andwhateverwalkedthere - Tumblr blog

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

“‘Why, you will go home and then you will find that home is not home anymore. Then you will really be in trouble. As long as you stay here, you can always think: One day I will go home.’ He played with my thumb and grinned. ‘N’est-ce pas?’

‘Beautiful logic,’ I said. ‘You mean I have a home to go to as long as long as I don’t go there?’

He laughed. ‘Well, isn’t it true? You don’t have a home until you leave it and then, when you have left it, you never can go back.’”

— Giovanni and David in Giovanni’s Room

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

“I simply wondered about the dead because their days had ended and I did not know how I would get through mine.”

— David’s narration in Giovanni’s Room

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

“…I’m not just pretty anymore, I’m pretty for my age. It is the truth: My value has decreased.”

— Amy’s narration in Gone Girl

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

“Nick responds to adoration. I just wish it felt more equal.”

— Amy’s narration in Gone Girl

Yes yes yes nick is such an absolute baby who doesn’t want to put any work into an actual relationship and wants his mother for a wife instead of an actual independent person.

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

Oof the way Amy wants someone to know her and has fallen into the ideal of a man who can do this for her instead of a real person in her desperate attempt to be a little less lonely.

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

“They knit their eyebrows and pretend to think of men they can set me up with, but we all know there’s no one left, no one good left, and I know that they secretly think there’s something wrong with me, something hidden away that makes me unsatisfiable, unsatisfying.”

— Amy’s narration in Gone Girl

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

“How can you tell of the death of your mother? I couldn’t. It was unspeakable.”

— Alex’s narration in When Women Were Dragons

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

when women were dragons by kelly barnhill is insane. its about dragons. its about feminism. its about covid. its about believing scientists. its about mcarthyism. its about rage. its about trauma. its about gender. its about taboos. its about a culture of silence. its about propriety. its about coming of age. its about “think of the children” politics. its about magic. its about being othered and othering yourself. its about outgrowing your old self. its about abandonment. its about retribution. its about reconciliation. its about forgiveness and not forgiving. its about change. its about history. its about aging. its about who benefits when you pretend not to be angry. its about community. its about the importance of libraries. its about names. its abo-

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

The Sight has some very beautiful language and, and times, messaging about love and hope and embracing life. Larka’s love for everything around her is deeply moving, especially as she struggles to hold onto it and hope in the face of the despair that always seems close to overwhelming her. But ultimately she always chooses to enjoy life in spite of it and in spite of the atmosphere of death that constantly hangs over her. However, all of the beautiful sentiments connected to the protagonist are just completely dropped when dealing with Morgra. Like not just the misogyny in the way her character is portrayed, but also in the failure to actually make a villain that believably opposes these beliefs in favor of power and individualism. Like he’s trying to make her to be this complex character born of revenge but she’s just like comically evil that any deeper meaning is just ironed out. Her abduction of Fell was really interesting, and David Clement-Davies should honestly have just run with this setup. Like instead of coming up with some bullshit “she can’t love because she’s barren,” actually sensitively portray an abuser who has stolen Larka’s brother from her and has so deeply warped him that he literally thinks he is evil incarnate. Like fully flesh this storyline out and have it tie in again with the themes of love by Fell breaking free of Morgra and finding healthy relationships with his lost family.

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

Tor and Sita’s story as an obvious retelling of Jesus and the framing of Larka’s death at the end of the book has me thinking again about how a lot of Catholicism frames Jesus’ crucifixion and therefore sacrifice itself. Like it’s always said “For God so loved the world, He sacrificed His only son.” And we have the standard how can God let bad things happen how can He let His son die, but there’s also this refocusing of who is actually committing the sacrifice. Like of course Catholicism revolves around Jesus’ life as sacrifice, but idk it was Jesus who suffered and that was his suffering alone. Not God’s.

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

“There is nothing more terrible, nothing more evil than to hate something and call it love.”

— Fell in The Sight

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

Like what do you even say when people ask you about your childhood.

“Yeah, I was raised by wolves and played a pivotal role in their religious wars.”

What happens to Bran would be absolutely fucking wild from a human’s perspective. Like you are abducted by wolves after literally just being born and raised among them for like 5 years. At year 4, you are taken to a rebel wolf camp by the Good Wolf you have just met after they have all just finished being massacred by ghosts and other humans. The rebel wolf leader then abducts you from your current pack and takes you to an altar. There the Evil Wolf sacrifices another wolf and you are forced to watch the entire history of the earth and humankind in a vision. The Good Wolf dies fighting the Bad Wolf, and her brother reunites you with your human mother.

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

What happens to Bran would be absolutely fucking wild from a human’s perspective. Like you are abducted by wolves after literally just being born and raised among them for like 5 years. At year 4, you are taken to a rebel wolf camp by the Good Wolf you have just met after they have all just finished being massacred by ghosts and other humans. The rebel wolf leader then abducts you from your current pack and takes you to an altar. There the Evil Wolf sacrifices another wolf and you are forced to watch the entire history of the earth and humankind in a vision. The Good Wolf dies fighting the Bad Wolf, and her brother reunites you with your human mother.

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

“‘You are not evil, Fell,’ whispered Larka in the meadow. ‘You have just been robbed of love.’”

— Larka in The Sight

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

“You think a thing is evil simply because you are told it is evil.”

— Morgra in The Sight

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

I can’t believe what I’m reading with my own eyes “You are barren. That’s why you can never love.”

Just say you hate women and that you think they only exist to have children and go. There’s no need to write 465 pages about it.

[andwhateverwalkedthere]

“But as the terrible howling subsided, the specters dissolved into a hissing silver smoke that rolled out through the grass and the trees and seemed to carry a word on the wind like a sigh, and the word was death.”

— The Sight