#neil gaiman you mad genius | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

who-dat-homeless · 1 year ago

Text

people keep saying like "oh it would be sad if azicrow becomes human in the finally :( " or "oh it'd be sad if crowley rejects aziraphale" or " oh it'd be sad if they wipe aziraphale's memories and he forgets crowley"

And I can't fucking relate because looking at the story we've got so far I SEE ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE THAT ANY OF THIS COULD HAPPEN EVEN THEORETICALLY.

oh they'd become humans -- thematically they are already humans. At the end of the season one crowley says that hell and heaven would start a war against humans and now both crowley and aziraphale are not demon and not angel but something grey, something in the middle, something that actually can decide their action and their future (which ahem ahem is how humans described by the aziraphale) there's absolutely no need to make them human's thematically because they're already are. The only reason I can think of for making them humans is to get a bittersweet emotion from the audience, BUT IT'S FOCKEN CHEAP and I really can not see Neil Gaiman going for this. The man is mad genius of tragedy and bittersweetness and he is because this tragedy always has a reason/theme.

oh crowley would reject aziraphale -- BABE HAVE YOU WATHCED THE SHOW??????? CROWLEY BREAKS UP WITH AZIRAPHALE EACH FIVE MINUTES FR FR AND THE NEXT SCENE IS HER STANDING ON HER KNEES WET SAD AND MISERABLE BEGGING AZIRAPHALE TO COME BACK. REALLY. For fuck's sake Crowley is the sensible little kitten that lingers to the stranger's pants leg hoping they will get at least a little bit of sympathy. He's optimistic at it's core. But also he's so FUCKING lonely.

DID YOU ALL COLLECTIVELY FORGOT THIS SCENE??? "I'm a demon I lied" -- AND THIS IS THE CONFESSION OF HER FEELING THE WORST, FEELING ABANDONED AND LONELY AND MISERABLE.

She literally drove Bentley slower TO GIVE AZIRAPHALE A CHANCE TO CATCH HER. Good god.

Yes, of course there'll be conflict and there'll be fights and misunderstanding yada yada yada BUT DEAR GOD the second aziraphale is hurt (even emotionally) crowley is here ready to fight god, satan and whoever there is, and then accept his angel back in a span of a second

AND IT ALSO MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE THEMATICALLY TO GET THEM FALL APART. They're each other's yang!!! bitch!! they're the human's nature dichotomy THEY LITERRALLY CAN NOT BE APART. WRITE THEM APART AND THE WHOLE MESSSAGE OF GOOD OMENS FALLS APART

oh they'll wipe aziraphale's memories -- let's start with that they couldn't even wipe off Gabriel's memories (he and beelzebup did, putting it into the fly, Metatron did not do it)

and now, aziraphale first -- knowing what to expect from heaven, second -- specifically going there to fix it and stop second coming HE WILL BE SO CAUTIOUS that I really can't see how the wiping can even occur

"oh the angels would catch him and torture and.." no. I mean I think they're capable but like. They're an extremely ass licking office workers, who prides their reputation and stupid brute force is not their style. Yes they kidnaped aziraphale(crowley) once but even that kidnaping was so sanitized and almost non violent that I hardly can imagine them getting into actions. I think that they wouldn't even chase aziraohale across the heaven because running is heaven is prohibited, so. Unless Aziraphale himself would want to wipe his memories.. I absolutely can't see it happening.

but y'know what is the only thought that does make me sad?

That there's a possibility that Crowley would accept Aziraphale back no questions asked

This is the real shit

Because Crowley already did that in the past. It's in his fucking character. Because he's optimistic, because he's lonely, because he already lost his friend once. Because he has it all, he can go back to hell become a respected demon, take back his cool brutalist flat, he's self-sufficient, he can be all by himself if he really wants but he can never shut this hole of lonliness in himself no matter what he does

In Crowley's eyes Aziraphale makes him complete. It's the lost part of her soul she was looking for so long.

And I so fucking afraid that she will give up her dignity, she'll repress her feelings and needs once again, she'll do the first step ONCE AGAIN, only to shut this ugly feeling deep inside that makes her want to disappear.

AND IT MAKES SENCE because then Aziraphale can see how desperate Crowley and how wrong he was to just pretend that everything is fine between them, and Crowley can be confronted about this really unhealthy behavior and so on and so on

and just the thought that it makes sense and that it's in character MAKES ME SO AFRAID and so sad...

#good omens #crowley #aziraphale #good omens 2 #good omens season 2 #anthony j crowley #gomens #go #azicrow #ineffable husbands #ineffable partners #ineffable divorce #good omens 3

43 notes · View notes

wwillywonka · 5 months ago

Text

wwillywonka's Interests

(links are in red)

-here is my super long, super detailed list of the things i blog about. if you read the whole thing, you're amazing and i love you. thanks<33 -a more comprehensive list of my interests can be found here. i update it often. -please for the love of god do yourself a favour and listen to blooms by arthur sharpe

Willy Wonka/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

special interest since 2014

read my ongoing willy character study fic here

my willy playlist

beside the original dahl books, the 2005 movie is the best and most superior version. i believe this with my whole body, mind, and soul and cannot be convinced otherwise.

other favorite versions of canon: gareth snook on the recent uk tour, gene wilder (of course). see gareth snook’s take on willy’s character here

i have consumed every single piece of wonka related media/content that is reasonably available to the public including horrible elementary school productions on youtube and random college theses. i consider myself the foremost expert about anything and everything regarding willy and can get defensive if that is challenged. i am also aware that i take this way too seriously considering willy is just a silly little fucked up guy who forever ruined my taste in men in my preteens. but i stand by my opinions.

i’ve also been writing a very self-indulgent willy x oc (ross able) fic for nearing 4 years now and have yet to publish it in any capacity. that being said, i tend to talk about it in tags for my own reference, so if you’re ever curious to know more, feel free to ask<3.

i do not support roald dahl, tim burton, or johnny depp in any way. their existences are entirely separate from my enjoyment of catcf. bigotry and prejudice are not tolerated on this blog.

i think the prequel is fine but unnecessary. it’s so whatever to me that i sometimes forget it exists.

i am literally charlie bucket (so obsessed with willy wonka that my parasocial need to be in a weird friendship with him is all-consuming and the only thing that keeps me going). if you ship any of the literal children ticket winners with willy, get off my blog.

willy is my specialist girl, a genius inventor evil capitalist, the blorbo i spin around in my brain 24/7 and want to put in a microwave, my wife, and also the absolute worst guy to ever do it. she is my everything. they’re just a sad gay twink. he’s even bigger than jesus.

Jesus Christ Superstar

the 1973 movie has been one of my favorites since childhood but i became obsessed after seeing the musical on stage in 2023.

yes i connect everything i liked about jcs back to willy and my other fav characters :)

things i write and blog about that are perfectly captured in jcs:

being mortal and being a god are not so different

the line between godhood and celebrityhood being more blurred the further society progresses. both are corruption

toxic, all-consuming co-dependency

sacrificing everything that makes one human for the sake of the “greater good”; becoming unrecognisable, becoming a monster (metaphorically and/or literally)

faith in something that ultimately betrays

being gay and being supppeerr dramatic about it

Alice in Wonderland

i love all versions but have a soft spot for the 2010 movie

fav character: the mad hatter/tarrant hightopp

the 2009 miniseries is weirdly good

alice in wonderland is a war story. to me.

i feel similarly about alice through the looking glass 2016 as i do about wonka 2023

once again, i’ve been writing a fic based off the 2010 movie for years but have yet to publish any part of it. one day, i promise.

Loki

my love for loki started in 2012 when i saw the first avengers movie in theaters but has since grown into a love of norse mythology and its extended history and lore. loki by mevlin burgess is one of my favorite books and is, in my opinion, the best portrayal of the character in recent years. neil gaiman’s norse mythology is also great.

i love tom hiddleston so so so so much<33. he is a phenomenal actor and also a really nice man and deserves so much more recognition than just being “that hot guy who played that villain in marvel.” i recently had the pleasure of sitting in the audience for an interview he did and it was the best day of my entire life. only lovers left alive is one of my favorite movies.

i hate the disney+ show except for the literal last 20 minutes of the last episode which gave me everything i’ve ever wanted out of a loki story.

i used to be really, really, really, extremely into marvel but pretty much stopped caring after endgame (which i feel is the case for a lot of people). that being said, i still love tony stark and spider-man, particularly the toby mcguire movies (cough cough…alfred molina as doc ock <3333).

