anthony-ronald-blog

[maggiec70]

Via dubious means I’ve gotten my hands on The Emperor’s Friend and I absolutely loved reading it! I have a question - Lannes’ manner of speaking is presented in what I’d describe as a laconic, terse but at times nonchalant characterisation, and I quite liked how it contributed to painting a picture of this man. In particular, other places I’ve seen the grenadier quote as the brasher exclamation “I was a grenadier before I was a marshal, and I'm still one!”, but The Emperor’s Friend presents it as a more matter of fact “I remember what it's like to be a grenadier. Been there, done that, can do it again.”

My question is, is this a deliberate translation choice? I suppose I’m approaching this from a more literary standpoint, but I’m very curious about the thoughts that went into characterising Lannes in this book.

By the time I got around to polishing my translations--among other things--before publication, I already had a decades-long sense of who Lannes really was, and why and how he became the man he was. So the translations of what he said during the various times and circumstances of his life, which for obvious reasons appeared to be centered around his military career, have always reflected my personal view of him. I admit that to me, almost all the translations of what Lannes said--or was alleged to have said--are cringe-worthy. In the first place, they are virtually literal translations, word for word, and therefore are awkward, stilted, and without a single thought for the character and personality of the individual doing the talking. I was absolutely determined NOT to do that. In the second place, the original comments were presented in the general "manner of speaking" of the times when the writers of memoirs presented them. That is, of course, equivalent to quoting Wellington, for example, in the rather formal, stilted English of the time, rather than looking at the quotes in the context of the man himself. Of course, Wellie may have been stiff and formal every time he opened his mouth, even in the midst of battle. So there's that.

So yes indeed, Lannes was often laconic; when Armagnac was involved, he could talk all day and half the night. He was also nonchalant whenever he thought whatever he was talking about didn't qualify as what he would definitely call "a Big Fucking Deal." Most things weren't, in his view. On the other hand, dare to impugn his very touchy sense of honor, or personal bravery--and only a certified fool would do that--he'd be all over you like white on rice verbally and with the point of his sword.

I did look at the original French from a literary angle, but more with the goal of making each translation smooth, clear, and effortlessly reflecting linguistic accuracy as well as the character of the speaker.

I hope all this manages to answer your question. And to be quite honest, I wish everyone could get a copy of my book by dubious means, all of which don't involve paying any money to my publisher.

[hellogirlslikegirlslikeboysdo]

And the lights are not fluorescent, and there are no words on the page. - Form Essay

Author's Preface and Ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7

Description: My final portfolio for one of the creative writing courses I took based around exploring the creative nonfiction essay in its many literary forms, with any and all identifying names or signifiers censored out.

To do list!!! Ignore how silly, irresponsible even, you feel about including this part. Adding “To do list”, complete with a grammatically incorrect number of exclamation points with little hearts in place of the dots. Reserving its top billing, the extra big lined space at the top of a little baby sticky note where it’s just gonna take up pretty pink space, space you could be saving for one of the myriad of things you need to get accomplished tonight. Like the douchey lead actor taking their sweet time down the red carpet, the entirety of the camera crew already getting rushed into their seats offscreen.

Suppose, if you can, that it's “whatever”. Rationalize that it probably gives the note a sense of urgency or something (you need that, god, you need that tonight) and that it's already too late to start worrying about losing yourself in all this attention to detail, about what fulfilled word count or pieces of unfolded laundry you’re already sacrificing with this adamant sticking to form.

This is a to-do list, after all. Who even needs these, really?

(Dear lord, this is a very elaborate burst of anger for the first line of a makeshift to-do list. Are you sure you even have the strength to do this? don’t answer that, do NOT answer that, if you try to answer that, it’ll automatically become a “no” by default, do NOT answer that

[✓] Take your meds. Do not convince yourself that you will not need them. You will.

[✓] Regret writing this list in pen.

[  ] Finish reflection. Put this at the top of the list because it's the one you expect to complete first. Not because you have confidence in your ability to do so, but because it’s due tonight and you’ll need to peer pressure yourself enough that the shame and academic anxiety override your executive dysfunction.

[✓] Do creative writing assignment. Make this second on the list because you actually do think you can finish this one on time (you probably can’t) and that it’ll be the easiest to breeze through (it absolutely will not), letting you ride off the high of a job well done and attack the rest of this list feeling like your workload is significantly lower than before. Conveniently forget that late-stage ADHD comes with time blindness and a dopamine deficiency that makes you literally incapable of feeling any sense of accomplishment after finishing a task (Acknowledge that it also comes with a side of autism, on the house. ONLY acknowledge it, though. Do not delve into why you are frantically scratching out this list at 5:00 in the afternoon, all because you’re convinced that establishing some sort of routine is more important than actually tackling what feels like near-death deadlines. Do not start pacing around your room while unconsciously gesturing along with the extensive imaginary conversation between you and your roommate that starts with you making a comment and his response that essentially boils to “Think that might just be the ‘tism, bud :P ”, ending in an elaborate discussion of your symptoms and concerns, as if Luc didn’t almost laugh when you suggested he consider majoring in psychology.

Do not open this goddamn can of worms, because you WILL spill it like a can of beans, and everything will get everywhere, and you already have to clean all the gunk off the floor, and you don’t even know how the heck you’re gonna manage that, and this whole debacle can wait until the morning, really, it can-

[  ] Open it anyway, because you are a coward, and natural selection will gather you first.

[✓] Submit everything at 11:59 and give yourself whiplash getting out of bed, dizzy from the nightmarish chemical cocktail that is Adderall and not enough water. Be dramatic about stumbling to your feet and leaning against the bedpost, because self-pity is an evolutionary survival tactic to comfort ourselves once our parents stop doing it for us. Pace around the room once the hot flash fades.

[  ] Clean dorm.

[✓] Elaborate on the last checkbox because something ungodly thing possessed you to think that “Clean house” was specific enough for your brain to understand on five hours of sleep and prescription speed.

[✓] Do laundry. Tell yourself you will do it as soon as possible, to leave yourself as much time as possible to make all the different trips to the laundry room. Leave it until it's dark out, the image of you getting jumped and stabbed to death poking at your brain like a wet toothpick you keep absentmindedly fiddling with.

The fear will make you walk faster.

[✓] Take out the trash. Leave this for nightfall, because your father’s monthly warnings and the lyrics of the song you performed for your ISP, of femicide and government priorities and how no one goes looking for little brown girls who go missing in the dead of night, and, heck, even the memory of being trapped outside your dorm with the raccoons somehow can’t override the anxiety.

[  ] Wash the dishes. Leave this for last, despite the smell hitting you as hard as the common area hits you each time you turn your key and yank.

[✓] Decline your roommate’s offer to hang out tonight, despite all the time you’ve been wasting and will continue to waste for the rest of the night. Claim you’re too tired in the morning.

[✓] Wipe down all the counters. Waste time every five, ten minutes. Sit with the tension between how mortifying it would be for one of your roommates to walk in on you wasting all this time vs. your insistence that keeping up with mindless chores is SO much easier, really, it's just the schoolwork that takes you forever.

Cut through said tension with a switchblade, if you have to.

[✓] Spend ten minutes trying to figure out how to attack the floor situation.

[   ] Attack the floor situation. Drive yourself crazy with the shoe scuffs you waited too long to deal with.

[✓] Pick up any extra trash. Muse about the time your mother and grandmother caught you in between a month-long academic and the mourning of your childhood dependence, and proceeded to scold you for the rest of the night. Muse about hiding the absence of bra straps and fighting for the hair stylist’s attention and “I don’t want you to get mad when I say this, but sometimes, there are things that we don’t like, but we have to to do them anyway, so…[insert the most horrific, victim blaming, powerless thinking you’ve ever heard in your life]”. Muse about the meaning of the word “presentable”, the antonym of skin and sentence structure and wandering, glassy eyes that give you away every time.

[✓] Play the sound of mother’s fretting over the state of your roommate's bed sheets over the sound of your explaining, of what depression does to the art of your cleaning skills, somewhere in your head, old syllabus crinkling between your fingernails. Wonder if his tarot prediction of a depressive state will come true, if your mother will complain about your room then. If it’s different when it’s you.

[  ] Finish resenting her by the time she arrives to come get you in the morning.

[  ] Pack your stuff for tomorrow. Forget one thing you actually need and one thing you don’t, but your mom wants you to bring anyway.

[  ] Do the billions of things you’re supposed to do sometime during the semester (preferably a month ago), but will probably end up stuck with during finals week.

[✓] Set an alarm. Wake up before it goes off.

[maniculum]

New episode! The text we're looking at is not what you'd call a literary masterpiece, but I think it's so bad that it loops around to being funny. Also Zoe's incredulous exclamations during the plot summary make it worth it.

Ever wonder what would happen if a medieval priest challenged a group of pagans to a god-off? Well, in this episode, we're diving into Sidrak and Bokkus, a lyrical poem of 415 questions and answers to the universe, framed by Sidrak, the Christian paragon, destroying a group of pagan priests with Facts and Logic (TM). We're more than confused by his approach, but hey, at least he makes his point with pizzazz!

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[mediaevalmusereads]

The Twenty Days of Turin. By Giorgio de Maria (trans. Ramon Glazov). Liveright Publishing, 2017 (original 1977).

Rating: 4/5 stars

Genre: horror, Gothic

Part of a Series? No

Summary: In the spare wing of a church-run sanatorium, some zealous youths create "the Library," a space where lonely citizens can read one another’s personal diaries and connect with like-minded souls in "dialogues across the ether." But when their scribblings devolve into the ugliest confessions of the macabre, the Library’s users learn too late that a malicious force has consumed their privacy and their sanity. As the city of Turin suffers a twenty-day "phenomenon of collective psychosis" culminating in nightly massacres that hundreds of witnesses cannot explain, the Library is shut down and erased from history. That is, until a lonely salaryman decides to investigate these mysterious events, which the citizenry of Turin fear to mention. Inevitably drawn into the city’s occult netherworld, he unearths the stuff of modern nightmares: what’s shared can never be unshared.

***Full review below.***

Content Warnings: violence

Overview: I can't quite remember how I stumbled upon this book, but I do remember being drawn to the premise. The idea of a mysterious library full of diaries was so intriguing that I couldn't wait to dive into this book, and the gothic, poe-like atmosphere was a definite plus. Ultimately, I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I knew more about Italian history and the city of Turin. The translator's note at the beginning of my edition was very helpful for orienting me in some ways, but ultimately, I think this is a book that I'll have to reread once I build up enough knowledge to fully appreciate. So for now, it gets 4 stars from me.

