#theevilanonblog

[princesssarisa]

As I've read different people's views on Little Women, I've realized that for different readers, it's a fundamentally different book.

When I see someone describe the "universal" experiences of identifying with Jo, wanting her to marry Laurie, and disliking Amy, I remember all the proof I've seen that these are far from universal. The latter two weren't even my experiences: identifying with Jo, yes, but shipping her with Laurie and disliking Amy, no!

Even people with equal amounts of knowledge of the historical context and of Louisa May Alcott's life seem to come away with vastly different feelings about the story and characters.

I suppose there are a wide variety of reasons for this. First and foremost, which of the four March sisters you personally admire or relate to the most. Then there are other factors like your gender, your age when you first read the book, your relationship (good or bad) with traditional femininity, whether you read Parts I and II as a single novel or as Little Women and Good Wives, your relationships with your own family members, your religion and ethical values...

The list goes on.

That post from @theevilanonblog that I reblogged recently about the different interpretations of Frankenstein makes me want to write out a similar list of ten different views I've read of Little Women. Here it is:

Little Women is about the March sisters learning to be proper virtuous women of their time and place. With Marmee as their role model (a role later shared by Beth as she becomes increasingly angelic in her illness), they learn to conquer their flaws, give up their wild ambitions, and settle down as good wives and mothers. This is especially true for Jo, whose character arc is a slow taming from a rough tomboy to a gentle nurturer. It's a conformist and anti-feminist message, which Alcott probably disliked, but she wrote it to cater to public tastes. (This reading seems mainly to come from critics who dislike the book.)

Little Women is about Jo's struggle to stay true to herself in a world that wants to change her. She struggles with whether to stay a tomboy or become a proper lady, whether or not to marry Laurie despite not loving him romantically, and as an author, whether to write what she wants, write what earns the most money, or give up her writing altogether. In the end, she changes only in ways that make her happy, e.g. by learning to control her temper, and later by embracing romantic love. But in more important ways, she stays true to herself: always remaining slightly rugged, clumsy and "masculine," finding success as a writer, and marrying Friedrich, a man just as plain and "unromantic" as herself, but whom she loves and who respects her as an equal.

Little Women is about learning to "live for others." That phrase is used often and could well be the arc words. Beth is the only March sister to whom a selfless life comes naturally, but the other three master it by the end of the story (as does Laurie). They learn to conquer their moments of pettiness and selfishness, to live in better harmony with each other and with their friends and love interests, and to give up their self-centered dreams of fame and wealth, building lives that focus on service instead.

Little Women is about growing up. The first half is mainly about the March girls' maturing by surviving hard times and learning to be better people, while the second half is about reaching adulthood and bittersweetly parting ways to start new lives. At the beginning, Jo is a girl who doesn't want to grow up: she wants to always be a wild young tomboy with her family (and Laurie) by her side forever. But of course, she can't stop time or womanhood, and is eventually forced to accept the loss of Meg, Amy, and Laurie to marriage and Beth to death. After grieving for a while, she lets go of her old life and willingly builds a new one with Friedrich.

Little Women is about family bonds and the fear of losing them. We meet and become attached to the wonderfully close, cozy March family, which gradually expands through friendships, marriage, and new babies. But throughout the story, the family is in danger of breaking apart, whether due to conflict (Jo and Amy's sibling rivalry, Meg and John's marital problems), or separation by distance (Father going away to war, Amy going to Europe, Jo to New York), or death (the danger of losing Father and Beth in Part I, and the ultimate loss of Beth in Part II). But in the end – unlike in reading #4 above – the family doesn't break apart and never will. Conflicts are resolved, travelers eventually come home, the surviving family members always live near each other and stay as close as ever, and even Beth isn't really gone, because her memory and influence live on.

Little Women is about femininity and each March sister's relationship with it. Meg and Amy happily conform in different ways: Meg to "domestic femininity" as a housewife, Amy to "ornamental femininity" as a society lady. Beth pressures herself to conform to self-effacing domestic femininity, until sadly, it kills her – either because she's too selfless and nurturing when she cares for the fever-infected Hummels, or because she has anorexia, as Lizzie Alcott might have had. But Jo strikes a successful balance in the end, conforming just enough to fit into society, but only on her own terms, and otherwise living a happily unconventional life as a writer and schoolmistress.

