding your gaze. “I just got lucky,” he mumbled.

“Have you been acting for a long time?” you asked, your heart did a flip when Seungmin chuckled. You wondered how he could possibly act, seeing that he didn’t even smile often. But small moments like this convinced you that Seungmin had another side you didn’t know about.

“This will be my first.”

You would be seeing Seungmin act for the first time. Somehow, you liked the sound of that.

-

You were examining the storyboard with Chan operating the camera beside you. The director was looking at the screen, nodding as Seungmin pointed his fingers at the camera and started shooting imaginary bullets. You heard the staff behind you gasped in awe, so you decided to steal a glance at the screen.

And you were transfixed.

Seungmin was sitting there, opposite the female lead, staring into the camera with teary eyes and a sorrowful gaze that you would never forget because how could someone look as angry and vulnerable like that? When the corner of his lips curled into a sad smile, you checked your storyboard, and saw nothing like that in it.

Seungmin was in his element, and he was beautiful.

Chan turned to the director, who said nothing as Seungmin continued staring into the camera. “And cut!” he shouted at last. “Good job, Seungmin. That improvisation was amazing.”

The whole room clapped, bowing to each other as the director announced that the shoot was done. Seungmin blinked, letting his tears roll down his cheeks before harshly wiping his eyes with his hand. You waited until he finished greeting everyone before running to him.

“You did very well! Everyone was so mesmerized, to say the least.” You patted his shoulder lightly, feeling a bit self-conscious when he didn’t reply. “Thank you,” Seungmin finally said, walking past you to high five an excited Chan.

“Damn it! You just outdid yourself, bro!” Chan exclaimed. The two boys continued chatting as you panicked for the second time that day. “Chan! I gotta leave now, my shift at the library starts soon!” you informed, already sprinting to the door when Seungmin said something you couldn’t make out.

-

You were ready to come up with twenty cliché excuses about why you were late, but the first thing the head librarian told you when you arrived at the library was that you got a new stool. “There are some new books at the back, make sure to put all of them to the shelves,” she said. You nodded, internally sighing as you realized that it wasn’t just “some” new books, but “a lot” of new books.

Deciding to start with fiction books first, you pushed the book cart to the fiction section. This was the exact aisle where you met Seungmin, and you couldn’t help but admit that you had a crush on him. You had fallen in love quite a lot; there were enough boys for you to make your own version of “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”. The difference was, none of them turned out to be Peter Kavinsky.

“You got a new stool. Nice”

You grinned the moment you noticed that voice. Seungmin leaned on the shelf, taking a book from the cart. He flipped through the pages, his brows furrowed as his eyes caught some interesting words. “I’m borrowing this one,” he declared, slipping it into his bag. “I wanted to ask you to return the book I borrowed, but you bolted out the studio so fast.”

“I’m not your maid,” you pouted. Seungmin lowered his head to examine your face. “Why are you pouting like that?”

Great. Please continue being so obvious, Y/N.

“Nothing,” you mumbled. “So you’re an International Studies major? Do you want to be a diplomat or something?”

Seungmin let out a heavy sigh that made you worried. A glint of anger returned to his eyes. “Not really. I just want to leave,” he answered, his stern gaze erased whatever reassuring words you wanted to say.

“Why do you want to leave?”

“It’s easier to deal with strangers than those you know well.”

“Like who?”

He paused, keeping his gaze on the floor as you continued putting books on the shelf. He stopped you when you were about to start arranging the top shelf. “Parents?” he sheepishly said while stepping on the new stool.

“Well, mine got divorced,” you commented, trying to sound as nonchalant as you could.

“Lucky you.”

Seungmin sneezed, and you quickly put your hand on his back so he wouldn’t fall down. “How is that lucky?” you asked when he turned his head to look at you. Seungmin left your question hanging in the air for a while, arranging the books quietly per your instruction.

“It’s better for them to separate than staying under one roof but constantly trying to destroy each other,” he continued, hopping off the stool to sit on the floor beside you.

“At first I thought it would be better this way. But all the words they say to each other, to me—they burn.”

You nodded, now knowing why Seungmin was the way he was. “Wanna know something funny?” you offered as an attempt to lighten up the mood. However, before you said anything further, the boy beside you started sobbing.

“Seungmin-ah,” you called out. His body only shook harder as he cried his heart out. You rubbed his back in a calming rhythm, shutting down curious, judgmental whispers from other students with a single look. Seungmin looked up at last, his swollen eyes meeting your concerned ones. “You have pretty eyes,” he complimented.

You cleared your throat, not breaking eye contact even though you felt like dying out of happiness. “Likewise,” you replied, causing him to let out an airy laugh. “It’s true. Although you look like a sad puppy now.”

“I guess I am,” he admitted. “Is it okay if I cry again? I haven’t done that in ages.”

You smiled at him, wiping the tears along his jawline instinctively. Seungmin took it as a yes, burying his head in his knees as he started sobbing again.

So you stayed, watching his wall crumble. Listening to the words that broke his heart. Feeling yourself fall even harder for this beautiful, broken boy.

-

Day6’s new music video for Shoot Me had been released, and Kim Seungmin was now the hottest guy at campus. You had watched it for at least a thousand times, yet you still teared up everytime you did. After breaking down in front of you two weeks ago, Seungmin hadn’t contacted you at all. You didn’t expect him to, especially since you two weren’t even friends to begin with.

But still, you were disappointed.

“I think that’s them.”

You were on your way to the cafeteria, and you felt that someone was following you. “Really? I couldn’t really see them when we were in the library.”

“Can I help you?”

Changbin and Felix stopped on their tracks when you turned around. “H-hi,” Changbin stuttered as Felix flashed you his brightest smile. “We didn’t mean to stalk you, I swear!”

“It’s just—”

Felix rubbed his nape, trying to think of a good reason, but in the end he just slapped Changbin’s biceps. “This is your fault!” he yelled. “We’re just curious.”

“About?”

“About why I asked Chan for your number.”

Seungmin was standing behind you, mouthing a string of curse words to Changbin and Felix who were just grinning at him. “How dare you guys call yourselves my friends!” he protested.

“You didn’t even tell us about you getting into acting!” Changbin countered.

“We found out from YouTube!” Felix added. “You called dancing a useless shit but look at you, actor Kim. How dare you!”

Seungmin raised his hand in defeat as you scooted away. This is how secondhand embarrassment really feels!

“Since you’re here, I don’t need to text you anymore,” he said to you. “Let’s ditch these dumbasses and get some coffee? Or whatever you want, it doesn’t matter.”

You nodded, trying to suppress your giggle as Changbin and Felix yelled, “KIM SEUNGMIN, FIGHTING!!!!”

-

Your eyes snapped open when you heard your bell ring. You groaned, kicking your blanket away before making your way to the door.

“Seungmin,” you yawned, eyes widening as you realized that your boyfriend was standing at your door at 2A.M, and you looked like absolute shit. He smiled, the same soft smile you saw when you two first met. Seungmin lifted a camera you didn’t know he was holding, snapping a few photos of you with your bed hair.

“What are you doing?” you whined, snatching his camera from him. He laughed before entering your flat. “Your neighbors aren’t being noisy anymore?”

“Ah yes, I forgot to tell you. They moved out last week. Now I can sleep peacefully.” You paused, glaring at Seungmin who was making himself comfortable on your couch. “Or so I thought.”

He pulled you down so you were sitting on his lap. “I want to see you,” he said, circling his arm around your waist. You sighed as you felt yourself blushing. “How could you say something so romantic with a straight face like that?” you protested.

“It’s a fact. How is that romantic?”

You cupped his face, caressing the apple of his cheeks while staring into his eyes. “What?” he asked.

“I want to see you,” you said, mimicking his straight face. Now it was Seungmin’s turn to blush, and you giggled. “See? That’s how I feel everytime you say things like that!”

Seungmin pointed at himself. “Things like that?”

You rested your hands on his shoulders, recalling all the times Seungmin caught you off guard with his sweet gestures. “You called me ten times just to make sure I could sleep after watching Lights Out. You always drop by whenever I say I feel lonely. You bought me a tablet for my birthday present although you wanted a new camera… and this. Randomly appearing at 2A.M because you want to see me.”

Seungmin reached for your hands, intertwining your fingers together. “I do all of those things not because I’m trying to be romantic, but because I love you.”

You groaned in frustration, he had once again succeeded in making you feel giddy without meaning to. “I know,” you mumbled. “I don’t deserve you.”

He shook his head, pressing soft kisses on your fingertips. “You didn’t judge me for crying in front of you last year. You’re never mad at me although I’ve failed so many auditions. And you’re willing to see me no matter how late it is.”

“But you snagged a main role this time,” you argued. “And it’s for a webdrama!”

You suddenly remembered the time you wanted to tell him something when you two were in the library. “Wanna know something funny?”

Seungmin’s eyes lit up; they were a lot brighter now, especially after he told his parents how he really felt. The day after you two started dating, Felix almost cried when he saw his stoic best friend walked into the class with a lopsided grin on his face.

“I believe fate only affects 40% of my life. The rest are decisions. The thing is, I’ve made gazillions of bad decisions that I can’t trust myself.” You paused, glancing down to see Seungmin waiting for you to continue. “Working at the library was my don’t-even-talk-about-it decision, you know. But then I met you.”

“You’re the one being romantic now,” your boyfriend pointed out.

You ignored him, dramatically announcing, “I made one great decision.”

He snickered, pulling you closer so that he could rest his forehead against yours. “Let me guess, that’s me?”

You rewarded him with a peck on his nose. “Likewise,” he said, closing the distance between you, kissing you slowly and long. You curled your hands around his neck, smiling as he nibbled your bottom lip. You stopped him. “I love you, Kim Seungmin,” you whispered against his lips.

He didn’t respond, only pressing his lips on yours harder. Seungmin pulled away after a while, leaving your lips swollen and your cheeks flushed. “Hmmm,” he hummed, tracing the outline of your lips. “Tell me something I don’t know, baby.”

-

[beyondthecosmicvoid]

Afterword of First Book of Dune, "Dune"

