#so I exchanged it for the literary canon question
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blackwall-my-tiny-husband · 1 month ago
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Words with friends 6-9
Very fun word game started by @hedwigoprah and hosted this week by @jenn2d2
Rules: Use the challenge word to write a sentence or scene and then tag a few friends. Happy writing! This Week's word is :: Mendacious
Given to or characterized by deception or falsehood or divergence from absolute truth. (Adjective) Mendacious is more formal and literary, suggesting a deception harmless enough to be considered somewhat bland.
It’s another modern urban assassins au (this is late real life got weird for a second there sorry) but this was also for @viagoweek day 6 alternate universe (I went looking for some de Riva Rooks just to borrow some names but if you want your de Riva in here pspsps at me plz)
This got longer than intended at 2.5k (canon topical violence but Harding has a gun)
───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
A door swinging open and clattering against the wall was the only warning of Harding’s arrival to Viago’s office. The talon quirked a perfectly arched eyebrow at her, abandoning the neat stacks of papers lining his desk to lean against it with a hip and crossing his arms. People moving around in the room beyond, keyboards clacking and the muttering of hushed conversations could be heard but Viago took comfort in the fact that many of the de Riva’s hadn’t stopped their work at the interruption.
“Ah lace Harding, to what do I owe the-“ But before he could get very far the dwarf was pointing at him, phone in hand, with a serious look on her face.
“You.” She’d cut him off and he frowned, “Zalan hasn’t answered any of my texts in hours and I can’t find him.” She paused giving him a look he was sure meant something but held absolutely no meaning to him. But the urgency with which she spoke did have him tensing. With Zalan involved anything was possible.
“He hasn’t gotten back to me
” she tried again and then tossed her hands up in evident defeat. “I can’t find him. I know you have him- chipped or- or wired- or something! So where is he.” She’d walked close to him glaring up with a look that could kill. Viago’s first instinct was to shrug, he didn’t know and shouldn’t be giving away crow secrets and locations. But with an angry dwarf stomping into his office and if said angry dwarf couldn’t find him
. That only spelled trouble.
Rubbing the space between his eyes trying to fight off the quickly growing headache he waltzed past the woman and out into the main room. High tech monitors and screens were everywhere with people ferrying information to and fro on the open floor plan from desk to desk. This section of the crows was one Zalan and Harding rarely saw, neither were really cut out for desk work and honestly Viago preferred them causing trouble elsewhere and not directly in his line of sight.
“Ilene?” He called out into the pit of people working. One woman perked her head up from where she was looking over someone’s shoulder at a screen. “Have you or Lilya heard from Zalan?” When both women exchanged a look but shook their heads he gave a deeper sigh. Trouble it was.
Leaning on the railing of the stairs leading into the working room he glanced around at who was free.
“Hugo can you check the gps on that idiot’s phone?” The smaller man in question did as asked with a grin and reported back but only that it had been off for several hours but he still sent over the last pinged locations. Viago held a data pad in his hand and handed it to Harding so she could see the street names.
“Do you think it’s coincidence that he was headed through the Butcher’s territory before he went dark?” Harding pointed at the street in question. It wasn’t that deep in the other mob family’s area but with the tension that Zalan himself had made worse recently Viago knew he couldn’t rule it out. With a groan he walked into the room, down small rows of Crows. He stopped briefly at Luz’s table to pick up a small tracker and hand it to Harding before moving on.
He motioned at another smaller elf who scurried to catch up and hand Harding a small data pad able to track Zalan’s last location and easy to wipe or disable from afar if need be.
“If you need to send an sos as a last resort pressing this hidden button on the side will send out one quick burst to us with your location before bricking the entire thing.” Rian explained before Viago opened a door leading the little group down flights of stairs to the back of the tall de Riva building.
“You can take a bike, it’ll be faster. These are unregistered with fake government tags so you should be able to go where you need without anyone giving you trouble.” Viago stared at her, trying to convey his concern and worry without saying anything out loud. “Bring him back, preferably in one piece if you can. And for the love of Andraste be careful; if the Butcher does have him, his group won’t hesitate, they shoot to kill.”
Harding tucked everything away into her jacket pockets and slung her back pack over her shoulders and headed for one of the half dozen solid black motorcycles in this section of garage, her expression anger and steel.
“Don’t worry, they’ll be picking up pieces of quanri off the streets if they’ve even touched our crow.”
//
Coughing, stale air crowding his lungs, Zalan snapped back into consciousness. His vision was blurry at first as his eyes refocused, the warehouse around him full of crates and dust and the sounds of leaking water probably placing it close to some dock. Testing his hands he found them bound, a thick scratchy rope tying him to the wooden chair where he sat. He hummed, so they’d retied him after his poor escape attempt. His feet were both bound this time, one to each chair leg, guess they’d learned something after all.
His face hurt, one eye half swollen shut and his lip split but he knew his body would be even worse off tomorrow- he was bruised and he wouldn’t put it past several of his ribs to be broken. He felt like a well beaten out rug. But if he was a gambling man he’d bet that at least one of the Qunari that had him strapped there looked just as bad as he did. However, if recent events told him anything fighting one wasn’t enough. When he’d tried to run, leaving the groaning Antaam behind him he’d been jumped by two others that had come from seemingly nowhere. He really needed to know how many there were here before he tried to escape again.
Cracking knuckles accompanied the stomp of feet as the two that had drug him back to the chair approached him. One of them reached forward and tipped the chair back making Zalan grit his teeth body tensing for a fall that wasn’t coming.
“I already told you we don’t know who gave us the job to download that intel.” He told them, annoyance growing yet again. Viago was going to be pissed but he was tired of this tail chasing Daathrata’s boys were doing on this.
“Lies! You spin tales of defending antiva city and doing it for the people but you’re only in it for the gain. we’ve seen you crows. We know what you are.” The other one growled, letting the chair rock back into place. Zalan hummed, pretending to mull that over.
“I have been told I’m a very mendacious person. But a greedy person now that one’s new.” He snarked and was rewarded with a punch. But he wasn’t surprised and only grunted in pain. Baiting them wouldn’t really help him, he knew, but they were stepping on his last nerve.
They’d been trying to get info on who put out the contract, where did they drop off the intel, who had they spoken to, etc. All things that the crows had questions about too. Questions that never did get answers, the contract had led to a fake name, the flash drive had been left at a dead drop, and there had only been email correspondences with the client. All of which frustrated Viago as much as it seemed to anger the Antaam.
Glaring daggers at the Qunari while the man rubbed his fist, a flash of light out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He didn’t move exactly but he shifted some trying to catch sight of it again. One of the big men in front of him decided he wasn’t paying enough attention and made a grab for Zalan’s shirt, yanking him forward and snorting angry hot air into his face.
“Pay attention before you become roadkill, crow.” He was snarling but Zalan wasn’t listening because there, on the man’s face was a tiny red dot. A red dot he knew very well and the man’s face was way way too close but he was never afraid when he was putting his trust into Lace Harding.
A shot rang out and the Qunari not holding Zalan was splattered in blood as Harding’s shot exited and the mobster went limp and crumpled to the ground making the wooden chair rock back onto all four legs. The crow only smiled at the other one, mean and full of dangerous promise.
“You could run but I think she might like the challenge.” He told the qunari who had been sweeping the area looking for the gun but who’s head snapped back at Zalan and looking pissed got in several steps towards the assassin before another shot rang out and he too dropped to the ground.
Zalan waited semi patiently for Harding to come help him, wiggling his wrists free- he’d already been working on dislocating his own thumb when she’d shown up. Just his luck that he’d finally gotten it just before she’d shot the first man.
She had her gun slung over her back when she jogged into view, tactical gear on. She’d come ready for a fight. Zalan shook out his hands, shoving his thumb back into place with a cringe. She handed him a knife and they each cut a leg free.
“How many more of the Butchers men are in here?” She hissed as she helped Zalan stand, his sore body protesting the movements. He was about to shrug when another pair of Qunari came running over,
“Counting the one I beat up earlier at least three.” He told her, ignoring the flash in her eyes for now. Grunting with the effort he stood up letting Harding have her hands free. Standing was giving Zalan a new way to measure the pain in his body and he was now concerned his leg might be damaged but he’d make it work.
The two much broader men charged at the pair and Harding dodged the blow aimed for her, grabbing the grunt’s arm and twisting it first behind the man’s back and then again snapping the bone at the elbow and causing the man to howl in pain. Smartly he dropped to the ground where Harding left him alone.
Zalan wasn’t so lucky, he was only able to partially side step the man and the result was tripping them both sending them to the ground. The grunt was on him and they were both struggling to get an attack in. Needing to get the large qunari off or at least to stop fighting for a moment, the crow head butted the man dazing both of them.
Harding was headed their way but the man on the ground swept her feet out from under her and she hit the ground with a curse.
Then everything went still, the two Qunari froze and Zalan spotted the one he’d fought earlier standing neaby- he must have come over during the commotion. But the thing making the Antaam stop was the biggest Qunari man Zalan had ever seen walking towards them.
He was wearing a designer suit, expensive, something Viago would wear to a business meeting with the other talons or to meet prospective clients. He walked slowly like he didn’t have a care in the world and exuded a commanding presence that had Zalan tensing and holding his breath. The other Qunari stumbled over themselves to get up, leaving Harding and Zalan to stand at attention. If he wasn’t sure who this man was that was a dead giveaway- this the Butcher himself.
Harding scrambled up and was helping Zalan to stand when the Butcher stopped in front of his men, clicking his tongue in disapproval at them.
“Zalan I presume, or do you prefer your crow title
 What was it- Cerulean Rook? Yes your little group enjoys code names. So silly.” He drawled, looking over his men like it some normal inspection. Harding had slung his arm over her shoulder helping him stand but he wasn’t sure if he should stand on his own so she’d have free hands.
Daathrata looked over at them finally and smiled, a chilling cold thing.
“Come now, is that any way to treat a host? Of course I know all about you. The crows are so fascinating and you intrigue me the most.” He took several steps closer but seemed to know he couldn’t get too close to the pair without hostility breaking out again.
“Is that why you had me grabbed and brought here? To interrogate me and then tell me I’m interesting to you?” The crow scoffed and Harding squeezed his hand in warning. They were in danger now wasn’t the best time to be picking fights. But the Butcher only laughed and it sent a chill up Zalan’s spine.
“No, my men were told to leave you alone. For now. We were at an impasse of sorts after a few of my men were found burned to death outside The Jewel of Antiva. A mystery as to how that happened of course.” He kept his voice even, light even, no threats, no anger. It made Zalan uneasy.
“Of course.” He agreed, politely this time, to avoid Harding pinching him. Daathrata hummed, eyes narrowing slightly but didn’t comment on his remark.
“Because my men weren’t following orders I will let you both walk out of here.” He took a step to the side, making a sweeping gesture and leaving open the way to the door. “But know that I personally will be watching your progress with interest. I do hope you’ll find whoever put you up to that contract.” He looked at Zalan like he was sizing up a meal and the crow hated it but said nothing only gave a nod.
Harding had tensed up against him and he knew she hated it too but both of them walked to the exit. Both half expecting a bullet through the back as they left the building.
