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Letters From Watson: The Five Orange Pips
Crimes in Context: Lynching and the Klu Klux Klan
I don't intend to go into graphic details regarding historic terrorism and murder, but I thought I'd give a quick summary of the reconstruction era after the American Civil War, and the Klu Klux Klan, a formerly secret society of some of the worst people in the country, since it would be conceited to assume that everyone studied it in history class. When it comes to the KKK pre-emptively punching them is self defense, just like Nazis. American Civil War, 1861-1865: The Confederate (southern) states secede from the United States, leading to a civil war over whether slavery should remain legal. It's important to note that the economy of the southern states, which endorsed slavery, was largely tied up in the production of cotton and other major cash crops, which was largely profitable because the people doing all the agricultural work were enslaved in terrible conditions. In 1863 the emancipation proclamation ended chattel slavery in the United States, and in 1865 the Confederate states surrendered and the Union was reunited. The Reconstruction Era, 1865-1877:
The 14th and 15th amendments are passed, granting formerly enslaved people the same civil rights as all other citizens on paper. The former confederate states do not, in practice, guarantee this. Pretty much immediately there are hate crimes against black people, to the point that the former confederate states were under military control by 1866, and there is an entire political party formed on the basis of rolling back black people's new civil rights, particularly the right to vote. Confusingly, it's not the same party that is currently working to undermine civil rights in the United States: back in the 1860's, the Republican party was the good guys. For the approximate era where that completely reversed, see the 1960's which are outside the scope of this write up.
During this time there was a wave of black politicians, community building among groups of newly free black citizens and their compatriots who had escaped to northern states prior to the war, and federal involvement to attempt to ensure that everyone actually had their civil rights.
The rest is under the cut because that's where I will outline the crimes of the Ku Klux Klan.
There was also the KKK, or Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist terrorist organization that focused on preventing black participation in voting, community involvement, or having any civil rights by intimidation and murder. They murdered whites who supported black citizenship, and they murdered black people for literally any excuse that they could come up with, often via torture or public hanging. As with all white supremacist groups they also expanded into christofascist terrorism, so they've also added jewish and islamic people, as well as latino, asian, and native american people to their list of targets. The first iteration of the KKK ended (mostly) in the early 1870's, due to prosecution of their crimes and the fact that decentralized terrorist organizations tend to crumble when they don't see results and some of their leaders are in jail. Unfortunately, like all white nationalist and christofascist terrorist organizations, it keeps being resurrected, notably in 1915 and the 1960's. In 1915 it was based on the film The Birth of a Nation, a movie based upon a book that had romanticized the KKK, and masqueraded as a fraternal organization, and it broadened its focus to anti-immigrant, anti communist, anti-science, and anti non-christian-protestant-religion activity. If this sounds familiar it's because politics is a flat circle and I want to get off. It dissolved again due to the arrests of leaders, and infighting between chapters. In the 1950's and 60's it arose again specifically to combat civil rights activisim and legislation, and although it has since waned in membership there are still members who still conduct, or conspire to conduct, terrorist activity. They also actively collaborate with other white supremacist and christofascist organizations, including neo-nazis. Historians will sort out if the increased white supremacist, christofascist, queerphobic, misogynistic, insurrectionist, antisemitic, antislamic and anti-science political activity of the last decade and change has anything to do with them, but when mass shooters have a white supremacist manifesto in the USA, chances are they were somewhat influenced by the history of the Klan even if they were never a member. The Case All of this to say that the facts of The Five Orange Pips are, to an extent limited by England's position across an entire atlantic ocean, fairly accurate to the historical record. Our uncle Openshaw, who presumably either had enough money from repartitions (yes, former plantation owners were paid reparations and the people they enslaved were not, in an attempt to stabilize the economy of the former confederacy that remains infuriating) not to worry about his finances and fuck off back to England, or stole his fortune from the rest of the Klan, unarguably got what he deserved. I have no idea why the threatening letters first came from India, which seems like the last place an American group of racially motivated murderers would flee to to avoid prosecution (The whole west, and Latin America are more convenient) but it's not impossible that Openshaw's former compatriots were also originally from England.
#Letters from Watson#The Five Orange Pips#crimes in context#crimes against humanity again#trigger warnings apply#lynching and murder discussed#not in detail but#please let me know if you need more categories tagged
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i love when characters suck and are bad people like the thing about murphy is that i liked him before he was the incredible wife guy (which is also pretty great, dont get me wrong) but like. i thought he was cool when he was a horrible jackass that everyone hated . like he was interesting before he got morals; he was interesting as a guy who gets lynched in a frontier justice display of retaliation for a murder because he just seems like the kind of dude who would murder someone. and he is! just not that dead guy, specifically. whereas the actual killer is a twelve-year-old girl who the whole crew spends the episode trying to proctect from any kind of punishment, while murph runs around trying and failing to get anyone to admit out loud that the only reason there's a difference between punishing him and punishing her is because he has a bad personality . and also the murders but at that point in the show he hadn't killed anyone, he just seemed like he would
#now the OPTICS of his eventual murder of the guy that lynched him? are abysmal given that murphy is white and connor is black#BUT . that is not a murphy problem that is a showrunners' racial politics are simply completely bankrupt problem#the early-seasons flipflopping between him and finn never ceases to interest me either. his main thing is a sense of antagonistic FAIRNESS#which means that he has no problem helping during the sickness or with food production - doing objectively good things - if they need done#BUT he will also use the opportunity to kill anyone he feels has wronged him; in this case his would-be executors#also anyone who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time#but - even with all that - by the second season he's only killed two people . he's made more attempts; but they all fell through.#finn manages to keep his hands clean for nearly the whole first season and is an adamant pacifist#but grows so emotionally unstable by the second season that he shoots up an entire town full of people and then - just like charlotte -#is defended and protected by many of his crewmates in a way that#had the same event occured but with the roles swapped - murphy shooting instead - would not have happened#and these facts are not lost on murphy! even when he becomes the incredible wife guy#she's the only person who really thinks he has like. a likeable personality#everyone else is like 'well we used to hate him but then we had bigger problems. so he just lives here now. he's all right i guess'#the 100#god i just always have so much to SAY about this shit#love the 100 because it's one of those shows thats bad but NOT so bad that there isn't like a ton of really interesting stuff#to discuss and analyze and reinvent and talk about
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My October Reading Summary
Overall mood: preoccupied. As October has been the final month of postgrad classes, personal stuff, and the exam season, I have been rather busy. Finding the time to read when other things should take precedence can bring about a lot of guilt, so I haven’t read as many books as I thought (mainly the first week or two of November reviews have dropped off the reading list). Books read: Time’s…
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#andrea penrose#annafromuni#annafromuni discussions#babel#cassandra clare#cinder#deborah harkness#discussion post#ghosts#h p lovecraft#lev ac rosen#marissa meyer#monthly reading#monthly reading recap#monthly reading summary#murder at king&039;s crossing#october reading summary#r f kuang#reading review#reading stats#reading summary#reading tally#rough pages#scott lynch#siobhan harvey#spooktober#spooktober reading challenge#the poppy war#the red scrolls of magic#the republic of thieves
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#I think this is good analysis but it’s missing a fundamental element #they don’t think she’s fucked up for anything she’s done or will do. they don’t think her life is a tragedy from her actions. #her life is a tragedy bc she’s a child. think about how much independence and autonomy a child has. #she’s 14. barely out of middle school. #(her actress obviously is older. bc a real 14 year old could not provide the necessary level of performance. but TV claudia is 14.) #claudia cannot exist in human society without a parent figure. which means she is eternally tied to a vampire companion by necessity #book claudia is 5 years old. Louis carries her around like a babydoll. brushes her hair and puts ribbons in it. #obviously TV claudia would not put up with that treatment. she has MUCH more autonomy than book claudia. #but Claudia being uniquely cursed is due to her age. and as her maker lestat is responsible for that #and lestat projects his insecurity back at her #armand wants her out of the way and he recognizes her insecurities/weaknesses immediately and plays them up #that’s why he creates the psychological torture of the baby lulu character for her. #madeleine well that’s interesting. TV madeleine is much more well adjusted as a human being. #book madeleine is a doll maker who lost a child. and Claudia is her replacement baby. they match each other’s freak but it’s crazyyy #they never really touch on Claudia’s age in Europe. they show her basically as a functioning adult. #when like. a biggest part of her tragedy is that she CANT leave Louis. she NEEDS an adult body with her to be passably human. #I’m rambling but yeah. it’s her age. #but she’s literally a black 14 year old who can only go out at night #the human world is so fucking dangerous for her (via @punk-pins)
As much as nearly every character she meets tends to act like there's something uniquely broken and wrong with Claudia, at no point does it truly seem to me like there actually really is? I mean, obviously she is extremely fucked up, she straight up went through a serial killer collecting trophies phase, but there's a level of fucked up that's sort of the baseline for every character in the show, and obviously being turned into a vampire as a child puts her at a unique disadvantage. But for all that everyone around her spends their time bemoaning how dreadful and doomed her life is, even Louis who genuinely loves her but also builds so much of his identity around feeling responsible for her Terrible Fate™, I really don't think she's like, fundamentally damaged any more than any of the other vampires are.