Star Trek

obsessed with tos and tng, particularly the movies (undiscovered country is my fav!). huge fan of picard. don't really care about the aos movies or a lot of the newer series. i'm also currently watching voyager (janeway is insane i love her).

spent a lot of my nerd life not understanding the appeal until i started watching tng in april 2023 and swiftly became Aware of why it's one of the most famous franchises of all time. also as someone who's super interested in fandom history, particularly queer fandom history, i don't know why i didn't get into trek sooner.

spock is my fav character because he is literally me. i am always crying over him. no one understands spock like i do (<- is exaggerating knowing he is one of the most famous characters in all of pop culture history). we are both mixed race and jewish. we are both autistic and queer. there is literally no other character whose mixed identity is portrayed so well and as such a significant aspect of their story, and i (along with so many others) see so many of the internal conflicts he deals with in myself, particularly when it comes to his relationship with his parents.

sarek's biggest hater. like bestie, YOU married the human.

data is my second fav. mccoy is a close third. picard is a very close fourth. unification pt 1&2 are my fav trek episodes!!!

huge spirk/spones/mcspirk shipper. because duh.

Doctor Who

my favorite show since 2012

fav doctor: capaldi

fav companions/other characters: donna, river, missy/the master. and yes, the tardis

fav episode: heaven sent

murray gold invented music and is everything i aspire to be as a composer

please no moffat discourse i will block you

that being said, chibnall ruined doctor who. jodie whittaker deserved so much better and i do not blame her, an amazing actress, for the horrible writing she had to work with.

currently working my way through classic who and the eu

Other Notable Favorites

Nightmare Before Christmas

Danny Elfman/Oingo Boingo

The Mighty Boosh/Noel Fielding/BritCom

Flowers/Will Sharpe Films

Good Omens

Frankenstein

Shakespeare

Dan and Phil

Adventure Time

Wes Anderson Films

The Beatles

The Picture of Dorian Gray/Oscar Wilde

The Adventure Zone/The McElroys

AURORA

Other Things I Blog About

Robots & cyborgs, dolls

Body segmentation/body horror

Fashion/Fiber Arts

Nostalgia

Clowns

Nature

thanks if you read this far xoxo

#my posts #interests #about me #pinned post #willy wonka #loki #doctor who #mcu #marvel #the mighty boosh #autistic #special interest #hyperfixation #tim burton #alice in wonderland

13 notes · View notes

batmanisagatewaydrug · 2 years ago

Text

!reading update!

can't believe I almost forgot for to do the reading roundup for my ✨birthday month✨ but it's been A Time! however during that Time I've also been reading A Lot, which I will be recapping for you now. spoiler alert: it's WAY more comics than I realized, your bitch has been reading a lot of comics.

The Sandman: The Doll's House (Neil Gaiman et al, 1989) - MAN the serial killer convention is SUCH a cool and creepy idea. I know that there are, like, a lot of other things that happen here, but it's seriously so neat. and it's been years since I first read the series, but it's so cool to already spot the strings of the bigger plot coming together with Rose and [fucking spoilers for a 30+ year old comic I guess, people watching the netflix series do not get mad @ me that's a you problem] Desire's scheme to get Dream to kill a member of the family. what a cunt! what a magnificent plot! I love being able to dissect a story and appreciate how finely it's made. hopefully in the coming month I'll plan a little better and manage to read more than one volume a month, because this series really is splendid and deserves the attention.

Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir, 2019) - another reread, which is also spectacularly satisfying to revisit! Gideon remains unlike anything I've ever read; Muir's style and voice are so terrifically distinctive and make the murder mystery so spectacularly propulsive, and the characters are all so fucking delicious. also, reading it now with the benefit of having read Harrow and knowing more about the Lyctors, made my brain go "!!!!!" in certain places. there's just so many layers of lies and foreshadowing and red herrings ALL OVER THE PLACE in this series and it's SO COOL to be able to spot some of it. Tamsyn Muir is a genius and I couldn't be more hype for Nona.

The Batman Adventures (Volume 2) (Ty Templeton, Dan Slott, Gabe Soria, Jason Hall, 2003) - now hang on, I already know what you're thinking: "Makenzie, did you read this just for that one issue where the Riddler is going off the shits trying to trick Batman into hanging out with him and having dinner?" listen. obviously yes. BUT. this is also for sure one of my favorite comic series I've read all year. this is continuation of the universe of Batman: The Animated Series, taking place in a Gotham where the Penguin has been elected mayor and has made Batman illegal. you guys KNOW I love stories where the Penguin is the mayor; I eat that shit up!! and this story really has everything: Bruce's absolute train wreck of a love life. surprisingly obvious romantic tension between Harley and Ivy. Bruce visiting Bludhaven and being a judgey bitch about how Dick does things as Nightwing. some REALLY bold hard moves in regards to certain rogues, leaving them dangling in very uncertain fates. I really can't recommend it enough, which is why I'm dropping you a link to pirate all 17 issues here.

Love Your Asian Body: AIDS Activism in Los Angeles (Eric C. Wat, 2021) - oh man, yall. do you ever just. read about previous generations of queer people struggling and loving and crying and fighting and doing their best to support each other against seemingly insurmountable odds and get weepy about it? because I do. this is a deeply heartfelt account of a decade of activism in a very specific and highly-overlooked community, narrated by the activists who were fighting on the front lines of the movement. the activists interviewed are so refreshingly upfront about their struggles; Wat seems to have no interest in glorifying LA's Asian AIDS activists but rather shares all of their recollections about unglamorous infighting and critiques that have come about with the benefit of hindsight. it's honest and heart-wrenching and I can't recommend it enough to anyone interested in finding queer connections in the very recent past. it's enlightening to see how much and how little has changed.

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (Neil Gaiman et al, 2009) - oh man, this really is the most Neil Gaiman Batman story there ever could be. if I didn't know it was published in 2009 I would be entirely willing to believe that it had come out as part of the Sandman in the 80s, honestly; it's got that kind of vibe. I don't say any of that in a derogatory manner; it's a neat little spin on Batman, and you guys know I like stories where the continuity is deliberately runny and everything is canon all at once. and that's pretty much all I have to - oh, sorry, what's that? "Makenzie, did you check this out just because of the extra, unrelated Riddler story included in the back? the one where he's all old and sad talking about how great the silver age was and how modern edgelord shit sucks?" yeah. yeah I did. fuck off.

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat (Audrey Gordon, 2020) - my friend Emily recently got me extremely into the podcast Maintenance Phase, which Gordon co-hosts, and my friend Danielle recently cited this book prominently while researching for their thesis, so I really couldn't NOT read this now. and god, it's infuriating and smart and fantastic in so many ways. Gordon has just absolutely zero interest in coddling the feelings of thin people, no matter how good they think their intentions are, while she unpacks the cultural bullshit that feeds fatphobia - and why should she!!! which isn't to say Gordon is just mean throughout; she's remarkably vulnerable about some of the worst experiences of her life and articulates that emotion exquisitely, spinning personally narratives flawlessly into articulate essays. if you are, like me, a thin person who gives a shit about fat people and wants to do some serious work confronting the privileges you hold and the shit you need to unpack, you've really gotta read this.

Content Warning: Everything (Akwaeke Emezi, 2022) - I am so DELIGHTED to announce that Emezi's debut poetry collection fucks severely. I'm so enchanted by the way they weave Biblical figures into their poems, envisioning them as extended family - Mary as an auntie, Jesus as a brother, Mary Magdalene as Jesus' lover with whom Emezi develops a relationship of their own. "what if my father called jesus a bastard" is a poem I think about a lot. I don't know, maybe you need to be a #superfan whose read all of Emezi's memoir and highly biographical fiction to get this - maybe the way they relate to Jesus as a fellow young god won't make sense if you don't know about their own very specific understanding of their sense of self. if that's the case then idk, go read all of Emezi's other books immediately and then come back for the poems; you'll be doing yourself a favor.

Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir, 2020) - I was honestly kind of afraid that I'd run out of everything I had to say about this reread when I was talking about Gideon, but honestly? everything I said about how satisfying it is to reread Gideon goes DOUBLE for Harrow. I can't really say why without getting into massive spoiler territory, because this is a book designed to keep the reader as disoriented as Harrow until the last possible moment before the head-spinning reveal. and you know what? it's SO worth it. the payoff is magnificent; the reread value is tremendous. there seem to be a lot of people getting into the Locked Tomb on my dash right now, which is awesome, but I also keep seeing people talking about how Harrow is too confusing to the point of giving up on it. listen - lean into that discomfort. it's so worth it. you don't have to Get everything all the time and Muir is making lesbian space necromancer ART here.