It wasn’t until they were around the corner of the building and down the road a little ways that they both begun relaxing. Harding was still all business for the moment and gestured to the only thing parked on the street,
“Get on. I need to get you home and we both need to report this to Viago.” She handed him a helmet at least but he pouted at the motorcycle Harding was climbing onto and nearly threw up now to get it over with. But instead he followed her lead, putting the helmet on and climbing on behind her with only a small defeated sigh. Being driven away from some sort of crime scene on the back of a bike was almost becoming habit at this point. And one he certainly would like to break.
───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
It’s so late I’m not sure I should tag anyone but thanks to @davrinsleftpectoral and @jukkaricity for the tag and just in case you haven’t done it and would like to do it I’ll gently tag @kabsey @aetherflowers @seaglassmelody
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ilvero-love · 2 years ago
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Establishing Locklyle đŸ’™đŸ–€âš”đŸ‘»
Whilst the books may not have ramped things up between our dashing heroes until Book 3, Complete Fiction hit the ground running. It's clear from the opening scenes of Lockwood and Co that these are our canon couple.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. What I really want to do with this post is look in detail at how well the opening scenes of this series are put together, especially in the context of Locklyle. Warning, it's a long one, but there's just so much to unpack.
The show opens with a mysterious couple walking. We see their kit well before we see their faces. But it’s the dialogue between them that provides the real hook. It's intelligent and immediately starts to build the world we are entering.
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In these opening moments of the series, those of us new to the world of Lockwood and Co don’t quite follow the context of the exchange, yet in the hands of these two it doesn’t matter. The dialogue is clever, natural and, importantly, has just the right amount of snark.
Lockwood's response of "No need to be facetious" indicates that he is not cowed by Lucy's criticism and her later response, with accompanying knowing grin, of 'Thought you said there was no time to be facetious', hints at an already established mutual understanding and connection. But I'll come back to this in a moment.
When they meet Mrs Hope, Lockwood immediately slips into business mode, reassuring her of their capability. She looks uncertain but it's the first hint we get of Lockwood's charm and confidence, such a large part of his literary character throughout the book series.
Lucy, however, is not so diplomatic and immediately says adults are useless anyway. Lockwood, ever conscious of impressing the client, gives Lucy a look causing her to clarify what she means.
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This was a change from the book where it is Lockwood who is dismissive of adults and Lucy soothes it over with explanation. However, Complete Fiction have made a clever change here. Having Lucy deliver the line is much more consistent with their characters, reflecting Lockwood's charm and Lucy's more acerbic edge. In fact much of this interaction with Mrs Hope is reversed from the books and I think it works better to establish the characters of Lucy and Lockwood.
With Mrs Hope's departure, we move inside the home and get our first understanding of their skills. We see Lucy and Lockwood as they tune into the house and see Lucy's point of view as she vividly experiences Mr Hope's death.
I love this scene. The ease as Lockwood laughs and leans against the wall. Lucy's feistiness as she challenges him with justification for her reaction. His response? He offers tea. The first reference to what we will come to know as a staple of their world.
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The warmth of the kitchen offsets the ghostly greenish glow of the rest of the house. It's a very cosy, warm and domestic scene. It works to establish a sense of the calm before the storm.
As they discuss the backstory of the haunting, I adore Lockwood's question "Sarcastic or ironic?" and Lucy's response of "The cleverer one" is perfect 👌 One more example of the easy banter between them.
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From here we move back upstairs to find ourselves a ghost đŸ‘»
The world building in these opening scenes is considerable. It's hard to believe it all happens in the space of 8 minutes.
I spoke earlier about how they seem to have a connection already. In the books Lucy has been with the company for around 6 months but, in Complete Fiction's universe she is only new to the company.
Which means that she, like us, is a bit unsure about Lockwood's ability. He is clearly charming and the leader but Lucy's criticism about trying to make contact with the living coming on top of his failure to pack the chains, means we're not quite sure and then we're left with Lucy dangling over a deadly drop and the opening credits roll.
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It must be said that Complete Fiction have put this opening episode together so well. We don't get to see what happens with Lucy for another half hour and I admit by then, I'd almost forgotten our beginning.
We delve into Lucy's backstory which I won't go into detail over here, that's a separate post altogether. We do however get to see the development of the connection that Lucy and Lockwood clearly have and it's evident from when they first lay eyes on each other that there is a mutual connection.
There's so much to pull apart here: George's disdain, Lucy's rising feistiness as a direct consequence and Lockwood overseeing it all. The delight with which Lockwood shows her 35 Portland Row, Lucy's obvious pleasure at finding somewhere to stay, a place that could be home.
But it's the growing connection between Lucy and Lockwood that is clear. So much so that by the time of the final exchange between them in the library, Lucy is comfortable enough with Lockwood to call him out over his overstating of the standing of "Lockwood & Co". I love Lockwood's calm explanation that it was a mild exaggeration and that lots of people make them, much like she did when she exaggerated her rapier prowess ⚔
It's reflective of Lucy's inner resolve that once she realises Lockwood is not concerned by her omission, she challenges him by asking: "How do I know you're good enough for me?"
Cue the perfect segue back to her dangling over the stairwell precipice.
Now it's Lockwood's turn to shine and turns out, yes, yes he is good enough for her đŸ–€đŸ’™
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After fighting the ghost off, with some pretty impressive moves to be honest, Lockwood grasps Lucy from falling and here, here is the moment where Locklyle is canon.
Yes I know he's just saved her from certain death, but the way they cling to each otherđŸ€—đŸ˜đŸ’™đŸ–€
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Let's just take a moment to savour this scene 😍
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Sigh đŸ˜đŸ€—
Now, where were we?
Lockwood is so shaken by the events that he is ready to retreat, it's Lucy that wants to push on. Ironically, it's her that is reckless at this point. The desire to understand the ghost's pain drives her on and provides an early indicator of a major plot point for upcoming episodes and indeed seasons (🙏🙏Manifesting like crazy đŸ’™đŸ–€đŸ§Ą)
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The rest of the episode unfolds at pace. They find the body, Lucy grabs herself a souvenir and saves Lockwood from Ghost lock. It's just unfortunate that it results in the ultimate destruction of the house.
But our canon couple are locked in. There's no going back from here, they just go deeper and deeper.
And we willingly go along for the ride đŸ€—đŸ’™đŸ–€
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illegiblewords · 2 years ago
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Serious talk about meta under the cut.
I don't know who might need to hear it, but fwiw mental flexibility is a huge part of analysis (and interacting with other humans lol). You need to be able to account for multiple possibilities when examining a work, or understanding a social exchange. You need to be able to separate what is objective fact from your own subjective interpretation and judgment. The most negative interpretation is not automatically the most worthwhile or true. Someone throwing accusations around in-line with their own worst interpretations does not guarantee those accusations are warranted. You are not a bad or stupid person for disagreeing. Shit needs to withstand scrutiny. I don't always strike the right balance myself. I do the best I can but I'm definitely not perfect. Tbh I'm not beyond pettiness either--although I try to keep that out of actual analysis lol. There have been times I've griped to friends privately or blogged about how I felt (sans tags, with spoiler blocks so people can opt out). I've griped recently. I'm bound to gripe again in the future. Some level of griping is inevitable imo and I figure no one is 100% immune.
All that said, even if someone’s take isn't canon AND even if it's something I really dislike--I'd personally rather people follow their passions anyway. Hands down. I could be in the middle of a rant and my answer would still be that the subject of my frustration gets to exist. I'm not the boss and odds are we're going with different versions in our own heads. Discouraging another fan from creating due to my preferences or narrative approach would horrify me. I've seen fandoms where gatekeeping like that killed the creative community and it was fucking awful.
Not everyone is confident in their own judgment. Not everyone faced with a pissed off person trying to use lore and accusations like clubs will feel okay continuing with their own vision. Elitism and manipulation (especially through rhetoric) can be present within analysis. People are not being taught how to recognize those things properly. Analysts aren't always aware or invested enough to even be careful. It’s legit easy to get caught up in ideas or feelings to the point of forgetting about other people’s, and adjusting to account for alternate approaches takes some work. For me at least, I think having a 'no insults' policy and being super careful when it comes to absolute claims (assertions not qualified by 'I think' or 'it could be argued') helps.
Anyway. Just because a person calls something ‘meaningless’ doesn't make it meaningless. Someone pooh-poohing an observation you made doesn't make your observation less true or important. Employing a literary term doesn't mean that individual actually understands the term, how it works, or how to apply it. Which is to say nothing of romantic chemistry or whatever. I encourage readers to extrapolate on this. ‘Shallow’ could apply as much as ‘meaningless’. Denying parallels exist by itself doesn’t actually negate those parallels. Your version of a character may not be the same as the fan next to you’s and that difference doesn't have to detract. There's more I could say on the subject (I've edited out a lot) but basically--just because another fan isn't into what you're doing doesn't automatically make what you're doing wrong, immoral, shoddy, or otherwise less.
Seriously, vet shit. Question the entire premise an analyst tries to establish then decide for yourself if it holds water. Turn over word choices and assertions in your head before deciding if they're appropriate. Do it to me too. I don't care if someone is the holy goddamn emperor of analysts. Just because a person says something is good or bad, true or false, whatever the hell doesn't make it so. Just because a person uses a technical term doesn't mean they're discussing it effectively. Quality of argument matters beyond the packaging it’s wrapped in. It's important to protect yourself from people whose priority is enforcing their own preferences, including dismissing things they aren't partial to.
I just don't want anyone shamed silent man. Not even people whose takes drive me up the fucking wall. Neither I nor any other analyst is an authority here. And there are people who are absolutely ready to take advantage of other people’s insecurities to assert themselves. Might not even be malicious, just indifferent.
For me, analysis feels kind of like uncovering a dinosaur skeleton. I want to share the cool and exciting things I find with other people. Sometimes I might be sorting out what my own thoughts and feelings are. It's also possible to examine why you're uncomfortable with something, or why you love something another person hates, while making very clear what is YOUR READING and not THE READING. Offering a variety of possibilities is very different from presenting yourself as the only correct one. One note at the end when everything else was insulting and intolerant is like a band-aid over a wound.
EDIT: As a last point, that I'm throwing in just-in-case. If anyone reading this thinks they may have overreached and done stuff I've mentioned + feels shitty about it
 that's still not the end of the world. It’s okay. This is hard stuff to learn and I really don't think anyone's perfect at it. Worth the effort though. Just gotta take a deep breath, acknowledge you're a fallible human same as everyone else, and do the best you can going forward. Life goes on.
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tavina-writes · 2 years ago
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Thanks to @thebiscuiteternal for tagging me! :D
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
I have 192 public works on AO3 at the moment, and a [redacted] amount unrevealed as part of various ongoing exchanges I'm writing for!
2. What's your total AO3 word count? 1,244,211
3. What fandoms do you write for? I think I mostly write for MDZS at the moment, but Naruto is the major fandom I've spent the past ten or so years in, so it's always going to be my favorite. I also write for ASOIAF, various book fandoms, various other cdramas...etc.
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Oh dear.
A Bolt of Silk - Naruto - 2,180
Prophet - Naruto - 1,889
My Teeth In Your Heart - ASOIAF - 1,833
Time Travel Tandem - Naruto - 1,593
It's not time that passes - Naruto - 1,521
None of my MDZS fic makes the list but I think that's normal! I've only been in the fandom for a year and a half, and I mostly write niche stuff so this makes perfect sense to me!
