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himehikoshrine · 1 year ago

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Mary Jane and Frankenstein

In honor of Spooky Month and the imminent arrival of Mary Jane Day, I have done the scariest thing imaginable, returned to tumblr dot com to write a meta/analysis post.

[image description: images side by side of the top of the Mary Jane poster, showing Mary looking down sewing Jacob, next to the 1831 edition front panel illustration of Frankenstein, showing Victor looking down on his creature in horror]

This is a mostly informal attempt to collect my thoughts on the fact that Neji’s little spooktacular, in addition to being a very pointed exploration, as all of his plays are, of art and theater, the school, himself and his classmates (without their permission, the menace) and just, a lot of fun, is perhaps one of the best piece of Frankenstein related media I have EVER seen in relation to the original novel.

This is pulling a lot of things from the Stage Script rather than the in game version, which summarizes a lot of the things I'm mentioning specifically. You can find the full Stage Script in the game menu, or

[ here ]

because I love this play so much that I needed a searchable version.

Caveat Emptor here is that it’s been a long time since I’ve read the novel in its entirety. If this game gets me to read it again, I may have to revamp things. But again, largely informal. But very long, somehow.

Oooops.

If you're curious about anything in here and want to expand on it more, or hear my thoughts on it, please feel free to reblog, send an ask, or message. Or ask me elsewhere if we're already connected there. There's a lot I glossed over, especially at the end of this. I have a lot to say, and if we're back to writing metas on tumblr dot com the chances of stopping at one are slim.

Mary as Frankenstein, Mary as Mother

Mary’s name is acting as several allusions at once. I mean, there are at least 3 Mary’s in the bible one could point to - Mary, Mother of Jesus is absolutely at play. But Lazarus’s sister is also a Mary. And while technically Mary Magdalene is often misrepresented and amalgamated with other characters in retellings, the idea of “purifying” her has canon precedent - having had seven demons driven out of her.

Of course, Neji’s twisting all of it, in his Neji way.

(Interestingly enough, these are the Three Marys of the Quem Quaeritis - widely considered a point of "rebirth" of theatre in Europe during the middle ages.)

But Mary is also the name of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of Frankenstein. And this, this is a Frankenstein story. It is, in fact, a beautiful inversion of so much about the book that gets left out in most far more serious attempts at a Frankenstein story.

The original book is about motherhood and its inversion. Much could be said about when during her life she wrote it, or her own mother’s death shortly after she was born, or any number of things that have been hashed and rehashed a thousand times from AP English to the ivoriest of towers. But, fan of Death of the Author that I am, I posit you don’t need any of that to see in the text.

Victor creates a person with science, rather than by ‘nature’. It is an unnatural birth. And Victor is just about the shittiest possible parent. The Creature spends a good deal of time explaining to him, when they meet up again, that Victor is his father, and that he was literally abandoned as a newborn, and maybe that was kind of the worst possible thing he could have done. It’s not a mantle Victor has any desire to take up, the role of a parent. He wanted to create life, but he didn’t want to be a parent. But that’s what it means to create life.

By gender swapping the role, you’re already inverting the inversion - but Mary’s creation is no more “natural” than Victors. But it is different. Neji, ever witch-coded himself, has Mary put one of her own hairs into every doll. It’s returning the shared body to the act of bringing these creations into being.

But even without that. Mary considers herself a mother. She considers herself a mother despite having no memory of one herself - Mary knows lots of things she shouldn’t, and doesn’t know many things she should. But she calls herself a mother. Even before any of the dolls move, she is their mother. A motherhood she wants to desperately share with others. She considers the act of selling a doll a kind of ‘adoption’. These are her children. And they know it. It’s stitched into every stitch in their doll bodies. They know Mary is their mother. And they know she loves them.

[image description: screenshot of Mary in her workshop. The text shows Mary's line saying "I'm back, dear dolls. Mommy's home."]

The Creature comes to think of Victor as a father - an absentee one at that, and craves that love, a love he is never shown. Mary averts this spectacularly. She creates out of love.

Names

Mary takes great care in naming Jacob, and ends up doing so, though she doesn’t say it, after a biblical pun (Jacob, in the bible, is explicitly named such as a pun on the word “Heel”). But names are important to Mary, and she is sure to give one to Jacob as soon as he’s fully formed, even before she sees him wake up. Victor very particularly does not name his creature. Instead, he tends to throw around insults, many of which are demonic or satanic. When they finally meet again, the Creature says to him “I should have been thy Adam.” Mary averts this mistake, among so many others, spectacularly. Being called by her name is important to her, and she extends that offer to Jacob even before he’s fully “born.” Like a good mother.

[image description: a screenshot showing Fumi and Kai dressed as Mary and Jacob, as seen from the stage with the audience in the background. Kai is saying Jacob's line "I did, Mary. You are Mary Jane. My mother."]

Not only does she give him a nice biblical pun of a first name, she shares her last name with him, again before he’s even more than a doll. That’s her boy, that’s her best friend. That’s her family.

The song here, which is only sung and dance AFTER Mary has given him a name is called "A Friend Without A Name" Almost as if specifically calling attention to this fact. Mary is as much the friend without a name as Jacob, if not more. She is the one that has never heard another voice say her name, where as Jacob is called his before he's even awakened by the Island's magic and Mary's love.

[image description: the screen from just before A Friend Without A Name showing Mary and Jacob's CG of Mary Stitching Jacob.]

Mary as a Good Mother

Some of the weirder moments in the play actually make a lot more sense when you look at them through this light. Jacob randomly saying he hates Mary in a fit of jealousy? It’s because he’s a child. He’s a baby. That’s a baby boy. Mary, herself quite childish, forgetting so much of what’s important, as the Island is known for, reacts incorrectly, but understandably. This is her first friend - and far more of one than the others she thinks she’s made, in terms of mutual respect, compassion, and small acts of kindness. But this level of connection and emotional reciprocation is still new to her. She’s hurt. She runs.

And The Order of Shadow’s duo is quick to tell her that that’s just the nature of ghosts, telling themselves a little joke about how they have been lying to her from the start, and fully intend to stab her in the back, far more than any ghost. Victor’s instinct is to consider his creature a monster, a fiend, a demon. Mary is told by characters positioned as far more knowledgeable about the world than her that he must be exactly that.

And how does Mary react? She refuses to believe it. Even hurt as she was, even with someone who just said this is their entire expertise telling her it’s in his nature to be cruel, Mary refuses to accept it. She still loves him. She makes the right choice. That’s her best friend. That’s her family. That’s a (un)life she brought into this world, and she stands by him. No matter what. She would risk her life to rescue him. She will fight for him.

This is why that scene has to be there. Because she has to be given that temptation, that trial. And she passes spectacularly in a way Victor will not, to the end.

It’s also a thematic explanation for the garbage scene, which is probably there as much to be silly as anything. I mean, it’s also there to show many other things — Mary’s eccentricity is ingenious in its own quirky way — the islanders who hated her, who she didn’t understand, give her the tools to save Jacob and the others — Mary not even considering the same level of violence — it being a moment of empathy between Mary and the islanders who never showed her even a shred of it back — she understands that they couldn’t tell which food was rotten. She sees things from their point of view. And many more besides.

But, from the point of view of Mary as a Mother, Mary succeeding brilliantly where Victor failed… Mary is literally willing to coat herself in filth to rescue Jacob. Parenthood is messy. It involves a lot of gross things. Even Victor's, sanitized of the normal processes and cloaked in science, was made of corpse parts. But the play actually brings back a part of parenthood that Mary had been able to avoid thus far - the mess. Mary, once again, doesn’t hesitate. For Jacob? She’ll do anything.

Jacob is shown love and kindness, and he responds with the same. He has the same unnatural strength as Victor’s creature, but he’s only ever shown using it to rescue himself and others. When Mary asks for a handshake, he replies that he can’t, because such would be an invitation for a duel. And that they should hug, instead. Mary didn’t even know what that was. Far from disgusted by the lack of warmth she feels from his skin, she looks beyond that, to the emotional warmth and connection.

Frankenstein’s creature, famously, lashes out in violence. While Victor views this as his responsibility only in so far as he brought a demon into the world, he doesn’t understand, even when the Creature eloquently explains it, that the Creature was a being who had only known cruelty.

Jacob knows love. He knows kindness. He knows sadness and loneliness and pain. And refuses to engage in any form of touch that could even be considered violence. They hug.

Which is not to say Mary’s creatures can’t kill. But they do only to protect their mother, and only after Mary has risked everything to protect Jacob. They are Mary’s children, not Victor’s. Even their violence is an act of love. And in another inversion - they are the ones telling Mary to run. Something she does not want to do. She doesn't want to leave them behind. After all, they are her children. She departs from them only at Jacob's literal tug away, and with an apology and a thanks.

[Image description: screenshot of Fumi, dressed as Mary Jane, shown from stage view, with the audience behind, while a Doll's lines "Protect Mommy, let mommy run away." are shown below.]