“I knew Frank Herbert for more than thirty-eight years. He was a magnificent human being, a man of great honor and distinction, and the most interesting person at any gathering, drawing listeners around him like a magnet. To say he was an intellectual giant would be an understatement, since he seemed to contain all of the knowledge of the universe in his marvelous mind. He was my father, and I loved him deeply. Nonetheless, a son’s journey to understand the legendary author was not always a smooth one, as I described in my biography of him, Dreamer of Dune. Growing up in Frank Herbert’s household, I did not understand his need for absolute silence so that he could concentrate, the intense desire he had to complete his important writing projects, or the confidence he had that one day his writing would be a success, despite the steady stream of rejections that he received. To my young eyes, the characters he created in Dune and his other stories were the children of his mind, and they competed with me for his affections. In the years it took him to write his magnum opus, he spent more time with Paul Atreides than he did with me. Dad’s study was off-limits to me, to my sister Penny, and to my brother Bruce. In those days, only my mother Beverly really understood Dad’s complexities. Ultimately, it was through her love for him, and the love he gave back to her, that I came to see the nurturing, loving side of the man. By that time I was in my mid-twenties, having rebelled against his exacting ways for years. When I finally saw the soul of my father and began to appreciate him for the care he gave my mother when she was terminally ill, he and I became the best of friends. He helped me with my own writing career by showing me what editors wanted to see in books; he taught me how to construct interesting characters, how to build suspense, how to keep readers turning the pages. After perusing an early draft of Sidney’s Comet (which would become my first published novel), he marked up several pages and then wrote me this note: “These pages…show how editing tightens the story. Go now and do likewise.” It was his way of telling me that he could open the door for me and let me peek through, but I would have to complete the immense labors involved with writing myself. Beverly Herbert was the window into Frank Herbert’s soul. He shared that reality with millions of readers when he wrote a loving, three-page tribute to her at the end of Chapterhouse: Dune, describing their life together. His writing companion and intellectual equal, she suggested the title for that book, and she died in 1984 while he was writing it. Earlier in Dune, Frank Herbert had modeled Lady Jessica Atreides after Beverly Herbert, with her dignified, gentle ways of influence, and even her prescient abilities, which my mother actually possessed. He also wrote of “Lady Jessica’s latent (prophetic) abilities,” and in this he was describing my mother, thinking of all the amazing paranormal feats she had accomplished in her lifetime. In an endearing tone, he often referred to her as his “white witch,” or good witch. Similarly, throughout the Dune series, he described the heroic Bene Gesserit women as “witches.” Dune is the most admired science fiction novel ever written and has sold tens of millions of copies all over the world, in more than twenty languages. It is to science fiction what the Lord of the Rings trilogy is to fantasy, the most highly regarded, respected works in their respective genres. Of course, Dune is not just science fiction. It includes strong elements of fantasy and contains so many important layers beneath the story line that it has become a mainstream classic. As one dimension of this, just look at the cover on the book in your hands, the quiet dignity expressed in the artwork. The novel was first published in hardcover in 1965 by Chilton Books, best known for their immense auto-repair novels. No other publisher would touch the book, in part because of the length of the manuscript. They felt it was far too long at 215,000 words, when most novels of the day were only a quarter to a third that length. Dune would require immense printing costs and a high hardcover price for the time, in excess of five dollars. No science fiction novel had ever commanded a retail price that high. Publishers also expressed concern about the complexity of the novel and all of the new, exotic words that the author introduced in the beginning, which tended to slow the story down. One editor said that he could not get through the first hundred pages without becoming confused and irritated. Another said that he might be making a huge mistake in turning the book down, but he did so anyway. Initial sales of the book were slow, but Frank Herbert’s science fiction–writing peers and readers recognized the genius of the work from the beginning, awarding it the coveted Nebula and Hugo awards for best novel of the year. It was featured in The Whole Earth Catalog and began to receive excellent reviews, including one from the New York Times. A groundswell of support was building. In 1969, Frank Herbert published the first sequel, Dune Messiah, in which he warned about the dangers of following a charismatic leader and showed the dark side of Paul Atreides. Many fans didn’t understand this message, because they didn’t want to see their superhero brought down from his pedestal. Still, the book sold well, and so did its predecessor. Looking back at Dune, it is clear that Dad laid the seeds of the troublesome direction he intended to take with his hero, but a lot of readers didn’t want to see it. John W. Campbell, the editor of Analog who made many useful suggestions when Dune was being serialized, did not like Dune Messiah because of this Paul Atreides issue. Having studied politics carefully, my father believed that heroes made mistakes…mistakes that were simplified by the number of people who followed such leaders slavishly. In a foreshadowing epigraph, Frank Herbert wrote in Dune: “Remember, we speak now of the Muad’Dib who ordered battle drums made from his enemies’ skins, the Muad’Dib who denied the conventions of his ducal past with a wave of the hand, saying merely: ‘I am the Kwisatz Haderach. That is reason enough.’” And in a dramatic scene, as Liet-Kynes lay dying in the desert, he remembered the long-ago words of his own father: “No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero.” By the early 1970s, sales of Dune began to accelerate, largely because the novel was heralded as an environmental handbook, warning about the dangers of destroying the Earth’s finite resources. Frank Herbert spoke to more than 30,000 people at the first Earth Day in Philadelphia, and he toured the country, speaking to enthusiastic college audiences. The environmental movement was sweeping the nation, and Dad rode the crest of the wave, a breathtaking trip. When he published Children of Dune in 1976, it became a runaway bestseller, hitting every important list in the country. Children of Dune was the first science fiction novel to become a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback, and sales reached into the millions. After that, other science fiction writers began to have their own bestsellers, but Frank Herbert was the first to obtain such a high level of readership; he brought science fiction out of the ghetto of literature. By 1979, Dune itself had sold more than 10 million copies, and sales kept climbing. In early 1985, shortly after David Lynch’s movie Dune was released, the paperback version of the novel reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. This was a phenomenal accomplishment, occurring twenty years after its first publication, and sales remain brisk today. * * * In 1957, Dad flew to the Oregon coast to write a magazine article about a U.S. Department of Agriculture project there, in which the government had successfully planted poverty grasses on the crests of sand dunes, to keep them from inundating highways. He intended to call the article “They Stopped the Moving Sands,” but soon realized that he had a much bigger story on his hands. Frank Herbert’s life experiences are layered into the pages of the Dune series, combined with an eclectic assortment of fascinating ideas that sprang from his researches. Among other things, the Dune universe is a spiritual melting pot, a far future in which religious beliefs have combined into interesting forms. Discerning readers will recognize Buddhism, Sufi Mysticism and other Islamic belief systems, Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, and Hinduism. In the San Francisco Bay Area, my father even knew Zen Master Alan Watts, who lived on an old ferryboat. Dad drew on a variety of religious influences, without adhering to any one of them. Consistent with this, the stated purpose of the Commission of Ecumenical Translators, as described in an appendix to Dune, was to eliminate arguments between religions, each of which claimed to have “the one and only revelation.” When he was a boy, eight of Dad’s Irish Catholic aunts tried to force Catholicism on him, but he resisted. Instead, this became the genesis of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. This fictional organization would claim it did not believe in organized religion, but the sisters were spiritual nonetheless. Both my father and mother were like that as well. During the 1950s, Frank Herbert was a political speechwriter and publicity writer for U.S. senatorial and congressional candidates. In that decade, he also journeyed twice to Mexico with his family, where he studied desert conditions and crop cycles, and was subjected unwittingly to the effects of a hallucinogenic drug. All of those experiences, and a great deal from his childhood, found their way onto the pages of Dune. The novel became as complex and multilayered as Frank Herbert himself. As I said in Dreamer of Dune, the characters in Dune fit mythological archetypes. Paul is the hero prince on a quest who weds the daughter of a “king” (he marries Princess Irulan, whose father is the Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV). Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam is a witch mother archetype, while Paul’s sister Alia is a virgin witch, and Pardot Kynes is the wise old man of Dune mythology. Beast Rabban Harkonnen, though evil and aggressive, is essentially a fool. For the names of heroes, Frank Herbert selected from Greek mythology and other mythological bases. The Greek House Atreus, upon which House Atreides in Dune was based, was the ill-fated family of kings Menelaus and Agamemnon. A heroic family, it was beset by tragic flaws and burdened with a curse pronounced against it by Thyestes. This foreshadows the troubles Frank Herbert had in mind for the Atreides family. The evil Harkonnens of Dune are related to the Atreides by blood, so when they assassinate Paul’s father Duke Leto, it is kinsmen against kinsmen, similar to what occurred in the household of Agamemnon when he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. Dune is a modern-day conglomeration of familiar myths, a tale in which great sandworms guard a precious treasure of melange, the geriatric spice that represents, among other things, the finite resource of oil. The planet Arrakis features immense, ferocious worms that are like dragons of lore, with “great teeth” and a “bellows breath of cinnamon.” This resembles the myth described by an unknown English poet in Beowulf, the compelling tale of a fearsome fire dragon who guarded a great treasure hoard in a lair under cliffs, at the edge of the sea. The desert of Frank Herbert’s classic novel is a vast ocean of sand, with giant worms diving into the depths, the mysterious and unrevealed domain of Shai-hulud. Dune tops are like the crests of waves, and there are powerful sandstorms out there, creating extreme danger. On Arrakis, life is said to emanate from the Maker (Shai-hulud) in the desert-sea; similarly all life on Earth is believed to have evolved from our oceans. Frank Herbert drew parallels, used spectacular metaphors, and extrapolated present conditions into world systems that seem entirely alien at first blush. But close examination reveals they aren’t so different from systems we know…and the book characters of his imagination are not so different from people familiar to us. Paul Atreides (who is the messianic “Muad’Dib” to the Fremen) resembles Lawrence of Arabia (T. E. Lawrence), a British citizen who led Arab forces in a successful desert revolt against the Turks during World War I. Lawrence employed guerrilla tactics to destroy enemy forces and communication lines, and came close to becoming a messiah figure for the Arabs. This historical event led Frank Herbert to consider the possibility of an outsider leading native forces against the morally corrupt occupiers of a desert world, in the process becoming a godlike figure to them. One time I asked my father if he identified with any of the characters in his stories, and to my surprise he said it was Stilgar, the rugged leader of the Fremen. I had been thinking of Dad more as the dignified, honorable Duke Leto, or the heroic, swashbuckling Paul, or the loyal Duncan Idaho. Mulling this over, I realized Stilgar was the equivalent of a Native American chief in Dune—a person who represented and defended time-honored ways that did not harm the ecology of the planet. Frank Herbert was that, and a great deal more. As a child, he had known a Native American who hinted that he had been banished from his tribe, a man named Indian Henry who taught my father some of the ways of his people, including fishing, the identification of edible and medicinal plants in the forest, and how to find red ants and protein-rich grub worms for food. When he set up the desert planet of Arrakis and the galactic empire encompassing it, Frank Herbert pitted western culture against primitive culture and gave the nod to the latter. In Dune he wrote, “Polish comes from the cities; wisdom from the desert.” (Later, in his mainstream novel Soul Catcher, he would do something similar and would favor old ways over modern ways). Like the nomadic Bedouins of the Arabian plateau, the Fremen live an admirable, isolated existence, separated from civilization by vast stretches of desert. The Fremen take psychedelic drugs during religious rites, like the Navajo Indians of North America. And like the Jews, the Fremen have been persecuted, driven to hide from authorities and survive away from their homeland. Both Jews and Fremen expect to be led to the promised land by a messiah. The words and names in Dune are from many tongues, including Navajo, Latin, Chakobsa (a language found in the Caucasus), the Nahuatl dialect of the Aztecs, Greek, Persian, East Indian, Russian, Turkish, Finnish, Old English, and, of course, Arabic. In Children of Dune, Leto II allowed sandtrout to attach themselves to his body, and this was based in part upon my father’s own experiences as a boy growing up in Washington State, when he rolled up his trousers and waded into a stream or lake, permitting leeches to attach themselves to his legs. The legendary life of the divine superhero Muad’Dib is based on themes found in a variety of religious faiths. Frank Herbert even used lore and bits of information from the people of the Gobi Desert in Asia, the Kalahari Desert in Southwest Africa, and the aborigines of the Australian Outback. For centuries such people have survived on very small amounts of water, in environments where water is a more precious resource than gold. The Butlerian Jihad, occurring ten thousand years before the events described in Dune, was a war against thinking machines who at one time had cruelly enslaved humans. For this reason, computers were eventually made illegal by humans, as decreed in the Orange Catholic Bible: “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.” The roots of the jihad went back to individuals my parents knew, to my mother’s grandfather Cooper Landis and to our family friend Ralph Slattery, both of whom abhorred machines. Still, there are computers in the Dune universe, long after the jihad. As the series unfolds, it is revealed that the Bene Gesserits have secret computers to keep track of their breeding records. And the Mentats of Dune, capable of supreme logic, are “human computers.” In large part these human calculators were based upon my father’s paternal grandmother, Mary Stanley, an illiterate Kentucky hill-woman who performed incredible mathematical calculations in her head. Mentats were the precursors of Star Trek’s Spock, First Officer of the starship Enterprise…and Frank Herbert described the dangers of thinking machines back in the 1960s, years before Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator movies ... 

By the time we complete those stories, there will be a wealth of Dune novels, along with the 1984 movie directed by David Lynch and two television miniseries—“Frank Herbert’s Dune” and “Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune”—both produced by Richard Rubinstein. We envision other projects in the future, but all of them must measure up to the lofty standard that my father established with his own novels. When all of the good stories have been told, the series will end. But that will not really be a conclusion, because we can always go back to Dune itself and read it again and again, ” -Brian Herbert

This shows the appreciation that Brian had for his father. Many fans are still on the fence regarding Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson continuation of Frank’s work. Some think some of their sequels and prequels are good while others think their attempt to expand on the Dune lore is a failed attempt and don’t believe they have based their works on Frank Herbert’s alleged unfinished manuscripts. I fall somewhere in the middle. There are things I like from the Dune Expanded Universe and other things that I could care less about. Nevertheless, I love that Brian Herbert has continued with his father’s passion and is currently working with director Denis Villeneuve and others to bring his father’s vision on the big and small screens and stay loyal to it.

[talesofafangirlwithadvr]

JUNE PICKS

I know, I know it’s currently July 13th and I’m only posting my June picks now. In my defense summer is going FAR too fast and I didn’t want to encounter spoilers for Stranger Things so i was avoiding a lot of social media. So without further a do here come my picks.

Always be prepared for spoilers. Tread lightly. 