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
I answer comments sometimes! With irregularity because "answering comments" gets filed in the "send emails" part of my brain and I spend a lot of my professional life sending emails so it's more difficult to reply to comments. I also get concerned when I don't have a lot of say in response to a comment because I'm afraid that I don't sound too enthused when I respond with "Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!" or maybe get too infodumpy with my responses to some questions. In short I think I psyche myself out of responding to comments and I'm trying to do better about it.
6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Hmmm this is a difficult one. I don't think I go for angsty endings as much as I go for like, hopeful or not utterly bleak ones? I think that the ending for An Inherited Creature where WZL and JYL are still married and still stuck in Nightless City might be the suckiest ending, though the ending of maybe I'd make it alive where YZY and Madam Jin are just on the cusp of marrying their canonical husbands is on a level of aaaa re: how we know this story ends.
7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
I DEFINITELY think this is A Bolt of Silk considering that right after the ending I wrote them a 6 chapter, 30k wedding epilogue where everything goes great!
8. Do you get hate on fics?
Man. I would say no except sometimes I can recount really terrible stories. Mostly I think I don't get hate because my readers tend to be very kind, but I have, gotten some pretty odd and preachy comments at times. Once notably, when someone told me that I shouldn't've translated the nobility titles for a certain fic and kept them in the original Chinese, and I was about to respond with "my brother in Christ, we are in a Naruto fic and I am already stretching canon like a rubber band. Lets not make readers learn SO MUCH NEW WORD?" Or that one time when someone didn't. Read my fic but wanted to shill theirs in to me in the comments of my fic. But it's mostly odd and mildly entitled rather than hate commenting.
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
I DO write smut! This is a new accomplishment, but I have skipped right to the sexy sexy noncon/dubcon object insertion porn instead of uhhh any of the tamer things in between that and "literary sex scene where everyone is miserable"
10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?
I don't really write crossovers! I have a hard time figuring out how characters from one story would react to the characters of a different one. :(
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
A number of times yeah. It's bothered me before but like, mostly nowadays I'm just like "in the year of our lord 202X?????"
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
I have not! It sounds like it would be really flattering but also So Much Work since I write longfic so often.
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
I have occasionally but they've never really been posted. @autumnslantern very patiently listens to me yell about all of my fic ideas in her dms a lot though, which I consider vital to my writing process. Does that count as cowriting? :D
14. What's your all-time favorite ship?
Man this changes by day. I'm also a consummate multishipper so I can't say I have an all time favorite and more just yelling about "ISNT THIS NEAT?" about the niche thing I've discovered recently.
15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?
God. I have no idea. If I've posted a wip I hope to finish it but I have no idea. Maybe some of my oldest Naruto works might never get done.
16. What are your writing strengths?
I like to think I handle emotionality, stories that occur over a long period of time, and atmosphere in a piece really well!
I also really like writing about grief and mourning, trauma, and trying to define ourselves inside difficult family histories. I enjoy writing about character histories, and how that informs their present, as well as complicated loyalties and internal conflict, but the jury's out on whether I can count those as strengths lol.
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
Man. Plot. Plot. Plot. The weakness is always the plot. I love a good parallel but a parallel is not a plot. Also at one point one of my fics was 30% man sitting sadly in a bathtub nearly dying by volume (like 3 out of 9 scenes in that fic was just this man having a bad time in a bathtub) and this is not a plot either lolll. I admire the people who can write a tightly plotted fic so much, godIwishthatwereme.jpeg. Also I'm perennially long-winded so I also think I struggle a lot with writing a 1.5k-2k fic where just, a snapshot happens. I love admiring other people's beautiful oneshots as well.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
I don't tend to do this with dialogue though I'll include words from other languages depending. I feel like it's always so difficult to like, get the reader to know what you meant with [dialogue snippet in different language] but I've seen this handled really well in fic before so like, it does work!
19. First fandom you wrote for?
Oh definitely Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils by Jin Yong when we were in the pits of that 13 year translation of the work. I wrote like, speculative fic based on what we already had? But mostly scene snippets and outline ideas of what would happen instead of formal fic. None of that was ever published anywhere though. In terms of "Fandom Where I First Published Fic on the Internet" it's probably Katekyo Hitman Reborn I was really big on that fandom in 2014. You won't take me alive on where that fic is though lmao.
20. Favorite fic you've written?
In terms of best written and most beloved to me at the moment and also complete it's definitely but I'm not in charge of sorrow (so please don't ask me when). How will I ever get over NHS's post canon journey in that fic honestly.
uhhh let's see, @im-sublimey, @woobifiedvillain, @lgbtlunaverse, @cerusee and anyone else who sees this and wants to play? If you've been tagged in this game already sdjdgkah APOLOGIES.
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sapphire-weapon · 5 months ago
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"Do I need to create an "identifying propaganda" flowchart for you guys when I get home? Is that what needs to happen?"
Please yes
okay so i tried to put one together, but it was becoming so fucking mammoth and unruly that it just wasn't realistic to actually post it onto tumblr.
so let me just say that
literary analysis and arguing over canonical facts-of-the-matter are two completely different things. they should not be viewed with the same lens. if someone is saying that they're doing story analysis, whatever conclusion they draw should be universally understood as their interpretation. you can't determine whether someone's analysis is true or false, because it's not a statement of fact and shouldn't be seen that way. you can, however, determine if a person's analysis is valid.
so i will provide you with two checklists.
one for arguments of canonical facts-of-the-matter and one for judging whether a person's story analysis is valid.
for story analysis...
the OP shows proper and reasonable understanding of the events happening in a scene/story
the OP takes into consideration the full context of the scene or line of dialogue being discussed, including... - the overall mood/emotion of the scene - other events happening in the scene - the events that led the characters to that scene or that line of dialogue - the external pressures on the characters outside of that scene or that line of dialogue - the history between the characters in question (if applicable) - the effects of the scene or line of dialogue on the characters' arcs
the OP shows proper and reasonable understanding of literary tropes, techniques, and symbolism in general
the OP's conclusion maps with the story's themes and the characters' arcs
(if not invoking death of the author) the OP takes into consideration genre and audience standards/expectations (even when talking about subversions)
the more checks or "yes"es you have on this list, the more valid the analysis is.
10/10 is a full, proper, valid analysis of a work.
9/10 is mostly valid.
8/10 should be questioned.
7/10 should be seriously challenged.
6/10 and below should be discarded.
with that being said, just because someone hits 10/10 on this checklist, that doesn't mean that they're Objectively Right. because another person can come in, look at the exact same work or scene or line of dialogue, and also hit a 10/10 but come away with an entirely different conclusion.
it's what i've been begging aeons to do. i've been begging aeons to find me on 10/10 Mountain and bring to me their alternate conclusions. but none of them can climb the mountain, it seems LMAO
now
for canonical facts-of-the-matter (like the google docs flying around)...
information is consistent (i.e. not jumping between languages)
clear standards for what counts as "canon" that are rigorously upheld -- and a reasonable explanation for what justifies those standards
accurate translations and explanations behind the translations as a showing of good faith that OP understands both the original language and the language they're translating into
information is presented clearly and in proper chronological order in order to form a coherent train of thought
quotes are given in their full context (i.e. not just one or two lines or sentences), including... - (if pulling from an interview) the question that was asked and the full answer that was given - an understanding of the speaker's goal in saying what they did - who the speaker is - what role the speaker had on the project and a justification as to why their words matter - when the quote was said - whether the speaker is even still attached to the series -- and, if not, when and why they left - (if pulling from the game/series itself) the entire scene a dialogue exchange takes place in and an explanation of where/why in the story it occurs
clear, accessible primary sources
historical context for what else was happening in the series, the company, and the industry overall at the time that the events occurred or the quoted statements were made and how that's reflected in the final product
again, the more checks or "yes"es you have from this list, the more reliable what you're reading is. i'm not sure that the google doc i was sent earlier that was meant to "debunk" aeon checks off A SINGLE THING here. at best, it hit 2. and that's fucking abysmal.
the fewer checks or "yes"es, the more likely something is to be propaganda.
anything that only checks off 6 points or less should be completely written off as trash garbage propaganda.
7 to 9 is really shaky and should get hard checked.
10 to 13 can generally be assumed to be trustworthy; someone would really have to go out of their way and be really insidious to hide an agenda in something that scores that high (like, say, the guys who run the fan wiki for RE -- but that's another story).
hope this helps.
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oneminutereviews · 1 year ago
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How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
Novels, short stories, poems and plays all use a large set of conventions that are specific to the genre they belong to. In addition, there is a large set of conventions that work across these genres. Learning to recognise these conventions requires practice. This is one of the main messages of Thomas C. Foster’s book How to Read Literature Like a Professor.
Foster is a professor at the University of Michigan–Flint and has taught literature for more than three decades. He wrote his book mainly for adult returning students, who tend to ask more questions than traditional students about how literary interpretation works. To his surprise, Foster later noticed that his book was also picked up by teachers and used in secondary-school classrooms (more specifically, “high school” in American English). He even got invited to talks where secondary-school pupils asked him to sign copies of his book.
The sorts of conventions that Foster’s book focuses on are those that allow you to read between the lines: story patterns (for example, the quest), allusions and symbols. Due to the diversification of the canon, authors can no longer assume a common body of literature that their readers are familiar with (chapter 7). The sources of allusions that Foster discusses are Shakespeare, the Bible, “myth” in a broad sense (“myth is a body of stories that matter”) and children’s literature (chapters 5–8).
A large part of the book is devoted to explaining many types of symbolism: meals (“whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion”, chapter 2), the different guises of vampirism (“ghosts and vampires are never only about ghosts and vampires”, chapter 3), weather phenomena such as rain and snow (chapter 9), violence (chapters 10–11), flight (“flight is freedom”, chapter 15), symbols for or coded references to sex (chapter 16), sex itself as a symbol (chapter 17), symbols for baptism (chapter 18), geography as a symbol (“when writers send characters south, it’s so they can run amok”, chapter 19), the seasons (chapter 20), deformities and other physical features (chapter 21–22), and heart disease and other illnesses (though not all diseases are created equal, chapter 23).
In Chapter 12, which is titled “Is That a Symbol?” he discusses a few common problems with the detection and interpretation of symbols. The first problem is that many readers expect a symbol to mean one particular thing, and one thing only. It is true that some symbols, such as a white flag, have a limited range of meanings, but unless you are dealing with allegory, there are usually several valid interpretations. Another problem with symbols is that many readers only look at objects and images as potential symbols and ignore events and actions. Foster mentions Robert Frost as a poet who often used action as a symbol. I would have appreciated it if the author had expanded on this type of symbols by discussing several examples. In a later chapter, Foster also explains the difference between widely understood symbols and symbols that have a specific meaning within a particular author’s work.
Foster also points out (in bold) that “characters are not people” but “products of writers’ imagination—and readers’ imagination” (chapter 8). Terry Eagleton made the same point in the first chapter of his book How to Read Literature (2013), but it bears repeating. On forums and question-and-answer sites about literature, people often ask questions that imply that characters should behave like real people, even in works of literature dating from periods when real human behaviour was not the main source of inspiration for characters’ behaviour. (See, for example, some of the questions tagged ‘character-analysis’ on Literature Stack Exchange.)