Boats and Framing

But the parallels are not only in the most famous part of the novel - consider this - Frankenstein, the novel, is written as a series of nesting framing narratives. The bookend narrative, the one we open and close on, is a boat. Most Frankenstein adaptations cut the boat trip frame, but Mary Jane very specifically opens and closes on a boat at sea, and its ending is EXACTLY the reverse of Frankenstein’s. If for some reason you’re this far in and don’t want more spoilers for a 200 year old book, now’s the time to click away, I guess.

The boat is on a course to the Arctic. Victor is on board, telling his story, because his creature has fled there, away from humanity. Victor intends to pursue him endlessly, to kill him, fully aware that he is almost certainly going to die, frozen and alone, in the process. We don’t get to see this happen - the story ends merely with the certainty that this is what is coming. Victor, on a boat, intending to go to the ends of the earth alone to kill the Creature he brought into the world, treating it like some burden and punishment.

[image description: a screenshot from Mary Jane, with the CG of Mary and the Ghosts on the ship, with the summary text overlayed on it reading "Friends together, fun forever."]

How does Mary Jane end? With Mary, and Jacob, and a cast of playful characters — her friends — sailing off for the ends of the world, together, in pursuit of life and happiness - even in death.

Ghost Party ends the play because its a triumph. Neji throwing out Horace’s Ode to Cleopatra in there because he can’t not do silly things like that — but Frankenstein famously contains many references to classics — many made by the Creature himself, who was forced to educate himself via books, lacking a parent to help him.

Mary Jane takes a section of sheer joy out of a poem of complex mixed emotions, and says them repeatedly. This is a party. This is a triumph. Mary leaves on a boat for the ends of the world a success, a good mother, a friend. And a human.

Humanity, Connection, Isolation

The play deconstructs so wonderfully this question of humanity. Mary doesn’t find any joy in it, despite barely understanding it herself - until she is able to use it to help others. The first time in her life she’s been glad to be human - something she only really understands as “needing to eat food” - is when it gives her the ability to save her ghost friends. If that’s what humanity is, the ability to care for others, the ghosts of the chapel, the play is telling us, are far more human.

One of my favorite exchanges in the play is after Charles and Figaro explain to Mary that the corpse parts used to make Jacob were their friends. Mary is not malicious in the least. She has no concept of this act as sacrilege or desecration. She is genuinely childishly innocent in most of what she does. And she can’t understand it.

Mary says “If you can love unmoving corpses so much… How can you not feel for living ghosts...?"

[image description: Mary in front of the burning town. She's saying "How can you not feel for living ghosts...?"]

Charles responds that she must be completely off her rocker. But she’s correct. Mary sees life in front of her, even undead life, and wants to protect it. Even the Islanders, who only ever treated her with distain, who only ever made her miserable — she doesn’t want them to die, even knowing they are already dead.

Outside of Mary, her oddball eccentric self, in this play, the more human someone is, the crueler they are. Figaro and Charles are only ever here to mess with her before dragging her off to be killed. They have no willingness to even try to understand anything outside their world view. The Islanders, who think themselves human, revile Mary, and make up terrible rumors about her.

Both of these groups do so, in part, for similar reasons. Because to have empathy would force a realization on them they cannot bear. The last thing Figaro realizes, before he’s dragged into the most poetic of justices, is that the dolls have SOULS. They are ALIVE. It’s a moment of anger and madness, but it’s a last minute realization that he’s been wrong now that it’s too late. Of course it’s not a revelation he’ll remember. You tend to forget what’s important on Kakuriyo Island.

If Mary averts all of Victor’s mistakes, Charles and Figaro make many of them. Seeing the Creature as a collection of corpses, as demonic, as an abomination against God. Reacting only in anger, in cruelty, in violence. Chasing something they view, wrongly, as an abomination to the ends of the earth, until it kills them. Mary has Victor’s role, but Victor’s actions and outlook are given to the antagonists.

It’s fascinating to me, then, that there are two of them. In the version of the play that gets performed, they’re twins - doubles. Two halves of one whole, who egg each other along in their cruelty. But they also exist to show that even these two are capable of empathy and connection. They do in fact understand the thing they tease Mary with. They have the ability and understanding to extend that to Ghosts, or to Mary. They simply refuse to. Figaro really does love his brother - his grief at his death is genuine. It’s a clever way to show that.

In the book, Victor is extremely isolated, by his own choice. He withdraws from everyone in order to work on his creature, and after he runs from it, he keeps to himself just as much, now blaming the idea that he can tell no one what he’s done. Even when he’s surrounded by family, he is utterly alone. By choice. The Creature eventually lashes out and kills the woman Victor intended to marry. In Victor’s mind, he cares about this girl, but it is not in his actions. Like much else, she exists more as a creation of Victors mind than something in the world for him to interact with and care about. Until she dies. Then he’s furious. And decides to spend the rest of his life chasing down the Creature to kill him for it.

This contradiction in Victor has always read as intentional to me. The book is calling out his hypocrisy here. He doesn’t actually desire connection - the connection his Creature eloquently explains his longing for. But if it is denied him, he acts like he’s been affronted, painted with a shallow layer of sanctimoniousness or justice. Murder is bad, of course, and the Creature shouldn’t have killed an innocent young woman to get at Victor, of course. But the discrepancy between the way Victor reacts to her in death and the way he does when she’s alive is intentional.

Victor has every chance for human connection. Time and time and time again he’s given that chance and refuses it. Even to the very end, on that boat. He could stay with the crew. Sail back home. Let it go. The Creature has run away from humanity which it has come to despise as much as its absentee father disdained it. There is no need to keep chasing. But Victor cannot let it go.

The Creature longs for connection and is denied it. Victor disdains and refuses it, even when it’s available to him.

Mary as The Creature

Contrast this with Mary — It is Mary, rather than Jacob, that is in the Creature’s situation here. Mary is constantly chasing connection. Constantly trying to find something to reflect humanity (compassion, life, emotions — rather than the matter of blood and flesh that Figaro and Charles always talk about it as) back at her. And she can’t get it. She, like the Creature, hides in the bushes and watches it from afar. She, like the Creature, chases after it only for people to run away, to treat her with cruelty. Mary is Frankenstein, but she is also a reflection of the Creature. She is both in one, in this sense.

[image description: screenshot of summary text over the church and figures of the church ghosts. it reads "The friendless Mary dreamily watched the ghosts as they sang a happy song.]

Her costume specifically makes her look nearly as much the doll as the ones she makes - in the world of the story, because she's sewing both - but thematically, it ties her to them not only as their mother, but as a reflection of the Creature, herself.

Like the Creature, Mary is an odd mix of naivety and childishness, with startling gaps in her knowledge, and extreme skill and adult abilities. She knows what she knows well. Like the Creature, Mary has no memory of kindness, of family, of parents. She has only ever seen it in the way the Islanders interact with each other. She is the Creature here - raising herself, learning of the world through watching it, being reviled for every attempt she makes to reach out.

One thing the Creature explains to Victor is that he didn’t even understand, at the time, why he was being treated this way. He had no awareness of his own nature and what he looked like in the eyes of others. Only that they ran in fear and chased him away, and reacted with violence.

Mary Jane inverts this. Mary is human, but the humans around her are something she cannot understand. Like the Creature, Mary doesn’t understand why people react this way. The book expects you to come to the same conclusion as the play - the fault lies not with the Creature anymore more than it does with Mary, at this point. It is those around him, those around her, that are at fault, that are a thing neither can understand. Human’s are cruel. Ghosts who think they’re humans are cruel. It is a disconnect between themselves and the world around them they don’t understand, and desperately try to bridge over and over.

Even Mary, as quirky and childlike as she is, is on the verge of giving up, of being consumed by the Lonely Darkness. We don't know what her fate would have been if the Order of Shadows had not come. Victor's Creature, far more morose than Mary, gives up on connection, as well. He is denied the most basic of needs, and eventually, he learns the violence and hatred being directed at him, and, newborn that he is, lashes out.

But, ultimately, companionship and connection are the Creature’s goals, and it is that that he requests of Victor, who refuses to provide it himself. Make for me a mate. Mary is the Creature, and she is Frankenstein. She makes a friend for herself. Her motivation in creating Jacob is not science, it is not in defiance of death or God — very pointedly — it is out of loneliness - the same motivation that the Creature gives for his desire that Victor make him another like him. And when Mary does so, she’s a good mother, and a good friend.

Religion

Frankenstein’s full title is Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus - it is about forming people, but it is also about stealing fire from the Gods. The question of if creating life out of death the way Victor does is an affront to God is something that Victor himself thinks about, but the book is much more interested in exploring it as the way characters view it. Victor punishes himself, it is not the Divine that punishes him. The Divine acts not as a force, but as an idea. One that both Victor and the Creature end up grappling with and trying to find their place within.

So that Mary herself seemingly has no concept of it, is fascinating. She goes to watch a chapel every night, but I don’t know she knows what a chapel even is. She mentions God once herself, saying that the smell of the garbage would be enough to affect even God, but she also talks to the Moon as a companion and a friend. Her worldview is uniquely hers, in relation to all things. As I said, the idea that making the dolls the way she does, or using corpse parts to do it might be sacrilege does not even occur to her.