The Joker War Saga (James Tynion IV et al) - hey man. I'm gonna be real with you. I really liked the arc leading up to this (Their Dark Designs, yes it's the one with the fucked up meth Riddler, you have GOT to mind your own business). I liked it enough that I warily consented to read something called "Joker War" even though I don't usually like Joker-heavy stories and I'm firmly of the opinion that crossover events with "war" in the title are generally pretty bad. and wouldn't you know it? I was right. Joker War sucks. it's dumb and convoluted and just needlessly edgy and draws attention to the Joker's unkillable nature in just the most annoying way. Harley is pretty solid and I enjoy Punchline a lot more than I thought I would, but fuck this.

The Memory Police (Yoko Ogawa 1994; trans. Stephen Snyder 2019) - this was the dark horse winner of my most recent book poll, and once again y'all displayed immaculate taste with your voting power. Ogawa's novel is the haunting story of an isolated young novelist on an unnamed island where things regularly get disappeared not just physically, but from people's minds and hearts as well - birds have been forgotten, as have roses, emeralds, and hats. with every passing day the Memory Police's control on the island tightens, and now whole families are being taken if they're suspected of having the gene to remember things that are taken away. our nameless protagonist's mother could remember, and hid the objects she saved when they vanished, but our protagonist doesn't share this gift. nonetheless, when her editor worries he may be targeted next, our protagonist makes a bold move to hide him from the Memory Police. it's a gorgeously tense and melancholy narrative about fascism and art and emotions and it made me feel a lot of feelings.

Conversations with People Who Hate Me: 12 Lessons I Learned from Talking to Internet Strangers (Dylan Marron, 2022) - as some of you may have noticed from *gestures around* all of this, I have a complicated relationship with the internet and how people on it treat me. I would never pretend that I've had to deal with anything as severe as Dylan Marron receiving homophobic death threats on the regular, but hey - it's not a competition. and in any case, I did cry within the first chapter or two of this book as Marron talked about the process of unlearning the gamification of human interactions online and trying to see the humanity of people who say the MOST vile things to him. I know I can't agree with every single thing Marron says here; I know there are people I just cannot and will not have compassion for because they objectively oppress me and should gargle my balls. but there is a lot here that is genuinely magnificent in its kindness, that I will be trying to integrate into how I comport myself here and in other online spaces.

Any Way the Wind Blows (Rainbow Rowell, 2021) - it took me a long-ass time to finished off the Simon Snow series, despite really enjoying the first one and really enjoying the second one, and really digging these characters in general. but I got there eventually and I DEVOURED it; this books are splendidly readable for being 400+ pages. the plot is watery-thin this time around, but that's alright - sometimes a plot just needs to be a moving sidewalk putting a little extra pressure on the characters while they try to sort out their messy feelings and complicated relationships and codependent childhood friendships. I liked it a lot, I really enjoy the way Rowell writes crushes and intimacy and all the squishy feelings that happen along the way.

Paper Girls Vol. 1-4 (Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, 2016-2018) - it's rereading season baby!!! this is like my third attempt to read all of Paper Girls and I'm actually going to make it this time, because I have the final two volumes on hold at the library RIGHT NOW and I'm very much looking forward to picking them up! LET'S GOOOOO. full review to come when I finish the series I guess but Paper Girls is great, go read it. it's a messy brain-bendy little story about friendship and time travelling bullshit, and also has some of the most gorgeous comic book art I've ever seen. Cliff Chiang is brilliant.

I'm Glad My Mom Died (Jennette McCurdy, 2022) - this is one of the buzziest memoirs of the year, and for good fucking reason. McCurdy is a tremendously gifted writer who's clearly been through a lot of therapy and has turned it with remarkable skill into art, and her debut is tremendously impressive. she has an uncanny ability to get the reader in the mindset she possessed at various stages of her childhood, when crying on command and bonding with her mother over anorexia were just facts of life, while also clearly outlining the stark horror of her abuse. readers, I cried more times than I can tell you. I read the entire book in one day. trigger warnings out the ass, so plan accordingly, but if you have the stomach for it this is a really remarkable read. I don't like to call my shots but there's no way in hell I'm Glad My Mom Died isn't going on whatever end-of-year favorite books list I end up making.

Spandex (Martin Eden, 2012) - I read a volume collecting the first three issues of Eden's comic, Spandex, about the titular team of British superheroes, all of whom are queer. I'm going to level with you: it's kind of garbage? the plots feel slapped together, the art is what I would politely call CHARMINGLY scrappy, the team is extremely white with the exceptions of Butch (a super-strong stoic Black woman who doesn't talk much) and Neon (a sexy Japanese ninja who's anime all the way down). but at the same time, it's like... like I'm glad it exists? a lot of mediocre straight art gets published every day; mediocre gay art also deserves that chance. and it's cool to see a superhero team where queerness and gay sex and gender weirdness are the norm instead of being nonexistent or being the entire moral of the story. also Prowler's power is harnessing the abilities of nearby gay people and that rules. that's gay community, babey.

Greenland (David Santos Donaldson, 2022) - WHAT a book !!! Santos Donaldson writes in an absolutely incredible voice, as our protagonist Kip is Going The Fuck Through It. Kip has three weeks to write a novel from scratch for a prospective publisher, and to do this he's boarded himself into the basement of his house against the wishes of his older husband, who has recently announced that he'd like a divorce. the object of Kip's fixation is Mohammed el-Adl, the Black man who had a love affair with older, white English writer E.M. Forster during Forster's time in Egypt. Kip finds much of himself in Mohammed, as a Black man in a relationship with an older white man who has also spent his entire life trying to prove himself as a writer in a predominantly white publishing industry and simultaneously hating the urge he feels to prove himself to a white publishing industry. our man Kip does not have an excellent time in this book, but he's certainly carried by excellent style; his breakdown is narrated start to finish in heady, fervent, manically literary style that never bores.

this one took longer to write than literally any reading recap I've ever done, everyone enjoy xoxo gossip girl

#bookblr #reading updates

23 notes · View notes

meduseld · 2 years ago

Text

Thunderstruck by the thought that Dan Cain and Herbert West’s canon dynamic is just John Watson and Sherlock Holmes with extra murder.

Because this respectable, sociable, popular medical professional moves in with a genius lunatic with the social graces of an angry goose whose monomaniacal obsession for their chosen work is all consuming except for their desire for the friendship and partnership in said work with said doctor.

Who instead of running screaming in the other direction said “You want to be partners? Boy howdy I am INTO your brand of crazy!” and leaned full tilt into the madness, lawbreaking with and caretaking of their feral brilliant man up to and including injecting him with illicit substances he uses to be able to work past the limits of the body in the face of science and the order of men.

So maybe just. The Lovecraft version of them Neil Gaiman did (both sets tbh)

#aka also applies to moriarty moran #but yes #danbert #johnlock #reanimator #also yes the super inherent homoeroticism thereof #especially as it reveals the doctor is probably the more unhinged one because he looked at that mess and went oh fuck yes SIGN ME UP #even though it's nearly got them killed many many times and ruined their other relationships #SEARCH YOUR HEART YOU KNOW IT TO BE TRUE

14 notes · View notes

tomes-of-fenwyrm · 2 years ago

Text

What I’d Like to Read in October!

Spooky season is here! I have so many things I probably won’t get to (between baking, decorating, and watching my favorite Halloween films) but I have an optimistic list of things I’m buzzing for.

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

I’m currently already nearly finished and it’s easily a classic. Very cozy, very found family vibes and I’m here for it.

House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski

This. This has been on my list for ages and I think it’s finally time. It is a good sized book so this might take up most of my reading time. I love the format though, so I’m excited to try.

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

I read this ages ago but I’d love to revisit it, I was pretty young when I read it last. I remember I liked it but I honestly don’t remember why. Probably the aesthetic of it all but I’m excited to read it again.

We Were Villains - M.L. Rio

This seems to be heavily recommended on both booktok and booktube so I may regret it, but sometimes good things come out of popular recs. It’s supposed to be very similar dark academia vibes as Secret History, so I’m willing to give it a go. I don’t have near enough dark academia reads in my life.

The Halloween Tree- Ray Bradbury

Obviously. I don’t know much of it but it’s Bradbury so...I’ll probably like it.

Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

Shameful I haven’t read this one either but ditto to the above.

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen - Shea Earnshaw

This is a bit silly but I’m honestly intrigued. More Nightmare Before Christmas content is always a good time so I’m not even going to be mad if it’s not a genius work of art or something.

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Another one I read when I was pretty young. I, once again, remember I loved it at the time, so I’d love to see it with fresh eyes.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

I literally read this last year but...it’s a vibe so let me live my dreams. Also shout out to Dakota Warren for romanticizing this.

Fairy Tale - Stephen King

A new release? On my tbr? It’s more likely than you think. I’ve not read enough Stephen King to know if I actually like his writing or not (the disappointment of Carrie comes to mind) but I like the summary of this one so I’m eager to try it.

