#suzanne holds the mirror

[librarycard]

"labor of love," d.w.m.

[suzanne-holds-the-mirror]

moodboard of some of the bizarre religious & AI microcult ads tumblr feeds me daily

[viscountessevie]

I need everyone speculating it's gonna be Haymitch's POV to chill out; when has Suzanne Marie Collins EVER given us exactly what we wanted??

No, she holds up a mirror to our current society at hand and really makes us think and based on this except:

I think this theory by @vasilissadragomir becomes more and more plausible and I hope we really get a new take and fresh point of view of this specific Game with a Haymitch cameo!

[juicycoutureheaux]

Fixer Upper: An AU Sheriff!Leon Kennedy x Reader Fic

Chapter1 Chapter2 Chapter3

Hey y’all!! I’m back again! I’d like to thank all those who left such nice things to say about the other chapters. This story is going to be a bit longer than anticipated, but that just means more details and drama (oooh!) lol. Again there are some TW, in this chapter. (Mention of suicide). I’d like to think @alewesker & @angelscoda for all their encouragement! You both are amazing and keep me motivated! If you haven’t checked out their blogs you totally should!

You learn that the sharp dressed, curt man that greeted you and Suzanne was none other than Buckley Richards, who worked as a private stylist to Jackie Bouvier Kennedy and Lily Pulitzer.

He was a force in the dressing room, ordering his assistants to grab different fabric swatches of all different colors and textures; comparing them to your skin to see what shade best suited you.

He didn’t hold back his facial expressions either, especially when something was less than flattering.

“No, No!” he would exclaim, commanding the whole studio’s attention. “She is not a winter, she is a summer! I do not want to see those colors again!”

You felt totally detached from your body, it felt like they were dressing up a doll and you despised it. You began to dread your future, because you knew it was going to be filled with nothing but superficial moments and people.

The studio assistants picked you apart, scrubbing your face, your fingernails, just about every bit of your body.

By the end of the 8 hour session, you had been taught how to apply your makeup in “the right way,” the correct way to style your long hair and how to dress for every occasion.

When you looked in the mirror, you were dressed in a prim, but stylish outfit; your hair was pinned behind your ears revealing your now “acceptable” face; your already long dark eyelashes were enhanced by mascara, cheeks now rosy with the help of some light rouge, and your nails were now shined.

It felt as if a stranger was looking back at you. You never saw a problem or cared about your looks before today. Mama and daddy always told you that you didn’t need makeup or a fancy haircut; but, according to Buckley and Miss Suzanne, they were dead wrong.

“Finally, underneath it all, a beautiful girl!” Buckley exclaimed, grabbing you by the arm and leading you to your future mother in law.

“Y/n, you look absolutely stunning!” Suzanne squealed. “You are going to be the perfect wife for my boy! The public will just love you when you make your debut at the party!”

You just smiled a polite, but forced smile. They didn’t seem to notice. The heaviness in your stomach started to creep its way up into your throat; it was starting to consume you.

You were following behind Buckley and Suzanne all the way back to the town car, where the chauffeur was putting away all the shopping in the spacious trunk.

You said your goodbyes to Buckley and thanked him for his hard work.

“Suzanne, you’ve always had the best taste, Y/N is quite the catch.” With that he hugged Suzanne one last time and returned to the boutique.

As he was leaving, Suzanne turned to you. “We’ve invested A LOT into you my dear, I hope that you keep that in mind when Patrick gets into his *way.” She said, pointedly annunciating the last words.

“Just know that it's a part of marriage that we all go through, but think of all the benefits of being married to a man like Patrick! You’ll never be bored ever again!”

“You’re right,” you thought to yourself, “I’ll never be bored because I'll be busy chasing my husband all over the city.”

You decided to keep that thought to yourself.

The chauffeur opened the door open for you and Miss Suzanne. Miss Suzanne got in effortlessly and gracefully. Your head felt like it weighed like 1,000 pounds, and it must have shown. As you made your way into the car the Chauffeur lifted your chin up by his two fingers.

“Chin up madam, you’re going to be the wife of a very important man.”

You looked up sadly and settled in the backseat of the car, praying for silence on the way home.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxx

You arrived home at just about dusk. The cicadas were buzzing as the oranges and reds of the sunset stretched out lazily over the horizon.

You thought what it must be like to be a part of the colors of the horizon. You knew the hues were caused by scattering the different light rays; but even then you wondered if there was something sentient behind those sunsets.

If there were, did they know how beautiful and admired they were by those on Earth, or did they look down upon your kind in envy like you looked up at them right now? You wanted to be free, emancipated from your situation, you wanted to be as vast and colorful as the rays in the sky.

Miss Suzanne insisted her chauffeur take your bags in for you as it wasn’t lady like for you to bring in your own shopping. She followed you in with a good sized gift bag; you immediately knew who it was for.

You could tell your mother was waiting excitedly by the door, by how quick she answered. She ushered you all into the foyer.

“Thank you for letting me borrow your daughter for the day, she is just the sweetest thing. I had to bring you something back for my appreciation.” Suzanne said to your mother holding up the large bag from the boutique.

You looked on miserably as your mother pulled out an expensive cocktail dress and an even more expensive looking pair of shoes.

“Suzanne, I don’t know what to say!” Your mother stuttered.

“You don’t have to say anything darling! This is my thank you for letting me have your daughter. I want you two to look your best at the engagement party.”

Your mother had her back turned to you when she and Suzanne shared a friendly embrace. Suzanne winked at you and you acknowledged it as a warning. She had your mama wrapped around her finger and you would be foolish to back out of your engagement to Patrick.

Your mother said her goodbyes and you received a peck on the cheek from Suzanne.

You watched the fancy town car roll away down the dirt road as your mother was showing off her new cocktail dress and shoes to the rest of the family.

“Suzanne is just the sweetest isn’t she, Y/N? You are so lucky you have such a generous woman as your mother in law.”

“Future mother in law.” You corrected her bitterly.

“Oh Y/N don’t be so sour. You have what other girls would kill for. You have to see your blessing!”

“I’m sorry Mama, you’re right.” you said obediently. You were getting used to resigning over your power, maybe it would be easier with time.

You ran up the stairs and into the restroom. You began to take off your makeup with the cold cream you knew your mama had in the cabinet. The mascara and lipstick now melted in a way that contorted your face so much that you looked like a ghoul. You scrubbed until your eyelashes felt soft and your skin was dry.

Your face may have been red and raw, but at least you looked like yourself, or your old self.

You stayed in your small room, hearing the bustling sounds of the house beneath you. Your mother was talking excitedly to Mary-Anne, as daddy and Hank were discussing sports. You wondered if Patrick and his family even interacted with each other at all.

What would they talk about? You came to the realization that you and Patrick had nothing in common at all. When you would go out together and ride in his car, all he talked about was himself. You were so enthralled with the fact that someone like him would even talk to you, that you ignored the fact he was so shallow.

You started to shake, you felt yourself detach from your body. You had to get out of the house, you had to leave. You didn’t know where to go, you had completely sold your life for the happiness of others. You couldn’t run away, they would find you and it would be an embarrassment, more shame.

The only way out you could think of was the unthinkable. If you passed away in an accident, sure your family would miss you, but they wouldn’t have to worry about you. They would just have to worry about putting fresh flowers on your grave or telling Hank & Mary-Anne’s baby about you and how you would almost* marry the most important man in town. To your niece or nephew you would live on as a princess in a fairytale; but fairytales weren’t real and you wouldn’t have a happy ending.

Patrick and his mother could find another, more qualified girl to fix his image, someone that grew up in the right family, who knew all the right etiquette and had all the right clothes.

You had convinced yourself, it was the perfect plan and maybe you would find yourself in the sunset looking back down on the earth, where you longed to be.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

There was a fresh dew on the vegetation growing along the path, that brushed up against your bare legs as your bicycle made its way through the tall grass. You were riding as fast as you could, the crickets and frogs making their presence known by their various chirps.

You could see the lake just ahead, you wanted to take one last final obstructed look at the stars before you would join them. You had daddy’s sleeping pills he had been taking since he came home from the war and a bottle of whiskey that he thought no one else knew about. It was wrong taking them from him, but it was the only peaceful way you thought of going.

“It would be like falling asleep,” you had convinced yourself. “I’ll drink the whiskey till I’m drunk and throw the bottle into the water. They’ll just think I went for a swim and drowned.”

You parked your bicycle against the tree, and sat upon the soft grass at the embankment overlooking the deep blue void. As you sat closer to the shore, the wind had started picking you up, like it was a friend, drawing you closer.

The moon was the only source of light out in the wilderness and its brightness called to you, mockingly as if she longed for you to join her out in the vast nothingness, where you could be free.

You waited for an untraceable amount of time, the night was clear, the air was cool and you felt like you were finally where you needed to be. You had begun drinking, the bitter taste of the liquor was unfamiliar and stung your throat. You drink until you become unsteady and sleepy, the breeze feels like it is moving through you, like strings attached to a puppet.

You felt ready enough to unscrew the lid from the pill bottle and empty its contents into your mouth. You were fiddling with the lid for what felt like years when you were spooked by bright lights creeping up behind you. You froze in a stupor as you heard a car door open and shut, followed by heavy footsteps.

You made out the silhouette of a man in the darkness, he didn’t seem to notice you as he walked closer to the edge of the embankment. You saw him bring his fingers to push his hair back behind his face as he let out a sigh and lit a cigarette.

You were focusing on the orange ember of the end of the cigarette and didn’t realize the man had spotted you.

“Y/N?” The familiar voice spoke to you, softly.

You looked up through watery eyes and met the sharp blues of Leon’s.

You couldn’t find the words to speak as he moved closer to you. He found a place next to you and sat down.

“What are you doing out here?” His voice is gentle, just above a whisper.

You couldn’t speak, you just let the tears flow. Your body was still languid and you felt like all your energy was flowing out with your tears.

