#valcour

[bigmfrat]

saw a shirt that Val would 100% have dude is a regular at every single thrift store in town and if he finds a shirt with a goofy slogan it's going home with him to immediately get the sleeves cut off and added to his closet.

[jareckiworld]

Hans Bellmer (1902-1975)—Aline et Valcour [etching, aquatint, 1968]

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Thinking about this again, so I pulled up the last query letter I sent out, to see what the "stakes" were there, since it did very well at the time.

It's this:

If the magic Ambrose relies on won’t come to his call, maybe something else will. Something Ambrose was charged with keeping under lock, key, and ward four years ago: wild, parasitic magic that could spark Witchhunts affecting more than a teenager desperate to save himself.

This is not an "or else" claim. Nothing about this is actually tied to Ambrose failing at what he's trying to do. In fact, it's actually indicating, "If he does this thing he's trying to do, terrible things could happen actually."

This is actually me going to potential readers like, "Hey, hey, look at the cost of success."

It's actually me going to readers and, "Look what my character has to struggle with."

I couldn’t sleep last night, but desperately needed to try because I had an early morning today, which sent my brain down various useless rabbit holes, one of which was: Story Stakes.

Generally, this is something very important to communicate in your queries/blurbs/pitches/cover copies. People need to know why anything in the story matters. But a lot of people interpret stakes as, “What are the costs if they fail?” and that just seems too limited to me. It’s always an “They Win, Or Else.”

And it feels fake. You can write “Or they’ll all die,” or “The rebellion will be quashed forever,” or, “The galaxy will explode,” as much as you want, but very, very few stories actually follow through on that. To me, it doesn’t hit me with much impact, because I know it’s not a real option or risk. This is a story. Stories almost never end that way, and many of those would be hard to actually accomplish.

So maybe they’re stakes for your character. But they’re not stakes for a reader. My emotional investment in the story isn’t going to be tied to fear they might explode the damn galaxy.

I have rarely written characters who were motivated by what would happen if they failed, or had them think often about the costs of failure. Most often, I write characters who are pursuing something more and think about what they might miss out on gaining. I write characters who are going to be emotionally destroyed if they cannot succeed because they weren’t good enough/didn’t try hard enough/made mistakes.

And to me, that’s much more engaging. Will the character lose much but time and an opportunity? Maybe not. But how do you go back to the status quo when you were a fingertip away from something better?

The status quo is losing. Remaining how things were is the price of failure. You don’t have to backslide from the book’s opening for the characters to have lost. I don’t have to write an Or Else.

And I think it’s also much more likely as an ending than horrific catastrophic failure. A character losing out on something they wanted and having to emotionally confront that and move forward is actually reasonably common. A story with a bittersweet ending where things are in some ways better and some ways worse but not what the characters were hoping for are reasonably common—and they often hurt a reader worse than watching everything fall apart does.

I give characters hope and desire and if the reader doesn’t truly believe they won’t really get what they wanted, they’re at least likely to follow along for the emotional catharsis of seeing them win instead of for fear that they lose.

I’m still tired and still haven’t slept. Maybe this doesn’t make sense to anyone but me. But I prefer to lead with carrots and not sticks, especially for readers who don’t have to invest.

[queeringclassiclit]

Some Fun Statistics

Characters who are not beating the gay allegations (highest 'yes' vote):

Dorian Gray - 93.6%

Sherlock Holmes - 89.5%

Grantaire - 87.8%

Characters with an unblemished record of heterosexuality (highest 'no' vote):

Anne Shirley - 74.1%

Diana Barry - 60.5%

Jane Eyre - 44.6%

Pairings who are definitely making out sloppy style (highest 'yes, they at least kissed' vote)

Achilles & Patroclus - 89.2%

Carmilla & Laura - 84.6%

Dorothy Gale & Princess Ozma - 79.7%

Pairings who are sitting 5 feet apart cos they're not gay (highest 'no, they're not queer' vote)

Anne & Diana - 71.3%

Desdemona & Emilia - 28.7%

Emma & Harriet - 20.2%

Most controversial (most even split between 'yes', 'maybe' and 'no')

Marius Pontmercy

Lady Macbeth

Bertha Mason

Most niche (highest 'I don't know these characters' vote)

Valcour & Francisco de Paola - 68.8%

Sue Bridehead - 68.3%

Amory Blaine - 63%

[blyostie]

Gift for @bigmfrat of Valcour and Varthis cuz I love these two a lot and they are very pretty

[disease]

MAN RAY— "UNTITLED" | 1926 "ALINE AND VALCOUR" | 1950

[the-cricket-chirps]

Man Ray, Aline et Valcour, 1950

[bigmfrat]

Val finally has a sfw sizechart ref now YIPPIE! he gets undies because hes an outtie instead of an innie like the rest of his species. I've been pretty productive with these full bodies, hopefully i can keep it going and get all of my ocs a basic sketch to compile into a toyhouse size chart.