But Lestat is so unwilling to be wrong that every time her life hits an inevitable road bump instead of helping her through it he points and says "look! see! she IS a monster, I was right Louis, making her was a mistake!" (and I think he sees his own monstrousness in her but fails to also see her humanity)
And then Armand meets her and sees only someone who will inevitably lose her mind, so of course speeding up the "inevitable" and siding with the coven to plan her death is just a mercy, absolving himself of any blame. (and he projects his own frailty and desire for death onto her, failing to see her strength and her desire for life)
Which makes it so cathartic when she meets Madeleine, admits to her how broken she feels sometimes, and Madeleine's response is just. Well that's normal. Who isn't a little broken these days. Let yourself feel it, move on, let yourself feel it again if you need to. After spending her life having others act as if her emotions are something uniquely dark and worrying, Madeleine's incredibly blase attitude must have been such an incredible breath of fresh air for Claudia!
To spend her whole life being made to feel like something is Wrong™ with her, and then meet someone who's just like, "yeah, and?? Who isn't? Join the club I guess"
Which makes her death so incredibly tragic and frustrating because like. She was fine! She was making a life for herself! She wasn't doomed by her nature, she wasn't "doomed by the narrative" (whatever the fuck that even means), she was doomed for no reason other than that everyone around her (except for Madeleine) preemptively DECIDED she was doomed and never gave her a chance to prove them wrong.
#interview with the vampire#iwtv#iwtv amc#claudia de lioncourt#flawless tags are flawless#yeah this is one of those things where it's like#to discuss this aspect of the story you HAVE to acknowledge that the adaptation had to make allowances in the casting#to actually functionally MAKE the show#it's just a concession that had to happen. they had to age up claudia. but in doing so i DO feel like something was lost in translation#in s1 they really do try to make the case that her being a teenager means her emotions will always be at the extreme of either end#but then she DOES settle down. and you don't really see the same claudia as you do when she was first turned#she really does function in the world as an adult. like punk-pins says v few characters in s2 remark on her age#it's there (louis pretends he's her father + tells her to play with the children etc etc)#but it's not like. deeply embedded in the character#so like. op is right. in the canon of the show we really don't SEE evidence of cause for concern re:claudia#which i think?? works for all the reasons OP says. it makes her death even more tragic. there's no defense of it.#it is functionally a lynching. she exists. the other vampires assume she is inherently wrong.#and so they humiliate her and subjugate her and ultimately murder her.#the book it's all like. anne rice dealing with the trauma of her daughter's death from leukemia which can be genetic#so it's all of anne rice having to grapple with the grief she feels for losing her daughter.#but also the guilt for maybe passing on the very thing that killed her. right?#so for louis and lestat in the book: the very act of creating claudia. of loving claudia. dooms her at the same time.#her inevitable death cannot be avoided. she was always going to die.#and then the version in the show is much more about the choices we make and the consequences of our (in)action.#they love claudia and yet they do not protect her. in fact lestat helps to kill her. they love her but they do not save her.#she didn't HAVE to die like this. she could have been happy. she could have lived. their wild wonderful daughter could have thrived.
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there’s a great write up by someone on here that i will have to search for in which they discuss how the ultimate evil for david lynch is sexual violence against women (even more severe than murder, which is often auxiliary to that type of specific violence); twin peaks is incredibly soapy—on purpose! lynch and frost are playing with form and content on purpose to examine incredibly difficult subject matter through a (for lack of a better word) more palatable format—which most of the time i think works to its advantage and makes those moments of visible horror so much more effective (i use “visible” rather than “true” or other similar adjectives because the horror is always there, it’s embedded in the entire town, shows up in every generation we see in screen and we watch them grapple with it in different ways, but that’s a separate post)
however—and i’ve talked about this before—i find that once you’ve watched fire walk with me it is so much harder to watch the show because the ignorance of nearly every single member of the town (yes, including cooper) pervades the way the action unfolds. twin peaks viewers knew the premise of the show going in and we get to discover details and information alongside the characters. when albert rosenfield comes in as the only voice of reason and reality, it’s set up to be jarring to both the townspeople and to the viewer. why?
sheryl lee said in an interview, “fire walk with me was very difficult for me to watch… and, emotionally it’s a reminder: this is a movie, but this continues to happen every day and how can we stop it? when i watch fire walk with me now, as a mother, i watch it and i think look at all those signs that were being exhibited. this girl was in danger, and look at all these people that were in her life. what would have happened if someone, somewhere, somehow could have helped or stopped it? that’s hard to watch.”
much has been discussed critically about fire walk with me and whether or not it’s exploitative in the ways that it portrays sexual violence against women. while lynch does not shy away from making that violence visible, it is done so in an attempt to make the viewer examine their own relationship to that violence and how it shows up in their own lives. the audience is forced to think about the ways that they are complicit in how and why these violent acts occur and what they can do to stop it, which is why for many it is an uncomfortable watch. for others, it is a painful (and speaking from my own perspective) necessary watch because lynch didn’t make a horror movie, he made a documentary.
fire walk with me is necessary (in my humblest of opinions) to understand why the pieces that lynch and frost put into twin peaks work. there’s so much backstory to how they weren’t originally going to reveal who laura palmer’s killer was until ABC made them, lynch wasn’t around during much of the second season so things got a little off the rails storytelling-wise, etc. etc. but fire walk with me allows them to tie difficult, often horrifying threads (ben horne unknowingly attempting to have sex with his daughter, the townspeople’s distancing of albert, the hands of random townspeople trembling as BOB attempts to claw back into the material world, the list goes on and on) back to the central thesis of “sexual violence is the ultimate evil, it is completely avoidable, and you have a responsibility to recognize the signs and stop being complicit”
#twin peaks#david lynch#fire walk with me#this is a huge essay but i’ve been really thinking about this lately as even though i love—LOVE—twin peaks (i have a twin peaks tattoo!) it#has been getting really hard to engage with lately and for me this is why; the combination of the fact that FWWM is an incredible#examination of horrific real life violence and because of the ways that we see the ignorance of everyone else (purposefully) put on screen#in short i think david lynch is a master for this reason but man if it isn’t hard (and important! but hard!) to engage with!
