#ts eliot is mentioned

[jesuisgourde]

A list of all the books mentioned in Peter Doherty's journals (and in some interviews/lyrics, too)

Because I just made this list in answer to someone's question on a facebook group, I thought I may as well post it here.

-The Picture of Dorian Gray/The Ballad Of Reading Gaol/Salome/The Happy Prince/The Duchess of Padua, all by Oscar Wilde -The Thief's Journal/Our Lady Of The Flowers/Miracle Of The Rose, all by Jean Genet -A Diamond Guitar by Truman Capote -Mixed Essays by Matthew Arnold -Venus In Furs by Leopold Sacher-Masoch -The Ministry Of Fear by Graham Greene -Brighton Rock by Graham Green -A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud -The Street Of Crocodiles (aka Cinnamon Shops) by Bruno Schulz -Opium: The Diary Of His Cure by Jean Cocteau -The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson -Howl by Allen Ginsberg -Women In Love by DH Lawrence -The Tempest by William Shakespeare -Trilby by George du Maurier -The Vision Of Jean Genet by Richard Coe -"Literature And The Crisis" by Isaiah Berlin -Le Cid by Pierre Corneille -The Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon -Junky by William S Burroughs -Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes -Futz by Rochelle Owens -They Shoot Horses Don't They? by Horace McCoy -"An Inquiry On Love" by La revolution surrealiste magazine -Idea by Michael Drayton -"The Nymph's Reply to The Shepherd" by Sir Walter Raleigh -Hamlet by William Shakespeare -The Silver Shilling/The Old Church Bell/The Snail And The Rose Tree all by Hans Christian Andersen -120 Days Of Sodom by Marquis de Sade -Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke -Poetics Of Space by Gaston Bachelard -In Favor Of The Sensitive Man and Other Essays by Anais Nin -La Batarde by Violette LeDuc -Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov -Intimate Journals by Charles Baudelaire -Juno And The Paycock by Sean O'Casey -England Is Mine by Michael Bracewell -"The Prelude" by William Wordsworth -Noise: The Political Economy of Music by Jacques Atalli -"Elm" by Sylvia Plath -"I am pleased with my sight..." by Rumi -She Stoops To Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith -Amphitryon by John Dryden -Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellman -The Song Of The South by James Rennell Rodd -In Her Praise by Robert Graves -"For That He Looked Not Upon Her" by George Gascoigne -"Order And Disorder" by Lucy Hutchinson -Man Crazy by Joyce Carol Oates -A Pictorial History Of Sex In The Movies by Jeremy Pascall and Clyde Jeavons -Anarchy State & Utopia by Robert Nozick -"Limbo" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge -Men In Love: Masculinity and Sexuality in the Eighteenth Century by George Haggerty

[arbitrary line break because tumble hates lists apparently]

-Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky -Innocent When You Dream: the Tom Waits Reader -"Identity Card" by Mahmoud Darwish -Ulysses by James Joyce -The Four Quartets poems by TS Eliot -Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare -A'Rebours/Against The Grain by Joris-Karl Huysmans -Prisoner Of Love by Jean Genet -Down And Out In Paris And London by George Orwell -The Man With The Golden Arm by Nelson Algren -Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates -"Epitaph To A Dog" by Lord Byron -Cocaine Nights by JG Ballard -"Not By Bread Alone" by James Terry White -Anecdotes Of The Late Samuel Johnson by Hester Thrale -"The Owl And The Pussycat" by Edward Lear -"Chevaux de bois" by Paul Verlaine -A Strong Song Tows Us: The Life of Basil Bunting by Richard Burton -Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes -The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri -The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling -The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling -Ask The Dust by John Frante -On The Trans-Siberian Railways by Blaise Cendrars -The 39 Steps by John Buchan -The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol -The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol -The Iliad by Homer -Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad -The Volunteer by Shane O'Doherty -Twenty Love Poems and A Song Of Despair by Pablo Neruda -"May Banners" by Arthur Rimbaud -Literary Outlaw: The life and times of William S Burroughs by Ted Morgan -The Penguin Dorothy Parker -Smoke by William Faulkner -Hero And Leander by Christopher Marlowe -My Lady Nicotine by JM Barrie -All I Ever Wrote by Ronnie Barker -The Libertine by Stephen Jeffreys -On Murder Considered As One Of The Fine Arts by Thomas de Quincey -The Void Ratio by Shane Levene and Karolina Urbaniak -The Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro -Dead Fingers Talk by William S Burroughs -The England's Dreaming Tapes by Jon Savage -London Underworld by Henry Mayhew

[solomonara]

The Cross Purposes Job - Chapter 1 - Leverage - Batman (All Media Types) [Archive of Our Own]

A con on the verge of success gets sniped by an unknown third party. The Leverage crew traces the interference back to Gotham. Now the con has a new target: shady billionaire Bruce Wayne and the highly suspicious Wayne Enterprises.

Chapters: 1/7 Fandom: Leverage, Leverage: Redemption, Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Breanna Casey, Tim Drake, Eliot Spencer (Leverage), Sophie Devereaux (Leverage), Parker (Leverage), Barbara Gordon, various other bats and thieves Additional Tags: comic book hacking, comic book lawyering, Influencers, Social Media, Misunderstandings, Mention of grooming, POV Outsider, (aka the Leverage crew looking at the bats and the bats looking at the Leverage crew), Don't copy to another site

Preview:

"Well, Mr. Jeffries," Sophie (or rather, Ludmila Popova, official representative of a wealthy overseas tech consortium that was definitely not a thinly veiled front for any shady Eastern European government, no matter how much they were funded like one, wink nudge) said with a charming smile. "I must say you write a very clean code. My supervisors are pleased to accept this contract."

Her voice was lightly accented, just enough to pique Marc Jeffries' carefully cultivated interest in appearing worldly without triggering his American distrust of the foreign. They were in his little Silicon Valley startup, one of those ones with no walls and no comfortable furniture but lots of snacks. And a ping pong table.

"Pleased to hear it, very pleased," Jeffries said, beaming. "Let's just dot those Ts and cross those Is." He winked and pulled out a chair for her to sit in at the minimalist glass and steel conference table. Harry was left to pull out his own chair.

Jeffries circled round to the other side to sit and flipped open the cover on his tablet to sign the 'paperwork' that would whisk away every last bracket and comment of the MBGZ platform code and deposit it on Breanna's hard drive which, she had informed the team, she then planned to drop into the ocean.

Read it on AO3

[jabbage]

Possums Book of Practical Cats/ Sherlock Holmes references

Further to my post where I described how Arthur Conan Doyle is entirely to blame for Cats (2019) by first inspiring TS Eliot who then inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber, here are some Sherlock Holmes references from Old Possom's Book of Practical Cats.

