#it's not technically a romance story ALTHOUGH it's heavily featuring a romance IN it

[essenceofarda]

I'm writing a book SO niche,,, 😏

that I'm probably gonna have to self-publish it for an audience of one (me lol I'm not sure anyone else would even want to read it haha)

A merchant city, set in a "formally" magical world based loosely off of the 15th/16th centuries... dark academia vibes with a queer romance leading the way and quite a few horror elements thrown in... monsters in human skin... a mystery... some murders... hmm hmm...

😏🤩

[zodiyack]

Voice

Pairing: Thomas Shelby x Female!Reader

Warnings: Swearing, PTSD mention, I think that’s it

Words: 1,797

Summary: Tommy wants to spend the rest of his life with Y/n. A peculiar little thing about life is that you never stop learning, and Tommy learns a thing or two, letting Y/n learn more about him in return...or is it him who learns from her?

Note: I suck at words, Tommy Shelby edition. And I couldn’t come up with a summary or title for this so know that if they don’t make sense together (or the story at all)...I know.

Taglist: @matth1w​, @redspaceace-writes​, @fandom-puff​, @darling-i-read-it​, @simonsbluee​, @sebastianstanslefteyebrow​, @captivatedbycillianmurphy​, @jenepleurepasbaby​, @stydia-4-ever​, @stuckysslag​, @marquelapage​, @i-love-superhero​, @psychkunox​, @tommyxshelby​

Masterlist | Peaky Blinders Masterlist | Cillian Murphy Masterlist

The morning he met her was the first morning of many that his genuinely eyes opened since the war. Trauma had changed his life for what he thought was a permanent turn for the worst, but upon meeting her, it seemed that heaven was within his grasp once more. Impossible, he thought at first. Yet, later, when he put more thought into it, perhaps his redemption was actually there.

So the next time he saw her, he took a deep breath, reminded himself that he was no longer a boy, and went for it. Alas, his confidence joined him under the definition of cowardice in the very least second; she titled her head, innocent eyes sparkling with curiosity as she awaited whatever he had to say. But no words left his lips. She snatched them away with something even Thomas didn’t know of.

“Are you alright?” She asked, the concern in her voice lifting his spirits high as a warm feeling entered his body. It was the first time in what felt like centuries that a feeling as happy as that coursed through him.

It was also the first time that he was left without words. He tried, opening his mouth as if it were as easy as that to get the things he needed to say out, but he was still without anything but air.

“Sir?” Her brows furrowed. He couldn’t tell whether she was getting annoyed, scared, or just overly frightened for him, but he closed his mouth and reminded himself to breathe. Do not forget to breathe.

Was he sure he was a man? Or was he a boy once again? The same boy before the war who would blush and flirt teasingly, who held so much joy that his cheeks hurt.

And then it happened.

A smile grew upon his lips and he nodded.

A chuckle of relief left her mouth and she lifted her hand to her chest, resting it over her heart. “Oh thank fucking god- I admit, I was rather worried there. For both you and I!” She averted her eyes for a split second before redirecting them to his. “If you aren’t in any trouble... Is there anything I can help you with?”

The words were still lodged in his throat. So he did the only thing he could think of and sheepishly shook his head, turned, and left.

More interactions occurred between the two until one day, when she showed up at his office in search of a job. Lizzie knocked at his door, announcing that he had an appointment.

“Send ‘em in.” He replied lightly, not even lifting his eyes from the paper in front of him. Lizzie took a second, waiting for the moment that would never come- the one where he took a second away from work to actually look people in the face, but gave in with a sigh and closed the door.

“Go on in, hon.” She nodded her head to the door, returning to the typewriter and resuming her work.

It was silent aside from Lizzie’s typing. The click clacking of the keys, letters stamping the ink onto the paper, the quickness of her fingers at work. Y/n got lost in it momentarily before the noise suddenly ceased. Lizzie lifted her head, a brow quirked as she stared and waited for Y/n to enter Thomas’ office.

“Finally. Ahem, I suppose you’re here for...” Tommy started when the door squeaked open again but trailed off when he finally lifted his head. He couldn’t blink away the surprise, not this time. She truly caught him off guard.

And, apparently, him her.

“So he speaks? ...Ah- my apologies! Yes, Mr. Shelby, I’m here for a job...and, not on the topic of occupation, I would like to mention that you have a lovely voice. I think I’d enjoy hearing it more often.”

She definitely heard more of it.

Tommy gave her the job, and with it, a relationship. At first they were strictly boss and employee, but soon, it sparked into something more. Friendship. Good friendship. Close Friendship. 

Then ...Romance.

The day came where Tommy learned a lesson or two about love from someone he deeply admired and respected. Someone close, someone he loved but not in the way he did Y/n. Polly Gray payed her nephew a visit and taught him the thing he dreaded but knew he’d have to face eventually.

“If you want her to some day be your wife, then you have to let her in!” She’d taken a liking to Y/n as well. After all, she was technically Y/n’s boss as well, so she met the woman and didn’t hesitate in accepting their relationship. “She knows what you let her about this business, but one day she’ll either want to know more or find out on her own accord.”

Pol wasn’t just talking about business. She meant honesty in every way he could describe it. The depressive sides he hid from even his family, his brothers whom suffered the same aside, and so much more the world had yet to see. He could either hide it or show her, but one day it would come into the light.

It was true, and unpleasantly so. The downside to being part of the Peaky Blinders was one that came with life in general; Love wasn’t easy. If he wanted, he could just force Y/n out of the country, forget about her, and move on. She’d be safe and he’d be happy knowing she was, but deep down, he was too much of a coward to do something like that. Too afraid of what could happen to her, to her feelings, to his own...

So Tommy listened and grew a metaphorical pair. The night he planned on opening up to her, an uneasy feeling nagged at his gut. This was his one shot. His shot at being with the love of his life, creating a family and knowing what it feels like to be loved by someone, and not in a platonic way. He held onto the feeling she gave him and used it to power his courage.

“Are you alright, Tommy?” Her gentle hand that previously combed through his hair came into contact with his jaw. Not harsh, but gentle. Softly guiding his head, she forced his bright blue orbs to meet hers. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

Her hand moved up slightly to caress his cheek. Thomas leaned into her touch, closing his eyes and reveling in the moment. He truly felt youth envelope him whenever he was with her. His demons faded as if they never existed in the first place every time her presence was with his.

Then, he lifted his hand to meet her wrist. He took the other with the same grip and opened his eyes, looking into her with the same admiration she had only mere minutes ago. “I know.”

“Then tell me...what’s bothering you?”

Tommy thought for a second, but just as the first time he tried to form words, his cowardliness came a ’nocking on his door. “It’s nothing, love. How ‘bout we sleep, yeah?”

Y/n hesitated but nodded, curling into his side and drifting off slowly. It took him a bit longer, but by midnight, the two were out cold. Of course, he never stayed asleep long. She didn’t know that, however. Tommy never let her stay the night until tonight, afraid of what she would think of his softer, more fearful side when he was too overwhelmed to hide it.

He awoke with a start, chest heaving heavily and breath so terribly uneven, one would think he were on the brink of death. That’s what he felt like. As though he were on the smallest ledge, seconds away from cracking down the part of which connected him too the land full of life and dropping him into the deepest pits of hell itself. Tommy’s nightmare woke Y/n too.

She was drowning in concern the second her eyes snapped open. “Tommy- Tommy!” He couldn’t help but panic, the PTSD too much for him, “Hey- hey, I’m here. Okay? It’s me.” she didn’t blame him. Instead, she gripped his wrists like he did hers and softly ushered him back into his calm state. Her whispers were reassuring and brought him back to reality, soothing his mind with powers similar to a siren’s.

“Y/n- I’m sorry-” He spoke hurriedly after she lit a candle- it provided them with enough light to see one another, not that the moon didn’t already do that enough.

“Don’t be. From the looks of it, this isn’t the first time this has happened.” She didn’t sound tired, not even a blink of sleep left in her eyes nor voice. “Tommy... Why didn’t you tell me?”

Tommy was a little taken aback by her lack of fear or other emotions like disgust, although he couldn’t quite think of a single reason as to why she’d feel that of all things, but answered her as honestly as he could. Just like Polly told him too. “I’m not sure... I was...cowardly. Though you’d be ashamed or something.”

She squinted at him, “Why on earth would I feel ashamed?”

A few seconds went by of his eyes darting around as he mentally searched for a possible answer and he came up blank. Thomas shrugged, “Fuck... I don’t even fucking know.”

They shared a chuckle, hushed but still very much real. Y/n caressed his cheeks again, tracing his beautifully sculpted features with gentle fingers.

“I love,” her eyes scanned his face lovingly, “every part of you. Whether you like a detail about you or not, I will love it with every fiber of my being. The good, the bad...the mildly confusing,” he chuckled with her, “I love it.”

Y/n pulled away from him and leaned him. She blew out the candle then readjusted her position under the sheets, squirming into Tommy’s side and resting her head atop his chest. It rose and fell with each breath he took, his torso lifting her head and dropping it as carefully as one would rock a baby.

“I’m here now, and I’m here to stay. We can either stay awake or, you can lie down with me and get through this shit together. Either way, I’m not letting you face anything else alone.”

“Y/n-” He was going to tell her that it was fine, shove another lie to hide his worries despite inevitable discovery.

“I mean it, Thomas. For as long as I live, you will never have to carry your struggles by your lonesome. So, in the morning, you can tell me what I’m gonna be helping you with.” She paused before cracking a smile. “After all, you know how much I love your voice.”

[zelskzerker]

Mangadex went down so I read alot 1/7

Lets review a bunch of isekai and related stuff I binged because mangadex went down. The scale will be a single thumbs up to a single thumbs down in terms of how much I would consider recommending it in general.

Legend

Chapters 1-51 Pretty straight forward in most aspects. For the best. Nothing crazy bad or good happening, making it surprisingly straight forward for an isekai. [Insert isekai startup here] but this time the MC is given a super magic body and the knowledge of ancient magic. Which he promptly uses to create a griffon buddy. Gets a THUMB IN THE UPPER CORNER for just being a nice, believable stay in a world, but I have read some stuff that really has interesting sparks the way this doesnt. MC is brutal at times and General Princess is cute. They make a good pair for each other.  Although there are no ecchi situations, that artist really knows how to slide in the lewds, whether its mid combat flourishes or pre chapter artwork.

The Black Create Summoner: Revolt of Reincarnated

All Chapters

Truly is revolting. A resounding THUMBS DOWN.  Apparently this was just an advertisement manga, which means that its intentionally incomplete and unsatisfying. Ontop of that, the sketchy artwork was generally rough and got worse to look at the more it went on. [Insert isekai startup here] but this time he has a grimoire that lets him summon stuff he draws. The power isn’t used that much though or in that creative of ways. Characters didn’t really leave an impact except maybe the elf little sister that is stubborn yet knows she is incompotent and recruits a dragon out of stubbornness. 

Minotaur’s Sweetheart

Chapters 1-16

So what if a minotaur accidentally seduced the adventurer that was assigned to kill him? This is a good romance manga deserving a THUMBS UP because the pure-hearted minotaur boy and the unmarriageable adventurer girl actually develop a relationship and progress as people. The manga is ultimately about monsters and humans interacting and is fresh due to having a plot that evolves the situation a lot beyond the initial setup of the manga.

Moon-led Journey Across Another World

Chapters 1-64

[Insert isekai startup here] but this time the god of the new world calls the MC ugly and banishes him to the edge of the world to die off. In order to help out the MC, the god of our world (Tsukuyomi) gives him a bit of power. The MC is funny to watch once you realize that he is an incredibly cautious pureboy and expecting every common street thug to potentially end him but in reality he is a god-rivaling cataclysm himself and never realizes. He is so powerful that he recruits the blue haired mist dragon, Tomoe, and accidentally turns her into a weeaboo. Tomoe can read minds and access pocket space with her mist ontop of her sick weeaboo katana skills. She really shines as the most mature person in the story, gaining information that no one else in the story has and carefully withholding it from the MC in order to protect his innocence. She is a DAMN good tomboyish waifu and sarashii is a blessing. Other main girl is yandere spider, Mio, which has shockingly good and well conveyed bouts of emotion. She has an extremely rare “can’t cook at all” joke that is explained due to her “eat literally anything” nature. In terms of plot, the MC hates the god of the world he is in and pretty much plans to do everything she doesn’t want him to. Which means mingling with humans, and eventually, god slaying/usurption. Odd think about this manga is that it’s heavily Japanese-inspired. That may sound odd because its a manga, but generally isekai are most medieval/western skinned than this one which leans in on Japanese mythos. Just look at the god of our world in the manga.

THUMBS UP.

The Unsuccessful yet Academically Unparalleled Sage ~A Cheating S-Rank Sorcerer's Post-Rebirth Adventurer Log~

Chapter 1-10 So lets set up this genre here. This is a part of the “reincarnation” genre, which is a spinoff of isekai. They generally depict a very capable mage who reincarnates themselves into the future of their own world. At which point they realize that although they were pretty strong in their day, they are now practically a god in the deteriorated modern day. This genre will hereby be indicated by [Insert reincarnation startup here]. For this manga in specific, [Insert isekai startup here] but this time the MC could only use lightning magic and was the best at it but failed the gene gacha then [Insert reincarnation startup here] and he fails gene gacha again but is still the walking thunder god. These kinds of manga are always precious when the MC can walk through the world and see the fruits of their past labor. Specifically through Merlin, the MC’s adopted demon daughter who has grown up to be his heritor and bridge human/demon relationships. Truly adorable and heart warming. Lacks a bit of spice from themeing or ongoing plot due to its short length however. THUMB IN THE UPPER CORNER.

Older Elite Knight is cute only in front of me

Chapters 1-17.1

THUMBS UP. This is an oneshota manga where shota is a chad with incredibly good tastes. A really good ecchi manga with a light hearted story featuring Haru(the shota) knight that joins Karen’s(the oneesan) knight crew. As with all good romance manga, the main plot isn’t romance. Knight shenanigins are always happening, with a big (and lewd) bad entering recently. Top tier variation on the lewds, even including a princess loli in on the fun. Must read for all oneshota fans.