One of the last chapters reproduces Katherine Mansfield’s well-known short story The Garden Party as a test case for what you have learnt from the book. Foster asks you to answer a few questions about that story and to write down your observations. After that, he gives three examples of readings of the story, which go from a straightforward response to more sophisticated observations.
In spite of the book’s title, Foster does not look at literature as a whole but at English literature, especially prose fiction (with a few examples of plays and poems). There are few references to literature in other languages, even when including the Bible and Greek mythology, which are discussed because they are important sources of allusions and references. The author admits that a single book cannot cover everything (even when focusing only on English prose fiction). For example, form and structure are not discussed at all. The first edition contained a chapter on the structure of the sonnet but it was removed from the second edition because it did not really fit in with the rest of the book. (In 2018, Foster published How to Read Poetry Like a Professor, in which a chapter on the sonnet makes more sense.) He also points out that his book does not cover all the cultural codes that authors use, as that would have required an encyclopaedic approach and would have made his book much less enjoyable.
One of the distinguishing features of the book is how Foster encourages readers to trust their own judgement, especially in the Postlude (titled “Who’s in Charge Here?”) and the Envoi. Foster tells readers,
Don’t cede control of your opinions to critics, teachers, famous writers, or know-it-all professors. Listen to them, but read confidently and assertively, and don’t be ashamed or apologetic about your reading. You and I both know you’re capable and intelligent, so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
The book’s appendix contains a reading list in several parts: several pages of primary works (all English literature except for Kafka and Sophocles), a short list of fairy tales, a list of films, secondary sources (i.e. other books that can help you become a better reader of literature) and a section titled “Master Class” recommending four works of literature that “will give you a chance to use all your newfound skills”.
Foster’s book is a very enjoyable read and a great place to start for those who would like to study literature, or at least English prose. I highly recommend it.
Thomas C. Foster: How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Revised edition. HarperCollins, 2014. ISBN 9780062301673. (A teaching guide can be downloaded from the HarperCollins website. This PDF file does not follow guidelines for the creation of accessible PDF documents.)
Review submitted by Tsundoku.
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jcmarchi · 2 years ago
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3 Questions: Wiebke Denecke on a landmark project for Chinese literature
New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/3-questions-wiebke-denecke-on-a-landmark-project-for-chinese-literature/
3 Questions: Wiebke Denecke on a landmark project for Chinese literature
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Nuns writing fine poetry. Centuries-old joke books. An epic travelogue ending with a visit to Genghis Khan. These are just a few things readers can experience through the new Hsu-Tang Library of Classical Chinese Literature, published by Oxford University Press.
The series is modeled on the Loeb Classical Library, which debuted in 1912 and features about 500 titles of Greek and Roman literature, in their distinctive red and green covers. The Hsu-Tang Library of Classical Chinese Literature series is starting with five titles, under the supervision of founding editor-in-chief Wiebke Denecke, the S. C. Fang Professor of Chinese Language and Culture in MIT’s literature section. The aim is to bring these classic texts, from the first millennium BCE through the early 20th century, to the world, in engaging bilingual editions. There will be four more new titles next year, with dozens lined up after that.
The series benefactors are Oscar Liu-Chien Tang and Agnes Hsin Mei Hsu-Tang, whose family has also been MIT benefactors and has a notable record of philanthropy for institutions and programs in the arts, humanities, and education. MIT News talked with Denecke about the ambitious new book series.
Q: What is the Hsu-Tang Library of Classical Chinese Literature?
A: This is a library of classical Chinese literature, covering three millennia, from what is now China and from many other places. Just as Latin was the lingua franca in Europe, classical Chinese was the lingua franca of writers in East Asia, so we include authors from Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. The editions are bilingual, Chinese on one side of the page and English on the other.
It belongs to a certain type of project that you could call endowed bilingual libraries. This started 100 years ago with the Loeb Classical Library of classic Greco-Roman literature. A decade ago, the Murty Classical Library of India was launched, and now here we have a new library of classical Chinese literature. It is a great moment for world literature.
We publish translations that are both solidly scholarly and eminently readable. Our associate editor is Lucas Klein, who has a vision of literary magic that makes words sparkle — it’s something he has really emphasized.
Our donors, Agnes Hsin Mei Hsu-Tang and Oscar Liu-Chien Tang, are particularly interesting. Agnes Hsu-Tang is the descendant of Xu Guangqi, who was co-translator with Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit missionary in the 17th century, of Euclid’s “Elements.” Agnes has another great ancestor, Ji Yun, who compiled one of the greatest encyclopedias of the world, in the 18th century. It’s not just somebody from the Chinese world supporting this, but there’s a family lineage of translating knowledge onto a global stage, a symbol of East-West cultural exchange.
Q: What can we discover, or rediscover, about Chinese-language literature through this library?
A: I think it’s an important moment for the humanities generally. The Loeb Library was established when James Loeb himself said the humanities were being neglected more than at any time since perhaps the Middle Ages. Overall, we have a three-pronged strategy: First, we try to make the canonical new. Then we go beyond what anglophone readers might have heard about Chinese literature. For instance, we have three joke collections, in “The Misadventures of Master Mugwort.” In China, joke collections were very popular, and there’s a lot of political satire in there. But there is a common prejudice that China lacks satirical literature. Third, the series emphasizes that there is more than 2,000 years of common cultural heritage in East Asia. That’s a real message right there.
We publish works that are very surprising, such as “An Anthology of Poetry by Buddhist Nuns of Late Imperial China.” Many of these are first translations. We wanted a voice of the female experience, often in very precarious times. Some nuns were from elite ranks and had lost their husbands. Others were orphaned. It’s a real archaeology of female voices.
It’s a very good antidote to the idea that nuns were confined. Quite to the contrary, they made relationships they never could have in a household. They were writing poetry and painting, and it’s very empowering. One such example is Shangjian Huizong’s 17th-century poem, “Village Life.” Her husband died in prison, and she wrote three volumes of poetry, including these lines:
“Living here impoverished / I’ve lost all taste for ornaments 
 / The face of the woman in my mirror / is a flower that knows emptiness”
So what is amazing here? Obviously as a nun she was impoverished. The ornaments are hair ornaments, and it goes with a literary tradition in China to write about women in a boudoir — usually written by males, but here the boudoir implies self-reflectivity. The flower is a natural ornament; it also knows that emptiness accompanies the idea of enlightenment, in the Buddhist sense. So, she turns around boudoir imagery, saying she realizes in the symbolic mirror that she has gained enlightenment. These lines have incredible literary value.
Q: Another one of the first five volumes is “Daoist Master Changchun’s Journey to the West,” a firsthand account of a visit to Genghis Khan by a Chinese traveling party on a long diplomatic trip. Surely there are not many texts like this. What is it about?
A: This is written by a disciple of a Daoist patriarch who was summoned by Genghis Khan in the 1220s, when the Mongols were rushing through the continent. They basically emerged from nowhere, didn’t have a lot of history or writing behind them, and shaped world history. There are so few eyewitness sources, it’s amazing to have a travelogue with so much detail. It’s also made special by all the poetry in it, which in the Chinese tradition was always the main medium of experiencing reality and expressing it.
In this text, poetry becomes a way to cope with this travel experience: You start in China, go to Central Asia, like to the city of Samarkind, and encounter different people, different plants, Islam, sweet melons, and people drinking from glass vessels never seen in China. It’s a way to familiarize and exoticize at the same time. And the writer observes a person — we know today it’s a muezzin — lead in “petitioning heaven” for the Muslim prayer. This is an encounter with Islam, though he doesn’t have a real concept of that.
On the other hand, Genghis Khan is intensely interested in the Dao — or at least that’s how it’s depicted. The first three times they meet, the conversation is always about the Dao. The Chinese want to believe the other side is interested in them. Finally, this is also hagiographic text, a sacred eulogy of this patriarch, and it’s a process of getting political capital out of the connections with Genghis Khan.
Through all of this, we are really trying to develop what we call the Hsu-Tang Library style: smartly scholarly, where you feel there’s something gained in translation.
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simlit · 3 years ago
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3, 5, 10, 15, 16, 18, 23 for Kyrie
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What architectural or design aesthetic would best suit them?
industrial; this is actually a pretty difficult question, because I don't think he really fits into any one style, and he doesn't have a distinct theme, himself. He's adaptable and eclectic. I think if I had to settle on one, it'd be industrial because of its fusion of new and old; raw, barebones structure within a functional living space. In a modern day setting, I could see him being a fan of those odd flips, like old gothic churches into flats. Something about the idea of recycling or repurposing the old for contemporary use, while still preserving the original beauty and respecting the initial construction, would deeply appeal to him. He rebuffs the traditional, but reframing it in a new light fits right with his personal outlook. 
If your OC was a character in a novel from literary canon, who would they be? 
Nick Carraway | The Great Gatsby; Initially more of a hopeful idealist, and harboring a sort of naĂŻve eagerness about the world. Though privileged, Nick retains some level of moral decency and integrity throughout the novel, which I think Kyrie shares. He watches things play out from a comfortable position of wide-eyed wonder, but along with the awe and the wild entertainment comes all the vile realities of human nature. Kyrie is, at his core, The Observer. Like Nick, watches from both within and without, and while he maintains a level of civility with those he knows to have committed evil acts (not necessarily believing those people to be evil, themselves), he also has a strong sense of what is right and good and what should be done. Still, he strives for something else, something different than the monotony of his life.
What piece of moody poetry or novel quote best encompasses your character?
"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." - Oscar Wilde
What is a common misconception about your OC?
That he is devout. Considering he is a priest of sorts, people believe him to be a person of deep faith, but that isn’t true. Despite having his own personal connection to the gods, therefor being incapable of denying they exist, he dislikes the idea of higher power, or any sort of narrative of destiny or fate. He struggles with the fact that he has these gifts and why they are his, if not just by pure chance, and rejects the notion that he should be forced to use them for some purpose simply because he was born on a certain day of the year. 
In addition to devout, people often think him diligent or responsible simply because of his title. In all actuality, he’s a very detached person, and he doesn’t like to apply himself because he often sees very little return. 
What trait do they find most attractive/appealing about others?
Another really hard question to pinpoint because honestly he loves people. He finds them amusing and fascinating, and he doesn’t see “good” or “bad” traits, he sees human traits, and the manner in which they manifest would be the appealing part, for him. Pain may turn to cruelty in some, or hopefulness in others. So I guess what he would find attractive is perseverance. How someone might use negative experiences or trauma to overcome their lot in life, if they can maintain their sense of self, and prevail, even if in a flawed manner. Which is why he very rarely feels contempt or disgust for anyone, even if he morally disagrees with them fundamentally. He can almost always understand why they do what they do. But just as well he can be disappointed if someone squanders their opportunity to grow. The flipside would be he finds doing things for purely selfish purpose a sort of regression, as it adds nothing to the person’s character.
What is one thing that they only let those closest to them see?