LEGENDS OF TOMORROW

Best.season.so.far... As a MAJOR fan of all things Arrowverse, recently I have found myself losing interest in the Berlanti CW/DC shows. Some of the plots feel overdone (we’ve done it on one show and now it’s appearing on another), or characters are losing who they once were. The only show in this multiverse that I’m caught up on is Legends of Tomorrow. Thanks to Netflix I was able to binge it all at once (which I found really helps watching this show. You just want to watch episode after episode because you NEED to know where we’re headed next). I think Legends is really underrated as a whole, which is wrong. It deserves more love compared to Arrow and The Flash. I believe it is the strongest of the superhero shows on the network. That was proven with this great season (I’d call it the best and I can’t wait to watch season 5). I really enjoyed this team of heroes aboard the Waverider. We’ve seen much change from last season and only 3 remain from the original team that Rip created. (Which is SO crazy!) At first I was worried about Charlie because I didn’t want her to just be a recasting of Amaya, but I loved her addition. She brought another style to the Waverider and having her as a “monster” was perfect for this season that involved bringing awareness to these creatures. Plus her power came in handy a lot of the time. I’m always a fan of Constantine so it was great to see him as a permanent fixture of the Legends (even if he claimed he didn’t want to be :). After speaking with him at HVFF in Edison, New Jersey this June I am excited to see his character return as a regular for season 5. I also enjoyed Nora Darhk. When we first met her last season we we’re supposed to like her, but since she’s no longer possessed and wanting to change her ways we see a different side of her now. A side that Ray sees (still think it’s super adorable that off screen husband and wife are love interests on the show). I was a big fan of her involvement this season. Speaking of Ray, what a journey he went on. Props to Brandon Routh for his acting this season. Very out of his regular character, which often is the most fun to watch. I loved the Time Bureau getting more involved in the plot. We got to see more of their headquarters and how they function while the Legends do their thing throughout space and time. I hope that continues, especially so we don’t lose seeing characters like Ava and Mona (oh and of course Gary-oops!) MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!!   That ending!!!! Please don’t tell us Zari is off the team for good. I mean I’m sure her brother is nice and all, but we need her! After speaking with Tala, also at HVFF, she said we’ll be getting a much different Zari this season. Which makes complete sense seeing as how her backstory has drastically changed. 

Man, I guess I could have dedicated an entire post just to Legends of Tomorrow. Just shows you it is a great show that you should be watching. 

Now I can’t stop singing James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James”

Good Omens

This Amazon Prime Video original was my first watch of the month. I didn’t binge it all at once (mainly because I don’t like investing ALL of my time into watching something that’s only a handful of episodes and then feeling completely lost when it’s over...Wow that opened something I didn’t know was there....) While that’s one of the reasons I didn’t watch all episodes in one sitting the other is that I couldn’t really get into it. People have told me great things about the book, but I haven’t read it and I didn’t know a whole lot (other than what I’ve seen from the trailer) before watching. It’s hard for me to explain why I didn’t enjoy it or get into it. I don’t know if it was the large amount of characters to follow or the style of episodes or just the overall style of the show. I enjoyed the voice over narration and I thought the dynamic between Aziraphale and Crowley was great (always a fan of David Tennant). I liked the reinventing of the final battle and how these forces currently exist on Earth. I think my favorite episodes were the last two as the battle occurred and how Adam was a part of it all. 

Have you watched Good Omens? Did you like it? 

Jack Whitehall’s Travels with my Father

After watching Good Omens I was looking for a quick watch before jumping into Daredevil (which I know is also a quick watch). Seeing Jack Whitehall in Good Omens reminded me of a Netflix show I had saved in my queue a while ago. The British Comedian Jack Whitehall decides to go on a gap year in his late twenties and bring along his seventy year old father. Like everyone does! I’ve read a lot of things, while I watched, about how the show is scripted and while it is at times very obvious I still liked watching their banter. His dad had some great lines as Jack brought him to some eccentric spots. It was also nice to see their relationship progress as the episodes went on. As someone who wasn’t thinking of traveling to Asia I really liked being able to see some of the places and attractions in different countries that might not be as publicized. I have the second season saved in my queue where Jack’s dad will bring Jack to what he considers a vacation. This time traveling around Europe. I think it should be good, but right now I have other things to watch before.   

Blood & Treasure

CBS’ new summer show has already been picked up for a second season and the first season hasn’t even finished yet! If that’s not a reason for you to check this out then read this review. :) 

This action adventure show follows Danny, an ex FBI agent, and Lexi, an art thief, as they travel the globe in search for Cleopatra’s tomb and other Egyptian antiquities before they get in the hands of a terrorist. Each week feels like you have entered a movie as you join this team race against the clock to retrieve these artifacts. Because of this there are times where I feel like the show might work better as a movie or a mini-series/3 longer episodes. By this point I feel like there are times where the plot gets a little extended and parts might not need to happen (but do because of the length of episodes). That being said I am still enjoying this show and am excited to see how the season eventually ends. Now that I know there will be a second season it will be interesting to see what they pursue next. If you like movies like Indiana Jones and National Treasure as well as the TNT show The Librarians, then this show is one for you!    

PBS Les Miserables 

I am way behind on reviewing this program that debuted on PBS’ Masterpiece in the Spring, but with one episode left I am very excited to talk about this new adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. This six episode show directed by Andrew Davies brings Hugo’s characters to life without music. Being a fan of the musical, I was a little worried about how the show would be without this element. While there are times where I would like a song that is traditional sung by one of the leads to be played in the background (and I think it would have put the scene over the top) I have really enjoyed watching. Due to the length of the series we have really been able to get to know these characters and watch their transformations. I have always been daunted by the size of the novel, so I have not had the chance to read it, but being familiar with Davies’ work in the past (the iconic Pride and Prejudice 1995) I have a feeling this program is very accurate to the original text. My favorite character is still Jean Valjean (despite the slight plot wholes at how he has so much money despite escaping jail so many times). I think my favorite parts have been the earlier episodes when Cosette is young. I understand she wants to see the word as she gets older, but sometimes she bothers me. Currently I am at the barricade with them. One more episode to go. I know how it will end, but I’m probably still not mentally prepared.    

Master Chef Junior

This season I have watched a good amount of reality shows (in the sense of game shows/competition shows/and yes Bachelorette). Some seasons when you watch I feel that you connect better to the contestants. You root for them and are devastated when they lose or get out. You call them by name as if you know them. I often feel this way with Fox’s Master Chef Junior, but this season especially I was invested in this show. They were a great group of young home cooks.

While their cooking skills ALWAYS put mine to shame and half the time I don’t know what they’re talking about and just smile and nod, I always find myself watching cooking competitions that involve kids. It’s just so impressive all that they can do at their age. I always love how they talk about cooking for so long meanwhile how much cooking could you do at 2 years old? (Or was it just my parents that wouldn’t allow me to use a stove??) This season they had multiple non-elimination rounds showing just how good these kids were. While my favorite, Reid, did not make the finals (he was soooo close) I will forever think of him when people talk about fishing. “The best part about fishing is fishing.”   

The Amazing Race

I’ve been a fan of the Amazing Race for a very long of time, but cannot believe that this past season was their 19th SEASON! In the past I’ve heard of the show possibly not returning for another season, but I’m so happy that was not the case. There really is still not too much out there like it. This season the teams (ironically) came from all reality shows ranging from Big Brother, Survivor, and (of course) The Amazing Race. There were so many familiar faces that it was like we were visiting old friends. (I’m still super happy that the top 3 were all Race teams). This season was another example of getting too invested in the show. It often caused a lot of anxiety and being told to ‘fast forward to the end’ to know who got out. (Which I usually refused to do). Next season will be very hard to beat!

BINGEING

The Walking Dead

I mentioned that the Walking Dead was on my to watch list and I have decided to make it my Summer Show of 2019. Season 1 went by extremely fast (it was only 6 episodes) and now I’m in the middle of season 2. (I think I just hit episode 10?) Shane is getting crazier and crazier by the day. Sofia was discovered. I knew she’d be a zombie, but wow I was not expecting where we’d find her. Dale has quickly become one of my favorites and I don’t want anything bad to happen to him. I love how he knows what’s truly going on. Glenn is still my favorite and I’m excited to see his relationship with Maggie progress. Carl got his signature look wearing Rick’s hat. I think Hershel might let them stay on the farm. This show is just so addicting. I can never just watch one. I know I’m in for a roller coaster and just like when I watched Game of Thrones, the spoilers are out there (because I’m watching it so late) and I do know some, but not all. Can’t wait to continue. Are you a fan?  

So, that’s it! That’s the June Wrap Up. Are we watching any of the same things? Are there any shows that seem interesting? Anything I should add to my watch list? Let me know!

July Watch Preview

Just finished it last night. (You now see why I had that rant earlier about finishing a show and not knowing what to do with my life.) Wow! I am probably not going to be able to wait to post an article till July. Keep your eyes open for a new post soon!!

[thesweatycollectiontyrant]

Favorite Shows

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about why specific shows mean so much to me, and I want to profile them in sort of a “why” type of post. No sort of big thing, just have a lot on my mind and want to talk about it.

Tuck Everlasting

This show deserved such a longer life than it had on a stage in New York. If I were only allowed to choose one thing that I adore about this show, it would without a doubt be the score. Every facet of it. Orchestrations, harmonies, reprises and all of that good stuff. Luckily, I make these rules.

The meaning and heart of this show is so vast and beautiful. First and foremost, the relationship that Winnie develops with the Tucks is something a lot of people fall in love with. She finds a father she never had in Angus, a nurturing mother she’s never had from Mae, an older brother in Miles, and a best friend in Jesse. 

Something my friends and I discuss often is how natural of an actress Carolee Carmello is. She is nothing but honesty, truth, and transparency onstage. In this day and age, that’s something everyone should strive for. It’s truly a shame that she doesn’t have a Tony award yet (something I believe she earned in 1999). A little more about her character, Mae. Mae loves people, not things. Mae wears the same old clothes and is content with them. She rarely looks at herself in the mirror anymore by the time Winnie comes along, and her only prized possession is the music box that she has. She cares most about her family.

In terms of the immortality that the Tucks have, Jesse is often representative of the positives of being immortal. He’s young, spry, good-looking, and loves life and nature. Miles tends to be the figure for the negatives when it comes to living forever. He tends to skew Winnie away from the possibility of her also drinking from the spring and living forever. In “Time”, he explains to her that his immortality has done nothing but forced him to lose everything important to him., while Jesse tells Winnie in “Seventeen” that if she drinks from the spring that they can live together forever and live lives of happiness and possibly (probably) romance. 

With Angus, Winnie has just lost her father, and Angus has never had a daughter. He tends to be gruff, but has a big soft spot for Winnie.

Of course, there’s The Man in the Yellow Suit, Hugo, Constable Joe, Mrs. Foster, and Nana, but whenever I get around to doing a full post dedicated to this show, I’ll talk about them too.

The themes in this show are something to love as well. It covers growing up, time and death, and loyalty to family. The Tucks, being in their predicament have seen and been forced to let go of many important people and memories in their lives. When Miles talks about his relationship with his son and former wife in “Time” or when Mae describes her favorite memory of when Angus asked her to marry him in “My Most Beautiful Day”.

The last thing I want to profile about this show is some of the lyrics in this show.

“Looking back is something to look forward to.” - Mae Tuck in “My Most Beautiful Day”

There is so much to unpack there. Come on.

“Time truly divides.” - Miles Tuck in “Time”

“Watching life pass it by just floating on top.” Angus Tuck in “The Wheel”

Every time I listen to this show, I am undone. It is such a beautiful and intimate story, and I wish it could’ve had a longer life. I am dying to work on this show in any capacity. Someday, I want to conduct it, but until then, I’ll keep rocking out to “Live Like This” on long drives. Or short drives to the grocery store three minutes from my house to get my mom mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Big Fish

I got the opportunity to be in this show almost a year ago and it was so fulfilling. The script, at times, is bunk, and the story can move a little faster than some can process, but what this show needs to succeed is a strong cast that is dedicated to telling the story.

There’s so much in this musical that I adore and if I were to talk about it in depth this would be a very very long post, so I’ll just cap it with saying that I love the score and the relationship between Edward and Sandra. I also love the relationship between Edward and Will.

I love the revisions made to the show for the small cast version with Sandra singing “Magic in the Man” (though I do love “Two Men in My Life” with all my heart) and Will and Edward singing “This River Between Us” rather than “Showdown. In the version we did, we actually assigned “Magic in the Man” to Jenny Hill to give her some more of a backstory on her relationship with Edward and left “Two Men in My Life” in the show for Sandra.

The show is really special because I lost my grandfather two months before we did this show. It was a real restoration to my soul to be completely honest. He was a lively man with lots of stories that he always told and a character like Edward Bloom is a pretty good counterpart.

The score is so lush and beautiful. I could listen to it all day.

Fiddler on the Roof

This show kinda ended the Golden Age. I really love the Golden Age and I think that’s where my heart lies when it comes to my love of musical theatre as a whole. It was very influential to many shows in the future and I’ll always love it.

