#tgwcfiasohom

[t1redr0b0t]

Watchful dress real⁉️⁉️🤯😲

[serdaig1e]

OMG HECK YES WE ARE SO FRIENDS OMG EXCUSE ME WHILE I CRY TEARS OF HAPPINESS AND JOY AT FINDING SOMEONE WHO APPRECIATES THIS MASTERPIECE OMG I AM BURSTING WITH JOY

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YOU READ TGWCFIASOHOM!? YOU ARE ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITE HUMANS

=~D =~D =~D =~D =~D =~D =~D =~D =~D !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[transxfiles]

!! i have never seen someone reference a girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making and i ADORE that book. i used it in my capstone project ab portal fantasies <3 any fave portal fantasy movies?

I LOVE THE GIRL WHO CIRCUMNAVIGATED FAIRYLAND!! growing up i was the sorta kid who'd just read whatever i could get my hands on, and my best friend in elementary school had a mom who was involved in publishing , so i read so so many ARCs of children's books through her hand-me-downs. i loved TGWCFiaSoHOM so much that they gave me the book as a gift, and later got me a signed copy of the third novel in the series :] i was pretentious from a very early age i think. i loved alice's adventures in wonderland and through the looking glass growing up, and TGWCF was like a natural progression from that, i think.

as for portal fantasy movies: tbh, i read more fantasy than i watch, and the stuff i read is more often high fantasy or urban fantasy than it is portal fantasy stuff. that being said i ADORED reading portal fantasy novels as a kid bc yknow. "what if i opened a door and i got lost in a magical world" has ALWAYS been appealing to weird lonely six year olds and i'm convinced it always will be.

some portal fantasy books i really liked as a kid included (in no particular order):

13 curses by michelle harrison

100 cupboards by n. d. wilson

dandelion fire by n. d. wilson

winterling by sarah prineas

the magician's nephew by c. s. lewis

this isn't what it looks like by pseudonymous bosch

alice's adventures in wonderland by lewis carroll

alice through the looking glass by lewis carroll

wildwood by colin meloy

the girl who fell beneath fairyland and led the revels there by catherynne m. valente

gregor the overlander by suzanne collins

as for movies:

like i said i don't watch very many portal fantasy films that i can think of.... the number one off the top of my head is probably "spirited away" (2001) i love that movie so much. it's kind of an obvious recommendation but it's SO good. augh!

that being said, i am now officially taking recs for portal fantasy movies i should watch :] i've seen the narnia films already but afaik that;s about it. and a bunch of barbie movies that i'm sure technically qualify.

also i'm so interested in hearing more about your capstone project bc that sounds so cool???? like!!!!!!!

[yukippe]

actually so in love with maud/mallow's character from the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making and like go read the book if you haven't but essentially she gets lost and ends up in fairyland as a child, grows up there, falls in love and becomes pregnant but everyone that comes to fairyland come as different classifications and everyone has only a certain amount of time they can spend there. the main character, september, spends some time in fairyland before being whisked back home and then brought back in an endless cycle never knowing for sure when she'll come and go, never to leave fairyland behind bound to it in a persephone like state (literally called the persephone clause in universe). for maud/mallow, she lives a life in fairyland before being torn back home, a child again in an abusive household she thought she had escaped to a magical land. and this isn't like uncommon in stories to not be able to return to the place you fell in love with and called home, maud/mallow refuses to accept this though!! she's described as clawing her way back into fairyland and she's a child again and no one recognizes her as the woman they knew and lost and she's the villain in a sense because she won't forgive fairyland for what they took from her and can no longer treat the land with the same kindness now that she knows the cruelty of the escape it claims to offer. like to refuse the rejection, to refuse the state of affairs and to reclaim the world that turned its back on her and make a life in their despite it all....i actually love stories where you can never go back to this place that forever changed you but i love even more maud/mallow not accepting the fate she's been dealt and coming back, even if you are no longer the person who lived there and the world is no longer the one you knew

[weathertheraine]

Doing that redraw threw me headlong back into my love for this series… I worked out how to use mirroring and tried to lean closer to the style of the illustrations

Expect more on the way :D (I promise I’m working on requests too) and,, go read ‘The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making’ right now. Please.