Rather than go the route of the novel, Mary Jane twists this around too. In the world of Mary Jane, religious objects hold not only the power of an idea but an actual force. And it is a force that is completely, within the world of the show, amoral and nonsensical. The blessed weapons and fire the Order of the Shadows use are “holy” as a property, but that gives it no moral weight within the world of the play. And the play is messing with it the whole time. Holy wood or water can destroy a ghost, but they live in a church. Something that Charles and Figaro comment on, but cannot interrogate in terms of what it means for their conviction. But they’re split on how to proceed - the fact that ghosts can live in it doesn’t shake their faith, though. Sister Ghost is there largely for this joke. A nun who is constantly evoking the divine, who would be killed by a consecrated item.

[image description: the summary text over the chapel backdrop with the text of "the chapel where Jacob and the others were left behind was being filled with the scent of holy water.]

If I could add something to Mary Jane, I would have loved for Mary or Jacob to ask Sister Ghost what “God” means (this is a conversation that happens in bonus material for Tokyo Ghoul once, actually). I would have loved to have that brought up more explicitly. But it’s also very funny that it never is.

The first definitions for a God we get are them being applied to Mary herself, with plenty of ambiguity on if the Order’s faith itself has a mother figure at its center or not. And either way it’s a fascinating play on the idea, and the themes of the novel.

Closing Thoughts, Other Connections and Ideas "Beyond the Scope of this Essay"

Anyway, all of this while playing around with everything else going on in this play, Neji’s totally, without permission, commentary on Fumi, on Tsuki’s legacy (please read the stage script, somehow the game thought it was a good idea to cut that whole specific reference even when making Kisa pick between an “erase Tsuki” option) and on Kai. On himself as an artist. ("I am the one who is strange. With my changing moods, with my hobbies. That is why everyone thinks I'm strange and avoids me.”). As with several other plays, a commentary on authority, and on creation, and on isolation and friendship and connection.

And, of course, what I’ve been holding back this whole little essay is that Mary Jane is, thematically, at its core, playing off the exact same situation as I Am Death. Like — both of these plays center around a woman pouring her emotions into an undead creature. I see you Neji. You can’t hide from me. Reading I Am Death as a Frankenstein Story remixed into an old Japanese mytho-history is a LOT of fun to do, but is, as the academics say, beyond the scope of this essay.

(and, I Am Death itself is about Neji and Chui, and the twisted, messy love-hate revenge drama they are acting out across all the routes in the game. Neji writes the plays that introduce Chui to the world. Then he runs. And spends the whole game trying to beat him (affectionate.). “Make me another like me” you say…

Literally the only thing I’ve come up with to make the “bad end” CG more compelling to me, is that this is what it’s riffing on. I like my I Am Death costumes way weirder.)

Mary Jane is a Frankenstein Story, I Am Death is a Frankenstein Story, Jack Jeanne is a Frankenstein Story. The other, other thing I’m leaving out here is that the Order of the Shadows are OBVIOUSLY pulled from Tokyo Grand Guignol, aesthetically. And the most famous TGG play is Litchi Hikari Club, which is, say it with me, a Frankenstein Story. Also one that takes the themes of the novel (gender, love and sexuality, childhood, genius, violence, blind pursuit to the point of madness, god complexes) harder than most, but runs with it in nearly the exact opposite direction. But again, very much beyond the scope of this essay.

Also also also leaving out the fact that Tokyo Ghoul is... kind of ... not not a Frankenstein story. It certainly riffs on the motif quite a bit. Even if you've never read it, you've seen the mask design (an in universe riff on the joke.).

Even just one dimension of this play, and look how many words you've made me write Neji-senpai.

[image description: image from the bottom of the Mary Jane poster, with the cast list, showing the chapel ghosts with a focus on Ushinoko, Neji's character, looking towards the 'camera'.] Some little Halloween Spooktacular you’ve got there. Bravo.

#jack jeanne meta #jack jeanne #Mary Jane #frankenstein #lit crit #doing lit crit of stories within stories - what a trip #meta

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waateeystein · 7 months ago

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I never really remembered or understand why Frankenstein originally jumped out at me as a book to read, until tonight while I was finishing my last assignment for the semester. I had a curation project to compile a list of impactful plays/musicals in my life, and it finally clicked. I did a production of Little Shop of Horrors my junior year of high school, and that got me to start liking monster media and eventually horror. Around that same time, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 changed my brain chemistry and planted a seed of interest in classic lit which eventually led to me buying copies of Moby Dick and Frankenstein in college (but not War and Peace funnily enough.) I am very slow about looking into things that might interest me, so it took awhile from those origins in 2017 to eventually reading Frankenstein for the first time in 2022, but luckily it all came to fruition and bam here I am with a Frankenstein blog and always trying to find any excuse to work Frankenstein into my research projects.

Anyone else have fun stories of how they got into reading Frankenstein for the first time? Mine was a very roundabout theatre kid pipeline as you can see, sometimes the mind works in mysterious ways.

#where are my fellow theatre kids at #i say as a full adult getting an mfa in theatre #i cant belive it took so long for this to click in my brain #frankenstein #frankenstein or the modern prometheus #mary shelley #waateeystein speaks

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thegingerwrites · 3 months ago

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What’s up readers?! How about a little show and tell? Answer these 13 questions, tag 13 lucky readers and if you’re feeling extra bookish add a shelfie! Let’s Go!

I love talking about what I'm reading so thanks @betweensaintsandmonsters for the tag!

1) The Last book I read:

The Prospects by KT Hoffman, It's a cute baseball romance but god did it rock my world. I don't know if I'm just the exact target audience for this book or if I picked it up at a good time but it is so tender and joyful. The theme of allowing yourself to want things that seem impossible is just right up my alley. I just loved it.

2) A book I recommend:

This one was actually hard! I feel like whenever I give recommendations it's usually to a specific person who likes romance/mystery/sci-fi/etc. so a blanket, general, just-trust-me-you-need-to-read-this recommendation is tricky! I'm going to go with Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (not a super original rec, I think it just one the Hugo). I read it last year and thought about it for ages after I put it down. Great sci fi, super timely, the structure of the book was unexpected but very cool.

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

The second to last book I read was The Shining. I was giving Steven King a second chance because of course I've heard great things but I really didn't like the first Dark Tower book. The suspense, the horror, plus the rainy weekend I just had meant I curled up and absolutely did not put it down.

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

I'm going to put two down for this: Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson and We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry. Vastly different books but ones I've reread once each and will probably reread again. Frankissstein plays with the story of Frankenstein obviously and ties it to questions of gender, sex, embodiment, technology and humanity. We Ride Upon Sticks is about a high school field hockey team that makes a deal with the devil in order to win States. It's hilarious, does cool things with POV, and hits some nostalgic team sports buttons for me. If you like Yellowjackets please read this book. I have a tendency to go through books quickly so I do like to reread every once and a while to refresh myself.

5) A book on my TBR:

I have four books on hold at the library and a stack at home to read and none of them are on the actual list that I keep on my phone so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'll go with The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. I read Under the Whispering Door by Klune at the end of June and even though the other is better known and on my TBR (it was just what they had sitting on the shelf at the library). I enjoyed the other book though so I'm extra interested to see what the other is like.

6) A book I��ve put down:

I have a couple that I should have put down but didn't. Most recently for me, that would have been The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon. I thought the discussion of how to love and move on through trauma was really interesting and the way that how they played with identity and consciousness in relation to artificial intelligence but I don't think mecha is my genre of sci fi. It was also the sort of sci fi that hits the ground running, diving you deep into a new world without taking too much time (hardly any) to get you accustomed to the places, social structure, and terms used. I felt like I never really caught up. Usually when I'm not enjoying a book one of two thoughts goes through my head either, I'll read it fast enough that it will be over before I know it whether I like it or not, or, I've gone this far I should just stick it out to the end 😅

7) A book on my wish list:

I don't really know what this question means by wish list but I'm excited for Swordcrossed by Freya Marske to come out in October. I really enjoyed the Last Binding Series and this new book seems like it's going to be a fun time.

8) A favorite book from childhood:

I had a really hard time trying to choose one, I feel like there are different answers depending on what age we're talking about so here's four: Peak by Roland Smith (became obsessed with Everest for a bit), Lily's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes (I can hear my dad saying, "Today was a difficult day. Tomorrow will be better." , Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (I remember being blown away by the fact that you could write books as poems, tied into a minor fascination with the Dust Bowl/Great Depression, reread it I think when I was in middle school), The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg (my first grade teacher showed us this book and had us write a story based on one of the pictures. I think it was the first time it really struck me that you could just write stories. You could just be an author).

9) A book you would give to a friend:

My best friend and I have been trading horror recs but she also recently asked me about like horror I would give to a pre-teen. Earlier this month I read Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell which I think hits a really great note between fairy tale and body horror. The protagonist is a shape shifting monster that eats people to survive and the plot revolves around her learning to let herself be loved. It was very sweet and silly and gross.