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“I remember an incident from my own childhood, when a very close friend of mine and I, we were walking down the street. We were discussing whether God existed. And she said he did not. And I said he did. But then she said she had proof. She said, ‘I had been praying for two years for blue eyes, and he never gave me any.’ So, I just remember turning around and looking at her. She was very, very Black. And she was very, very, very, very beautiful. How painful. Can you imagine that kind of pain? About that, about color? So, I wanted to say you know, this kind of racism hurts. This is not lynchings, and murders, and drownings. This is interior pain. So deep. For an 11 year-old girl to believe that if she only had some characteristic of the white world, she would be okay. [Black girls] surrendered completely to the master narrative. I mean the whole notion of what is ugliness, what is worthlessness. She got it from her family, she got it from school, she got it from the movies — she got it everywhere; it’s white male life. The master narrative is whatever ideological script that is being imposed by the people in authority on everybody else. The master fiction, history, it has a certain point of view. So, when these little girls see that the most prized gift that they can get at Christmastime is this little white doll, that’s the master narrative speaking: “This is beautiful. This is lovely, and you’re not it.”
Toni Morrison on what inspired her to write her first novel, The Bluest Eye.
#toni morrison#the bluest eye#1970#novel#writer#black writer#black literature#black girls#dark skinned black girls#misogynoir#anti blackness#black women#colorism#black children#african american#african american women#queen#quote#sbrown82
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Remember that white person that had a melt down when different Black women told her it's inappropriate to use " say her name" for a white person, as it's an awareness movement that came about because when a Black woman was shot to death no one came to her protest and the deaths of Black women and girls often do not generate immediate outrage or action UNLIKE the immediate vigils and protest that were made in honour of the white trans teen that was murdered in the UK so of course something about racialised misogyny makes sense on a white person and if you disagree the fascists win and the Black women and girls Say Her Name was about are somehow less dead than this trans teenager so shut up it's " solidarity" because whites said so
All this lecturing but doesn't seem to know anything about Black Americans, especially Black American women beyond how useful they are, for a hottake.
This was the reaction:
Would you be surprised that the same white person didn't like when another Black woman pointed out that framing the lynching of Black Americans as anti-rape instead of white supremacist violence reinforces the ideas lynch mobs used to kill Black people
If you try to reblog my commentary, even without adding tags, an anon told me you'll be blocked
Here's a Black American woman that has read about prison abolition talking about Black Femicide and her concerns about prison abolition especially given the history of how rape impacts Black American women
youtube
The self righteous meltdown about say her name, was walked back but it's obvious she didn't actually mean it. When online white people call something " infighting" and race is involved it often means some Black person disagreed with them and the implications of what they were saying and instead of being normal they call you "aggressive", which is famously something Black women are never called when we don't sycophantically agree. They don't see their behaviour as identity politics, whiteness is never identity politics, it's natural and neutral.
Black women are tools to these white "leftist" and you're not meant to disagree because they always know more even when they don't. It's crazy how easily these people will bring up Black people especially women into discussions that aren't about us but if you ever disagree, then fascist win
This is the standard behaviour of whites that always have Black women in their mouths. They don't believe in solidarity but usefulness.
#blah#txttletale#Youtube#white supremacy#not going to act like i wasnt rude#but so many Black women in the say her name post wasn't#but they're aggressive
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looking through your eyes + masterlist
summary:
The Bloodline is a notorious crime family known all across the underground world. A family that’s been at the top of the food chain for generations. Currently led by the ruthless, stoic Roman Reigns, their success has never been better. But as Roman moves up the age ladder, his chief advisors are pushing him to set aside the one night stands in favor of settling down to ensure the continuation of the bloodline.
Enter: Solana Miller. Scarred both literally and figuratively from a lifetime of trauma, she finds herself embedded in a twisted game of politics when she’s forced into an arranged marriage with the tribal chief himself. A union built upon lies, Solana doesn’t expect her days to last long given Roman’s notorious temper.
Roman initially opposes the union, finding Solana to be entirely too fragile for his preference but eventually agrees under the guise that she will be unseen and unheard outside of her duties in giving him an heir.
What neither of these two realize is maybe there’s more to each other than meets the eye and that maybe the healing they’ve both been unconsciously looking for can be found in one another…..
details:
cw/tw: extreme violence, graphic language, murder, drugs, torture, abuse (of children and adults), childhood sexual assault, mental health struggles, mafia, crime, fluff, smut, and suggestive content
song inspo: 'looking through your eyes’ by leann rimes
pairing: roman reigns x poc!oc
feat characters: jimmy uso, jey uso, solo sikoa, naomi, nia jax, paul heyman, rikishi, the rock, sasha banks, cody rhodes, brandi rhodes, seth rollins, becky lynch, bianca belair, jade cargill, sami zayn, kevin owens, brock lesnar and more. (see cast here)
chapters:
chapter one + chapter two + chapter three + chapter four + chapter five + chapter six + chapter seven + chapter eight + chapter nine + chapter ten + chapter eleven + chapter twelve + chapter thirteen + chapter fourteen + chapter fifteen + chapter sixteen + chapter seventeen + chapter eighteen + chapter nineteen + chapter twenty + chapter twenty-one + chapter twenty two + chapter twenty three + chapter twenty four
shorts:
dulce interrupting roman and solana during 'spicy' time
roman calling sam 'solana' while being intimate
jey's bad ass kids
au roman and solana first meeting
roman and fetu discussion
solana visits roman in his office
roman and solana halloween costume short
roman and solana in the gym
star-crossed lovers au short
roman and solana cooking short
roman and solana talk about dom short
solana asks roman to go out to dinner short
sick days
in your hands (au)
au short
leya
extras
⪨ click here to read asks regarding the story ⪩
⪨ click here to see current list of short suggestions ⪩
story inspired spotify playlist
roman's lock screens: part 1
roman's lock screens: part 2
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Right Kind of Wrong (3)
She never thought she would be involved in a murder investigation. She also never thought she’d encounter her one-night-stand again—the awkward stranger who isn’t exactly that good in bed… Or is he? Offended by the sentiment, Spencer is determined to prove her wrong. But the more he gets tangled with the beautiful stranger, the more he realizes there is more to her than what meets the eye.