Leon wrapped an arm around you and you let him, you didn’t realize how cold you were until you felt the warmth from his body on yours.

He smelled of aftershave and tobacco, you leaned in closer to take in all of him.

You started to calm down after being in the embrace for a while, the liquid heat in your belly from the whiskey became soothing after a while.

Leon laid you down so your head was laid on his lap, your long hair was spread out over his legs; the moment was intimate and comforting. You had never felt this kind of comfort before. You were thinking of just drifting off to sleep in his embrace, but he began to speak.

“It's not worth it, Y/N.” he mumbled.

You looked up at him, your eyes meeting.

“What?”

“These pills, the alcohol, I know what you came to do.”

You shifted uncomfortably, and turned your head away from him. He began stroking your hair again.

“I had an older sister,” he said, softer.

You looked up and acknowledged that you were listening.

“She was caring, she was vibrant, she was smart,” he paused. “It’s a memory now.”

You raised yourself so your torsos were intertwined, making comfortable eye contact.

“What happened to her, Leon?”

“She married someone that didn’t respect her, someone that wanted to own her, treat her like property. It started off small like the altercation you had with your fiance.” Adding emphasis to the word “altercation.”

“He was just awful to her, would cheat on her, come home drunk. After a while, she finally made a plan to leave him because she had had enough. The night before she was to leave he found out and killed her.” Leon was stoic and she could see the tenseness in his jaw.

“He would have rather snuffed out her light than see her be happy, he took my only living family away. The pain was unbearable, I wanted him to suffer.”

You reached out to caress his face; he surprised you by holding your hand to his face. You wanted to kiss him, to take his pain away.

“I decided the best way to get revenge was to prevent what happened to her, to anyone else.”

“Leon, I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say.”

He took his hand away from yours, and wiped the tears from his eyes.

“Patrick is trouble, Y/N. I know you know, otherwise you wouldn’t be out here doing something so stupid.” He raised his voice, he was angry, but it sounded like there was hurt in his voice.

Your cheeks turned red from embarrassment, his words stung.

“I didn’t know what else to do, Leon! I feel so trapped, you think I want this kind of life?” You were sobbing. You were full of despair and anguish; you had been holding it in for a long time.

“I know you don’t,” he lowered his voice again and began to rub your back gently. “I know you really don’t want to die either.”

“What am I going to do?” It was a rhetorical question.

“You’re not marrying that asshole.”

“Leon, I wish it were that easy! My mother, she’s over the moon! They’ve already spent so much money on me, I could never repay them in my wildest dreams.”

“They’re manipulating you into staying! Will your mother’s feelings matter when he’s beating the shit out of you? Or when he cheats every night and leaves you alone with your children? When he makes a complete fool out of you in public? Is that really what you want?”

You just began to cry, the sobs escaping from your mouth with so much force, they sounded like choking hiccups.

Leon pulled you closer and let you cry into his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so rough with you, Y/N.”

You gripped his shirt and looked up at him, face red and eyes bloodshot.

“I needed that reality check. It's true, I just don’t know if I'm brave enough to leave.”

“I’m going to help you.”

You looked at him surprised. “Leon, why would you help me?”

“Because, Y/n, you’re innocent in all this. You deserve better and you deserve to be happy,”

You smiled an effortless smile. You laid your hand down on top of his. Your heart was beating out of your chest; You no longer felt helpless, this new sensation, you couldn’t quite place it.

He cupped your head behind your ear, his fingers holding your hair out of your face.

“You’re beautiful when you smile.”

You blushed and tried to turn your face away; instead, Leon moved in closer,keeping you in place. You searched his baby blues, for a hint of what he was thinking. He didn’t keep you waiting long before he moved his face closer and enveloped you in an intoxicating kiss.

It was sweet, not like the wanton kiss Patrick had given you before; this was full of fervor. The feeling of his lips meeting yours was akin to actual sparks. The current of electricity reverberated through your body, as you wrapped your arms around his neck instinctively, closing the space between your bodies.

Leon, without breaking the two of you apart, gently laid you down again on the soft grass. He had moved from your lips to the nape of your neck, the feeling causing you to feel a fire in your belly as he caressed your sides.

You had never experienced pleasure like this before, never in your wildest dreams would you have thought a man like Leon would be attracted to you in that way.

You began to panic, you were kissing a man that wasn’t your fiancé, and you were scared. You enjoyed it too much, if Leon had wanted to take it further you would have let him. He was making you feel too good; your mother had always warned you that things that felt too good to be true, were.

“Leon, please, I can’t do this.”

His body went stiff and moved off you immediately.

“Y/N, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me, I’m so sorry, I feel awful.”

“Leon, don’t.” You said gently cradling his face in your hands, your thumb stroking his cheek. “I want you so bad; but I've been promised to Patrick.” You could tell by the wounded look on his face your words pained him.

“It’s obvious you’re too good for him, even though he treats you cruelly.” You flinched at his words, he was right.

“What are we going to do?” You whispered, still holding on to him

He pushed the loose strands of hair behind your ear.

“I know for a fact the Armstrongs are doing shady business dealings, how do you think he got funding for his political campaign this year?”

You thought about it for a second. You knew they came from family money and they lived in a small town, but it really never occurred to you that their dealings could be illegal.

“So you want to blackmail Patrick? That’s your idea?” You said incredulously.

“You should know I didn’t come out here to just work as the Sheriff of a small town. I’m here because I AM investigating The Armstrongs and their associates.”

“Why are you telling me this? I’m engaged to one of the family members.” You were shaking now, was everyone just going to pull the rug from under you? You pulled away from him.

“I know, because you don’t want this. I know for a fact if you had any other choice, you would take it.”

You stare at him, annoyed, but he was right. No wonder he was sent down here.

“Are you using me to get information then? I’m not okay with that, Leon.”

“Of course not!” He looked like the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. “I figured you were an innocent bystander in all of this.”

Your shoulders relaxed, you realized you had accused him of something horrible.

“Leon, I’m sorry, I just didn’t know what to think, I’ve just pulled every which way and I just want to be told the truth.”

“Y/n, I promise, I wouldn’t lie to you to hurt you.”

“That’s all I ask.”

The two of you shared a chaste kiss, and he drove you back to the long driveway of the farm.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you up to the house?” Leon had his right hand over your headrest.

“The lights and noise from the car would probably wake up my family. I don’t think I’d ever be allowed out of the house again if they saw I snuck out and you drove me home.”

“Good point.”

You both said your goodbyes and you walked slowly up the dirt road to the house.

You stopped in your tracks when you saw your daddy sitting on the steps of the house and he had his eyes locked on you.

You swallowed hard and decided to face the music. You walked right up to him.

“There she is, prancing in like I wouldn’t notice she snuck out. Where the hell have you been?”

“I had to get out of the house daddy, I’m sorry it felt like I was suffocating, I’m scared.” You said and sat down next to him.

You loved your daddy, he was always there for you. It felt like recently with this Patrick mess your relationship was suffering.

Your daddy’s face softened up and he put his arm around you.

“My magnolia, I know you’re going through a lot, it’s killing me. I wish your mother wasn’t pushing you so hard.” He held you close. You felt like a little girl, safe in your father’s arms, he hadn’t called you Magnolia in a long time. It was his nickname for you since you were little.

You remembered when the boys first started to bully you at school and your daddy would hug you while you cried. He would comfort you and the next day when the boys would start again, he’d stand at the school bus stop with his shotgun and point at them.

They never messed with his “magnolia” again after that.

You wish daddy could make the Armstrongs go away. She just wanted to work her little job, maybe meet someone on her own. Leon, she wouldn’t mind dating him, he was everything an actual gentleman should be.

“Do you think you could talk to mama? I don’t think I want to marry Patrick, daddy.” You said weakly.

“I’ll try magnolia.” He said. “We should head in before Mama wakes up and yells at the both of us.”

You exchanged a hug and went back into the farmhouse feeling better off.

[7upslut]

at least once a week I think about the marketing for the hunger games as they were coming out. like imagine being Suzanne Collins and seeing that your books were being marketed as an epic love story/love triangle. or that there were quite literally makeup lines inspired by the capital.

she wrote a story about how violence (physical and psychological) inflicted by political bodies effects and scars every part of a society. and how in that society media will fight to distract from the pain and suffering that those political bodies cause. and then quite literally the media in our world focused on a love triangle that didn't even matter (because Gale was never a goddamn option and for majority of the story katniss was not in love with peeta). covergirl released a "capital beauty"collection that consisted of 12 looks. THE LOOKS WERE LITERALLY BASED OFF THE INDUSTRIES OF EACH DISTRICT LIKE THEY WERE IN THE BOOKS AND MOVIES WHEN THE TRIBUTES WERE BEING PARADED AROUND!!! absolutely wild to me. it sucks but ultimately Suzanne Collins point got proved.

she is probably one of my favorite authors simply because of her ability to write how war, trauma, and violence affects people, specifically young people. not only does she demonstrate her phenomenal skills and understanding in the hunger games but also in the gregor the overlander series. she does it in different ways but in both I find it to be very effective.

in gregor, at the end of the series, he stands in front of a mirror and he looks at himself. he sees scars and he thinks about things that he won't be able to do anymore without getting asked questions. like going to the doctors or wearing shorts or going swimming with his friends. he mourns a normalcy that he did not and will not ever have. even though his life isn't consumed by war and battle anymore it will never be the same and there will always be a part of him in that.

I think the end of the hunger games is very similar to that. katniss talks about the terror that she felt when she first got pregnant. during her games she mentions that victor's children tend to be drawn more often than not and how she would never want that. even after the war, when she is relatively safe and her children are not at risk of going into the games, they hold on to her. she will never have a day where she's not afraid or affected by her past even if she is now safe and living a good life.

