#referential poetry

[iiusia]

what is it about becoming an academic that makes you like bad poetry

[the-fire-bubble]

I checked my voicemails today

One from the jail, an apology long overdue

One from the doctor, telling me an appointment to look forward to

Then my brother. My little brother,

mimicking the words of our toxic mother,

breaking my heart just a little further more than those guitar strings of long ago...

I hate having to screen his calls to protect my peace

Do you know the violence it took to remain this kind? This soft?

Do you know of the invisible civil wars that left Stripes of Pink

Battle scars no one sees?

The war cries belie my night terrors of getting shot in the back

Waking up, cold sweat, feeling like I'm still under attack, still fighting, still flying

still running from the reaper's house....

She robbed me of my childhood and blamed me for taking hers

then stole any chance I had at a healthy relationship with my little

siblings, like some cheap pantomime of a 1950's stripe wearing burglar but with the speed of a hummingbird's wings flapping in the wind

My breath catches on his words,

Her words, really....

I cry at the injustice of being robbed of my own family.

[grasslandgirl]

thinking abt her (the poem I wrote about the childhood me inside my head)

[env0writes]

Passive Ingression 1.9.23 “How Many Times Must It Rhymes”

Sleep through the morning To escape the sadness               For night               Is right It rhymes, so it must be so From my lips at last     Your name will freely go And I will rise To a bright sunrise

@env0writes C.Buck   Ko-Fi & Venmo: @Zenv0 Support Your Local Artist!   Photo by @env0

[lvrsdrk]

How does it feel? You dedicated most of your youth to your definition of success and what has it gotten you? You have built an edifice as testament to your ethic, but now, in its completion, neither it nor anyone else wants to love you. Your incessant desire for individual significance has always separated you from your significant others. How many times did you hear “You work too much!”? Better yet, how many times did you listen? Were they so demanding if all they asked was for you to be present in their lives? No, the fact of the matter is you cared more about making yourself bulletproof professionally than you did being vulnerable romantically. Now, here you are scribbling down these shameful words that echo off the accolades and trophies you craved so badly. You never cared to share. So you got exactly what you wanted…this misery all yours.

Empty Bed, Full Shelves || eddiemustwrite

[vahanians]

modernist writers i hate you and your work sucks

[kalavathiraj]

Lie down, cuddle yourself, yawn, sleep sleeplessly, be a little silly. Because sometimes it takes a little silliness to feed the parched desert inside called the 'Thirsty soul'. - the rules of Self-Love

QUOTUS

[harmlesscigarette]

Mouths burn like cigarettes / inhaling dusted deceptions cremating telltale signs / because malice tastes like sugared lemons on my tongue / and I love to suck the sour embers from your teeth until my lips blister.

“Obeyed,” Sarah Tantlinger

[gffa]

It's hard not to recognize that overreliance on cameos is weakening current day Star Wars shows. Of course it's a nuanced discussion about how the franchise has long been self-referential and leaning into the motif if, "it's like poetry, it rhymes" but modern Star Wars doesn't understand how to make it part of the theme instead of just there for nostalgia bait and it's leading to weaker sto--HOLY SHIT IS THAT A DARTH VADER GUEST APPEARANCE!? MY TRASH MAN IS BACK!!!! UNFOLLOW ME NOW THIS IS ALL I'M GOING TO TWEET ABOUT FOR THE NEXT WEEK!!!!

[familyabolisher]

haphazard assortment of thoughts on the unwanted guest:

firstly, it really does have to be said—crazy good, probably my favourite of all the tlt short pieces, and i say that as someone who lost my mind over as yet unsent for like a week. excellent conceit and excellent execution, just a really gorgeous piece of writing. the play format of course reminds me of what abigail says to harrow in htn—that the river bubble is a ‘play [she’s] directing’—the inside of one’s head as a stage in which other actors can intervene & whereby mileage can be gotten out of Symbolism as immediately “real,” tangible presences that the kind of realist baggage that a more quotidian prose form would usher in would probably falter in accomplishing. it’s a lot!! i think even if i wasn’t already a tazmuir writing style defender (contra the insistence that she’s yknow homestuck fanfiction serial numbers filed off hack) then this would have had me floored anyway. 

