#yeah absolutely

[lina-studen]

"something floral": literature student blabbering about the usage of flower symbolism in "nevermore", how it ties to the theme of insanity and a little bit (a lot) about shakespeare.

from lenore's perspective, flowers are closely associated with isolation caused by her trauma and supposed "hysteria". floral pattern wallpaper accompanied her loneliness for days, months, even years. image of the flowers signaled that lenore's position would remain unchanged, that she was stuck, that she would continue to slowly loosing the clarity of her mind.

having torn the wallpaper off the walls, lenore believes that she will never see this image again, but flowers continue to accompanying her. lenore sees them again during her first meeting with annabel lee. and during the last one, too. she may have managed to get out of her lonely room, gain more strength in her legs, find a new friend, but lenore is still trapped. she's the daughter disowned by her parents, a stain on the family reputation that must be hidden forever. the image of flowers doesn't let her forget about it.

similar symbolism is also not alien to annabel lee. episode 66 is interesting in particular, because it directly quotes ophelia's monologue. I'm a big fan of shakespeare, it was he who instilled in me an interest in floral symbolism. a year ago, for a conference on foreign literature, I wrote an article about flower language of "hamlet". it's not available in english, but I'll list down some points that I considered relevant regarding "nevermore".

• rosemary can serve as a keepsake between lovers and also between the dead and the living. it could be seen at both weddings and funerals. in the old days it was also believed to be helpful in mental illnesses treatment.

• pansies, just like violets, symbolize innocence and devotion. ophelia doesn't consider the people around her worthy of violets, since she blames them for the death of her father.

• rue is a symbol of eternal suffering; grieving over her murdered father and the loss of her beloved hamlet, ophelia leaves some of the flowers for herself.

• the image of daisies has a close connection with the concepts of innocence, fidelity and eternal love. in shakespeare's tragedy, this symbol is overshadowed by the fact that in the world around ophelia there's no place for these beautiful things. for "nevermore" the symbol is also not so positive, since the readers are already familiar with daisies. they were on that wallpaper in lenore's room.

it's impossible not to note that annabel lee recites the monologue while in the bath, in the water. ophelia decides not to resist the river flow. her life turned into a tragedy: she was left without a father, her lover has seemingly lost his mind. her own sanity is also called into question. ophelia sings cryptic songs, goes into the field to weave a wreath, gives flowers to other characters. in the eyes of those around them, hamlet and ophelia seem crazy, while being the only sane and honest people among them. there's no place for tender, innocent ophelia in a cruel, deceitful world, so she drowns.

annabel lee also reflects on how both she and lenore are considered madwomen. her meeting with "leo" is accompanied by floral pattern on the annabel's dress. their madness is contextual, they both are perfectly sane, but don't fit into the system that could be leading to real madness with time. "all madwomen die twice. at least twice".

now about the arboretum. it obviously has a lot of flowers, but in my opinion this place is interesting in a different context. lenore and annabel visited the arboretum twice to discuss upcoming plans and such, and there are many parallels, both visual and narrative. not much time has passed since last time, but their situation has changed. they seem to look on their past selves from the upper level, having their conflict more acute now. I'll make a more detailed post about it later.

and now I'll just focus on how the characters in this arboretum full of roses behave as lost and confused as in the phobia-inducing flower labyrinth from earlier episodes. “the closer you get to beautiful flowers, the closer you get to their thorns,” says duke in episode 38. the flower imagery haunting the main characters doesn't let them forget that their sanity is always on a verge of slipping. and once a flower falls from its stem, it cannot be fixed.

p.s. guess which writer’s works I chose for a new article this year?

[unidentifiedflyingorganism]

⛄ Snowman ⛄

im back!! it took a while but im very happy with how this one turned out :) snowy and winter themes are one of my favorites so it was inevitably going to happen

[orphyd]

Oh boy...

[lakritzwolf]

[ninyard]

if i ever find it dayurno has a delicious Uhhh audhd dyslsxic renee ask........she rotates around my head. she is staring at you with her beautiful baby cow brown eyes & does not think it's weird. smiling all pretty & not realising OH actually that's a bit weird. renee scares neil bc of her autistic rizz

PLEASE if you can find this send it to me i love that sm

[nintendont2502]

thinking about how I was considering crow and Dave as names *years* before I got into homestuck. this stupid orange bird fuck was engineered to target me specifically wasn't he

[tlsafterdark]

i need a big man to hold my head between his muscles and squeeze them against me and have me stay there until i pass out or something

[decaydanceredacted]

I'm fairly sure the reason bilvy had such a weird lil walk was cause of the limbs. like that is the stride of someone with excessively long arms and legs with no clue what to do with them.

.

[acespaceacepilot]

my read on wyll is that a lot of his life before his exile was chosen for him. that he generally had little control or freedom outside what ulder chose for him—i mean he had to sneak out to play hop-scotch, for godsake. his life was extremely planned out, the finest education and tutors, weapon practice, etiquette, dance lessons, orating, and war strategies. all of that took up his waking hours

and then, when his father was out of town and he was on the cusp of adulthood, he made a snap decision. and got punished severely for it. he went from his father’s authority to mizora’s control, his own wants/needs/desires minimized for the greater good. his father’s idea for good being through politics and helping others, which mizora used to manipulate wyll into agreeing to be an instrument for her power.

his body and to some extent his mind were managed by others, either through literally picking and choosing what he learned or by telling him which creatures to hunt down and slay, his physical existence in jeopardy if he resisted.

which i think also feeds into his whole thing about courting and taking it slow. it’s something he gets to choose for himself. he can be intentional about building that bond and deciding how slow or quick he wants to go. mizora has control over his power and body, but she can’t control his heart and emotions.

anyway i just think wyll though he is a gentleman and courtly, he takes joy in being able to pace out the slow burn of it all

[2offayyo-kzt]

okay I'm French, but sorry Timothée Chalamet is so ugly

wtf is that

[blanketorghost]

GUYS HEAR ME OUT

Nagihiko and Niya.... (new cat boy)

boyfriend that likes making up their partner and gnc/genderfluid partner that likes getting dressed up... 🙏😔

[a-cat-in-toffee]

Virian (or is it virion) has to be the one to call of Kota (convince wight to call him off) cause wight is enjoying Kota attack ashe a little to much

virion voice guys. hey guys. guys the heroes are here. guys we need to leave. wight. wight you need to get kota off of that person. wight. william.

[dnangelic]

LIKEABLE vs DIFFICULT

You are a likable person (76.43%). You are a very easy person to get along with (17.14%).

' i don't think i'm that unhappy , though ... ? ' sorry about the risk-taking .

You are a somewhat likable person (47.86%). You are a very difficult person to get along with (76.43%).

' somewhat likeable and very difficult don't sound all that positive to me . '

tagged by @certitudinis tyvm!!!!

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

Rereading the initial chapter A:tFA, for Reasons, and wow does Thom have Doomed By The Narrative stamped all over his face. He's Alanna's dark foil, the proud and uncaring one to her charismatic protagonist, and oh boy would it do him some good if the adults in his life remembered that he is ten years old.

[obsidianshadow]

Going to see Sleep Token and Avatar in the same week 🙌

[unholyhymns]

Saint of Labyrinths Carved Into Countertops

the harder the surface, the better the labyrinth