#i'm not even voting because my vote is 'all of it'

[thurisazsalail]

The point here is that condoms only BECAME free specifically because of the AIDS crisis.

Yes, other diseases exist. Of course they do. Yes, many are terrible. Syphilis-induced blindness is well known for literally hundreds of years on multiple continents.

AIDS activists and the hard work they did, paired with the sheer fear of the cishet white people who found out that yes, they too could catch the disease once relegated to gay POCs- AND that it had no cure and no treatment (unlike chlamydia, crabs, or syphilis)- is what drove free condoms.

No one cares about how many people suffer and even die from unwanted pregnancy. If they did, if the people who have power to make those decisions cared, HBC would be FREE. It is not. In fact, having a miscarriage is a serious charge in much of the country. (White, mostly above blue collar) people are allll up in a tizzy *now* that the GOP is overt about it, but where the fuck was anyone ten god damn years ago when women in Utah were being put on an actual fucking murder trial because someone elected to be *violently beaten* to induce a miscarriage. Where was anyone when women were jailed for miscarriages because a nasty ex boyfriend accused them, with little or no evidence, that it was intentional? If anyone cared, where the fuck were all of you protesting when fetal harm laws were passed here in Florida? Oh yeah- voting FOR the law.

I'm one of the people who female ob/gyns tried to trick and coerce into teenage pregnancy, btw. These dumb bitches tried to tell me that my PCOS would clear itself up if I just had a few kids. They wouldn't dx PCOS, just mentioned the symptoms. Vaguely. I refused. PCOS symptoms, by the way, often mimic pregnancy- which my ex was also trying to force me into. I drank poison rather than live if there was a chance of pregnancy.

No one gives a fuck about pregnancy. Especially not when it's an "undesirable" like me. You don't want the kid of an undesirable, but you don't want us to have real healthcare, either. The punishment is the point.

People only started flipping out about these new pregnancy laws when they started affecting *them.*

So cool, yeah, condoms do a lot. Yes, they do. No disagreement.

But the point here is that AIDS specifically is the reason they are free, as compared to any other thing.

I NEED people to understand that condoms aren’t free because “MEN like to FUCK lol,” they’re free because thirteen thousand people die from AIDS every year in the US alone.

Stop framing free menstrual products as more essential than free condoms. They should BOTH be free.

[toriaaniin]

So do you think what we are seeing with L & A is a PR relationship? Perhaps it’s a way to take the pressure off of L & N so they can both show up at events for Bridgerton?

It's been a while since I had a question. I'm game for questions! I'm sure the quiet is because I have my anons turned off. The troll activity that we've all been experiencing - over the past few weeks especially - has been fucking DELULU inducing (no: believing in L & N's love isn't delusional, therefore I am not delulu). I used to laugh at how my Lukola bloggity friends have so cleverly responded to the trolls' ridiculousness, but lately it simply makes me want to throw up. Thank the Light that I haven't personally had to deal with that BS since turning off my anons. Now that I've written that statement, watch a troll who is willing to have their name plastered everywhere pop up in my messages. Especially after they read this post! Ha!

Okay... let's respond to the questions asked of me.

I'd like to quickly deal with the second part of this question: "... a way to take the pressure off of L & N so they can both show up at events for Bridgerton?" In a word, no. There should be no events for Bridgerton until they start promotion for season 4, and that likely won't be until 2026. At the earliest, late 2025. If you mean the upcoming BAFTAs on May 11th? A case could be made for BAFTAs (that I'll touch on below), but "pressure off" would not be that reason.

Your first question: "Do you think what we are seeing with L & A is a PR relationship?" I'll use another single word: Yes. The one word I'd change out in your question though is "relationship". I don't view Luke & Antonia as a relationship. THIS is a relationship.

I view the situation between Luke and Antonia as a working arrangement. Perhaps even a legal one (but I'm not going to get into the NDA stuff. @fiamat12 does that well with her Legal Anon, and she posted an update this morning). She's been hired to play a role, and she's paid for that work (how [not necessarily money] would be an agreement between her agent/legal team and Luke's).