the play format also works in the way that muir’s general dexterity in form and willingness to really make use of craft as a technical space where discourse can be generated always works—i’m talking about the ‘fanfictiony’ voice in gtn which manages to say something both about fanfiction and about the text itself, the use of the dramatis personae as a space where atmosphere can be established and plot points hinted towards (thus blurring the lines between what is and is not diegesis), the drastic shifts in style between different close thirds, the shifting from third- to second- to epistolary first-person, the use of poetry both diegetic and not (the noniad, the epigraph poems…), the mimicry of the ‘voice’ of the king james bible in the nona epilogue—she never stays in one place for too long and she never seems to stick to one central style or form, and it really works in her favour. insofar as tlt as a whole is a very ‘patchwork’ kind of work, building itself up from its big big index of references and intertexts and memes with hugely variant levels of ‘prestige’ or legitimacy attached to them, the ‘patchwork’ use of form really works in muir’s favour. however i am also fuming because i was right in the middle of writing a tlt fic which jumps into a play format two-thirds of the way through and now my idea doesn’t look ORIGINAL but ANYWAY—

& i really do need to flag my good friend vee’s mercy/augustine fic, which makes use of a similar conceit and pulls it off masterfully—i am deeply jealous of vee’s talent and i think the unwanted guest makes this piece (from 2021!) shine even more, if anything.

i am DYING to see where muir is going with the use of hamlet, of all things—dulcie quoting it to palamedes immediately catapulted my mind back to abigail’s reference to ‘that undiscovered country’ in htn. obviously muir likes to drop contemporary (or contemporarily canonical) references and turns of phrase all over the place, but the attention drawn to the quote as diegetically referential (“I like that. Is it from something?” / “Yes. It’s complicated.”) has me wondering about a) the survival of ‘pre-res’ literatures ~over the river and like WHY and b) what a thematic interlocking of tlt and hamlet can do, here…….real aveheads remember cytherea ophelia theory where i tried to use ophelia as a point of reference for teasing out some arguments about cytherea and death and aesthetics and white femininity and whatnot. all of which is to say i need to sit with this hamlet reading a lot more but i love it, i am so here for it.

of course ‘kissing or feeding, we can’t be sure’ calls to mind ‘how meat loves meat,’ alecto biting harrow’s mouth by way of a kiss…and the general thematic throughline of, you know, certain practices of love as practices of consumption, naberius later being figured as the ‘meat’ in question contains echoes of this eroticism which ofc guides the contours of the necromancer/cavalier dynamic, eroticism as a currency of power, we know all of this stuff because it’s all over the text but i am just thumbs-upping it from the sidelines

the coffins had me thinking of utena’s black rose arc, which is a fun link to make considering the equivalent moment in the main body of nona is also referencing utena, ie. with the ‘rules’ of the duel being that cam has to get the handkerchief out of ianthe’s pocket as kind of an equivalent to skewering the rose. i feel like the tlt/utena overlap is pretty self-explanatory but it’s just fun to see the fingerprints all over lol

i think a lot of this was treading old ground thematically (erotics of consumption, dog motifs, we’ve seen it already!) but i will say that i did Yell Out Loud over ‘who's she got dawdling behind her but that creature—tugging visibly at her leash like an overeager dog.’ reminded of the other memorable use of ‘leash’—’even the devil bent for god to put a leash around her neck’—and, of course, the endless parade of commonalities between gideon & alecto. anyway there’s not really anything in this line that we didn’t already know about gid as a character, thematically speaking, but i point it out because it inflicted +100 psychic damage when i read it. gideon as a ‘creature’ is particularly slimy, & sort of puts me in mind of ianthe's tendency to talk about what appears to us as 'butch masculinity' (as opposed to the more effete masculinity of augustine or even babs) with a notably derogatory slant (the 'hurtful threats of sexual violence' line comes to mind); i don't know that i have much to say about it here specifically but it's an interesting one that i think informs the kirianthe dynamic pretty heavily (especially when held up against, like, harrianthe ... ianthe has a kind of respect for whatever harrow's gay and stupid gender is Doing (at least insofar as she can mould it to her own desires; i'm thinking of the dios apate forcefemme scene lol) in ways that i don't think she has for kiriona? but this is v off-topic, lol).