Lonely Attack on A Different World

Chapter 1-91

[Insert isekai startup forma de classroom here] but this time the MC gets leftover garbage skills and has to learn to survive. Learning to survive thus makes him the most op and he can magic trick his way out of literally anything. Strong start as the whole classroom first tries to get their footing, but after the starting arc is done this manga starts spinning it’s wheels. The manga is kinda lacking in themes, overarching plot and end goals, so stuff just happens to make this a sort of slice of life trap room escape manga. Magic “just works” in this universe so its not very dramatic when the MC pulls out a new trick out of his bag of million tricks. Just kinda stagnates too much for my liking. THUMB IN THE BOTTOM CORNER.

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

Chapters 1-34

Rentt Faina, the MC, is a good guy with no talent who aspires to be a legendary adventurer. But then he gets turned into a skeleton, giving the chance to evolve his way to greatness, kinda like in Spider isekai or Dragon isekai. The MC is most like Goblin Slayer in his serious and knowledgeable approach to the world, how characters that know him revere him. End goal so far is just him seeing how far he can evolve as he comes across other vampires and vampire hunters. Really want to see him go to the top. Fuckin great art. Girls drawn perfect. Like the hat on the guild girl, but nothing beats the witch Lorraine. THUMBS UP.

Teihen Ryoushu No Kanchigai Eiyuutan

Chapters 1-13

THUMB IN UPPER CORNER. Pretty funny comedy about a lord of a poor land who wants to be a stereotypical evil lord but can only use healing magic. Therefore he bumbles his way into accepting a heretical cult nun, beast men who hate humans, etc. All the girls are to crazy for him to want to sex them(weak. give the assassin nun your babies). Most interesting parts are aforementioned nun, his fujoshi assistant, and the MC’s willingness to use his power to commit heretical and immoral warcrimes. 

The Undead Lord of the Palace of Darkness

Chapters 1-11

Art average, don’t come to this one for spectacle. It’s strength is in the subertfuge that it’s recently-necromanced-back-to-life MC goes through to get his Master killed and to later, probably, evolve into a vampire. MC isn’t evil though, just wants to survive. Main girl on cover was born and raised to hunt vampires but has a compassionate heart. Obviously she goes easy on and relates to MC. Story is still kinda in it’s first arc so the overall trajectory of the story is a bit hard to gauge and not quite satisfying enough by its own right. Probably a thumb up with more chapters but for now THUMB IN THE UPPER CORNER.

The Reincarnated Inferior Magic Swordsman

Chapters 1-38

[Insert isekai startup here] but this time.... uh... THUMB SIDEWAYS. Usually I am patient, but 31 chapters with no goal and just barely plot? Wow. Saving grace is uh... I guess the world of “other isekai people existed but they sucked because they didn’t level uncap like MC” could go somewhere but. I take it back, lowering this one to a THUMB DOWN.

The Invincible Sage in the Second World.

Chapters 1-12

[Insert isekai startup here] but this time a pro mmo player in a game called “Broken Balance Online.” Guess what his class, the sage class, was considered in the game? Not far along enough to really pop off but it isn’t horrible. MC is moderately cautious to a healthy degree which is actually rare in most isekai. THUMB IN BOTTOM LEFT CORNER. 

The Dark Queen and I Strike Back

Chapters 1-29.5

Although technically an isekai, no isekai startup here. This a battle manga with a big mystery on the backdrop of a war. That is to say, the MC gets teleported to a world to kill the demons but he ends up defending them from the humans with all he’s got. Of special note is the complete seriousness of this manga that whiplashes into debauchery like tentacles, the above cover, oneshota, and even really dark jokes in some of the omake. That tonal lash effect will be either make or break, and it is a HUGE make for me. I love when a single piece can have both absolute serious scenes and utterly lighthearted and fluffy ones. Or in this case utterly lewd ones. May the average-human-amount-of-perverted MC one day slam some demon lord loli. THUMBS UP.

Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers

Chapters 1-24

THUMB SIDEWAYS. Has the feeling of a nerfed slime isekai. Nerfed in all ways except romance. Art surprisingly good.

[alindae-anne]

What Makes a Book?

I want to take a break from my novel and dive into a history lesson of books themselves. Why? Well first of all, I will be honest, this blog is for an assignment. But also because the way books have evolved over the last 5,000+ years is fascinating!

Of course no one ever really thinks about THE book, just the fact that the story within its pages--the mystery, the romance, whatever they happen to be enjoying--is a great read (or maybe not so great), but have they ever wondered what materials the book is made from? Who invented it? How the book has become one of the most common and most used items of all time?

No. Of course they didn't wonder any of those things. And if they did, they probably didn't take the time to research any of these burning questions, either.

How great, then, that I wrote this post?! Today is your lucky day! (Also, it is a good thing that Keith Houston, author of Shady Characters, decided to write a whole book about it (1).) I'm going to use the pages of a classic tale to explain some cool things you probably never noticed while reading a book before.

Gulliver’s Travels was originally published in London in 1726 by Benjamin Motte. The author, Jonathan Swift, used it to satirize London society and culture, poking holes at the social hierarchies and systems, basically making out everyone living in the 18th century to be fools--but mostly the wealthy and those who were obsessed with scientific progression (2). If you have not read it, I highly encourage adding it to your reading list, or at the very least there is a 2010 movie, featuring Jack Black as Gulliver, that you could watch. (It’s Jack Black, okay?)

This 2 page spread of Gulliver's Travels pictured above is actually found in The Franklin Library edition from Franklin Center, Pennsylvania, published in 1979. This is the first printing of this edition, and its pages, the way it is printed, and the way it is bound and presented, are all features of the modern 20-21st century book, plus some extra bells and whistles. The most interesting qualities come from the publishers themselves who specifically design their books to be very snazzy--meant for collectors’ editions! They include different kinds of leather binding, exclusive illustrations, and may be signed or part of a particular series specific to a certain author or genre (3). This makes the books published here very valuable and sought after.

Gulliver’s Travels is hardcover. Specifically, “fine leather in boards.” This means the spine and front and back boards (or cover) of the book are bound in leather. The leather is fine and and delicate and able to be decorated and engraved upon.4 Above you can see how fancy it looks with the gilt gold engravements. Even its pages are gilt!

This picture shows more clearly the binding, and of course the spine, which is “hubbed,” or ridged, for added texture.

At this point you may have notice that this version is much different than the original published in 1726. That is because over time, the materials involved in making books have changed slightly or the processes have become more efficient or cost worthy, etc. Either way, the anatomy of the book has not wavered. Keith Houston has dissected the book into certain components and we can see them in each book we read:

I have attempted to label it as best as I can, so hopefully you can follow along:

Chapter Number

a) this seems to be a description, more or less of the chapter, or the Chapter Title. b) “A Voyage to Lilliput” seems much more title-like to me, although this is technically called the “Recto Running Head.” The recto running head is a condensed or abbreviated chapter title, repeating on every right-side page to the end of the chapter.

Drop Cap. This would be the first letter of the first word of a chapter, which is usually exaggerated or embellished in some way.

Opener Text

Head Margin - the space between the top of the page and text

Foot Margin - the space between the bottom of the page and text

Folio - page number

It has taken quite a while for books to become so sophisticated. Because it was published in 1726, Gulliver's Travels is technically what you could call "modern" in terms of how long ago books began their journey to what they are today, but even between 1726 and 1979 the quality has improved. This edition published by Franklin Library is a perfect model for the modern book of today.

The 2 page spread we analyzed above is made from paper. But books were not always made with paper, or even in the book form, bound with anything at all, and they were not printed either. They were written by hand on papyrus.

Papyrus was the first material used as "paper" beginning in Egypt. The reeds were stripped, strung side by side and pressed together. Papyrus was durable and sturdy, and the water of the Nile was abundant in aluminum sulfate, which brightened it so that writing and scribbles could be seen better. There is no particular origin of when Papyrus had first been invented but it must have been around the end of the 4th millenium BCE (Houston 4).  

Parchment is made from animal skin that has been soaked, scrubbed, dried, and stretched for days and days, creating a more flexible, yet still durable, material for writing. It was also thinner and could be made "cleaner" and brighter by chemical means. Religion heavily influenced its distribution; some parchment use was literally banned because the type of animal skin used to make it wasn't considered "holy" or "good." For example, the lamb or a calf was acceptable, but how dare you use parchment made from goat skin? What is wrong with you?

Besides the fact that parchment is kind of gross if you think about it (although to be fair, you can’t be too choosy in times right before the common era), it was also expensive to keep certain cattle only for paper making, and the reliability of having new cattle at the time you may need more paper was not very high.

Paper was first introduced in China. It is made from bits of cloth and rags soaked in water, and after breaking down into pulp, strained through a wire grate and pressed to dry. Fun fact-- the Rhar West Art Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin has held classes showing how to make paper using this exact process.

There is a trend here: the materials used to make paper (and papyrus and parchment before it) become scarce or too expensive, or they are just not “good enough.” People want their paper thin and smooth, but still strong and durable; crisp and bright, but still able to last years and years without crumbling. There have been times that processes used to ensure these preferred qualities of paper included using chemicals that ended up negatively affecting some other quality. For example, the paper would be white as snow, yet the chemical that did this broke down the natural adhesives which kept the paper intact.

Have you heard that paper grows on trees? Well, that is partly true since after rags and cloths were nowhere to be found (unless people were about to start donating the shirts off their backs), wood pulp has now since been used... the higher the demand for paper, the greater demand for those materials used for its creation. 

This brings us to printing side of things. The first ways of printing weren’t of how we think of it now. Even before papyrus, people were still writing and making inscriptions on pretty much anything they could get their hands on. The earliest forms of writing were rather indentations or markings on clay tablets. Found across the Middle East, it is a cuneiform script of the Sumerian people from 3300 BCE (Houston 79).

Similarly, the Egyptians were also keen on developing their own writing system which today we recognize as hieroglyphs. A lot of these were found carved on the walls of tombs but also began to be used on papyrus in 2600 BCE (Houston 82-83).

The Egyptians celebrated their scribes and believed those who wrote with brush and ink on papyrus to be channeling power--that it was a gift from the gods--”wielded with respect and humility” (Houston 87). The hieroglyphs not only showed the intention of the writer, visually, but often the picture would be associated with or connected to certain sounds which emerged more formal use of letters as time went on.

The alphabet we use today can be traced back to the Phoenician alphabet (used by the Egyptians) which had evolved into the Greek and then Roman alphabets (Houston 91-92). At this point in time, scribes were using water based ink which was fine for papyrus, but during the transition to parchment they realized that ink smudges quite a bit. This led to the creation of iron gall ink that would darken and adhere to the parchment as it dried due to its chemical makeup in contact with oxygen in the air.

Jump ahead to 1400s and we are with Johannes Gutenberg and the printing press! One thing Keith Houston make sure to mention is that although Gutenberg invented the printing press itself, to help moveable type and mass printing, the idea of printing had not been new. Clay pieces used as stamps and similar objects had been excavated and dated back thousands of years before the clay inscribed cuneiform tablets were made. And a primitive version of a sort of printing press is mentioned being made by a man named Bi Sheng during the reign of Qingli from 1041-1048 AD (Houston 110). Obviously nothing great came from it, most likely because he was of unofficial position. Even so, movable type was still possible, although painstakingly slow with wooden blocks used as stamps. This was common for the next few hundred years in China.

Even though Gutenberg's press completely revolutionized the transmission of knowledge, it was still quite slow in comparison to the versions which came after, only being able to print 600 characters a day (Houston 118). From Gutenberg's printing press came other types of presses that improved the speed or efficiency of movable type immensely. These all came after the original publication of Guliver's Travels, starting in the early 1800s with the Columbian press, eventually the Linotype, and then lack of precision called for the Monotype, which could produce 140 wpm (Houston 149).

The 2 page spread above then, could possibly have been printed by the Linotype, but most likely, however, the Monotype, which is the more accurate of the two. Another possibility could be "sophisticated photographic and 'lithographic' techniques" or "'phototypsetting'" (Houston 151). Houston mentions that the printing press age has died and now faces a digital future.

I'm at my 10 image limit which means I better wrap this up with some interesting facts about bookbinding. On BIBLIO.com I was trying to see exactly what "fine leather in boards" meant which is apparently how Gulliver's Travels is bound. I didn't find any phrase that matched, but from my understanding, the leather is very supple and pliable, which is why it was able to be gilt with gold, and it was able to form nicely to the hubbing on the spine.

The website also explains that the first "book binding" was technically just putting the pieces of paper or parchment together and pressing them between two boards. Literally. Like just setting them on a board and putting another board on top of that. Eventually leather was introduced, first as a cord wrapped around the book to keep the boards in place. As time progressed, the practice was improved and perfected so it was less crude. This involved the creation of the "spine" where the pages meet together and can therefore open and close in a v shape without flying away.

This website helped explain some of the other embellishments and extra flair that can be added to a book's binding. It mostly goes over leather binding which is from most animal skin but there is a unique leather bound book that can be bound with seal skin. Some of the books on the website are so expensive because of the materials they are bound with and the effects that have been created in the cover, for example, Benjamin Franklin's observations on electricity, which has had acid added to the page, discoloring it for a lightning strike effect, and includes a key to represent his famous experiment.

Gulliver's Travels, although not quite so fancy, is still a very beautifully bound book with decorated endpapers, meaning the inside cover is laden with designed paper rather than boring white or some other neutral color.

I hope you found this journey of the book as interesting and as exciting as I did while writing this post! You must really love books because even my attention span isn't this long. I will admit I took at least 3 different breaks.

I'm back to my novel for now, thanks for listening😎

Bibliography

Houston, Keith--Author of Shady Characters, which I used extensively in my TikTok “history of punctuation” project--also wrote -> The BOOK - a cover-to-cover exploration of the most powerful object of our time, 2016.

