#they should have taken a page out of the original's book & kept minor details to a minimum & focused on ACTUAL PLOT

[pa-pa-plasma]

okay i just marathoned the entirety of ATLA live action & i might do an actual review of it explaining my thoughts more in depth, but the TLDR version basically boils down to this:

if you want to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender, just go watch the 2005 cartoon

[stilloutofmyvulcanmind]

And It All Came Tumbling Down Part 3

Request: Reader getting people out to safety gets hurt really badly and trapped, and Bruce has to save her

Pairing: Bruce Wayne x Reader

Characters: Bruce Wayne, Female!Reader, Dick Grayson

Word Count: 3600

Warnings: Graphic injuries, angst, hurt/comfort

Summary: During a work party a call comes in that the Joker has planted a bomb somewhere in Gotham. You’re tasked with clearing your building when the unthinkable happens.

A/N: Thank you all for the love you’ve given this series, and I hope you like this last part! If you’ve enjoyed this series, I’ve got a question at the end of the chapter that I’d like some feedback to if you’re so inclined!

Part 3 of 3

Part 1   Part 2

You were falling. Down, down, down into never-ending darkness. There was a light up above. So faint it was barely discernible, but it was there. It led to safety but it was forever out of reach. No matter how hard you tried you couldn't grasp it. 

You screamed but water flooded your lungs. It burned, choking you even as you fought for a breath. 

The light above flickered out. 

Something was covering your mouth, you could feel it pressing against your skin. You scrabbled at it desperately wanting to get it off as panic set in. 

"Hey, hey, hey, Y/N. It's okay, you're okay." A voice spoke from somewhere up above, a warm hand coming to rest over your own. You recognized it. 

Blinking your eyes open everything was blurry and unfocused. Someone was hovering over you though, and slowly Bruce came into focus, smiling down at you softly. 

"Hey, baby," he said quietly, his free hand reaching for something over your head before coming down to brush some hair off your forehead. 

You tried to say something back, what, you weren't entirely certain but something, but even thinking of words felt like effort, like your mind was filled with fog and you couldn't quite find what you needed. Gradually your surroundings were becoming more clear though. 

You were in a hospital if the quiet beeping of machines were anything to go by. A private room. A nice one. There were flowers next to your bed. Your favorites. The thing over your mouth was an oxygen mask. You'd been trying to yank it off when Bruce had stopped you. Bruce… 

He was still talking to you, nothing important, just quiet little things to keep you calm and comforted. He looked terrible. There were dark circles under his eyes, he hadn't shaved in several days, and there was a nasty looking gash slicing along one side of his jaw. He still had a hand over yours, fingers entwined now. 

You managed a smile at him, and the worry in his eyes instantly faded some. You tried to take the mask off with your other hand, wanting to try and say something again but found that it was covered in a cast that went up to your elbow. Oh. 

How hurt were you? Was that the reason for Bruce's worry? You couldn't feel any pain, but you couldn't feel much of anything other than a dull ache in your chest. The fall. The water. Anything could've broken. Was that why you couldn't feel? 

"Shh, you're okay." Bruce must've seen the panic rise again. "The Doctor will be here in a minute to explain everything."

He seemed so certain that it was impossible to not believe him. As long as he was next to you, you could deal with anything anyway. 

The Doctor came in soon after just like Bruce had said, and checked you over before asking some simple questions. It was still an effort to speak, but you managed and he seemed happy enough. You noticed Bruce's shoulders relax some. 

You were told you were lucky. That the falls you took could've been enough to kill you on their own, without the additional injuries. The worst had been the wound to your side. The second fall had ripped it out, doing worse damage, but the Doctor assured that they'd managed to repair it, and there was nothing to worry about. On top of that, there had been two head wounds, which explained the questions, several broken ribs and hairline fractures, a broken forearm, a torn knee ligament, a punctured lung, and enough scrapes and bruises that there were more damaged areas than not. 

After that, you weren't really surprised when he said about the amount of painkillers you were on to keep you comfy.

Bruce thanked the Doctor when he was done with a shake of the hand, then returned to his seat next to your bed, your hand in his once again. 

When you were alone, you smiled at him again. "You got to me."

"Told you I would," Bruce smiled back, kissing the back of your hand gently. 

"What happened?" You asked, motioning to the cut on his face. 

"This? Sharp piece of rubble. I've had worse."

You nodded, letting your eyes flutter closed for a moment while you enjoyed the comfort of just having Bruce next to you. 

"The others? Did they get out?" 

"Yeah. There were a few minor injuries, but that's it. You saved them."

It didn't feel that way, but it was a relief to hear. "Joker?" 

"Tracked him down the night after and sent him back to Arkham."

"Thank God." You slumped into the bed, not noticing how tense you'd been. Everything was okay now. You were alive, Bruce was there. You needed to talk but it could wait. 

"You should get some rest." Bruce must've seen you were still exhausted and leaned down to kiss your forehead. 

"You too. Look awful."

"Thanks," Bruce chuckled. "I'll get some sleep later. Focus on yourself."

"'kay." Closing your eyes again, you kept Bruce's hand in yours as you drifted off back to sleep.

~

The following days were mostly a blur of slipping in and out of consciousness. Bruce was there every time, occasionally joined by Alfred or Dick. You talked a little to them, but mostly it was still too much effort, and easier to just slip back off into sleep again. 

The next time you woke, you ached. The Doctors had been reducing some of your pain meds and you were starting to feel it. For a moment you thought you were by yourself for once, but a rustle of paper had you looking to the corner of the room to see Dick sitting there reading a book. 

It was the first time you'd seen him by himself since you first came to. 

"Hey," you said, drawing his attention. "What you doing over there?" 

"Didn't want to disturb you," he answered, marking the page he was on then set the book down. 

You smiled gently and held out your good arm towards him. "Come here." Waiting until he moved around to sit by your side, you asked, "How are you?" 

"Okay."

"Sure? You don't look so certain."

Dick nodded, "Yeah. Just glad you're awake. You were out for so long, I didn't know-" his voice cracked when he cut himself off, looking down at his hands. 

"I'm gonna be fine, Dick."

"I know, I just…can't lose you too."

Your heart broke for him right then and used what strength you had to tug him in for a hug. It was awkward, holding yourself at an angle that didn't hurt too much was a strain, but it was worth it to feel his arms around you, being so careful not to squeeze. "I'm not going anywhere, sweetheart."

"You nearly did." Dick's voice was quiet when he pulled away, letting you relax again. "I got to the roof where B had you, and you weren't moving. You weren't breathing! And Bruce…I've never seen him like that."

"Like what?" 

"Scared. He didn't say anything, but I could see it. He thought he'd lost you too."

It was difficult to know what to say to that. Dick wasn't the only one who'd never seen Bruce scared. He'd always been unshakeable, the one to spread the fear not feel it, so it was a difficult image to conceive. Maybe Dick had just been projecting, looking to see his own fear in someone else. Because it just didn't make sense for Bruce to be scared. Why would he? 

The things you'd been feeling before the attack had faded, lost to the pain and fear and then the relief of being alive, but now they were trickling back, feeling like lead in your stomach. Bruce would've been concerned for your safety, sure. Just like he was concerned for every civilian's safety. But you couldn't shake the feeling that was as far as it went. Being scared would suggest feelings you weren't entirely sure he had for you. 

Dick must've noticed something because he was frowning, "Are you okay?" 

Shaking yourself out of it, you nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Still a little out of it I guess."

He looked far from convinced, but the concern made you smile. Bruce had taken him in before you two had gotten together, but there'd always been a connection between Dick and you. Perhaps that was why Bruce had originally asked you out. It made sense. 

As if he knew you were thinking about him, Bruce knocked and entered the room carrying a fresh bunch of flowers. 

"Hey, you're awake," he smiled, setting the flowers down before leaning over to kiss your forehead. 

"Came to a little while ago. Dick and I have been catching up." You avoided Bruce's eyes when you spoke, something he didn't fail to miss. 

Digging into his pocket, Bruce pulled out his wallet and handed Dick some cash. "Give us a minute?" 

Dick looked between you both for a moment, then nodded and tucked the money away. He gave you another quick hug, then exited the room, probably off in search of food. 

Bruce waited for the door to click shut, then sat down wearily, tugging the knot of his tie loose as he did so. The dark circles under his eyes had faded some over the last week, and he'd shaved now, but he still looked a little worse for wear. He was watching you, or studying more like, taking in every detail, trying to figure out what you were thinking. "I'm sorry."

That wasn't what you'd expected him to say. "For what?" 

"Everything. For ditching the party, for asking you to be the one to get people out. For putting you in danger. You nearly died because of me."

He was sincere, you could see it in his eyes. He meant every word, harbored the guilt. Only it made your own guilt worse. "Not your fault. Didn't tell me to stay behind."

"You did exactly what I would've done. Saved all those people. But you shouldn't have been in the position to make that choice. That's on me."

"No. Bruce, it's not. No one forced me, and like…like you said, it's what you would've done."

"You aren't me though, Y/N."

"I wanted to be! I thought...I thought if-" You cut yourself off, turning your head away from him. 

"Thought what?" When you didn't answer, Bruce took your hand, squeezing it gently. "Talk to me, please."

"I...thought…I thought if I was like you…I'd be a hero too and you'd think I was important." The final words came out rushed, heat spreading across your cheeks at the admission. 

"Y/N…" Bruce's hand was on your face, guiding it back to look at him. He looked wounded, "Why would you not be important?" 

"Because you never forget important things."

You could see the realization dawn in his eyes and would've turned away again if it wasn't for Bruce's hand still on your face. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, baby," he whispered, "You're important. You always have been. I fucked up, I know I did, but I love you, more than I ever could say. Never think otherwise, please."

It was impossible not to believe him. The genuine sincerity, the pain, the love, it was all there, plain to see. That openness, the vulnerability he so rarely showed, along with what he said, made you nod. "Okay."

Bruce smiled softly and leaned in to press a soft kiss to your lips. "I don't have an excuse for forgetting, but I want you to know that I didn't. Not completely. I knew it was coming up, I bought a gift, then, the days got so muddled between work and patrols, I just didn't realize it had come up so quick. It won't happen again.”

You believed him. It still stung, but it was understandable. And at least he hadn’t entirely forgotten. “Always next year to make sure things go better.”

“Yeah. But if you'll have me, I can rearrange what I planned this year. Just go a little later."

"Go where?" 

"To Rome. I arranged for us to have a weekend there for your birthday."

"Rome?" 

"You said you always wanted to go."

You were about to protest, say that you'd never told him that, then you remembered. A couple of years ago you'd told him a board member wasn't available since he'd gone on vacation to Rome, and mentioned in passing that you were jealous and wanted to go. Bruce hadn't acknowledged it at the time, and you'd assumed he'd been too preoccupied with paperwork to pay attention. Apparently, he had been. "You remembered that?" 

"I remember the important things."

The words shouldn’t have hit hard, but they did, and you could feel the tears burn at your eyes. It was such a dumb thing to cry over, but there you were, crying because he’d noticed one small fact. Maybe it was because you were still exhausted from everything, or maybe it was because it smashed all the thoughts you’d been having to pieces. 

“What’s wrong? We can go somewhere else if you want? Back to France, or somewhere else altogether.” Bruce had moved from his seat and was kneeling on the floor in front of you so he was as close as he could be, gently reaching forward to brush the tears away.

“No. No, Rome is perfect. It’s just...I love you.”

“I love you too.” Bruce stretched, letting his forehead rest against yours, a hand slipping to idly stroke your hair. 

You wished he could be next to you, that you could feel his arms around your waist, but the bed was too small, and though the two of you probably could’ve squashed on, it would’ve hurt. 

At least he was there, you still had him and he had you, and for the moment, that was enough.

~ 

The room was dark when you awoke with a start, cold beads of sweat coating your skin. Your breaths came in harsh ragged pants, loud in the silence. 

You'd been home a week now, and so far the nightmares had stayed at bay. Until tonight. Tonight you'd found yourself trapped all over again, falling endlessly, freezing water forcing its way in your body. Bruce was above you, yelling your name, but unable to reach you. Knowing now how scared he'd been that night made it all so much worse. 

You sighed, using your good arm to sit yourself up in the bed. The space next to you was empty and undisturbed. Not surprising. You'd talked Bruce into going back out on patrol again. He'd been by your side since your return to the manor, and while you appreciated it, you'd convinced him that a return to normality would be for the best. 

Now you wished you hadn't. 

Your injured leg protested as pushed yourself out of the bed, though it settled down once you were steady, the knee brace doing its job well, and headed into the bathroom. You could always text Bruce. He'd be home in a flash if you needed him, but the city needed him too. And it was late enough that it probably wouldn't be long before he returned anyway. 