Writing: I can't speak to the faithfulness of the translation, and I don't read Italian, so my impressions of the prose will be entirely based on the English version.

The prose of this book shifts between feeling like a detective novel and feeling almost like a comic or pulpy adventure. There are some stretches of more somber, academic pursuits in which the prose describes the research in great detail, with a lot of visceral metaphor. In other places, we're following the narrator and there will be a smattering of onomonopoeia and exclamations (with the exclamation point). Personally, I loved the water metaphors that surrounded some of the descriptions of the research; it helped link things together without the author outright telling the reader. I also found the more pulpy parts kind of endearing.

Plot: The plot of this book follows an unnamed narrator as he researches an event called "the twenty days of Turin" - a violent "mass psychosis" that took place about a decade prior in the city of Turin, Italy. The narrator suspects that the twenty days may have been connected to "the Library" - a now lost archive of diaries initially created to bring the community closer together but, in reality, ended up being a short of confessional for everyone's darkest secrets. Very few people in Turin are willing to talk about the Library or the twenty days, and the more the narrator uncovers, the more he feels like he's being watched.

What I enjoyed most about this book was the fact that the author never really spelled out what was going on or how everything was connected. At times, he would hint that the cause was supernatural, but others, it seemed like there was a more rational explanation. It makes for a text with a lot of potential for literary analysis.

I also really liked the theme of privacy/ confessional being intertwined with the macabre. Though this book was written in the 1970s, the translator's note points out that it could have implications for anonymous blogging and social media, and I loved the potential for interrogating the limits of human sharing.

All that being said, I'm sure there we're a lot of significant passages I just didn't notice because they seem to reference important Italian landmarks or comment on some aspect of the author's social/political environment. Because I'm not well versed in Italian history and I'm not familiar with the layout of Turin, I think this book went over my head in a lot of ways. That's not to say the book is at fault; I love books with a strong sense of place. But it's definitely something that prevented me from fully appreciating the work.

TL;DR: The Twenty Days of Turin is a deeply thought-provoking book with a lot of potential for literary analysis. Though the macabre is sure to entertain any Poe fans, the book's strength lies primarily in its commentary on privacy and the socio-political landscape of 1970s Italy, and readers will surely be captivated by the central icon that is the Library.

Characters: It's a little difficult for me to evaluate the characters in this book because I feel like the story was not really about the characters or their development.

This book is told from the first person perspective of an unnamed narrator, and personally, I didn't find him to be all that interesting. I had a hard time connecting with him in part because the prose style tended to rely on telling whenever the narrator was describing his actions, then shift to showing when describing the evidence and research. This isn't always bad, but it did mean that I didn't feel very invested in the narrator's journey apart from the research. Maybe we're not supposed to feel invested, but I still like when my narrators are more than faceless avatars.

The narrator is assisted by a number of people such as Segre, the lawyer, and Giuffrida, a loner who keeps mysterious recordings from the twenty days. While these characters were admirable in that they tried to help the narrator, their purpose was mainly to help uncover evidence. I guess then it could be said that they were well-utilized, and some of them, such as Segre, had personality traits that made them feel more complex. But the story isn't really about them, as evidenced by the lack of care given to Giuffrida's fate.

Still, I don't think all this makes the book "bad." After all, some of these same critiques can be applied to the characters in works of Edgar Allan Poe or H.P. Lovecraft. In that, then, I think the author writes within the limits of the genre, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that.

[crowingoverthis]

pkmn scarlet/violet rant!

Now that i finished the main story, got almost all the pkmn (took me 60 hours, cause i just walk around to complete the dex ahsgfdasd) and i just have some postgame left. Here is my huge imhotake on it xD

7/10 Gameplay 4/10 Graphic/Performance 10/10 Pokemon 9/10 Music 11/10 Characters/story

41/50 Thats a pretty high score!

7/10 Gameplay Well its open world pokemon everyone wanted! You can go anywhere and do what you want. And now some ppl complain about not having directions haha When you literary can open the map and see exclamation marks on where to go so ??? Anyway, my problem was the repetitiveness off, everything? As much as liked just roaming and catching pkmn its still the same thing. To be fair most games are like that, based around 1-2 gameplay loops. I just wish these gameplay loops were a bit more interesting. But this is pkmn at its core. But my complaint is - why is the level no scaling? its not that hard to do gamefreak, I dont want to fight an early game trainer/gym i missed that still is lvl 10 after i beat 4 gyms. And some locations are pretty but too empty, just a lot of slapped on flat textures.

5/10 Graphic/Performance Everyone already saw the glitchs and some had multiple crashes. (i didnt experience any of that, just huge fps drops when it rained. Some ppl say the digital version is better and has less issues) Aside from that, you can finish and play the game from start to finish np! So i wont dwell on that any more. All in all, its the same situation as with Cyberpunk! Well almost cause CD Projektred over promised and under delivered massively at release date. Gamefreak pretty much did everything they promised! Just failed with the polish, bugs and graphics (when the grass is just a photoshop brush... its yeah, a bit very rushed (look at BOTW grass). The pkmn themself look great! Not like having some texture on pkmn is that important, but oh well. The character animations and animations OUTSIDE of battle or close to you are not bad. Inside of battle its the same as SWSH but you can rotate the camera, that sometimes cant even show stuff properly if you are on a hill or cave. Almost forgot! the huge down side of this game as well are the loading screens and the slowness of some things (that's especially noticeable in school).

10/10 Pokemon Like i always say - the one (well and music) things Gamefreak never fails is with designs and creating more pkmn! Of course there are mons i don't like (grasswaterstarterevos) but they are true to what they represent and i can respect that. Every pkmn is loved by someone and that's what makes the diversity of creatures so amazing.

9/10 Music Not much to say than that's its great! (Just a minus point from me personalty cause i don't like techno music and some tracks were like that >:C ) The transition between tracks is nice too.

11/10 Characters/Story I can say in general (NO spoilers)... this game has one of the best pkmn stories. Yes at the same level as gen 5 > 7 (which were the best imho so far.) It just like moulds together so well? Just the repetitiveness i talk about brings it down a bit. The characters have great designs and are (mostly, Nemonaplz) well written and its fun to learn about them! I'm glad GF took more time on story (wish they had even more time).

(mild spoilers) - Best character is the director hands down out of discussion. Not even joking xD. The school idea is very cute and i think its pretty good for newer players and kids who want to play and actually learn about pkmn! cause you do learn stuff in this school that is more then grass beats water, well its the first lesson so you do learn that too but after that i promise it gets better! History class is the coolest! (although i do wish we could learn about the region and cool stuff by y know talking to ppl a bit more...) As a person who was bullied in school, i like TEAM STAR’s story, but i wish they would tell the stories differently than the exact same 5 battles. Bonus! 6/10 locations. Decided to put locations here too cause why not. The main town is great! just some wonky spots that are empty, The other towns on the other hand, have a great look on the outside but when you go in, there's not much there. You can’t go inside of ANY buildings (just the sandwich +gyms). The "wilderness" is pretty much flat textures with pkmn randomly spawning on them. Just things GF needed to have more time to work on.

Conclusion-  Imma change the score too 39/50 cause the location bonus and that is a kinda important point too! SO If you can ignore some minor glitches and dont care about fps drops: Its a good game! Plus if you liked Arceus and just want to play a pkmn game its actually probably the best there is now on the switch! But the bad performance and now that even Nintendo is offering refunds, just shows that rushing unfinished games is not worth! and I hope they FINALLY gonna learn something from that.

[keroradio]

Part 2

This one I kept tweaking up until just over an hour before it was set to post (>.<) There were a few lines I struggled with because they were being said so quickly, and this part includes probably the most extensive set of translation notes I've ever done. I hope you'll read them, or at least the 2nd, 6th, & 7th ones

The second one is especially interesting since it's about a classic book that created the literary short hand Keroro's speech pattern draws from. Either way, I hope all of you will enjoy the conclusion (^.^)

D66: Such a high-tech-ish mechanism

FYK: There's a big round surface, and...could it be a clock?

KYK: There's a seat attached to the tall pillar at the very front...

K66: Ah! I know! (1) You even have those chairs, right?

TMM: Right, this is "Quiz time surprise" stage setting

K66: Ooh! I want to try sitting in it!

Paul: You'll receive 10,010 points if you correctly answer all the questions, if not then the seat will spin you around

K66: I want to try spinning!

Paul: Then the first challenger-

K66: Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!

Paul: It's nice you're so energetic. But that would be Lady Momoka

K66: Why?

MMK: Me? Uh, but, I'm not sure

Paul: Miss, if you don't pull yourself together and gather points here,

Inner MMK: Damn, I didn't think of that

MMK: But I- u-u-understand, I-I'll do my best!

(mechanical noises)

MMK: I feel so nervous, I wonder if I'll be able to answer

Inner MMK: Stop dithering, women are supposed to have more backbone

Paul: Then, we shall begin, young miss. Quiz time surprise

N: What are you doing now?

MMK: Eh? What?

N: Written by the author Natsume Souseki, I am (2)

MMK: Mr Sergeant Keroro

N: LP & CD, which has an A & B side?

MMK: A, b, c, d...E, f, g!

N: "Red comet" is whose nickname?

MMK: M-Mr Corporal Gigiro

G66: I'm Giroro!

N: Japan's 3 most scenic places are? (3)

MMK: Dangerous if you don't listen closely for hazards

N: Tokoe-san's nejirinbou what type of food (4)

MMK: Are they?

N: What does "Kopipe" stand for? (5)

MMK: Coffee, and green peppers, and...the gourd family!

N: The person you like is?

MMK: (Stuttering)

N: Which has more legs? A spider or a cockroach? MMK: fuyu

N: Who said "Beauty is fleeting life is long"? (6)

MMK: Fuyuki-kun

N: For whom the bell tolls, the bell tolls for- (7)

MMK: Fuyuki-kun!

N: What's in kappa roll sushi? (8)

MMK: FUYUKI-KUN!!

(Failed quiz round noises)

MMK: Make it stop! Make it stop~!

Inner MMK: Hey, hey, I think you raised it a little too fast there.

Paul: Zero correct, miss, my regrets

K66: Gero gero gero gero! Momoka-dono sucked!

Paul: Miss receives 50 points for fighting spirit

(Shocked exclamations)

Paul: Oh, here is a chance to get bonus points. Right, a 50 point bonus to lady Momoka

(More shocked reactions)

FYK: You have amazing luck, Nishizawa-san, I envy you

MMK: I thought of giving my best enough for your share too, Fuyuki-kun

K66: Hey hey, Paul-san, don't you think it's a little weird?