#october tbr #tbr #to be read #reading list #reading #books #halloween reads

6 notes · View notes

michaelsheenpt · 4 years ago

Text

Michael Sheen Only Wants To Play Bizarre Characters, And We Should Respect That

Hollywood’s preference for neatly categorizing the legions of good-looking thespians that grace our screens every year is fairly obvious. We used to silo the men and women who are cutting a check for acting out fantasies in theaters and on TV as either movie stars or dramatic actors. The former was the hook that studios hung tentpole blockbusters on: charming, impossibly masculine, glamorous, famous as much for their real-life personas as they were for the characters they played on screen. The latter? Those were the Oscar-winners, the critical darlings, the Jeremy Strongs making bold choices, begging directors to tear-gas them on sets in the name of storytelling.

The divergent path has merged some over the years. There’s no clear, defining line separating bankable talent from actual talent. Chris Evans can brandish a shield in Marvel behemoths one second, then don an unkempt beard and heavy demeanor for a limited drama on Apple TV+ the next. Jon Hamm, who rose to fame playing an arrogant, adulterous ad executive in ’60s era Mad Men is now one of the most unpredictably exciting comedic actors in the game. Chadwick Boseman brought a royal Wakandan superhero to life in Black Panther, but he’ll also probably take home posthumous awards for his brilliant turn in an August Wilson adaptation this year.

In Hollywood, you can now be both a movie star and a serious actor, which is what makes Michael Sheen even more interesting. Michael Sheen is decidedly not a movie star. He’s also Welsh, which means he likely doesn’t sport the kind of ego that would make him capable of attaching gravitas to his acting career. He has 93 credits on his IMDb page. He’s played former British Prime Minister Tony Blair thrice, earning awards recognition for his impersonation in the Helen Mirren-starring The Queen. And he’s lit up the small screen with guest stints on everything from 30 Rock to The Good Wife.

Michael Sheen is, by all accounts, a serious, or at least seriously talented, actor. But he’s also weird as f*ck. I hope he’ll take that as the highest of compliments because it’s the truly bizarre character actors that should be propped up on a pedestal. That’s what Sheen really is: a character actor in his prime, a fearless conqueror on-screen, blazing a path by brandishing his quirky habits and secret love for creating chaos while leaving behind a scorched Earth of conventional conformists in his wake. He’s not like the other girls, and that’s become more apparent as time drags on.

My fascination with Sheen’s filmography began, to my shame, late in his career. His current gig is playing an irresistibly charming serial killer and lauded surgeon named Dr. Martin Whitly on Fox’s Prodigal Son. Perhaps the best praise I can heap on Sheen’s performance is that it convinces me to tune into a network drama every week, a rare feat in the age of streaming. But even that adulation doesn’t paint the whole story of what Sheen’s doing on that show.

Sporting the kind of knit cardigan Ransom Drysdale would be envious of and a crop of wild, grey-dusted curls with just enough kink in them to hint at the perverted madness housed underneath, Sheen’s Whitly is charismatic, comical, and shockingly likable. His unnerving ease at see-sawing between philosophical convos on life and love with his son Malcolm (the excellent Tom Payne) and pragmatically outlining how to dismember a body is at once jarring and, oddly, mesmerizing. Sheen plays him as a perpetually amused psychotic genius, an Einstein whose intelligence is so far above those that keep him captive, it’s almost a joke. And we’re in on it, as the audience, gleefully cackling when Whitly gets overexcited about consulting on the most gruesome homicide cases or, even more disturbingly, momentarily forgetting he once stuffed a woman into a box when he shares a tender exchange with his son. And Sheen embraces the strangeness of the man, rejoicing in his eccentricities, adding a musical flair to every “My boy,” he greets Malcolm with and relishing the more awkward moments by exploiting their inherent comedy. Really, when has a slow-rising hospital bed and distasteful Stephen Hawking joke been funnier?

Lest you think playing a serial killing diva was the most oddball acting choice Sheen has ever made, may I point you to the rest of his film catalog. There’s his mustache-twirling clichéd villain in Dr. Dolittle. The eerily robotic bartender of Passengers. The long-haired alpha Lycan of Underworld. The Tony Blairs (all three of them) and the heavily-bronzed game show hosts of Quiz. The Hot Tub Time Machine hating settling soul mate of Liz Lemon in 30 Rock.

And then there are a handful of performances that live in my own brain, rent-free, like when he played Aro in the Twilight series. Other actors would’ve balked at the challenge of turning a 4,000-year-old Italian vampire riddled with boredom and consumed by unchecked power into something more than just a two-dimensional, cartoonish stereotype, but not Sheen. No, while Robert Pattinson flaunted his constipated sullenness and Kristen Stewart fidgeted and fought to make her character likable, Sheen basked in the camp of it all. He over-enunciated, he exaggerated Aro’s mercurial nature with rapid eye movement, twitchy physicality, and shrieking giggle fits. In the franchise’s final film, just before a climactic battle is set to take place, Sheen throws the atmospheric tension every other actor in the scene has worked so painstakingly hard to build into turmoil. It’s like watching Georgia O’Keefe destroy a room full of paintings, or Heath Ledger’s Joker burn a mountain of money, and it is glorious.

In Tron: Legacy he plays Castor, a maniacal nightclub owner with a consuming love for theatricality. As his guests fall into his well-laid trap, he dances and kicks and shuffles and shouts, wielding a neon-tinted cane like a Barnum and Bailey’s ringmaster and a slicked-back shock-white hairdo that turns him into an analog-style Bowie wannabe. His accent careens into the absurd, from high-pitched lilts to German parody to something I can only describe as Marvel supervillain Arnim Zola on steroids.

In Neil Gaiman’s Amazon Prime comedy Good Omens, Sheen played the anxiety-ridden angel, Aziraphale, a heavenly kiss-ass who befriends David Tennant’s demonic Crowley, and together, the two try to save the world. Playing the more uptight celestial being might not be as fun for any other actor, but Sheen has a hell of a time, dealing nervous spasms and twitchy eyeballs and exaggerated gulps with such a heavy hand, you can’t help but feel sympathy for the straight-laced seraph.

And just when I was ready to conclude my research, feeling quite confident dubbing Sheen’s extensive resume as one of the wilder, diverse acting careers in Hollywood, I stumbled upon Michael Bolton’s Valentine’s Day Special on Netflix. It’s here that Sheen truly goes above and beyond in the name of weird, playing a Bob Fosse parody named Carl Flossy: a gruff, chain-smoking choreographer whose manners are as coarse as his constantly-displayed chest hair. Shouting obscenities at Bolton as he tries to map out a musical dilly that will convince punk kids that old-time rock-n-roll is, in fact, badass, Sheen’s growling criticism and shouted anger is muffled only by the ever-present cigarette dangling from his mouth. He’s an aging Guido-type with an open-neck satin shirt, and inflated confidence, and a mysterious way of drawing out the best in his dancers, one that usually involves throwing the nearest folded chair.

he’s such a well-respected actor who’s worked with Tim Burton, Woody Allen and Ron Howard. I suppose that’s what’s so great about Sheen’s career so far. He’s happy to sacrifice whatever level of stardom and recognition he may have been afforded thanks to his talent and good looks for something even more elusive that blockbuster fame and Academy trophies: the unique ability to disappear into even the most bizarre of characters; to convince audiences he’s no longer Michael Sheen, affable Welshman and ex-husband of thee Kate Beckinsale, but instead, an amalgam of the oddities and freakish individuals he plays on the screen. Michael Sheen might, in truth, be as weird and out there as the characters he inhabits. That’s what makes him great.

FOX’s ‘Prodigal Son’ returns on Tuesday, January 12.

SOURCE

#michael sheen #he's got range #well respected actor #aziraphale #tron legacy #aro #twilight #martin whitly #castor

21 notes · View notes

seaeaglebookreviews · 4 years ago

Text

White-Bellied Sea Eagle reviews The Day I Killed God by Nick Totem

novel by Nick Totem, Available Here

Nick Totem grabbed my attention from the first chapter of his boldly titled novel, The Day I Killed God. His protagonist is a man labeled by others as “The Psychic,” though he would tell you that what he does isn’t psychic in nature, entirely. It’s more like Sherlock Holmes, as Totem writes, where science and deduction clash with the special ability of Daniel’s mind to perceive places and people and events beyond himself and, presumably, his perception of time is not fixed in the present. There’s a subtle charm and warmth to his protagonist almost immediately – maybe I just like the guy who’s misunderstood a little, but The Day I Killed God shows its merits right out of the gate. Totem has a way of writing that feels like stepping into the novel’s world immediately. Expect to be intrigued by the larger suggestion of who Daniel might be and what he might be capable of. Totem also carefully explores the relationship between madness and genius, which others often perceive as superhuman in some way.