Firstly, everything about Macavity.

And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known (I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone) Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime! -Macavity the Mystery Cat

“He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city.He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. - The Final Problem

Macavity’s a ginger cat, he’s very tall and thin; You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in. His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly domed; His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed. He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake; And when you think he’s half asleep, he’s always wide awake. -Macavity the Mystery Cat

He is extremely tall and thin, his forehead domes out in a white curve, and his two eyes are deeply sunken in his head. He is clean-shaven, pale, and ascetic-looking, retaining something of the professor in his features. His shoulders are rounded from much study, and his face protrudes forward, and is forever slowly oscillating from side to side in a curiously reptilian fashion - The Final Problem

We also get a few references to the plots of The Naval Treaty and The Bruce-Partington Plans:

And when the Foreign Office find a Treaty’s gone astray, Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way, There may be a scrap of paper in the hall or on the stair— But it’s useless to investigate—Macavity’s not there!

And from Gus the Theatre Cat:

He once played a Tiger--could do it again-- Which an Indian Colonel purused down a drain.

“It is true,” Holmes answered. “Up to a certain point he did well. He was always a man of iron nerve, and the story is still told in India how he crawled down a drain after a wounded man-eating tiger. (From The Empty House)

[ksfoxwald]

Fire and Hemlock: Part 4 Chapter 6

In which we return to Fairyland

Polly's first attempt at saving Tom is following the ballad and holding on to him, literally. But Laurel has made the quartet forget her, and they are all very embarrassed about it, but Polly now knows how to work through embarrassment. "Laurel works by admissions," Polly observes; most of the complications have come from saying or not saying important things, like the bleached with pride feeling that led to her abandonment in Bristol, or the embarrassment that led to her agreeing to forget Tom.

So Polly leans into the embarrassment, using Laurel's own methods to chatter away to Tom about Nowhere until he is so flustered he says "Come off it, Polly!" - at which point he can no longer pretend he doesn't know her. This seems to have broken the curse on the rest of the quartet as well.

I am not sure what the quartet is doing here. Did Laurel invite them as a joke? Did Tom ask them to come for support? Did Ann insist on them coming? How much do they know, anyway? Ann has her memory, and says her mother was a Leroy and therefore she allowed three guests. Ann's mother is an intriguing element that I kind of want to know more about. Since the implication is that all the Leroys are fairies, does that make Ann part fae? Same with Seb. Was Ann's mother allowed to leave with Ann's father, or did something tragic befall him? Maybe Laurel is only possessive of her own lover.

The scene of the Faerie Court is described as a "charming picnic," and thus the last of Tom's stolen pictures comes true. Seb tries to chase Polly off with "If they don't take him, they'll take me!" Polly has little sympathy, noting that "he had always loved her the way most people bear a grudge," which is such a raw line. Seb also seems to be a lesser life, with Laurel remarking several times that Tom's life is "strong." I suppose a lawyer is less desirable to the fae than a musician. Perhaps Seb made himself boring on purpose to fend off Laurel.

Seb also mentions that Tom is ten years older than he, putting Tom at 24 at the funeral and 33 now.

We also get some closure on Thomas Piper, who is actually Charles Lynn, Tom's brother who has never been mentioned before. He has come for Leslie, because Charles was also one of Laurel's conquests, only he made a bargain with her sixteen years ago - shortly after Morton's last life - to let him go in exchange for Tom, in a way that seems linked to the Fire and Hemlock photo, because the photo was Tom's... I'm going to have to look at that part again.

The whole first part of this chapter is a whirlwind of tiny explanations that is a lot to process.

But we do eventually get to the final confrontation. Polly steps forward, accusing Morton of forfeiting his right to Tom's life because he put him in danger when he attempted to harm Polly. This is against the Rules, and fae are very strict about Rules, after all.

We see a return of the concrete pool, that Polly had a glimpse of filled with not-water at the funeral. This is another TS Eliot reference as well:

To look down into the drained pool. Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged, And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight

Laurel tells Morton "Tom can use anything which is truly his. You can use the exact equivalent. The one who enters the pool first is the one who goes."

We have been seeing a recurring theme of ownership throughout; applied to objects, ideas, and people - though another major theme is that you can't actually own people. And that things that are truly one's own - such as Nowhere - cannot actually be taken away.

But the pool is a trap, and anything Tom tries to use pushes him further down. After all, Laurel never said that anything of Tom's would help him get free, only that he was allowed to use it.

The way out, Polly realizes, is to let him go. Tom said it himself earlier - that Polly had held onto him for five years before she stopped. So she lets him go now, properly, of her own power, telling him off for using her and ending with "I never want to see you again!"

And Mr. Leroy goes into the pool.

Diana's explanation in "The Heroic Ideal":

Now here I found I had to leave the tradition represented by Janet in Tam Lin, because it was precisely by hanging on to Tom and being over-curious that Polly had lost him. Anyway, she has already done her hanging-on as a child. It was clear to me that the only redress she could make was the reverse of possessiveness - complete generosity - generosity so complete that it amounts to rejection. She has to love Tom enough to let him go - hurtfully. This is the only way she can harness Tom's innate strength of character, and only when hurting can he summon the full force of the fire - which is to some extent physical passion and to an even greater extent the true strength of the heroic world of the imagination Polly and Tom have built together. But Tom has to do it himself. He has depended on Polly too much.

And another TS Eliot:

In order to possess what you do not possess You must go by the way of dispossession In order to arrive at where you are not You must go through the way in which you are not And what you do not know is the only thing you know And what you own is what you do not own And where you are is where you are not

This part has always made my head spin but I think... since I have been talking about Tom as a metaphor for Polly's heroic self... I think what she needs to let go here is her idealized version of him. The sentimental drivel. To recognize that she herself is the Hero, not just the trainee-assistant, and to finally stand with Tom on equal footing. To let go of the ways they've been using each other and to simply see each other as people, which is the only way they can possibly have a relationship. At least, that's how it looks in the Coda.

[cssnder]

7 and 22 for the writing ask.

--from @wintherlywords

What books have shaped the way you think about writing the most? Why?

Donna Tartt, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Emily Brontë. Donna for her masterful use of the language, the realism of her dialogues, and the intricacies of her novels; Fyodor for his philosophical themes and his accurate understanding of the human condition; and Emily for her intensity and fearlessness to write about evil and the taboo in such a sensitive manner. Their work, their words, — I think about constantly. It is always in my mind, and if I'm being completely honest, I think they are the trio that influenced me most because they gave me an understanding of what I want my writing to be like and what I want my work to reflect. Their work resonates with me in a way nothing else ever has. This is no small thing. And when I write, it is undeniable that their influence can be found in my own words.