Little Women is about Jo's unlearning of internalized misogyny. At the beginning, she's a "Not Like Other Girls" tomboy, who wishes she were male, disdains feminine girls (especially her sister Amy), doesn't care enough when "her boy" Laurie behaves badly toward women, and is afraid to be vulnerable. But gradually, and without losing her strength of character, she learns to embrace the sweeter and more tender aspects of herself, sees that Amy's ladylike manners have practical benefits, and learns to say "no" to Laurie when he turns his childish, unhealthy romantic attentions to her. Then after Beth dies, she realizes how precious Beth's utterly domestic, feminine life was, and embraces a more domestic life herself. Yet by doing so, she becomes a true feminist, as she enters an egalitarian marriage and devotes her life to teaching boys to be good, respectful men.

Little Women is only what US Americans know as the first half. It's just about the March sisters getting by and learning moral lessons over the course of the year their father is away at war. Nobody gets married and nobody dies. Everything else is in Good Wives, which is a sequel with different character arcs and different themes, and which should be published separately, as it originally was and still is outside the US. Trying to tie them together into one narrative never feels quite right.

Little Women is Alcott's idealized version of her own life and family, where no one suffers quite as much as they did in real life, everyone is slightly less flawed, and Jo ends up happily married to a man very much like Alcott's lost love Henry David Thoreau. She wrote the life she wished she had.

Little Women is just a semi-autobiographical slice-of-life that Alcott wrote quickly for money.

Which is the truest to Alcott's intent? I don't know. But while some of these readings I like better than others – and some of them I despise – I'd say they're all understandable and reasonably valid. Some aren't even mutually exclusive, but can be used together... although of course, other readings are mutually exclusive, like whether the story is feminist or anti-feminist, or whether the March family ultimately breaks apart or holds together. And they're all worth using as springboards for discussion.

Alcott wrote more books than she ever realized she did, because Little Women can be many different books to different people.

@littlewomenpodcast, @joandfriedrich, @thatscarletflycatcher, @fictionadventurer, @fandomsarefamily1966

[disabled-tolkien]

☆ Month of Fic Recs ☆

For each day of September (which is disability pride month in Aotearoa) I'm sharing a Tolkien fanfiction with disabled characters.

☆☆☆☆☆

Day 18/30: In Whatever Time We Have by @theevilanonblog

Fandom: Silmarillion

Rating: E

Disabled character: Andreth (autistic + Mobius syndrome), Aegnor (autistic)

Relationships: Aegnor/Andreth

Warnings: ableism

Summary: What if Aegnor hadn't left Andreth without a word? What if they had talked honestly?

☆☆☆☆☆

[1-small-world]

#Sauron needs to be an actual house cat

Very important addition from @theevilanonblog

Silmarillion AU Where all the Elves are Hobbits and the Stakes are Significantly Lower:

Finwe is mayor of his part of the Shire, happily married to both Miriel and Indis because they all have two hands

Miriel doesn't die after childbirth she just goes off on a trip to find new artistic inspiration and doesn't come back

Don't worry she eventually shows back up again– turns out she got lost and a kind elvish warrior named Vaire helped her find her way back

Feanor has a good relationship with his siblings, although he and Nolofinwe have engaged in several bouts of passive-aggressive one-upsmanship

The most famous of these ended with Nolofinwe swimming several miles across a lake in winter to prove that he was the more dedicated brother. Feanor agreed after telling him off for being reckless.

The Silmarils aren't pseudo-holy gemstones here, they're a set of three really intricately carved pipe-weed pipes that the Finweans pull out on ceremonial occasions

Morgoth isn't a fallen god he's just an asshole elf who regularly breaks into the Shire to steal things

One day he steals the Silmarils; he doesn't kill Finwe though he just knocks him out

The rest of the First Age is mostly just increasingly convoluted plots by various Finweans to break into his fortress and steal back the pipes (and all the other stuff Morgoth has stolen)

The first of these attempts involves Feanor stealing one (1) boat from Mayor Olwe. No one dies though and he puts it back afterwards. It still results in a lot of petty gossip.

