#she also distances herself from the prentices and

[gothamcityneedsme]

It is so odd that isabeau is introduced as so aligned with the monastery? Shes from a family of monks and she is talked about most in the monastery. She also goes there at several points (she goes to pray right after training) and its just weird because she speaks nothing of it.

[when-wax-wings-melt]

Roisin’s Reading Rumble: Round Four @camelspit @arson-anarchy-death

OOPSIESSS i made it really long again....

final wordcount: 1822 words, 2538 with notes

Preview: Of course Sophie wants to look at Fitz and remind him his mind is safe, and then turn around and tell Fintan he’s blinded by his guilt. Of course she wants to be disgusted at Gisela for what she did to Keefe and then assure Linh that the ogre city deserved to be destroyed.

Broken Minds: Guilt, Memory, and Consequence

Part One: INTRODUCTION

Depression and PTSD, along with other mental issues, manifest in the elven world just as they do for humans, but with deadlier consequences. Canonically, memory breaks and broken minds only have two causes, and only three to four characters have had their minds broken. As of Stellarlune, there are no broken minds that the audience knows of, all of the others being either healed or dead. 

Minds can break in two ways: externally or internally, with externally coming from forced memory breaks, while internally is the result of guilt, and manifests in a way that is easier to hide or brush off. Internal breaks can result in the typical comas, or in the more subtle impulsivity, anger, and irrationality that plagues many members of the main cast. 

Fintan, Alden, Prentice, and arguably Brant have been broken and healed or killed, but their experiences with memory breaks and guilt don’t even scratch the surface of the true range of mental issues faced by elves.

Part Two: MEMORY BREAKS

“‘Our world is broken, Alden—and all the Council does about it is condemn anyone brave enough to acknowledge that we have a problem. Break our minds, lock us deep in the earth, convince themselves that we are the criminals.’” - Fintan Pyren, Exile

Memory breaks are easier to categorize than mind breaks— since they are caused by external factors, the criteria for a memory break is “shattered by a Telepath in order to retrieve memories.” Therefore, canon provides a concrete answer to who has been through a memory break: Prentice and Fintan. 

Both of the memory breaks were committed by Alden Vacker, on order of a unanimous Council vote, in order to combat the Black Swan and the Neverseen. In addition to all of these similarities, the two breaks were on exceptionally strong minds, only recovering a single piece of information before the person was beyond salvaging. Prentice’s skills as a Keeper allowed him to hide his consciousness away, protecting all of Sophie’s identity but her DNA, while Fintan intentionally shattered his own memories to prevent Alden from reaching them. 

Notably, Alden is the only documented perpetrator of a memory break, and he’s also the only elf known by readers whose mind has fully shattered due to guilt.

Part Three: TYPES OF GUILT 

“‘But guilt is an insidious thing—especially mixed with severe grief. It slips inside, casting doubt, making you wonder if there was anything you could have done, anything that would have changed . . .’ Grady stared into the distance, and Sophie wondered if Brant’s parents weren’t the only ones wrestling with guilt.” (Exile)

The side of broken minds that comes from guilt is far harder to quantify, since it comes from an internal source that Sophie is not privy to. The only confirmed guilty broken mind is Alden, but it is common knowledge that Brant’s mind was unstable, if not fully shattered. Grady tells Sophie that “The trauma and guilt broke part of [Brant]. He’s not completely catatonic, like someone whose sanity is shattered. But reading Brant’s mind is extremely dangerous” (Exile). Using that knowledge, the idea that Brant wasn’t the only one with a fractured psyche stretches to encompass characters such as Linh, Fitz, Gethen, Gisela, Alvar, Grady, Alvar, Keefe, and Sophie herself.

An internal broken mind can manifest in a catatonic state, as with Alden, unstable or violent behavior, as with Brant, Gethen, and even Fitz, undying or unjustified anger, as with Grady and Fitz, or impulsivity, as with Keefe and possibly Sophie. These are just the canon examples, however— no doubt guilt can manifest in infinite ways, particularly as depression and other mental issues.

Grady explains to Sophie that the reason there is little to no crime in the Lost Cities is that no elf can commit atrocities like kidnapping, torture, and murder without breaking. But this has been proven wrong many times over by every member of the Neverseen, as well as Sophie and her friends as they train and fight.

Fintan, like Brant, discovered the danger of his ability when he killed (or encouraged the incident that killed) his closest friends by calling down Everblaze without understanding its potential. As a result, pyrokinesis is banned. Pyrokinesis is banned, so Brant joins the Neverseen without knowing how to control his ability. Brant argues with Jolie, loses control, and she dies. Fintan now carries the guilt from his friends, every illegal pyrokinetic, Jolie, and Brant’s lack of mental stability—not to mention everything he’s done in the Neverseen. Yet it doesn’t manifest as Alden’s did— Fintan is perfectly functional, even after his mind is shattered and then healed (rather incompletely) by Sophie.

Likewise, villains like Gethen and Gisela function even better than Fintan, with far less evidence of a broken mind.

In fact, guilt has not broken more minds than it has. Fitz, for instance, believed that he killed his brother. “Fitz swallowed hard, blinking several times before he turned to Sophie, his eyes absolutely unreadable. ‘Is it wrong that I’m not sorry?’” (Flashback). He asks her if his lack of guilt is something wrong because he doesn’t have the words to decide that for himself—because in his eyes, he did the right thing. He’s not guilty for killing Alvar because he believes that Alvar deserves to die. Alden’s mind broke over a memory twelve years past, for breaking Prentice’s mind, while Fitz remains sane despite knowing his brother will die, and it will be his fault.

Guilt doesn’t break every single person, period— but it also doesn’t affect everyone in the same way.

Keefe’s reaction to finding out his mother was a part of the Neverseen without his knowledge, for example, was to make constant impulse decisions in the hopes of “fixing” it, catching her, and proving his intelligence and instincts correct. He takes medicine to revamp his memory and covers his walls in sticky notes to torture himself with past clues, plans to run to Ravagog alone, and then joins the Neverseen. Later, he runs to the Forbidden Cities to avoid being part of his mother’s plan and hurting his friends. His version of guilt is impulsivity, but it’s also self-punishment, and he is very, very good at it.

Grady’s guilt turns to anger, twisting an internal break into an external reaction. His guilt over Jolie’s death is bottled inside him for years, until it bursts out of him, and he forces Brant to burn off his own hand. Like Fitz, his need to punish those who did wrong forces him into a similar violence. 

Grady and Fitz blur the lines between those who feel guilt and those who don’t: if the villains are those who can kill and torture without regret, what does that make them?