So why? I have a theory around Luke's branding that I personally find compelling, but I'll leave that for now because it deserves its own post as well as a good deal of research to find PR evidence (it exists!!) to support it for my readers. Know though that my theory - while reluctantly agreed with (usually!) - has proven controversial amongst my private chat group friends!

I will however discuss two reasons for this PR relationship.

One is the BAFTAs as I mentioned above. The voting for this year's BAFTA TV nominations is conducted in 3 rounds and only eligible Members of BAFTA can vote. The second round of nominee voting ended on March 13th. The final nominees are announced next Thursday, March 27th (watch for it!) after which the BAFTA members enter into a third round of voting (officially April 7th, closing on the 14th), with the winners announced during the ceremony on May 11th. Phew!

Members of the Academy - their peers, creatives and professionals working in and making contributions to the television industry in the UK - have already voted on whether Luke, Nicola, cast, crew, designers, producers, directors, etc. will be the final nominees. Again, those final nominees will be announced next week... with the same Members responsible for voting the actual winners.

Why is this a big deal? Because Luke and Nicola don't want their performances to be undervalued by a belief that they didn't act their parts. That the love that we saw in Penelope and Colin was actually (and only!) the love of Nicola and Luke. More importantly (and I'm SURE this is more important to Luke & Nicola too) = if they are believed to not have been acting, it undervalues the contributions of the entire cast, crew, Shondland, Netflix... everyone!

So you see... it's not about "taking pressure off" because the pressure is ON until April 14th when voting ends. Maybe even until awards night, May 11th.

Deflecting eyes away from Luke and Nicola's real relationship will help with BAFTA votes... but the second reason I'm going to suggest takes us one step beyond that deflection. We're talking DON'T LOOK OVER HERE! strength diversion!! The reason they want that kind of deflection is because Luke and Nicola are, I firmly believe, new parents. In fact, the BOSS event was in part a ruse to shock the fandom and get them all up in arms about Luke and Antonia, all while Luke and Nicola had a baby. The result of 3 "let's get this done" hours of Luke's life? No media and stalker-fans sniffing around, looking for photo opportunities of the new family. Misdirection.

Then we come to the SAG awards where our couple tried sooooo hard to pretend they were "just friends". We saw the truth, didn't we? They've tried a few times since SAGs to misdirect us. Remember my friends, they don't want us to look too closely. One day they'll opt for private, not secret. After all you can't hide a baby forever. But not until they're ready. We're on their schedule. Thankfully we're familiar with their misdirection patterns. I'm sat firmly on this ship!

Aaniin Xxx

(In case you ever wondered: that third little x started appearing in the closing of my posts in late January/early February... and if you know where Xx comes from [which still lives on Luke's IG bio, BTW!], you now know why I've added it 💙)

[slaaverin]

There are so many wrong things in our fandom. So many wrong things in this company. So much chaos and hate and fights, so many wasted opportunities. ARMY carrying members on their backs. But not all of them. The american dream being just that, a dream that more and more seems out of reach and illusory. International armys being transparent. Inner fights within the company. Oh but *money* remember?

The members trying their best to live their life in between the mayhem and making the best out of their situation. Trying their best to do their jobs, being artists.

*One in an ARMY* is long gone. Chapter 2 made sure to make the divide even wider.

It wasn't always like this. Not in the past.

But now I see ARMYs at the concerts who act like nothing happened and I can't help this bitter feeling in my mouth.

Because we might act like we are one and happy to support BTS but is ARMY truly lifting the members up? Truly lifting each other up? No. Everyone is out for themselves and take pleasure in petty fights, ruining the fandom experience for everyone.

Last night's vote was a perfect example.

Two most successful members ignored and even discouraged to vote for. ARMY didn't see this award worthy you see?

Why is it always jikook?

Oh, maybe because the fandom is filled with tkkers and solos and really, what's left after that?