[serpent-of-hope]

May the Love Triangle Be Ever in Your Favour

The Hunger Games is trending (for some unknowable reason) and as my favourite YA series, let’s honour that with a long rant about the series’ infamous love triangle

SPOILER WARNING: Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

IMO, one of the greatest triumphs of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is her masterful ability to make basic political science concepts and political theory not only palatable to a general youth audience but also making them entertaining.

Considering this, I want to take a deep dive into an aspect of the series that is less commonly viewed through a political lens: the love triangle.

One ugly reality of the Hunger Games is that our media ended up mirroring that of the Capitol in the promotion of the books and films. When the films first came out, I remember all sorts of merchandise available -  makeup, Mockingjay jewelry, tote bags, and my local bookstore had these massive cardboard cutouts of the characters with the captions "Team Peeta" or "Team Gale". The marketing teams followed the Capitol's playbook to a tee, centralizing the romance and showmanship over this story the core themes of inequality, poverty, and the abuse of power. 

So let’s do it, let’s reclaim the love triangle from the Capitol.

In my analysis, I see the "love triangle" as acting as a metaphor for Katniss's own struggle to determine her worldview and ideology within the context of the greater inter-district conflict she was forced into. I read Katniss as starting the trilogy favouring Gale. By extension, she favours his state-level utilitarian and militaristic ideologies emphasize individual security and power using no-holds-barred methods. Within the arena, Katniss is introduced to wider Panem, the concept of revolution, and Peeta with his personal ideology that advocates for individual agency towards collective action. His choices, as the boy with the bread and repeatedly acting to protect Katniss, also reveal an ideology that presumes it is the responsibility of individuals and states to protect and support others in their sphere in as pacifist a movement as possible with the end goal of collective welfare.

Through Catching Fire, Katniss is in the thick of the "Love Triangle," but she is also in the thick of determining how she will respond to the revolution: to run away, to play along and ensure personal security, or to become the Mockingjay and use her individual agency to incite collective action for the betterment wider society. By the third book, she sees both Gale and Peeta's ideologies in action and lands on her own ideology, becoming the Mockingjay and using violence sparingly to topple not one but two dictatorial regimes. Her new ideology most closely aligns with the things she learns from Peeta through the series, hence him being her final choice for love interest by the end of Mockingjay. From this view, the inclusion of the "Love Triangle" serves less as teenage-heartthrob fodder and more as a metaphor that allows a young audience to better conceptualize a shifting worldview in a conflict setting. 

This is not a brilliant new theory. I have seen similar ideas floating around online that address this theory. But I want to dive a little deeper into how we can conceptualize this theory using terminology from political science, connecting Peeta and Gale to Realism and Liberalism, the critical ideologies of International Relations.

First up is Gale and his connections to Realism. In the field of International Relations, Realism refers to a style of foreign affairs management that prioritizes the survival and self-help of the state over idealistic ideology or morals. This model encourages countries to prioritize their own self-interests by limitlessly amassing economic and military power under the assumption that all other states are also steadily accumulating their own power. In relations with other countries, a state using a Realist model of International Relations will take any and all appropriate steps to ensure their own security with little, if any, consideration for the morals or ethics of the action. This model effectively sets out that there are different moral codes for individuals within a country versus how a country should treat other nations, with the latter permitting any means of violence in the pursuit of the greater good. The sovereignty of an individual state is emphasized, with alliances only being considered in the case that a nation is too weak to be secure by its own power alone. In this context, security refers to the ability of the country to maintain its own nationhood and internal control by exercising its political, economic, and militaristic power. This model presumes that each individual state must act in the spirit of "self-help," looking only to their own internal ability to provide security or opportunity. Most notably, this model of international relations has been most predominant in unilateral political systems, such as a system in which the Capitol is the dominating political, economic, and militaristic force with no identified contenders.

I believe the model of realism offers a clear parallel to Gale's ideology throughout the series and Katniss's political ideology at the outset of The Hunger Games. At the beginning of the series, we find ourselves in a unilateral system. Both Katniss and Gale hunt because they believe that there is no higher power capable of helping them, meaning that they must rely solely on their own self-help to ensure their family's security and welfare. Their plans for defying the Capitol focus on their own safety and are within their personal power, such as running away. When we finally see Gale in full combat mode in Mockingjay, we see that his day-to-day ethics do not apply in battle and that he is willing to use all means necessary to secure his side's power. These methods include trapping civilians in The Nut and potentially being responsible for the trap that leads to Prim's death. 

 As a foil to Gale, we have Peeta, who models the ideology of Liberalism. Within the study of International Relations, Liberalism refers to a model of foreign affairs that views all citizens of all nations as deserving of fundamental rights and the expression of their own individualistic agency within the higher systems. It sees global power politics as an alterable construct in which war is caused by undemocratic regimes and a failure to balance power in the system. This model emphasizes collective over personal security, though there are disputes by proponents of liberalism regarding whether states have a responsibility to protect other nations from corrupt regimes within their borders or a responsibility to non-intervention in sovereign affairs.

The model of Liberalism is clearly demonstrated by Peeta throughout the series and by Katniss at the end of Mockingjay. Peeta recognizes the undemocratic processes that have lead to the Hunger Games. His primary objectives within the Games are to maintain some semblance of his own ethical code and to cooperate with other players for their collective security. Outside of the Games, we see him repeatedly work to support those in his sphere of influence, such as accepting personal punishment to give Katniss bread or donating some of his funds to Thresh and Rue. By Mockingjay, Peeta calls for a ceasefire and works for the most peaceful possible solution to the war. What Gale is to realism, Peeta is to Liberalism.

Throughout the series, Katniss's ideology shifts in the same breaths as we see her romantic affiliations shift. She starts the series with Gale and with an emphasis on her personal security. In the Games, her affections swing to Peeta, and with it, she finds herself seeking ways to maintain her ethical code in war and to work together with other players for their survival. In Catching Fire, we see her interest turn back to Gale as she works primarily for the security of her and her family. When she decides that joining with other Districts in a revolution is possible, we also see her love for Peeta flourish. In Mockingjay, we see her swing back to Gale momentarily as she launches attacks on the Capitol. Then, after firmly rejecting Gale and his plans for the Nut in favour of a less violent, direct approach, we see her align most closely with Peeta and his ideology through to the end of the book, where she topples two undemocratic systems to help ensure power is evenly balanced throughout the Districts. If we look closely at The Hunger Games, where every element of the book is perfectly designed to introduce YA readers to the fundamentals of Political Science, I have to believe this applies to the "Love Triangle," too.

Anyways, If you are interested in a complete analysis of the entire series, The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy edited by Leah Wilson, is a must-read as it addresses the deeper political, fashion, entertainment, and mental health themes of the Hunger Games.

[bracketsoffear]

Slaughter Leitner Reading List

The full list of submissions for the Slaughter Leitner bracket. Bold titles are ones which were accepted to appear in the bracket. Synopses and propaganda can be found below the cut. Be warned, however, that these may contain spoilers!

Abercrombie, Joe: The Heroes Anderson, Poul: The Broken Sword

Bachman, Richard (Stephen King): Rage Burgess, Anthony: A Clockwork Orange

Chesterton, G.K.: The Sign Of The Broken Sword Christie, Agatha: Murder is Easy Colgan, Jenny T.: In the Blood Collins, Suzanne: The Hunger Games Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness Coville, Bruce: The Japanese Mirror

Echeverría, Esteban: El matadero (The slaughteryard) Ellis, Bret Easton: American Psycho Evans, Robert: After the Revolution

Felker-Martin, Gretchen: Manhunt

Golding, William: Lord of the Flies

Hemingway, Ernest: For Whom the Bell Tolls Hendrix, Grady: The Final Girl Support Group Herbert, James: The Fog Hitler, Adolf: Mein Kampf Homer: The Iliad Howard, Robert E.: Rogues in the House Hunter, Erin: Warrior Cats

Icelandic Saga: The Saga of the Sworn Brothers

Jackson, Shirley: The Lottery Jarrell, Randall: The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

Kuang, Rebecca F.: The Poppy War

Lansdale, Joe R.: Down by the Sea near the Great Big Rock Laumer, Keith, et. al.: Bolo

Martin, George R.R.: A Song of Ice and Fire McCarthy, Cormac: Blood Meridian Michelinie, David and Dean Wesley Smith: Carnage In New York Moody, David: Hater

Owen, Wilfred: Dulce et Decorum Est

Pendleton, Don: The Executioner Pratchett, Terry: Jingo Pratchett, Terry: THUD!

Remarque, Erich Maria: All Quiet on the Western Front Remender, Rick: Deadly Class

Schmitt, Carl: The Concept of the Political

Takami, Koushun: Battle Royale Thomas, Ryan C.: The Summer I Died Tzu, Sun: The Art of War

Vallejo, Fernando: La virgen de los sicarios (Our lady of the assasins)

Walsh, Rodolfo: Operación: masacre (Operation: Massacre) Weber, David: Honor Harrington

Abercrombie, Joe: The Heroes

The author explains in the foreword that he didn't just want to show that War is Hell, but to explore why it nevertheless has such a hold on human imagination. Thus, we get to see both the stupidity and waste and horror of it and the way it can turn men into monsters, but also examples of how it brings out the best in some people, and how the constant danger and the bonds among soldiers can be so addictive as to make someone who's gotten used to them feel like a peaceful civilian life is hardly worth living.

Anderson, Poul: The Broken Sword

The book tells the story of Skafloc Half Elf (actually a human stolen by the elves), son of Orm the Strong. The story begins with the marriage of Orm the Strong and Aelfrida of the English. Orm kills a witch's family on the land, and later half-converts to Christianity, but quarrels with the local priest and sends him off the land. Meanwhile, an elf, Imric, seeks out the witch to capture the son of Orm, Valgard. In his place he leaves a changeling called Valgard. The real Valgard is taken away to elven lands and named Skafloc by the elves. He grows up among the fairies there. Later, he has a significant part in a war against the trolls.