British Library Website -> works -> “Gulliver’s Travels overview”

Masters, Kristin. “Franklin Library Editions: Ideal for Book Collectors?” Books Tell You Why, 2017 (blog).

BIBLIO.com -> “Leather Binding Terminology and Techniques”

[danielnicolae]

What is a fairy tale

A fairy tale, fairytale, wonder tale, magic tale, fairy story or Märchen is an instance of a folklore genre that takes the form of a short story. Such stories typically feature entities such as dwarfs, dragons, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, griffins, mermaids, talking animals, trolls, unicorns, or witches, and usually magic or enchantments. In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale; all these together form the literature of preliterate societies. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described) and explicit moral tales, including beast fables.

In less technical contexts, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy-tale ending" (a happy ending) or "fairy-tale romance". Colloquially, the term "fairy tale" or "fairy story" can also mean any far-fetched story or tall tale; it is used especially of any story that not only is not true, but could not possibly be true. Legends are perceived[by whom?] as real; fairy tales may merge into legends, where the narrative is perceived both by teller and hearers as being grounded in historical truth. However, unlike legends and epics, fairy tales usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and to actual places, people, and events; they take place "once upon a time" rather than in actual times.

Fairy tales occur both in oral and in literary form; the name "fairy tale" ("conte de fées" in French) was first ascribed to them by Madame d'Aulnoy in the late 17th century. Many of today's fairy tales have evolved from centuries-old stories that have appeared, with variations, in multiple cultures around the world. The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive. Still, according to researchers at universities in Durham and Lisbon, such stories may date back thousands of years, some to the Bronze Age more than 6,500 years ago. Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today.

Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways. The Aarne-Thompson classification system and the morphological analysis of Vladimir Propp are among the most notable. Other folklorists have interpreted the tales' significance, but no school has been definitively established for the meaning of the tales.

History of the genre

Originally, stories that would contemporarily be considered fairy tales were not marked out as a separate genre. The German term "Märchen" stems from the old German word "Mär", which means story or tale. The word "Märchen" is the diminutive of the word "Mär", therefore it means a "little story". Together with the common beginning "once upon a time" it means a fairy tale or a märchen was originally a little story from a long time ago when the world was still magic. (Indeed, one less regular German opening is "In the old times when wishing was still effective".)

The English term "fairy tale" stems from the fact that the French contes often included fairies.

Roots of the genre come from different oral stories passed down in European cultures. The genre was first marked out by writers of the Renaissance, such as Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile, and stabilized through the works of later collectors such as Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. In this evolution, the name was coined when the précieuses took up writing literary stories; Madame d'Aulnoy invented the term Conte de fée, or fairy tale, in the late 17th century.

Before the definition of the genre of fantasy, many works that would now be classified as fantasy were termed "fairy tales", including Tolkien's The Hobbit, George Orwell's Animal Farm, and L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Indeed, Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" includes discussions of world-building and is considered a vital part of fantasy criticism. Although fantasy, particularly the subgenre of fairytale fantasy, draws heavily on fairy tale motifs, the genres are now regarded as distinct.

[echodrops]

Why Do Certain Ships Become So Popular? (And Why Should Writers Rethink When They Do?) - Part 3

<- Start at Part 1 for best understanding

<- And here’s Part 2 if you need it!

I’m going to end this discussion with a case-in-point comparing the mega-popularity of non-canon ships against semi-canon ships, and then discuss what this all means for writers, and how examining the popularity of ships in media can actually improve the way you write romance plot lines in your own works.

Pictures taken seconds before disaster

Although I’ve been reading My Hero Academia for a while, I haven’t been an active part of the fandom until recently and so there might be meta and other surrounding the series most popular ships that I’m not familiar with. But I want to talk about this series because it’s the absolute perfect model for the points I’ve been making in this whole discussion: shippers target pairs of characters with high emotional energy/tension, and the “canon” ship will always lag behind non-canon ships in popularity when the emotional energy between the romantic leads is not as strong as the tension between the male lead and another character.

My Hero Academia has the somewhat rare situation of having two almost equally popular non-canon ships for its main character: TodoDeku and BakuDeku. Technically, given what I can find using filters on AO3 and Google Trends, TodoDeku is the more popular of the two (at least in the U.S. except in Indiana; I have no idea what’s going on over there, but man they love BakuDeku) by a fair margin...

Which would actually make this a series that disproves the trend--because you can say what you want about Bakugou and his notorious assholeishness, but at the end of the day, I don’t think there are any readers who would really argue that the pair of students with the strongest emotional energy--the greatest degree of push and pull and the most effort, meaning, and time invested in their interactions--is Bakugou and Midoriya.

As I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t matter that much of the emotional energy/tension between these two characters is negative in nature (in fact, for a lot of fans that probably just sweetens the deal because it increases the potential for progress and growth so much)--rather, what matters is the depth and intensity of the emotional interactions between the two characters. There’s certainly no short supply of--at times--almost nonsensically powerful emotions between Bakugou and Midoriya. They’re Extra™ in every meaning of the word, and the manga drums that message in fairly consistently, especially in arcs in which heavily feature the class.

Get out of my school

Bakugou’s inferiority-superiority complex is fixated on Midoriya (whom, deep-down, he recognizes as a “better” hero than himself, despite the fact that everyone is constantly praising him and his powerful quirk), which means that even the most inadvertent of Midoriya’s actions triggers a reaction in Bakugou and Bakugou’s character.

Likewise, many of Midoriya’s significant plots and plot lines are driven by Bakugou--sometimes as a motivating factor (Deku is just as concerned about beating Bakugou as Bakugou is about beating him) and sometimes because the plot, rather hilariously, positions Bakugou in the role of Midoriya’s “damsel” in almost equal (actually it may even be more) proportion to the number of times Uraraka plays that role.

Bakugou and Midoriya’s combined progress is the emotional core of the student/class storyline, and they operate, in some ways, as joint protagonists whose play off each other drives the plot of the early sections of the manga, and whose rivalry fans can readily anticipate continuing to advance the main story in significant and meaningful ways. Bakugou, for example, still has plenty of growth to go through before he can really call himself a hero, and it’s only natural to assume that Midoriya, our premiere hero archetype, is going to be part of that growth--however grudgingly on Bakugou’s part.

Someone who actually ships this pairing (please don’t follow me for BakuDeku content, I got nothing guys!!) could probably go into much more detail on this and find much more support for it as a whole, but I brought it up to demonstrate that, once again, the pattern holds true: the greatest degree of emotional intensity, the core of these characters’ tensions and motivations, is another male character--and, equally on par with the pattern, they become an extremely popular ship.

But if Bakugou and Midoriya are the undisputed kings of emotional interaction energy among the students in My Hero Academia, why is TodoDeku the most popular Midoriya ship?

Well, besides the fact that Bakugou’s a grade-A asshole whose bullying crossed the lines for many fans, you can probably pretty safely blame Kirishima Eijirou.

My sunshine boy, where are the rest of your eyebrows???

In Kirishima’s emotional arc throughout the story, again, few people would argue that there’s any character more central than Bakugou.

This creates a viable ship that--importantly--plays well with others. Pairing Bakugou off with Kirishima leaves the series’ main hero free for shipping with anyone else, whether you prefer the semi-canon Deku/Uraraka or Deku/Literally-anyone-else-I’ve-even-seen-people-who-unironically-ship-him-with-Toga. In fact, this might be a little too much speculation on my part, but I almost feel like the degree of deliberate baiting this ship gets from actual staff (namely the anime and movie teams) is not only a ploy to appeal to female fans, but also an intentional way of deflecting some of the over-investment that’s gone into Bakugou and Midoriya’s storyline. Giving Bakugou someone else to focus on adds more variety to his scenes and provides Uraraka (or anyone else) a little more breathing room to interact with Midoriya.

The official media has to go this hard just so that Uraraka has any reasonable chance with Deku... Also god Bakugou, why are you so ugly in the anime...

Really, what I mean by all this is that part of TodoDeku’s popularity stems from it playing well with KiriBaku. Fans who want Midoriya with Todoroki are happy to ship KiriBaku on the side to get Bakugou out of the way, while even fans who don’t care much about Midoriya or Todoroki are happy to pair them together to free up Bakugou for their preferred Bakugou ship. It’s a symbiotic relationship, so to say, that helps elevate TodoDeku above BakuDeku in terms of popularity, even though without the presence of Kirishima, the stats would probably be skewed the other way.

That’s not to say that TodoDeku isn’t a perfectly valid ship or that it lacks the support or basis that BakuDeku has, because of course it doesn’t. It fits the pattern the same as all the other mega-popular ships do: if I were to ask “Who is the most important fellow student in Todoroki’s story?”, the answer would inevitably be Midoriya.

Todoroki is an ice prince prior to being beaten with the Friendship stick, and his choice to open up to Midoriya in a way that he hadn’t with any of his other classmates becomes the catalyst that allows him to--quite literally--thaw out and begin to have positive experiences with his fellow students.

His fight with Midoriya allows him to remember his resolve and his mother’s words that he has the power to be an individual separate from the looming shadow of his abusive father, which becomes a profound turning point in his character. In his clash with Midoriya, he opens up access to his fire side which he had previously repressed, a move which is tantamount to embracing who he is as a person, bolstering his sense of self-worth and autonomy and helping him to begin moving out from under his father’s thumb. His experience with Midoriya is, in short, utterly life-changing, and Todoroki’s character has never been the same since (for the better)--to the point that characters nowadays are teasing Todoroki about how uptight and icy he used to be.

There’s plenty of, to use the phrase again, emotional energy between Midoriya and Todoroki attracting fan attention and serving as the spark for the mega-popularity of the ship.

Bakugou is the most important fellow student in Midoriya’s storyline. Midoriya is the most important fellow student in Todoroki’s storyline. The interactions of these characters, however you choose to ship, is rich, meaningful, full of intense emotions (positive and negative), and--most importantly--strongly relevant to these characters’ individual arcs and even to the main plot overall.

But where does that leave Deku/Uraraka, the story’s semi-canon pairing and the (highly likely) endgame ship? Why is a pairing in which one of the characters has confirmed feelings for the other so far below non-canon ships in popularity?

Well, the premise holds true here--in reverse.

Say it with me, guys: the “real emotional energy” of Midoriya’s storyline has frustratingly little to do with Uraraka Ochako. She’s just not that important in his story.

The tension of Midoriya’s plot lines consistently has no personal connection to Uraraka, and all his most intense emotions and emotional scenes occur between him and other male characters. The problem I outlined in part two of this essay is in full effect here: female characters, especially in hero stories, are typically positioned in roles outside those which have major plot relevance. Uraraka might be “a hero,” but she’s not “The Hero.” She’s not the deuteragonist. She’s not the villain. She might qualify as a sidekick, except for the fact that the manga consistently prefers to pair Deku up with other male characters--such as Todoroki and Mirio--in the supporting roles. Uraraka, as a girl, simply wasn’t designed to serve in the same plot-mover-and-shaker capacity as the male characters. It’s the classic failure to write romantic female leads whose actions are central to the story, at it again.

I don’t mean that Uraraka has no impact on the plot--she did great against Kurogiri in the USJ arc, for example--nor to suggest that Uraraka isn’t a strong fighter (although of course, as a girl, she’ll never really measure up to the plot’s central males--sorry, can you feel my eyes rolling yet?). Her martial arts skills, clever use of her quirk, and, far more than that, her acumen for understanding people’s feelings mark her as a character with great potential... that’s just never really allowed to shine as much as it could be.

In her under-utilized position, Uraraka has less power and freedom to effect major changes to the main story compared to characters such as Bakugou. So far in the plot, she simply hasn’t occupied a position of importance or even enough individual screen time to put her personal arc in the spotlight heavily, at least in comparison to other characters like Todoroki, who, between himself and his family, now star in two whole arcs of their own. To quote Uraraka’s own bio, she has no “hidden side” or “ulterior motives”--two terms which might as well be synonymous with “fertile ground for creative fans to play with.” Being a simple and straightforward character is not the stuff of fan writer favorites, unfortunately.

More than that, Uraraka’s primary goal is no different than her classmates’--although she started with a somewhat interesting and unique reason for pursuing heroism (to help her parents financially), throughout the course of the series she evolves more into a character who embraces heroism for heroism’s sake. This is billed as progress, because the series comes down hard on those who seek to become heroes for their own gain. The only problem is... half the class at this point wants to become a hero because they believe in the merit of heroism itself. By growing into someone who wants to become a hero to genuinely help people and make a difference in the world, Uraraka actually becomes less unique and therefore more similar to just about everyone else in the class.

As time wears on, this problem of under-investment in Uraraka’s personal emotional journey becomes even more telling, as numerous battles for Uraraka devolve into little more than moments to reflect on her crush on Deku.

These are two separate occasions. Like are you kidding me--

If we were to remove Uraraka’s crush on Midoriya, she’d have absolutely zero tension between herself and other major characters. Literally no deeper emotional investment than “supporting friend.” It’s isn’t bad for a background character--but for what should be the main female character and romantic lead, it’s god awful. If we discount her newfound desire to punch herself in the face for jealous thoughts over Deku, Uraraka’s character hasn’t seen a lick of unique emotional growth since the Sports Festival. Worse, with her repeated entanglements with Toga, who also supposedly has a crush on Deku, I feel as if we’re almost inevitably going to get a chick fight scene in which they squabble over him. PLEASE MISS ME WITH THAT NONSENSE.

I like Uraraka. Or rather, I like what I think Uraraka could be. I want to root for her and I want to be impressed by her. But it’s hard when the writing of the story repeatedly tells me that she is less important than the male characters in her class, and that her own personal journey and motivations as a character could be reduced to “admiring the protagonist” and wanting to be like and be with him.

(“If I push down my feelings instead of accepting them, I can draw out our awkward romantic plotline for at least ten more volumes.”)