What is ARMY anymore? But selfish children?

I naively thought we could be better than this. There was a time where being an ARMY meant something.

What saddens me the most is that whatever BTS preached and the message they tried to convey, that's not what people kept. That's not even what matters to them and they certainly weren't inspired by it.

People are motivated by selfishness and hatred and everything BTS are not.

And they are calling themselves fans? What about having some dignity? Do they deserve that title?

BTS taught people to be tolerant but this fandom is far from being tolerant. They collectively hate a pairing just because there's a slight chance they might be homosexual. Imagine that?

It's a fucking joke.

Yes, it's better to ignore all of it, and cater to your fandom experience, and try to have fun nonetheless. But when it's 80% of the fandom that is like this, isn't there something inherently wrong with everything?

When the bullying becomes so intense people refrain from speaking up. There used to be a time where people were afraid of ARMY because we were such a protective and powerful force. Now they are scared simply because people are toxic tyrants who don't care which people they hurt. They don't even care about the members.

You want to be part of this?

There was a time where I was. I felt part of this community because I believed in it.

But look what is has become? It's in ruins.

If I put my optimist hat on, I might say that the reunion will put people back together. That everything will go back to the way it was.

But unfortunately I think that's a sweet dream. Can we go back? I don't think so.

Honestly I don't even care what label I have anymore, or what hate I'm thrown at.

I will keep doing what feels right, and support however I can.

But I can't get behind this community's mentality anymore.

/end of rant

Sorry about this post but last night was the nail on the coffin

[clockwayswrites]

Alright my darlings! City Pigeons Bleed Green is all but done! Masked is getting updated soon. I'm squinting at a possible Soup update. Helping Hands just got done. I have some freedom!

I am considering that Birdritch will be what I start to edit and put up as the next long fic, mostly because it already has an absurd thirteen chapters to edit, but I want to run though some of my current short(er) fics as I do so and get them done and published too! So, I figured why not let you all vote?

Up for vote we have:

Danny in Metropolis (title pending)

Kon Kent has a new classmate in Metropolis--one that he has a crush on. By there are some concerning things about Danny Fenton: his nosebleeds, how he won't eat food from home, how jumpy his is about Superman, or even being treated to things... oh, yeah, and his parents work for Lex Luthor.

The Haunting of Danny Fenton

Danny Fenton was being haunted. Annoyingly, that wasn’t at all unusual. Danny was sadly used to being haunted. One could even claim, if one was being pedantic, that Danny haunted himself. Sure, since Danny had moved away from Amity Park and the mess his life had been there, the haunting were a lot less frequent, but they still happened from time to time. The thing was, is this haunting was different. Different in a way that made Danny worried about the ghost and their well-being.

Nightbird's Song (Explicit, but skipable scenes.)

To Nightwing, Danny's building is a sanctuary in the night. He wants to wrap himself up in it forever. But he can't. Not as Nightwing. Not as a hero. Not as flawed as he is. To Danny, Nightwing ins a man that he loves deeply, but he knows saying as much will case his songbird away. He'll wait instead. Wait until Nightwing is ready. Or at least that was the plan.

Stardust Dance (Explicit. It's just smut.)

Dick needs a break from his life. All of it. Good thing there's a club with an enchanting person in it that has caught his eye.

Mx. Minx (Maybe explicit?? but skipable scenes.)

Danny is a damn minx. Jason doesn't much mind.

Battinson/John smut (title pending) (Explicit. It's just smut.)

John just finished a set and was out smoking when a delightfully shy man joins him. A delightfully shy man who is a fan... and someone John wants to take back to his hotel.

Neon Adjuration (Explicit, but skipable scenes?)

It’s about Jason returning to Danny and the town full of the dead again and again to gently lay with Danny in the dark of the night and beg ‘Come back with me’. Because Jason doesn’t want to live without Danny any more but Danny doesn’t know how to live at all. It’s about how Jason begs.

Not so Imaginary sequel (title pending)

Self explanatory! Danny's POV focusing on him settling in with Diana as his guardian, healing, and seeing Jason.