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own:

Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day by Nikki Giovanni which was actually introduced to me through a Buffy fic

11) A nonfiction book you own:

I don't read a lot of nonfiction (something I'm always looking to do more of!) and I don't own a lot of books But! I went and took a look at my shelf and found A Night To Remember by Walter Lord which is another callback to a childhood interest of mine about the Titanic

12) What are you currently reading:

I just started Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera (as in just started, I'm like 6 pages in) and I can't tell you anything about it, I have no idea where it is going to go yet!

13) What are you planning on reading next?

Listen... I just got a whole bunch of new stuff and may have bitten off more than I can immediately chew BUT! I currently have The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu translated by Ken Liu, The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher, and A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by K.J. Charles checked out from the library, along with Peter Darling by Austin Chant and The Pairing by Casey McQuiston on hold. After that, I'll probably read Doctor Sleep by Steven King to check in on little Danny and see if I want to watch the film adaptation with Ewan.

I love talking about what books and I'm constantly looking for recs. No pressure tags: @renlyslittlerose @usakostar @darthwillies @piecesofeden11 @underacalicosky @zimriya @genuflecting @chasingfictions

#tag game

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petrichoraline · 4 months ago

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Hi Petri! 👋😊 I’m here to offer a distraction! (And cause I’m genuinely curious) Not to sound like an ignorant American 😬 but how did you learn English? Is it taught in schools in Italy? Like it’s just standard for people to be bilingual now? Or is it something you took extra classes for? Or did you grow up in an English speaking environment? How much English do you use in your daily life?

Ho imparato l’italiano all’università ma non lo uso tutti i giorni quindi l’ho dimenticato 😔

karen my love, first and foremost - thank you soo much for indulging me 🥰🥰🥰 the giffing process is kicking my ass right now so this is a breath of fresh air <33

i think i should immediately clarify - i am not italian! i'm assuming it's possible the misunderstanding happened because monica is? or maybe i said smth that could lead to that conclusion? anyways, i am eastern european and balkan, my first closer look at italian happened two days ago through a language learning app hahah

so, i don't know about italian schools, i would assume they also teach english just like ours do (i hope you forgive me trying to be vague about my nationality) but i cannot say with certainty. i've studied english all throughout school but i didn't become fluent because of it - most english classes in school are not nearly enough to make you good, whether it's the teachers or the study plans - it's just not it. this is why many of us were signed up for lessons as kids - i went to group lessons near school till the sixth grade. i took a pause because of school exams but never went back so all of my fluency now is a result of

1. english class in school

2. six years of private (group) english lessons (!!!)

3. all sorts of media - not only movies, music, books etc. the original language of which is english but also other foreign media in english -translated books, subtitled videos, explained lyrics (!!!)

4. talking to foreigners and friends in english

5. studying other languages through english - even while studying japanese in high school most if not all of our resources were in english, the sites we use, the textbooks - all of it (though there was this one textbook in vietnamese lol)

i'd say it's pretty standard for europeans to know english, a lot of us know three languages or more because they're close to ours. i personally don't but still, it is common. in school english was the basic foreign language and in middle school i chose russian as my second one. most people don't end up fluent in the language they choose in middle school (if they even choose any, you could do maths or smth else, i suppose schools are different) because we study it for three years only. i am not anywhere near fluent in russian lol

but language learning is a thing. my personal observations, though, are that people from my country aren't that good at english in general but maybe as a whole we're fine. a foreigner would make do around here especially speaking to younger people.

as for how much english i use - i use it daily lol, online i speak and read in english, the shows i watch are either in english or have english subtitles and i spend a lot of time on the computer. a lot of my personal vent monologues are in english (you know the ones where youre alone and decide its time to give a ted talk to no one in particular), even when i chat with irl friends we often use english because we're all fluent and we throw it in there, there's a lot of sentence frankensteining happening lol

thank you so much for asking!! if you have additional questions please hit me up, i am a yapper and you're giving me enrichment <33

also it's never too late to go back to italian you know 😗im just getting started and it's so interesting! (though confusing cause they also have gendered nouns but the genders don't match ours 😩lmao)

#lovely lovely karen <33 thank you mwah #petri replies

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maudlin-scribbler · 5 months ago

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An introduction I guess

" They might try to tell you how you can live your life/But don't forget it's your right/To do whatever you like " - Spotlight (Oh Nostalgia), Patrick Stump

Hey, I'm Corin(or Cory or Cor), or XO, or maudlin scribbler or madulin or scribbler. Honestly I like being called either of those names, or nicknames or variations of them. Also call me Cory too, perhaps.

17 years old, and will be so for some months still. Born in november.

Any pronouns.

Queer, kinda transgender, my gender is also eather fluid as well.

I am also on the aroace spectrum, somewhere there haha. And I guess I am pansexual as well.

School wise, I suppose I could say that I am sort of studying the social sciences. I love anthropology, archaeology and history, they are quite some of the major loves of my life, along with mythology and folklore.

I do love astronomy and space in general, but I am not very knowledgable in these sort of things. Frankly, I am so fucking bad at science.

romanian! With greek and ukrainian roots. I speak romanian, english (hopefully), a tad bit of french and I am trying to learn greek.

Hope you don't mind the obnoxious amount of dividers!

Also check out my friend @mintmacaroonn !!!! They're a pretty cool dude, I'd say.

Also the tag #corin's lore is basically my talking tag. I tag my art under the tag #my art.

Hobestly, I have a lot of interests, some of which I'll list here and all of them will be listed in the tags(eventually). Some of them I don't think of very much, while some are currently consuming my mind haha. Frankly the best way to find out if I know something though is to ask me!

I love gothic literature, such as the Invisible Man by H. G. Wells(bold and in colour 'cause I love it so much despite not talking about it for a while haha. Don't remember that much of it tho, wanna reread it again someday). I have read some other books too. Yeah, I've read PJO (and a little bit of HOO). And Frankenstein(and Jekyll & Hyde). I love sitcoms, I've wached The Nanny and FRIENDS and some other 90s & 2000s sitcoms, I think. I like Superstore, and I have indeed watched 1670 (netflix) and loved it, and Rise of Empirea: Ottoman. And Seinfeld, yeah. Kinda like lore rekindled too, ngl.

Of course, as I have said before, I love history!

Love Ride The Cyclone!

I like cookie run (I mostly have played kingdom though) and have played a bit of reverse 1999

Yes, I do like hetalia (but I'll only really talk about it on my side blog, @estbela , for the forseeable future.). I'm critical of it, I guess.

Despite my love for music, I struggle with checking out artists and stuff, but I do love the Crane Wives and Fall Out Boy(albeit I've only recently started really listening to them, I haven't really listened to all their stuff or anything but they're cool)! And I do love Patrick Stump's solo stuff too haha, soul punk is awesome. Which might be obvious because of me putting a quote from one of the songs at the top of this post. I also love other music too!!!! :]

Hobestly i love a lot of other things too.

[ I do want to mention that I am critical of my interests and stuff, and don't blindly love stuff. If one of my interests contains 'problematic' things, it doesn't mean I condone it and sometimes I might not even know about it. ].

AO3 -> I.

Twitter -> II.

Sometimes I might talk about myself or my life, vent a little I guess haha. I really like complaining about stuff, it seems. I struggle with my mental health, but I try not to talk about it too much.

Dunno if I have dyslexia, but I do have some similar struggles with people who do have it. Including my struggle with spelling, but I do try my best. I...probably have ADHD? Maybe some other couple things, who knows.

have a lot of ideas for original stuff. Will perhaps try to talk about those ideas...eventually. Sometimes I also think I am funny.

Feel free to ask me stuff also!!!

Thanks for reading this whole thing! :]

...Will probably edit this if I can think of other stuff to mention, or when I feel like it.

-dividers by @/saradika-graphics -> x.

-my old pinned post -> x.

A hug for you! :D

Also a cool blinkie thing <3

#Pinned #Corin's lore

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spamsmcgee · 1 year ago

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Find a Place Where We Belong

-> Listen to Like a Virgin by Madonna

Guanyu x Reader 80s 21 Jump Street AU While investigating and hoping to bust a group of street racing gamblers, Y/N has to pose as Guanyu’s girlfriend in her first undercover assignment with the Jump Street Program. part two: Day One Previous | Next

QuickView

Guanyu’s fingers tangle in yours as the two of you approach West Seminole High. You weave around teenagers lounging in the courtyards. Eyes track you, and Yuki behind you.

West Seminole doesn’t see new students often, three at once is even more interesting.

The three of you make your way to the front office. The young receptionist flips through files. Eyes flicking from paper to paper. Your schedules peak out on the other side of the desk, away from where she looked.

Yuki points in their direction, “is that, is that it?”

“Oh yes, sorry”

She hands out your schedules and sends the three of you on your way. Yuki separates from you, making his way to his own first period class while Guanyu and You continue on to Mr. Fernando Alonso’s English Lit class.

Fernando stands in front of a fully engaged class as he speaks. His backdrop a chalkboard with Origins of Science Fiction Sprawled across the top.

“We were just getting started,” the older man gestures towards some empty seats near each other, “please, make yourselves comfortable.”

He grabbs a couple of books from his desk and hands them to you as the two of you pass. “The fathers of Science fiction are credited as?” He points to you just before you sit.

“H.G Wells and Jules Verne?” You reach deep in the recesses of your mind to pull a hopefully correct answer from your own senior year English class.