[rabid-catboy]

just remembered the minotaur from tgwcfiasohom....................,.... many thoughts head full

[puzzled-dragon]

five star reviews: the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making by catheryne m. valente 

a quest, she thought, excitement rising in her like bread, a real quest like a real knight, and she doesn't even see that I'm short and I don't have a sword.

[tuppnu]

the girl who raced fairyland all the way home fucked 👏 me 👏 up 👏 someone pls come talk to me abt it

[coldhands-and-clockwork]

Narrative think-piece, feel free to skip

So I recently reread a YA novel I'm quite fond of despite its ludicrously long title: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. (Henceforth abbreviated to TGWCFIASOHOM) It's a lovely, whimsical novel about a bored midwestern child adventuring in Fairyland while her father fights in what's probably WW II and her mother builds plane engines for the same. I highly recommend anyone who likes fairy nonsense, coming of age stories, or children who are too clever for their own good. Getting to the point, the novel kind of subverts a trope that's common in epic fiction: Redeem Thy Father's Sword. Put plainly, a child (usually son) taking up his evil or disgraced father's weapon and using it to right the wrongs he wrought with it. Two examples that jump to mind are Eragon's first sword, Zar'roc, from Christopher Paolini's The Inheritance Cycle, and Luke's Lightsaber from the original Star Wars trilogy. The "sword" in TGWCFIASOHOM is never explicitly named, though is called "Death's Sword", "Queen Mallow's Sword/Needle", and most importantly and appropriately, "Thy Mother's Sword". We'll get back to this in a minute. When our protagonist, a girl named September, comes to Pandemonium, the capital of Fairyland, she finds that everything in the city, from the street to the buildings, is stitched and sewed. This is the work of Good Queen Mallow, the former ruling monarch of Fairyland, which she accomplished by dint of her sword/needle. Minor spoiler, the current monarch (despot) charges September with retrieving the Queen Mallow's sword. Engraved on the sword's box is this- "Will hilt to hand yet be restored? Take me up, thy mother's sword". When September draws it, what does she find herself holding? A wrench. Her mother builds planes, her sword is her tool. Queen Mallow's mother was a seamstress, hence her needle. My mother, a surgeon, would surely beget me a scalpel. So what is a sword in this context? Put plainly, the instrument of a person's will. Morzan furthered his tyranny with Zar'roc, Darth Vader with his nifty glow stick. Thy Mother's Sword is super interesting to me, because it modernizes the idea of a parental weapon, and brings the epic trope to a place where it can be applied to the mundane (also without making the parent a villain). It's curious to think... what's my sword? How interesting that all this time we've been carrying our own Excalibur without even knowing it.

[onitekka]

recommend and review a book.

oh boy you're gonna regret letting me do this.

Once upon a time,

There was a girl from very far away

And a boy who lived every which way at once.

One of my favourite series of books has to be the fairyland series by Catherynne M. Valente. But this would be a weird review if I picked from the middle of the series, so we'll cover the first: Circumnavigated, or to give it it's full title:

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making.

really rolls off the tongue.

to give a brief plot summary, the story follows September, a young girl in Omaha bored with her life. A few pages in she is spirited away by the Green Wind (a charming man who lends her his green smoking jacket) and his leopard of little breezes, Imogen.

Now in fairyland, missing a shoe, she meets a variety of compelling characters along the way as the story becomes progressively twisted and darker. A strange Marquess rules, having defeated the previous good ruler, and before she knows it September is sent to try to retrieve a spoon from her. She befriends a Wyvern who is certain that his father was a library, and a strange blue Marid boy named Saturday who can grant you a wish, but only if you defeat him in a fight. Along the way, she realizes what it means to lose your heart within the process of becoming less heartless.

