#literary husbands

[xxplastic-cubexx]

cant stop thinkin bout charles and erik readin together on the couch but instead of reading with him charles is listening to eriks thoughts while he reads. Live mind commentary ……..

[ineffablyruined]

Aziraphale + Bad Literary Jokes (2/?)

[bugbugboy]

Doing some foreword thinking

My college art project next year will be based on a story and of course Good Omens is my go-to. This is my list of themes in the story (book and show)

Are there any more that I've missed? Or any input/ideas I can work with next year?

[forestfiresandfics]

Foils and Mirrors

Another oft misconstrued literary technique is that of the foil. It may just be me misconstruing it though, considering I have to periodically look up the definition because I’ve gotten it confused again. Character foils are two characters who interact and by their interaction, their differences are highlighted. TV tropes describes it as ‘the foil behind a jewel to make it shine brighter’ but another way to look at it would be the way yellow shows up better on a black background compared to white. Foils are defined by their differences. Mirror characters are defined by their similarities. 

While I don’t think it’s wrong to call 3rd life Grian and Martyn foils per say, I think a more interesting reading is them as mirrors. And really, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. I’m getting ahead of myself. 

Third life features a lot of parallels, both in plot and character arc, and the Desert Duo and Renchanting are often pointed to when it comes to discussions of this. I think it’s worth also including Flower Husbands in that list as well. And every day I consider adding Cleo and Bdubs to that list as well, but I haven’t quite decided how well they work, so for now I’ll focus on just the three groups. I will often in my writing and musing and comments and stuff refer to these three pairs as the ‘red-green’ pairs, because they spend a protracted amount of time where one of them is on their green life and the other is on their red. Scar and Grian are the most extreme example of this, spending 5 and a half episodes like that. But the timing of it aside, what’s maybe more important is that each of these teams entered into the battle of the red desert as one red and one green each. A pivotal moment in the story where we also see everyone mirroring each other. 

I think it’s fair to view Desert Duo and Renchanting as mirrors, with the flower husbands acting as foils to the others. Each share enough in common that it’s worth discussing all three groups, but while the desert faction and the kingdom share basically the exact same plot lines and traits, the hobbits serve as something of an alternative option—what they ‘could have been.’ Also fun, is that the Flower Husbands spend nearly, but not quite, equal time with both other groups: doing their job well as foils in the context of contrast-via-interaction. They discuss their statuses and their plans, and as far as the reading of ‘desert duo: protagonists’ and ‘renchanting: antagonists’ go, the flower husbands are ideologically neutral for most of the series. They make friends where they can, call out bullshit where they see it, and it wasn’t until they were thrown into the war that they actually participated in taking sides. 

So what are the similarities between each, and what are the differences? The similarities come first. All three groups are red-green pairs. All three pairs have some kind of strong partnership, all three pairs have a scene where the red of the relationship offers fealty with a trinket (flowers for the husbands, flowers for the desert, and depending how you see it either the rabbit’s foot or the axe for the kingdom). As I suggested before, Desert Duo and Renchanting have even more in common. Both partnerships began because of a debt, both leaders are businessmen, both leaders are red and indentures green, both of the indentures are the “brains of the operation,” both indentures grumble their way through the partnership at first before becoming devoted, and both sit on either side of the server wide war—not just as participants but as the ringleaders. There is also literally even a scene where Martyn tells Ren to put his clothes back on (“me lord? Fancy putting your armour on?”). Frankly this is just scratching the surface, it’s insane how perfect mirrors they are. 

This similarity between the two main groups on the server really highlight the tragedy (lowercase t) of the death game, how these two groups ended up mortal enemies simply because of the world they live in, despite having more in common than differences. And the flower husbands as foils in my opinion ALSO make it sadder. While renchanting and desert duo are messing around with complicated hierarchical relationships and testing loyalty and ordering their partners around, the husbands are working together out of trust and respect. Scott starts out with his fellow greens in rejecting the partnership at first, but he demonstrates what mutualistic relationship should look like, not to mention a relationship that doesn’t make itself the whole server’s problem.