Part Summary: she gets involved in a murder case she least expected as a familiar face greets her. wc: 3,7k
Warnings: 18+, explicit sexual content, blood, graphic details of murder
A/n: this part is kind of slow but it’s very important for the plot
Other parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Y/N WAS GOING TO QUIT. She was sure of it. Her mind was constantly trying to plan how she would execute the idea without making a scene because she considered slamming her resignation letter on Jamison's desk, dramatically claiming him as a disgusting, chauvinistic bitter old man who only got laid because his wife took pity on him.
She was walking back to her desk after bearing another one of his, "I don't think you can do the job, L/n. Let the men go out to the field and cover the story."
She was also a journalist, for god's sake. And a good one at that. What made that old man think she wasn't as capable as any other male peers around her? Was she too much of a woman to go out on the field and cover stories that were judged as too dangerous for her?
She let out a scoff. The Jamison Lynch worried about her safety? That sounded even more absurd.
"He did it again, didn't he?" Y/n found Sandy, the closest friend she had in this male-dominated agency, peering over her cubicle. She was from the finance department and would often come to entertain her whenever she needed an ear to cry out her frustration. "What is it this time?"
She cleared her throat and made an attempt of lowering her voice into a deeper pitch. "L/n, I don't think you understand how dangerous it is for you to be out there. Let the men do the job."
Sandy laughed. "That's actually a good impression. What work was he talking about?"
"Kevin Marshall's case." Y/n sat back in her chair and frowned. "The ironic thing is, I was the one who found out about this case. I told him about doing a story of it before he snitched this opportunity and gave it to Eric."
"So Eric's covering the story now?"
"Yeah." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "They're still talking about it in his office."
Sandy blew a low whistle. "That sucks."
She felt beyond frustrated. It seemed so unfair how she always got the bad end of the stick just because she wasn't born with a penis. She told Sandy exactly that which she cackled in return.
"On a serious note," Sandy muttered after her fits of laughter died down and leaned closer. "What happened to Mr. Marshall was terrible."
"You didn't hear this from me, but the police found him stabbed to death and..." she looked around their surroundings, motioning her friend to inch closer. "...there was some writing carved on his body."
Sandy's eyes went wide. "No way."
She nodded. "A friend of a friend of a friend of mine heard it from the forensic team."
"What were the words?"
"Well, if I were to be the one assigned to this case, we would've found out." She shook her head and let out another frustrated cry. "I'm going to quit this job."
"You said that last month," Sandy reminded her. "And the month before that, also, the month before that. Oh, did I mention you also said that several months ago—"
She held out her hand. "Alright, I got it." She glanced over the closed door at the end of the hallway, her mind drifting towards the two men discussing her supposedly case behind it. "I really mean it this time."
"Sure," Sandy absentmindedly agreed. "Wait, didn't you know Mr. Marshall?"
"Not really. I only met him once for work." She winced as her thought traveled to the time she encountered the man who was brutally murdered two days ago. "Let's just say he wasn’t exactly the greatest person to interview."
"No kidding."
She dismissed the topic by waving her hand. "It happened a long time ago, let's not bring that up. I'd feel terrible bad-mouthing him after what happened." She then let out a sigh. "It would be quite a story to cover though."
"Yeah, well, screw Jamison for taking it away for you." Sandy's eyes suddenly gleamed as they narrowed towards the automatic door at the corner of the room. "At least your boyfriend is here."
Y/n spotted the young man walking their way and laughed. "He's not my boyfriend."
"I don't think he got the memo," Sandy whispered before straightening herself, giving the man a huge grin as he stopped at her desk. "Hey, Oliver."
"Hi, Sandy." He greeted slowly. "How are you?"
"Better now that I've seen your pretty face."
Oliver Walsh was indeed an absolutely stunning man. He was tall and lean with broad shoulders and a very defined face. He was a little mysterious and reserved, but underneath that veneer was someone who was kind and caring.
He might not be the most outgoing person, but he had a genuine sweetness that made him attractive and likable. He also happened to have the hugest crush on Y/n the moment he first stepped foot inside this building.
Oliver gave Sandy a smile. "You look beautiful yourself."
Sandy rolled her eyes playfully. "We know I'm not the one you should be sweeping off her feet." She then gave Y/n a pointed look. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"What? You're going home already?"
"Got a hot date tonight!" Sandy overly shared before sauntering out of their sight. Y/n shook her head at her friend's antics before glancing up to see Oliver staring at her with the same look he had been giving her ever since the moment he had introduced himself.
His clear affection didn't go unnoticed. It somehow managed to be a public assumption that he was head over heels for her, something that was often discussed between their peers. As much as she wanted to reciprocate his feelings because she understood how difficult it was to be on the other side of unrequited love, she merely saw him as a guy she often worked with.
"Can I help you, Oliver?" She asked, already weary of the grin plastered on his face.
"No, I just wanted to see how you were doing."
Her face fell at his words. "How I'm doing?"
"I heard Jamison snatched a very important job from you."
"Wow," she gasped, not understanding how he knew this information already. But then again, people had the tendency to share things they overheard. "News really does travel fast around here."
"There's no such thing as secrets in this place. But seriously, how are you holding up?"
She simply shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Angry? Frustrated? Like I want to strangle Jamison myself?"
"Y/n, there's no such thing as a bad bone in your body."
"What? You don't think I'm capable of hurting him?"
"Nope. You're the sweetest person I know."
She snorted. "That's because you keep seeing me through rose-tinted glass."
"Maybe." Oliver crossed his arms and leaned his hips over her desk. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
She shook her head. He raised his brows. "Really? You can't think of anything?" She shook her head again. "Perhaps something to appease your frustration? Chocolate? You do love chocolate."
"I do, but I don't think anything sweet can even calm me down."
"Then how about a drink? Coffee? Beer? You and me? Together? Tonight?"
She let out a disbelief laugh as she stood up, making an attempt to gather her things. "Don't be so sly, Oliver."
He merely gave her a bashful smile. "Can't blame a guy for trying."
"It's never going to work between us." She paused dramatically. "Do you want to know why?"
He slowly nodded, eying her with earnest interest.
"Because you see, Oliver," she drawled as she closed the distance between them. She peered up at him through her lashes and threw him a grin. "I never mix business with pleasure."
She gave him a playful wink before turning around, leaving him dumbfounded and speechless as he stood there where she had left him. He let out an amused laugh before calling out, "I'm going to make you change your mind!”
She lifted her hand and waved at him without looking back. "Goodnight, Walsh."
His laughter was the last thing she heard before she turned around the corner, heading towards the parking area.
Turning him down was the right thing to do. She was not in the right place to be emotionally involved with other people right now. After going through so many heartbreaks and disappointments in the past, she couldn't take any more of the dating scene. It was just a bunch of awkward interactions and unmet expectations while feeling worn down by the whole process. She couldn't even remember the last time she was involved with a man.
A sudden mock laughter rang at the back of her head. You were involved with a complete stranger two nights ago!
Romantically, she corrected. She couldn't remember the last time she was involved with a man romantically.