The eponymous weapon, named Tyrfing in the 1971 revision, was given to Skafloc as his naming-gift by the Aesir. He later travels to the ends of the Earth to have it reforged by Bolverk, the Ice Giant.

Anderson wrote the book during the Cold War, and it does reflect on the story. For example, the Elf-Troll conflict is basically a proxy war between two great powers, the Aesir and the Jotuns; the latter two do not fight directly because that would lead to Ragnarok, the final battle in which most of the world would be destroyed. The parallel to the real-world threat of nuclear war is obvious. Even the titular sword may be an allusion to nuclear weapons; Skafloc contemplates throwing the sword into the sea, but realizes someone - probably much less moral than himself - would eventually find and use it.

Bachman, Richard (Stephen King): Rage

A controversial psychological thriller novel about a disturbed high-school student with authority problems who one day kills one of his teachers and takes the rest of his class hostage. Over the course of one long, tense and unbearable hot afternoon, this student, named Charlie Decker, explains what led him to this drastic sequence of events, while at the same time deconstructing the personalities of his classmates, forcing each one to justify his or her existence.

The novel has been associated with actual high school shooting incidents in the 1980s and 1990s. In response, the author allowed the novel to fall out of print (though it can still be found and read), and has even explicitly requested that no future printings are made.

A rare, disturbing book allegedly linked to actual horrible events in real life, and whose own author wants nothing to do with? What's more Leitner than that?

***

It tells the story of Charlie Decker, an inexplicably volatile high school senior who decides to storm his algebra class, shoot his teacher and take the students hostage. The book became infamous after it was associated with actual high school shooting incidents in the 1980s and 1990s, with the author letting it fall deliberately out of print in 1997 after the book was found in the locker of a teenager who had killed three classmates and injured five others.

***

The story is about a disturbed high schooler who, after being expelled, shoots his teacher and takes the rest of his class hostage.

Stephen King requested the novel to be pulled out of circulation after its connection to several similar school shooting incidents possibly inspired by it. It is a real life Leitner.

Burgess, Anthony: A Clockwork Orange

The novel is narrated by Alex, a young man who leads a gang of “droogs” and takes pleasure in “ultra-violence.” After being arrested and convicted of murder, Alex undergoes an experimental procedure that is intended to cure him of his violent tendencies.

Chesterton, G.K.: The Sign Of The Broken Sword

"Where would a wise man hide a leaf? In the forest. If there were no forest, he would make a forest. And if he wished to hide a dead leaf, he would make a dead forest. And if a man had to hide a dead body, he would make a field of dead bodies to hide it in."

A Father Brown tale, filled with war, bloody passions, broken blades, and of course, murder.

General Sir Arthur St. Clare provoked a completely unnecessary military battle and defeat purely to cover up the fact that he had killed one of his men in a bout of rage. He was then in turn overpowered and hanged by his own surviving soldiers in revenge.

Christie, Agatha: Murder is Easy

During his travel back home from an overseas job, former policeman Luke Fitzwilliam comes across Miss Lavinia Pinkerton (in some editions her last name is Fullerton), an elderly lady who's on her way to Scotland Yard. A serial killer seems to be loose in her home village of Wychwood under Ashe, and she believes she knows who the next victim will be. Luke secretly thinks she's making this up, but her similiarity to his favorite aunt leads him to humor her.

The next day, Luke reads about Miss Pinkerton's death, then about the death of Dr. John Humbleby a few days later. Dr. Humbleby was the one the affable old lady thought would die next. While the cause of his death seems to be thanks to an infection, Luke decides to look into the matter himself.

Pretending to be a researcher into superstitions and witchcraft, Luke begins his investigation into the multiple deaths. What all the deaths have in common is that the victims were largely seen as pests and none of them seemed to have died by foul play. With the help of Bridget Conway, a secretary of Lord Whitfield (in some editions he's called Easterfield) who's much smarter than she looks, Luke might be able to figure out who the murderer is and stop the killings for good.

The serial killer kills anyone who is in any way disliked by their real target, Lord Whitfield, with the ultimate goal of pinning all the murders on him. If that sounds completely insane, that's because it is.

Colgan, Jenny T.: In the Blood

Summary: "All over the world, people are "ghosting" each other on social media. Dropping their friends, giving vent to their hatred, and everywhere behaving with incredible cruelty. Even Donna has found that her friend Hettie, with her seemingly perfect life and fancy house, has unfriended her. And now, all over the world, internet trolls are dying...

As more and more people give in to this wave of bitterness and aggression, it's clear this is no simple case of modern living. This is unkindness as a plague. From the streets of London to the web cafes of South Korea and the deepest darkest forests of Rio, can the Doctor and Donna find the cause of this unhappiness before it's too late?"

Why it's Slaughter: Yeah, it's anger as a bloodborne disease, basically. You get angrier and more violent, spreading the disease further -- and then your heart can't take any more and it explodes.

Collins, Suzanne: The Hunger Games

Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . . In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Conrad, Joseph: Heart of Darkness

In Heart of Darkness, various European powers are exploiting Africa for its riches and resources while leaving little or nothing to the Africans who are laboring under them. Through Marlow, Conrad shows the horrors of colonialism and concludes that the Europeans, not the Africans, are the true savages.

Coville, Bruce: The Japanese Mirror

"Jonathan is noted for having had a foul temper that made him yell at anyone who triggered it, until the titular mirror begins absorbing his anger after he gets his blood on it... and the thing inside begins to stir."

Echeverría, Esteban: El matadero (The slaughteryard)

Argentina, 1839. A young man dies for his political beliefs when attacked by a mob in a slaughteryard used to butcher cattle.

The story takes place at the height of Juan Manuel de Rosas’ reign of terror. Though fictional, it is an open indictment of that brutal regime and the first masterwork of Latin-American literature, orginally published twenty years after the author’s death. El matadero, or The Slaughteryard, is reputed to be the most widely studied school text in Spanish-speaking South America.

Ellis, Bret Easton: American Psycho

Patrick Bateman is a yuppie's yuppie. He works on Wall Street, has a pretty girlfriend, and spends most of his free time in trendy restaurants and clubs. However, he is also a psychotic killer who often hallucinates and murders people in increasingly horrific ways, often over the most trivial of provocations or for no reason whatsoever.

***

It follows the life of Patrick Bateman, a wealthy and handsome investment banker living in Manhattan in the 1980s. Beneath his polished exterior lies a psychopathic killer who preys on his victims without remorse. Bateman's exploits quickly grow more and more extreme, and his mask of sanity starts to slip.

Patrick Bateman's murders (or hallucinations of murders) are often over the most trivial of provocations or for no reason whatsoever. It is a book about the Slaughter.

***

Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.

Evans, Robert: After the Revolution

Roland the Super-Soldier has cybernetic implants that reward him with a sense of euphoria for killing and battle. As a result, Roland is a highly reluctant fighter because he knows he will lose himself to bloodlust if he ever sees enough fighting and tries to deafen out his implants with lots and lots and lots of drugs. The Battle of Waco sees him fully jump off the wagon and he ends up killing well over a thousand people while on a battle-induced high, even going so far as to hunt down escaping survivors and people trying to surrender to chase the thrill.

Felker-Martin, Gretchen: Manhunt

Beth and Fran spend their days traveling the ravaged New England coast, hunting feral men and harvesting their organs in a gruesome effort to ensure they'll never face the same fate.

Robbie lives by his gun and one hard-learned motto: other people aren't safe.

After a brutal accident entwines the three of them, this found family of survivors must navigate murderous TERFs, a sociopathic billionaire bunker brat, and awkward relationship dynamics―all while outrunning packs of feral men, and their own demons.

Manhunt is a timely, powerful response to every gender-based apocalypse story that failed to consider the existence of transgender and non-binary people, from a powerful new voice in horror.

Golding, William: Lord of the Flies

A group of boys wind up stranded together on a deserted island. While they initially intended to work together, the boys wind up separating into faction and come to grow hostile and distrusting of one another. Eventually, the boys turn to violence, malice, and eventual murder in order to stay alive, with mob mentality and fear gripping them all.

Also important is the fact that the boys are stranded trying to ESCAPE a war, and then get so caught up in fear and desperation to survive that they initiate war among themselves, resulting in a cruel cycle of perpetuating the violence and death they feared and sought to get away from. Essentially it's a commentary on war itself and the things fear can drive people to do, reducing them to base instincts.

***

Stranded on an island, the fragile social constructs between a group of British schoolboys break down, and they revert to mindless violence and murder.

Hemingway, Ernest: For Whom the Bell Tolls

In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. In his portrayal of Jordan's love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo's last stand, in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith, Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms to create a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving and wise. "If the function of a writer is to reveal reality," Maxwell Perkins wrote to Hemingway after reading the manuscript, "no one ever so completely performed it." Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author's previous works, it stands as one of the best war novels of all time.

Hendrix, Grady: The Final Girl Support Group

Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl. She witnessed and survived not one, but two mass killings and the events have left her traumatized and constantly looking over her shoulder. And she's not alone. For more than a decade she's been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together.

The support group has to keep their very existence secret. Each of the women were able to turn their events into movie franchises, to varying degrees of success. Fans of both the original killers and the films they inspired are known to stalk and harass them, along with anyone who thinks that getting a good soundbite to sell could be their ticket to fame and fortune.

Then one day, one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette's worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

Herbert, James: The Fog

an earthquake cracks open a secret bioweapon buried underground for disposal, and which causes people and animals who breathe it to go utterly homicidal. The main plot surrounds Jon Holman, an Environmental Officer for the British government, who is present at the fog's dramatic entrance and spends most of the book trying to stop the fog; meanwhile, Herbert occasionally takes us on little side trips to see what horrible thing the fog is making happen next.

Hitler, Adolf: Mein Kampf

A hateful book made by a hateful man, definetly. I dont know if you gonna put it, just submiting this here just in case.....

Homer: The Iliad

(Unless otherwise noted, translations are by Peter Green.)