But while these are my most notable influences, it would be a lie to say that no other writer had an impact on me. I believe that every book I've ever read impacted me on some level, some in subtle ways and others in a more significant, essential manner. When I was 10, — after my first attempt at writing a fantasy book I found I wasn't too passionate about, — I discovered Stephen King's work. The supernatural and the horror had, by then, become my bailiwick, and very quickly I found myself diving into his work. When I was eleven, my grandma offered me Carrie and Cujo for my birthday. Carrie has been a notable influence ever since. The theme of fanaticism and religion, the imagery, the structure of the novel with its press articles in between the actual narration — all of this has been incredibly meaningful to me back then, not only creatively speaking but also personally; for just like Carrie, I too was bullied during the majority of my school years. For a very long time, Carrie has been my favourite book, and it still holds a special place in my heart, at least because of the role it played during my childhood.

Poetry plays an important role as well in the way I think about writing. Especially when it comes to rhythm. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here but everything I write, I say aloud. I “speak-write”, one could say. I pay close attention to the rhythm of each sentence, each paragraph, making sure it all flows well. If I don't like a sentence, I re-work it, repeat it in different ways, change it until I come up with something that satisfies me. I'm constantly reading and re-reading aloud what I wrote. Some would say it is a form of perfectionism, and perhaps it is, but I believe it is simply my way of working. Oh, surely it is nothing new. Plenty of writers have been doing it I suppose and among them — that, I learnt only recently — my beloved Dostoevsky. William Mills Todd wrote in his introduction of The Idiot (the Penguin Classics edition):

“Dostoevsky would work late into the might over his notebooks, jotting down ideas. Then he would dictate passages to [Snitkina], and she would transcribe them and promptly return them neatly copied for editing.”

The man would dictate while pacing around the room like a maniac. Todd also quotes Jacques Catteau from his 1989 study Dostoevsky and the Process of Literary Creation:

“From this time on, the rhythm of the Dostoevskian sentence may be defined as a walking movement, where the breath of the spoken word is marked in the written style.”

Besides Dostoevsky, Donna Tartt herself talks about writers reading their own work as well, although not specifically during the writing process:

“I remember the first time I ever heard a recording of TS Eliot reading The Waste Land, which was a poem I knew very well. I was so enchanted by the stresses that he put on different lines and he made you see the poem in a completely different way. Much more in his way. I think it's wonderful to hear a writer read their own work. I love to read my work.”

I'm only using my biggest influences as examples here — but anyway, I'm digressing.

Of course, many different pieces of literature have impacted me throughout the years and it would be unfair not to mention them, considering that they are still a part of me even to this day: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Edgar A. Poe's work, Frankenstein, The Strange Case of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Iliad & The Odyssey — the last, were very important to me when I was 14! —, Macbeth... Quite frankly, I have read so many different books and so many of them I cherish! It is regrettable that can't possibly name them all. Even if I could, it would take far too much time and I'm afraid this reply is already very long anyway. I will end it here, I suppose.

How much of your own self/experiences do you believe pours into your projects? If this differs per project, which projects have the most and least of you?

I believe it is pretty much impossible for an author to create any sort of work without pouring at least a little bit of themselves in it.

Thus Saith The Lord is the work I poured the most of myself in so far, but that's probably because it is my main project. From Wilhelm's refusal to believe in morality to Oliver's gastritis passing by the existential ponderings in the novel, these are inspired by my own thoughts — generally found in my diary entries —, experiences or beliefs. And when it isn't inspired by me, it is inspired by people I know or used to know in the past. I think that, by the time my novels will be brought to completion, all of them shall end up with pretty much the same amount of myself in them. It'll just differ in the execution, in what ways I chose to pour my soul. That's what will make the difference.

[mmmmalo]

Scobie draws the interesting conclusion that Ripley's impregnation by the alien in Alien³ partly represents her survivor's guilt over the death of her surrogate daughter Newt -- not directly relevant to Alternian GRIEF and its potential connection to sexuality, but the best I could think to look for.

Article also mentions in passing that TS Eliot had his own phrase for the use of external monsters as manifestations of internal conflict, so I'm going to be looking up the "objective correlative" presently.

[barnbridges]

tunglr user barnbridges' "curtains were what color" moments:

does it add up some way that julian takes 5 students and the corcorans had 5 sons, there is a "new" 5th student but not a 5th brother;

in the whole book, sex is rather clinical and means a lack of love rather than a way of acquiring it. all of the book's actual love is twisted and disgusting and dripping in layers of rot and cannibalism and gothic adoration. the lack of sex or implied lack of sex means there's actually love in the narrative.

bunny was 24 when he died on the 24th of april. is this some meta joke i'm too stupid to understand.

considering any woman anyone in the greek class touches is one of the furies, mentioned offhandedly by the dead man himself... marion is quite obviously megaera who goes after cheaters (infidelity... *cough* comes up with both of them certainly), but which one fits sophie dearbolt and priscilla? i think i'm Reading. thematically sure priscilla and marion are the same woman, but sophie dearbolt and marion? we shall see. sophie would be a match for allecto (richard's anger and california issues) and priscilla for tisiphone (the guardian to the gates of hell, the one described as wearing blood red clothes)

the fact that marion barnbridge is the biblical name of all time slay i will always wonder if donna wanted to do that or it just happened

when francis and richard came to visit charles in his disheveled state, did he show them his scar from the bacchanal alongside the scars from the cat? why did richard never describe it

besides julian and laforgue, marion would be considered the only didactic figure in the novel (both in title being a teacher, and in calling as serving as the closest thing to a narrative foil julian has, which is funny as shit), BUT WOULD THE PLAYGROUND BE CONSIDERED A DIDACTIC SPACE? the dates, richard thinking of charles as needing rescue (charles even going there). is the snail an aesthetic symbol of the julian's carpet magnitude? absolutely hilarious.

cannibalism happened at the bacchanal, but to whom. henry winter cannibals, i know that

is the yellow wallpaper a camilla motif yes or yes [ i need to read the yellow wallpaper ]

gather all the ts eliot motifs and make up the henry-camilla-gothic-catholic lovestory (and do i need to read oconnor?).

is everyone in the greek class blue/pale eyed, besides richard? i dont remember francis' eye color, but the twins have eyes similar to iron, henry's are blue and blind, bunny's are blue and watery for sure.

[woodsteingirl]

top 5 musicals maybe... top 5 poems also.

the musicals i think of SO often hang on. i have my list.

1. fiddler

2. sound of music

3. ordinary days

4. chess

5. this is whatever i’m into at the moment so um. for fake answer i will say the music man but we all know what the real answer is (sweeney todd)……………

poems is soooooo hard i’ll have to round them up from everywhere…….

1. nothing beats out oranges by gary soto. like no poem will ever be that poem.

2. cat 51 is second though hiii catullus….