This is already getting long so I won’t get into this next bit too far, but while the red-green pairs foil and mirror each other, each pair also serves as a foil for themselves. Scar is confident while Grian is timid, Ren is trying to do a lot all at once while Martyn is organized and keeps him in line. Jimmy is friendly while Scott is matter of fact. All the reds end up acting as cloudcuckoolanders with the greens to bring them back down to earth and on track. They are all somewhat odd couples, they are very different from one another, and the juxtaposition of these differences highlights each other’s traits as well as their strengths and weaknesses. These partnerships are all advantageous, and they can each fill in for the other’s weaknesses. All three partnerships wouldn’t have made it as far as they did without each other. Not that this makes them idillic partners, they each have their flaws as well, but that’s not really the point. They each help the other shine, like the backing of a jewel. 

Masterlist

[deer-daughterx]

The lovers

He is half of my soul as the poets say-

[thekats]

Season 2's Crowley and Aziraphale trying to get Maggie and Nina to date plot is a commentary on online fan behaviour and a statement that no amount of pushing, prodding, theorizing and fanfiction writing is going to bring a ship together by force send post

[hyperlexichypatia]

Obligatory Disclaimer #1: Yes, there is a lot of misogyny in the way people talk about the "likability" of female characters. Women in stories can and should be complex, flawed, nuanced, and human, not (just) "likable" (or "sexy" or "mother" or whatever other one-dimensional trope).

Obligatory Disclaimer #2: Yes, I know that an opinion expressed by a character in a story is not necessarily being supported by the narrative itself, or the author, and that people with piss-on-the-poor reading comprehension get this wrong. Good reading comprehension means being able to tell the difference.

Now that we've got that out of the way.

Doesn't it seem like "Female characters don't have to be LIKABLE, you illiterate misogynist!" is often a Privileged Feminist way to silence criticism of... very mainstream bigoted attitudes being presented uncritically in the narrative by being put in the voices of designated "unlikable female characters"?

I love a complex, nuanced, flawed female character. I love an outright villainous female character. I love a character whose flaws and prejudices are slowly picked apart by the narrative. I do not love having the classism, sizeism, and ableism I deal with every day served back to me in Feminist Fiction.

I do not love trying to point out "Hey, this award-winning book you all love, I don't actually like the way the protagonist talks about the working-class fat man. Or the younger woman with anxiety. Or the acquaintance with a disabled child and, like, linoleum floors or something." (Why do I just have all those examples at the ready?)

And being met with "Female characters don't have to be LIKABLE, you illiterate misogynist. Try reading some Serious Literature instead of your fanfic romance YA smut beach reads!"

"Uh, okay, well, it's not so much about the character being likeable as about the way the narrative doesn't seem to challenge the character's, I must reiterate, very widely held prejudices, that makes it seem less like a depiction of a flawed character and more like an uncritical replication of those very widely held prejudices --"

"It's a LITERARY PERSPECTIVE, GOD, didn't you go to SCHOOL? Do you think Lolita is a love story? Do you think Fight Club is about how awesome fighting is?"

"Well, no, but, for example, the way the character was so emotionally abusive to her fat daughter and her neurodivergent son --"

"Uggggh, you don't understand ANYTHING, women don't have to be PERFECT MOTHERS, she's supposed to represent HOW REAL WOMEN FEEL in the face of UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS OF PERFECT MOTHERHOOD!"

"So... the unquestioned-by-the-narrative elitism, classism, sizeism, ableism, and ageism are supposed to be... going against societal expectations?"

"OBVIOUSLY! That's how REAL WOMEN REALLY FEEL!"

"I'm a real woman, and I don't feel that way."

"UGGGGGH, YOU ILLITERATE MISOGYNIST, FEMALE CHARACTERS DON'T HAVE TO BE RELATABLE!"

[hoplessartist]

So i started watching hannibal...........

[compacflt]

what dog would icemav get?

im guessing no mangy devil chihuahuas or rescues (compacflt can't be seen with anything but a purebreed) golden retriever might be too on the nose, how about a malinois or a german shepherd maybe an english bulldog (ugly)

idk. i don’t really have a dog in this fight (i don’t care) (pun intended). but it definitely would have to be like a Real Dog. yeah nothing smaller than 70 lbs. a Real Dog. other than that i don’t have any opinions. could be a mutt or a rescue! but it would have to be, you know, handsome and upstanding and like, a Real Dog that you can, like, do stuff with. it is very cliche and on the nose and maybe im only saying this bc i, like, don’t care at all about dogs but ice does seem like the white lab/golden retriever guy and mav strikes me as a german shepherd guy. there are many reasons i don’t think they would ever have a dog (what would they do with the dog?) but not being able to agree on the breed might be one reason they never get a dog. arguing and bickering etc