Nick Totem’s novel is reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s dark fantasy work, in that much of the characters are grounded in reality though they themselves might be remarkable in some way – and have some knowledge not given to most. The Day I Killed God feeds the desire for real mystery pretty much within the first paragraph. (As a writer, I can say I don’t judge any book by its cover, but I do judge almost all books by their first paragraph. Totem’s writing is technically and fantastically engaging.)

This novel is a peek into reality tinged with just enough uncertainty to keep the characters searching for answers -- and by proxy, the reader. Daniel is a character with an honest voice and a curious history, someone who I found almost as intriguing as the story itself.

The narrative in genre would probably be considered fiction a-la Neil Gaiman and Dean Koontz, but Totem’s talent also rises above any specific genre. The Day I Killed God is a world completely of Totem’s creation – he’s very good at inserting the reader into a world in action, opening the veil for those looking upon it.

If you’re into fantasy of a darker flavor, or just a sincerely good mystery, this is an excellent book to spend your time on. Typically during my review work, I read, write during a pause, and read some more, but I found it hard to write at all while reading the novel. I had to jot down notes and continue on, because this is exactly my flavor of fiction, a story based in reality with elements of dark fantasy.

#fiction #book review #fantasy #dark fantasy #independent author #book review blog #bookblog #bookworm #fantasy novel #dark fantasy novel #ebook #physical book #nick totem

5 notes · View notes

half-man-half-lime · 5 years ago

Text

On why being dark makes Worm a good power fantasy

Okay I have a tendency to pointlessly and circuitously ramble so I’m just gonna leave a TL;DR up here: Worm shows that the most powerless people in the most hopeless situations can still make a difference through perseverance.

So here and there I’ve seen posts going around (not gonna search and link the various posts I’m referencing in this post, it’s 2 AM and I’m lazy) about why everyone should shut up about people liking lighter works, and how Steven Universe is a great work of escapism because it lets people experience a world where compassion can win wars and make the world a better place. I’m not gonna argue about whether lighter or darker stuff is better, the point of those posts is people can like what they want (also see that one comic I’m not gonna link where stories are balloons and someone makes a heavy iron balloon and drops it into a pit and someone stuck in the muck grabs a hold of it; you know the one).

But that stuff HAS been making me think about why Worm is a good escapist fantasy in a number of ways. My analysis of the Parahumans stories has been kind of sidetracked by the amazing analysis by the We’ve Got Worm/Ward podcast, all that stuff about characterization and themes and shit, it’s great, but all that stuff plus the YBUTTing (You’re Being Unfair To Taylor, basically dismantling her moral justifications and pointing out the negative effect her moral choices have on her and those around her) kind of make you forget the childish, sadistic appeal of a story about a girl who cuts people’s eyes out and is Completely Justified in doing so and also Extremely Clever like a seasoned D&D player. And that stuff is fun, even if it gets less so after too many rereads. (Seriously, I’ve listened to the audiobooks so many times now, I’ve lost count.)

But one thing Matt and Scott and the reddit commenters have discussed is the usefulness of horror story elements as a way of establishing stakes, which brings me to my point: It’s really fucking empowering to see a nerdy teenage girl take down invincible serial killers and bully god to death when she seems like she should have absolutely no way or right to do so.

Like, one of the reasons One Piece was always so appealing to me, something that sort of faded with the power creep and repetition of the same story beats over and over again, is how satisfying it is to see Luffy and pals take down warlords and tyrants a thousand times stronger than them through sheer force of will. What right does this punk-ass kid from the East Blue with stretchy powers have to take down a powerful Fish-Man, or a lightning-slinging self-proclaimed god, or a seasoned undercover assassin with a thirst for blood? But he does it anyway! He works out and trains and shit, and basically wrecks his body sometimes, and in the end, after a lot of screaming and punching, those guys are gone, and he’s still here! Because they had the audacity to hurt his friends, and he and his pals will fucking bully reality into doing what they want if it means stopping people who do those sort of things.

Now the thing about Taylor Hebert is she isn’t strong, not physically. This bullied kid never got super-strength or web-slingers to swing around on, nor the charisma to make quips and piss off the local mad scientists. She’s clever, but not enough to build a laser gun or a giant robot. She controls bugs. Wowee. Like the Stretchy Man, she should by all rights be underwhelming to deal with, but somehow she always seems to make it out alive, her enemies leaving without the eyeballs or prosthetic foreheads they came in with. (Don’t worry, they both got new ones, it just took a while. Well. Not Valefor.)

And that’s cool in a vacuum, but in the Parahumans universe? That’s an accomplishment. The Endbringers and the Slaughterhouse Nine, the horror as stakes, they’re like an uphill battle against a bigger, steeper uphill battle. And Taylor has bugs. She can’t chop Leviathan in half, and if she tries (which she does, to a degree), she risks drowning, being crushed and paralyzed, and being thrown headfirst into a concrete floor all at the same time. So she slinks around the Endbringers, too far away to be stepped on, giving CPR to the fighters wounded in battle; she plots against the Nine and probes for weaknesses, even if it means risking herself and her teammates. She beats the shit out of the genius killer mannequin man, not with fireballs or hundred-ton punches, but with spiderwebs and glue, and in the end, after being wounded and exhausted, tens of people are alive because of what she did.

To compare this to Steven Universe, or the opposite side of Skitter’s coin, the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (though sadly SU is a better comparison because on top of the positivity it handles things like abuse and trauma) (woe is me that I’m too lazy to write crossover or toneswap fanfic, between Worm and USG by the way, if you want to do that for me, be my guest (Also a Freaks and Geeks mashup, Worms and Germs)), it’s enormously encouraging that Steven is ultimately able to stop the onslaught of genocidal space empresses, not by punching them, but by appealing to their humanity, a task that his upbringing and challenges completely prepared him for. Doreen Green, in a world of angsty heroes and villains and murder and trauma, can befriend her enemies and stop them by suggesting more fulfilling career goals, or end centuries of interstellar war with a chalk board and a day or two of diplomatic negotiations.

And that’s appealing especially today because a lot of people feel tired of fighting and knowing that no amount of talking or empathy will stop transphobes and Trump supporters from making the world a waking nightmare. And plenty of people are tired of stories of Hopeless Bleak Despair, and want a little compassion in their lives. I get that, I truly do. I enjoy those stories for the same reasons.

BUT, Worm means a lot to me right now too. And it wouldn’t be the same without the pain and suffering. Scaring the Slaughterhouse Nine out of Brockton Bay wouldn’t seem like such an achievement if we didn’t see Brian cut to pieces, doomed to permanent PTSD, while the Undersiders lie paralyzed on the floor, subject to Bonesaw’s torturous whims. The defeat of Behemoth would seem a little more predictable and boring if the Avengers pulled it off in an hour, without hundreds of dead heroes (and thousands more who died in past fights), infighting, and the threat of an ally destroying all of India in a misguided attempt to stop the beast. Mannequin running away from a super-puncher or a fireball-shooter wouldn’t feel like the accomplishment it does coming from the scared teenage girl whose only weapons are some squishy bugs, a knife and baton, and some craft supplies.

Worm presents a world where suffering is everywhere, where the where traumatized, hopeless people can fight and fight and endure endless pain, lose loved ones and body parts, be given just little enough power by those that seek to exploit and hurt them that they shouldn’t be able to fight back, to leverage nothing but pepperspray and spiders against dragons, and, after all that struggling and fighting and pain, actually make the bad guys stop hurting people. (it’s like that Chesterton quote in Coraline that people misattribute to Neil Gaiman, about how fantasy shows us how dragons can be beaten.)

And it’s an upsetting and exhausting story to read, especially binge reading or listening, and it ends in genuine heartbreaking tragedy, yet somehow the victory seems like one of the most earned wins in all of fiction. Nobody should be able to defeat Grieving Golden Jesus or Superdense Hurricane Godzilla, and that’s why it’s so empowering when Taylor Hebert fucking does.

Isn’t that just as reassuring, in a world that seems so hopeless right now, when we all feel so powerless, so tired of struggling? I think so.

#Parahumans #Worm Spoilers #Mild One Piece Spoilers #Steven Universe Spoilers #Mutilation.;#Mild Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Spoilers

82 notes · View notes

writing-prompts-for-friends · 5 years ago

Text

Notes from Stephen King’s “On Writing” 05: Description, Dialogue, Creating Characters

Description

"Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the reader's."

We all know that too much description robs the reader of their imagination and bores them, yet too little description leaves them confused and scratching their heads. So how can we strike a middle ground with confidence?

"Good description is a learned skill, one of the prime reasons why you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It's not just a question of how to, you see; it's also a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. You can learn only by doing."