I’m not Jewish, but what’s special about this show is that it was remarkable to many that it resounded beyond the Jewish faith. The center of this show is truly about tradition, togetherness, family, and true love.

Tevye and Golde is one of the most unique and real relationships on the stage, especially for that time period. They didn’t marry for love; they married so that they could have children and a successful life. Each one of their children progressively wishes to marry outside of that ideal, Tzeitel marrying her childhood sweetheart without a matchmaker, Hodel being engaged to Perchik without a matchmaker or permission from parents, and Chava marrying outside of the faith, directly disobeying orders from the family and with no permission from parents or a matchmaker.

Tevye has to make many hard decisions throughout the show, allowing his daughters to marry men for love. The turmoil that he experiences when disowning Chava has always been hard to watch.

There are so many lovely and beautiful and amazing moments in this show, including “The Dream”, “Tradition”, “Matchmaker” (especially how they did it in the last Broadway revival), “Sabbath Prayer”, and “Chavaleh”. Danny Burstein refers to the score as “musical theatre mother’s milk”. It is nourishing like no other. I will always love this show.

The King and I

This was a show I truly learned to love my freshman year of college. Like many, I’ve known “I Whistle a Happy Tune” and “Getting to Know You” for a very long time. I got to see it with friends from college when it went to movie theaters and I was amazed by Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe, and Ruthie Ann Miles. Each of them gave such incredible performances.

I wish this show could be done more often, but it requires a mostly Asian cast. I am so thankful that there is more representation now than there was when this show premiered, so much so that the last revival was cast completely appropriate. Kind of ridiculous that it took this long.

The women in this show are what propels it. There is a chilling scene in particular when Lady Thiang finds Tuptim and confronts her about her relationship with Lun Tha. 

One thing I’ve always been fascinated by is race in the classroom. I’ve had the privilege of having teachers of all different ethnic backgrounds, including my preschool teacher. I’ve always been grateful for the opportunity to learn through all different lenses. I was moved to tears almost immediately when I saw the classroom scene when Anna is teaching all the children during “Getting to Know You” and then there’s the dance break where one of the wives performs a dance for Anna, and then Anna and Louis perform a dance for the children and wives, and then they morph them together! It’s just beautiful because that’s a symbol of people of different ethnic backgrounds coming together and teaching each other something so special that it’s beyond words: they dance. I adore that scene.

The relationship between Anna and Lady Thiang is also something I admire very much. The scene before “Something Wonderful” is also just gorgeous. There’s something to be said for Ruthie Ann Miles’ performance transitioning between Broadway and West End. As many know, she got into a near-fatal car accident while walking with her child and unborn child on the crosswalk, and both children were killed. In the West End, she used a cane because of the recovery from the wreck, which aged the character and made her a little less mobile, but it also made her more authoritative and made you want to listen to her and know what she was thinking. It was a brilliant decision to incorporate that into her character.

Getting to see this production, albeit in theaters, was an amazing experience.

John & Jen

I got to music direct this show my freshman year of college with two dear friends of mine as the siblings. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s real; all of it. I love it.

This score uses motif and reprises in a way that is really touching to me. If I were to choose a song that makes me happy, I’d say “Timeline”. It’s really groovy and it’s the biggest character shifts for the both of them. If I were to choose one that always makes me sad, it’d be “Hold Down the Fort”. Kate Baldwin and Carolee Carmello both were extraordinary in the role of Jen. It became so important to me when I got to do it. I’m thankful for this show.

Ragtime

This will be the last one. This show is so incredibly special to me. Other than something like Wicked, this show was one of the first shows I really got into. The story and score are so cohesive and they work together really well. I love Ahrens and Flaherty and their style is so broad, yet so specific.

Similar to my feelings on The King and I, Ragtime incorporates the lives of Caucasians, African-Americans, and Jewish Immigrants and they all learn things about each other through various encounters during the show. Some find love, some find hate, and it’s just an incredible show. I will never get enough of this beautiful story about justice and truth according the law.

Mother and Tateh’s relationship is one of my favorites in the mega-musical canon. *do y’all consider Ragtime a mega-musical? I do? or do I?*

The show requires a very large and very diverse cast that can sing and act incredibly well. Nothing is like the full orchestration doing this show. I love it so dearly. It has so many lessons we can learn from.

I really love these shows and they’ll always mean tons to me.

[newstfionline]

Venezuelans become Latin America’s new underclass.

By Anthony Faiola, NY Times, July 27, 2018

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago--Free-spending Venezuelans once crammed store aisles in foreign countries famously uttering “dame dos”--”I’ll take two.” But the citizens of what was once South America’s richest nation per capita are now confronting a devastating reversal of fortune, emerging as the region’s new underclass.

As their oil-rich country buckles under the weight of a failed socialist experiment, an estimated 5,000 people a day are departing the country in Latin America’s largest migrant outflow in decades.

Venezuelan professionals are abandoning hospitals and universities to scrounge livings as street vendors in Peru and janitors in Ecuador. Here in Trinidad and Tobago--a petroleum-producing Caribbean nation off Venezuela’s northern coast--Venezuelan lawyers are working as day laborers and sex workers. A former well-to-do bureaucrat who once spent a summer eating traditional shark sandwiches and drinking whisky on Trinidad’s Maracas Bay is now working as a maid.

The U.N. refugee agency has called on nations to offer protection to the Venezuelans, as they did for millions of Syrians fleeing civil war. But in a part of world with massive gaps in protection for refugees, Venezuelans fleeing starvation at home are often trading one harrowing plight for another. Trinidad, for instance, has no asylum laws for refugees, leaving thousands of desperate Venezuelans here at risk of detention, deportation, police abuse and worse.

Sometimes much worse.

Luz, a 21-year-old Venezuelan single mother, came to Trinidad by boat with two friends in May, trusting a man with a soft Caribbean lilt who claimed to be from a Christian group offering aid and resettlement. Instead, she said, the three women were taken to a house and beaten before being abused by what appeared to be a pornography ring. Each woman, she said, was filmed while being raped by a series of men.

“We are helpless,” Luz said. “All because of the crisis.” She and the other two women escaped and are now in the care of a Catholic charity.

Carolina Jimenez, a senior official with Amnesty International, said, “Venezuela’s unprecedented situation has turned a domestic human rights crisis into a regional human rights crisis.”

“Countries in the region are not prepared to take in so many migrants and do not have the asylum systems needed to prevent job exploitation and human trafficking,” she said. “These people should be protected, but instead they are being taken advantage of.”

From the 1950s through the early 1980s, Venezuela was an economic dynamo--a nation with the world’s largest oil reserves and a beacon for immigrants from as far away as Italy and Spain. Then oil shocks and currency crises plunged the country into turmoil.

Hugo Chávez, who became president in 1999, adopted a form of socialism that resulted in many businesses collapsing or being nationalized. A purge of the state-run oil industry--a center of opposition to his rule--removed thousands of workers, who were often replaced by political supporters with little to no technical experience.

Venezuela’s slide turned into a free fall under President Nicolás Maduro--a former bus driver and union leader who inherited power after Chávez’s death in 2013. Critics say his government’s mismanagement and corruption and Maduro’s own ruthless bid to cement power--even as oil prices tumbled--have broken the nation.

Wealthy Venezuelans have been fleeing their homeland for years, landing in multimillion-dollar homes in Miami and Madrid. But as the economic crisis escalates, those leaving now are increasingly destitute, including members of a crippled middle class. The United Nations projects 2 million Venezuelans will exit their nation this year--on top of an exodus of 1.8 million over the past two years.

Those with means and visas are still venturing to the United States, where Venezuelans now make up the single largest pool of asylum seekers. Far more often, escaping Venezuelans are finding themselves in Latin American and Caribbean nations.

But in a region where many already live on the margins of society, governments are making it harder for Venezuelan refugees to stay.

Last year, Panama slapped new visa requirements on Venezuelans. This year, Colombia ended a program that allowed tens of thousands of Venezuelans to circulate in its border area. Chile welcomed tens of thousands of Venezuelans who showed up at its land border in 2017. But in April, it threw up new hurdles, requiring them to have a passport--something the vast majority do not possess--and to apply for asylum through Chilean consulates in Venezuela rather than at the border.

The regulations are “leaving Venezuelans with no choice but to work for pennies in the informal sector while being extremely vulnerable to exploitation and a high level of abuse,” said Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans fleeing to the Caribbean--where many island nations lack asylum laws--face particular challenges. Mary Anne Goiri, spokeswoman for Venex, an aid group on the island of Curacao, said Venezuelan migrants there were being brutally exploited. In one case, she said, a restaurant owner had been holding the cash savings of one of his undocumented Venezuelan workers. When the employee asked for her money back, the owner beat her and called the police to have her detained, Goiri said.

Up to 45,000 Venezuelans, aid groups say, have crossed the narrow straits in recent years to Trinidad and Tobago, a country of 1.4 million. As many as 160 a week are still making the trip.

Irregular migration is criminalized here, and Venezuelans who arrive on smugglers’ boats face possible detention and fines. In April, Trinidad sparked international condemnation following the deportation of 82 Venezuelans.

“We cannot and will not allow U.N. spokespersons to convert us into a refugee camp,” Prime Minister Keith Rowley said after the incident.

In Trinidad, diplomats and international agencies say, there is also evidence of a worrying trend: Desperate Venezuelans, particularly women, have become commodities to be bought and sold.

In Trinidad, the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations body, has received 23 suspected cases of trafficked Venezuelans in the past three months--compared with no Venezuelan cases last year, according to Jewel Ali, the organization’s local director.

They include victims like Luz--who said she lost one of her three children in April after the hospital in her Venezuelan town ran out of medication to treat her daughter’s bacterial infection. When she was approached to come to Trinidad, the offer seemed too good to be true.

“But I told myself, I’m going anyway. I’m not going to lose the chance for my kids to be better off just because I had some doubts,” she said.

The ordeal--five weeks spent captive and repeatedly filmed being raped--had “damaged” her, she said. At one point, Luz said, she and a friend were tied up and raped side by side.

“We were looking at each other,” Luz said, tearing up. “We would cry. And I would tell her, ‘Sister, be strong, you have a daughter.’ I would just keep repeating that.”

The case has been documented by the U.N. refugee agency as a potential act of trafficking. Alana Wheeler, head of Trinidad’s counter-trafficking unit, said authorities were looking into Luz’s case and could not comment on an active investigation.

In a telephone interview from a detention center for migrants in the Trinidadian town of Arima, a 34-year-old single father said he came ashore in November after selling his possessions to pay for passage. He was arrested in June. Although he produced his asylum documents from the U.N. refugee agency--which give him a legal right to remain in the country--a policeman demanded $700, he said.

“I told him I didn’t have the money, so they took my belongings, what money I had and detained me,” said the man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the Trinidadian authorities.

Dozens of Venezuelans are being held at the facility, he said. He said guards are serving food by throwing it to the floor and that he had witnessed several Venezuelan inmates being beaten. One migrant with advanced cancer, he said, is receiving no medical attention. No soap, shampoo or clean clothes are being provided, he said.

Guards, he said, routinely humiliate the Venezuelans. Trinidad’s Ministry of National Security did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

“They tell us, ‘Go back to your country, or we’re going to make your life impossible,’” the Venezuelan said.

For many Venezuelans, life in Trinidad amounts to a jarring turnaround. Jhohanna Mota, a 42-year-old former secretary from coastal Venezuela, studied English in Trinidad in the 1990s. She spent Sundays at the beach and evenings at the discos. In 2016--with inflation soaring and food growing scarce in Venezuela--she opted to abandon her three-bedroom house to come back to Trinidad with her two sons.

But it has not gone as planned. She said she worked under the table in a bakery for a year, doing 8½-hour shifts for $20 a day. Then she got fired. “My boss didn’t want to employ an ‘illegal.’” She tried to legalize her stay but said she was duped into paying $800 for a visa that turned out to be fake.

She now faces a hearing and potential deportation proceedings. In the meantime, she is supporting her boys as a house cleaner--and is at risk of arrest for working without a job permit.

“Every time I walk out my door, I know I could end up in jail,” she said, weeping as her two boys sat in the hall of the building where they all now sleep in one rented room. “I think, ‘What will happen to my boys? Why am I doing this? How did we get here?’”

[firstdegreefangirl]

Les Mis Part One, Book One

Part One, Book One. 2 July 2018

Alright. Took me a minute to get here, but I finished the first book of Les Mis today, and here are my thoughts. They’re going to come in chronological order, just a running list of the posties I jotted down as I read.