[sydney-the-faithful]

Hi, Sydney. I’ve read a little bit of de Sade, mostly out of curiosity, so I figured I could try to provide some context? I’ve not read Aline and Valcour specifically, but I did do a little reading on it.

I’m always pretty strongly in favour of reading books people have tried to ban and have burned or otherwise censored personally, so Marquis de Sade was uh. On that list for sure. He was imprisoned for rather quite a lot of pretty horrific sex crimes (as well as the blasphemy and pornography), though? So. Yeah. I’m glad I read it to draw my own conclusions, but it does still leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. (I think he actually wrote Aline and Valcour while imprisoned about them?)

Basically, Aline and Valcour is a lot of things apparently, but a lot of that is sort of social commentary. It focuses on a cannibalistic, religious dystopia in opposition to a philosophical utopia (de Sade was pretty loudly atheistic. Which is… I don’t know. I think it’s an interesting insight, considering it was the 17/1800s.) The main characters are ‘virtuous people’ whose lives are disrupted by ‘turbulence, turpitude, evil schemes and incestuous designs’ being worked upon them. I’m assuming some form of corruption or downfall. Also a bit of abduction, apparently, that’s fun.

It’s supposedly quite a bit less… Graphic than some of his other work, but de Sade will still be de Sade. Father of Sadism, etc. Apparently it has some pretty interesting social commentary on the time and the characters are pretty in depth and nuanced. It doesn’t sound like a bad read, but I’m still unable to help but side-eye some of the themes. You know. In the context of de Sade being the person he was… All of the torture, assault and real life abduction.

Hopefully that’s helpful??? Doesn't seem wholly like your thing, but. Info. Yeah.

~@crimson--phantom

Oh!!! Oh my goodness. That's... Oh, that's a lot. Thank you for letting me know, Clara! ^^'

Yeah, um... I don't think it sounds like my thing. Of course, ah, reading literature from people with differing views is wise and can give you a lot of insight into the world/other people's minds but I don't think de Sade sounds like someone I'm comfortable doing that with, considering everything... you told me.

In general, the concept of taking virtuous people and corrupting them doesn't sound like anything I want to be reading ^^'

Thank you again for looking out for me! <3

[executionersghost]

I know I’m like…musing into the void here at the moment, but I’ve got all these thoughts and I need to put a few of them somewhere so-

Milady is def my new favorite of Eva’s characters, and MMMM even tho she doesn’t look like Meca this time around, (save for her Isabelle De Valcour Court disguise lol) the Vibes are impeccable. Esp for smth like ER Meca where it’s the situation of a woman who’s been deeply hurt by all the men and monsters around her, yet still resorting to doing their bidding while nipping at opportunities for revenge when they arise. ”My life has been their life. My death will be my death.”

Like…man…

[rfsnyder]

Man Ray - Aline et Valcour

[oldsardens]

Man Ray - Aline Et Valcour

[queeringclassiclit]

Masterlist of Previous Polls

And Then There Were None - Philip Lombard

Anne of Green Gables series Anne Shirley Anne & Diana

Arthurian Legend Lancelot du Lac Arthur & Lancelot Morgan le Fay Guinevere & Morgan Gawain The Green Knight

As You Like It - Rosalind & Celia

Beowulf - Beowulf

Breakfast at Tiffany's - Holly Golightly

Brideshead Revisited - Charles & Sebastian

Carmilla - Carmilla & Laura

The Catcher in the Rye - Holden Caulfield

The Chronicles of Narnia - Edmund Pevensie

The Count of Monte Cristo - Eugenie & Louise

Crime and Punishment - Raskolnikov & Razumikhin

Dracula Count Dracula Jonathan Harker Mina & Lucy

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Jekyll/Hyde

The Divine Comedy - Dante & Virgil

Emma Emma Woodhouse Emma & Harriet

The Enchanted Island of Yew - Prince Marvel

The Epic of Gilgamesh - Gilgamesh & Enkidu

Eugene Onegin - Onegin & Lensky

Fahrenheit 451 - Guy Montag

The Famous Five series - George Kirrin

The Fate of the Crown - Valcour & Francisco de Paola

Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein Victor & Henry Captain Walton