King says that he personally doesn't like to provide detailed descriptions of how his characters look. He would rather have the reader supply their faces, builds, and clothing. To exemplify, he says:

"If I tell you that Carrie White is a high school outcast with a bad complexion and a fashion-victim wardrobe, I think you can do the rest, can't you? I don't need to give you a pimple-by-pimple, skirt-by-skirt rundown. We all remember one or more high school losers, after all; if I describe mine, it freezes out yours, and I lose a little bit of the bond of understand I want to forge between us. Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the reader's."

Maybe it's because now more than ever we are obsessed with visual media, be it TV or film or social media, but I personally feel a need to give detailed physical descriptions of my characters. Does anyone else feel the same? But what King said really made a lot of sense to me--by keeping the descriptions of the characters non-distinct, we allow the readers to fill in the gaps and make a character that is even more relatable to them. I think that's genius.

On the other hand, King feels that locale and texture are more important to the reader's sense of actually being in the story. Describe the region the story takes place in (but don't go full Tolkein on your readers, please). Paint a picture of the house and town in broad, distinct strokes.

"For me, good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else. In most cases, these details will be the first ones that come to mind. Certainly they will do for a start. If you decide later on that you'd like to change, add, or delete, you can do so--it's what rewrite was invented for. But I think you will find that, in most cases, your first visualized details will be the truest and best. It's as easy to overdescribe as it is to underdescribe. Probably easier."

So let's say that you want to use a certain real-life restaurant as the setting of a scene in your story. This is a restaurant that you have actually frequented. Now close your eyes and picture that place. What are the first 4-5 things that come to your mind? Could be how to looks or smells, what sort of clientele is usually there, anything. Take those 4-5 details and only use those to describe the place in your writing. Let the reader do the rest of the work.

"In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it 'got boring,' the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling."

Oh man, I really agree with this. I quit reading LotR because I just couldn't force myself through another description of goddamn rivers and valleys.

On the Use of Similes

"When it's on target, a simile delights us in much the same way meeting an old friend in a crowd of strangers does."

When we compare two seemingly unrelated objects, we are sometimes able to see an old thing in a new and vivid way. But you have to make sure that the simile makes sense and isn't cliched. Don't use "he ran like a madman" or something. Come up with your own.

"The key to good description begins with clear seeing and ends with clear writing, the kind of writing that employs fresh images and simple vocabulary."

There are a lot of authors that do a great job describing things like king says, but there is one specific line from Neil Gaiman's Coraline that stands out to me. Coraline has just discovered the hallway that leads to the Other House, and the sentence describes the hall.

"It smelled like something very old and slow."

Simple vocabulary, yet very fresh. I love this sentence and its eeriness.

Dialogue

"It's dialogue that gives your cast their voices, and is crucial in defining their characters--only what people do tells us more about what they're like, and talk is sneaky: what people say often conveys their character to others in ways of which they--the speakers--are completely unaware."

You can explain through narration or backstory that a character didn't do well in school or didn't finish it, but you could also demonstrate that through dialogue. Conversely, you can show just how smart they are, or how honest/dishonest, lighthearted/serious they are through dialogue alone.

Have you ever read dialogue that makes you think, "Man, nobody talks like this!" because it feels so stilted or forced? I'm certain you have. So how can we prevent ourselves from crafting dialogue that feels inauthentic?

"Dialogue is a skill best learned by people who enjoy talking and listening to others--particularly listening."

Picking up the accents, rhythms, dialect, and slang of various groups helps give your writing a certain veracity that readers pick up on instinctually.

A Word on Political Correctness in Dialogue/Characters

"As with all other aspects of fiction, the key to writing good dialogue is honesty."

King says that not a week goes by that he doesn't get an angry letter accusing him of being foul-mouthed, bigoted, homophobic, murderous, frivolous, or downright psychopathic, and usually the people writing these letters are upset about certain lines of dialogue within his stories.

Sometimes you are going to have a character that holds unpleasant opinions and uses unpleasant words to get them across. That doesn't necessarily mean that what the character believes/says is what you believe. And, in my own opinion, I think it is important to have these non-pc characters in our stories. How can we combat ignorance if we do not draw attention to it? Sweeping it under the rug does nothing but prolong the problem.

So if a character is prone to swearing, don't substitute their expletives for words like "shoot" or "dang." Have them say "shit" or "damn." If a character is a homophobe, have them vocalize their sentiments if the scene deems it appropriate. Don't censor your characters.

Building Characters

"The job of building characters in fiction boils down to two things: paying attention to how the real people around you behave and then telling the truth about what you see."

Take note of the people around you. Many fictional characters are drawn piece by piece from people in real life. For King, what happens to his characters as the story progresses depends solely on what he discovers about them as he goes along. Sometimes their character grows only a little. But other times, their characters grow a so much that they influence the course of the story instead of the other way around.

"I think the best stories always end up being about people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven. Once you get beyond the short story, though (two to four thousand words, let's say), I'm not much of a believer in the so-called character study; I think in the end, the story should always be the boss."

Most readers want to see not only a progression in plot, but also in character development, so trying to have both of those is important.

"It's also important to remember that no one is 'the bad guy' or 'the best friend' or 'the whore with a heart of gold' in real life; in real life we each of us regard ourselves as the main character, the protagonist. If you can bring this attitude into your fiction, you may not find it easier to create brilliant characters, but it will be harder for you to create the sort of one-dimensional dopes that populate so much of pop fiction."

King goes on to explain how when he wrote Misery, a novel about a crazy nurse who holds her favorite author Paul Sheldon hostage in her remote house, he went to great lengths to give the reader a view of the nurse Annie Wilkes' perspective. To us, she seems psychopathic. But to her, she seems perfectly sane and reasonable.

"If I can make you understand her madness--then perhaps I can make her someone you sympathize with or even identify with. The result? She's more frightening than ever, because she's close to real. If, on the other hand, I turn her into a cackling old crone, she's just another pop-up bogeylady. In that case, I lose bigtime, and so does the reader. Who would want to visit with such a stale shrew? That version of Annie was old when The Wizard of Oz was in its first run."

What is really boils down to is making sure that each of your characters are three-dimensional within your own mind. As long as they feel like real people in your head, capable of making rational decisions and feeling rational emotion (as fits their unique nature), that should be able to be seen by the reader as the story unfolds.

On Creative Liberties

“Try any goddamn thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn’t toss it. Toss it even if you love it. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch once said, ‘Murder your darlings,’ and he was right.”

Write however you want. Use whatever techniques you want. Have fun with it. It’s yours before it is anybody else’s. And you can’t please all the readers all the time, but if you can come out happy with the end product, surely you can please some of the readers some of the time, and that is enough.

Source: King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Hodder, 2012.

23 notes · View notes

ao3feed-ineffablehusbandz · 4 years ago

Text

How to Win a Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to Television (and how not to)

by GaryOldman

Crowley hosts a late night comedy talk show. Aziraphale hosts a feel good morning talk show.

When Crowley is asked to present Aziraphale with a lifetime achievement award, everything goes a bit skew-whiff.

-----

Normally when I don’t get something that everyone else seems to be mad on my first point of call is the wonderful world of the internet, but we’ve had a falling out you see, the internet and I. Despite my many years as late night show host meets investigative journalist meets comic genius meets veritable sex god (though Wikipedia only acknowledges the first of these accomplishments, despite my many attempts at editing the listing) they have turned on me.

I’m a gif. And a meme.

Words: 1966, Chapters: 1/9, Language: English

Fandoms: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens (TV)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale (Good Omens), Anathema Device, Gabriel (Good Omens), Michael (Good Omens), Sandalphon (Good Omens), Metatron (Good Omens), Newton Pulsifer, Sergeant Shadwell (Good Omens), Madame Tracy (Good Omens), Adam Young (Good Omens)

Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens), Crowley & Anathema Device

Additional Tags: Human AU, AU, TV show host rivalry, Enemies to Friends to Lovers

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/24495646

#ao3feed ineffablehusbandz #ineffable husbands #good omens #aziraphale #crowley #anthonyjcrowl

3 notes · View notes

ao3feed-goodomens · 4 years ago

Text

How to Win a Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to Television (and how not to)

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/36OlWGs

by GaryOldman

Crowley hosts a late night comedy talk show. Aziraphale hosts a feel good morning talk show.

When Crowley is asked to present Aziraphale with a lifetime achievement award, everything goes a bit skew-whiff.

-----

I’m a gif. And a meme.