(Why is 'A Hill to Die On' not on this list? Well, because that mofo is going to be in the 'big' camp. Or at least bigger.)

[terriwriting]

No. I'm not doing this. I'm not being nice about misinformation regarding Canada's democracy. I don't care if it comes from ignorance or if it comes from malice. Misinformation is misinformation.

but the fact remains that this man was not elected by the people.

a politician who was put in charge of our country because of a loophole

This is not a loophole. Carney did not exploit an antidemocratic cheat. This is part of parliamentary procedure and has been a feature of Canada's government since 1867.

But that doesn't mean the liberals are above reproach.

I never said they were. But they are not exploiting a loophole. They are following rules that have been in place for a century and a half.

the government of my own country doing things they should not be doing

This is the Liberal Party of Canada working according to the established rules of Canadian politics. Saying anything else is misinformation.

the man who is harpooning government positions left and right

getting rid of government functions

He has cut the cabinet by twelve people. He has cut 0 government departments so far. No one has been fired. He has cut the size of his caretaker cabinet by twelve people, pending an election.

I have concerns about Mark Carney. But he has not slashed government services or supports, he has not harpooned government positions, and he has not gotten rid of any government functions. He hasn't even proposed doing any of those things. What's going to matter are his proposals on the campaign trail, and his budget if the Liberals form the next government. I don't like the implied priorities here, but what matters in government is where the money goes, not who has what job title.

And again; Carney has reduced cabinet by twelve. He has not harpooned government positions or gotten rid of government functions.

Coming for random people by going through the tags of random posts (because idk how else you found my tags, we don't follow each other)

Your tags show up in the notes. People read notes, they see your tags, and sometimes they respond to them. That's not random.

Mark Carney is, as of Sunday, Canada's new PM-Designate. Was he (GASP) unelected?! Is this undemocratic?!

This one's for the gajillion Americans I've seen spouting this garbage all over social media. Jesus christ no this is not how Canadian democracy works. If you see other Americans saying this, smack them upside the head for me, please and thank-you.

Canadians do not elect the individual Prime Minister. In a federal election, you rock up to the booth and are given a ballot listing the MPs (Members of Parliament) for your riding (electoral district) - the idea being that you're voting for a local person who will then go forth and represent your riding's interests in Parliament. Your vote for an MP is also a vote for the political party they are attached to, unless they are an independent.

The Prime Minister is elected by the party. Justin Trudeau stepped down as PM, so it is the responsibility of the LPC to elect his successor, and they chose Mark Carney, who won against several other LPC candidates running. No doubt Carney will trigger a general election soon, and the Canadian populace will have the chance to decide whether they like the LPC with Carney at the head any better than they liked the LPC with Trudeau at the head.

Canada Cuts Gender Equality Minister

As Dangerous Backlash Intensifies, Canada Should Support Women’s Rights

In his first major move as Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney eliminated roughly a third of all cabinet positions, including the crucially important Minister of Women and Gender Equality. This decision marks a major setback for women’s rights in Canada at a time when these rights are under threat around the world.

Carney, sworn in as prime minister on Friday, has justified the trimmed-down cabinet as a “smaller, experienced cabinet” positioned to move fast and secure Canada’s economy in the face of US President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada and other threats.

But deprioritizing gender equality does not help Canada’s economy, and risks entrenching serious gendered harms. The gender wage gap and gendered poverty and inequality persist in Canada. Women and gender diverse workers also face disproportionately high levels of harassment and violence at work. Much work also remains for Canada to ensure and support sexual and reproductive health rights at home and abroad.

The role of Minister of Women and Gender Equality has existed in various forms since 1971. Under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the minister was tasked with developing a 10-year National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence and Canada’s first 2SLGBTQI+ (Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex) Action Plan, as well as supporting all ministers in advancing gender equality, particularly as it relates to economic participation and poverty reduction.