Part Four: INSTABILITY

“‘Is that the trick?’ Vespera’s eyes glinted as they bored into Sophie’s. ‘If I describe your parents’ screams, would it change anything? Or if I tell you that their minds will never escape their nightmares? Or maybe I should share how they pleaded for me to spare them because of their daughter? Or how I told them their daughter is to blame for their current predicament?’” (Nightfall)

Another alternative to a broken mind is a numb one.

Empaths break easier, which is why Oralie has few Forgotten Secrets, and why Vespera went numb before she broke.

Vespera went to prison for experimenting on humans to see why they didn’t break from guilt— either previously to or because of this, she experienced too many emotions and stopped feeling them entirely. She is physically and emotionally incapable of feeling guilt, and therefore can do whatever she wants. She aimed to discover the source of human ruthlessness and became ruthless herself.

Keefe tastes the beginning of this in Unlocked, when he is overwhelmed by too many emotions. Attempts to tune them out begin the process of numbing himself to all of them, which would allow him to take part in Gisela’s plan. 

However, even though numbness spares elves from broken minds, it doesn’t make them any more stable. Lack of guilt also means lack of joy— no satisfaction, no accomplishment, no reaction to success. If Vespera succeeds in what she wants to, it won’t be enough, because she will continue chasing the emotion that she is now immune to.

Even if guilt doesn’t break them entirely, their minds are unstable and disconnected from reality and consequences.

Part Five: CONCLUSION (different types of broken)

Guilt is a consequence for violence, and it presents exactly what was needed to destroy the conception of a perfectly peaceful species with no problems. The elves are peaceful not because they naturally are, or because the government has solved murder, but because if they are not peaceful, they enter a state of living death. In essence, guilt and broken minds function as a deterrent to crime, biologically built into most elven bodies.

The inconsistency of how guilt affects elves turns into a few questions:

What level of guilt leads to memory breaks? Look at Fintan's murders of his friends versus Brant's murder of his fiancee versus Alden's guilt over Prentice. What's the line? Where does it cross from unstable to shattered? When does Keefe become Vespera? When does Fitz become Alvar? When does Marella become Fintan?

Alden was healed because he was told his mistake—breaking Prentice— could be fixed. How do you heal someone broken by guilt who can't have their mistakes fixed? If Brant is broken because he killed Jolie, how could Sophie take away that guilt to keep his mind intact in the future?

Why hasn’t Alvar shattered? Why is Gethen sane? Why is Forkle? Are they?

Sanity as a whole is a question in the Lost Cities, and looking at the characters for an answer is inconclusive. Of course Sophie wants to look at Fitz and remind him his mind is safe, and then turn around and tell Fintan he’s blinded by his guilt. Of course she wants to be disgusted at Gisela for what she did to Keefe and then assure Linh that the ogre city deserved to be destroyed.

By establishing tragedy as a double edged sword that anyone can wield, she loses the difference between the Black Swan, the Council, and the Neverseen. And that is something dangerously close to becoming reality.

In truth, the path to broken minds doesnt lie with violence. It lies in forgiveness, subjective to each person. Alden cannot forgive himself for what he did to Prentice. Keefe cannot forgive himself for not knowing about his mother. Brant cannot forgive himself for killing Jolie.

But Fitz can forgive himself for killing Alvar. And Linh can forgive herself for flooding Ravagog. Grady, Gethen, Gisela, and Vespera can all justify their actions— and that is the reason they don’t break, and don’t spiral. It doesn’t matter what the trigger is, whether it was violent or just a secret kept too well. 

In other words: no, none of them are sane.

[bookwyrminspiration]

hi there this is ink on a smaller blog!! in light of me apparently waking up this morning and choosing violence i wanted to ask if you had any thoughts about maruca, specifically on... just... her character and her family? her reputation in the Cities? hope u have a lovely day/night quil and no pressure to get to this soon!

Hello, Ink On A Smaller Blog! Congratulations on choosing violence, as knowing you there was likely a justification for it; I hope your violence went well. As for Maruca, yes! I have several thoughts on her and her family, reputation, and everything!

I've discussed previously how she's had such a drastic shift in her perception of things, going from being outside looking in to suddenly finding her family (Wylie, mainly) in the middle of it all and in danger after his kidnapping. But! There's more to her than that, specifically because...her family was already involved in everything before Wylie was kidnapped. Wylie is her cousin, so in some way/shape/form Prentice is family too. So when that whole situation went down all those years ago, it would've affected her family as well--but she wasn't alive then, or if she was she was like 1 at most.

While her family grew up with that stain on their reputation, Maruca was essentially oblivious to it, which I think contributed to her being more of an unpleasant person in the earlier books. Her family was irrevocably involved in this rebellion, and yet she had no idea. She came into the story after that had all happened, and by the time she'd grown up enough to understand it was more of a whispered story, a "I heard from a friend about this scandal" kind of situation where details can get really mixed up. Additionally, the people Maruca was around wouldn't have known either. She spends most of her time with people her own age, as most elves do, and none of them would have any reason to be involved in that aside from gossip. It's the same situation though, they would've been either months old or not born yet, so I don't think any of them would really know about the Prentice drama in depth enough to go "hey, Maruca's related to that family." I think Fitz even said something like "and his father was exiled" when telling Sophie Wylie's adoption, so it stands to reason people just...don't know. And that it includes Maruca.

That's one possibility, her being oblivious to her own relation to the drama of the story and finding it out suddenly when Wylie's dragged into it later. She'd get some exposure with his adoption, but it wouldn't really impact her in the same way as the kidnapping.

it's also possible that she was aware the entire time, and that brings us to her friendship with Biana and Stina. I've looked at Stina in the past and my general conclusion has been "she insults and demeans others as a way to keep attention off herself, given her situation." Doesn't mean that's a good method of doing so, but I do think it contributes to why she's so unpleasant; because she has to differentiate herself from those like her (in terms of being the child of a bad match).

If Maruca was aware of her family's precarious place in their society, known and with a fewe scandals connected to them that could damage their image and affect how they're treated, she might try to distance herself from that. What better way to distance yourself from the undesirable parts of elven society than being friends with the Vackers? /rh. They're prestigious, well-known, the top of the top. Maruca, by association, can get some of that praise and some of that immunity. At the very least if people are talking it'll be behind her back. Because she's friends with the Vackers, and the Vackers aren't friends with the lowly parts of their world (e.g. Dex), so if Biana is friends with Maruca then it's like a stamp of approval.

