jacedeangelo - Tumblr blog

[jacedeangelo]

My take on "why there are many adults that only read YA novels" is pretty simple

The YA book explosion of the mid 2000's-mid 2010's was mostly scifi and fantasy genre, and trying to "get into" adult SFF is a punishment from hell

[jacedeangelo]

What are your favorite words?

Mine are susurrus, lullaby, and burble.

[jacedeangelo]

saw an ant on the bus today, what a horrible fate. moved an unfathomable distance from everything you've ever known because of forces you could never possibly understand. no matter how long you follow the pheromone trail you laid you'll never find your way home.

[jacedeangelo]

bat at hornets nest maybe but "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" refers to low income communities needing to choose between survival vs being eco friendly. not you continuing to watch the harry potter movies

[jacedeangelo]

"In my culture, we know death intimately. In Arabic, the highest expression of love is the phrase "ya'aburnee" Translated "you bury me" . It means "I love you so much, I'd sooner die than bury you". It was used by mothers in our lineage who were so used to losing their young in war. In my culture, we cannot talk about love without speaking death's name"

-George Abraham, "Untitled," Published In Black Napkin Press

[jacedeangelo]

hiii I love your art so much omg, you are INCREDIBLE. such an inspiration. I am deeply in love with ur style, do you have any tips on drawing eyes from diff angles? the way u draw them is justsvfgfj plz tell me your secrets T∩T🙏 <3<3

i hope this makes some sense! really the biggest tip i can give is to use reference pics, fill pages just with eyes from different angles! play around with different ways of stylization, figure out what works for you

(click image for optimal quality)

[jacedeangelo]

With the disclaimer that I’m not into Homeric scholarship at all so this is just me pulling things out of thin air and overall vibes, but I love the idea of the Odyssey reimagined as a horror story. Something crawls out of the carnage of the Trojan War and drags itself home across a monster-infested Mediterranean, and past a certain point that thing is more revenant than living human. Again, this is more fanfiction than textual interpretation, so please refrain from being annoying in the notes.

[jacedeangelo]

lesbian vampires did so much to us and they arent recognized as they should………. one day the world will Know

[jacedeangelo]

Diana using the lasso of truth on bruce but instead of like confessing his love for clark or whatever he just breaks down sobbing because bruces truest truth is that he's always thiiiis 🤏 close to crying so hard he throws up

[jacedeangelo]

I just woke up from a very intense and realistic dream about getting trapped inside a new, futuristic Disney resort (I think we were on Mars) with my family, where you as a guest were part of the “experience” for wealthy guests who wanted to experience the “fun” of being around “normal people.”

Air quotes courtesy of a perky Disney rep who had a tendency to talk entirely in air quotes.

You still paid to go there, but in doing so you had to sign a contract saying you agreed to act and talk a certain way when people wearing purple arm bands showed up so they could experience what life was like for “poor people.” but in an extremely sanitized and Disney-friendly way that would make them happy. Like historical reenactment but as part of an ongoing class warfare.

It was also becoming blatantly obvious that the non-Mouse character actors we’re being picked off and hunted for sport by the wealthy patrons, and that said character actors were forming an underground resistance.

My first inkling of this was the purple flowers left behind on sites where characters were “found.” Followed by notes written on lamp posts in purple ink that caught the sunlight as the light was fading on Main Street about “keeping your chin up.” (Robin Hood reference???)

You’d just be walking down the pristine streets and you’d see purple flowers on the ground, sometimes accompanied by candles. One time I turned around to see a Mickey standing behind me, waiting to see what I’d do about it, so I stepped over the flowers like they weren’t there and kept walking. Later, A character who I *think* was meant to be Jasmine slipped and stumbled into me, her hand dipping briefly into my pocket. Later, when it was deemed safe, I found a purple origami flower in my pocket, which upon unfolding revealed the message, “The mouse has eyes. Blind them.”

Later, I was running through a desert, deeply aware that I needed to find water, or else the Mouse would get me. All the while It’s A Small World After All kept blaring through the speakers of my helmet as a form of psychological torture.