"Goddess, sing of the cataclysmic wrath of great Achilles, son of Peleus, which caused the Greeks immeasurable pain and sent so many noble souls of heroes to Hades…"

(translation by Emily Wilson)

The Iliad is the archetypical war story. It traces the destructive path of the demigod Achilles, who sets in motion a devastating series of events when he refuses to fight the Trojans in a pique of pride. The infamous catalogue of ships in Book 2 gives a sense of the mind-numbing scale of a war fought over something as intangible as the pride of men and gods. The lavish descriptions of battle and the accounts of individual deaths and wounds give a sense of the utter devastation of war and the grief it leaves behind:

"Not in vain from [Diomēdēs's] hand did the missile fly, but struck Phēgeus full in mid-breast, threw him clear of his horses. Then from the fine-crafted chariot Idaios sprang down, but dared not make a stand over his slain brother, nor would he himself have escaped the black death spirit without the aid of Hēphaistos, who saved him, hid him in darkness, to ensure that aged Darēs [father of Phēgeus and Idaios] was not wholly undone by grief."

Without the help of Achilles, the Trojans begin to gain ground on the Greeks. Torn between his pride and his concern for his comrades, Achilles agrees to let his beloved Patroclus disguise himself in Achilles' armor to hearten the Greeks and scare the Trojans:

"All at once [the Greeks] came charging out like a swarm of wasps by the roadside that boys have a way of provoking to fury, constantly teasing them in their nests along the highway, as children will, creating a widespread nuisance, so that if some traveler passing by should happen to annoy them by accident, they with aggressive spirit all come buzzing out in defense of their offspring-- like them in heart and spirit the Myrmidons now streamed forth from the ships, and an endless clamor arose…"

Hector, prince of Troy kills Patroclus and unleashes the unbridled wrath of Achilles, who becomes so enraged he slaughters every Trojan in his path so gruesomely he enrages the River itself:

"Achilles, scion of Zeus, now left his spear on the bank, leaning against a tamarisk, and charged in like a demon, armed only with his sword, horrific deeds in mind. He turned and struck at random, and ghastly cries went up from those caught by his sword: the water ran red with blood…"

"My lovely streams are currently all awash with corpses; I can't get to discharge my waters into the bright sea, I'm so choked with the dead, while you ruthlessly keep on killing!"

When the River almost drowns Achilles, he's terrified--not of death, but of being robbed the glory of his promised death at the hands of the Trojans:

"If only Hektōr had killed me, the best-bred warrior here, / then noble had been the slayer, noble the man he slew…"

In The Iliad, war is destruction and grief but simultaneously honor and glory, and Achilles is only one of the many characters who move through its battlefields like the incarnation of Slaughter itself.

***

Dating to the ninth century B.C., Homer’s timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves inexorably to the wrenching, tragic conclusion of the Trojan War. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox observes in his superb introduction that although the violence of the Iliad is grim and relentless, it coexists with both images of civilized life and a poignant yearning for peace.

***

I mean it's a big ol' war story! The wrath of Achilles alone is the stuff of Slaughter-aligned nightmares.

Howard, Robert E.: Rogues in the House

One of the Conan the Cimmerian short stories http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600781h.html

From TV Tropes: "Conan is sitting in prison after killing a priest (he had it coming) when he is approached by a nobleman named Murillo, who has a proposition for him: kill the Red Priest Nabonidus for him, and he will provide Conan a horse, a sack of gold, and a one way ticket out of town and away from the gallows.

Conan escapes from jail, and, after dealing with the prostitute who turned him in, heads off to Nabonidus's mansion. Conan tries entering through the sewer, only to get stuck down there thanks to one of the mansions traps. While down there, he runs into Murillo, who had arrives there first with the intention of killing Nabonidus himself, thinking Conan had high tailed it out of town. They soon discover Nabonidus trapped down there as well, a prisoner in his own home.

Turns out Nabonidus's servant, a man-ape named Thak, has rebelled against his master, and now uses the assortment of traps set around the mansion to keep out unwanted guests (and keep his prisoners in). The three rogues will have to work together if they ever want to get out of the mansion alive, lest they fall victim to Thak, or perhaps, to each other."

Hunter, Erin: Warrior Cats

Warrior Cats is a series about a society at constant war. It is known for having an excessive amount of gore and violence for a children’s series, and this exact violence is the subject of many pieces of fanart. What’s more, the Warrior Cats community frequently animates the battle sequences and violence to music.

This is a series in which war is a simple fact of life (it’s called Warriors for a reason). There is no real end to this constant conflict, the continuous cycle of bloodshed. The series is still ongoing. It’s been 21 years. These cats are still fighting and fighting and fighting for generation after generation.

***

This one didn't get past round 2 in the Hunt and honestly I think it deserves a Slaughter win more. It takes place in a kitty civilization where the characters are very frequently battling over very important subjects such as who gets to own a pile of rocks or some cat catching a rabbit on the wrong side of the border. There's brief periods of peace and allyship, but most of the time, tensions are present and everybody is probably willing to start beating each other up if they scent another clan on their territory. The violence isn't instinct or the thrill of it beyond the fact that these are still cats who hunt prey, but it's still rather irrational in many cases. The only real path in life you can have in a clan which isn't committing to causing and withstanding senseless violence is the path of healing that senseless violence, seeing cats you can't save die and also not being able to have children or a mate ever, which isn't even something you can choose to do without approval from cat heaven most times, meaning that you'll most likely be locked into a cycle of mindless battles over that one guy from the other clan accidentally marking the wrong side of the border.

This is also how you get brand new artists in the age range the books are for drawing cat violence and death with their limited skills before they somehow become the best artists you've ever seen while still probably drawing lots of cat violence and death. These murder cat books have an unexplained impact on young artists who will be drawing the same scenes of their pick for the saddest cat death years later. It also gets people making their own stories inspired by it, which are often still cat soap operas with plenty of senseless violence (source: 9 year old me had one of these bloody cat soap opera stories inspired by Warriors), and might even lead to Warriors rps with similar amounts of violence.

Icelandic Saga: The Saga of the Sworn Brothers

"About a decade after Iceland has converted to Christianity, best friends Thorgeir Havarson and Thormod Bersason grow up together in the Icelandic Westfjords. Teachings of love and forgiveness are, alas! all wasted on Thorgeir and Thormod, who feel they are not cut out for a pacifist lifestyle, and intend to shape their lives in the ways of the vikings of old. As they believe it is their destiny to die fighting, the two make a pact that whoever of them lives longer will avenge the other, and seal the deal by performing the rites of fóstbrœðralag, sworn brotherhood. Naturally, there comes a time when the fearsome warrior Thorgeir gets himself killed, leaving the scrawny poet Thormod with the duty to avenge his death."

And, oh boy, does he ever.

Jackson, Shirley: The Lottery

“A fictional small American community that observes an annual tradition known as "the lottery", which is intended to ensure a good harvest and purge the town of bad omens. The lottery, its preparations, and its execution are all described in detail, though it is not revealed until the end what actually happens to the person selected by the random lottery: the selected member of the community is stoned to death by the other townspeople.”

Jarrell, Randall: The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

Kuang, Rebecca F.: The Poppy War

"When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies(…) That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.(…) Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . ."

Series heavily focused on slaughter and war.

Lansdale, Joe R.: Down by the Sea near the Great Big Rock

A family on vacation camps out near the titular rock. Over time they become increasingly snappish with each other and thinking violent thoughts. It culminates in a bloody massacre off-screen whose aftermath horrifies one of the investigating detectives. The story ends with the great big rock sprouting flippers, the slaughter having sated its hunger, and swimming into the sea. The fish that swim near it start fighting each other.

Laumer, Keith, et. al.: Bolo

"Bolos might fail. They might die and be destroyed. But they did not surrender, and they never — ever — quit."

A series of stories, originally by Keith Laumer, that were later expanded into a Shared Universe by other authors. They detail the exploits of the Bolo, autonomous AI tanks that are supposed to have evolved from the standard main battle tank of the 20th century.

These aren't your normal tanks. For one, their designers decided that bigger was better, and since the only thing that could really take down a Bolo was another Bolo, they just kept building the Bolos bigger and bigger, to the point where even the stealth tanks mass 1,500 tons. Or in some novels the Mark XXXIII weighs 32,000 tons.

There are plenty of examples of why this is Slaughter, but the aptly-named Final War, culminating in a mutual campaign of total extermination between humans and Melconians that turned a whole spiral arm of the Milky Way into a lifeless waste of dead or hopelessly contaminated planets, takes the cake. It is notable that plans of Operation Ragnarok, the human half of the equation of genocide, were based on a scenario initially created to illustrate utter madness of such campaign. Even the eponymous sapient supertanks start cracking under the weight of their orders by the end, succumbing to bloodlust. When one of the very few surviving Bolos, Shiva, reawakens, he is horrified by the atrocities that he himself had not been above committing under the pretense of following orders.

Martin, George R.R.: A Song of Ice and Fire

Torture, war, bloodshed, sadism... it would be easier to list the aspects of Slaughter this *doesn't* include.

McCarthy, Cormac: Blood Meridian

An extremely dark and vicious deconstruction of the Western novel, with the central antagonist of Judge Holden, a violent, well-educated man who believes that "war is god" and appears to be solely motivated by the desire to propagate violence and pain. While the Glanton gang were already despicable and vile people, he corrupts them even further into his depraved frame of mind, succeeding with all but the protagonist... who he later kills violently.

Michelinie, David and Dean Wesley Smith: Carnage In New York

Spider-Man rescues Dr. Eric Catrall, a scientist, from government agents. Simultaneously, serial killer Cletus Kasady is brought to New York to undergo an experiment that would purge him of the Carnage symbiote, which is bonded to his bloodstream. Catrall infiltrates the experiment and in the confusion Carnage escapes, taking Catrall with him. When Catrall turns up in jail, Spider-Man learns he had invented a chemical that drives people insane with bloodlust, and the government wants it back in order to weaponize it. Even worse, the serum is now in Carnage's possession. Spider-Man is forced to go toe-to-talon with one of his most dangerous foes to retrieve the serum, which could make all of New York just as bloodthirsty as Carnage himself.