But then she fell out with Biana, and she became friends with Stina instead. Through that friendship, I think she could've become more like Stina and relied on her methods to protect herself. Being unpleasant people and messing with others to take the attention off of themselves, to get people to look the other way. It's self-preservation in such a ruthless society, and loosing Biana as a friend would've been a huge blow to her, as being cast aside by a Vacker cannot be a good thing. Becoming meaner and associating with Stina is like a backup plan, because no one likes Stina so they'll leave her alone too.

I think both approaches to her character could be reasonable, but either way I hope we get to learn a lot more about her in Stellarlune. I mean, she is on the cover, so hopefully that's indicative of something and not just her being useful in the situation!

She's either one of the character's with the biggest 180s and ability to adapt, or she's one of the most cunning and deliberate. Each is fascinating in it's own respects!

[shawtygonemad]

What Is This Feeling: Chapter 9

Fem!9th Doctor x Male!Rose Tyler

WITF Masterlist

The last time we saw our dynamic duo they had picked up a stray from Utah. Adele was only with them for one adventure, before she almost got them killed. She also got an information port embedded into her forehead which is a big taboo. You never try and change the future or past in a dramatic way. So, the Doctor once again had to save the day. Needless to say, Adele was dumped back off at her place once they were out of danger.

Ross and the Doctor were currently relaxing in the control room throwing around ideas on which place they should explore next. The Doctor was sitting on the jumper rolling a ball between her hands.

"How about the planet of Junifer? It's really beautiful this time of year. They have one of the best flower festivals in the universe," she suggested with a smile.

Ross shook his head. He seemed really off this morning. She had asked him earlier if anything was the matter. He had denied that something was wrong. The Doctor left it at that assuming he had wanted his space. However, this was the fifth place that he had rejected.

"Alright. Is there any place that you're wanting to go to," she asked.

"Well… there is one place I've been thinking a lot about. Well it's more of a time rather than a place," He started. "I want to meet my dad. Peter Alan Tyler. The greatest man in the world. Born 15th September 1954. My mum would always take out a photo album and start telling me about him. I wasn't old enough to remember him. He died on 1987, 7th of November. It was the day that Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clarke got married. That what mum always said. So I was thinking, could we, could we go and see my dad when he was alive," he said somberly.

"Where's this come from, all of a sudden," she furrowed her brows at him.

"All right then, if we can't, if it goes against the laws of time or something, then never mind, just leave it," he mumbled as he began to absentmindedly touch knobs on the TARDIS's console.

The Doctor furrowed her brows as she studied her favorite pink and yellow human. This was a simple adventure. There's nothing wrong with Ross wanted to see his dad alive. She was just a bit worried how Ross would take in the event. Humans seem to be much more emotional than Time Lords.

"No, I can do anything. I'm just worried about you," she gazed at her companion with concerned eyes.

"I want to see him," Ross confirmed.

"Your wish is my command," The Doctor smiled. "But be careful what you wish for."

The Time Lord hopped up onto her feet and began her dance around the console, hitting buttons, twisting knobs, pulling levers. This console is originally meant for at least 8 Time Lords to operate her. It was miracle the Doctor was able to do it by herself. Although she has had many years of practice under her belt now.

The pair arrived just in time for the wedding ceremony. They didn't want to be noticed to much in case people came asking questions, so they sat in the back pew. It wasn't very formal. Jackie didn't even wear a white dress. She was in a baby pink pencil skirt with a matching blouse and blazer. As she walked down the aisle towards Peter she seemed to be a mixture of happiness, nerves, and dare she say doubt. Peter, on the other hand, was all nerves.

"Repeat after me. I, Peter Alan Tyler, take you, Jacqueline Angela Suzette Prentice…" The officiant spoke.

"I, Peter Alan Tyler, take you, Jacqueline Angela Suzanne…" Everyone's eyes grew large with the mix up. Peter tried to correct himself but dug himself an even further hole. "Suzanne Anita…"

"That wasn't even remotely close," The Doctor thought. "I never thought I would say this, but poor Jackie. This bloke must have been sneaking around behind her back. And yet she still wants to marry him."

All eyes were on Jackie now, awaiting her response. "Oh, just carry on. It's good enough for Lady Di."

The Doctor grinned. Of course, it was such a Jackie response.

"I thought he's be taller," Ross whispered.

After the ceremony, they snuck out before the newly bride and groom could make their rounds greeting all of their guests and thanking them. They were back in the TARDIS once again.

"Well that was fun, wasn't it?" the Doctor grinned as she practically skipped around the console. She had hoped this would make her little human feel a little bit better. She hated it when he was feeling down.

Ross moved towards the Doctor slow and hesitantly. He still wore a frown on his face. His eyes were trained on the ground.

"I- I remember mum telling me that no one was there. When he died that is. It was a hit and run driver. Never found out who. He was dead when the ambulance got there," Ross finally looked up and met the Doctor's gaze. "I want to be that someone."

The Time Lord of course gave in. "November the 7th?"

"1987," he finished.

The Doctor flipped some switches and the Time Rotor once again started up. Once they landed the TARDIS parked herself between a telephone junction box and a road sign by Park Railings. They stepped outside to the sound of Never Can Say Goodbye playing off in the distance. The Doctor took a deep breath in and looked around.

"It's so weird. The day my father died. I thought I'd be all grim and stormy. It's just an ordinary day," Ross softly spoke and also gazed around.

"The past is another country. 1987's just the Isle of Wight," she looked at her companion. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah," he quickly replied and nodded his head. He also threw the Doctor a reassured smile.

"Alright then. Off we go," she spoke with a smile before walking off.

A few blocks away Ross stopped and stared at a road with minor disbelief.

"This is it. Jordan Road. He was late. He'd been getting a wedding present, a vase." He started to choke up a little bit. "Mum always said, 'that stupid vase'."

Just then a car rounded the corner. It was Peter.

Ross continued narrating the scene unfolding before them.

"He got out of his car…" The car pulled up to the curb. "And crossed the road…" He watched with slight horror. "Oh God, this is it."

The Doctor wrapped Ross's hand with hers and held it as Peter got out of his car. She wanted to comfort Ross that was the only subtle way she could do it.

The two watched in silence. As Peter got out he was instantly hit but the driver. Ross shut his eyes during the impact. The car zoomed away leaving Peter and the vase lying broken in the street. The Doctor turned to Ross.

"Go to him. Quick."

Ross stood there frozen in horror. Tears formed in his eyes as he watched his father slow die in the street.

"I can't…" he softly whispered.

Once the Doctor realized that he was in shock and not going to his father's aid, she slowly steered him away. The went around the corner and sat on the ground with their backs against the brick wall. The Doctor held Ross's hand slowly running her thumb over the back of it comfortingly until Ross snapped out of his daze. The ambulances sirens could be heard arriving.