The writing style is so fun, imaginative and odd and funny and a bit absurd. It’s descriptive and clever and maybe occasionally just a bit fussy. It's downright whimsical. That writing style isn't usually for everyone, but I adore it so much. Here's some quotes:

“I wish you the best that can be hoped for, and no worse than can be expected.”

“ It will be all hard and bloody, but there will be wonders, too, or else why bring me here at all? And it's the wonders I'm after, even if I have to bleed for them.”

“I wouldn’t even consider it if I were you. But then if I were you, I would not be me, and if I were not me, I would not be able to advise you, and if I were unable to advise you, you’d do as you like, so you might as well do as you like and have done with it.”

You get the idea.

The chapter titles give a brief summary of what's going to happen in each one, so you're not completely lost throughout in the pages of near-nonsensical, wonderful talking:

CHAPTER II

THE CLOSET BETWEEN WORLDS

In which September Passes Between Worlds, asks Four Questions and Receives Twelve Answers, and Is Inspected by a Customs Officer.

The narrator has a personality too, something I really love. She breaks the fourth wall on multiple occasions to talk to the reader and offer commentary, and I love it.

Please read this book. I love it. I love it so much.

Spoiler territory below!

The marquess. the marquess. She is such a compelling villain I love her so much. Villains that are reflections of the protagonist are always really interesting, and the way she speaks about fairyland as if it's alive, because it is, and because of that the narrative is cyclical. The marquess's enemy isn't September, or anyone. It's the passage of time, not wanting the story to repeat, to be discarded in favour of another. But the book is read, the story continues, and the marquess seals her fate.

September, September. She really did lose her heart. Re-reading these books has me dying each time because of the foreshadowing throughout. the green wind always knew she'd eat fairy food. September returns to fairyland every spring because of this, leaving her friends behind each time her hourglass runs out. That is what's meant by losing her heart.

...I'm gonna stop now before i spend a whole evening writing about this book.

[twigstarpikachutroll22]

OKAY!!!!!!!!! HAS ANYCREATURE HERE READ THE GIRL WHO CIRCUMNAVIGATED FAIRYLAND IN A SHIP OF HER OWN MAKING BY CATHERINE M. VALENTE BECAUSE THIS SONG IS LITERALLY THE MARQUESS NEAR THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEY MENTION TRUE NAMES AND STOPPED CLOCKS AND EVERYTHING!!!! AND FAIRYLAND TOO!!!

AND THE WAY THEY KEEP TALKING ABOUT CLOCKS IMPLIES THAT THE PERSON THE SONG IS BEING SUNG TO INTENDS TO USE THEM AGAINST THE PERSON SINGING!! JUST LIKE SEPTEMBER TRIED TO BEAT THE MARQUESS BY STARTING UP HER STOPPED CLOCK AGAIN TO SEND HER HOME!!

THE MARQUESS LITERALLY TELLS SEPTEMBER “I AM NOT THE VILLAIN. I AM NO DARK LORD. I AM THE PRINCESS IN THIS TALE. I AM THE MAIDEN WITH HER KINGDOM STOLEN AWAY.” SO IT’S LITERALLY RIGHT IN THE TITLE AND CHORUS!!! ALSO REFERENCED BY THE EARLY LINE “WHO’S THE WICKED QUEEN AND WHO’S THE PRINCESS HERE”!!

THE SONG ALSO LITERALLY HAS THE LINE “IT’LL BREAK YOUR HEART HOW VERY MUCH ALIKE WE ARE” WHICH THE MARQUESS LITERALLY SAYS JUST ABOUT WORD FOR WORD!!!!!!!!!!

“EVERYBODY’S GOT A STORY” AND “EVERY WITCH WAS SOMEONE’S PRINCESS IN SOME OTHER ONCE UPON A TIME” ALSO REFERENCES HER WHOLE TRAGIC BACKSTORY AND HOW SHE WAS QUEEN MALLOW ONCE AND EVERYTHING!!!