3. OH my god gold all over the ground by johnny cash.

4. Epistle: Leaving by kerrin mccadden

5. Resurrection purgatory in the laundromat by julia edwards….

oh my god i forgot about it but honorable mention to ts eliot’s the wasteland that poem fucks me up in the head!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[courier-nix]

2/3/7/11/52 for fallout oc asks?? 👀

Coming right up!!!

Super excited someone asked for some!!! Some Dead Money spoilers ahead but not much. Okay so here they are:

2. Which faction(s) did they join and which did they destroy? Why?

So far Nix has joined the Kings and the Followers of the Apocalypse. She loves everything they stand for and wants more people to receive the aid and safety they offer. She also has a growing soft spot for the King that helps. Although she's the NCR's favorite task girl, she was originally going to support Mr. House until she got pulled to the Sierra Madre. Now, she's an independent New Vegas believer, after seeing what rich "well intentioned" men who only care about what they want can do to the world. (She also would not be able to bring herself to kill the BOS despite the fact she doesn't really like them.) She refuses to join the BOS after what happened to Veronica. Nix loves the Boomers and is untrusting of the Strip families and the Great Khans, but can play them like the fiddle when she wants. She hates the Legion and plans to wipe them out with Boone.

3. What is their S.P.E.C.I.A.L.?

S 5

P 6

E 5

C 7

I 7

A 6

L 5

She got the strength implant from Usanagi so she had an easier time holding heavy guns.

7. Do they have any mental illnesses? How do they cope?

The two main things is PTSD and anxiety. For PTSD, it can vary from hearing an alarm go off and she thinks it's her bomb collar, to she gets flash backs to the terrible things she's done that she feels guilty about. Nix's anxiety mostly manifests through abandonment issues and being alone. She doesn't quite understand why she's that way since the shots to the head made her lose a good chunk of memory, but she does know her grandma had to raise her because her parents couldn't. She is an anxious attachment person who MUST be friends with everyone and MUST be liked by everyone otherwise she feels like shit. She's strongly affected by guilt and anxiety.

So this ties in strongly with The Hollow Men by TS Eliot, whose line I stole for the title of my fanfic featuring Nix (Not with a Bang). The poem discusses people affected by war who know that they are broken and lost souls but are unable to do actions to better themselves or the world. Nix is constantly trying not to be a hollow man and is trying to make sure her companions don't end up like one too (especially Boone). But that hollow feeling is persistent and a battle on its own she has to deal with.

The last thing I'll mention is she does get violent outbursts but they're few and far between and they cause her immense guilt and shame after. She doesn't know if she's always been that way or if the shot to the head caused it, which makes her more upset.

11. Their biggest flaw? Do they recognize it as a flaw?

Nix's biggest flaw is self-doubt and indecisiveness. When there is a clear right and wrong answer in Nix's mind, she knows what to pick. Morally grey areas tend to make her indecisive because "what if so-and-so no longer likes me because of this? What if I can't lead like I'm supposed to? Will this cause more harm than good?" Etc. She knows that it's a flaw, but as of now, she doesn't know what to do about it.

The Sierra Madre changes that!!!

She becomes a bit more hardened and decisive after she sees herself doing everything right, but still ending up with Dean dead. (She honestly thought everything went great with him and didn't realize how fragile his ego was.) She learns who she wants to back in the next Battle of the Hoover Dam. At this point, I haven't planned the next arch of her story much, but she does end up more violent and those violent outbursts more common.

52. Are they good at disarming traps or do they constantly miss them?

Oh, she sucked with traps at first. She wouldn't even see them. She'd hear beeping, look for the source, and then get launched. Bear traps were the only ones she could normally notice. Trip wires and landmines she would tend to overlook. Once she got to the Sierra Madre, she started to slow down and pay attention, especially since so many other people needed her to survive. By the time she got into the casino, Nix was a pro at disarming or stepping around traps (some may say she had a light step now lol).

Here's a quick doodle of Nix getting launched and Lily rushing to catch her since you made it all the way through!!!

[big-als-talk-time]

I met a few people on the road recently.

First was a French guy near den haag central. After I jumped between the cubes for sitting he approached me. He spoke french and only a little english so there was a language barrier. Luckily I kept a downloaded translator which worked well. I helped him charge his phone using my external battery. He said I was his hero, like spiderman. I mentioned that this was said to me as I was doing a wall climb. When I showed him he said that this was not spiderman it was assassins creed. He invited me to his city and we exchanged information.

At the hostel the owner was very high energy. Even so at midnight. I figure he was on some substance but it worked out for me as the keys were reset and he was able to help me immediately.

There was a local man by the name of Jamiraqua I think is how it is spelled. We talked about spanish and italian grammar (in english).

I later was able to practice some spanish with a woman from california baja in the same kitchen area.

Then I met another local guy talking to an american traveller. They disagreed about the hummus. Aside from hummus she was fond of poetry, specifically wasteland by ts eliot. I talked about Ursula le Guin.

The local guy was kind fond of every single woman who walked in the door. Eventually I showed him how to emulate games on the telephone. He loved bubble bobble, mentioning it specifically. We got it working on his device quickly. Then he asked me for help designing an app for generating sales leads. I said he would probably have to use information from a data broker for that but he dismissed the idea. oh well.

A woman held the door open for me at the basement. She had mistaken me for her friend. I said well maybe we can be friends in the future! She chuckled nervously at the prospect and I took this as my cue to leave.

I also met one of the developers of Palestine skate game. He showed me the demo. Apparently they plan on giving 70% of proceeds to charity. They have a call out for animators and anyone who has access to motion capture technology. Seems like a good project. If you are interested i can link you. We exchanged information on the off chance that the vtubers might be able to help. So far no luck.

I ran into the poetry lady again. It turns out she is a climber. I mentioned i liked buildering and she asked me about what equipment i use. I told her i don't know anything about that I just free climb. She didn't seem very much into the prospect. I said that it does kill people so I get it. Then I told her explicitly goodbye forever.

At the bus stop I met a russian guy. He was reserved and wasn't upfront about where he was from. I failed to speak russian to him. But we did talk about chess. Turns out he is a intracellular biochemist guy. So we talked about electrogenic bacteria. We exchanged information as he is a learner of italian. Probably can do a language exchange.

On the way home I met a pugliese lady who was in town for a giornalism conference. She was lost. I showed her organic maps as it can be downloaded. When we got to talking I found out she needed help with finding her stay. I offered to show her the way and she accepted. We took the minimetro. I got almost all the way but took one wrong turn. I offered to carry her luggage up the steps as an apology but she understandably refused. Still we arrived to her nondescript alleyway i guess she got an airbnb for. She was very thankful for the help, going so far as to say she wouldn't have found the place without me.