"It's too late now. By the time the ambulance got there, he was dead." Ross looked at the Doctor sorrowfully, with tears running down his cheeks. It pained the Doctor to see him like this. "He can't die alone. Can I try again?"

She caved once more to please her little human.

The Doctor and Ross hide behind the corner to see themselves waiting by the curbside.

"Right, that's the first you and me. It's a very bad idea, two sets of us being here at the same time. Just be careful they don't see us. Wait till she leads him off, then go to your dad," the Doctor informed him. Peter got out of his car.

"Oh God, this is it," Past Ross said.

"I can't do this," Present Ross spoke, slightly panicked.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to, but this is the last time that we can be here," the Doctor told him.

Ross suddenly sprinted towards Peter as he was getting out of his car.

"Ross! No!" The Doctor yelled.

Ross wrapped his arms around his father and threw both of them off to the side of the road out of the way of the driver. The previous Doctor and Ross disappeared. Oh, no no no! This was not good!

The doctor didn't notice Peter pointing at her. She was too busy seething. Stupid, Stupid humans! This was all a ploy, wasn't it? Have her take him back just so he could save his father's life! Was he planning this all along? Buddy on up to her and then convince her to take him here. It's no bloody wonder he hoped on in the TARDIS as soon as he said that it could travel back in time.

The Doctor hadn't said a single word the entire way to the Tyler's flat. Even once they were inside and Peter started to yammer on about some invention. The Doctor waited until she was alone with Ross in the living room. Her arms were folded across her chest and she leaned against the door frame. She watched Ross analyzing the place and continue to speak about unimportant things in the apartment like his father's bowling trophy of health drinks. The Doctor could honestly care less and glared at Ross completely cross.

"'Kay, look, I'll tell him you're not my girlfriend," he said thinking that's why she was so annoyed. How could this daft human no understand the entirety of this situation?! How could he? He was just a stupid little human.

"When we met, I said travel with me in space. You said no. Then I said time machine," she spoke trying to cover the hurt in her voice.

"It wasn't some big plan. I just saw it happening and I thought…I can stop it," Ross defended himself.

The Doctor gave herself a sad smile. "I did it again. I picked another stupid ape. I should've known. It's not about showing you the universe. It never is. It's about the universe doing something for you."

"So it's okay when you go to other times, and you save people's lives, but not when it's me saving my dad-"

"I know what I'm doing! You don't!" She cut him off. "Two sets of us being there made that a very vulnerable point," she tried to explain.

"But he's alive!"

"My ENTIRE planet died. My family! Do you think it never occurred to me to go back and save them?"

"But it's not like I've changed history. Not much. I mean he's never going to be a world leader. He's not going to start World War Three or anything," he tried to rationalize.

"Ross, there's a man alive in the world who wasn't alive before. An ordinary man. That's the most important thing in creation. The whole world's different because he's alive," she kept trying to explain to him.

"What, would you rather him dead?"

"I'm not saying that," she shook her head in annoyance.

"No, I get it! For once you're not the most important person in my life," he told her full of bitter.

This struck a pain in her chest. She, at one point, was the most important person in Ross Tyler's life. Above Mickey, her mum, everyone. And now she wasn't. It hurt so much. It angers her that it hurts so much. Why does she feel this way? Why did she have to form feelings for this ape? She should know by now that they all hurt her. They all leave her in the end. Why did she think that this one was any different?

"Let's see how you get on without me, then. Give me the key." She held her hand out. "The TARDIS key. If I'm so insignificant, give it me back," It truly pained her to say these words, but she put up her cool, stony look so he couldn't see what he had done to her.

"Alright then, I will," he said and placed the key into her hand.

"You got what you wanted, so that's goodbye then," she spoke coolly, before turning around and began to leave.

"You don't scare me," he cut her off and stood in front of her. "I know how sad you are. You'll be back in a minute, or you'll hang around outside the Tardis waiting for me. And I'll make you wait a long time," he yelled after her.

She quickly left the flat. She didn't want him to see a truly sad she was. Her pace was quick as she walked down the sidewalk towards the TARDIS. Hot tears were forming in her eyes. She angrily wiped them away. Why was she crying over a stupid ape? She very rarely cried, and she was not going to start crying over Ross!

The TARDIS was in sight. Just as she reached it a cold wind blew past right. She felt as if something was watching her. She looked up towards the sky to find nothing there. She shook her head as she unlocked the door and started to push open the door. That familiar hum and warm was gone. Throwing the doors open she found that the inside of the TARDIS was gone! Now it was just an ordinary telephone booth. She must have been too busy arguing with Ross and feeling sorry for herself that she didn't notice the connection to her old friend had disappeared. This was not good! Everyone was in trouble.

"Ross!" She yelled before sprinting off towards the church the wedding was being held at. The flat would be empty by the time she got there. An old church might actually be the best place to be in a situation like this. She ran as fast as she could. She just hoped that she would make it in time.

As she turned the corner leading to the church she saw Ross standing on the side walk along with the bride, bridesmaids, Peter, and more. They all are in immediate danger.

"Ross!" Ross turned around and smiled knowingly at the Doctor assuming she came back because she missed him. "Get in the church!" She yelled. Ross's smile fell.

Just then they both looked into the sky to see a large creature with bat-like wings appear. It was very devilish looking. The reaper hissed and started to swoop in on Ross. He cried out in fear as it almost latched its talons onto him. The Doctor quickly took action and pushed them both onto the ground and out of the reaper's grab.

"Get in the church," she said once again, to everyone.

The ground quickly headed for the church only to be stopped at the inside of the gates when another reaper appeared. The Doctor put herself in front of the other's ready to distract the beast if need be.

"Oh, my God. What are they? What are they," one woman cried.

"Inside," the Doctor kept yelling trying to coral them in.

"Sarah," the groom yelled for his bride-to-be and stepped outside.

"Stay in there," the Doctor yells at him.

One man, the father of the groom, took in the situation and decided to try and escape. The reapers pounce on him before he could even get a few feet away. Another one appears in the bride's path and she just screams at it, scaring it away. It decided to take that vicar as its next victim. This gave the group some time to make it safely into the church.

Once inside the Doctor began to survey the area making sure they the reapers couldn't get in. Their screeches rang loudly outside of the church.

"They can't get in. Old windows and doors. Okay. The older something is, the stronger it is. What else?" Her mind was racing a million miles a second. She had to make sure they couldn't get in. At least for the time being so she could figure out how to get them out of this mess. "Go and check the other doors! Move!" She cried out orders like the true warrior that she once was.