It felt like West World meets Mad Max set against the sanitized and unnatural ideal of candy-cotton-scented Americana and nostalgia that only exists in the dreams of tyrants and the type of people who “wish they were alive in the 50’s so they could dress nice and go out for milkshakes.”

Also I’m pretty certain I killed Goofy.

[jacedeangelo]

do men have resting bitch faces as well or do they not have negative characteristics ascribed to them for putting on a neutral rather than a deliriously happy facial expression

[jacedeangelo]

Dark Things to Worldbuild

Sometimes I want to add some worldbuilding to my world for fun, maybe that things that can inspire me to start a story out of them. Sometimes I crave something dark. How bout’ both?

-Sicknesses

-Prison Systems & Capital Punishment

-Cultural Funeral Traditions

-Ghostly Superstitions

-Creatures viewed dangerous by the populations

-Disorders

-What the culture thinks of death

-The local boogeyman

[jacedeangelo]

Concerning Juliet’s age

I find a big stumbling block that comes with teaching Romeo and Juliet is explaining Juliet’s age. Juliet is 13 - more precisely, she’s just on the cusp of turning 14. Though it’s not stated explicitly, Romeo is implied to be a teenager just a few years older than her - perhaps 15 or 16. Most people dismiss Juliet’s age by saying “that was normal back then” or “that’s just how it was.” This is fundamentally untrue, and I will explain why.

In Elizabethan England, girls could legally marry at 12 (boys at 14) but only with their father’s permission. However, it was normal for girls to marry after 18 (more commonly in early to mid twenties) and for boys to marry after 21 (more commonly in mid to late twenties). But at 14, a girl could legally marry without papa’s consent. Of course, in doing so she ran the risk of being disowned and left destitute, which is why it was so critical for a young man to obtain the father’s goodwill and permission first. Therein lies the reason why we are repeatedly told that Juliet is about to turn 14 in under 2 weeks. This was a critical turning point in her life.

In modern terms, this would be the equivalent of the law in many countries which states children can marry at 16 with their parents’ permission, or at 18 to whomever they choose - but we see it as pretty weird if someone marries at 16. They’re still a kid, we think to ourselves - why would their parents agree to this?

This is exactly the attitude we should take when we look at Romeo and Juliet’s clandestine marriage. Today it would be like two 16 year olds marrying in secret. This is NOT normal and would NOT have been received without a raised eyebrow from the audience. Modern audiences AND Elizabethan audiences both look at this and think THEY. ARE. KIDS.

Critically, it is also not normal for fathers to force daughters into marriage at this time. Lord Capulet initially makes a point of telling Juliet’s suitor Paris that “my will to her consent is but a part.” He tells Paris he wants to wait a few years before he lets Juliet marry, and informs him to woo her in the meantime. Obtaining the lady’s consent was of CRITICAL importance. It’s why so many of Shakespeare’s plays have such dazzling, well-matched lovers in them, and why men who try to force daughters to marry against their will seldom prosper. You had to let the lady make her own choice. Why?

Put simply, for her health. It was considered a scientific fact that a woman’s health was largely, if not solely, dependant on her womb. Once she reached menarche in her teenage years, it was important to see her fitted with a compatible sexual partner. (For aristocratic girls, who were healthier and enjoyed better diets, menarche generally occurred in the early teens rather than the later teens, as was more normal at the time). The womb was thought to need heat, pleasure, and conception if the woman was to flourish. Catholics might consider virginity a fit state for women, but the reformed English church thought it was borderline unhealthy - sex and marriage was sometimes even prescribed as a medical treatment. A neglected wife or widow could become sick from lack of (pleasurable) sex. Marrying an unfit sexual partner or an older man threatened to put a girl’s health at risk. An unsatisfied woman, made ill by her womb as a result - was a threat to the family unit and the stability of society as a whole. A satisfying sex life with a good husband meant a womb that had the heat it needed to thrive, and by extension a happy and healthy woman.