He only nods before pointing to Guanyu, who had sat his bag down beside a desk behind yours, “However?”

“Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein predates both of their works.” Guanyu sits before Fernando can tell him wether or not he is correct. He is.

Fernando nods again, slower this time. A glance lingers on Guanyu before he addresses the rest of the class.

“As our new friend has mentioned, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is considered the first Science Fiction novel.”

You get a good look at that book he handed to you, a blank paperback copy of the aforementioned story. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein across the cover and spine in a simple but bold font.

Fernando settles into the lesson plan, introducing the class to Marry Shelley, explaining away her life and legacy as who he considers the true founder of science fiction. He paces the class, eyes scanning the room as he passes students who hang onto his every word.

You find yourself even wishing you could’ve had a teacher so interesting in your own high school.

Guanyu’s fingers reach under your hoodie, tangling with the string from your hood. He taps your shoulder and points towards the door in your peripheral. You glance up, just in time to catch Yuki jogging down the hall behind some other guys. No teacher, just him and three kids.

“The tall one is Arthur Leclerc,” he whispers into your ear. A hand playing with the hair covering the side of your face, to hide his mouth from any curious lip readers.

“His older brother is one of their guys.”

You nod along. Guanyu settles back into his seat, still messing with your hoodie. The choice to sit behind you was a strict strategic move. Here he can feed you information without looking like anything other than a lovesick teenage boyfriend. It takes everything in you not to shrug his hand off of your shoulder.

It would have been one thing for him to rest his hand on your shoulder for the time being. It’s completely different with him tracing shaped into your shoulder. Then playing with your hair without looking up from his book as a random student reads out loud.

“You’re distracting me.”

You don’t look back, only shrugging your shoulder up against his hand.

“Sorry babe,” his hand quits moving to rest back on your shoulder.

The rest of that forty minute class goes on. Guanyu cut back on the touching, he doesn’t have that much in the way of commentary so leaning over to talk to you doesn’t happen too much.

The bell dismissing the class period comes and goes. Fernando had wrapped up his lesson just before and waves the group off as he welcomes in a couple of early students.

Once again Guanyu takes your hand in his. The two of you stick close as you walk towards the next class. One you would be sharing with Yuki instead of Guanyu.

Yuki puts himself between the two of you, “I think I got an in” he lowers his voice, “I brought you two up so we’ll see what happens.”

“When do you have Alonso?”

“Third period, Then I’ll be in there for lunch.”

Guanyu pats Yuki on the back before separating to hunt down his own class. Yuki looks up as you as he leaves.

“Guess it’s just us then huh?”

Eighth period. The last of the day, and one you share with both Yuki and Guanyu. A science class led by a man, gangly and awkward looking. His wide framed glasses slide down his nose as he instructs the class.

He doesn’t bother to interrupt your conversations with Yuki and Guanyu. The three of you huddle in the back of the class exchanging notes on the case. Yuki has the most information on the operation itself, while Guanyu puts his effort into getting to know Fernando himself.

“We’re trying to catch them on the gambling and some like, money laundering,” Yuki explains in a hushed voice, eyes scanning the class as he speaks, “if we can get the money crimes then we can hand the case off to anyone we want.”

Guanyu nods along. “It’s not the fast driving that we really care that much about, they’re dangerous.”

“Guanyu’s trying to get the alleged murders brought up,” Yuki pauses when a student walked past the group, “Hamilton doesn’t want to get into homicide though.”

“So y’all want the feds involved?”

Yuki and Guanyu nod, “Wolff thinks we shouldn’t be used for just teenage drug busts” Yuki adds.

Not a minute later the school’s dismissal bell rings and the three of you head out towards the student parking. Yuki would make his way out to a meet with some other drivers, tailed by Arthur and joined on the way by Charles and Max.

Guanyu jogs ahead of you towards his car. He rushes to open the passenger door for you, grabbing the door handle just as your fingers barely graze it. He flashes a smile and pushes your hands away from the door.

Your thanks comes late, you settle in the passenger seat and the door comes to a close before you get the words out.

In the car you don’t have to act. You slouch back in the seat as you watch the road. You have questions. They circle your mind like vultures.

Guanyu doesn’t speak first. Just leaves you in that mild silence. Uncomfortable in the way that being alone with a new coworker would be. As if he didn’t spend a full eight hour school day with his hands on you.

Like those high schoolers you always avoided in school.

Comfortable now that you aren’t under his arm or with your hands tangled together like some lovesick teenagers without any consideration for the future. Now that you don’t have to fit that role of a couple of kids in a world too big to worry about the possibility of a changing life.

“Did Yuki tell you what was happening at the meet?”

Guanyu shakes his head, “Oscar and Logan will be there with him, that’s all I know.”

You nod. The two of you fall into another long silence.

Maybe you will fit into the group. But a probationary period will always be the most uncomfortable part of a job. Especially one where you have to rely on your partners for your own safety.

Guanyu’s fingers tap the steering wheel in front of him to the song playing through his stereo. After fumbling with a busted FM radio, he resorted to an 8track burned with Cyndi Lauper and Madonna. He claimed Yuki left it in his car some months back and it’s the only working track in the car at the moment.

He didn’t have to put the track into the radio, it was already there.

And now you’re humming along with Madonna singing Like a Virgin.

Cyndi Lauper only started when Guanyu pulls into your driveway.

Tomorrow is Saturday. Tomorrow you get a debrief on the meet that Yuki, Oscar, and Logan went to. So today you get an early night.

Pulling your bag into your lap, you push the car door open and pull yourself out. Guanyu’s voice calls after you, giving you more details about procedure for the following day. Time, place, etc.

You shut the door and wave at him before heading back inside.

#find a place where we belong #zg24 #zhou guanyu #zhou guanyu x reader #guanyu x reader #zhou guanyu x you #21 jump street au #80s au #fake relationship

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rougarouuu · 1 year ago

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Currently thinking about Robin Buckley from Stanger Things

I just finished listening to Rebel Robin, the podcast, and so this post is confined to JUST the context of that series, so heads up, there's gonna be spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk!

!! SPOILERS AHEAD !!

I loved Rebel Robin so so much. And like, I love how much of an in-depth look we get to take on her character in this series. Like yeah, we get to see her through the series, but since this is so focused on her we get to see more of a look at her inner monologue.

I think my favorite part of the podcast (and I have a few favorites) was Robin explaining to Mr. Hauser that she doesn't want to stand out too much, even academically, because she needs to stay in her camouflage. This happens in Episode three, "The Inferno" (thank you to @clowns-are-cool for making a transcript of the podcast!!) Mr. Hauser and Robin discuss this in which Mr. Hauser asks her why she's reading Dante's Inferno in the original translation, and she says that she "likes a challenge." When Mr. Hauser asks her why she isn't in advanced classes, Robin explains that she tries so hard to be painfully average and go unnoticed. They have a bit of a back-and-forth, jumping from topic to topic, and eventually, it shifts to Barb, but that's not what I'm referring to here.

Robin, in this scene, breaks down what I think a lot of people feel, and I know that I felt like this myself in High school and I'm breaking out of that now in college, but -- the mindset that you can't stick out too much or you'll be mocked no matter what. Robin's fear of being the nerd, fear of being chewed up by "The Hawkins Monster", which is really just high school society breaking you down until you fit in, and Robin doesn't want to lose her individuality. And this kind of goes back to her saying the following:

"I hope so. Because otherwise- If I'm totally honest with myself I'm scared of really truly rebelling and it feels like I'm close sometimes you know? Like I'm almost someone who is unique and interesting and unafraid but the camouflage is working too well and I'll turn into someone who never fights at all because I never decided who I wanted to be and I worry that if I- If I don't figure it out soon that someone else is going to decide for me" -Rebel Robin: Surviving Hawkins Episode 2, "Frankenstein"

She explains that she gets really close to rebelling, but doesn't. But what I don't think she understands is that her teetering on the edge of society by not fitting in and pushing back against the expectations and trying to fight "the system" is a bit of a rebel against society. She IS someone whos interesting and unique, maybe not entirely unafraid but she still gets close to it with how brave she is for following behind Dash in "The Outsiders" (Ep. 5), and saving Mr. Hauser from being essentially stalked. She is all of these things she just doesn't realize it because she doesn't fit her idealized version of this description, I think. She has decided for herself, she just doesn't see it yet.

Another thing that I really love is the way that Robin puts two and two together about Mr. Hauser's sexuality in the end, and she doesn't make it a big deal. She has her moment of realization, and she processes it, and then she immediately hatches a plan to protect her favorite teacher. She immediately came up with a plan to keep him safe and threatened Dash into staying in line, essentially, with her false accusation of pulling the fire alarm. Personally, I love this scene because it shows her connection with someone else on a deeper level than just "outsiders in this society", it's beyond that. It goes into Robin seeing someone like her. Seeing someone who is unconventional and, while afraid to be himself, still becomes a role model and is still passionate about his job and the life he's made for himself. And I know that some people might think that that twist is so unnecessary and not needed, but I think it's a key part of Robin coming to terms with herself and her own sexuality. I think that's why the smile that Mr. Hauser gives her at the end means. The happy-yet-sad smile. I think he's happy that she's coming to terms with herself, but he's sad that she's going to have to live her life in fear and not be open about herself, either. He sees himself in her. He sees his potentially awkward, askance, fifteen-year-old self who didn't fit in anywhere trying so badly to figure out why the system is so against him. And he sees it in Robin throughout this entire time that they get to know each other. He's happy that she has someone she can see herself in but he's sad because he's been along the same exact journey that Robin's walking on and he knows it isn't easy.