“I MAY HAVE LOST THIS BATTLE BUT I WILL NOT BE ERASED” REFERENCES HOW SHE MAGICALLY PUTS HERSELF TO SLEEP IN ORDER TO KEEP HERSELF FROM BEING SENT BACK HOME OUT OF FAIRYLAND WHEN SEPTEMBER SETS HER CLOCK GOING AGAIN!!! WHICH IS ALSO REFERENCED BY “I WISH YOU YOUR WILDEST DREAMS AS I ESCAPE TO MINE”!!! ESCAPING TO HER DREAMS!! I.E. SLEEP!!

DUDE THIS ENTIRE SONG FITS SO INCREDIBLY PERFECTLY THAT I LITERALLY CAN’T BELIEVE THIS ISN’T ACTUALLY A FAN SONG WRITTEN SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS ASDFGHJKLQWERTYUIOPZXCVBNM MNBVCXZPOIUYTREWQLKJHGFDSA I DON’T KNOW IF ANYCREATURE HERE HAS READ THE FAIRYLAND SERIES BUT I NEEDED TO SCREAM ALL THIS OUT INTO THE VOID AND HOPE SOMECREATURE HEARS AND UNDERSTANDS BECAUSE HOLY FRICK HOLY FRICK HOLY FRICK HOLY FRICK HOLY FRICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rapid-imagination]

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente My rating: 5 of 5 stars I first came by this book while I was walking along in Foyles. It immediately caught my eye with its deliciously illustrated cover and eccentric cover, but glancing at the back and seeing the words "12-year old girl" I immediately put it back down, feeling ashamed of buying a children's book at 19.

I couldn't get it out of my head though. There was something intriguing in the long name I couldn't quite remember, the vague promises of travelling to a faraway land, and eventually I gave in and bought it on my kindle. Best decision I made.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is a throwback to the time of fairytales with underlying commentary of a modern society. Toss in some lovely illustrations at the beginning of each chapter, and you have a book that will entertain all ages. The story is about September, a lonely girl who get's whisked away to Fairyland, where she sets out to (view spoiler)[ attain a wooden spoon (hide spoiler)] from the Marquess, and then gets entangled in a plot created by the Marquess herself. On her journey she meets Ell the wavererly (a cross between a wyvery and a library, don't ask), an utterly funny character. She stumbles across fairyland, encountering all sorts of creatures, which is told through a brilliantly self-aware narrator voice. On the surface, this book may remind you of Alice in Wonderland (which I have to say, was the book of my childhood). However, where AiW was a book purely for the story, and without the meaning or morals that came with books of that era, TGWCFiSoHOM (too long?) is teeming with them. Whether it's commenting on the loss of childhood innocent and the cruelty of children and childhood, or death and the future, or indeed modern society with its layers of bureaucracy that disguise the people in powers hidden motives, TGWCF (better?) has meaning to it. And that makes it special. I think Valente wrote the book with the idea that parents would read it with their children, thus layering the meaning under the fun, but as a teenager I would recommend it too. It was nice, reading a book where a message could be conveyed in an entertaining way that wasn't layered with sex, drugs and violence. And even without all of that, it remained just as thought-provoking. View all my reviews

[tuppnu]

Ballast is the weight down in the deep of you that keeps a vessel upright in the water. Oh, the cargo you carry will do it for a while, or even the heft of a crew, mates and mettles, if you love them enough. But a ship’s not a ship till she’s got ballast of her own. Down in the belly, a big massy mess of rope and wood and hard tack and love letters and harpoons and old lemons. Anything that ever fascinated the ship, made it sail true, patched it or broke it, anything the ship loved or longed for, anything it could use.

What have I got, where a ship has ballast?

[twigstarpikachutroll22]

YOU READ TGWCFIASOHOM!? YOU ARE ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITE HUMANS

=~D =~D =~D =~D =~D =~D =~D =~D =~D !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!