Paul: This show is impartial, so what is it?

K66: Gero! Such sharp eyes. If you don't look at me like that, I have no complaints, no sir

723: Ah! I'm next! I want to try it!

KYK: Ah! Then I'll go with you!

723: Ah, but it looks like the chair's just for one person. We'd be on top of each other

KYK: Just as I'd want

MMK: Two in a chair made for one-

Inner MMK: Che, there was an option like that-

(eerie noises)

K66: Gero. What was that voice just now?

MMK: Eee! Fuyuki-kun, I'm scared!

Inner MMK:

FYK: A cryptid?

KYK: It feels like an enormous living thing

D66: It's below and above us, good sir

TMM: Th-this is bad, we might be at the limit!

723: Wh-what do you mean "limit"?

TMM: Actually this studio is alive

All: What!?

TMM: It's also called a "studio life form", it's a space carnivorous plant

723: Space carnivorous plant?

TMM: This "studio life form"'s prey is the tension or creatures that get caught doing live shows on it, and their talking quickly making the show interesting, but-

D66: Then the reason for that part at the top?

TMM: In short: It's the mouth! We're cornered like rabbits! It'll be able to fit everyone gathered here in it's mouth-Or so I think

K66: Ah, now I get it- No way~!

FYK: So then, when the quiz show we're doing becomes uninteresting...

TMM: It'll eat all of us here!

Everyone: What!?

(Eerie space plant noises)

K66: Everyone! Run away!

G66: Hey, where did your-... army man spirit go?

D66: You mustn't come this way, good sir!

723: Oh no! I don't wanna die yet!

KYK: Natsumi-san, calm down, since I'm here at least when we die we'll be together

G66: I can't lose to that plan

TMM: Mister Sergeant! What do we do!?

K66: Gero gero! It's already over! We're all gonna die!

FYK: Everyone calm down. In this case, we should be fine if we raise the interestingness

MMK: I agree with what Fuyuki-kun is saying

Inner MMK: We'll raise it with fighting spirit!

G66: Tamama! You take responsibility and raise it

TMM: WHAT~!?

K66: Well then, Tamama's the next one up

723: If you don't raise it, everyone will get eaten, so pull yourself together!

TMM: Uwaugh! I can't move~!

MMK: Well Paul, begin it

Paul: As you request Well then, Tamama-dono, let's begin. Quiz, great chance to collect 3,245,318,325 and a half (points) match derby

TMM: Waugh!

Paul: Question one, we've asked 3,245,318,325 aliens "What would you eat as a light meal"?

TMM: Um...A three layer Marie Antoinette pastry made like Keiko Matsushita does (9), is what I want to answer, but for this quiz, teppanyaki, but only enough to fill up one third

Paul: Final answer?

TMM: Hmm, can I use a hot line?

Paul: That's your chance, 1000 points to lady Momoka

K66: Seriously?

FYK: That's great, Nishizawa-san!

MMK: I'm so happy

Inner MMK: Utterly

TMM: Uh...When you say "morning" you think of a black hole natto! The stickiness that seems to suck you in is delicious, isn't it?

All: It is, it is, it is, it is!

(buzzer noise)

Paul: And that's time

(Menacing space plant noises)

G66: Waugh! It was able to gather us together!

TMM: Hiee~!

D66: The ceiling is rapidly dropping, good sir!

K66: Gero~! So we're getting eaten, yes sir!?

723: No! I don't wanna die!

KYK: We'll face the end together, so be at ease!

MMK: Fuyuki-kun!

FYK: Amazing!

(Everyone screams, is chewed on, and spat out)

K66: Huh? It spat us out

FYK: We're saved?

D66: So that was funny, good sir?

G66: Or could it be we taste bad?

723: I don't know what happened, but anyway, I'm glad we were saved!

KYK: Oh Natsumi-san, moving traps like that are normal in ninja houses

MMK: Hm? Tama-chan's the only one not here?

Paul: Oh, he's over there

FYK: He's on the set

All: Eh!?

(The wedding march plays)

TMM: Mr Sergeant! Help me~!

K66: Tamama's caught on the studio life form and flying away

723: Caught on- What is this music?

MMK: Since Tama-chan did his best to liven the show up, it looks like it's taken a shine to him

G66: They're going on the world tour trip, perhaps

KYK: It's their honeymoon, right?

FYK: I guess Tamama's the winner

K66: It's kind of beautiful

D66: This too shall pass, good sir

TMM: Help me~!

N: "This world has mysterious paths, when the gears of fate turn we're all moved, why is that?" we've all screamed at least once

TMM: What was that!?

---------------------

1-Just like in the intro CD drama, Keroro uses a younger form of "I" here

2-This one is interesting and a bit of a "coming full circle" thing, the book "Wagahai wa Neko de aru" or "I am a cat" (Though "I verily am a cat" might be a better translation) is a classic novel that's commonly assigned reading in school about a cat's perspective on the middle class human's around him, that said cat is somewhat looking down on as shown by his speaking like a nobleman despite being the cat of an ordinary teacher

But you might notice that title feels a little familiar...

"Wagahai" is a form of "I" that was considered old fashioned in the early 1900s when this book was written, real people almost never use it anymore, and this book is part of the reason it's still used in fiction and recognisable, as well as creating the trope of it being used by animal-like characters who are a little self-aggrandizing, add to that that "de aru" is a more aristocratic version of "de arimasu", with the more humble version having been adopted by the military...

It's basically the reason Keroro speaks the way that he does, and considering which Momoka hears most frequently, it's little surprise that hearing "Wagahai wa" she automatically thinks of Keroro

3-The correct answer is (from east to west): Matsushima in Miyagi, Ama no Hashidate in Kyoto, and Miyajima in Hiroshima; they're colloquially called "Japan's Three Views", a term coined in "Reviews of Japanese Landmarks" by Hayashi Shunsai

4-The question itself was difficult, from trying to tell what he was saying to not being able to find out who the name belongs to, but nejirinbou are a snack made by frying slightly sweet dough with a hole cut into it and the shape twisted before cooking.

Either way, the joke aspect of her answer is that Momoka treated the more casually worded question as an incomplete question using more formal language, which was a bit tricky to translate into a language with a different grammatical structure (having said that, I wonder if living with Tamama means the question is easier or harder to answer since he regularly eats what are typically snack foods as a proper meal)

5-I'm fairly sure it's supposed to be "copy paste", though since this CD was released in 2004 and difficulty adapting kanji delayed the widespread use of personal computers for a few years, it's not a surprise that she wouldn't know this

6-This isn't the actual quote, a few of these questions were difficult to tell what he was saying and I just couldn't get anything that yielded something I could search, the joke still works though

7- The actual question is asking Momoka to complete a well known haiku by Masaoka Shiki the full poem translates as "As soon as the bell rings in Kakikuheba Horyuji temple", the first 2 lines were given and Momoka was supposed to give the final line. To be fair, "Fuyuki-kun" is the right number of syllables

Since the sentence structure meant most of the poem had to be written out in the question not to cut out a part that was included, and it just fit really well, I used "For whom the bell tolls" as a place holder

8-The correct answer is cucumber, because part of kappa lore is liking cucumber

9-I believe the Keiko Matsuda Tamama is referring to is a singer from the early 1970s, though she lists cooking as one of her hobbies, it's not what she's known for. There also doesn't seem to be a real pastry called a "Marie Antoinette", but it does fit to the pattern of pastries being named after people, including the Charlotte Reale named after Princess Charlotte.

Either way, the joke is that it's obvious Tamama is the worst possible candidate to answer this question, given his abnormal diet and high caloric needs, and is aware of it enough to request a hotline

[baiwu-jinji]

hi!! i hope you're feeling alright. i just wanted to ask if there's anything in tgcf (event, character, etc) that you think the chinese and eng fandom interpret differently? or have a differing perception on? if not that, what do you think xie lian and hua cheng canonically look like in the novel? like any descriptors we missed? (like for ex. ppl have forgotten xie lian has raven hair)

Hi! :) I’ve mentioned in this post how Chinese and English readers perceive Guoshi differently which I think is due to translation, and another difference I’ve noticed is about Xie Lian. I’ve read some posts here on Tumblr which pointed out that Xie Lian’s inner voice can be a bit mean and judgy (one example might be when Xuan Ji demands to see Pei Ming, XL thought to himself “well if I were Pei Ming, I wouldn’t want to see you either if you act like this”). I can totally see why people think so, but the thing is this observation about XL never occurred to me when I was reading the novel on my own, and I’ve never seen this take in the Chinese fandom either. I think it’s probably because I (and I assume other Chinese readers) see XL’s critical and mean-ish inner voice more as a narrative device to create humour rather than an actual indication that XL likes to think about others judgmentally. What XL’s judgy inner voice does is called 吐槽, and 吐槽 is basically rude and irreverent fault-finding that aims to reveal the absurdity/inconsistency/stupidity in others’ behaviours or words. Personally I feel like 60% of Chinese humour is just 吐槽 so…And since the events in TGCF are told from XL’s point of view, XL becomes responsible for 吐槽. I don’t know if you’ve read SVSSS but the main character in that book, Shen Qingqiu, kind of does the same which is that he 吐槽 about everything with a lot of exclamation marks, and it’s more for the sake of humour than to show that Shen Qingqiu is a judgmental person.

(p.s. for a prime example of 吐槽, see the section in this post about Chinese fandom’s nickname for Hua Cheng XD)

About XL and HC’s appearance, I think XL is given lighter coloured hair in donghua probably because HC’s hair is described as “extremely black” (极黑) in the novel – which is like blacker than black - so XL’s hair is made brownish to contrast HC’s extremely black hair. But tbh I don’t remember how XL’s hair is described in the novel lol.

And I think a description of HC that English readers kind of missed out on is “一段狂情野气, 不灭反骄” – it’s a very distinctive line that occurred several times throughout the novel so it’d be instantly recognizable for Chinese readers as the definitive description of HC’s appearance, but I’m not sure that’s the case for English readers because they translated the line differently in different chapters in the fan translation (hopefully they’ll fix that in the official translation). In chapter 36, the line is translated as “he carried an air of wild playfulness that couldn’t be tamed”, but in chapter 243, it’s translated as “there was still that wildness and a feral aura, a proudness that couldn’t be cut down”. The inconsistent translation is understandable because the original Chinese is vague enough to begin with. I once said in a post somewhere that sometimes literary Chinese is more about the vibe than the actual meaning, and it’s exactly the case with 一段狂情野气, 不灭反骄…You can’t really translate it accurately in a few words because it’s very condensed, and I think mxtx means to say that Hua Cheng has a proud bearing and an air of wildness that can’t be toned down, that makes itself more evident the more you look at him.