Who, at this point, isn’t motivated to greater heights of heroism by Midoriya? Even his role in her life isn’t unique to her... I almost feel bad for Horikoshi, in a way. Using other characters to inform the female lead of her romantic feelings for the hero is a classic trope that indicates a lack of experience writing and developing believable romantic plot lines. I guess when he said he wasn’t good at it, he really wasn’t lying.

The limited popularity of Deku/Uraraka plays word-for-word into the quote that sparked this entire discussion for me:

Many fans, particularly women, are disappointed by the contrived romantic story lines that are appended to ‘buddy’ series and movies in which the real emotional energy is between the heroic male leads (or between hero and villain) (McLelland 2006). [Source]  

This is a classic scenario of a semi-canon het ship that, by virtue of its own under-developed female character, will never achieve the same level of support and interest among fanwork-producing members of the fandom as more emotionally invested and intense relationships such as those between the starring male characters. (Of note here: Kacchako’s number of vocal fans isn’t surprising, given that Bakugou’s refusal to treat Uraraka with kid gloves was the most respect the series itself has ever given her...)

All right, all right, I’ll stop. (By the way, if you’re a Deku/Uraraka shipper, more power to you, my friends. I really feel bad that your ship isn’t getting the meaningful development and depth it deserves. There’s nothing wrong with this ship in theory... just in practice. T_T)

SO! FINALLY! AT LAST! Speaking of practice!

What’s the lesson? What is the take-away?

I didn’t write this monster of a rant because I wanted to shit on canon ships, het ships, or (often male) writers failing to write believable women. I didn’t write it to justify my favorite slash ships.

I wrote because as I was mulling over my answers to recent conversations and after I stumbled on the quote I’ve shared repeatedly now, I had a bit of a heart attack.

I’m writer. Many of my friends are writers. I have a Masters degree in creative writing. I took seven years of creative writing in school. I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words of both original work and fanfiction.

But never once have I sat down and consciously mapped out the “emotional energy” in my stories. Never once have I spent time actually examining the interactions of pairs of my characters and actively comparing them to really gauge where the core tensions and intensities in my stories really are.

I trusted in the notion that, as the author, I knew my own characters better than anyone else. If I wrote two characters in love, well then, surely it’s because they were meant to be in love.

In today’s discourse, the words “fan entitlement” are increasingly bandied around and often applied when fans get aggressive over their favorite ships not becoming canon. It’s easy to dismiss the frustrations of readers and viewers “as demanding something writers don’t owe them.” But this dismissal hinges on a central notion:

The original writer always knows best.

Whatever story the writers have written--whatever canon romances they have chosen--those are the “right ones,” and fans who piss and moan about that just “aren’t appreciating what they’ve been given.”

This is an easy mindset to understand in the face of fans who take their grievances to the extreme and harass creators. Harassment is obviously never acceptable.

But I don’t feel comfortable with the other side of the spectrum either. Blindly defending canon by completely ignoring cases where the fandom vastly prefers a non-canon ship to any canon alternatives... In the end, isn’t that the same as saying “It’s always the fans who are mistaken, never the authors”? Or, by extension: “As the author of this story, I can do no wrong.”

To me, authors who choose to simply dismiss their fans’ preferences--especially when the fans reject a canon relationship--are doing themselves a terrible disservice.

As a writer, I have never had nor wanted to have the thought that I’m perfect at what I’m doing. I am always keenly aware of the fact that my ability to write is limited. There are always things I felt I could have captured better. And more than that, I’m always trying to grow and improve my writing. I don’t want to be right all the time!

So why should I expect that my planned romances are always right?

Fans are not entitled to the ship they prefer. But if the fans prefer a ship you didn’t intend, that’s a good sign that something has gone wrong, and you might want to rethink the way you write romances, character interactions, character motivations, and potentially female characters in your next project.

A non-canon ship reaching mega-popularity in a fandom should provoke thought--not dismissal--from the series’ writers. And I don’t mean the kind of thought like “Would we have made more money if we’d caved to fan demands?” I mean things like “Where did I go wrong in writing my romance that led the fans to prefer something else? How can I fix that in the future?”

The take-away isn’t “I should give my fans what they want” but “How can I get my fans to want the same things I do?”

In order to align your fandom’s interest with the canon romance you’re writing, the canon main pair has to have meaningful, intense emotional interactions that are entwined with the central plot line or at least their own personal character development arcs--to greater or at least equal extent with any other potential pairing of characters in the story. Your romantic leads need to have interactions that are as compelling, as personal, as plot relevant as the hero and his (or her!) villain. As the hero and his or her sidekick/best friend/brother-or-sister-in-arms. It’s not enough for your main character’s romance to be “pretty interesting”--it’s got to be as interesting as his or her relationship with every other character in the story.

Now of course there are ways around this. A father-and-son story with a romance on the side doesn’t necessarily need to elevate the romance above the father-and-son dynamic. A hero and villain story where the villain is a complete monster that no one in their right mind would ship is probably safe, etc.  

But I guess the basic baseline is this: If you’re bothering to write in a romance for your main character... don’t you--shouldn’t you--want it to be as compelling, intense, and believable as the relationships you write for any other characters?

If you want fans to love the love you’re written into your stories, you’ve got to give that love the same attention and effort as everything else in your plot.

How do you do this? What actual actions can you take in your writing to apply this idea? I don’t have a definitive answer that will magically make everyone’s romances perfect, and really, none of this is particularly revolutionary, but I think these are all good reminders that even when we’re writing our own original stories, there’s stuff we can do to check if we’re “doing it right”:

Make a single chart of all major character interactions in your story, especially those which provoke strong emotional responses in your characters and those which are relevant to the story’s main plot. You can mark positive emotional interactions in one color, negative emotional interactions in another. Do something to indicate the level of intensity for these interactions. Then, step back and look at the big picture. Which characters really have the most interactions? The most intense interactions? The most plot relevant interactions? If the canon romance you’re planning doesn’t have as many, as much intensity, or as much plot relevance as the relationship between your main lead and another character, think about how you can change that.

Ask yourself the important questions: Where is the real emotional energy in my story? Which characters have the most tension (positive or negative)? Which characters promote the most growth in each other through their interactions? Which characters are the real “movers and shakers” of the main plots? How do interactions with other characters help to advance Character B’s individual character growth? Spend time consciously thinking about the flow and cores of emotion in your story. Who really makes the biggest difference in your hero’s life?

Remove the romance and look at the story again. If romance is not the main point of your story, go back to your character interaction chart and remove all the romance and romantically-led plot points. What does the interaction chart look like now? Do your romantic leads still have compelling interactions even with the romance removed? Do they still motivate and help each other grow as characters even if they’re not romantic partners? Are their remaining actions relevant to the main plot? And, most importantly: with the romance removed, do they still have intensity? Are they still part of the story’s “emotional core”? Is there still as much or more energy between them than between the main character and others? If the answer is no, that’s a good sign that you can probably develop your romantic lead and his/her relationship to the hero more fully--or better integrate it into the main story and their personal stories--in order to improve the depth and quality of their relationship in the eyes of fans.

Take another look at your female characters. Even if you’re a female writer yourself, that doesn’t mean you automatically write great women. In fact, we’re often so conditioned to see males as the drivers of narratives that even series by female authors, with female protagonists sometimes fall into the trap of having a male character doing all the real heavy-lifting in the plot. Check your girls again. Do they have as much meaningful influence on the main plot as your male characters? Do they have as much meaningful influence on other characters’ personal arcs? If you remove all the romance, do they still have these influences? Are your female characters allowed to have as much diversity in their emotional interactions with others as your male characters are? Do the intensities of these women’s feelings match the intensities of the men’s feelings, even (especially) when romance is removed from the equation?

And I’m sure there are many more things you can try along the same lines.

Really, the idea I want other writers--professional, amateur original writers, or even just fan writers--to take away from this is the notion that we should never rest on our laurels and assume we know what’s what. We should never just expect our fans to agree with us as writers.

And, more than that, when the fans prefer something other than what we intended, we should always, always use that gap as motivation to rethink our writing, to discover where we might have fumbled in our plotting and character creation.

Fans don’t (usually) ship randomly. Most of the time, there’s a logic and pattern to this “madness.” If a non-canon ship becomes mega-popular, it’s usually because the fans saw something the creators missed.

And that is always--always--an opportunity to reflect and grow for future projects.

PHEW. I’M DONE! I did it! Man, this was such a labor of love... I hope some people actually read it...

[chosen-42-blog]

‘love you to the moon and back’

“I love you to the moon and back“, a quote from the children’s book "Guess How Much I Love You", meant to express that one loves another person more than they can imagine.

From ancient times to the present, MOON is always be seen as a symbol of beauty, romance and mysterious. Therefore, the curiosity and exploration to the moon have never stopped. On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first and second person to walk on the moon. At the time, US President Richard Nixon was in the first place. They talked to them on a landline. In the televised broadcast of the call, Nixon told the astronauts that the whole world is proud of them. "Because of everything you do, heaven has become a part of the human world." Humans regard the moon as a wonderful symbol. It is both the goal of scientific inquiry and political expansion, as well as the source of romance and the desire of art. Common ambitions and desires have gone through thousands of years of accumulation, and humans have finally had a close contact with the closest neighbors of the Earth half a century ago.

In order to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apollo's moon landing and to explore the complex and strong attraction of the moon to humans, the global art circle has also presented exhibition projects related to the "moon" to explore the human image of the moon and its importance and power of charming.

Firstly, the exhibition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Apollo's Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography, explores the visual performance of the moon from the beginning of photography technology. In addition to the photos, the exhibition also features a series of related sketches, prints, oil paintings, movies, astronomical instruments and cameras used by Apollo astronauts.

On July 20, 1969, 500 million viewers around the world watched the first moon landing photo uploaded by the American astronauts from the moon. The images helped humans remember this very historical moment in their unique way. The limit of human vision was pushed. To the new dimension.

▲ El Meyers, "Le Voyage dans la lune" film excerpt, 1902

This "moon landing"-themed film pioneered the sci-fi film, which made the film a platform for fantasy and a tool for entertainment. This year's exhibition in the West, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of Apollo's moon landing, almost all showed the film.

Another typical exhibition is the museum of the moon. The Moon Museum is an art installation project for global tours. British artist Luke Jerram replicates the moon at a ratio of 1:500,000. Through the image of NASA, he displays every corner and crack of the moon's surface on an internally illuminated 23-foot diameter sphere, representing 5 kilometers of the moon per centimeter. As Jerram said in an article: "I hope this project can reproduce a myth, inspire people's doubts and re-engage with the night sky." This installation of more than 30 museums, palaces and landmarks has been popular in Europe and the United States since two years ago. But it is not as simple as a photo location. Its popularity comes from the result of the common emotions, myths and narratives of human beings. When you stand in front of this huge moon, it seems to be surrounded and impacted by the charm of the vast universe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX6HrVdtC7A

OLALA 2018-The Museum of the Moon, Luke Jerram

Moon Museum, British National History Museum, London

As it travels from one place to another, it will collect new musical compositions and continue to collect personal reactions, stories and myths, as well as highlight the latest lunar science. The device combines a moon image, moonlight and surround sound, created by British composer Dan Jones. From the beginning of human history, the moon has become a "cultural mirror" of our way of faith, understanding and observation. For centuries, the moon has been interpreted as a god and a planet. It is used for timing, calendaring, and assisted night navigation. Throughout history, the moon has inspired artists, poets, scientists, writers and musicians all over the world. A round of the moon, a delicate new moon with the sun, or the mysterious dark side of the moon, the faint blue light that evokes people's passion and exploration. Different cultures around the world have their own historical, cultural, scientific and religious relationships with the moon. The Moon Museum allows us to observe and think about cultural differences and similarities around the world and to consider the latest lunar science. The meaning and interpretation of the work will vary depending on where the work is presented. New stories and meanings will be collected through local research on the artwork of each location. (https://my-moon.org/about/)

Moon Museum, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

Moon Museum, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto

Moon Museum,  Milano

Moon Museum, Water Cube, Beijing

For a long time, human beings have a long-lasting fascination with the fascinating spheres in the sky, so this exhibition shows various paintings, scientific instruments and contemporary art through interactive installations, displays and art installations to explore the moon in human faith and science. And the various roles played in the arts. 

Talking back to the meaning of moon exhibition, those exhibitions aim to memorize the 50th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon. In today’s context of the United States’ “returning to the moon”, the establishment of a lunar space station, and other countries competing to explore the moon, people cannot forget the political, scientific, technological, economic, and life-like aspects of Apollo’s manned moon landing on human society. Even the great influence and promotion brought by the spirit.For the time being, the US “Return to the Moon” program will also draw heavily on the experience and technology of the Apollo manned moon landing project. Many of the programs and technologies of the year are not out of date even today. The Apollo manned moon landing project will continue to affect the global influence for many generations and affect generations.

| Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing logo. The prominent two letters O nested the Moon and Mars, respectively, meaning that the two planets NASA has explored, from "Apollo" to the moon, to "return to the moon", and then to Mars in the future. The next huge overflight refers to the next era to explore the focus: Mars. Samsung represents the three stars on the Orion belt. This logo was designed by NASA graphic artist Matthew Skins.|

In the fierce space competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union successively won several firsts: launching the world's first artificial earth satellite, launching the world's first moon detector, and launching it. The world’s first manned spaceship... The United States deeply feels that this is an extremely serious political issue. Therefore, the United States has been eager to surpass the slogan of the Soviet Union and is determined to show the United States as the world’s number one superpower. Level and national strength.

On May 25, 1961, US President Kennedy announced to the world that he would implement a majestic manned moon landing plan. “I think that our country should achieve the goal of sending people to the moon and returning them safely to Earth before the end of this decade.” Thus, the implementation of the manned mission to the moon in the United States is a political decision. The purpose is to re-establish the technological leadership of the United States in the eyes of the people of the world and to invigorate the spirit of the United States.

| President Kennedy speaks on the "Apollo" project in Congress |

The project is named after the sun god "Apollo". Although it can be seen as an ad hoc plan to compete with the Soviet Union, it is also the first step in human expansion into the solar system. Its purpose is to achieve manned moon landings and human field visits to the moon, for manned planets and Probing for technical preparation.