Splashing some water on your face, you looked yourself over in the mirror. There'd been no nightmares, but you hadn't slept much either, content most nights to just lay in Bruce's arms, and it showed. Tomorrow. You’d sleep tomorrow when Bruce was back home and you could spend the day in bed together. It'd be nice. 

Not really wanting to do anything, and not wanting to risk disturbing Alfred when he was watching over Bruce and Dick, you decided to just head back to bed. Sleep would evade you until Bruce was home, but at least you could be comfy. The full-length mirror in the bedroom stopped you in your steps first. It glinted in the moonlight that filtered through the gap in the curtains, drawing your attention to it. 

You clicked a light on and stood in front of it, taking in the full length of your body. The brace was kinda clumpy so shorts had been your best sleep option, and an old t-shirt belonging to Bruce was comfy enough to cover the rest of you. The cast on your arm was still there, though by now it was covered in graffiti of little birds thanks to Dick. Raising the shirt you could see bruises that were now almost faded, and the lesser of the cuts nearly gone, with just slight discoloration where the new skin had grown to mark their presence. 

Then, of course, there was the bandage on your side, masking the stitches that lay beneath. They'd be coming out soon, and then you'd be able to see the scar for the first time. You'd already been warned that it wouldn't be pretty. The exact opposite. 

It was the first time you'd really stopped to look at yourself, to take in everything that had happened. You touched the bandage gently, fingers ghosting over it. 

You'd gotten lucky. Way too lucky. By all rights, you should've died. 

Fuck. 

The thought slammed into you. 

In the weeks since you'd come to you hadn't stopped to think about that, too busy reassuring everyone that you were fine and alive. You'd come so close to dying. By all rights, you had died. You knew the trouble Bruce had getting you breathing again. If it hadn't been for him…

"You should be in bed."

You turned sharply to see Bruce in the doorway, dressed in sweats and t-shirt, home for the night. 

The tremble spread through your body, legs shaking as you tried to keep upright. "Bruce…" Your voice came out quiet, cracking at the first sob that wracked its way through your chest. 

Your legs gave out from under you, but instead of hitting the floor there were arms around you, pulling you into a solid chest. 

It only made you cry harder. 

Bruce held you to him, letting you sob into his shirt, whispering to let it out as one hand rubbed your back. You clung to him, as though you'd fall away if you didn't. 

"'M'sorry," you mumbled when you could finally speak again. 

"You have nothing to be sorry for. Nothing." Bruce kissed the top of your head, and moved you both to the bed, being careful of your injuries, but still making sure you were against his chest. He had you propped up, back to his front. 

You twisted slightly so you could bury your face in his neck.  "I stopped breathing." Bruce's arms tightened a fraction around you, and you didn't need to see his face to know he was schooling his own reactions. "If you hadn't saved me, I…"

"I'm always going to save you. No matter what it takes."

Closing your eyes, you nodded. "I know. I do. It just-"

"Doesn't make what happened easier."

"Yeah."

Bruce ran a hand over your arm, letting you both sit in silence for a minute. It was nice. Having him there calmed you. You never felt safer than when you were like this. "If you want, if it'll help, I can get you an appointment with a psychiatrist. Best in the city," he said after a while. 

It was a perfectly sensible idea, one that wasn't unappealing, but it made you cringe nonetheless. "You've been through worse and don't need to see one," you whispered. 

Bruce shifted and lifted your head, "Y/N, I run around dressed as a bat. I think there are plenty who'd say I need to see one."

You couldn't help it. You laughed. For the first time in weeks, you laughed. It was absurd, to hear everything Bruce did be minimized down to that, especially from him, and that's what made the whole thing so funny. It must've triggered something in Bruce too because he was laughing with you, and for a few minutes everything felt normal again. 

The two of you came down slowly, Bruce playing with your hair as he smiled at you. "So, do you? Want an appointment?" 

You nodded. "Please. Think I need some help with it all."

"Okay." The total lack of judgment in Bruce's eyes made it all the easier to admit to wanting help. "I'll look into in the morning."

"Thank you."

"Anything for you." Bruce kissed you and it was easy to lean into it, to let him guide it and pull a quiet moan from you. 

You broke apart and Bruce smiled, brushing some hair from your face. "Hold on a second. I've got something." He pulled away carefully and reached into one of the drawers by the side of the bed. When he returned, he handed you an envelope. "I was going to wait and take you to dinner first, but…"

You opened the envelope, pulling out the two slips of paper that lay inside. Tickets to Rome. The date was for a couple of months, enough time for you to finish healing. It was the return date that made you raise an eyebrow. "These are for a week."

"I think Gotham can survive a week. It still has Robin and if anything happens the jet can have us back in a few hours."

"You sure?" 

"Yeah. I'm sure."

A grin crept its way onto your face, tucking the tickets back away so you could wrap an arm around his shoulders. It hurt a little but compared to everything else it was nothing, and for the moment you couldn't care less. You were happy and excited, and utterly in love with a man who obviously loved you back. 

Bruce returned the grin and kissed you again. 

Things were going to be okay. 

A/A/N: Hey! So while the main story of this series is done, I’m considering doing a bonus chapter set between parts 2+3. It’ll be Batman and Robin tracking down Joker and taking him in. Basically, I want to write about a Very Mad Bat, and this seemed like the best way to do it! So if that’s something you want to see, let me know!

Like what you read? Consider buying me a coffee! (I’ll love you forever)

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[ba-mi-soro-orisha]

when youre done recovering id love to hear your thoughts on the book(even if the post ends up being almost as long lmao)

Buckle up, y’all, cause this is going DEEP INTO SPOILERS. This is my no-holds-barred take on Children of Virtue and Vengeance!

SPOILER WARNING

SPOILER WARNING

SPOILER WARNING

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If you read any further past this, CoVaV is gonna be majorly spoiled for you. This is your last warning.

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Okay, I gotta open with a minor - but really the only - critique I had about CVV: we know Tomi was rushed in finishing the book in time for the third pushed back date, and the book kinda reads like it. Book 1, I felt like we got a lot more detail and getting to know characters and buildup of the plot. Book 2, it felt like we were just rushing to get through all the action planned. There wasn’t very much in between downtime, which resulted in not only a kinda rushed book with way more plot than pages, but also a very emotionally devastating book. 

Which leads me to: I feel like the central theme of CoBaB was more “hope”, while in CoVaV it was straight up “conflict”. And there was no recovery time. Even the precious few hopeful times that were in the book, I didn’t really have time to process or chill or cope. I always knew something worse was coming, which is what made this such a raw read. I do think the book could have benefited from giving us a little more hope. Like three-quarters of the way through, I had to keep thinking back to CBB and how I felt reading it and hoping there would be more hopeful and optimistic feelings in book 3. I couldn’t put the book down, but as a result, I pretty much just sobbed through the last fourth (at least) of the book, finished the book, sat in shock, and then went to bed. This book literally exhausted me. What a godsdamned ride.

I completely get why the book was like this, even if it wasn’t as a result of being rushed, but I feel a little more for the readers to balance it out helps us survive, lol.

That aside, there was SO MUCH in this book, I have SO MANY feelings!!!

Firstly, the worldbuilding was GREAT. I loved the new insight we got on magic. I totally didn’t realize frm book 1 that tîtans and maji were different and used magic differently for the most part.

With the direction of the ending, I’m not sure Tomi will go in this direction, but I’d like to know more about these differences. Why is it that chants can work for tîtans but maji can only use magic through chants? Is it just most effective? Will we discover they can use raw magic in book 3? I HAVE QUESTIONS.

Learning about the maji clan setups was also really interesting, but I have to admit it threw me for a bit of a loop referring to the leaders as elders and then they were all children. xP

Also, I’m really glad Tomi listened and gave us queer characters. I love Nâo and Khani. Powerful leader girlfriends? HELL YEAH.

I think this book made it really clear that Zélie x Amari is not end game and will not happen. I know a lot of people were/still are hopeful for that, but I think there’s just too much set up that says otherwise. They love each other, but imo they firmly think of each other as family. I’m going to put my stock in our canon queer couple and support them 10,000%.

Next big one: FUCKING HELL INAN STILL BEING ALIVE, I AM REALLY NOT HAPPY. I didn’t check out the chapters in the table of contents, so I didn’t have the forewaring to see that Inan was getting perspective chapters again, so it took my by quite a bit of surprise. A lot of you called that Inan would still be alive, but I honestly so prefer “dead means dead” in stories (otherwise, I find deaths are used too much for shock value and it just devalues the overall story and plot) that I had myself convinced he really was dead. He got a convincing death scene. Listen, if you kill off a character, I am going to grieve them. It is not going to be the same if you bring them back. I will have completely detached feelings for them and have to form a whole new relationship and perspective on them, and I am always going to keep them at a distanced because they were dead, I saw it happen, and there is no going back.

But no. BAM! He’s not only alive but Zélie is the one to wake him from his connector coma. Not happy. I really feel that Inan’s story played out in CoBaB. It’s interesting that I’ve seen some real anti-Inan folk feeling more sympathy for Inan in this book, while I’ve talked about feeling that Inan was a really compelling villain in book 1, but I’ve got much more negative feelings towards him throughout book 2.  (And also why the hell should Inan get to come back but all these little maji kids - Zulaikha and Mazeli, c’mon - die and die for real??? It feels very cheap and very shock value to me. I don’t know if it was like some statement on privilege or Tomi just didn’t want to be done with Inan, but yeah.)

Honestly, the way Inan and Amari think in this book is so similar, and I found it so fucking conceited and narrow-minded. My view on both of them went down in this book. They just kept talking about how they have to be so selfish and they’re the only ones who can see things for how they are and how damn much they sacrifice and how tired they are because it’s up to them to sacrifice everything. Like!!! GUYS. No.

From the beginning when the CVV summary was released, I was wary of the plot focusing on Amari leading the people. It’s one of those things like: the system is not broken. It’s functioning exactly as it intends to. The monarchy has evolved to uphold a class system where diviners and maji are at the bottom. That’s what it wants to be doing. Can you really effectively change the system by accepting the system as your basis for change? Maybe it’s time to deconstruct the system and build something better. Not just put a royal back on the throne and think that’s gonna go smoothly.

And that’s exactly what happened here. They tried to use the system to buck the system and everything collapsed around them.

But I’m getting a little off topic - fixing a system of bigotry and oppression that your people built is not a sacrifice. You are still in the position of power here.

And Inan’s little bit where he thinks he’s so good and pure and better than his father because he offers the maji a place in society if they bend to his rules and follow him when the other option is that he will murder them had me wanting to tear my hair out. “Follow me or perish” is not a compromise. It’s not improvement. It’s literally a threat. And then when the maji don’t take this offer, Inan takes this as a sign that his mother was right and they can’t trust the maji to make the right decisions!?!?

Ugh. I was just done. I know all the factors of why I originally had sympathy for Inan are still there, and they largely control how he acts and thinks in CVV. (What he really needs for character growth and development is to be away from toxic influences and given time to grieve and work on figuring himself out. Not thrust into a position of power with his mother holding all the strings.) So, for me, Inan’s character really hit a wall, always getting stuck in the same patterns. And so now I feel less sympathy for him and find his story less compelling.

I honestly found Inan’s cousin, Ojore, really interesting. I think it could have been a really compelling story if somehow Ojore was allowed to take up the throne. WIth his background, being there in the burner attack that killed Saran’s father, he had a lot of backstory that we could have explored. And Tomi still could have revealed that it was Nehanda that manipulated things and let the burners in to encourage the war and the genocide against maji. Without Inan, we could have really gotten to explore how Ojore would react to that while on the throne. He could have potentially gone through the character development that Inan will never really get to see. Instead of him being killed pretty much immediately after he learns the truth behind his family’s death and the attack on him.

That being said, I do respect Inan’s decision to give up his position in the end. I think the whole “I’ll let your murder me” and Zélie apparently going to go through this was a little… contrived. But at least Inan did pull it out in the end. It will be interesting to see how these last moments between Inan and Zélie come into play in the next book. I’m assuming either Inan has been taken with the rest or will mount a rescue to go after them, so you know we’re going to get more on how this relationship develops. 

(I think with Tzain done with Amari right now, Amari and Inan trying to navigate a new siblingship with each other will be a more interesting relationship than Inan x Zélie, and I would look forward to getting to see these sibs talk and get to actually be there for each other like they never have before.)

And since I just went through Inan, let’s go ahead and talk about Amari.

Oh, Amari.

Amari, Amari, Amari.