[the-cat-at-the-theatre-door]

Munkustrap for the book asks!

Munkustrap's books are well loved in a way you initially cannot tell they are well loved. On the outside, they look perfect and untouched - not a single spine cracked (he always makes the effort, whenever he gets a new book, to carefully stretch and break in the spines and binding - even his paperbacks), organized by shape/size and then alphabetically. All of his hardcover books still have their dust jackets, with only the smallest of bends on the bottoms from being dragged in and out, and all of them have his name in the upper corner of the cover. You'd think they were untouched, if it weren't for the fact that they're all dusted (monthly, usually).

Once you open them, though, it's a totally different story. Munkustrap's an annotator; but not with tabs or notecards or any such thing - he writes *directly* in his books. Armed with three different coloured pens (a blue a black and a red, each meaning something different), and a ruler, Munkustrap underlines anything that stands out to him and makes notes in the margin pages. He's got a particular fascination for quotes that he has to "double take" or read twice, and his annotations will often include things like single question marks, or small comments like "This is lovely", or an exclamation point (with its matching exclamation point several pages back when he makes a particularly delightful connection), though he's been known to write the symbolic meaning (or what he thinks it means) for something, or a literary device, or dropped plot thread he's noticed. These are all colour coded (longer annotations are in black), so if he flips back through something, he knows what the annotation is going to be referencing before he even reads it.

He's got the same bookmark he's had since he was a child, a little worse for wear but still in remarkable condition. He uses this bookmark in his "main" reading book that he's working through. Any others that he's reading, again or casually, have bookmarks as well (as he's got six alternate spares in various patterns).

When he reads, his mouth moves along with him - he's more of the methodical, slow sort. Takes him about 1 - 2 weeks to fully finish a book (because he's also a busy guy). Occasionally, if he likes a particular quote, he'll repeat it to himself aloud to see how it feels, and then smile and make note of it.

[wisteria-lodge]

bird primary in flux + snake secondary

Hello good day! I have AN ASK :(()()()( okay so I am having A LOT of difficulty with my primary. I’m 100% certain I’m a snake 2nd. Well, 99% no one should ever be 100% certain of anything.

And that’s a value? Right? Is that indicative of anything? tell me who I am lololol (jk)

That is a very Bird primary thing to say. That is a thing I have heard other Bird primaries say.

unless…)

(unrelated, but you sound a great deal like an ex-student of mine. Have you at any point written an essay called “Wolfstar and Its Consequences” about the way BookTok literary analysis flattens down the relationships in like, The Raven Cycle and Six of Crows into “the Sirius one” and “the Remus one,” and this seems vaguely fetishistic?)

The thing with primaries is I don’t KNOW WHY I do anything or what I care about??!!! And of course that’s not entirely accurate! it’s just so hard for me to articulate.

Hmmm. That’s sounding like an Idealist primary to me, an idealist primary in flux. And I would say Burnt Lion… but somehow I think you’re using too many exclamation points to really be burnt.

I think I relate most to bird or snake – via fictional characters (Azula, Hannibal Lecter, and also a bunch of the posts and other asks I’ve seen here hi thank you all.

I feel a bit like I might be a burnt Snake – my circle of friends right now is very very small so small it is mostly just me. My mother is probably the only person in my inner circle right now

Okay, I guess you could be a Burnt Snake primary.

but even around her I hesitate to go neutral. I haven’t had anyone around me in a number of years that I’ve felt I could go neutral around. Maybe that’s why I am having such a hard time?

So you’re thinking you’re also a Snake secondary, who wants to be able to go into neutral, but can’t. Which would definitely relate back to a burnt primary thing. I wonder if that’s how you read Hannibal, as a Snake secondary who needs Will as a person he can go neutral around.

This feels concentric!! Or pointless I don’t think I’m representing myself well but I don’t know who that is – especially in this context.

There’s some kind of identity angst going on here? Which mostly I associate with Lions. But it COULD be a system-building Bird? Or a Snake secondary with a really burnt primary.

My Snake secondary is receptive, defensive – I see what a person is/has and what I think they want me to be/ and with virtual people that’s like impossible. Or maybe I’m just being more neutral now and it feels unnatural to me. I think my neutral state is rather chaotic.

Snake. I could see how interacting virtually could be especially annoying to a Snake, since you’ve got so much less data to go off of.

Perhaps the Bird is a model I use to organize masks/??? Does that even make sense?

I’m not *really* seeing Bird secondary for you. Birds have their personas, and the audience that they’re aiming those personas at doesn’t matter that much. And for a Snake, it is the most important thing.

I don’t feel bad about my secondary. I used to! I used to think I was a liar or a phony. Or that I was a sadist or just evil. I think I grew up around a lot of IDK “grounded” people but I feel more airy, more undecided.

Doubling down on Snake secondary for sure.

I think morality is relative and circumstantial. Nothing is true for any single person. And maybe that sounds sssssssssnakey but could it also be birdy?

Could be either. It’s also kind of the premise of this system :)

But I guess in my wildest dreams I fantasize about having a partner, and like a close circle of best friends again (found family!!) being a part of a theatre troupe or making comedy skits and travelling the whole world (and also of course being a part of the revolution but like, as a spy or an assassin.) I’m comfortable being in the shadows most of the time but I like attention occasionally but usually mostly from certain people okay wow am I just a snake snake? is that who I am?!!

Some of this is just human stuff. Liking to be part of a group, liking attention but not too much attention, or only attention from certain people… I will say though. That you’re kind of giving me Bird Snake vibes, rather than Snake Snake. Just, there’s this way Bird Snakes have of being ephemeral, airy, in their own world. They also seem to love traveling.

maybe with a strong bird model – I love thinking about things and making new systems for myself – little games I play with myself. I have a hard time staying anywhere for very long or doing any one thing for a long time else I get bored. I also get really stressed out by jobs/responsibility and like do not want it/// I would rather have more free time than money. The cost of that is living very frugally and practically – maybe I’ve become too austere??!!! maybe I’ve exploded?????

You don’t read as someone who’s exploded. You read as someone who wants very different things than society says that you should want, you’ve figured that out and are - okay with that. Saying that ‘I want a life full of travel and light responsibility, and living cheaply and practically is totally fine.’ That’s a bit of an unusual answer, but it is an answer.

In the past I have tended to form fast close relationships with people I felt that SPARK with – both friends and ~*lovers*~ – but went through some tough breakups – both friends and ~*lovers*~ and haven’t really had a best friend (or ~*lover*~) in like 3 years :’( Is that pathetic? I’m Adam Parrish before he met Gansey it’s FINE ILL BE FINE

You don’t seem… that stressed by this. Burnt Snakes give off this feel of being in survival mode, and you… don’t. If anything, I’m getting “It would be fun to to x, y, or z things, I just can’t decide.” Which makes me think it’s more likely that you’re a Bird primary with their system in flux. And three years isn’t a crazy amount of time to be in flux, especially if you’ve just graduated, or are in some other *transitional* period.

ANYWAY

ALL THIS TO SAY;

thank you so much huge fan I love your work don’t stop believin’ <3 <3

I hope I provided you with enough information but not too much ;) ;)

You are welcome. I find your writing style very charismatic.

[talkfantasytome]

I'm Still Reeling A Bit

So, did you know, if you copy from a tumblr dashboard view into an Excel, it will keep the paragraphs and put them in separate rows? Made it very easy to do a quick comparison. 👀

Pettiness ahead!

After redoing the find+replace, changing all of the names back, then some extra combing for when someone said "Cass" instead of "Cassian", or switching "Darling" back to "Nes", and then adding the "s" back to all possessive forms of Cassian, I got my totals.

241 paragraphs in total, 229 were perfect matches, except for the italics that apparently didn't transfer.

That's 95% of the fic. BUT THERE'S MORE!

Of the 12 different paragraphs, two are only not matches because one of my paragraphs got split up into two. And otherwise they're verbatim the same.

So 10 different paragraphs. The differences - things like taking out descriptors, expanding a laugh description, or my favorite, taking out the exclamation point after a question mark....literally, the only difference was it ended in "?" instead of "?!"

Or, is the better one where it says:

"Disgusting." Amren made a disgusted face...

Instead of:

"Ew." Emerie made a disgusted face...

Yeah...there's a reason I didn't say "disgusting", since it was made rather clear elsewhere. 👀

But no, my favorite change has to be this:

Even the mug on the counter held paint brushes.

'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that any person during the morning hours, must be in want of coffee.' The mug read.

Versus the original:

Even the mug on the counter held a literary reference to Pride and Prejudice, the words making Nesta laugh softly.

'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that any person during the morning hours, must be in want of coffee.'

THE MUG READ.

Well, yeah, that clarification is needed now that there's NO reason as to why the mug would say that. The whole point of the mug was showing how well Cassian knew Nesta. Why not just take out the quote? The paintbrushes were there, though. Was the quote necessary, too?

I mean, Nessian are Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. There was every reason to include that quote, that literary reference, for a Nessian fic as a bit of a gift for Nesta.

I put a SHIT TON of thought into that little detail. I'm not gonna lie. I think that line took me twenty minutes to get right. So yeah, it kinda hurts seeing that stolen (along with a fic that took me at least 6 hours to write, of course). But on top of that, it was made worse, because it not longer fits, not with the theme of it being about the model, nor the couple the fic is about.

And then there's the added "The mug read." (Incorrectly, I might add.) Just...why? Couldn't have put a bit more thought into the plagiarism? 😑

[shyvioletcat]

I have no idea if you’ve seen NCIS: LA, but they have an episode just like your fic Treacherous of two agents posing as a married couple in the suburbs!! It’s season 3 episode 22 for reference!

Prompt based on that: A comes home and sees blood, panics and follows the trail thinking B has been hurt/killed. Carefully pushes the door open and finds A has simply cut their foot and didn’t hear B

I have watched some and I did go looking for this episode but came up bust in my search. It could have provided some good inspiration I’m sure. We all love a good fake relationship.