Words: 1966, Chapters: 1/9, Language: English

Fandoms: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens (TV)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens), Crowley & Anathema Device

Additional Tags: Human AU, AU, TV show host rivalry, Enemies to Friends to Lovers

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/36OlWGs

#ao3feed #fanfic #Good Omens

1 note · View note

sweeneyxlaura · 5 years ago

Note

was emily playing essie a deliberate choice to give more meaning/prove that there is more to sweeney's and laura's connection/feelings? cause i know they weren't a thing in the books but the show does drive in in that direction :D (and a very great change imo, works wonderfully)

Yeah, I definitely think Fuller/Green wanted Emily to play Essie to give a greater sense of the cosmic connection between Laura and Sweeney, for sure, because I think they’d decided very early on to pair the two of them within the narrative of the show. If you’ll recall in the book, the only connection they have is that Laura’s life is being powered by Sweeney’s coin, and that’s it. I love that Fuller/Green decided to expand on that wisp of a connection and have it grow exponentially by actually giving them an adventure together to stake a relationship on. And it makes sense - that somehow, if Sweeney/Laura were to be expanded, then the thing that makes sense is to drop out from Shadow’s POV and see how Sweeney would feel about losing his coin and what he would then try to do, or how Laura would try to give her new existence more meaning than she ever did when she was actually alive. And what would happen if Sweeney ever did successfully track down his coin to Laura, what then? How would they act around each other? Would they like or hate each other?

Another brilliant thing by doing what they did was that it really did kinda set up the romantic implications between them, however ambiguous and regardless of whether Fuller/Green intended for that connection to end up that way. I think Pablo/Emily have mentioned in interviews that their chemistry was a “happy accident”, and so most of their interactions in S1, to me, felt vague enough that things could go either way to no harm, no foul.

I think the most overt “shippy” moment in S1, to me, was when we see Sweeney reacting to Laura telling Easter how Shadow’s given her a reason to live now. If Sweeney felt she was full of shit, like how he knows she’s sometimes full of shit, he’d be rolling his eyes there, but no…….it’s a little sad and defeated. You get the sense that maybe some feelings are brewing there at this point...that maybe he likes her and wishing that she liked him back, too.

Like this moment doesn’t have to this shippy…..BUT IT IS. And it serves a similar function to the Essie stuff - that it’s the show leaving the door slightly ajar….and feeling the waters a bit before blowing it wide open like they did in S2. Honestly, you never heard Gaiman talk about the Sweeney/Laura dynamic during S1′s press tour. Maybe a brief mention. S2′s press tour? He couldn’t STOP talking about them and how amazing they were. He would bring them up without being prompted to like,

Interviewer: So, one thing I noticed in the series–

Neil: Mad Sweeney and Laura? YES.

But I digress. In a nutshell, I agree - I think they primarily wanted to give Sweeney/Laura’s pairing more dimension by giving their stories a more “fateful” feel and having it all work out in retrospect was GENIUS. Also genius? Giving Sweeney/Laura as much attention as they have so far on the series (as opposed to what they were in the book)…cos IMO, they’re like the best…best characters, best executed storyline, best dynamic, best everythinnnggg…

#ask #anon #madwife #**#meta

24 notes · View notes

takerfoxx · 5 years ago

Text

Folks, I want to do something a little bit different today. I want to recommend a book.

Now, I’ve talked about movies I’ve watched, shows I’ve seen, books and comics/manga that I’ve read, and games I’ve played, but largely the books I’ve talked about have all been either part of a series (like the Dresden Files or Lord of the Rings) or from an author that I was already a fan of (like Neil Gaiman). But today I want to talk about a book that stands fully alone with no running series or follow-ups and is by an author that I’ve ready nothing else from.

And that book is Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon.

Boy’s Life is a little hard to explain. The closest comparison would be To Kill A Mockingbird as they both are told from the perspective of a young child growing up in a Southern town during the segregation era, only this being a little boy instead of a little girl and taking place in the 60′s instead of the 30′s. But while they have a similar feel to them and both tackle the subject of racism, To Kill A Mockingbird made that theme pretty central, and while it’s incredibly important in Boy’s Life, it is just one of the many, many, many themes about growing up that it tackles.

Boy’s Life details a very eventful time in Cory Mackenson’s life, stretching roughly over the course of a year. It starts with Cory accompanying his father on his milk delivery run one early morning that results in them witnessing a car with a naked and unconscious man strapped to the steering wheel get driven into the lake. But while the murder mystery that this kicks off is certainly important, it actually takes a backseat in the rest of the book, weaving in and out as Cory tells us the many stories of the going-ons in his small town.

And that’s what the book really is about: stories. Cory is a natural storyteller that wants to become a novelist one day (natch), and in the process of trying to write out the stories in his head, he also tells us the stories in his home. Each chapter is a separate story that stands on its own but still builds toward a larger narrative. Some are fun and hilarious, others are harrowing and action-packed, others are dark and tragic, while others are somber and contemplative. We have the funny story about how one fire-and-brimstone Baptist preacher’s crusade to ban the Beach Boys from the town ends up unleashing a psychotic monkey. We have a deep-forest camping trip that ends in a heart-pounding confrontation with the local crime-boss family, which in turn later leads to a car chase and then a shoot-out. We have a story about Cory and his friends getting scared shitless by an alien invasion movie that leads to a reflection on parental abuse. And there are just so many more, and they’re all fantastic.

And then there are the characters. The town of Zephyr is populated by a whole cast of colorful personalities that wander in and out of the stories, some of them acting as bit players in one story only to take starring roles in others, and vice-versa. We have the local madman, who’s as polite and well-spoken as you please, but still roams the streets completely naked, and nobody can do anything about it because his father owns virtually every business and most of the houses. We have a crusty old man that can often be seen hanging out at the local barbershop who might actually be a retired legendary Wild West gunslinger, but might just be a crazy old man with delusions of grandeur. We have a small and sickly young boy who speaks with a lisp and also is in possession by a pitching arm so powerful and so accurate that even Babe Ruth would have been blown away by it. We have the town’s veterinarian, a kindly man who turns out to have been a Holocaust survivor that had killed a Nazi soldier while fleeing from Austria. We have the Demon, a half-mad girl in Cory’s class with a morbid sense of humor, a fixation on grossing everyone out, who also happens to be a chemistry genius. We have the Lady, an incredibly old black woman woman who is a former slave and is the unofficial leader of the town’s black population and is in many ways the story’s kindest and most intimidating characters.

And then there are the themes. The book is about growing up, so at times it’s about things a child would empathize with, like dealing with bullies, having one’s first crush, and the simple joy of speeding along on a new bike. But then there is the more adult themes. Racism is of course a big one, but so is dealing with the disappointment of finding that our parents are just as flawed as we are, corruption in authority, the effects of abusive relationships, learning how to say goodbye after losing a loved one, and showing kindness to those who might not deserve it. And each one is treated with equal weight and importance.

And then there is the magic. While most of the stories are rooted in reality, Zephyr is still said to be a town with magic swimming just below the surface, and at times that magic breaks through. Now, I’m not saying that there is a massive sea monster lurking in the lake...but I’m not saying that there isn’t one either. I’m not saying that the ghost of the local daredevil who burned with his car when crashing during a street race still speeds through the mountain’s roads...but I’m not saying that he doesn’t either. I’m not saying that when the fair comes into town, one of the barkers has brought along a genuine caged Triceratops...but it’s hard to argue otherwise. And that’s not even touching the sort of things that the Lady can seemingly do. Sure, she winks and says that most of her magic potions are just placebos intended to bolster the confidence of those who need it, but how the hell is she having the same nightmares as Cory’s father?

Boy’s Life is a book that anyone who wants to become a storyteller should read, but even if you don’t, I think has a little bit of something for everyone. It runs the gamut of emotions and nails every single one. There’s one or two scenes that tears my heart out every time, especially that epilogue. I make a point of rereading it every couple of years, and am currently halfway through it right now. My copy is falling apart and literally has both covers taped on, but if it completely falls to pieces then I’ll buy a new one, because it’s a book worth keeping around.

#boy's life #robert mccammon #book recommendation

2 notes · View notes

mylonelyangel · 6 years ago

Text

Good Omens: A Study in Comedy

A couple years ago in my senior year of high school, my English teacher had told us for our last essay of the year, to pick any novel by any notable author, and write about it. I picked Good Omens cause i happened to be reading it at the time, but this essay was legit the most fun I’ve ever had writing an essay. I figured with the show coming out at @neil-gaiman being on tumblr, I might as well post it here were people might enjoy it.