His loneliness; As much as he is in love with observing others, his relationships have been mostly shallow throughout his life. The only deep connection he has is with his sister, and outside of that, everything feels like a formality. The few people in his life are only there because of circumstance and he hasn’t had the opportunity, prior to the trials, to make friends or meet people of his own accord. He understands that even though the Ten are also only there out of circumstance, he almost desperately clings to them as this sort of lifeline cast in from outside his glass bubble. He’s not an incredibly reserved person, so these cracks begin to show up even now. But I think it would take someone really getting to know him to see just how deeply that thread runs. 
What sort of routines, rituals or rules do they have or set for themselves?
I wouldn’t say he has any. He’s incredibly laid back and bucks against the rules already imposed upon him by the clergy. So he almost spitefully refuses to assume more. 
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writingwithcolor · 2 years ago
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Two Stories: European Translating a Fictional Japanese Novel
yoakesan asked:
Hi!
The protagonist of my novel is Sicilian university student who's working on a translation of an imaginary Japanese novel, which I would like to present as a sub-plot (the main plot features the Sicilian guy attending a local festival near his hometown).
The Japanese novel is about a young woman who has strong feelings of nostalgia towards summer, partly because of a short-lived love story she had with another girl. She spends so much time longing for summer that she can't be happy in the present.
Now, in order to underline this concept, I was thinking that the Japanese novel could end with the protagonist dying before the arrival of summer, but I'm afraid that, since the main plot features a happy ending for the Sicilian protagonist, that might be unnecessarily tragic.
Also, do you have any tips on certain aspects of Japanese culture that I should avoid underlining? The Sicilian guy loves Japanese literature, both classic and contemporary, and likes listening to contemporary Japanese electronic music. I was thinking of mentioning some similarities between the two cultures (islands - sea - volcanoes - cherry blossoms/a typical festival that is celebrated in the protagonist's hometown in the occasion of the blossoming of another tree), but the point of the novel is not to draw a consistent parallel.
Finally, said festival features people from many different countries dancing and playing instruments in traditional clothes. How can I be careful about exoticization when describing that part of the story?
More info needed
I like this concept and have read Japanese novels utilizing similar plot devices. An outsider’s perspective would be interesting. This idea also reminds me a little of The Hours (1998) by Michael Cunningham which won the Pulitzer in 1999. However, I wish you had said something more about this festival in this town so we might look into similar parallels in a Japanese context. Similarly crucial would be information about your own familiarity with Japanese literature and which authors/ novels you intended to draw on for your own inspiration for this unnamed novel. After all, the unnamed novel being translated is key. Its themes, time period, place in the Japanese literary canon etc. would all influence your protagonist and his state of mind, wouldn't it? Having done my share of translation, I have more than once grappled with the struggle of not knowing which word to pick because I don't even know what meaning the original author is trying to convey. 
I think this is an interesting question, and I like the concept of cultures shaped by similar forces and motifs being exchanged through the act of translating a novel. Speaking as a person who lives in another part of the world with unpredictable weather, earthquakes, the sea, etc., I like rediscovering aspects of my current home that also evoke Japan and vice-versa. so I invite you to re-submit with greater detail via DM so that we may provide you with a more definitive answer. 
The other question you sent on whether domestic tourism for hanami in Japan is common and which sites are favored is easy to answer through research using most search engines, so we will not be answering it.
- Marika.
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leblancsvoleur · 3 years ago
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I was rereading @justiceraffles​‘s post comparing the Gosho Boys to various literary characters from classic detective stories. I had a whole light-bulb moment regarding the question of which character Hakuba would be closely associated with SO! That’s what this post is about.
On the terms of which literary character from classic detective fiction Hakuba is closely associated with, I propose that “Herlock Sholmes/Holmlock Shears” from the Arsùne Lupin stories fits the bill quite nicely, for various reasons. As ridiculous as this concept sounds BUT hear me out.
So some of you may be wondering, but isn’t “Herlock Sholmes” just a misspelling of Sherlock Holmes to avoid a lawsuit by Maurice Leblanc for putting Conan Doyle’s character in his own story?
Yes, you are right. However, the Holmes and Watson that appear in the Lupin stories is, dare I say, completely OOC from the canon Holmes. Maurice Leblanc is a fanfic writer with questionable quality on characterization, so to speak. It is for this reason that I think “Herlock Sholmes/Holmlock Shears” can be considered to be a different and separate character from Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.
—and, it is precisely the association with Lupin that makes this parody of the great detective a fitting candidate on this subject. For one, it is clear that Hakuba is originally created to be the Sherlock Holmes to Kaito’s Lupin–from his nationality, his appearance to the initials of his name–much like “Holmlock Shears,” as Herlock Sholmes is called in later Lupin books.
However, unlike Shinichi/Conan who has his own series and story outside of catching KID, Hakuba’s role in the story of Magic Kaito is tied to Kaitou KID. He doesn’t really have agency outside of the initial reason he was written into the story.
We don’t learn much about Hakuba’s life–the character quirks that he shows in his initial appearance (his catchphrase question, pocket watch, Holmes cosplay, obsession with measurements & time) don’t come up again in later chapters. His caretaker doesn’t have a name, his hawk was only ever mentioned in his Detective Conan cameo and never in Magic Kaito.
Hakuba’s involvement in the story tends to be relegated to the sidelines. Apart from his initial 3-chapters appearance, Hakuba comes in and out of the story’s background at random. He has little presence and is essentially low-threat to KID, usually arriving only after KID has left the scene.
In this sense, Hakuba is treated by the narrative as an afterthought, an inferior version of Shinichi/Conan’s Sherlock Holmes. In comparison, Shinichi/Conan is much more involved in the process of catching KID, he is a threat to KID whenever he shows up and is treated as such by the story.
Taking aside the advantage that Shinichi/Conan has by being the protagonist in his own series, let’s compare the Black Star Arc (Magic Kaito ch23-24) to the Midnight Crow Arc (ch31-33) & Sun Halo Arc (ch34-36). 
Black Star Arc.
In Black Star, Shinichi is a distant presence inside a helicopter. Despite not being anywhere physically close to KID or amidst the action in-person, his presence is immediately felt in the story without even seeing him.
Throughout the story, he is a sort of omnipresence authority above the entire scene, with calm and decisive instructions to the police on the ground to corner KID.
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What makes this story even more powerful is how neither Shinichi nor KID had even laid eyes on their opponent during the entire exchange.
Even though KID still escapes and achieves his objective by the end of the story, the tense knowledge of a unseen, mysterious figure chasing at KID’s literal heel and the close escape at the end makes this exchange all the more memorable.
Midnight Crow & Sun Halo Arc.
In both Midnight Crow & Sun halo, the narrative attempts to tease Hakuba as a threat in the beginning.
In Midnight Crow, he calls out KID in disguise with dialogue that makes it seems like he saw through him. Yet in the end, it was played for laughs — it is Hakuba who ultimately gave KID the perfect excuse to escape.
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In Sun Halo, he vocally takes note of Kaito’s new motorcycle at the beginning and hints at the upcoming heist. However, Kaito himself is shown to be unimpressed in response–Hakuba is not taken seriously.
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The story continues to present the police and by extension, Hakuba, as incompetent, making numerous mistakes and slip-ups during the course of the story. What is the most disappointing is not KID getting away, it’s how Hakuba is never shown to take the initiative. He is never in control of the field, directing the police like Shinichi. Even being led on by the criminals right within their midst in both stories.
This is similar to how “Holmlock Shears” is written in the Lupin stories, particularly in The Hollow Needle–a shadow of his canonical self from Conan Doyle’s stories. He was written only as a rival to challenge Lupin and as a representative of the anglo-french rivalry sentiments of the time, to be teased but ultimately to be bested by Lupin.
In Magic Kaito, the narrative is always focused on KID and the new antagonist of the story. In both, the thief is the one who solves the mysteries and unveils the mystery of other the malicious criminals.
After all, the thief is the protagonist of this story, the detective cannot be allowed to have the final victory.
Some caveats/after-thoughts to take note of — 
1. I know I said that Hakuba’s obsession with time/his pocket watch is never mentioned again after the initial 3-chapters but I was technically wrong. He got like one tiny panel of him counting down the seconds with the watch in Midnight Crow that I almost missed so... I don’t think it invalidates my overall point tho lol.
2. Of course, the comparisons between Black Star and the various Hakuba-related MK chapters are not one-to-one. After all, Shinichi had the entire arc focused on him while Hakuba had to share the spotlight with all of these other new antagonists. With that factor in mind, Hakuba’s initial appearance (Magic Kaito ch15-17) are actually much more in line with the Black Star chapters. In those 3 chapters, Hakuba is actively involved in the plot and is shown to interact directly with KID.
HOWEVER! I’ve chosen not to use those chapters as comparison as they were from when Magic Kaito was still running as a gag manga, so the tone and structure of the stories back then were completely different than the current chapters. I also consider the Hakuba back then was still written as the one and only Sherlock Holmes to KID’s Lupin–unlike currently, where that role now is designated to Shinichi/Conan.
3. The tone and structure change in the Magic Kaito manga actually started from the Black Star Arc, and Hakuba’s initial 3 introduction-chapters was written way before that point. He then had an unexplained gap of appearance where Gosho just seemed to forget that he existed–before showing up again as a cameo in the arc right after Black Star.
4. While “Herlock/Holmlock” in the Lupin stories is not as sidelined as Hakuba is in the recent MK chapters, the main point I was trying to get at is how they are both created as the Great Detective rival to the Gentleman Thief, and are written as less competent in the story in favour of thief protagonist. It is particularly noticeable in The Hollow Needle, where Holmlock is kidnapped off-screen before he even appeared in the story, remains completely uninvolved from the narrative only to pop in at the very end to do *spoilers*. And then he never appears again in another Lupin story because Leblanc got tired of writing Holmes fanfic I guess lol.
5. I’m sorry Hakuba, I love you. I can only hope that you get treated better in the story some day
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pumpkinpaix · 5 years ago
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hello there, hope you're having a nice day <3
so i've been reading a lot of fics lately, uk for sanity's sake, and i've noticed that in most of them, lwj doesn't use contractions (eg., says do not instead of don't)?? and i think he doesn't in the novel either but i don't remember lol so i can't be sure but anyway that made me curious - does chinese have contractions as well? does he not use it bc it's informal?
hello there! I’m doing all right, i started to answer this ask while waiting for a jingyeast loaf to come out of the oven 😊 many thanks to @bookofstars for helping me look over/edit/correct this post!! :D
anyways! the answer to your questions are complicated (of course it is when is anything simple with me), so let’s see if I can break it down--you’re asking a) whether chinese has contractions, b) if it does, how does they change the tone of the sentence--is it similar to english or no?, and c) how does this all end up with lan wangji pretty much never using contractions in english fic/translation?
I’m gonna start by talking about how formality is (generally) expressed in each language, and hopefully, by the end of this post, all the questions will have been answered in one way or another. so: chinese and english express variations in formality/register differently, oftentimes in ways that run contrary to one another. I am, as always, neither a linguist nor an expert in chinese and english uhhh sociological grammar? for lack of a better word. I’m speaking from my own experience and knowledge :D
so with a character like lan wangji, it makes perfect sense in english to write his dialogue without contractions, as contractions are considered informal or colloquial. I don’t know if this has changed in recent years, but I was always taught in school to never use contractions in my academic papers.