[mitski-leaked]

mitski, my love mine all mine, and the ineffables

psa: this is more of an association pattern thing than an analysis tonight because my eyes can only read so much after crying

mine all mine !! (my own to bear)

nothing in the world belongs to me!! (cant convince his angel to "belong"/be with him)

this scene still makes me lose it till this day tbh

aziraphale is never escaping the earth angel allegations. also "showed me what my heart was worth" feels way too specific. actually this whole track is to ineffables specific i feel sick thinking about it.

all these little tender unspoken moments !!! the bullet catch trust, the s1 finale!! the job minisode is a bit more spoken and explicit in its point but oh i do love it all the same. you better love it all now anyways because the next line is where i started cracking

"so when it comes to be my turn" (when im the one that does the needing, forthcoming in my own vulnerability and feelings for you)

"could you shine it down here for her?" (can you pull through, can i trust you like you trusted me, show me what my heart is worth one more time)

ok i had no real reason to put angel crowley in there but i just wanted to mention how the first "show me what my heart is worth" could have well been when crowley was still and angel, with azi being so smitten and singing praise that whole scene. so. do with that what you will

nothing in this world belongs to me (not even the stars i made-- the stars he probably cant even see anymore)

nothing is mine for free (i cant love anything without being costed for it) (both the as starmaker and as the demon Crowley. double homicide.)

but my love is mine, all mine (at the end of the day whether i have you or not, i love you anyway, i Cant Help to love you anyway)

[FIN.]

apologies for the general lack of depth tonight, i just had one of those meltdowns that start from the sick in your stomach and ends in someone elses toilet bowl because of this... mitski does it again i guess...

[worthlessandembarrasing]

Quotes from The Picture of Dorian Gray

[ineffablyruined]

Good Omens + Bad Literary Jokes

[achromaticabberation]

do NOT. respond to my watsonian theorizing with a doylist explanation.

[crit-failed-charisma-checks]

Good Omens Season 2 Spoilers below

So, I've been thinking about the "Wherever [Beelzebub] is, is my Heaven/Wherever [Gabriel] is, is my Hell" exchange. And I think there are multiple layers to it or ways to interpret it.

The one I want to focus on right now is one I haven't seen any discussion on. Gabriel is an archangel. Heaven is where he is literally created to be. It is designed to be his home. Beelzebub is a Duke of Hell. Hell is something they rebelled against God for.

So, "you are my home" and "you are worth rebelling against God for".

And what's really interesting here is the parallel that Crowley has been living in the Bentley parked near Aziraphale's shop, because he didn't have a home. And Aziraphale isn't yet ready to tell him that he is worth rebelling against God for. (Or hasn't realized that he needs to, but either way.)

[epicnessunfolds]

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Review

4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I avoided this TJR novel for years. I don't know what came over me to read it now.

Often times, I say "what a pity I did not pick this up sooner" when a very good book had been sitting on my TBR for a years. This book does not fit into that category for two reasons: 1. it never was on my tbr; 2. I read it at the perfect time.

I knew the bare minimum about The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - basically only that she'd been married a lot and was super extra famous. Multiple marriages and stardom books are not my jam at all, although I do enjoy the odd-one here and there. (Looking intensely at Daisy Jones and The Six)

When I picked up this novel, I expected to be bored very quickly. The case was not so at all. The narration of Evelyn's life story was straight forward, no bullshit, no cover of pretty words over ugly deeds - it felt raw, real. TJR has a way with written words and she builds characters that feel so real it's impossible not to fall into the trap of briefly, for the length of the book, believing the characters are real people.

This book explores the sacrifices needed for fame, the inequality between women and men, the struggles of the queer people in an oppressing society, racism, the meaning of love.

Evelyn Hugo is not a nice woman, but she is formidable.

[no-wings-no-angel]

not to shit on a whole legacy of literature analysis….. but im really tired of every time clarice lispector comes up the point ends up being ‘the inherent quality of Woman is that of Suffering’. im sorry but maybe not??? can you take the essencialism away??? please???? like women can be happy actually. no one is bound to suffering eternally.