GIRL. Why did it take you this entire book to realize that making decisions based off of what your father would have done was the wrong damn thing to do!?!?!? Omg, we all knew that was gonna crash and burn on you. The entire purpose of overthrowing your father’s rule was to not do things his way because his way was cruel and malicious. smdh

I was still rooting for Amari throughout the book. I am still rooting for Amari, but damn. She sure did try to make it hard doing things like going back on promises right after she made them (forcing Zélie to teach her chants that didn’t belong to her and then immediately using them on a maji) and acting like she new better than all the maji (I agree that just wanting to kill all the nobles and other peoples wasn’t a feasible plan, but GIRL. These are a traumatized, hunted people. They’re going to be angry, especially right in the thick of a war. Strongarming your way into a position of power over them is not going to make them feel any better about you or bring about peace. It’s just going to show them that they cannot trust you). And her move at the end? Sacrificing Zélie and all those people in that village? Being willing to murder them all? … If killing her father fucked her up, what’s this going to do? I still have faith in her. I want her to come back from this. But she’s going to have to majorly confront her own feelings and actions and work very hard to come back from this. Though, I have a feeling that she’ll mostly get forgiven in the next book because bigger and worse things will happen and they’ll have to come together, regardless of how they feel about each other.

Amari’s realization in the end when she decides she doesn’t have to kill her mother (uh… was I the only one expecting some sort of Avatar moment like when Aang took away Ozai’s bending? Like… Nehanda is still a threat… this part of the story can’t just be over) and that killing her father just fucked her up kinda made me feel ashamed for feeling so proud of her when she did kill Saran in CBB. Like, it was just such a powerful moment, and I think too many (simple “good vs evil”) stories fall prey to poor and simplistic messages like “killing in self-defense is evil and makes the good people as bad as the villains”. But it’s just been weighing on Amari this whole time and fucking her up, and now I feel bad. =(

Speaking of Amari feeling bad, though: Ramaya. The connector Amari beat for connector elder.

I hope either Inan was taken with everybody else or Amari will connect with him via their connector-sibling connection. It seems incredibly likely that Ramaya is stuck in her dreamscape similarly to how Inan was stuck in his before Zélie somehow entered it and woke him. Considering they were constantly saying Ramaya was their best soldier, it seems like it would also come in handy to wake Ramaya and be able to utilize her skills to help rescue the kidnapped crew. Like, this HAS to come up at some point, doesn’t it? She can’t just be forgotten in a coma. Did anybody stay behind to take care of her when they marched on the capitol? D|

Other relationships!

Fuck, I fell so hard for Roën in this book. He’s just so endearing. And it seems like it was really only Roën that was able to keep Zélie grounded and moving forward in this book. I didn’t really support Roën and Zélie getting together in book 1, but book 2 absolutely made me support the ship.

However, I think Roën’s actions at the end of the book are a very good insight into the types of things that Roën is capable of. I don’t know if this is endgame for Tomi, but after Zélie’s constant struggle of just wanting to leave and be free and start over in this book and how her rage towards Inan consumed her and caused her to make some short-sighted mistakes (promising she’d protect Mazeli at the temple, then Ojore almost killing him while she tussled with Inan), I just don’t know that this is a particularly healthy relationship. The bit where Roën takes her out to see and they get a ride from a whale? Absolutely adorable. Just what Zélie (and I suspect Roën) needed. But long-term? I have a feeling that Roën is going to have to let more of that mercenary self of his out, and it’s going to scare and wear on Zélie, and erode their relationship. I think this is one of those relationships that is good in the short-term but isn’t long-term sustainable.

Speaking of long-term - I know Tzain is absolutely done with Amari right now, but I think he’s overall shown a great capacity for forgiveness, and I do think Tzain and Amari are endgame for Tomi. I don’t think this break between them is permanent. 

But you know who we really need to talk about?

MAMA AGBA

What a heartbreaking arc. You know she had to sever the tie between Mazeli and Zélie to save Zélie’s life. I so wish she had gotten more time with Zélie for them to reform their trust and love for one another. I absolutely wouldn’t have been able to survive the maji elders sacrificing Amari to complete the linking ritual, but I can’t believe they really did sacrifice Mama Agba like that. She was really the only guidance these poor kids had. I can’t believe they really sacrificed her.

RIP Mama Agba. I hope you’re helping to look after Mazeli. 3

Now, for that damn epilogue.

I don’t know if I can take the next book. I don’t know how Tomi’s gonna make it through the next book.

Getting gassed and waking up on an eerie ship with the other elders? Anybody else get the feeling that Tomi is going to dive into a trans atlantic slave trade parallel? I hope I’m just being paranoid here (hey, the book seriously played with my emotions; I have no idea where I’m at anymore). What were y’alls takeaways from that part?

Predictions!

- Harum obviously has something to do with all the elders being taken and them being on a boat now, right? Tomi was totally setting him up as an antagonist and he got very little antag action in this book. He’s got to have something to do with this.

- This was always intended to be a trilogy, but I have to wonder if this isn’t going to end up turning into a couple more books than intended. There was so much to go over in book 2 and then the twist of an epilogue. They’re not even getting to rebuild yet. It just feels like Tomi has so much more planned it can’t possibly be wrapped up in just one more book.

- I feel like something’s gotta happen to sever or dampen the connection the elders (and Roën and Tzain) have with each other. After how powerful they were in the end, Tomi’s gotta counter that somehow. I just don’t know if she’s gonna dampen the powers or pull out an even BIGGER bad than Nehanda was.

- Obviously “Children of Gods” has to do with the title of book 3. If it’s not just Children of Gods, I predict: Children of Gods and Ghosts.

Ending Thoughts

CVV was well worth the wait and lived up to the hype, but if we don’t get some hope and optimism in the next book, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I need these poor kids to get some semblance of a happy ending. They’ve been through so much.

[kingofthewilderwest]

It's anon-whose-dad-looks-like-McGucket again! He hasn't eaten any raccoons... yet... at least that I know of... XD Having fallen into this fandom hole rather aggressively with a lot of time on my hands, I have found the episode commentaries, graphic novel, and shorts. Are there any other behind the scenes or supplementary materials you recommend?

Hey there again! And bless, bless you for falling down the fandom hole.

As far as supplementary materials are concerned, I’m going to list everything I would recommend. I’ll even list things you’ve mentioned above, in case other people reading this post would be interested learning about GF extended materials too! I’ll be listing GF content in order roughly from “most essential” to “not so essential.” Note: this isn’t a comprehensive list of tie-ins. Also note: this list talks about spoilers from the show itself.

Journal #3. If you’ve already found out about the graphic novel and gotten your hands on that, I imagine you know about Journal #3 too - but since you didn’t mention it above, or if you were going to skip it over, I’m bringing it up now! Journal #3 is a *MUST*. I consider this book as essential to the Gravity Falls experience as the show itself. (Probably because the 1980s boys are my soul, life, and feels.) Journal #3 isn’t written to be a dump of monster lore, though there’s paranormal experiences in this book, of course. Journal #3 is a well-done narrative focusing on Ford’s hubris character arc and providing it amazing resolution. It also complexly dives into the relationship between Ford and Fiddleford, and to say that that narrative has ruined me and kept me awake at night would be an understatement. It makes the scenes and events of S2 more meaningful, and just… aughghgh. There’s so much to unpack there and I keep waiting for an excuse to yak about it.It’s also got several moments I wish could have been in the show proper (though I respect the need to cut for time and focus on the Essential Essentials, and think they did a great job prioritizing). If you’ve finished the commentaries (don’t know how far you are), you may remember Alex Hirsch saying they tried to get Dipper’s real name reveal into the show sev’ral timez, but ultimately cut it and left it for Journal #3. That scene definitely reads as “should have been in the show,” and it’s a great moment. Plus, Ford’s final remarks about “trust no one”? Ohhhhhh it’s so good, and makes the resolution to the show’s events all the better.

Journal #3 Blacklight Edition. Unless you can travel back in time to preorder, or have several thousand USD to spend today (no, I’m not joking, go onto eBay and cry), you’re not going to get your paws on the special blacklight edition of Journal #3. But there are people who have photographed important notes! Such as: [1] [2] [3]

Lost Legends. A  graphic novel with several short adventures. They’re all side adventures, but there’s some development on Dipcifica, and Mabel confronting her selfishness, that are nice additions and expansions to people’s characterizations. Wonderfully done, nicely arted, and feels like reading four new short episodes of the show.

The shorts, etc. I know you said you’ve gotten to the shorts, but there are so many shorts and promotional ads that I hope you’re going through the wiki pages and not just DVD menus to unearth everything. I don’t feel like pulling up my DVD to check, but if I remember right, some things like Creepy Letters from Lil’ Gideon didn’t make it to hard copy release?So anyway. I know some of these are easy to find and you’ve probably gone through them, but for the sake of thoroughness:

The Unaired Pilot

Creature in the Closet

Dipper’s Guide to the Unexplained

Mabel’s Guide to Life

Fixin’ It with Soos

TV Shorts 1 and TV Shorts 2

Mabel’s Scrapbook

Mystery Shack: Shop at Home with Mr. Mystery and its Outtakes

Old Man McGucket’s Conspiracy Corner

Creepy Letters from Lil’ Gideon

Gravity Paws

’Pocalypse Preppin’

The deleted scenes. The special edition DVD/Blu-ray provides a ton of S2 footage of the writer’s room, Alex narrating the storyboards, and through that showing us scenes that were cut or altered. There’s AMAZING stuff there, oh my goodness.It’s complicated finding all released deleted scenes materials, though, and honestly, I’m still trying to fish through the interwebs for more. You’ll find some released storyboards online for S1 and S2 that didn’t make animation. There’s a second long animation of Ford and Stan adjusting their glasses at the same time that made trailers but not “A Tale of Two Stans.” Or you’ll find things on Alex’s twitter page, like the now-notorious Dipper-snaps-Dippy-Fresh’s-neck-on-screen moment. And things like Bill’s initial introduction scene have been animated by fans. :)

Shmeb-you-unlocked website. I have fondness for this page because I love learning minor details about characters. This is a hidden website url you can uncover going through Lost Legends. Got some fun stuff on Anti-Mabel, Tate McGucket, and Pacifica, for instance. 

The Episode Commentaries. Seriously, these are the most enjoyable commentaries I think I’ve watched (outside of the LOTR cast commentaries, anyway). They’ve got insight into everything, from talking about character psychology, to storytelling techniques, to storyboard artists’ contributions, to how fans’ responses literally changed how the creative team wrote the show. 

The Special Features for the Special Edition DVD / Blu-ray release. All the special features on the DVDs are cool and enjoyable! Between the Pines, etc.

The Hidden Special Features. The Special Edition DVD / Blu-ray release comes with lots of hidden special features! Grunkle Stan’s hidden commentary for Land Before Swine is treasure. Like, Stan starts rambling about his childhood and embarrassing stories about Ford and stuff… it’s amazing. There’s also a Bill special feature that I love. 

Cipher Hunt! Most of it’s just fun, but it’s wild to consider that Alex staged an international scavenger hunt by choice. I don’t like road trips, but I would be very tempted to travel to see that Bill Cipher statue. Because I have… fandom issues. Haha.

Dipper and Mabel and the Curse of the Time Pirates’ Treasure! Though I’ve entertained myself with this, I don’t recommend this as highly as the other stuff on here. But if you want to keep living Gravity Falls, this is one of the books out there with original non-show content. There’s even a few moments in this book that were taken from the unaired pilot or deleted scenes. It’s a choose-your-own adventure, has nice art, and stuff. While it is written by Rowe, I don’t consider this as necessary of an addition to Gravity Falls fans because the choose-your-own adventure doesn’t (to me) capture the deep heart of the show. It’s more of a light, silly, random what-have-you. It does have a hidden web link to a page with the Axolotl, though, so that’s sort of important?

The Games. Most games are simple online flash games with no informative or lore-adding content to them. You won’t get anything new out of them, so take or leave them. But ya know, they still pass time in non-objectionable ways. If you’re really craving ANYTHING GF, why the fuck not. That’s how I ended up playing them. Some games have enjoyable versions of the main theme… the Weirdmageddon: Take Back the Falls game did not have to go so rocking hard on the music, and yet it did. (I may have recorded the audio to the level select and stuff and added it to my iTunes library.)I know you’ve been watching me play Legend of the Gnome Gemulets on my twitch. The other games that I think are the most entertaining are Rumble’s Revenge and Pinesquest (mostly Pinesquest, but it’s a “sequel” to Rumble’s Revenge). 

And if you haven’t gone clue hunting and decrypting yourself, and don’t want to extend the effort to do so, the cryptograms page on the wiki is a must!

Alex’s old twitter posts have some interesting things too from time to time?

I hope I remembered the main things. And I hope this helps!