I have so much more I can say on this podcast but I also want to read the book, so I might ramble more and more every now and again but I wanna get the full picture before I make any assumptions. This post was entirely impulsive though so who knows what'll happen. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk :) Feel free to add on / comment / ask anything I'm so absorbed into this world right now /pos

#stranger things #Robin Buckley #robin buckley kin #rebel robin #stranger things rebel robin #stranger things infodumping #i love robin so so much #i mean seriously look at her shes such a well written character #infodumping #infodump #stranger things book #stranger things 3 #stranger things 4 #st3 #st4 #robin buckley rebel robin #mr hauser #stranger things: rebel robin

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thenightling · 2 years ago

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Monster High Live action movie

I thought this year’s Oscars were boring so I decided to watch the live-action Monster High musical movie from this past October. I’m writing this while watching so you’re going to be reading my thoughts as I watch in a stream of consciousness. I can tell the movie was created with the G3 dolls in mind as it uses the idea of Clawdeen being “half-human” which doesn’t make sense with werewolves. You either are a werewolf or you’re not... They should have made Draculaura the half-human. Dhampirs (half-human / half-vampire off-spring) are a thing in folklore. They should have just had it like the Harry Potter stories where there’s bigotry against half-bloods and mud-bloods.

Honestly, it’s kind of nostalgic. It reminds me of some of the stuff they made for teens in the 90s. I feel a little weird being forty-one and watching “Monster HIgh” but my childhood love of monsters wished this existed when I was a kid.

I actually think the music in this is better than Disney’s Descendants (which isn’t saying much because I find the music in those annoying). Dracula is funny. As he’s dropping off Draculaura “Remember, I was top of my class. And my father, his father, and his father were all top of their class here.” Draculaura: “I get it, Dad. There’s no pressure.” Dracula: “Yes, there is pressure. They’re all still undead and they call me!” The CG is pretty terrible. And I keep having to try to force myself to forget the movie is to sell a line of monster dolls. I think I got a little spoilt by Wednesday (Addams) because they made a better Monster High than Monster High. I do think I like the music though. Okay, I do NOT like the idea of Dracula thinking of the use of magick as an abomination and “human practice.” Whoever wrote that into the story clearly never read the Dracula novel. In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula had attended Scholomance, which literally means “School of Magick.” A monster school being anti-witchcraft is incredibly stupid to me. I also love that Frankie is now nonbinary. Having one of the monsters go by they / them is a good update. And because they are the child of the Frankenstein monster you can easily side-step the fanatical, conservative, backlash by reminding the potential complainers that this character IS made of the parts of several dead people. An alternate reason to be they / them. The school is a boarding school like it was in G2, which had its own movie, but it was a CG animated movie called “Welcome to Monster High.” I guess each new generation / wave / line of the dolls gets its own tie-in movie. But this one has the Headless Mistress from the original line of the dolls, instead of Dracula running the school. Again, I feel spoilt by the Wednesday (Addams) series. It actually did this better.

I guess this version of Draculaura isn’t a vegan (like she was in the first line of the dolls). As they show her getting jellied newts from the vending machine. I do like the idea that the school, itself, is alive. I like that Frankie is the sweet nerd in this. But I sort of miss Ghoulia fitting that role. And it’s weird hearing Ghoulia talk instead of just groaning like a zombie.

Also I just realized I’ve been spelling Clawdeen’s name wrong. It’s Clawdeen, not Clawdine. I’m correcting it now but I won’t retroactively correct old posts about the doll line. I do love the Crypt Keeper-esque horror puns clearly “borrowed” from Tales from the Crypt and House of Mystery. This is clearly written by people of my age or older because there are so many not-so-subtle jokes about how many kids “only communicate through their phones.” The 2010 version of the dolls (and web series) didn’t behave like that.

There’s a lot of painfully bad green screen.

Hey the Mr. Hyde song steals the beat from “We Will Rock you.” Shame on you, Monster High live action movie for thinking I wouldn’t notice you sampled from Queen (before the song changes).

Based on the Hyde scene, I guess Jackson Jekyll isn’t in this version of Monster High. Oh, wait... That teacher with the horns... is HE Jekyll in disguise? Yeah, I’m dumb... That’s obviously him... Ghoulia groans and moans when she’s woken up in the cemetery but it’s not the same as when she only spoke “Zombie language.” Where did they get the whole “vampires at war with witches” thing? Vampire Diaries? Discovery of Witches? It works in that lore but not with Dracula. Pretty much every version of Dracula knows at least a little magick.

I like Draculaura practicing magick but having it as forbidden and hated by Dracula is stupid to me.

Okay... Dracula and Draculaura communicate via enchanted portraits... Umm... that’s witchcraft. But Dracula is anti-witchcraft. Cognitive Dissonance. Too bad this thing isn’t deep enough to notice. Yet again, I am sorry to say I think Wednesday (Addams) does Monster High better than Monster High.

Okay, I just finished watching and... it was cute. I had a little trouble getting past the whole “vampires hate magick” thing but at least they made Dracula a character and most of the hamfisted bigotry allegories were resolved by the end. The music was actually decent and some of it catchy. I like “Coming out of the Dark.” it reminds me of the original Monster High Theme song,

Actually I was a little surprised they didn’t do a cover of the 2010 Monster High: Fright Song (the original theme song for Monster High).

I found the original song on youtube just now but I actually had to put “Monster High 2010 song” in the search because it was buried under all the songs from the live action movie. It was cute and a little shallow but still sweet for a movie based on a doll line and again, I’m glad they let Dracula actually be a character in it and not just off-handedly mentioned like he was in the first generation of the doll line and web series. And they didn’t make him so much like Hotel Transylvania’s Dracula like they did in the second generation of the dolls and CG animated movies. This version of Dracula felt like he stepped out of the comedy What we do in the Shadows, which I love.

I still think Wednesday Addams is handling this premise better though.

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

#Monster High

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butcherlarry · 2 years ago

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Exercise Recs, Mel Brooks Edition 8

No fic recs this week, it’s ALL MEL BROOKS.

Fun fact about me: I love Mel Brooks. His movies are a part of my childhood, which explains A Lot about me, and why my humor is the way it is. I have fond memories of getting home from school in the fifth grade, and watching Space Balls so much that I practically had that movie memorized. I remember singing songs from the musical version of “The Producers” in the back of the marching band bus (and we sang them ALL. From “I Want To Be A Producer” to “Keep It Gay” to “Springtime For Hitler.” so loud, at the top of our lungs) with all my friends. I remember watching “History of the World Part 1″ and FINALLY getting the Oedipus joke after we read that story in AP English. I remember having sleepovers with my friends watching all our favorites: “Robinhood: Men in Tights”, “Blazing Saddles”, “The Producers” (original and musical), “Young Frankenstein”, just to name a few. When my close friends and I get together, there WILL be a Mel Brooks movie quote (multiple most of the time) spoken between us. It’s just inevitable. When my friends and I went on vacation to Las Vegas a few years ago, it was because Mel Brooks was doing a live show there, and we wanted to see him in person (It was great, top 10 best moments of my life).

His works have also brought me comfort, especially “The Producers” musical sound track. I’ve listened to it so many times throughout my life, especially when I’m feeling down. It’s kept me company during long car rides when I was working on my disaster of a master’s project. Before I got the job I’m at now, I was working some not so great ones. In the job I was working before my current, I could listen to music or my podcasts while working. That sound track really helped me get through the days that were tough for me. So again, I love Mel Brooks.

When I heard that “History of the World Part 2″ was being made, I was fucking ecstatic. It was released this week (3/6), and I’ve been watching an episode a day. I’m not quite done with them (there are 8 total), but so far I have been enjoying them so much. They are done in the form of multiple skits, with some skits being made into larger skits, just broken up throughout the episodes. I have been having a lot of fun watching them. I’m surprised my neighbors haven’t complained about how loud I’ve been laughing at them.

So yeah, definitely give them a watch if you’re a fan of Mel Brooks :D

Here is the obligatory photo of my latte:

It rained a lot near the end of the week, so there was a lot of water moving at the arboretum! I thought this scene looked neat.

There was also a log with a lot of cool fungus growing on it that I had to take a picture of.

Here is a close up. Kind reminds me of a clam shell.

I also finally got a picture of a white-breasted nuthatch!!

One of these days, I will get a nice camera for close up bird pictures. One of these days...

#about me #adventures in exercising #the great outdoors #birds #white-breasted nuthatch #coffee #fungus #mel brooks #seriously #i love mel brooks

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flowers-of-io · 2 years ago

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POST DOLLHOUSES 👀👀👀

I'm not home till Sunday so any recent pics will have to wait, but I do have a few photos on my kofi and also a semi-inactive insta! I was reaaaaally into this in high school.