As the Doctor began to move around Jackie followed. "What's Happening? What are they? What are they," Jackie asked.

"There's been an accident in time. A wound in time. They're like bacteria, taking advantage," she informed her as the Doctor began checking other doors and windows.

"What do you mean, time? What're you jabbering on about, time?" Jackie snarked back, like always.

"Oh, I might've known you'd argue. Jackie, I'm sick of you complaining," the Doctor rolled her eyes.

"How do you know my name," Jackie demanded.

"I haven't got time for this-" the Doctor was cut off by Jackie once more.

"I've never met you in my life," Jackie exclaimed.

"No, and you never will unless I sort this out. Now, if you don't mind, I've waited a long time to say this. Jackie Tyler, do as I say. Go and check the doors," she ordered the woman.

Jackie was shocked to finally be yelled back at. She quickly nodded her head and replied with a 'Yes Ma'am' before running off to check the doors and windows.

"I should have done that ages ago," she laughed.

The groom walked over to the Doctor. "My dad was out there."

"You can mourn him later. Right now, we need to concentrate on keeping ourselves alive,'" the Doctor told him.

"My dad had-"

"There's nothing that I can do for him," she told him firmly.

"No, but he had this phone thing. I can't get it to work. I keep getting this voice." He passed to phone to the Doctor. She put it up to her ear and listened.

"Watson, come here. I need you," it said. The Doctor smiled.

"That's the very first phone call. Alexander Graham Bell. I don't think the telephone's going to be much use," she passed it back to him.

"But someone must have called the police," he said.

"Police can't help you now. No one can. Nothing in this universe can harm those things. Time's been damaged and they've come to sterilize the wound. By consuming everything inside," she explained to everyone. Her eyes locked with Ross who was standing in front of her.

"Is this because… is this my fault?" He asked. The Doctor didn't answer as she stepped around him.

She was still really made at him, so she decided to go off and work rather than say something she might regret later. The Time Lord strode up to the front of the church and began to use her sonic to bolt the doors down. Just was she was doing so the bride and groom approached her.

"Excuse me, Miss," the groom said.

"Doctor," she corrected him.

"You seem to know what's going on," he stated.

"I give that impression, yeah," she said not removing her eyes from her work. In reality she really had no idea how she was going to get them out of this situation.

"I just wanted to ask-" he was cut off by his fiancée.

"Can you save us," she asked abruptly.

This made the Doctor stop her work and turn towards the couple.

"Who are you two, then," she asked, look at them both up and down.

"Stuart Hoskins," the groom said.

"Sarah Clarke," the bride followed.

The Doctor's eyes strayed onto Sarah's slightly protruding stomach.

"And one extra. Boy or a girl?" She asked.

Sarah looked down at her stomach and smiled while caressing it, "I don't know. I don't want to know, really."

"How did all this get started," the Doctor cocked her head, and asked curiously.

"Outside the beatbox club, two in the morning," Stuart grinned at Sarah.

"Street corner," Sarah added with a laugh. "I lost my purse, didn't have money for a taxi."

"I took her home," he said happily.

"Then what? Ask her for a date," the Doctor laughed.

"Wrote his number on the back of my hand," Sarah confirmed.

"Never got rid of her since," he grinned. " My dad said-" he trailed off with a frown.

"I don't know what this is all about, and I know we're not important-" Sarah began sadly.

"Who said you're not important? I've travelled to all sorts of places, done things you couldn't even imagine, but you two. Street corner, two in the morning, getting a taxi home. I've never had a life like that. Yes. I'll try and save you." The Time Lord smiled at the pair.

Suddenly Jackie began to call her over. As she walked over to the blonde she began to prepare for another lecture of some sort. She was surprised when Jackie asked if she could watch baby Ross while she went and looked for Peter and little Mickey. She of course obliged. Little Ross looked up at her and began to smile. This made the Doctor's heart soar. Even though she was still a little ticked at her Ross, she had no reason to be angry with this little one. He was even as cute as his current Ross.

She sat down beside him and offered him to play with her fingers a she smiled down. She began to talk to him knowing very well that he would not understand her. However, the present Ross approaching them would.

"Now, Ross you're not going to bring about the end of the world, are you? Are you?" She gave a sideways glance to Ross. "Jackie gave her to me to look after. How times change."

Ross gave a small laugh. "I'd better be careful. I think I just imprinted myself on Mickey like a mother chicken."

He began to lean in close to the baby. The Doctor put her hand on his chest to stop him.

"No. Don't touch the baby. You're both the same person. That's a paradox, and we don't want a paradox happening, not with these things outside. Anything new, any disturbance in time makes them stronger. The paradox might let them in," she informed him.

"I can't do anything right, can I," he mumbled dejected.

The Doctor looked at him and frowned. She knew he was hurting, but he needed to learn from his mistake. If he wanted to continue to travel with her then he can't make stupid and dangerous mistakes like this again.

"Since you asked, no! So, Don't. Touch. The baby." She emphasized every word so he would understand.

"I'm not stupid," he glared at her.

"You could have fooled me," she shot back. Ross looked away, sad and a little angry. She knew that she had to be the one to cave first and fix this bitterness between them. She really hated it when they were like this. "Alright, I'm sorry. I wasn't really going to leave you on your own."

"I know," he looked at her with apologetic eyes.

"But between you and me, I haven't got a plan. No idea. No way out," she confessed.

"You'll think of something. You always do."

"The entire Earth's been sterilized. This, and other places like it, are all that's left of the human race. We might hold out for a while, but nothing can stop those creatures. They'll get through in the end. The walls aren't that old. And there's nothing I can do to stop them. There used to be laws stopping this kind of thing from happening. My people would have stopped this. But they're all gone. And now I'm going the same way."

"If I'd just realized…" he began.

"Just… tell me you're sorry," she looked at him.

"I am. I'm sorry," and he meant it.

The Doctor reached out and placed a hand on his cheek. Ross held onto it with his hand and leaned into the touch. The Time Lord grinned at him and the both fell into a hug. Ross leaned back with a small jolt.

"Have you got something hot," he asked. He reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the TARDIS key. It was scolding hot which made him quickly toss it to the ground.

"It's the TARDIS key," she grinned and quickly took off her leather jacket to pick up the flowing key. "It's telling me it's still connected to the TARDIS. Everyone! I have an announcement!" She ran up to the back of the church and faced the entire crowd. "The inside of my ship was thrown out of the wound but we can use this to bring it back. And once I've got my ship back, then I can mend everything. Now, I just need a bit of power. Has anybody got a battery?"

