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February 21, 1957

| FELLOW TRAVELERS by Thomas Mallon CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN |

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fellow travelers (2023) || falsettos - william finn, james lapine hawk & jackson || marvin & jason

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Hawk kissing Tim's forehead.

FELLOW TRAVELERS (2023)

[felloweeper]

fellow travelers (2023) || falsettos - william finn, james lapine hawk & jackson || marvin & jason

[felloweeper]

Just finished reading Fellow Travelers

And while I preferred the show

I love that staring at the wall, just finished reading a book that gutted you feeling

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Tim in RED/BROWN // (Hawk in BLUE/GRAY )

+ Bonus: Tim in Hawk's blue

[felloweeper]

Fellow Travelers ask game everyone!!!

Reblog, send each other question number(s) and share opinions!

1. What changes made in the show did you like (compared to the book)?

2. What changes did you dislike?

3. What is you favourite episode and why?

4. What is your favourite scene(s) and why?

5. What is your favourite sex scene from the show?

6. What is your favourite parallel/reference in the show?

7. A crack question: which food represents every character of Fellow Travelers?

8. How did you discover Fellow Travelers?

9. What is your favourite headcanon(s)?

10. If the show had one more episode, what would it be about?

11. What era did you like the most and why (50s, 60s, 70s, 80s)?

12. Which song, used in soundtrack, you liked the most?

13. Which songs from your playlist would fit for Fellow Travellers soundtrack?

14. Do you have any unpopular opinions about Fellow Travelers?

15. What is your favourite relationship from the show (could be romantic or platonic)?

16. If you could give the show an alternative ending, what would happen in your version?

17. Do you have recommendations of books, series, films or other media similar to Fellow Travelers?

18. Who is your favourite Fellow Travelers original (wasn't in the book) character(s) and why?

19. Who is your favourite character(s) adapted from the book and why?

20. If Fellow Travelers had a spin-off or continuation, what would you like it to be about?

21. If you were to cast alternative actors/actresses for the roles for Fellow Travelers, who would you choose and for which role(s)?

22. Do you have any funny/interesting stories connected to Fellow Travelers?

23. If you were to recommend this show to your straight friends/family, how would you do it?

24. Bonus question: if you were a character in Fellow Travelers, who would you be and why?

[felloweeper]

differences from book -> series: the cufflinks.

context: [december 23, 1953] this is the scene where we're first introduced to the cufflinks. it's christmas and they're serving post-coital realness (i have no other way of explaining this rn).

this is one of the most dramatic differences between the book and the series, because what on earth. this is such a tender moment of rare openness from hawk in the series. it's such a clear declaration of love with the implication of possession and a what's-mine-is-yours kind of deal.

we get the same feeling in the book but in a much darker tone. we see, first of all, how small and undeserving tim feels in the presence of hawk. i'd go as far as to say tim uses the cufflinks to self-harm. "the way one forgets a pain in one place by introducing another somewhere else." tim is actively chasing the pain of loving this man away in the form of causing bodily harm to himself. (🚩 x a million.)

yes, there's tenderness in hawk giving the cufflinks to tim and going as far as putting them into his dress shirt himself -- but the number of times tim doesn't even let himself believe that it's a special thing for him is awful. he thinks he's so undeserving that, in the end, he convinces himself that they were his reward for not showing his emotions! and to add hawk's passiveness with "'i'm going to be late, skippy.'" ✋ don't get me started. the coldest cherry on top -- agh!

overall, this scene makes me feel sick. it's not at all like the series -- and thank god for that! the show made it so much more heartwarming and loving. they look happy, they look like they both love what the cufflinks symbolize -- they adore each other!

context: [april 7, 1954] this never made it into the series, but tim has a boss named tommy mcintyre who is very aware of the situation between tim and hawk, but doesn't really mind it. (this character kind of grew into the roy cohn moment which i thought was ridiculous but this is not the post for that.) klein is another assistant to a different senator who pops up like thrice when they're talking politics.

i really liked tommy as a character, i felt he had really great moments in the book i wished they'd kept in the series, but oh well. again, he knew about tim and hawk and would go as far as to tease them about it. anyway, this is a great example of tim's lies that "people like himself learned to construct a dozen times a day."

context: [december 25, 1954/april 22, 1957] tim is home for the holidays with his sister, frances, at their grandmother's. frances is older and is married with children.

how do i... like how do i even begin.

i put it best in my notes:

honestly, favorite character? absolutely tim's sister. she does everything i wish i could have done for tim -- she's such a supportive force of nature for him, it's so nice to see.

