#if you’re so inclined

[robertwaltons]

i've noticed that some frankenstein adaptions that include walton (the only good ones ☝️🤓) choose to depict him as a naval officer (aesthetically, at the very least — one of my favourite examples is in the 2018 manchester royal exchange theatre production because well. LOOK AT HIM)

this phenomena is so interesting to me because he is explicitly Not that, textually

on one hand i get it because the correlation between polar exploration and the navy especially during the 18th and 19th centuries is there and makes sense; it’s an easy connection to make if you just want walton “on screen” and a visual short hand for the reason behind the type of journey he’s making (i.e. discovery service expedition to the arctic sent by the admiralty) without any real exploration of his character and the inner thoughts that he communicates to margaret (and ultimately the reader) through his letters

but walton himself makes the claim very early in his narrative that his voyage is entirely independent, and that he basically funded the entire thing himself (with a little help from his cousin, whoever they are/were). most importantly, because he was prohibited from going to sea as a boy by his father, he served on whaling ships for years to train himself mentally and physically:

Six years have passed since I resolved on my present undertaking. I can, even now, remember the hour from which I dedicated myself to this great enterprise. I commenced by inuring my body to hardship. I accompanied the whale-fishers on several expeditions to the North Sea; I voluntarily endured cold, famine, thirst, and want of sleep; I often worked harder than the common sailors during the day and devoted my nights to the study of mathematics, the theory of medicine, and those branches of physical science from which a naval adventurer might derive the greatest practical advantage. Twice I actually hired myself as an under-mate in a Greenland whaler, and acquitted myself to admiration. I must own I felt a little proud when my captain offered me the second dignity in the vessel and entreated me to remain with the greatest earnestness, so valuable did he consider my services.

his voyage is motivated not by any sort of command from above by lifelong ambition and self-interest. he considers what he can contribute to science and maritime navigation, which, granted, serves his country as much as it serves him; but to me it is primarily his passion for the sublime beauty that the arctic represents, even if the reality is much more dangerous than he could have predicted, that drives him forward. he needs to see it for himself, to know that he can do it, no matter the cost (sound like someone else we know?)

if i had to draw a comparison between walton and any real-life polar explorer from around the time frankenstein was written it would be william scoresby, an english scientist who began his own career on whaling ships (ironically he thought the open polar sea theory that walton espouses was complete bs — and he was right, lmao)

janice cavell’s article ‘The Sea of Ice and the Icy Sea: The Arctic Frame of Frankenstein’ has a lot more to say on this topic and i’d highly recommend it but i just have to include this extract here because i was so delighted to learn about some of the real people who likely inspired walton in shelley’s mind:

Here, then, was material for both the Creature's journey and Walton's doomed mission. Moreover, here Mary found a surname for her Arctic captain in the list of officers who served under Vitus Bering in 1733-41: Peter Lassenius, William Walton, Dmitri Laptiew, Jego Jendauro, Dmitri Owzin, Swen Waxel, Wasili Prontischischtschew, Michailo Plautin, and Alexander Scheltinga. Walton, the sole Englishman on this list of exotically named foreigners, was in command of the Hope (Müller, 1761:15, 26; on William Walton, see Cross, 2007:177-178). The ship's name reflects the most prominent characteristic of the fictional Walton, whose first name, Robert, may have been taken from Robert Thorne, the 16th-century originator of the open polar sea theory. Even though Walton's theories about the Arctic are opposed to Scoresby's, Mary may have intended to acknowledge Scoresby's status as both a whaler and a man of science when she had Walton train himself for his chosen career through whaling voyages.

like! the Real Walton’s ship being named the Hope and “the ship’s name reflects the most prominent characteristic of the fictional Walton” ohhhh i am NOT going to cry don’t LOOK at me

anyway this post doesn’t really have much of a point. i guess tl;dr i just think it’s more interesting that walton is canonically just some overly ambitious guy with big dreams and more money than he knows what to do with who is willing to hang out on gross whaling ships for half a decade rather than pursue the more respectable maritime profession because he wants what he wants on his own terms and no one else’s

[softspeirs]

Sunday vibes:

Laundry. Hate it! But must be done.

If I don’t finish A Fate Inked in Blood for my book club today, I never will. Hoping to read at least half.

Maybe some WIP work? I’ve got some prompts to fill and I scribbled some dialogue at midnight into a google doc for the next chapter of Barren Soul.

Playoff hockey is on today. Will be watching like this as the team that kicked my team out of the playoffs plays:

[janop1]

welcome back 2014

[peqchessss]

au where they’re like 30 and had a brutal homoerotic fallout in high school and stopped talking to each other and then they meet again and it’s sad and horrible

[mishapeep]

It’s snack time for the girls!

[stephantom]

Becket (1964)

We must manage the church.

[bucksboobs]

.

[librarycards]

Okay well my laptop will at the very least need repairs and possibly replacement; if you have the means and desire to do so, you can help me out here and @ cavars on venmo.

If you’d like something in return, I’m happy to share my chapbooks in return, or you can subscribe as a paid member to my substack.

[hanzajesthanza]

dandelion’s incredible reluctance, and near-fright, to mention kaer morhen by name is somewhat endearing to me. we as the fandom throw around the name so easily, and it’s also home for geralt and ciri, so its name doesn’t carry so much weight.

but in dandelion’s case, it makes sense to fear mentioning it, for it was the site of the massacre… best to not let anyone hear its name… it’s kind of nice to think that dandelion has a degree of self-awareness, when something is as important as this

and also, some part of me just thinks that dandelion with his vivid imagination listened to geralt offhandedly talk about his childhood here or there, and… whatever were mundane facts or sepia-tinted friendly memories for geralt, made dandelion’s expression drop and his innards twist. so he conceives of kaer morhen not just as “the witcher’s keep in the mountains of kaedwen” but “that place where my best friend endured child abuse for eighteen years”

[d-issent]

Wadda hell, there’s two of them?

[bignostalgias]

don’t look at me pt 2

[rooolt]

Fucking ENOUGH “normal is actually the chosen one bc of the fucked up oak family” bullshit. Normal is actually the chosen one because normal chose to care

[worldsworstfemale]

someone should send me $600

[dailydegurechaff]

Out of curiosity ever consider writing a Viktanya fanfic?

This might be a disappointing answer, but probably not.

It’s not that I dislike Viktanya or anything, it’s just that I really don’t have any ideas for them. Writing is hard and if I’m not extremely obsessed with something I just can’t get myself to write about it.

Also, there’s lots of Viktanya stuff out there, so I don’t think I have anything to contribute. Since there’s already lots of stuff I’m comfortable sticking with my niche pair lol.

[warmhappycat]

I just saw someone say it was in poor taste for OFMD season 2 to have “Izzy apologize for letting Ed mutilate him” and I took 10,000 psychic damage. Just say you don’t think emotional abuse counts and go.