Its about why Good Omens is successful as a comedy. It’s kinda long so it’s gonna go beneath a cut. But yeah here it is. (Also apologies for the formatting I cant figure out how to make this thing readable. rn it looks a lot better on desktop than mobile. Any suggestions on that are welcome)

---

In the world of entertainment-- be that film, TV, literature, etc. -- comedy is hard. It’s hard to act, it’s hard to write, and it takes real talent to do comedy well. Often, comedy goes underappreciated in the professional world; however, Good Omens seems to be an exception. In writing the forward to their book, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman describe the many well-read and deteriorating copies of Good Omens that they have had the pleasure of signing. From books dropped in bathtubs and puddles, to pages being held together by packing tape, clearly, the book is well loved by many. The unique quality of this novel is that rather than a “laugh-out-loud” humor, Pratchett and Gaiman aimed for a more subtle, ironic humor adding up to a satire that teaches a lesson on the importance of humanity and compassion. All in all, Good Omens is a delightfully witty and entertaining book that is sure to please any avid reader.

---

Biography

It was the year 1989 when Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett decided to combine efforts in writing Good Omens. At the time, Gaiman was 29. He was born in Hampshire UK in 1960 and grew up frequently visiting his local library, developing a life-long love for reading. After briefly pursuing a career in journalism, he soon became interested in writing comic books. The Sandman is one of Gaiman’s most notable graphic novel works. It won several awards including three Harvey Awards, nine Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, and the 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story, becoming the first comic to every receive a literary award. After gaining this success, Gaiman has gone on to expand his resume by working in film and television. He’s written and directed two films: A Short Film About John Bolton (2002) and Statueque (2009). Most recently, Gaiman is writing for the television series adaption of his book, American Gods, set to premier on April 30, 2017 on Starz.

Gaiman’s writing companion, Terry Pratchett, was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire in 1948. He had a passion for writing from a young age, publishing his first story, “The Hades Business” in his school magazine at age thirteen. Four years later at age seventeen, Pratchett dropped out of school to pursue journalism. It was in this line of work that he came into contact with his first publisher, Colin Smythe, and through him published his first book in 1971, The Carpet People. Smythe remained a close friend of Pratchett and in 1983 published the first book of Pratchett’s phenomenally successful series: Discworld. At this time, Pratchett worked for the Central Electricity Generating Board as a press officer. Four books into his Discworld series, Pratchett decided to become a full time writer. After a long and successful career, unfortunately in 2007 Pratchett was diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s called Posterior Cortical Atrophy. He lived the last years of his life very well; in 2009, he was knighted by the Queen for his services to literature and in 2013 he presented a documentary discussing the controversial topic of assisted dying. Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die won both an Emmy and a BAFTA. Despite campaigning for assisted dying, Terry did not choose to take his own life and died peacefully surrounded by family in March 2015.

----

Extended Analysis

The comedy collaboration Good Omens has been deemed by many to be a great novel. Critics praise the unique blend of writing styles for making this novel a success, but to understand what makes the comedic genius of Good Omens, one must ask what precisely makes it funny. This novel is a satire; it comments on existentialist ideas surrounding humanity and the responsibility humans have over their own actions for better or for worse. In order to emphasize their novel as an unexpectedly witty and socially relevant satire, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett use several literary devices such as repetition, mood, and irony. In a remarkable world belonging to angels and demons who wish to bring about the apocalypse, the air of abnormality must be maintained throughout the novel; comedy only follows naturally.

In order to emphasize the absurdity of the events in Good Omens, the authors often used repetition in describing people or events. Given that this book revolves around the events of Armageddon, absurdity is not hard to come by; it is precisely what enforces the satire nature of the novel. For instance, the Antichrist is first described to the reader as “a golden haired male baby we will call the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of this World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness” (Gaiman 27). Not only does the baby have this long list of titles, but he is referred to as such several more times in the next few pages. This description is a means to bring attention to the oddness of the situation and the repetition serves to emphasize it. Another interesting use of repetition is a scene in which the events of the evening are being narrated by an irritable man named R. P. Tyler; a man who not only believes himself to be the sole decider of right and wrong in the world, but that it is his responsibility to pronounce his wisdom unto others via the letter column of the Tadfield Adviser. This man is the epitome of arrogant old men and on the afternoon of Armageddon, finds himself directing several parties of odd people to the same location. In the eyes of the reader, all of the characters introduced thus far are arriving to the small English town of Tadfield for the start of the apocalypse. The events are rumored to take place at the Lower Tadfield Air Base and in succession, R. P. Tyler encounters four groups of people going to the Airfield within a span of 30 minutes (Gaiman 325-336). The result is a comedic effect that brings all separate storylines back to the same page. The repetition of events is what brought to R. P. Tyler’s attention to the odd occurrences in Tadfield. As the man met group after group, he quickly becomes more flustered and his figurative bubble of normality is cracking until Crowley’s arrival: “There was a large once-black car on fire in the lane and a man in sunglasses was leaning out the window, saying through the smoke “I’m sorry, I’ve managed to get a little lost. Can you direct me to the Lower Tadfield Air Base? I know it’s around here somewhere”” (Gaiman 334). One can safely say that after this event, R. P. Tyler no longer has a figurative bubble of normality.

---

One of the highlights of Good Omens is the comical language in which it is written, setting an air for the absurd to be normalized and the mundane to receive an exaggerated retelling. An ambiance of abnormality is maintained throughout the entire novel through methods of over-explaining minute details. For instance, as the first proceedings of Armageddon are set into motion, the scene is set with the following depiction:

“It wasn’t a dark and stormy night. It should have been, but that’s the weather for you. For every mad scientist who’s had a convenient thunderstorm just on the night his Great Work is finished and lying on the slab, there have been dozens who’s sat around aimlessly under the peaceful stars while Igor clocks up the overtime” (Gaiman 14).

This description of the setting contributes to a lighthearted mood despite the impending apocalypse. It feels as though the authors are making polite conversation as the story progresses, and this style of writing is used throughout the novel. Later on, a scene occurs in which a demon kills a room full of telemarketers and the aftermath is described as follows: “. . . a wave of low-grade goodness started to spread exponentially through the population and millions of people who ultimately would not have suffered minor bruises of the soul did not in fact do so” (Gaiman 308). The elegance in which that sentence is written gives the reader a sense of understanding in that the authors are not technically wrong in their description. The line is satirical and for many readers, felt on a personal level. The witty line does not fail in upholding the absurd and exceedingly nonchalant atmosphere. This style brings to light underlying truths of humanity that one may not acknowledge in a day to day basis, but are true nonetheless. Through this recognition of distinctly human emotions and struggles, Gaiman and Pratchett succeed in creating an engaging environment in which the reader is both reflective and entertained by their story.

---

The irony in Good Omens lies within the ongoing discussion of humanity and the importance of free will. As Heaven and Hell prepare for Armageddon, the key to its commencement lies in the hands of the Antichrist. However, the Antichrist ends up being much more human than either side predicted. As usual, the demon Crowley and angel Aziraphale come to this conclusion long before their superiors:

““Because if I know anything,” said Crowley urgently, “it’s that the birth is just the start. It’s the upbringing that’s important. It’s the influences. Otherwise it will never learn to use its powers.” . . .

“You’re saying the child isn’t evil of itself?” [Aziraphale] said slowly.

“Potentially evil. Potentially good, too, I suppose. Just this huge powerful potentiality, waiting to be shaped.” said Crowley” (Gaiman 58).

Given that Adam the Antichrist grew up in the absence of any supernatural influence, he naturally became a very pure and innocent child who only wanted save the environment and read conspiracy theory magazines. In fact, unaware of his power and heritage, he was involuntarily at fault for the rise of Atlantis and the visitations of aliens. His deep love for the planet also allowed for his subconscious to grow rain forests in the thick of cities and to turn 500 tons of Uranium into a lemon drop. In a book that satirizes the meanings of good and evil, it is very ironic that the Antichrist has the greatest amount of love to give. As observed by local witch, Anathema: “Something or someone loves this place. Loves every inch of it so powerfully that it shields and protects it. A deep-down, huge, fierce love. How can anything bad start here?” (Gaiman 229). It is reiterated several times throughout the book that humans are their own worst enemy. They are the ones who have free will, therefore they choose whether to act good or evil. Demons and angels have no choice in this respect. Gaiman and Pratchett make clear to their audience that humans must value their free will, spread love and live life to its fullest. If the Antichrist can do it, so can you.

---

When reflecting on the comedic success of Good Omens, one can conclude that Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are masters at their craft. This wonderfully composed work of fiction succeeds in satirizing the inner workings of human nature in that the supernatural can do no worse to humans than humans already do to themselves. Stylistically, Gaiman and Pratchett create a casual environment that highlights the absurd events by using techniques such as irony, mood, and repetition. The result is a clever and profound lesson on the importance of love in the human experience taught not by those who are human, but those who act with the most humanity.

#good omens #neil gaiman #terry pratchett #aziraphale #crowley

17 notes · View notes