Moving forward, I’m thinking this will be how most of my analyses look. I’m always drawn to quotations when I read, and the application of those quotations to things I see in my own life. I’ll try to avoid stirring up too much political drama, as that’s not what I’m trying to accomplish with these posts, but like I said, I’m a mass media student and I watch and read the news every day, so there’s likely to be a lot of applications to things I’m seeing there. Please just be aware as we keep plugging away at this that I’m not trying to push my opinions on anyone or start any discourse or anything. If you’ve got any questions, comments, concerns or anything else about this, please please please drop by and let me know. I love hearing feedback from people!

Xoxo

So far, it’s all been about Monseigneur Myriel. Like it’s just 70 pages describing this one dude in such vivid detail. Which can be tedious in places ((like the two-page political rant some dying man went on when the Bishop went to visit him)), but for the most part it’s pretty fascinating.

As a whole, the Bishop is an incredibly generous man who leads a remarkably simple life so those in his parish can have the best lives he can provide them. That being said, the latter half of the section revealed that he does keep a few precious objects that would indicate his status in society. He’s a neat man, as “[cleanliness] is taking nothing from the poor,” but lives on the bare minimum.

This part has had some KILLER quotations, and I’m interested to see how nicely some of them have remained relevant almost 150  years after Hugo’s death.

As a media major, the quotation “what is reported of men, whether it be true or false, may place as large a part in their lives, and above all in their destiny, as the things they do.” Especially with all the accusations people are making about one another ((and this isn’t intended to take a side on any of those, just to point out how many fingers are being pointed)), I think it’s important to acknowledge that once an accusation comes out, people are judging on that basis before anyone even investigates anything, and that can be risky.

“My brothers, be merciful. Consider the sufferings of those around you.”

“Err, fail, sin if you must, but be upright. To sin as little as possible is the law for men; to sin not at all is a dream for angels.” I love this quotation because everyone needs reminded every so often that perfection isn’t a reasonable goal. We just need to be the best we can be, without being too hard on ourselves when we fall a little short.

“The most sublime acts are often the least understood …” I’m not sure how much I can explain this quotation, but I like how it sounds and that it points out the importance of notknowing everything. Take magic, for instance. I lovemagic, but I hate finding out how the tricks are done. We don’t need to know everything.

There’s a section where the Bishop compares several versions of the same line from Genesis. It reminded me very much of trying to select which version of this book I wanted to read. Like they’re all the same basic idea, but they say things just a little differently and that can lend different meanings to things.

“Do we ever realize our fondest dreams?” This quotation is about a fancy chair, but it feels applicable to much more. And moreover, are we ever meantto realize our fondest dreams? Or are they just that: dreams?

“The beautiful is as useful as the useful. More so, perhaps.” As someone who’s trying to boil down my possessions to “what’s useful,” it’s nice to hear this idea put in such a concise fashion, because there are some things I’m keeping just because I like looking at them. In short, a garden of pretty flowers can be just as significant as a garden of vegetables to eat.

“He had great respect for men of learning but even more respect for the ignorant,” This comes on the heels of Hugo’s description of the Bishop’s garden, but I think it lends something to society today. In the same vein as the above discussion about magic, I think there’s something to be said for knowing what we don’t need to know. For instance, I work with a group of kids who build robots. I need to know at least something about building robots to do that effectively, but I don’t necessarily need to know whythe positive wire is positive and the negative wire is negative.

“We must never fear robbers or murderers. They are dangerous from outside, small dangers. It is ourselves we have to fear. Prejudice is the real robber, and vice the real murderer.” Again, for something over 100 years old, this feels really really relevant in today’s world. Given the timely nature of Les Mis, I’m surprised to see how well the material holds up without being “historic literature.”

“A man’s philosophy is the bed he lies on. Yours, Monsieur le Comte, is a bed of purple.” HERE COMES THE ACADEMIC ANALYSIS OF LITERALLY ONE WORD. So the whole passage surrounding this quotation is showing how materialistic M. le Comte is. In fact, Hugo eventually calls him “materialistic” outright. But before he gets there, he alludes to it by calling his philosophies “purple.” From other historical knowledge, I know that in the days of the French revolution, purple was a color of luxury, reserved for the rich and for the royal. When the Bishop says le Comte’s philosophy is purple, he’s calling him a man who places value on luxurious items. He’s standing as a foil to the Bishop, who denies himself even the smallest luxuries to give back to his parish.

“There is neither good nor evil but only growth.” Again, something nice to be reminded of as I read.

“It is not enough to abolish abuses; customs must also be transformed.” Y’all. Just, like, general advice for trying to solve problems. Treat the disease, not the symptoms. Otherwise the same problems will just manifest in other places.

“Without going deeply into matters with which this book is only indirectly concerned …” HA. SURE. OK. That sounds *just* like something Hugo isn’t going to do. Not that he’s spent at least 70 pages describing a character I’ve determined has less than five minutes of screen time in the movie.

I was fascinated by the analysis of the other bishops, and the young boys who try to follow in their footsteps, and moreso how they don’twant to emulate Bishop Bienvienu. Thus far, he’s set up to be an incredibly generous, selfless man, but he doesn’t have very many material attachments, and that seems to be the part of his job that’s alluring to others.

“We live in a squalid society. Success: that is the message seeping, drop by drop, down from the overriding corruption.” Just go ahead and apply this to the men who aren’t vying to work under the Bishop.

ALSO THIS SECTION MENTIONED THE SILVER AND THE CANDLESTICKS THAT JEAN VALJEAN STEALS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MUSICAL AND APPARENTLY THEY’RE FAMILY HEIRLOOMS, WHICH ADDS A WHOLE NEW LAYER OF SIGNIFICANCE TO THE MOMENT WHERE HE GIVES THEM TO JVJ. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I just haven’t gotten to that part in the book yet, but I got incredibily excited when I realized that today.

“The universality of suffering a reason for the universality of charity.” And there it is. The final quotation I noted here, and I think it’s a great note to wrap up on. Everyone has problems in life, and we should all help each other with their problems. Because that means that someone will be there to help us when we’re in need.

[goodnightwatch]

AN (IM)PERFECT COLLECTION

An Horological Psychologist’s Magnum Opus, or How a Lowly Graduate Student Amassed a World-Class Collection of Fine Timepieces.

By: Andrew Lawrence Smith

Part 1

You might think it’s easy to collect watches, but I’ll have you know that even if you’re the richest person in the world, you simply cannot know what to buy and when and where and why to buy it until you have put in an insane amount of work. In some ways it really evens the playing field between the rich and the working class because it’s not about money, it’s about achieving a holistic collection that balances and harmonizes everything from wrist-time to occasion. Collecting is as much of an art as the watches themselves. Some people get lucky, sure, but then again some people win the lottery and if you’re reading this, that is not going to happen to you, probably ;).

Hi there. My name is Andrew and I am a 37 year old PhD student and Jungian Depth Psychology Consultant finishing a dissertation in Jungian & Archetypal Studies and Horology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Do they offer the horology part? No. I created that after being unable to separate my depth psychological research from wristwatches. This is what we deem a vocational call. When you spend hours observing the least and the greatest of watches under magnification to understand what “fine” means and when you press each watch against your ear to hear every tick and tone made by the watch, you’re just barely beginning to be on the path. My research discusses how timepieces, the wristwatch in particular, might function as a modern mandala, having a real connection to the unconscious archetypal Self, but that goes way beyond the scope of this essay. To understand some of the terms I use, you might need to dip into Jungian depth psychology, and for the most important definitions, they can be found here: http://www.psychceu.com/jung/sharplexicon.html

Many arrive at a collection that fits them by procuring countless timepieces and then throwing them back into the abyss in order to please their peers (fashion watches and status pieces) and have the experience that refines one’s taste, some of which I’ve done, but the serious collector will lie in wait like a dragon observing from atop a mountain of gold; the gold being serious knowledge, in the vein of attempting to acquire an horological and psychological philosophers’ stone. When all variables align—after months and years of reading and discussing and visiting boutiques and second-hand shops either brick-and-mortar or online—only then will one receive the full satisfaction of the perfect watch for them, the perfect complete set, and the perfect price to once again return to one’s perch fully satisfied with the catch/game of a lifetime. Needless to say I will not be discussing the auction world at all. Auctions are for rich people. Although the rich or super-rich should go through the process that I have gone through, they really don’t have to. Their loss. Then again, they hire guys like me to pick out their watches! This is a story for the ultra-conservative (no politics implied) watch collector. The metaphor of the miserly, yet punctilious dragon, represents the foundation of the composition of an horological psychologist. Horology is cool, psychology is cool, but I contend that it is only when the whole process of being an horologist is twinned with the knowledge and experience of depth psychology that one can truly enter into this deeper world of alchemical achievement, understanding, and appreciation.

Put another way, what I have found from studying wristwatches—as they relate to universal mandala symbols—is that the image of the timepiece, especially the wristwatch (in my own psyche) replaces every single religious symbol with a unified and integral symbol of the height of human consciousness and beyond. I’m more than just your average atheist, I am an horological psychologist who has integrated world mythologies into a knowledge and gnosis of being that connects the alchemically perfect timepiece and the supreme meaning of the individual and collective psyche; Jung’s notion of the archetype of the Self, the whole being of the individual. For more on that, you can hold out for my completed dissertation, and in the meantime read C.G. Jung’s “Memories Dreams Reflections.”

The image above was taken by me and is from C.G. Jung’s “The Red Book: Liber Novus.” It is one of many mandala images that Jung created to symbolize the whole Self archetype. A perfect watch on the wrist does not fall short of the feelings evoked through this depiction of presentiating origin: becoming fully integrated into the purest harmony of consciousness.

Part 2

It was by accident, or rather synchronicity, that on the 28th of June, 2012 I found myself attracted to a cheap, skeletonized mechanical wristwatch that was glaringly out of place amid items I was perusing to fill a few needs for my San Francisco apartment. I had been studying Nikola Tesla in depth and was possessed by the genius of his inventions and notions of free electricity. I thought that using/wearing a watch, which would need no battery replacement, was/is an ecologically responsible and very cool thing to do. At $120, it seemed expensive, but I was overcome by a strange feeling of passion and curiosity in the name of the great Tesla (best human who ever lived) and so I ordered it. Full disclosure, I sweat bullets on the MUNI back then thinking someone would mug me for that watch. Now I ride the bus with a Rolex hanging out like IDGAF x). But I digress.

Upon removing the watch from its box for the first time after it arrived at my door, little did I know that I would from that day forward never go another day without enjoying a mechanical watch on my wrist. Case and point, at this very moment I am wearing my Breguet 5327. Thus commenced hours upon days of winding, listening, and viewing the watch under magnification so that I could figure out how everything worked. It might’ve been a poor excuse for a watch, but I could not stop staring at all of the moving parts, which had me mesmerized as if I was flying through the clockwork at the train station in the film Hugo.

Even in this bottom-of-the-barrel movement that had been manufactured in a place with vastly lower standards than Switzerland, I could see motion and beauty that had/has me transfixed on a level that was/is far greater than any basic aesthetic, technical, or functional appeal. I purchased a few loupes—5x, 10x, and 30x—to get a closer look. Since I still have this watch, I do not have to imagine what it feels like to dive into the minute details of every stationary and moving part. I can gaze upon, and through, the synthetic rubies right now and see a universe of possibility in an instrument that is only meant to tell us where the sun in the sky might be at any given moment so that we will know when to perform certain socially agreed upon human rituals. That said, with each of my watches I often engage in Active Imagination (a Jungian method by which one re-members or discovers knowledge sourced from the collective unconscious) and the imaginal entities that animate in my own mind, inspired by the wristwatch, tell endless, fascinating stories.

Two years after encountering that initiatory watch, owning cheap mechanical watches of various designs and complications (my experience of horology exposure 101), I finally took the plunge and bought my first fine timepiece. Now to be fair, I must mention that I spent a lot of time during those years defending my cheap watches as if owning something that costs more than a few hundred dollars US would never be necessary, like some poor souls still do, but eventually I grew up and made the sacrifices necessary to possess something serious. You need a thick skin in the watch world in order to interface with other Modern Day Watch Enthusiasts who are worth talking to. Surviving your own ignorance to become horologically knowledgeable is a noble and brutal journey through the underworld. And as Jung would have it, emerging from this underworld is simply another stage of individuation; an expansion of consciousness improving the abilities and life of the individual.