Stuart quickly grabbed his dad's phone and passed it to the Doctor.

"Fantatic!" She grinned. She took the battery and began to charge it up with her sonic. Once it was ready she placed the key where the door would be and it held in place. The TARDIS slowly began to materialize around it. "Right, no one touches that key. Have you got that? Don't touch it. Anyone touches that key, it'll be, well, zap. Just leave it be and everything will be fine. We'll get out of here. All of us. Stuart, Sarah you're going to get married, just like I said." She grinned at the couple.

Afterwards there was nothing much to do except wait. Ross and the Doctor sat in one of the back pews with Peter in the one directly behind them. Ross leaned towards the Doctor and began to speak softly.

"When time gets sorted out-" he began.

"Everybody here forgets what happened. And don't worry, the thing that you changed will stay changed," she finished his thought.

"You mean I'll still be alive, though I'm meant to be dead. That's why I haven't done anything with my life, why I didn't mean anything," Peter started from behind them.

"It doesn't work like that," the Doctor said.

"Rubbish. I'm so useless I couldn't even die properly. Now it's my fault all of this has happened," Peter said with a frown.

"This is my fault," Ross reassured him.

"No, mate. I'm your dad. It's my job for it to be my fault," Peter stated.

The Doctor got up and shook her head in frustration. Of course, Ross told him.

"Her dad? How are you her dad? How old were you, twelve? Oh, that's disgusting," Jackie said, overhearing the entire conversation.

"Jacks, listen. This is Ross," he tried to explain.

"Ross? How sick is that? You give my son a second-hand name? How many are there? Do you call them all Ross," Jackie yelled defensively.

"Oh, for God's sake, look! It's the same Ross," Peter said taking baby Ross out of Jackie's hands and place him into Ross's hands.

"Ross! No!" The Doctor yelled, but it was too late. She grabbed the baby and placed him back into Jackie's arms.

Just then a reaper formed inside the church causing panic. "Everyone! Behind me!" They all ran behind the Doctor as she held her arms out in a sad attempt to protect them all. She stared up at the creature with fear in her eyes. "I'm the oldest thing in here."

Within a blink of an eye the reaper flew towards her. There was a second of pain. Then darkness.

The Doctor woke up on the ground where she was attacked completely unharmed. She felt her body and did a quick once over. She was fine, and was not regenerate. While getting up on her feet the first thought to cross her mind was to find Ross. As she stepped outside she began to observe the situation. Peter was lying in the middle of the road once again with a broken vase. He must have sacrificed himself to set everything right. She walked up next to Ross.

"Go to him. Quick," she told him.

With that bit of encouragement, he ran off to be with his father during his final moments. The Doctor finally approached the scene once I was over. She held put her hand for Ross to take. He did, and the two walked hand in hand back to the TARDIS for some much needed down time before their next adventure.

[dweemeister]

Blue Hawaii (1961)

Elvis Presley’s ascent to stardom struck the United States (and the world) like a lightning bolt. Hounded from Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry due to the country music establishment taking offense to his genre-blending musicianship, Elvis grew from being a regional phenomenon to a national sensation as he helped innovate rockabilly, a form of rock and roll. Movie producers, sensing an opportunity to cash in on Elvis’ skyrocketing popularity, gave Elvis star vehicles such as Love Me Tender (1956) and Jailhouse Rock (1957). Critics shrugged at these films – low-budget affairs where most of the budget went to Elvis’ salary – but his fans made them critic-proof, turning out in droves to scream and swoon at their slick-looking dreamboat. Grappling with television’s advent and the dissolution of the Old Hollywood Studio System, Hollywood’s major studios shifted their efforts towards more bombastic, showman-like films. Such was the situation in the early 1960s that longtime Warner Bros. producer Hal B. Wallis (1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1942’s Casablanca), now at Paramount, joked that, “a Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood.”

To the horror of Elvis’ fans and movie studio executives but to the delight of those fans’ parental figures and teachers, the U.S. Army drafted him in March 1958. Elvis served twenty-four months before his discharge with the rank of Sergeant. During his service, Elvis nevertheless had plenty of singles in the can, many ranking high on the charts while he was at basic training and later his posting in West Germany. Looking forward to restarting his musical and acting careers, Elvis soon returned to the recording studio and shot G. I. Blues (1960) – he had discussed the film with Wallis months prior to his discharge – in short order. For the eighth film of his career and his fourth after his discharge, Elvis starred in Blue Hawaii, directed by Norman Taurog (1938’s Boys Town, nine Elvis films) and produced by Wallis. The film stars Elvis as an Army veteran recently discharged from the service, returning to his home state. I wonder where did they get that idea from? It also marks the unlikely beginning of Elvis’ association with the Aloha State – which shed its territorial status in 1959 and was ready for a Hollywood treatment that had nothing to do with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Chadwick “Chad” Gates (Presley) returns home to Hawai’i from his military service, greeted by girlfriend Maile Duval (Joan Blackman: “MY-lee”) and a flower seller named Waihila (Hilo Hattie in a cameo). Instead of immediately seeing his parents – mother Sarah Lee (Angela Lansbury, only ten years Elvis’ senior) and father Fred (Roland Winters) – he escapes to a secluded oceanside shack with Maile and his Hawaiian surf buddies. Chad is the son of pineapple plantation owners, and Sarah Lee wants him to succeed Fred when the time comes. But Chad is not interested in those plans, electing instead to work as a tour guide for Mr. Chapman’s (Howard McNear) travel agency – among other things, Maile works at the agency. The first tour he gives serves schoolteacher Abigail Prentice (Nancy Walters) and her four teenage students, all girls. One of those girls, Ellie Corbett (Jenny Maxwell), appears standoffish at first but then begins to flirt shamelessly with Chad.

If by that point in Blue Hawaii you are still concentrating on the plot, just note that your approach to watching Elvis movies is not advisable. Watching Elvis movies for a sensible plot is to invite frustration; accept the narrative drivel and enjoy.

Shot mostly on location on the Hawaiian Islands of O’ahu and Kaua’i, Hawai’i offers splendid backdrops to even the most mundane scenes of this film. Charles Lang’s (1947’s The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, 1959’s Some Like It Hot) camera allows characters to be dwarfed by the green mountains in the distance, the crystal blue waters extending to the horizon, and palm tree fronds wafting amid a gentle breeze. Scenes of breathtaking natural beauty abound in Blue Hawaii. In conjunction with the production (Hal Pereira and Walter H. Tyler) and set design (Sam Comer and Frank R. McKelvy), Blue Hawaii becomes, by default, the most colorful Elvis movie to date. The film, by design, partly becomes a tourism advertisement for the new state. Its white characters and filmmakers exotify and romanticize Native Hawaiian culture to fit their own expectations and perspectives – these sorts of depictions have endured across the last century, figuring heavily in cinema (1935’s Honolulu: The Paradise of the Pacific as part of [James A.] Fitzpatrick’s Traveltalks for MGM) and tourism advertising. This is the first live-action feature film from a major Hollywood studio to make even a minimal attempt to depict native Hawaiian culture since Waikiki Wedding (1937), another Paramount film.