*EDIT: TAGLIST DONE. Sorry if you’ve already seen it and are getting the notification.*

Treacherous Masterlist

~~~~~

Grabbing the shopping bags out of the boot of the car Rowan swept his foot under it to activate the automatic close, all the while suppressing a yawn. He was dead tired. Aelin had gotten her revenge after the pen incident, setting an alarm clock in his room to wake him up at exactly 3:47. The damned thing hadn’t been within reach so he had to get out of bed to turn it off. And from copious missions together Aelin knew once he was up, he was up so he’d hadn’t bothered to try and get back to sleep. Knowing her she might have set others up in the room anyway, even if he had tried to sleep again paranoia would have kept him awake. All the while she slept blissfully across the hall.

Being just the two of them in the house they hadn’t bothered to keep up the bed sharing part of the charade. They slept in separate rooms and thank the gods for that. If he didn’t have that space to himself he might have never been able to get away from her and have some quiet. Aelin seemed to fill every room she was in and it was suffocating for him… most of the time. She had a way with people he had admired at times, it was what made her such a good agent, especially when undercover. Not that he would ever tell her any of that. No need to inflate her already insufferable ego.

When he had grumpily asked her over his third cup of coffee why she’d chosen 3:47 exactly she’d smiled at him, bright and cheery as ever after sleeping in until 8 o’clock, and alluded to some lockeroom talk she’d heard about certain measurements—in millimetres. When he had rolled his eyes she had gone on to clarify she was talking about 30 and not just 3 he’d promptly left the room, well and truly done with her immaturity. Her laughter had chased him out.

Shifting the shopping bags so he could open the back door, Rowan entered the kitchen expecting to find Aelin in there preparing the food for the ridiculous party tomorrow while listening to some obnoxious music very loudly just to piss him off. But she wasn’t, in fact the house was silent.

“Aelin,” he called, stepping around the length of the counter.

That was when he saw the blood.

Rowan dropped the bags, things crushing on impact. The blood pooled in one spot, then splatters made a path across the tiles. He didn’t have a gun on him, but there were enough stashed around the house and he found one in a low kitchen drawer. It was pointed and ready in moments and Rowan made sure he didn’t disturb the blood on the linoleum floor.

“Aelin,” he called again. “Agent Galathynius.”

Still silence. He followed the trail of blood towards the small bathroom that was on the bottom level, his heart pounding in his ears. There wasn’t enough that the situation looked dire, but the assailant may have dragged her off to another location, hidden away from windows. Why hadn’t the team been alerted to anything? Where was the back-up? Panic started to fill him, but his training kept it under control. If something had happened to Aelin…

He shook his head to shake out the thought. She was a perfectly capable agent, one of the best. Rowan was overreacting and he needed to calm down. A deep breath in and he nudged the door, when there was no reaction he kicked it open, gun ready. Eyes darting around the room, his gun dropped to the side when he took in the scene before him.

Aelin was seated on the floor, holding wads of toilet paper on a wound on her foot, wincing from what he gathered to be pain. She hadn’t noticed his entrance and was still focused on her foot.

“Aelin,” Rowan said, but got no response, so he tried a little louder. “Aelin.”

She jumped looking up at him. “Why do you have a gun?”

“Did you not hear me calling out?” Rowan asked, putting the safety back on the gun.

Aelin took small earbuds out of her ears. “What?”

Rowan rubbed a hand over his face, panic turned to exasperation. “I called out to you and you didn’t answer.”

“Podcast,” she held up her earbuds in explanation. “But the gun?” Aelin then asked him, her attention going back to her foot.

“The blood trail…” he said but didn’t elaborate.

Aelin straightened where she sat and looked up at him, then laughed. “Did you think I’d been murdered in the bathtub?”

Rowan didn’t answer her question. “Would you mind telling me what happened exactly?”

Aelin sighed. “I was trying to cook and I knocked a knife off the counter and my hands were full so I couldn’t catch it. It nicked my foot and now here we are.”

“Okay,” Rowan said, the adrenaline finally settling and he knelt down to assess the injury.

“What are you doing?” Aelin brows were furrowed in confusion.

“Inspecting the cut, you can’t get at it from the right angle,” Rowan said, turning her foot and earning a hiss.

“I can do it myself,” Aelin said and tried to pull her foot away but Rowan held firm. She relented with an over dramatic sigh and leaned her back on the bathtub.

Aelin had already got down what he needed, so he cleaned the cut up and foot, putting a large bandaid on it to stop the bleeding. “There,” Rowan said succinctly, brushing a thumb unconsciously along Aelin’s arch before letting go, making her suppress a laugh. She was ticklish.

“Hmm,” Aelin said, looking at him curiously.

“What?” Rowan asked, standing and washing his hands. When he turned around to dry his hands on a towel she was still looking at him.

“Careful Whitethorn, someone might think you were concerned for my well-being if they found out about this.”

“Not likely,” Rowan scoffed. “It was the paperwork I was concerned about.”

Aelin snorted and walked past him, Rowan taking a moment before he followed. There had been a moment when… He shook his head. Concern for a partner was only natural, no matter the feelings of enmity between them. The two of them couldn’t stand each other, but that didn’t mean he wanted her hurt or dead. Rowan left the bathroom, headed for the kitchen to put away the groceries when he heard a frustrated exclamation.

“Are you serious, Rowan?”

Any concern he had felt evaporated at Aelin’s tone. Entering the kitchen he found her holding a carton of eggs, leaking yellow and clear goop. They must have cracked when he dropped the bags in his panic at the blood.

“You need to go get more,” she told him, dropping the ruined eggs in the trash.

“No, I am not,” Rowan groaned. He was tired, he didn’t want to take another trip to the grocery store across town.

“Oh, you are. I needed those eggs for the barbecue tomorrow, so because of your overreaction over a little bit of blood I am now eggless,” Aelin explained. There was no answer from him as Aelin unrolled some paper towel to clean up both egg and blood. “Off you go.”

Too tired to fight anymore Rowan just grabbed his keys and left to get more precious eggs.

~~~~~

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[oficmag]

You Guys!!!!!!! 🥺🥺🥺

[Original post on our Patreon]

We’re truly blown away by the astounding response to our launch, and honored that each of you has trusted us enough to subscribe this far in advance. Now that we’ve all gotten some much-needed sleep, we wanted to connect with you! And we’ll try to do it without too many exclamation points.

First of all, thank you doesn’t even begin to cover the depth of our gratitude. Much like fanfiction itself, this endeavor was a bit of a trust fall. Yes, we felt there was an audience for this, but we needed the community to believe it too. As fanauthors ourselves, we also feel we have a responsibility to communicate our goals openly. OFIC isn’t born out of a disrespect for fanfiction–quite the opposite! We want to offer a platform to the original work of fanauthors, celebrate the skills and talents within fandom, and show everyone just how special fan communities are. This response lets us know we’re on the right path. And who doesn’t love a little external validation? 😉

Secondly, we wanted to take a second and expand a little more on our ethos. Aside from publishing work, we want to be a resource to fanauthors who might not know the ins and outs of the literary community. A lot of the industry is built on understandings learned in more formal settings like workshops and creative writing programs, things not everyone has the time, money, resources, or desire to pursue. But the problem with that is…well, obvious. Privilege self-selects. So we want to blow this whole thing wide open. Bring us your submission questions, and we’ll share what we know.

Thirdly, we wanted to let you in on some of the behind-the-curtain planning. In between celebrating every new follower and submission, we’ve been expanding the scope of our goals. Covering our expenses has to come first–and it’s not that far out of sight. After that, we’ll be setting up our merch store! For our first issue, we’re planning on tote bags, bookmarks, and stickers. Once we have a little more guaranteed income to offset the overhead, we’re going to get the ball rolling to add enamel pins, more stickers, and mugs to our store.

What’s that? We’re already halfway there? Then here’s our stretch goals!

In the short term, we’re focused on our community. Right now, we offer a small honorarium of $25 to each contributor. When we have the funds, we’re going to increase that. That’s a major failing of literary mags–they don’t pay. In fact, many of them charge just to submit your work. We have some ethical issues with that model. We agreed that we would never charge submission fees, and we would prioritize paying our contributors. Depending on demand and submissions, we’d also like to do larger print runs for future issues, and longer issues so we can accept more work.

Our ultimate goal is to start our own press so we can begin to publish book-length works. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but this has always been our pie-in-the-sky endpoint. Literally nothing would make us happier. Every new patron, every merch purchase, every retweet and reblog helps bring us closer to that goal. One day, you’ll be able to hold one of our books in your hands. And we can’t wait for that day to come.

Finally, we have a question we’re hoping you could help us answer. As our Editor-in-Chief spoke about briefly earlier, we’d like to work toward a firm definition of what we mean by “ofic.” So we want to know what you think! When a work “feels like fanfiction,” what does that mean to you? Is it specifics, an overall vibe, or something else entirely?

[myhoneststudyblr]

i received an ask from @sunset-study asking me how to annotate texts so i thought i would do a post giving some of my tips! as an English literature student, i spend a lot of my time doing annotations on loads of different types of texts so i think i have some good advice that i can give. i hope that you will find this helpful and if you have any other questions, please feel free to send me an ask!

disclaimer: these are my personal tips and experiences and i’m sure that there are many more that are relevant. i have tried to do a little bit of research to get some other ideas which hopefully will make this a useful post but as always i appreciate others adding their opinions and advice in the comments!

[Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes]

What is covered:

General Tips

Things to look for

Specific Tips for Annotating Novels

Specific Tips for Annotating Plays

Specific Tips for Annotating Poetry

Other resources

General Tips

don't just highlight. this is very passive and often you will not really be taking in what is important. 

pencils are great for annotating. if you are anything like me, when you are annotating, you often are doing it as the thoughts come into your mind so a pencil allows you some leeway to erase and refine ideas. also when you are writing in a book, i personally do not have enough confidence to write in pen.

don’t annotate extensively the first time you read. often on a first read, you don't see the recurring imagery or features because you don't have the whole context so don't annotate deeply the first time you read something. that said, it can often be good to jot some questions in the margins that you have because these can be useful to remind you of your thoughts when you reread. 

think of some symbols to indicate important or interesting parts. for example, if it is a dramatic section, i will box it off and put a big exclamation mark. or if something is confusing or unclear, use a question mark. i tend to put a star for a section that is important. you could think of symbols for humour, foreshadowing, particular themes or characters etc.

actually respond to the text. this seems like an obvious one but a lot of the time, because we are taught in schools all these fancy techniques, when we see one of them in a text we just highlight them and note that its a metaphor or simile or foreshadowing. what you should try to do is explain - briefly - why that is important and its effect. also if you have any personal reaction to it, note that down as well because this can be really helpful when writing essays because it shows that you’ve actually engaged with the text. 

practice, practice, practice. annotation is a skill and honestly it can be quite difficult because you need to often read between the lines and summarise, while also analysing. so take some time to focus on this skill and create your own method and shorthand.