In Shakespeare’s plays, sexual compatibility between lovers manifests on the stage in wordplay. In Much Ado About Nothing, sparks fly as Benedick and Beatrice quarrel and banter, in comparison to the silence that pervades the relationship between Hero and Claudio, which sours very quickly. Compare to R+J - Lord Capulet tells Paris to woo Juliet, but the two do not communicate. But when Romeo and Juliet meet, their first speech takes the form of a sonnet. They might be young and foolish, but they are in love. Their speech betrays it.

Juliet, on the cusp of 14, would have been recognised as a girl who had reached a legal and biological turning point. Her sexual awakening was upon her, though she cares very little about marriage until she meets the man she loves. They talk, and he wins her wholehearted, unambiguous and enthusiastic consent - all excellent grounds for a relationship, if only she weren’t so young.

When Tybalt dies and Romeo is banished, Lord Capulet undergoes a monstrous change from doting father to tyrannical patriarch. Juilet’s consent has to take a back seat to the issue of securing the Capulet house. He needs to win back the prince’s favour and stabilise his family after the murder of his nephew. Juliet’s marriage to Paris is the best way to make that happen. Fathers didn’t ordinarily throw their daughters around the room to make them marry. Among the nobility, it was sometimes a sad fact that girls were simply expected to agree with their fathers’ choices. They might be coerced with threats of being disowned. But for the VAST majority of people in England - basically everyone non-aristocratic - the idea of forcing a daughter that young to marry would have been received with disgust. And even among the nobility it was only used as a last resort, when the welfare of the family was at stake. Note that aristocratic boys were often in the same position, and would also be coerced into advantageous marriages for the good of the family.

tl;dr:

Q. Was it normal for girls to marry at 13?

A. Hell no!

Q. Was it legal for girls to marry at 13?

A. Not without dad’s consent - Friar Lawrence performs this dodgy ceremony only because he believes it might bring peace between the houses.

Q. Was it normal for fathers to force girls into marriage?

A. Not at this time in England. In noble families, daughters were expected to conform to their parents wishes, but a girl’s consent was encouraged, and the importance of compatibility was recognised.

Q. How should we explain Juliet’s age in modern terms?

A. A modern Juliet would be a 17 year old girl who’s close to turning 18. We all agree that girls should marry whomever they love, but not at 17, right? We’d say she’s still a kid and needs to wait a bit before rushing into this marriage. We acknowledge that she’d be experiencing her sexual awakening, but marrying at this age is odd - she’s still a child and legally neither her nor Romeo should be marrying without parental permission.

Q. Would Elizabethans have seen Juliet as a child?

A. YES. The force of this tragedy comes from the youth of the lovers. The Montagues and Capulets have created such a hateful, violent and dangerous world for their kids to grow up in that the pangs of teenage passion are enough to destroy the future of their houses. Something as simple as two kids falling in love is enough to lead to tragedy. That is the crux of the story and it should not be glossed over - Shakespeare made Juliet 13 going on 14 for a reason. 

[jacedeangelo]

there's two types of conspiracy theories in american culture:

blatant antisemitism

not actually a conspiracy theory the cia really admitted to doing this in declassified documents that are publicly available but the average american is so brainwashed by nationalist fervor that they refuse to believe it and call it a conspiracy even though, and i cannot stress this enough, the government literally admits to doing it

[jacedeangelo]

in a fierce bidding war with other villains over a private island with a cavernous mountain shaped like a human skull

[jacedeangelo]

something deeply sinister about the creeping transition in the last decade from ads being things that were always in the corners or on the sides of websites, always separate, always identifiable as ads just from a glance, to what we have now on nearly every service where ads masquerade as ordinary portions of apps and websites. how ads on twitter and reddit are shaped to just look like normal posts on each respective platform with the tiniest possible disclaimers, how you can search something on google and the top five results could all be advertisements that paid to be served to you above the actual information you requested. it’s so fucked. don’t even get me started on what tiktok does like those forms of ads should straight up be illegal