After one of the attempts Morgoth catches Maedhros and hangs him up in a really tall tree

He's stuck there for three weeks before Findekano finds him and gets him down with the help of a homemade hang-glider called "Thorondor"

One of the other hobbit mayors is Thingol, a dear friend (and possible ex boyfriend?) of Finwe

Most of the Ainur are elves here but the concept of hobbit Thingol marrying an eldritch goddess is too funny to pass up so Melian is still a Maia here

She and her descendants look pretty hobbit-ish but they have fairy wings and little antennae

It causes a huge scandal when their daughter, Luthien, runs off with a dwarf prince named Beren

Thingol even writes a very strongly worded letter telling her not to marry him, which is a very extreme measure by hobbit standards, but she doesn't listen

Eventually Beren decides to steal some hobbit stuff back from Morgoth to prove his worthiness

He ends up stealing back one of the pipes and giving it to Thingol

Thingol grudgingly accepts him and Bluthien settle into a nice, quiet life in the Shire

There's no Doriath kinslaying either there's just a long, very passive-aggressive series of letters between Thingol and Feanor until Finwe eventually steps in and Thingol returns the pipe

[armanasimsart]

Thank you @theevilanonblog and everyone who got me to 10 reblogs!

[my-one-true-l]

A horror ask because I'm back on my vampire bullshit (listening to the novelization of Dracula.) Wammy's boys react to an S/O who gets attacked and turns into a vampire. They are suddenly staying up all night, covering up all mirrors and security cameras, there are dead animals found around the property and, one day, the body of a kidnapper who they had been fairly sure was guilty of killing several people is found two blocks from the orphanage, drained of blood. How would they react to finding their vampiric s/o, covered in blood, curled up in a fetal position, rocking and chanting "I needed it, I needed it, I couldnt help it, I needed it!" While sobbing?

Hello Dear Theevilanonblog!😊🖤 Dracula is one of my all-time favorite novels and just seeing this makes me want to read it again!

L

At first, he thinks something is off, but doesn’t figure it out immediately. Them staying up all night happens sometimes (because of him) and covering up security cameras, well, he’s not surprised by that since more than once they’ve been annoyed by his endless surveillance. It was the covering up of the mirrors that got his attention.

He’s direct. “You seem to exhibiting the traits of a vampire. Perhaps there’s something you would like to tell me?” (there’s not.)

Finding them over the drained corpse of a suspected kidnapper/murderer didn’t faze him. He’s had a pretty good idea this was the case and after seeing Shinigami are real, nothing surprises him anymore. He simple crouches down next to them and says “Let’s go home.” 

He has Watari discretely dispose of the body and a supply of blood bag brought to HQ. They’ll figure out some way of controlling their new instincts, and now they don[t have to hunt for blood in the meantime. 

Mello

Point blank asks them why they’re covering up the mirrors and stay up all night. When they tell him why, he’s like “Heh, cute.” He lets it drop, for now. If it keeps up, he’s going to bring it up again. 

When he finds curled up sobbing “I needed it” next to a dead body, he’s like “Okay...you weren’t kidding.” 

Buries the body in the woods. He’s not about to try to explain what happened to someone else. Besides, this is nothing compared to what Mello is willing to do, especially for his S/O. 

Near

He became suspicious that they were somehow a vampire now. He decided rather than ask to observe their behavior and gather more clues before talking to them about it.

Finding them over a dead suspected murderer was of no concern to him. (He was more worried about getting blood on his white pajamas.) 

He kneels down by them and matter-of-factly tells them that they will have to look into a way of getting them a supply of blood so they don’t find themselves in that position again.

Near has Rester bring the body to the morgue and records are falsified. As long as their feeding habits are under control, Near doesn’t see a reason to make a big deal out of it.

Matt

Freaks out at first. Tries to tell himself he’s having a flashback thanks to a bad trip. 

Once he calms down, he’s still freaked but his first priority is to get his S/O out of there. His ten billion questions can wait. 

He’s hoping the authorities will think it was an animal attack...in the middle of town...

Beyond 

He immediately asks to be turned by them. He’s so down to become an apex predator. 

Tells them the bastard deserved to be their dinner. 

Tosses them in the river. Who cares if they’re found? Someone want to say something about it?

All of a sudden, hunting killers as a food source sounds pretty good to B. With his eyes, it’s easy to find prey and together they are doing “good” (it’s kind of his low scale version of what Kira does). Win-win to him.