Things to look for:

structure. are the paragraphs long? is sentence varied or does it remain quite consistent? are there any repeated words or phrases? what is the overall shape of the text? where does the narrative start? does the focus shift anywhere? 

language. what are the literary devices used in the text? if so, what is their effect? has the author used a particular semantic field? are there any usual words? are there repeated words? are there any individual words that stand out to you? what are the connotations of these words? are there any words that you don’t know? if so, what do they mean? is there any unusual syntax? 

characterisation and voice. who is speaking in the text? if it is third person, how ‘close’ or ‘distant’ are we to the character? can we trust the character? are they an unreliable narrator? what are their key features? do any of these features link to key themes? if so, where is that shown in the text? is the author using a particular voice in order to get a specific reaction?

themes. what themes is the author exploring? where does the author explore these themes? are particular opinions (either by a character or perhaps the implied opinion of the author) expressed on the themes? are there any words or phrases that link closely to this theme?

Specific Tips for Annotating Novels

SUMMARISE REGULARLY

a novel is often long and there is a lot of stuff to cover throughout it so it is really important to keep making sure that you understand what is going on. summarising will also help you when revising.

for example, after each chapter quickly summarise the key points in a few sentences - which characters were important, did the plot move forward in any important ways, what themes were explored.

you could either do this on a post it note or if you have space on the last page of the chapter. make sure that it is not too long. a few sentences is absolutely fine.

KEEP A LIST OF CHARACTERS 

characters are obviously very important in a novel so make sure you know who’s who and where they come into the book. you could write the list of characters or a little character map on the inside cover of the book, which you can refer to if necessary.

COLOUR CODE

i personally don't colour code that often when annotating. i usually only do it in important scenes and moments where there is a lot going on and things can get very confusing. that said, colour coding can be particularly useful to keep track of themes in the novel.

there are many different ways that you can do this. for example you could have a particular highlighter colour for each theme. you could also put coloured sticky tabs on the page so you can quickly find the themes throughout the novel. 

Specific Tips for Annotating Plays

This is mostly the same for novels so take all of the tips above and apply them to the play you are studying with two main - VERY IMPORTANT - additions:

NOTE THE DRAMATIC FUNCTION

a play is written to be performed and this has a huge impact on the text, because it can affect how we interpret a particular character, theme or scene. 

so it is SO SO important that you remember that it is being performed and think about the different ways that it could be acted and how the audience could respond to it. 

on that note, remember that every performance, actor and audience is different so try to think of ALL the ways it could be played and how our interpretation could differ

PAY ATTENTION TO STAGE DIRECTIONS

this is a related point to the one above. my GCSE English teacher used to go on about this all. the. time. because it is so easy to overlook them and not consider them a real part of the text. BUT they are such a key part because they can give hints to performance as well as the atmosphere which might otherwise be difficult to discern just by reading the dialogue. they can also be good ways to demonstrate character traits

Specific Tips for Annotating Poetry

NOTE GENERAL FEATURES (STRUCTURE, RHYMING, METER, CONTEXT, THEMES, ETC.) SOMEWHERE SEPARATE 

poems are obviously much shorter than plays and novels so they are often packed full of interesting language points to annotate. therefore if you try to add in all of this other stuff in your annotations using arrows, it is likely that it is going to get very full and confusing. 

therefore, i would suggest only directly annotating language features for the poem and writing your notes on the more general features of the poem elsewhere - for example on a post-it note, or if there is a bunch of white-space under the poem. then it is easy to find and refer to but won't mix with your annotations and make it confusing so that you feel that you need to rewrite more notes on the whole poem 

if there is a particular word or phrase that is important for the above features (for example, links significantly with the context or has unusual - and therefore probably significant - meter) you can notes this on the text using arrows but keep it specific and short. you can expand on it in more depth in your general notes

IDENTIFY THE TONE AND MOOD OF THE POEM

this is good to identify because it can help you focus on the language that is important and helps you to interpret the meaning. 

THINK ABOUT THE SOUND OF THE POEM

poems are usually meant to be lyrical and rhythmic in some way and read aloud. so think about how these words sound when you read it (are they harsh or soft) and consider the rhythm that the poet creates through punctuation. it could be helpful to consider a poem like the lyrics of a song and imagine what it would sound like if it were set to music 

rhyming is an important part of this and you could note - just for your own reference - the rhyme scheme (if there is one) using letters at the end of the line. but again, referring back to tip one of this section, talk about the rhyme scheme in greater depth elsewhere so as not to clutter your notes 

Other Resources

there are so many resources that you can find on the internet about annotation but here are just a couple that i thought were useful:

Annotation Guide Produced for AP Language Students

BBC Bitesize GCSE Revision Page on Annotating Texts

General How to Annotate Guide (Note: this is not just for literature but also for textbooks but has some great tips)

Annotating Poetry Guide

[youre-fired-s-seaborn]

So you guys are never going to guess what I just did.

I might possibly be writing a tww fic (FOR REAL THIS TIME I PROMISE) and I just finished the first little snippet so I thought I’d share that with y’all!

It’s going to be several chapters, each one from the POV of a different senior staff member, basically just a random collection of scenes where everyone Works Out their Issues. Official summary= The senior staff + Donna think about the past, how far they’ve come, heartbreak, hard times, sleep deprivation, and what family means to them over a ginormous bowl of popcorn.

(Part backstory headcanons, part character study, part found family, part random other shit?? I have no clue where this came from tbh. Anyway enjoy this rambly dumpster fire) (the popcorn is figurative)

Part one is Sam, and I’m sure none of you are surprised 😋 Enjoy!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Samuel Norman Seaborn was a kid, ‘I want to be a lawyer when I grow up’ was one thought that didn’t cross his mind, not even once. Which is saying something, because little Sam had a lot of thoughts. He had opinions about everything, even things he didn’t understand (especially those) and he had ideas, big ideas that everyone said were going to change the world one day, and he had an imagination the size of the Chrysler building and not enough room in his head for all the stories he wanted to tell. Everyone liked Sam. He was easy to like. At least, until he got a little older and suddenly his imagination was distracting instead of endearing and his ideas were silly instead of helpful and the big books he liked to read were taking time away from more important things. It didn’t make sense to him, because he had always thought they were the most important things in the world, but one day when one too many teachers had commented on it and one too many other children had teased him for it, he sat himself down at his desk and told himself he wouldn’t be like that anymore. Sam decided he wouldn’t be the dreamy one with his head in the clouds anymore. He would be focused, and dedicated, the model student and son.

So somewhere in middle school, Sam Seaborn changed from the cheerful, somewhat dazed and forgetful child he had been into the most intensely focused little academic his teachers had ever seen. Focusing was usually...hard, for Sam. At least, focusing on the right thing. His mind wanted to go in so many different directions and think about so many different things, and none of them were what he should have been focusing on. But he found that if he worked really hard and forced himself to think about one specific thing, then he could usually achieve it. Homework and such wasn’t exactly what he was passionate about, but it was what his parents wanted, and what everyone else around him seemed to want, so he did his best.

He worked hard through high school and when he graduated, he got accepted to Princeton. Sam loved Princeton. He loved everything about it. He started working hard because he liked it, and not because he thought other people wanted him to. He worked towards his law degree, and he got it.

(He never did stop writing, though. It was like a disease. No matter where he was or what he should have been doing, he could never make himself not write.)

There was a bit of a gray area after that, and more than one bad decision, but then he got the job at Gage-Whitney. And Gage-Whitney was...well. He was good at it. It paid well. He kept working his way up the ladder until he made partner, and wasn’t that everyone’s dream? Shouldn’t he love his job? Maybe he should have. He didn’t.

Then there was Lisa, and he couldn’t decide if she had been a mistake or not. He had liked her an awful lot; even loved her. She had been quite fond of him too. It had been real. Once. He remembered nice dinners and radiant smiles and the joy of having a partner who was as smart as you.

God, what happened to us? He’d think sometimes, but it was stupid, because he knew exactly what had happened to them. Sam had quit his job and gone running off to New Hampshire with Joshua Lyman. He’d tried to build a presidential campaign from scratch, then actually managed to accomplish it, which was somehow even worse for their relationship because then he was zipping all over the country without a minute to spare and he told himself he called whenever he could but it wasn’t enough and he knew it. Whenever they did get to see each other, there was a...distance, that there never had been before. Eventually Lisa would say something passive aggressive about how apparently Josh Lyman meant more to him than she did, and Sam would get defensive and mutter something about how he never complained when she always went off to fancy bars with her fancy friends every other night, and she would bark out an incredulous laugh because of course he would find a way to insult her friends when he was the one who had left her in the dust, because wasn’t that just the kind of person he was!

It hurt even more because they cared, they both cared. A lot. But in the end, it didn’t matter, because Sam chose the campaign and she chose to stay and there was nothing they could say to change each other’s minds. Her eyes had gotten big and wet and angry, and he had been numb, staring out at nothing. That was the night she gave him back the ring.

But he tried not to think about it too much now. It was a sure-fire way to ruin his day. Or week, more likely.

“Did you know that supposedly the shortest telegram correspondence in history was between Victor Hugo and his literary agent?” he asked. He was sitting at one of the desks in the bullpen, hunched over some files that he really didn’t want to read. It was one of those days, where there was a lot to do but a lot of time to do it, so you ended up doing anything but what you were supposed to do. One of those days that felt lazy and slow when it shouldn’t have been.

Josh was leaning against an office door frame across from him. “Really.”

“Yeah.” he flipped through some of the papers absently. “To ask how the book sales were doing he just sent a question mark. The guy sent back an exclamation point. And all I’m saying is if Victor Hugo himself could restrain his verbosity like that, then just maybe the guys writing these files could-” he paused as Josh wandered over, resting his forehead against the back of Sam’s head and wrapping an arm around him from behind. “What?” Sam asked.

“Nothing.” Josh chuckled. “You’re just a huge dork.”

“Oh.” He rolled his eyes. “Just part of my charm, I guess.”

“In that case, you are extremely charming.”

“Ha ha.” Sam looked over as Josh slid into the desk chair next to him. “Hey, did CJ say how the briefing went? I was on the Hill all morning.”

Josh shrugged. “It was fine. They were all just asking about whether Jancowitz was going to sink the healthcare bill with his insistence on antagonizing what’s-his-name at the DOD.”

“Ah. Should we send someone to smooth that over?”

“Yeah, you can put Ainsley on it. I’m not too worried.” A problem for another day, then. Josh leaned back in his chair, putting his feet up on the desk in front of him. “It’s supposed to keep snowing all night.”

“They said that the last two times it snowed.”