[Putting a read more because I started to ramble, lol]

I'm dreaming of a time when I can finally have a proper workshop and keep all my miniatures and craft supplies there, because the time and effort it takes to take it all out and then put it back after I'm done working and/or I need the table space is a big turn off & the main reason I haven't been devoting much time to it recently. I don't have enough space in my flat to build and store a whole dollhouse, but I'm planning to turn one shelf of my bedroom cupboard into a mini loft <3

Oh I also have a few miniatures I bought at various random places, including a cast-iron pencil sharpener in the shape of a stove (with a tiny retractable drawer!!) I found at a market in Barcelona in 2018. It's not entirely up to scale (probably around 1:16, I'd say), but it's so werid and I love it.

I could go on and on about all the thought associations I have with miniature-making, like it's a cool hobby in and of itself but its quirkiness kinda... takes you places sometimes lol. I told my middle school history teacher (visiting her already as a graduate) that I was making those crafts and the most useful supply I was in constant need of were cardboard tissue boxes, so the next time I came around she gave me at least three and said she'd been putting them away for me. I still have them all, even after the move.

Also the reason I took this hobby up on the first place was that our English teacher in high school gave us podcasts to listen to, and my attentively deficient brain couldn't focus on that without something to occupy my hands. Don't ask me how I stumbled upon that first youtube tutorial, it was either through some nail art videos or pinterest, but find it I did, and I made that first tiny tissue box (out of a piece of a tissue box), and then I frankensteined a bed that took forever to dry, and then made a cupboard from an original project, and then these books that had decoupage paper glued to every page separately because I was sick and sad and had too much time, and it kinda rolled on from there.

A lot of it is connected in my mind to radio, and the hours upon hours of listening to my favourite program, knowing what show came at which hour and moving all plans aside to make space during that one hour from 9 to 10 pm every Monday-Thursday. Sipping green tea or cocoa and getting my fingers all sticky while the radio talked to me about the world, and mourning the fact I have to be in bed by 11 because the next day I wake up at 5:40. High school era was a weird mix of dread and solace, radio chatter, and many many new hobbies.

#wow sorry for the ramble i kinda lost control over my brain for a sec #i'll post the pics when i return home!!!#POST YOURS #reply #siyurikspakvariisis

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melodyatlas · 30 days ago

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on it boss 🫡

I'm currently in a class called Exploring Contemporary Horror as a Vehicle for Social Change, and it's been a lot of reading thus far, but we have watched some things

I watched Get Out and LOVED it. I also watched Jordan Peele's movie Nope.

I feel like this is the world's most basic suggestion but I did watch Scream for the first time and actually loved it (actually it was kinda hard bc it had So Much Kinky-ness and I was watching it for a class 😶‍🌫️). I'm kinda obsessed rn

I do like The Thing, but I'm very picky about my gore in movies and will judge it mercilessly and the gore is....evocative but not realistic

I liked The Fog but I don't remember much about it. I'm pretty sure they're horror (I'm rly bad at knowing when something is horror) but again another over-recommended love is Alien and Aliens.

OH and The Craft.

I'm personally a huge fan of all the classic monster movies. Dracula (1931), Frankenstein, and Bride of Frankenstein are some faves

And then the more comedic ones that I love are The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

sorry if these aren't like. exciting new recs a lot of horror movies I watch are either boring, the gore is bad and I refuse to rec it, or it was just mid (like I watched the Shining for the first time right after being trapped in a building so it was just kinda. okay). I don't get scared by horror so I Need it to stand up using plot or characters or effects and a lot of them over rely on shock imo

okay buckle in friends cause I love horror and you said the magic word with one of these movies 😂😂

(but im gonna go in order that you offered them)

so firstly- Get Out and Nope are both fantastic movies!! I love love love Jordan Peele's stuff, and if you havent watched Us then you totally should, it's fantastic

and this is the magic word- Scream. I am INCAPABLE of being normal about these movies. the original scream is my most watched movie of all time, I watch it At Least once a month, if not more sometimes. (hello ghostface 👀👀😉). this is a movie franchise that while i was too young to watch the original trilogy when they came out, I went to the earliest available showings of 4, 5, and 6 when they came out. (VIVID MEMORIES of going to the midnight showing of 4 on a school night with some of my friends)

Kate if you have only watched the 1st one so far pls pls pls either tell me your thoughts immediately upon watched the rest or let me watch them with you over call or somethinf cause yeah, incapable of being normal about it. love those movies 😂

I havent watched The Thing since college, so thank you for reminding me of its existence, I will absolutely be rewatching that this month. there is something about those old-school horror movie practical effects that are just so cool to me, even when they look weird or off or whatever, they're just so fun to look at most of the time (im looking at you original hellraiser lmao)

I might need to retry The Fog? I /know/ i watched it waaaaaay back when it first came out, but literally the only thing I remember about it is a scene with footprints on the ceiling? genuinely don't even remember what it's about lmao

and I've actually never seen any of the Alien movies but I do have them on my list! I'll move them up and make sure i get to them this month too 👀👀

The Craft is also super fun, but im a sucker for neve campbell lmao

I actually don't think ive ever watched any of the classic monster movies so ill have to put those on my list as well 🤔

personally I do love The Shining, which is hilarious cause there are Very Few steven king works i actually like 😂😅

I also don't get scared at horror, I genuinely don't remember the last time a horror movie actually scared me?? I think its why I've shifted to a focus on dark comedies over the years, because I'd rather watch a funny "scary" movie than a serious one that bores me 😂

#but yay!!!#thank you kate!!#definitely have some stuff for my october watch list now!#melody answers #kevin-day-is-bi #movie recs

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tentacledtherapist · 8 months ago

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I find it so interesting that humans can grow hair in entirely different colors! Without having any sort of unusual coloration otherwise! It reminds me of how when animals get domesticated the three first things to show up are piebald or multicolor coloration, curly tails and floppy ears. Likely because the opposite of these things evolved for survival. Coats for camouflage, pointy or big ears to hear better, straight controlled tails for emoting and pheromone release. When they don't need these things to survive, of course they're easy to shed.

I mainly collect old books, though I do dabble in bookbinding myself. I am too anxious currently to try and repair any books myself without prior practice, despite knowing how to do so cover to cover. My oldest book is a bible from 1823. You'll find a lot of bibles survived because family records are often kept inside them. But honestly most of my books either hold personal significance or are fiction. My favorite... could it be a genre in a way? My favorite subject is everyday educational texts. I have old school books, books on cooking and sewing, flower meanings and gardening, tea parties and Ladies Etiquette. Books about how they used to live life. My current favorite, which I intend to read and reread, is a book on how to mourn your child from 1871. Each chapter is a question about grief and pain and love. It's sad, beautiful and sad, and a rare find.

As for poetry, I'm not a fan of one poet over another, really, though the romantics were like the first Goths so I have to give them credit. I tend to have the most impactful poems find me on their own, rather than by searching for them. I just find that poetry books hold a sort of emotional weight to them though, so I like to skim through them.

As for symbolism, I think I sort of understand the symbolism in it, beyond the obvious of "Trip to the Moon". You get the Frankenstein Bride hair which also emulates that of the animated woman at the beginning of the movie that Creature originally fell in love with. The Pabst dress probably is about how her experience that night was coated with alcohol and drugs. The scene mirrors the previous scene with Douchebag Doug, except shes with someone she actually wants to be with (the bust of Creature).They hold hands, differently to how Doug treated her by taking advantage of her weakness, where the gum is meant to be Creature taking care of her. The gum is because she threw up, and her accepting the gum is her accepting his affections.

The murderer under the bed was the same as the masked killer who killed her mom (I think?) It may be a sort of "I can't have nice things" feeling, mixed with "if he's already dead you can't kill him so I'm not afraid" hence why she has no reaction.

But this is just my thoughts.