However! not using contractions necessarily extends the length of the sentence: “do not” takes longer to say than “don’t”, “cannot” is longer than “can’t” etc. in english, formality is often correlated with sentence length: the longest way you can say something ends up sounding the most formal. for a very simplified example, take this progression from least formal to absurdly formal:
whatcha doin’?
what’re you doing?
what are you doing? [standard colloquial]
may I ask what you are doing?
might I inquire as to what you are doing?
excuse me, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?
pardon my intrusion, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?
please pardon my intrusion, but might inquire as to the nature of your current actions?
this is obviously a somewhat overwrought example, but you get the point. oftentimes, the longer, more complex, more indirect sentence constructions indicate a greater formality, often because there is a simultaneous decreasing of certainty. downplaying the speaker’s certainty can show deference (or weakness) in english, while certainty tends to show authority/confidence (or aggression/rudeness).
different words also carry different implications of formality—in the example, I switched “excuse me” to “pardon me” during one of the step ups. pardon (to me at least) feels like a more formal word than “excuse”. Similarly, “inquire” is more formal than “ask” etc. I suspect that at least some of what makes one word seem more formal than one of its synonyms has to do with etymology. many of english’s most formal/academic words come from latin (which also tends to have longer words generally!), while our personal/colloquial words tend to have germanic origins (inquire [latin] vs ask [germanic]).
you’ll also notice that changing a more direct sentence structure (“may I ask what”) to a more indirect one (“might I inquire as to”) also jumps a register. a lot of english is like this — you can complicate simple direct sentences by switching the way you use the verbs/how many auxiliaries you use etc.
THE POINT IS: with regards to english, more formal sentence structures are often (not always) longer and more indirect than informal ones. this leads us to a problem with a character like lan wangji.
lan wangji is canonically very taciturn. if he can express his meaning in two words rather than three, then he will. and chinese allows for this—in extreme ways. if you haven’t already read @hunxi-guilai’s post on linguistic register (in CQL only, but it’s applicable across the board), I would start there because haha! I certainly do Not have a degree in Classical Chinese lit and she does a great job. :D
you can see from the examples that hunxi chose that often, longer sentences tend to be more informal in chinese (not always, which I’ll circle back to at the end lol). Colloquial chinese makes use of helping particles to indicate tone and meaning, as is shown in wei wuxian’s dialogue. and, as hunxi explained, those particles are largely absent from lan wangji’s speech pattern. chinese isn’t built of “words” in the way English is—each character is less a word and more a morpheme—and the language allows for a lot of information to be encoded in one character. a single character can often stand for a phrase within a sentence without sacrificing either meaning or formality. lan wangji makes ample use of this in order to express himself in the fewest syllables possible.
so this obviously leads to an incongruity when trying to translate his dialogue or capture his voice in English: shorter sentences are usually more direct by nature, and directness/certainty is often construed as rudeness -- but it might seem strange to see lan wangji’s dialogue full of longer sentences while the narration explicitly says that he uses very short sentences. so what happens is that many english fic writers extrapolated this into creating an english speech pattern for lan wangji that reads oddly. they’ll have lan wangji speak in grammatically incoherent fragments that distill his intended thought because they’re trying to recreate his succinctness. unfortunately, English doesn’t have as much freedom as Chinese does in this way, and it results in lan wangji sounding as if he has some kind of linguistic impediment and/or as if he’s being unspeakably rude in certain situations. In reality, lan wangji’s speech is perfectly polite for a young member of the gentry (though he’s still terribly rude in other ways lol). he speaks in full, and honestly, quite eloquent sentences.
hunxi’s post already has a lot of examples, but I figure I’ll do one as well focused on the specifics of this post.
I’m going to use this exchange from chapter 63 between the twin jades because I think it’s a pretty simple way to illustrate what I’m talking about:
è“æ›Šè‡Łé“ïŒšâ€œäœ äșČ県所见”
è“ćż˜æœș道“他äșČçœŒæ‰€è§ă€‚â€
è“æ›Šè‡Łé“ïŒšâ€œäœ ç›žäżĄä»–ïŒŸâ€
è“ćż˜æœșé“ïŒšâ€œäżĄă€‚â€
[...] è“æ›Šè‡Łé“ïŒšâ€œé‚Łäčˆé‡‘ć…‰ç‘¶ć‘ąïŒŸâ€
è“ćż˜æœșé“ïŒšâ€œäžćŻäżĄă€‚â€
my translation:
Lan Xichen said, “You saw it with your own eyes?”
Lan Wangji said, “He saw it with his own eyes.”
Lan Xichen said, “You believe him?”
Lan Wangji said, “I believe him.”
[...] Lan Xichen said, “Then what about Jin Guangyao?”
Lan Wangji said, “He cannot be believed.”
you can see how much longer the (pretty literal) english translations are! every single line of dialogue is expanded because things that can be omitted in chinese cannot be omitted in english without losing grammatical coherency. i‘ll break a few of them down:
Lan Xichen’s first line:
䜠 (you) äșČ県 (with one’s own eyes) 所 (literary auxiliary) 见 (met/saw)
idk but i love this line a lot lmao. it just has such an elegant feel to me, probably because I am an uncultured rube. anyways, you see here that he expressed his full thought in five characters.
if I were to rewrite this sentence into something much less formal/much more modern, I might have it become something like this:
äœ æ˜Żè‡Șć·±çœ‹è§çš„ć—ïŒŸ
䜠 (you) æ˜Ż (to be) è‡Șć·± (oneself) 看见 (see) 的 (auxiliary) 搗 (interrogative particle)
i suspect that this construction might even be somewhat childish? I’ve replaced every single formal part of the sentence with a more colloquial one. instead of äșČ県 i’ve used è‡Șć·±, instead of 所见 i’ve used 看见的 and then also added an interrogative particle at the end for good measure (搗). To translate this, I would probably go with “Did you see it yourself?”
contained in this is also an example of how one character can represent a whole concept that can also be represented with two characters: 见 vs 看见. in this example, both mean “to see”. we’ll see it again in the next example as well:
in response to lan xichen’s, “you believe him?” --> 䜠 (you) 盾信 (believe) 他 (him)? lan wangji answers with, “信” (believe).
chinese does not do yes or no questions in the same way that english does. there is no catch-all for yes or no, though there are general affirmative (æ˜ŻïŒæœ‰) and negative (䞍æČĄ) characters. there are other affirmative/negative characters, but these are the ones that I believe are the most common and also the ones that you may see in response to yes or no questions on their own. (don’t quote me on that lol)
regardless, the way you respond to a yes or no question is often by repeating the verb phrase either in affirmative or negative. so here, when lan xichen asks if lan wangji believes wei wuxian, lan wangji responds “believe”. once again, you can see that one character can stand in for a concept that may also be expressed in two characters: 信 takes the place of 盾信. lan wangji could have responded with “盾信” just as well, but, true to his character, he didn’t because he didn’t need to. this is still a complete sentence. lan wangji has discarded the subject (I), the object (him), and also half the verb (盾), and lost no meaning whatsoever. you can’t do this in english!
and onto the last exchange:
lan xichen: 那äčˆ (then) 金慉瑶 (jin guangyao) 摱 (what about)
lan wangji: 侍揯 (cannot) 信 (believe)
you can actually see the contrast between the two brothers’ speech patterns even in this. lan xichen’s question is not quite as pared down as it could be. if it were wangji’s line instead, I would expect it to read simply â€œé‡‘ć…‰ç‘¶ć‘ąïŒŸâ€ which would just be “what about jin guangyao?” 那äčˆ isn’t necessary to convey the core thought -- it’s just as how “then what about” is different than “what about”, but “then” is not necessary to the central question. if we wanted to keep the “then” aspect, you could still cut out äčˆ and it would be the same meaning as well.
a FINAL example of how something can be cut down just because I think examples are helpful:
“I don’t know” is usually given as 我䞍矄道. (this is what nie huaisang says lol) It contains subject (我) and full verb (矄道). you can pare this straight down to just 䞍矄 and it would mean the same thing in the correct context. i think most of the characters do this at least once? it sounds more literary -- i don’t know that i would ever use it in everyday speech, but the fact remains that it’s a possibility. both could be translated as “I do not know” and it would be accurate.
ANYWAYS, getting all the way back to one of your original questions: does chinese have contractions? and the answer is like... kind of...?? but not really. there’s certainly slang/dialect variants that can be used in ways that are reminiscent of english contractions. the example I’m thinking of is the character ć•„ (sha2) which can be used as slang in place of 什äčˆ (shen2 me). (which means “what”)
so for a standard sentence of, äœ ćœšćšä»€äčˆ? (what are you doing), you could shorten down to just 恚敄? and the second construction is less formal than the first, but they mean the same thing.
other slang i can think of off the top of my head: ćčČ昛 (gan4 ma2) is also informal slang for “what are you doing”. and i think this is a regional thing, but you can also use 搞 (gao3) and 敎 (zheng3) to mean “do” as well.
so in the same way that you can replace 什äčˆ with ć•„, you can replace ず as well to get constructions like æžć•„ (gao3 sha2) and æ•Žć•„ (zheng3 sha2).
these are all different ways to say “what are you doing” lmao, and in this case, shorter is not, in fact, more formal.
woo! we made it to the end! I hope it was informative and helpful to you anon. :D
this is where I would normally throw my ko-fi, but instead, I’m actually going to link you to this fundraising post for an old fandom friend of mine. her house burned down mid-september and they could still use help if anyone can spare it! if this post would have moved you to buy me a ko-fi, please send that money to her family instead. :) rbs are also appreciated on the post itself. (* ÂŽâ–œ` *)
anyways, here’s the loaf jingyeast made :3 it was very tasty.
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visiting-naturalist · 4 years ago
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Dear naturalist,
In relation to the exchange you had on Thursday with rpsocsandcanonohmy, involving 'closed canon' and dying fandoms: have you stumbled in your studies upon the Danny Phantom fandom (sometimes known as the Phandom, although the name is shared by the Dan and Phil fandom)? It is not as active as others, but what I find fascinating is that it mantains a surprisingly steady activity considering the DP cartoon started in 2004 and finished in 2007, 14 years ago. It is therefore a closed canon fandom but not a dying one. Furthermore, since 2017 it sometimes manages to trend on April 3rd when they celebrate the Dannypocalypse (inspired by the Mishapocalypse I presume). Perhaps the essence of the fandom is being half alive/half dead (if you consider closed-canon some kind of death) the same way the protagonist of DP can be argued to be, since he is half human, half ghost.
It also has some very specific tropes like vivisection fanfics, which while I'm sure are not unique to this fandom, are relatively popular/well known in DP due to the nature of the protagonist and plot of the series.
I'm not really active in that community myself, so I'm afraid I can't give much more details, and I had to investigate a bit about the Dannypocalypse, so I apologize if it is not entirely accurate, but I hope you find this information useful, or at the very least somewhat interesting.
I wish you the best of luck in your research.
Sincerely, Octubre
Respected @octubreazul,
Thank you for this glimpse into a corner of Tumblr I had not yet come across in my travels.
While I would consider myself the sort of naturalist whose expertise and interest lies in more general observation of environments and habitats, versus the highly specific literary practices you mention, I am still interested in the property of longevity attained by the community in question.