The department Women and Gender Equality Canada will now report to Steven Guilbeault as Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity. But in the absence of a designated minister for women and gender equality, this portfolio risks being sidelined.

As stated by Canadian feminist organizations in a joint statement released Friday, “Gender equality demands dedicated leadership, accountability, and sustained attention – none of which can be adequately achieved when it is treated as an afterthought within a larger, unrelated ministry.”

[lokisasylum]

Getting this off my chest real quick:

Y'know what's really laughable? That on more than one occasion since Solo Era began, its been proven and exposed that those who call themselves "OT7s" and go around harassing anyone who tries to define themselves anything BUT that, are the first who hate, ignore, shade on and discourage EVERYONE who wants to support Jimin.

But are also the first to come around and STEAL credits of our hardworking Jimin fanbases when Jimin wins or achieves a new milestone.

We've seen the chatroom SS, read each and every word laced with bitterness when Jimin surpasses another member or the group in records.

Any member reaching a milestone:

Armys: "YES MY KING, YOU ATE. THE MAN THAT YOU ARE, WORLDWIDE SUPERSTAR--"

Versus Jimin reaching the same milestones:

Armys: "Omg not that fucking song again". "I can't wait for it to reach 1B so that it finally freefalls and disappears--", "I'm sorry I love Jimin, but I'm so sick of seeing him everywhere". "Think of how the other members must feel.", "Its probably fraudulent again.", "He's so privileged and fake--"

Jimin topped No.1 on DEEZER thanks to his solo fbs organizing a streaming party for it? Oh no, can't have DEEZER's official account praising Jimin or pjms for that milestone. Better go s*xually harass the admins until they're FORCED to write that "Army" did it, even though not a single army knew wtf DEEZER was.

If there's a voting where the category is "The most charitable angel", guess who the fandom choose to support? The one member that NEVER donates to charity OVER Jimin who's been giving money silently to those in need for years.

And the iHeart Radio Awards were no exception. Last year the fandom had NO problem winning ALL the fan-voted categories FOR MULTIPLE MEMBERS, but THIS YEAR? Not a single motherfucker even tried because in most categories it was JIMIN who got nominated. Hell, they didn't even vote for "Are You Sure?"

And these fuckers were SO FULL OF SHIT a month ago trying to make it seem like it was "jimin solos/pjms" who weren't voting/were sabotaging the votes, when the reality was that pjms were voting 24/7, even for AYS.

So what happened, babes?

What's ya'lls excuses now?

And before you do, we got receipts of "ot7s" voting for taylor and celebrating when she won over Jimin in the fan-votes. But were quick to claim victory over the "K-Pop Song Of The Year" which WASN'T fan-voted.

So save it.

[dootznbootz]

[thirstkanaphan]

Please don't worry! You didn't come off any particular way at all! I loved reading your thoughts and I think we're pretty much 🤝on the subtle but important role Yunho plays in regulating *fan* perception of their relationships, a point you nailed in your first post.

(also, please don't apologize for your English - you're a great writer and I totally understand what you're trying to communicate)

I don't think you implied anything negative about Yunho and other ships "distancing/being distanced" but you made some really good observations about how Yunho seems to be very perceptive about Ateez's popularity as individuals and as units. His live videos with atiny are filled with him giving us knowing looks and making sly comments about how attractive we find him. Whether or not this is a recent development I cannot know for sure, but it sure seems like Yunho recently really began to understand and harness his sexual appeal to the fandom, and I don't think it's coincidence that he also began instigating more interactive/suggestive moments between him and other members. I think Seonghwa is particularly game for these moments.

I totally agree with you about Yunho's awareness of things - and I think you're also right that KQ is usually not far behind. I love that you have identified Yunho as your alarm bell. Mingi serves a similar purpose for me, as Mingi has become my emotional bellwether for Ateez. You can tell when the group is tired, overworked, frustrated, or moody because he is incapable of concealing those feelings even when they are on camera.