My first fine watch was the Omega Speedmaster Professional ref. 3577.50 “from the Moon to Mars” purchased on the 2nd of January in 2014. Obsessed with Elon Musk’s dream to travel to and terraform Mars, as a byproduct of being equally obsessed with Nikola Tesla, this was a watch that not only met all of my horological desires but also instantly possessed a multiverse of meaning for me. I imagined that one day I would take this watch with me on a public transport to the Red Planet. Elon wants to die on Mars, and quite frankly, so do I. To me this watch was so expensive (for me at the time) and so perfect that there would never be a reason to own anything else. Again, little did I know that I would be very wrong about that. Enter the “Coke.”

The Rolex GMT-Master II 16710 Coke began to burrow into my mind as I continued to scour the internet for the best deals on fine watches of all kinds. Every single day I was on eBay, Chrono24, watchestobuy, watchuwant, Crown & Caliber, Jomashop, The RealReal… You name it, if the site was selling fine watches, I was keeping tabs. Apologies to anyone I missed. By this time I was reading magazines, blogs, and watching all sorts of videos that were giving me a fairly exhaustive exposure to what was out there and who was buying/selling certain kinds of timepieces in certain categorical brackets. My aim was/is to understand watches on a deep psychological level as they affect the experiences of others and of course my own Self. Not just to be a numbers guy who can flash the timepiecs but say almost nothing meaningful about them. I must confess that it is important to know that, in regards to my personality type (INFP), I operate heavily by listening to my own intuition, and I could not shake this watch; just as I could not shake the Mars. There was more than just the analysis and process of elimination, it was something like a powerfully religious magnetism. The Coke was coming to me in my dreams. I have the dream journal to prove it! However, that’s in my dissertation. On a number of occasions I placed offers on a Coke, but came up with nothing because either a) the seller was shady, or b) I just couldn’t get the price or set where I wanted it. Dealing with watch sellers can be tricky, unlike being face to face with your local AD, so it’s important to be patient and cautious; to not be so excited about that exact watch you’re hunting that you get taken for a ride.

Then finally the day came when I saw a great deal for a clearly authentic Coke (gotta have that paperwork) in amazing condition and I made an offer that stuck. Again, I thought I was going to be done forever. That this was the collection of a lifetime. I had unique Speedmaster that almost no one else had and I had a Coke, which is a highly respected and desired timepiece across the globe. I chose the GMT because I could use it to track 3 time zones more efficiently than on any other timepiece, including world timers, and this came in very handy with all of the traveling and international communicating that I do. Not to mention, the whole design of the watch and color scheme is unusually attractive and versatile (still my favorite Rolex, aside from material objections), but I had not ever seen one in the metal. On a flight home from Cyprus I ran into a guy who was wearing one. I asked him if I could see it and of course he obliged. I have pictures to prove it (see below). I was wearing my Moon to Mars and just knew that the Coke would complete the circle for me. The one thing that I did not really take into account until my own Coke arrived was the size, which didn't register on that agonizing flight back to the US from Cyprus, where I had attended an amazing conference on Time and the Psyche. The conference was a magical experience, but I do not recommend that anyone fly a cumulative 44 hours just to have 5 days on the ground, no matter where you are going.

I ordered my 16710 from 1989 at a great price in pristine condition with papers and when it came, I was bewildered. It seemed so small! Was it actually fake? Did I get bamboozled? Impossible. All of this time I had been looking at huge blown up pictures of the watch and assumed it had the same presence as a Submariner, but there it was, 100% authentic and smaller than I expected. I wanted that Submariner-style crown, big and chunky, but after a while the size of the 16710 crown began to make sense and the tasteful nature of this specific piece became clearer from one day to the next.

I spent so much time examining this Coke, to make sure that it I hadn’t made a mistake, that synchronistically every aspect of its charm became powerfully apparent and intoxicating beyond belief. I had been wearing obnoxiously large watches with Chinese tourbillons that dwarfed even my Speedmaster and now finally the curse was lifting. I saw the light. Praise the gods! Certain watches worked for certain wrist sizes and certain moments in life. Wearing a watch that is too big for you is simply childish and lacking in discipline and taste, just like believing that there is a god that is literally real. This Rolex functioned as training wheels for wearing watches that actually fit properly and looked correct for my physical build and personality type. I remember thinking that the bracelet was too narrow and that the case of the watch only covered the surface area of my wrist, which made it feel like there wasn’t enough watch there, but in reality it was a match made in mythological, alchemical heaven. To this day I still think that the textural design and character of that vintage Oyster bracelet is better than the new 904L iteration and that the 116710 is right on the line of just barely being not too big. Unless you’re deliberately trying to be a clown, a dinner plate on the wrist is no bueno.

In all of my idealism, I thought that the Coke and the Mars were going to be my life companions, but alas we never really do finish growing and developing. Especially when we finally meet that special someone! Enter the Kwan.

Part 3

It was my great fortune to synchronistically meet (a story for another time), date, and ultimately marry my wife, the magnificent Jane Kwan, who for better or for worse has supported me through this transformational journey that is watch collecting. She was kind enough to be fascinated at first, and is now at least tolerant, but when I began to show her how you could actually store value or even potentially make a little money with the acquisition and sale of certain timepieces, she started to pay attention. Chinese people, like those of my Jewish heritage, love a reliable investment opportunity. I made it my goal to abandon hunting “good deals” on a wide range of watches and began hunting the exact watches that I would personally want to own and wear (not just stick in a vault), but only if the price was extraordinary or unusually fair. The Internet has made this relatively easy, if you’re willing to put in the time, and so I scoured the entire visible market for what I felt would be the perfect watch. Long story short, I discovered and then began to obsess over and follow/hunt the Patek Philippe Calatrava 5153G-001. Believe me when I tell you that I have written many pages about why this watch is, to me, the perfect dress watch, if not the perfect watch all around, aside from not being as durable as a Rolex, but again I digress. To be honest, this watch was my holy grail (a subject that I have expounded upon in other places as possibly the single most abused horology term aside from “in-house”) and I thought that I would never get to see it in my lifetime.

One day I found the Calatrava for sale online at a price that was unbelievable. My wife is almost painfully patient, and so we watched the piece sit on the website for nearly a month, while I nearly fell apart with anxiety waiting for her to make a choice. In the end, her instincts were right because the price continued to go down. But I really could not comprehend why no one was buying it. When we made the phone call to see about a best offer, we were able to take the price down even lower and so acquired the watch well below value thanks to my wife’s belief and investment in me, your humble watch hunter. Blasting into the side of this mountain precipitated a landslide to follow.

Not long after that my wife wanted something that she could wear every day. I had been hunting the Rolex Datejust 116234 with black dial, because it is my favorite iteration of the DJ and was able to find that watch well below value also. I thought it might be a bit large for her, but when it arrived it was a perfect fit at 36mm. While the watch is very cool, and occasionally I’ll sneak it away from her to wear it for a little while, it doesn’t make the cut for a perfect collection for me. I needed my watch collection to devour the catalogue of essential horological functions and representations.

However, I was jealous of the almost white-gold looking oyster bracelet and thus I faced a dilemma. The call to adventure was back! I realized that I could own both my Mars and Coke or I could sell them and own the singular Rolex GMT-Master II 116710 BLNR as basically an even trade (at the time), a watch that I still think is slightly less appealing aesthetically than the Coke as it at that time pertained to my personality, but possesses the ultimate in materials ever released from Rolex. I needed some time to think about this. Rolex’s alchemy game had become massively stronger than where it was in 1989. A few weeks later, in Honolulu, I was flipping through one of the tour books and when I turned it over to look at the back, there it was: the BLNR. Synchronicity, as usual, was determined to prevail. Now, I know that this watch is heavily advertised, possibly more than Tag or Hublot if that’s possible, but at that moment I felt like I was looking at a picture of a long-lost friend. The time had come to pull the trigger. I had spent several lovely days swimming in the ocean with my Coke, and now it was time to let it go.

The beach I frequented during my stay in Honolulu. Anyone who has been there knows where it is ;).

A shot of my Coke in Honolulu on the way to get some Spam Musubi!

The rosary bracelt pictured here was acquired in Cyprus, gifted to me by the great Angeliki Yiassemides (author of “Time & Timelessness”), not long before I managed to acquire my Coke. The meaning is strong in this image…

The book in the hotel room demanding that I trade up.

Horology boutiques... Always calling me…

Impossible to find one with black dial in a boutique, I spent some time admiring this beauty in white before that time came when my wife made a dream become reality.

With a heavy heart, I managed to part with my first fine watch and my first Rolex, selling them for fair market prices. Finding the BLNR for a steal is basically impossible, especially if you’re looking to buy within a relatively tight timeframe (aiming to acquire the watch mere months before moving to Copenhagen), so I found the best deal I could with a complete set and as planned basically traded about the same amount of money for those two watches to buy the one BLNR. This was good enough for me and my wife because it is still holding around the same value I invested and I basically had the experience of buying a brand new Rolex with a complete set minus stepping foot inside of an Authorized Dealer, an experience that is not at all important to a watch hunter like me; at least not at this time of life, but maybe later when I have established myself and I can afford that level of treat.

I honestly thought that I wouldn’t be as happy with the BLNR, as with the Coke, because black and red is so much more “me” along with other reasons and qualities (yadda yadda yadda, as Jane is fond of saying), but when it came I was filled with excitement. I opened the box and there it was: my long-lost friend whom I had been missing for the gods know how long. Most call it the Batman, I knew immediately that this was to be my R2D2. It doesn't matter that so many others own it or that the adverts were drilling into my brain. Consolidating to this watch was possibly the best horological decision I’ve ever made because although there was still a lingering color objection, I suddenly had a monstrously better watch to wear every day that met every single other checkpoint I felt one could demand from a daily-wear: 1. 904L steel, which really does feel like wearing white gold, but not quite as heavy a. Something that can take the hits and scratches and will withstand polishing dramatically better 2. White gold hands and indices, which contrast perfectly against the black dial 3. Blindingly bright blue lume, which my wife prefers to her green lume and makes it easy to tell the time under any circumstances aside from maybe actual blindness 4. The blued Breguet overcoil hairspring in the tried and true 3186 movement, something I don't even need to see to appreciate 5. The 5mm comfort link, which is a huge design leap forward compared to the oversized and floppy comfort extension on the original Oyster bracelet 6. GMT aligned clicks, which didn’t really ever seem to line up perfectly with the 16710 7. And most important of all, the very first two-color Cerachrom bezel, completing, to me, the most wearable, useful, and legible timepiece ever made 8. When you consider that this watch not only embodies everything you’d want and nothing you don’t, it’s easy to excuse the blue and simply hope for the red to come through someday 9. Finally, in review, this watch contains the best of every Rolex white metal: 904L steel, white gold, and platinum. As such, it is an alchemical masterpiece; and it has that chunky Submariner-style Triplock crown! Now I like both crowns for different reasons.

People have been calling it the Batman, and I get that. I’m a huge Batman fan and wouldn’t try to change the moniker even if I could, but for me it is the R2D2 riding along with me as I pilot this time machine we call a human body. My consciousness is the Luke inside of this Incom T-65 X-wing Starfighter and my 116710 R2D2 is the choice navigator, always down to take a beating for the rebellion ;).

So now I had a BLNR and a Calatrava shared with my wife (plus her 116234 to enjoy when she isn’t wearing it), completing two out of four watches of a complete set that I call “a holy quaternity.” What more could a man ever hope for? Would I really ever need to break a sweat over more than these two watches to complete the ultimate collection? I even had access to my favorite Datejust when my wife wasn’t wearing it, even though it does not fit the bill for my personal living symbol of wholeness of Self. My little wrist R2D2 and our white gold Darth Vader seemed like a complete set all by themselves. And yet, there was more to come, and rightly so!

My wife and I moved to Copenhagen so that she could attend DTU to earn her MA in Architecture. Being the unreasonably lucky guy that I am, I got to tag along and spend my days exploring one of the coolest (and happiest) cities in the world whilst writing my dissertation on psychology and horology. Several months in, after spending day after day chatting with awesome folks on MDWE, a gentleman put a Speedmaster “Legendary Moon Watch” ref. 311.30.42.30.01.005 complete set in basically new condition up for sale. A discussion about how this boilerplate design was so perfect it’s boring was going around and so at first I wasn’t too keen on the watch. I remembered my Mars and thought that the original Moon Watch was too plain and too common. However, the more I looked at it the more I realized what it had to offer. So many guys were/are going in for that vintage chronograph with the running seconds and 30 minute register without the hour register, which is a great and classic and traditional watch concept/discipline, but I need the hours! Even if it challenges aesthetics and purity. Honestly, purity has never really been my thing ;). Authenticity is a whole other kettle of fish! So then what I realized was, this was not going to be a watch that I spent time looking at during the day. This was a Good Night Watch that needed/needs to be useful in the dark. What better watch for darkness and time writing/recording/chrono-scoping than a boilerplate Speedmaster?!