The nature of Tumblr allowing for the perpetual circulation of content and the de-emphasizing of "timeliness," unlike other locations, allows for the healthy and sustained continuation of such communities. The easy access, thanks to archives and tags, to blogs since gone into hibernation, perpetuates content created in years past by ones long moved into different habitats.
I hope this observation interests you and does not just come across as pointless rambling. I find myself a bit dizzied by the heat this week and feel as if perhaps my writings are becoming nonsensical and meandering.
I am Most sincerely,
The Naturalist
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thinkingisadangerouspastime · 5 years ago
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what do you think of aang's comments in "the southern raiders" and what they meant to katara? I watched that episode recently with my sister who dislikes atla, and assessed similar things to what certain people of the fandom are saying: "aang didn't understand her", "aang was pushing his beliefs onto her", "it didn't seem like he knew her", etc. she was more fair than those people of course because she did say it was realistic that he'd be so worried since she recognizes that he does love her.
Honestly those arguments are all,, tired. They’re outdated. They’re boring. They’re wrong. They’re a result of a fundamental misunderstanding of A:TLA canon. This isn’t to say that those who genuinely, truly believe these arguments are terrible people (obviously not lmao), but somewhere along the line they had a seed planted in their mind that posits them to have inherent dislike for Aang. And honestly? I just feel sorry for them, because not understanding and appreciating Aang means their A:TLA experience really can’t be that great. But I digress!
“aang didn’t understand her”
Oh, what’s the post? Right - “Fandom once again forgets that Aang is the sole survivor of genocide.” Aang understands better than anyone else what Katara is going through*. There is a direct parallel between Aang finding Gyatso’s skeleton and Katara finding Kya’s body. I’m not going to sit here and argue which was more traumatizing (literally can’t stand when people do that) because you can’t quantify grief like that, but it cannot be denied that Aang has experienced something incredibly similar to what Katara has gone through: the loss of a close parental figure followed by finding said parent’s corpse. Not only that, but Aang and Katara both share a unique sense of helplessness intertwined with their grief regarding their parental figures’ deaths. For Katara, there are the questions of:
- what if I wasn’t a waterbender
- what if I had run a little faster
- what if I had fought against Yon Rha back then
All leading to “Could I have saved her?” For Aang, there are the questions of:
- what if I wasn’t the Avatar
- what if I hadn’t run away
- what if I had stayed to fight the Fire Nation back then
All leading to “Could I have saved him?” Both of them feel incredibly guilty on a personal level about the death of their parental figures, thus blaming themselves. Katara tries to push it off onto Zuko/the Fire Nation and Aang tries to suppress it entirely, but ultimately it is revealed how closely they hold responsibility to their chests. For Aang, it comes out in “The Storm.” For Katara, it comes out in “The Southern Raiders.” So, bullshit that Aang doesn’t understand Katara! He understands her grief better than anyone.
Also, many, many people have gone into this before, but Aang’s example of Appa being stolen was not callous/rude/etc. Appa was the last living piece of his culture. Appa is not “just a pet.” People who insist so are the actual ones being callous, not Aang. And, as Aang himself says, “How do you think I felt about the Fire Nation when I found out what happened to my people?” Aang has experienced more hurt at the hands of the Fire Nation than anyone. There’s a great meta here that delves into Aang’s experiences as the sole survivor of genocide. I don’t understand how someone could acknowledge all that Aang has lost (read: he has lost everything) and then argue that he doesn’t understand Katara’s pain. Like, what? Do you have no sense of empathy?
But most importantly, from Katara herself: “Thanks for understanding, Aang.” She says this after her initial dismissal of him. So take it from the source, my friend - Katara believed Aang understood her. Who are we to argue?
*The only exception perhaps being Sokka, since Kya was indeed his mother, too, but it is worth noting that Sokka did not have the same experience of seeing Kya’s dead body or feeling the intense self-blame that Katara did.
“aang was pushing his beliefs onto her”
It is SO funny how those SAME people have NO problem with everyone in the Gaang telling Aang to kill Ozai the finale! Y’know, when they were disregarding the pacifistic beliefs of his people in exchange for emphasizing their, ahem, more aggressive ones? SO funny! I’m laughing SO hard right now!
Heavy sarcasm, in case it wasn’t obvious. They’re hypocrites and they know it.
But, more importantly, Aang was not pushing his beliefs onto her? At all?? Tell me where in the episode Aang:
- refused to let Katara go after Yon Rha
- told Katara what she was doing was wrong
- told Katara that HE was right and that SHE needed to listen to HIM
Here’s the thing: none of that ever happened! Not only does Aang accept that Katara needs to go (see: “I wasn’t planning to [stop you]. This is a journey you need to take. You need to face this man.”), but he allows her to take Appa on her journey. Appa, the last living piece of his culture. Aang has incredible trust in Katara, and his choice to send Appa with her (essentially sending a piece of himself with her) demonstrates this fact clearly. That should end the discussion point blank, but I guess I’ll break down the lines people seem to have issues with:
1) “It’s okay, because I forgive you. [Pauses.] That give you any ideas?”
Honestly, the criticism this line gets is laughable to me. People use it to argue that Aang was being disrespectful to Katara’s feelings and?? I hate to break it to them, but you HAVE to look at the context a line is in if you’re going to judge it. That is Analysis 101: Context is Everything. This moment is used to break tension. That type of scenario is an entire literary trope, okay? A:TLA did not invent it! Shakespeare literally did it in Romeo and Juliet when he had Peter argue with musicians about something stupid after Juliet’s “death.” The whole point is to break tension before more serious scenes. In R&J, it is before the lovers kill themselves, and in A:TLA, it is before Katara leaves with Zuko to confront Yon Rha. That’s why there’s another moment just like it at the end of that scene! Y’know, Sokka asking to borrow Momo for no reason? It breaks tension! It’s a moment of respite before weighty scenes! It’s incredibly common in every form of media! This is what no Humanities classes did to some of y’all, I swear to God. So yeah, Aang was not disrespecting Katara’s feelings with this. It’s just a tension-breaker. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news for those who devoutly believed it was a sign of Aang being a Horrible Person. You were wrong, ain’t no big thing, go drink some water and stay hydrated okay darlings?
2) “I don’t think so. I think it’s about getting revenge.”
Um, a major point of “The Southern Raiders” is that Aang was right about Katara’s initial drive to face Yon Rha? It was a quest for revenge? Katara literally bloodbends, an ability she was forced to learn and essentially feels cursed to bear? Also, nowhere here does Aang tell Katara she was a horrible person for feeling angry and wanting revenge. He simply brings her attention to the reality that what she’s currently seeking is revenge. He’s worried about her. She’s his best friend! He loves her! He doesn’t want her to kill Yon Rha because he knows that for Katara to have blood on her hands from a revenge quest would hurt her tremendously. (As a matter of fact, the audience knows - or should know - this, too.) So, sorry that Aang expresses concern for her? Apparently not wanting your best friend to murder someone is forcing your beliefs onto them? Damn. Y’all are harsh these days.
3) “The monks used to say that revenge is like a two-headed rat viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you’re being poisoned yourself.” // “Katara, you do have a choice: forgiveness.” // “No, it’s not. It's easy to do nothing, but it’s hard to forgive.” // “But when you do, please don’t choose revenge. Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him.”
I put all the forgiveness quotes together since people tend to complain about them as a whole. But like,, I really don’t see how this is Aang forcing his beliefs onto her? He asks her to choose forgiveness. And just speaking plainly: on an emotional level, it is better for someone to forgive than to murder. Killing someone is not easy, even if you hate that person with every bone in your body, and it will mentally scar whomever does it. Y’all know this! It’s obvious! I shouldn’t have to say it! But Aang knows this, too, and thus he doesn’t want to see Katara kill Yon Rha and perhaps kill a part of herself in the process. Katara is not a killer. I’m not arguing about whether she could have or even if she wanted to, because you know what, she admits she was tempted, but Katara is not a killer. An FMA quote is very fitting here:
“Your hands weren’t meant to kill. They were meant to give life.”
Why should Katara have to live with a man’s murder on her conscience, especially when his death would be a result of fruitless revenge? The answer is simple: she shouldn’t, and Aang doesn’t want her to. Katara is a warrior. A healer. A leader. A friend. But not a killer.
Anyways. Back to my point: Aang is not forcing his beliefs onto her here. He’s offering her another option, the option she ends up choosing, albeit she extends forgiveness to Zuko instead. And Prince Holier-Than-Thou (jk love you Zuzu) acknowledges it himself: “You [Aang] were right about what Katara needed.” Aang didn’t force anything on Katara here. He reminded her of her choices, he reminded her about the consequences of revenge, and he reminded her about the value of forgiveness. Never once did he tell her she had to forgive Yon Rha or else. And when it came down to it, he stepped aside, and he let her go, because he knew this was a journey she needed to take. So
 He actually did the exact opposite of forcing his beliefs onto her! He respected her feelings and let her make her own decision! Seriously, how many pairs of anti-Aang goggles do people have to wear to genuinely believe otherwise??
“it didn't seem like he knew her”
Ohhhhhh my God this is SO close to one of the actual points of the episode! So close!! It’s not that Aang didn’t know her; it’s that Katara wasn’t acting like herself. I’ve talked about it before here and here, but Katara was incredibly consumed by her emotions in “The Southern Raiders.” It’s why she ignores Zuko the entire time before they leave on Appa! It’s why she makes that callous comment to Sokka about their mother that we know she never would have made normally! She is drowning in grief about her mother’s absence, guilt regarding her mother’s death, and anger about Zuko (she still does not trust him, and yet he can lead her to her mother’s killer; I don’t know about y’all, but that is really freaking difficult to reconcile). So when Aang compares her to Jet, it’s not a far-off description. She is acting like Jet, because she’s consumed by grief and hurt and anger and she’s not acting like herself. It is instrumental, too, that Katara isn’t acting like herself, because it makes her decision not to pursue revenge and instead offer a second third chance to Zuko even more profound. “I’m proud of you,” Aang tells her, and damn! The audience is, too! I was incredibly proud of her for finding her way out of what can be a bottomless spiral for some people. So again, it wasn’t that Aang didn’t know her. It was that Katara wasn’t acting like herself (I guess meaning
 no one knew her?).
In conclusion, literally all of these anti-Aang arguments regarding TSR are exhausting and so easily disprovable. The fact that they somehow manage to live on is evidence that people just want excuses to hate Aang, plain and simple. Like, it’s so easy to just say you don’t vibe with his character? You don’t have to pull BS excuses to “justify” it? I don’t vibe with Ty Lee as much as I do other characters (although I have recently grown much more fond of her; bless the Renaissance for more Mailee content, even if some of it is just a Zukka byproduct), but y’all don’t see me twisting her sacrifice in “Boiling Rock” to make it seem like it was selfish or something (mostly because, spoiler alert, it wasn’t). Like, you can say Aang isn’t your favorite and move on instead of using the same boring rhetoric over and over and over that just makes it look like you lack critical thinking. :/
TL;DR - Aang’s comments to Katara in “The Southern Raiders” came from a place of concern. A place of wisdom. A place of love. And honestly? I think Katara realizes this, and she’s grateful to him all the more for it.
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dashedwithromance · 3 years ago
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DAISY & WOOLF - Michelle Cahill
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Rating: 5 stars
Release date: April 27th, 2022
Daisy & Woolf is a bombshell of a book. Raw, honest, and brutally brilliant, I haven’t stopped thinking about it for days.