[canon-disabled-characters]

Might Guy from Naruto is a wheelchair user

[saurons-pr-department]

It is with great sadness that we inform you all that @theevilanonblog was one of the people standing outside when the sinkhole formed 😔 The very much still alive Tar-Mairon says it is a great loss to Mordor. So sad that they were sinkholed 😔

Today our beloved Mount Doom erupted with before unseen ferocity. Eruptions are a natural process that show the health of our most iconic landmark. However, on this occasion, the force of the erruption has resulted in structural damage to our equally iconic Lugbúrz as well as the formation of a sinkhole outside our gates.

For your own safety you are asked to remain inside Mordor. Anyone leaving will be killed. By the sinkhole. It's very deep.

It's unfortunate that so many of our people just happened to be outside the gate at the time the sinkhole formed. Our untouchable King and God Tar-Mairon has expressed his sorrow at the incident. He would like to assure you all that there is nothing to worry about.

There are no problems in Mordor.

We will rebuild.

[bazzpop]

Hey, I say the ask about how most apprentices you see are thin cis women, so i thought I'd show y'all my apprentice, they are partially based on me in appearance, they are fat and non binary and disabled.

Cornelius "Nell" Silotto

@theevilanonblog do they like hugs cuz I’d love to give them one 💙💙💙

[residenthobojesus]

[[ Happy New Year Trash Jesus! XD Fedoras for all!! ]]

@agentevelynaldenandfriends said:

Happy New Year

@theevilanonblog:

Happy New Year to you! (And the mod of the blog ;)) may you, unlike me, not get a horrific case of the flu because it was apparently beyond your little brother’s abilities to not sneeze and cough all over Christmas dinner.

Aren’t you all sweet~ A happy New Year to all as well and here’s to a grand one ahead!

[Happy New Year to you guys as well!]

[first-son-of-finwe]

🐻

🐻=Just admit you are softie

“I AM A FURIOUS PINCUSHION”

[shaydh]

*sees picture of Valdir* "he looks mean. Iove him.... he also looks like there will be unsolicited biting during, before, and after sex. He has a biting kink. "

This is all very true ( ◉◞౪◟◉)

[fallxnprxnce]

“No, it’s not considered impolite to slurp the noodles” Mari chuckles as she downs another mouthful of shrimp ramen. She and Nuada sit at the only shop in the troll market to sell Japanese food. An elven yokai, the shop owner, tries to pretend she’s not looking and the couple and giggling, but Mari has heard the rumors of Nuada courting her. Lies and slander, of course. After all, she asked to court him in the first place.

@theevilanonblog

“Oh,” Nuada said, an almost shy smile on his face. He was still learning about Mari’s culture, but one thing he did like about it was the food. It was very good, including a lot of fish, rice, and pasta, rather than the chemical-laden foods the humans in New York seemed to prefer. “I like this very much,” he said, lifting more broth-soaked noodles to his mouth. His use of chopsticks was improving quickly, although he still held them a bit wrong from time to time.

[disabled-tolkien]

A disability Tolkien blog! Be still my queer disabled little heart!!! ❤❤❤

Ahh thank you, I'm so glad other people are interested in this too! I've been blown away at how many people seem to be interested in this idea and I hope I can do it justice 😁 

[nixiegenesis]

Replies

theevilanonblog replied to your photoset: I always like learning about obscure characters…

Beautiful drawing! ❤

elesianne

replied to your photoset “I always like learning about obscure characters who authors end up…”

I didn’t know about her, what a fierce character and it really shows in your art! I’m glad you introduced me to her this way :) (I really need to get my hands on the book of lost tales…)

inkstranger

replied to your photoset “I always like learning about obscure characters who authors end up…”

I love the texture of the clothes!

Thank you all! I’m really pushing to work on my understanding of anatomy, and I love strong, fierce looking wormen!

[xleafyheartx]

*gives Jix a spoonful of pho broth*

“Hmm? Water is yellow? Supposed to be yellow?” Jix sniffed it. “Mmm… smells good.” He sipped the water, liked the taste, and finished the whole spoonful. “Mmm! Tasty yellow water is good! What is? Never have this before. Can have more?” he asked eagerly.

[saurons-pr-department]

Sauron's opinion on Halloween?

He wants to know why a more gothic aesthetic, dark magic and trying to contact the spirits of the deceased is 'evil' when he does it but 'harmless fun' when everyone else does it??