Here are some more connections between Waikiki Wedding and Blue Hawaii: both share one song (“Blue Hawaii”) in both their soundtracks and both films are musicals. The Hawaiian musical sound is just as integral to popular conceptions of Hawai’i, and it is used liberally here in orchestrations, if not melodic structure. Blue Hawaii’s soundtrack contains the greatest amount of songs (fourteen) for an Elvis film. For those who enjoy their breathless musicals with a song at every turn, Blue Hawaii does just that. The musical numbers arrive in the most innocuous situations – from forming a melody from a tune heard on the radio, an impromptu jam session with a guitar conveniently within arm’s length of Elvis, or starting from nothing. The worst of the soundtrack avoids many of the novelty songs that plague Elvis films, especially the later entries. Given how nonsensical the plots to Elvis movies are, the lower-tier songs in Blue Hawaii are preferable compared to more stilted acting and fraternizing shenanigans. Thus, the bar is raised, and the inclusion of two non-original songs – “Blue Hawaii” (music by Ralph Rainger, lyrics by Leo Robin) and “Aloha ‘Oe” (Queen Lili’uokalani) – are arranged in such a way that beautifully complements Elvis’ velvety singing voice. Among the original songs, “Moonlight Swim” (music by Ben Weisman, lyrics by Sylvia Dee) is a sensuous, laid back song that perfectly serves Chad’s characterization: an unabashed Casanova, effortless in romance, a hint of masculine arrogance.

The runaway hit of the Blue Hawaii soundtrack is among Elvis’ most popular songs. “Can’t Help Falling in Love” – music and lyrics by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss – appears approximately midway through the film as Chad says hello to Maile’s grandmother (Flora Kaai Hayes, a former Hawaiian Territorial Representative to the U.S. House of Representatives) for the first time since before his military service. It, like so many other musical entries in Blue Hawaii, arrives without much warning, backed by a constantly harmonizing music box and a steel guitar played in a Hawaiian style. One might take issue with the song’s use in context, but it is a crooners’ standard that has crossed linguistic barriers worldwide. Its simplicity is self-evident: a memorable melody, chorus, and a minor key bridge aching for resolution as it modulates to major key. Perhaps “Can’t Help Falling in Love” is not considered one of the greatest original songs in movie history because of the questionable quality of the film it appears in. More likely, Elvis’ gravitational pull as a crossover music and movie star writes its own legends that defy a critic’s or a historian’s corrections.

Somehow, I have written all the above without remarking on the acting. Other than Elvis himself, everyone else is a passing interest at best. Joan Blackman’s chemistry with Elvis is apparent, but she does not distinguish herself from every other female lead in an Elvis movie. Angela Lansbury’s exaggerated Southern accent displays her considerable range, even if there are better examples in other films. As much as some may deride Elvis’ performances for being unchallenging, one could not imagine an Elvis movie without the star attraction. His persona is effervescent; his charisma incontestable. According to Weiss, Elvis’ comedic instincts manifested themselves in subtle ways. If Elvis requested a joke to be explained in discussions about the screenplay, it was his roundabout, maybe overly polite, way to warn Weiss, Taurog, and screenwriter Hal Kanter (1952’s Road to Bali, at least twenty-two Academy Award ceremonies) that the joke was not funny. During test screenings of Blue Hawaii, every joke kept in the film that Elvis questioned elicited nothing from the audience. On- and off-screen, an Elvis movie with Elvis removed would collapse from the void of hilarity and charm such an absence would create.

Blue Hawaii, like all other Elvis movies prior, succeeded at the box office in comparison to its budget. Adding to this bounty for Elvis, the film’s soundtrack album sold millions of copies, sitting atop of the Billboard charts for twenty weeks, and garnering a Grammy nomination. The soundtrack profits from Blue Hawaii and the preceding G.I. Blues led Presley’s obstinate manager, Colonel Tom Parker, to have his client concentrate on film soundtrack albums at the expense of non-soundtrack albums – setting the groundwork for the remainder of the 1960s (Elvis released 16 soundtrack albums versus six non-soundtrack albums during this decade), with diminishing returns. Parker reasoned to Elvis that his fans demanded to see him in these musical romantic comedies, rejecting any roles that did not fit this mold. Elvis, believing his manager, continued to make films until well past the point an Elvis Presley picture was a guaranteed hit in theaters.

In its visual splendor and Pacific appeal, Blue Hawaii sealed the fate of Elvis’ post-Army career. No other subsequent Elvis film would match the commercial heights of Blue Hawaii, although one could argue several of those movies surpass this one in terms of acting, aesthetics, and musical interest (like 1964’s Viva Las Vegas and two concert documentaries in 1970 and 1972). Elvis returned to Hawai’i several more times during his career for concerts and two films – Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) and Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966). As much as Elvis is associated with Tupelo, Mississippi (his birthplace) and Graceland in Memphis, there is also a special relationship between Elvis and Hawai’i. That relationship – one that touches Elvis’ personal life and the musical traditions of Native Hawaiians – begins with Blue Hawaii, an archetypal Elvis film and one of his best.

My rating: 6/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[alexandria1448]

All the single ladies

        Reading all, or most, of an author’s oeuvre, one discerns patterns: in themes, in the shapes and tendencies of plots, in sympathies and biases. Ngaio Marsh’s 32 Inspector Alleyn mysteries reveal their creator’s attentiveness to the vagaries and peculiarities of human psychology; her lively appreciation for the complexities of the English class system; her admiration for actors and artists; and her ability to devise fiendish ways of killing people. The narrator of these mysteries is consistently good company, standing above and to the side of the action, wearing (one imagines) a bemused smile.

           Another pattern emerges about halfway through the series and intensifies as it draws to its end. This pattern involves a stock character: the lonely, unattractive, and sex-starved single woman, the aging spinster attempting without notable success to make her way in a social world that finds her pathetic at best, ridiculous and disgusting at worst.