The novel splits between Mina’s narrative as she restores life into Daisy Simmons, a forgotten character from Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, and Daisy’s own lived experienced as she travels from Kolkata to London to marry English Peter Walsh. Daisy has been left out of Woolf’s own musing on her art, as well as copious amounts of conversation and scholarship that followed Woolf’s legacy.
The story is a post-colonial excavation of Mrs Dalloway, asking the question of who gets to tell whose story? What happens to those characters whose stories don’t get told, who are blotted out from conversation and canon? What happens to characters in the margin, who don’t get the fleshed-out story they deserve? “Can I be assured that this is the right story?”, Mina asks of us and herself. Cahill answers with a resolute yes – it is the right story, and she will prove it to us, to Mina and, perhaps most importantly, to Virginia Woolf.
Cahill’s writing, like Mina’s, like Woolf’s, like Daisy’s, is an act of “scouring time”. Story-telling is a form of time and space travel, and the reader journeys from the early 20th century of Daisy’s Calcutta, Woolf’s London, to Mina’s 21st century world.
The novel is written in stream of consciousness prose that bounces between introspective metafiction, literary criticism, and a startling raw exploration of grief. The story asks us to question Daisy’s absence following her appearance in Mrs Dalloway – what happened to her, the “dark and adorable” married Anglo-Indian woman who Peter Walsh sought to marry? Where did she go once she disappeared from Woolf’s pages, was stricken from Woolf’s pages and criticism and conversation by the writer herself? If “writing is reviving, purging the past” like Cahill claims, then Daisy has been immortalised in Daisy & Woolf. The crime against Daisy and other marginalised characters like her, who have been physically pushed into the margins by Western literary canon, can never be washed away, but writers like Cahill are doing important work in the conversations about canon and representation and history. The very title, Daisy and Woolf, Daisy as the primary subject of our attention, finally the focus of the words, strips away the margin, and caresses Daisy into the centre.
One of the things I adored about the novel was its reflective commentary on the act of writing; Cahill terms that “to write is to die”, “to dream, and to birth (the verb, not the noun)”. To write is expel the rivets of grief that exists in a writer, perhaps as a result of being a writer, to constantly mourn old friends consigned to pages, to sadistically kill new ones at the end of every book. To write is to dream, to create, to birth. Metafiction is difficult genre to nail; literary criticism tackles so much of what it means to write and why writing is important, but Cahill’s take was refreshing – writing and story-telling is the centre of what it means to be human; the be-all and end-all of the human condition.
Daisy & Woolf doesn’t just tackle the absence of Daisy in Woolf scholarship, or the marginalisation of characters of colour in literary canon and society, it also comments on sexuality, immigration politics, gendered violence, climate change, among other topical issues.
Like Daisy’s spectre haunts Mina, and the muse haunts the writer, this novel will haunt me for a long time. I hope Daisy finds a home in the minds of 21st century readers; I hope we can give it to her.
Thank you to Hachette for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review, and huge, heartfelt thank you to Michelle Cahill for the gift of this book.
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storybookprincess · 4 years ago
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i was wondering what your take is on the canon relationship of killua and gon. do you think that there are signs in the canon universe that they look at each other and see each other as more than friends?
though we get to see killua's inner thoughts about his feelings with gon, we don't get to see gon's feelings for his best friend as clearly (because gon is pretty blunt and it can be argued that anything he does or says about killua might just be because they're best friends). do you think gon feels for killua something similar to a crush/more than friends/ or is in love?
(i recall seeing one of your posts and you've said that you think between gon and killua, you would say that gon probably fell in love/felt things for killua first! i think that's really interesting and would like to hear what else you think!!) â™ĄÂŽïœ„áŽ—ïœ„`♡
okay so this is a very very interesting question & i’m worried i’m about to completely fail to give you the answer you were looking for
if the question is “do you see evidence in the text that supports a reading of killua & gon as having romantic feelings for each other?” the answer is “hell yeah i do.  i see loads of it.”  but if the question is “do you believe togashi intended to write killua & gon as having romantic feelings for each other?” the answer is “i neither know nor particularly care”
i think when literature is taught poorly (and it often is), we’re encouraged to look at texts as puzzles to be solved.  the pieces are all there, and if you, the reader, can make sense of them & arrange them in the singular correct way, you will reveal the all important Author’s Intention and will have succeeded.  and that is just absolutely not the way literary analysis works.
reading is every bit as important to making meaning in the text as writing is.  seriously.  i mean that.  analyzing literature is not a one way street where the author gives you information and passively receive it.  your thoughts and interpretations are every bit as important to deciding what a story is saying as the text itself.  literary scholars don’t write papers about what an author intended to write.  they write papers about the way a text can be read.
i’ll give you an example.  s.e. hinton, the author of the outsiders, has repeatedly and very adamantly said that she did not write ponyboy and johnny’s relationship as a romantic one.  but regardless of that, i’ll bet you $5 you could go on jstor right now & find multiple papers about homoromantic subtext in that novel.  sure, maybe she didn’t write it that way, but you can read it that way.  it doesn’t matter if it was intentional; if you can point to evidence in the text that supports a reading, then it’s a valid reading.
i think as fans, we have a very ambivalent and complicated relationship with authorial intent.  on one hand, we more or less flip the bird to an author’s intentions and write entire novels reflecting our personal interpretations of and thoughts on a story.  but on the other hand, we’re obsessed with our readings being explicitly confirmed in canon.  we think that if our ship confesses their romantic feelings onscreen, then we’re right in our interpretation. instead of understanding that we’re already right.  if you can read romantic subtext in the exchanges between two characters, then it’s there.  remember, your reading makes meaning every bit as much as their writing.
so to finally get back to your original question: do i see evidence in canon that supports a reading of gon having romantic feelings towards killua?  yes, absolutely.  his constant praise and adoration, his unwavering devotion during the testing gate arc, his declaration that the very first thing he’ll do upon meeting ging is introduce him to killua, so on and so forth.  do i think togashi intended to write it that way?  that’s irrelevant & at least to me, pretty uninteresting.  i’ve read it that way, and therefore it is.
tl;dr: my canon now.  no, seriously, i’ve got the english degree to prove it.
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sapphire-weapon · 2 years ago
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First off i wanted to say i appreciate you always sharing your true opinion without muddying it up too much or trying to appease people. The honesty is very refreshing!
Okk anyway i keep seeing this take going around and wanted to know your thoughts on it (i have my own, but):
Leon in infinite darkness asks shen may out to dinner once and then later is looking forward to dinner with Claire. Do you see both of these incidents as platonic? The first one reads as flirting to me and the last one seems like an intentional ship tease from the writers (before uh, yknow, making the encounter end on a sour note... look, that one hug they share when leon saves her is ship tease 100% they know what theyre doing)
A lot of people seem to think he is just innocently wanting a meal and I kind of get that vibe with Claire I guess but... ... ... ANYWAY what are your thoughts. I think people are just simply afraid of whore leon
The way I look at it is that my goal first and foremost is to analyze the story text in a serious way -- and it's impossible to have a productive conversation about narrative, characterization, and use of literary tropes if I treat every single possible interpretation of the text as valid. There needs to be some uniformity to what I'm saying, or else there's no point in having the conversation.
That, and I also feel like there's no point in having this little community at all if we can't be honest with each other. Friendships aren't built on uwu. They're built on a sincere exchange of common interests and ideas.
So, I'm really grateful that we've all found each other. It's been so fucking awesome to meet so many people who are genuinely interested in a literary analysis of RE's story and want to brainstorm ideas and piece through things together as a team -- because this has never been my experience in RE fandom before, over the full 25 years that I've been here.
I love u all very much ❀
Ok, so as for your actual question --
I pretty much agree with your interpretation of what's going on there.
People really need to get the fuck over this weird, puritanical pearl-clutching they're doing and being scandalized by OG Leon being a slut canonically. OG Leon tries to fuck Hunnigan at one point, for god's sake.
Because, like. If you try to handwave away or whitewash the way that Leon is pure testosterone; he's a walking hard-on looking for a hole throws himself at people, you're erasing and overlooking a really big part of his character.
Leon is lonely and he fucking hates himself.
The way that this manifests/the way that he expresses this is different between Remake and OG, but that fact about him never goes away. Remake Leon puts up walls and self-isolates as though he's trying to protect everyone around him from the misfortune of having to know him, but OG Leon does the opposite. OG Leon is constantly giving more and more of himself away in the hopes that, eventually, there'll be nothing left.
So, there's a few different things going on there when he asks out Shen May and then Claire in ID.
With Shen May -- yes, he is actually asking her out. That is a legitimate offer for a date that he will go into with the intention of putting the moves on her and having it end in sex.
He does this not just because she's a hot girl -- though, of course he does think she's a hot girl -- he does it because he feels enough of a connection to her that, if she were to go out with him once, he could use that as a way to trick himself into thinking he's still worth other people's time -- even if for just a few hours. Again: he's really fucking lonely. No one person ever stays in his life long enough to form a meaningful relationship with him (platonic or otherwise), but if he can take a girl out to dinner -- hey, that's something, right?
And if he were to actually fuck her, he'd be able to lose himself in her wants and desires for long enough that he can forget how much he fucking hates himself. If he were to feel her hands on his body, he would actually feel wanted for a change. And if he were to make her come, he would feel needed -- and, if he were to make her come more than once, that would be even better. (Remember: Leon is "The Protector." He needs to be needed. He's probably the master of foreplay and will tease and touch and put his mouth on a partner for well over an hour before he actually fucks them.)
And, ever since being kidnapped by the CIA, the only way that Leon has ever been needed or wanted or useful in any way has been through physical means and the use of his body. That's why he defaults to sex as a coping mechanism before he gives up and just starts drinking. He might not have any value as a person, but as a physical body and an object -- well, that's a different story.
Leon objectifies himself, is what I'm saying.
With Claire, though, it's a little bit different.
Yes, it's ship bait -- but it's very mild ship bait, because the context for this one is way different.
Leon isn't being sincere with Claire when he says what he says. He knows that Claire didn't call him or meet up with him because she wants to go out with him or is looking for a booty call. He's not stupid (mostly).
Leon is being sarcastic and self-deprecating when he tells Claire that he was hoping she was going to want to get dinner with him. It's a sad joke to him, because, in his mind, the thought that Claire would be interested in him at all is actually ridiculous.
Because Claire knows him in ways that Shen May didn't. He can't charm his way into Claire's panties by pretending that he's something more than -- or that he's someone -- that he's not.
Claire doesn't need him -- Claire has never needed him, and Leon has absolutely no reason to believe she wants him, either.
What good is he to her, really, when she already knows the truth? She knows that Leon's only real use is as a weapon -- that he's not good for literally anything outside of an active bioterrorism situation. She knows that he fucks up everything he ever tries to do in his personal life. So, why would she want him? Why would she ever want him?
She doesn't. That's why she's about to disappear from his life again for maybe another six years. Maybe more. Because he's not worth being around.
At least, that's what his brain tells him.
It's a really self-defeating mindset that turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Him talking about getting dinner with Claire is a joke, and the punchline is his own opinion of himself.
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