i have never been especially taken by dulcie as a character but i think this may finally have forced me to fold and admit that she’s great. her haters!!! her agonies!!! camilla would have to cook!! the balance between levity and sincerity was really well-managed. & i love the double meaning of “unwanted guest” as both palamedes intruding on ianthe’s mind palace and naberius setting up shop inside of her.

i need a week to sit with where this idea of the consumed soul as being literally ‘digested’ such that it can begin to ‘inhabit,’ however immaterially, the host body, or like to alter the characteristics of the host body such that to carry out such a consumption is to kind of kill yourself as well, slots in with lolita theory. or like, i need alecto right now. i am however reminded of chew, a short story that muir wrote in 2013, which also plays with these ideas of sexual assault as a forcing of a part of yourself meaningfully ‘into’ another person, and cannibalism as the reenactment of such a process, figured in the story as kind of a reclamation or at least an assertion of permanence—“I was always going to be in the ground with him in me,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure, that’s all. I just wanted to make sure.”—which the unwanted guest seems to kind of, play with in reverse? i don’t know, but i’m interested—as ever—in where muir wants to take these ideas of rape and consumption and absorption that she’s got in her hands.

i keep returning to…i hesitate to say ‘parallels’ because i think that imposes a narrative onus that i’m not actually that convinced by, but these, like, commonalities between babs and gideon. gideon is played off against so many people (cristabel, loveday, alecto being the big ones) that it feels kind of inane to add another person to the pile, but like…they’re the two who get got in canaan house, they’re both ironically ‘false’ cavaliers and expressions of the ‘truest’ or most paradigmatic form that cavalierhood ‘can’/’should’ take, they both have unconventionally gendered names (‘babs’ is a shortened form of ‘barbara,’ it is a typically feminine name imo) and (by our standards) somewhat unconventional genders (gideon is butch, babs effete)—and of course the unwanted guest places a lot of emphasis on the coercive ‘making’ of cavalierhood (the reference to babs being ‘fixed’ were he to have a disability! ianthe’s glib ‘society really is to blame’ comment—ironic, obviously, but not wholly untrue) not dissimilar to the emphasis that gtn puts on cytherea moulding gideon into the state she comes to be in at the end. babs and gideon as the two possessed corpses in nona, obviously. two wildly diverse but ultimately converging trajectories! a dialectical tension between their fundamental ‘opposition’ (as by-the-book cavalier vs whatever gideon is doing) and their fundamental ‘sameness’ whereby the dialectic is resolved in their mutual deaths. also just, of course, continuing the throughline that muir has had going for a while now, of gender/gendering as a set of coercive enforcements loyal to a hegemonic structuring of the world.

that’s all i’ve got, i think. just. really good everyone say thank you tazmuir

[intermundia]

whenever they announce new star wars anthologies, on some level i am always thinking of the festivals in ancient greece that had poetry competitions, and you'd have a bunch of different bards coming into town and telling homeric stories. those rhapsodes would get to stand on stage and perform in front of an assembled crowd at a sanctioned community event, so their version of the story would have credibility and authority (unless they tell it 'wrong' enough that the audience doesn't like it). everybody who was there and heard the story now shares that story, so it's a common cultural token inside the community.

but there are of course hundreds and thousands of times that average people would tell homeric stories, while they were weaving, or around the campfire, or while on a ship, or any sort of small group. we know that at least some people would even roleplay as homeric figures in bed (looking @ you, alexander), and so would be telling stories just to and with their intimate partners. all of these private, inter-personal, non-authoritative stories are all homeric, but they're not the homer that survived, not the homer that was stamped with approval and given circulation by local authorities.