The Apollo manned moon landing project has greatly stimulated the slow-moving space program in the United States. Various people from all walks of life have offered suggestions, and it took only eight years to get on the moon.

                                                 | Apollo 11 Badge |

The success and achievements of the Apollo program have great historical and practical significance.

Politically, it has finally established the United States in a leading position in many aspects of space technology, and has produced a great reputation. In science, it has made humans have the first direct research and understanding of the moon and near-moon space. In terms of technology, many breakthroughs have been made, which not only laid the foundation for the later aerospace program, but also widely used in the national economy.

In engineering management, NASA has thus gained a series of valuable experience in large-scale engineering planning and management. Economically, this is a more controversial issue, but according to the Zeiss report, the “Apollo” plan has increased the US economic growth rate by 2%, the price index by 2%, and created 800,000 employment indicators. The Zeiss report also believes that In 1958, the US national income was 406.2 billion US dollars. In 1968, it reached 864 billion US dollars. In 1970, it increased to 90.46 billion US dollars. 

The implementation of the project has led to a large number of high-tech industrial groups such as liquid fuel rockets, microwave radars, remote control operations, radio guidance, ultra-high strength and high temperature resistant synthetic materials, new electronic computers, pharmaceuticals and bioengineering. Later, many technical achievements such as artificial intelligence, robotics and remote control operations of the project were transferred to civilian use, which promoted the overall development and prosperity of science and technology and industry. The benefits of secondary development and application far exceeded the Apollo program itself. Direct economic and social benefits.

In the last 10 years of the 20th century, the United States was able to maintain high-speed and efficient growth, thanks in large part to the thousands of application technology achievements or patent applications in the economic field derived from the Apollo manned moon landing project. The United States is ahead of the world. High-tech, such as information, biology, and new materials, comes from the digestion, optimization, and secondary development of lunar exploration technology.

In the implementation of the Apollo manned moon landing project, in order to cool down and ensure the safety of the astronauts on the moon, the liquid cooling suit was developed. The principle is to use the pump to deliver cold water circulation refrigeration. Later, this technology was directly applied to the army, navy and air force. The working conditions of tankers, submarines and pilots have also reduced the suffering for some special patients. For example, there is a little boy who has scalded scalpel disease and can't dissipate heat through the skin. Therefore, most of his time can only be kept in the air-cooled environment. Many daily activities can't participate. After the liquid cold clothes, he can Go out and play, save from illness and loneliness.

Another popular bar code for shopping pricing is one of the aerospace technology masterpieces that was originally invented by the United States to control the countless components of the Apollo program.

The intensive care unit was one of the important medical advances brought by aerospace technology. It was originally born in response to the Apollo program's need for health testing of astronauts on the moon.

The dried cabbage leaves in instant noodles are the dehydrated vegetables commonly used in aerospace foods. They are used to store, store, and transport excess water in vegetables. The Apollo program first uses this technology to allow astronauts to eat vegetables. Aerospace foods are now widely available in aerospace foods.

All kinds of fashionable sneakers are also the "products" of Apollo's achievements. The "air blow molding" manufacturing technology is derived from the Apollo plan for the production of space suits. At that time, scientists made a complete and uniform thickness. The large-pressure space suit liner invented a method of heating and softening a group of pressure-resistant soft materials, placing them in a mold, and then blowing high-pressure gas into the mold. After that, the sneaker manufacturer found that the process could Quickly and efficiently create a complete upper that is widely used.

In conclusion, human desire for space and resources is growing towards rationality with the advancement of technology. On September 5, 1977, NASA unmanned probe traveler 1 launched into the solar system. Voyager 1 carries a gold-plated bronze record with a diameter of 30 cm, trying to introduce humanity to the extraterrestrial civilization as completely as possible. The album contains 115 pictures of the earth's features, humans, knowledge and solar system celestial bodies; 55 kinds of earth language greetings, beginning with the Aka German used by the Sumerians 6,000 years ago, ending in Chinese dialects; Dogs, birds, trains, and other "voices of the earth"; there are also music from a variety of cultures, including Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, Chinese Guqin "Water", Chuck Berry's rock, African blows Music, the voice of New Guineans, and so on. When astronomer Carl Sagan presided over the compilation of the album content, people's expectations of discovering extraterrestrial civilization seemed to be a little higher and more romantic than now, unlike the calmness of more than 40 years. Today, the urban legendary craze of UFO and alien signs is over, but serious exploration is still in progress.I don't know if we can see the breakthrough in our lifetime. We don't know when humans can really leave the cradle and start the interstellar voyage. We don't know whether the form of life will exceed the range we are familiar with, or even whether human cognition is enough to understand the universe and itself. The only thing that can be determined at the moment is that as long as the human species still exists, there will always be some members who will be the pioneers of travel, extending the footprints of human footprints and thinking to farther places.

[kyanitedragon]

I'm a year late to the party, but I recently watched and got obsessed with "Half Life VR But The AI Is Self-Aware"

and I wanted to recommend it to the people that follow me, especially my fellow aros!

If you don't know what it is (i literally just found out two weeks ago haha whoops), it's a series of Twitch / Youtube videos of an improv roleplay featuring a heavily modded game of Half Life VR.

There's the main edited and subtitled video series, as well as the uncut full streams. And even Q&A's and Commentary and Behind The Scenes, which are all very worth watching if you enjoyed the series.

As for why I specifically recommend it:

First off, it's the most hilarious thing I've seen. Seriously. Just give it five minutes.

The characters are great and well-developed, and I'm incredibly emotional about each one.

The improv roleplay is excellent. You can tell that its all improv, and in the best way. You can tell that none of them know where the story is going next and what chaotic things will happen. And, as the crew explains in the Commentary, some of the most iconic scenes were entirely unscripted and unplanned, a lot of them actually being mistakes or glitches!

There's really interesting lore and worldbuilding, even if it happens in minor ways. The crew pays attention to what random improv they say, and they incorporate some of the most random or silly things into the lore for later.

There was so much love and friendship put into the series. You can tell from the laughter in-series, and especially when watching the Commentaries it's revealed just how much the crew enjoyed working on it, seeing it transform and grow, and how the majority of the series is built on the crew's own inside jokes with each other.

And if you're like me and into stories featuring non-human characters, especially humans interacting with them, that's here too! (Although, fair warning, they do all constantly keep humanoid forms. Fanworks do often get creative and portray eldritch forms, but this doesn't happen in canon. The most you get in canon is skeletons and people turning into cars.)

And finally, it's Found Family! And there's no romance in the series, either! (Technically an implied unrequited crush does become a plot point, but it's done in a... very different way than usual and probably won't cause any romance repulsion.)

There's also a trans woman on the team, and she controls and voices Doctor Coomer who is arguably the best character, and she comes up with some of the best and funniest lines in the whole series!

And as for the fandom, (spoiler warning for these links!) I'm blown away by the talent of the artists as well as the ideas, headcanons, and worldbuilding of the writers! Everyone seems very in-agreement about both character designs and post-series headcanons - something I've never seen to this extent in any fandom before.

Anyway. Just wanted to share my newfound love for this series, since it took me over a year to actually realize what the heck it even was.

[sonofhistory]

James Monroe’s Misadventures with Women.

In perfect honesty, James Monroe was not a quote “ladies man”. Monroe’s views on women’s rights and education (which I wrote here) heavily influenced his relationship with women as well as his inclination to obtain female friends rather than anything further. Another reason for Monroe not having any serious “relationships” with women before his marriage to Elizabeth Kortright was his complete shyness and reserve around them. 

In regards to Monroe’s time in college, it was rather tame. Besides the occasionally tavern visits with James Innes (of whom he looked up to), Monroe, receiving this rare opportunity on a scholarship to formally education himself took it up with every form of dedication. During his time at the College of William and Mary, besides becoming submerged by his studies, was also caught in the political fervor of Williamsburg in 1775. There is no documentation of Monroe having any sort of relationships with women during the year and a half he was in college before dropping out to enlist in the 3rd Virginia regiment. 

Vividly, Monroe could recall the night of December 25th, 1776 in which George Washington’s army crossing the Delaware river into Trenton. Sent on an early scouting mission across the water due to a depressing depletion of their regimental numbers (one third were ill), Monroe and his regiment, of which he was in second command under William Washington, crossed the river first. By the morning of the 26th, Monroe was the second soldier to go down after a musket ball was fired through his shoulder a few inches above his heart and he nearly perished if not for the work of Dr. Riker who clamped the wound after Monroe passed out due to blood loss. This eighteen year old was soon passed onto the care of Henry Wyncoop’s family of whom cared for him in his ten weeks of recovery. 

It was at the Wyncoop family that Monroe possibly experienced his first real “crush” (as is documented). There is a family legend, still passed on today from the 18th century that while James Monroe was staying at the house of Henry Wyncoop, he fell in love with Wyncoop’s eldest daughter Christine Wyncoop. Christine would of been the closest in contact with Monroe who remained in bed recovering from his wound. However, because Christine was already engaged to another man, she did not return Monroe’s affections. Even as late at 1823, Monroe sent a letter to the Wyncoop family to thank them for their dedication to his heath of which ultimately saved him from infection. 

There is a false tale, which led to speculation during the 1920s and the involvement of Monroe’s great-granddaughter to quiet the untrue claims. The story goes that after Monroe got shot at the Battle of Trenton, he was brought to the home of Lord Stirling first (untrue, Monroe even says in his autobiography he stayed in one home for one night and then the Wyncoop’s for nine weeks). At the home, Monroe met and fell in love with a Ms. Nannie Brown, an orphaned niece of the Brockholst family. While Nannie nursed Monroe back to health, she shared his affections and when he recovered, he proposed to which she accepted. Unfortunately, her Brockholst relatives disapproved and so did Lord Stirling’s family as they insisted he was not as known as they wanted for her (little did they know he was to be president of the United States one day). Stirling thought Monroe only wanted to marry Nannie because of her family connections. 

After Nannie and Monroe protested that their love was true, Lord Stirling promoted Monroe to captain (this actually happened via George Washington, hence more reason why the anecdote is just a legend) and turned him into his aide de camp. Plans for a wedding proceeded as much as shortages in money would allow. Monroe supposedly presented his wife to be with a gold engagement band that read “consent is content”. He also gave her a locket with his silhouette engraved into it. However, the day of the wedding Monroe sent her a letter stopping the marriage and their engagement. This anecdote, though fun, is untrue considering the timing and facts are completely in correct. Monroe even was in good connections with Stirling until his death which adds more to the falsification of the story. (I’d like to also add that Alexander Hamilton’s son-in law, the one who published the story four generations later, harrassed Monroe’s great granddaughter over it). 

While an aide to Lord Stirling, Monroe came into contact with most all of the generals. His lifelong best friend and roommate in college, John F. Mercer, served as Charles Lee’s aide de camp while in result caused Monroe to be in Lee’s company often. Their first meeting occurred sometime in the month of April 1778. Lee sensed great abilities behind Monroe’s shy exterior and encouraged him to display more self confidence. “I have always asserted that you [would] appear one of the first characters of this Country, if your shyness did not prevent you display of your knowledge and talents you posses,” Lee wrote to him. Another time, Lee wrote to the nineteen year old, “I am extremely concerned that fortune has been so unkind as not to admit of your cultivating the talents which nature has bestowed on you to a greater advantage than your present situation seems to promise.” At Monroe’s thought of studying law when his military career was at its closing, Lee responded that law was “a most horrid narrower of the mind.” Lee also encouraged Monroe to overcame his “mauvaise honte” (French for bashfulness) which he felt was preventing him from establishing himself. 

In the late summer James Monroe accompanied Stirling to Elizabethtown, a site chosen for the brigade headquarters. Monroe, at the residence of Mrs. Theodosia Prevost (later Mrs. Burr) felt at home. Although it was technically illegal for the wife of a British citizen to remain behind the American lines, Monroe and other friends used their influence to prevent her evacuation. The thirty-five-year-old Theodosia was a center of a fascinating and lively social group that included Aaron Burr. Her intellectual interests, her knowledge and freedom of conversation grew her a group of admirers, including Major Monroe himself. 

While at the Hermitage (home of Theodosia), Monroe fell in love for the first time and indulged in a sentimental affaire de coeur with one of the young ladies he met at Mrs. Prevost’s. Of this attachment and its complexities, he confided with Theodosia in half-serious and half-humorous lines:

“A young lady who either is, or pretends to be, in love, is as you know, my dear Mrs. Prevost, the most unreasonable creature in existence. If you looks a smile or a frown, which does not immediately give or deprive you of happiness (at least to appearance), your company soon becomes very insipid. Each feature has its beauty, and each attitude the graces, or you have no judgement. But if you are so stupidly insensible of her charms as to deprive your tongue and your eyes of ever expressing of admiration, and not only to be silent in respecting her, but devote them to an absent object, she cannot receive a higher insult; now would she, if not restrained by politeness refrain from open resentment.”

The young lady in question remains unknown to this day and her name was not marked down in any place. The woman of Monroe’s affection had objected to his intention of completing his studies in France. When Monroe had seen her at Basking Ridge he had attempted to convince her that it was unreasonable that he should go abroad to complete his studies by reminding her of the fortitude Mrs. Prevost was displaying during the long separation from her husband. This had touched the young lady deeply and Monroe begged Theodosia to forgive him for speaking so freely of her difficulties:

“I hope you will forgive me, my dear little friend, if I produced you to give life to the image. The instance, she owned, was application. She felt for you from the heart, and she had a heart capable of feeling. She wished not a misfortune similar to yours; but, if I was resolved to make it so, she would strive to imitate your example. I have no permission to go where I please but you must not forget her . . . Encourage her, and represent the advantage I shall gain from travel. But why would I desire you to do what I know your own heart will dictate? For a heart so capable of friendship feels its own pain alleviated by alleviated that of others.”