[ultraenglishnerd]

Part One: ^^^

Part Two:

Shipka’s arguments made me consider greatly what it was I wanted to represent. I do use my sewing machine or my PS4 quite frequently, but I felt after reading what Shipka’s students did and understanding that I need to think beyond text and invest myself more in the process than in the final product, I changed my mind and decided to bring my dress form into play. This was based heavily off of her discussion of the environment and the technical tools around me that influence my work and life on a daily basis. I see my dress form every day in the corner of my room and it constantly makes me think about what to do next, what projects I have waiting in my closet for me to work on, and about the time and setting that those compositions require me to have. For example, even creating this minor multimodal composition, my environment was a nightmare, as my adorable demon cat kept attacking the dress form and the measuring tape I draped around its neck. I was also highly concerned about dropping the sewing pins all over the floor and not being able to find them, so I had to work extra carefully. While I do not have the time at the moment to do a 20 page statement of goals and choices (nor do I think such a small creation could fill 20 pages), Shipka did make me think deeply about why I was doing what I was doing. I did not want to create just another voice over video or sticky note collage to represent how nearly every piece of technology I engage with enhances and challenges my creativity, so I instead focused on how my sewing tools allow me to explore and complicate my creation process. This also led me to placing it in a video and adding music (which is a mashup of Persona 5’s “Life Will Change” and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures Part 3 Theme; I have made and worn costumes for both, so it felt fitting). My mini project overlaps quite well with some of Shipka’s examples, in that it is physical, it engages with more than just text, and while the final product is quite simple, the process of coming up with the idea, executing it, and turning it into a video resulted in changing my goals, original design, and final presentation and explanation.

Part Three:

Chapter One

Composition and writing, while interchangeable in the discipline at times, do not necessarily denote the same things. Composing is the more fitting term because it includes the act of multimodality, even without direct reference to the technology around us, such as lights and floor tiles. The method of instructing composition in the classroom should be different than the traditional English classroom because it ought to involve cooperation with communication studies, like psychology and philosophy among others. Finally, limiting writers to the term of “students” and their writing to just what comes out of their heads eliminates consideration of the place and space within which they write and instead places them inside a written text based box.

Chapter Two

This chapter focused on discussing Wertsch’s concept of individual(s)-acting-with-mediational-means. There were four primary points of discussion, those being 1) using the meditational means framework, a text-based work cannot truly be judged as monomodal because the process of the text might have included outside sources and influences upon its creation. 2) this viewpoint challenges our concepts of technology as only being whatever recently modern creation we use. 3) the framework forces us to acknowledge the psychological and technical tools that go into composition and how the tools we choose to use affect our physical bodies. 4) The framework denies us the ability to see each reader or writer as an individual in composition because of the changes that certain mediational means require. The final point of note in this chapter is about how technology will fade into the background and become transparent when it is working properly as a part of our daily lives. This also has an effect on how we view text based compositions because it forces us to consider the mode in which we compose and how what we choose to write or create with is a technology with its own specific demands.

Chapter Three

The explanation surrounding Muffie and her body/dance based text was fascinating to someone like me who drastically prefers written word to body language. It felt significant that much of the chapter was dedicated not the writing process so much as the location in which it occurs, such as in the beginning of the chapter when a student ran into complications of distractions while making their t-shirt composition. When it came down to the various places and stages Muffie had to go through to get to her final product, it made me think about my own environment when I write, which is normally either complete silence in my room, listening to the Carole and Tuesday soundtrack, or forcing myself into Starbucks to not be distracted by my kitten Darcy. Finally, it was increasingly significant in this chapter, seeing how the author built it up to this point, that the final product is not necessarily the most important part of composition because much of what is multimodal about certain texts is the path and tools used to get there.

Chapter Four

This segment of the book was incredibly interesting and informative because of how the author explained the goals and processes of the two students’ projects. Particularly, the intent of each project informed not only the topic, but the form that the end product took (in this case the goal was to get their audiences to explore the frustration and pain they had gone through in producing a multimodal composition). I found it helpful that the author showed how multimodal assignments do not make things easy or unacademic, as some believe, but rather require different thought and consideration than an essay about a word from the OED might. Asking students and teachers to reevaluate their text based academic worlds is beyond imperative to the ever expanding field of composition and its relationship to technology. This chapter was significantly informative to me because of what I am considering for my final project in this course. (I shall not reveal it yet, but it will be physical multimodal composition).

Chapter Five

As we discussed in class last week, grading and finding criteria for analyzing multimodal compositions is a challenge. The author appears to propose as a solution to this problem that student’s write a statement of goals and choices that is highly detailed and extensive, such as the 20 page example she mentioned the student of the Lost and Found journal wrote. It is this extensive self reflection that opens up a way for instructors and audiences to understand decisions and aims of the project and be able to compare it to the final product. This connects back well to the rest of the book, in which the focus is once again placed upon the steps taken to get to the end rather than looking at the product on its own.

Conclusion

Composition must go beyond writing to include other forms of meaning making, or risk educating students to hold a narrow viewpoint of what writing is. We must also learn to value texts that are not merely linear and traditional and work towards an accepting writing community that will not dismiss a text based solely on appearance. Finally, acknowledging and creative spaces for academic composition to mix with creative and multimodal positions is imperative to spreading and teaching proper, modern composition skills.

[cherry-valentine]

Winter 2019 Anime Season, What I’m Watching:

My Roommate is a Cat is easily the cutest series this season, possibly the cutest in the past several seasons. Your mileage may vary, depending on how much you like cats, but for me the show is a delight. Following a reclusive young author who recently lost his parents (the only people he interacted with on a regular basis) as he bonds with a stray cat he decided to take in on a whim, the show cleverly splits its time between the viewpoints of the human protagonist and the cat. The smartest thing the series does is show both viewpoints of the same events, first from the human, Subaru, and then from the cat, Haru. And somehow, even though we’re viewing the events for the second time, Haru’s view is more compelling. The show is by turns genuinely funny and genuinely touching. Subaru reminds me of a less extreme version of Handa (from Handa-kun and Barakamon) in that he’s socially inept and usually assumes the worst intentions from those around him. Haru is a somewhat feisty young cat who thinks she’s protecting her strange, hopeless human. Haru is a bit rough around the edges after spending much of her life as a stray, and her tough attitude keeps the show from getting too saccharine. As it stands, the show is just the right amount of cute, sweet, awkward, sad, and funny. Very high on my watch list.

Meiji Tokyo Renka is yet another historical otome series (seriously why do so many otome anime have historical settings?) featuring a high school girl being sent back in time to the Meiji period. This is, of course, one of my favorite time periods just for the clothing alone. The character designs are varied enough to make all the guys stand out from each other and the colors and backgrounds are lovely. The heroine, Mei, is much more comical than the standard otome heroine and is refreshingly proactive in her own story. She’s surprisingly independent in a time period when that was probably frowned upon. There’s a strong supernatural element to the story, not even counting the time travel aspect. There are spirits in this series that only certain people can see, Mei being one of them (and it’s nice that there are several others in the main cast who can as well, preventing her from seeming too conveniently special). It seems like these spirits can come in many forms, from cute animal spirits to literal ghosts to characters in novels springing to life and escaping the books to run amok. The show is certainly not dull. The romance is almost shoved to the background to make room for spirit shenanigans, but I’m not complaining. One of the more fun otome series in recent memory.

The Promised Neverland is easily my pick for best show of the season. It has a fantastic setup, with a first episode twist that I did not see coming (I knew something was going on, but my guess was way off the mark). It has a unique art style that makes it stand out, fluid animation, awesome opening and ending themes, a kickass heroine, and some heart-stopping cliff hangers. It’s the show I look forward to most each week. There’s only one minor quibble I have with this series, and that’s the weird way faces are drawn. The mouths seem too high on the faces, to the point that I kept thinking their mouths were their noses. I’ve gotten used to it as the episodes rolled by, but every now and then I still notice it. It’s just... irritating. Still, that’s a super nitpicky  complaint for a show that’s otherwise excellent on every level with consistently high quality art and writing. At the very tippy top of my watch list.

Boogiepop and Others is a sequel (I guess?) to a much older series called Boogiepop Phantom that I watched many years ago. To be honest, it’s been so long that I don’t remember most of the details about the original anime. I just remember that it was a somewhat gloomy show that focused on supernatural mysteries and was episodic in nature. This newer series has an updated art style with more modern character designs. It’s also easier to follow, and has a stronger focus on action, whereas the original focused more on atmosphere. Special mention should go to Aoi Yuki’s phenomenal voice acting. She really brings Boogiepop to life and carries the show, much like she did as Kino in the recent Kino’s Journey anime. The show has great music, with my favorite ending theme of the season. Has a secure spot on my watch list.

B Project Season 2, an otome series about cute male idol groups, has seemingly decided to dial back the focus on the whole otome thing and instead showcase the borderline BL relationships between the boys. Seriously, there are several episodes in which the heroine, Tsubasa, is barely there at all, and even when she is, the series gives no real indication that any of the boys like her as more than a friend. Instead, the boys seem to be in love with each other (which is fine by me). This season adds a new boy band to the three we already had, which I felt was a little unnecessary. The new group really doesn’t add anything to the story. The music is nice, especially the ending theme, and the character designs are attractive. The series seems to have taken a page out of Tsukiuta’s book and now uses CG for the more elaborate dance numbers. The problem is that they don’t look nearly as good as Tsukiuta’s and definitely don’t blend well with the 2D animation around them. Overall, the series is cute but I still think of it as “less fun UtaPri”.

Fukigen no Mononokean Season 2 was a bit of a surprise for me, since I didn’t realize it was being made. I enjoyed season one very much with its pastel, candy-colored art and sweet, mostly light-hearted stories. And of course, the main draw of the series was the budding friendship between our two leads, Abeno and Ashiya. Season two keeps all of those elements and adds a very interesting mystery concerning Ashiya’s father, as well as an overarching plot and an actual recurring “villain” type character. The stakes are raised considerably, but the overall tone of the show is still fairly light and gentle. Seeing the cute mascot character Fuzzy (a white, furry youkai) makes me a little sad though, since it reminded me so very much of my cat (also a white furry creature named Fuzzy) while watching season one, and Fuzzy has since disappeared. Which reminds me, the youkai in this series are so adorable, varied, and charming. Very high on my watch list.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War is a comedy about two overachieving high school students who are secretly in love with each other but are too prideful to admit it, so they set traps for each other to try to force the other to confess first. It sounds like a dumb setup, to be honest, but it actually works surprisingly well. The two leads are likable despite being petty and stubborn. Even though they’re extremely talented, they have tons of quirks and they’re both completely clueless when it comes to love. There are a few fun side characters as well. The show is hilarious, with three skits per episode. There’s also a touch of sweetness as their affection for each other comes across as genuine. Anyone who’s ever been in love can relate to some of these moments, of going to great lengths just to increase your chances of being near the person you like, or making little changes to your appearance just to see if you get a reaction from them. Or, of course, the disappointment you feel when your carefully laid plans get ruined. The series uses humor and extreme reactions and hilarious facial expressions to convey these feelings, resulting in a highly entertaining show.

Carry Over Shows From Previous Seasons: Black Clover Run With the Wind Hinomaru Sumo Best of Season: Best New Show: The Promised Neverland Best Opening Theme: The Promised Neverland Best Ending Theme: Boogiepop and Others Best Male Character: Subaru (My Roommate is a Cat) Best Female Character: Emma (The Promised Neverland)

[nntodayblog]

A (Gross) Girl’s Guide To Personal Hygiene

Tallulah Pomeroy

400

I am a “gross girl,” and I’ve identified as such for as long as I can remember.

In part, I have my mother to thank. Although she dutifully applies a thick layer of lipstick before any and all activities, including bath time, she also adheres to the cardinal toilet flushing rule “If it’s yellow, let it mellow” and counts quickly flitting her wrist under a running faucet as washing her hands.

For my sisters and I, hygienic transgressions have always been badges of honor. When we were younger, we’d compete to see who could go the longest without showering, cackling together while we discussed which body parts itched the most. We built toilet paper castles in the mellow bowls our mother left behind, piling the paper like cotton clouds in the middle of a urine-filled moat.

As I got older, I remained gross.

During my freshman year of college, I wore the same leggings every day, deodorizing the crotch instead of washing them properly. My senior year, rather than walking all the way to the downstairs bathroom in my apartment, I took to peeing in a mason jar on my bedroom floor. When spillage occurred, I’d wipe it up with a rogue bit of laundry.

There are others like me, I know. I’ve seen evidence in listicles across the web. There’s BuzzFeed’s “49 Gross Things Most Girls Secretly Enjoy,” which includes “running your fingers through your pubes in a nonsexual way.” Bustle’s “19 Gross Things All Women Do in Private (Or At Least When We Think No One’s Watching)” exalts the fun of “examining your panty crust like you’re a scientist.” Cosmopolitan’s “13 Super-Gross Things Women Do That Men Don’t Know About” takes the cake with a description of cleaning yourself after a period-poop combo ― “the good ole PB&J wipe!”

The headlines make plain the fact that countless women indulge their grossest urges out of curiosity, laziness and pure fascination. Yet their bodily offenses, so counter to the image of a pristine and clean young lady reflected in etiquette books and American Girl Doll catalogues, are often kept secret ― or, at the very least, outside the purview of men.

