rnafeo

[rnafeo]

why is religious Christmas imagery all so joyful and pleasant? where is the inherent horror of the birth of Christ? A mother is handed her newborn child, wailing and innocent. Her hands come away sticky. Red. Simply by giving her son life she has already killed him. He is doomed from the beginning. Her love will not save him from suffering. Because the thing cradled in her arms is not a baby, it is a sacrifice: born amongst the other bleating animals whose blood will one day be spilled in the name of what demands it. the night is silent with anticipation. Mary, did you know? That your womb was also a grave?

[rnafeo]

i know we’re both just messing around pretending to be whole but look at me. if the train was coming would you move. if the ground was falling from under your feet would you even notice or would it just be another tuesday for you. if somebody stabbed you could it hurt worse than you already do. what i’m saying is that i love you but i think we both drive over the speed limit when it’s raining. what i’m saying is that i want to hold your hand and i understand about how you sometimes have to sit down in the shower. what i’m saying is that i’m here for you and if the train comes please move.

[rnafeo]

Who we are when we die may matter more than who we were as the living.

Elisa Gonzales / John Everett Millais / Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder / The Narcissist Cookbook / Naethan Apollo / Fionna and Cake / Emily Dickinson / Madilyn Mei

[rnafeo]

10 posts!

A little web weaving thrown in for good measure.

[rnafeo]

on december

albert camus notebooks \\ oliver herford i heard a bird sing (via @soracities) \\ charles wright the world of the ten thousand things: poems 1980-1990: "december journal" \\ nelly sachs the enigmas of night \\ regina spektor soviet kitsch: "december" \\ natalie diaz manhattan is a lenape word (via @metamorphesque) \\ renée brock streets, a song (tr. linkhorn & judy cochran)

kofi

[rnafeo]

everything i ever did, i did it all for you.

ella wilson / steven levenson / metamaiden / pasek & paul / lana del rey / dear evan hansen / andrew barth feldman / @corpsecoded / lorde / ocean vuong / ethel cain / kira madden

[rnafeo]

snowjanus; sejanus' perspective.

[rnafeo]

Do you ever think about the fact that opening chapter of both The Hunger Games and TBOSAS we see the protagonist get ready for the reaping? They both talk about the food available to them and then get dressed in their parents hand me down clothes but the context is so wildly different for each of them? Because I do.

I’m doing a reread and it struck me how similar the opening chapters are and how Collins really smacks you across the face with Snow being a foil to Katniss. The circumstances are on the surface very similar and it only serves to highlight the difference between the two in terms of morality, motivations and societal expectations. They are literally fire and ice.

There’s also the Tigris and Katniss similarities which make me very emotional but that’s another topic.

[rnafeo]

5 posts!

And they're all about TBOSAS. Truly iconic, I fear.

[rnafeo]

The characterization of the tributes was phenomenal but my personal favorite was Reaper.

He is a character that we barely get to see but we learn so much about him. We see his hatred for the capitol from the very beginning. We know he killed a peacekeeper in district 11, He attacks Coriolanus in the shuttle, he scares Clemenisa.

However he shows great care for Dill and only seems to want to protect her. Then when she finally does go, he doesn’t fight the other tributes, he doesn’t make his death or any of the other childrens death a spectacle.

He carefully takes all the other tributes, removes the weapons that the capitol put in their hands. And covers all of them with the capitol flag, giving them the privacy in death that they deserved in life.

Then for the rest of the games, he sits by the fallen tributes almost protecting them. Though Reaper was in the Hunger Games, he never played them. All he wanted was to protect Dill and when she was gone there was no point.

Reaper always knew who the real enemy was.

[rnafeo]

not really a hot take but lucy is the songbird AND the snake.

district 12 is appalachia. appalachia has a long history of snake handling, particularly within the pentecostal faith. snake handling is a sign of power, of communion with god. if you watch the way that she handles the snakes in the arena, it bears some resemblance to old photos and films of snake handlers back when it was a more popular practice.

(plus, snake handling was an often illegal act done in defiance of governments afraid of atypical religious practices, which is just a fun note.)

sure, lucy gray might not be originally from district 12, but i think that it’s hard to look at her with her bluegrass music and her with her snakes and not think of snake handlers and the bluegrass/folk hymnals of a pentecostal service.

to think of snakes as “evil” is just too lacking in nuance. snakes were docile and gentle to those who deserved it. when they struck out, it was an act of god. she handles snakes, coriolanus does not. she handles them as a sign of power, as a sign of transgression, as a sign of righteousness.

anyway, i just think the snake handling angle is a lil overlooked by a lot of the fandom, which makes sense since it’s a regional thing, but honestly watching lucy gray handle snakes like that in the arena made me cry because i’m a desperate whore for appalachian stories in popular media

[rnafeo]

I literally brought this up in the Discord server, you're so real for this.

I love tbosas movie so much (as much as it desperately needs that extra hour) but one thing I will NEVER forgive is them cutting my Favorite Sejanus line;

Coryo: "Do I look okay?"

Sejanus: "Gorgeous. Trust me, that lip is working for you, soldier."

[rnafeo]

Me too Sejanus, me too.

[rnafeo]

Bro spent half the book sleep deprived and the other half Lucy-deprived, either way no sleeping got done (only war crimes)