the question of who control the narrative of star wars is interesting when thinking about modern corporate, extractive intellectual property law. the corporation hosts the festival and ensures all the stories are based on a cohesive set of intellectual property assets. their relative authority is granted by being the stories that can generate profit, and so the 'real' ones, becoming circulated community tokens by virtue of this central authority. the corporation controls the bards that get on stage, and so controls the story that way.

but as a private citizen and fan of the star wars corpus writ large, i can listen to these stories and enjoy them, but they don't have the same authority to me that they might hold to other people. they're just telling one version of the story, with a louder mic and a bigger stage, but at this point imho they're no closer to homer (lucas in this case lol) than many amateur bards. if a rhapsode told a story about odysseus that had him doing something that you personally don't think odysseus would do, you can go on living, knowing that everyone else is familiar with the 'wrong' version, and tell it yourself, your way, to your friends.

so seeing new anthologies drop, i'm excited to go to the festival and see the bards tell the new stories and appreciate how those stories are nested inside a dense web of context and lore that adds more and more referential, inter-textual meaning. but if one of the stories feels like it doesn't 'fit' inside the mesh of star wars in my mind, i'm pretty comfy just letting it exist beside and around me, accepting that it's authoritative to most of the community, but not to me and my murmured stories at night lol

[that-ari-blogger]

Wicked's Existential Crisis

Deception is a big theme in Wicked. I don't think this is news to many people. The wizard is a wizard, truth is truth, happy is what happens when all your dreams come true.

Galinda embodies this pretty heavily, but so does Fiyero, although they do so in similar ways. They both lie to others, and realise that they have been lying to themselves later on.

But, you need a baseline before you get to character development. You need a benchmark for everyone to either move up or down from, depending on the genre.

In my opinion, Dancing Through Life establishes that benchmark, while asking a few more philosophical questions as it does.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

"Dancing through life, Down at the Oz Dust If only because dust Is what we come to. Nothing matters, But knowing nothing matters, It's just life So keep dancing through"

Fiyero, buddy, friend, pal... are you ok?

Dancing Through Life is the introduction of Fiyero, and there is a enormous difference between what he is saying and how he is saying it.

That dust line is actually a biblical allusion, with various Judeo-Christian books and prayers claiming that G-d created humans from dust, and that when someone dies, they return to that dust. Hence the "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" saying (source). So, Fiyero is nihilistic.

"Nothing matters, so why bother trying" is such a morbid idea, and its usually associated with emo music, either lots of drums and raw emotions, or quiet and sad. So, when Fiyero sings it as a musical theatre, bombastic full orchestra song, his message flies under the radar because it is so dissonant with the style.

That's the key here. Most of the time, people are nuanced, and stereotypes do not encompass the human experience at all. The emotionally confused or depressed or spiraling person isn't the one who sits in the moonlight writing sappy poetry, it's the person who manages to hide it the most easily because they've been doing it for the longest.

Fiyero is putting up a mask to hide his insecurities, and he is doing it by... not wearing a mask?

Lampshading is the practice of softening elements in a piece of media, letting the audience know that something is out of order or farcical, and turning it into a joke. Overly Sarcastic Productions (@comicaurora) has a video explaining the trope in detail.

In a weird way, this is what Fiyero is doing. He is turning his own crisis into a joke. He doesn't have to hide it if he can poke fun at it. He becomes self-referential, and tells people to move on past the words he is saying and focus on the fun dancing and music.

I see where Fiyero is coming from, here. Purpose is difficult to find in this world, and it definitely seems like neither good or bad are rewarded, and luck will do what it will. But I would like to present a counter point.

Everything Everywhere All At Once was easily the most emotionally powerful film of 2022, and it also discussed nihilism in detail. I don't want to get into plot spoilers, but this movie asks the question: If nothing matters, then what?

And the answer to this is clear: Everything. In a Cinema Therapy video on the film, Johnothan Decker states this:

"If nothing we do matters, then the only thing that matters is what we do."

Actions have whatever meaning we ascribe to them, and if we ascribe no meaning to anything, then everything has meaning on the same level. If nothing matters, then everything matters.

This segways into another core question of the musical and especially this song. Do intentions matter?