Oh, great. Now she was fighting with herself upon what had happened that night. That... overwhelming and embarrassing night which she did not want to speak of. Overwhelming because of how much she wanted to see him again, embarrassing because she knew he did not feel the same.
She groaned as her mind somehow drifted to memory, her mind reminiscing that intoxicating feeling of his tongue inside her mouth for the first time. Or that moment before he settled above her, sinking between her legs as the tip of his hard, throbbing length squeezed into her warm entrance—
No! Don't even go there!
She stopped her pace and stood by the entryway of the parking lot, trying to calm her erratic heartbeat. She needed a moment to breathe. Between her frustration toward her boss, the constant interest from her fellow colleague, and the rush of sexual heat at that core memory, her head was starting to spin.
It wasn't until a sudden weight shoved her from the back that she woke from her trance. She jolted forward from the impact before her bag fell onto the ground, the remnants of her things spilling out, and scattered along her feet. "What the hell?"
She looked up to see the back side of a man moving forward in a hurry, not even sparing her a glance.
"Hey!" She shouted, clearly annoyed by the fact an unidentified man wearing a dark hoodie covering his face didn't have the decency to apologize. When he turned around the corner and escaped her line of vision, she realized she wasn't going to get the apology she desired.
She picked up her belongings while muttering curses under her breath. Her phone which lay a few inches away from her feet suddenly vibrated, the loud sound of an incoming call echoing throughout the open space of the lot. She peered over towards the screen and groaned.
She shoved the phone inside her bag and went on her way as she spotted her car. "Now's not the time, Jamison," she mumbled to herself, already irritated by how the night had turned out.
Her phone went silent again. It wasn't until she was a few feet away from her car that it began its chime a second time. The sound felt heavy in her ears and she finally got to her car, leaned against it, and reluctantly dug into her bag to retrieve the device.
She clutched onto it with disdain because Jamison was known to be persistent while also being inconsiderate and thoughtless. If she ignored him he would find another way to get under her skin. She slumped against the cool material of her car and slowly took a deep, aggravating breath before receiving the call. "Yes, Jamison—"
There was heavy breathing at the end of the line. A static sound greeted her before a loud crash echoed in the background. She looked over her phone screen before pressing it back against her ear. "Jamison?"
"...help..."
His croaked voice shot shivers down her spine. She straightened herself as panic washed over her body. Her boss was known for being very loud as he loved being the center of attention. But his voice sounded so quiet now. It didn't have that hint of self-centered confidence he liked to portray. It even sounded as if he were... in pain?
"Jamison?" She gulped and without thinking of her actions, her feet somehow moved on their own, navigating her back to where she had left. "Jamison, what's wrong? Are you hurt? Can you hear me?"
"...Y/n..." Crash. Cough. Gasp. "...help—"
The line went dead.
Y/n wasn't exactly a fit person. Her only form of physical activity would be the number of stairs she climbed up and down in her apartment building. But her feet were moving very fast on its own right now. She didn't care how running in a pair of flats wasn't the best idea, the mortification of something awful happening to someone asking for her assistance was gnawing into her consciousness.
The moment she was on her office floor, she took notice of how nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. The place was exactly how she had left minus all the people hanging by their respective desks. Because it was very, very quiet and the silence felt oddly eerie to her. Half of the lights were off and her steps halted for a moment as she entered her cubicle space, suddenly self-aware of the possibility of how something dangerous might occur.
Then she heard a scream. A deep, dreadful scream followed by a train of curses came from what she assumed was Jamison's office. Her feet moved again and her frightened demeanor was replaced by concern as she increased her pace, turning to the hallway towards his office.
Her movement faltered when she realized she wasn't alone. A very frightened-looking Eric Adler stood by Jamison's door before he turned around at the sound of her footsteps.
"Eric?"
His voice was etched with panic and horror as he rushed forward and held her by the arms. "No, Y/n."
"...what?" Her eyes shot behind him, noticing Jamison's door jarred open. She tried to escape his grip. "You don't understand. He called me—"
"No. Please. You don't want to see him in there—"
"Let go of me! He called—"
"Y/n." His grip tightened. "He's—he's... gone."
She looked up to see her coworker, the same man who simply stood in silence this evening as he took the job she had wanted. The confused look in his eyes from the sudden responsibility he had to take on that particular moment was now replaced by terror; a look of sheer horror, one which conveyed utter fear and panic. It was a look of complete devastation and utter helplessness, a look that made his soul seem to have been just sucked out of his body. It was the kind of look that conveyed the deepest despair one could possibly feel.
He's gone.
Gone could mean a lot of things. It could mean disappearance. It could mean an emotional state of feeling disconnected from the world. But this gone... she understood what it meant. She understood the weight of the word the moment her eyes spotted the surge of blood coming from Jamison's office.
There was so much blood that she should've felt disgusted by the amount of it, but her mind was too busy trying to convince herself that it was real. It wasn't until her eyes spotted a hand sprawled lifelessly across the floor that her stomach started to churn. The stone rings circling around the fingers were the exact rings she often saw on her boss.
The realization on her face had Eric pulling her away. But before he could drag her, she saw a glimpse of the lifeless body, and what she caught had her completely stunned. More than feeling mortified by the scene, a sense of bewilderment settled in. The disbelief of such a coincidence happening etched her mind as she peered over the body one last time.
Because something was carved along his arm.
There was a lot of waiting. Feeling impatient was one of the most frustrating things to ever exist, it made her feel anxious and restless about the lack of progress after Eric had called the authorities. He had guided her to the front area of the receptionist, given her a blanket he had found somewhere in the office—which she wasn't sure who it even belonged to—and given her a cup of warm tea as he made some calls.
She sat there, watching her coworker pace back and forth along the marble floor. She could tell Eric's mind was secretly all over the place with his disheveled hair and dark circles underneath his eyes, but somehow he managed to keep his calm.
He was steady, still a little fazed with the whole ordeal, but managed to keep checking up on her every five minutes. He even had the time to apologize for taking her job before she merely shook it off. It wasn't his decision to snatch away the opportunity. Though it felt inappropriate to point fingers at the person who actually did decide on the matter when he was lying in the other room covered in his own blood.
She shuddered again. There were so many questions running through her mind. What kind of person would do a terrible, gruesome thing to another human being? It was always the same question she had whenever she encountered such devastating news. She once read in an article that there were roughly 300,000 people who were killed by murder each year worldwide, and to think that one of them happened to somebody she knew felt so surreal.
The authorities finally came an hour later followed by a group of people wearing protective suits. The waiting for their arrival was very long, but everything happened so fast the moment they introduced themselves. A detective in an oversized suit talked to her and Eric separately, asking what happened prior to finding the body.
She suddenly felt nauseous as she recalled Jamison's phone call, how pained and desperate his voice sounded. It wasn't until she heard herself say it out loud that she realized the possibility of the killer being in the same room on that phone call. Or even in the same room as her as she entered the vicinity of their office.
"Ms. L/n?" Y/n looked up to see the detective watching her with worry. "Are you alright?"
No, she wasn't. But she merely nodded and gave him a smile. "I will be."
He returned the smile with a genuine one of his own and glanced at his watch. "You should get some sleep, Ms. L/n. If you have any more information please don't hesitate to contact us."