[toruro]

WELL okay if u don’t know anything abt vega

it’s the brightest star in the constellation lyra, which is visible in the northern hemisphere at the very least during the summer? it’s also part of an asterism called the summer triangle that involves the brightest stars in the constellations aquila, cygnus, and lyra (the stars are altair, deneb, and vega respectively). it’s the second brightest star in the northern *celestial* hemisphere (following arcturus) and the fifth brightest overall (following canopus, the alpha centauri star system, and canopus) by absolute magnitude !!

it’s been the pole star in the past and will do so again in the future (not anytime soon tho), and it (might ?? i think confirmed ??) has at least a singular planet orbiting it c: it’s also so well known that there are names for it in a handful of different cultures, from the assyrians and babylonians to the chinese (where it’s part of an asterism known as the weaving girl, iirc?) and it’s mentioned in a w h auden poem (he wrote one of my favorite poems !).

- ts eliot anon (sry for the info dump. but i felt like u needed context behind my decision.)

OMG THIS IS SO COOL ... u seem 2 know a lot abt like constellations and stars and all that stuff it's super cool 2 me LIKE ... u think /i'm/ the 2nd brightest star in the northern hemisphere!?!? i'm flattered honestly. floored. in the best wsay possible ofc bUT THIS IS SO CUTE feel free 2 info dump in my dms whenever

(also i like how it has one planet. i'd love some1's world 2 revolve around me. idk i think'm self obsessed like that but then again why wouldn't i lvoe myself)

[pablo-diablo]

it's kinda silly that a bunch of ppl on that mario post are pissed at the idea that some other ppl don't recognize ts eliot. they're very into the idea that they are Very Smart for Knowing Poem.

but like. I said *the paragraph* was homestuck-ass bc it employed a technique that hs used frequently. bc it had hs vibes. bc it followed highfalutin poetry talk with lowbrow Mario chatter. this is also something readers mention is present in (noted hs) tamsyn muir's books btw. eilot's the wasteland is also in hs, used in the manner described.

idc if you think I don't recognize a poem. It doesn't matter if a person knows a poem or not. but like.

if a person says that a work (the article) shares similarities with another work - which you have not read - why would you assume that you know both of the works best, and can dismiss the similarities? If we've both seen Titanic but only you've seen The Poseidon Adventure, and you told me "this scene in The Poseidon Adventure is shot a lot like this other scene in Titanic," I would be foolish to dismiss that. I haven't seen that fuckin movie.

anyway it's annoying ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ it's not a real problem but this is my stupid blog and I get to complain here.

[enigmaticexplorer]

Forgot to mention this in chapter one, but the TS Eliot quotes are fucking amazing.

What makes this so interesting is being inside Echo’s head as he observes everything around him. Overhearing Rex and Cerra talking, thinking they’re talking about him (I feel bad that that was his first thought 🥲), and then realizing it’s Gregor. And then Cerra with her nightmare and Gregor comforting her? It’s brilliant writing—I am a pigeon and you are giving me breadcrumbs and I just want more.

Gregor helping Cerra with her injury 😩 their mutual care for one another—Cerra concerned about Gregor’s head injury and Gregor concerned with Cerra’s injury—is so good. Their soft moments in this chapter really had me smiling. And their dynamic makes me super interested to see what comes of Echo and Riyo.

Stars Beyond Number - Chapter 2

Rating: T (rating varies by chapter; mature content will be tagged; regardless of rating, minors DNI)

Pairings: Echo x Riyo Chuchi; Gregor x OFC Cerra Kilian

Wordcount: 2.4k

Warnings: canon-typical violence, non-specific injury, angst, nightmares (not described)

Suggested Listening:

Summary: Echo runs his first mission for Rex's resistance cell and learns more about his new companions.

A/N: This story shares continuity with Martyrs and Kings and "Do It Again," but all three fics can be read as stand-alones.

Previous Chapter | Next chapter | Masterlist | Sign up for my tag list

This is the dead land

This is cactus land

—T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men”

“I’m scanning at least four Venators in various stages of decommissioning,” Cerra said. “This one, near the equator, is still mostly intact. Probably our best bet for a functional pod.”

“Planetary security looks tight,” Echo said. “And there’s an Imperial outpost under construction. Looks like the Empire wants to oversee the Scrapper Guild in person here. If they spot us, it will complicate the mission.”

“Got a better option?” Cerra asked.

“No,” he conceded. “I don’t suppose I do.”

“Then let’s hope they don’t spot us.”

Entering atmosphere was bumpy as hell, and the sub-light drive was still making that disconcerting racket, but despite Echo’s pessimism, their shuttle went undetected. He flew low over the Venator, scouting for a landing zone that was at least somewhat secure.

“Any chance you can put us down on the flight deck?” Cerra asked.

“Negative,” Echo replied. “It’s blocked by debris.”

“Figures,” she sighed.

“There,” Echo said after a few moments of searching. “Plenty of cover, not too far from the Venator.”

He landed the shuttle as Cerra readied the cargo floater. Echo exited first, scanning for hostiles before motioning her forward.

“On the plus side, the shuttle blends in with the rest of the junk,” Cerra muttered.

They moved as quickly as possible with the unwieldy cargo floater, keeping a wary eye for Scrapper Guild members. The path was rough and littered with sharp, twisted durasteel fragments and shards of broken transparisteel. Cerra wore sturdy work boots and durable clothing, and she had a blaster strapped to her thigh, but Echo hated how vulnerable she appeared without armor or a helmet. If she slipped and fell, she could easily sever an artery in this scrapheap. He resolved to help her get her gear in order before the next time she went offworld. 

They picked their way stealthily to the massive ship, and once aboard, made their way through the shadowy corridors. Cerra seemed to know exactly where she was going, and Echo realized she must have spent a significant amount of time on a Venator. The ships were confusing to navigate even when they were powered up and illuminated, and based on the amount of dust and refuse that littered the passageways, this one hadn’t been operational in a long time.

When they finally reached the med bay, Cerra dropped her satchel and got to work while Echo stood guard.

“Better make sure this thing actually works before I tear it out,” Cerra said.

“I hope you don’t need me to restore power to the ship,” Echo said, remembering Bracca. “I’m not making that mistake again.”

“Rex warned me,” Cerra said. “I brought an auxiliary power unit. It doesn’t have enough juice to actually run the pod, but I can at least make sure it’ll turn on.”

She connected a cable to her small power unit, and pumped her fist in victory when the screen flickered to life. 

“Wizard,” she mumbled, disconnecting the cable and immediately beginning the complicated process of uninstalling the pod. She worked in efficient silence, stopping occasionally to consult a datapad, and within an hour, they loaded the surgical pod onto the cargo floater and began their return journey to the shuttle. 

“I need to make a detour,” Echo said as they approached the armory. 

