#mountains of mourning

[aceofthegreenajah]

Thinking about Mountains of Mourning got me rereading it again for the millionth time. Every time I think, 'surely by now it has no hold of me? I know every turn it takes, can damn near recite parts of it.' And here I am, sobbing.

The story itself is beautiful, the language is gorgeous, but there is also something in the setting that speaks to me personally.

Our family farm is in a community smaller than silvy vale, and has been in the family for at least a couple of centuries. It's in the least populated and most backwater part of the country. And my country itself is small and insignificant, sparsely populated, mostly wilderness. In the eyes of some we may be backwater forest folk, tough as our land and just as stuck in our ways.

And I am a very tied-to-the-earth person. I am at home barefoot in the forest, fishing in the lakes, foraging in the swamps, working with animals, chopping wood. These forests are my forests, this land is my land. I was born on it and if I have to be buried, I want to be buried in it. I've never wanted to leave for better pastures. I've wished I could hold my home and my people up.

So though I cry for the beauty of the language and the message, and the grief of the plot, I also cry for the happy ending that Silvy Vale receives.

[felixs-voice-makes-me-wanna]

what for Mr. Choi?

[asssdirector]

song for my stepfather, song for dennis brown, hast thou considered the tetrapod, the young thousands, up the wolves, the best ever death metal band in denton, elijah, dance music, romans 10:9, and southwestern territory?? how did we get such a good setlist and also are you guys alright up there

[immediatebreakfast]

I love how Renfield is the oldest (59) and Mina is very likely the living youngest, and yet they bond so well. (It reminds me how well Mina befriended the 99 year old Mr Swales that he sought her company and felt care for her.) It probably contributed that Jack may have experience with interacting with "madmen" and studying, Mina had lived with and loved a "madman".

It's truly incredible how a simple conversation between an old man in physical cell, and a young woman in a mental cell put such a dent in the Count's plans that he had to flee to Transylvania once it was clear that nothing would stop the crew.

Even if the repercutions were huge in the narrative, in between the horror and the action it was just a visit (probably the first visit that Renfield had in a long time) to talk.

Reading again the entry I noticed how hostile Renfield is towards Mina at first,

"You're not the girl the doctor wanted to marry, are you? You can't be, you know, for she's dead." - R.M. Renfield, september 30.

and even with everything one can say about sexism, and the building infantilization of Mina, let's remember that this is the first time Renfield meets someone that is specifically associated with Jack. Renfield's remarked abuser in both authority, and personhood in general. Also by probably being informed by Dracula himself that both Mina and Jonathan are the key players in this continuous attacks against his plans in England, on top of just almost correctly assuming that Mina must share the same opinion towards the mentally ill that society has.

Three strikes against Mina that she switfly defeats by treating Renfield like the person he is, and talking to him in a normal manner. After taking care of her beloved Jonathan, and being at Lucy's side most of her life Mina is aware of how the Other is viewed. Maybe as she saw Renfield, Mina thought of a worse reality where the man on the bed was her Jonathan in Budapest, maybe she saw how Seward reacted to Renfield's words, and realized what was actually layed out in the room. Or maybe Mina just saw an old man in need of an ear, and she just listened.

This is the first time that Renfield puts a face on a victim of the Count's games, he puts a voice on the young victim whose life is going to violently end in what he thought was supposed to be eternal bliss. Lucy is a distant dream for Renfield, the revenge against these people who dared to put up a fight against this old ancient evil that goes beyond all of their years combined.

Renfield never knew Lucy, but he knows Mina now.

Renfield sees the young Mina Harker, entering life with her equal young husband in hand, and trying to solve the murder of what he knows now was her best friend, and he reflects. He reflects on everything he has done, on what has passed, and what he can do tomorrow.

Mr. Renfield asked if he might see me. Poor man, he was very gentle, and when I came away he kissed my hand and bade God bless me. Some way it affected me much; I am crying when I think of him. This is a new weakness, of which I must be careful. Jonathan would be miserable if he knew I had been crying. - Mina Harker, october 2.

And the man is devastated to see how he is helping orchestrate the murder of another young lady to please the Count. He becomes desperate to leave (a request that is denied by both Seward, and Van Helsing), so the Count can't have access to the inside of the asylum. It doesn't matter if he looks like a coward by the time's literary standards because if the only way to at least save that young lady is by acting like one? Then Renfield might as well do it, he has nothing to lose sans his life.

I think that the key difference between Mina, and Jack when it comes to Renfield is empathy, and the ability to simply treat the other person with the same humanity you should be treated.

Jack may have studied, and climbed until he got to be the head of an asylum, but his own biases, mental problems, and ableism blurred the lines between patient and doctor so hard that he made Renfield's life a boring hell. From when their dynamic was introduced, to Renfield's death, the narrative dictated how Seward was putting both into a deep spiral in which, not even with Renfield's manipulations, none of them were going to come out in victory.

In contrast, Mina has cared for Jonathan without any restrain, and has lived in service of what the situation demands of her at all times. She knows, as a young victorian lady, how to balance herself without trying to compete, or win the other person in the room with her. Mina only needed to genuinely talk to Renfield to break his heart because she gave him the respect, and honestly she expects for herself when talking.

[grumpyoldsnake]

So I've been saying for years that the Discworld series (by Sir Terry Pratchett) and the Vorkosigan Saga (by Lois McMaster Bujold) share several of the same thematic bones

But I never go into specifics

So! For tonight! I will present one case among many.

The Wee Free Men and The Mountains of Mourning

It's about taking action because these people are yours and you have a duty. It's about speaking up for those with no voices of their own. It's about saying, sure, maybe your motivation is selfish, but the impact of your actions sure as hell is not going to be. It's about finding a center to which you can return, when the challenges you face nearly undermine your purpose.

It's about someone who died, and whose memory you refuse to betray.

[ravensvalley]

#BroadWingedHawk

So when these guys catch their lunch in flight, the impact is so violent that feathers are ripped off right in the air and sometimes even with a part of skin which falls down at our feet. Like a scalp.

…they are Mourning Dove feathers.

[marejadilla]

Lyndsey Jameson, “Desolation-Black Beach” & detail, 2024, oil on canvas. English artist based in the North-East of England.

[triflingthing]

tourist in the mourne mountains

[cmhcny]

me waking up in cold sweat at 8am to check if popia is alive like

[whateyesaw]

What I Saw in an Irish Forest:

Jan 2024 - Fujifilm X-T30 - Kodak Gold Film Simulation

[panoramicireland]

The Mourne Mountains and the County Down countryside, green and, in places, white with snow.

Long shadows of a winter afternoon.

[starbuck]

I look at you and I know you're the one, the one I used to know something about and I try to say what it was, but the words won't come out

[2000ghosts]

january 20, 2007

[velovelo]

[ferberus-skull]

Look hard at my stripes. There'll be no more after me.

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Spotted This Beauty In The Mourne Mountains, Northern Ireland

Photographer: visionKid