Moody, David: Hater

Something is wrong with society these days. The news gives reports of people just suddenly deciding to kill other people: enemies, strangers, coworkers, friends, family. Random. Brutal. For seemingly no reason.

Enter the protagonist, The Everyman: He lives a mundane life, married with children, slaves away for a paycheck under a miserable bitch of a boss. He stops going to work and barricades himself with his family inside their home until it's over because he starts seeing people mowing down other people in real life, on the street and at work, not just on television, which has basically gone off the air, and is now displaying the message, "REMAIN CALM DO NOT PANIC TAKE SHELTER WAIT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS THE SITUATION IS UNDER CONTROL".

By the end of the book, the main character realizes he is a Hater and then kills his father-in-law with plans to kill the rest of his family save for his daughter.

Owen, Wilfred: Dulce et Decorum Est

If you can't place why the name Wilfred Owen sounds so familiar, you might recognize him from MAG 7, "The Piper." That's right: the historical Owen's poetry dovetails so perfectly with the themes of the Slaughter, he becomes a character in the Entity's first appearance in the series!

It's really tempting to quote the entirety of "Dulce et Decorum Est" because all of it fits the slaughter so well, but instead I'll just provide a link. (pollrunner’s note: they did not provide a link)

The short of it is that the poem reflects the experiences Owen had in the trenches of World War I. Owen titles the poem after "The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori. [How sweet and proper it is / To die for your fatherland.]" He therefore excoriates people in his society who encourage young men to go to war, despite never having "pace[d] / Behind the wagon we flung [a soldier dying from a chemical attack] in, / And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, / His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin…."

Owen's poem is the perfect representation of the visceral, disgusting trauma of witnessing your comrades slaughtered by the early twentieth century's newly industrialized war.

Pendleton, Don: The Executioner

"I am not their judge. These people have judged themselves by their own actions. I am their judgment. I am their executioner."

Mack Bolan (nicknamed "The Executioner" by his fellow soldiers) is an elite sniper/penetration specialist in The Vietnam War when he receives word that his father Sam, a steelworker in Pittsfield, has gone insane and shot dead his wife Elsa and daughter Cynthia ("Cindy"). On talking to the Sole Survivor, younger brother Johnny, Bolan discovers that his father was being squeezed by Mafia Loan Sharks and, on hearing that his daughter was prostituting herself to cover his debt, snapped under the pressure.

Figuring there's no point in fighting a war 8,000 miles away when there's a bigger enemy right here at home, Mack Bolan sets forth on a one-man crusade to destroy The Mafia, using all the military weapons and tactics at his disposal including heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, night-vision scopes, radio-detonated explosives, electronic surveillance, silenced handguns and the garrotte. Bolan is also fond of using wiles to turn his enemies against each other.

Inspired the character of The Punisher. Being in the Mafia (no matter how distant the link) is punishable by death. Doesn't matter if you just are an errand boy, you are guilty and must die.

Pratchett, Terry: Jingo

"‘Neighbours… hah. People’d live for ages side by side, nodding at one another amicably on their way to work, and then some trivial thing would happen and someone would be having a garden fork removed from their ear.’ When the neighbours in question are the proud empires of Klatch and Ankh-Morpork, those are going to be some pretty large garden tools indeed. Of course, no one would dream of starting a war without a perfectly good reason… such as a ‘strategic’ piece of old rock in the middle of nowhere. It is, after all, every citizen’s right to bear arms to defend their own. Even if it isn’t technically their own. And even if they don’t have much in the way of actual weaponry. As two armies march, Commander Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch faces unpleasant foes who are out to get him . . . and that’s just the people on his side. The enemy might be even worse."

Pratchett, Terry: THUD!

It's a Discworld book following Sam Vimes, commander of the city watch, trying to get to the bottom of a murder and quell tensions between the dwarf and troll communities in the city of Ankh Morpork. Thud! Is a book all about violence, in all it's different scales. Starting with War, the War of Koom Valley being a rallying cry that never fades, making every conflict between dwarves and trolls it's own little Koom Valley. From war to mob violence, fear and bile, assassin's sent to Vimes's house to kill his son with a flamethrower. Then down to quiet, horrible murder in the dark, betrayal so bad that the victim's last action calls up a quasi demonic force of pure vengeance.

This force, the summoning dark, possessed Vimes. He's always been an angry character, but also a man with supreme self control, who knows if you do a thing for a good reason, you'll do it for a bad one. through the narration we can see how the summoning dark strengthens his violent impulses and kneejerk reactions, his biases and anger, making him go on rants in his head about how "someone will burn for this! Burn!".

Although it has aspects of Dark to it, it's much more a book about the violence in people, any kind of people. One of its iconic scenes is of a thoroughly civilian clerk named A.E. Pessimal going postal and throwing himself into a riot, even biting a troll, which are made of rock in discworld!

Remarque, Erich Maria: All Quiet on the Western Front

"I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. . . ."

"This is the testament of Paul Bäumer, who enlists with his classmates in the German army during World War I. They become soldiers with youthful enthusiasm. But the world of duty, culture, and progress they had been taught breaks in pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches.

Through years of vivid horror, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principle of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another . . . if only he can come out of the war alive."

Remender, Rick: Deadly Class

It's 1987. Marcus Lopez hates school. His grades suck. The jocks are hassling his friends. He can't focus on class. But the jocks are the children of Joseph Stalin's top assassin, the teachers are members of an ancient league of assassins, the class he's failing is "Dismemberment 101," and his crush has a double-digit body count. Welcome to the most brutal high school on earth, where the world's top crime families send the next generation of assassins to be trained. Murder is an art. Killing is a craft. At Kings Dominion School for the Deadly Arts, the dagger in your back isn't always metaphorical.

Schmitt, Carl: The Concept of the Political

In The Concept of the Political, composed in 1927 and fully elaborated in 1932, Schmitt defined “the political” as the eternal propensity of human collectivities to identify each other as “enemies”—that is, as concrete embodiments of “different and alien” ways of life, with whom mortal combat is a constant possibility and frequent reality. Schmitt assumed that the zeal of group members to kill and die on the basis of a nonrational faith in the substance binding their collectivities refuted basic Enlightenment and liberal tenets. According to Schmitt, the willingness to die for a substantive way of life contradicts both the desire for self-preservation assumed by modern theories of natural rights and the liberal ideal of neutralizing deadly conflict, the driving force of modern European history from the 16th to the 20th century.

Takami, Koushun: Battle Royale

The story tells of junior high school students who are forced to fight each other to the death in a program run by a fictional, fascist, totalitarian Japanese government known as the Republic of Greater East Asia.

Thomas, Ryan C.: The Summer I Died

So much screaming. When Roger Huntington comes home from college for the summer and is met by his best friend, Tooth, he knows they're going to have a good time. A summer full of beer, comic books, movies, laughs, and maybe even girls. So much pain. The sun is high and the sky is clear as Roger and Tooth set out to shoot beer cans at Bobcat Mountain. Just two friends catching up on lost time, two friends thinking about their futures, two friends-- So much blood. --suddenly thrust in the middle of a nightmare. Forced to fight for their life against a sadistic killer. A killer with an arsenal of razor sharp blades and a hungry dog by his side. So much death. If they are to survive, they must decide: are heroes born, or are they made? Or is something more powerful happening to them? And more importantly, how do you survive when all roads lead to death!

Tzu, Sun: The Art of War

It's an entire manifesto on how to conduct warfare effectively, ranging from hand to hand combat to military tactics. It's expansive and detailed and is still utilized today despite being hundreds of years old. Also I'm convinced my copy of it IS a Leitner because every single time I go and read it to get content, an armed conflict somewhere in the world pops up on my news feed a day or two later. It's spooky.

Vallejo, Fernando: La virgen de los sicarios (Our lady of the assasins)

A novel set in the backstreets of Medellin, Colombia, captures the lives of the beggars, thieves, drug addicts, and other lost souls of a city overwhelmed by the drug trade.

Walsh, Rodolfo: Operación: masacre (Operation: Massacre)

1956. Argentina has just lost its charismatic president Juán Perón in a military coup, and terror reigns across the land. June 1956: eighteen people are reported dead in a failed Peronist uprising. December 1956: sometime journalist, crime fiction writer, studiedly unpoliticized chess aficionado Rodolfo Walsh learns by chance that one of the executed civilians from a separate, secret execution in June, is alive. He hears that there may be more than one survivor and believes this unbelievable story on the spot. And right there, the monumental classic Operation Massacre is born.

Walsh made it his mission to find not only the survivors but widows, orphans, political refugees, fugitives, alleged informers, and anonymous heroes, in order to determine what happened that night, sending him on a journey that took over the rest of his life.

Originally published in 1957, Operation Massacre thoroughly and breathlessly recounts the night of the execution and its fallout.

Weber, David: Honor Harrington

Military Science Fiction series by David Weber. The book series is mainly set around the adventures of the titular heroine, although we see a fair amount of the wider universe. Weber has explicitly described the series as "Horatio Hornblower" IN SPACE! with the series being a great deal more focused on (Space) Naval operations than other science fiction series. Honor Harrington occasionally performs ground-based and political adventures, but the vast majority of the series is focused on her ship-to-ship conflicts, where she serves as commanding officer. A lot of military combat and dueling.