The Great Gatsby Nick Carraway Nick & Gatsby Jordan Baker Daisy & Jordan

Hamlet Hamlet & Horatio Rosencrantz & Guildenstern

The Haunting of Hill House - Eleanor & Theodora

Herbert West–Reanimator - Herbert West

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Huckleberry Finn

The Idiot Myshkin Rogozhin

The Iliad - Achilles & Patroclus

The Invisible Man - Jack Griffin

In Memoriam A. H. H. - Alfred Tennyson & Arthur Hallam

Jane Eyre - Jane Eyre

Jasper Jones - Charlie & Jasper

Jeeves and Wooster series - Jeeves & Wooster

Jude the Obscure - Sue Bridehead

Julius Caesar - Brutus & Cassius

Les Misérables Enjolras Enjolras & Grantaire Javert

Little Women Jo March Laurie Lawrence

Lord of the Flies - Piggy

The Lord of the Rings series Frodo & Sam Galadriel Boromir Fingon & Maedhros (The Silmarillion)

Macbeth - Lady Macbeth

Mansfield Park - Fanny & Mary

The Merchant of Venice - Antonio

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Puck

Moby Dick - Ishmael

The Most Dangerous Game - General Zaroff

Mrs Dalloway - Clarissa

Much Ado About Nothing Benedict Beatrice

Oliver Twist - Oliver Twist

Orlando - Orlando

Othello - Iago

The Outsiders Ponyboy Curtis Johnny & Dally

Peter Pan - Peter Pan

The Picture of Dorian Gray Dorian Gray Dorian & Basil Henry Wotton

Pride and Prejudice - Charlotte Lucas

Richard II - Richard II

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Rosencrantz & Guildenstern

Romeo and Juliet - Mercutio

The Secret History - Richard Papen

A Separate Peace - Gene & Finneas

Sherlock Holmes Series Sherlock Holmes Sherlock & John James Moriarty which adaptation is the most queer?

The Talented Mr Ripley Tom Ripley Tom & Dickie

The Tempest - Ariel

To Kill a Mockingbird - Scout Finch

Twelfth Night Viola Corsino Olivia

Ulster Cycle (Celtic Mythology) - Cú Chulainn

Waiting for Godot - Vladimir & Estragon

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Dorothy Gale

[seeingteacupsindragons]

3, 5, 22, 30, 49? Sorry it’s a lot lol

3. Computer or pen and paper?

Dear Anon, I gave myself carpal tunnel in both wrists before I turned 18 from handwriting obsessively.

No. Not anymore. I simply cannot.

(I have a journal and keep legal pads around to make notes on while I'm out and about, but I almost exclusively draft by typing these days)

5. How much writing do you get done on an average day?

Ooooh, good question! This depends on a lot of things, and the numbers now are nowhere near what they were. But I also have a job with very specific busy seasons and launch events that are, actually, literally life or death in a odd, tangential sort of way, so some days I simply don't have the energy for more than a sentence or two.

But, usually at least 4-500 words or so right now. I'm pleased with that. I'd liked to build it back up higher, but that's what I got right now.

22. Who is/are your favorite pairing(s) to write?

I don't write fanfiction, so although I do write couples from time to time in my own writing and really love protagonist/deuteragonist pairings even in platonic ways, so I have lots of Pairs, most people wouldn't know most of them. the best way to get introduced to them is probably showing up to my occasional discord streams at this point, or making the mistake of befriending me in private.

I just really like writing Pairs who are each half of the other's story and without whom they'd be incomplete. It's narratively special and compelling to me.

30. Favorite idea you haven’t started on yet?

Nowadays, I never seem to really get ideas unless I start on them, so I don't know. I'm really full up with the projects I have right now so I don't have anything else fully formed into a seed that's nagging me.

49. Which character would you most want to be friends with, if they were real?

Ambrose Clarus Valcour. His novel is trunked now because I don't know how to fix it, so I haven't talked too much about him for a few years, but he's just special to me.

He's not the kindest character I've written, or the cleverest, or the most confident, or the most gentle, or the sweetest, or the most fun, or any of those things. But he tries, and he cares so much, and he knows who he is and he's proud of who that is. And those things mean so much to me.

He's just a very good boy and maybe one day I can fix his book and share him with the world properly.