The young man also wrote that he was upset of how quickly some were prone to lose interest and asked Theodosia if they could talk about it on his upcoming visit. If there was any type of romance between Monroe and the young lady, as evident, it fizzled out by the time Monroe resigned from Stirling’s staff on December 20th, 1778. 

Besides casual flirtations, Monroe did not establish any real courtships until he met his future wife, Elizabeth Kortright in August of 1785 when he was twenty-seven years old. At a formal ball of which George Washington attended on an occasion, one lady apparently got a “touch” of James Monroe (meaning they got a dance). His flirtations during his time as a congressman gave rise to rumors he was in more serious attachments. June of 1784, Monroe, on congressional interlude took the chance to company Native American commissioners bound for Fort Schuyler in New York. He sailed from New York with the commissioners on a sloop. Catherine “Kitty” Livingston was also there, and so was several other ladies bound for Albany for the summer. Monroe sought to be agreeable to them and reactions ranged from amusement to mild infatuation. Aboard the ship, Monroe also found another woman of which he became interested in. They all enjoyed his company expect for Miss Sarah Vaughan who made comments on him on her return home:

“Poor Col[onel] Monroe! The man is in despair he had written a letter to Gen[eral] Gates telling him that he had lost his heart aboard the Albany sloop, and fills the sheet with a panegyric upon his fair one. I fear his love did not meet with a return, but we were blind and not acquainted with one half of his perfections of person or mind, they were sumed up to me this day and amounted to eight which includes every perfection that a female can wish or a man envy. He is a member of Congress, rich, young, sensible, well read, lively, and handsome. I forgot the other accompaniments, and will not subscribe to the last unless you prove the dimple on his chin to be what constitutes beauty, and I have a doubt about the sixth unless it is agreed that affording [a] subject of gaiety and liveliness to the company you are in, is the same thing as being gay and lively yourself. If you are the goddess at whose shrine he worships inform me of it that I may think higher of his perfection. His being your choice will have great influence upon me, and stop me when I might be saucily inclined, for at present he is more the object of my diversion than admiration.”

Apparently Monroe still was unable to shake off his mauvairse honte that Charles Lee once chided him for. In asking his uncle Joseph Jones for advice in his uncertainty of his attachment to women, Jones said a woman should have “sensibility and kindness of heart--good nature without levity--a modest share of good sense with some portions of domestic experience and economy will generally if united in the female character produce that happiness to be that of the domestic circle; only then did a man acquire a sense of security and stability not to be obtained elsewhere”. In this letter, Monroe also confided his difficulty in becoming attached to women due to a lack of attraction of pure interest. 

Elizabeth Kortright and her sisters in New York made, one night, "made so brilliant and lovely an appearance” at the theater one evening, “as you depopulate all the other boxes of all the genteel male people therein.” It was upon this stage in the early August of 1785 that Monroe met Elizabeth Kortright, his future wife and partner of whom Monroe in his seventies stated had been “the partner of all the toils and cares to which he has since been exposed in his public trusts abroad and at home. When the nature of these is considered, and the duties of a family devoted to the honor and interest of the country and bound to cherish economy, it will readily be conceived that her burdens and cares must have been great. It is a remark, which it would unpardonable to withhold, that it was improbable for any female to have fulfilled all the duties of the partner of such care, and of a wife and parent, with more attention, delicacy and propriety than she has done.”

Interested in more? Read what I wrote on the Life of Elizabeth Monroe 1768-1785

[tottwritesfanfic]

So, I was tagged by @gilrael for the following:

List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on.

This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets!

HOO BOY.

Listen, my first reaction was pretty much “I can’t list all the things I’m currently working on. It’s...no one wants to read that whole list. It’s too long. There’s too much.”

I have been called out good and proper, but you know what? This is what the read more button was made for. These won’t be in any particular order, because I really don’t have an “order” in which I work on things? Also, some of these projects are so far on the back-burner that I really can’t say I’m actively working on them, but I never know when inspiration will strike next and divert me from what I should be doing. Essentially, if it makes the list, I think of it in my head as “imma finish this.” 

Buckle up peeps, because we May Be Some Time.

My Epic YA Fantasy Series Featuring Pretty Much Zero Romance. I neglect this series way too much for something I consider my firstborn, but this is my Passion, okay. My very username is derived from the initials of the series title. I’ve been writing and rewriting it for almost two thirds of my life now, and one day when I have something to show for that labour of love, I will be screaming about it from the rooftops. Mark my words. Also I counted this as one but there’s like...at least five novels, and also shitloads of maps and worldbuilding notes, and songs, and I have a boxfile of old pictures drawn by myself or my sister, and progress on three or four conlangs... It’s hard to really convey just how much of this shit there actually is, if I’m honest.

Hope’s Fire My first ever proper fanfic, and also sorely neglected of late. I love this story so much though, and once I push past the block I have for the current chapter I can’t wait to progress with it, because there are fuuuun times ahead.

A Standalone Novel (sucky working title is “The Aspect’s Choice”) Another YA novel, which...actually has a complete draft? Like, start to finish with no skipped scenes or anything like that. There’s magic and shit, and also no romance for the lead, it’s like this is a theme in my works or something (there’s a background romance this time tho, for those of you who like shipping).

A Fantasy Trilogy about paradoxes and multidimensional travel. I’m mentioning this one now even though I’m kinda...not working on it that much, because I’ve borrowed heavily from it for some fanfic projects. The first novel is a fantasy spy thriller, the second is a sort of...ensemble piece about a major disaster at a futuristic interdimensional traffic control place a lot like an airport/train station, and the third one is a journey through space and time on a sorta magic train which explains how the fuck the first two books are actually connected.

A World of Trouble (The Spy AU) Haikyuu fic! I started this for the HQ Brofest last year and it’s really taken off. The plot for this story was shamelessly nicked from the first book in the above trilogy, albeit with some fairly substantial divergences. 

Until We Move On My...actually, daaamn, this was my first HQ fic. I entered this fandom in a fairly definite fashion, with Suga already dead and Oikawa following shortly after - I swear it’ll have a happy ending for them both eventually tho.

Metanoia, Renascent, and Equanimity (the Trinacriform series) I debated listing these separately, to be honest. There’s no denying that Metanoia and Equanimity are higher up on my list of things to work on than Renascent is right now, but all three are still important to me and all three are going to be finished someday. Ultimately they’re here as one because holy shit this list is going to be long enough already.  Rest assured I do actually think of them as three separate entities in my head! 

The Triffid AU (just gonna list these because there are Several and holy shit I’m still so far from the end): Dangers Unseen - First in the series, Karasuno accidentally sleep through the apocalypse. Interview Transcripts - Set a few months after DU; tells all the side-stories I have to skip in DU for pacing reasons. Seijoh arc (current working title of “In Search of Silver” which will almost certainly change) - I haven’t posted any of this yet but it’s hecking angsty. A Bit Like Home - Sequel to Dangers Unseen, set a year or so after. Also hasn’t been posted anywhere yet. At the moment it’s mostly bokuaka stuff but the idea is for it to be a collection of sorta halfway standalone stories.  I have more ideas for this AU than just these, but I haven’t started writing them yet and I’m not GOING to until this list gets shorter.

An Error of Cat-Astrophic Proportions I’m not gonna lie, this basically started out as a stupid halfway-joking crack fic and it got out of control. 

Partner Fic to “The Carpenter’s Gift” I started writing this and got a couple of thousand words in and then basically started over. I’ll get there. Probably not before the following though:

KiyoYachi Soul Animal AU fic Set in the same universe as “The Carpenter’s Gift”, sorta...around the same time?

Another Original Fantasy Trilogy I love my fantasy, okay? The three novels in this series are all technically started, although only two of them have any substance: The Legend and the Lake is a novel about a Great Hero, and how he...actually isn’t as much of a hero as he’s going to be remembered as.  Spells and Fire is about a real fucking hero and her apprentices, and how she absolutely will not be given full credit for all she does (because she’s a bit of an arse) The Lake Guardian’s Child will be a story about a minor goddess who meets a mortal that immediately falls in love with her, and their journey to cure him of that love because he’s actually sorta engaged already.

Not Within This Restless Heart A HQ!! poly soulmate au which will probably piss off a lot of people by teh end, because no one who’s read it seems to have caught on about how complex the poly relationship is actually gonna be.

Digimon Frontier Fic - working title “Loss and Gain” I can’t really explain this one properly. It’s Angst, that’s all.

Best Laid Plans A secret santa fic I need to finish! I have part of the second and final chapter written, but life intervened and I lost my flow. Hoping to get back to it some time in the next week.

Bokuto Koutarou’s Excellent, Totally Foolproof Plan To Save Christmas As above, really (except it’s the final of 3 chapters, and it’s also the sort-of sequel to “An Error of Cat-Astrophic Proportions” ). I want to finish this up soon, so hopefully life will stop being annoying!

Lifetime Achievement Ennotana fic in which Ennoshita is a film director up for a highly prestigious award he’s dreamed of for his whole life...but he has amnesia and it currently means nothing to him.

Travellers AU - Yachi story For the HQ Brofest! Details are hush-hush for now but it’s the same universe as my time travel practical joke fics. Expect similarly ridiculous stuff.

Things We Misplaced Someone accidentally challenged me to write angsty smut which wasn’t hatesex. Smut is not my thing but I’m really stubborn okay, so I’m writing it.

BNHA Bang Fic Details are under wraps for now, but it’s gonna be fun.

A Zine Fic. It’s early days, okay?

Swansong It angst. Also not being posted to this account, for Reasons.

The Digital Fallout AU A ridiculously wide-scope Digimon AU featuring crossover appearances from like, almost all the series. It’s very much on the back burner for now but I still like thinking about it. Someday. Currently comprises of two kinda short fics: “Adventure’s End” and “The Home Frontier” but I’ve planned a LOT further.

Connection Problems This was going to be for the HQBB in 2017 but I got a massive block and had to put it on hold. I’m hoping to revisit it and finish it up by...maybe Halloween.

The Book An original novel I’ve intermittently been working on for a few years now. Essentially the titular book may or may not be sentient, but it is definitely malicious.

First Draft The..um...sequel to my standalone novel, and both my fantasy trilogies. In my defence it started out as a joke and spiralled out of control and now I want to write it for real but I literally have seven novels to finish first. 

...so yeah. That’s more or less all my active (on some level) writing projects. Hopefully I didn’t forget anything! There are a few more which I have ideas for, but I haven’t started them yet and I’m not going to until this shitstorm is a little less overwhelming. I also have costumes for my kids that I’m about to make, but...I’m not going into other creative ventures here because I will literally never finish. Oh, and there’s tagging, too... Huge apologies for dragging you to the end of this hot mess, but I’m calling on @draculasstrawhat and @ahiddenpath along with any other mutuals who didn’t already get tagged (I know I took long enough to do this that a lot of people already did!) No obligations of course, but I love seeing what people are up to!

[specsnsarcasm]

My Review of... ‘Passengers’

I finally got around to seeing the movie Passengers (2016) and umm… what the hecking heck was that?!?!

[Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD!]

CASTING PROBLEMS:

First of all, I know it’s supposed to be everybody’s cinematic wet dream, putting Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt together (the way people wanted to see what the offspring of the two so-called “most beautiful people in the world” - Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt - would look like). It was the people’s experiment! Put these two “likeable”, “relatable”, “funny”, good-looking people together, and watch the movie magic unfold! So riddle me this: why put these two in a sci-fi drama of all things, when a simple rom-com would have sufficed!?

Second, I don’t think these two had much chemistry. Sure, they don’t do anything empirically wrong (save a little overacting here and there), but I just didn’t believe them as a couple. I was very aware that I was watching two people acting the way you think two people should when they’re in love. You can practically see the weight of everyone’s expectations on their shoulders. Be sexy! Be charming! Be perfect! I wondered if they had any fun making this movie at all!

I also found something very odd about this pairing. Maybe it’s the age difference (25, at the time, to his 36)? I find that Lawrence tends to play too mature for her real age, playing a lot of late-20′s or 30-something characters. She has lots of time for that, but I guess she’s highly bankable right now and can physically play a wide range? Hollywood is not kind to women. They cast a 25 year old as a 35 year old, and a 35 year old as dust (but that’s another story). Or maybe it’s the imbalance of star power? She is arguably the bigger star. Either way, something was off. 

I maintain that Pratt’s best work is as a comedic actor. I know he’s trying to branch out or whatever, but I just don’t buy him as a “leading man”. Not in an all-out, dramatic role. Not yet, anyway. He was good in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) as the wise-cracking, cocksure rebel. And in Jurassic World (2015) as a more rugged, wise-cracking, cocksure rebel. And in The Magnificent Seven (2016) as an EVEN MORE rugged, wise-cracking, cocksure rebel. He just didn’t quite fit the bill here for me. Although he plays it straight, he kept making me laugh unintentionally (that’s the problem with getting typecast). Especially with three, count em’, one, two, THREE gratuitous butt shots. (We get it!!! BUTTS!). Anyway, dozens of other, half-decent “name” actors could have done a perfectly serviceable job in this role, so by casting Pratt, you’re asking for something that only Pratt can do well. Let him do his thing if that’s why you like him so much!

CHARACTER/STORY PROBLEMS:

Right away, the movie has parallels to the extremely hard-to-top The Martian (2015). But this film has neither the charm, humour, or the gravitas. I found myself comparing Jim to Mark Watney. Both are stranded and alone, both have technical skills. However, unlike Jim, Mark has the mental fortitude NOT to crack almost immediately under pressure. Not that I judge Jim, but the emotional progression in The Martian seems more steady and realistic than in this, which dealt with its characters' emotional journeys very superficially. I didn’t feel that the movie did a good enough job of tapping into Jim’s early despair, psychology, or the agoraphobia of space. At one point when things start to go wrong with the ship, Lawrence’s character says that she was trapped in her room for days. Show me, don’t tell me! That would have been interesting to see! Just as it would have been interesting to see (not just glean) how Jim and Aurora live out the remainder of their years. I thought the movie would eventually get to it. They don’t. Superficiality was a running theme.   