The price was fair and I could certainly get most if not all of my money back if I needed to sell it, so I figured, why not experience the moon watch as a complete package in all of its boring glory. Sure, it’s no Moon to Mars and the literature won’t come in Japanese with a dedication to one of the world’s greatest artists, Leiji Matsumoto, but it would still be qualified by NASA for space missions and there were lots of other very cool accessories that would be fun to explore. Not to mention the history, which I must say ought to be valued well above just one spectacular artist. I pulled the trigger and the watch and its enormous packaging were at my Danish door within a few days. Upon opening the display box, a feeling came over me that I did not expect. The watch was/is so much nicer than the Moon to Mars, so much more sober and less cartoonish (not really an insult, actually accurate), and it instantly felt like it belonged on my wrist and that it would blend in like some kind of chameleon-like symbiotic creature. Almost instantly I finally knew what this watch was for.

While the Speedmaster had been and is still being used for outer space missions, I would be and am using this watch for INNER space missions. I sized the bracelet, which was a joy because it came/comes with screw end-caps rather than the basic link pins, placed the watch on my wrist and then started the chronograph right before going to sleep. When I woke up in the middle of the night to journal my dreams, I knew almost exactly how long I had been asleep, which really helped me to prioritize my time so that I wouldn’t wake up so much that I wouldn’t be able to return to slumberland. After finishing my journaling, I started the chronograph again, went back to sleep, and when I woke up I could see that I had gotten the eight-ish hours I needed to be rested enough for the day. I’m sure some of you go through the process of sleeping for eight hours without even thinking about it, but my dream life is so active that it is easy for me to lose track of how long I’ve been asleep, so this watch became an instantly useful tool that I can’t live without, just like the BLNR. And because it’s manually wound, I don’t have to stress out the winding train of an automatic chronograph; plus I have the pleasure of winding a watch every morning as the third thing I do after photographing the dial and resetting the chronograph. What a sweet ritual for a watch enthusiast!

My collection was complete. Right? I had my R2D2, which would go with me everywhere during the day, and I had my Good NIght Watch, which would track my sleep intervals and follow me into my dreams. And when it came time to celebrate something special, the Darth Vader (Calatrava) would take its place on my wrist under a cuff. Who could ask for anything more? There was only one slight problem. A large part of my journey after receiving that first mechanical wristwatch was exploring RGM in depth, which led me to Breguet. While I wasn’t sold on the idea of spending big money for a tourbillon since the science shows that it essentially has no real effect on accuracy, there was an element to watchmaking that I had fallen in love with before I even considered owning a fine watch of my own: guilloché.

RGM makes a killer tourbillon (reminiscent of a Speake Marin/Hamilton hybrid), let’s not mince words, only paralleled by the likes of Breguet, Patek Philippe, and Greubel Forsey (honorable mentions, Louis Moinet and Jaeger-LeCoultre - that one’s for Tim Mosso), and does some outstanding guilloché work with their own rose machine/lathe in Lancaster, PA. However, if you’re going to really tighten the restraints on a collection that is meant to be perfect (a true holy quaternity), there’s really no other choice than to go with the godfather of the practice: Breguet; arguably the most important historical figure/alchemist in watchmaking, and the inventor of many components that even the so-called “holy trinity” (lame designation, because Christianity is for people who don’t want to read more books—funny/not funny) still benefit from today. Hence I controversially argue that Breguet completes the holy quaternity and in many ways is still on top of PP, VC, and AP as the senex manufacturer (Harlan MDWE, bless his heart, will of course agree–love you, mean it). By this time I had visited so many boutiques, Tourbillon SF being one of my favorites, that I was saturated with the knowledge of what Breguet and other top-end (not just high-end) watch companies had to offer. Out from behind the stormy clouds of tourbillons and Jacquet Droz and Blancpain and A. Lange & Sohne and De Bethune and Ulysse Nardin came a piece that on any other day I would’ve ignored.

The Calatrava that was/is already in our possession does in fact have a guilloché black sunburst dial, but I wanted something that had/has/emanates the vibrant, timeless energy of 18th century watchmaking tradition, radiating from its finely crafted alchemical masterpiece of a dial and case. I had the opportunity to experience the skeletonized Breguet perpetual calendar tourbillon, but there was something missing even with that watch. Again, size and money are meaningless and relative. It was when I finally had a chance to take a close look at the 5327 that I saw that in any class for any money, this watch had/has it all. It has one of the most extraordinary complications ever invented, the perpetual calendar. It has moon phase, which is hugely important in psychology as a principle of divine consciousness. It has power reserve, which is arguably unnecessary on an automatic watch, but with the layout of the power reserve, moon phase, and date register at six o’clock, the 5327 pays perfect homage to the notorious automatic (perpétuelle) quarter-repeating watch with dumb (à toc) repeater from the late 18th century. This was/is the Breguet to own! Sitting in an office piled with books, including volumes about Breguet and the lovely publication that was created for The Legion of Honor in San Francisco, when they had their Breguet exhibition and lectures, I found myself having a full experience of awakening to the truth of yet another wristwatch. Except this time it was THE ONE. The only... This time, without a doubt, it was THE watch to end all watches, for me. I had done the work. I had read the books, scoured the Internet, been to the boutiques, met or at least studied the people, and in the end the Breguet Perpetual Calendar Classique 5327 presented itself as the answer I was looking for from both the multiverses of horology and psychology: all of the craftsmanship, all of the technology, all of the meaning, and all of the enjoyment from wearing one could ever ask for. Period, paragraph, life mission accomplished. Except, I didn't have the money x). That solution, which came later, was the real blessing.

Before I get into that, on a more somber note, I would like to mention that compared to Breguet’s latest QP, the ref. 5447, Breguet made an unfortunate design decision that is not in keeping with the more traditional layout. Maybe it’s great for marketing, but it does two things: departs from the classique tradition in a way that is unbearably modern, and treads dangerously toward cheapening the name of A.L. Breguet. Swapping power reserve for retrograde month was a particularly unfortunate decision, almost as undesirable as the choice to switch the angle of the moon phase to a less interesting and, I would contend, invasive vertical position. While that dial might be slightly more efficient in terms of the flow of reference and legibility, it is far from an upgrade and has lost that original 18th century charm. I’d wager that Breguet himself might agree. As such, this specific reference, the 5327, continues to wear the crown (pun intended) as what I feel is the greatest Breguet QP wristwatch ever made. That being said, I have dubbed the watch my Holy Grail, together with the Speedmaster, the GMT, and the Calatrava, this completes my personal Holy Quaternity. However, there is always a “fifth element,” intentionally playing on a reference to the film of the same name from 1997. That fifth element (the eternal energy of love and passion) to me is the transcendent holy grail, which is a watch that is so extraordinary and so perfect for the individual that it doesn’t even exist yet. The super rich uber-collectors will know what I’m talking about: a subscription piece that perhaps one’s preferred watchmaker doesn’t even know how to make. For me, in all seriousness, this would be the currently imaginary and absurd Greubel Forsey Quantième Perpétuel Chronograph Grande Sonnerie in a 41mm platinum case. Although, I’d take a GF chronograph, as long as it’s hand-wound. Could it ever possibly get any better than that? I seriously doubt it. At least for an individual like myself.

And so recently I found this perfect Breguet at a ridiculously low price. I mean a price that normally only dealers get from other dealers. This watch needed to be procured. My wife was not about to invest another substantial sum into a wristwatch since she felt that she had already diversified in that direction far enough with the Patek. And so she suggested that I ask my father if he would be interested in making the investment. After lengthy explanations over email and handling some obvious objections that a non-horology scholar might have, he generously agreed to help me make the investment to both aid in my research and hold value that only presents itself once in a lifetime. Due to this generosity and collective cooperation, it is my privilege and responsibility to care for this Breguet as the final piece to my horological individuation puzzle. The mandalas to complete the supreme mandala of the current manifestation of my own archetypal Self have been assembled like Voltron. And now that the collection is complete, my mission is to take exhaustive photographs, engage in active imagination (alchemical hermeneutics) with each piece and the whole collection for my research, and to cook it all down in the vas alembic of consciousness to create my very own horological opus.

Here’s an example of what enters my imagination when I engage in reverie (Active Imagination or Alchemical Hermeneutics) around one of the watches (often including its literature), offering a lingering (reverie) around or daydreaming into the Breguet dial: The guilloché pattern for the power reserve looks like the waves of the sea or the ocean. I am reminded of the image of the solar barge in Liber Novus p. 55. Aptly placed, it is above the other complications, next to the moon phase, which is obscured by a hand carved cloud pattern: the essence of the imagination. So the heavens and the waters, forged in fire and carved into earth or metal. The pattern in the date register is that of a waterfall or descending cliffs, reaching down into the underworld. All of these being supported by the primary dial hand carved rose lathe or rose machined pyramids (clou de paris). The pyramids or sacred geometry of transcendent consciousness. Within the big mandala that is the watch dial are 5 smaller mandalas: the moon phase, which embodies our human-centric lunar story and mythology; the leap year, which makes it possible for me to see the accurate date for the rest of my life without adjusting the timepiece; the month, a centered indicator of the positions of the gods; the day, a de-centered indicator of the positions of other gods; and finally, the date, a concept invented by people who want to control time and other people, to no avail one hopes. Might be best to simply let go of that craving for control, let people be peaceful unto themselves and allow time to flow with the Force of Nature. A dream within a dream... The watch does have Breguet’s signature coin edge or fluted sides, so the watch is to be treated as a sort of super sacred coin. This coinage or coin edge appears to be symbolic of the archetypal pillar: the pillars that held Samson, the pillars of Rome, and the pillars of current modern civilization. However, even after this current human experiment is dust and rubble, the pillars of time will stand as strong as they always have and it will never have mattered that humans were a part of it. A testament from the Antikythera mechanism.

It is possible that I may actually have to sell the Breguet after I am finished with my research sometime next year, unless by some miracle I make enough money to completely own the whole thing by myself, but that is not important because all that matters is that for a time in my life I had, in my possession, a perfect collection. The Holy Quaternity! “For a few minutes, they were mine. That is enough.” https://youtu.be/c9O1VVeMzhc Charade (8/10) Movie CLIP - The Most Valuable Stamp (1963) HD.

It doesn’t matter how it got there and it doesn’t matter if I don’t get to keep it. What matters is that, since we can’t take any of this with us to the grave anyway, I have the priceless gift of the experience. This was a group effort. My sacrifices and investment were/are largely those of time, obsessive research, and unearthing opportunities, which in reality is just as valuable as the money others allowed me to use to assemble this project. From the depths of passion, love, and family, I have been made individuated and whole, for now. Through psychology and horology I have healed myself in ways most people cannot imagine and have had the great fortune to inspire others. Countering the cruel trick of the perpetual calendar complication (never being able to live long enough to see it need an adjustment), I am filled with gratitude for what I have had the privilege to do with the time I have been given. Through bringing all of these elements together, I have found true happiness and may for a time be with this imperfect, perfect collection to remind myself of the cost involved in striving to create something truly special: a genuine opus, if not magnum opus. No one can do it alone. We require relationships to individuate, as Jung said, and at the ripe age of 37, I know that my watch collection and my Self are at last in harmony.

Conclusion

Watch collecting is not just some silly thing men do with their extra money, nor is it about amassing a monstrous volume of different examples for the sake of becoming your own museum. Watch collecting is as much an art as is watchmaking itself or the creation of any sculpture or painting. It requires focus, dedication, precision of craft, and most of all it requires a determination to produce the best possible result from the knowledge that has been gained and the resources—people or otherwise—that have been procured.