[supercantaloupe]

tell me about how the opera is going i would love to know!! :) yay

okay i want to start with a disclaimer that i love amateur theater and think it's a good thing and important to support and produce and watch

that being said. i did not think this was a good performance 😭😭 detailed review under the cut, tldr production very mixed, still interested in checking out a professional production of the original at some point

[ask meme]

the strings were really quite bad, with the violins often playing a quarter tone or more out from one another, and several times i saw violins and violas playing with different bowings from one another, they were a sorry mess. and of course it's a french opera so there's multiple extended sequences of plotless, wordless dance against the orchestra (frequently strings soli)...it was cringe inducing. winds were alright though.

and the actress playing leontine...i mean, bless her heart, she was trying, but she was not prepared for this. i saw a cover perform (there was another actress listed for the other performances) and when she had movement and actions she was pretty good, but much of the show was her just standing and making sarcastic or uncomfortable smiles, and it was kind of hard to tell if that's what she was directed to do the whole show, or if that was a tell that she had no idea what she was doing up there. and she clearly did not know what she was doing at times. act i scene ii in fact saw her go up on lines so badly with awkward pauses between her, dorothee, and valcour waiting for a cue line, and in the end she just kind of had to sadly and frantically motion to the conductor to get the music going to force the scene change...it was so secondhand embarrassing and painful to watch...like i feel bad for the actress definitely i would be mortified if i were in her shoes. but it was not pretty 😥

there were some bright spots though. valcour was decent, though a bit quiet. jeanette and colin were the standouts to me: jeanette had easily the strongest voice both in terms of skill and volume, and colin was very cute and funny (bouncy curly hair, played REALLY dumb and "loves his wife" in a charming way), plus i really liked the costuming detail of his waistcoat being made of the same patterned fabric as jeanette's bodice in act i so they match. vibes of masetto and zerlina if nothing bad ever happened forever. and the guy playing ophemon was good, nice voice, very hammy acting, looks like he was created in a laboratory to play captain corcoran or perhaps major general stanley. actually i just looked up his credits and he has in fact played captain corcoran as well as dick deadeye, the pirate king, and the sergent of police as well as some proper classic opera roles like leporello bartolo and dulcamara, so, passes the vibes check. apparently this is just a hobby for him or something he's just like a rocket scientist and businessman offstage. king shit. good for him.

the choreography was nothing special. i'm not gonna rag on them too hard about that because it's an amateur company and they tried really hard, with a historical dance and fencing coach in the credits and everything. plus they're fighting an uphill battle to begin with doing a show with like 10 minutes of pointless dance in each act in an already very short opera. would have been helped by competent string players.

staging wise, they were going for a setting of 1820s guadeloupe in honor of the chevalier de st georges' birthplace, but it mostly amounted to some colorful draped fabric above the stage and some small tropical plant set pieces in act i, i don't think it really came across too strongly or added much. physical acting and direction was VERY savoy opera -- not surprising, since this company specializes in g&s, alongside other light opera and what they call "forgotten" opera, lesser known works from the classical and victorian eras, though they've occasionally dabbled into the musical theater realm with a recent production of a gentleman's guide to love and murder, which is a show i've long maintained had a place in the light opera repertoire. i don't know that a full on g&s style of acting and dialogue works entirely for l'amant anonyme, but i'd like to come back and see these guys do g&s in the future, since i see real promise there.

interestingly the company opted to perform the show in english translation rather than in french, and the translation was actually provided by one of the orchestra members, which is a commendable undertaking. that said i don't think the english text setting was particularly good. i could tell they were used to the libretti of w.s. gilbert and were, intentionally or not, trying to mimic his style. but it came off as passable but not particularly well set at best, and awkward at worst. a more experienced translator/librettist team probably could have made that work, but i also think that l'amant anonyme might not be cynical or farcical enough to suit a gilbert style libretto? a large part of the style of savoy opera is their clever and satirical nature, and while l'amant anonyme is a borderline farcical comedy, i don't think it has the same kind of bite. i left the theater thinking it compared to a toothless cosi fan tutte. and though i'm not the biggest cosi fan out there, i think it's aware of its own cynicism and leans into it in an effective manner. (really it's the ending and don alfonso that annoy me most, lol.)

it's entirely possible that some of these faults are inherent to the original, and not created by this particular production, whether it be through the english translation, the direction and acting choices, or the production being limited in budget and skill by its nature as amateur theater. i didn't get a chance to see or listen to a professional production (in french) beforehand, so i don't have a basis of comparison. i'd like to check one out at some point, because i think while l'amant anonyme is no paradigm shift in the realm of classical opera, i do think it has charm and i'd like to see that realized by more capable hands. maybe the original french libretto is just as awkward. maybe the ballets are still as monotonous and uninteresting with a full, well-rehearsed orchestra. maybe the story works better when it's not being hammed up like the second act twist in a savoy opera. i dunno yet! but i'm curious to find out.

and even with this one admittedly rocky performance being my only frame of reference so far, i still want to keep my eye on this company. they're doing their own take on "a more humane mikado" they're calling "the bravado" this summer, and a double bill of trial by jury and another short gilbert work next fall (and i love trial by jury, so i'll have to keep that one on my radar). so, all in all, not a complete loss, but i do have to admit it's been a while since i contemplated so seriously leaving a show at intermission. at least jeanette and colin were cute.