Another one of the film’s downfalls is the lack of curiosity about its own premise: the science fiction of it all! I wondered about their training on Earth beforehand, and why Jim doesn’t scan through the other bios to find a doctor, biologist, or another engineer - someone with whom he can work the problem! I want so badly for Jim to “science the shit” out of something, as Watney does. Instead, he opts for the company of the aptly named (if not a little on-the-nose) sleeping beauty, Aurora; a writer, who isn’t very helpful in that regard. For such a futuristic premise, the story is disappointingly regressive. (i.e. a love interest with nothing to offer but being pretty? Okay). 

The two of them experience no real sense of existential wonder/dread, curiosity about the ship, about the technology, about space. It's all restaurants and fucking on cafeteria tables! They might as well have been at an Earth resort! At one point, they are literally standing up close to a Red Giant, but they look at it for all of two seconds before they’re like “OK cool. Welp! Let’s go have sex now!” This isn’t so much a science fiction movie as it is a 'bottle' drama, that happens to be set on a space ship. The location is completely secondary, and the beautiful visuals of space and the ship are just convenient backdrops to the “will they or won’t they?” romance. *Sigh*.

One of the most interesting parts of the story, I found, which they don't even discuss, is the nebulous “Homestead Corporation”. It manufactures faulty pods, and even in the future on other planets, it treats passengers by class. I wonder what sort of civilization they hope to create on a new planet by doing this. Is this the reality that people have accepted in the future? Is there any opposition to this? By whom? They mention other colonies: what do they look like? How do they function politically? Do other countries or competing companies possess these technologies too? Is it completely private, non-governmental or governmental? If so, do countries own planets, or is it just corporations? They could make a whole movie out of this! (Copyright: Specsnsarcasm, 2017. haha)! In essence, it’s similar to the Weyland Corporation in Alien (1979) & Prometheus (2012).

MAJOR PROBLEMS

Arthur and its whole vibe. I was instantly creeped out by Arthur the android (played by the delightful Martin Sheen). It operates a bar that is decorated in 70′s decor that is reminiscent of The Shining (1980). The reason for this retro aesthetic is kind of confusing and jarring on such a futuristic vessel (but sure!). But it also primed me to think that, like the bartender in The Shining, there was something amiss about Arthur. It befriends (as much as an android can) Jim first, then Aurora. Early on, Jim entrusts it not to divulge his terrible secret to Aurora. A promise which Arthur makes, yet readily betrays. But why would Arthur tell her? It’s an android, it has no moral imperative to divulge the truth. Nor does it have any reason to show loyalty to Aurora over Jim or betray an expressed request. This tricked me into thinking there was an Alien/Prometheus situation going on with Arthur, in that it was secretly behind some of the mischief that was going on aboard the ship. But OF COURSE that turned out to be a red herring (because that would be TOO interesting). The reason for Arthur’s slip is NEVER explained, nor is it ever addressed. Jim isn’t even mad! He doesn’t even find it strange that he was outed by the machine, and they literally never mention it again. WTF?  

Laurence Fishburne is utterly wasted in this film! Practically blink-and-you’ll-miss-him (rude)! He only wakes up so that the two protagonist can have a mind-boggling, deus ex machina way of saving themselves with his security clearance bracelet thingie. And why was his pod the only faulty pod to cause terminal illness? (THAT'S RACIST! Jk. lol). Shouldn’t Jim have also had some health problems, though less severe? (Sometimes I wonder why Larry and Sam Jackson put up with this shit, but ANYway...👀). Also embarrassingly wasted in his role is Andy Garcia there at the end. Poor, poor Andy. Such disrespect! He grew that great big beautiful bushy beard for nothing! lol.

Also, why is there only ONE medical pod on a ship with 5000 ppl and 258 crew? That ratio seems dangerously low and irresponsible to me, even if they were only intended to survive on the ship out of suspension for 4 months before reaching the planet.

CONCLUSION

In the end, I’m not upset because this was a romance posing as sci-fi film. I would have loved to see a good sci-fi OR a good romance movie. Unfortunately, this rather middling on both fronts. It had boundless potential, and I guess I just expected more. With the quality of TV shows these days (as well as the price of a movie), you’re going to have to do a lot more than toss two good looking people on screen with some candy coloured effects to get people interested.  

I suspect this film started out as an entirely different movie than the one we ended up with (judging from the big name actors in almost cameo roles). Perhaps it had more of a sci-fi story, but it was changed to feature the love story more heavily?

On the pairing: as much as the internet likes to get its way and see the fruits of its fan pairings come to life on screen, I think this is a cautionary tale about how real life sometimes falls short of our imagination (see: the Veronica Mars movie). It’s also yet another cautionary tale for Hollywood about why they need to re-evaluate their strategy of big budget SFX movies with paltry scripts. The ability to develop interesting, in-depth characters is why cable television and streaming services are eclipsing movies, who routinely struggle to meet box-office expectations. 

[Note: These are just my opinions. I’m not a professional critic, I just like to watch movies and write about them!].

[asherlockstudy]

THE SIX THATCHERS: the deliberate flaw of an otherwise brilliant episode

This post is:

an explanation of the episode from my viewpoint

a review

an analysis of Mary’s character and its point in the narrative

a comparison with previous episodes

an analysis of the dynamics of the third series

my eternal faith in Moftiss being restored again

basically a lot of things

There are only two problems in the Six Thatchers or, better, two categories of problems. The first could be avoided and unfortunately caused frustration to both avid fans and more neutral viewers. The second is deliberate, not because Gatiss wanted necessarily to confuse the fandom, but simply because it couldn’t be avoided and it would longterm serve the main plot. Allow me to explain:

The first problem is the direction. To be completely fair, direction is not always bad and I certainly do not mean the imagery (the shark scene after Mary’s death is a piece of art). It certainly improves after the middle of the episode. But the first half of TST is a crazily paced, exhausting editing or perhaps butchering of various different scenes that the viewer would probably wish to enjoy for a little longer. I understand that the episode had to deal with a lot of different threads of the plot (the present and the past) but perhaps it would be a wiser choice to get a few extra minutes like they did with the Final Problem. The fast pacing doesn’t allow us to feel engaged in what is going on or get once again properly attached to the characters. It also complicates our earnest efforts to understand the plot, especially since TST is in no way one of the easiest Sherlock stories to grasp. I include in this category a slight fall I might have noticed in the chemistry amongst all the actors - hopefully it’s because of the lack of undisturbed screentime together. 

The second flaw is the cause of all the chaos in the fandom and beyond, the cause of all the vastly different theories and the cause of all the contradictory reviews. I think I might have never seen another movie or TV episode get so many 2 star and 10 star ratings at the same time! 

Well, without taking into consideration personal tastes (i.e. how much someone invests in Mary being a villain) the main objective problem that has caused all the mess is this one:  TST does not follow the plotline of His Last Vow. It does not bind well or even barely fits in the concept of HLV. It does not answer the questions His Last Vow raised. But you know what? No first episode of any Sherlock series ever did. 

A Scandal In Belgravia ended the pool scene of The Great Game in a rushed messy way and continued without ever bringing this issue back or analyzing Moriarty’s behaviour at the pool. 

The Empty Hearse joked around and frustrated the fans by completely avoiding to explain what truly happened in The Reichenbach Fall.

The Six Thatchers focused on Mary’s ambiguous character. Offered insight into her past and the ghosts haunting her, the inevitable conclusion of the life she chose and completed her story arc (?) with a, honestly, beautiful redemption scene. But, as ever, remained silent as to why really Mary shot Sherlock, why she was so terrified of Magnussen’s blackmails if she truly believed the rest of the agents had died, why she always looked so alarmed every time Moriarty’s name was mentioned. Basically remained silent about everything that truly confuses and intrigues the fandom - Why?

Could it be that Moftiss are so bad at creating decent first episodes? Nah.

I have made a post about it: The decompression of the Sherlock cliffhangers has not started yet. It’s the same old thing happening once again with The Six Thatchers.

What I think must be accepted is that Mary was never meant to be a main character. She was never meant to be a main villain either. She’s technically not even the main villain in her villain episode where the official Big Baddie is Magnussen and, then, both of them get beaten in a battle of impressions by an MP and a bad video of Jim Moriarty.

In my opinion, there is a nuance that is almost never discussed: Mary’s character is not as important for the story as Mary’s involvement to what maybe is what we call the main plot. What I mean is that Mary as a character couldn’t stay longer, she shouldn’t stay longer, because this would inescapably lead to an imbalance of the successful concept BBC Sherlock’s showrunners had and A.C. Doyle had before them. Even if Mary was meant to be a Big Villain, this would be a rather quaint twist of the story. In case the show ends in a romance, this suggests that Gatiss and Moffat couldn’t think of anything else but make every woman or romantic antagonist a villain just to desperately defend that Sherlock and John’s relationship is a good concept. I’m fully aware Mary being a villain is one of the most popular and beloved theories but excuse me for saying that this kind of plot twist seems a bit childish to me. In my opinion, they have already made villains (canonically established villains) romantic antagonists but if they also made a romantic antagonist obligatorily villain by default, this would be laughable at the least and would expose Moftiss’ panic to prove that this gay relationship is good and ideal. And that’s my problem. You should never need to prove such a thing, let alone make a (female) character look bad so that your love story can look better. In whatever way I look at it, it’s a bad idea.

So why did they introduce Mary in the first place?

 Mary’s introduction was the best (or least bad) idea for Series 3. You need to have in mind that there is an ongoing basic plot. If the plot is heavily dependent on characters such as Jim Moriarty, Mycroft Holmes or even Sherrinford, then Gatiss and Moffat couldn’t proceed with it in the third series. If Jim Moriarty returned back from the dead at the same time with Sherlock, the plot would end up ludicrous. If Mycroft Holmes revealed his ulterior motives in Series 3 or if there was the main villain introduced for the first time at this point, the character development of Sherlock and John wouldn’t be able to catch up on time. In other words, if the Main Villain appeared in, say, The Sign of Three, the viewers wouldn’t be able to buy the importance of the character or understand what makes this villain comparatively more impactful on Sherlock and John’s lives than Jim Moriarty was in seven episodes. Whether Moriarty is alive and the main villain or not, Moftiss needed the time to build up the expectations of the viewers and also develop Sherlock and John’s relationship accordingly for a next level of drama. In short, they needed a break in which they would focus on Sherlock and John and refresh the need and the interest of the audience for a specific, consistent plot. They want to top their own game.

But the plot shouldn’t go back to what Series 1 was because then Series 4 would give the impression that it jumped out of nowhere. Moftiss didn’t wish lack of plot for Series 3 - they wanted it to be subtle and eventually build the expectations for the very dramatic and plot-wise specific Series 4. So they still had to move on and change the data between Sherlock and John. That’s where Mary got in. Mary is the most important feature of the most understated part of the plot. Admittedly, this means something that some people hate; Mary’s character was used for the sake of Sherlock and John’s relationship. True, but it’s unfair to call Gatiss and Moffat misogynists for that. Technically, 95% of the characters and plot points in BBC Sherlock first and foremost affect Sherlock and John’s relationship. Since the core of this show has always been the relationship between Sherlock and John, it is absolutely normal that most parts of the plot orbit around them and there is no need to wave fingers and call everything misogynistic. In my opinion, Moffat and Gatiss tried to exactly avoid such connotations by making Mary a very interesting, flawed, complex, shady, ambiguous, intelligent and competent character that after all brought a lot of dramatic changes in Sherlock and John’s lives. Moftiss upped the game very much compared to the original Mary Morstan of A.C.D canon. If they made her an one-dimensional character that suddenly died in childbirth to leave Sherlock and John go on with their lives, then yes, that would be misogynistic. 

Gatiss even darkened John’s character a lot in order to give Mary a very bold redemption arc in an episode where both Gatiss and Abbington play with the viewers’ impressions about Mary’s allegiances until the very end (and beyond...). The episode was focused on Mary and brought out the complexity of her character exactly in order to show the appropriate respect for her contribution to the whole story - but she was never meant to be one of the three - four characters that actually are the foundations of this story. In this way, Gatiss kept everything balanced. 

The Six Thatchers was a beatiful tribute to Mary but didn’t address the links of her character to the basic plot as this would reveal the story and its climax before its time. 

The Six Thatchers purposefully ignored: 

Why Mary tried to kill Sherlock although she genuinely looked regretful in TST

Why Mary was so terrified of Magnussen’s blackmails

Why Mary looked so alarmed every time Moriarty was mentioned

Why Sherlock decided to help her after realising she did try to kill him

Why after that incident, Magnussen started blackmailing an incapacitated Sherlock instead of Mary

Janine’s role

Why Sherlock came up with lies to support Mary in front of John

John’s ambiguous behaviour when he forgave her

Why Sherlock remains so adamantly protective of her 

However the Six Thatchers still hinted at:

John never truly trusting her anymore

Mary always fearing that Sherlock would eventually confront her for something other than her Tbilisi past (meeting him with drugs)

Mary again looking worried at the mention of Moriarty’s name

Mycroft admitting that he controlled AGRA in the past

Mycroft implying that he knows about Mary’s enemies and problems

Mycroft looking amused by it

Mycroft lowkey indirectly threatening her in front of Sherlock

So there are many things that I hope and think they remain intentionally untold.  Whatever is untold is what perhaps links Mary to characters like Mycroft, Magnussen and Moriarty (and Sherrinford maybe), so all these couldn’t possibly be addressed in the first episode because they would expose the core of the plot they keep so carefully secret for The Final Problem. Yet Mary as a secondary character with a predetermined end couldn’t stay as long as TFP and Gatiss dealt with this problem by giving the viewers a lot of insight into her character without answering the burning questions. 

