merc-chan

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CREW || first episode of appearance ⇉ season 2 episode 8

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Con todo el cariño en estas fiestas de fin de año.

❤️💚🎄

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Title ideas for this little comic were ‘stede loves his heavily tatted wife’ or just ‘the inn just becomes a tattoo studio in 1717 AU’ idk

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alex smiling into kisses 💘

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it just occurred to me that Andrew’s report of “Ralph” in his letter and Laurie’s initial blind trust in said report parallels the way Laurie was initially impressed and swayed by Andrew’s pacifist convictions, but he (and the reader in 1953 and beyond) knows that they are incompatible with the reality of Nazi Germany’s aggression and ambitions

Andrew isn’t lying about Ralph. He earnestly believes that he had met Ralph, just like his earnest belief in pacifism, in sitting out the war, in the wrongness of fighting the Germans instead of talking to them. And Laurie, who finds himself so untethered, uncertain, and forced to constantly lie about himself to survive, is drawn to that absolute conviction, to “what people who speak the truth are like.” And so his faith in both the war and Ralph is shaken by Andrew’s “truth-telling.” This leads him to mistake conviction for truth, to forget that an honest man could be mistaken.

The man Andrew met was not Ralph, and so Andrew is mistaken. History would soon prove, in retrospect, that the war against the Nazis was both necessary and justified, and so Andrew was mistaken. Ultimately, the world of the novel is a secular one, like our own, and it reminds Laurie that there exists a secular reality outside human belief: Andrew was not a liar but he was mistaken. He was wrong. He did not know the facts of the matter. No amount of faith, conviction, or honest character can change the truth.

And Laurie was a fool to believe an honest but mistaken man’s words over the truth in his own eyes and heart, and it nearly cost him the love of his life.

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related to my earlier post, it’s interesting how the book is bookended by struggles between truth and conviction: truth is suppressed in chapter 1, and restored in chapter 16.

In chapter 1 Lucy’s conviction in Michael’s guilt causes both Michael and Laurie to forsake the truth that they both know. In chapter 16 Laurie’s conviction in Andrew’s trustworthiness over Ralph leads Ralph to forsake the truth. But in the end, truth wins.

(And it’s also interesting that when Laurie lost faith in Ralph, it was truth that saved them.

That being said, people decide which truths matter to them. Laurie decided in the end that the truth of Ralph’s innocence, loyalty, and their love for one another is more important than the truth of whether Laurie called him on the phone or not.)

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"The telephone was silent. Laurie thought, He's been in hospital himself, he knows what an uproar it makes if it rings late. Sensible of him really. Of course, he's probably still asleep. Bunny will just come in and-- "Oh, thank you, Nurse. No, I'll be fine. I'll drop off in a minute." The All Clear was a long time going: I wonder what it was like back there. If anything happened to him, there'd be no one to tell me."

awwwwwww Laurie wants so desperately to embed himself into Ralph's life, to be there for him, to take care of him 😭 

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Despite what many reviews say, the primary love interest and deuteragonist of The Charioteer is Ralph Lanyon

Number of Times the Main Love Interests’ Names (first & last) Appear in Each Chapter of The Charioteer (1953 ed.)

Cumulative Number of Times the Main Love Interests’ Names (first & Last) Appear in Each Chapter of The Charioteer (1953 ed.)

I love this chart, because it supports my theory that many professional reviewers only read half the book, and shows quite clearly, from a meta-narrative perspective, how this was Ralph's story all along

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end-of-year book ask

How many books did you read this year?

Did you reread anything? What?

What were your top five books of the year?

Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

What genre did you read the most of?

Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

What was your average Goodreads rating? Does it seem accurate?

Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

Did you get into any new genres?

What was your favorite new release of the year?

What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

Any books that disappointed you?

What were your least favorite books of the year?

What books do you want to finish before the year is over?

Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?

What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

How many books did you buy?

Did you use your library?

What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

What’s the longest book you read?

What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

Did you DNF anything? Why?

What reading goals do you have for next year?

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Calypso offered to do the unicorns makeup. The Unicorn accepted.

“You’ve got great cheekbones!” Said the goddess.

The Unicorn blushed and mumbled a thank you.

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Them

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5. Pumpkin Patch. Cooper and Whit from Cattle Stop by Kit Oliver.

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This song captures the whole essence of this book.

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Lots to read this last months. 😉

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@renaultphile Well, there's also Bunny. I mean, at the party Laurie learns of Bunny's existence, so that puts a stop to any walking off into the sunset with Ralph plans he could have made. Because Laurie is jealous of Bunny from the beginning. And he mentions Bunny to Ralph, letting him know he knows about his existence. And he doesn't have anything physical with Ralph until he's sure Bunny's gone from his life, all the while hanging into the perfect illusion that is his non-relationship with Andrew. And yeah, he kisses Andrew, and then sleeps with Ralph and feels guilty, and tries to end things with Ralph but doesn't, and makes a mess out of things and gives Bunny all the ammunition he needs to take revenge on him...

So, I know I was heading towards a point somewhere around all that I wrote, but now I'm not pretty clear what was it. -.- Probably that Laurie's a mess. Ralph's a mess too, so... 2 peas in a pod or something? Sorry, didn't sleep much last night and it's showing.

So is Ralph just trying to be deliberately annoying in that scene?

So on the back of all these kisses, I wanted to revisit that chapter two 'ellipse'. Not that it matters, but I'm in the 'no kiss' camp, probably my main reason being that Ralph says this afterwards:

"Now you see what I mean, Spud. It would never have done, would it? Well, goodbye"

Which bears a striking resemblance to this thing he says in the 1953 edition after giving Laurie the mystery painkiller and being asked what it is:

"It's probably addictive and you're having chronic pain, so I shan't tell you." It occurred to Laurie that, from most people, he would have resented this.

Why would Ralph say 'it would never have done' like that? The man's an absolute comedian. Maybe that's why Laurie says 'Sorry dearie' to him on the boat. It's revenge. Maybe it wasn't a nice innocent kiss at all, because Ralph was trying to prove a point. Maybe Ralph was doing that really annoying thing of saying or doing something hurtful so that Laurie would stop hero-worshipping him and fall out of love with him and forget him.......which never usually works in fiction 😉

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Oh my God! Such perfection! So many moments from season 1 of the novels! ❤️ This should be a proper anime! For real!!

WAIT!!! WHY I HAVENT SEEN THIS UNTIL NOW!!!??? OMMGGG!!! MY HEART EXPLODED !!! OMG OMG OMG 3:14 OMG!!!! OMG OMG OMG OMG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!