Then he left her standing there alone, watching people bustling around her with different equipment. She could hear the faint sound of the ambulance from the distance, smell the intoxicating scent of chemicals coming from the medics, and sense her fatigue creeping along her body as her eyes noted the time showed on the massive clock plastered on the wall.
"Ms. L/n?"
Y/n turned to see a man standing close, his dark eyes watching her cautiously. There was a sense of confidence in his posture that she couldn't help but notice. "Yes?"
"Mr. Adler told me where to find you." She frowned at the mention of Eric before her confusion deepened at the badge presented in front of her. "I'm SSA Derek Morgan from the FBI."
"FBI?"
"Yes," he confirmed, shoving his badge back into his pocket. "I'd like to ask you a few questions regarding this past event."
She crossed her arms. "I don't think my boss being brutally killed should be called an event." She steadied her gaze on him. "And I've already talked to the detective."
"My apologies, and I'm terribly sorry for your loss." He gave her an apologetic smile. "Although I would appreciate it if you can spare a few minutes of your time."
She observed him, watching him hesitantly before letting out a heavy sigh. "I guess so."
"Is there anywhere private we can talk?"
His attempt at keeping their conversation confidential from all the people swarming by had her quirking an eyebrow. She nodded and guided him toward the closest space that could provide them some privacy. "Sure... We can use the conference room down here."
"Thank you. My partner will also be present with us if you don't mind."
She looked him up and down. "There's two of you?"
"There's two of us," Agent Morgan confirmed, slightly smiling at the condescending tone of her voice. "Dr. Reid will shortly join us."
The silence after that statement was very, very palpable. The sudden stillness was one that typically left her feeling completely baffled, a state of total shock and disbelief over a familiar name unexpectedly mentioned. The uncertainty of her ability to hear left her frozen in her tracks, waiting for her brain to catch up with the sudden information. "Doctor... Reid?"
"Dr. Spencer Reid. He was talking to Mr. Adler a while ago—wait, there he is." Agent Morgan's voice grew louder as his eyes focused on the man behind them. "Reid! Over here!"
He surely couldn't be...?
She shook her head. The world wasn't that small, was it? Even though she was very bad at remembering names, how could she forget the exact same one she wrongly called as a result of her pettiness? And besides, there must be a lot of people possessing the same name, surely it was a different person.
Though the deafening lack of sound was jarring as if every other sound had been sucked out of the room. It almost felt like everything was frozen in time as her eyes settled on the man standing a few feet away from her. Because there he was, the same man who awkwardly flirted with her two days ago.
The same man who grabbed her by the waist the moment she looked up at him with need. The same man who leaned in closer, the tension charged with anticipation and desire before it lead to an explosion of passion that couldn't be quelled.
But the desperate longing in his eyes from that night was changed into mortification, and when she thought her night couldn’t go more terrible than it already was, it had gotten even worse.
>> NEXT PART
#spencer reid fanfic#spencer reid x reader#spencerreid#spencer reid#spencer reid fic#spencer reid smut#spencer reid fluff#criminal minds#fanfic series#criminal minds fanfic#spencer reid x y/n#spencer reid x female reader#spencer reid x self insert#spencer reid x you#spencer reid x oc#spencer reid x original female character#spencer reid x fem!reader smut#spencer reid x fanfiction#spencer reid x fem!reader#spencer reid series#criminal mind series#Right Kind of Wrong
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CWs: discussion of murder, racism, and other ITWTV things
I feel like something we don’t talk about in terms of Louis’ many betrayals of Claudia is his forgiveness pertaining her death. Can we, like, think about it for a second? Louis, at the start of season one, knows Armand is responsible for her death. He knows his coven did horrifying things to her ashes. He knows her bodily autonomy was violated a million times. And he knows that Armand was capable of saving her. But Armand didn’t save Claudia. He saved Louis. So Louis forgives him.
I think this is a great example of what Claudia is always talking about when she rightfully calls out how she’s turned into a plot-point in other people’s lives— in her creators’ lives. The consequences of her pain simply aren’t acted upon.
Louis forgives Armand for seven decades his culpability in Claudia’s death. Because Armand saved Louis. Because when he watched his coven carry out the revenge knows he was an instrumental part of, he loved Louis enough. But not Claudia. She’s dead. He’s spiting Lestat and sleeping next to Armand and Claudia is dead because (to Louis’ understanding) Armand decided to save Louis. Not Claudia.
It’s worse when you take into account the finale. Daniel, per Louis request, makes him remember: He remembers how he dragged Claudia’s burned blistered body on the ground like an object. He remembers how Lestat shouted the consequences of her undeath into his fucking face. He remembers his total apathy born by the force of his own desperation. And, god. He understands that Lestat, Claudia’s maker and (in his eyes) parent, had the power to save her. To spare her from being used for Santaigo’s pleasure, the unforgiving brutal death by sunlight, the humiliation and degradation of what was functionally a lynching— and he goes and swoons. Because Lestat didn’t save her— he saved Louis. He loved Louis. He’s always loved Louis. He uses his and Lestat’s shared grief as a catalyst for renewing the relationship that Claudia was fucking lynched for daring to save him from. He leaves the vampire he stayed with for SEVEN DECADES that Claudia warned him about, who was always (even if Armands’ lies were believed) instrumental in her murder, a vampire Claudia wanted dead.
And here’s the kicker: Louis doesn’t even have the excuse of Claudia perhaps wanting him to forgive and move on. Because she wouldn’t. She’d want Sam and Armand and, honestly, Lestat, dead and burned. And Louis knows that!! And that’s why her speech at the trial is chilling. Because she was absolutely fucking right. Her existence is reduced to a plot point for the powerful men around her. Her life and death, no matter what she says or does, is in service to others. And the fact that she’s a supporting character in a narrative really drives this home. And as a Black woman, her marginalization amidst the men around her, white or otherwise— cannot be understated.
Anyways, I love all the complicated morally fucked characters in this show, including Louis. But there’s no world in which Louis did right by her. And Claudia, the unapologetic fierce legend she was, would absolutely agree. Fuck these vampires.
#katzkookies#interview with the vampire#claudia de pointe du lac#claudia de lioncourt#claudia eparvier#amc interview with the vampire#interview with the vampire meta#meta#louis de pointe du lac#lestat de lioncourt
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hai i'm curious about what twin peaks is, can you explain it to me (preferably without spoilers) /nf
Oh, is it my birthday?! Yes I can do that!
I will say that I generally do not consider things that happen in the pilot or first episode of a TV series to be "spoilers" so much as "premise". So anything I say here that's direct plot-stuff will only come from the pilot. All right? Let's dig in!
CAPSULE SUMMARY
Twin Peaks is a surreal/magical realism/police procedural/drama/horror/soap opera produced by David Lynch and Mark Frost. It had two seasons of 30 episodes total, a film (Fire Walk With Me), and a third season that came out 25 years later in 2017.
In the pilot episode, a teenaged young woman who everyone in town knows, Laura Palmer, is found murdered. The town reels to cope with her demise and the investigation. A second young woman is found alive and wandering--and she crossed state lines as she wandered. The police call in the FBI, since it's now a multi-state case, and in walks Special Agent Dale Cooper.