Tallulah Pomeroy

Enter A Girl’s Guide to Personal Hygiene, a picture book illustrated by Bristol-based artist Tallulah Pomeroy that’s full of the kinds of gross girl confessions that trump even my and my sisters’ rituals.

Divided into chapters including "Picking & Squeezing," "Nooks & Crannies," "Periods," and "Tasty Snacks," Pomeroy’s book ― released on Feb. 13 by Soft Skull Press ― features anonymously submitted anecdotes detailing the nasty shit women do behind closed doors, from smelling their dirty underwear to free-bleeding in their pants.

The 112-page paperback is a celebration of everything feminine and dirty ― an homage to the women with a surplus of earwax, an abundance of gray pubes and far too many crimson-stained articles of clothing.

Pomeroy, the in-house illustrator at Catapult, started the project over two years ago. Inspiration struck after she overheard two women gossiping about a friend who’d drunkenly taken a shit in the sink. Utterly scandalized, they declared that anyone who could do such a thing was “not a girl.” This got Pomeroy, 25, thinking: Which of her own private habits would disqualify her from girlhood?

Around the same time, Pomeroy’s then-boyfriend lent her Charlotte Roche’s 2008 book Wetlands, which chronicles a sexually liberated and unabashedly grotesque 18-year-old’s hospital stint recovering from a botched ass shaving accident. No dirty details are spared as the protagonist, with time on her hands, takes stock of her sexual exploits and corporeal habits. “I love it when sperm dries on my skin, when it crusts and flakes off,” reads one relatively tame line.

Not enough for you? Here’s more (obviously NSFW):

When I jerk somebody off, I always make sure that some cum gets on my hand. I run my fingers through it and let it dry under my long nails. That way, later in the day, I can reminisce about my good fuck partner by biting my nails and getting bits of the hardened cum to play with in my mouth; I chew on it and, after tasting it and letting it slowly dissolve, I swallow it. It’s an intention I’m very proud of: the memorable sex bon-bon.

These are the sorts of passages that titillate a segment of readers and nauseate the rest. Pomeroy counts herself among the former group, enraptured by Roche’s ability to treat the body as both a site of sexual pleasure and grotesque glory. She endeavored to do the same with A Girl’s Guide to Personal Hygiene.

“She was so unashamed to the point of being proud,” Pomeroy said of the primary Wetlands character, Helen. “She loves that she’s gross. I think that’s what I identified with the most ― that I could feel positive about these things rather than ashamed of them.”

Tallulah Pomeroy

This combination of events ― reading Wetlands and overhearing the shit-in-the-sink story ― ultimately prompted Pomeroy to forge a space where women could share the nitty-gritty details of their nasty pastimes. In 2016 she created a private Facebook group cheekily titled “A Girl’s Guide to Personal Hygiene” and invited all her female friends to join. Before long, friends invited friends and the group went, as Pomeroy described, “mental.”

Right away, stories started rolling in, each woman playfully trying to out-gross the last. Pomeroy even created a submission form so some members could share their funkiest exploits anonymously if they so desired. The confessions achieved Roche-levels of nastiness. “I like to pick my nose while I masturbate. It helps,” one woman wrote. “I like to smell the contents of my Mooncup because someone once told me theirs smelled like beef,” wrote another.

Women even started using the Facebook group to seek advice about personal matters like IUD insertion and achieving multiple orgasms. It quickly became clear to Pomeroy that the space she carved out wasn’t just something women wanted ― it was something they needed.

From the beginning, Pomeroy said she had dreams of turning the confessions into a book ― an ironic etiquette guide that would “take the piss out of the idea that girls should be hygienic.” She had her doubts, though. Beyond a sense of gratification, the Facebook group had also awakened in Pomeroy a bubbling sense of humiliation she hadn’t even realized she possessed.

“A voice of shame,” she explained. “The voice you’ve heard since you were a child saying your body is dirty. Saying that women are clean and beautiful and don’t squeeze their spots.”

In an essay for The Atlantic, writer Leslie Jamison discussed a similar kind of humiliation that came with writing about matters of the flesh. “A certain shame,” she wrote, “like a faint body odor I couldn’t smell because it was mine: There was too much body, and this too-much-body risked banality and melodrama at once.”

Roche encountered it, too. Despite the fact that Wetlands became a cult obsession ― it was the best-selling book in the world in March of 2008, and was eventually translated from its native German into 27 languages ― some critics took issue with what they categorized as the novel’s cheap thrills, suggesting Roche’s work was not so much pioneering as “faux-outrageous.” In a 2009 review for The New York Times, Sallie Tisdale lambasted it, calling Roche’s descriptions “banal and repetitive,” her vocabulary “painfully limited.”

Of course, men have long been permitted to discuss their bathroom quirks and sexual secrets. “We’re very familiar with male toilet humor and the stereotype of a stinky man,” Pomeroy said. Yet when a woman wants to laugh about an ingrown hair or a particularly pungent flow she runs the risk of being perceived as “not funny, not moving, not provocative and certainly not titillating,” as The Guardian’s Nicola Barr wrote of Roche back in the day.

Pomeroy calls bullshit on this kind of literary criticism. “It’s much easier to call the book ‘clumsy’ and ‘banal’ than to call yourself a prude,” she said. She thinks Roche’s prose, written from the perspective of a teenager, feels exactly as it should ― intimate, unpretentious and imperfect.

“The language in Wetlands isn’t complicated,” she explained. “It isn’t trying to impress. The form of it is very frank and open and talkative. You feel like she’s right there with you.”

Tallulah Pomeroy

Pomeroy’s nagging voice of doubt didn’t linger for long. With the help of Soft Skull Press, she began compiling some of the standout anecdotes from Facebook into a book and illustrating them. Aside from some minor edits for typos, she preserved the original language of the Facebook group.

“These girls are often saying these things for the first time,” Pomeroy said. “They’ve thought about how they’re going to phrase it. I think it’s important to not make it sound more grand than it is. Let it be earthy.”

Deciding which anecdotes would make the cut was difficult. When it came to a story about a woman who, in advance of a threesome, whipped out her bloody tampon and stored it in a full teapot, which her boyfriend’s mother later discovered, editors assumed the anonymous story was fake. Pomeroy laughed; she actually knew all the people involved in the teapot debacle.

In the final book, juicy stories like this come to life thanks to Pomeroy’s illustrations, gangly line drawings splashed with watercolor that make a woman shitting herself look vaguely cool. Like the book’s language, its images do not attempt to sugarcoat their subject matter. Pomeroy draws clearly the most deliciously vile of moments ― poop emerging from a butt, discharge soaking panties, pus oozing from a zit.

“It’s kind of funny because it runs parallel with the book, me realizing actually I could be myself [in my drawings],” she said. “I didn’t have to clean things up. The drawings are very rough. They’re always the first drafts, that’s how I like it best. If I do multiple drafts, they lose that immediacy, and I wanted the drawings to have a real sense of freshness, in the same way the stories are honest and free. It was a real relief to realize my style is a good style, my own thing that I do is valuable, even if it’s rough and wonky.”

Because many of the book’s confessions were submitted anonymously, Pomeroy isn’t certain how many ― if any ― trans or gender-nonconforming women contributed. “My understanding of the term ‘girls’ refers to anyone who identifies as feminine, regardless of their gender,” she said. “Most of the stories relate to physically female bodies, but not all, there is still the underlying emphasis of pushing at the idea of femininity, which is relevant to trans and cis women alike.”

Pomeroy’s book has received praise from writers including Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties) and Alissa Nutting (Tampa, Made for Love), both of whom fearlessly write the feminine bodily experience into their work. The day it arrived in the HuffPost office, my coworkers and I swarmed around the pink paperback, pointing out which anecdotes we’ve participated in and which were completely baffling. Before long we were swapping our own stories of earwax and butt hair, tales unbeknownst to even our partners.

One of the main messages of the #MeToo movement currently sweeping our culture is that there is power in women’s stories. The subtext, however, is that to be taken seriously, these stories often revolve around personal experiences of trauma and pain, painstakingly rehashed to convince the public of a truth they should already have accepted.

“It’s really important to share these silly stories, too,” Pomeroy said. “They don’t diminish the power of the more serious ones. They still affirm that women’s bodies are our own.”

Perhaps the right to pop your own zits is not the ultimate feminist crusade of our time. But Pomeroy’s gross girl gang isn’t just stirring up shit for the fun of it. They are rebelling against long-held beliefs that women’s bodies are shameful, dirty and obscene ― at least without proper primping and powdering. They’re giving a glimpse into their hairiest, smelliest, stickiest parts in solidarity with women who just want to feel comfortable in their own skin.

“We’re not created for someone else’s pleasure,” Pomeroy said. “Our bodies aren’t for anybody else’s use. I’m not there to be groped and I’m also not there to be told that my body is disgusting or shameful. I think it’s all part of the same thing. If someone is horrified by the idea of girls picking their ingrown hairs then maybe they need to think about what they expect women to be. There might be a problem.”

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BEFORE YOU GO

PHOTO GALLERY

11 Period Illustrations That Are All Too Real

Priscilla Frank

Arts & Culture Reporter, HuffPost

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Reference source : A (Gross) Girl’s Guide To Personal Hygiene

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Batman's Former Robin Reveals NEW Costumed Identity | Screen Rant

Warning: Minor SPOILERS for Young Justice

Tim Drake's days as Batman's sidekick are long behind him, but he's still kept the connection alive with his Red Robin costume and codename. Both are finally about to change as Tim announces his new superhero identity--and fans now have their first look at his brand new costume.

It seems a rite of passage that every former sidekick of Batman's must inevitably pass through: accepting that 'Robin' is more of a role or official designation, and must be left behind when the experience forges them into their own kind of hero. Dick Grayson became Nightwing (eventually), Jason Todd became Red Hood, and Stephanie Brown became Spoiler. Now Tim Drake is taking a similar step in the pages of DC's New Young Justice series. And this time? The identity change is permanent. Like, probably.

RELATED: Batman Comics Just Made History By Killing [SPOILER]

Fans of Batman comics would assume that Robin taking a new name and costume would be a major event in DC Comics history, but the announcement was somewhat bungled by changing storylines and scheduling. As a result, Tim Drake's decision to take a new name was teased in April (scheduled to arrive in the Young Justice series this past July… which it didn't). Now it appears that Tim Drake SHOULD announce his identity change and the reasons behind it in Issue #8 coming to comic book shops on September 4th. The good news is that even if the explanation is still weeks away, the cover for Young Justice #10 has officially revealed Tim Drake's new costume. Have a look:

No, you're not seeing things--Tim Drake's new costume is finally ditching his signature cape (a controversial move among die-hard fans, but if Nightwing got away with such sacrilege, we suppose it's only fair). The new bodysuit isn't a massive shift away from the black and red one worn by Tim since the New 52, with the most obvious difference being his new brown and black color scheme. At a passing glance, the blend of brown, black, and gold accents bears a closer resemblance to the Batman villain Talon than any version of Robin (although we're not suggesting such a change in loyalty with Tim). The splash of red visible on his belt should probably be taken as a reminder that those judging the suit by first appearance may not even have the whole picture.

And as we noted above, the lack of a chest symbol or initial may change once the actual name of this new Tim Drake is similarly revealed to readers. Which, if fans remember, was actually the first part of Tim's transformation to get called out in the official solicit text:

Young Justice—lost in the Multiverse! After the explosive conclusion to their Gemworld adventure, the team is having a tough time finding their way back to their Earth. No, we can’t tell you where they end up, but rest assured, you will be surprised! But as exciting as all that is, we have bigger problems to deal with as Tim Drake is about to do something he has only done...lots of times before. He is about to announce his new alias...a new superhero name. A Young Justice name. And this time, it’s permanent. Like, forever.

This new change puts Tim Drake into truly rare company in the history of DC Comics superheroes. Most characters may change their identity, moniker, or basic costume a handful of times. But as fans of DC's Batman family know, Tim Drake has been searching for his own path for more than a decade. First, by graduating out of the Robin role when Batman was believed dead following the Final Crisis event. Refusing to believe Bruce was truly gone, Tim wound up taking a radically different costume as 'Red Robin.' He would eventually revert back to a variation of his original Robin look while keeping his new avian name, since… well, it was probably just easier to keep Tim as Red Robin once the New 52 relaunched the DC line.

That fact alone emphasizes why the time probably is right--if not overdue--for somebody to give Tim Drake a direction and identity all his own. Dick Grayson literally aged out of the part, and his various Nightwing costumes eventually settled on his now iconic design (we're overlooking his recent resurrection as amnesiac 'Ric' Grayson). Jason Todd was likewise, turning his villainous disguise into his own rebellious identity. And when Damian Wayne came along in need of a mission, Batman found the next Robin. But Tim? He's had one foot in and one foot out ever since: still bearing the 'Robin' title, but quickly becoming the same independent, free-thinking man Dick had been when he left the Batcave for good.