Cerra nodded and moved to guard the entrance, blaster ready. Echo quickly found what he was searching for, extracted it, and returned to the cargo loader. Cerra didn’t question him once he was back, merely resumed her rapid progress. With the cargo floater fully loaded, it was trickier to get out of the Venator than it had been to get in, and Cerra lost her footing, tumbling down the hull and slamming to the ground.

Echo cursed and ran to help her. “You good?”

“Yeah, all good,” she said. “Gloves are toast, though.”

She stripped off the mangled gauntlets. They had, fortunately, protected her hands from being cut when she scrambled for purchase on the jagged piles of scrap, but in their present state, they would only serve to hamper her dexterity.

“Better not fall again,” she said with a shrug.

As the shuttle came into view, Echo spotted movement and froze.

“We’ve got a problem,” he said grimly. “Scrappers have found the shuttle.”

“I guess the camouflage wasn’t as good as I thought,” Cerra said. “How many?”

“Three at least. We need to get rid of them before they call for backup.”

Cerra craned her neck to see around the pile of rubbish where they were hiding. “Damn. It’d be nice to have a sniper right about now.”

Echo chuckled drily. “Yeah. Ready?”

“Say the word, boss.”

“Go.”

They got as close as they could before they broke cover and fired on the scrappers. They stunned the three they could see, and Echo ran to secure the ship while Cerra retrieved the cargo floater. As he powered up the shuttle, he could see her running full tilt toward him, pushing the cumbersome lift ahead of her. Just when he began to think they’d managed to make a clean break, he saw a flash in his peripheral vision, and a shot blasted into the floater as a scrapper opened fire on Cerra from their vantage point inside the hulk of a derelict freighter. Cerra ducked behind the surgical pod and returned fire, and Echo ran to back her up, cursing. He laid down cover fire as she wrangled the floater up the shuttle ramp, and as soon as she slapped the control to close the ramp, he leapt back into the pilot’s seat and took off.

The shuttle jostled from the impact of blaster bolts as the scrapper continued firing, but within seconds, they were out of range. Cerra secured the cargo as Echo piloted them out of atmosphere, and as soon as they were clear of the planet’s gravity well, they jumped to hyperspace.

It was the middle of the night when they arrived at the repair shop, but Gregor was waiting on the landing platform outside the garage. As they disembarked, he sent Echo a casual salute and handed Cerra a cup of caf.

“Did I ever tell you you’re my favorite commando?” she asked, gulping the hot liquid as though it were life itself.

“I think I’m the only commando you know,” Gregor chuckled.

“Still my favorite,” she said. “Ugh, I can’t wait to shower. That planet was disgusting.”

“I’m afraid it’ll have to wait,” Rex said. “The timeline for Fireball’s extraction just got a lot tighter. We need to finalize our plan tonight and move out in the morning.”

Cerra shrugged. “Your call, Cap. You’re the one who has to smell me.”

As Cerra walked into the garage, Gregor narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re injured.”

“It’s nothing,” she said.

Echo glanced at her and realized she was hunching slightly to the side as though to protect her ribs, and he cursed himself for not seeing it sooner. There was no blaster wound, so she must have hurt herself when she slid off the hull of the Venator. Gregor arched a disbelieving eyebrow and strode directly to the kitchen, rummaging through the cabinets until he found a small medkit.

“Let me see,” he ordered.

“Bossy,” Cerra grumbled, but she shed her jacket and sat obediently on the sofa. 

Gregor peeled her shirt up her torso, and Echo turned away to give her privacy. Still, he heard Gregor’s hiss.

“Karking hell, Cerra.”

“It looks worse than it is,” she said.

“Really? Because it looks like you got drop-kicked all the way to Karthon and back. What happened?”

“I fell off a spaceship like a kriffing idiot,” she said. “Are we going to get this mission briefing started, or are we all just going to stand around yammering about nothing?”

Rex frowned. “Don’t you want to wait until Gregor finishes with the bacta?”

“I want to take a farking shower,” she snapped, and despite himself, Echo glanced at her, surprised by the sharpness in her tone.

Gregor worked quickly, but it was obvious that Cerra was in a considerable amount of pain. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and her clenched fists shook as they rested on her knees.

“Almost finished,” Gregor murmured quietly.

“Good,” she said as her voice broke. 

“Does it hurt when you breathe?” She merely shrugged in response, and Gregor gave her an impatient look. “I need to know if you cracked any ribs.”

“Why? Nothing you can do for that anyway,” she said.

“I can put you on light duty,” Rex said.

Cerra shot him an irate glare. “Nope, doesn’t hurt to breathe. In fact, I feel great. Never been better. Can we please, please get started?”

“Fine,” Rex sighed as he began to outline the plan of attack.

Gregor finished with the bacta as Rex spoke, then put away the medkit and quickly returned to the sofa. As he sat, he gave Cerra’s hand a little squeeze, and she leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder as she closed her eyes. Echo would have thought she had fallen asleep, except she occasionally asked a clarifying question or commented on the plan.

As Rex wrapped up the briefing, he said, “It’s vital that we remove Fireball’s chip as soon as possible, so Cerra will remain here and get the surgical pod operational. Any questions?”

Gregor and Echo shook their heads. Cerra watched Rex with an unreadable expression. When nobody spoke up, Rex dismissed them all with orders to get some sleep. Gregor went to the barracks, while Echo headed for the refresher, just as desperate for a shower as Cerra. As he left, he overheard her speak to Rex in a low voice.

“Can I have a word?” she asked.

The two disappeared into the small office at the back of the garage, and Echo took the longest shower of his life, reveling in the luxury of hot water. As much of his life as he’d spent on starships, he was accustomed to the efficiency of sonic showers, but there was no way in hells that he would opt for the sonic when a real shower was available. By the time he finished, he was relaxed and bone-weary, and he headed straight for the barracks.

A low, strained conversation emanated from behind the office’s closed door. Echo didn’t intend to eavesdrop, but his cranial implant amplified Cerra and Rex’s voices as they argued.

“—can handle himself. He has more training than any of us,” Rex said.

“It’s not about his ability,” Cerra said. “It’s about keeping him alive. He’s been through enough.”

Echo slowed to a halt. Were they arguing about him? Did Cerra not think he was capable? He frowned. She hadn’t said anything during their mission to Karthon, and she’d seen him in action. He could take care of himself, and he didn’t need her interfering with Rex’s plans.

“We need his infiltration skills,” Rex said.

“Dank farrik, Rex, you saw the extent of his brain damage when AZI removed his chip. Another hit could kill him.” Cerra kept her voice down, but her distress was evident.

Gregor, Echo understood suddenly. Cerra was worried about Rex’s plan to use him on the extraction team. Echo hadn’t realized how severe the injuries hiding beneath the commando’s irreverent disposition were.