To clarify my thoughts re: Yunho's "choreography," I agree that he's not trying to exert any kind of power over the members but given his own personality and expressed desire for everyone around him to be happy, I think he's very good at clocking a situation and making the necessary moves to ensure that people are smiling, laughing, and charmed - and since he already loves and cherishes the members, he can create those viral moments with seeming effortlessness. I agree that it's not a dark!yunho thing, but it's a facet of his personality that I think is very much aligned with KQ's business-minded sense of their idol image.

I think a lot of people share your reaction to those SanSang moments (which is not a bad thing! Everyone's comfort level with physical affection is different) and I do think a lot of the amplification of negativity towards Yeosang comes from parasocial fans who believe a) yeosang "broke up" woosan and b) yeosang is ungrateful because he rejects from san what he stole from wooyoung.

As someone who was introduced to Ateez via shipping (and as a long-time consumer of rpf content since my hockey rpf days) my initial understanding of these relationships was also refracted through the lens of the fandom. It's rare for me to move from "fanon" to "canon" like I am with Ateez, where I'm catching up on all their content, vlogs, and interviews and trying to understand them as "real" people, to the extent that anyone can ever know an idol. Like, I am now streaming and voting in addition to reading fic! I'm no longer lurking but actively participating as a fan! This is a whole new phase for me in my 15+ years of being in fandom.

This is why all the recent meta has been so good for me to write and consume! Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. Let's keep talking!

I've never seen this clip in its entirety; only the kiss/not kiss and San backing away in shock. It's REALLY something. And the aftermath! Wooyoung wiggling from the audacity of what he just pulled off on stage at a fanmeeting; San buffering; Yunho the Yaoi God holding back a smile.

I want to study this like an ancient text because THIS is the moment many WooSan shippers point to as the turning point...apparently Bouncy-era WooSan flew too close to the fan-service sun and haven't been paired up as a unit since (unless you count an OT3 with Yeosang for It's You).

[onesnoopyaday]

I AM AT MY LIMIT

Snoopy #90

30/12/2024

description under the cut

[description: a cartoon-style drawing of Snoopy's head. Snoopy is a white dog with black ears. His eyes are shut and his mouth is a horizontal line. There are two large blue teardrops, one under each eye. The text "I am at my limit" is handwritten across the top of the image.]

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

While all three of my beloved Terror Lieutenant Ships are still technically in the running for the yuri tournament, I just want to say they ARE all yuri. to me. Specifically they are all different delightful flavors of lesbian stereotype.

Hodgving for instance are hashtag girlbestfriends. Absolute Jennifer's Body situation. They are two little girls playing house and snuggling together Too Much during sleepovers and "practicing kissing". They are a maid of honor speech where it's painfully desperately obvious that she's in love with the bride. They are Good Luck Babe Dot MP3. Starts at choir practice and ends with a body count.

Hodglittle on the other hand are an actual established butch4femme couple. Hodge after three hours: Ok I'm ready to leave the house! Ned: [tossing on one final jacket on top of her five layers of clothes] Wonderful darling you look so pretty let's go. Also by established I mean yes they uhauled it immediately after meeting. And yes that was a mistake but they're In It Together Now. Codependent and loving it.

Meanwhile Nedving are just two classic useless lesbians. Probably too shy to ever even meet each other irl. Ned will just keep posting pictures of like, a pony and a lamb sleeping cuddled up in a meadow and tagging them "#me and who" while Jirv keeps liking every post and being too nervous to say a single word to her. The height of romance and repression and also agonizing stupidity.