in the show, she's there for him while he's suffering from aids, so she's fully aware of the fact that he's gay and completely devotes all of her time to him anyway. in the book, she shows this unconditional love toward him in the best way she can when she recognizes he's in love with another man.

this is heartbreaking because, in my opinion, that was their escape. she was there and so willing to welcome hawk into her home -- without having ever met him -- because she saw how much tim loved and treasured him. she was ready to love him, too, and to include him in their family. i wonder, sometimes, what would have happened if she had actually ever met him. if that would've ever made a difference in hawk's decisions and the fate of their relationship.

and because tim can't be normal and recognize his self-worth for one second:

also! the difference in using the cufflinks to inflict pain! tim uses it to distract himself, but she uses it to anchor him to the present and pay attention to what she's telling him.

context: [october 16, 1991] hawk is on the phone with his old employee, mary, where she's telling him details of tim's life and death.

..........................

that's all i have to say about that! 😊

[felloweeper]

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when I first watched episode 1, I read Hawk's reaction to the news of Tim being sick as concerned but also maybe a bit distant. now, after 6 more episodes of knowing his character and especially in the context of episode 7 and what happened between them the last time they met, I'm picking up on all these little details that show that he's devastated but trying to repress what he's feeling: the shake in his voice when he asks how long tim has, the way he looks away when Marcus said that something kept getting in the way of Tim's romances that never lasted, that tiny little nod he gives when Marcus says that Tim doesn't want to hear from him, because that's what he expected, that Tim's done with him. And then when he opens the box and sees the paperweight, he lets out this sharp involuntary sigh - that detail has been haunting me ever since I noticed it.

it's just been really fascinating rewatching the 80s scenes now that we know most of what happened before, especially in the 70s - it explains so much of why Hawk was acting so hesitant and unsure around Tim at specific moments, not wanting to push too hard but not wanting to be chased away.

absolutely. i had wondered why they would go the route of jumping from one timeline to another. they could have easily done it completely chronologically or the way the book did it by having a glimpse of 1991 in the beginning, telling their story in the 50s, and then back to 1991.

this way makes it so much more interesting. in the beginning, you don't know why hawk is acting a certain way or why tim and his sister are apprehensive about hawk. it's all piecing the puzzle pieces together and it makes it super engaging!!

i'll definitely be watching the series over and over to see those small details, too!

[felloweeper]

I can't stop thinking about the similarities between Hawk breaking down right after Tim leaves in episode 7 and his breakdown in the bathroom in episode 3 after Tim discusses his illness in detail and Hawk can no longer be in denial... it's such a masterful parallel but so damn painful 😭

yes!!! tim has such a way of bringing hawk back to reality and making him face the music. it's something that i admire about their relationship and it shows me that there's true mutual respect there, outside of love and physical attraction. tim's not scared of telling hawk how he truly feels and hawk has an anchor in tim that he doesn't have with anyone else. it makes this loss so much more heartbreaking!

[felloweeper]

me, trying to survive till Friday: if I survived the book, I'll survive the show, if I survived the book, I'll survive the show 😭😭😭

haha! this has been my mantra for the past 7 weeks as well, anon... we'll be alright! (if a little bruised...)

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Joan Baez – Winds of The Old Days | Fellow Travelers

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i think that they could've easily written the 80s where hawk simply receives the news about tim having died already, or hawk arrives to sf too late and tim has died already, and it affects hawk and he still ends up with the same ending which will happen in the finale. but since they chose to have tim alive too, i think it's only logical that while he will inevitably die in the finale, there will be at least something positive between them.

Yeah to me if they were simply gonna go about ending it only sad then they would have just made it so Hawk figures out in 1991 that Tim died and that he hasn't seen him since 1957 like in the book (or smth similar to what you said about him being too late). But since they decided to create these original story lines after the 50s and it makes me think that they are doing it so we will get some kind of reconciliation or closure in the story that we never got in the book. There would just be no reason at all to make the 1980s storyline or even the 70s and 60s to be honest if they weren't going to give us something

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Fellow Travelers (2023) | Fellow Travelers (2007)

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FELLOW TRAVELERS 1.03 // 1.06

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what are your thoughts on the letter that hawk gets tim to write for mary in episode 2?

do you mean in relation to the book? or just in general?

overall, i think it's a wonderful addition and something that was so in character for hawk. to mask his own emotions as something else -- a command, a favor, a chore. it's so him to put a barrier like that between, not just him and his own emotions, but between him and tim. not only that, but to do it in a way where he was fully in control.

in the book, you could really only dream of hawk saying any of those things out loud, so that was a real treat.