“I think they’re right this time!” Josh protested, tapping the side of his head. “It’s my flawless intuition as an outdoorsman.”

Sam laughed. “At this rate, we could put you on the Weather Channel. You’d be just as accurate as all of those guys.”

“Mmm. With their track record, I could be their boss by next Tuesday.” He squinted at something for a minute before hopping up. “Well, I should probably go work on my thing before Leo has an aneurysm. I’ll come see you later about the environment?”

“Yeah, see you.” He sighed, staring down at the papers while Josh went back to his office. After a minute, he just shook his head and stood up, gathering them in his hands and retreating into his own office. Sam unceremoniously dumped the files onto a shelf, settling into his desk chair. They could be read another day.

Straightening his glasses, he popped open his laptop on the desk in front of him. He tried typing out some remarks for the President’s conference next week, but didn’t get very far. He wandered over to his email, and replied to a few people who had asked him questions.

I should write my dad, he thought absently. It had been a while since his last email. The thing was, thinking about his father in any capacity was Sure-fire Way To Ruin His Week Number Two.

It was...complicated. Sam had never had the best relationship with either of his parents to begin with. They had always been busy, and now he was always busy, and he supposed that it was possible he had lost far too many important things in his life due to people being busy. It didn’t even sound like a good excuse.

His mother was a brilliant, industrious woman who had grown up poor and worked so hard to get their little family off the ground that there was little else left of her now. At least, that was how he’d always felt. She’d always been so caught up in working to secure his future, and seemed to not have time for him in the meantime. Oh, she had tried, but she was always on a phone call or an extra shift and so it had usually just been him and his dad at the house when he was little.

It made his blood boil to think about it too long. Sam had never been close with his mother, but she had worked so hard and given up so much to keep them afloat. And this was how his father had repaid her? By...by...he couldn’t even put it into words. Learning about his father’s mistress had shook him to his core, and hadn’t stopped shaking it since.

Family had never been a very comforting concept to Sam, and after that particular revelation, even the romanticized ideal of it had come crumbling down around him. Family wasn’t supposed to be built on lies and absence and forced smiles. It was supposed to be solid and warm and loving, not shaky and volatile and brimming with hurt.

He could feel his heart clenching with anger and bitterness and grief over what-could-have-beens, and Sam hated being that person. Instead, he stared at the blank white void of the email draft in front of him, forcing himself to breathe deep. What are the others doing right now? he asked himself, his mind latching onto a distraction. Josh was probably working himself up over the environment issue- that, or getting lovingly screamed at by Leo. CJ had just finished a briefing, and was probably high-fiving Carol or bickering with Danny. Toby was most likely scribbling notes for the energy conference, half of which would be crumpled up in the wastebasket by now. Or on fire. Sam smiled to himself, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“Hey,” came a cheery voice, and Sam looked up to find Donna in the doorway with a file tucked under her arm. “Any important government business going on in here?”

“Absolutely not,” he assured her, leaning back in his chair. “You need me for something?”

“Nothing pressing,” she replied with a shrug, brushing forward and hopping on top of his desk like she always did. “Toby and Josh are in CJ’s office watching the game if you want to join. ”

“Don’t they have work to do?” he mumbled petulantly.

“I really wouldn’t know,” Donna said with exaggerated innocence. She smirked at him. “But you look so sad and lonely in here, the least I could do was extend the invitation.”

“Hush, you,” Sam lamented, stretching absently. He looked down at his laptop and tapped his fingers on the desk. “I really should be working.”

“So should everyone else,” Donna pointed out. She slid off the desk and crossed her arms, giving him a look. “Sam? Hey, are you feeling okay? You look a little…”

Sam frowned, looking down at himself. “Disheveled?” he suggested, noting his wrinkled shirt and crooked tie.

“Ah,” she said with a nod. “That’s the word I was looking for. But, hey, are you really alright?” She leaned down to rub his shoulder. “You seem gloomy.”

“Yeah,” he replied, sighing. “Just a long day, I guess.”

Donna raised her eyebrows. “And do you know what the perfect antidote for a long day is?”

“Watching the game with Josh and Toby and CJ?” he guessed.

“Exactly!” Donna smiled, bonking him on the head with her file. “See you in five?”

Sam looked back at his email, thinking. If he mustered up the sheer willpower to write to his dad, he would have no idea what to say. And it wasn’t like his relatives in California were truly family, anyway. Not if all he associated with them were pain and disappointment. Maybe he could leave this email for later. Maybe he could watch football with his friends and chuckle at Toby and Josh shouting at the TV and rib CJ when she didn’t understand anything that was happening and forget about all of it, for a little while.

“Yeah,” Sam said, closing the lid to his computer. “Yeah, I’m coming.”

[ep1cg33k]

The AUs (+Dream and Nightmare) Start a Chat Group

Introduction: Alright, I had a random idea, that amused me. What if these dorks started a chat group. Fair warning, this is coming off of G33kVerse, and will potentially contain spoilers for "Literary Nightmare", and "G33kTale". (Yes, I have finally decided that Literary Nightmare is a part of the multiverse of G33kTale.) Now, to the spoilers: Nightmare has been uncorrupted. Ink isn't there because he is dead. (No, I will not tell you how he died.) G33k has met them. (No, I will not say how, all you need to know is that they meet them.) You have been fully informed, now. So...

Onward to the chat group!

The actual thing itself:

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25 has joined the chat.

Angy Octopus has joined the chat.

G33k has joined the chat.

WalkingWindowsVista has joined the chat.

WalkingWindowsVista: Who named me that?!

Angy Octopus: Not me.

G33k: Lol.

WalkingWindowsVista: G33k!!!

Angy Octopus: You're only supposed to put one exclamation point. Like this: G33k, it's rude to take people's phones, and do things like that! See?

WalkingWindowsVista: 🙄

Angy Octopus: Rude.

G33k: It wasn't me, I just thought it was funny.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: I THINK I KNOW WHO DID IT.

WalkingWindowsVista: Who?

Angy Octopus: Blue, your caps lock is on.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: I KNOW, IT'S STUCK.

G33k: How? Didn't you just get a new phone?

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: YES. I'M STARTING TO THINK I'M CURSED. 😢

WalkingWindowsVista: Answer me, berry!

Angy Octopus: I don't think you're cursed. Maybe you just have a habit of accidentally turning it on.

G33k: Makes sense.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: HOW, THOUGH? I DON'T HOLD THE SHIFT BUTTON THAT LONG.

Angy Octopus: Oh, you turn caps on by holding "Shift"?

G33k: Yeah...?

WalkingWindowsVista: TELL ME WHO CHANGED MY NAME!!!

Angy Octopus: OH, COOL! Now if only I could figure out emojis. :(

G33k: You could get Dream to help you.

Angy Octopus: He's busy helping one of the AUs.

G33k: Oh.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: IF YOU COME TO UNDERSWAP, I COULD HELP YOU! 😁

Angy Octopus: No, it's alright, I can wait on Dream. And while I wait on him, I can figure out some of these things on my own. :)

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: IF YOU SAY SO.

oglzy🦴 has joined the chat.

oglzy🦴: sup

G33k: Hello, Classic.

WalkingWindowsVista: WILL SOMEONE PLS TELL ME WHO CHANGED MY NAME!!!!!!!!!

oglzy🦴: wut's the vista's malfunction

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: OH RIGHT, I WAS GOING TO TELL HIM WHO I THINK CHANGED HIS NAME!

WalkingWindowsVista: About time!

G33k: Aren't Windows Vistas always malfunctioning? 🤨

oglazy🦴: lol

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: I THINK FRESH CHANGED IT. HE'S ALWAYS MESSING WITH YOU, AND IT CERTAINLY WASN'T INK, AS HE...

Angy Octopus: How about we talk about something else?

WalkingWindowsVista: Of course it was Fresh. Why can't that parasite leave me alone?!

Angy Octopus left the chat.

G33k: Why did Nightmare leave?

oglazy🦴: prob hit the wrong button

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: I'LL INVITE HIM BACK TO THE CHAT GROUP. 😅

Angy Octopus has joined the chat.

Angy Octopus: Wrong button.

oglazy🦴: called it

Angy Octopus: But, in the process I did find the emoji board! 😄

G33k: 👍

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: NOCE.

WalkingWindowsVista: Nice*

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: THAT'S WHAT I MEANT, I JUST HIT ENTER TOO SOON.

oglzy🦴: oof

G33k: Mood.

Angy Octopus: All of you are making me feel old.

oglzy🦴: aren't u over 500

Angy Octopus: Maybe.

WalkingWindowsVista: Hey, noot, I found the perfect emojis for you! 🐙👴

Angy Octopus: 😒

oglzy🦴: lol

G33k: Be nice.

Angy Octopus: What does "lol" mean?

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: IT MEANS "LAUGH OUT LOUD".

WalkingWindowsVista: What the berry said.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: PLEASE STOP CALLING ME "BERRY". IT'S ANNOYING.

WalkingWindowsVista: Ok, berry.

Angy Octopus: This chat group was a terrible idea.

G33k: I couldn't agree more.

NeighbrohoodSkelepal has joined the chat.

G33k: I stand corrected.

NeighbrohoodSkelepal: Sup, broskis?

WalkingWindowsVista: End me. Please just end me.

NeighbrohoodSkelepal has left the chat.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: THERE. I KICKED HIM OUT. SERIOUSLY, HOW DID HE EVEN GET IN WITHOUT ME INVITING HIM?

Angy Octopus: Don't ask me, I don't even know how to turn down the brightness on this frustratingly difficult to use piece of technology.

G33k: Don't feel bad. For a long time, I couldn't figure out how to make a screenshot.

oglzy🦴: srsly kid

G33k: Yep.

Angy Octopus: Seriously, kid?*

oglzy🦴: wut's wrong with how i'm typing

Angy Octopus: It's a little annoying to me.

WalkingWindowsVista: Says the one who has "Angy" in their name.

Angy Octopus: I didn't name myself this.

WalkingWindowsVista: Then who did?

Angy Octopus: Cross did.

G33k: 😑

G33k: Of course.

Gold Harted Been has joined the chat.

Gold Harted Been: Hello.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: HELLO, DREAM.

Angy Octopus: Dream, your name is spelled wrong.

Gold Harted Been: I know. I meant to fix it, but I've been too busy.

G33k: That name does seem fitting, though.

WalkingWindowsVista: It would be more fitting if it were "Gold Hearted Nuisance".

oglzy🦴: do u have anything that's not rude to say

WalkingWindowsVista: Nope.