Galinda and Elphaba have a comedy of errors with the gift giving, specifically when Galinda sets up Nessa with Boq, and Elphaba arranges for her to receive a wand in return, contrasted with the infamous hat.

Galinda does things for personal gain, and accidentally makes someone's life slightly better for a moment, and Boq kind of does the same. Neither of the two cares about Nessarose, but they bring her happiness in the short term.

"We deserve each other, and Galinda helped it come true."

I mentioned in my post about The Wizard And I that this theme comes up there first, in association with meeting the wizard, and I think there is something else to it than just deception. Don't get me wrong, this is deception at work, Elphaba with the Wizard and Nessa with everyone around her. But that lie has a positive result here, for the moment.

It also separates the consequences from the intention. Elphaba sees the wizard and wants to improve the world, her hopes are on rocky foundations, but her actions are strong, and I have already mentioned what Galinda's actions do.

However, I would argue that intentions do matter, and that this musical agrees with me, and that is with Boq, a person whom I despise.

As a character, Boq is fascinating. He is a direct satire of the hopeless romantic of stereotypical fairy tales, think Ariel from The Little Mermaid, or Lancelot from the 1963 movie, Lancelot and Guenevere. Boq is trying desperately to court someone who does not care about him and has someone who does care fall from the sky in front of him, but he can't see past himself.

Now, pining is all well and good, you are allowed to pine, and if someone is attracted to you, there is no law that says you must be attracted back. But Boq goes a step further.

"It's because I'm in this chair and you felt sorry for me. Isn't that right?" "No! No! It's because you are so beautiful."

Boq had an opportunity to back out of the romance handed to him on a silver platter. He could have said it was just a dance, or even confessed that Galinda put him up to it, if he so desired. But Boq made a choice to keep stringing Nessarose along. He may have his reasons, but I think his actions are not excusable, and the gut punch at the end of the musical when he tells her that he never cared is a betrayal that could have been so easily avoided.

Boq and Fiyero go on to become key players in the "death" of the Wicked Witch of the West, and they do so for alternative reasons, and it reframes Dorothy's journey.

For a more nuanced explanation of what I mean, consider this: In 2019, youtuber Hbomberguy (Harry Brewis) raised $347000 for a Brittish charity organisation called Mermaids in a livestream of Donkey Kong 64, and he gave a speech in October of that year about why he did such a thing.

"I think secretly, we're always making one of two decisions, and we make that decision even if we don't know we're making it. You're either choosing to make life worse for someone you don't like, or better for people you care about. There is an actual difference, and I didn't realise I made the wrong choice until a lot of people came over and helped change the choice retrospectively."

What you are trying to do matters, because if you keep trying to do good, even if you hit roadblocks, if you are truly committed, you will eventually do some good in the world.

I actually like Brewis' definition of right and wrong here, because it isn't overly philosophical, it pertains to individual actions. You either make someone else's life better or worse.

I have been rambling around my point for a while, so let me make it concise. Dancing Through Life asks philosophical questions about life. What matters? Is it you? Is it your actions? Is it your intentions?

Final Thoughts

There are two other things I need to mention before I finish. First up, the extras are some of the best parts of this musical, and in this song, that is driven home. Everything comes across as so superficial, and not in a "that's bad acting" way, but in a "that's an actor playing a character who is acting" way. This carries over to Galinda's entire style of talking, but the extras knock it out of the park here. It means that the only sincere moments in the song hit with the relevant weight. Those being Elphaba and Nessa's conversation, and the Elphaba dance (something remarkably difficult to find images of).

That dance is the moment I see Glinda x Elphaba (I still refuse to use the Gelphie ship name) actually taking off, rather than in What Is This Feeling, because it's the first moment that the two see eye to eye, and Galinda finally understands Elphaba. She earns her friendship and trust by trying to make up for her mistakes. Galinda talks a lot, but actions speak louder than words, and that dance kicks off a love story.

Next week, I will be diving into Popular, a number that really takes apart the theming to an overt level only matched by one other song, and we will get to that one soon.

Previous - Next

[queenlucythevaliant]

I've listened to TTPD three times now, twice alone and once at a listening breakfast with friends! Thoughts:

I liked quite a lot of it, but I'm not immediately blown away.

