asymphonyofstarlight - Tumblr blog

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Glad everyone is getting so much joy from early Quaker names! Looking forward to seeing any future pets/children/bands/drag acts named after stuff on this list.

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one experience I love is when I read a story, or more often a poem, and walk away being like I have absolutely no clue what that meant but it changed me

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L.M. Montgomery from ‘Anne’s House of Dreams’

It’s September so happy 134th anniversary to the only literary couple that matters.

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y’all ever sit and imagine your favorite mg fantasy series as tv shows then get bummed out that they don’t exist

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99% of ramblers quit right before they conceive of a coherent thought. KEEP TALKING

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congratulations! you’re now a pirate. your seventh most recent emoji is the symbol on your flag. mine is ™️

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Lighthouse and seagulls

This is a study of a real lighthouse called Aniva. It's quite picturesque

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so again, I'm rereading howl's moving castle LMFAO and truly diana wynne jones' disdain for in depth sensory description is sooo cool. I think I've arrived at one of the most basic things that fascinates me about this book and that drew me in and it's something about how descriptive language and tone intersect. there's a lot of two-step visual description, but very little of the specific descriptive language I'm accustomed to. I can know that something looks lightweight because of the way that michael is carrying it, or that the slime is green and has a weird reaction when you dump ash on it, or that michael obviously wished he had not spoken, or that from the way howls feet are braced it's clear he is exerting great force, but it's almost rare that there's a plain description of what's going on. even if there is a proper one, there's always an opinion or extrapolation at the end of it: the wind tore at sophie's face so savagely that she thought she'd end up with half her face behind each ear. generally what I find is that instead of inferring how a character must feel based on how they are acting, you get to make up the specifics about a character's actions or experience based on how the narrator tells you they feel about it. the writing isn't broken down into small pieces for you to put together; it's made of big ones. a single description hits about three different ideas, and there's another similar one in the next paragraph, and you have to keep up. it drives the story along at a committed pace as well as makes the magic system feel very unique, and then that uniquely maintained system becomes scaffolding for the story's themes to grow off of

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Dropped a small potato n started crying how’s everyone else doin tonight

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This really ought to top every, “Best Opening Lines,” list. The 21st century reading public is sleeping on Dorothy L Sayers.

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I kinda lived half of 2023 (maybe more) like a drowning rat in a bucket but this year I'll live like a normal rat. outside of a bucket

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Chat they made Minecraft into a silly goofy cringe movie even through Minecraft is actually about life and earth and the universe and tearing meaning out of the ground and molding it with your hands into something that you can be proud of. They made the pink sheep look ugly and funny for a cheap laugh when it should’ve been a beautiful moment where you, age eleven, come across this rarity, this beautiful anomaly and you hold its face in your hands and stare into its chocolate brown eyes and you realize what the whole world is about. Chat they made it into a joke

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anne of green gables drawing

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The lm montgomery poll's 2024 versions of things has me pondering a modern version of the blue castle. I can see how it would be difficult to deposit into 2024, but I don't think it would be impossible. What follows is one of my rambles and thinking out loud posts.

There's a lot in the blue castle that wouldn't necessarily translate cleanly into a modern setting, at least the typical generic fanfic fare type one. Barney and Valancy's plot arc somewhat rests on the idea of this rather "bohemian" lifestyle where they live life on their on terms and don't care what society thinks of them. That doesn't really have a neat correspondence in 2024 that I can think of. Van life is a thing, and although some people may frown on it, it's not the wholehearted "those disgraceful tramps" that pulses underneath the blue castle.

I'd say there are two layers that would have to be translated: the larger societal expectations that form Valarney's prison, and the immediate personal expectations. The larger societal expectations are harder to translate, yes, (although I'd argue not that hard), but the personal--trust me--are still very much here. They're not the same - they just evolve.

The larger societal expectations would include: Valancy getting married (shunned for old maid status), Valancy and Barney living a 'proper' life in town, Valancy not working for Roaring Abel, Cissy being shunned. There are probably more, but I feel like those are the plot significant ones. The personal expectations: include the societal ones, but here's a key one - Valancy's family doesn't want her to work. Valancy's family values image, including marriage. Valancy's family is very traditional.