[pagan-stitches]

Nick Cave — Suzanne (Leonard Cohen)

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river

You can hear the boats go by, you can spend the night beside her

And you know that she's half-crazy but that's why you wanna to be there

And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China

And just when you mean to tell her that you have no love to give her

Then she gets you on her wavelength

And she lets the river answer that you've always been her lover

And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind

And then you know that she will trust you

For you've touched her perfect body with your mind

And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water

And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower

And when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him

He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them

But he himself was broken, long before the sky would open

Forsaken, almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone

And you want to travel with him, and you want to travel blind

And then you think maybe you'll trust him

For he's touched your perfect body with his mind

Now, Suzanne takes your hand and she leads you to the river

She's wearing rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters

And the sun pours down like honey on our Lady of the harbor

And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers

There are heroes in the seaweed, there are children in the morning

They are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever

While Suzanne holds the mirror

And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind

And then you know that you can trust her

For she's touched your perfect body with her mind

[chemsexholmes]

there are heros in the seaweed there are children in the morning they are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever. while suzanne holds the mirror btw

[suzanne-holds-the-mirror]

.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Painting 'Christ of St. John of the Cross" by Salvidor Dali

* * * *

People love Cohens “Halleluiah”, but pound for pound I’ll take “Suzanne”, especially, the last two stanzas… "Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river You can hear the boats go by, you can spend the night beside her And you know that she's half-crazy but that's why you want to be there And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China And just when you mean to tell her that you have no love to give her Then she gets you on her wavelength And she lets the river answer that you've always been her lover And you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind And then you know that she will trust you For you've touched her perfect body with your mind "Jesus was a sailor When He walked upon the water And He spent a long time watching From His lonely wooden tower And when He knew for certain Only drowning men could see Him He said,"All men will be sailors then Until the sea shall free them" But He, Himself was broken Long before the sky would open Forsaken, almost human He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone And you want to travel with him You want to travel blind And you know he will find you For he's touched your perfect body with his mind Suzanne takes your hand now And she leads you to the river She is wearing rags and feathers From Salvation Army counters And the sun pours down like honey On our, our lady of the harbor She shows you where to look Among the garbage and the flowers There are heroes in the seaweed There are children in the morning They are leaning out for love And they will lean that way forever While Suzanne holds the mirror And you want to travel with her You want to travel blind And you know she'll find you For she's touched your perfect body with her mind"

[Thanks to my blogging friend Steve Renfro]

[mllebabushkat]

☀️ Warrior Nun S2E4 🌙

stressing!!!!!!!!!!!1111

NO when I asked for more bea cam interaction it wasn’t like this TAT

oh ava dear 🥺

^recurring face cos my children are in danger

uhhhh taraskS 👀

angry woman yelling VINCENTTTTT counter: 2

spider bea 😂😂😂

DEUS EX MIGUEL

"i'm god's vengeance" FINE he might be growing on me

people who have offered vital "i can help you stop him" info to ava this season counter: 2

HOLY SHIT THQT FOG JUMPSCARE

also wait wait wait miguel THE OTHER SIDE??

ava: casual badass phasing

me: that's my girl <3

on today's episode of team super cam:

LeVANTAR

cam + spanish = heart eyes :D

car chase????? in MY warrior nun? more likely than you THINK

yasmine bbyyyyy ahahahaha she is adapting well bless her heart

“thank you god” BAM EROTIC PASTRIES VAN

quick detour-

raya's blood? WHO

lilith is such a bad liar imo surely she's hiding smth right,...

did i mention yasmine bby aww

MOTHER SUPERION NONCHALANTLY MUNCHING A DICK HAHAHAHAGAHAHGDHDJDALALDJF

she is the moment i love her so much

obligatory VINCENT EL BASTARDO

the whole time superion was taking him out back i was like pls pls pls kill him,, for shannon,, 😭 pls

kudos for the editing to make it seem like it was his last moments!

but,..,, I GUESS i understand it is not in her nature to do so :///

let it be known i'm not happy abt this decision he's just gonna come back to wreak more havoc

uh also "suzanne" omg???

(btw love the shot of the delicious red lighting from the van *kisses the crew*)

poor jilian her business bitchboy is a backstabbing bastard what a surprise

back to the main show :)

beatrice + spanish = heart eyes motherfucker

i love!!!!! the multilingual roots!! of this show! so much !!!

oh darling beatrice 🥺

hallucination!ava bellowing "i know what you are!" no 😭

her greatest fear being ava exposing her sexuality and hating/mocking her for it nooOOOO

also her fbc guard takedown?

that's gameplay straight out of a hitman level LMAO

OH NO DEMON BAPTISM

not to mention ava's finally met her match in punch-first-tell-my-friends-about-the-plan-later in miguel hahahah-

so uhhh he's already possessed by a blue demon? divinium demon? isn't that a tarask? confusion????

all i know is that was a full on angels vs demons lookin ass spectacle

TEAM FIGHT TEAM fIGHT TEAM FIGHT

YESSSSSSSSSASASSS THE HYPE

"you should look in the mirror mate" please he's so british 😂😂😂

hold on lemme pause right there-

CULT DRUMS (from the priest preaching scene) fade to end in time with the team ko body thud, beat of silence, HYPE SONG ([Shock Out] for reference) TO THE ONE AND ONLY BEA ENTERING

i'm such a slut for satisfying ost/sound design

ugh and 10/10 fight + camera choreo *even more kisses for the crew*

avatrice reunion!!!1 the way they lurched into that hug it looked like they were abt to kiss-

ahhhh their hands 😍 and bea's eye contact 😍

bea: "let go"

ava: "hang on"

(their synchronicity in battle, their willingness to embrace each other's values, all that mutual growth and understanding in so few words-)

hold on HOLD ON i need a moment please

anyway YES HALO POWERS GO GIRLIE

unfortunately necessary interlude:

what the hell is going on with lilith???

adriel gives a weakass "you’re my destiny" speech, fires off a cheapass parlour trick?

and that's enough??? to change her mind?????? tf-

ok back to our regularly scheduled avatrice

so now there's a tarask and it's fighting the demons? more confusion

AVA FLYING?????????

terrible news: ava paralysed without halo confirmed 😭😭😭

[Darkest Hour] ost slapsssssssssss

sandwiching the episode with this song? 2 steps forward 1 step back vibe loving it

ANYWAY

next ep let's gooooooo

[onceuponastarryeye]

books read in twenty-twenty-four

hour zero - agatha christie (5/5)

if you could see the sun - ann liang (4/5)

his last bow - arthur conan doyle (4/5)

labor and monopoly capital: the degradation of work in the twentieth century - harry braverman (4/5)

the count of monte cristo (adapted text) - alexandre dumas (3.5/5)

before we say goodbye (btcgc #4) - toshikazu kawaguchi (5/5)

contagion - robin cook (2.5/5)

beach read - emily henry (4.5/5) (rr)

death by drowning and other stories - agatha christie (5/5)

little fires everywhere - celeste ng (4.75/5)

mrs. dalloway - virginia woolf (3.5/5) (rr)

five little pigs - agatha christie (4/5)

cinema e memória - milene de cássia silveira gusmão; paulo henrique alcântara; euclides santos mendes (3.5/5)

rouge - mona awad (3.75/5)

first love - ivan turguêniev (4/5)

the moving finger - agatha christie (3.5/5)

the memory police - yoko ogawa (5/5)

entre flechas e sapatos de cristal: fadas madrinhas s.a - kézia garcia (4.5/5)

the hunger games (thg #1) - suzanne collins (5/5) (rr)

the next girl - karla kovach (3/5)

the invisible man - h. g. wells (3.5/5)

death comes at the end - agatha christie (4/5)

welcome to the hyunam-dong bookstore - hwang bo-reum (4/5)

teias mortais - bel rodrigues, felipe castilho, jim anotsu, luisa geisler, samir machado de machado (5/5)

catching fire (thg #2) - suzanne collins (5/5) (rr)

introdução à filosofia de bergson - paulo césar rodrigues (4/5)

the very secret society of irregular witches - sangu mandanna (4.5/5)

the hollow - agatha christie (3.5/5)

hold tight - harlan coben (2.75/5)

the atlas complex (tas #3) - olivie blake (3/5)

todas as minhas libelulas (memórias dos pardes #1) - gabrielli casseta (5/5)

uma aprendizagem ou o livro dos prazeres - clarice lispector (5/5)

mockingjay (thg #3) - suzanne collins (5/5) (rr)

seis doses de culpa - luther alt (4/5)

the labours of hercules - agatha christie (4/5)

emily wilde's encyclopedia of faeries - heather fawcett (4/5)

a man lay dead - ngaio marsh (4/5)

manual de cortej para princesas desencantadas - alien, maina, lyra, gabi, raquel & dulci (5/5)

taken at the flood - agatha christie (4/5)

capitalismo de plataformas - nick srnicek (4/5)

the reapperance of rachel price - holly jackson (4/5)

funny story - emily henry (4.25/5)

normal people - sally rooney (5/5) (rr)

18 brumário - karl marx (3.25/5)

extraordinary stories - edgar allan poe (4.25/5)

roteiro perfeito - vi carvalho (4/5)

they came to baghdad - agatha christie (4/5)

the familiar - leigh bardugo (4/5)

cidades pequenas não guardam seguredos - kézia garcia (5/5)

método científico: uma abordagem ontológica - ivo tonet (3.5/5)

the starless sea - erin morgenstern (5/5)

jantar secreto - raphael montes (3.75/5)

mrs. mcginty's dead - agatha christie (4/5)

atenciosamente, seu primeiro amor - tatielle katluryn (3.5/5)

the poverty of theory -edward thompson (2/5/5)

penance - eliza clarke (4/5)

the time machine - h. g. wells (3.75/5)

they do it with mirrors - agatha christie (4/5)

nothing more to tell - karen mcmanus (3.75/5)

persuasion - jane austen (5/5) (rr)

a sound of thunder - ray bradbury (4/5)

the chalk man - c.j. tudor (3.75/5)

after the funeral - agatha christie (3.5/5)

a hundred years of solitude - gabriel garcia marquez (4/5)

ariel - sylvia plath (3.75/5)

i'm the girl - courtney summers (3/5)

a pocket full of rye - agatha christie (4/5)

the piano (creepers series) - edgar j. hyde (3.75/5)

natural beauty - ling ling huang (3.5/5)

northanger abbey - jane austen (5/5) (rr)

uma estrada de histórias - rúbia albuquerque (3/5)

o amor é como a lua - vi carvalho (4/5)

into the drowning deep (rolling in the deep #1) - mira grant (5/5)

destination unknown - agatha christie (4/5)

gentilmente, amor - gabrielli casseta, kell carvalho, vi carvalho, maina mattos (4/5)

whose body? - dorothy l. sayers (3.75/5)

o ardil da flexibilidade - sadi dal rosso (3.5/5)

hickory, dickory, dock - agatha christie (3/5)

joyland - stephen king (4/5)

a detetive ruby johnson e o mistério da mesa 44 - noemi de paula (2.5/5)

the secret history - donna tartt (5/5) (rr)

rolling in the deep (rolling in the deep #0.5) - mira grant (3.75/5)

