#orual

[rayless-reblogs]

All the Till We Have Faces reblogs reminded me of this exquisite duet by Tracy Grammer and Joan Baez, sung from the perspective of the tortured queen Orual, longing for her lost sister.

She in her silken flora I in my leather drear She with the grace of Cora Upon the road of tears

And did they see us shining Through winter’s dark decree Those gods of time and dying Who reasoned doom to me

[daily-rayless]

Orual the veiled queen from Till We Have Faces.

I've wanted to do a companion picture to my Psyche for a while. While Psyche is intriguing as an ideal, I think Orual is one of CS Lewis' most ambitious and psychologically authentic characters. An antagonist who's poignantly sympathetic, a protagonist who's frustratingly weak -- protective and powerful, self-deluding and dependent, deeply loving and endlessly devouring, mythically heroic yet the reader will see many of their own failures in her.

Lewis gets grief for some of his female characters, but with the help of his wife Joy Davidman (who was an actual genius, by the way, and doesn't deserve to exist in Lewis' shadow), Orual feels so believable to me. Faces isn't an easy book to read (and definitely isn't for kids), but I think it's fascinating, and Orual's a big part of that.

[babu-s]

Doesn't the whole land smell of her? Do you and I need to flatter gods any more? They're tearing us apart... oh, how shall I bear it? … and what worse can they do? Of course the Fox is wrong. He knows nothing about her. He thought too well of the world. He thought there were no gods, or else (the fool!) that they were better than men. It never entered his mind – he was too good – to believe that the gods are real, and viler than the vilest men.

Till we have faces - C.S. Lewis

[dimsilver]

over the garden wall / till we have faces by c.s. lewis

[idontwantrobyntodie]

ugly women in fiction. i love u.

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[geryone]

this is such a hard question, i know, but… what are ur Absolute Must Read books? <3

Oh god this is an incredibly hard question!! I’ll give you a short list of books/poetry collections/plays that I hold incredibly dear to my heart & that I think have had a profound and lasting impact on me.

1. Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson

2. Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis

3. Averno by Louise Glück

4. A Lover’s Discourse by Roland Barthes

5. Come the Slumberless To the Land of Nod by Traci Brimhall

6. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare

7. Crush by Richard Siken

8. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

[vinca-majors]

oooh how about U or X for the fic writer’s meme, please

U: Is there a pairing you would like to write, but haven't tried yet.

i don't know if it counts exactly but there's a lois/clark piece i started writing years ago and love with all my heart and have never been able to make much progress on. there are quite a few fairy tales i've always wanted to give an AU spin to - bluebeard and king thrushbeard particularly, but inspiration is fickle.

X: How would you categorize your fanfic reading? Are you a voracious reader? Do you carefully pick and choose? Something in between?

i consistently fall into the trap of getting into bed and thinking i'll just read a little bit of fic :) to wind down the day :) and then get sucked into a 85k-er and am still there fighting sleep at 2 AM. sometimes i read fic multiple nights in a row but i'll go weeks without opening ao3 too, especially if i'm in a irl book reading mood. the ideal fic is an 7-15k romance with substance, no archive warnings apply, opposites attract, credible conflict without melodrama or schmaltz, solid HEA. i'm always on the hunt but i feel like i've exhausted the ao3 stores where these sorts of fics are concerned and all that's left is the fluff and weird stuff. currently accepting recommendations!!!

[hobbitwrangler]

Thank you @swanmaids @imakemywings & @aredhels for tagging me!

Rules: make a poll with five of your all-time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. see which character is everyone’s favorite.

I have far too many favourite characters but these are the ones that have been on my mind most recently.

tagging @scyllas-revenge @searchingforserendipity25 @glorf1ndel @lotrlorien @starsuncounted want to do this and haven't already!

[queenlucythevaliant]

Extremely cursed thought of the day:

How do you cope with being so ugly that you have to cover your face, on a scale from Orual (tirade against the gods) to the Phantom of the Opera (kidnap a soprano)?

[incognitajones]

Nine people I'd like to know better

Thank you for the tag @toooldforthisbutstill! (which is one of my favourite usernames ever)

Last Song I Listened To: Stick Season, Noah Kahan

Currently Watching: The third season of Welcome to Wrexham with my family

Sweet/Savoury/Spicy?: Salty! If that's not an option, sweet.

Relationship Status: Married for more than a quarter century (to the same person, even)

Current Obsession: My job is currently taking up 95% of my mental energy - the remaining 5% is trying to come up with a plot to weave around this fanart

Tagging: @rifle-yes @intellectual-carrot @oruals @siachti @merimari @linearao3 @woahpip @ladytharen and anyone else who wants!