The options are slim: when Tim Drake became Batman in DC's Future "Titans Tomorrow" timeline, he grew too cold, too extreme. While his decision to take a new name and mission as Savior was misguided, old Tim Drake still had the right idea. He's not Bruce, nor Dick, nor Jason. If this is a sign that Brian Michael Bendis is finally taking it upon himself to plant Tim on his own, potentially divisive or controversial path forward… there will be plenty of fans willing to wait and see. Now that readers have seen the cover art, take a look at the rest of the solicitation details and plot synopsis below:

YOUNG JUSTICE #10 (2019)

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis

Art by: John Timms, Nick Derington

Cover by: John Timms

Variant Cover by Nick Bradshaw

Welcome, Naomi! Wonder Comics’ brightest shining star comes to Young Justice! She’s ready to join this team of young heroes who have seen it all—and you’ll want to be here to watch the sparks fly for the very first time. All this, plus the true story of Jinny Hex.

Young Justice #10 will be available at your local comic book shop on November 6th, 2019.

MORE: Batman Chooses Which Robin Will Replace Him After Death

source https://screenrant.com/batman-robin-tim-drake-new-costume-name/

[preserving-ferretbrain]

The Oracle Renamed

by Robinson L

Monday, 21 September 2009

Robinson L hops halfheartedly aboard the Catherine Fisher bandwagon.~

Listen ... I will trust you. There's no one else, and I will be dead soon. The Speaker is corrupt. The Oracle is being betrayed. Burn this. Stay alive.

So reads the teaser on the dust jacket of Catherine Fisher's 2004 fantasy novel, The Oracle, first book in The Oracle Prophecies trilogy. For reasons I cannot fathom, the titles of all the books in the trilogy were changed for the US editions. So, for instance, both copies of The Oracle I read bore the title The Oracle Betrayed. (I went with a picture of the US edition only because I much prefer that one's cover design.)

Kyra's reviews of Incarceron and Corbenic convinced me to give Catherine Fisher a try. Unfortunately, Incarceron hasn't been released on this side of the pond, and the Corbenic review, while convincing me of the need to read something of Fisher's, did not convince me of the need to read that particular book.

Therefore, when my mum and I needed a book to read over the summer, I browsed my library system's limited catalogue of Catherine Fisher's works, and eventually selected

The Oracle

. I only realized as we were about to dive in that it was the first book in a trilogy. Still, better than the second or third book in a trilogy, eh?

Minor spoilers ahead.

With

The Oracle

, Catherine Fisher has created a fairly well-developed fantasy world, with obvious Egyptian influences, and perhaps a slight flavor of Greco-Roman thrown in.

It's helpful to keep these influences in mind, for though

The Oracle

only concerns itself with one god, and contains only vague allusions to the existence of others, the metaphysics involved are clearly closer to those at work in Egyptian or Roman mythology than in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic canon(s). The god involved, while greater than humanity, is not the all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere-residing entity preached by Judeo-Christian or Islamic faiths.

The story revolves around Mirany, a young woman recently inducted into the Nine, the entourage of the god. In her duties as Bearer-of-the-God, Mirany is witness to the death of the Archon, the god's human vessel on earth. Before he dies, the Archon slips Mirany an expanded version of the note from the beginning of this review.

In the note, he explains that Hermia, the Speaker-to-the-God—who supposedly consults with the titular Oracle to learn the god's will, is corrupt, ignoring the god's voice and following her own will in partnership with General Argelin. The note warns that when it comes time to appoint the next Archon, Argelin and Hermia will choose their own puppet, rather than the true vessel of the god. It charges Mirany to find the next Archon, and prevent Hermia and Argelin from installing their puppet.

Mirany soon enlists the assistance of Seth, a young Palace scribe, and Obleck, a gruff old musician and former friend and confidant of the old Archon. Together, these three plot to put the true Archon in his rightful place, thwart the schemes of Hermia and General Argelin, and return the rains to a drought-parched land.

On the whole the book is, well, decent. The characters are familiar-feeling but reasonably good, as is the plot. The world-building and the exploration of metaphysical and philosophical concepts might have raised

The Oracle

from reasonableness to greatness, but while interesting, they don't really seem to go anywhere. There's no sense of payoff at the end.

The first part of the book is the superior portion, in which Fisher introduces us to characters, setting, and plot, and manages to stir her readers' sense of wonder and excitement (see the opening quote again). By the time she gets two-thirds of the way through, though, Fisher has run out of surprises for her audience, and then it's just a question of marking time and working out the exact details.

As with

Incarceron

,

The Oracle

ends abruptly, on the cusp of change, with little in the way of

denouement

between climax and ending. Again, this is not a problem, but the climax is also lacklustre and a little confusing. I get the feeling that Fisher had a really great ending in her head which didn't coalesce so neatly on paper. As it is, the finale is adequate, no more.

And while the prose is generally pretty good, occasionally Fisher's word processor throws up an eyesore like this:

behind her the cacophony of the trumpeters and drummers was loud as pain,

Or this:

A strange warped music was all that came down to them, its syllables oddly lengthened, a language filtered through strata and stone, without meaning, translated to mystery.

I hate to be unkind to Ms. Fisher, but I might just turn “translated to mystery” into a catchphrase.

In case you hadn't guessed yet, reading

The Oracle

was not the mind-blowing experience for me that reading

Incarceron

apparently was for Kyra. On the other hand, here and there throughout

The Oracle

there are glimmerings of potential that—with a couple years' honing—could believably develop into the awesomeness our esteemed editor describes.

Fisher has a good eye and a steady hand for crafting tension and addressing obstacles. Round about what would be Chapter 9 if they were numbered, Seth and Obleck set off to find the new Archon in a place called Alectro. In the next chapter, they not only find Alectro, but the young Archon himself. All in one chapter. If Rowling had been writing this book, it would've taken them

at least

two chapters to find Alectro, and another chapter or two to find the Archon, and that's assuming they didn't decide to go camping ...

Another time, about midway through the book, General Argelin has caught Mirany doing something suspicious, and says he will “discuss it with her later,” leaving Mirany to worry that he knows she's on to him, and will have her arrested. They have their confrontation in the next chapter, rather than a hundred pages down the line.

A third example: Hermia learns where the true Archon is being kept, necessitating his removal to another part of the island. The only ones who knew of his whereabouts were Mirany and her only friend in the Palace, Chryse. Mirany confronts Chryse a couple pages later, not only avoiding the Rowling convention of letting a plot thread stagnate for ten chapters with no forward motion, but also dodging the Veronica Mars imperative to take circumstantial evidence for ironclad proof and set about plotting revenge, or something equally disastrous.

Another aspect which shows promise is the characters and their interactions with each other, especially Mirany's with the other Nine. In

The Oracle

, Fisher seems not to have figured out how to handle her minor characters — a problem which is also evident in Terry Pratchett's early

Discworld

novels - but there's an originality to the relationships of the Nine which hint at a great potential for characterization once Fisher has mastered her technique.

At 333 pages in hardcover, the book is not short, but is not exactly long, either. It's also listed as Young Adult, but you wouldn't know it by reading it, unless the publishers' criteria for “Young Adult” consists entirely of “anything lacking excessive amounts of sex and violence.” Not that I think

The Oracle

would be inaccessible to a Young Adult audience, just that I don't see it as being particularly aimed at that demographic.

I can only give

The Oracle

a lukewarm recommendation, but I'm still interested in looking at some of Fisher's more recent work to see how much it's improved.Themes:

Books

,

Sci-fi / Fantasy

,

Young Adult / Children

~

bookmark this with - facebook - delicious - digg - stumbleupon - reddit

~Comments (

go to latest

)

Wardog

at 15:56 on 2009-09-21*weeps bitter tears*

I'm only halfway through so and I've actually really loved it so far so I shall save my response until then.

It's just possible you have no soul.

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Arthur B

at 15:58 on 2009-09-21What's wrong with "translated to mystery"?

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Wardog

at 17:19 on 2009-09-21I have to admit, I was wondering that, but given how totally biased I am in favour of Mrs Fisher I am I didn't want to be the first to say :)

"behind her the cacophony of the trumpeters and drummers was loud as pain" is not so gret aktually.

But I quite like the paragraph about the strange warped music. I think it's real purty. "A language filtered through strata and stone" is gorgeous.

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Robinson L

at 20:30 on 2009-09-21

It's just possible you have no soul.

Ooh, that's harsh.

Yes, "A language filtered through strata and stone" is very good, it's the next part, I feel, which crimps the sentence. I suppose the real meme should be "

without meaning

, translated to mystery." So you're saying that what we have here is something which doesn't mean anything translated into something which makes no sense?

It seems to me there was another awkward phrase which gave me pause early on in the book, but I can't remember any details about it.

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Arthur B

at 21:01 on 2009-09-21

So you're saying that what we have here is something which doesn't mean anything translated into something which makes no sense?

I read it as something which doesn't mean anything translated into something which sounds like it means something, which is entirely in keeping with the idea that the half-heard music sounds a bit like a strange, unknown language to the listener.

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Jamie Johnston

at 23:48 on 2009-09-21If we're playing 'find the favourable interpretation' (which is a game I always enjoy):

In what sounds like it might possibly be a ritual context, and especially given the Egyptian / Graeco-Roman frame of reference, could 'mystery' perhaps have a connotation closer to its original meaning of 'ritual secret'? And [he says, becoming less plausible by the second] could 'translated' perhaps also have a flavour of the medieval usage in which the 'translation' of a saint meant the physical moving of the saint's remains or relics from one church to another?

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Robinson L

at 00:02 on 2009-09-22@Arthur: Clearly we read that sentence very differently.

@Jamie: I tried out what I

think

all that would come to in my head, and it makes even less sense.

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Jamie Johnston

at 00:11 on 2009-09-22Probably! :)

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Shim

at 09:40 on 2009-09-23

A strange warped music was all that came down to them, its syllables oddly lengthened, a language filtered through strata and stone, without meaning, translated to mystery.

See, I have no problem at all with that. I don't understand why you're all reading it as sequential. Surely then, "without meaning" would be earlier and not form its own subclause. To me, "without meaning" and "translated to mystery" are different ways of expressing the oddness of it. Just like if I say, oh, "she was a dark woman, like a whip, slender and strong", it doesn't mean the woman was like an unusually slender and strong whip. I'm sure someone can write a better example... Basically I read it as saying the original meaning has been lost, and "warped", "filtered" and "translated" are all parallel.

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Arthur B

at 12:56 on 2009-09-23To be fair, I think it's usually natural to read that sort of thing sequentially because, well, language is a series of words arranged in an intelligible sequence. And if you read the bits of the sentence as synonymous statements existing in parallel, then Fisher is basically stating the same thing over and over again in the same sentence with massive redundancy, which is usually a bad habit.

I think it's a lovely bit of writing however you interpret it.

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Wardog

at 13:17 on 2009-09-23Oi, I wasn't reading it sequentially... I just like it =P

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Shim

at 14:41 on 2009-09-23Sorry Kyra, didn't mean you!

Okay Arthur, I see your point, and to be fair, if that had been pretty much any other subclause that would work best. I suppose the thing is, here is doesn't make much sense when read sequentially, and the meaning you get from sequential reading would be more naturally expressed another way, so I assumed it wasn't sequential. Metaphorical writing is a bit weird though. I personally really like the sentence as well (I suspect my writing tends to use subclauses like that, so I may be biased).

It's a bit like "Opening the door and running upstairs, he leapt through the broken window," which people condemn on logical grounds, but can and should be read in the way that actually makes sense.

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Arthur B

at 14:56 on 2009-09-23

I suppose the thing is, here is doesn't make much sense when read sequentially, and the meaning you get from sequential reading would be more naturally expressed another way, so I assumed it wasn't sequential.

"Natural" ain't always "best", though. I like the sentence the same way I like Jack Vance's dialogue: nobody actually talks that way, but it's so gorgeously crafted you don't care.

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Shim

at 15:53 on 2009-09-23

...the meaning you get from sequential reading would be more naturally expressed another way, so I assumed it wasn't sequential. "Natural" ain't always "best", though.

Okay, from Arthur's response I'm not sure I explained what I meant very well, so I'll do a better explanation for my peace of mind. I meant something like:

a) read sequentially, it can be interpreted as "

X (which is without meaning) has been translated to mystery

". As Robinson says, this doesn't seem to make much sense.

b) if I

wanted

to say that the music (or the language) had no meaning, I would write "

music without meaning..., translated to mystery

" or something, which seems a "more natural" (as I phrased it) way to express that meaning.

c) given a and b, this sequential reading is quite likely not the reading the writer intended. Since there is an alternative reading available, which seems to make more sense, that seems preferable. So I assume that was the reading they intended.