Whoever Mary worked for, it doesn’t matter enough to change the validity of her redemption arc though. Think of it this way; it doesn’t matter who is a villain. What matters is whose pressure point Sherlock is. Whether Mary worked for Moriarty or Mycroft, by shooting Sherlock, both of them would eventually turn against her. Neither Mycroft NOR MORIARTY would want Sherlock dead, especially at this point. That’s why Mycroft looks almost amused at the thought of Mary having a permanent retirement and Sherlock darkly responds this will never happen while he is around. In a sense, Mycroft expresses his hate for what Mary has done but Sherlock keeps protecting and defending her. Whomever Mary was working for, she tried to weaken her boss by killng Sherlock. So perhaps she tried to destroy Moriarty or protect John from Moriarty that night. If Moriarty is alive, John is in constant danger as long as Sherlock is close to him and this fact doesn’t change, no matter if Mary worked for Moriarty or Mycroft. That’s the only way it makes sense to me but who knows. 

What’s important is that we will certainly learn more about her and how she was connected to the great scheme of things. This doesn’t mean that she’ll come back alive and I strongly doubt that the next episodes will make us change our mind once again about her allegiances. 

If this is the case, the plot of Six Thatchers couldn’t be better than it is. It is the evolution of The Empty Hearse for both episodes turn a blind eye to the requests for an explanation until the time comes for it. 

[thegirlandfilm]

Across the Niger: Authenticity and Internationality

West African film is not defined as a particular genre, like perhaps the Western or Film Noir is as considered by critics. These genre’s have particular notable aesthetics that are consistently reused as an act of fidelity to the artistic goals of the movement itself. West African film can be understood more simply as National Cinema. With this understanding in mind, it is much more difficult to discern whether a film ascribes to a particular aesthetic, and if this maintaining this aesthetic is even necessary to define a film as West African. This essay will discuss the elements of Ojukwu’s Across the Niger (2004) that are distinctly and intentionally part of the West-African aesthetic, the aspects that diverge from Nigerian culture to be globally appealing, and resolve that Nollywood films are capable of being both authentic and international. Across the Niger can be used as an example of Nollywood’s flourishing film industry that is capable of success beyond Nigeria’s boarders, while also maintaining an aesthetic that is culturally specific to Nollywood.

The lack of funds available for production heavily influences Nollywood film’s aesthetic elements. This lack subsequently results in unintentional affects such as outdoor lighting and realistic settings. However, there are many aesthetics of Nollywood films that appear unintentional but have been critically and thoughtfully planned. In her work “Storytelling in Contemporary African Fiction Film and Video”, Dovey navigates through these aesthetics to determine which are formed unintentionally and which are developed through artistic thought. It is discussed in Dovey’s argument that the long takes, which are a signature of Nollywood editing, is an unintentional element. Many takes are elongated to ensure that the film lasts the length of a bus journey, or to delay the narrative in order to create sequels (Dovey 97). Although this editing staple may be unintentional, it has come to create a recognizable Nollywood aesthetic. Conversely, The themes of the films are intentionally focussed on themes of relatable social issues like legacy and inheritance, husband snatching, prejudice, and child abandonment, all set within a local context. Across the Niger demonstrates many of the “local aesthetics” that have come to define West African Cinema. This film diverges from Western standards of what should be presented in West African film; the film does not center around colonialism, though effects of colonialism are inevitably present, and does not feature the same issues that European financed Nollywood films do, such as HIV/AIDS, poverty, discrimination, or children on the street. (Okome 31). In the case of Across the Niger, the social issues and themes of Habiba and Dudems’s relationship are told through a journey that is set in the specific context of the Nigerian civil war between 1967-1970.  Critics of Nollywood will often downplay the artistry of films, reducing them to amateur and overly dramatic works. However, Dovey contends that this dramatism is much more intentional than it appears. When thinking about film’s relation to Nigerian oral storytelling,  “a particular kind of adaptation and visualization of oral and spoken narratives is thus at work in the video films” (Dovey 96). Nollywood films must not only be read in relation to “reality”, but  must be acknowledged as a cultural transformation of story telling. Thus, the blatant dialogue and dramatic acting can be seen as a result of this transformation of West African oral storytelling into the film medium, and not merely as a cinema lacking in artistic thought. The editing is also more thoughtful than it may seem to those viewers accustomed to Hollywood films. Nollywood gives preference to wide and long rather than close ups, unless during a particularly emotional scene.  The film’s use of editing is consistent with the majority of Nollywood films; most scenes are a compilation of long shots, with the exception of highly emotional scenes. When Habiba expresses emotional depth, close ups of her crying face fill the screen. This occurs twice - first when she tells Dudem to let her leave his village, and again during the film’s climax after Dudem is shot and she expresses that her love is “full like a river”. Nollywood also favours minimal editing and scenes that enhance the emotion through visual and aural effects. These techniques are thoughtfully used to tell the story in the most emotive way. Across the Niger exemplifies this style of storytelling through Habiba, Dubem, and Nneke’s complicated relationship. The drama and obviousness of the narrative can be seen in the scene in which Nneke attempts to seduce Dubem. In an alternative Hollywood rendition of this scene, Nneke’s motives might be more ambiguous. Yet in the film, Nneke’s motives are made clear by King Igwe’s advisor, who repeatedly tells her she must make Dubem fall in love with her by sleeping with him. This allows for the audience to understand the story without any confusion or ambiguity, much like the way traditional oral stories are narrated.  

Across the Niger tells an authentic story through Nollywood techniques, while also subtly catering to a foreign audience. Ojukwu’s decision to film in the English language can be read as a small choice directors can make which allows their film to be potentially internationally successful. In his writing “Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics”, Adesokan states, “most of the Nollywood films that circulate globally are in English and rely on standard  generic conventions, even though, as the UNESCO figures show, more than half (56%) of Nollywood releases  are in Nigeria’s three major local languages” (Adesokan 83). It is clear by this statistic that films that choose to use English, like Across the Niger, are allowing their film to be appreciated globally at the risk of being less culturally authentic. It could be argued that this film is less Nigerian due to its English language, and relinquishes its cultural specificity in order to cater to a global audience. However, the use of the English language does not affect the films local popularity, as “English language Nollywood films resemble television soap operas in Formal Terms, and travel better among Africans” (84). What may affect Across the Niger’s cultural authenticity is its apparent lack of African spiritual beliefs within the tribes culture. Andrew Rice notes the importance of these beliefs, “Nollywood movies, both old and new, often play on traditional African beliefs about magic and spirits” (Rice 1). Conversely, Across the Niger does not focus on spirituality, rather it replaces spirituality by focussing heavily on tradition and politics between tribes and families. The reason for this omittance could perhaps be explained by the desire for this film to be accepted by a foreign audience who may hold different beliefs. The stories in “Nigerian films with strong doses of the occult (or ‘black magic’) have had a particular hold on the popular imagination. These occult forces are banished in the narratives of many of the films via the Pentecostal Christian practices in scenes that are often a source of amusement for secularized, Western audiences...it is harnessed to a project of a Westernized system of commodity consumption” (Dovey 93). The lack of spiritual theme’s in Ojukwu’s film is not a commonality among Nollywood films, and reveals the desire to appeal to foreign audiences and also project a representation of modernizing Nigeria.

Across the Niger utilizes the aesthetic principles that have come to create the formula for as successful Nollywood film,  yet the film is still understandable to a foreign audience. Many specific elements of the nation’s history and culture may loose their significant to a foreign viewer, but the human elements of romance, prejudice, love and sacrifice can be equally relatable to any viewer. The film is definitively West African and adheres to a very specific local aesthetic. However, the film is also able to reach beyond its Nigerian boarders and be relevant globally. Nollywood films are successful in St. Lucia, and trade to the Middle East, Hong Kong, United States and South Africa and the United Kingdom (Dovey 102). Unfortunately, the aesthetic elements of Nollywood are perceived as “awful, marred by slapdash production, melodramatic acting and ludicrous plots” (Rice 1). Okome notes that Nollywood is constantly criticized for “lacking depth, artistic and technical quality” (Okome 33). However, despite its lack of technical success, I found the films narrative and particularly Habiba’s struggle with love and discrimination to be particularly moving. In this sense, the film is full of narrative depth, and one cannot denounce its artistic elements. Despite the low budget effects, unrealistic battle and melodramatic acting, the film is still capable of evoking a high degree of emotion in a non-Nigerian viewer.

In conclusion, through the analysis of Across the Niger, it can be seen that Nollywood cinema has a specific framework of aesthetic principals that are intentional in their effects. It can also be seen through this film that subtle choices are made in order to cater to an international audience. Although the film is able to appeal to foreign audiences and strays from some of the typical tropes of Nollywood films, it  is distinctively representative of West Africa and only West Africa, proving that a film need not reject all foreign influence in order to be authentically national.

[whimsicalinkposts]

WIPs and Shameless Self-Promotion

I didn’t get to my WIPs in my intro post because I’m wordy af and didn’t want that post to get too long, so I’m talking about the big ones here! I’ll try to be brief, but no promises. (Gonna include links in case you want to preview my writing style and judge me further.)

·       Blood Rose – Okay, this technically isn’t a WIP since I posted the last chapter already, but it is the first in a series, and the series as a whole is a WIP. It counts, right? Anyway, sad fact: I started, I think, three trilogies in the past and never wrote the last book. Hopefully, this won’t be the case! It’s a Vocaloid fanfic, but it’s the kind of fanfic you can read without knowing anything about the fandom beforehand. One of the MCs is ace, and a large part of this because I don’t see a whole lot of ace rep out there so I decided to write it myself! Blood Rose is a romantic sci-fi with a mystery centering around the potential uprising from the lowest caste, and the main plot features the leading ladies, a girl from the highest class and a girl from the lowest caste, forming an unlikely friendship in the midst of all this mystery.

·       A Masquerade Of Souls – This is my first original novel! Similar to Blood Rose, it’s already written, but difference here is I’m just now posting it. This took me about two years to write because I was heavily depressed during the entirety of the writing process, but nonetheless I’m proud of this book and am working hard to revise and edit it for readership. A Masquerade Of Souls is a fantasy standalone about three teens with superpowers being blackmailed into pulling off an impossible heist as one of the teens pretends to be the missing daughter of one of the country’s most powerful families. Although there are characters with feelings for each other, there isn’t any romance in the book. A romantic subplot would have driven away from the main plot, or so I thought, but characters flirting with each other is always fun!

·       Between the Pages – Now here’s a real WIP! This is an original fic I’ve been wanting to write for years now, and it’s finally happening! Even though I’ll be talking more about this one as I write it, I’ll quickly describe it here anyway because I’m that excited to share it with others. Between the Pages is a YA magical realism novel about a girl named Serenity who’s not going through the best time. Her father left some months prior for no reason other he didn’t want to have a family anymore. As a result, their previously stay-at-home mom and the girls have to get whatever jobs they can to keep what’s left of the family financially afloat. Serenity’s older sister Hope is taking a semester off college, her twin sister Eternity no longer wants to watch cartoons or sing princess songs with her as they are “too childish,” and to rub salt in the wound, Serenity has been paired with her ex-best friend in a school project she can’t afford to fail. To help her family make ends meet, she takes a job at a used bookstore where she finds an old book called Whimsical Woods. Whenever she reads it, Serenity is transported into the story where she comes face-to-face with a witch, a dragon, a rogue princess, a wise-cracking lancer, and a handsome prince who is instantly smitten with her.

 As for ideas, I have more than I know what to do with! For fan fiction, there’s a Miraculous Ladybug Marichat retelling of The Phantom of the Opera and an Undertale reskin of the Korean AU Masktale (which has a great aesthetic, imo). As for original fic, there’s this stupid concept of a wizard’s pup apprentice, though that might be kept as a short story until I come up with a plot. Of course, I have WAY more ideas. If I listed them all, we would be here for hours, but I wanted to mention the ones I’m debating writing soon.

So, tell me about your WIPs and ideas. I would love to hear them! :D

[surviving-la-huerta]

I would like to talk about this game a bit because I think that some who play Choices might enjoy it. It’s called Sails in the Fog. So far I’m enjoying it quite a bit. It plays a lot like Choices, but it’s not a shitty carbon copy of Choices like others (Looking at you Chapters).  

The story I’m loving so far. It’s pirate themed story with a heavy influence from whatever Pirates of the Caribbean pulls their source from. Though it is technically a romance story the romance element is not heavily forced in the story.  The MC, Adelaide, is a badass. The story path depends on how many points you have Diplomacy vs Force points and White Magic vs Black Magic. The chapters are super long. I oftentimes have to put it on pause because I don’t have time to finish the chapter.

The bad: Diamonds. Yes, diamonds. Just like every other game there is premium currency and premium choices that can only be bought with diamonds. You can get diamonds is by purchasing them. You also  get one diamond after completing each chapter with the option of doubling it by watching an ad. You can get an additional two diamonds by watching an ad. (This option resets every six hours. It’s a little frustrating because it’s only one story (The first season only has 9 chapters). The diamond options are pretty standard even if though they’re not cheap. (The dress options are 30 diamonds, I think, BUT they give you another dress option even if not as nice so you’re not stuck wearing the same LBD for the rest of the series). But rarely do the diamond options influence the story.  

Another annoyance is that you only get one tea cup, (basically keys in Choices) and they reset every six hours and new chapters come out every month as opposed to every week.

Although the translations is done pretty well it’s still obvious in some sentences (Santa Domingo? Really?) It doesn’t bother me too much though.

One minor annoyance is that the MC is automatically treated like she’s white despite the fact that you can choose her race. I chose ‘African Features’ for my MC. Her parents are still white, which is annoying but doesn’t bother me too much (Choices does it). However there was a point where a former slave said to my MC that she wouldn’t understand because most ‘whites’ don’t. That was annoying.

Anyway I didn’t mean to write an essay. All I wanted to say was: overall Sails in the Fog is a pretty fun choices style game and I highly recommend it.