Angy Octopus: Can you please refrain from throwing insults at my brother? At least he hasn't been a pile of salt the whole time he's been here, and does something other than sit around in a blank space watching a soap opera AU.

G33k: Oh dang!

oglzy🦴: 10 points to the noot lord

WalkingWindowsVista: Nerd.

Angy Octopus: Vexatious insect.

Gold Harted Been: Please stop fighting.

WalkingWindowsVista: I would've loved to see you still being controlled by that parasitic creature.

Angy Octopus: Fresh is going to get you one of these days, and I'm going to laugh.

WalkingWindowsVista: You and your corrupted self aren't that different.

Angy Octopus: What's that supposed to mean?!

G33k: Error, stop!

WalkingWindowsVista: You're both evil and only want to see others suffer.

Gold Harted Been: Nightmare, don't listen to him.

oglzy🦴: Error, that was uncalled for!

WalkingWindowsVista: Well, it's true. Only someone who's really evil would wish Fresh upon someone, or laugh if they got nabbed by him.

Gold Harted Been: You started it!

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: DREAM'S RIGHT. YOU STARTED THE FIGHT BY BEING A JERK TO DREAM, AND HE WAS JUST TRYING TO STAND UP FOR HIM. WHEN PEOPLE ARE MAD THEY SAY THINGS THEY DON'T MEAN. HONESTLY, THE ONLY EVIL ONE WHO'S LIKELY TO BE EVIL HERE IS YOU. YOU DESTROY WORLDS. WHAT HAS NIGHTMARE DONE?

WalkingWindowsVista: He makes people miserable.

Gold Harted Been: No he doesn't! That's just his

Gold Harted Been: I forgot how to spell it.

G33k: Aura?

Gold Harted Been: I think so.

Angy Octopus: Dream, it's fine. There's no need to stand up for me. After all, he's probably right. I'm just going to leave the chat.

Angy Octopus has left the chat.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: GREAT, NOW SEE WHAT YOU DID?!

WalkingWindowsVista: Yup, and I feel no guilt for it. 😎

G33k: Lol, that emoji kinda resembles Fresh.

WalkingWindowsVista: Great... Now I have another thing that parasite has ruined.

oglzy🦴: u do realize wat u might've just done right

WalkingWindowsVista: Upset Nightmare? He'll get over it.

Gold Harted Been: It's not hard for him to get re... Um... Help, I don't know how to spell that.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: RE-CORRUPTED.

Gold Harted Been: Thank you, Blue.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: ANYTIME, FRIEND.

WalkingWindowsVista: I doubt the situation will get that bad.

G33k: You literally did exactly what caused him to get corrupted before.

Gold Harted Been: You know about that?

G33k: Yeah, he told me.

oglzy🦴: well they do talk to each other a lot

Gold Harted Been: True.

WalkingWindowsVista: I still don't think he's going to get corrupted. You got rid of it, right? And he would have to eat more of those weird apples, right?

Gold Harted Been: No.

WalkingWindowsVista: You didn't change him back?

Gold Harted Been: No. He got free on his own.

WalkingWindowsVista: I guess that explains why he could get changed back.

oglzy🦴: energy cannot be destroyed, it can only be changed or transported. so, even if dream had managed to change him back, it likely would've just suppressed the corruption.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: WHAT CLASSIC SAID.

Gold Harted Been: And you say that you're lazy.

oglzy🦴: i'm

MAGNIFICENTSKELTON25: I am*

oglzy🦴: idc

G33k: That doesn't seem very lazy, to me.

oglzy🦴: being lzy doesn't mean i'm not a dork

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: YOU STILL TYPED A LOT.

oglzy🦴: who said i typed anything 😏

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: AND HERE I THOUGHT THERE MIGHT'VE BEEN HOPE FOR YOU. 😒

G33k: Lol.

Gold Harted Been: I'm going to go check on Nightmare. If I don't say anything for 7 hours, I'm likely a statue.

MAGNFICENTSKELETON25: BE CAREFUL.

G33k: Yes, please do. Being turned into a statue doesn't sound very pleasant.

oglzy🦴: sounds great to me u don't have to do anything

WalkingWindowsVista: You literally CAN'T do anything.

Stabstabstabstabstab has joined the chat.

oglzy🦴: yep that's the point

Stabstabstabstabstab: Point? 🔪🙂

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: WRONG KIND OF POINT, KILLER.

G33k: 😐

Stabstabstabstabstab: Is Cross here?

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: Why?

Stabstabstabstabstab: No reason.

oglzy🦴: wut's killer doing in the chat

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: I INVITED HIM.

oglzy🦴: y

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: WHY NOT?

oglzy🦴: he's crazy

Stabstabstabstabstab: He's right.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: HE'S LITERALLY JUST YOU FROM ANOTHER TIMELINE.

WalkingWindowsVista: And you guys were getting onto me for being rude. 🙃 How hypocritical.

G33k: Pu tuhs.

WalkingWindowsVista: ???

G33k: 🙂

WalkingWindowsVista:???

G33k: ...

G33k: What?

WalkingWindowsVista: Did you really just spell "shut up" backwards?

oglzy🦴: i think they did

WalkingWindowsVista: Why?

G33k: To confuse you because I'm bored.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: GREAT GOOGALY MOOGALY THIS HAS ALL GONE TO SHOE!!!

oglzy🦴: pls tell me u did said "shoe" on purpose

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: I WISH I DID.

WalkingWindowsVista: It couldn't have been Fresh, right? He left.

G33k: Yeah, and it would've said it if he rejoined.

Stabstabstabstabstab: It wasn't me.

NeighbrohoodSkelepal: I'm back, mah rad brotato pals! Ya didn't think I'd go that easily, did ya?

WalkingWindowsVista: I'm outta here!

oglzy🦴: i second that

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25: I FORGOT I HAVE TO MAKE DINNER, SO ME THREE!

G33k: Nope, not staying, either.

WalkingWindowsVista has left the chat.

oglzy🦴 has left the chat.

MAGNIFICENTSKELETON25 has left the chat.

G33k has left the chat.

Stabstabstabstabstab has left the chat.

NeighbrohoodSkelepal: Brah, dats cold, I was just gonna hang out with ya.

Le Description-

This was fun. When the AUs make a chat group, what could possibly go wrong? I'll tell you what: Everything. Everything could go wrong. Yes, this was supposed to be Blue's idea. Classic doesn't care about grammar, Dream can't spell, Nightmare doesn't know how to use anything, G33k is just there. Why did Killer want to know Cross's location? Who knows. This is Killer, he unpredictable. And poor Nightmare, he can't get a moment's peace. Error better be sorry for that. Now, to the credits! Undertale is owned by: Toby Fox   Ink is owned by: Myebi/Comyet Error and Fresh are owned by: TheCrayonQueen/loverofpiggies   Killer is owned by: rahafwabas/rahofy-stetch Dreamtale is owned by: JokuDream/jokublog   Cross is owned by: JakeiArtwork/jakei95 Underswap is owned by: The AU Community (originally popcornpr1nce)   G33kTale and G33kVerse are owned by: Me Feel free to do fanart if you want. Just, send a link, or something. I'd love to see it!

[noshitshakespeare]

I don't think I've asked this of you before... Hamlet's very first line is "A little more than kin, and less than kind." In several editions, this line is marked "Aside," and indeed, I've often seen it performed that way (e.g. Branagh's film). But I've long believed that Hamlet seems so proud of his skills at wordplay, that it seems unlikely that he would "throw away" such a juicy line. What are your thoughts? Secret aside, or public snark?

Hello @corybanter! Good to hear from you again. 

I’m at risk of always answering similarly in saying that part of what I love about Shakespeare is the way multiple possibilities can exist at once while it’s on the page, even if an active choice needs to be made when putting anything on stage. I guess there’s a reason I’m a literary critic rather than a director. 

So the fastest answer is that the line works either way, and that both interpretations are convincing in their own way. 

In support of the idea that it’s an aside is the fact that Claudius’ line works very well as if he had never been interrupted. If Hamlet’s line weren’t there, the king’s speech would read:

But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son. (punctuation is ! in F)... How is it that the clouds still hang on you? (1.2.64-66)

And that’s a perfectly plausible continuation if he hadn’t noticed that Hamlet had said anything. I suppose the Folio’s more emphatic ending of the previous line with the exclamation mark could suggest more of a proper end to the previous speech. But the exclamation mark in early modern writing doesn’t necessarily indicate the end of a sentence, and didn’t even need to be followed by a capital letter, so that’s not conclusive.

The other point in support of the aside is that Hamlet doesn’t actively address Claudius unlike in his next line, when he says, ‘Not so, my lord, I am too much i’the’ sun’ (1.2.67). In this less directly barbed double entendre, it’s evident that he addresses Claudius directly. Even with all his snark, Hamlet doesn’t drop court formalities and calls him ‘my lord’ (not surprising given that he regards rank quite seriously for most of the play).

Theatrically speaking, there might be a benefit in presenting this line as an aside, since it would introduce Hamlet in his very first line as a private introvert. It separates him from the rest of the group not just in the colour of his clothes but in his thoughts, and indicates immediately the double meaning of his words. 

Of course, there’s also the possibility that Hamlet is audibly talking to himself or that Claudius ignores Hamlet’s remark. Given the baffling nature of his line (hard to get the exact moment if someone said it to you in passing), a confused and somewhat thrown Claudius is perfectly imaginable, and would also explain why he goes on as if nothing had been said. In support of the idea that Claudius hears it is its very opacity: Hamlet can say what he says without any worry that he’ll be understood, and since the words themselves do the job at hiding his meaning, it doesn’t need to be an aside as well. 

Your point about Hamlet’s pride in wordplay is a good one too. It’s true that in later scenes he relishes talking to Polonius and leading him in circles. Though Hamlet’s wordplay isn’t underpinned by any specific moral feeling, part of it comes from the sources where Amleth doesn’t like to be untruthful, and therefore speaks the truth in veiled and misleading ways so as not to lie. But Hamlet often says more than he needs to say, and, as you point out, seems to revel in wordplay for its own sake. Still, Hamlet is perfectly capable of using some of his best lines in soliloquy, so perhaps the idea that he wouldn’t waste such a juicy line doesn’t preclude the possibility that he’s talking to himself. 

I’m happy to see this line performed either way. And I think it does depend on what kind of Hamlet one wishes to present. If the focus is on the social outcast, the aside makes a lot of sense. If the focus is on the witty wordsmith, then he should speak it aloud. I personally like my Hamlet sharp, sarcastic and amusing in the presence of others, but I wouldn’t go to see Hamlet if they were all performed the same way.