Of course, b) is subjective, and I can't always assume the writer is like me, or that my intuitions on "natural" expression are universal. Some writers' styles are very different from what I'd write, or they're deliberately vague and "artistic". How generously writers get benefits of the doubt and alternative readings also depends on how much they try my patience.

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Arthur B

at 15:57 on 2009-09-23

a) read sequentially, it can be interpreted as "X (which is without meaning) has been translated to mystery". As Robinson says, this doesn't seem to make much sense.

I think this is where we need to just disagree: I think it makes complete sense. Mysteries imply a solution, which in turn implies a meaning; turning meaninglessness into a mystery would entail creating the impression of a hidden meaning where there is, in fact, none.

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Shim

at 09:37 on 2009-09-24

I think this is where we need to just disagree: I think it makes complete sense.

Another apology - I don't actually disagree, I quite like your interpretation and in that reading it does make sense.

On the other hand, I wasn't using this sense of "mystery" when I wrote either comment, but a general idea of something the listener doesn't understand (without your undertone that there might be something to understand), more like Robinson's definition - and I'd say that sense supports my comment.

This may be a good time for me to abandon textual analysis.

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Robinson L

at 20:30 on 2009-09-24*Changing his story slightly yet again*

I guess I'm still stuck on "translated" as meaning "turning something you can't understand into something you will understand" with "mystery" meaning "something which you don't understand."

"Without meaning" only compounds the problem, whether we take "translated to mystery" to refer to it, or both of them to refer back to "a strange warped music etc."

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Arthur B

at 20:36 on 2009-09-24Ah.

I don't think translated means what you think it means. :)

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Andy G

at 21:11 on 2009-09-24Having worked as a translator for a year, I can assure you that "to translate" very often means "turning something neither you nor anyone who's actually a native speaker of the language understand into something else you don't understand in such a way that you can cover your ass with bullshit excuses if it turns out it didn't mean what you half-guessed it might mean"*.

So it actually makes a lot of sense to me - if the original text is gibberish, you hedge your bets and translate it with something vaguely suggestive of meaning.

* Disclaimer: I can't think how to say this without using American English, even though I know I would sound utterly ridiculous if I said it out loud rather than merely typing it.

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Jamie Johnston

at 22:53 on 2009-09-24Still no takers for my implausible medieval interpretation of the word 'translated'? :(

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Rami

at 06:57 on 2009-09-25I'm still holding out for 'translated' meaning a mathematical transformation, and 'mystery' being a secret notation for the new coordinates of the gibberish.

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Wardog

at 12:23 on 2009-10-05Now that we've dealt with this sticky 'translation' issue is there a more general feeling that Catherine Fisher is AWESOME, yet?

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Robinson L

at 15:00 on 2009-10-06

Now that we've dealt with this sticky 'translation' issue is there a more general feeling that Catherine Fisher is AWESOME, yet?

Fine with me. I haven't read

The Scarab

or

Corbenic

yet, though, and until somebody brings up another specific aspect of

The Oracle

to discuss, I've said my piece on that score.

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Robinson L

at 15:00 on 2009-10-16Oh wait, I did think of something. There's a part towards the end of the book where Mirany is telling the new Archon (the living vessel of the God) that the God has promised her that she'll be all right, too which the young Archon replies: "Yes, but what if the God lies?"

Now that

is

an awesome line, and it opens up an infinite number of interesting possibilities about where the story will go. Unfortunately, none of the possibilities is followed up in

The Oracle

, but maybe in

The Scarab

or

The Archon?

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Wardog

at 11:26 on 2009-10-20I'm probably going to read them all - I generally found The Oracle a much more positive and interesting experience than you did... but I'll refrain from comment until I've done the lot of them. The book is so obviously an opening that it's pretty difficult to review.

[sanerontheinside]

*cracks knuckles* *grins* Questions: 8, 10, 13, 19. *cackles*

oooooh you lil shitLong Post, hit J to skipsorry mobile userswait neverfuckingmind I put it under a cut anyway wt f   k  e    n o  p  e 

8. What is one thing you would change about any movie, show, book, etc?

JA needs to burn, PT must be rewritten to fix various plot hiccups, the clones deserved so much better, Obi-Wan doesn’t deserve such massive levels of grief, and seriously some shit just don’t make sense. 

But at this point it’s also difficult for me to distinguish between what is actually canon and what is fanon, or a popular fandom interpretation of canon. 

Besides, there’s ReEntry. ReEntry makes sense. 

Canon, you’re drunk. Go home. 

13. If you could resurrect one dead character, or prevent them from dying, who would it be?

Qui-Gon Jinn. Finis Valorum. Asajj Ventress. Jango Fett. Tahl, Micah. Mace did not die. Padmé did not die, fuck that noise. … Shit. Xanatos. 

Long answers under cut: 

10. Do you think the Jedi were right or wrong?

Which time? 

Ignoring the Sith? Sending Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan alone to Naboo after a suspected Darksider if not Sith? Insisting that they would not train Anakin without offering a single alternative (what in the actual fuck)? Focusing too much on Anakin’s massive potential and Dark possibilities in his future rather than on the nine-year-old boy in front of them? 

Making Obi-Wan a War Councilor and spreading him thin as paste across most of Republic Space? Bending and bending and bending before the Senate until they couldn’t even fight back charges against Ahsoka? 

Allowing themselves to be run for hundreds of years by an old troll who is the last of his species, with only one other like him, who’s lost generations of friends and children by then, whose only way to cope with that kind of loss is probably repression, and leads to a shift of Jedi philosophy in that general direction? 

In some ways, an institution as old as the Republic was doomed to fail eventually. 

But, see, the Ruusan Reformation was built to prevent another war with the Sith, to safeguard the Republic against it. Sith were impossible because the Order of that time had taken great pains to wipe out every last vestige of Sith texts and artefacts, save what they kept to learn from themselves. 

Isn’t that funny? That’s when they decided to bring younglings to the Temple, to train them early so they would never get out of control and Fall. They destroyed the ancient texts, yet left the door open for the formation of a new and far more dangerous line of Sith. 

Yet the Ruussan Reformation wasn’t exactly something they’d readily agreed to. Back in the days before the Reformation, the Jedi had been a truly independent Order. They won the war against the Sith, and protected the Republic worlds with their own army and navy. But when the dust settled, the Chancellor of the Republic told them, well, the Republic will not trust you unless you give up your army and your navy, because they see you as a threat. The Reformation doesn’t say, not in so many words, that the Jedi will come to rely only on the Senate for funds and mission assignments. 

You know… the Chancellor at the time was named Tarsus Valorum. He was the first of his family, a line of noted Force Sensitives, not to go to the Jedi, but pursue a career in politics instead. And the Valorum we know of is a direct descendent. Finis, end of the line. Finis, end of the Republic, the Republic falls with him. Yes I am sort of hinting that Tarsus Valorum might’ve been a Sith. 

Anyway, clever headcanons aside, it’s so easy to point out where the Order was wrong, but by the time we see them? There’s hardly any ‘right’ to choose. Remember that Valorum had to go behind the Senate’s back to send Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to Naboo—the Sith certainly didn’t anticipate Jedi involvement. 

Still, you ask if the Jedi were ever right. When given the option, multiple times over the course of apprenticeship and Knighthood, to leave the Order, what did Obi-Wan choose? Anakin? They chose to stay. So, in the end, there must have been something right about that, don’t you think? 

19. What’s your opinion on legends/expanded universe?

Um. 

Well it’s… interesting. I periodically go diving into Wookiepedia, which is like broken telephone research in a lot of cases—there isn’t even a guarantee that the person who wrote the page got the point of the original source, or that a minor detail I would find immensely useful ever made it to the page. Some things are outright crazy. Some things are spectacular. Some things are outright spectacularly contradictory. 

Legends saw great potential, took it, ran with it, sometimes to Olympus and sometimes off a bloody cliff. JA can burn, but at the same time, while most of JA feels like a poorly-drawn caricature, characters like Zan Arbor are unforgettable. Were I to, idk, in some fever dream, decide write Sidious as a woman, Zan Arbor would be the place I’d start, I think. Certain JA events seem to me important enough to keep. 

On the one hand, it was nice to get hard details on the shape of economic warfare the Sith waged on the Republic. On the other hand, Sidious’s origin is the most bizarre bit of horseshit I’ve ever seen summarised on a Wookie-page and the very idea that Plageuis was still alive near the time of Naboo makes me shake with rage because it (high on the list of shit I thought I never would say) robs Palpatine of something vital to his character. 

In much the same way, I can’t stand that TCW overwrote the comics’ ending for Valorum, even showed him active in politics again like his career hadn’t ended with the Vote of No Confidence. That was a death sentence in itself. And, since TCW can technically be considered Legends material, parts of it I simply cannot accept. It filled an important blank, when it came to the ROTS portrayal of Order 66. In ROTS, it looked like some grand conspiracy, but the introduction of the chips was wrenching and necessary. TCW did a lot for clone feels, and for our feels for secondary characters in the movies—like Plo Koon, yes, hello, you can pry my favourite Jedi dad from my cold dead fingers. On the other hand, Maul, suddenly returned to life? There are ways that can be done, and done well. This, in my view, was not one of them. 

Rebels… I haven’t seen Rebels, so this part should be taken with a grain of salt, but little individual plot points I’ve seen fill me with no great confidence. I’m seriously spoiled by @deadcatwithaflamethrower RE:JotW Echo timeline. Actually overall I’m spoiled by ReEntry. 

Yet, it’s the Legends tab of Wookiepedia that gives you a much richer understanding of Twi'lek and Ryl culture. Say what you will about fetishising and misogyny—and fandom is certainly prone to that when given Twi'lek slave culture as a vehicle for it—it’s incredibly interesting to see how Twi'lek culture changed, adapted, took advantage of others’ perception to hide something far more deadly, their very own Resistance movement. Whoever went so far in depth with Ryl and Twi'lek culture knew a thing or two about what they were doing. 

Similarly, the Legends expansion of Mandalorian culture is spectacular, and sheds an uncomfortable light on the TCW Mandalore. At times, certainly at times like these, conflict between different Legends sources is incredible. (Though, give me a reason to take Satine down a peg and I’ll take it, and I’m still not sure that isn’t ingrained misogyny on my part.) 

I can’t speak to Legends’ treatment of female characters, either. The characters I am familiar with? Ventress, Komari Vosa? Those stories don’t end well. Unfortunately I don’t have much time or, truthfully, inclination, to research every single character who exists only in the comics and books, particularly if I don’t often work with that part of the timeline. 

ask me things | sw ask meme

[derkastellan]

Musings: Staying on-topic in setting design

I gave myself the time to read some RPG products, and I ended up in the genre of horror science fiction. I have an enormous backlog of products I have bought over the years but haven’t read, and so I simply picked some - Jovian Nightmares (for Call of Cthulhu), Eldritch Skies (for Savage Worlds), and Shadows Over Soul (especially Siren’s Call but also all supplements, for Saga Machine). Let me say I enjoyed the last series of products so much I basically have not found time to delve deeper into Eldritch Skies.

Jovian Nightmares introduces itself as a supplement for Cthulhu Rising, itself a setting supplement for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. It focuses on “Circum-Jove”, the Jupiter system. Since Jupiter is a gas giant science fiction settings usually focus on the colonization of its moons, or in rarer cases, interaction with Jupiter’s upper atmospheric layers.

Ever since reading the Buck Rogers XXVc roleplaying game in the early 90s Jupiter (and by extension Saturn) have fascinated me. The excellent material from the game box was evoking and interesting, and the distant world of moons and moonlets have kept drawing me back in over the years. So when I saw this supplement, I simply grabbed it. Also, a book can do worse to get my attention than having a dead astronaut on its cover.

So, this started me on the path to reading a bit of sci-fi. (Spoilers ahead, so ye be warned.)

The Jovian Nightmares setting is well-detailed, and you have to read quite a while to notice how the setting misses the mark. Practically all of the book is simply a science fiction setting supplement - and while interesting enough (more about that in a moment) it lacks one thing: Lovecraftian horror. Given it being advertised as “nightmares” this seems surprising. You might miss it if you’re not inclined to look for it. 

The book contains 5 pages of setting secrets, several of which are repetitive paragraphs. Your mileage may vary, but almost without fail I have ended up being disappointed in products that feature a few pages of setting secrets. Almost invariably these come down to a paragraph or two per setting secret and end up not being very evocative, leaving the job almost entirely to the GM. Jovian Nightmares is a bit better than that, but the reality of it all is that its setting secrets are almost entirely useless.

A setting secret must not be “too secret.” Yet some of the secrets have no impact on gameplay by themselves. Who cares what lies at the heart of Jupiter? Or what is the reason for the Great Red Spot? We all do, but the players won’t care because the way the book establishes things they won’t ever find out. It’s useless information. The book also refuses to innovate in terms of Lovecraftian horrors, either repeating same-ol’-same-ol’ by parading out Mi-Go doing Mi-Go things (yes, they still put brains in jars in the 23rd century... we can only assume it’s a fetish), and some randomly tied-in Fire Vampires, Colors-Out-Of-Space, some Deep Ones, a possible tie-in to R’lyeh...