“He knows it’s dangerous,” Rex argued.

“He doesn’t care about the danger because he trusts you so much that he’ll do anything you order,” Cerra said. “Use Echo on the infil team instead. Please, Rex. He’s just as skilled as Gregor, and he’s not at risk in the same way.”

“You know Gregor will never let me ground him,” Rex said.

“I’m not asking you to ground him. I’m asking you to assign him to pilot the ship instead of being part of the extraction team.”

“Cerra, I will protect him,” Rex began.

“Like you protected Fives?” Her voice cut like a vibroblade.

Despite himself, Echo gasped. Rex was silent.

“I’m sorry,” Cerra said after a tense moment. “That was out of line.”

“No,” Rex replied. “You’re right. I’ll put Gregor on pilot duty.”

After a long pause, Cerra finally responded. “Thank you.”

Echo realized he’d been listening much longer than he’d intended to. Shaking himself, he hurried to the barracks and climbed into his bunk. It was some time before Cerra entered, and Echo assumed she must have finally gotten her shower. She moved silently through the shadowed room and climbed into her own bunk. She must have been exhausted, because within a few minutes, he could hear her breath even out as she dropped into slumber.

He was jealous of her ability to fall asleep so easily. He’d never slept well, even before Skako Minor, and his insomnia had only gotten more severe after his experience with the Techno Union’s particular brand of hospitality. Still, he must have dozed off at some point, because quite suddenly, his eyes snapped open at the sound of a distressed whimper.

The sound was barely audible. Echo probably wouldn’t have even heard it if he hadn’t been so restless already. The cry came again, muffled and indistinct, and Cerra thrashed in her bunk. 

Gregor moved with such impressive stealth that Echo didn’t even realize he’d gotten up until he heard the commando quietly murmur words of comfort under his breath.

“Gregor?” Cerra asked in a hushed, broken voice.

“Shh, I’m here,” he whispered.

The bunk creaked, and Echo heard the soft rustle of bedding being rearranged.

“I’ve got you,” Gregor said softly. “You’re safe. I’m not going anywhere.”

Cerra shuddered, and a muffled sob followed by stifled, gasping breaths rang out through the barracks. Echo could tell that she was trying to stay quiet by pressing her hands over her mouth. 

“It’s all right,” Gregor soothed. “All the way out, remember? One, two, three, four, five. You’re all right, sweetheart, I have you. Now breathe in. One, two, three, four, five.”

Echo had an uncomfortable sense of voyeurism, as though he were intruding on an intensely private moment, but there was nothing to be done. Gregor continued to quietly coach Cerra until she brought her breathing under control. Once again, the barracks descended into silence, and at last, Echo fell asleep. When he awoke early the next morning, Gregor and Cerra were still curled up together in Cerra’s bunk, fast asleep. Gregor was lying, fully clothed, on top of the blanket, with Cerra’s body tucked securely against him and his arms wrapped around her.

---

Previous Chapter | Next chapter

[ksfoxwald]

Fire and Hemlock Readalong: Part 3 Chapter 1

We now begin Part 3 - Where Now?

Polly goes to live with her dad, packing the stolen photograph and the toy soldiers. That may be what saves her, allowing her to call on the heroes by means of sympathetic magic.

She finally starts reading The Golden Bough on the train, and we get a lot more clues in the chapter titles - "Sympathetic Magic," "The Sacred Marriage," "Kings Killed at the End of a Fixed Term" stand out in particular.

With Dad and Joanna we see another example of adults who are so locked in their way of being they have forgotten to use their imaginations. Everything in the flat is perfectly, unsettlingly neat and tidy. Later Dad takes Polly out to the Zoo, and curiously, she describes the bird house as "magical," even though birds aren't really a major motif in this story. But they are flying around loose and free, unlike Polly right now. "It's like when I dream inside my own brain!" she says. The freedom of imagination in a mind that is otherwise trapped, perhaps.

It soon becomes apparent that Dad has not told Joanna that Polly is staying for good, and when Joanna asks straight out how long Polly is staying, Polly panics and says that she is leaving tomorrow. Here, once again, the adults fail Polly, leaving her on the doorstep without making sure she has a ticket or gets on the train. With nothing else to do, Polly starts wandering around the city alone, in a very mythic way - this part is referenced in Diana's Heroic Ideal essay, comparing her to Snow White lost in the forest. And the scene where she stands looking over the river evokes TS Eliot's Four Quartets, which is another framing device in the story.

Jones:

Polly walked to the middle and stopped. The wind took her hair there and hurled it about. She leaned both arms on the chubby metal fence at the edge and looked down, dizzyingly far, to the sinewy brown water of the Bristol Avon racing between thick mud banks below. The wind hurled seagulls about in the air like wastepaper.

Eliot:

I think the river Is a strong brown god Trying to unweave, unwind, unravel And piece together the past and the future, Between midnight and dawn, when the past is all deception The future futureless, before the morning watch When time stops and time is never ending

So Polly stands in-between things, both literally on a bridge, and figuratively between the past and future, between her mother and father, another Nowhere place.

As she leaves the bridge she spots Morton Leroy, and understands that this is all his doing, though I'm not sure what part he played because we don't get real rules for how they work. Did he engineer the misunderstanding between Dad and Joanna? Or did he get into Polly's head, with that whole "bleached with pride" feeling where she insisted she could find her own way home? Perhaps he was using the connection through the opal pendant for that, too. We know they are able to get at other people, but I think they are only able to do that through Polly. The whole "panics and starts saying things to get out of the Situation" is such a normal response that you wouldn't assume it was magic at all without everything else going on, but that's the nature of the Leroys, isn't it? To use ordinary things to control people.

As Polly walks, we see more mentions of the wind, hurling trash about in a foreshadowing of what is to come.

Then, as Polly continues to move in-between places, thinking that the shift from office blocks to old houses is like stepping from Here to Nowhere, she manages to call on Nowhere again in the sight of a familiar car...

I was trying to work out how to put that last sentence, and after writing it I realized she is calling on her power here, and in fact is doing so throughout, in a way that leads us directly into the final challenge where Laurel says "Tom can use anything which is truly his [to escape]." Polly is able to use Nowhere to escape because it is truly hers in a way that Laurel and the Perry Leroys can't control. They can use it and twist it for their own ends sometimes, but they don't own it.

[roseserpentpress]

Ash Lynx, Seymore Glass and the Fisher King

    To all about to read this; in short this is an analysis dealing with Ash lynx from bananafish (the lovely manga), a perfect day for banana fish (a short story by J. D. Salinger) and on Arthurian lore with some other literature and lore stuffed in there somewhere.