As Cooper begins his investigation, he discovers that there's far, far more going on in Twin Peaks than he'd first anticipated.
[NOTE HERE that Twin Peaks covers a LOT of extremely tough and triggering topics over the course of its run. DoesTheDogDie should have a list of all triggers, although those will come with spoilers. The main one to be aware of is that sexual assault, domestic abuse, and rape are discussed. The aftermath of these crimes is depicted. It's 1990, so it's not graphic as in Law & Order: SVU, but it is very much present. Please take care of yourself first!]
NOT-SPOILER REASONS TO WATCH IT
It is a vital historical work of art. Twin Peaks revived the police procedural, popularized soap operas as an art form, launched and relaunched multiple acting careers, introduced surrealism to multiple generations of TV watchers, taught basics of Buddhism, helped spread awareness of the Free Tibet movement, and inspired countless references and imitators. When you watch Twin Peaks, you'll feel like you've seen it before... because you've almost certainly seen something which only exists because of Twin Peaks.
David Lynch is Autism Patient Zero who does not compromise his writing or his vision for NT audiences. He writes dialogue and directs actors in a way that can only be described as "everybody's got the autism accent", and it is a DELIGHT to experience.
The visuals are, often, so strong that you will forget how to breathe. Many of the sets and locations are treated like characters in and of themselves.
The title, Twin Peaks, ties into the show's central themes about identity, which is one of my favorite themes in fiction. What makes you who you are? If there was someone who looked a lot like you, would that compromise who you are? What if they have the same name as you? Are you no longer who you are if you can't remember your past? Is it sometimes a good thing to change your identity? What if everybody thinks you did something unforgivable, but you don't remember it? Does society require all of us to have public faces and private faces? Does anyone really know another person's private face?
When I first watched it, nobody shipped Trucoop (Cooper with the local police sheriff, Harry S. Truman). Now it seems like everybody does and I am not alone, yaaay.
Features one of the very few trans characters in media at the time who was unambiguously positive!
Watch an episode, then pull up the IMDB and see who everyone is. I guarantee that you'll almost always find SOMEone who was famous for other stuff. If you like Star Trek, you'll find that half the damn cast was either on TNG or DS9. It is honestly astounding to me that Jeff Combs wasn't on the series (because, I assume, he was shooting Bride of Re-Animator and other stuff).
THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR
The subtitling in some versions of the show (on DVD specifically) is really bad and unreliable. I found that the Netflix subtitles were OK. If you don't know about OpenSubtitle, I recommend using them to find better subtitles in case you need them.
As stated above, the show gets into really dark themes, and it does not shy away from them when necessary. I feel that these things are addressed in a sensitive way and frequently related to plot, but it hits everyone different.
The music... eh. I like the electro/late 80s theme and the instrumentals that back most of the scenes. But every time someone sings, I get the cringe. I've never been able to get on board with what Lynch thinks good music sounds like. But a lot of people do, so that could just be me.
It takes a lot of work to watch this show. Since so much of it is visual, it is absolutely a show you have to watch with no distractions. I found it to be worth it--past a certain point, I didn't want any distractions. But I get where it's a sacrifice of time and concentration.
If you watch it and enjoy it, you will probably end up with Lynchian Syndrome, where you are compelled to watch every other thing David Lynch has ever made and develop elaborate hypotheses on how they're all in the same universe and suchlike.
So yeah! I hope this gives you an spoiler-free idea of why this show is so special, and if you had any other questions about it, let me know!
#twin peaks#special agent dale cooper#asked and answered#nothingenough speaks#sheriff harry s truman#laura palmer#who killed laura palmer#trucoop#c'mon you guys we can call it trooper#autism patient zero#david lynch
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Idk man, even if the claims of mass sexual assault are true, that's still not something that justifies the collective punishment of a whole population, especially where half are children! Like I know I'm already preaching to the converted here but like, even if the worst version of events is true there is still NOTHING that could possibly justify this violence on Gaza.
(This isn't a criticism of you or anything, I just wanted to vent. It just makes my blood boil to see this brought up as if it justifies Israel's carpet bombing. probably still worth discussing if these claims have merit, especially with how they play into racist portrayals of arab men, it kinda reminds me of how the aledeged sexual assault of white women was weaponized against black men to justify lynch mobs by the kkk)
Ok... I have calmed down now... if you read this, thank you
No I totally agree, you're right. And not to mention, it's incredibly hypocritical in my opinion as Palestinians have been speaking out against Israeli state sanctioned sexual assault for YEARS. Like ok, where have you been the past 75 years when Palestinians, both men and women, pleaded for support and understanding. You cannot be appalled by sexual violence directed to one group of people but remain completely silent about another.
Plus, there's a trend in Gaza right now where Israeli soldiers force people to strip and stand among the bodies in mass graves (in the WINTER, remember) to freak Gazans out. Like. These people are experiencing the worst possible things imaginable, can you perhaps help them right now and then we will talk about your mass rape accusations? I've never really understood being disgusted in other people before but at this point I genuinely think they're terrible individuals.
Don't you dare claim you "care about people" when you insist on ignoring and manufacturing consent for the mass displacement and murder of Gazans.
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Note the cat statuette in: TWIN PEAKS, S2E7 (1990, dir. Lynch, wr. Frost) x LOLITA (1962, dir. Kubrick, wr./adapting Nabokov) x THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945, dir./wr. Lewin, adapting Wilde) A short post on this point of influence, which I haven't seen discussed before...
These scenarios are roughly parallel: in each case, the pictured character (villain) is contemplating a monstrous course of action: Leland, killing Maddy; Humbert, killing Charlotte; Dorian, giving up his soul in exchange for a conscience-avoidant "foul dream[] of sensual life."
While the cat statuette has no role in Wilde's novel, the film quotes a Wilde poem to explain its use of the statuette as a kind of mystical totem gifting Gray eternal youth in exchange for his soul, awakening a "bestial sense" that leads him to discard any moral scruples...
As a result, all of Gray's increasing moral degradation is made visible in his portrait, while he himself remains spotless, eternally young & beautiful. The portrait thus arguably acts somewhat as BOB does for Leland in TP: as a kind of moral alibi, a displacement of conscience.
Meanwhile, in LOLITA, a similarly conscience-avoidant role is arguably played, in part, by the character of Quilty. As in GRAY, LOLITA's story ends with the destruction of this figure—and fittingly, Quilty is killed behind a portrait, making the analogy to GRAY even stronger...
And, of course, much can been said about the links b/w TWIN PEAKS & Kubrick's LOLITA, a film Lynch has often cited as a favorite. Leland & Humbert: apparently "normal" patriarchs abusing their (step)daughter, guilty of murder, & subjectively displacing their culpability. But that's a subject for another time...
#twin peaks#david lynch#mark frost#picture of dorian gray#classic lolita#lolita1962#stanley kubrick#albert lewin#cats
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George Stinney: Youngest Execution in America at aged 11
In 1944, George Stinney stood 5 feet 1 inch (154 cm), and weighed 90-95 pounds. He lived in a small home with a chicken coop in his hometown of Alcolu, South Carolina. . Alcolu was a small, working-class mill town, where white and black neighborhoods were separated by railroad tracks. The town was typical of small Southern towns of the time. Given segregated schools and churches for white and black residents, there was limited interaction between them.