In Clutch of Constables, published in 1968 when Marsh herself was 73, Agatha “Troy” Alleyn has a visceral reaction to Hazel Rickerby-Carrick: “The more exasperating she became … the sorrier Troy felt for her and the less she desired her company.” Her mingled pity and repulsion are apparent to Miss Rickerby-Carrick herself, who laments in her diary her own tendency to “try too hard.” This poor creature follows a string of similar characters in the Alleyn books. In Overture to Death (1939), we meet Miss Campanula (“a large arrogant spinster with a firm bust, a high-coloured complexion, coarse grey hair, and enormous bony hands”) and Miss Prentice (“a thin, colourless woman of perhaps forty-nine years”); these two are close friends and bitter rivals. Miss Campanula flings herself at the local rector, who describes the incident as “the most awful thing that has ever happened to me” but ascribes it to her being one of a “rather common type of church worker”: “ladies who are not perhaps very young and who have no other interests.” In Dead Water (1963), there is Miss Elspeth Cost, “a lady with vague hair and a tentative smile,” who is described by another character as “a manhunter”: “In her quiet, mousy sort of fashion, she raged to and fro seeking whom she might devour. Which was not many.”  There are the three title characters of Spinsters in Jeopardy (1955), whose interchangeability forms the basis of the plot; someone observes that “all English spinsters have teeth like mares.” Looking at one of them, Inspector Alleyn notices “the other stigmata of her kind: the small mole, the lines and pouches, the pathetic tufts of grey hair from which the skin had receded.” Between the descriptions of physical flaws and the implication that menopause brings with it an insatiable sexual appetite, between the pity and the scorn, the position of these women in the social world of the novels is clear, and by extension the position of women in general: valued only for their appearance and their connection with men.

           There are counter-examples, to be sure. Miss Emily Pride, in Dead Water, is single and thoroughly admirable, an elderly lady who has made her living teaching French to diplomats. There is Troy herself, an accomplished painter, who only reluctantly agrees to give up her independence and marry Alleyn. Troy is a close parallel to Harriet Vane in Dorothy L. Sayers’s Wimsey novels, another self-supporting artistic woman who marries Lord Peter after a long, persistent courtship.  Lord Peter occasionally collaborates with a Miss Climpson, a brisk businesslike lady who runs a kind of temp agency and who goes undercover in Unnatural Death (1927), finding herself back in a life she had escaped, a “long and melancholy experience of frustrated womanhood, observed in a dreary succession of cheap boarding-houses.”

          There are three reasons why this preponderance of sadly single women interests me. One is the historical fact that there must have been quite a lot of them about during Marsh’s lifetime: the two world wars killed a huge number of young men, leaving two succeeding generations of European women with a depleted pool of marriageable men. The novels of Barbara Pym, younger than Marsh by eighteen years but a rough contemporary in literary terms, are full of single women; other characters look down on them, while they themselves face their situations with a mixture of stoicism and hopelessness. Without marriage and children, they’re considered worthless and purposeless; they’re expected to compete in demeaning ways for men; they dread the approach of old age and even greater marginalization. These authors are describing something they know and feel, something they dread and therefore can’t stop analyzing. The numbers of “redundant women” were officially a social problem in the nineteenth century and became one again when the world wars decimated the male population. Attention was certainly being paid to the situation. But the attention did little or nothing for individual women whose practical difficulties were exacerbated by relentless social disapproval and ridicule.

           The second reason for my interest in these characters lies in Marsh’s own history and personality. She herself never married; some biographers have speculated that she was a lesbian, pointing to her long, loving friendship with Sylvia Fox and her rather brief and cryptic references to love affairs in her autobiography. I don’t think it’s necessary to resolve the question of her sexuality to address the matter of the single women in her fiction. Her choosing not to marry, and her portrayal of single women, together indicate a kind of determination to be different from them, to live as she chose and to avoid becoming ridiculous; she wanted to resemble Miss Pride or Miss Climpson in their self-sufficiency and competence. Miss Rickerby-Carrick’s unhappiness and awkwardness, after all, arise from her “trying too hard” – her attempts to please others (all of which fail), her seeming inability to be natural, her persistent sense that she is offending merely by existing. She proclaims in her diary that “the body is beautiful,” and then goes on: “Only mine isn’t so very”; so she sunbathes in a hidden corner of a boat deck. Her longing for connection with Troy only repulses the latter, as we have seen; she has no dignity, no sense of herself as a unique and valuable individual – no boundaries, as we would say now. Marsh portrays all of this with a kind of cool compassion – showing us this character’s faults, and showing us at the same time that she is to be pitied rather than condemned. But there is also an emphatic distance. Marsh herself would never behave this way, would never wear her vulnerability on her sleeve. She had a thriving career in the theater and dozens of friends; she travelled, she wrote, she socialized with fascinating people and nurtured many young careers. She was far from pitiable. Yet she must have been aware of how precarious her social place was, as a single woman living by her wits. She must also have been aware of the particular challenges facing women as they navigated through a double set of expectations: those of class, and those of sex. Her novels delineate the difficulties of this task and the resourcefulness it demanded from women even in seemingly innocuous circumstances.

           The third reason has to do with the persistence in Western culture of the pressure on women to marry. See, for example, Lori Gottlieb’s article in the March 2008 issue of the Atlantic, “Marry Him! The case for settling for Mr. Good Enough.” (After you read that one, read Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article for the July/August 2012 issue of the same magazine, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.”) To paraphrase a big part of feminist theory: Why would society feel the need to pressure us to do something, if we were naturally or innately inclined to do it anyway? Until very recently, marriage has not been a wonderful deal for women, even in the industrialized West. It’s no coincidence that the divorce rate in the US spiked in the 1970s, when women no longer needed to accept unequal or unhappy marriages in order to survive economically. Marriage as an institution has probably benefited from this; when people freely choose to enter and sustain a union, rather than doing so under coercion, the marriage in question is stronger and others are more likely to see it as an example worth following. Conversely, when marriage is a choice and not a mandate, those who choose not to marry are no longer seen as outliers or threats to the social order; they are simply individuals making their own choices. It’s a good thing that the pressure is fading, but it’s far from gone. 

           Perhaps we’re nearing the end (in certain places and groups, anyway) of the unmarried woman as a figure of fun. Perhaps when we meet one, we can start with the assumption that she freely chose that state and is happy in it, rather than supposing that her situation originated from a fault or failing of her own, or that she would do almost anything to escape it. And while we’re at it, we can extend this benign set of beliefs to everyone we meet, reserving our judgment about them until we know more about their individual characters, needs, and goals. We can treat a social interaction as a chance to observe and learn, rather than a reason to feel superior or to retreat further inside our own defenses. We can read other people the way we read fiction, with close attentiveness and an eagerness to find out what comes next.