Current favorite is "The Bolter," followed by "But Daddy I Love Him," "The Prophecy," and "Florida!!!" in no particular order.

I loved the breadth of feelings that the album addresses. You really get a sense of a whole emotional landscape.

It's in strong and compelling conversation with Taylor's whole body of work without being too excessively self-referential. "thanK you aIMee" is the notable exception.

A lot of the songs are overwritten: she uses $20 words in place of $2 words, repeats herself, and dulls the power of what works by surrounding it with a lot that doesn't. If we go by Coleridge's definition that poetry is the best words in their best order, then yeah. She definitely needs an editor.

However, none of the lyrics that people seem to be highlighting as "cringey" bother me at all. I've always loved Taylor's proclivity for small details, even strange or out-of-place ones.

I would really love to gently help Taylor out with her literary allusions. They're a long-standing struggle for her, and even going in I was a little worried for that aspect of the album based on the marketing. Could've been worse, but most of them could still stand to be a whole lot sharper.

The songs tend towards very consistent production and tempo. Whether you want to call that cohesiveness or homogeneity is a matter of opinion.

My great, secret wish for this album was that it would feature a bunch of orchestra/strings, which would've meshed great with the dark academia vibe. Clearly, I didn't get it. Oh well

[danieyells]

since the devastating discovery abt Zenji being, well, yknow, i remembered he and Haku have a warding card so i went to see what the name of it is

Ame ni mo makezu or Be not defeated by the rain is a poem written by Kenji Miyazawa when he was dying from an illness

im now even more sad abt this guy

OOF. On one hand I think it's just because Zenji tends to do cover works more than original ones, so it's like. . .rather than going inside when it's raining, he continues to play his biwa in the rain--he and his art stop for no one and no nature.

On the other hand if you read the whole poem, knowing the person who wrote it probably knew they were near the end of their life(even if he wouldn't die for a year or two after). . .it definitely has a harsher feel. But I don't think it's supposed to be sad per say. He's not defeated by the rain--or the end of his own life(whether or not he's aware it's ended. . . .) and continues to pursue the person he wants to become.

Reading the poem, the expressions of helping others in every direction reflects Zenji well too. He's always worrying over and trying to help others. Even if he won't get anything for it. I think the only thing that doesn't fit him is

Stand aloof of the unknowing masses: Better dismissed as useless than flattered as a "Great Man".

Since it seems to me like he does want to be viewed as a great creative. . . .

But yeah. That's a good choice of poem for Zenji and that line/title it fits the image and what's happening there well! It does feel a little sad knowing the writer was likely dying as he wrote it. . .zenji's other cards will probably have similarly referential titles from well known songs and stories and poetry. I wonder if they'll all be from final works or things written when the writer was dying or released posthumous, or if that's a coincidence. . . .

[namusthetic]

Soldier, Poet, King

And once you've come across them, light and thunder will come from above and shake your soul.

Inspired by the song: Soldier, Poet, King by The Oh Hellos

______

The Soldier ⚔️

There will come a soldier

Who carries a mighty sword

He will tear your city down

Oh lei, oh lai, oh, Lord

Righteous, impulsive, reckless

Will always get back up on their feet

Will be by your side no matter what happens

Protective

Burns fast, bright, and beautiful

Follows their own moral code

Struggles with anger and feels too much, all at once

Ready to sacrifice themselves for the sake of what they believe in

Bold and decisive

Gets consumed by their own feelings and emotions

Competitive, likes to win

A shoulder to cry on, they will protect you when you need it

Is afraid to ask for help

Puts others before themselves

Afraid of being too reckless

Ignores their own problems to solve other's

Always feels like they have to do better

Doesn't trust easily

The Poet 📜

There will come a poet

Whose weapon is His word

He will slay you with His tongue

Oh lei, oh lai, oh, Lord

Independent, curious, unreliable

Hyperfixations

Afraid of being left alone

Hard on themselves

Willing to try out new things and step out their comfort zone

Finds good in everyone

Never gets enough credit for what they do

Good at comforting others

Tend to hide their struggles

Hopeless romantic, idealist

Good at communicating their emotions through their art

Gets told "you've changed" instead of "I'm sorry"