[unopenablebox]

lmao i have a call with a wedding venue coordinator tomorrow?? lots of things about this place are appealing but it also has a massively overpriced mandatory caterer and a very late event start time (who has the ceremony start at 6:30pm?? don't people want dinner????) so i kind of just wanted, you know, a quote and contact info in case we wanted to tour later if other things don't pan out. but the person who reached out to me was so confident that we were going to call this week that i guess... i'm going to call her? and ask about chair rental prices or something? idk man. i wasn't prepared for this. i'm not even the one primarily planning this wedding and also we're not even planning yet i just had time to send idle emails this week

[technoxenoholic]

type 0 – i can do whatever i want forever. putting arbitrary limits on it like this ruins the entire appeal of being able to shapeshift.

okay, i think any time anyone asks what superpower we’d like to have most everyone on this website would say shapeshifting but what kind of shapeshifting would you like

type 1- wild shape, you can turn into any animal, real or fictional

type 2- mystique, you can turn into any real person

type 3- cosplay, you can turn into any humanoid fictional character

type 4- jake the dog, you’re super stretchy

type 5- character creator, you can alter your own appearance- like changing voice hair length texture color, changing height and weight, transing gender, etc, but you can’t add anything non-human (ie horns, wings, claws, etc)

type 6- additional features, you can add things like snake eyes, horns, cat ears, tail, claws, wings, mermaid tail, but you remain humanoid overall and can’t change things like height or gender presentation or hair color. you can still change your voice tho

type 7- were-wolf, we all know what a werewolf is, lads. can be any kind of animal. can be straight up wolf or more monstrous wolf form that’s up to you.

type 8- furry, you just become your fursona. or any kind of fursona really you can change between them

type 9- antman, can become small or big

type 10- other, say what kind ya want

[whos-hotter-jjba]

Hottest JJBA Outfit Bracket - Round 4 Match 4

[fratboykate]

Papi, are you alive? Thunderbolts trailer leaked and we got Hailee back from the dead (and there's the movie with Andrew and Florence and its KYAU coded as fuck) Kate and Yelena content galor this week. PLEASE COME BACK. We've been deprived for a year. It's been jail for too long. Grace us with Kate x Yelena content again. Pretty please.

*taps mic* Is this thing on?

[sydney-carton-of-sour-milk]

The Many Illustrators of A Tale of Two Cities 7: A. A. Dixon

"'Collins' Clear-Type Press, let me ask you a question.'"

This is a very long post.

This week's edition has, in my research, become quite the edition.

Sadly, this image is the best source for the cover wrapper illustration that I could find.

You are likely familiar with Arthur Augustus Dixon's illustrations for the 1905 Collins Pocket Edition of A Tale of Two Cities. Several of them are very common to find in Internet searches and articles about the book, if not other editions of the book itself.

But the question raised by my research for this week's edition is: Are you familiar with all of them?

Thing is, as the source above states (read the whole article if you have the time, it's very interesting!), Dixon created twelve illustrations for this novel.

And sure enough, this source from the Internet Archive and this source from @oldillustrations (hello!) both have eleven of the same illustrations - with the twelfth presumably being for the wrapper, as seen in this source (previously cited) from the Victorian Web.

Alright, so that's three separate sources, all with (effectively) the same set of elaborate illustrations from 1905. Neat!

...

...but if you start counting...

...you'll notice that this seems...

...like a lot more than twelve!

Basically, there are five illustrations by A. A. Dixon that are completely unaccounted for in any of the three sources previously cited.

For the purposes of this post, the cover wrapper is considered #0 and is not pictured in these banners.

In full-size set of illustrations in this post, this source from Google Books is the source of four of those mystery illustrations:

#3: "'He stared at her with a fearful look.'" #6: "'Drive him fast to his tomb.'" #7: "He said, 'Farewell!'" #12: "'She appeared with folded arms.'" #9 ("'Patriots and friends, we are ready!'") and #11 ("'You are consigned to La Force.'") are sourced from Google Books in the full-size versions in this post simply because the Internet Archive versions of those two illustrations had cropping issues.

To me, this is mystery enough on its own. Why would another version of the book suddenly have more than the originally-stated number of illustrations by this artist? Especially considering that the Google Books source does not have #13 ("''I know you, Evremonde!''") - why would it be missing one of the "main" set?

It gets even more interesting.

As you'll notice in the banner, we're still one off: Keen-eyed observers of the full-size set of illustrations might have already noticed that #14 ("'Carton and the spy returned.'") looks a bit different than the rest of them - a bit like what happened in the previous edition of this series!