I am continuing to work on my dissertation on psychology and horology while figuring out where I want to focus my career from here on out. It seems like Tesla, Inc. is the most logical choice, so we’ll see if they or a watch boutique will have me. As far as this collection goes, what I know is that I will always have my R2D2 because it is the one watch that I can’t live without that can go anywhere: land, sea, air, and space. Depending on what the future holds for me career-wise, I might have to live without the Speedmaster and just use a beater chrono until I rebuild my value strength, since it takes quite a bit more to hold a collection like this all on one’s own. The Calatrava will be here because it is my wife’s investment and my privilege to enjoy as part of our partnership. However, it is worth bearing in mind that none of these things are permanent and that any amount of time being in ownership of the completed holy quaternity set is ultimately more than enough of an accomplishment no matter how long you keep it together. It takes a lot of work to learn about all of these manufacturers and iterations and value propositions. It’s even harder to get clear which ones matter to you on a profound level to the point that you would choose four and exclude all others; especially when considering that owning these watches is a choice that was made at the exclusion of any other products, such as cars, houses, hoarding currency, and any other type of man-made creation. And then to have them all just sort of casually ticking away on your desk is a luxury that very few people will ever know/experience. For that I cannot thank the people who believed/believe in me enough. I am lucky, I am grateful, I have my wife and family to thank for everything, in addition to other friends and enthusiasts who were willing to engage my passion, and I hope that what I have learned and my story will be something that is paying my fortune forward: giving back to the collective community of folks who simply wish to be their best selves; to be good citizens, as Plato might’ve imagined it.

In review and in final conclusion, this is an imperfect watch collection that to me is perfect, in my estimation from the research I’ve done and the experiences that I have had:

It is my personal gnosis, based on my research in depth psychology and horology, that there are two kinds of quaternities (not trinities, because a trinity is really just an incomplete system, lacking the feminine principle, among other things) in the horological universe: 1. The top four watchmakers in the Swiss watchmaking industry a. Breguet b. Patek Philippe c. Vacheron Constantin d. Audemars Piguet 2. The top four timepieces in an individual collection a. The Good Night Watch i. A chronograph worn to bed to time sleep intervals ii. An instrument that centers one’s being between sleeping and waking b. The R2D2 i. The most essential and sturdy of all of the timepieces ii. A trusty companion for all of life’s terrains c. The Darth Vader i. The finest example of elegant simplicity with a touch of violence ii. A watch that possesses a seemingly invisible and powerful Force d. The Holy Grail i. The watch you will wear on your deathbed that will outlast you ii. The QP is a cruel trick because it offers a feature that you will never live to enjoy: not having to adjust the watch for over 150 years. iii. A watch that satisfies one from ever wanting to buy anything better, for now ;).

Quick note: I’ve mythologized part of this collection with Star Wars metaphors because that is the best story I grew up with: the futuristic mythological vision of Joseph Campbell only barely understood by George Lucas (as is evident in his prequel trilogy), based on his seminal “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” One could easily substitute other similar archetypes for the designations that I have commandeered. Whatever gets you there. It’s all imaginal, but inarguably objective in terms of the archetypes.

As for the selected manufacturers, my opinion here is highly controversial. Breguet should be at the top, Swatch or no Swatch, because Breguet is the Grandfather of all of these other innovators. A Breguet watch lacks nothing in quality and discovery that these other companies are engaged in and in fact, in addition to the legacy/pedigree/history of invention, Breguet is still making timepieces that exceed the expectations of any connoisseur. Every little detail is given the utmost care and contemplation. This does not, of course, take into account watchmaking in other regions. Germany, A. Lange & Sohne in particular, is making watches that appear to be exceeding even the Swiss standards of excellence. This also does not take into account even conceivably more exciting independent watchmakers and inventors like Greubel Forsey, Roger W. Smith, nor even the late George Daniels.

Final thoughts, for now:

There’s a point at which, once you’ve hunted your favorite watch for it’s best price, you stop thinking about what the watch is worth and you begin to think more in terms of what the watch is. For example, I could stand outside in shorts and a t-shirt sipping a beer while admiring a watch that retailed once for $65-70k, but what I’m really thinking about is, 1. how does it fit my wrist? 2. how long will it last? 3. when will it need service? 4. how legible is this dial really? 5. do I like the weight and the fit of the band (strap or bracelet)? 6. could this have been designed better in terms of how it handles a diverse set of lighting situations? 7. was this really the right choice for the lug length? Cheers, Marc Goldberg ;). 8. could the moon phase have been tooled to be more accurate. 9. why isn’t the power reserve exact? 10. Are there any flaws in the guilloché? I’m looking at you, FPJ! 11. Why did they design the clasp like this as opposed to the Patek clasp method? 12. And sure, this dial is amazing with all of the guilloche patterns, but I can’t really see them without magnification because a) I’m getting old and my eyesight isn’t what it used to be and b) the beauty and contrast is only apparent under certain lighting, which makes the dial look washed out at all other times; not nearly as aesthetically pleasing as the Patek, which always looks good even when its sunburst guilloché pattern disappears into the black. 13. However, the most important question of all is four-fold: a. what did/does this watch and the work mean to the watchmaker? b. what did/does this watch mean to the manufacturer? c. what did/does this watch mean to the boutique collective? d. and what does this watch mean to the consumer in every sense: aesthetically, spiritually, historically, and depth psychologically?  

What’s next?

There are many watches that I still find attractive and many watches to come from the various great houses that might cause me to fall in love with one watch more than another, but to be honest I seriously doubt it. I mean, the only watch I want more than my BLNR in its category is a Coke version. The only watch I want more than my Speedmaster in its category is another Speedmaster of far rarer origin and pedigree, a vintage example maybe or who knows. As far as the Patek and Breguet are concerned, there are no better iterations of those watches and there never will be. Finally, for the ultimate grail watch, I believe that it has to be something so amazing that it doesn’t even exist yet. It has to be a dream or a fantasy that one chases and pines over until one’s heart is so broken that one cannot even leave the house without wishing it was either already on the wrist or to finally acquire the watch. As mentioned before, for me, that would be a Greubel Forsey QP chrono with moon phase and grand sonnerie; or yeah, I’ll simply take a GF chronograph, because that is what would replace the super boring yet perfect Speedmaster. Yes, the only thing that will replace the Speedmaster for me is the currently non-existent, fantasy hand-wound Greubel Forsey Chronograph. Sadly, as far as I know, it’s just not going to happen and that hurts me deeply. I want, after I’ve amassed an impossible amount of wealth near the end of my life, well beyond having had the opportunity to help others, to fund what I believe to be the greatest wristwatch ever made and while I may not be the man to do it, it is the fact that I want this for the whole of humanity and my Self that I put this energy out into the world and wish it will happen to someone someday. What you buy is a vote. When you make a purchase, it casts a ballot. I vote for fine horology all day every day. Everything else is an accessory to horology and life, even psychology and fancy electric cars, in spite of my obsession with Tesla’s inventions and values.

The argument could be made that this is not a perfect watch collection because not all complications are represented. For example, I do not have a minute repeater, much less a grande sonnerie. To that I say, I’m not dead yet. At this time of life I can still see (you know, literally, with my physical eyes) and there is this amazing thing, lume, you’ve heard of it, that makes it possible for me to tell the time in the blackest of darkness, so sure, I would love to own a chiming watch, but they’re not only way out of reach, but I don’t have any real use for them in the same way that there is value and use for the watches that I have selected (see what is of value and of use in Liber Novus). Will I ever own a QP chrono minute repeater grande sonnerie, with all of the bells and whistles like power reserve, moon phase, and sunrise sunset and equation of time someday? I certainly hope so!

P.S. Synchronistically, after finishing this essay, I went downstairs and found this puzzle to solve for my horological and mildly intellectual enjoyment :).

Okay, I swear this is it:

Some might ask, “so then what are your values, exactly, spending all of that time, and yours and other people's’ money, on wristwatches?” Don’t you have a job, a house, kids, a car, money, etc.? The answer is this: 1. I’m courting the job that I want to do until my heart stops: Tesla, a watch boutique, or something like that. 2. Having a house is not important to me, but maybe someday we’ll have one. Until then, my time and value will always be dedicated to horology in some way/shape/form. 3. Kids are just more people. People die. Watches are forever. 4. Cars are for suckers, unless you own a Tesla or a really sweet mechanical car, as is essentially the same case with watches. I ride a bike, and not a nice one, a cheap one, because I’d rather spend the money on timepieces.   5. I’d rather have the watch of my dreams than any amount of money. Money is just an imaginary number. The right watch is an instant and immortal best friend. a. To further make this case, look at the gentlemen at auction who are spending more more money with reckless abandon to own the perfect watch for them. Money is essentially meaningless outside of holding value to acquire goods and services. A watch is a deeply psychological and spiritual enterprise for those who really get it, and so it makes sense that one would spend it all to acquire the ultimate alchemical composition that bridges one’s “I” with the Self archetype—via an horological mandala—through the chain of watchmaker, to manufacturer, to dealer, to owner; or as Patek Philippe would have it, caretaker.

Thank you for reading.

The super sacred Holy Quaternity in all of its gorgeous horolgical glory!

[sweetmanchego-blog]

SHIP MEME for your lovely neighbourhood minister and cheese man

Who asks the other on dates: Joseph would have to take the first step, like, listen, Hugo doesn’t even know what’s going on 65% of the time, Joseph somehow shows up in his place to check on Hugo while his feverish?? COOL MAN, how did you get inside? DOESN’T MATTER. Weird books in the yacht?? LOL WEIRD MAN BUT OK WHO CARES. Like HuGo?? PLEASE!! Look @ this ken doll, there’s something wrong, don’t think he’s charming and nice just. HOLD YER HORSES. Whatever you do don’t go on a date wi–And he accepted it. JFC.

Who is the bigger cuddler: Hugo is really private and like…Not SHY, he just doesn’t usually take the initiative when it comes to showing physical affection. So I THINK Joseph would be cuddling more often than Hugo. He’d follow along but like actually going up to Jo-Jo and spontaneously initiating a cuddling session? NAHHHhh man, he needs a REASON. Give me a sad jOSEPH and Hugo will be all over him trying to make him feel better.Who initiates holding hands more often: Hugo has NO PROBLEM holding hands and it’s like the best way for him to show support without going overboard, like with cuddling? He’ll squeeze Jo’s hand whenever he wants to say “hey i’m here for you” or “hey i dig what you did there” or just “hey”. It’s a very natural but meaningful gesture for him, hE’LL DO THE HAND HOLDING THNX.Who remembers anniversaries: Joseph would have to do it. Because Hugo can’t even remember wearing his glasses most of the time.Who is more possessive: ......MAYBE Joseph? Maybe neither of them, I’m not sure. I can tell you that Hugo isn’t the possessive type at all. He IS the jealous type!! And he can hold a grudge like a fucking pro. But he doesn’t have possessive tendencies at all.Who gets more jealous: HU G O. He is terrified Joseph might find someone who’s more fun, handsomer, younger, I MEAN his husband left him, and everything seemed fine, why shouldn’t everyone else dump him?? pl eas e jos ep h i’ll do anythi n g just ..... stop laughing @ that guy’s jokes and touching hiS ARM.Who is more protective: Hugo maybe. Very concerned about Jo’s well-being, doesn’t want him to get into trouble, will probably scold him if he does. Give him a hard time. He’s teacher dad, he’s used to this behavior man tOUGH LOVE.Who is more likely to cheat: I’d say Joseph m a n. Hugo is so loyal it hurts. Who initiates sexy times the most: The initiative would probably be Joseph’s because, seriously, Hugo is pretty oblivious about a lot of shit especially when it comes to setting the mood or what is hot or not . . . He’s on another planet. When HE DOES GET IT THo ohohoho. He uh. He goes wild.Who dislikes PDA the most: Hugo. It’s not that he’s shy, I think he’s just reserved? Holding hands would be fine with him, but for example; to actually kiss in front of people he knows is just too much to handle.Who kills the spider: Hugo will kill it. sT EP a siDE JO. let me send this fly 2 hELLWho asks the the other to marry them: None of them c’mon. These two aren’t marriage material. Not for each other. W E knOW THIS BRUH WHO ARE WE KIDDING HERE.Who buys the other flowers or gifts: I feel like Hugo is the one who buys nice things while Joseph can actually, you know, bAKE THINGS WITH HIS OWN TWO HANDS?? ORGANIZE COOL SWEET TRIPS / GETAWAYS?? Hugo gets to pay for chocolates and flowers tho.Who would bring up possibly having kids: These two wouldn’t have this conversation pl e ase. Besides haVE YOU SEEN ERNEST????? whO WANTS ANOTHER OF THOSE RUNNING AROUND???Who is more nervous to meet the parents: Hugo would be if the occasion ever came to be. Joseph is too charming and chill to stress about meeting parents. You know who isn’t chill? Hugo. He’ll overthink everything and stress about on how to please older wiser people.Who sleeps on the couch when the other is angry: Hugo does.Who tries to make up first after arguments: Hugo also does...Even if it’s not entirely his fault. he just wants peace and quiet man, no need for fighting pl e ase i’m sorry babe.Who tells the other they love them more often: Theydon’t.