Wears their heart on their sleeve

Trusts easily

Follows their dream wherever it takes them

Commitment issues

They can build entire worlds with their art, but they can also destroy you with it

The King 👑

There will come a ruler

Whose brow is laid in thorn

Smeared with oil like David's boy

Oh lei, oh lai, oh, Lord

Self-critical, self-isolating, self-referential

Afraid of never being good enough

Overworks themselves

Bound by their sense of responsibility

Maladaptive daydreaming

Afraid that no one will ever understand them, and, because of that, is always ready to listen and put themselves in other people's shoes

Pushes themselves in situations they are not comfortable in because the feel like if they don't nobody else will do it, and somebody has to

Feels like has something to prove

Ready to sacrifice themselves in the name of their duties

Afraid of being judged and hated by others

Overthinking

Decided to give up their dreams because they had duties to fulfill

Tries to solve everything by themselves

Finds comfort in art, music, poetry

Feels disconnected from those around them

--------------------------⚔️📜👑

This was inspired by the song as well as by the popular personality quiz on uquiz.

Here's the link if you haven't already done it:

[holographings]

Third movie recc list for pride month!!! moving over to korean cinema~

There have been a lot of k-miniseries that have come out in recent years that touch on lgbt+ topics, however I find those lacking in one way or another, especially compared to some others on this list, so I’ve omitted the many shorts i’ve enjoyed casually from here.

+THE KING AND THE CLOWN (Dir. Lee Joonik, 2005. 119 minutes)

This is it. This is THE movie. My all time favourite, of all time. Ever. Despite its themes this movie managed to garner astounding commercial and critical success and I just want to say- DESERVED. It follows two street performers who get sentenced to death for mocking the ruling king in their performances, only to escape execution as the king finds them funny, and more importantly becomes deeply psychosexually obsessed with one of the performers (landing them in possibly even more trouble in the long run).

The self-referential and intertextual elements in this movie make me drool no matter how many times I watch it, and I am so sad that despite all the meta and translations i’ve read on it, there are still elements of poetry and prose that are lost in translation. It’s vibrant and funny and heart-wrenching and I legitimately think everyone should watch it at least once. The colours. The SOUNDTRACK. Lee Joongi gives the performance of a lifetime, and he and Kam Woosung play off each other so naturally it’s virtually impossible to not fall in love with them. I could say so much more but I’ll stop here. Just watch it. The ending Will make you want to eat hot raw concrete. 

ALTERNATE CHOICES

+THE HANDMAIDEN (Dir. Park Chan Wook, 2016. 144 minutes)

Everyone knows this movie. Your grandmother knows this movie. It’s still on the list. “My savior, who came to ruin my life” <3. Among my favourite Park Chan Wook movies, possibly second only to Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. 

+WISHING STAIRS (Dir. Yun Jaeyeon, 2003. 97 minutes)

Part of the Whispering Corridors series, horror is incomplete without some totally-not-into-each-other girl best friends in it. I remember watching this in middle school and if i’m completely honest i think i’ve managed to forget most of the scenes save for ones involving a clay sculpting room and a ballet flat, but i KNOW it was a good time if you’re into horror. Sufficiently balances the creep factor with the homosexual intrigue factor. 

HONORABLE MENTIONS-

(this section features movies that I love but can't in good conscience put on the main list as they don't explicitly feature any non-straight characters. but if you just Squint. it's all there. take it with a grain of salt.)

+SHOOT ME IN THE HEART (Dir. Mun Cheyoung. 101 minutes)

 What if [Girl, Interrupted] had a wackier korean remake that no one fucking talked about despite having A-List actors in it. Between the Vibes and the lead character hitting on the other male lead in the first 5 minutes of this movie, i feel alright putting it on the list despite nothing explicitly lgbt+ going on in this film. The bond between the lead characters Is the thing that has kept me rewatching this movie a couple of times over, and it is such a heartwarming thing despite the ending. So yeah. No happy ending. Still worth a watch.