[idontwantrobyntodie]

doing a paper on a book you love in part because you relate to it is a double-edged sword. on one hand, I am intrinsically motivated to work on it because I love this book! on the other hand, all this scholarship I'm reading that analyzes the main character feels like a personal attack

[fairtradebananas]

I’m reading Till We Have Faces for the nth time and always noticing and pondering new things. This time, how Orual’s complaint against the gods is based on the notion that they unjustly withhold goodness from her (a good father, a good sister, beauty, etc), while at the same time she’s blind to the gifts they’ve given her that actually answer all of those complaints (the Fox to replace her father, Psyche to replace Redival, the opportunity to behold true beauty rather than possess it). Her complaint eclipses her ability to see the blessings she is constantly being given because they’re not given in the way that she wants them

[giffingthingsss]

I finally read Till We Have Faces. Wasn't expecting it to slap.

I mean I get why it's a little less accessible (pre-greek and greek culture and all that). There's a reason I never tried it.

One thing that surprised me was how much Lewis is Orual. I was expecting to see more Joy coming through, and I definitely think there's stuff in there, but Orual (and to a lesser extent Psyche) is heavily Lewis, imho. (at one point my brain went to Lewis being like 'i would be one ugly woman' which I'm sure has nothing to do with anything but made me laugh)

So there's the spiritual/psychological themes (Orual's thinking and then the reversal of it and her suddenly seeing herself in a different light, etc...) but then there's this middle section that suddenly becomes a girl power novel.

Stuff like the fight and intrigue is legit thrilling. The Fox and Orual's relationship genuinely moved me. The portrayal of the time period is blunt and not sugar-coated. Her father's death scene is so unique and I loved that whole thing.

It's almost legit distracting that Lewis' name is on it. This is the book that should be under a pseudonym or something. It's so different from what you expect him to write that looking at his name at the top of the page throws me.

Joy talked it over with him, and I would love to know (beyond getting a female point of view down) what specifically she helped with, but I think they saw more eye to eye than not and likely generated a kind of feedback loop.

Orual's complex hero/villain status reminds me a lot Joy's Anya novel (which is impossible to find but I managed to get a hold of). She has a very open, frank style, unafraid to show a main character's flaws. The sheer honesty.

Also couldn't help but think of Minto as Orual, her purported possessiveness and resentment of anything that might take Jack away from her. I suppose there's Psyche and Orual in everyone to some extent.

I do picture Joy sitting in the corner during the discussion about Bardia only seeing Orual as a male friend thinking, 'hm. Wonder what that's like?' *stares at Lewis* 'Must suck.'

[geryone]

wait omg those are EXCELLENT recs, may i pls request your recommendations for books and poetry that would make someone feel held & whole, or listened to - texts that say, "cunts have always been in power; i know them well, and flourished anyway." or texts that encourage & validate after a great injustice. literary equivalents of, "that's fucked up. i hate your boss. let's be enraged or stubbornly joyful together." without necessarily being explicit about it. i hope i've translated the vibe of what i'm looking for!!

Hello!!

For poetry that makes you feel held & whole & listened to I would recommend:

Wound from the Mouth of a Wound by torrin a greathouse

Water I Won’t Touch by Kayleb Rae Candrilli

Beast at Every Threshold by Natalie Wee

Also recommend the essay collection A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt!

For texts that encourage & validate:

Any poetry by Ada Limón or Hanif Abdurraqib!!

The closest novel I can think of to what you might be looking for is Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis which might be hit or miss for you!! That novel changed me and made me feel so validated but I can’t promise it will do that for you

[dathen]

MARIAN POINT OF VIEW IN WOMAN IN WHITE WEEKLY I’ve been wanting this for SO LONG

Finally!! We’re getting insights into the women’s conversations and feelings after only being able to read them from outside!

Marian and Laura’s dynamic continues to deeply remind me of Orual and Psyche from Till We Have Faces and are making me cry

GOD ABOVE can parents in these books STOP pushing engagements onto their children on their deathbed and guilt them with their dying wish to hold to those engagements!! This is like the Frankenstein family all over again!! I’d say “at least it’s not a weird adopted-wife situation” but then I remember that I strongly suspect Sir Percival is gonna murder or institutionalize Laura for her money and okay that’s even worse

Oh heck I’m as shaken as Marian is to learn how deeply Laura was in love with Walter. I was mainly reading it as “oh the sweet-hearted woman feels guilty about how miserable the pining young man is” for a bit but NO. She is pining just as hard!! She keeps his booklet of little sketches under her pillow and kisses it when she thinks of him and wants to BESTOW HIM A LOCK OF HER HAIR AFTER HER DEATH because then she can’t feel guilty about making her feelings known I AM IN PAIN!!!

This poor woman seeing her wedding day as “an evil day” but refusing to break off the engagement because she feels doing so would be betraying her father, and Marian watching it all helplessly and wanting to tear down the world to let Laura be happy again, and Walter’s life falling apart as the creepy fiancé adds stalking to his broken heart and lost living. I am SO invested in this story rn it’s not even funny