4:50 from paddington - agatha christie (4.5/5)

a mulher na sociedade de classes: mito e realidade - heleith saffioti (4.25/5)

the woman in cabin 10 - ruth ware (2.75/5)

days at the morisaki bookstore - satoshi yagisawa (4.5/5)

intermezzo - sally rooney (3.5/5)

house of hollow - krystal sutherland (4/5)

crime and punishment - fyodor dostoevsky (4/5)

the pale horse - agatha christie (4.5/5)

the other turn of the screw - henry james (4.5/5)

two sides to every murder - danielle valentine (3.5/5)

história das mulhers no brasil - mary del priori (3.5/5)

the frightened lady - edgar wallace (3/5)

cat among the pigeons - agatha christie (3.75/5)

the da Vinci cod - dan brown (3/5)

some choose darkness - charlie donlea (4/5)

[sabakelar]

The Birds and the Bechdel Test

I write novels that focus on female characters. Several years into my writing career, I came across the Bechdel Test. For those who have not heard of this, it is a bare-bones measure of how women are portrayed in film. Developed in 1985, it asks simply if there are two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than men. The test was developed, I believe, out of a sense of frustration regarding how women were portrayed in the majority of films of the era. Often, there was only one woman character, who was the love interest for the male protagonist. This woman was reactionary and passive, leaving the movie dependent on the male characters for action and assertive direction. Additionally, when there was more than one woman in movies from this time (1970s through 1990s) it seemed that they spoke only to men or, if speaking to other women, only spoke about men. https://youtu.be/Meq3CyuKOjM One of the theories I espouse, as a popular culture historian, is that films like this were created in response to feminism’s challenge of the patriarchy and gender roles that rose with the Women’s Liberation Movement and Women’s Rights. The timeline for Women’s Rights in the United States is long, but in the 1970s, it seemed to make real headway with the passage of Title IX regarding sex-discrimination in education, the upholding of Women's right to health care via Roe v. Wade in 1973, and 1975 being declared the "Year of the Woman." The 1980s saw the first female Supreme Court Justice, the first woman to be nominated by the Democrat Party, and a number of other "Firsts." Another “Year of the Woman” was also declared in 1992. Since its popularization, the Bechdel test has also been used to analyze other forms of media, including books and television shows. However, as has been noted by other scholars and film critics, the Bechdel test is not a measure of feminism or film quality. Some of the best movies ever made fail the test. Importantly, films that would be considered pro-female may also fail the test, simply because the badass protagonist winning hearts and minds while freeing the country is the only female character in the credits. This understanding is important as the Bechdel test is meant to show generalizations in popular culture, which in turn holds up a mirror before us and helps us to understand the human condition. The concern is that if women are usually portrayed as only interested in talking about men, for example, then women who have grander ideas or no interest in men, are silenced--either by society or through self-censorship. As a writer who creates strong female characters who happen to be surrounded by male characters, I’ve always felt that it would be hard for my novels to pass the Bechdel test. Yet, I understand now that whether a piece of media passes the test or not is less relevant than how the women are portrayed throughout the piece. The website BechdelTest.com, has a substantial list of movies dating as far back as the beginning of film that have been rated as passing or not passing by users. One film listed, The Birds, directed by Alfred Hitchcock from 1963, caught my eye as it’s been recently added to Netflix. I was interested in this film partly because I’m a huge Hitchcock fan and partly because I noticed that most of the characters listed in the credits were played by women, including Jessica Tandy and Suzanne Pleshette. Originally from a story written by Daphne Du Maurier, the movie takes place in a coastal town that is under attack by flocks of birds. While The Birds does pass the Bechdel Test, I wanted to explore the deeper themes involved and the portrayal of the characters throughout the film. As noted previously, passing the test does not necessarily denote feminism. Comments on the BechdelTest.com website, imply that the characters have some deeper conversations. However, snippets of dialogue and summaries of scenes cannot do a film justice. Therefore, I treated myself to watching the film instead of writing. #notwriting :p What I discovered were women still being objectified despite passing the test. The main female character, Melanie Daniels, played by Tippi Hedren, is inquisitive and assertive, yet many of her actions are motivated by gaining the attention of the main male character, Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor). These machinations do lead to Daniels having a variety of conversations with other female characters about birds, schools, vacation plans, and Mitch Brenner. From the beginning of the movie, Daniels' willfulness and outspoken qualities are celebrated. However, it is also important for the audience to understand that she is beautiful and available, despite these qualities. The opening scene with Daniels has a young boy wolf-whistle at her, to which she smiles, startled, but encouraging nonetheless.  Later scenes show that Daniels is confident and capable. She drives her own car, and knows how to use an outboard motor on a boat--even docking it and disembarking in high heels and fur. Later, she rescues children from bird attacks on several occasions. Yet, at the end of the movie, she is stunned into shocked silence and practically catatonic. As a strong woman, she must step aside in order for the male character to shine at the end of the film. 

Other instances of women being dismissed or frowned upon for their assertiveness can also be found in the film. For example, when an older lady, a scientist and ornithologist played by Ethel Griffies, tries to explain that birds could not be attacking, the men in the scene are dismissive of her knowledge. While she is wrong, and birds are attacking, it is difficult to imagine the same attitude being directed at a male ornithologist. Finally, Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette), the local school teacher and Daniels' potential rival for Brenner’s affection, is another strong female character who is portrayed as assertive and competent throughout the film. Yet, she also must step away, giving her life to save a child from a bird attack, in order to allow the strong male character to save the day. Overall, as with other films, the Bechdel test is merely a barometer, and although The Birds passes the test, it remains a film of the 1960s with strong men who save the day and strong women who must step aside. For creators like myself who wish to highlight strong, capable, female characters then, it isn’t whether a piece passes the Bechdel test, but how much depth and agency we give our characters and what they then do with it. If they are strong, do they remain strong? Or, do their powers dwindle in order for someone else to shine? If they can save the day at the beginning of the story, can they also save the day at the end? Read the full article

[liroyalty]

While her dress was getting pressed, her nails were being carefully coated, by her lady-in-waiting Mary, in a clear polish to assure the protection of the fresh design put on them. The reflection of Suzanne's face in her dresser mirror stared back at her, her frown was solid under her face mask, & it was unfitting for a princess, even less so on her birthday.

"... Mary."

"Yes, your highness?"

"What's the noise on your family, lately?"

"Vivien & Amalia came home shaking in the afternoon, they were quite upset, & mother was unfathomably angry after they spared the details of why." Mary relayed the information to Sue with a blank tone, one that spoke of her unsurprise by the situation. "I heard she stormed her way back to the palace, demanding a word with the king.

"A word with the king? I heard nothing of such a word." Meaning, if Duchess Margaret did get a word with King John, & Sue heard nothing of it, then it was obvious who her father sided with. And it should come as no surprise, the Bexley duchy wasn't exactly in a good light. All they had going for them was their numerous political marriage tools(aka Margaret's children), & their heavy purses; the only good branches in that family always break off as soon as they can. One of those good branches sat steadily beside the night princess.

"Odds of them trying to show up despite being uninvited?"

"High. You know quite well they dislike being left out of parties."

"Then I am glad I put Reginaldus at the door."

"Sir Reginaldus..." That's a name everyone has become quite familiar with, most especially Mary. Not merely because he is the largest member of Noire, which had gained quite the reputation of it's own, but for the display he put on a few months ago, by which Mary herself was witness too. The large knight took the grand liberty of removing the very drunk Azur Duke from the Amaryllis Isles, Jean-Bruno Jacquemoud, from Princess Suzanne & Lady Mary's presence after many failed attempts to 'woo' his way into their bedchambers. The results were him being tossed from the front doors of Front Palace, into the large ornate fountain at the center of Front Garden... it was quite a throw, & without any damages being done to the fountain somehow.

Thankfully, nothing came of the event, as the Golden Court agreed the Azur Duke's behavior was unacceptable. Mary still remembers how effortless the hulking knight made the throw look... it's made her question if perhaps the man was holding back.

"If they somehow sneak by him, Baskerville has free pickings." From the far corner of the room, Baskerville's head picked up from the large round bed he slept on, hearing his name. He seemed about as excited at today as his master. A surprise to no one, not even Mary, as she closed the bottle of clear nail polish tightly, before standing & fetching a cloth, carefully wiping the face mask off of Sue's face.

"You are not putting all that makeup on me, by the way." Once the face mask was off, she knew makeup, hairstyling & dressing would happen right away. Foundation, contour, blush, all these different eyeshadows & lip stuff... urg...

"I'm... I'm not?"

"Dear Ying no. You know I hate the feeling of so much makeup, besides, I do not need it. I'm a natural beauty, I could walk out there bare faced & still be one of the five most gorgeous people in the room." Taking a inhale, she pointed at a plate of eyeshadow & a single tub of lip oil. "This & some eyeliner, this is all I need for the sake of matching my outfit."

Well, it is as the princess wants, & she already putting up with something she doesn't want. "Of course, your highness. Is there a specific way you would like your hair today as well?"