Boring.

Here is someone capable of writing a whole sci-fi supplement of a decent quality, quite readable, and then forgets to put actual horror in. Horror that lurks and waits for players. Horror that wants to jump at players. Yes, there’s a short story and an adventure in there, but in my opinion a setting has to evoke and convince by itself. It is not enough to give it to a GM and say “Now you come up with what to do in it.” After reading it a GM should be inspired, have hooks and leads, and maybe already the spine of a campaign. Here we are left wondering what’s so horrible about the whole thing. 

Another, minor gripe. Circum-Jove is actually not humanity’s farthest outpost. Instead, it fuels humanity’s exodus to other stars. A new element called “Foscolium” is introduced, considered to be vital for interstellar expansion. But it is not tied into the Mythos. That seemed like a big opportunity passed by, the chance to tie a new door opening for humanity with something more sinister. And as I read the supplement I wondered what cool new things humanity would discover elsewhere. This makes Circum-Jove less interesting. It’s not the final frontier. It’s just a frontier. Space travel within the solar system naturally becomes less interesting if somebody can just hop to Alpha Centauri or Barnard’s Star instead. If stuff becomes too hard there, why bother? New vistas!

The setting tries to tie in mining Jupiter moon Io for the new element as precondition for interstellar expansion. This means that the players are working stiffs doing their job so others can go to new worlds and build new lives. That seems awfully prosaic. And while there is a place for such science fiction one is left to wonder if this was a great choice for the supplement.

Jovian Nightmares, in other words, inspired more reading elsewhere. It is a solid work but it has its limitations.

I don’t want to go too deep into Shadows Over Sol since I still want to play it in the future, and saying too much here might spoil it to players. But general thoughts are valid to share.

By not introducing faster-than-light (FTL) travel SOL actually manages to have a foot in two worlds - the 23rd century where humanity expands into the Jupiter and Saturn systems. And the 27th century when human colonists arrive in Alpha Centauri - a 400 year one-way trip. By separating these settings both have validity. The settlers of Siren’s Call have a different world and different problems than the Martian and Jovian settlers of the core game. Both stories remain engaging. By expanding the game into the interstellar realm this way the original game still stays playable.

SOL does a great job of portraying a hard sci-fi setting with humanity split into cultural instead of national tribes. It does a great job of portraying a world of fading nation states, ascending corporations, a networked, simulated world, a “meatspace” world... It seems a tad to conservative on plotting the progress in AI and Augmented Reality, but if you want to write a sci-fi setting not completely colored and taken over by these issues, this is valid. And reality seems to play odd tricks on sci-fi anyway within precious few years - 2015 is already three years ago...

The setting of SOL doesn’t have horror written in big letters over it, anyway. It’s horror seems more personal, encountered by few. Which is of course appropriate. To be entirely fair one gets a much better feel of the horror inherent in the setting by looking at the released adventure books than the core book, which is a weak point it shares with Jovian Nightmares. Nevertheless the book seems to be willing to create its horror from the fact that humanity is always a step ahead with its ambitions of what it can safely do. While this isn’t per se more interesting than Lovecraftian horror, it allows for unexpected variation more than sticking with somewhat tired Cthulhu tropes. (I’m not trying to piss here on the whole Mythos, I’m just saying that some authors simply recycle stuff up to 80 to 90 years old while others definitely expand on the Mythos in interesting ways.)

You could remove the horror entirely from both settings and you would at the very least get a decent (Jovian Nightmares) or excellent (SOL) sci-fi game. In the end, SOL does several things much better than JN. The game constantly expands on setting seeds, introducing some (and originally with the same limitations mentioned above) but also expanding some in interesting ways. Where JN fails to even remotely give the GM an answer, SOL introduces either an answer or several eventually, giving GMs both concrete ideas and a choice. Not all seeds are gold. But some I simply wanted to know more about many of them. I’m in fact waiting for future supplements to tell me more about this world.

So, staying on-topic, eh? Kinda missed that boat myself. Both settings do a bit, too. Both are science fiction settings first and foremost. But SOL makes room for horror, and its adventures give you a guideline how to do horror here. It doesn’t simply throw you a setting and say “Hey, here are some Lovecraftian horrors, do something.” It stays on-topic much better than the other, if in the end not perfectly. It, on occasion, shamelessly recycles other horror as well. I won’t excuse that but hey, that’s what RPGs often do. 

So, what is staying on topic in setting design? If you want to make a horror game, make space for horror. Expand the Unknown. Your world ideally has a dark underbelly which the characters learn about. Something which changes your conception of the world. Something which turns your ideas about the world on its head - you’re not the apex predator. You’re in danger. You’re not safe. They’re coming for you. Frankly, both settings fail this test. Lovecraft (the original) does them both one better. His time-traveling species invade your mind. His classic Ctulhu invades your dreams and tries to subvert the world. His monsters appear and you can do precious little about them. And many of his successors stuck with that - meaningless victories, invasion, loss of control. These themes have to come to the front and be part of the struggle players face. 

That would be staying on-topic in the horror genre. Each genre or mix of genres has its own way of staying on topic. I still wait to do myself a satisfying version of Fantasy Horror. Given how horrific lots of monsters are, the horror part of the experience is frankly still explored too little.

And now to get back to reading Eldritch Skies... Its approach to Lovecraftian sci-fi seems exciting but I cannot say yet anything about the quality of its execution. Another time...

[ongodandsoulmates-blog]

This book makes a thorough tracking of the theory of Soul Mates in the history of Philosophy and Religion, Literature and Occult Sciences. Mystics, alchemists, philosophers, troubadours, kabbalists and sages of all kinds parade through these pages. PROLOGUE OF THE BOOK:

ANNOUNCEMENT AND DISCLAIMER

         On a spring afternoon in the year two thousand, I happened to wander into a bookshop in the old Barri Gòtic in Barcelona.

The owner was busy taking books from two large wooden boxes. I was curious, so I asked him if I could have a look. The books were in Catalan, Spanish, French, and English, some of them illustrated, most of them filled with underlinings and pencil notes on the margin; there were also a couple in Portuguese and some other in Italian. They were of all sorts of literary genres, although I could spot a common subject. I asked the owner where he had gotten these boxes. They had belonged to a man that had recently died; that is all he knew. He had bought them at an auction, along with other private libraries and lots from all over the place. I asked him to give me a price, and I took the whole lot home.

Actually, that is not true. There was more to the lot than those two boxes. There was a third one. A third box, which the owner let me have for free since it came from the same place as the other two. These books, though, did not seem to have any connection with the other ones. These were immaculate, bound in blue shades of Moroccan leather, without a single note written on the margins, and they were mostly novels of different genres. So, I declined the offer, which later I regretted, for reasons that soon I will make clear. When I tried to go back for them, however, it was too late: the blue books were in the hands of an interior decorator. It pains me to picture them turned into an atrezzo, into furniture accessories.

      For several weeks, I left the books in their boxes, forgotten in a room, as my job prevented me from going through them. When I finally found the time to exhume them, I found, scattered among several volumes, a manuscript in the form of correspondence: ten long letters, written in tight, minuscule handwriting on double-sided paper (the same handwriting responsible for the notes in the book margins). The last of these letters dated from just three months before my casual visit to the old man's bookshop, so the author must have written it right before he passed away. (He'd still have time, however, for a mysterious trip abroad. But we'll talk more about that later on.) Regarding his identity, my inquiries proved fruitless (the signature at the end of each letter was unreadable). The only biographical information we have, then, is what the author tells us throughout the manuscript: not much beyond his marital status as a widower, and his wife's, who is the recipient and leitmotif of the letters, first name: Blanca. The letter's private nature, how personal they were, had kept me from publishing them. Then I noticed a detail in the manuscript to which I had not given much thought: the crossed-out notes on the margins, which were evidently made at some later time, as they didn't come from the same fountain pen but from a thick marker. These cross-outs, which first appear on the second letter, were made in a hurry, as if its terminally ill author, guessing the future of his manuscript, had felt the need to cross out the notes he had made while writing the letters. In any case, the rushed approach to the blackouts allowed me to glean fragments of paragraphs and loose words from every note, which I thought appropriate to include in here, inserting them at approximately the same point they appear in the manuscript.

         I have to say in advance that, from the tenor of three of the enigmatic allusions in the letters, it seems that all the notes have some connection with the aforementioned blue books. It also suggests something shocking, which I do not even dare to judge; I will let the reader do that. It implies that, through the blue books, the author believes he is receiving messages from his late wife. Not posthumous messages, but actual communications, as if she were still alive. In those books, that he frequently read, he finds – or believes he finds – luminous signs, faint phosphorescences that stand out to him and highlight a paragraph or a sentence, to which he confers a personal meaning and attributes to his dead wife. We can assume these messages usually come to him during a break in his writing (which appears to have been a nocturnal activity), and that he jots them down on the margins, maybe with the intention of coming back to them later.

           Anyway, I have gone on for too long about this minor subject of the crossed-out notes. The thing is, instead of doing what he did, instead of taking the time to censure the annotations haphazardly, he could have thrown the whole manuscript away. He did not, though, and that convinces me he would not oppose its posthumous publication. Perhaps, and this is my primary motivation for publishing them, he thought these letters would offer a glimmer of hope to people in a similar situation as his. Maybe even spare some reader the same tortuous search for answers he undertook. Be it as it may, it is my duty to warn you that the content of these letters is as controversial as its circumstances. The author does not stop at scouring through ancient wisdom for the concept of twin souls: he uses it as a basis to draft – with a more or less steady hand, depending on which part – a metaphysical structure. Such structure, naturally (or other people would have already figured it out), though it finds support in the opinions of ancient sages (though not all of them), was not framed by them as such. Therefore, it is inappropriate to credit them as the author does.

      That said, I have to add that nothing is invented. Moreover, while the author does generalise, he makes it work, connecting everything in his way and putting forward his own conclusions. With this, he draws a personal synthesis of ancient wisdom. It would be understandable for us to label this synthesis – along with the supernatural phenomenology I just mentioned – as something belonging to the fantasy genre. We should not, then, place too much faith on the results of his painstaking investigation work being the elusive Truth so eagerly sought by wise men across time and space. We could imagine the author – in one of those metaphorical exercises he seemed to enjoy – diving into the sea of ancient knowledge, resurfacing with a fist full of pearls, and then proceeding to thread them on the silk string of ancient belief in twin souls. The ancient sages are responsible for the beads, but the necklace is the author's work.

      The pearls are, nonetheless, genuine. If we take for example what, from the modern perspective, appears to be the most unacceptable item in his structure: the devaluation of sensual love, which is, to a large extent, one of the pearls he salvages from ancient wisdom; all he does is thread it into the necklace, next to the other pearls. Beyond his excessive tendency to generalise, though, he also tends to oversimplify, perhaps with the intention of making more accessible, both to himself and to his wife, those “pearls”, those old notions that, given the opportunity, he will not hesitate in clarifying as it suits him. All this leads to a subjective interpretation of the old wisdom: an analysis by a man in love.

         In his defence, however, we can quote one of the books he handled (The Burnt Book, by Marc-Alain Ouaknin; an essay on the Talmud, the central text of Judaism). It goes like this: “Is it really necessary to go into a debate on interpretation? Did the authors referred to really have the intentions we ascribe to them? Who can tell? The only criterion for judging an interpretation is its richness, its fruitfulness. Anything that gives matter of thought honours the person who proffers it.” This quote conveys what appears to be one of the main ideas in the Talmud, a book with origins in oral tradition; the idea that the old wisdom is not something settled, static; it is not a snapshot of the past, like a still life, but something alive and ever evolving. Old wisdom grows and blooms with each new interpretation, including –why not?- the one proposed by the author of these letters.

        Besides, we never know, the world is so beautiful and mysterious that it could very well have hidden its structure from the wisest of sages, only to reveal it to a dilatant. In any case, if you are solely interested in ancient accounts of twin souls, the first two letters will be enough to satisfy your curiosity. However, if you are tempted to dive deep into the metaphysics of love, then do not be intimidated by the length of the text and do not give up reading until the very end – where a surprise awaits you.

       Finally, I numbered the letters, gave them titles and divided them into sections for their publication. I also attached bibliographic references corresponding to the abounding quotes, all of them taken from the books now in my possession, from which I also took ten illustrations, and ten epigraphs to head them. I felt I should split the collection into two large sections, so that is what I did. Lastly, I titled it.

                                                                          Xavier Pérez i Pons                                                                                               Puigcerdá, July 1st, 2011

                         LOVE LETTERS FROM A WIDOWER