Valancy's old maid status and loneliness would be the same and yet different. Here's the thing: conservative christian communities still very, very, very much exist. Conservative christian communities where there's a ton of pressure to get married still very, very, very much exist. I grew up around them, and I can assure you of that fact. I watched it happen in real time to more than one friend. I met an older conservative catholic women a few months ago, and one of the first questions she asked me (a late-twenties woman) in the conversation was whether I was married or planning to get married. Name, connection to our mutual acquaintance, then - "married?" There can be a pressure to get married, condescending sympathy if you don't, or some combination of the two.

Conservative christian communities-and larger elements of society-still look down on women who are still unmarried. It's not the same, of course. Valancy would have more opportunities to work, and so forth. She'd have the internet for her loneliness, most likely - I like the idea of a John Foster tumblr blog @moonlightredfern floated a few months ago. So I can see major cracks of differences forming there. But remember Valancy's personality at the beginning of the book: it was timid! It was meek! That Valancy wouldn't have said eff off to society, i'm going to push off this communal expectations. She was deeply ashamed of not having lived up to them. Combine that with the familial expectation, and the plot point still remains.

Now, I'm not trying to rag on conservative christian communities here. I'm just pointing out that those pockets of society existed in the blue castle, and they still exist today.

More than that - and I think this point is essential - Valancy wanted marriage. She wanted "fat babies of her own," a subtle nod to her own sexual desires, she wanted to get married, but no one was interested. A modern Valancy could have cut off her family and went out and earned her own living, but she needs someone else to get married.

I think the premise beneath the difference is the assumption that Valancy would have more autonomy (something I question - structurally, perhaps, but personally, no) and so Valancy would have more control over her life from the get go. There we hit Valancy's meekness, her family's thumb, and the fact that her family didn't seem to support her working because of their pride. All of those could easily exist in 2024. Personal barriers can easily outweigh structural freedoms.

I can see where the difficulties lie here for sure, especially with Barney. It would be easier for Valancy to leave once she got the diagnosis. It would be easier for her to make her own way in the world. A lot of the disapproval of the wider world wouldn't exist - but sometimes, the disapproval of your original, tight knit community can feel like the entire world.

I'm rambling now, so instead of continuing to ramble, I'm going to list potential replacement plots for a 2024 version:

Valancy grows up in a tight knit conservative community. She is the old maid (the spinster, as I read a Catholic man once genuinely write) of the connection. She gets her diagnosis, and she decides to leave. She moves in with the local drunken handyman who has several DUIs to handle the admin side of his business/man the front desk/ take care of his high school drop out sickly daughter, who got pregnant out of wedlock (yes, still frowned upon)/had her nudes leaked/etc etc. She meets Barney, the local homeless man. People assume he lives out of his car, although a few know that he occupies a cheap trailer/mobile home just outside the national park. they're suspicious of him because he's a tramp and will cart around all day digging through trash. (little do they know he's an extremely well-known sustainability researcher/author under a pseudonym, and despises the throwaway consumer culture, refusing to live on its terms). Barney and Valancy meet, Valancy falls heads over heels in love with him, and Valancy proposes. they move out to his cabin, Valancy's family bemoans her 'choice to be trailer trash', and Valancy and Barney spend their days exploring the national park.

Not a neat translation, no, but I think it holds up well enough. I think my overall point is that a lot of LM Montgomery's stories are based on character flaws as much as societal barriers, and even when you remove the societal barriers, the character flaws remain. Parents can still be controlling, cousins annoying, scruffy strangers hot (👀). My secondary point is that those societal barriers sometimes haven't disappeared so much as it may seem. Politics of the home is a huge theme throughout LM Motngomery's work, and although the blue castle delves more into the structural, in my opinion, the personal and domestic still reigns.

those are my thoughts but i'd love to hear from others :D

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I know I’ve already submitted this to an incorrect quote blog a few months ago, but this edit has been sitting in my photos for a year and a half and I can’t withhold it any longer