Also, I am profoundly sorry to the ridiculous way I write once I begin an analysis as all my training for how to write an essay kicks in. This also got longer then I expected. Apologies aside, let us begin;

    As BF (the manga) is inspired by the short story by Salinger, some commonalities are found in between the protagonists; Seymore Glass, and Ash Lynx, or Aslan Jade Calanreese. To begin I shall require an analysis on Seymore Glass, and to begin that a short treatise of what the short story is in fact about. 

Ash Lynx and Seymore Glass

       It is mostly agreed upon that the short story, "A Perfect Day for BananaFish" by J. D. Salinger, is a commentary on post WWII consumerist culture; the protagonist in the short story, Seymore Glass, had fought in WWII, and had been recently released from a mental hospital, with other characters in the short story hinting that it was earlier than he should when it begins. Because of his experiences in the war, he is disillusioned with the consumerist society he is in; people live a very superficial self-absorbed lifestyle, their attention focused on material objects and their outward appearance, thus causing miscommunication.

    Seymore glass, as one begins to inspect the details expressed by the author, becomes evident of being a Christ-like character; not necessarily mimicking Christ's actions, in which in part he does do, but in the literary sense as a character who perceives and understands more than the other characters (think Simon from The Lord of the Flies). This is a key attribute of his, which is evident as it forms his name, which a young girl, Sibyl blatantly observes- “see more” glass. Interestingly enough, it is this heightened perception that causes -in my belief, and many others- his suicide (some people argue the reason would be pedophilia, but this does not fit into the structure and overall theme of the story). 

Just as Seymore Glass ‘sees more’ than the individuals around him due to his experiences in negative aspect of humanity, Ash does as well, both of them becoming 'Christ-like characters’, and even are portrayed in holy imagery, with the allusions of the actions of Seymore to the literal actions of Jesus, and Ash being compared multiple times to an angel, somehow each displayed as coming from a different, ‘higher’ plane of existence. However, although they are each drawn in 'holy imagery', they are shown to be both terribly broken people due to their traumatic experiences, and in their stories are attracted to individuals portrayed as innocent and pure, ie. Eiji and Sibyl respectively. Both, due to direct correspondence to those individuals at the end of their stories, choose to die, understanding that they could never return to being innocent, in life style or perception, due to their unwanted ties to their past, and so could never live a happy normal life. 

For Ash lynx this was due to his gang life and the mafia stemming from his forced prostitution, understanding that no matter what he could do he could not escape the life that he had been thrust into and lived; the end result, in eventuality would be a violent death anyways. Also, if he had just postponed, then Eiji would perhaps be involved as well, and so he chose to bleed to death within the library at a point in his life in which he was actually happy. Meanwhile, Seymore's suicide was due to that he perceived he would never be able to leave this self absorbed and superficial society, and that those who are perceived as pure and innocent, in the end only become as self absorbed, in his conversation with Sybil. Both choose to die, due to the understanding that they could not leave this negative or superficial world that their past had created for them -one literally and one perceived- and return to being innocent and thus happy.

An interesting note in all of this, is the oversimplification of Bananafish as explained in the manga, bananafish being purely a fish if seen causes an individual to become harmful and aggressive to others and themselves, which instead doesn't touch the narrative of the self serving consumerism and superficiality of society, twisting the nature of the story. This is interesting as bananafish itself has thematic similarities on society.

On the Waste Land and The Fisher King

This section is a bit farther removed from “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and it's literary allusions, so one can take this next few paragraphs as a grain of salt; of how much there is coincidence I am unsure. Although the mangaka's expansive knowledge of literature is impressive, so who knows. 

Also found in a “Perfect Day for Bananafish”, is allusions to TS Eliot's poem, “The Waste Land”, a poem about post-war England and Europe, which Seymore directly quotes in the story. The allusions reference not only a specific section of the poem, but also characters found in his poem, Seymore represented as the Fisher King (from Arthurian lore) and Sibyl as her name's sake, Sybil (from Greco-Roman lore). These characters however are not singly expressed by TS Eliot as hinted; in fact, “The Waste Land” was heavily influenced by myths and legends, and so these characters can also be traced back to their respective mythos, which can often have multiple versions. As "The Waste Land" less establishes their own characters, I will cover the basic background of each character from their lore.

The Fisher King is from Arthurian lore, and is the last king in the line of one who was granted and entrusted to the Holy Grail. He is injured in the 'thigh’ area (highly suggestive of euphemism for groin area), and so due to his crippled state he is waiting (and in the meanwhile, fishing as it is one of the only things he can do, ie, this is where he got his name) for an individual to entrust the Grail to, thus allowing the Fisher king to be healed (and to die). 

The possession of certain genitals in the past had very definitive gender roles and sexuality ascertained to them; so the injury of the groin gives the king homosexual context, which is furthered by another detail, which is said in a few versions of the tale that Holy Grail is accompanied by a spear, and that each night the spear must be inserted into his wound for him to survive. Being a peice of queer literature, BF shares the homosexual pinnings of the Fisher king. Even the forced sexual acts of the protagonists are shared, the spear akin to Ash's forced prostitution for survival. Another interesting note on this, when the worthy one comes and receives the grail, it causes the healing of the king which then allows him to die, is mirrored in Ash and Eijis relationship; Ash falls in love with Eiji (one could argue the grail here is his love), and his "wound" (sexual abuse he had received) becomes healed (being enabled to move past it) and then, in direct relation to his love of Eiji, he chooses to die, as the Fisher king is finally allowed to die in the passing of the grail. 

There are also thematic similarities; this is seen in that as the groin wound would cause infertility of the King, this impotency was reflected onto his kingdom, it becoming a barren wasteland. This 'barren wasteland of a kingdom’ is heavily referenced in Eliot's poem in regards to post-war consumerist culture, which further emphasizes Salinger's thematic point. However in each theory both (Salinger and Eliot) are attempting to create are differing response to this acknowledgement of the superficiality of society; although this is differentiation is interesting, it is however not pertinent to my discussion. What is important is that they both agree that this Western modern culture is a superficial barren wasteland; in other words, a facade of culture. This society in large being a facade, and in fact an inhospitable self-serving and corrupt wasteland is a theme also displayed in Bananafish, as politicians and influential individuals are shown to be corrupt and self-serving, and the main face of politics a farce of niceties to appease an unknowing and apathetic public.

 Interestingly, in some versions of the tale, the Fisher King is actually comprised of a father and his son; the father being referred to as the Fisher King while his son called the Lame Prince. Both the Fisher King and his son are wounded in the groin area- the father so badly that he is unable to walk, and the son less so, but still only able to walk short distances. This relationship between the father and son of the Fisher King is rather similar to the relationship between Ash and his older brother, who became a father figure as he cared for Ash when they were younger, and is unable to walk and is rather unresponsive. 

[scrambled-eggsed]

2/3 major tests in 7 days are FINISHED