That's because that Dixon illustration comes from this completely random source - a post from a blog called the Paperback Palette dating back to 2018 - that I happened across on Google Images of all places while sitting on an airplane trying to set up this post last week!

And to top it all off, that source is missing #6!

At this point, if your first instinct is, reasonably, that perhaps Dixon didn't actually illustrate these extra five and that it was someone imitating him for later editions, then know that that was my instinct too - until I (dare I say it again) checked those signatures!!!

(I edited the colors to prevent flashing.)

All five of those illustrations bear Dixon's signature, so it's safe to assume that they are A. A. Dixon originals - from 1905, even.

Interestingly, #s 1, 10, 13, 15, and 16 don't have signatures! Does this mean anything? Probably not - as an artist myself, I often forget to put my own signature - but still, I can't resist mentioning it!

So the most likely explanation here is simply that the publishing house originally commissioned A. A. Dixon for more than twelve illustrations and then held on to some of them, eventually choosing to publish them in other editions. Still, we can't say for sure.

And as to why some are missing from the more "complete" sets - human error, most likely!

If you scrub through the Google Books source, you'll notice that #s 11 and 12 actually repeat (one even changes color, which I have no explanation for) - it's most likely either that the book was accidentally printed with repeats of #s 11 and 12 where 13 and 14 were supposed to go or that the person scanning this edition made a similar error.

As an aside, it's so interesting that the illustrations are evenly spaced throughout the book - I had not noticed that until now!

And as for the Paperback Palette source, it's most likely that the blogger accidentally skipped over an image while combing through their edition or just glossed over it when posting the batch (I understand that from experience!) We can see this by adding up the letters in some of the illustrations' captions - doing so reveals that the letters are meant to go to P, the sixteenth letter of the alphabet.

Thus, one must be missing! Case closed!

Except... It's actually (going by both the chronology of the book and the order in which this set was found in Google Books) missing the wrong letter! Here, it seems that In the Google Books source, #7 in the full set is given the seventh letter in the alphabet, G - whereas in the Paperback Palette source, "#7" is labeled as the sixth, F:

This implies not only that #6 is absent from the Paperback Palette source but also that there is a missing mystery illustration located between this source's H and K - that is to say, before or after #9!

EXCEPT... For one, this isn't the only inconsistency I've noticed - there are several places where the letters seem shifted in a strange way. I've seen #2 listed as "C" and #9 listed both as "H" and "I2i" (???), just as two examples. (My theory is that the cover wrapper and the frontispiece may be at play here, but who knows?)

More importantly, though, it seems that, for some mysterious reason, all of the sources with relatively consistent use of these letters (i.e. all but the Victorian Web) - even the sources with only eleven interior illustrations - still give #15 in the full set the fifteenth letter, O. Which, of course, may make all of this pretty moot anyway.

Dare I say..."Oh."

Suffice it to say, just as much as major sources like the Internet Archive and Google Books are vital to this sort of research and preservation work, so are smaller websites and bloggers! After all, without the Victorian Web and the Paperback Palette, we as collective netizens likely wouldn't have ever known about the cover wrapper or illustration #14 (not to mention that the versions of the illustrations from the set posted by @oldillustrations have by far the best image quality and standardization that I've found! Please go check them out if you haven't yet!).

As for the reasons behind Collins' Clear-Type Press not publishing all of the illustrations from the beginning (if that's the explanation we're to go with here), I suppose the question I'd like to ask is:

why? why would you put us through this?

& the standard endnote for all posts in this series:

This post is intended to act as the start of a forum on the given illustrator, so if anyone has anything to add - requests to see certain drawings in higher definition (since Tumblr compresses images), corrections to factual errors, sources for better-quality versions of the illustrations, further reading, fun facts, any questions, or just general commentary - simply do so on this post, be it in a comment/tags or the replies!💫

[ettadunham]

sometimes i remember the hunger games and how nobody actually paid attention to what was in those books