- Creature

my white streak is a birthmark, i’m pretty sure. i’ve had it as long as i can remember? but it’s wild that these things just Happen sometimes. supposedly we do have stripes like a tiger or some other form of patterning, but it only shows up under uv light? i read that a while ago though, so take it with a grain of salt

yes yes yes on your analysis! i like hearing your thoughts about what all of it means. it’s nice to have more thoughts on it than just the ones inside my own head

it’s a scene that feels out of place at first and it’s so full of symbolism? i genuinely love it. the man under her bed is wearing the same mask as the man who killed her mom, and with the way he grabbed at their feet i always read lisa’s expression more as a “he’s here again/already?” for a split second, before swiftly being followed by “oh well. death is going to come eventually. at least i have this while it happens.” lisa does talk about her lack of fear of death later?

i like your thoughts on the gum. its the biggest thing i couldn’t quite figure out what i think it wanted to say, what i wanted it to say, ya know? i’m still pondering why it melted between their hands. maybe having something to do with the actual melty-sticky thing being a sort of ‘physical’ representation of their bond?

i like it. i like picking it apart. i notice new things every time i watch the movie, it’s great

on that same sort of thread: i think my favorite poet is probably john donne, because of how much you can dig into his poetry and peel it all apart at the seams. i like digging into things like that, though i don’t think there’s been any particular poem that’s fully rocked me to my core from him, though. like you said, it’s the poems you stumble into that really affect you

i think my oldest book is a worn down copy of ‘Les Mis’? i’m not sure of it’s exact print date off the top of my head, but it’s a favorite of mine. i dunno if it’s my favorite book of all time point blank period, but it’s up there! a lot of people get turned off of the book when i tell them there’s like 10 pages of ramblings about the parisian sewer system, but i genuinely like long winding prose. i like an author with a lot to say and a mind to do it. it’s in dire need of repair, but i sort of want to leather bind it, and i don’t currently have the skillset to do that

i’d call educational texts a genre! it’s got it’s own category at bookstores, so it’s genre enough for me. wild that it’s your favorite though. like a good wild. it’s not typical, but those books probably give the best insight into what life was like then. sort of like a window into, or back into, the past

- Lisa

#ps: you’ll never get better at rebinding books until you try!#start with rebinding newer books #ones that might be newly published? or books from second hand bookstores gotten for cheap #second hand bookstores are the backbone of our society #rome wasn’t built in a day yadda yadda

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rooftopvibes · 1 year ago

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🍂Books i read in September 🍂

Stefan Zweig / Amok 🌌

(97 pages)

Amok is a short novella. It’s very exciting and interesting so it’s easy to read in one session. It’s about a doctor who works somewhere in an isolated town in India. One day a very proud woman comes to see him and wants to get an abortion. He doesn’t directly deny it but he asks for something in return that she doesn’t want to give him. Then he goes mad, follows her and really wants to help her. The book is about this madness (i wouldn’t say the protagonist is in love but it reminded me of that love madness you read in Dostoevsky’s novels like in „the gambler“.) like the title says, about guilt/regret that lead to ending one‘s life and about abortion, the pain and risk that come with it (when it’s illegal) that even follow you after death which is heartbreaking to read.

As I said parts of it remind me of Dostoevsky’s work and these psychological themes and characters. How the story is told reminds me of „Frankenstein“ since it’s both people telling (confessing) their story some stranger on a cruise. The novel is beautiful, dramatic and really sad, the characters are interesting to analyze. It’s always a pleasure to read Zweig because he has such a deep understanding and these paragraphs describing the sky and the stars give me such a warm feeling in my chest and such nice pictures in my head 💘

Bram Stoker / Dracula 🧛‍♂️

(502 pages)

Dracula is one of the must reads if you like horror and vampire stories. It’s the origin of vampire movies, it’s like the father and it’s worth reading because you can recognize how many modern works are being influenced by this piece! Especially for fall and Halloween it’s a very nice book to get in that spooky mood.

The scenery is breath taking, the characters are lovely and caring that i felt comforted while reading. The female characters are strong and I love them. You travel through snowy landscapes, a very old but beautiful castle, a coast, spooky graveyards, rivers and so much more. The story already caught me during the first pages and I think i‘ve never read a book so fast because it was so exciting from beginning till the end. I found the book sad at times since Dracula appears friendly at first and how it must be the biggest punishment to be Dracula and be immortal like Mina said. The book has a lot of this dead women romance in it like you often see in old paintings: dead women who seem as young and beautiful as never, being surrounded by flowers and so on like Lucy when she was lying in her grave (a picture that stays in my mind). Death seems beautiful but at the same time it’s brutal how they murder the undead, put an arrow through their hearts, cut their heads off. It’s the whole vampire romance aesthetic and the parts in which Dracula is present, sucks blood out of his victims, the undead woman lie in their grave seducing the doctor are erotic, overall that’s one of the main underlying atmospheres. Although the story seems hopeful and happy at times, there is so much pain and darkness and always this old romance. It’s one of my favorite books i read this year. 🖤🖤

Ned Vizzini / It‘s kind of a funny story 🏥

(464 pages)

If you watched the movie that is based on the book, you should read the book too. It’s about a teenager Craig, who is struggling, putting a lot of pressure on himself (because of school) and ends up going to a mental hospital. The main topics of this novel are depression, mental health, love, friendship and therapy. Throughout the book you get to know the other patients in the hospital, you see how they grow and struggle. The author was in a mental hospital himself and processed his time there with this novel since he wrote it shortly after his stay there.

I have mixed feelings about this novel. I have watched the movie some years ago and I liked that a lot. There is a lot of additional information in the book and some characters, important scenes and background information is missing in the movie which is quite sad (so the movie did kinda miss the whole point/the main message). One thing that made me dislike the novel was that i didn’t like any of the characters, they aren’t relatable (but i think to others they are so that’s just personal), some paragraphs upset me a lot because the way how some characters think (mostly Craig and his friends) and the things that they say (about mental illness) were kinda disrespectful and triggering. This topic is very sensitive that’s why it was very difficult to read emotionally so it took me a long time to finish the book. Otherwise it’s easy to read since english is my second language and I had no trouble understanding it. I sometimes had the impression that the book was judging at times and that it made it seem like love can save and heal someone and that just made me sad because i don’t like these kind of books that portray this message. In my opinion romance and the story with Noelle and Nia didn’t fit that well into the book since healing should be only about yourself (but it’s a teenage boy so it’s understandable that girls are a topic in his life). Nevertheless i can see why a lot of people love this book and also like the story with Noelle. The end of the book can give people hope and is positive in contrast to the beginning so that’s a good thing.

Jean Paul Sartre / The age of freedom 🪰

(435 pages)

The age of freedom is one out of a series of three (+ one unfinished) novels. The main topic of the novels is freedom (and ofc Sartre‘s existentialist concepts). The novel revolves around a philosophy teacher who’s lover is pregnant and the question to marry her or choose abortion, somehow get the money for that runs through the whole novel. There also appear other interesting characters, a drug addict singer, a philosophy student, a homosexual person who doesn’t seem healthy in his mind and other people.

I didn‘t find the story too interesting since nothing really happens but it’s Sartre so it’s more about the characters, their values and the moral questions that appear during the whole book. Because of the storyline it felt more like 200 pages. It made me think a lot about freedom and how we build prisons and put ourselves in them. It’s a book that impacts me a lot and made me see the topic of freedom in a different way. I always find something relatable in Sartre‘s work and it makes me feel so understood. I want to read the other novels too since the storyline also seems more interesting in the following works and i liked the characters a lot. Since I read this work I spend a lot of time thinking about it and it is really a novel that sticks with me for weeks, months and years.

Fuminori Nakamura / The thief 🚬

(208 pages)

A quick and easy read about Nishimura a pickpocket, stealing mostly wallets from wealthy looking people. Throughout the book you get to know the character and learn about his past, his partner who got lost/died, his lover and a boy whose mother isn’t taking good care of him. The main character‘s past follows him and gets him in dangerous situations. There doesn’t seem any way to escape.

A boy recommended this novel to read at school and I remember this was one of the very few books I actually read back then so I decided to read it again. I like it a lot, it takes your breath away in one moment and you hope everything goes well. There is a lot open to imagination in this novel, especially the end leaves you with many questions yet not completely clueless. At first I wished the story would go on but actually i think it’s good that it ended at the point it did. It didn’t tell every secret to the reader, it shows that the characters have their own life and their own secrets and you‘re just the reader but at the same time you will feel the atmosphere and walk through these streets of Tokyo. I think I like this novel so much because there’s so much to think about and figure out and it’s like the reader can write their own ending even though there are some points where you can guess what will happen and make your own theories. I understand if people don’t like when stories have an open ending but i still recommend it to everyone because it tells a heart warming and breaking story and the atmosphere is absolutely beautiful and comforting to me. I‘m looking forward to read more by this beautiful writer <3

Paulo Coelho / The alchemist 🧪

(172 pages)

This short novel (or self help book) is about a shepherd boy who is getting signs from the universe to go to egypt and find a hidden treasure. The main character is lead by signs of the universe and the stones of wisdom. An old king always appears in the story who gives advice to the shepherd boy. So the shepherd boy ends up traveling to egypt and learns a lot on his journey about the world, meets a girl and falls in love.

At first I was very critical about this novel even though I heard a lot of good about it. It’s said that the novel is spiritual and very inspiring and I’m not that kind of person who likeses these kind of books but i thought I would still give it a try. It was very unusual to read at the beginning because there’s such a sudden change of the scenery. It’s all about the conversations so the atmosphere and landscape isn’t described that detailed. But i got used to it, so I would say it’s a very easy book to read. There are some quite interesting conversations and i found the novel inspiring and comforting. Regardless of that, it’s not a work that i will remember because I didn’t spend much time thinking about it after reading it, but maybe it‘ll come back to me, who knows. I would say that it doesn’t hurt to read and maybe you‘ll learn something, be inspired and more optimistic about life but if not you just read a short novel and know what the hype is all about.

#just for myself because i want to be better to talk about books #and i want to remember better #literature #classic lit #Dracula #It‘s kind of a funny story #the alchemist #the thief #the age of freedom #amok #Zweig #bram stoker #Sartre #ned vizzini #fuminori nakamura #paulo coelho

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