#i've heard someone say it's a very puritan book but to me it really is protestant in a bit of an uncanny way

[mishkakagehishka]

Yknow little women is very. Protestant. It's subtle, but so subtle that it's kinda uncanny to me ngl

[septembersghost]

Priscilla just said on Navarone’s IG live that the Priscilla movie is better than the 80’s Elvis and Me TV movie and that Sophia did a really nice job 🤔

on the one hand, what else is she going to say? she'd never denounce it outright, she's a producer (and i've heard nothing but horror stories about that movie from the 80s 😭 so i would imagine anything would be an improvement! and this will be very streamlined in comparison to that mess too). and on the other hand, if she's satisfied, it's her story, whether anyone wants to engage with that or not, so she has the right to her opinion and support of it.

my issue at the moment is there's absolutely no way to win in this because of the utter lack of nuance or comprehension happening in the conversation, this movie will be used as a weapon no matter what and that...is exhausting and saddening and disrespectful to everyone involved. idk.

that said, to my other anon who mentioned this and the dubious "docuseries" (lol, again, alanna n*sh, currie, and suzanne are all liars and trash, much like the wests and the stanleys and countless other hangers-on and questionable people, there is really no reason to give them air or brain space), people have been trying to tear him down and "cancel" him literally since he first came on the scene in the 50s. the puritanical, and frankly hysterical (and we could unpack the multiple motives for this from the press, from classism to repression to censorship even to latent racism and fear), damaging reactions to him have always swirled and been magnified way out of proportion, it shadowed his entire life, it bled across the edges of his death (where it also became shaming and ableism), it's persisted in chimeric forms in every decade, for whoever wanted to twist him, for whoever wanted to misuse him as a mirror for society's seeming erosion and perceived sins. it's a distortion. we can't change these malformed opinions, but why should we listen to them? they're so irrelevant to why he matters to us.

notice how none of that has ever stuck nor stopped people from loving him nor dimmed his light and voice. we could argue in circles forever about his flaws and mistakes, his temper, his misjudgments, but what is ultimately the POINT?! why do that? to him, to ourselves? what could possibly come of that that's worth anything? it's not a fulfilling use of time or energy, and he wouldn't even want us fighting those battles (he knew he wasn't perfect, but a lot of these things are topics he wouldn't have wanted fans endlessly arguing about at all). he doesn't get the opportunity to tell his story in his own words, so we've become keepers of that flame in many ways. the good he gave then and still gives us now is what lasts.

i know cilla's book is hotly debated, i know it's difficult, i know she's mentioned that some things she wishes she had stated differently or explained better, she's spent 38 years post-publication continuing to give talks about him and do legacy work, and while she's not perfect either and has made her own missteps (please remember these are complicated human beings!), i don't believe someone intent on ruining him (??? she always notes how dearly they loved each other), or on exploiting him only for money (even apart from graceland and the estate, she's been at the forefront of preserving and championing his music and his artistic gifts many times), would've kept her life wrapped up in this the way she has. that doesn't mean anyone is obligated to like her or to like this project, but the rancid hatred being directed from both sides is absurd (the E haters in this are truly unhinged and don't know what the hell they're talking about, and they are NOT priscilla fans! they're invalidating her own words and life! they're just transparent, uninformed losers brandishing pitchforks because they can). it's undermining to both of them and dismissive of the bond they continued to share even after their divorce. i don't always agree with her (i don't agree with him on everything! i could also talk extensively about a lot of underlying issues i feel were constantly going on with him, and he needed far better treatment and support than what he had, or what even existed at the time, but that's a separate conversation. both illness and trauma have adverse effects).

ultimately, the people who want to cast him as the devil will do so because they always have, because they've never listened to a damn thing about the person he actually was and the heart he actually had, his compassion, his generosity, his insights and kindnesses. but whatever anyone thinks of priscilla, i feel like it should be remembered she closed that book as follows:

[awed-frog]

Hey! uh, I've seen your reblog about HP, and I kinda wanted your opinion on this post, if you don't mind of course. mischief-and-maryment*tumblr*com/post/618786127710650368/hey-do-you-think-you-could-expand-a-bit-on

Hello! This may be a snappy answer because I had a shitty day and I’m just fed up with tumblr nonsense - apologies for that. 

If you want my opinion: I don’t agree with any of it, and I think it’s a weird, obsessive, self-flagellating take for someone whose entire online life seems to consist of Harry Potter gifs, crack and plot bunnies.

Plus, I think it’s fairly ironic to see people writing pages and pages of earnest rants about ‘problematic writers’ while typing on their computers (a result of slave and child labour), ordering their Funko dolls online (Amazon workers are literally dropping dead right now), playing with glitter slime or using make-up (again, slave and child labour), not to mention mindlessly munching on stuff that couldn’t exist without all-powerful corporations, exploited migrants, illegal logging, animal abuse, and so much oil and plastic and dangerous chemicals even coming up with an estimate in metric tons is definitely beyond me. 

Like for fuck’s sake. JKR is not Hitler. Her crime was writing a book based on stuff she knew - the world she grew up in and the subjects she studied in uni - according to the internet Puritans, that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do, isn’t it? God forbid you ‘claim someone else’s story’, after all. And yeah, sure, there’s some weird things in those books (there’s weird stuff everywhere), but that’s partly because they’re based on European folklore and mythology? You know, the kind of stuff that’s rooted in local biases, prejudice and fears? Goblins are problematic. Yay. Guess what: a lot of other stuff is problematic. In fact, every single aspect of folklore and mythology is problematic. 

(Centaurs are problematic. They’re literally based on the nomadic tribes who invaded Greece back in Fuckever BC, and look at them: drunkards and rapists featuring the occasional WiseMan™. JKR’s copied this classical portrait of centaurs down to a tee, and yet I never heard anyone complain about how the whole concept is deeply racist and "If 👏 you’re 👏 not 👏 from 👏 Central 👏 Asia 👏 you 👏 can’t 👏 say 👏 cent*ur”, and #CoconutFirenze and maybe you know, if you really think about it the whole Umbridge thing is a textbook example of the white man’s fear of non-white men and their ‘savage’, out of control sexual urges.) 

Bottom line is, people are not perfect. Part of growing up is learning to walk the perfectly walkable line between “I understand this work reflects the world of its author, who was human and therefore flawed” and “That doesn’t prevent me from finding this work meaningful, interesting, moving and/or recognizing it’s a masterpiece that had a huge influence on other artists and is still relevant today, so I’m happy to learn more about it”. 

Apparently we now live in a world where that is too much work for some - they’re entitled to their own opinion, but I want to hope they’re just a very loud minority.