On March 23, 1944, the bodies of Betty June Binnicker and Mary Emma Thames were found in a ditch on the African-American side of Alcolu after the girls failed to return home the night before. Stinney's father assisted in the search. The girls had been beaten with a weapon, variously reported as a piece of blunt metal or a railroad spike. Binnicker and Thames both suffered severe blunt force trauma, resulting in penetration of both girls' skulls. According to a report by the medical examiner, these wounds had been "inflicted by a blunt instrument with a round head, about the size of a hammer." The medical examiner reported no evidence of sexual assault to the younger girl, though the genitalia of the older girl were slightly bruised.
The girls were last seen riding their bicycles looking for flowers. As they passed the Stinneys' property, they had asked Stinney and his sister, Aimé, if they knew where to find "maypops", a local name for passionflowers. According to Aimé, she was with Stinney at the time the police later established the murders occurred. According to an article reported by the wire services on March 24, 1944, the sheriff announced the arrest of "George Junius" and stated that the boy had confessed and led officers to "a hidden piece of iron.
George and his older brother John were arrested on suspicion of murdering the girls. John was released by police, but George was held in custody. He was not allowed to see his parents until after his trial and conviction.
In 1995, Stinney's seventh-grade teacher, W.L. Hamilton— a black man— spoke in an interview with The Sumter Item about George. Hamilton stated, "I remember the day he killed those children, he got into a fight with a girl at school who was his neighbor. In those days you didn't have to worry about children carrying guns and knives to school, but George carried a little knife and he scratched this child with his knife. I took him outside and we went for a little walk, and I talked to him. We went back into the school, in a submissive way, he begged for the child's pardon." Stinney's sister, Aimé Ruffner, denied those allegations and contacted Hamilton after it was published. Aimé stated, "I asked him why he would say something like that," she said. "He told me someone paid him to say it. I don't know who paid him but his exact words were, 'because they paid me.'" Hamilton died shortly after his interview was published.
Following Stinney's arrest, his father was fired from his job at the local sawmill and the Stinney family had to immediately vacate their company housing. The family feared for their safety. Stinney's parents did not see him again before the trial. He had no support during his 81-day confinement and trial; he was detained at a jail in Columbia, 50 miles (80 km) from Alcolu, due to the risk of lynching. Stinney was questioned alone, without his parents or an attorney.
Other than the testimony of the three police officers, at trial prosecutors called three witnesses: Reverend Francis Batson, who discovered the bodies of the two girls, and the two doctors who performed the post-mortem examination. The court allowed discussion of the "possibility" of rape due to bruising on Binnicker's genitalia. Stinney's counsel did not call any witnesses, did not cross-examine witnesses, and offered little or no defense. The trial presentation lasted two and a half hours. More than 1,000 white Americans crowded the courtroom, but no black Americans were allowed. As was typical at the time, Stinney was tried before an all-white jury. After deliberating for less than ten minutes, the jury found Stinney guilty of murder. Judge Philip H. Stoll sentenced Stinney to death by electrocution.
Stinney's family, churches, and the NAACP appealed to Governor Olin D. Johnston for clemency, given the age of the boy. Most of the pleas for clemency came from white women living in South Carolina. Some pleas from whites came with affirmations of white supremacy, but discomfort at the prospect of someone so young being executed.
An execution of a child as young as 14 was virtually unheard of in United States history, even for black children in the Jim Crow South who were convicted of murdering or raping white victims; many sources say that Stinney was the youngest person executed in the US in the 20th century.
Stinney was executed on Friday, June 16, 1944, at 7:30 a.m. He was prepared for execution by electric chair, using a Bible as a booster seat because Stinney was too small for the chair. He was then restrained by his arms, legs, and body to the chair. An officer asked George if he had any last words to say before the execution took place, but he only shook his head and said "No, sir." The executioner pulled a strap from the chair and placed it over George's mouth, causing him to break into tears, and he then placed the face mask over his face, which did not fit him as he continued sobbing. When the lethal electricity was applied, the mask covering slipped off, revealing tears streaming down Stinney's face. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Crowley
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📸 Eddie Redmayne and Anthony Breznican attend Vanity Fair & Peacock Host "The Day Of The Jackal" Screening at The West Hollywood EDITION on October 30, 2024 in West Hollywood, California.by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Vanity Fair and Peacock.
"Eddie Redmayne Takes On Sharp-Shooting, Producing Duties for New Series The Day of the Jackal"
The Oscar winner returns to television as an elite assassin in Peacock’s new adaptation of the classic novel and film.
By Kara Warner, for Vanity Fair October 31, 2024.
Eddie Redmayne has joined the ranks of stone-cold fictional assassins.
The actor—who worked with a veteran military expert and a real-life sniper, learned some Spanish and German, and was taught how to apply prosthetics in preparation for the complex role—is curious about how audiences will react to his frequently disguised, morally gray character.
“There’s a sociopathic quality to him,” the actor said of the highly skilled lone wolf he plays in The Day of the Jackal, speaking during a Vanity Fair–hosted event for the series on Wednesday night. “One of the things that really thrilled me is that he’s basically an actor, and so in some ways, [wearing] the prosthetics, learning new languages—that’s the stuff we love. The whole series, in many ways, felt like an actor’s playground.”
Peacock’s 10-episode reimagining of the classic novel and film follows both an elite assassin (Redmayne) as he carries out increasingly difficult murder missions and the determined MI6 agent, Bianca (Lashana Lynch), who’s trying to stop him. The Day of the Jackal marks the actor’s return to television and his first producer credit, which he shares with costar Lynch.
“The series is made with great love and affection for the original. Because I grew up loving the film and watched it for so many years, when it arrived in my inbox, there was definitely this trepidation. But because it was set now, it felt like a different piece,” Redmayne told the audience during a discussion hosted by Vanity Fair’s Anthony Breznican following a screening of the first episode. “What I love in the update is, you have the Jackal and Bianca, both of whom are ferociously talented, obsessive, meticulous about their jobs, but have these questionable morals. I love this idea of audiences oscillating in their affections and going, I’m repelled by this person, yet I’m kind of intrigued by them".
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Republican legislators in Oklahoma were caught on tape, behind closed doors, being their deeply racist selves. Literally yearning for the times when whites could just murder journalists and lynch Black people with no consequences.
This is exactly what Republicans are talking about when they say they want to “make America great again.” This is what they mean when they say they miss “the good old days.”
These are the same people who will swear up and down that the Civil War wasn’t to maintain slavery; who love saying that the Confederate flag is about Southern pride, not racism. This is them with their masks completely OFF.
It’s always been about white supremacy.
Please believe me when I say this is not an anomaly.
Whether they get caught saying it aloud or not, this mentality is the norm for Republicans in the “former” slave states.
👉🏿 https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/state/2023/04/20/full-audio-released-of-oklahoma-sheriff-discussing-killing-journalists-mccurtain-county/70132913007/
#politics#oklahoma#republicans#racism#kevin clardy#mark jennings#alicia manning#white supremacy#mccurtain county#red states
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